ESITA Chapter 9: Monkeys could only dance at the stage he set up

From that night's dinner on, Will seems to lose even more presence.

Having Sean and black in the Merlin family seems to have brighten the house even more. Making the shadow also more visible.

Even Liam's lame jokes turns into something worth repeating several times over. Tom becomes the little child that can't afford to be separated from a dragon, making everyone's faces full of warm smile. The peculiar combination just somehow mesh perfectly to please their eyes.

Tom plays with the dragon as if playing with a cat. A small ball flies in the air with rapid speed while a small black dragon chase it while dexterously maneuvering in the air in the backyard.

Claire takes a video of this scene finding it too amusing. Who knew this could ever happen in this world. This is too amazing as if out of a fantasy movie and Clair could actually witness it up close.

Will spends more and more time at Ricks house and torture him. Or rather, Tutors him with all the lessons they are missing.

Rick now feels what the other students always says that Will Merlin is more intimidating than the teachers.

Jess, a girl their age who usually sticks with them in school now joins Tom's tutoring and rather enjoys it despite the hardships and fierce endless series of knowledge that are even spilling out of their brains.

"Will, this isn't how you treat humans…" Rick cries and feels like he couldn't handle this anymore. "Aren't you talking about something so advanced? We're still in middle school! Why are we studying something that could be found from the lessons in college?!"

"What are you talking about? This is something you could find in the twelfth grade…" retort will and pull his glasses down his nose bridge and glance at Rick with his bare eyes.

Seeing this, Rick shivers. He looks like a strict school headmaster.

Jess felt the shivers down her bones and she could feel the goosebumps as if something struck her.

"So hot… I mean! Can you turn up the AC? Rick, where's the remote?!"

"Why?! Why are we studying something that we should learn five years later?! Please Will! Have mercy on us! Or me…" Rick starts crying.

Seeing this, Will reflects but still couldn't see the downside of learning something in advanced. Isn't this more beneficial?

"What? Am I doing something bad?..." Will feels complicated and couldn't understand. After all, as a person from another world, Will finds everything to learn amazing and enjoyable. The knowledge here is far more advanced and precise that the laughable beliefs and speculations without basis from his previous life. Everything he learns something new, Will could feel the satisfaction of being superior than the scholars and royal mages that he finds amazing back then.

"Will… maybe you should learn about the most important thing…" Rick says rather gravely.

"most important thing..." Will checks his memories and even browse the internet using Brain2.0. There are a lot that pops up but they don't seem to be what Rick is talking about.

"Human limit! Of course it is human limitation!... Limitation make us human! That's why, we can't be humans if we don't have our limits!" Rick drop his pen on the floor.

"How can that be? Isn't that something humans should surpass? Are we supposed to accept that's part of being our humanity?... Maybe that's just how you feel Rick…" Will couldn't believe it.

"Of course it is! It's not just me everyone else thinks like that! You know who only wouldn't? It's you! Because your limit is probably emotions! That makes you human too because you're also lacking something!" Shout's Rick with all his heart. Fed up with Will's overbearing way of treating him.

"How could you say that to Will?!" Jess also stands up and grabs a book and tries hitting Rick with it. "Maybe I should hit this in your head really hard and you might learn what's written in it!" Her teeth grit so hard from irritation that they creak.

Rick shift his body and then runs far to avoid the incoming book using his speed ability. Jess could only stand fuming in anger as Rick seemingly taunting her while running round and round.

Will, left to think by himself. He wasn't offended by Rick's words by the very least, in fact, this makes him reflect and compare his thoughts and philosophy to the normal inhabitants in this world.

Everyone around him seems to think differently from him.

"It really must be a problem. Maybe I should practice restraints…" Will murmurs.

Rick and Jess who hears this stops their fight and turns dumbfounded.

"Sorry for saying too much Will…" Rick finally realizes he said harsh words and feels quite guilty.

"No… instead…. Thank you. I guess" Will says. Looking unusually docile.

"Huh?" Rick couldn't understand why he received thanks instead.

