Failure

***

"Sir, as expected, they failed and managed to escape." An officer reported to José Santos, who was sitting in an armchair.

José was silent while having a glass of vodka.

"What are your instructions? Sir." The officer asked.

José put the glass aside and looked at the officer.

"Call Ralph Karman for me, as for the others ... Tell them to go to Rio de Janeiro, and be on the alert ... A new mission awaits them when they arrive." José spoke and looked at the paper next to him, it was the details of the mission, and the performance of everyone in the squad.

"This child ... What am I supposed to do?" José murmured and let out a slight sigh.

Ralph's situation was complicated, his skill was considered one of the most dangerous today, just the fact that he can become almost completely undetectable is something that puts everyone on alert.

Some senior officers and generals take the view that he should be more strictly controlled, while others say that the current measures are already sufficient to keep the boy under control and that they should not make things more extreme.

But the fact is that everyone has some degree of fear of him, without exception. Someone who can kill anyone without being detected is just like a scythe over everyone's throat.

"I'm already doing my best ... Now it's up to the boy to prove himself more useful alive than dead." The old general murmured and then looked at the officer.

"You no longer need to summon the boy for me, but deliver a message to him for me." Joseph spoke and continued:

"Prove yourself or die without a chance."

***

A big tree, that's what Ralph spent an indefinite period of time seeing.

Ralph lost track of time, he didn't know if it was months or years, but he could only see the huge tree in the middle of the void.

At first he didn't know what that meant, he just remembered falling asleep at the end of a mission with the squad.

The tree was gigantic, and its roots spread through the great void.

Its green leaves were the same shade as Ralph's eyes. And there was a huge face that looked like Ralph's on the tree trunk.

But over time, Ralph began to realize that the huge face sometimes ... looked like his sister, and then his father's.

Over time he saw the faces of countless people, the huge face transformed without stopping.

Ralph didn't know if he was still alive or not, or if it was all a strange dream.

He could only look at the tree, standing still.

But then, he saw a familiar face in the tree trunk.

-Master Jin?

Strangely, Ralph realized that Master Jin's face stayed much longer than the other faces, and then changed again.

-What does that mean?

Ralph considered.

Time continued to pass, the light in Ralph's eyes faded with time and he seemed to have stopped thinking.

At that moment, then, when Ralph seemed to have entered an endless limbo, the huge face stopped transforming, and it slowly dissolved in the tree trunk.

Soon after that, countless fruits began to grow on the branches of the tree, and within each of them there seemed to be an infinite energy.

"World Tree." Ralph muttered subconsciously. Despite having entered a state of limbo, he still saw things around, despite not thinking about them.

Even so, Ralph unwittingly murmured the tree's name for some reason, even though he had never seen it before.

Then, as if there was a strong wind, the branches of the tree started to shake and the fruits of the tree seemed to be about to fall.

But at that moment, another face appeared on the tree, this one was different from the others, it seemed to carry an elderly aura. The wind stopped.

"The one who calls me when I don't call him. Within the infinite possibilities, that of this existence is the one we find ourselves in." The huge face started to speak.

"Your fate has already been decided by time, and it is not my duty to respond to your call. So ..." A root extended in Ralph's direction.

"For the sake of time, I can only follow the predefined trail." The face seemed to sigh with a tired look.

The root then touched Ralph's forehead and light returned to his eyes.

***

Ralph woke up, and then stood up slowly, with an odd expression.

-What the hell was that?

The memory was blurred, but Ralph remembers dreaming of a tree and then ... He didn't remember anything else, just the tree.

For some reason, however, Ralph shivered at the thought of the tree.

"You finally woke up." Victor spoke suddenly, bringing Ralph back to his senses.

They were in their quarters, Ralph was lying on the bed and Victor was fiddling with his cell phone beside the bed.

"You slept for a long time, aren't you tired of sleeping so much?" Victor spoke, making Ralph frown.

"How long did I sleep for?" Ralph asked as he took a deep breath.

"You slept for eight hours, and no matter how hard I tried to wake you up, you were still sleeping. It brought Briella some problems." Victor smiled.

Ralph tilted his head to the side, eight hours was not that long ... The dream seems to have lasted for an eternity despite.

"Since you woke up, you better get ready, we should take a plane to Rio de Janeiro." Victor put down his cell phone and got up from his chair.

"I'll let our leader know that you woke up." He said as he left the quarters.

Ralph blinked a few times, for some reason ... it's like he heard it before.

A sense of crisis enveloped Ralph and made his heart race.

-But what...

Ralph took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.

He didn't understand why he was feeling panicked, but he got ready quickly, and then he waited.

"Finally woke up." Briella spoke as she entered the room.

