Vol.1 Ch.1Chalie (Author)
Blackhole32 (Translator)
[ 1 ] Different person in the different world
The loud car horn honking occasionally on the road by the traffic style in Thailand can’t be able to hide the melting temperature that a young man has to endure on the footpath totally. If compare to the other countries, Thai drivers did not use horn with their mood that much but, with the hot weather, occasionally horn sound can turn people mad easier than normal.
“Why doesn’t Bangkok has trees to make shadows in the city huh…” A young man thinks. He just came out from a popular computer accessories shop to meets the h.e.l.lish inferno-like weather. Just a moment ago, the air surround him is freezing, chilling his body by high quality air-conditioners that he didn’t need to pay for them. But the bright, skin grilling weather right now makes him really want to return to that store again.
The sudden change makes the feeling more violently than normal. Large plastic bags contain various small computer parts that can be combined and transform to a new computer completely were carefully brought across the sea of people.
It’s not funny at all if something was just bought and damaged carelessly in the same day. Especially, when that thing is not even used once.
By fully working for four months in a part-time job four days per week. He has enough money to upgrade his five years old computer. Actually, he didn’t want to buy any new computer but his old computer is now out of date to the extent that he can’t play his favorite game in the lowest definition. He wants to play that game very much so, he patiently works for money along with studying.
Maybe, it’s because that is one of the few things he’s entertained from. So he works really hard and endures it to that extent. Fortunately, his open university didn’t very strict in cla.s.s times. So he could manage his working time when there is no cla.s.s.
Although this is not the first time he bought his new computer, A little smile can be seen while he imagines how much enjoyable he will get when he play the next sequel of his favorite game. When flashing back his memories how hard he’s working in the part-time job other than his main work for daily life usage, he felt that he’s either liberated from his burden or succeed something.
In the very first days he went to work in the part-time job, only thing in his mind is just work and wait for the time to pa.s.s by. Working each day makes the feeling like the time flow very slowly like the snail moving its body. But it’s ironic when he worked in the last day. Before he even knows, all of the hard time just pa.s.sed rapidly.
The young man moving his head back and forth, finding the bus he waited for so long. That bus could hide behind the others by some chances. Actually, he could call a taxi to bring him back home but, that will waste more than hundreds Baht[1]. In the moment he’s uncertainly that he should call a taxi or not, an abnormal sensation occurred in his body.
A sudden strong sensation happened in his chest followed by a crushing dull pain that he never felt. The young man collapsed on the floor uncontrollably. His sight was blurring. And then, everything became dark. Only thing he could senses is only a heavy blunt sound from his fallen body on the footpath and the far distant like panic voices from people around him. Then, everything became silent. (TL : Not really sure about this paragraph)
In his thought, he thinks he’s only got heat stroke like he was experienced when he was in the secondary school but, the reality is very far from what he imagined.
Faintly sounds woke the young man up slowly, returning his consciousness. He felt like he’s waking up in the morning normally but this day, something seems different. First, the fluffiness he feels from the thick mattress. He never felt anything like this for years, making him feeling something is abnormal. He remembered that because of his chronic back pain, he has to sleep on a thin mattress cover the hard floor. Not a comfortable mattress like this.
The second is, his mind is very clear like never before. Although his mind is still dazzling but, it’s still far better than normal. He can remember the feeling like this. It was like when he was an adolescent, before it became dizziness every morning when his age is beyond twenty-eight.
“My child, you woke up”
Voice of a middle aged woman louden beside his ear but, since he’s not even able to move his head, the only thing he can see is the comforting plain white ceiling, not knowing who has spoken. He tried to move his head two or three times until he was able to turn his head to the side with difficulty.
The sight he used to look at the stranger cause the middle aged woman’s tears dripping uncontrollably. It seems that her fear became real. Her child is not the same as before, ever.
He tried to speak, ask the question. But his lungs, throat and Adams apple seem to be resist to his command. Only thing he can do is blowing the air, making the faint, hoa.r.s.ely sound, unable to understand. The panic was building up in his heart
A young man in white lab coat standing next to the middle aged woman speaks emotionlessly like he’s not directly related to this event.
“Miss Kaesorn krub[2], the examination result shows us that your daughter’s body is fine like any other healthy person. However, brain cells implantation caused the memory distortion symptom. There’s a possibility that she would permanently lost her memory krub” (TL : I’m feeling strange using the suffix…)
Daughter? What in the world this person is talking about. And who is this woman? Many questions came in his mind. He’s alone, doesn’t has any family left. His parent died since he was still studying in the high school, made him living alone since then until he’s over thirty years old. And he sure that he doesn’t know this person certainly.
“Wh… Who… are… you…”
After trying to control his Adam’s apple for long time. Finally, a sentence came out of his mouth but, the voice he spoke makes his eyes widen in dumbfounded. Although it’s still hoa.r.s.ely, it’s certainly that it’s a high pitched voice own by a young girl.
He was shocked to the extent that he covers his mouth unconsciously. What he saw makes him even more anxious. His hands became creamy white, smoothly, like one of those girl’s, instead of hard rough hands of a man who working hard in the kitchen and pa.s.sed hot and cold water every day.
He looks between middle aged woman and man in white coat back and forth.
Looks like the man in white coat knows what he’s thinking. A thin mirror with the width of a magazine was brought from the table in the corner and handed over for him to look at his own body.
