Chapter 2 : : Prologue - 3: The Company (Previous Chapter no. 3)

Rex logged in like he normally does to enter the game, he then closed his eyes and waited to enter the game but suddenly, he felt a burning pain all over his body, Rex abruptly opened his eyes.. the pain disappeared in the next second but when he looked around he found out that his vision was a little blurred, he felt like he was facing the hangover because of overdrinking.

Although Rex's vision was a little blurry, he could tell that he still in his workshop because of the white-colored ceiling of the workshop, he hastily rubbed his eyes and shook his head, after a few moments his vision started to become clearer but it still didn't become normal.

'Ahh… my eyes are itching and I didn't enter the game too, did it broke because of poor contumely maintenance?' Rex lightly slapped both of his cheeks to snap out of the hangover but failed.

Rex then tried to move his upper body but he soon found out that it was quite difficult to move his body, he applied more strength and was finally able to sit up in the game pool, at that time Rex felt something was wrong so he tried to walk out of the pod but he failed to even move his legs.

Suddenly he realized something important, after waking up he hadn't remove the nerve gear but there was still nothing on his head, he turned to look around and check that where he drooped it but what he saw behind made all the hairs on his body stand up, it was one of the most frightening things he had seen in his life.

Rex saw that his body was lying in the game pod and the nerve gear was still on his head, the indicator LED on it represented that it was on.

After staring at his own body Rex tried to calm down, he forced himself to believe that it may be just a dream and freaking out won't do him any good, he then looked around to check his own current state.

His upper body was somewhat illusory and his lower part was still inside his physical body that was quietly lying inside the game pod, he could even see his chest of his body slightly moving up and down showing that the heart was still beating.

'Is this what people call soul?' Rex thought. The feeling the situation game was too real for him to just believe that it was just a dream.

'Huuufff, research says that we can't read or think rationally in a dream, let's check if its a dream, I am Rex Andrews, the adopted son of Jonathan Andrews and founder of Andrews corporation…. I said everything correctly without any error either the research was wrong or this isn't a dream,' Rex decided to collect more information before reaching a conclusion.

He checked his surrounding and noticed that an almost unnoticeable shining thread was connected to the head of his physical body, normally it won't be hard for him to notice such a thing but at the moment his vision wasn't at its peak and last time when he got goosebumps when he looked at his own body making it harder for him to notice it.

'Is it because of the nerve gear? or maybe the game pod?' Rex locked his eyes on the thread and traced it back to see the other end of it.

After a careful inspection, he found out that the other end of the thread was attached to the Space Stone he used as a decoration until now.

At present the Space Stone's appearance was not the same as usual, right now it looked like a sphere made of glass and electric spark were continuously appearing inside it, it was like an unknown energy reaction was in ongoing pace inside it.

Rex wanted to try and figure out more about the sphere so he started focusing more on the energy reaction inside it but suddenly at that time, he felt a suction force from his body pulling him inside, then he got sucked into his body and everything became dark.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already inside the virtual world.. or we can say the game world, all his experience until then felt like a dream to him.

A normal person may see it as a nightmare and try to forget it as soon as possible but Rex was a very curious creature after thinking for a while he logged out of the game and checked the login time in the game pod.

'Damn I knew it was true, right now the time is 10:20 and my log in time was 10:00, even if it's the old model it won't take more than two minutes to enter the game and another two to come out of it so now the question is where was I for the remaining sixteen minutes, that clears it… it was not a dream but a reality,' Rex concluded.

When he looked at the Space Stone this time, it looked like the same black stone as it always does.

Later Rex logged in and logged out of the game pod hoping to have the same incident again but it never happened again, in the end, he made a hypothesis.

According to Rex's hypothesis, the Space Stone, or the now called Core-X and VR technology had a close connection, especially the old VR technology he used to make the first game pod.

It was the time when Rex decided to start his research from scratch when he first made the game pod and transform it into a device that can allow one to separate their soul or consciousness from their body, reaching that dream-like state.

Days became week, weeks became month, then months became year… and 6 years passed just like that

But to this day, Rex found very little information about Core-X, the only thing he knew about it was that the outer layer of Core-X was made of solid black matter and unknown energy was sealed inside it. He believes that the strange phenomenon of that day because of the unknown energy inside it, it may be like that some of the energy inside got leaked after being sealed inside for so long or maybe the technology in-game pod became the link that let some of the sealed energy inside it leak.

Thinking of this Rex decided to make a battery using it as a core trying to utilize that energy inside it, he changed it into the energy core for the modified game pod.

Rex wanted to make a device that can let his consciousness form a connection with Core-X again but making software for a device like that was the main headache, that's why he used the latest product in the field of AI… a Super Brain.

