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Chapter 264: Everything Connects to Terroa

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Rex was familiar with NanoTech.

In the game, when an Invention is superficially damaged and reveals the electronics inside its frame, it will reveal the same kind of panels and tiny blinking lights as the one he’s looking at now.

To repair an Invention, you will need a NanoCube and this will solve the issue.

But then again… it’s inside the game.

To see NanoTech in the real world…

“My God…. what am I dealing with here?!”

In the last decade of the 21st century and earliest years of the 22nd, the World Government, the UNICORN, after the end of the 3rd World War for the acquisition of the Moon Resources, had announced the release of the Android Project.

The Android Project is a mining and exploration project of Planet Jupiter; to excavate and mine the metal hydrogen resource for use in the “Mini-Star” Project, and also to gather the highly concentrated Helium-3 material in the planet’s atmosphere.

He-3 is a non-radioactive isotope of Helium with two protons and one neutron —one neutron more than the common Helium Element.

In the current society, Nuclear Fission was almost a banned technology because of its impracticality and the most common used source of power now is by way of Nuclear Fusion.

Nuclear Fusion is better than Nuclear Fission for the former produces almost no excess dangerous radioactive byproduct while using Helium-3 as the fuel alongside deuterium: but the latter, however, while producing almost the same amounts of Heat Energy for practical usages, yields many nuclear wastes that could indefinitely harm the people and the environment.

For almost two centuries, men had made progress on how to improve Nuclear Fusion Technology but it also ultimately lead to the WWIII because of the scarcity of the Helium-3 in the atmosphere.

Thus the war for the moon was instigated since the moon’s surface was rich in Helium-3.

After the war, the UNICORN was established and to avoid the calamity of another war, it was decided that the moon is a protected resource site and that Jupiter, albeit far, more dangerous and a lot more difficult to mine, has more than enough He-3 resources for humanity to last for the next 10,000 years.

With this in mind, the UNICORN launched the so called “Android Project” that focused on developing autonomous programmable reactive AI alongside an ever adapting physical body that can ignore the torturous surface of the big red planet.

It is here that NanoTech comes in play. Albeit its wondrous, almost unlimited capabilities, the practicality of its manufacturing process was also a problem on itself.

Because NanoTech is a technology in the nano-side of sizes, the current technology of humans is unable to support the high requirements of mass producing said technology, and could only make it in small quantities every year.

As such, Project Android, or more specifically, the [NanoTech], is facing a long, overdrawn manufacturing process that could last until 100 years or even more.

The reason why Rex realized that it undoubtedly is NanoTech is because of their announcements prior to the release of the game, and also because of one of the very few slip of a tongue that his parents had made regarding the game and its few issues during the development…

Doctor Alfred Pegasus and the UNICORN had made it so that the NanoTech of the real world and the game world are exactly the same.

*****

With the truth stated above running on his mind, Rex Kingsley was beginning to pant as he realized the severity of a NanoTech device appearing on his very room.

Forget about $400,000…

This single piece of electronics alone can at least cost as much as $600k, or even more. And as he glanced at the other device connected on the other port, he could only guess that it was also the same type of equipment as the first.

“My God, Augustus… what are you pulling here?”

Of course, Rex had no idea that other than AG, an even more shadowy figure’s large hand is placed on him and is tossing him about right at his palm.

As he murmured on his surprise and shock, in the middle of his dismantling activity, Manang Fe had long abandoned the boy to his devices. He was so engrossed with what he was doing that she did not dare to interrupt him.

The putrid disgusting smells that permeated the room was already replaced with the soothing scent made by the Downy mixture she sprayed in every side and corner, visible and invisible.

Even in his shaken state, Rex’s expression had remained still and only the slightly visible beads of sweat on his forehead was the only thing she saw.

And while this was happening, does the two not notice that Rex is currently kneeling… putting a great amount of stress to his once broken leg?

Or was this an issue he could ignore? If so, then it only meant that his shock and surprise was indeed great enough to overshadow any other thought in his mind.

A NanoTech Equipment in a civilian’s house…

A High Level Classified Equipment, highly regarded as Earth’s greatest asset for a glorious future, in his house…

In a supposedly inconspicuous civilian’s house…

Was this not a source of ultimate trouble? When he exclaimed about the device being a NanoTech earlier, did he think that Manang Fe wouldn’t hear and not know about it when propaganda and ads are all over the place explaining about its possible contribution to the glory of the human race?

“This is… insane… trouble… big trouble…”

And so, his supposed calm face distorted into a look of pale fright. Yeah he might once be a good-looking prodigy but his accomplishments are merely on a civilian level.

