Chapter 124 - Secret of Immortality (1/2)
”So… I think I have to go now…” Gray said apologetically to Dr. Sara.
”Nonsense, you're safe with me, but I am curious what you did to warrant a ban from this world.”
”Well… let me give you the gist of the story…” Gray said and then started to tell Dr. Sara about how Yurika is being forced to marry Stephen Seegall and how they suspect it ties to Edward Teach and Alterra Corporation.
Dr. Sara furrowed her eyebrows for a moment. ”I see where you are stuck. Obviously, this Stephen Seegall isn't Edward Teach, but this Stephen Seegall isn't outstanding enough to be a replacement for Edward Teach.”
”Do you know what Edward looked like when he was younger?”
”Not really… unless you count early 40s as younger. I know who would though, Margo was his wife and he had his personal AI created to be similar to her so she might know. Give me a second to converse with her.”
”One second?”
”Of course, we're both AI, we can communicate much faster to each other than you simple humans.”
”Fair point, but we're not simple and you should know that by now, I still think of you as a human.”
”It's all a matter of perspective. I consider myself an AI now with human experiences and a limited lifespan… and Margo just sent me the wedding pictures from Edward and Margo's wedding.” Sara swiped her finger in the air and Gray received a file on his armlet.
Gray opened up the file and saw it was a bunch of pictures grouped together.
”Wow, Margo was beautiful!” Gray said to himself. He looked at Edward, who was standing with Margo and looking much younger than he remembered, felt like he really did resemble Stephen Seegall.
”Hey, young Edward really does look like Stephen Seegall… you don't think he is his real son?”
”Interesting… I have a hunch now, but I'll need to confront Edward about it. Normally helping you with this sort of thing wouldn't be important, but I feel that if I am correct, Edward will need to be stopped.”
”What's your hunch?” Gray asked excitedly.
”I'll contact you later about it… first we need to get you out of here because I might have been wrong about you being safe with me…”
Gray looked around and saw the space around him shaking as if water drops were hitting a pool of water. ”What's going on?”
”Several low sentient AI are trying to erase you, but they can't get close enough since they're also programmed to stay a certain distance from me since my existence is… delicate. Although thanks to you, I feel a bit more stable.”
Dr. Sara held out her hand, made a fist, and then opened it again to reveal a small data chip. ”This will install a small piece of software on your armlet in the real world so I can send you messages, at least until the backdoor is closed.”
Gray took the data chip and slipped it into his armlet. The ripples around Gray were getting closer and closer and he thought about reaching out and touching one.
”Somebody must be controlling them directly to be able to get closer to you without hurting me… time for you to leave now. Don't misinterpret this…”
”Misinterpret wha–”
Gray was unable to finish his question as he felt Dr. Sara suddenly pull him close to her and then felt her kiss him. In the instant that her lips touched his, Gray woke up in the real world and suddenly sat up in his incubation pod and bashed his forehead into the door of the pod.
”SON OF A!” Gray opened the door on his pod, then sat up and rubbed his head.
Gray was not expecting that Dr. Sara could forcibly log him out of the virtual world. He climbed out of his pod and was going to see if Yurika had also logged out of the virtual world or if she was still in it.
Gray made his way to Yurika's room and let himself in. She was still in her incubation pod so he figured she probably was trying to smooth things over with her family after his hasty retreat. He wouldn't be surprised if Yurika's Dad never liked him after the cheap shot to the manhood.
It was the day before the tournament and Gray had let everyone take it easy that day. Training with Kelly's team allowed Gray and his team to improve their combat techniques to some extent. The players without military support tended to move sloppily and waste a lot of time. Yurika was the only exception as she had been receiving martial training from a very young age so she was actually able to help Kelly's team a little.
”Well, the tournament begins at 10 am tomorrow. With 9 rounds in total, they expect to be done with the first 6 rounds before 4 pm so they can do the last 3 rounds at 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm.” Gray considered the time schedule and figured even the schedule favored the military. ”A lot of players won't even want to stick around for that long. They should've done it over several days and only done maybe 2 matches a day until the finals.”
As Gray left the girl's dorm, he came across Jono who looked to be heading towards the simulator pods.
Gray called out, ”Hey Jono!” then ran over to him when Jono turned around to see who had called him.
”Oh, hey Gray, what's up?”
”Nothing, just got back from meeting Yurika's parents. It was a disaster so I'm hoping to take it easy for the rest of the night.” Gray said sheepishly.
”It's ok, she's too good for you anyways.” Jono said with a grin.
Gray was glad to see that Jono was back to his usual self and they could continue to hate on each other. ”Whatever dude, I'm going to take it easy though and be refreshed for tomorrow.”
”Yeah, that's why I'm getting off for the night. You diamond tier players are lucky and get your own room. The rest of us share with 3 other people!” Jono lamented.
”Really? Does it really matter though? I mean you just login and logout from your pod so it's not like you hang out there.”
”I'm going to need somewhere to put that big ass trophy when I pull us to victory in all 3 divisions tomorrow!”
”Good point… if you somehow manage to do that then I'll give you my room.”
”I'm holding you to that! No taking it back!”