The Unlocking

"Am I right?" Seeker inquired. Charles was sure that Seeker wasn't paying attention to the coin as he seemed to be more concerned of massaging his head. Charles nodded back to confirm.

"Let's keep at it until I make a mistake." Seeker smiled and said the inverse traumatic words that Charles heard. Charles was forced to repeat the game until he had called one coin flip, right. All his friends died, and he was later ransomed due to being an important figure in the military.

Charles and Seeker continued to play the game. Seeker called all coin flips correctly. He was simply glancing at Charles the exact moment he would catch the coin in his palm. The more they did it the more amazed Charles was.

"Alright. I have to ask. How do you do it?" Charles asked at the eleventh coin flip.

Seeker finally stopped massaging his head. And gave a sigh.

"Through a successful application of your neuro-alteration theory. My brains are stronger than most. I can control the time of how I perceive things. I would estimate that I can turn 10 milliseconds to feel like one second. I could clearly see how the coin would land. Not a magic trick, Doctor. This was pure perception."

Charles was shocked at those words. This was one of the theoretical results of his study! The brain is capable of being upgraded!

"Who exactly are you? How did you end up with that migraine? Do you realize what you've just said?"

"Calm down Charles. Oh sorry. Doctor Charles. My memories are used to calling you Charles." Seeker smirked.

Charles ignored Seeker and continued questioning Seeker and later applied a more aggressive tone as Seeker was ignoring him. In fact, it appeared that Seeker was lost in thoughts.

"Seeker!" Charles grabbed hold of Seeker. He glared angrily at Seeker. There was a kid claiming to have the totality of his current life's work! Has the government been spying on him? Charles lost his patient and calm smile which he would usually present to the public. Now here he was holding and shaking a kid who just suffered an intense migraine that left him in the hospital.

"Tell me, Doctor. How far has your neuro-alteration research progressed? Now that you discovered the cure for Alzheimer's you should have at least started on brain regeneration right?'

"You've obviously read my research. You look pretty smart for a kid but you should tell me what I want to know now, you'd better give me a straight answer!" Charles demanded.

"I haven't read your works, Doctor. I am very versed at it since you applied this to me." Seeker remarked.

"What?!"

"Technically you will apply it to me. I don't understand how. But I believe I've already undergone an Unlocking."

"Unlocking?"

Seeker stared at Charles with a surprised expression. This was his first expression other than the tired and annoyed look he once had.

"Ugh. It's a term you coined to describe the current capacity a person's brain can do."

"A term? What are you talking about?"

"Unlocking the extent of how a person can use his brain. To be precise, the percentage of its uses."

"What? You mean that 10% brain using theory? Kid, I'm a neurosurgeon. One of the best this world has to offer. And I know that that 10% brain crap was just some stupid theory used as a plot for an aged old movie."

Seeker started laughing. This angered Charles even more.

"Why are you laughing?" Charles demanded.

Seeker tossed an apple towards Charles. Charles instinctively caught it.

"What is this? An apple a day crap?" The angry Charles was about to toss the apple in the trash when Seeker interrupted him.

"How much percent of your muscles did you use, Doctor? To be precise, if 100% is the total amount of force your right arm can possibly perform, what was the percentage of force that you used to catch the apple?"

Charles paused for a bit. He was confused by Seeker's question.

"I don't know. Five percent? I don't care what-"

"This is what I meant doctor. Not the percentage of the parts that the brain use, but the percentage of the extent, the effort, if you will, that the brain can use. The whole not using 10 percent of your brain is proven to be false. But the question is, how strong can a brain work?"

Charles was stunned at this statement. This was something he had been studying and researching on.

"The brain like any muscle can exert a percentage of its true capability. Think of computers. Does it always run at its 100%?" Seeker asked casually. He was now on a relaxed mood and decided to rest his head on the beds' pillow.

"Well… No. Unless you run a program that demands more memory. At most, the RAM, the processors will use minimal power to run these programs."

"And to go beyond this on an active basis is if you overclock it. The brain as a muscle is also capable of this. It can be forced to work harder. Of course, like any muscle, overworking it could result in a strain. Which is why the body defaults its usage to at least 7-10% like an ordinary computer. Sooner or later, you will prove this to the world. Pushing the brain's capacity to work harder is possible. It will explain the phenomenon of why people experience life reviews near their moments of death, tachypsychia, and even those alleged 'out of body experiences.'"

"I will prove..? What are you getting at?"

"It looks like your research hasn't gone this far yet. Then let me point you in the right direction. Tachypsychia, the phenomenon where people claim time has slowed down. On what occasion do those generally happen?"

"Life-threatening situations. Other than that, athletes, martial artist or basically anyone doing extreme sports claim to have these moments."

"At that point, the brain functioned beyond its 10% norm. All those whom you mentioned encountered extreme stimulants or reasons which led them to push the percentage of their brain usage. The Life Review, where people claim that their life flashed before their eyes is another experience caused by their brain functioning beyond the 10% norm. During their life-threatening episodes, they quickly thought about their past. But due to their brain being in overclocked mode, they remembered far too many things that they should have."

Charles was silent. He was excited. Looks like his research was right!

"And the OOBE? How can out of body experience fall into the mix of all these?"

"An overclocked brain heightens the senses. Sound, taste, and smell combined with a heightened sense of touch are easily converted into a totally different way of perceiving the world. At that point, their perception was so strong that they thought their spirit was looking from above. But the truth is the totality of their senses just allowed them to see things perfectly even when their eyes were closed."

Charles was silent once again. What if this kid does indeed have what he is claiming to have?

"The Unlocking is an interesting thing. You see, by also altering the biological nature of our brain, and provide it with the right chemicals to cool it, to stabilize it, and even increase the strength and durability, the limits of perception, thought and everything else was finally tested."

"So you have Unlocked… how many percent of your brain?"

Seeker gazed towards the ceiling contemplating the question.

"I'd guess I'm at the Unbecoming stage. My unlocking should be around 15-18% based on the symptoms I'm displaying."

"Unbecoming? What symptoms?"

"Millisecond perception, Advanced Recall, Heightened senses, Improved Motor Reaction and um… yeah… light migraines."

"You call your migraines light? You passed out!"

"I meant now. Me having that episode was caused by a different… erm.. reason. Unless that happens again, I'm confident I won't be having those fainting episodes anymore." Seeker gave another exasperated look to Charles.

"What happens beyond this Unbecoming phase?

"Above it is the Inhuman Stage. Symptoms include a finer millisecond perception, Advanced Motor Reaction, Inhuman Senses, and Total Recall."

"So no more migraines?" Charles joked.

"The brain would be fried if a person maintains Inhuman Unlocking at full capacity for more than 5 minutes. You need a stronger brain to maintain that stage."

Charles was shocked at Seekers claims.

"As for the next stages, Ranked Hero and World Champion, we'd have to save it for next time. I wouldn't want to give all the secrets away to you, doctor. I think telling you what you will soon discover would be detrimental to your potential. It's best if you find the answers yourself. Again, I'm just pointing you in the right direction." Seeker smirked and started relaxing.

"I think I slept 10 hours yesterday. But at the same time, my memory tells me that I've haven't slept that long in nearly four years. Funny how things turn out."