As far as the World Government is concerned, he was just an academically and athletically famous expendable human resource.

While he had a wide eyed expression of shock on his face right now, looking at the small device, no matter how advanced Manang Fe’s knowledge in technology is, she was still just a housekeeper and thus, even if she felt surprised by the word “NanoTech” he just uttered earlier, she was just a lowly commoner and must have no qualms as to what that device is… for her own good.

She wanted to leave the room as they have already cleaned the black soot. But before she exited the room, Rex inhaled deeply and turned to her, speaking in a serious pleading tone.

“Please don’t tell anyone about the black substance.”

She was startled, “Why?”

Why that and not talk about the NanoTech?

Rex carefully placed the small device that’s still connected to the socket down to a cloth and then stood up, “Because… something is in here that might involve the World Government… and…”

Rex wanted to say it but he became afraid that there might be other devices here that are being used to spy on the two of them.

He had already spoken enough and so he doesn’t want to complicated and implicate things on the Manang any further.

“…”

“Manang Fe… I think…” Rex stopped here, since what he was about to tell her might just be too large a scale of trouble for her to deal with.

Rex bit his lips as he paused. Manang Fe was still reluctant but soon, it looked as if she recovered the former indifference and a stolidly chose not to dwell on it deeper.

“No matter.” She shook her head. “I’m just here to take care of the house and make food for you. My salary is not enough to make me stick up my nose on the matters of my employer.”

After she said that, she left the room and brought the ‘dirty fabrics’ to be thrown… or maybe burned.

Of course, Rex understood this and it was his own mistake as well that he wanted to search for an ally by telling the Manang of this discovery.

Rex concluded his investigation and he looked back at the NanoTech device on the port.

He didn’t dare to touch the other for fear that he might trigger an alarm that might report something on AG’s side and complicate things futher.

After he reassembled the device, he then checked the table’s smooth and seemingly firm and heavy-looking make.

“This is really a quality piece of furniture.” He was marveling at the fact that aside from it being unusually heavy, it also has exquisite dimensions that an aspiring Mechanical Engineer like him are very attentive of.

Just as he thought that the measurements of the small cabinet’s dimensions were uniquely accurate and exactly more… fixed, curiosity got the cat as a thought struck him.

“Could it be…”

Just like how he had discovered the secret devices, this curiosity was a natural trait of Rex Kingsley.

Drawing his fingers, he felt for the unusual detail on the bottom side of the table.

And then…

CLICK!

“Huh?”

Seemingly to have unlatched something, his fingers slid through and the bottom side of the side-table slid as he discovered something else.

“What is this?”

It was a mysterious flat box at least flat enough to be called a box. It is 1.5in thick and 6/10 large as that of the entire surface area of the table’s bottom side, and was sealed with inconspicuous screws to hold it in place.

If it wasn’t on the fact that he was doing an active scan while letting his fingers wander on that side, he wouldn’t even notice that secret compartment.

He used a scanning panel to have a view of the bottom side of the table and he could clearly see that it was electronic and very… important.

“The shape and position of this box was fit so as to not make any shaking sounds. The wires were hidden perfectly like veins in a body in the entire frame of the table… as if this table was specifically made just to hide this box!”

The electronic white box had no buttons but it had a blinking green light in the middle.

It was like an android box a century ago, but white in color and when he pressed his finger on it, a series of holographic panel appeared on his sight like popup windows for ads… except… they were not.

“Medical data?”

Rex wasn’t a medical student but his parents are and so he was familiar with them one way or another.

“Brain waves… emotional parameters… rage bar limit… oscillating trend graph… what is this? If it’s here, then are they monitoring my brain patterns?”

If so… why?

This was the big question. And yet, as soon as Rex felt his heart rate rise exponentially from this series of privacy breaching discoveries, he also, as much as it was unbelievably true, felt that he was able to control his emotions… like there was something urging him to calm down at this time.

A thought struck him.

“This feeling is familiar…” as he studied the graph and panels in front of him, though his eyes does seem to move and imprint these images on his mind right now, he was surprised to discover that he was able to convince himself to calm down no matter the situation.

“It was this same feeling when I woke up outside of the cellar dungeons in Apus Epirus!”

The feeling of knowing something and yet it was eluding your mind and your heart while being there at the tip of your tongue.

Recalling this detail, it was at this moment that he saw something on one graph that bothered him.

On that graph were two highlighted parameters.

Love and Rage.

They were both unbelievably high, exceeding what seemed to be a labeled as Human Limit.

