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Volume 4
Chapter 21: Northern Trouble
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As ominous as it sounds, the curse that comes along with DNI-Therapy is that it was a double edged sword.
The last words he heard almost made his heart stop.
“If it’s that dangerous…” Rex paused as he realized the truth of the story he heard. In that dream he saw of his mother, fighting against Rogue in Terroa, he felt that there was real pain in fear in her eyes.
She was looking at him wearing those kinds of eyes. A sense of fear and wariness that he only now realized as he focused his thoughts.
Just what actually happened in there?
According to Augustus, Exposition is the part where the patient enters the «Active World» where he must live like a real part of the environment.
In other words, the patient must become active during the Exposition in order to learn that he was in a dream world and thus Trigger in his subconscious that he must wake up… or log out —thus the purpose of the third stage, Extraction. A third party must Trigger the notion that he was in a dream and must log out.
But before that time, as the fact remains that Terroa is not a safe place, knowing that Baron is basically a ‘player’ without the restriction on all NPC that [they must not leave the safety of the city] and can leave any time, or be dragged out by hoodlums like the ones he saw roaming around Xargoal-6, the fear of danger permeated on his mind like a wriggling virus.
He clenched his fists hard that his nails were stabbing his palms. As sweat formed on his hands and forehead, Faust put a hand on Rex’s shoulder to lighten up his darkening mood.
Rex looked up at Augustus and he wore an expression of concern and pain.
“Is there an assurance that if the three stages should be completed, Baron will wake up?”
“Well, logically speaking, you are the assurance.” This line made Rex’s face wring in anguish. “But if you’re doubting yourself then you can always choose to not go with this plan. After all, that’s one reason you are here in the first place. So?”
“No. I will go. But wait a minute, is there any other options left aside from Terroa for the active world in the first stage of the therapy?”
“Sadly, four years ago, if only Pegasus had not tried to kill you, there would have been a separate ‘Ward’ for all coma patients on all Hospitals. But now, the only place the first stage of the DNI-Therapy can be used is Terroa. And based on your circumstances and limited knowledge in that arsenal, we have no choice but to complete the entire therapy in Terroa.”
Rex leaned back to his seat as he paused and stayed in his silent sanctuary for a few seconds.
When he recovered his thoughts, he exhaled hard and chased his breath. “So how do we know where Baron will be once he entered Terroa?”
“So you are ready?”
“Rex! Shouldn’t you think this over first?”
“Uncle, Baron ain’t healthy. He’s only been consuming nutrient dips for the last three months. You know the implications of the prolonged exposure of that fluid in the body.”
Rex bit his lower lip as he clenched his fist, staring at the floor. “—and besides…
“I just can’t breathe freely knowing that Baron’s time is running out with every second. I must do something to speed up his recovery.”
Rex paced a palm on his face as he closed his eyes.
Looking at Rex made Faust’s heart broke. Everything he said is true, time is obviously against them. From medical observations on coma patients starting in the early 20th century, being in a coma longer than four months is just prolonging what is inevitable.
When a body fails to consume proper nutrients for the succeeding weeks after the first four months of coma, the neencephalon, as for not receiving right nutrients, will start deteriorating, leading to the collapse of brain cells that eventually results to brain death.
Faust could not stop Rex at this stage. He knew what the complications of depending on the Nutrient Dip is going to lead a patient.
When Rex raised his head, a stern resolve could be seen. One look at him and Faust realized it.
The look in his eyes came from a man and not just of a 19-year old young adult he once knew as a boy. Bitter experiences molded Rex into the man in front of him.
Faust trusted that Rex knows what he was doing and so he let go of his shoulder and spoke gently.
“You’re right.” He said in defeat nodding with a pat on his assumed nephew’s shoulder.
Rex confirmed his uncle’s support and faced Augustus as he stood from his chair. “Alright. Let’s do it…
“—show me how this is done.”
***********************
In the observation room, technicians and doctors led by Faust began their preparations to the DNI-Therapy.
But if there is something added in their team except from the doctors, then it’s the fact that there is a team of professional hackers seated in a group in the next area, adjacent to the room.
