Was Iker's mind being hacked?

Iker understood he was in a situation that some spies or hackers will find themselves in; being given as little information as possible for a greater cause. Getting captured or hacked while having all the answers could spell defeat for beingkind. Iker must be up against an entity that could rewrite magic systems.

Indeed, it was impressive to have enough ki, jutsus, or have one iconic punch that could destroy multiple multiverses, but how does one fight an entity that could recode their forces into useless dark matter? Whatever Iker was facing could turn an energy wave composed of magic or a nuclear warhead into a harmless petal storm.

Data became more valuable than attaining power that could not be scaled, and it was apparent that Iker had to remain mostly ignorant for a universal reason. He logically understood this... but the constant confusion was wearing down his determination.

However, Iker was not being hacked per say. What Iker saw in front of him was not Bolsa Mágica.

While he searched for the nazi supersoldiers that hid themselves among the screaming night crowd on the playground... the one Camilo was lost in with a shattered mind... another landscape splashed into Iker's vision without abandon.

A cosmic stadium.

A stadium reminiscent to where the devil and the lord of dreams fought.

Have you taken your medication today Iker? a voice in the sky asked.

Esper shenanigans.

Iker searched the folds of reality as if all the simulations were processes on a computer.

Were they?

He found his carbon body after dancing through many simulations and fused his mind with it.

As Iker returned to reality, his brain pinged the status of his drones, and the modified skeletal drones carrying Prunus Tantulum branches 420 to 439 have completed their logic gate arrangements.

pettypapi: 1 platoon didn't get the marijuana in your simulation. you're good. it's not what they are looking for. they weren't the droids they were looking for lol

Iker got a reply... from his future self? A different self?

Did I not sacrifice all other versions of myself? Iker asked. And making that reference makes no fucking sense.

As Iker waited for time to progress again as the crowd stood still, fell frozen in midair, and were about to stomp more floor-bound beings to death, a memory of him cloning himself loaded.

Details were frustratingly fuzzy.

A long time ago Iker found a bug in the Felix's magic restriction that allowed him to have more than one conscious mind across the omniverse, and he exploited it at some point. The god behind it would not be happy to find out about it... but Iker knew how to play stupid.

Who was it anyway?

The crowd was back in a frenzied motion, however, a new foe had appeared.

"Me the best. Me numbah one!"

Iker was not going to turn around in time to block the blistering rainbow beam that came from the nightclub roof across the street. Kars had to be in Anigami form to perform it; his carbon horse body was vulnerable. With that information, Iker came up with a plan.

Pager must be trying to go inside my mind somewhere. He just wanted to keep me in place.

As white light swallowed Iker's turning vision, he caught flashes of the Fornian entertainment platform in utter mayhem, and glimpses of his friends Bastian and Fatima blocking the beam in Kaya form. They thrusted their carbon hands now bonded with influx to deflect the force of the beam.

"I can kill Pegasus from here," Iker said to Bastian and Fatima. Indeed, he was already prompting Hughmungus to go as high as a condo's top floor above Kars the Pegasus.

Stolen novel; please report.

The drone Que Va was on its way as well—a drone even more skeletal than the Prunus Tantalum drones—and its fine ass blade could put the word fine in finessing. The story behind its name was quite humorous, yet also quite dark. The human eye had a hard time spotting the drone while it terminated biological processes. Someone that spoke Spanish could figure out how it earned its nickname without being told the story. Unspoken.

If there was anyone that Iker would kill without losing any sleep, it would be white nationalists. He did not hesitate summoning Que Va today. The boy who almost got a boner from holding hands with another boy was more American than the past generations of all conservatives combined.

"You two need to find the new cadets," Iker instructed Bastian and Fatima.

"No need to."

Skinheads Cadet Rhodes and Hans landed sucker kicks on Bastian and Fatima. Iker spotted them and would have blocked their blows if Corporal Pager did not have something else in mind for the boy.

Literally.

The landscape changed once more, and this session of the simulation was not as easy to terminate.

Iker was now locked into the hollow stadium with a boy not much older than him. It seemed like the crowd running in a frenzy should instead be in the polished marble stadium that ignored space and time, but their screams were simmering down.

