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Volume 4
Chapter 20: Fort Of No Return
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Plans, most of the times, doesn’t go well. That’s why there are things called ‘contingency plans’ spoken by all veteran planners.
But such advanced planning just doesn’t have a space in the time table that Siva placed on himself last night.
When he arrived at the library and began to read books, he felt that his time is finally up. He was too busy, too caught up on his pacing that he forgot to maintain a gap for his personal sleep.
He was in the middle of reading his first book when he realized that the drowsy warning icon was blinking on his vision.
“Aw shit. Too soon.”
This is one thing that is hard to fight in this world.
He logged out without much ado but before he did, he made sure that he was in his Volume Hunter equipment settings. Then, he saved all the data in his personal HD, put on some firewall settings, encoded the files, then he leaned back to his bed and fall asleep.
When he woke up, it was already 6 in the morning. He was still able to sleep 4 and a half hours.
He did his stretching, and then lightly massaged his leg, and went down the hall way, making sure that he had enough power for the robotic leg support for the day.
Manang Fe was already there.
“Good morning.” He greeted.
“I received a message that you are going to be heading out. It’s the first ever since you got here so I made you breakfast so that you could rest more.”
For once, Siva was smiling broadly as he felt that this is perhaps the longest time Manang Fe had ever talked to him. The last longest time was a complete sentence, a variant of her usual nod and “hmp.”
“Thank you Manang Fe.”
“Hmp. I still don’t understand why you spend so much time in that game of yours.”
This is the part he hated in the mornings. No matter how much he tries to tell her, she wouldn’t understand it because she wasn’t even willing to listen.
Rex ate his breakfast in time that Graham arrived.
One glance to his clothes, Graham cleared his throat and looked at his wrist watch.
“I was early from the appointed time of picking you up but I am surprised you’re far more early than I. Well, I will give you an additional 20 minutes to change into something cooler and comfortable.”
“Is this not enough?” Rex gestured to his clothes. He already took a bath and changed into something warm.
“The place we’re going to is a lot more… warmer. You don’t want to sweat in a place where there are doctors and patients nearby.”
Rex took the warning at heart and changed in the way that was suggested to him. When they were ready, he made sure he locked up the system and placed a tight security wall on the network drive.
He also took a copy of his personal files and made sure to check the forums and sites he regularly visits before he went out.
Feeling the cement on his soles felt alien to him now that he was used with the cold tiles of the townhouse.
“Go in. You don’t want to be late, do you?”
Urged with a little rebuke, Rex entered the car and bid a glance to Mathew’s window. He saw Anna in their garage door and Matthew on the window on the second floor.
He just gave them a little courtly nod and stern-faced entered the limo.
The car darted off, Rex was sweating.
When he saw that Graham was looking at him in the rear view mirror of the driver’s seat, Rex relaxed on his seat and just stared outside.
It felt like a very long travel. As they were in the city in the southern area of Luzon, the place they were headed to was in the northern part of the big island. The Fort of Magsaysay is a Military Camp. To be exact, it is a very big place for the Philippine Army because the General Headquarters are located here.
The limo went straight in without hassle. The guard on duty only needed to look at the tinted glass and he gave Graham a nod as the blockade parted.
As much as Rex wondered why it wasn’t stopped right at the gates for being a civilian vehicle, the answer to this question dawned on him when they reached the Hospital premises.
In the main entrance was his uncle Faust with Augustus Laniary in his distinctive white tux and two big guards front and back.
The limo parked and Siva stretched inside the limo before stepping out.
“Mister Kingsley.” Greeted Augustus. “Been a while.”
“We just saw each other not long ago but you sounded as if it’s really been that long.”
Augustus’ smile was cold and the two big men on his guarded sides cleared their throats and glared at him.
But Rex was surprised at himself as he felt no sense of intimidation on the pressure that they exerted. In fact, it even felt light. So light that he tilted himself at them in pure puzzlement, not seeing the wide smile that drew off Augustus’ face.
“Rex! My god, you look… er, okay. Plain might be the right word to describe you. You look fine.”
“Good to see you too, uncle.”
“Sigh, I’m so glad you’re alright.”
Faust ran up to him and he was hugged like a father to his son. Rex was so surprised by the act that he stayed stiff as he was carried up and down by Faust.
When they parted, “Uncle, I don’t want to waste time telling you what—” his eyes glanced at Augustus, “—I have been up to. I just want to see Baron now.”
They both looked at Augustus and the man pointed at the direction of the hospital. Taking that as a prompt, Rex and Faust went inside not seeing the broad smiled Augustus following Rex’s back with a sharp stare.
