Alex looked ahead without a fixed point, in front of him was a man dressed in a two-piece brown suit with a purple tie, his lips moved in slow motion, to his left a police officer and a detective looked at him with the safety off their guns and their hands ready to draw them.

The dark wooden desk in front of him was the only physical barrier between himself and the man who exuded poison from his pores, the last 2 minutes of his diatribe had been with a sardonic smile on his face, clearly unable to control his own happiness with recent developments.

The desk had clear signs of bruises, coffee stains, and he clearly expected to be wrong about other substances indicating the improper use of the property, the portraits of the previous deans looked at him with disdain and utter ridicule, or at least that's how he felt, all the pressure of his environment had made the room infinitely narrower for his senses.

His breathing was unstable, if he wanted to be honest with himself, he was hyperventilating, the ringing in his ears slowly faded as the raspy voice like two bags rubbing against each other slowly reached his ears and the lips of Dean Ford moved back at normal speed.

"Alexander, are you even listening to me? Where is your father, it's a simple question, answer the detective, you're not in a good situation and I'm doing everything possible here for your own good." Alex thought to himself that the only thing the human scum in front of him was doing was further provoking the detective behind him. Alex tried to redirect his mind back to the current situation he was in, today had been a normal day he believed...

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He had woken up as he did every day, hours before his classes. He checked updates on WTO (The World Tree Online) in particular the opening date of the servers, after the 2 months of the beta. "In 5 more days," he thought to himself. He did his morning exercises in his room, took a shower, made breakfast for his family with an extra sweet for his sister on the toast, coffee with milk for his mother and a bitter espresso for his father.

He kissed his mother and sister before leaving the house and getting in the car with his father. "Four Seasons Academy," he said as he entered. "Destination set, estimated arrival time, 20 minutes." The robotic female voice, too much like his mother's voice, came from the autopilot and the car rose and joined the throngs of cars on the air highways. "Alex, you're getting a bit old to have to kiss your mother and sister every time you leave, you know," his father said with his playful, teasing tone that he often used with him. "You're a bit young still, Dad, to be an old grump, you know," he replied, with his own sarcastic, rhythmic tone, imitating his grandfather. Between laughter, teasing, and loud music as part of some father-son ritual, Alex had arrived at his academy where he was in his last year of high school. In reality, with his perfect grades, he could have graduated 2 months ago.

But his mother insisted that "High school life is only lived once" and without further reasoning, she had forbidden him to graduate early. Of course, his father had decided to abandon him on the battlefield in front of the Raid Boss that was his mother when she was stubborn about something.

Alex headed to his classroom, the classroom sign read S-0, where of course, no one had arrived yet, with 20 minutes to go, no one would be eager to enter this classroom, let alone 3 days before graduation and that included his teacher. Without waiting for his teacher, he headed to his Cosen Box (Cognitive and Sensory Immersion Box). He cleaned it exhaustively. No matter how many times they told him it wasn't necessary, as the cleaning robots directed by the caretaker did the work, he wouldn't enter a public Cosen Box without cleaning it. His studies on the myriad of things the human body exuded just by existing had made it very clear to him that he didn't want to touch anything that came from another person as much as possible. The only exception to this rule so far had been his family.

The Cosen Box looked more like a giant shoe than anything else, or some kind of combat spaceship cabin according to your imagination, with nano plastic fibers forming its bottom. People normally believed that a series of symbols and reliefs on the bottom were merely aesthetic.

But Alex knew from his time watching his father work, that in reality those symbols were extremely sensitive sensors, the translucent glass served as a cover and monitor on top, and after cleaning the interior of some material that pretended to be leather with a bed shape, he entered.

The lights inside the Cosen Box dimmed, the glass became opaque leaving him in a semi-dark environment while a dark blue holographic screen appeared in front of his eyes on the glass that faded to a gray as opaque as black.

> "Starting internal system of Four seasons academy..." The white text message on a black background was gradually displayed in front of his eyes.

>

> "Identifying user... Alexander Lightning... configuring calibration, sensory and cognitive calibration completed, initializing study program."

A weak gray light quickly turned into an absolute white before, after blinking, Alex found himself inside a room similar to a study or library, an ebony desk in the center of the room crowned a scene of luxurious tranquility with a huge circular library around it, the half-moon-shaped shelves made of dark oak that had on their top engraved silver the subjects or categories that were stored in them.

The overall image from an overhead perspective would be that of a huge circular labyrinthine dungeon, whose walls were composed of shelves and its center was the desk in the middle of the room.

> Current Simulation: Study Simulation Speed: 1 (Change immersion speed? Yes/No)

After pressing [Yes], Alex accelerated the simulation's speed and immersion to the maximum allowed by the academy, and sat down at his desk, extending his hand so that a book on human biology would arrive at his fingers in just a few seconds.

> Simulation Speed: 3 "Maximum allowed within the simulation has been reached, setting a user priority alert in case of emergencies."

>

> If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

With the robotic male voice of his Cosen Box, Alex got lost in the middle of his studies.

It had been a long time since he had stopped studying for high school, now his library was full of basic knowledge about almost all the professions that interested him. "Alexander, please exit the simulation, we need to talk," Alex heard his teacher's voice and frowned at the interruption of what until this point had been a normal day of his routine.

Although he noticed a change in his teacher's tone, he really did not give it much importance, raising his gaze from the book on ancient diseases and focusing his gaze on the options menu.