Corporal Pager, one of Iker's oldest hacker rivals. A rivalry that began on seedy earthplexus forums. Political trolling campaigns that influenced national algorithms with both Pager and Iker being on opposite sides. However, the computers would be their own minds instead of influx leylines in this divine stadium.

Even though Iker's own allies were leaving him in the dark, there were two things Iker could be sure of from the knowledge he gathered. One, Pager was not trying to read, steal, or delete a memory of his, or else they would be in Bolsa Mágica. Also neither Pager or an announcer NPC was explaining the rules, and usually not explaining a simulation's rules made its power weaker.

The jet black haired boy sat on the arena floor with his back turned to Iker. His shirt probably had an overused basement dwelling emoji on the front. Whatever Pager's mind was up to that made him conjure his baleful grin and bluish glare, it was going to be subtle. Something along the lines of a tiny little illusion of an open magical red eye instead of a closed one.

Pager was the kind of pathetic white boy to identify with a joking clown unironically, and he let out a chuckle as he met glares with Iker.

The two boys were always eager to kill each other.

"Where is the pendulum blade?" Pager asked, forcing his voice to be deeper than it actually was.

"Pandemonium bae?" Iker asked. "Sorry, I don't know where a pandemonium bae would be. I somehow managed to be more even more of an incel than you. That's an awesome nickname for an ex though."

Pager frowned and turned his whole body to sit facing Iker. The boy with drones and a prosthetic arm was quite worried about Camilo, but it could spell death for Iker to show weakness.

I already upset him? That was easy, Iker thought as he turned to face him as well.

"There is no need to play stupid with me," Pager said. "I am probably the only one on this side that has never underestimated you."

Iker could not remember the pendulum blade that sometimes spawned in Bolsa Mágica, so he truly had no idea what Pager was talking about. Iker also suspected Pager had overestimated him instead. He speculated that the reason Pager tried to cast the hallucinatory illusion for the second time... was to save Kars. There was no other explanation; Pager would have moved on to another strategy if he was not aware that Kars was in immediate danger.

Pager must have placed the following condition on the reality marble he was using:

I cannot send sound messages or thought messages during x period of time before and after casting this reality marble.

Pager did not expect to need to communicate with his allies with whatever silly strategy he was trying to use on Iker.

For Pager to cast a reality marble without touching or being close to Iker... it would require many steep conditions. Not having to explain what the reality marble did would require even more conditions.

It was becoming apparent to Iker that Pager only recently received this ability from InfluxGPT, and Pager had no idea how to use it effectively.

Dumbass.

Even though he was worried about Camilo, Iker's mental composure now resembled his outward one. Whatever Pager was up to was to save Kars, but how was he going to do it in this reality marble? In this simulation?

"RNGesus, 420, Hughmungus, nice memes bruh," Pager said insipidly.

Iker cringed, but simulations began to blend.

As what seemed to be a hologram of the sky above Kars manifested, Hughmungus was flickering out of existence. The hologram slowly transitioned to an online earthplexus page that showed the 21st century meme.

"Are you sure those drones are real Iker?" Pager asked.

Iker, are you sure you saw talking animals in the attic? a voice asked. What did you really see?

It seemed Pager was beginning to learn the dangerous esper ability to swap simulation assets, and one of the conditions seemed to be on Iker believing it.

However, his insipid attempt had no effect on Iker. He was not a shounen protagonist so he was not going to sit around and explain to the right winger with a tiny little mind why his ability was shit tier. People like Pager were too busy trying to destroy the world while Iker had Bastian and Fatima to take care of. Iker had actual family values, Pager only advocated for a nuclear family he will never have.

As Iker refused to believed that his dream was just a meme, the stadium disintegrated, and he was back on the playground under the moon.

ez

Maybe Iker did not have to know anything intricate about Anagami form... no one was using it to its full potential anyway. Might as well be lolanagami. Iker was not a conservative; he was comfortable admitting he did not know about something.

And on the topic of lolanagami, Iker did scan around the chaos to make sure freefalling Hughmungus finished the job. Past the crowds and the fight Bastian and Fatima were entangled in, all that remained from the self-hating horse on the roof was brain bits.