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Chapter 005: To Be A God

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He has always been selfish, in fact, even back then during the prosperous Era of the Gods. But this and that were two different cases. Here in the real world, there was no escape thru using the T-Device whenever one is in a bind.

There was no magic to counter attack enemies.

There was no armor to absorb damage when hit by speeding punch. There was no magic to heal your wounds no mater grave it is.

There wasn't even a Red Potion!

Here in the real world, safety of the family is a main priority rather than the fame and glory of achieving victory against a direct clash.

In the real world, bones break, flesh is wounded, minds go weak, and strength is almost negligible.

Telling them about his predicament was akin to him being the selfishly tyrannical him in Terroa.

He realized now that his brazen indifference to the rules of the real world won't work here.

.......for he was merely a mortal and not a God!

Why is Rex telling them his situation?

It's not that they asked for it, it's because he does not want to lie about it in front of Amanda's parents who showed him the maturity and the hospitality of a host.

He may have lied about the details, but he didn't lie about the situation.

"Mom... Dad..." Amanda was sobbing now and it breaks his heart to hear her broken voice. "I love him... I know his situation better than anyone. I'm the only one in the whole world, right now, who can help him keep his sanity safe... please... I beg you Mom, Dad, don't make me part with him..."

Sanity? Safe?

Just where is this coming from?

"Amanda." Russell's tone broke through her sobs as he stared at the young couple, "I can't help but notice that you're not going out anymore. Are you so engrossed with that game you're playing?" with a bit of hesitation, Russell asked, "Does it have something to do with Rex?"

"Yes Dad. It has. Everything is connected." She did not waver and said, "That [NLD Console] is where Rex's situation started from. Inside it is a world that changes everything you know about reality. There is a world there that is not that much different from this reality. But in there... in there... Rex, he... he's been fighting his battle alone to protect his family."

The last part of her words broke as she couldn't hold the tears from falling. Rex was very touched but at the same time, he was thinking of what her parents' decision would be even if they learn what was really going on in Terroa.

Can her parent even comprehend what was really the situation when spoken at the scope of an entire foreign universe?

Can they understand it when it pertains to some aspects that was termed as Magic?

They could even hardly believe the assassination of the Kingsley Family, how much more if they put it in a stage where Magic and Reality elements are clashing to create this situation?

What was the purpose of this visit? It was simply to introduce himself to Amanda's parents.

But everything went askew with Angus's presence.

In order to justify his "right and authority" as the official lover of Amanda, he had no choice but to establish himself and anchor his place beside her so he introduced himself in the most effective way.

It was also in order to restrain Howard Gregory for he knew just how dirty politicians will be when they come for a visit.

Howard said that it was by chance that he bumped into Angus. Is it? To Rex's perspective, it was very clear that they were here to pressure Russell and then finalize the agreement to marry Amanda to the Gregory Family. But why...? Rex felt that there's something wrong with that situation in itself.

Is it because she was beautiful? But if it's beauty they were after, there are others out there with an even higher and more prestigious background; so why are they fixated with Amanda? Why rush it?

His simple visit became a complicated mess as the topic went from a casual introduction to his family's circumstances until finally in this quagmire.

It's their first meeting and yet the topic of their discussion was already this dismal. This wasn't the typical boyfriend-meets-parents scenario mostly seen on novels and TV.

It was weird.

Awkward even...

"Rex, setting aside these pieces of news, just why are you telling us this?" Anna suddenly asked. She did not stop Amanda from crying but she looked at the young pair with softer a gaze.

Everyone knew that the [NLD System] being used by Panorama Corp. was invented by the Kingsley Doctors —Rex's parents.

Amanda's parents knew about it as well that's why Russell just had to ask about Amanda's recent days of locking herself up in her room and only playing that game.

When they heard that it has everything to do with Rex's situation and his parents' assassination —if it's really true— then as much of an impossibility it may be to link a 'different world' to the situation in the real world, the husband and wife could only, for now, take everything at its very surface... Rex's situation has everything to do with Panorama Corp. and it was enough reason to make them worry.

But then why........

.....why did Rex tell them about his family earlier?

Rex inhaled deeply. He had decided. There's no turning back now so he had to lay it all out in the open and let Amanda's fate takes its course. He could only gamble it with full honesty since there was no planning for this in the first place, he may just as well speak his heart out in full force.

"Because I love your daughter and I don't want to lie about my situation to you, her parents. I want to be someone you can trust with your daughter but I also know that as I am right now, I may not even be worthy of her. I know that my personal pursuit for the justice of my parents will eventually harm her and her family, and I'm fully prepared to defend it with my life......"

