1 Chapter 1 - Memories within a memory
*beep*
A boy looked up at the building in front of him. There was a sign consisting of black letters outlined by gold.
The sign read "Soaring Skyscraper High School." It was named by the benefactor who donated enough money to renovate the previously unkempt school.
The school was originally run by board members who didn't care about the school, but banked on the history of the school.
The original school was founded by a rich tycoon who made his wealth on precious ores that behaved similarly to nano-technology. What was the difference? There was no difference. It was nano-technology with a slight modification that was rebranded as mechanite. This tycoon struck it rich and many others who copied him simply could not get the traction necessary to get sustainable market share. However, once the truth was revealed, he who declared himself as a revolutionary genius fell from the sky and all those who backed up were similarly devastated.
In the end, a scientist found a real breakthrough and made something much more superior to nano-technology. He named the series of products made using this technology gravaton. The tycoon sought to discredit this scientist but every piece of evidence he produced showed that futurite was indeed a product completely different from nano-technology. Eventually, as more and more scientists conducted tests, the scientist who created gravaton became a billionaire while the tycoon suddenly found himself in despair as the creditors who gave him loans to develop his mechanite empire wanted money back that he didn't have.
This was 10 years ago and to this day, not a trace of him could be found anywhere. The ones who lost their cash were understandably furious but they couldn't do anything. The scientist felt bad and promised to rectify the financial damages caused by the tycoon to the best of his abilities.
He allowed the creditors to take financial positions within his company and gave them some stock. As time passed, these creditors slowly started making back their fortune. When they thought of the scientist and how he gave them the chance to pull themselves out of despair, they felt grateful to him.
However, life inevitably has some bad apples. A few people started stealing technology and selling it to the highest bidders. Some came up with elaborate plots to dethrone the scientist. The money they were constantly surrounded by instilled a sense of greed in them that manifested into brazen actions over time.
The scientist had already predicted this. After all, his original modification, renamed mechanite, caused the previous debacle. He was heartbroken when the tycoon he considered a friend betrayed him like that, but he never revealed these details to the world.
The tycoon was a rich executive in the sports world previously. He was powerless to do anything. All he could do was try to create a much bigger breakthrough this time. He succeeded but the precautions he made this time were still all for naught.
The same thing was seemingly happening again, but this time the betrayal wasn't immediate since his empire was much larger.
As he sought out trusted advisors to figure out a plan, he was also doing his own investigations into better technologies and also ways to safeguard his current technologies.
5 years later, he had finally come up with a plan for a future where it was impossible for anyone to backstab him. Last year, his son started watching martial competitions on show. People would show off flashy moves and get scored. His son watched every martial competition possible and after 6 months, he asked his dad to pay for martial lessons. To convince his dad, he performed a few moves to show how serious he was about it.
The son showed off roundhouses, uppercuts, jabs, swings, side hooks, sweeps, among other techniques. He then asked his dad to spar with him a little. The scientist was taken aback.
'Boy, it's fine that you learned some defense and attack techniques, but your dad is a scientist! Where in the world did you get the idea that I could do any of that?' he thought.
After some hesitation, the scientist threw a few punches and a kick, and to no one's surprise, the son blocked them all without sustaining heavy injuries.
However, he was shocked the next second when his son asked him to attack with some technology.
He shook his head, refusing.
'Is he stupid? Technology can crush a human any day' he criticized internally.
His son knew he was taking him seriously so he rushed at him and threw another punch but with some killing intent. The scientist suddenly felt a chill and immediately activated the defenses he had created out of instinct.
'Oh no!'
However, in the next moment, the son grabbed the arms that had come out of his dad's back and using incredible arm strength, flipped over his dad and landed a kick on his back, causing his dad to fall on the ground face first.
After he got back up and dusted off his clothes, he looked at his son in disbelief.
'Did I just seriously get beat by a kid in one move?'
As he looked at his son who was smiling at him with a thumbs up, he suddenly got an idea.
He started recording all sorts of martial arts shows, documentaries, interviews, and movies. He would start watching them in his lab at night and for the next 6 months, that's all he did.
6 months later, the world witnessed something shocking. The scientist who made gravaton announced he had fired 25 high level executives in his company and right after that, the police had announced that they had arrested 25 high level executives from a certain company and when reporters asked who was arrested, they said the information was confidential.
However, the population weren't idiots. 25 high level executives fired from Gravaton Industries with 25 arrests being made right afterwards? You would have to be dense not to connect the two incidents.
For a full year after that, the scientist never stepped out of the building. However, new executives and projects were constantly being announced by his company. Then, one day, he mysteriously vanished.
