5 Special Ability

The next morning, Plato woke up with aches and pains all over his body. He was slightly confused at the fact that he had woken up not to the sound of the alarm on his phone, but from a notification from his Messenger.

He took a glance at the screen of his phone, and saw it was from one of his uni friends. His name was Jordan, and he had come from Sydney to study. He was doing engineering as well, and the two of them had hit it off quite well.

As he scrolled through the chat logs, he realized that this Jordan had actually messaged him every five minutes starting from midnight. Since it was six in the morning right now, there had been 72 messages in total. All of them said the same thing.

[Yo!]

Plato would normally not have replied at all, but he was unable to sleep, and breakfast only started at 7am. Besides, he needed to get familiar with how to use a phone in order to blend in better.

However, when Plato focused closely on the phone, he suddenly saw things flashing in his retina. In an almost AR-like display, he saw a couple of strange blueprints, as well as a bunch of code. Not only that, there was a breakdown on the minerals and metals used to make the phone, the CPU, motherboard, etc.

He was bewildered at first but then realized that it must have been his special ability he had obtained. Since he transmigrated into an aspiring engineer, it would only make sense that the ability involved analysing items' compositions and blueprints.

NOT!

Although Plato did not know the extent of his special ability, it could be said that it was extremely powerful. He had the ability to look at a comprehensive break down of every appliance in the world – from phones to household toasters. At least, that's what he felt. To prove his hypothesis, he stared at the tap on the sink, and just like he expected, the composition of it as well as the blueprints, process of production, and many more aspects of it were revealed to him.

No longer interested in replying to Jordan, he spent an hour staring at the things inside his room. He finally reached a disturbing conclusion. As long as he focused, he could find out everything about anything in his view! Even slightly obstructed views were alright. If something was covered in something like a wedding veil, he would still be able to activate his ability. But if it was a sheet or a blanket, it would not activate. It was also quite obvious to him that he couldn't analyse things that had been written on a page. He could see the composition of the page itself, but not the words or questions on it. The best thing was that the ability would automatically activate when he wanted it to, and it would detect things even if he didn't see it – as long as it was within his view.

If he had an X-ray ability, then he would practically be omniscient. At the very least, right now, he was on track to be a whiz kid in engineering. However, there was still a very important test that he needed to conduct. He wanted to see if he could use this ability on humans! So far, he had confirmed that it worked on himself when he looked at his hand, but was unaware if it worked on others.

But right now, it was time for breakfast. Although the ability was powerful and roused his curiosity, Plato knew that he had to get stronger physically. If not, he might be captured and forced to work as a slave. After all, a weak and common man treasuring a jade ring is a crime. But when a strong man (or woman) treasures a jade ring, no-one can do anything about it.

The sun was still extremely hot, so he had slept naked last night. Putting his clothes on, he sealed his thoughts on his new ability into the back of his mind, and focused single-mindedly on how to get stronger. As he descended the lifeless stairwell, he suddenly thought of an idea. Since he could see the composition of items, he should be able to see the exact nutrient values of food. If he could pick out the ones with the best nutritional content, he would be able to efficiently cut down on meal times. Instead of eating a lot to make up for each piece having low nutrients, he could eat just a couple with just the right amount of nutrients.

Although it would only amount to a couple of seconds, even the smallest increments can add up.

His special ability also showed him a "recipe" of how the item was made. If he were to observe, say, Michelangelo's David, he would be able to replicate it to a T. With his Intelligence boost, it would not be hard to merge and adapt those skills with his own knowledge, creating a new style unique to him. At the same time, that style would surpass the skill of the legendary figures of each industry or art.

With these two abilities, Plato would be able to reach the peak!

Alas, he had no desire to do so. He had been focused on short-term goals ever since he crossed over, so he had no clear-cut final goal to reach. His current mindset was to take things as they come along, but obviously, such a mindset was insufficient for someone with great abilities.

