I Reborn to Outsmart the God Touch Fraud

When the apocalypse hit, the world went to hell. As the last Aether researcher in our bunker, I faced a choice for humanity's future.

Memories of my past life flooded me. In that timeline, my assistant Silaswho couldnt even recall the periodic tablewas hailed as the Father of Awakenings. He could awaken flawless abilities with a touch, while I labored over data and mental thresholds.

It climaxed when our Leader was to awaken an S-Class Lightning ability. Silas pushed me aside, saying only he could guide her. I fought to warn of the Lightning elements volatility, but his followers pinned me down.

Silas succeeded, becoming the bunkers messiah. Me? He framed me for illegal experiments, broke my limbs, and threw me to the infected horde. As I was torn apart, I realized the truth: he had no "God Touch"he was telepathic, stealing my mental blueprints as his own.

I blinked, gasping. I was back in the lab, on the day he first claimed the God Touch. This time, I didnt bother with calculations. I leaned back and hummed a silly 90s dance tune in my mind.

"Larkin, congratulations man! Another one hundred percent success rate on the Awakening protocols!"

"No kidding! As long as we have Larkin, our bunker is going to pump out more Awakened soldiers than any other settlement in the coalition!"

Surrounded by a cheering crowd, I felt a wave of vertigo.

The air didn't reek of rotting flesh and coagulated blood. Instead, the sharp bite of clinical antiseptic filled my lungs.

I instinctively patted my arms and legs. Completely intact. No shattered bones. No agonizing pain from teeth tearing into my skin.

"Hold on a minute!"

Right as General Briggs was about to hand me the Researcher of the Month commendation, my "good colleague" Silas stepped out from the crowd, his face a mask of solemn duty.

"General, I need to come clean. The actual guiding protocol for this batch... I was the one who designed it."

Looking at his earnest, deceptively honest face, the realization hit me hard. I had been reborn to this exact moment.

I gripped my clipboard so tightly my knuckles turned white.

Mutters of disbelief rippled through the room. Silas furrowed his brow, playing the part of a wronged genius who had suffered in silence for too long.

"If you're claiming you did the work, why don't you give us a live demonstration?"

I swallowed the venom rising in my throat and pointed at a young man in the corner. He was a Geokinetic who had been stuck on the verge of Awakening, entirely unable to break past his bottleneck.

"His mental threshold is incredibly unstable. Since you have the God Touch, why don't you push him over the edge?"

Silas froze for a fraction of a second before regaining his composure.

He strutted forward brimming with confidence and placed his hand dramatically against the young man's forehead.

At that exact moment, I felt the faintest prickling sensation grazing my mind. A mental probe.

Just as I thought. He was reading my thoughts.

In my past life, this was the exact moment I played the absolute fool. Terrified that the poor kid was going to suffer a fatal backlash, my brain had gone into overdrive, frantically analyzing the geokinetic data and mapping out the safest neural pathways.

Silas heard every single thought, copied it, and used it to build his own legend.

This time, I didn't rush to expose him. I just narrowed my eyes.

I had been tracking this Earth-elemental kid's vitals for a week. The blueprint was already mapped out in my head. I just hadn't run the final clinical trials.

I rapidly pulled up the incomplete schematic in my mind and mentally filled in the final missing sequence.

In that same split second, Silas's eyes lit up.

He started muttering like a seasoned oracle. "I feel it... Channel the ambient kinetic energy starting from the lower meridian nodes..."

As he mirrored my exact mental instructions, the young man, whose face had been twisted in agony, suddenly gasped.

The chaotic earth elements in the room instantly submitted to him, layering over his skin to form a dense, heavy suit of rock armor.

"I... I did it?!" the kid yelled in pure shock. "I broke through! Thank you, Silas! You're a literal god!"

"Holy shit! The God Touch is real! He didn't even need a bio-monitor! He just touched him and knew exactly what to do!"

The room erupted into deafening applause and cheers.

Silas turned his head and shot me a provocative look, his eyes practically swimming in smug satisfaction.

I stood on the fringe of the crowd, a cold smirk tugging at my lips.

It was exactly as I hypothesized.

Just a minute ago, I had mentally called him a brainless parasite, and he hadn't reacted at all. But the second I started visualizing complex Aether-data, he locked right onto it.

His telepathy wasn't omnipotent. He could only skim the highly focused, technical frequencies of my cerebral cortex.

"Well, Larkin? What do you have to say for yourself now?"

A figure pushed through the cheering crowd. It was Valerie, the captain of the Vanguard Squad. She also happened to be my current girlfriend.

She walked straight to Silas, gently brushing a speck of dust off his shoulder with a look of deep admiration.

