AN: Hi, it's been a while
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After 2 months, Lien Qui's mother, Khunying, resumed her work in the clothes shop. Thus, Lien Qui was taken care of by one of their neighbors. Diana King was a 30 years old housewife with a 8 year old daughter named Sophia. The husband and father, Daniel, was an attorney. They lived on the same floor, and they were aquitances of his parents.
Since Diana was a housewife and already had experience taking care of a child, and since they all lived at the same place, she readily proposed Lien Qui's parents to take care of him instead of having them look for someone else. She didn't mind at all since Lien Qui was a calm baby that only cried when hungry or dirty. It was also entertaining because he seemed to be very curious and receptif as well.
Lien Qui had to act his part as a baby. He couldn't move much, so the only way for him to learn anything or distract himself was to show some interest for anything. And he wanted to do so without tiring his caretaker. Show some spirit for something, then be calm and focused. And smile and laugh. It scored some points.
However, Lien Qui didn't get to learn anything noteworthy for his future projects. He did learn some interesting things about his parents and his neighbors. Diane and him had something in common. They liked action. Diane always watched channels about action movies and extrem sports. She looked normal, but the truth was that she was kinda hotblooded.
Lien Qui though that maybe he could use her later for some logistic job. He though that maybe he could use her husband through her. For an attorney, he was a surprisingly good man. Something that seemed to be rare in the Terran Confederacy according to him. The books “Liberty's crusade” and “Speed of Darkness” didn't give him a positive picture of the Confederacy.
Because of that, Lien Qui didn't trust half of what was said in the news. And that irritated him even more because he couldn't use the internet to make his own research. And even then, he was anxious about it because back in his previous life there was already a lot of misinformation. He was grateful to the fact that the really interesting informations would be well protected, but he would still have to search a lot.
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Lien Qui spent a lot of time doing some physical exercise. He knew babies bodies were weak, so he went easy on his training. Usually, babies make their 1st steps between 9 and 12 months, and they are able to walk well around 14-15 months old. Lien Qui made his first step at 9, but could walk well enough on his first birthday.
His first step was as big an event for him than it was for his parents. So bg in fact that he cried from happiness. His parents went from happy, to worried when they saw their child crying, to shocked when they realised that he was both laughing and crying. They had never heard of any 9 month old baby litteraly crying from happiness. Even though they were happy for their son, that scared them a little.
When Diana heard about it she burst out laughing and gave him a big hug. She had noticed that he was quite activ for a baby, so she joked, saying that Lien Qui was probably frustrated from staying on the ground while everyone around him were moving on their 2 feet. It wasn't far from the truth. Shortly after starting to walk, he also started to talk, to the great joy of his parents.Though he held back a lot, at 1 year old he could talk much better than any kid his age.
With mobility and speech, Lien Qui Nash felt a great sense of freedom and accomplishement. He had spent already too much time restrained. But poor Lien Qui had only crossed the 1st hurddle.
He had enjoyed being taken care of by Diana. But with him reaching 1 year old, it was time for him to go to the preschool. He would have to play baby with other babies everyday for a while. Being surrounded by babies made him shudder in fright. He had dealt with babies before because of family members or friends of parents getting kids. He knew they could be quite annoying, and he was going to be thrown in the middle of a bunch of them.
He was thinking that after preschool, there would be kindergarten, and then primary school, then secondary school. Thinking about all the time he would have to spent surrounded by idiot, ignorant, immature and naïve kids, Lien Qui almost burst out crying. After his first day at preschool, he did cry at night in his bed. He was thoroughly depressed.
One of the things that kept him from going mad was the television. It was possible to select some programs to watch aside from the regular ones. Despite having a young and tender body, Lien Qui would sometimes sneak out of bed at night and watch some of those on-demand programs. Mostly documentaries about space, about the Terran Confederacy territory, about physics, engineering, vehicles and weapons. And also some about babies and kids, to know what he shouldn't show yet.
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He was thankfull that, unlike a web navigator, there was no history for the on-demand programms. They were part of the package, so no additional fee. But he only did it when he was certain his parents were very tired from their day at work. He didn't want them to wake up at night thirsty, and see him in the living room watching something too advanced for his age. In fact, he would even pester them a little to make them more tired, though it also made him more tired as well. Due to that, he started to become one of those people that are bad with mornings.
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At the age of 3, Lien Qui started to read. It was around a year earlier than the average, but it was still acceptable. He could be considered very talented, but not on the level of geniuses, though his parents, as well as Diana, started to see him as a genius. To that, Lien Qui didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. He just hoped his parents wouldn't think of sending him in a place for genius kids, as it would put him under the observation of the Confederacy.
Thankfully, Daniel was there to warn against that kind of idea before it could start to sprout in the mind of his parents. As an attorney, he had access to informations most people couldn't, through contacts with people having a job related with law. Those kind of people would have gotten words about not so good activities from some people, including Confederacy dogs.
Of course, people were smart enough to keep those kind of rumors from spreading to much. The fear of retribution from the Confederacy wasn't weak. Thanks to that, Lien Qui started to calm down. He could see an ally in Daniel.
At 4 years old, Lien Qui started to show interest to computers, so little by little, his parents would show him how they worked. Personal computer were now pads, though laptop still existed. However, they were high performance computers, the kind you wouldn't use in a household, but in a technological workplace.
Slowly, in secret, Lien Qui explored the capabilities of the computers. Using his own knowledge about programing, as well as what he could find on the web, he reviewed and improved what he could do. Sophia, Diana and Daniel daughter, was 12. For her birthday, she got her own computer. Whenever he could, Lien Qui would use it to train and gather informations.
He had created a personal space on the web where he could store documents and informations. He could access them from anywhere. He also used it to train his proramming and hacking skills. When he reached 5 years old, Lien Qui realised that he could start with the serious work. Every new things he learned was easily assimilated. Lien Qui attributed it to his young brain.
He had acquired serious programming skills, and it wasn't all. His knowledge and understanding of science and technology had reached a level incomparable to that of his previous life, which was barely common knowledge. Finally, he had more creativity than most people in the Terran Confederacy. In hs previous life, he had read or watched many things in science fiction or fantasy.
Usually, people wouldn't care to much about it, just thinking that there were some entertaining ideas. But for someone who had been reincarnated in the universe of a video game, the world “impossible” was losing a lot of weight. His thinking wouldn't be as limited as the other.
But to do more, he needed his own computer. Using his parent's or Sophia's had too many limitations. And if he asked his parents to get him one, they would undoubtly keep a good eye on what he was doing. Revealing his skills wouldn't be a good idea at that age. He needed to obtain one without the other knowing about it.
He couldn't buy one because he didn't have any money. He could try to make one, but he would still needs the parts. He would need to buy them. And people wouldn't sell those things to such a young kid. He needed someone above 10 to12 years old. He didn't know if he could trust Sophia enough to reveal his intelligence to her, he was worried she would let something slip.
Waiting 2 more years was also an option, but not one Lien Qui would take. Being so restricted in his actions was very irritating to him. He needed to remain active, to use his abilities and improve them. He didn't want to spend all his time acting like a kid, it was beyond him. He wasn't like his lost friend, who could spend a lot of time doing calm things like reading or relax.
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AN: See ya