Looking at his stats, he saw that he was right about the sense of balance that he felt earlier. All his physical stats were now at 10.
It felt very comfortable.
'I'll find a gym later to check what the physical stats represent quantitatively.'
'It would even be better if it is one without cameras so that I can test my limits at night with no one watching.'
'For now, I should clean the bedroom of that substance.'
Thinking this, he took a bunch of toilets roll that he wrapped around his face to cover his nose from the smell, and with the towel around his waist, he walked into the bedroom for a change of clothes.
With how foul the smell was, he only persisted enough to quickly and randomly pick something to wear before leaving the room as if running away.
Then, with a simple T-shirt, denim trousers, and a pair of sandals, he left the house to purchase a vacuum cleaner.
That thing deserved more respect than his usual mop and bucket of water.
The jelly substance was so foul that, if not for it being black and not solid, he might have thought it was thioacetone.
'It smells like a mixture of putrescine and cadaverine… maybe there is some butyric acid in there as well. I think it actually smell worse than thioacetone.'
Because of the foul smell, he decided that he would use a vacuum cleaner to do the first part of the cleaning.
.
It was quite late now, around 3 a.m. in the morning and thus he had to teleport to different places while searching for a store that was open 24 hours.
'I didn't think this through, I should have checked online for shops that stay open 24 hours before leaving the house.'
Once at the store, he saw the price tags attached to the vacuum cleaners and immediately, he felt like confronting the smell of the jelly substance instead.
'I knew there was a reason why I didn't have one of those. What kind of price is that?'
He roamed through the store's shelves some more and settled for just protective and cleaning equipment.
He thought of borrowing some from the lab at his workplace but ultimately decided against it.
In the end, he just bought a protective respiratory mask and hazmat suit with gloves and boots, opting to do the cleaning by hand.
'I can't believe I just spent 2000 Crowns just like that. Still better than the alternative.'
Carrying his items, he cashed them out and once out of sight, he teleported home.
At home, he put on his outfit and with that, he went to his bedroom and started gathering the substance using his mop. He squeezed it in an empty bucket and flushed each full bucket down the water closet.
After clearing the substance off the floor, he thoroughly mopped the floor several times with a new mop and some soapy detergent, further reducing the smell.
Later, he opened the windows of the bedroom in order to allow air circulation and sprayed some perfume into the room before leaving, closing the door behind him.
.
Altair was now sitting in the living room of the house and habitually he turned on the TV to watch the news channel.
On the screen, Altair watched as the report was about what was going on in Kyrnac city following the recent deflagration that happened there. The time on the TV showed 4 a.m.
| "As the fire fighters continue in their attempts to subdue the fire and stop its spread, the people have gathered rescue teams and increased their efforts in trying to recover people that could be in the wreckage of the explosion…" |
'What am I doing here when people need help there? I've never been to Kyrnac before… if so, I could just teleport there.'
'I wish I were there-' --- '-now.'
Altair was in his thoughts when he discovered that he had changed locations.
The calm air of his house was now replaced by a much hotter one, and even the air he breathed now felt ashy.
In his line of sight, he could see smoke and dust everywhere.
'Again?' He frowned, realizing that he had teleported.
However, he found the place looked familiar.
Looking at his ruined surroundings, he realized.
'This is… Kyrnac? I can do something like this?' The first thing that came to his mind was the fact that he could teleport even to places he had never been to.
Following which, he started running in the direction of the wreckage where he saw other people.
Since he was already here, he should help first and think of other things later.
But before he could get far, he heard a shout near him which got his attention.
"Hey!" Altair heard someone call out and reflexively turned in the person's direction after halting his run.
"You can't go in there like that right now, it's not safe."
Altair looked at himself and he was wearing a T-shirt, denims, and… sandals.
The man gestured to a reflective jacket and a helmet.
When the man saw Altair listened to him and was coming in his direction, he seemed to calm down somewhat and kept talking.
"Wear these, you will see others and the can see you too."
The jacket was yellow with grey reflecting strips and the helmet had a light at the front.
Noticing his sandals, the man said. "You also need shoes."