The mirror reflected the image of a young girl under sixteen years old. her face is slim and symmetrical. Although her face is slightly shows weak and sickness, she looks friendly and sweet. Just in the first sight, ones can acknowledge that this girl is very kind, cute and friendly.
“Good morning little[3] Gewalin” the man in white coat spoke to him.
Gewalin?
The shock of the young man can’t be descripted by any words any phrased easily, his mind is likely to stop working, he still couldn’t catch the situation right now but, he’s going to afraid of the truth he will be acknowledged right now.
“Slowly, my child”
Kaesorn carefully helped her daughter to sit on the bed, her daughter refused to use the automatic back support function from the bed which is able to adjust the upper body part to the desired level but instead, she tried to sit by herself.
The shock and silence atmosphere from the daughter makes the mother has to refrain her tears that just wiped from her eyes a little while ago, the eyes looking at her are completely changed, stabbing in her heart, makes her barely withstand this feeling.
Gewalin holding the mirror with two hands, examine her face, moving her head left and right and then toughing her face softly. Her face is expressionless while she’s taking a hard breath, holding the air in her lungs as much as possible, and release. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to calm her panicked mind.
People in the rooms silently looking at the girl, waiting to see which way her behavior will be changed.
The closed eyes were open again; the face reflecting in the mirror is still the young girl’s. Although she is not usually examine herself in the mirror because of her personality of not caring her body too much, it’s still makes her feel difficult to accept when the person in the mirror is not herself.
The reality seems to be destroyed, is this just a dream? A long forgotten feeling returned again, when she rode a motorcycle and crush with a trailer truck, woke up with a severe injury in the brain, unable to understand and accept the reality.
This is the another time Gewalin thanks to that accident she barely survive, she may be injured, sleeps in the hospital for months, unable to catch up with her friends or failed the exam but, she’s got many things back in exchange too, the ability to accept the reality is also one of them.
Thinks, she must think. The young man in the body of a young girl trying to use logic to represses her confusion.
… Although I don’t know what happened but now, I have my appearance of a girl according to what I saw in the mirror, the environment seems to be a patient room in the hospital, that person in white seems to be the doctor, that woman who has the face resembles to this appearance, maybe, she’s a close relative … but she just called me her daughter right? What will she be if not my mother… no, this girl’s mother.
The young man in girl’s body almost fell in confusion like a while ago again.
Gewalin … this girl’s name huh… what a ridiculous situation, why did I accept anything like this easily, wasn’t it has to be more panic? And why did I end up being in this girl’s body? Or is this the soul’s transferring? How is my body? At that time, my chest’s hurt and then I fell, right? And how is my new computer?
What a pity! My long awaits game, what will happen after all this time? If I fainted, will my things be stolen? And this, what will I do now. I have to call the police, right? But who will keep my things? I think I can’t bring anything back by now.
“My child, do you still hurt? Are you OK?” Kesorn asked her daughter with a worrying face when she saw her touching her chest in the position of her heart, looking around the room.
The man in white coat checks the condition of his patient from the monitor which is connected to tiny medical measurer in the girl’s body. When he saw that there’s no problem, he decided to explain the story to Gewalin.
“Little Gewalin krub, Listen to me carefully, you’ve got the brain cell disorder[4] and was cured by using brain cell implantation but, this brain cells you’ve got is special than normal brain cells”
“The detail is somewhat very complicated, I will not explain about this the side effect from implantation cause you to be amnesia, you must be full of confusion as you maybe forgot about yourself, do you remembered your name?”
Young man in Gewalin’s body frowning by the doctor’s question, didn’t he just tell him that he’s amnesia? And now he asked her what her name is. By the way, did the medical technology right now is too advanced till we can implant the brain cell, huh?
The doctor who asked the girl question didn’t want a clear answer from the girl. The thing he wanted is the reaction to the question. He observed the expression plus the appraisal of the brain wave and knows that this girl is in the abnormal condition of mental and memory. When compared to the record of brain wave form he has, he can tell the different in her personality.
“My child, you don’t really remember? Your name is Gewalin, your nickname [5] is Nung [6] you like cute dolls” Kesorn has to struggle hard to refrain her feeling.
“We used the long kept brain cell to repair little Gewalin’s normal brain cell krub, little Gewalin must try to accept the reality and you’re really living, not dreaming, not hallucinating. Normally, we won’t directly explain the detail to the patient but, in this case, we must explain the situation immediately, thus, this explanation can’t be avoiding krub.”
The man in girl’s body realized suddenly when he heard the word ‘long keep brain cell’, he remembered that he used to make a doc.u.ment to donate his body … Brain cell, brain cell implantation, memory, body.
Everything is weaving in shape clearer but, it could be possible? About this situation that looks like it’s came from the unbelievable science fiction?
“Now… what… day… month… year…” Her voice is still scratchy
The doctor in white narrowing his eyes slightly, is she even forgot the date? Then the condition seems considerably bad but, at least, she can speak normally, then, her memory part in depth of her brain is still fine.
“Today is 17th august, 2855 [7] krub”
“T… Two Thousand, eight hundred and… fifty-five?” her face shows the most shocking expression.
The doctor checked her condition on his personal monitor again and speaks with Kesorn.
“Miss Kesorn krub, the overall condition of your daughter is normal, no degenerate or self-destruction problem, the physical medication is processing with no problem, the things left is mental and memory conditions.”
