Gray flew to the top of the central hub tower, landing on the glass platform outside of a room.

He walked in, looking at the two ladies that were surprised to see him. "Hello ladies, would you mind leaving for a bit? I need to talk to the director," he said.

The girls nodded and walked away.

Once they were gone, the door shut behind them automatically, and Gray walked further into the room, through another door that lead to the director’s office.

The director’s office was a small room that was barely 5 meters across on both sides. There was a sofa in the corner and a single desk in the center, behind which the man stayed.

There were glass cabinets on the wall next to him with different badges all visible, like awards on a shelf. These were the badges belonging to past members of the AAA that had either died in the field or had graduated from their job after fulfilling their Repentance score all the way to 100%.

The director was in his seat and was reviewing footage of some event that stopped playing when Gray walked in.

Gray came in and went straight for the sofa where he sat with one leg perched on top of the other, and his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner.

The director turned his head toward Gray. "Another Nova," he said.

"Another Nova," Gray nodded.

"Are you sure it’s safe?" he asked.

"I trust Sheila’s judgment," Gray said. "Well, to a certain extent at least."

"He has 7000 souls, from what she mentioned, correct?" the director said. "That sort of number changes a person. What if he wants more?"

"I have way more than him and I turned out fine, didn’t I?" Gray asked with a wide grin.

The director scoffed. "You? Fine?" he shook his head.

Gray chuckled. "Alright, enough jokes. I know you guys are afraid, I understand. But I do not believe that killing him is the right move. Our numbers keep dwindling every day, while the world becomes more chaotic and our enemies only increase. We need every help we can get."

The director frowned. "That you are more right about than you might think," he said and made some gestures that made the footage he was watching on his desk suddenly enlarge to fill the whole room.

Gray looked at the image and frowned a little. "Is that Trennor?" he asked. That was the man he had killed earlier today as part of his mission.

"The Barson government sent us this footage after they confirmed the kill. It’s from 2 months ago, footage from inside their base. Take a look," the director said.

Gray turned his attention to the video and looked at what was happening.

A man was being beaten up by a group of men that were subordinated to Trennor. After a while, they stopped and another man walked into the frame.

Trennor came and asked the men something that the camera’s microphone could not pick up. However, the conversation ended with Trennor saying, "Just kill the bastard then."

Then, Trennor did something that Gray had seen him do before in reports.

The man spit on his hand and then placed it on top of the hostage they had. As soon as he placed the hand on top of the man, the man started melting from the head, immediately turning into nothing but flowing meat and bones that seemed to have been completely ruined by some sort of acid.

"What is this?" Gray asked with concern. "This isn’t Trennor. At least, not the one I was briefed on."

"Exactly, that is the issue here," the director said, playing another footage. It was footage of Treenor as well, killing another man next to a port. He did the same thing he had done earlier where he spit on his hand and placed his hand on the man’s head.

However, this time around, only a portion of the head melted due to the seemingly acidic powers of the man, not the entire body.

The difference between the two footage was simply incomparable.

"Most footage I saw showed only showed his powers being this strong," Gray said. "There was nothing that showed him to be stronger than this."

"Did he try to use his powers on you?" the director asked.

"I gave him no chance. Neither him nor Frejo," Gray said.

"Good, or it might have been dangerous," the director said. "From what I’ve gathered, sometime before 2 months ago, Trennor’s powers seemed to have improved, grown stronger.

Gray’s eyes narrowed. "He was a Nova?" he asked.

"No," the director said. "If he was a Nova, his powers would have become apparent long ago. He would have become a threat years ago."

"Then he’s not a Nova? How can a person that is not a Nova increase their powers?’ Gray asked.

"I’m not sure," the director said. "But it happened, and now we need to find out why."

"Ok..." Gray said. "What do we do?"

"Well... nothing for now," the director said. "For now, we have to leave it to the scouts to figure out whatever they can. I’ll have Caleb immediately investigate the situation and will get back to you once I’ve learned something."

"Good," Gray said. "So was that why you called me here?"

"Partly, yes," the director said. "Partly to understand where you truly stand on bringing in another Nova to the association."

"Don’t worry about him," Gray said. "I will start testing him tomorrow. You can also ask Sheila why she did what she did."

"She’ll bring me a report soon enough," the director said. "I agreed to let the Nova live today. Please make sure I did not make a mistake."

Gray smiled. "When was that decision ever a mistake for you?" he asked. He jumped from his seat and gently landed in front of the director’s desk.

He flipped over the small fallen plate and placed it front and center to show the director’s name ’Hobb’ written on it. Then, a drawer opened at the bottom before the director knew it a small chocolate bar flew out.

"Hey! That’s for my—"

"Get another one," Gray said and walked away from the director. "This is for making me come here when I was about to go to sleep."

He munched on the chocolate bar as he walked out and greeted the ladies again, sending them back inside.

He stood alone outside for a moment, thinking back to the case of Trennor. A person that wasn’t a Nova had somehow improved the power that they had, which was something exclusive to a Nova alone.

"Damn, what the hell is going on in this world?" he wondered. He finished the chocolate bar, dropped the wrapper, and then jumped from the railing, falling hundreds of meters down from the top.

* * * * * *

After talking to Sheila for a bit longer, asking some questions about what he was to do next, and where he was to go, he learned what his purpose in the agency would be for the next couple of weeks.

From what she said, it looked like it was going to be a busy month.

He was quite hungry, so Sheila notified him that he could have whatever he wanted, so long as he just asked the room for it.

He looked through what he could eat and saw something on the screen that made him point to it. "Look, that looks like your noodles," he said.

"It is," Sheila said. "Did you think I created a noodle out of nowhere?"

"Oh, I want to eat that then," he said.

"Alright, I’ll leave now," she said. "I need to rest and write up that report that the director is asking me to write. Your food will take some time to come, so just do what you want until then."

"Once you eat, go to sleep. You will officially be starting your day in the association tomorrow. Someone will come to get you soon."

Stanley nodded.

"Alright, I’ll see you when you can," Sheila said and left the room.

Stanley stayed alone and looked to the screen with food again, fascinated by just how many different images there were. He had no idea there could be this much variety of food at all.

He browsed through it, wondering what he should get in the future. He realized he didn’t know much about food and decided to ask for recommendations from people that he met.

The food arrived not long after, brought by not a person, but a floating... metal thing that he could not name. He took his meal that had arrived in a large bowl, and the machine left after telling him to leave the bowl outside once he let them know he was done with it.

Stanley nodded to the machine, realizing belatedly that he didn’t need to nod. It was just a piece of metal.

He brought the noodles back into his room and sat on the floor to eat them. The moment he took the first bite of the noodles, he felt like he was in a different world.

Sheila’s noodles were good, but these were simply... heavenly. He had never tasted anything better. He ate it faster and faster until he devoured it all.

He wanted more, but after realizing that he was too full to eat more, he decided to eat it again tomorrow. He let the room know he was finished and placed the bowl outside the room.

After that, he closed all the lights in the room and went to sleep.

Stanley didn’t know if he dreamt or not, but by the time he woke up again, over 7 hours had already passed.

When he finally lost his drowsiness, he realized something.

He had awakened another power.