Then she turned her icy glare on me, her voice dripping with disappointment and disgust.

"While Silas was saving that boy's life, I saw you standing in the corner smirking. What? Seeing him succeed hurts your ego that much? Are you really that suffocated by jealousy?"

Silas immediately raised his hands, playing the magnanimous saint.

"Captain Valerie, please, don't be too hard on Larkin. He's my senior. It's totally understandable that he needs a minute to process the fact that I was born with this gift. I don't hold it against him."

"You are way too nice for your own good, Silas!" Valerie snapped indignantly. "Some people can't produce a single viable result on their own, so they resort to suppressing the new blood. Facts speak louder than words. Your God Touch is infinitely more valuable than his dusty old spreadsheets!"

General Briggs walked over. While he wasn't quite as venomous as Valerie, the warmth was completely gone from his eyes when he looked at me.

"Larkin, the results are undeniable. Silas is simply more gifted. We are fighting a losing war out there. We don't have time to wait around. We need the most efficient Awakening methods possible."

He paused, letting his authority settle over the room.

"Effective immediately, Silas will take full command of the Aether Research Division. Larkin, you will act as his assistant. Try to learn a thing or two from him."

The surrounding researchers nodded in fervent agreement.

"Exactly. I used to think Larkin was some kind of genius, but he just got totally eclipsed by his own intern."

"Silas is the real deal. That earth kid was stuck for months, and Silas fixed him with a single touch."

Facing a room full of people ready to burn me at the stake, I didn't scream or desperately try to defend myself like I did in my past life.

I simply reached up, unpinned the Chief Researcher badge from my coat, and set it softly on the steel table.

"Alright," I said, my voice eerily calm. "If Assistant Silas is truly that gifted, I'll leave all future Awakening operations in his capable hands."

Silas clearly hadn't expected me to roll over so easily. A flicker of confusion crossed his face, quickly swallowed by manic joy.

"Thanks for stepping aside, Larkin! I promise I won't let the bunker down! Though, for some of the more boring theoretical stuff, I might still need you to double-check my math."

I looked right at him and smiled.

"Don't worry. For the sake of the bunker and the future of humanity, I will give you everything you need."

For the next two weeks, I played the dutiful assistant, following Silas around like a shadow.

No matter how chaotic or complex an Awakener's condition was, I would immediately construct the flawless solution in my head.

A Pyromancer's core is overheating?

I would mentally recite: "Compress the local oxygen density to choke the ignition point."

Silas would parrot the command. Flawless success.

A Hydromancer suffering from acute cellular dehydration?

I would run the analysis: "Inject a concentrated electrolyte drip directly into the primary artery."

Silas executed it. Absolute perfection.

Riding entirely on my silent mental labor, Silas's reputation skyrocketed into the stratosphere.

People were calling him the messiah of the wasteland, the literal "Father of Awakenings." There were even petitions floating around to build a statue of him in the courtyard.

With Silas's untouchable status secured, the bunker administration finally moved forward with their most controversial agenda.

The Genesis Protocol.

In this apocalyptic wasteland, the human population was on the brink of extinction. Passing down elite genetic traits had become the absolute highest priority.

Under bunker law, only men and women certified with S-Class genetics were authorized to start a family. They were granted the highest luxury rations, private quarters, and complete immunity from scavenging duty.

Valerie and I were the bunker's recognized S-Class pair. She was our fiercest Vanguard captain, and I was the chief intellectual asset. Our pairing had always been treated as a given.

But the wind had changed.

After a scavenging team hauled in a massive cache of pre-war supplies, the bunker threw a celebration banquet.

General Briggs, his face flushed with cheap alcohol, raised his glass.

"To honor Silas's ascension as the Father of Awakenings, command has decided to award him the sole Genesis Protocol slot for this year! And the woman chosen to stand by his side is, naturally, our finest Captain Valerie!"

The mess hall erupted into wild cheers.

Silas straightened his posture, wearing the modest, restrained smile of a man who had won the lottery. He humbly lowered his head, casting a longing glance at Valerie before looking at me with an expression of deep, manufactured distress.

"I... I can't accept this. Valerie is Larkin's girl."

He wrung his hands. "How could I steal the woman he loves? That's just completely wrong."

The crowd immediately took the bait.

"Silas, man, the world ended! This isn't the time to be hung up on high school romance! You're being way too selfless!"

"Exactly! For the future of the human race, the strong need to pair with the strong!"

"Larkin is just an assistant now. His genes aren't even in the same league as your God Touch!"

"Larkin should be honored to step aside! This is for the survival of humanity!"