“This case, you have to cure them with yourself, you have to understand that medication of your daughter is processing with special condition, thus, we cannot use the normal medication like others, you have to keep this in secret”
He whispered what Kesorn lightly but, even if he speaks louder, the girl seems not to be heard anything as she’s too shocked, unable to think anything at the moment.
.
“Don’t worry, my child. You don’t have to force yourself” Kesorn soothing her daughter with the gentle voice. She tried to holds her daughter’s hand but she pulls her hand back, before she shyly gives her hand to her unwonted.
“Sorry krub… ka [8]”
Although many days pa.s.sed already, the young girl still cannot accept her situation completely, she still used to use the sentence’s final word normally used my men.
“I said don’t worry, I understand that I’m like a stranger to you but for me, you’re still my utmost important, my sweetheart.”
Gewalin is by no means rough in relations between people. Of course, she can understand the deep feeling inside the conversation.
“I [9]… I’m sorry”
“Sorry? What are you apologizing for, my sweetheart?”
“Sorry for not being the same as before, I can’t really remember who I am, what’s contained in my memories, what have I experienced, for you, I don’t know how we speak to each other, having promises or stories between us, I don’t want to act as the person I don’t know, don’t used to be …”
Kesorn tightly fold her lips, trying to smile to her daughter.
“I said don’t worry, my sweetheart. Even though you’ve completely changed to another person but you’re still alive, that’s enough for me.”
She well knows that her daughter has become another person. Her daughter never uses the words spoken in this way before, at least, not being distanced like this.
At the same time when the mother’s thinking about the things she’s done together with her daughter, Gewalin is thinking about something else. She can even call herself being alive if she has to lose all of her memoires? When a person has to lose all memories, that’s mean, all relations that person has are collapsed, there’s nothing connected to the world anymore.
Even how much bonds a person has, won’t it become completely unrelated relation between two people if one of them has completely forgotten the memories which is the bond between two of them?
“OK, now, I will teach you how to use the bathroom. Normally, you have to always live in the transmitter station. In the station, we will be inside the body maintenance liquid so we won’t have any problem with scurf because the liquid will clean them automatically but, in the hospital, we have to do it ourselves.”
“And what about ah… defecate?”
She asked as if she doesn’t defecate since yesterday but, there’s no sign of that in the body like normal.
Kesorn sighed slightly. Even the common knowledge like this, her daughter is completely forgot.
“Don’t worry, my child, during you’re in the hospital, there will be an installation of special equipment in your body to check the conditions such as blood pressure, hormone level and brainwave, these equipment will take care of your digestive system, defection and it will disable your nerve system according to necessities, then if there’s really something happened, you’ll just don’t feel it.”
“Only in the hospital?”
“Yes, only in the hospital, If we were going home then we need to steep in the station, we called it capsule or cap, in the cap there will be the system taking care all of things but if we connect to the virtual world then we won’t feel anything like that.”
Gewalin understood, she moves her body to sit on the bed’s edge instead of using automatic system which will arrange her body with using any effort. This is one of the things she decided to do, the comfortable of this level is just too much for her.
Kesorn helps her daughter to stand, this is the first time Gewalin stands on her feet in this body, it may be not very clear but she feels that moving in this body is different from normal. Even the accuracy to move the body or the delay of body after commanded about half a second.
At first, Gewalin thought it was just an abnormal condition after recovered but actually it was that her brain is not able to adapt with the nerve system in this body completely.
Since she has to adjust her mental state first other than taking a sleep so, there won’t be any special treatment at all. The weak-type sedative drugs were injected to Gewalin’s body slowly but continuously by tiny equipment in her body to make her being most relax. This is the day she has her consciousness clearest since after she woken up and is the first day she can control her body as she wish.
Not only her body’s size was change, dimension and rotation of the joints were completely changed. Gewalin has to use her mother as her support because she can’t control her balance on her feet/
It was strange that learning how to stand again makes her satisfied than she thought. Gewalin sits on the bed again, grip and release her hand, moving her arms up and down. Her legs were also swinging at the same time.
Kesorn sits on a chair beside the bed. She was looking at her daughter trying to train her body with many feelings. She doesn’t think that her daughter is too steadfast to accept her situation now so easily. If it was her normal self, at least, she will need more days to accept and begin the treatment.
Medication technology of human maybe advanced till we could use nanotechnology to cure the injury in cell level but it still has the limitations of this technology to cure from outside, nerve system reparation is also included.
I there’s a need to make the brain command the nerves directly without any addition equipment then, natural reparation is a necessity. The form of brainwaves and signals in the nerve after the implantation of the girl were changed till the commands were lack of accuracy and there will be a time between adjusting the form of signals between the exterior nerve and brainwave together.
Gewalin feels that the delay after she commanded her body was decreased. She can predict the movement and can control her body better.
“I think it’s good now”
Kesorn smiled to her daughter and helps her to stand. She opened a small washroom’s door, reveals a plain light grey room, there’s a plain but also ultramodern metal chair in the middle of the room.
The young man inside the body of the girl holds her breath while Kesorn is helping her undressing her white cloth. Instead of being excited with the girl’s body, she’s thinking about something else. The girl is really smaller than she though.
“That it’s, sit on that chair, it will bring you to the mental treatment room, and we will continue to self-learning room together.”
“… Can’t we walk?”
Gewalin’s looking at the chair for transferring in the hospital without sitting on it.