Time in simulation 2 hours and 12 minutes, virtual time: 13 hours and 12 minutes. The box in a corner of his vision continued to count the time he had been studying. Feeling proud of his ability, unlike many of his classmates, to be able to stay so many hours of simulation really focused on learning, Alex closed the session and left.

The first thing Alex noticed were the police officer and the detective next to him, with their weapons' safeties removed, clearly ready to face him, the next were the looks of his classmates, specifically the holographic screen in the hands of Alan, the stereotypical sports genius, in it his house was being surrounded by police, military, and he did not know what other people. An absolute feeling of terror flooded his mind, his complexion soon turned as pale as wax.

What for others were seconds, for Alex had been minutes where he could see and analyze his situation. "Alexander, these gentlemen want to talk to you, please accompany us to the dean's office," Mr. Ortega's voice almost shook his moment of concentration.

Alex's mind was everywhere except on his teacher's words. He saw clearly broken windows and smoke coming from the back of his house, "Dad's office," he thought. The garage was open where his mother's car was in the worst possible position, just like every Tuesday when she came back from grocery shopping with his sister.

His mother had a habit of driving the automatic vehicles herself, even though the autopilot was perfectly capable of doing all the work, of course, this translated into her not leaving any space for his father's car. The garage door to their house was open and he could see the yellow crime scene tapes. The smoke coming from his father's office, based on the camera's position, clearly indicated that the fire had been put out hours ago.

He concluded that whatever had happened, his whole family was at home, and that in itself plunged his heart even further. The premonition of something horrible taking root inside him was like a monster whose only goal was to kiss his soul, sucking away all happiness.

"Alexander, are you listening to me!" His teacher's scream made Alex jump reflexively, causing movements from the police officer, although the detective stopped him with a hand movement.

"What's going on? Why are so many people at my house? Where's my family? What happened to them?"

"Those are extremely interesting questions, young man, but right now is not the place to talk about this, it's better if you accompany us to the dean's office where it will be quieter and safer to have this conversation." The look the detective gave him told Alex that his words were not suggestions but an order.

Fear and anxiety for his family were doing wonders to make his mind scatter, but Alex had not stopped being sensible. Nodding, he began to walk down the halls of an academy that now seemed even less warm and friendly than hours before. To his senses, the hallways began to narrow, corners felt like abysses, his heart seemed to be running a space close combat mecha race. "Stop scattering," he thought to himself and focused his thoughts.

After 5 minutes that felt to Alex like 2 years, they arrived at the dean's office, the door with carvings of ancient Greek inspirations that had seemed like a joke before now seemed like the doors to the underworld, and he was sure he had no coin for the ferryman.

After everyone entered the room, Alex noticed that the dean clearly was not surprised by the uninvited visit, which caused him even more feelings of desperation. Whatever the snake in front of him felt was good, it would be catastrophic for those involved.

"Sit down, Alexander." Said the Detective with his authoritative tone, clearly taking control of the situation.

After sitting down, Alex calmly and uncertainly asked with fear in his voice, "What is happening? How is my family?" But inside, the flames of desperation were doing wonders to destroy his sanity and self-control.

A raised eyebrow on the Dean's face, showing his amazement, was the first signal for Alex that asking questions would not do him any good.

"That's exactly why I'm here, look, there's no soft way to say this and clearly you're more informed than you seemed, your father has disappeared and the only clue we have of him is in a note with a series of numbers with your name on it. Your sister is okay, although they had to take her to the hospital for treatment."

Alex listened attentively to every word the man in front of him was saying, and what he was saying was not at all to his liking, your father is a criminal, your sister is in danger, and I don't want to tell you what happened to your mother. "What happened to my mom?" His tone had broken at this point, no matter how much his mother had taught him to control his voice, this was not one of her mental games, it was the real world.

Alex knew that asking questions was playing against him because of the Dean's reactions, but the feeling of panic about what was happening and the state of his home had made it clear to him that this was not a matter of his father evading taxes as the detective's tone suggested, suggesting that everything was okay and everything was just a mere formality. His home had been attacked, that was obvious!

"The detective here is the one who asks the questions, kid." Said the policeman beside him with an angry tone, like an old engine trying to ignite.

"Oh" Alex sighed internally, it was a good cop, bad cop strategy, and poorly implemented. However, Alex's thoughts came to a halt when the detective looked at him with a stern face.

"What do you know about your mother's state, Alexander?" His voice no longer indicated authority, but implied pain and judgment.

"I don't know anything beyond that she should have been home and conveniently, you left her out of the explanation of what is happening."

"Your mother is dead, murdered by your father." The detective said succinctly, with a cold, fixed gaze on Alex's face, so solid and at the same time expectant.

Alex remained still like a statue, only to break a moment later, when the tears began to flow like a broken dam due to a monsoon, all of Alex's thoughts of trying to be analytical, or wanting to get information from the detective, the ideas of playing with the Dean to make him angry and let go of something valuable.

Every "brilliant" plan he had, fell to pieces like the house of cards it was, leaving behind a scared child crying, torn apart by his mother's death, he knew that the damages were not controlled from the moment he saw the images of the news he was watching Alan.

However, it seemed that none of that mattered to Ford, his face red like a ripe tomato, he began to shout

"Alexander, don't make a scene. No one can go from being calm to crying out of nowhere and I hope your cold and calculating attitude doesn't overshadow your actions. Alexander! Alexander, are you even listening to me? Where is your father, it's a simple question. Answer the detective. You're not in a good situation and I'm doing everything I can here for your own good."

"Next chapter.." Chapter 2: Bottoming Out