Rex was outside, in the hallway, while the hacker team is in the operations booth beside Baron’s room.
“Do you know why they’re here, Mister Kingsley?”
“I know. But no matter how talented you are in hacking computers, RPG: Terroa operates in a server with an unknown language and its firewall is protected by an Eternity Code. I’ve tried it many times before, I never succeeded even once.”
A smile drew on Augustus’ lips and this made Rex bit his own in regret of his blunder.
“You sure do use the house’s facilities very thoroughly, Mister Kingsley, I wonder how you learned all those skills you have.”
The meaningful smile made Rex bite his lips harder with a sense of scorn. He just gave Augustus one big reason to check and hack the system he put up inside the house. After all, it’s all his own.
It’s a good thing that he made it a habit to erase his history logs and clean the disk everyday. And not to be boasting of his computer talent, even if his computer skills may not be the best, he had learned so much on the times that he challenge Terroa’s Firewall and so he somehow learned how to set up his own feeble version of Terroa’s Eternity Code.
Any hacker not prepared for a brawl would find it hard to infiltrate. Or at least it would give Rex enough time to punch back.
With the next few minutes, a large cylindrical capsule was brought in and Baron was put inside the pod.
After a few tweaks in the machines, and Faust holding Rex off, Baron’s vitals came into the green bars and the NeuroLink Device on his head prompted for activation.
Augustus studied Rex’s expression from behind as he watched Baron breathe normally inside the capsule.
The kid looked fine, even on Rex’s eyes, but they all know that there was something wrong with him and it was Rex’s mission to find out what and purge it.
Seeing Rex staring at the capsule, “It has a life support system,” Augustus chimed an explanation. “that can support Baron’s life for the next 50 years. This is precautionary measure in case you do fail. We will monitor his vitals in the operations booth and once the system detects that his mental integrity is collapsing, the life support will kick in and he will be subjected to chryo-stasis.”
“Chryo? If that happens…”
“We can’t open the capsule for the first 30 years of its activation. And although we can safely assume that we can suspend the mental collapse, by the time he wakes up, and if you are still around by then, you can just use the medical technology of that era for your brother. But before all that, let me make things clear…” Rex looked at him wearing expectations of a ridiculous condition. And just as he had predicted, “Everything is not free.” the words he heard made him reply without a choice.
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“I will not fail.”
Augustus gave him a meaningful smile.
Rex inhaled deep and exhaled loudly as he made his way to the hacker team’s room. He felt weak and so exhausted, so anxious, that it was draining his energy for the day.
Faust brought him a burger and Rex ate it, realizing just then how hungry he was.
There are many concerns he wanted to ask but he felt that for every answer he receives, the more debts he had to pay. He just couldn’t afford to have more debts than he already had now.
“So mister Kingsley,” At the abrupt call, Rex looked at the panel where Augustus’ hand was at. “If you are not ready yet you…”
Rex knew Augustus was just teasing.
How many times have he challenged his resolve today?
It’s as if he was making fun of him with all the repeat of him backing down. It was irritating. So he just put all his attention to his own panel, writing down all the information that he had to put inside. He replied:
“Once he’s inside Terroa, I will make sure to find him while not deliberately forgetting the deal.”
Augustus paused for a moment, “Alright.” and showed a satisfied smile.
Faust was also busy working on the vitals of Baron. He manipulated all the medical panels, arranging the order of the procedures and the amount of medicines that was needed. After a while, he gave a thumbs up at Rex.
“Alright, let’s begin.”
The machine started and the technicians placed their hands on their respective panels.
Images and maps of Terroa that Rex became familiar with was displayed in a big panel in the room and there was the mental vitality of Baron shown on a separate panel on the right side.
Rex watched carefully how it beeped in a steady pace.
“We only have one shot at this so make sure that you will be fast enough to interpret the signals.”
On Augustus’ signal, the hackers nodded.
The air in the room started to become oddly cold yet warm, the tension rising, beads of sweat formed in the faces of the personnel involved.
“Rex, have you finished the setting of his avatar? If you can’t remember it, it will be a problem so it’s important that you memorize how he’s going to look like. As he is still a kid, the other players will mistook him for an NPC so he won’t be attacked or disturbed.”