“It’s too far, my child. This hospital is too large; of you walk, it would take an hour to arrive there. Just use the chair.”
“… Ka”
“Mom; are we really living in that capsule?”
Gewalin asked her mother after she tried to use the transmitter station for the first time.
“Yes, my sweetheart; our life are much more peacefully and comfortably than the past, we can even live without doing anything. If we want to have more luxuries then we will have to work. If there isn’t anything very important such as medication treatment which can’t be done in the Cap then we don’t have to get out from the Capsule for the entire life”
Gewalin is thinking on the automatic chair that she’s already used to. Her mother is sitting on the similar chair beside her. She never sees anyone using the same type chair in the hospital. Maybe, people this era didn’t go sick that much.
The time pa.s.sed rapidly, Gewalin tried to change herself according to this new body for her mother’s pleasantness. She tried to ask Kesorn what is her old self likes but her mother is just smile and confirmed that she being herself like this is enough, there’s no need to become her old self. Doing that will just makes the bitter between both of them.
The ability to adapt is one of the ability of the young man in the girl’s body specialized to since then 300 years before. She’s got the commentary by Kesorn that trying to act like a girl is just too precocious. The young girls of age 16 like her are more innocence than this but, it can’t be helped for her to act like an innocence one. If she has to changes herself to be a girl, she still has to keeps her own personality.
She can’t resist thinking that her girl personality might be more than she thought. This might be the influence of female hormone which is being produced inside this body, causing her personality to be changed. Or is this the influence from her old personality within her brain? She can just thinking about that.
Buddhist era 2855 (year 2355)
Gewalin was confidence that no one ever being like her. Just a moment when she lost her consciousness, her body was completely changed from a thirtieth young man to become a sixteenth girl in 300 years after.
No one ever known what’s happens inside a girl named Gewalin, everyone thinking in the same way that because of the effect of the implantation was causing her memory and personality changed; and she herself didn’t tell anyone that she has the memory and knowledge from the owner of the already-dead-three hundred-years-ago brain.
She decided to live for the “He” who is already long dead and “She” who is also already dead. She is the person who was the descendant of two lives, different era. That makes her feels; her real self is just the fragments of memories which are tied together, nothing special more than that. The colors of the life are just the remaining of experiences, travelling through the time.
“We’re almost home, my child.” Kesorn’s voice wakes her up from day dreaming; those eyes of Kesorn are filled with concerns and worries. She’s not sure that transferring from places will cause shocking to her daughter or not.
Gewalin moved her body from the corner of the seat to sits beside and hugs her mother rightly.
“I’m fine mom, I just day dreaming”
Both of them are sitting on the special bus which its shape is likes a tiny bus of 4 seats, it’s just looks like a rectangle box, covered its 4 sides by windows. The bus is floating about 1 meter above the road’s surface. The large read has only few same type cars travelling through it and all of them are controlled automatically by the control station so there’s no worry about accidents.
Gewalin is as well already forgot the faces of her mother and father that were dead under the burning house by accident. It might be the time that is already long pa.s.sed or it might be she doesn’t have any picture of her parents. Then, she loves this new mother like her real mother. The loves given by Kesorn were running through deeply inside her heart.
At the beginning, the atmosphere between her and Kesorn is somehow awkward but, by the love of the mother, everything went better. Kesorn intends to patiently give her new daughter the common knowledge of the world, she has to teach many thing in this era to her daughter as she understand that her daughter is forgot all memories about them after the operation.
But, in reality, her daughter never knows everything. Sometimes, she felt she’s already lost her daughter but as she thinks, at least, her daughter is still alive, she can endure pa.s.sed the time.
From a girl who’s always close and snuggles with her, changed to distances and being defensive from her, the eyes looking at her as a stranger hurts her more than anything.
But, it seems that inside the girl, she still has her good side as the girl’s trying to keep the goodwill of her in various ways. Although her expression is doing as a good courtesy, it made Kesorn a little refreshing. At least her daughter is not changed to a heartless bad person.
At first, her daughter is just looking at the cloud absent-mindedly to the endless sky beyond the hospital. Although she changed the background to many things but she’s excited just minutes. After she changed the virtual environment to everything then she changed it back to its former background, at least, her eyes changes from absent-minded to being in thought instead.
Kesorn endures the conversations without any close feeling with her daughter patiently, many questions were shot like bullets till she’s full of holes.
Why? What is that? How? Because? When?
Lots of questions Kesorn were unable to answer too, she never thinks about that the deep explanations of the answer is difficult and complicate this much till she has to finds deep in the causes of things. Thanks to the brain and memory restoration support system that gives her daughter almost all information she wants, although there still be many things filtered to prevent the traumatic that could happens and has the effect to the body too.
She feels worrying when her daughter doesn’t know how to helps her own self at all, it seems that all tools were forgotten as she doesn’t knows how to use them, even the most basic thing everyone know.
After her daughter open her heart and holding the hands, everything became easier. Although she has to acknowledge more and more that her daughter is a different person but, the relationship of she and her daughter is altogether rises too.
As a mother, Kesorn can feel the feeling of needing the warmness of love but too embarra.s.sed and speaks too irregularly and awkwardly; not used to this kind of relationship from her daughter.
At the first hugs, she could feel the athirst needs of love different form her former daughter self, her daughter never gives the feeling of need this to this extent.
