Anomaly

Yue Xing was at a loss. That system was really only capable of visions and such. Else wise, it was completely useless. He really wanted to kick it out, but every time he mentioned that, the system would start begging and pleading and he was somewhat weak against that.

Though that wasn't the only thing that made him sit on the edge.

The system knew his true name.

Yue Xing was a name he had chosen after being found by the sect leader. His real name, on Eridymeon known as true name for multiple reasons that are very confusing, was Ran Zhen. And Ran Zhen belonged to the Ran sect.

The Ran sect had been very popular and powerful for a long time, dominating the world and teaching kings and emperors. The most famous one was a blind man named Ran BenZi, an immortal soul caught in a reincarnation cycle because he offended the jade emperor of the heavens.

Others included Ran MiQian, a sneaky man that could basically transform himself, or Ran Rei, the wife of the general Xiao Yue who served an emperor.

Ran Zhen, or Yue Xing how he was called at the moment, was a descendant of Xiao Yue and Ran Rei, which also explained his affinity for gravity and water (Yue means moon, and the moon influences the tides).

He lay on his bed and opened the browser on his armband. Xia Yao was already sleeping in a weird, uncomfortable looking position, while Yue Xing tried to find something. To be exact, he was trying to pin-point the location of the mysterious sender.

This however proved as nearly impossible. He could only tell that it probably came from Eridymeon.

He sighed as he looked at the ceiling. What did he expect.

Suddenly, he heard a weird sound. It sounded like... something wooden hitting something metallic?

He turned his head.

What stared back was a pair of small pearls, or more, the dark eyes of a snowy white cobra with light yellow fluff on its neck and a pair of white dragon wings under said fluff.

The dragon snake sizzled.

And scared the living hell out of Yue Xing.

'Where did this snake come from?! The hell!!!'

He needed a while to calm down before he could take a closer look at the snake. It just stared at him and tilted its head, like it was waiting for something.

He squinted at the scales of the snake. They seemed to be made out of... wood? He frowned. That snake was clearly alive, how could it be made out of wood? But before that - HOW DID IT GET HERE?! INTO A FUCKING SPACESHIP!?

Yue Xing panted from the restrained energy inside him. He was a quiet person, with very personal reasons for not shouting. Even in such a situation, he would keep quiet.

Looking closer at the snake, the wings seemed to be relatively useless... But that was besides the point right now.

"What the hell are you?" he whispered.

The snake blinked, then looked down. It looked at itself, then at Yue Xing. He doubted it could talk.

"I'm a dragon snake, obviously." scoffed the snake.

Yue Xings eyes widened. The voice sounded high and dull, like there was a big distance between the snake and him.

"You...?! You... can talk...?"

"Duh."

His mouth twitched. That was one sassy snake!

"Mate, ya won't eat me, will ya?"

He felt like he should be fainting right now. It was just that his mental constitution wasn't that of a weak damsel in distress but that of a dragon.

"I won't." he thought a bit. "For now."

"Mate, are ya shitting me?"

'Should I be laughing or crying...?'

"Mate, ya there?"

"What do you want..."

"Oh, well. Ma master requested me to keep an eye on ya, for safety measures. Oh, by the way, I'm Little Feather."

"Uuh..." Supervision?

"I'll assist Destiny and help ya train."

"Destiny?"

"Ya system, mate."

"Oh. Uh, train... how exactly...?"

"Uh... I... haven't thought bout that... Master, help!"

Yue Xing had a complicated look on his face. This snake was so weird...

Currently, it seemed to be listening to someone Yue Xing couldn't hear, that so called 'master'.

"Uuh, so... Master said that I can give ya instructions and search on ya armband for references to make ya understanding better, since I can't demonstrate in ma current state."

The wolf dragon felt like he had a headache. if he breezed through training, maybe he would be able to get rid of that bothersome existence at a faster pace.

...

Gen Tao stared at the interface of his newly acquired system, Dionysus. It interacted with his earth magic, making it into an ability fused with water, giving him the result of plants. This meant: Food, gas, wine and drugs.

Yes, drugs. To drug opponents. Assisting his ability as an assassin.

At first, gen tao was slightly confused, but the more he learnt about that system, the more exhilarated he became.

The Dionysus system was closely tied to the god from the old world of the same name. Drugs, wine and driving people crazy: With enough training, he would be able to do exactly this. But this also meant that his own mental state had to be very stable. His ideals needed to be determined and he would need a person at his side. He knew that that person couldn't be Kohaku, because they basically had a time limit for how much time they could spent together without annoying each other to death or getting bored to death.

So while he started learning how to make drugs and so on, Kohaku... was lazy.