Rex didn't dare to look down for he was afraid that he would waver and with another deep breath, he continued, "......I know this is selfish of me, but my family is inside Terroa... and of all the people that can help me, it just had to be Amanda who had the capability to protect my sanity...."

"Sanity..." Russell was frowning, "why am I hearing something related to sanity?"

Anna was a bit sharper and asked, "Ama-chan, is it related to that 'different world something' you were talking about earlier?"

Wiping her tears with a tissue, Amanda sniffed and said, "Mom, Dad... that game... to the eyes of the world is merely an enjoyment. But to Rex and his family... it was a prison."

"Prison?" Again, Russell displayed skeptical look on his face and massaged his nose bridge, "First it was about sanity, now it was a prison? Just tell it all in one sitting, please...."

Rex answered, "The [NLD System] has the ability to unlock a human brain's maximum potential and with this untapped potential being released, there are certain factors that can change about a human's psychology and even his physical body."

The two adults frowned. Are we in a novel right now? Why does it sound so Sci-fi?

Anna said, "Sanity and prison... you mean to say that this violence inside the game is a way to train these violent tendencies that may arise with the unlocking of this so called untapped potential?"

It could be said that while Russell was a traditional dad with strict standards, Anna's open-mindedness was a paradise for the two young lovers. Her sharp intuition makes it easy to continue the explanation.

"I am not aware of the details myself." Rex said as he looked at his hand, clenching it, "but to make it short... my entire family is internally and externally entangled with Terroa. As you may have already known, my parents advocated a therapy called the DNI-Therapy to treat comatose patients... and the theory and practical method they introduced with it garnered the attention of the medical community of the entire world. There are many sides that had a mixed reaction when it was published; the first side applauded this medical breakthrough; the second side abhorred the method and said it was immoral and unethical; then there are those who stood and watched at the sidelines but used my parent's hard work as reference to advance their own thesis; and there are also those who completely stole every bit and pieces of my parents' work and used it as base or even foundation to create their own innovations to the medical community..."

Even Amanda was quietly listening.

"...the last kind of people..... they used the theory of my parents to create the [NLD System] and with it was the creation of RPG: Terroa and the Neuro-Link Device which plays the game."

Anna said, "So it's a medical device made gaming console... is that it? How does it affect sanity and how does it serve as a prison?"

Amanda bit her lips and hesitated before speaking.

She was Rex's confidant and thus, she was aware of everything Rex had been able to realize so far.

"Mom, externally, it is indeed just a gaming device but just like what was said earlier, there are certain conditions that should be met first and there are also certain security features of the device that must be disabled, along with the right environment inside the game. Only when all of these are met will it now serve as a [key] to remove all the limiters of the human brain thus unlocking the host's every possible potential. But... it also carried risks."

Anna and Russell looked at Rex, thinking that if the boy was able to talk about this topic, it means there was the molded cheese with it.

(AN: a metaphor I picked it up from my neighbor which means despite the molds on the outer layer, the cheese within is the real deal and the mold is there to be a sign of its quality)

He added, "Four years ago, I was in an accident and went into a coma. Back then, the NLD System was still in its initial development phase but my parents became desperate so they had to conduct the DNI-Therapy using the prototype environment provided by the game universe."

Russell was frowning. He was a man of work and paper stacks, typical of a father figure. But Anna's frown was different. She was looking at Rex as if she had already understood where he was going with his statement.

"As you all may have known, RPG: Terroa is a very hardcore game full of violence of every sorts. But even now that this fact was known, players are still flocking to join the game because they found the world a very addicting place for recreation. There are no limits in the game and given the right kind of resource, condition, and worldly element, one can go on an endless string of adventures in it. And the best thing of it all... the time ratio in it was 1:3."

Anna gave a nod, "I've heard of it. Eight hours in the real world equates to an entire day in Terroa."

"Yes." Rex accented. "That was the regulated time ratio. But four years ago, I....I've spent millions of years in that world but only spent an entire week in a state of coma from that serious head injury in the real world. I spent those millions of years in battle and I did unknowingly that the act itself had been engraved deeply into my brain. In other words, my brain works like a killing machine without me even knowing I am doing it."

""...!!""

Millions of years!!?

Just the concept alone was enough to startle any person who would hear it. A million years was time enough to establish countless civilizations on any dry and uninhabitable planet. What more was the concept of millions of years?

The thought itself was unimaginable. The look the two adults gave Rex became complicated. At one moment it was skeptical, then it turned ridiculous, then they became serious then turned into doubt.

Was it even possible?

Is the [NLD System] really capable of such feats?