The strangest part was, after the son took over the empire 10 years later while senior advisors temporarily ran the show, he announced that as someone who has never known their biological father their entire life, their adopted father had done a tremendous job taking care of him and he would never forget the kindness he had received. He then started to list all of his adopted father's achievements in life, how he had created mechanite which eventually led to gravaton. He said he would take his father's legacy and continue to create new technologies that would better people's lives.
One of his first goals would be to create a new school for talented geniuses. This school, which was for teenagers between 14-18, would be a pre-college prep course. The intention was for kids who qualified into this school to be given resources to 'soar high' into the sky and break their limits, hence it was named 'Soaring Skyscraper High School.'
After this announcement, the world went into an uproar. Adopted father? Created mechanite and gravaton? What kind of nonsense was this?
What came next shocked them more. The government publicly announced their support for the son and repeated what he announced in their own way.
Everyone sucked in a cold breath of air at the same time and started discussions among themselves. The most common thought among everyone was, what the hell happened with Gravaton Industries? Where did the scientist go and why did the son suddenly start praising a non-existent adopted father? Where was this father? Why did the government confirm such obvious lies?
--
In a run-down apartment unit
A fat man was similarly looking at the holo-display on his wall with shock on his face. His right hand was caressing a piece of rock. Upon closer look, this rock was actually mechanite.
This was the tycoon after his downfall and he had the same thoughts as everyone else. What the actual heck was going on?!
After staring absentmindedly at the display for a few more seconds, his eyes turned to the rock in his left hand.
After staring intensely for a few seconds, he heard a voice in his head.
"You'll really do that for me??"
*whispering*
"But who is this Sylzone and why is the world's fate depending on him?"
*whispering*
"Look, I promised to help you out, but don't you think I deserve to know what's going on?"
*whispering*
"Haahhhh… I understand. I know what I did was wrong but if it wasn't me, it would be someone else!"
*whispering*
"What do you mean it couldn't have been anyone else but me?"
*whispering*
The tycoons eyes were widened and he started shaking profusely.
"Why would you people..", but before he could finish that sentence, a tremendous shock spread throughout his body, causing him to convulse. Only after a while, did it finally stop.
"I understand…" the tycoon replied between sparse breaths.
The voices were no longer in his head as the tycoon rested for a while to get his breathing back to normal. Then he stood up and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed some snacks and water and shoved them all down his throat before he walked back to the holo-display. He took the rock in his left hand and pressed it against the display. Then he stared at the rock for a bit before he started mumbling some words.
As the rock fused into the display, the display started flickering. It was more accurate to say the rock seemed to be penetrating space itself because the display was virtual. As the rock penetrated the air, slow ripples could be seen spreading throughout the space in the apartment.
Soon after, the tycoon started getting nauseous and he started to stagger around, unable to keep his bearing. However, he gritted his teeth and clenched his right hand. He clenched so hard the mechanite started to pierce his palm. He ignored the pain and continue clenching his right arm. Finally, his body started to shake. A pain started to accumulate in his head. He gritted his teeth and beared it. The pain reached its intensity after a few moments and then started getting weaker, before it got stronger and started traveling down the tycoon's body. It slowly traveled from his head, then the neck, chest, right shoulder, right arm, before it increased in intensity in the right hand. Finally, the tycoon yelled and doing what the voice told him to do, thrust a right jab at the area where the other rock disappeared.
The last thing the tycoon saw was a bright light that filled his entire vision.
--
As the boy recalled the memories of his host, he couldn't help but be better. Today was his first day at 'Soaring Skyscraper High School,' but barely one day ago, he was a senior at Calm River High School. He was walking home when to his horror, the air seemed to be vibrating around him. At first, he thought he was seeing things, but as the vibrations surrounded his entire vision, he couldn't help but panic.
He tried to run but they kept chasing him. To be more accurate, they seemed to be fixed to his position rather than to the world. Eventually, because he couldn't see anything but the vibrations, he eventually blacked out when in reality, he was hit by a truck in real life. Of course, he didn't know that he appeared to be hallucinating to the truck driver who saw him at the last second.
When he regained his vision, he was standing a distance away from a large building. As he slowly walked to the building, memories started to surface. Those memories were what he had been recalling a second ago. The strange part was that there were two sets of memories but he could only access one. The other memories seemed to be locked away.
He tried to rub his eyes and pinch himself, but to his horror, he realized he wasn't in the same world anymore. At least, this world was way more technologically advanced than his. The best way to describe it was, this world seemed like a future version of his world, but he knew it wasn't.
How could it be his world when such a bizarre phenomenon occurred to him? That was his first conjecture.