The automatic bus turns from the highway to the area of huge buildings which are too huge that if looking from the center, it’s impossible to see neither edge nor the top.
The bus floating through the air slowly to the tunnel inside the building, the tunnel is a little bigger than the bus and has the lights on the sides along the way.
The automatic bus turns from the highway to the area of huge buildings which are too huge that if looking from the center, it’s impossible to see neither edge nor the top.
The bus floating through the air slowly to the tunnel inside the building, the tunnel is a little bigger than the bus and has the lights on the sides along the way. Each bus has glowing numbers or texts on its roof like home’s address.
Three minutes after, the bus arrived at the empty s.p.a.ce, slowing its speed and moving inside, perfectly filling the s.p.a.ce, then, the door’s open.
“We’re arrived home”
Kesron drags her daughter out of the bus. Although she called it’s a home, the thing in front of them is a room with three meters wide, four meters deep and two and a half meters high. In the middle of the room was placed by a capsule that can be seen many times in Sci-Fi movies, its nickname is “Cap”
Cap is a short name for Capsule which is officially called The Transmitter Station, it’s an equipment to receive and send the signal with high quality to connect the user to the virtual world, which is used to resolve the over population and inhabitable environment problem.
Everybody know that the population will be denser every day, there are not enough s.p.a.ce on earth for that many people, so there’s virtual world for humans to live in the virtual world and limit the s.p.a.ce usage of real world, left by a s.p.a.ce for capsules. Special environment is one of the reasons; motivate the people to live there in the virtual world.
Kesorn helps Gewalin to use the Cap for the first time with a little tangle, and it maybe worst if the girl never uses the capsule in the hospital before. After send her daughter to lays inside the capsule, the machine closed itself automatically then, Kesorn goes to her “house” by her capsule.
Gewalin feels excites when she lays down on the Cap, because the Capsule in the hospital is different in its appearance. After the light in the Cap is dimming and went dark for seconds, the surrounding is calmingly lighter, she found herself lying on a normal bed in a plain, small room. When looking at the window, she found only gra.s.sland expanding far, far away, nothing more than this, plain and empty.
Even though this is a world traveling, she can’t found anything strange in this process, not even in the transmitter station in the hospital or what she’s using right now, just a little weird feeling when surrounding is suddenly change, just that.
“Come down here, my child, I have something to walk with you”
Kesorn’s voice is from outside the door. Gewalin open the door, found a corridor outside, she goes down stair, following the direction of the voice until she found her mother waiting for her on the sofa. When Kesorn saw Gewalin sat beside her, she starts an important conversation.
“What I’m going to tell you is, the cost of your treatment is very expansive, I borrowed money from many places so, I have to work on the moon to find money for return around three years”
“Three years?”
Gewalin surprised, in the era that people are being happy in virtual world, they don’t want to work anymore, causing the salary wage skyrockets immediately. Even that, Kesorn still has to work for about three years to collect the money enough to pay the debt, it means that the money used for Gewalin is not something to laugh at. Other than that, Gewalin is a little bit surprised for why did she is too hurry to tell her.
“Yes, three years that I have to work, you have to just live from day to day because I don’t have any more money to add any program in the house, the food that you can choose are just fried eggs, stewed eggs and fried chickens for three years… there’s rice too.”
Social nowadays have many things changed, one of that is people’s lifestyle in the virtual world. Although people can eat anything to their heart desired but in reality, they’re all feed by ready-made nutrients which are a special commonwealth for civilians.
But still, foods in virtual world are just common foods. People who want to eat anything luxury more than that has to work and buy programs and install them in their house separately.
This is a mechanic type to manage humans, when they have their goal, they can feel they’re not worthless.
Thinking about eating only three things for three years, Gewalin has frowned as being very strain. Kesorn saw her daughter’s face and laugh.
“You don’t have to make that face. Well, considered that I still have a luck, because I was win over a shuffle prize for life-time member of an online game when I upgraded this house”
“You want me to play this game?”
“At first I didn’t really think that I have to use this right, fortunately that I still didn’t register in my name, and I’ve already transferred my right and registered in your name”
“That’s mean; I have to play this game for three years?” Gewalin asked.
“Yes, when I’ve got this prized, I didn’t really interesting in it but when I checked for the detail, this game provided the authority to transmit the data as much as a high ranked restaurant, at least, you don’t have to eat the same things over three years but still, I don’t really know how you can get delicious food, I never plays game like this before”
“… And when will you get going?” Gewalin feels frightening; she just has got the warmness of family for a little time and she has to let it go again, and importantly, it’s really sudden for her to depart.
“In two hours” Kesorn speaks with a smile.
“TWO HOURS!?” Gewalin shouted in shock.
“Yes, two hours. For a moment I will sign an agreement to transfer my right to you in the last step, send you into the game and I will leave.” Kesorn drags Gewalin to stand and brings her to hers room.
“What agreement?”
“The online game that I won over the prize is named Parallel Adventure; it’s a game that the player’s age must be over twentieth to play, if the age is not reach the requirement, they have to have their parents sign the agreement; it’s a luck that you’re sixteenth, pa.s.sed the minimum age of fifteenth”
“Minimum age of fifteenth, what is that means?” Gewalin is confused with the words of her mother.