In this short while that it took to walk down a couple flights of stairs, Plato had decided that his intermediate-term goal was to start his own company, and to become rich. As for what came after that, he had no idea. He did not have any particular aspirations either. But he had a feeling that he would be dragged into plot after plot, and would have a hard time staying still.

When he arrived at the mess hall, Plato was surprised to see Basara and Iwatani lining up as well. After all, he had assumed that they had gotten drunk last night and were still sleeping. Seeing them, he realized that they were the perfect test for the ability. Their existence in Naofumi's memories were solid after middle school, so he could test the ability on whether it was showing the truth.

He walked up to them and greeted them casually.

"Yo! Didn't you guys go to a bar last night? How are you awake so early in the morning?"

It was Basara who replied, "Don't talk about it. Some idiot suggested going to a different bar for once, and we got caught up in a verbal scuffle with some bikers. Man… we had to pretend we were beating each other up to get out of it."

"Oh? Why didn't you just fight with them?"

At this point in time, Iwatani tried to butt in with the intent of making his opinion known. At the same time, it was their turn to fill their plates, so they stopped talking lest their spittle landed in the food.

After they were satisfied with the food they got, they went to look for a spot to sit down, and Iwatani started speaking.

"I wanted to! You know that we are successors of samurai families. But this prick here didn't want our families to know that we went to a bar, so we had to retreat. Hey, why the hell do we need to peel these eggs on our own? Why can't they do it?"

Halfway through talking, Iwatani started complaining about how the cooking staff hadn't peeled the boiled eggs, instead making the students peel it.

"Why don't you just stop being lazy for once in your life? You're only ever proactive when it comes to fighting or getting into trouble. Just how many times do we need to cover for you until you learn your lesson?" complained Basara.

It seemed like Basara was still slightly drunk. Taking the opportunity in this slight lull in the conversation, Plato activated his special ability, which he dubbed "All-Seer".

True enough, panes of information came up in Plato's vision. There was the composition of the body, which was mostly water, Basara's history – down to the minutest details – as well as his current state, which was [Happy (Slightly Drunk)].

On another pane, his Blood Alcohol Level was displayed at 0.1.

As for Basara's history, Plato was reading it with enjoyment. Basara had started training in Niten Ichi-ryu at a young age, and had reached a master-level proficiency before the age of 12. It turned out that the Miyamoto and Hattori families were deeply connected, with constant inter-marriage between the sons and daughters of the two families.

Basara and Iwatani had met and played at a young age, which developed into a rivalry. When they grew up a bit more, their playtime had changed into duels. Over time, this built a sense of comradery, and the two became friends. What was especially interesting to Plato was that the training methods of both Basara and Iwatani were listed in their histories, along with the sword styles that they practiced.

With his own talent in swordsmanship, Plato quickly managed to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the two styles, and started image training to try and merge them with his own style.

Alas, these things take time and actual practice, so Plato was not in a rush to complete it. However, with his Intelligence boost, he had somehow finished it within a couple of seconds after theorizing it! His own style, which was rather arrogantly called "One Sword Style", had successfully merged the Hattori's traditional style into its single-handed sword techniques, while it used Miyamoto's Niten Ichi-ryu as a basis for a dual wield style.

All the while, he was also eating and paying attention to the rest of the conversation.

"Hey, isn't that right, Nao? We ought to kick Iwatani out for a bit, and let him learn about the consequences of his actions on his own."

Basara's vicious expression looked quite real, and Iwatani's subsequent "almost-crying" expression deserved an Oscar.

"Aiya! All the sweat and blood I've devoted to my two good brothers… only to have them abandon me! *sob* *sob*"

Basara hit him on the back of his head in annoyance.

"Alright, stop your cry-baby act and puppy eyes. It makes me want to vomit. And trust me, if I want to barf, I'll do it all over you."

Hearing that, Iwatani froze for a split-second, before resuming his usual expression and started eating again, as if nothing had happened.

Seeing this scene, Plato and Basara chuckled softly, and a light smirk appeared on Iwatani's face.