Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 7 Gambler“s Fallacy

Alex gave Asteria another suspecting look as Clint left the room to explain his case to the angry newcomer.

"Asteria, maybe its just me, but isn't this a little convenient?" Alex said as he looked at the exposed wire nearby him.

"I just randomly thought of using your Fairy Dust, and then the face that I got is actually Clint's friend. What's more suspicious was the fact that this new face of mine led me here at this place and allowed me to awaken my Esper Ability without any need to expose myself to the WEO…"

"Huh? What are you harping on about? Shouldn't you be happy that you already got your Esper Ability?" Asteria mumbled, with the tone of her voice indicating that she wants to change this conversation.

"Well… I just feel that I am too lucky right now…" Alex said as a worried look appeared on his face.

"And why are you worried about that? Shouldn't you be happy right now?" Asteria said as she seemed to be leading Alex onto something.

"Well, I just have the hunch that if I let the things that happened right now get to my head, then I will have more difficulties in the future." Alex said as he cupped his chin in deep thought.

"I have known some gamblers who got lucky on their first attempts at gambling, and after these lucky wins, these gamblers gained the confidence to do more gambling activities. And since these gamblers have won before, they will be thinking that they can still win more, and they will try bigger and more expensive ways to gamble."

"And you know what happens to a gambler who got cocky and overconfident." Alex muttered as he gingerly stepped over the scattered wires. "All of them go bankrupt and they lose all their money to the grubby casinos."

(A.N. This is called Gambler's Fallacy.)

Asteria stayed quiet for a few seconds before hesitantly saying,

"Are you telling me right now that this whole Endless Journey is a gambling game, where you are the gambler and the Endless Monarch is the casino?"

"Exactly." Alex agreed as he brushed off some soot that had formed on his clothes. "I have the feeling that first-time Travelers will experience some sort of lucky experience in their first missions."

"Once that lucky experience happens, these Travelers will then feel as if they were already invincible, as if they had a 'plot armor' protecting them. That kind of thinking will lead to these people being cocky on their next missions, and I am sure that most of these poor Travelers die early."

"Hmph! You did not disappoint me!" Asteria's tone suddenly changed from sullen to proud as she gave Alex a beaming smile that had somewhat dazed him.

"Most of the things that you said was right." Asteria said as she flitted around Alex. "Through some unknown way, the Endless Monarch will set up some set of events at the first missions of the Travelers that will make them feel lucky and invincible. Once that happens, these Travelers will feel that they can take more risks on their next missions. However, just like what you have said earlier, most of them die because of their overconfidence."

"So the Endless Monarch is actually a shrewd businessman." Alex said as he sat on a nearby chair. "And I presume that you are not allowed to tell me about this slimy move, and that I have to discover it by myself?"

"There are some things that I am not allowed to say, and this lucky event is one of them." Asteria said as she somehow looked apologetic, but also not apologetic. "It will be up to the Traveler if he/she can see the truth… And you Alex, are one of the travelers that saw through this scheme."

"Yeah, it's a good thing that I noticed it." Alex said as he felt more terrified against the Endless Monarch.

Now that Alex realized that what happened to him right now was not his luck helping him, but rather a malicious move to increase his confidence, he managed to cool his head off as he started to become more prudent of everything.

"Oh right, you said that you gained your Esper Ability already, right? Come tell me what it is!" Asteria said as she bopped up and down like an excited child.

"My Esper Ability is Electromagnetic Wave Manipulation." Alex said as he squinted his eyes. "Just like what its name says, my Esper Ability allows me to manipulate Electromagnetic Waves."

"You know, your ability sounds cool, but I am not sure how powerful that could be." Asteria hesitantly said. "Like, I know that there are 7 types of EM Waves. Can you use them all to your advantage?"

"Of course, I can." Alex replied confidently.

"It doesn't matter what kind of power a person has. What's more important is on how he or she uses this power."

*******************

Electromagnetic Waves, or EM Waves, are a form of energy waves composed of electric and magnetic fields.

They can carry energy through everything, even through the vacuum of space.

The EM Waves are distinguished via their frequency and wavelength, separating the EM Spectrum into 7 portions.

The EM Wave with the longest wavelength is the Radio Wave, and they are mostly used for communications and data transmission in Alex's world.

The next one is the Microwave. They can penetrate through clouds and smoke, making them useful for communication. They also have the property to vibrate water at an extreme rate, which is a useful property for heating up foods.

The Infrared on the other hand is produced by anything that emits heat. Its can be also used on devices like remotes to control nearby things.

The most common EM Wave to humans is the Visible Light.

Visible light has a lot of application, and more of it are being discovered as time passed by.

Next is the Ultraviolet Wave. They contain much higher energy than the visible light, which makes this wave extremely harmful if left unprotected from it.

X-Ray on the other hand, contains higher energy than the Ultraviolet Wave, but its use had been regulated for medicine and astronomy.

X-Rays can penetrate soft tissue like skin and muscle, allowing precise observation of the human body.

The final wave is the Gamma Wave, and it contains the highest amount of energy among all the EM Waves.

Gamma waves are created from nuclear explosions and cosmic events like supernovas.

The power of this wave can be used in weaponry and sometimes, even cancer treatment.

When Alex awakened his Esper Ability, he somehow instinctively knew that his Esper Ability is EM Wave manipulation.

