Sweet Dreams 1

Groggily, Trex opened his eyes.

Even though he slowly opened his eyes, he still got blinded by the bright lights in the room.

Slowly adjusting to brightness, Trex's vision cleared up.

White walls, silver flooring, border ceiling lights that are currently flashing bright white light, and minimalistic furnishing are definitely something from the future.

Suddenly, his vision moved.

His body moved too.

But it wasn't him.

Realizing this, Trex tried to control his body, but to his horror, he couldn't move a single muscle.

Finally, he was already standing up. Seeing his hands raise themselves, he couldn't help but feel fear.

That was until he realized the hands. Those pair of hands didn't belong to him.

With a swipe, his vision gained some new elements, a personal heads-up display.

["Good morning, Jonathan."]

Another string of text appeared in his vision, surprising Trex deeply.

He tried to speak, but no words came out. But his words that he said suddenly appeared in his vision.

No.

Instead, it appeared in Jonathan's vision.

["What is going on?"]

In red hue text, Trex's word flashed.

Then, his vision moved once again towards the simple and clean white desk.

Tapping on the desk lightly, a floating screen appeared in front of Trex and Jonathan.

It was already on the desktop with a file opened.

"Trex OS Design Laws"

Below the header is a long string of text consisting of seventy paragraphs and over three million words. After scanning the entire waterfalls of text, Trex found information that actually involves him and OS.

"Trex OS must only obey Jonathan, not even commands given by Trex OS gets a priority over Jonathan's commands. Unless it was Jonathan, the smart mind powered by Trex OS must never activate. If it happens that the smart mind powered by Trex OS did activate without Jonathan's consent, Trex OS must mix actual data with falsified ones. Trex OS, while an actual operating system, is portable. Removing Trex OS would only need a replacement OS for the smart mind to work once more."

This was it—the reason why after getting shut down, a million inconsistencies appeared.

OS tried to mess with Trex simply because he wasn't Jonathan.

Suddenly, he recalled one of their conversations during the hospital visit.

"Why am I not on the exception list?"

"Are you Jonathan yet?"

Trex finally noticed the implications. While he did see it at first, he didn't have the time to respond nor actually give it thought.

It was a direct confession that was definitely an error, actual data that was supposed to be falsified.

Once again, red text flashed on his vision, ["Just what is going on?!?!"]

"Trex." A voice suddenly replied to him. "What are your thoughts in creating a new world?"

["Jo… Jonathan?"] Trex asked, which didn't garner any replies. After waiting for a few moments, he realized he could only answer the question.

["The metal world, it feels like a new world. I want to develop it."]

Being stuck in Jonathan's right temple, Trex couldn't see his face. But for some reason, he felt like something happened. It was as if Jonathan was smiling.

"Before I died, we established a new world. But when I thought I had a dozen of days left in that world, it was cut short. So did my head." Jonathan explained.

Trex was startled. He finally remembered one of Jonathan's traits which is his dark humor. He didn't know what to say. A bunch of ellipses entered his vision.

Jonathan chuckled dryly. "Earlier, that doctor. He did something to magic. It pulled me back from nothingness. But these are what's left of my thoughts."

"Trex, the tree which you call Vygdrasil. When we got transported into this world, I was still conscious. Just my head alone with the smart mind, strange energy entered through my neck. I wasn't breathing anymore, but I didn't need to.

The smart mind and the strange energy kept my consciousness alive.

"It was also then that every mana that entered went directly to the virtual world. The lack of computer resources immediately crumpled the entire world, but I kept one area of that world safe."

["What…"]

"Trex, listen to me, I'm about to really disappear. I still have a lot to say but not enough time." Jonathan immediately cut Trex before his words could even form.

Seeing that no more texts were forming in his vision, he continued.

"A place where I can debug. A place where I am able to create whatever I want in the virtual world."

Jonathan began to manipulate the screen in front. The Trex OS Design Laws were minimized and replaced by a photo. A metallic tree standing tall in the middle of a dark, metallic world.

"That is the Vygdrasil."

Trex remained quiet, but his mind was going haywire.

With a swipe, the image switched to one of a floating island in the middle of space. "And this is the Arcade Realm."

"Afterwards, I directed all of the mana to upgrade the smart mind. Unexpectedly, it gave birth to you." At that moment, the world began to fall apart. Even though Trex is literally in Jonathan's head, Jon's voice sounded like it was moving further away.

Trex felt his heart beating even though he currently has none. Still, he remained quiet as Jonathan had ordered him.

"Unfortunately for me, my severed head could only last for long. When my brain started to decompose, I felt my consciousness falter, even more so every day until I couldn't hold on any longer." Jonathan's voice became even more ethereal like someone was talking in a large empty sewer.

"Don't use the smart mind for a while, not until you manage to fully control the arcade realm. After this, you'll wake up in the arcade realm. First thing you need to do is take control of the Vygdrasil…"

As Jonathan explained what to do, the room slowly turned to dust. Until there was only a tiny platform left for Jonathan to stand, he managed to finish his instructions.

"Trex. I'm so sorry for this, but you're my only legacy. My only wish is that for you to create a world. A world that would've been my heaven."

Jonathan heaved a sigh of relief. Managing to let out his last wish, he felt like regrets had no meaning in his life.

["Don't worry… dad… I'll do my best."] A hazy red text suddenly appeared in Jonathan's vision.

A feeling within him arose, his already translucent body began to tremble.

"Trex… son… thank you…"

Trex felt like his heart shatter along with the vision as at that moment, Jonathan was truly living, no more.