Chapter 26

POV Catharina Lockhart ......…

"Alex, is this going to take long?"

"No, I promise it'll be quick. Put on your glasses, and we'll start."

"Alright."

Sigh

I put on the glasses and started the game right away. I want to finish this quickly. I've been getting more and more stressed, and I don't want to let it build up.

While lost in thought, I found myself in front of a cliff, and a screen appeared before me.

[Choose your challenge difficulty.

Human: As a weak mortal, you only want to walk peacefully through the world and see its stories without knowing any difficulty.

Hero: As someone who inspires new generations, you don't shy away from challenges. Face each of the trials created by the gods in this world.

Demigod: A challenge created to forge the strongest warriors. Only those with knowledge and strength can overcome this challenge.

God of War: A true challenge created by the Gods. Only pain, fear, and despair await those who dare to accept such a challenge.]

"Huh?! I can choose the difficulty? Is this a regular game?"

I wasn't very interested at first, but looking at this, I felt a bit disappointed. It seems like just another regular war game, even one of those bad ones with a difficulty selector.

"Normal? I can assure you it's not. Just pick a difficulty, and you'll understand."

"Okay, I'll go with God of War... why can't I choose it?"

"You need to play on Demigod first."

"Seriously?? (Sigh) Fine."

"Why don't you start on a lower difficulty?"

"No."

"Alright, choose whatever you want."

It seems Alex is losing his creativity. I think this competition thing is draining too much from him. I should talk to him later.

Selecting the demigod difficulty, a scene started. Standing at the edge of a cliff, a man wearing sandals and just a cloth tied around his waist is looking down with a tired and sad expression.

Seeing this, I frowned. I've seen that look many times before, and it's never a good thing.

"The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me."

The man takes a step forward, and music begins to play. I can hear several voices singing together.

"Now, there is no hope."

With eyes full of sadness and despair, he jumped off the cliff, and then an old voice slowly began to speak.

"And Kratos threw himself from the highest mountain in all of Greece."

Without changing expression, I watched him fall faster and faster as the voice continued speaking.

"After ten years of suffering, ten years of endless nightmares… it would finally come to an end. Death would be his escape from madness."

When he was about to hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, everything went dark, and a phrase appeared.

[Three weeks earlier]

[The Aegean Sea]

"But it wasn't always like this. Kratos was once the champion of the Gods."

The darkness slowly faded, and I saw the man standing on a ship. He had a slightly hunched posture, holding two blade-like weapons attached by chains wrapped around his arms.

But I couldn't help but wonder, why is he bald? First, a fat guy, now a bald one. Why am I feeling like Alex's tastes are getting a bit weird? I'll have Mark talk to him later; maybe it's a guy thing?!

While I was distracted, I felt a set of knowledge being transferred to me. It only took a few seconds, and when it ended, I could only smile. Now I knew how to use the bald guy's blades.

Taking control of the character, I looked around and saw several strange monsters with gray skin, contorted faces, and sharp teeth. They looked at me and roared loudly.

Seeing the monsters running towards me, the ship rocking amid a storm, I could also hear various screams of despair coming from afar. Music began to play, with several voices together.

I don't understand these art nonsense, but somehow just being here makes my soul boil with the desire to massacre these things in front of me.

"Hahaha, great, great, let's see if you can entertain me."

I threw the blade forward, and it made a beautiful horizontal arc leaving a trail of fire in the air, then cutting off one of the creatures' heads. I slightly moved my arm back, making the blade return to my hand.

I didn't hesitate, running to do so, spinning the blades, but surprisingly the creature I was aiming at defended itself. However, I didn't let it recover from the impact; I launched the second blade into one of its legs and pulled it towards me.

As soon as it got close, I tried to slash it from bottom to top, but it defended itself and was thrown into the air. With a blade still attached to its leg, I pulled it, but instead of being pulled towards me, I rose into the air with it.

Almost as if the knowledge I received was controlling me, I held the chains tightly and spun them rapidly, cutting the creature into pieces. The blood started to fall like rain.

Still in the air, I threw the right blade at the last monster that was waiting for me to fall to attack. The creature looked surprised and couldn't defend itself.

The blade lodged in its chest, and I pulled it up, giving it the same fate as its friend.

Chunks of flesh and blood began to fall. As soon as I touched the ground, I immediately jumped away, rolling on the floor, and then looked around, but all the monsters were dead.

I stood there holding the blades tightly. My breathing was heavy, so I immediately regulated it. I started analyzing the environment, trying to find some escape route...

(What am I doing?! I... I didn't even notice when I went into survival mode.)

"That was… amazing. Alex, what's the deal with those things?"

"Huh?!... You must be talking about their adaptability. Starting from the demigod difficulty, the enemies won't have attack patterns; they will adapt during the fight and try to learn your fighting style to create combat strategies. That's why I told you not to choose that."

"...hahaHAHAHA, this is perfect. I was so bored that I didn't even know what to do, but this seems promising. Alex, how long can I play?"

(Damn, after hearing what he said, my blood is boiling. Before even getting married, I stopped going into combat. At first, everything was wonderful. I could spend my time eating, sleeping, having sex—my imagination was the limit, but after more than 30 years like this, I feel like I'm drowning in monotony.)

"You can play until the end, but after halfway through, some things aren't ready, so there might be some missing items, music, and other things, but there shouldn't be any bugs."

"Hehe, great, then increase the sync to 90%."

"...WHAT???? You'll go crazy."

"Are you calling your mother crazy?"