The Super Brain is the name of the most advance computer Rex knew of, it's very presence was no less than a miracle in the field of science, A Super Brain is made after taking a human brain as a reference, the Super Brain is made with just an inbuilt AI installed in it. Initially, the AI is simply… useless, even if one would ask it what is one plus one it might take a second to reply, it was just like a young human child who just entered a kinder garden.

But this was the thing that made it frightening, it could be compared to a human child which meant it could grow, the growth speed of a Smart Brain is based on its user. Unlike humans it cannot make a single mistake twice the more error it makes the efficient it becomes, the more complex the problems are the more they will help it grow.

The process of making a Smart Brain was currently unknown, In Rex's knowledge the total number of Smart Brain in the whole world was no more than five, money and connections weren't enough to buy it.

There were two reasons he was able to get it, the first was him being the youngest person to ever get the Noble Prize it was something that raised his value in the eyes of the government by a big margin.

And the other was because of him agreeing to a few of the conditions of the government.

Rather then government it was a secret agency, that is a part of the government but works independently at the same time.

After being awarded the Noble Prize, the agency provided him access to a lot of secret knowledge on technology that was something Rex wasn't even aware of some time ago, that was how he came to knew that there was something that has the potential of becoming faster than Quantum Computer.

As a smart computer, Smart Brain had limitless possibilities depending on its user.

Although Rex had a lot of money, status, and could alone influence the economy of the whole country but it still not enough to buy a Smart Brain.

But he could rent it.

On the condition of giving access to the data on the people all around the country he obtained through the game pod and giving priority to his own country while launching the products, he was able to rent the Smart Brain for 10 whole years.

In truth, the condition he received in the start was to provide the data of all the people using game pod in the whole world through their accounts instead of just their own country but Rex refused directly, it was too much, he had no intention to become the chess piece between the contradiction of countries, he was loyal to the country so he gave them access to the data of the people that can help in raising their economy.

But he could not do the same with others, according to him when the people from other county buys his products they put their trust in his company he had no intention of trading that trust for his own profits.

After some negotiations, he was able to rent the Smart Brain for ten years.

Rex also had to promise them that he will keep the existence of Smart Brain a secret and won't even tell his own family… his brother about it, they told him that if the news of him possessing such a thing leaked and reached the ears of some terrorist organization then even being one of the richest men in the world won't be able to save him.

Smart Brain can only be used by one person at a time, so Rex knew if the news of Smart Brain leaked and someone wants to take it then they would also try to kidnap him for accessing it, he didn't want to put his brother his only family's life in danger so he kept it a secret to himself.

Furthermore, he erased all traces that could be used by someone to see him using Smart Brain, he even removed the cameras from the whole floor to remove the possibility of a hacker spying on him.

With Smart Brain, Rex didn't make the same error twice but still… even after six years he wasn't able to complete what he started.

"Even after 6 years of research my software is still just not complete in truth I don't even know how far I am from my goal, maybe I am just a step away from it for maybe I have a long way to go, sigh… it's not gonna be easy I guess," Rex rubbed his forehead.

At that time he heard a voice from behind.

"Not easy? what is it," James walked into the room.

James walked into the workshop.

"Huh? " Rex turned around to look without removing the nerve gear from his head, he looked at James while still lying in the game pod, he didn't walk out of it and made himself look normal as possible.

"Brother how many times I said please knock on the door before coming in," Rex said in a disgruntled voice.

"You are not a girl you know….whatever I made your favorite coffee for you, take it," James laughed at him then extended his hand to hand over the coffee mug.

"Ohh.. thanks" Rex took it happily, he was a natural coffee lover so he needed to act like one even when he was a little anxious from inside.

He didn't usually lock the door and only told the guard above to not let someone enter and disturb him while working, he wanted to look as natural as possible, he was sure that a normal person would have no interest in the outdated model of the game pod so as long as they don't disassemble it or force access in its system they would find nothing wrong with it.

The problem was that tonight there were no guards in the building, according to the schedule he won't return to the city tonight but unexpectedly James wanted him to meet his first girlfriend the next morning and Rex was not used to refusing his request so he had no choice but to come back tonight.

Rex took the coffee as he comfortable sat in the game bod, he took a sip as he thought what is the error in the system this time, why couldn't he find it even after thinking about it for a whole week, just then Rex noticed that James was still standing beside him while staring at him with a grin, he got a little confused.

"Brother do you need something?" Rex asked as he looked at him.

"Yes," James said as the grin turned into a big smile.

"What is it, brother?" Rex asked again.

"The Company," James said with a sneer.