Will thinks for himself and then search tips from Brain2.0 about how to be liked by everyone he meets. Just like Sean or even Rick.

The first thing that comes up is making someone feel pleasant by smiling at them even at the first meeting.

Will, lost in thought inside Brain2.0 while holding his chin suddenly lifts the edges of his mouth and his cheeks raised into a smile.

He looks like a psychopath who just thought up new tortures for his victims.

Rick and Jess couldn't help but shiver and have cold sweat.

Second would be to show interest to the people around them by asking questions and then show appropriate replies. One must show their empathic side and make others feel like they could be easily talked to.

Will looks at the two. Their bodies unconsciously jerks as if splashed by cold water.

"Um… Will?..." Rick nervously ask.

"How is your life Rick? Are you happy?..." Will ask while showing a the widest smile that he can.

With this, Rick falls down on the floor and bend his knees, asking for forgiveness while crying.

Will looks blankly and couldn't understand what is happening. He must have done something wrong but he can't figure out when. Maybe tips online isn't credible and shouldn't be trusted.

Later, Will spends most of his time reflecting and finding ways to make him be likeable.

What are the things could he do to make others like him? It can only be something that belongs to him. The internet says about things like unique charming points is something they should flaunt and be proud about. He can't just copy by observing others or getting tips from questionable blogs.

As practical as he is, it shouldn't solely be for the sake of liking him, it should be beneficial for others around him too.

Will comes home and encounters Tom and Black in the courtyard playing. Both of them are flying in the air and playing catch. With this, they're having fun together and even their proficiency with their abilities are increasing.

This strikes Will of an idea. How could he forget that after teaching Tom how to play with his ability, he looked so happy and even always shows him his progress every single time. Tom looked so proud as he flaunts his achievements back then.

Maybe he could incorporate this idea to his other ideas and create a whole new one that could shoot multiple birds in one stone. The goals would be, one, Make others like him, two, bond with them, three, make them realize how important he is in their lives, four, make them love him even more, five, make them feel happy and have fun, six, this should be beneficial for them, and seven, they all could do it together.

Goals number one, three, and four are the most important ones.

"What do you think Will is doing these days honey, he seems always busy…" Liam asks his wife.

"I heard him saying his building something very important for him… I just don't know what it is. He talks about complicated technical things that most part of it I don't understand. Now I forgot what it's all about"

"It must be very important then…"

"It should be… he also looks happy and satisfied whenever it seems like he's making progress"

The couple could only wonder outside Will's room and as long as their son is happy, he could do whatever he wants.

A short while later, Will gathers everyone he thinks are significant in his life. Mainly made out of the people he meets everyday.

"Everyone, I present to you… something that I've been working on recently, a virtual reality game…" Will shows everyone a neat PowerPoint presentation.

Hearing this, Rick immediately stands up. "Impossible! How could this be?! Aren't you the least person who like games?!" he says almost angry as if Will betrayed him.

"Virtual reality?" Jess asks. "What kind of virtual game? I have HMD stand alone virtual reality headset back home…"

"No. This isn't as simple as those goggles that tricks your brain as if your actually inside a VR world by stimulating your visual senses… Can you see the bracelet I handed to everyone earlier?"

Everyone listen attentively to Will's presentation and couldn't help but feel that this isn't something as simple as a new programming student made a game and showing it now to his friends. This feels like a business pitch. A business plan presentation that's meant for potential investors.

They glance at the shiny bracelet Will gave them earlier and it looks simple and sophisticated. It have plain and thin design that simply wraps around their wrists, however, looking at it more closely, its surface have intricate lines and complicated patterns.

Everyone shows it to Will.

"Thank you. Now, I say that my VR game isn't as simple as those VR headsets that the world has ever seen before. Instead of the HMD, Head mounted display, we're going to enter the Virtual world via the bracelet I will simply call Point Link"

Everyone glance at the bracelet with awe and couldn't imagine how it would work. This amazing thing is currently sitting on their wrist.

When they heard VR game and its not like those glasses, the kids imagine a chamber or capsule that they need to enter like in science fiction or something like that.