"Mom... Dad... I know it's hard to believe, but I've seen the memory archive of the Terran Universe... and just like what I said earlier, the world inside it is a different 'world' than the world outside of it."

Russell, who's been quiet for a while, looked at Rex as if he was a real estate agent trying to buy his ancestral house.

"Sanity... Prison...." He prompted.

"Using the [NLD System] without the security locks will maximize all signals being sent and received from the brain, affecting the brain tissues, thereby arranging them on a process according to what the brain demands —according to what was necessary for certain functions and activity —according to the required and ideal [form] of how the brain should be used by the person, according to how the very environment of the patient is molding his mind."

Russell's brows met violently on his face, "So you were saying that the [NLD System] can be used to program the brain into molding itself according to certain prompts and even... shapes, figuratively, through the influence of the surroundings?"

Rex nodded weakly, "Yes. That's the reason why my parents did not agree for the technology to be used in any form other than what they intended it to be used for. Because... because it can create a calamity that may permanently change the human race in every way."

"And you know the entire process?"

"I discovered it."

"How?"

"I disassembled my own NLD Console and used an intensive scanning device to completely analyze the entire structure of the hardware and software aspects of the NLD Console then reassembled it."

Anna looked at Rex with wide eyes while Russell's gaze towards him portended certain incredulities about his claim.

"How does that even work?" he doubtfully asked, arms crossed. "Molding the brain into something intended by anyone... if I was to put it bluntly, if I wanted a person programmed to be good at just about anything, all I have to do is to remove all the so called security features of the game console, and then put him in a specified environment... is that it? Just that simple?"

Rex used his hands to help explain the words he was saying. Like conducting a lecture, Amanda's parents were his students and the topic was: DNI-Therapy and its secrets.

Rex said tactfully, "Logically speaking, that is the very simplified version of it." He nodded, "as the brain tissues move, the nerves itself functions. When they do, the resulting activities leaves free radicals in the entire nervous system and in the brain, and this clogs the development of the brain to a certain degree so it needed to be flushed out through the urine by the process of sleeping. It is the poison of the brain. But... using DNI-Therapy to guide and monitor this very process itself, it forces —no— rather than forcing it, it suggests the repair and activity of the brain in a very fast pace in a very specific manner that heavily depends on the [input] the brain receives —which the [input] being the very influence of the patient's consciousness itself in the environment it is being exposed to, just like what had happened to me in Terroa back then."

After that, he paused, and gestured a hand, "This repairs and improves the brain at the same time as it happens. With the free radicals itself becoming food and medium for the expansion and stability of the cortical regions of the brain, there are actually no wasted procedures during the entire process, which is the main idea behind the DNI-Therapy."

If they weren't living in the 22nd century and were not literate individuals living in the city, they would have their jaws hanging wide open by now.

Rex had just used jargonish terms just now, with the most significant jargon, that 'cortical region' the parents looked at Amanda to be elucidated for.

"[Cortical Regions] are any of the various areas in the brain responsible for human activity and even thoughts..." she explained shyly. "I...I only learnt it in school."

Then, Anna looked at Rex with a peculiar look of interest and scrutiny, "So you mean to say... that four years ago, with all those special conditions and scenarios having been met... your brain was programed to be..."

"...to be a God."

Anna blinked; Russell cleared his throat, while the girl beside Rex fidgeted as she also found this one topic to be hard to swallow for people who hasn't been to Terroa like her.

"Ridiculous!" Russell scoffed. "And here I was just about to believe your bullshit about your family, but now you tell me that a mere video game can make an ordinary man into something so preposterous such as being a God? You are insulting me and my intelligence! Do you think I am a kid easily tricked by your stupid claims!?"

"Dad!"

"Enough! I've been tolerating it since earlier. But I am being made a fool by this scoundrel in front of me, spouting absurd lunacy as if they were facts! I am still your father and what I say will be the law in this house!"

At the end of Russell's words, he stood up and roared at Rex who remained silent and seated.

"Dear, calm down and sit back."

"Anna, are you telling me that you actually believe the drivel being spouted in this prick's mouth? He's using such a sorry excuse of a joke to take away our daughter from us! How can I be calm about it?"

"Dad... he's not lying! Rex is... Rex is a victim!"

"Mandy..."

"Dad, you have to trust me. There are bad people out there trying to make Rex do things he doesn't want to do and he's actually been kidnapped and was only able to escape recently. His baby brother is in a coma right now and the bad people are using him to make Rex serve like their guinea pig!"

"Ama-chan, what are you talking about?" Anna's face paled at the words she heard.

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