"...Oh my God, what happened? I think I had some interference, hahaha, can you hear me?"

"Stop it, do what I told you."

I know why he reacted like that; with this level of sync, the pain I'll feel will be almost real, but that's exactly what I want. When I was a spy, a mistake would lead to death. That kind of thrill can't be emulated; it's impossible to feel something similar with movies, series, and games. But it's not exactly that sensation I want; I just want the thrill of putting my skills into practice. If these things can study and create tactics to defeat me, it will be wonderful.

...….

3rd Person POV

...….

Alex stared at his mother for a while.

(I really need to test how this AI will adapt to trained soldiers' movements. Even though I'm passing knowledge on how to use the blades, they're only Kratos's first set of attacks. But players still have the freedom to fight however they want… but increasing the sync this much can affect a person's mind, especially considering the various cinematic deaths I made inspired by Tomb Raider.)

[N/A: The deaths in these new Tomb Raider games always give me anxiety.]

(Ah, I guess it's fine. I want to know the limits of this AI, and she wants to have a realistic experience, not like I'm using my own mother as a guinea pig. Yes, everything is ethically and morally fine.)

"Okay, I'll increase the sync, but if it's too much, just say so."

"Hehe, thanks, baby. Now Mommy can have more fun while dismembering these creatures."

".....okay."

Catharina smiled, jumping into a hole, she found a chest with a green glow. Opening it, a green energy appeared and entered her chest.

"So this should heal me. Good to know."

Walking through the ship, the entire interior was destroyed, water was entering through several holes. As she was walking, the head of a giant serpent appeared.

"What the…"

Before she could finish the sentence, the serpent attacked. Catharina reacted quickly, rolling to the side and throwing the blade at the serpent, leaving bloody wounds on it.

Furious, the serpent attacked again. Catharina just rolled to the side and embedded the blades in the side of its head, and with a pull, made the serpent hit the ship's walls.

Realizing the environment was unfavorable, the serpent quickly retreated.

"Hahaha, damn, this is incredible! Not only am I super strong, but my body reacts almost instantly with the movements I want to make… that snake ran away, even being that big, it's a real coward."

Catharina laughed loudly, chasing after the serpent that was fleeing. As she ran, she saw a man trapped.

"Stay away… stay away from me."

"Huh?! I didn't even get close. Stop screaming."

"I know who you are, Spartan! I know what you've been doing; I'd rather die than be saved by you."

"Alright, then die there."

Unfazed, Catharina turned and left. She was eager to fight the giant snake, so she didn't want to waste time.

Following the path, she opened a door and saw a real hell, several people running from one side to the other while various flying monsters were attacking.

Passing through the door, she saw two monsters grab a man and lift him in the air, each pulling to one side until he was torn in half.

Without a second thought, she ran into the chaos and started spinning the blades, easily killing the monsters. But even being skilled, she was quickly surrounded and receiving several attacks, her life bar quickly diminished. With a serious expression, she started throwing the blades with more precision.

The pain made her arms tremble, and one of the blades ended up cutting off the head of one of the fleeing men. Immediately, a green energy came out of the man and healed her life bar.

"This can also heal me… hehe, very good."

Alex had a strange expression while watching his mother laugh like a maniac, killing the flying monsters and then the survivors to heal herself.

"Hahaha, die, damn it."

Catharina grabbed one of the monsters, stepped on its head, and tore off its wings. While enjoying herself, a serpent's head destroyed the ground and rose, roaring loudly. Caught off guard, she was thrown away, hitting a wall.

"Damn, that hurts."

Alex was perplexed seeing Catharina running towards the Hydra and using the blades to write her own name on the poor creature's head.

"Oh my God, I didn't know she was so vengeful… well, but it looks like she's having fun, so it's okay… I think this will take a while; maybe I should test some games, maybe I'll find something fun."

"Luna, take care of her. If she's close to dying, close the game; I don't want her to die with 90% sync."

"Okay, Alex."

Before he could start searching for games to test, Mark and Melissa entered his virtual space.

"Huh?! Did something happen?"

"I just got here and came to see what you were doing."

"Is Mom the one playing? Wow, look at that."

Alex looked at the screen; Catharina ripped one of the hydra's fangs and then embedded it in its eye. The Hydra screamed in pain and fled.

"Don't think of running away, damn it, come back here. I'll use your skin to make a sheath for my blades."

"Mom is amazing. Brother, I want to play too."

"No, only after I finish the censored version."

"What??? Why?"

"When you're 50, you can play without censorship."

"That's not fair."

Alex just smiled but said no more. He had researched enough, he also talked to his design teacher. After that, making a close calculation, Alex knew that this game would probably be prohibited for those under 50.

So to prepare for that, he is already working on a censored version, removing some very heavy things, even in this universe where things are much more liberal, such extreme violence won't be well-received if sold to young people.

"But I'll still be able to do this, right?"

Alex looked at the screen again, and Catharina tore off a monster's head with her hands and then threw it at another that was approaching. When the monster fell, she embedded the blade in the monster's head and spun it, knocking down the others around.

"....."

"Hehe, your mom seems excited. Hummm, I'm going to prepare some things; tonight will be long."

Saying that, Mark left whistling happily.

"....."

"....."

"So… can I also…"

"No."

...

Note: I'm finally back home; I spent the whole week working in another city. Now I just want to sleep in my bed, haha. I'll post another chapter on Sunday. I want to start posting every Thursday and every Sunday. Is there any interesting new novel? I've been so busy lately that I'm not reading anything; I'm open to recommendations.