"This? Will? How does this work?" Claire is clearly invested in this. Seeing her son so enthusiastic and proud to something that he personally created makes her feel relieved for some reason. It must be because she rarely sees this part of her son.

Will nods to her mom and them continues. "We will get to that mom, but first, let me tell you my purpose of creating this VR game… We all have abilities right? And we know the importance of these abilities to fight back with the apocalypse… naturally, we should train them and get a better grasp of them so we could improve, create certain moves and discover its strength and limitations… Now, where can we practice our abilities? A real life battle would be the most critical place that stimulates us and our abilities and we might just uncover their true strength and incompatibility with the opponent or the environment…"

Everyone that are listening could agree everything Will is saying. They think that this is a genius idea and an innovation that could possibly save lives.

"The Point Link wrapping your wrists right now could link you and your abilities into mine. For the VR world, I created a powerful A.I that could both monitor the physical and magical status of a person real-time and records it in the database and show the progress, power, speed, time frame, and distance visibly in a form of a graph. Just like…"

"A gaming status…" Sean murmurs as he inputs.

Will looks at Sean and nods, showing an agreeing smile. Although it looks stiff.

"As Sean says, like a gaming status… How it works is quite a bit more complicated and productive than sitting on the chair, playing games or the VR games that let's you feel like you've entered a new world. As a start, how about we all enter the VR world and let me show it to you personally.

Everyone could feel the excitement and looks forward to what will happen next.

"To do that, the Point Link needs to be powered by your own abilities. We can access some function in the real world once it is activated… for that, you have to activate your abilities and let the bracelet absorb some of it to activate the Point Link"

Everybody promptly activates the bracelets and they gleam right after absorbing their energies.

Everyone looks at each other's bracelets to see if they also worked for them.

"Can you see a small power button appearing?" Will ask.

"Hologram?! Did you actually made hologram in reality? Will! This is more than amazing!" Rick exclaims and show the floating power button made out of light on the surface of the bracelet.

"Wow…" everybody else pressed the power button and a small holographic screen pops up in front of them.

"As you can see, there's some functions in it similar to that of a smartphone. You could chat and call to the other bracelets connected to the Point Link, take pictures, record video and sounds, connect to the internet, and play PC and Mobile games… in short, you could have access to some extent to the ability of my Brain2.0…"

"Will, you're a genius! As expected every praise in the world isn't enough for a son like you!" Liam exclaims proudly.

Will chuckles and thanks his father and continues introducing the bracelet's features.

"There's the VR access displayed right at where the home button on regular phones should be so it could easily be found. Now, how about we head inside the VR room and let me show you what I'm talking about…"

Everyone press the VR world icon on the hologram and in a flash, their surroundings glitches and shifts into something completely different.

Originally, they're all either sitting on the couch or on the carpet in the living room, however, the house's interior is now replaced with an expanse of pure whiteness.

Their original positions before the entered the VR world is still the same.

Everyone looks around in awe.

Claire was sitting on the couch just now, she's still sitting and the sensation never changed, however, the couch is no longer here to be seen.

Will looks at everyone but couldn't find Rick anywhere.

Rick looks at everyone around him and sees that except him, everybody else have their eyes closed and turn silent and unmoving.

"Why am I the only one who feels scared in all of this? Don't they feel the gravity if what Will made?! It's a freaking innovation of a lifetime! For god's sake… why are you so casual about all this. Will is just twelve years old like me! Where's his limits?!..." Rick starts wailing.

"Rick? What are you waiting for? Everyone is already here…" Will's face appears on the holographic screen and says.

"Whoa! You could do this?"

"Yes, now hurry up so we could move on. Can't you find the VR world button? It's right here…" Will points.

Rick reluctantly press it and finally enter the VR world too.

"Now that everyone's here, let us proceed. As I was saying, the best way to practice our abilities is through real life experience. But, unless we're in the military or have a job assigned by GEPCA, we wouldn't have to use our abilities except in an emergency or is only limited to our day-to-day life. Also, fighting with our abilities in real life is too dangerous. We might get injured or something even more dreadful could happen. That is why, here in VR world, we could do all we want. The only limits are our imagination…"

Everyone listening nods and highly agree.