Seeing that Ralph had already dressed up and prepared his own things, she nodded and said:

"How are you feeling? It is not normal for a Walker to be knocked out in such a way, even by excessive use of skills. Not even with Victor shaking you so ... Well, we probably have a mission, and I need to know if you are in a position follow up with the squad. "

Ralph looked at Briella indifferently for a moment and said slowly:

"I'm feeling well."

For some reason, Briella didn't feel as if she believed in Ralph, but nodded and said:

"Then come, the others are waiting for us."

Ralph started to follow after Briella. At all times with an indifferent expression.

But the truth is that the feeling of crisis from before continued to intensify.

Ralph no longer knew if this was just a panic attack, but he managed to control his own actions and thoughts.

Perhaps if this were before Master Jin's teachings he would not have this degree of self-control.

There was a helicopter waiting for them, and the rest of the squadron was already there.

Upon entering the Helicopter, Ralph's sense of crisis exploded further and Ralph was paralyzed.

"Hmm? What is it?" Briella noticed this and asked out loud, because of the noise of the helicopter. The rest of the squad looked doubtfully at Ralph.

Ralph frowned deeply and looked around.

The helicopter was about to take off, but then an officer appeared and waved at the pilot for a moment.

The pilot waited for the officer, who went to the helicopter and handed Ralph a paper.

Even with the noise of the helicopter, Ralph could hear the officer, who said:

"A message from Commander José."

The officer then waved to the pilot and walked away.

Ralph looked at the paper seriously and opened it.

"Prove yourself or die without a chance." Was what was written.

At that moment, the helicopter took off.

Ralph's sense of crisis, for some reason, disappeared, and, involuntarily, he looked out the helicopter window.

What he saw did not frighten him, nor even surprise him. For some reason, Ralph felt that he already expected this.

He didn't know the meaning of it, the reason why it was happening, but it wouldn't change anything if he did.

He sighed and smiled bitterly as he looked at the missile approaching in slow motion.

He did not remember his past, and he did not feel despair for the lost future.

No one but him had noticed the missile, and the helicopter exploded when the missile hit, Ralph saw everything in slow motion, the fragments, the flames, and then death.

However, while the flames took his whole body, and the shock wave destroyed his body, time stopped.

But Ralph had no more eyes to see, and he had lost his hearing. He was on the verge of death, but even so he could see in the darkness, a fruit, of a kind he had never seen before, and which was still familiar.

The fruit was transparent and there were bright spots all over its surface, it seemed to radiate infinite energy.

At that moment, Ralph forgot everything else, and he could only watch while a vortex was created with the fruit in the center, Ralph's consciousness was pulled by the vortex and entered the fruit.

Meanwhile, time seems to have reversed. The missile, helicopter, and the lives of the squadron members returned to the same as before and the reversal continued.

Slowly everything continued to return, until the moment Ralph was lying awake in bed. At that moment, time stopped again. And in the center of Ralph's forehead, there was a vertical black line that slowly disappeared.

***

[A new skill was acquired through a blessing.]

[Having acquired the first skill, you can now explore the platform further.]

[Your ability is resonating with his 'Infinite (useless)' talent.]

[The skill has undergone an evolution]

[The 'Infinite (useless)' talent has undergone a transformation, and can now be developed.]

[Skill: Indomitable Spirit (Passive)

* Your spirit will not be worn out by time.

* Your spirit will remain healthy as long as you live.

* Your spirit is more resistant than normal.

* No event will completely shake your spirit.

* Your 'Will Power' stat will increase every time you are pushed to your limit and demonstrate strong determination.]

[Talent: Infinite.

You can explore the mysteries of 'Infinite'.]

[Due to the first ability being obtained, your level has been unlocked.]

Several windows appeared in Ralph's consciousness.

He could only see a vast expanse of darkness, and the windows that appeared.

He no longer cared about the platform, or anything, he was dead, or so he thought.

In the darkness, several bright spots began to appear, slowly, something with a starry sky appeared.

Ralph couldn't help thinking that he had arrived in paradise.

-It seems that paradise is really in heaven.

Ralph thought.

But then, Ralph's conscience started to be pulled in one direction, the lights distorted and before Ralph could react, his conscience went out.

***

"Ralph! Imamoto Ralph! Wake up boy, you need to work!" A thick voice woke Ralph.

Ralph jumped up from the floor and looked around.

The weather was strangely cold, but that wasn't what caught Ralph's attention.

He was in what appeared to be a workshop, there were several vehicles, mostly trucks parked throughout the shed.

Many men worked, and the sound of metal crashing could be heard.

"What are you looking at? Come on, Imamoto, you have to fix old Shinji's truck before he finds out what you did." The same thick voice as before sounded and Ralph felt a hand on his shoulder.

Looking to the side, he saw a middle aged man with oriental characteristics, his name was ... Akira?

[Attention, the forced memory synchronization induced by ********* resulted in the almost complete destruction of the formal spirit of this body, only his memories remain.] A familiar window appeared in front of Ralph.

