BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

"Have you ever seen him outside school or any other place in town?" He continued.

Erik looked down and shook his head as he answered, "No." Then after thinking for a moment longer... "We weren\'t close..."

The police officer asked him several more questions, and he went on for at least ten minutes. He kept studying the young man\'s expression. He then threw a particular question to Erik; he wanted to see a reaction.

"Were you aware that he and his two friends, Conal Price and Orson Smyth, disappeared?" The young man knew they came to him because of the cafeteria incident, so he tried to stay as calm as possible while replying.

"No, sir, I wasn\'t..." Erik said.

"Did you see them on Thursday morning around 14:00 o\'clock? It was the last time they had been seen," the police officer said.

"No, sir. As I\'ve already said, we weren\'t close..."

The policeman took out some papers from a folder that contained all sorts of information about the three missing boys.

As soon as Erik saw what was written there, he became nervous. His heart began beating faster than usual, and he started sweating. The police officer observed him with interest.

"We heard you had a fight with the three students in the cafeteria. Many students reported this incident. We would like to know what happened that day from you."

"I don\'t really remember it well... I only remember that they just got mad at me for no reason, just because I was at the cafeteria. Then they tried to make me leave, and the rest is history," Erik said, trying to sound confident.

After having reread the file, the police officer put away the papers into a folder and gave them to his colleague.

"Do you have any lead about what happened to them?" Erik asked.

"I can\'t tell you this, young man... I can only say that we are searching for them and will find them!" the police officer exclaimed.

Then, the officers asked him several more questions about the incident and the daily bullying the young man suffered because of the three boys.

As the policemen walked back through the main gate, one turned towards Erik and said: "If you want to help us look for them, then you can contact us; everything that comes to mind could help us find them. Don\'t hesitate if you remember something."

"Okay... sure," Erik replied.

The police officer remained on the school campus to ask questions to the other students. What they understood of the three men\'s situation was very terrible.

Many students reported the three men bullying, Erik wasn\'t the only one who got beaten, but he was the one they bullied more often.

At least a dozen other teenagers suffered the same fate, and they told everything to the police officers. Logan, Conal, and Orson beat them, injured them, and stole from them repeatedly.

They went as far as to send some of them to the hospital on multiple occasions; Erik wasn\'t the only one. They also threatened repercussions if they told anyone. This went on for several years too.

What they discovered about the three men was out of the ordinary, and they were pretty hated inside the school. Still, the police officers knew these things happened everywhere inside the city.

The two policemen in question were often called to investigate such occurrences. Still, most times, the perpetrators didn\'t have any repercussions since they were considered minor issues by most people.

Some parents even encouraged the violence because they wanted their sons to toughen up for when they would eventually enter the military.

Apparently, from the picture, the police officers drew, Conal, Orson, and Logan seemed to enjoy the power over others and the fear they created among the weaker students.

"Look at all these kids; they couldn\'t even stand small fights. Do you think they will do good inside the militaries?" One of the two police officers asked.

"I don\'t think so," the other replied. "If they couldn\'t even fight back against simple bullies, I don\'t get how they could do well inside the army. They will probably die a horrible death once enlisted."

"Yeah, I agree; these kids must toughen up. When I was at school, things like these happened every day, and I didn\'t see people complaining then," the other replied. If Erik could hear them, he would be disgusted. The police, like basically everything else inside this nation, were rotten to the core.

"You are right..."

The two officers kept talking about the students until they left the campus. Once outside, they headed to another location where they met with some other detectives.

***

As Erik left the police officers, he went directly to class. Today he had the neural link establishing class with Professor O\'Leary.

As he arrived, many people observed him, the young man\'s life changed very much in two weeks and they were starting to see changes in him.

For example, he fought Logan, damn, he also confronted some of his classmates during a lesson. He never had the galls to do so.

At the same time, the students noticed Erik\'s physical changes, he was much more muscular than before, and his aura changed; he was much colder than before. Talking back to people was not in Erik\'s style, and the change deeply surprised them.

"Good morning, guys," Mister O\'Leary said.

"Hello, sir," the students answered.

The teacher took his time to get comfortable, and after some time, he said, "Let\'s start our practice lesson today, shall we?"

"Yes, sir." the students replied in unison and then they started channeling mana through their brain crystals.

Erik focused his attention on the task at hand for an hour. It was not easy to manipulate mana to create a neural link. Still, Erik kept doing so and continued to concentrate.

Erik kept channeling mana from the crystal to the brain and noticed that he was beginning to feel something else. It was like the last time he got a new neural link, and the feeling was growing stronger.

When the sensation reached its pinnacle, Erik felt a surge of mana within that started spreading through his body at a rapid pace. After several moments, the feeling subsided, and he started feeling a sort of connection; something new was inside him.

<I made another one... a neural link…> The young man thought. He couldn\'t say it to the other people since he didn\'t know to which power this neural link belonged, and he didn\'t want to take unnecessary risks.

The problem was that his teacher could ask him to show the power of the new neural link, which should have been related to the sharpening power. This meant that there had to be some changes inside the power that could be easily seen.

Erik was happy about the new link, but it wasn\'t like the first time he had developed one since he didn\'t feel the same happiness. Though, he knew he had just gained three free attribute points in dexterity, intelligence, and strength, which was good enough.

After a short time channeling mana, Erik found out that the newly established neural link was connected to the power he got from Logan. Surprisingly, he had developed it already, but he wasn\'t exactly sure how these things worked, so he thought nothing about it.