The second piece of evidence that made him realize he was in a different world was the watch being handed out to first year kids just beyond the entrance to the school. It looked way more advanced than the smart watches he knew of.
The smart watches in his world gave notifications, but these actually talked complete sentences in a very intelligent manner. The smart watches in his world gave the time, but that was limited to the screen. These watches projected the time and other information in a holographic display. The smart watches in his world could give you information on steps, heart rate, and sleep patterns, but these watches could actually diagnose any issues you have as well.
The final piece of evidence that he wasn't in the same world anymore was that as he walked toward the entrance to the school, he saw triangular prisms of what looked like glass. From a distance, he thought someone was destroying a bunch of windows, but there were too many and they were all around him. There's no way that many windows can be broken at once. They shouldn't fall this slowly either! Actually, they weren't even falling. They were slowly rotating.
He tried walking towards one of them but the distance didn't seem to close. He tried asking another kid but they couldn't see it. If he thought he was under a dizzy spell, the watches convinced him he somehow traveled to the future. However, the invisible prisms of glass convinced him that he wasn't sick or in the future. He was actually in another world.
As he slowly processed this, he slowly started to accept the reality of the situation.
Taking a deep breath, he knew he would have to figure out what was different with his family, his friends, and ultimately his new life, but first, he needed to find out more about this world. He knew the prisms were related to everything somehow, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do with them.
At some point, he decided that he should just go through a normal day and something would happen that would start to explain just what the heck was going on.
With that in mind, he made it to the table where they were handing out the watches.
"Name?" asked a woman.
"Sylzone Godfiend" Sylzone replied.
The man skipped to the G's and then scanned the names near the T's. She instantly found his name. She reached into a box, grabbed a watch, and handed it to him. However, as she looked at Sylzone, her hand paused.
"What's wrong?"
But Sylzone didn't respond. He was staring at the watch with widened eyes.
'He must be super excited" the woman thought.
She called out his name a little louder and snapped her fingers in front of his face this time. Sylzone finally snapped out of his trance.
"Remember to take good care of it. You only get one!" the woman reminded.
Sylzone nodded.
As he turned around and began walking towards the school, the woman went back to giving out more watches.
Initially, Roger was just excited to get a watch. However, his entire body froze when he realized that his watch contained a triangular prism. It was embedded directly in the center, right above the battery. In fact, Sylzone could see that it seemed to be fused into the battery itself, rather than stuck. All the other watches Sylzone saw being passed out didn't have this triangular prism. More importantly, the prism visually got closer and when he pulled the watch face up to his eye, the prism got closer still.
"Hello Sylzone Godfiend, welcome to Soaring Skyscraper High School," the watch said out loud.
At the same time, in his head, another voice sounded.
"Sentient System 5.0 activated. Welcome Sylzone Godfiend to the world of Skyroux. I am your personal host and I have been waiting for you for 1000 years."
Immediately, a mind-numbing pain assaulted his head before the same distortions swallowed him up again.
*beep*
99th recording finished playing, beginning 100th recording playback
Error, 100th recording playback has encountered a fatal error
"Hmm?"
As the young man shook his head to clear the pain, he slowly woke up and a frown emerged on his head.
"Sylzone, what's wrong?" a feminine' voice sounded out in front of him.
"Carmen, there's nothing wrong. The last video is just corrupted. I need to find a way to clean it" Sylzone answered.
"Oh, I see, do you require any help from me?" Carmen said more enthusiastically.
Sylzone contemplated for a while.
"Can you modify the tools we currently have to create something that can clean a corrupted file?" Sylzone asked.
"Of course!" Carmen said, and a huge smile could be seen on her face before she got off the bed and vanished.
Carmen was a girl with pale skin and makeup that accentuated that paleness, a beauty standard that was very popular in some parts of Asia. Coincidentally, Sylzone in his previous life had ventured across Asia once and he found his hormones spiking up rapidly, whereas he always felt bored in America. Carmen seemed to represent the qualities he found himself falling for.
Coincidentally, she was the first person he saw when he woke up and that took his breath away. For a moment, he thought he was dead and did more good things than bad before he died. It took him a while before he realized he wasn't dead. Carmen was his personal AI assistant in a world dominated by technology. He also found out later that physically, she was also very real and very resourceful.
When he first woke up, he was getting ready for another day before countless memories assaulted him. That was when Carmen appeared and helped him with the pain by organizing the information into 100 different recordings. He had just experienced 99 different lives spanning back dozens of years.
Each live had a different "host", someone who took over a body, but mysteriously, each host died before entering college. Finally, an anomaly caused Sylzone to inhibit the current host.
