I was just beginning to eat my freshly cooked meal at the dining table, with Elise and her dad also sitting here. William was staring at me with wide open eyes, and Elise was looking at me observantly, though with still a bit of a cute pout on her face.

  Elise was sitting opposite to me, and William to my left at the head of the table. The vase with ashes was standing across from her dad, to my right. My plate of food was in front of me. Also, the sheathed kitchen knife I had used was next to me within hand’s reach.

  I told Elise it had been quite blunted due to my misuse and I’d sharpen it tonight with a sharpening stone.

  She and her father believed me since I was working a kitchen job, but I didn’t pack my sharpening stone from home. It was in a kitchen drawer at my home. I couldn’t cross the crime scene for such a non-necessary item. It would have been way too suspicious.

  The knife wasn’t really blunted anyway, but how would they know? William didn’t cook, and Elise trusted me too much to question me anyway. She saw me manhandling vegetables with the thing, she could make her own assumptions.

  Anyway, cooking the meal took a bit longer than expected, because of Elise’s clumsiness, but she recovered eventually and put in an honest effort for me.

  The meal was quite good. I was hungry, so I was also eating it rather fast. The rice was standard, but Elise’s stir frying skills of all those vegetables was pretty good. They were not under or overcooked, and seasoned properly with the right amount of spices.

  Well, she has been cooking everyday for her dad, just as I had for my mother, so of course she would have some skills.

  I got an intrusive thought that it would be fun if she started working at that restaurant with me. But, such mundane things were now of the past in this new world. The TV blaring as background noise all this time was proof of that.

  The entire time since entering this living room and cooking in the kitchen, all the news had been about supernatural incidents, interviews, advice, panels, everything that changed in the world.

  None of it was positive, the whole country was in chaos, with no solution in sight. And, I’ve not been here that long. The TV had been on since before I got here.

  I had been too preoccupied to be able to learn what the state of the world was at the moment. But, since Elise and her dad had apparently been watching the news before I got here, perhaps they knew more about the current affairs. I’d ask them later.

  But first, since I had just taken my last bite and finished my meal.

  Should I thank the lord for the food? They weren’t religious, but Elise did say once that she believed in a higher being.

  Well, I’d rather not. If there is a God, he’s pure evil for turning the world this way. Humanity shouldn’t send prayers to him anymore, he apparently doesn’t listen anyway.

  So instead, I should give my compliments to the chef!

  “It was really good, Elise. Thanks, you’re a great cook.”

  “Well…, thank you... But next time, enjoy it some more and don’t just scarf it down in less than a minute, okay!” she said with some indignation.

  “Superspeed huh? Hearing it is one thing, but seeing it is also pretty unbelievable,” William added in a curious tone.

  “Yeah, I wanted to test it out some more. Next time, I’ll promise to eat properly,” I said with a mischievous smile on my face.

  “You better!” Elise responded with a condemning look, but also with a slight grin forming on her face.

  I reminisced that I had told them that my power was superspeed. It was the least complicated explanation, and that shadow might still be listening in.

  No need to give that thing extra info about me. Elise is smart enough that she can realise on her own that my thoughts are also churning at hyperspeed.

  That being said, my power definitely isn’t superspeed. A firm conclusion I came to while just eating. I intended to eat fast, and my speed adjusted accordingly. But, I still observed it as me eating at regular speed, nothing special about it.

  It means my thoughts match the speed of the intended action. For example, if a task I speed up would take 1 minute instead of 5, I still have 5 minutes of thinking time.

  Had the world slowed down while I was eating then? No, I too perceived that at regular speed. It was a contradiction, speeding up while time wasn’t affected in my surroundings.

  But the phenomenon has a simple explanation.

  While I was observing the world as I was eating, my intent had changed, so my eating became regular speed again while losing focus on the action. And my thoughts became regular speed too, because the world moved at regular speed.

  Another confirmation that my power really is acceleration of intent. Is that worse or better than superspeed?

  I always need to think about what I should do, always be aware, and always react accordingly. If I’m caught off guard or don’t give my action clear intent, I can’t accelerate.