Altair nodded and took the jacket from him to put on, as well as a pair of boots.
As the man looked at him, he said. "You're calm, that's good. Even if you are looking for someone in there, it won't help to just rush in."
"Get in a team or form one. When you're in there you will need help to move things around when you find people."
Altair quietly listened to the man's instructions as he put on the jacket and wore the plastic boots, and then he started looking around, seeing the few people that were there quickly forming teams to go in together towards the wreckage.
"Thank you." He said simply and took off in a jog, to find a group he could join.
.
It did not take long for Altair to join a rescue team and they moved towards the wreckage together.
From time to time, someone in the team with a loud voice would call out for anyone around needing rescue, and the team would listen for a few seconds as everyone steadily moved forward.
"Hey~! Can someone hear me~?!"
"Hey~! Anyone~?!"
They kept this up for a while, surveying a large area without rest and only finding two people.
They continued searching the area, sweeping the area several times more in hopes of finding anyone, whether alive or even dead, so that the family or the relatives would at least know the status of their loved ones.
The atmosphere in the team was gloomy, and although people's spirits were somewhat lifted when they found someone, there was not much joy showing.
Even without any prior understanding among the team members, someone took on the task of reassuring the rescued people before questioning them. Asking what would help in rescuing others.
"Can you hear me?" …
"Do you feel pain anywhere?" …
"What do you remember?" …
"Were there other people with you?" …
"Where were you when the accident happened?"
"Do you remember if there were people around you at the time?"
The questioning went on while Altair examined the state of the person rescued.
Following the short question and answer, Altair would finish the first aid, and depending on the state of the person, two or more people would carry them in a makeshift stretcher to the temporary camp for further treatment.
The stretcher was just a torn blanket or drape that was tied and fastened around sticks.
In the case of the two people that were rescued by Altair's team, he had to accompany them to the camp along with the people who were carrying, in order to monitor their state and report what he had done and what the rescued people reported.
"I bandaged this place like this because…"
"He said he felt pain in…"
Altair reported to the people under the tents what first aid he performed in addition to what he did some things, trying to ensure there was no miscommunication for the best assistance of the rescued.
Altair just did his best along with the team to be of help.
It was the first time he found himself in this kind of situation and no one in the team really had any experience with this kind of situation either, so they all tried to coordinate to be of use as much as possible.
They were all volunteers, no one being there with ulterior motives in that situation.
The only advantage he had, being the fact that he had some basic medical experience.
As time kept moving, everyone put in a lot of effort. They looked sharply around them, slowly moving their flashlights around while they listened attentively, pushing through the night until the break of dawn.
Other volunteers moved around distributing sachets of water for the rescuer teams to drink, along with some words of encouragement.
Altair accepted the sachet of water and the words of encouragement, quenching the thirst he had not even noticed before continuing to move around with his team.
More and more professionals kept arriving at the site, gradually replacing and relieving the present volunteer teams, starting with the medics and the other individuals at the camp.
The people arriving also brought with them better and safer equipment to facilitate the search and rescue efforts.
With the arrival of the CSC, Coalition de Soins Compatissants, a non-governmental organization originating from country Gaul, a country on the Evros continent, the first aid teams in the temporary tents were relieved.
Along with the arrival of the medical teams and professional rescue teams, more journalists also arrived.
Some, set up their equipment for broadcast while others just noted on their notepads.
From the fact that most of them just stood away from the chaos to their clean and neat appearances.
They stood out quite a lot in contrast to the devastation around them, and as if wanting to stand out even more, some of them actually took the time to do their make up before starting their broadcasts.
The radio station journalists did not seem as concerned about their appearances and started preparing their reports as soon as their equipment was set, they moved towards the temporary camps and tried asking questions to anyone that had time to answer them.
From the TV station vehicles, some went down to collect information, and when the journalist was ready, they gave them the information collected before the report could start.
Altair watched them for a short time while moving around with his team and felt irritated at what he saw. It seemed to him that, for some of them, this was just another story to tell.
'This isn't a story to tell, it's a crisis to end.' He thought in annoyance.
. . .
. .
.
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