"The most significant factor of the VR world is hiding inside the Point Link. Using your abilities here through the limits doesn't just mean that you're just using it 'virtually'… without any effects or results. Instead, the Point Link stimulates your abilities in real life without out it actually activating on the surface and influence the environment or living things nearby. That means, your improvements here also means your improvements in reality. Making this, I needed another powerful A.I that could monitor your physical, mental, and magical aspects in real life while also be responsible in managing the VR world…"

"This technology could make you a billionaire overnight…" Sean mutters in awe and amazement. Everybody else agrees.

"Really? I just made this for fun and for you guys though… I never thought of it like that" Will looks at Sean and don't understand his point.

"Well, as you said. Improving our abilities is crucial at these times… don't you think people would flock in this technology once they find out about it? Especially the military. We could train as much as we want without suffering injuries or affecting our environment…" Sean explains.

"Oh… you're right" Everyone nods.

Will never thought about that since his goal is completely different in focus. He never intended to make other's know of this technology other than those he holds important to begin with.

"You kids… don't let anyone else knows this okay? This will be a secret in the highest priority…" Liam looks at the others gravely. "We can only wait for Will's decisions"

Everyone gulps and nods.

"Well, moving on… The VR world has many features. It has the coliseum. A space where everyone could have a match on with various weapons you could use. There's also other rooms leading to a virtual space that resemble somewhere in reality…." Will continues nonchalantly.

"Wait, Will… are you sure this won't be detected by others? What if some power tries to steal your technology? You worked so hard and put so much thoughts into making this…" Claire voices out her concern.

"Well, the sole server of this technology and the central management and basically in control of all this is me. Others also can't detect external energies, so they won't even notice anything about it… unless we tell others explicitly"

"Is that so… that's a relief. Since we can't have it patented or copyrighted since we're concealing it's existence, I was afraid someone might steal this technology..."

With that, they buried their questions and worries for later and move on.

"Let me introduce you all to the A.I that would start your tutorial. He's also the one who manages everything here so you can ask him anything you want…" Will says and then clicks somewhere out of thin air.

"Welcome" A black cat with a solemn face appears out of nowhere and welcomes everyone.

"The first step and most basic use of the VR world is to use your abilities however and wherever you want… Whatever you do is fully up to you. You can ask someone for a match, and if it's a mutual agreement, you could get an isolated space that other's couldn't interfere in so it's strictly fair. You could play in duo or group matches and the rules are fully up to you" The cat's nonchalant expression and tone seemingly resembles someone so uncannily.

"However, explicit or sensual actions are strictly prohibited. Once I detects it, you will be punished by displaying your sins on your head whenever you enter the VR world for a duration of time depending on the severity of your actions…" The cat walks on the air an glance its feline eyes especially at Liam and Claire.

"Of course!" Liam laughs and everyone feels shy.

"As the first users, you have exclusive rights in managing or creating new rules and rooms in the VR world…" with a flick of the black cat's tail, a holographic control screen appears at everybody's hands.

"Everything you can think of can be written in here and I will be responsible in granting it application and functions that could be managed and used"

"Wow! Will! This is too good to be true! Are you sure?..." Jess asks hesitantly.

"Of course, I made everything in consideration with your enjoyment and benefits after all…"

Everyone feels so happy and could tell how much Will find them important and cherish.

Sean looks at Will and couldn't understand why he's included or qualified to receive this technology considering Will's displeasure towards him not too long ago.

Soon, everyone explores the VR world and starts doing what they want.

"Sean, can I ask for your cooperation?..." Will asks as he gets closer to Sean.

"… is there something I can help you with?" Sean is confused.

"Well, your ability seems to have divers properties and affects. I want to see and explore the limits so I could fill in my database. If your ability really based on your imagination then, there's a possibility you could mimic anyone's abilities…"

"If you put it like that… then perhaps I could help"

"Okay. I will initiate a match and you accept it then…" Will's eyes sharpens.

