After a long and tiring struggle for survival, Jeevan slowly opened his eyes. Of course, no one was there to welcome him. He was all alone.
His body trembled as he stood on the ground. His muscles were sore, yet at the same time, he experienced the power and stiffness in every single muscle. His eyes were clear, and his vision was enhanced as well.
'Feels like a new body. Must be the Keeper, I guess.'
Jeevan slowly tried to walk. His legs struggled a little at first, but they gradually adjusted.
He folded his fingers and checked whether he had some kind of power flowing through his hands.
'Nothing from my hands. Do I even have powers?'
He tried to jump, kick, punch, and even do a backflip. Everything came easily to him. His old body would definitely have struggled to do even fifty decent push-ups.
It felt like magic to him.
He had tried to kill himself at first. That was the reason he used the machine in the first place. The second main reason was to find his grandpa, but in the end, he failed at both.
'Woo... I feel new. Wait... but...'
Jeevan slowly realized that this new body was merely alms from the Keeper, and he no longer truly owned it, unlike all the other rifters throughout Asia.
'At least the Keeper didn't think of changing my face or my whole body color or something like that.'
While his mind wandered through all the trauma he had faced on the ice planet and the fact that his new body was far more powerful than before, he slowly sat on the chair beside the machine and relaxed for a while.
His body loosened, and his hands relaxed. He closed his eyes for a moment, and everything that had happened played before his eyes like scenes in a movie.
'I can't believe that I rifted my soul on my own.'
Usually, Divinex chose people on its own and called them its Children. Those chosen would experience sleepless nights, vomiting, and severe pain in all their joints. It might sound like the flu or a fever, but the person would go through hell.
Afterward, they would visit the Health Unit in Central Society, where their blood would be tested, and they would officially become Children of Divinex. Even the officials and doctors never knew how a blood sample revealed whether someone was chosen because every sample was sent to Divinex HQ before the results returned.
Jeevan was never chosen, nor had he ever experienced the pain that the others went through.
He spent his entire childhood and teenage years alone inside his house.
His food came either from online deliveries or from the cabbage garden he grew himself. In Asia, only cabbage was cultivated, making it the only available food.
It wasn't that Jeevan was an introvert or someone who didn't know how to socialize. Rather, society had never accepted him. Even his neighbors looked at him with disdain. Some called him antisocial and spread countless rumors about him.
That was the main reason the GPF had come to his house.
'GPF... Oh shit! I totally forgot about those guys.'
Jeevan jumped from his chair and immediately began removing every wire connected to the machine. He threw them out through the window.
He almost ran around the entire room, gathering every possible piece of evidence and destroying as much as he could.
Then he heard heavy thudding above his head.
"Oh shit... they're here."
The GPF officers searched every corner of the house. They gathered books related to astrophysics, microbiology, and many other subjects while waiting for the commander's orders.
"My dear fools, I can see everything through your head cameras. What are you all doing? Burn those books! They are extremely dangerous!"
Another officer reported finding the forbidden god's poster, the hidden room beneath the floor, handwritten notes, and research from the scientist community.
Cold sweat ran down the commander's neck.
He was both frustrated and terrified by the potential threat.
"So this Jeevan lived here all alone. He never stepped outside, never met another human, and never had anyone to talk to. All he did was live surrounded by books. Yes... he is the greatest potential threat of all."
The commander hurried the troops to find him.
Meanwhile, Jeevan remained busy destroying every piece of evidence.
He even ate parts of the machine's manual because it was made of paper.
The heavy thudding eventually turned into footsteps as the officers approached the door to the secret room.
Without hesitation, Jeevan slammed his own head against the wall.
Blood flowed down from his forehead, and he lost consciousness.
When they broke down the door, they found him lying on the floor, surrounded by blood.
The GPF thoroughly searched the room.
One of the officers slapped Jeevan's face repeatedly, trying to wake him.
No response.
'Fools... how are you going to wake up an acting man?'
"Sir, he isn't responding. We are waiting for your command. He has already crossed the legal boundaries. We have full authority to shoot him, so..."
The commander replied with a frustrated voice.
"Wait! No... don't shoot him. We don't know what knowledge he possesses. Is he a rifter, or is he just another scientist who will make our heads spin like all the fools before him?"
The GPF placed a 360-degree tracing camera at the center of the room.
It scanned every corner.
"Sir, as per your command, we are bringing him to HQ."
They tied a black bag over Jeevan's head, lifted his body, threw him into their transport van, and drove away.
As they left the house, Jeevan smelled it burning.
Tears filled his eyes.
Along with the house, every memory of his grandpa was burning to ashes.
He clenched his fists in anger.
There was nothing he could do.
'I will kill you all... but I can't. I don't even know why I slammed my own head against the wall. I just did it on instinct.'
Jeevan knew very well that they would neither kill him nor erase his memories like they did with other illegal people across Asia.
His brain was too valuable.
After all, his grandpa was the most wanted scientist under Divinex.
Jeevan slowly closed his eyes and waited for the right moment.
'You people have no idea how hard I fought to survive on that planet. Do whatever you want... I'm as hard as steel.'