  But, my thinking is also accelerated whenever I want, so catching me off guard or unsure is extremely unlikely. As long as I have confidence in myself and my abilities, I'll survive.

  The negative traits were mitigated somewhat due to that. But I also realized that my power has a much bigger benefit than plain superspeed.

  Precision.

  I ate my meal in a few moments without making any big mess at all. If I would have been eating at a much higher speed, all the food would have been flying across the room.

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  My intent was to eat fast, and my speed accelerated automatically to the most efficient point. My intent thus accelerated me only to the point where my precision was maintained.

  I’m so glad that’s the case. A major worry has been alleviated from my heart.

  In a fight, I’ll never have to worry about using too much force and killing someone. I can use my intent to ordain the level of harm I want to admit, and my speed and force will adjust accordingly to keep things non-lethal.

  Of course, I really don’t want to fight at all if I could avoid it. I’d suffered through enough of those horrifyingly arranged sparring matches during my childhood.

  Sadly, I doubt my reluctance will be taken into consideration with the world as it is now.

  Speaking of which, I should ask them about that right now.

  “Hey, I wanted to ask. I’ve been out of the loop, so do you know what’s been happening in the world right now?”

  Elise and William looked at each other, and the father was the one that first spoke.

  “Well, I guess I should start with the president’s speech…”

  He told me that our president, leader of the Red Party, had held an emergency conference a couple of hours ago. During which, he informed the nation about what had happened to the world.

  Just after 4 PM in our timezone, everyone in this country experienced a white flash, and the world had forever changed.

  This phenomenon was given a name, the Whiteout.

  Superpowers had become prevalent among humanity. It was estimated for now that every person has been granted some power.

  Some could use them immediately, some were using them unconsciously, and it was assumed that the rest of the people that remained mundane had just not discovered how to use their powers as of yet.

  The president had no answer as to what the exact nature of the Whiteout was and why it happened. This country could provide no answer.

  The rest of the world could provide no answer either, because we couldn’t receive information about them.

  Everyone gaining superpowers was not the only phenomena that had occurred. This country was, so to say, informatively cut off from the rest of the world.

  Social media didn’t work anymore. Communication attempts to people in other countries didn’t go through.

  The world wide web still worked, but information about the state of affairs could only be looked up about your own country through news sites.

  Basically, people could only communicate with their own citizens of the same country, through phone calls, text messages and such.

  With social media and such structures down, you couldn’t interact with unknown strangers online anymore. You could only expand your social circle through human interaction.

  It means that your sense of what’s going was also limited to the people you knew.

  What a shame it was that even though I’m good at interacting with people, Elise and Ken are my only friends…

  At least the TV still worked. A real saving grace for loners like me.

  Although you could only access the news from your own country, at least it was a way to get a sense of what's going on.

  And even though this country was isolated, luckily we still knew that the rest of the world still existed and hadn't just disappeared in thin air.

  You could still cross the border to Canada and Mexico, and come back again.

  However, even if you crossed the border, you still couldn’t access the information available in the other country through the internet. If you are an American, you're stuck with American information, no matter where in the world you are.

  As for counties not landlocked to ours, interaction would be extremely difficult, because air travel didn’t work anymore. Airplanes and such just ceased to function.

  The only way you could still travel was by sea, indicated by tourists who were on cruises and such to this country when the Whiteout happened.

  Although, once they arrived, even those modern ships stopped working too. But, the only saving grace was that sail ships, operating on wind power, work just as they should, in contrast to their engine driven counterparts.

  They were however way smaller, slower and less aplenty than their modern equivalent, so the tourists are stuck here before more are built.

  It all meant that communication with the world would be extremely difficult due to all the phenomena caused by the Whiteout. But, we could still speculate about the rest of the world, derived from the brief interaction we had with travelling citizens from other countries.

  What was discovered is that the rest of the world was basically in the same state as this country found itself in. The Whiteout was a worldwide event.

  Regarding the informative and travel isolation of countries, I could find no logic as of now in how or why this was happening, but the consequences were at least clear.

  This country was on its own, as is every other country in the world.

  How would each country respond to this current crisis? There was no answer available, but the president had decided the answer this country would follow.

