38 [Bonus chapter] 38 - Control of Magnetic Fields

"Finally!" Gabe said excitedly as he reached forward and controlled a floating knife in front of him.

After 18 days Gabe finally managed to acquire Heisenberg's ability to control metals, or rather control magnetic fields. Rather than just controlling metals, like Magneto, Residual Devil's Heisenberg had the power to control magnetic fields, having much more versatility in powers than specifically controlling metal alone.

Of course, Gabe only had 2,200 Mana Units in his full Mana Pool, adding to the extra Mana he gained from playing the last few days. This theoretically made him extremely strong, but he still had no idea how strong he was specifically.

Not only was his power limited by the amount of Mana he had, but also by his familiarity with the power. Since he had just received the powers, he still didn't have precise control over it. If he hadn't even controlled Heisenberg in Residual Devil a few times to get familiar with it earlier, even controlling the knife in front of him at the moment would be extremely difficult.

But despite that, Gabe was quite excited. Hype for Residual Devil was currently still very high, but not as high as it was when the game was being released, with a small portion of Players having already stopped playing and gone on to play other games. Many people also, who weren't Players, lost a bit of interest after already watching the entire story of the game and seeing all available endings.

Despite the ending where the Player fought with Heisenberg against Miranda being the ending that the Players liked the most, the most important ending was when they went against Heisenberg and met Chris, who explained much more of what was happening, in addition to having the possibility of controlling Chris himself after the 'death' of Ethan / Athena, who had access to much more information about what was really going on. The Players knowing about so many different endings and how deep the history of the world was really made an impact on the people of Sandstone Bay, not just the Players, but the common people as well, who had a very interesting topic of conversation.

Reaching out with his power again, Gabe scrambled to try and manipulate the knife and try to bend it, costing him even more Mana, even though having gone through the other attempts made it easier. Unfortunately, Gabe didn't receive Heisenberg's mutation either, as he was just absorbing the magnetic field manipulation powers, but Gabe still intended to absorb that power in the future, as it would be of great use to his safety in this dangerous world.

'With my current control over this power, it's still a little dangerous to go out of town to do a mission like Players would if I can only depend on it alone... But with the shooting skills I absorbed from the game earlier, it's not that difficult, since I won't choose a high rank quest,' Gabe thought with interest.

He knew it would take a while for the power he learned to become useful in combat, but he wasn't in too much of a hurry. Gabe's focus was on long-term thinking.

"Steele, come here," Gabe yelled from inside his office.

With the money he was getting from the city, the TV show, and the game sales, Gabe also decided to move to a bigger and more comfortable place. With Wilson's help, the whole process was made much easier, and Gabe only had to sign the lease while the government acted as a guarantor for him.

After a few seconds, the door to Gabe's office opened and Steele walked in with a slight smile on his face.

"Yes, Mr. Howard?" the bodyguard asked, initially confused, but when he saw Gabe's outstretched hand and a knife floating in front of him, his eyes widened. "That… Mr. Howard, did you manage to absorb Heisenberg's power from the Residual Devil game?"

Both Steele and Donovan had also played Devil because of Gabe, as they knew that Gabe was a genius Developer from Sandstone Bay and that Wilson highly valued him. They both felt it would be good to experience the game that this genius Developer they were protecting had created.

After Gabe told them that the game was called Residual Devil and once they tried it, the respect they felt for Gabe went up several fold. As experienced Players, it was clear to them the potential Gabe had and possibly the heights he could someday reach.

Gabe smiled as he mentally lowered the knife to the table. "Yes, I was able to absorb Heisenberg's power today, but I still feel this is much more complicated to control than I expected. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve my control?"

Steele, who had developed the power to control fire a few years ago, had much more experience in that area than Gabe, who had just started.

With his hand on his chin, Steele thought for a few seconds. "Hmm, it took me a while to learn that too, but over time I discovered that the best way to learn control over one's power is to use it to the extreme, especially in risky situations."

Hearing this, Gabe's eyes lit up. "So you believe that emotions have an effect on the use of powers?"

Steele nodded. "Yes, I heard about a case that happened in India 20 or 30 years ago where a Rank B Player was enraged by the death of his wife, and because of his anger he managed to extract enormous potential from his power and he flooded several kilometers of land using the power to control water next to an ocean. After that experience, the Player found it much easier to control his power, and in a short time he reached Rank A."

Hearing this, Gabe was quite thoughtful, as this was very similar to the way games needed the emotions of Players in order to teach skills more easily.

