Only I Am A Reader
chapter-463

When Gates appeared all over this parallel modern Earth, only a select few people obtained special abilities all of a sudden.

People believed they were the chosen ones, their only hope of surviving what seemed to be an inevitable apocalypse.

However, all the hype around them died quickly once humanity found out how to use an Enigma Stone.

After risking their lives to kill monsters with great difficulty, the Ability Users, who quickly took on the title of Heroes, always found strange stones inside.

They came in all sorts of irregular shapes, and although the stones themselves were in transparent gray, they possessed a multi-colored shimmer inside them.

They looked mesmerizing enough to beat even diamonds as jewelry, but times dictated that no one cared for such luxuries. Humanity immediately started researching every possible use they could have!

Most hoped that it was a new source of energy or at least something that could be weaponized and used against the monsters they came out from. Unfortunately, nothing fruitful came out in the end.

Aside from confirming that the stones contained some sort of active matter inside them, no one was even capable of piercing the stones without destroying them.

'They were just going in the wrong direction.'

At this point, everyone was perplexed about what to do with these useless stones that they ended up being coined as Enigma Stones. Luckily, someone was desperate enough to try something that didn't make sense.

Frustrated at the lack of a breakthrough, one of the researchers swallowed a whole Enigma Stone out of anger.

However, instead of getting a stomach ache as everyone expected, something magical happened to him!

Not only did the Enigma Stone melt into his esophagus, half of it reemerged back from his chest, now only featuring a single color and a smooth surface.

The rest of the researchers were all very excited to experiment on their colleagues, some even tried to use force. Regrettably, that only resulted in the death of over half of the researchers that day.

'No one really cared though.'

Despite the unfortunate accident, all of the world leaders were thrilled to hear about what happened.

The researcher that ate the Enigma Stone obtained special abilities no different from those possessed by chosen ones!

Even though said researcher murdered half of his colleagues in self-defense due to his lack of control over his new ability, it was all but a small hiccup to a great discovery.

The world now had the ability to replenish the constantly declining number of chosen ones, a new generation of heroes could be born just by swallowing one of these previously useless stones!

The closed labs were reopened again as tons of volunteers were grouped together to get the ability acquisition tests started. Naturally, things weren't as simple as they seemed to be.

'There is always a catch.'

Those that were too old only threw up the stones, while some consumed it but awakened no abilities. After many rounds of optimization, it was found that young kids under the age of 18 were the perfect samples.

There was still a 50-50 chance of awakening even for them, but that was many times more than people in higher age groups. The abilities they awakened were also better in comparison.

Although there would later come a time obtaining even a single Enigma Stone would require so much money and connections, at those trying times, it became common practice to feed a stone to every kid that reached the age of 16.

'People now believe they lucked out, but things weren't that easy then.'

Such an act might seem like a benevolent act in the Era that Leo was currently in. After all, those in charge were basically giving kids the ability to defend themselves.

In reality, however, they were just printing an endless stream of soldiers to fight the war with monsters.

All those that had an Enigma Stone at their chest were dispatched after minimal training. After all, regardless of the abilities they awakened, just the stone's proper consumption enhanced their physical abilities by a certain degree.

The number of heroes that died naturally increased, but humanity was finally starting to win. Unfortunately, now that survival was no longer everyone's sole goal, those that sought their own personal interest surfaced back again…

'Tragedies are bound to occur no matter the age.'

In Cassian's case, although he was lucky enough to avoid entering the battlefield at its most brutal stage because he was too young, his life still went on fire in the end.

If not at the hands of monsters, his happy family met its end at the hand of humanity's true villains, corrupt Heroes.

The monsters were gradually being pushed back, but more and more Ability Users were being produced, so chaos was starting to rise again.

It was only when the higher-ups realized that monsters were no longer the only enemies that they had to face that they started slowing down the production of Enigma labs.

Luckily for Cassian, the orphanage that he ended up being sent to was one of the last few that had the chance to go on a 'field trip' into an Enigma lab.

Although his luck wasn't that great when it came to the ability he obtained, this obviously wasn't an obstacle for the determined Cassian.

With little to no monsters on the streets, the Heroes now moved on to raiding gates before they broke out, and since only Ability Users could enter those…

In the hunting scene that had now become an industry rather than a purpose, even weak ability users found some job openings. Though maintaining their dignity wasn't one of the privileges that this job offered.

'At least thanks to that, I have plenty of Gate knowledge.'

In order to reach his current state, Cassian went through many Gates alongside many Heroes.

However, if there was one thing that he learned over the years aside from practical knowledge…

'The Title of the novel is more fitting than one would think.'

New Enigma City wasn't the home of Heroes, it was a full-blown City of Villains.