Kesorn showing an uncertain face “I’m not sure, it’s like that this game is very hardcore and violent, the person who’s over fifteenth but not reach twentieth must have their parent’s approval, but if under fifteenth then they’re not permit to play this game”
Both of them stopped at the front of a door in Gewalin’s room. Gewalin is doubting that how’d she overlooked this out-of-place door, every doors in this house are wooden door painted in white with its normal modern k.n.o.b but this door, it’s a really old door reinforced by thick iron bars. The door was placed on the wall, totally not care about the owner’s taste.
“If it was you before I’d totally not permit you to do anything like this but, I think the present you is different form before, you may survived in the world of adult”
Kesorn grab Gewalin’s hand to hold the ring on one side of the door while she’s hold the one on her side. Unlocked sound rang up with the notification sound popped up as the signal to tells that Gewalin can enter the game on her own right now, she’s already making a contract with the game corporation before so, there’s no more steps to do.
“I have to go, in three years, I will be back and we will be together for a long times … I will have to tell you again, you have to keep your implantation treatment as a secret, if it was revealed, your life might be in danger,”
“Yes mom, if it was revealed then there will be people who are trying to find their benefits from me, right?”
Both of them hugged tightly and departed with ruefulness. Kesorn opened the door and go back to the living room down stair drowsily, she wants to be with her daughter more than this but the man who waited for her in the room is like a representative of cruel reality that she has to accept and confront it.
“Miss Kesorn, you won’t tell your daughter the truth? This departure maybe the last time, you know?” The young man speaks with sympathetic.
Kesorn’s tears drop on her face with suffering in her heart.
“Just a chance to hear my daughter’s voice is enough, mister. Left her not knowing anything is the best for herself.”
The young man didn’t speak more; he opened the door and leading the poor mother away. Kesorn looks at her house again with rueful before she turned back and left the house.
Gewalin freaked out suddenly, right after she crossed the door, she found herself standing among over than ten long legged giant crabs about two meters in height. She thanks to herself in her mind that she doesn’t has a habit to exclaim when she was being scared.
It was her luck that these crabs didn’t have good eyesight, the crabs nearby is facing the other way and the others far crab that facing here didn’t even notice her. Each of them are using their giant pincers to flip the rocks nearby, finding little insects to eat.
But, at the moment when she’s trying to stalk away.
“Crack!”
A sound like some mechanic was pushed to the lock was from behind, when Gewalin turned back; she found a giant crab expanding its legs that normally folded up to its longest state, standing over her face. For the cause of the sound, it was from its right giant pincer that right now is extending to the end.
“Clink!”
The extended pincer was closed with the speed that eyes can’t catch, making a loud noise. Every crab turned their body the sound in sudden.
Gewalin can guess that if she turned her face back, what she will found. Even that she knows, she still turned her face back with curiosity, then she found all crabs were extended theirs legs and draw their pincers rapidly.
There’s no need to think, she began to run pa.s.s the nearest crab immediately. Even though the crabs are big but they can’t move very fast, those long legs didn’t help them to move faster, or rather; those legs make the crabs slower. I would be just only for intimidate their enemy.
Even though they’re not very fast, they’re still fast enough to make Gewalin dodge the attacks at all she could. When moving her body like this, Gewalin knows that her body in this game is far weaker than her real body, if compared to her old body three hundred years before, it’s not even one five.
After she successfully dodges all the attacks from three crabs, she uses all her energy to run as fast as she can to a big rock beside the river about one hundred meters ahead. She’s not sure how far these crabs will follow her, if thinking about her experience from playing MMORPG [10], the enemy won’t go so far from their original place but if thinking about Offline RPG game experience, these enemies will follow her till the end of the world if they’re not killed.
Gewalin runs all her might without turning her face back, she used to die just because she look back while she’s escaping many times. Just only she runs for about fifty meters, she’s very fatigues rapidly, it’s like her heart will break any times but, she still force herself, runs for her life even she’s not able to breath properly.
The distance of twenty meters before she reach the rock makes her feels like it was a kilometer even that, she still struggling climbs the slippery rock successfully.
Gewalin’s panting with the body full of sweats when she sits, she never tired like this since when she was in the school’s basketball club in her second half of her high school life. The distance between the rock and the crabs are still more than twenty meters, showing that they’re not very fast. Still, the quant.i.ty of them is more than twenty. Just a moment, those crabs arrived and surrounded the rock, making cracking noises around.
Gewalin confirmed that these crabs can’t use their long legs to climb this slippery rock, and then she tries to thinks carefully.
“So, this game doesn’t have the beginner helper system or character creation system huh?”
Gewalin was not sure; she never plays game in this era before so, she thinks by herself that it should be like this.
Almost all of normal online games have their character creation system or beginner helper system, only that Parallel Adventure was made for players whom want to enjoy the difficulties of the game so it don’t have those systems; everyone must find their own way to acquire the knowledge of the game and also, players will receive the basic play guide since from the member registration step in the first place.
Although she has no any information of this game, Gewalin didn’t feel anxious. She acc.u.mulated her experience of gaming since she was twelfth until she’s thirtieth; she’s in the group that start to play MMORPG games early when they came to the market since before it’s well-known to common. No need to think about Offline RPG that she cleared so far. Then, her feeling is more exciting to experience the new things rather than other.
“But, shouldn’t it have the status screen? Or else, this game would be a bit too hardcore.”
She only thinks in her mind but the system could sense what she wanted, the status screen in the form of a slim edge rectangular monitor appeared in front of her suddenly.