Every eye in the room zeroed in on me, slicing into me like daggers.

Valerie stood up, her expression a perfect mask of cold, noble duty.

She walked over to me and placed a heavy hand on my shoulder, looking down at me with detached pity.

"Larkin, I know this feels incredibly unfair. I hate that it has to be this way."

"But as the Vanguard Captain, I have to put the big picture first. For the continuation of our species, for a stronger next generation, I am willing to sacrifice my personal happiness."

"You're a logical man. I know you understand the burden I have to carry, right?"

Looking at her sickeningly righteous face, I actually had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing out loud.

Sacrifice her happiness?

In my past life, when Silas framed me and broke my bones, this womanwho claimed to love medidn't even flinch. She didn't visit my cell once.

Worse, as my consciousness faded while bleeding out in the dirt, I saw them together. Through the reinforced glass of my own lab, I watched them having sex on my desk while the horde tore me apart.

They had been screwing behind my back long before today.

I brushed her hand off my shoulder and arranged my features into an expression of tragic martyrdom.

"You're right, Valerie. In the face of human extinction, what do my petty feelings matter?"

I turned to Silas, who was still wearing his pathetic, guilty expression.

"Silas, since command believes you two are the optimal match, I yield. I hope you produce the ultimate child for this bunker. Don't let humanity down."

"Larkin..." Silas choked up, looking like he was ready to take a bullet for me. "Thank you! You are a bigger man than I could ever be! Valerie and I will never forget your sacrifice!"

Valerie visibly relaxed, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Don't worry, Larkin. When we have our firstborn, we'll name you the godfather."

The mess hall erupted into a standing ovation.

I retreated to the shadowy corner of the room, sipping a stale glass of water, watching the golden couple soak up their fraudulent glory.

The banquet didn't drag on for much longer. Everyone needed their rest.

Three days later was the day that truly mattered.

It was the day Seraphina, the supreme Leader of our bunker, was scheduled to awaken her S-Class Lightning ability.

Silas had been living like a king for the past three days. He watched me scribbling away in my notebooks, looking completely relaxed. He knew the drill.

As long as I did the homework, he would get the A-plus.

The final day arrived.

At exactly noon, the clouds above the bunker violently churned, mutating into a thick, suffocating canopy of deep purple storm clouds.

Seraphina's Awakening had begun.

Outside the heavy blast doors of the isolation chamber, wild arcs of purple lightning lashed against the reinforced glass.

"Energy outputs are spiking! She's breaching critical mass!" the bio-monitor technician screamed in pure panic.

"We need to initiate the guide protocol immediately, or we are looking at a localized thermonuclear detonation in three minutes!"

General Briggs was sweating bullets. He grabbed Silas by the shoulder.

"Silas, the entire bunker is riding on you. This is an S-Class threshold. Are you absolutely certain you can do this?"

Even faced with apocalyptic, bunker-leveling lightning, Silas maintained his arrogant, serene smile.

He had spent the last three days watching me run calculations until my eyes bled. He was dead certain he could just jack into my brain and read the cheat sheet.

He tipped his chin up proudly.

"Relax, General. S-Class might sound scary, but under my God Touch, all Aether elements bow down. Guiding the Leader will be as easy as breathing."

Valerie gripped her rifle, her eyes shining with absolute devotion.

"Silas, you really are the savior of this world."

Silas turned around and shot me a look of pure, unadulterated condescension.

"Larkin, what are you waiting for? Keep up. Even though I have this in the bag, guiding an S-Class drains a lot of raw stamina. You're on standby. Keep your brain moving fast. Don't lose my rhythm and embarrass me."

Through the thick anti-blast glass, I stared at the woman strapped to the center of the room, howling in agony as raw electricity consumed her body.

In my past life, I bled myself dry to save her, only for Silas to steal the credit and throw me to the wolves.

I lowered my head to hide the dark, predatory gleam in my eyes and obediently followed him inside.

The heavy doors hissed open.

The sheer concussive force of the wild lightning nearly knocked us off our feet.

Seraphina was suspended in the center of the room by heavy grounding chains, wearing a scorched tactical vest. Her eyes were glowing a blinding crimson. She was seconds away from a total meltdown.

Silas walked right up to her, striking a highly professional, heroic pose.

Then, he plunged his mental tendrils straight into my cerebral cortex, desperate for the answer key.

The familiar, invasive tickle washed over my mind.

A split second later, Silas smirked, opened his mouth, and screamed at the top of his lungs:

"SLIDE TO THE LEFT! SLIDE TO THE RIGHT! CRISS-CROSS! EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS!"

The crowd of officials and scientists watching through the glass froze in absolute horror.