"Huh?"

"Well, the best method to explore the limits is through real life battle after all. I told everybody it just now didn't I?" A match request pops up in front of Sean's eyes.

Sean looks at Will warily.

"What? I thought you want to help me?..." Will smirks seeing Sean's reluctance.

Sean could only accept the match request and then, a field surrounds them and isolated from other's interference.

"It seems like you haven't been through any real battles before so I could only ask you to try your best to deflect all my attack with your pet or other means… This way, the A.I could monitor you real-time and could fill in the database as we go on the match…"

A count down appears above them and starts counting from ten.

Black gets ready in front of Sean and watch Will's every movement warily.

Will has another A.I designed solely for battle. It has all the enchantments Will knows ready and only Waits for Will's instructions.

Will is wearing long sleeves and long pants, covering his limbs. Even without any weapons at hand, Will could make anything lethal at any given moment with his enchantments.

The two gets ready as the countdown gets closer to zero.

"The one who dies is the loser of this match…" Will says.

"What are you saying?!" Hearing this, Sean now realizes Will's intentions. As expected, this kid is very calculating and shrewd. Everything he want could be achieved by careful plans that would slowly but surely succeed. Sean has been dancing on Will's palm all this time.

With a sound of a horn, the countdown reached zero.

"Black please help me!" Sean asks his dragon. Sean knows too little of Will's fighting strength. But he knows that Will have been through dangerous situations and lived through it. He seem to even have fiercely headed and defeated hordes of zombies himself.

As expected, Will's ability is terrifyingly unexpected.

"You know what? Not only your ability has diverse effects and various properties. With enchantments, I could also mimic any abilities as long as I memorized the fluctuations of the ability user's energy as they use them…"

Will instantly vanished and reappear near Sean aiming a punch at him. Will's clothes are gleaming with lines in complex patterns.

The punch seems to have considerable power behind it and aims directly at Sean's face. It only took a second and Sean couldn't even see it coming.

"Ah!" Will's punch couldn't reach Sean. It seems like something is pulling him back. He looks back and sees the dragon pulling his shirt.

"Your pet seems to have amazing reaction speed…" Will jumps into a backflip and swat the dragon from clutching his cloth.

"Surprisingly, I couldn't end the match in one move…" Says Will and looks at the dragon with anger. He looks so fierce as if he seems to have humiliated himself.

Sean laughs dryly hearing that. Even he couldn't believe that he survived that sudden attack. However, the fight is still ongoing.

Will tries reaching Sean multiple times but every single time, the small dragon is able to block him by its body or by shooting beams of heat and energy waves at him.

Will's clothes are steaming from heat but there's not much damage or rips on them.

Will gives up trying to get Sean and aims to the dragon first.

Terrifying shockwaves hit Sean from afar as he watch Black and Will clash multiple times. This fighting style doesn't even seem to be Will's focal point and is only the tip of the iceberg, but he can fight on even toes with a materialized mythical creature.

There's no way Sean have a chance winning this match.

After a few minutes, Will is finally able to deflect Black's series of attacks and kick him with a backflip. Will's shoes shines and the enchantments in it activates. It combust the scales of the dragon as it hits it and the small dragon couldn't fight back the shockwave. It flings far from Sean and Will didn't let this moment slip from finally getting close to the former.

Will swipe his right feet and make Sean topple on the ground. With one strong punch, he pierce Sean's chest.

Sean's figure glitches and he dies.

The isolated match room disappears and Sean's body returns back to normal. Above his head are big bold words spelling 'LOSER' in red color, while Will has 'WINNER' in green on him.

The A.I black cat appears and announces the finale of the match. A few screens appears showing the preview of the match in different angles.

Will shows a smug face as he watch Sean's meek figure on the screens.

Sean heaves a sigh of relief that it finally ended. He already knew the outcome from the moment the match initiated so he don't feel the least bit frustrated or humiliated as he looks at the figure of himself on the screens.

"As I thought… you awakened your ability around the same time as me…" Will says as he contemplates.