Name: Gewalin
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 26/50 (Stamina recovery percentage 1)
“Three lines, only three? And it’s even use my real name!?” Gewalin exclaimed in surprised
Actually, she’s a bit misunderstanding about the name, she still a little adhere to the character name. Every online game in her era will force the player to create and name the character to identify the ident.i.ty but, in Parallel Adventure, players can tell the other person whatever they want their name to be to fully role-play in the game.
The ident.i.ty of player will be identifying by their own appearance; the name shown on her status screen is only to connect the information she saw to herself for only just a reference. Otherwise, their gender will be forcefully correct with their real gender in the real world.
Gewalin thinks about the number of stamina and easily understand it, by her experience, it tells her whenever she uses her body to do anything, it would burn the stamina, and basically it’s the energy to use for activities to the environment (TL: Not really sure)
Gewalin test the comparison between the consuming and recovery of stamina and she discovered that just only rest for two or three minutes, she will be fully energized without any trace if tiredness left and she can continue to use her strength without any fatigue or aches.
It makes she remembers the time when she has to run for build the muscle being a school’s basketball player. Running twenty kilometer every days and nights will have her to rest for a time, not the easy thing like this. The feeling while running for a long time is like her arms is making a burden out of her and too disorderly till she wants to cut it out, it’s the things that only the person who experienced this will only understand.
And then, a single though came to Gewalin’s mind. If she’s workout here, will it build the muscles, increase the strength or not?
She wants to jump down and runs immediately but the crabs are still cornering her. She has to change her mind and deal with the present first.
If it’s a game that has the fixed story then she might be found something useful for the situation immediately since the creator will prepare the situation countermeasure for the players but when looking around, there’s nothing useful near this narrow rock. One thing she sees is whenever she walks to any side, the crabs will follow her to that side. So she makes a simple plan.
Gewalin chooses a corner of the rock and jumping, dancing around, making sounds to bait the most crabs to follow her to that side and then she use her strength runs to the other side and jump out, runs to the another rock with big trees nearby that she’s already aimed.
But the distance between two rocks are farther than before, she has to endure the fatigue more but when it reach to some point, she wasn’t felt anything worse than this, just has to endure with suffer more for the time being.
When she reached the target and successfully climbed to the safe point, she rests and checked the status then, she found her stamina was raised a little. That’s mean, working out and raising the limit of the body like this is not that difficult.
Gewalin explores the tree around her for a moment; she crabs are finally reaching her. This time, she can’t use the same strategy as the other side of the rock is high, she can’t climb it. By the way, there’re vines in the size of a pencil binding around the three and little rocks that spreading under the three.
The state of the big three that grows up on rocks is usually come from the seed that blow by the wind or was carried by the animals. Actually, that’s not the thing Gewalin has to care about while she’s cutting the vines.
While she tried to test the toughness of the vines, she concentrates her mind and appraised the information of the vines subconsciously and the system can senses the will of Gewalin, it shows the information window of the vines to her but, it’s not really useful because there’s was very little information shown to her.
Vine
The ivy plant that can be commonly found in the forest.
Gewalin chooses a long rock the size of one and a half liter water bottle that has slits for vines to stick on and then she bind the vine around the rock. She tried to bind it tightest and strongest she could and throws the rock to the crabs the crowed below. She chooses the nearest crab, even though it was clear that there’s no way she can miss.
A cracking sound can be heard clearly from the target crab’s sh.e.l.l, the sh.e.l.l was hollowed down to the pinky-white meat inside. Actually, the sh.e.l.l was very hard but not hard as rocks. That crab was collapsed suddenly; it means that the rock damaged it in critical place even though the person who throws that didn’t even aims, she just wants it to hit by a rock.
Gewalin pulls the rock back and throws it back again to the crabs, this time she use all her strength, the outcome is the another crab received the hit and collapsed like the first one. The other crabs suddenly flee for their lives to all directions, left Gewalin who’s confuses on the big rock.
“Ah? They know fear of the death?”
She’s unexpected that a dumb animal like crab will knows fear of danger in this way, especially in an online game which they will be hostile and never fear of the death.
Gewalin climbs down from the rock and examines the corpses of two crabs that laying down on the floor, when she examined the first one, an information screen was shown.
Freshwater Stone Crab
The big crab living near the freshwater, its taste is delicious
The following four lines are the pictures of the already-pealed crab meat with the description “Raw crab meat” and the other line was a picture of tiny shield made by crab’s sh.e.l.l, the description is “Freshwater Stone Crab Shield” and at the bottom was “Receive”
Gewalin tests by use her finger to press the receive b.u.t.ton, the legs meat suddenly spring up in front of her face with a shield in the shape totally like crab’s sh.e.l.l, it just added the handle for holding it. The crab’s corpse was shattered in pieces and became vapor rapidly.
The Giant size meat was fallen to the ground. At first, Gewalin though it will be dirty all over but when she touched it, there’s no sight of dirtiness in it. She understood the it would be facilitate system of the game, if everyone have to worry about the ingredients will fall to the ground and get dirty then this game would be a lot distasteful
The shield was roughly made by the pan size sh.e.l.l, the handle made from a wooden stick binding by the vines like those Gewalin uses to bind the rock. She suddenly crushes her shield to the rock to test its durability, the result? It was completely crushed and shattered in pieces.
“I was really a poor man’s shield…” Gewalin muttered and throws those once-a-shield trashes away.