"Ok, let me try it out now." Alex muttered to himself as he tried sensing the EM Waves around him.

"Argh!" The first thing that Alex felt was pain, as his mind became overloaded will tons of information.

The normal human being can only sense visible light. As for the other EM Waves, he/she will only know that it exists through indirect observation.

But Alex, who gained the ability to manipulate them, can sense them all at once!

Now, Alex knew why his brain must be remodeled for him to become an Esper.

Just the mere act of sensing all of the EM Waves around him is already extremely taxing for Alex.

He could sense streams of radio waves whizzing around him, with some of the houses nearby emitting microwaves. Alex also felt as if the visible light became more 'visible' to him, with him perfectly sensing all the colors in the visible light!

Add the infrequent streams of UV and X-Rays shooting out erratically, and Alex's brain found it hard to deal with all these new sources of information.

"Hooooh…" Alex had no choice but to temporarily deactivate his Esper Ability first, as he realized he still need some time and practice to get used to sensing all the EM Waves.

"Hey Alex! Are you alright!" It seems like Alex's scream of pain was heard by Clint, as he immediately rushed inside the room. He gave a worried look to Alex as he rubbed the temples of his head wearily.

"Don't worry about me, Clint." Alex said as he gave him a weary smile." I just tried sensing my environment with my Esper Ability, and you can say that my mind is still unable to keep up with all the new information that flowed to me."

"Can you tell me about your Esper Ability? Maybe I can help you out." Clint said gave a worried look to Alex. "Many of the newly awakened Espers die because their brains could not keep up with their abilities. You were lucky that you were able to stop yourself, as if you continued on haphazardly using your Esper Ability, your brain might be mush now."

"I'll take that advice in my mind." Alex said as he shook his head. He then told Clint about his EM Manipulation, and the feeling that he had when he sensed all of the EM Waves around him.

"Oh, that's an extremely versatile ability." Clint said as he cupped his chin.

"EM Waves are everywhere, so you can say that nobody can hide from you, as long as they are in your Range. And no matter where you go, you will be able to attack easily as you have an unlimited supply of EM Waves around you. Your only problem is your defensive skills. There is no way you can defend yourself perfectly with just EM Waves."

"That I agree with." Alex nodded, as he discovered that his analysis about his ability was pretty similar to the analysis that Clint made.

"So, what is your current Range right now?" Clint asked Alex as he closed the door of the lab. "Oh, and if you do not know what a Range is, Range is the area around an Esper where he can freely use his Esper Ability."

Clint then lit a cigarette as he continued talking. "So if an Esper with Pyrokinesis(Fire-Starting ability) has a Range of 1 meter, then that Esper can put anything in fire as long as that object was within 1 meter around that Esper."

"Oh, let me try first." Alex closed his eyes as he reactivated his Esper Ability, but this time, he tried focusing only on the Visible Light.

It took Alex some tries do it, but in the end, he was able to successfully filter out all the other EM Waves except for the visible light.

Alex then tried 'grabbing' the Visible Light nearest to him with his ability. He then propelled this light beam away from him, as he continuously used his power to bring it away.

Alex felt his connection with the light beam being cut off when its distance from him had exceeded 10 meters.

"Argh!" Alex suddenly felt extreme pain inside his head, which forced him to deactivate his ability.

"Ha, ha, ha, it seems like I still have to train more if I want to use my Esper Ability more efficiently." Alex muttered as he endured the rolling waves of pain inside his head.

"Well, you are just newly awakened, so you still lack the enough Mental Power to completely sustain your Esper Ability." Clint said as he helped Alex up.

"Your Range and the power of your Esper Ability all depends on your Mental Power. The higher your Mental Power is, the larger your Range will be, and the more powerful your Esper Ability will be. Oh, have you already found your Range?"

"It's 10 meters." Alex said as through his gritted teeth. "Is that good?"

"Hahaha! Its more than good!" Clint said as he clapped Alex' back happily. "Most of the times, the largest range that an Esper gets when they awaken their Esper Ability is only around 1-2 meters. Of course there are some exceptions. And you, Alex, with your 10-meter Range, is one of those exceptions!"

"Now that makes me excited…" Alex face lit up as he let out an excited smile. He then gave a hopeful look at Clint as he asked him,

"So does that mean that my Range and power will increase as long as I increase my Mental Power?"

"Exactly." Clint replied quickly.

"But how should I increase my Mental Power?" Alex asked quizzically. "Should I get injected with some kind of drug or something?"

"Where did you get that idea? It ain't like that!" Clint said as he shook his head rapidly. "Listen Alex, there are only 2 ways to increase Mental Power."

Clint then raised his index finger as he said,

"The first one is by continually using your Esper Ability until you exhaust your Mental Power. Your Mental Power will increase marginally every time you use it all up. Continue doing this process for a long time, and your Mental Power will experience a slow, but steady increase."

"The second way is through some Mind Stones. These stones contain Mental Power inside them, and they can be absorbed by an Esper to increase his/her Mental Power. However, Mind Stones are extremely rare and expensive, so do not expect that you can use them easily for training."

"Ok, I get it." Alex nodded his head as he heard what Clint told him. "So, the first way is used by the poor Espers, while the second way is used by the rich Espers. Am I right?"

"...…"