In the observation room, filled with machines and light cables attached to Baron with masks, tubes, and even electrode lines, Rex’s eyes watered in delight as he grit his teeth to control his sob.
Baron’s chest was steadily going up and down, the nutrient dip beside him was full, his vital signs in the holo-panel display showed normal bars. He was alive, but he looks very weak.
Rex looked at Faust. “Uncle, it’s been three months.”
Faust shook his and wore a sad expression. “We tried every available therapy and procedures in our disposal but nothing seemed to work. No reaction whatsoever in almost 17 programs.” The last prompt made them look at Baron and Rex leaned his forehead on the glass.
One hand spread on the glass window, while the other is clenched hard on his side.
Rex felt miserable, unwontedly sober, unwontedly cold and weak, powerless, as he can’t do anything to help his brother. The sight of him in that bed is breaking his heart that he even forgot the pangs of hunger dulling his senses.
The creeping anxious thoughts on his mind made him sweat, the tears flowing on his cheeks tasted bitter and acidic yet strangely familiar and alien to him at the same time.
Just how many times have he ever cried over this sight in the world of Terroa?
At nights when the cold can’t freeze his frigid sadness, the times when he saw a family of NPC playing in the city and in the park. The reason why he chose to never come in the cities except when needed, the reason why he always hunted when others rested, the reason why he is in the process of breaking apart… he reason why he kept on moving forward through the hardships…
When he imagine Baron in this condition, breathing on the other side of the window, yet dead to any kinds of call, Rex’s heart clenches as he felt so weak.
Powerless to do anything. Bound to the fact that Baron is mentally dead but physically alive.
“Mister Kingsley.” Rex’s eyes wandered on his left and he saw there the dignified posture of the man in white tux in front of an open door. “You didn’t only come here to see him.”
Remembering the conversation he and Faust had last night, Rex picked himself up and walked towards the open door labeled in the side as Conference Room.
It was a room used by the doctors on certain occasions such as Emergency Meetings or Operational Procedure on a patient before a major operation and such. The cold feel of the floor carpet and the leather of the seats permeated like dry dust to Rex.
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Like that time when he was in Buendia Valley, like the thick feeling of built up anxieties in him finally taking its crude form as cold, uneasy beads of sweats.
“Sit down.” Augustus prompted and the guards behind and in front of him followed to take their posts. “What we’re going to talk about right now is an important matter concerning your brother, Mister Kingsley.”
The memory of the things Faust told him last night had surfaced in Rex’s thoughts.
He recalled a distant memory, a fleeting image of his mother facing Rogue, then him falling in a burning battlefield, and finally there’s that weird dream about The Destroyer in his hotel room.
The thought of the DNI Therapy had triggered all these insignificant dreams and illusions to come back to him.
Even though he already know what Augustus is about to tell him, he still struggled to feign his ignorance. He dearly wished that he had a mask at this very moment for the intimidating effect of The Destroyer could help in cancelling the oppressive feeling of Augustus’ eyes behind his white mask.
“Doctor Faust, I want you to know, and confirm right now, that Mister Kingsley here is working under me in effect of a certain agreement.”
“Agreement?”
“Yes. An agreement. At which a certain part in that agreement has been deliberately defied by an event he perpetrated with an unknown reason and just happens to be broadcasted on International TV just last night.”
As the alleged uncle and nephew glanced at each other, for they already know and was just feigning ignorance, the expression displayed on Faust was true enough to cause Augustus to smile.
“Uncle, I am inside RPG: Terroa, acting as a Treasure Hunter under him.” Rex then looked at the man in tux and clenched his fist on his lap. “And do allow me to correct that last part. It wasn’t something I did on purpose. I had a dream at the time and woke up agitated, that’s all that ever happened in Loire.”
At the mention of the word, a genuine look of surprise drew on Faust’s expression.
“Loire?” And he looked at Augustus. “Are you talking about The Destroyer? That chaos last night?” he looked at Rex, “You did that?”
Rex, as he hadn’t told Faust about the name of his avatar in Terroa and about that part of the deal with Augustus yet, slumped back on the seat.
But is there a reason to hide it now?
“That was… an accident. Like I said, it was because of a dream I had that—”
“Wait.” Faust pulled Rex’s arm rest to face him.
Both Faust’s and Augustus expressions became serious when they seemed to have heard something from Rex that is worth of concern.
“You dreamed?” Faust asked while Augustus placed a serious stare at Rex. “—while inside Terroa?”
“Y-Yes…? Why?”
Faust bit his lower lip and leaned left on his seat as he spent a second to look at Augustus before he began to explain his concern.
