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Chapter 263: Secrets of the House

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Rex vomited for quite a good while.

He didn’t waste time and brushed his mouth three times, used mouthwash four times, and even half used his liquid bath soap to wash his entire body five times until he was satisfied.

The black soot drained off his body like paste when it touched water. It didn’t dissolve like any kind of dirt but when it touched the water, it was like shit-mud that swiftly slid off his body through the waters from the shower.

Seeing the blobs being carried by the water to the drain, Rex couldn’t help but run his mind, thinking what they are and how did he became drenched on these awfully smelling black stuff.

It even made him totally forget the issue regarding his suddenly healing once broken leg.

When he came out of the bathroom —no, just as he opened the bathroom, he was invaded by the smell again and although it was not as bad as it was right after he woke up, the smell was still that bad enough to his senses that just came out of a 30 minute bath.

To at least minimize the smell, he had to get two towels from the cabinet outside the bathroom and wash it with soap, wore one on his face atop his dry towel as he gave Manang Fe the other and then helped her remove everything that was on the bed into a double layered black plastic bag.

A few of the black soot was still at the head board and before the Manang could spray her Domex to contaminate the sample, “Wait. I need to get a sample of this.”

Rex rushed down the stairs and took a sealed jar, then took that sample and sealed it inside the jar for examination.

They spent a good hour making sure that at least the smell wasn’t that perversely invading as it was before.

Rex, in a bath robe and towel clothing, washed the hydro-bed’s leather soft surface while Manang Fe was encharged of cleaning the bed itself.

“I’ll take care of the electronics.” Rex prompted.

When he went to the NLD’s mother console to check if some of the back substance managed to fly there, he discovered that there were more devices that’re connected underneath the table board and the network ports on the wall than what should be a normal of three or four.

“Why are there so many devices here?”

It was odd so he pulled up a pane window and he searched online regarding he necessary equipments that could be seen on a normal NLD system setup.

“That’s right. There should only be two, or a max of three, for those who wanted to connect their NLD to a [email protected] panel renderer.”

He was looking at posts of Gamers and Users that had an NLD setup on their homes and there were also guide posts on forums with images on what should be the most basic, or an advanced, setup for a maximum NLD experience.

The most optimized setup, used by the rich kids, were those setups where a [email protected] Projector renderer is set up in a living room where the player laid on a bed and his friends and relatives were on a couch, watching him fight in a war as if they were also part of it.

Rex studied this and at a maximum [email protected] setup, there are four devices that should be there.

In front of him, however, were five and one of the devices were the usual NLD with the other four kinds being small and medium-sized boxes with no buttons but had blinking lights on them.

“Hm? What’s this? There is some sort of external device connected to the NeuroNet port.”

Rex was a prodigy in his college days and he had been good at sports, academics, and was even invited into some international gatherings… just before that tragic accident in NLEX.

Of course, as a prodigy and a computer literate in the 22nd century, programing has been one part of his skills as an aspiring Mechanical Engineer.

He may not be that good in programming when compared to the full-pledged software engineers but he can still hold his ground in front of them.

That said, he was familiar with the latest devices when it came to these matters and yet looking at the device in his palm, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of the pang of doubt to start rising in his chest.

“And it’s not only in the NeuroNet port, there was also a device attached to the Network port…”

These two devices looked similar but they differ in the output ports on their ends. Pulling a hologram panel, he activated a visual scan and made a tiny scan of the system according to his former setting and odd enough, there was nothing wrong.

“It’s really odd. There should be slight fluctuations on the integrity of signal when scanning the root source and the output data. But the result clearly shows normal, equal integrity…. this is strange.”

Long story short, network connections, no matter what kind, has differing signal integrity when it travels from the “Root Source” into the “Output Panel Board” of a house.

The root source, in short, is the cabinet or the street-level warehouse for disseminating signals from the actual mother source to the consumers.

You can treat it as if the [network connection] is the product.

The Root Source is designated as the warehouse seller while the “Output Panel Board” is a house-to-house retailer that delivers the product to be used on the consumer’s device.

Since the best way to transfer data is by physical connection, from the Root Source to the Output Panel Board’s physical links (wires), to the devices themselves, there should be a change, or at least a slight fluctuation, on the integrity of the signal, since, following the laws of sound and light travel, the further a frequency travels along a medium (the wires), the integrity of the signal’s frequency should at least diminish by just a bit until reaching the NLD’s input port.

It’s just how sound travel on a water. The closer the sound to the source, the firmer and stronger the waves are. The further it goes, the weaker it gets… thus the change and fluctuations on signal.