He kept an eye on the progress of Gen Tao and the hero and some time ago, he had sent a familiar to the friend of the hero to help a bit. But since there wasn't always something big happening, he was bored.

He wandered around the area that belonged to his sect and thought a bit about the sects.

Chrysanthemum Garden had its focus on spells, talismans and basically anything that had to do with arts. It was common for the members to like languages, different cultures and research the old world. The sect itself was relatively big, resembling a garden with many flowers and covering a large area.

Sects like Phoenix Pavilion weren't that big and rather common, concentrating on raw strength and thanks to the madam on technologies, which would be used to create shields and so on.

There were also clans that cultivated, like the Cherry clan. They weren't big, low profile and no threat to the sects. The only thing that made them stand out from other clans was that its members were mostly very beautiful woman and that they used scents to entice their opponents or something like that. The explanations about this clan were always rather crude because they were very secretive.

Places like Hollow Bone Palace or Paradox Palace, which were really palaces, were what one would call unorthodox. They are troublemakers, but on a small scale. It is also undeniable that they are very powerful and do their job, so nobody complains even when they do something... weird. Now, not weird in a sense of "Uh, they dug all the graves up and used necromancy on the corpses!" but more like "They built a pub on the graveyard for the ghosts and the undertaker" kinda weird.

There are, of course, far more sects, but they are either very small or in a different country, which makes them uninteresting at the moment.

Most sects are bound to the politics of their country, making them special forces that are to be taken seriously, but just as many take it easy and just protect the people. You see, a few years ago happened something rather huge on Eridymeon: another magical eruption. This transformed a whole city into beasts and monsters, threatening the whole country.

The monsters spread, were very aggressive and bred with other monster races, which made even the demons grind their teeth and help the people out.

Yes, there are also demons on Eridymeon, but those are a can of worms that really isn't needed to be opened for this story.

Kohaku sighed as he remembered the competition, where sects, countries and planets clashed. The population of Eridymeon was pacifistic, but those of other planets had tendencies to be more aggressive, fight among themselves and get thrilled by their own unavoidable doom. Kohaku found that disturbing. How could you enjoy your own demise?

You should love yourself, be yourself and do something good for yourself.

Kohaku sighed again and looked at the sky. Now, how should he waste his time?

...

In the middle of a valley stood a tower that reached over the clouds, made out of many different materials whose colors mixed together in strange patterns. There were no windows, only a huge arc as entrance on the ground.

Suddenly, the arc glowed. A bunch of sand and a person were catapulted outside.

The person was a small kid with red skin and white hair with black strands. The skin and hair made and intense contrast, especially the thick eyelashes around the sky blue eyes.

The kid wore blue trousers and a grey shirt, from both poured orange sand. He coughed a bit, wiped his tears away and looked around.

Upon seeing the luscious green trees and gras and flowers, he frowned. Then he looked back, at the tower he had come from. His eyes widened.

"YES! I made it!"

The shout was so loud that it startled the birds and animals around the tower.

When the boy heard his own voice, he froze. After a while, he began to palpate himself.

"Wait, I'm a kid...? Ah, if my last form hadn't been a dwarf I would've noticed earlier! Damn it!"

He stomped on the ground and heard a cracking sound. Again, he froze. He lifted his foot. Left was a small footprint and a bunch of cracks from the force he had used.

As he saw this, his eyes started gleaming.

"I'm a titan!"

Immediately after that, the kid suddenly disappeared. A mechanical voice rang out.

"Anomaly caught. Transporting back to rest chamber. Sending report to Tower Master Merlin. Progress 17%... 43%... 70%... 86%... 100%."

The person receiving the report sighed. He was tall, with white hair, green eyes, a strong jawline and royal blue clothes.

"If one of those anomalies got out, I would be in so much trouble... Ugh, why did it have to be this job and not the intelligence service or the development department? No, it had to be security..."

The subordinates, wearing grey armor, exchanged helpless glances. Though their boss was a slacker, he at least was capable and did a proper job... It could have been worse...

While they were lamenting their bad luck, Merlins armband started playing a song.

"... and when my heeeaaaart moves ooooooon..." The tower master flinched and pressed as fast as he could multiple buttons to stop the notification.

"Ehem. Ehm. Master, what is it?"

"We have new information on the escaped anomaly no. 38. Central east."

"It didn't leave the planet?"

"No, how would it? Those anomalies don't know anything about this world and the people of the tower can't tell them anything either. They are all just as clueless."

"Right, right. So, anything else?"

"No. 38 seems to be in a life threatening condition. Dispatch a team to retrieve it."

"Yes, master."

The call ended and Merlin let out a breath.

"Well, you heard him. Organize a squad and send it to the coordinates that will be sent to your armband. You have one day."

"Yessir!"