  The government had for now decided that everyone should stay in the safety of their homes and limit their travel as much as possible, until some semblance of order returned.

  The country was now in chaos after all. Crimes had basically skyrocketed since the Whiteout, and law enforcement had no effectiveness against superpowers as of yet.

  Until law and order could be restored, traveling was extremely dangerous. So, for your own safety, it was best to stay at home.

  This was the situation of the country and world at the moment. But, ending the speech, the president had made its citizens a promise.

  The government would not rest until the situation was manageable again and people could return to their normal lives.

  Apparently, it had been a very convincing promise. As William told me all this, with Elise bringing in her own inputs and me asking questions, I got the impression that they actually believed and had hope that things would return to normal again.

  Either the president had used some superpower, or these two are naively goodhearted fools.

  Well, I guess I can’t blame them. It’s better to cling to hope than fall into despair, even if it makes you naive. Actually, I’m glad to see that these sorts of people exist, even if the world is like this now. I’m glad that Elise is a good person.

  Because I’m not. My father made sure that I have no hope left for the goodness of human nature in this situation.

  Humans are driven by their survival instincts. They always act in accordance to improve their survivability, comfort, and their control over resources.

  Nobody ever wakes up and decides that they meaninglessly want to be unhappy and suffer. Even martyrs always sacrifice themself for some sort of ideology or reason, not just because.

  So, how in this new world will the drive to fitness manifest itself.

  Just the same as in the old world, power. The fittest is the most powerful.

  And in the new world, the road to power is as easy to see as it has ever been.

  Humanity has gained superpowers. A powerful or well used ability can make you obtain power without consequences.

  That’s why crimes are suddenly so rampant. Unless you’re truly insane, all motives for committing crimes are to somehow benefit yourself, and those benefits will accumulate into power, the ultimate representation of an individual's fitness.

  It was a strategy recognised in the old world, and counteracted by law and justice. They prevented the most vile of us to rise to power through despicable means, so that society and governing structures could be retained.

  But, with superpowers, law and order will have no hold anymore. How could you hold someone accountable when they have a stronger ability than you? How could you lock them up if they can just blow up their own cells.

  You can’t. The consequences of committing crimes have disappeared, which is why it has become so rampant.

  What about people who choose to use their power for good? Well, where are they then? I’ve been listening to the news the entire time since coming to this house.

  Crime after crime after crime. A bank got robbed. A workplace got annihilated. A mass murder on the streets. It goes on and on and on.

  Not one report about a brave civilian preventing something. Not one interview with a newly declared superhero, who vows to use their powers for good and justice.

  The psychos are not constrained by society anymore, and have come out to play. And they're winning. The news made it clear that the police tried, but are not strong enough.

  And the worst part of it all, this isn’t even the worst of it. It’s only the beginning.

  We’re disconnected from the world. The country is in lockdown. Traveling is extremely dangerous. There will be no trade going on for a while.

  When the local food supplies run out, how many ‘good’ people would rather keep their powers in check and starve than forcibly borrow something from their neighbours.

  With time, crime will only get more common, and more extreme. That is until this country, this new world, reaches its inevitable state.

  I foresee this all with a clear and hopeless mind.

  This was what I thought about the state of the world, just after William and Elise had finished telling me about it.

  And just as my thoughts finished and time moved again, the TV reaffirmed my reasoning.

  A breaking news story. A riot had broken out in Philadelphia. Students in the faculty of Law had orchestrated a meeting. The police had also been present for safety purposes. But, tensions between the two groups had steadily risen. Eventually, it escalated, and the police opened fire on the students. The students responded, and violence broke out, which was now spreading across the entire city.

  A riot had already broken out somewhere. It happened sooner than I expected.

  Elise and William were watching the news too. They had disbelieving and shocked expressions.

  After listening, Elise once again looked at me, and froze.

  “Wh..What’s wrong,” she asked me worriedly.

  I had the biggest reaction on my face out of all three of us since hearing the news story.

  Not because I was so surprised about riots already happening. No, I had a whole other reason.

  “My… my brother studies there…, and he’s a law student.”