But there was a difference, it was in Japanese.

Stopping to think, the Akira man was speaking in Japanese, but Ralph understood that instantly.

Reading the message in the window, Ralph understood more or less what was going on.

"I see, you can leave it to me, Akira-san." Ralph spoke in Japanese.

The Akira man nodded and went back to work.

Taking a deep breath, Ralph frowned.

There were countless new memories in his head, and although he didn't know how it happened, he was sure that he had possessed the body of this other Ralph and inherited his memories.

Ralph didn't feel like he was a different person, perhaps because of the destruction of the formal spirit.

The memories seemed natural to him, as well as the memories of Ralph Karman, the real him.

Perhaps if the formal spirit was alive, things would not be so simple.

After checking his mood, Ralph analyzed his own body looking in a rearview mirror of a truck.

To his surprise, his current face was identical to the one before, as is his brown hair, and his body is basically the same as when he finished training at the military base. Thin, but with well-trained and defined muscles.

Looking into his own eyes, Ralph cannot help but find all of this strange.

The grease-soiled clothes he was wearing indicated that he worked in the workshop, and the previous Ralph's memories of work would not leave Ralph lost at work.

Even so, Ralph didn't know how to feel, the previous Ralph died because of him.

His name was Imamoto Ralph, an orphan, and he was finished and was about to enter high school.

Despite being younger than Ralph Karman, he had an identical face, which showed the difference in their lives.

Imamoto, without his parents, had a hard life. When he left the orphanage, which closed due to the lack of money, still small, he had to look for some way to get food.

Luckily, Mr. Akira had just opened the workshop in the region, which is in the suburb of Tokyo.

Akira repaired Ralph's condition and offered an informal job, fetching food for the workshop workers.

The nearest restaurant was about a mile away, so Ralph had to walk a lot every day.

At that time he was ten years old, and this could be considered child labor. But no one condemned Mr. Akira, and Ralph was always grateful for the opportunity.

Mr. Akira even advised Ralph not to drop out of school, and to try hard.

If it weren't for that job, he would probably starve to death.

As he grew up, Ralph gained the trust of Mr. Akira, who started teaching him the mechanic profession.

The other workers always helped Ralph when he had a question or needed something.

And today, at the age of fifteen, Ralph works in the workshop as an informal employee.

The salary wasn't much, but Ralph didn't dare ask for a raise, he owed Mr. Akira too much.

Tomorrow would be the first day of school of the year, he just entered senior high school.

He had to pay school fees, and also rent, he lives in an apartment belonging to Mr. Akira.

To Ralph's surprise, he checked on his cell phone and the year was 2020, end of March. In Imamoto's memories, the great Aurora never happened.

After organizing his thoughts for a moment, he decided to go and fix old Shinji's truck.

Old Shinji is an eccentric man, and Ralph wants to avoid any problems.

He was fixing the truck earlier, but an accident happened and the truck's alternator had a problem.

Now he has to repair the alternator or, if necessary, change it.

As if he was used to it, Ralph removed the alternator and opened it with the help of specific equipment.

After testing for a few moments with a voltmeter, he realized that it would be necessary to change the alternator completely, the structure was compromised.

-How the hell did that happen?

Ralph, with all the experience inherited from Imamoto, cannot help but be in doubt.

Deciding to ask Mr. Akira about it later, he went to the warehouse and got a new alternator. He would have to pay with his own money for it, it made Ralph sad, much to his surprise.

It seems that Ralph didn't just inherit the memories, since the spirit was not completely destroyed, and he seems to have inherited a few more things.

Even so, Ralph was not disturbed.

After finishing with Mr. Shinji's truck, and testing everything afterwards, he finally blew out a sigh of relief.

Now he could finally sit down and think about the current situation in peace for a while.

He drank some water and went outside the workshop, sitting on top of a truck tire and looking at the floor.

There he stayed, for a long time.

No matter how Ralph tried, nothing could explain what happened.

-Isn't that kind of thing a pure fantasy thing? Why did this happen to me?

Ralph then thought about the platform.

Perhaps the platform had something to do with it, since that in itself already defies all of Ralph's beliefs.

After hesitating for a moment, Ralph said:

"My Status"

[Ralph Karman

Age: 20 (Soul) 15 (Body)

Level: 0

Talents: Infinite; Aura; ...

Situation: Healthy; Psychologically influenced by Imamoto Ralph;

Skills: Indomitable spirit (Passive);

Beast Skills: Illusion, lv3;

Stats:

Strenght: (Standard)

Agility: (Standard)

Intelligence: 4

Dexterity: (Standard)

Vitality: (Standard)

Resistance: (Standard)

Will Power: (Standard)

Latent Energy: (Irregular)

Available stats points: 0]