As Faust relayed his concern, Augustus added.
“The tech team will hack the Avatar Creation Server and give you time to do your part. After which, when he gets transferred to his starting city, assuming he’d be like a zombie there, the tech team will track the last trace of signal and locate him on the map.”
“Understood.”
At that reminder, on Rex’s fingers is an avatar data that he was ready to paste on Baron’s player option at the moment he was logged in.
On their left, in the hallway, Augustus remained firmed and relaxed as a posture of dignity radiated like a large shed of tree.
It helped the technicians in charge of the data reading to relax themselves and so they became silent as they waited on the mark.
What they are going to do is to track the location data of Baron once he is transported to the game sever. As he was expected to be unconscious of the entire process of his avatar creation, the system will announce the use of the external prompt in the avatar creation.
That’s where the hackers will do their job and connect to the whole Avatar Relocation Process. But as it was a process that will collide with the firewall, the window to trace the location signal is a very limited space.
Perhaps not even more than 5 seconds.
But for Rex Kingsley, 5 seconds time is already enough to paste the avatar information and affirm where Baron is going to start as a player.
As he waited for the signal, he stretched his muscles and normalized his own breathing pace. After a few seconds, Augustus’ voice announced:
“Begin.”
The leader of the tech team pressed a button and the red LED light in Baron’s NL-Device became green.
It was the trigger of the [Game Start] voice command.
At the main panel were strains of data and prompts that appeared. Then there was the so called ‘thought train’ that indicated Baron’s mental condition when he entered the Avatar Creation Server.
“Start the reports.” Ordered Augustus.
“Bios activation initiated.”
“Five Senses neural connection confirmed.”
“Signal Integrity at 90% and rising.”
“Game data initiation complete.”
“Entering server boot up sequence. Boot up complete.”
In the once empty black panel were data strands with lengths and speeds that surpassed Faust’s ability to read and interpret. But Rex’s eyes were trying to keep with it and he was sweating as he did so.
The reports kept on coming, Rex was processing them all while dedicating his concentration to also process the information he saw in the black panel.
“Mental image integration stable! Commencing senses in-game rendering… in-game rendering complete!”
With the last report, the data strands in the black panel stopped moving and a blinking prompt at the bottom is waiting for the data processing to complete.
“Now Rex, you only have a few second window. Once the Neural Integrity is confirmed move as fast and as precise as you can.”
“Got it.”
On Faust’s reminder, Rex replied and swiped the beads of sweat on his forehead. He glanced at the person on his lower left and the female technician with eyeglasses and retainer looked at him and nodded.
After that, the two men beside her announced:
[Reading player ID… ID Confirmed!]
[Transferring rendering to Avatar Creation Server…]
Rex’s eyes came back, fixed at the [Thought Train] bar in the window panel. The blinking blue line on the very bottom of the black panel continued on to display the three dots, indicating that its processing data.
The seconds stretched out to be ten times longer. His throat felt dry with the lingering taste of the burger he just ate.
Hands tapping on respective panels continued to move and Rex felt the anxiousness creeping even further up the sleeve of his T-shirt.
The hackers’ faces, including the female’s, bade the same look he might have had when he tried hacking RPG: Terroa’s game server. Even with four of them working together, the opponent they faced still kept his guard up very tight.
With all these is a one shot operation, and its purpose relied on his speed and precision.
And when the tension turned to its peek,
[Firewall breached!]
The leader of the four-man hacker team yelled.
Rex’s eyes moved fast and waited for the prompt of the data of the ‘Thought Train’ to appear empty. The three dots and the blinking input cursor remained and Rex’s pulses was almost at its peak when the [Complete] word appeared in there along with the leader’s voice.
“Transfer Complete!”
And the girl followed.
“Neural Connection Integrity at 99%!]
“Rex!” Faust’s voice yelled.
“I’m on it!”
Rex’s fingers moved.
The sight of the familiar Avatar Creation Server, a blue dim lit empty large dome, came into the video output panel in the wall.