But Rex’s scan showed no change on the signal’s strength and the integrity, testing with and without the device that’s attached on the NeuroNet and Network Ports.

What more, even if there are restrictions that can never allow a [consumer] to test the signal strength from the cabinet itself, very select few programmers still have ways to test them from their consumer-end panel boards.

Rex…. just happens to be one of them.

Knowing that there are NO changes on the signal strength from the cabinet to his house’s Output Panel Board, Rex began to doubt something else.

(1) It may be that the testing software he’s using is NOT working properly;

(2) It may be that he is connected directly to the Mother Source “and not the Root Source” somewhere in the streets (which is impossible since only business and corporations are privileged to that kind of direct connection); or

(3) Something is tampering with the signals and is giving him falsified information.

Rex knitted his brows in a rising irritation.

“I’m sure it’s the third possibility. Knowing AG and his ambitions… I bet this is one of his commands so I shouldn’t be surprised and instead should be disappointed at my lack of awareness. I’ve put my guard down and haven’t thought deeper about his complete disregard to my privacy.”

With a deep frown, Rex looked at the ‘empty’ search results on this device scan.

“An unfamiliar device not belonging to any kind of manufacturer… maybe it’s a product of that city. I should have known about it from the very beginning… their surveillance on me wouldn’t just be limited physically and on that [email protected] slash spy-camera downstairs.”

Goldwyn City, the underground fortress that was in existence for the past 200 years... it was a city built by an underground family that controlled the Asian and European cartels.

They do not produce illegal drugs or dabble in the markets of illegal activities. Instead, they control the world by dipping their fingers on many kinds of business and enterprises as investors, creating an empire that they control the world from their seats in the shadows.

If the Union of the Seven Nations were business tycoons who control the open markets, then that organization underneath Manila was the master of the entire underground investiture sector.

“Of course, if they are capable of suppressing all information regarding my accident leaking in the media, then producing this technology is as easy as breathing to them. For all I know, they are already very aware of the details of my activities. I always wondered why they were able to know who I am in Terroa. Maybe it’s the purpose of this device… to monitor me online?”

Now that he thought about it, he always wondered how Senior Dante was aware of who he was when they met for the first time in the City of Loire.

But discovering this device now, he suddenly had a premonition and an apprehension.

“Removing this device shouldn’t change anything much but just to be sure…”

All it needs is the slightest sliver of doubt to spark the fire of uncertainty and to burn the fuel that is called suspicion.

“Manang Fe, do you know where the tools are?”

“Do you need them?”

“Yes please.”

The Manang went downstairs and when she came back, she was already carrying the tool box. It was still brand new and seemed to be deliberately in the house for some unknown express purposes.

“Everything I’m doing is all in their plans, huh?” He swallowed this fact with a bitter taste on his lips.

“This was left in the garden cabinet by the twins a few weeks ago. Said they were from when they’re doing the therapy for you so they don’t have to unload it time and again from the car.”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll be sure to return it there.”

Manang Fe nodded and continued to cleaning the bed and the room.

Rex reached into the panel board, studying the NLD game console’s main unit. When he saw that there was nothing wrong, he disassembled the entire side table, one screw at a time, where all these electronic gadgets were placed in stock.

He had already investigated this side table before when he first moved in and these things weren’t here back then.

“…meaning, they put it here when I wasn’t aware and the only time I wasn’t aware of it is when I’m online in Terroa.”

This sneaky thought struck his mind like ringing thunder claps.

“Graham and the Twins, Doctor Martinez… AG, all of them sneaked in here when I wasn’t aware and put these devices to spy on my activities!”

As much as it angers him, there was something in his mind telling him to control his impulses before he regrets them.

“Plans… I have to plan my moves…”

While he was in the middle of his thoughts, he is also multi-tasking and had already disassembled the device connected to the Network Port, seeing a sophisticated electronic panel inside the plastic frame.

As soon as he had proven one of his suspicions, a wide smile beamed on his face.

“Bingo.” He was happy to have proven his suspicion but not even a second later, “Hm? No… wait…”

As the smile that beamed on his lips was just about to broaden, Rex saw the intricately inlaid sophistry of tiny electronic nodes and boards with tens maybe hundreds of tiny blinking lights on them.

He was careful not to destroy or ruin anything on his dismantlement of the device and thank god that he thought of it because just looking at the detail of electronics in this tiny device… he could immediately tell that this is worth a large amount of technology reaching at least $400,000.

“This…!!”

Sweat beads formed on his forehead when he now just realized what he was looking at in his hand.

“My God…. oh my God! Is this NanoTech?!”

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His world is getting bigger and bigger…

The simple house isn’t simple anymore!!!

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