“Rex, how long have this been happening? No, how many times have you actually dreamed inside Terroa?”
His eyes wandered from Faust to Augustus, twice, before he settled to stare at his clenched fists on his lap.
“Twice… no trice… maybe even more. I don’t really remember it well. It’s just that these last two dreams are the most vivid of them all.”
“Fascinating.”
“…”
While Augustus let out his amazement, Faust remained silent wearing his frown.
“Uncle?”
“This is abnormal. There is a safety mechanism inside all commercial NL-Drive’s Intracranial Sensors that’ll manually detach the user’s consciousness from the game when it sensed that the user is about to enter deep sleep. It’s the safety device that your father insisted to be part of that invention no matter what.”
“But isn’t that something that can be manually turned on and off? I’ve read posts in the internet about it.”
“Dreaming is a lot different than just sleeping in the game while still online. Because dreaming is already a subconscious action of the brain. When the sleep is in the deeper state, the safety device will trigger. It’s a lot different, Rex. Because when you are…”
At this part, Faust stopped his explanation as he snap to look glare at Augustus.
“Oh?” He just smiled at him, seemingly fascinated.
“You! Did you…” But before he could actually do any sort of action he might regret, Rex’s hand was already on him, although only lightly.
“I don’t get it but, uncle, why is dreaming inside the game seem to sound dangerous?” Rex insisted on a reply.
“Indeed, it is dangerous.” The one who answered that question was Augustus. “If the player dreams inside the game, all of the things that happens in the game becomes imprinted on his subconsciousness, becoming part of his personality and even, perhaps, change the player’s individuality for good. Although it’s just me talking theoretically.”
Theoretically? Rex thought not believing a little bit that Augustus is telling it, ‘theoretically’. At least he looked like he already knew that it’s true.
Rex knew better than to trust Augustus.
In his mind was doubts that Augustus did something on him or had ‘something’ on the things that he just said.
“Throughout history,” Faust continued, placing his eyes on Rex’s expression, studying it. “There is only one recorded, but not proven, case of this phenomenon as it was a secret that the International Security Council had agreed to not publish in the world.”
“Uncle, who is this person? Why do you know this?”
Rex’s expression began to show worry.
“Hoo… this is surprising.” Augustus’ audible murmur made Rex shiver. He had a sudden premonition of the next set of words he’s going to hear.
“That case is you, Rex.”
The shock made him stutter. “No, I don’t… I…”
“Four years ago, you’re in Lausanne, Switzerland with your parents to attend an experiment in honor of the first successful integration of the Terran Universe and the NL-Device. That experiment is Mefisto Program Extraction Experiment, the supposed second phase of Project Salvation, led by the creator of the world you are currently playing.”
“Alfred Pegasus.” Rex nodded, looking for signs of understanding. “But it’s both a rumor and unknown fact that it may have actually been another person.”
“Yes. The experiment was going smoothly as planned when his daughter tried to stop the program’s initiation and barged in, running amuck. The incident had injured five people, including you. His daughter was arrested yet the incident wasn’t announced in the world. You hit your head hard and you were in a coma for a whole week before your parents decided to use DNI-Therapy on you.”
“I don’t remember any of this!”
Augustus just calmly, silently watched over them.
“I can’t believe this.” Faust sighed. “You don’t even know that Alfred Pegasus tried to stop your recovery and said that it was not part of the agreement. But the authority of the Panorama Corp and the delegates of the UNICORN present at the time had voted to save your life so he was overruled. In his anger, as his Mefisto Extraction Experiment was nearing its final stage and cannot be stopped, he tried to jeopardize your recovery but failed because of reasons I don’t know.”
With an illusion of a snowstorm banging an illusionary window in the wall of the dim room, all existences on Rex’s immediate surroundings vanished as he tried to imagine the incident.
“After a month, I heard this news from your parents and you came home with normal vitals. It was the third month after your return that you regained your usual self and the rest is history.”
The long story made Rex chase for air silently on his chair. He felt his heart about to pound out of his chest.
“I can’t remember any of it. I was already in my High School years by the time and yet I can’t remember it.”
When he raised his head, he saw Augustus wearing a serious expression that had an impression as if it was an entertaining sight to behold.
And yet although it seemed that way, there was neither a smile nor a smirk on his lips.
He just remained there fixedly staring at Rex.
“You know this?” Rex asked him.
“The exact same details that you heard from Faust is all the things I know too. If there is something that I must add though, or emphasize at that, then it is the fact that Alfred Pegasus tried to kill you. But that all happened after you woke up.”