In the panel, the video looked left and right, and a semi-holographic panel appeared in front of Baron in that empty dome. Rex dragged the panel down and he moved quickly to paste the data in his panel into that prompt. After he was finished in a second, he flicked it back to Baron’s side and he yelled happily.
“Success!”
And just then, a voice echoed in the audio speakers.
“Uh…”
Everyone froze on their feet as the data encryption on the panel displayed an unexpected message.
[Player Status: ACTIVE]
“Baron?” Rex’s cracked voice echoed in the silence of the room. Not one soul, including Augustus himself, is able to predict that this might happen.
“Uuh…” It was a voice that seemed he was in pain of a headache. Rex’s pulse increased more.
“Baron?” Rex repeated to ask but there was no reply as the line was cut and the audio signal vanished. His 5 second window had closed. “Baron! Baron!”
Rex called pleadingly to the audio speakers.
The data prompt displayed [Player Status: ACTIVE] but the data strands in the network panel began to move again as it seemed that the creation process had already finished and the player is prompted to choose the location of his starting city.
As it seemed, Rex failed to do the last most important part of the whole avatar creation process, lost to the shock of the sudden events.
“Baron! Wait, wait! What happened?”
“Connection lost.”
In the main window panel, there was the message of a warning. The firewall had seen through them, a second too soon than the predicted 5 second window.
But through it all, Rex screamed.
“Baron is awake! Bring it back! Please! I have to talk to him!” Rex brushed past Faust’s shoulder as he went straight to the main hacker technician. “Please! Let me talk to him!”
“We can’t! The firewall tagged Baron’s IP Address as red warning. Another attempt and the Cardinal System will terminate his connection.”
That news shocked Rex to his core. Eyes wide, he lost his strength that held the technician’s collar.
“But…”
A hand touched Rex’s shoulder from behind. When he turned, Faust sternly, gently, shook his head.
“The fight’s not over yet.” He assured him.
At that, the hacker spoke to Rex, “We can’t touch his avatar now but we can still monitor his data until he totally entered the game server.”
Rex chased his breath.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” he said to his uncle. “We can still locate him when he is transferred in Terroa.”
After that prompt, another report came into the network monitoring panel and the blinking cursor displayed the messages on the black panel screen.
[Avatar Data Registered.]
[Commencing Player Transfer!]
This is it, the last struggle. They only have one shot to record the entire process and after that is the part where their anchor in the avatar will be cut off by the main game server’s firewall.
Data strands appeared on their main window panel and Rex’s eyes did his best to catch up to its speed. All of the programmers had their eyes trained for high speed reading. You don’t have to read the entire line of data strand to know what it was.
One trained programmer, especially a hacker, only need the first three or two things in the data strand and he knew what that data strand is all about instantly.
That said, Rex did his best to follow the thread and when it finally get to the part where Baron should have been fully materialized in the game world…
“Location tracking complete!”
The leader’s voice bid his heart to almost jump out of his chest. Faust’s hand grabbed his shoulder as Rex let go of a long held breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.
“Location?” Augustus’ voice echoed loudly.
The female hacker fixed her glasses and raised his head to his masked employer. “Continent of Tiara, sir. It’s the Walled City of Alexandria.”
“Ow.” As if hurt, Augustus’ voice cracked.
Rex’s eyes was wide open. “Of all places…”
“That’s a long, cold way up, Mister Kingsley.”
Augustus’s voice sounded like he was teasing and Rex couldn’t reply with a scornful look nor a retort as he collapsed on a chair, feeling despair.
One of the hacker, obviously not a player of the game, leaned closer to the female hacker.
“Is that a bad thing?” he murmured.
The female player frowned. “Not only bad, it may even be called punishment or like a ‘karma’-grade trouble.”
“That’s a harsh way to put it? Why is that?”
“Alexandria is an abandoned starting city.” The female hacker fixed her glasses. “Just think of Moscow in the middle of a snow storm and there’s no flight in and out of the city. Because one, it’s in the middle of that large mountainous continent, and two—”
“SHUSH!”
The team leader rebuked the two so the girl put her lips closer to murmur on his ear as if kissing him.
“—it’s the base of the S-rank Criminal Guild, «Spade», famous for their mafia-wide influence in slave trading.”
“Ow.”