When she examined another crab, the same information screen was shown; this time is without the shield. Gewalin wondering, why she received just only two pieces of meat (TL: didn’t there were four before? Or I just mistranslated it) even she can see that there still too many legs left, in her thought is “I’d better peel it myself” and in sudden when she thought, the information screen was disappeared.
Gewalin uses the palm size rock slowly smash the sh.e.l.l and uses her hands to takes the sh.e.l.l off. Time pa.s.ses a little when she’s got crab meats of eight legs plus the meat in the body, she also has got the pincer that she thrown away before and found that the saw part are very sharp and hard in capable to easily saw the branches out.
She use a fitting branch tied with the pincer by the vines, it becomes a simple saw blade sword. After she tried to use it slash the wind for many times, she could feel that she became a child again. It was a time when she made a sword from a long branch and plays in the role of a hero, chasing the demons in her imagination. She couldn’t help to smile at herself.
The back story may be impressive and nostalgia but if look at its usage, it would be just a normal saw; it was hard to find it fits for fighting.
After that, she examine the left enormously meats, it would weight more than thirty kilogram. While she was confused to how she would manage it, her stomach sounds loudly. She decided to taste one of the legs.
“Greasy”
She thinks while she chew and swallowed the raw crab meat, she doesn’t has any problem with the cooked crab meat but the raw one is too sweet and greasy together with a little fishy smell. Many people may like it this way but for her, if there isn’t any spicy sauce to dip it in then she could only eat it very little. The leftover crab meats were thrown away as she can’t really swallow them down.
Gewalin examines herself after looking around as she doesn’t know what to do next. She doesn’t have a chance to examine herself before because she has to runs since the start. Now, she’s wearing a cloth fabricated from rough fabric, it would be a fabric made from a rough plant’s filament.
A long sleeved wide shirt that could be see often in the Chinese martial art movies, the pants and waistband was fabricated by the same type fabric that also use for shoes but, the shoes part are made of many layers of fabric making it thick to support the heavy duty use more than shirt and pants, especially in the shoe soles that was specially padded thickly
After detailed examine herself, she change her attention to the surrounding. Surround her is a wide riverside pebble beach of a big rapid flowing river. At the end of pebble beach to the side is a thick forest, farther are Stone Crabs that crawling around the area.
Gewalin carries the crab saw blade sword on her shoulder and head to the banana plantations she saw far away, her eyes are searching for the enemies that maybe suddenly scare her out of nothing.
When she reached the green banana plantations, she drops her jaw as it was ten times bigger than the banana plantation she knows. From normally that the banana tree will be the size of leg now it is cement tube taller more than ten meters. Its leafs outspread like a giant umbrella; more leafs were overlap to each other and block all the light coming from the sun, even the three she sees afar is many times bigger than she thought.
When she chooses the tree that beveled in perfect degree, she starts to saw it immediately. Even though it was big, it doesn’t harder than normal banana tree, just a moment and the giant banana tree was fell down, making a loudly noise. She cuts the old leaf and in perfect shape and drags to the riverside, chooses a big rock as a wall and makes a simple shack.
With a few leafs of banana, a simple but strong enough to use as a shack was created. Some leafs were tearing apart to the reasonable size to warp around the crab meat and use it as supplies, some were uses as flooring for sleep at night.
Now, Gewalin really wants a knife, the saw blade sword was useless in fine works, she even needs to make a campfire before it getting dark.
When she thinks she has to make fire by wooden sticks, she frowned in seriousness. She’s done that before and found it was very hard and suffering. She never thinks that using wooden stick to make fire will make her drops the sweat all over her body. She decided to find something useful around first.
After walking around the pebble beach while avoiding the crabs, she found a common thing in normal online game. It was a treasure chest made from old wood reinforced by iron sinking in the mud on the riverside. She felt it was unreasonable to have a treasure chest placing in the place like this without the source but it wasn’t a time to think about anything like that, because there’re usually have a story like this in the game three hundred years ago without any reason.
Gewalin has to slowly scoop the mud that the chest was buried in before she can drag it out. A rust lock was smashed by rock few times and went off easily. In the chest was contained a shoulder bag made from hide that sewed by a big rough thread. Inside the bag was fills strange empty gla.s.s tubes like a test tube in quant.i.ty of ten, wrapped together by a rough cloth and a long narrow neck bottle in in shape of sphere made by gla.s.s.
When she saw the sphere shape bottle, she has an idea how she will make fire. She collects the dried woods, dried leafs and wooden sticks the size of leg to use them as fuel to make fire. After used her saw blade sword to scratches the dried wood until it become dust, she use the sphere gla.s.s bottle that was filled with water to concentrate the light from the sun in the afternoon, making a fire easily.
When the fire was lit, Gewalin brings the crab meats she kept and wraps them separately then throws them to the campfire, making amok that fully made out of crab meat. In the short time, the smells of crab are spread around the shack.
The cooked meat is white and tight, its smell is nicer than when it was raw may times, Gewalin couldn’t believe that she could swallow all the crab meats from the leg that longer than a meter to her stomach completely. Each bite she bitten, many sweet liquid was overflows till it was fills her cheek, it was like she was eating concentrated crab soup.
After she rest a while, she reinforce the shack with rocks until it was dark and laying down, thinking about the plans she will do tomorrow and then, she fell sleep. Maybe, playing this game is not that bad like she thought.
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