"Huh? How is that so?... I don't have black just until recently" Sean looks at Will confusedly.

"Your ability is based on your imaginations… you must have not realized it at that time yet since you haven't 'imagined' your pet to be something real. I heard you started hallucinating first a month before the zombie outbreak. As your imagination grows stronger and more detailed, your dragon finally materialized. But it doesn't mean that you haven't been supplying it with your energy through you links before that…" Will explains his speculation.

Maybe at some point that time, when he awakened his ability, he must have imagined a dragon from reading books and he started seeing it. After telling others what he's seeing, they thought it was hallucination and gave him various medications. This made Sean believe that Black is also just a hallucination and couldn't show it's powers that time. Soon, a trigger must have caused Sean to activate his ability once more and finally made the dragon have a body. After seeing the dragon's form and believing its actualization, Sean's imagination for it only intensified. Now, he believes that the dragon is as real as it could be, supplementing it with more power.

"Fascinating… the only limit of your ability is your own imagination. You have the potential to become far stronger in the future. Both our abilities have divers properties and affects… however, as you belong to the 'Catalysis' class, that means you could materialize anything you strongly believe out of thin air!" Will says with amuse and amazement.

Hearing this, Sean could only doubt Will's sincerity. Will's ability could create this amazing Virtual Reality world after all. He could even see everything in the world and create amazing A.I's through Brain2.0.

"Is that so?..." Sean glance at Black hovering near him.

"After hearing this, you should have already realized that you have two directions you could take with the utilization of your ability. Currently, all your energy is solely supplying the small dragon and it steadily getting stronger by the day. You have an alternative option to imagine new ones and make them stronger too as your summons and do the fight for you. You spent a lot of time in creating this dragon's programs that's why it could fight and make diverse actions and decisions that we can see. If you make another one, there's a possibility to divide your supply of energy to them and slow your current dragon's progress. There's pros and cons with both options…" Will gives Sean some tips. He's now quite invested and want to see the limit's of the other's ability.

Sean slowly absorb this information and thinks for himself. As the result of his match with Will today, he realizes that it would be very bad for him if the opponent get's close to him.

"Maybe I should summon a fighter to guard me while Black acts both as the mage and assassin. I think I need an upfront fighter that could act both as the tank and melee fighter…" Sean mutters.

Will couldn't quite understand gaming lingo but he could tell that Sean considers his tips.

After setting his plan, Sean looks up at Will and smiles sweetly. He thanks him and now seem to understand how to tame Will's annoyance for him.

Like Sean, Will seems to be a nerd and interested in abilities. They could probably get along with regard to these matters.

Will sees Sean's smile that he usually use to charm his family, however, he now feels less repulsed by it.

They look around the VR world and sees Rick and Jess having a match in the coliseum. Will's parents and tom are using the obstacle course room.

They are enjoying as if simply playing while displaying amazing use of their abilities.

"This is so unfair!" Rick exclaims. He runs around the stage and some weapons hinders him or try to hit him out of nowhere.

He couldn't see Jess hiding far from him and throwing at him weapons that are lying around. When she touches the weapon, they turn invisible. After throwing it, they seem to have appeared out of nowhere tricking Rick that his opponent is nearby.

At this rate, the two would stay in stalemate for a long time. The only way for this to end is when one of them surrenders.

Rick suddenly widens the area he's running and makes complicated turns, if only he could somehow run into Jess.

Rick doesn't seem to realize that Jess is avoiding him and even brush or bumps strongly against him. Jess's ability wrap her and the object she's holding, isolating them from other's perception. Even the sense of touch. That means, even if the other have Jess in their grasp, they wouldn't even notice it.

Jess seems to have ability more lethal than they thought. The only way to defeat her is to somehow hit her from barrage of attacks or destroy the whole area, along her with it.

Later, without even realizing it, Rick finally wins. It seems like he accidentally bump into Jess and she flung too hard and finally becomes incapable of fighting.

Rick celebrates and jumps around.

Everyone comes back later and tries picking anyone as their opponent for a match.

End of chapter.