Rex zoomed to study it further and saw that the date was not too long ago. In fact…

“It’s just a few hours ago!” He murmured.

He turned to the door, wanting to ask the Manang if they went in but then stopped himself and only thought of her weird attitude and weird words just before exiting the door.

.

.

“My salary is not enough to make me stick up my nose on the matters of my employer.”

.

.

Knowing this, he didn’t have to ask her anything since her attitude and words earlier gave him the answer he needs.

“It’s them. They’ve been monitoring my online activities through this! But why are they also spying on my mental parameters and my emotional factors? It’s as if… they were studying me. But why… what are they studying these factors for?”

As he asked this question, he recalled an incident just earlier last month.

Before he went to Fort Magsaysay and personally saw how Baron was transported inside the game, a decision which he was beginning to regret now, him, AG, and his Uncle Faust who now is as cold and indifferent to him like the world is, had a talk regarding a missing chunk in his memories. (see Volume 4 Ch.20)

“Four years ago, one year before the release of the game… I was in Switzerland, UNICORN’s main Headquarters with… with…. Samantha… no, it was Kris… Kris Pegasus!”

In that talk, he was told that there was a memory of an event four years ago that he had forgotten and had no idea of.

He had a major accident and underwent the same DNI-Therapy as what Baron is having.

Back then, it was his mother who went inside that world to bring him back to the real world.

But back then, as much as he wanted to believe a story told by AG’s wordings, perhaps it was only because it was told to him by his Uncle Faust that he managed to ‘pin it down’ in a corner of his mind.

Yet, with the things that had happened lately and the unfamiliar visions that resurfaced in his mind, he was finding these memories of a life he has no idea of rather scary.

“Mom went inside so then Terra is her avatar! But the impressions of all of those memories tell me that they lasted many years, at least millions, in my impressions… so how is it even possible when given Terroa’s time frame, it can only accelerate up to three times from real-time? Moreover, Uncle Faust said that the incident only lasted for an entire day and I was only in a coma for a whole week or so… and Uncle Faust also said that he only learned of this incident after a month and I became normal after three months. He didn’t know that I didn’t know of this incident.”

“I remember…” When his thoughts ventured here, a pang of pain assaulted his head and he held it subconsciously, massaging his temple as he took deep breaths and calm himself. “…I remember waking up one morning and realized that I missed the regional meet in the open tennis competition. I was told that I was in a coma from a road accident and I was hospitalized before waking up.”

“Mom and dad knew it but they didn’t tell me.”

Then, a thought struck him next. “They knew! Dad and mom knew… everything that had occurred in Terroa!”

Rex began tearing up as he recalled the memories he’d had ever since waking up. Before, he was not a fan of violence but suddenly, after that day he woke up from being ‘blank’ for a time, he was suddenly changed and became easily irritated and susceptible to inciting violence.

He also became sharper; his thought processes were faster than before but along with that, he’d also been able to easily notice and discern people and their differing intentions.

As he became dubious and aware of people and their selfish and ill intentions when around him, it also ignited a trend that drove people of the same age as him to shun him against their crowd.

Some of his friends distanced themselves and only a few had ever remained.

This made him really angry.

Baron’s arrival lessened that violent tendency and it also aroused his protective disposition.

And yet, although his violent inclinations were able to be controlled by his parents’ urgings, because of these weird changes on his personality, he had invited many troubles at his direction.

More times than he can remember, he’d been in many disputes and fights that garnered adults of his institution to subject him to anger managing classes.

But thankfully, his father was able to always talk him down. This made Rex’s tendencies lessen.

Years passed, RPG: Terroa was released. Then, his parents’ advocacy to promote DNI-Therapy is also released to the world.

When the game was released and the VR-World rendering created by [email protected] Technology was introduced to the world, people began to curse at his parents and condemn their family for many kinds of reasons, stirring his easily irritable and short-tempered tendencies to come back worse, leading him to be more engaged on street fights than his studies.

His parents’ work was also affected and although their family was still in a prominent status, they still faced enormous amounts of criticisms and harsh treatment from many big organizations.

Even before the time of his family’s downfall, the number of people who came to threaten and also provoke him using various reasons did not even lessen a bit and he was always being forced into a brawl against them all.

In the root of all these… is that missing chunk of his memory that ultimately changed him.

As he thought of all these things… this horrifying realization struck him like a hard blow in his face, knocking all his common thoughts down the drain.

“I have a form of discriminatory memory loss…!!”

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Rex is slowly uncovering the truth!!!

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