Rex stared at Faust and the correction fits. He tried to jeopardize the entire recovery period and then tried to kill him after he recovered and woke up.
But something(s) still bothers Rex greatly.
“Aside from the things that I can’t remember, there is also something about that story that I found a little off.”
Faust frowned, “What is it?” as Augustus smiled his iconic smile of curiosity in an entertaining event.
“I dreamed once in the game… about mother. She was in Terroa and she was fighting in a war…”
Like a cold water, the words bade the room to freeze in the heavy feeling of seriousness coming from Augustus that even his own men exchanged looks.
It was enough prompt for them to go to the topic of the visit to this facility.
“And that’s the reason why you‘re here.” He prompted seriously. “Do you understand the gravity of your very situation right now, Rex Kingsley?”
Rex, feeling the familiar, and now even soothing feel of being bathed in this intense glare, faced him.
“So why is my mother in Terroa?”
Faust was left in the dark here and he himself was also looking forward to the reason why Rex was called in here except for the fact the Augustus needed to tell him about their plan to use DNI-Therapy on Baron.
“Might as well you know the risks, Rex Kingsley, so I will tell you. But be warned, I will not budge in our agreement and the things you will hear will only add to the weights that can drag you down. Are you prepared to carry yours and your brother’s world together?”
Rex remained stolid. “ I am.”
And Augustus smiled in utter delight because of the coldness on Rex’s gaze.
It was the look of resolve, the same look and the same unfaltering glare he received when he agreed to play the game he set up for him.
Like the lions of the safari with their bare fangs, sharp and ever so deadly, ready to sink in on your skin at any moment and the only thing that’s stopping him is the fact that you hold a dagger on his cub, and his breath in the cold night making a white mist, and you can feel it touching your skin, damping it, painting it with a chill of murderous savagery, waiting to be unleashed at the slightest of opening, the kind of chill that fills your eyes with his blinding golden yellow fur, and the only thing that runs in your mind is the fact you and him are staring eye to eye.
The feeling Augustus got in those eyes were those of a warrior who went out in a war and came back a hero.
—No.
He’s no hero. He’s the result, and the coming result, of a failed experiment hundreds of thousands of years in the making. An experiment that was meant to change the course of history, that was meant to dictate the new path of human evolution, but miserably failed.
It was just a piece of paper he picked up in the remains of that ruined laboratory in the far west, but now, that failed experiment’s result is glaring at him, waiting bravely and ready for him to put the thorny chains of a burning weight on his limbs and shoulders.
It was the kind courage you cannot achieve in training nor in any experiences alone. It was the kind of courage that you gain by fighting with your life on the line over and over, and over again.
And with that thought, he secretly mocked the owner of that piece of paper.
—Pegasus, if your Mefisto Program had succeeded at the time, I wouldn’t have met The Destroyer in flesh.
Augustus thought, all that trouble to shape this monster is almost complete. A little more push. A little more of that juice to ignite the flame on his heart to explode.
—I want to see it! I want to see it so badly!
That’s the meaning of the smile Augustus gave Rex when he said, “I’m not sure about the reason but,” Rex bore himself to listen.
“Perhaps the reason you saw your mother in Terroa is because she went inside to get you to wake up on your own. DNI-Therapy required three things to work. The first is Exposition. The patient needs an active world where he can use his mind and recover everything he had lost by himself. Second, The Trigger, the patient must experience agitation to trigger the thought on his subconsciousness that everything around him is just a dream. And the third, and the most important, is the Extraction. In case the patient fails to fully grasp the last important part of the second phase, a third party will act as The Trigger so the patient will be logged out of the Exposition. According to your dream, that’s what happened to you when you were in a coma. And perhaps what happened to you is that you were in so deep that you had to be pulled out of there manually. So, do you have any questions?”
“Two.”
“Go ahead.”
“What happens if the Exposition fails or don’t happen immediately after he was sent there?”
“Then you will have to go there and carry him as your personal cross, do you understand? If that happens, you will have to forcefully initiate all the three stages on him manualy. So what is the second question?”
At that prompt, Rex tried to calm his breathing as his heart was pounding hard on his chest. He gulped to dry his throat as he looked at Faust to find strength on the fear of the next question’s truth.
“What happens if monsters attacked Baron?”
Augustus wasn’t smiling when he told Rex, “If he dies while in the Exposition Stage, his mental integrity will collapse and he won‘t wake up, perhaps it can even be forever. Worse, if Baron should die while Exposition haven’t even started yet, then pray—”
Rex held his breath without knowing.
“—pray that you die first before that happens.”