"What is the relationship between the amount of Mana and the control of a power, in your conception?" Gabe asked another question.

For that question Steele took a moment to think. "The ratio is too big for your growth, but it's not too big for your current strength. For example, if I only had half of my current mana, I would still be able to use the same abilities I currently use, but for a shorter amount of time. On the other hand, if I wanted to learn new skills or learn different ways to use my skills, I would need twice as much time to accomplish this, if not more, since I would have less Mana to waste during practice."

Hearing this explanation Gabe understood one thing: the maximum Mana he had did not necessarily affect his current power. That was to say, even if he had 100x more Mana than he currently had, in addition to lasting longer in a battle it would hardly change his overall strength.

"This is interesting… So a Developer with 1,000 Mana Units might not even have the strength that a Player with 100 Mana Units has, but in a few months the probability of that Developer being several times stronger than the Player is very high, I'm guessing?" Gabe asked to confirm his hypothesis.

"Exactly, mainly because of the quality of the Mana of a Developer with 1,000 Units of Mana, which has already been sublimated once more with more quality. This difference in a few months will not only be 10x better, it will probably be 20 or even 30 times better," Steele explained.

Thinking about this information, Gabe became even more determined to go out of town on a quest to get experience, as that would probably further accelerate his learning speed and allow him to master the skill he got.

"Okay, Steele, can you get in touch with the military base and make an appointment for me with the missions officer?" Gabe asked.

Hearing this, Steele was surprised and a little worried. "Mr. Howard, you intend to go on a mission?… May I know what rank of mission you intend to undertake?"

Gabe said casually, "As it will be my first mission, I intend to start with a Rank E mission, then see how I'm faring and improve the quality of the missions as far as I can handle. I hardly believe that I will be able to participate in a Rank C mission, but Rank D missions I believe are not something impossible for me."

Hearing that explanation, despite still being worried, Steele nodded and left the office, ready to call the Sandstone Bay military base to make an appointment for Gabe. In addition to tipping off the military base, Steele also thought it would be helpful for Gabe to tip Wilson off, who would not only make things easier, but also provide another layer of security for Gabe.

"You mean he's already learned Heisenberg's power?" Wilson asked, shocked from what he had heard in the call.

"Yes, Mr. Wilson, I too was just as shocked as you are. After he mastered Heisenberg's power he could already control a knife to float beside him, and probably noticing his unfamiliarity with the power, he asked me how he could improve on it. That's why the idea of ​​participating in missions came up," Steele explained patiently.

Hearing Steele's explanation, Wilson was thoughtful. The potential of Developers was much greater than the potential of Players. While a Rank C Player required several years to reach a decent level of strength, Developers needed quite a bit less time to achieve similar results, and this difference only increased as time went on.

In a Rank A monster battle where Rank A Players and Rank S Players were participating, normally only Rank C Developers were dispatched, and oftentimes Rank C Developers caused even more destruction than some of the Rank A Players. Battles where B Rank Developers or even A Rank Developers needed to appear were already extremely dangerous battles, whereas S Rank Developers usually only appeared in national destruction level battles or battles against other S Rank Developers from other countries.

The problem was that usually Developers didn't even have much interest in participating in battles, sometimes even participating only after being forced to do so. Cases like Gabe's where he actively wanted to participate in a battle were rare. And that left Wilson with a little doubt whether or not it would be safe for Gabe to participate in battles so soon, since no city could limit the growth of this young genius, who in Wilson's view had the potential to become at least a Developer Rank A in the future.

"Very well Steele, let me call the military base myself to select the mission for Mr. Howard." Wilson knew he couldn't stop Gabe from doing this, so at least he decided he would help Gabe by selecting a suitable mission for him.

//NunuNote//

Hey guys, we finally ended the first volume with 80k free words!! For a normal novel thats around 80 chapters, and all for free here soo you can see if you really like the novel and wanna keep reading and supporting it! :D

From now on, the novel will be premium, but if you don't have money, don't worry! You still can read it for free using fast passes that you can get for free on the webnovel app!!

Thank you all for your support, all the comments and power stones untill now!

I'm planning some cool new games and cool powers for Gabe get to use in the real world. I'm even open for new and good ideas that you guys can give to make it the best Game Developer novel in all Webnovel site, and you can be here developing it with me!

Again, thank you all for your support and I hope that you have as much fun reading it than I have writing it for you! XD

NunuXD!