The Rise Of The Consortium

With crashing tides outside the window, a boy with salmon pink hair was seated in front of a transparent screen. No matter how deep the ocean was, no matter how busy the city was, the song of the ocean could always be heard. That's what Dane liked about the room in the farthest end of the castle on the top of the Mount. But his mind was on the intense gaming session he's meant to finish in about five minutes before 'she' comes. Today the mission is to create a depth of energy to land an impactful fist on the enemy. But the challenge is to stimulate the chemicals to cause a maximum impact by utilizing the least amount of energy.

"Looks like you're in real trouble, friend." Dane analyzed all the resources his player had while checking he was ready to begin the session on his screen.

"Leira, how much time do we have till she struts here?" he looked at the wide glass pillar on his left side where the image of a lady in pale lavender dress was floating above a flower that seemed like a rose.

"Five minutes and thirty-seven seconds." a female mechanical voice spoke through the glass pillar who was fiddling with the pink petals of the rose.

"OK. I need you to disrupt the connection in case I don't the session in time." Dane searched for her face in the pillar but seems like she was too busy on her own.

"Sure, Master Lonphour." she stood attentively above the rose to listen to orders.

"Just make sure she doesn't know anything about it, else everything will be over." he looked at her floating image for the last time before begins his first gameplay of the day.

"Start!" Dane commanded the game to begin. A piece of suspenseful ambient music started playing as the screen went black. Then it came up with a bar graph showing different levels in different colors. Each bar had a feeling assigned underneath. It was the current situation the mind of the player had. The level of fear was tipped highest than sadness. Happy and anger was almost nonexistent.

According to the gameplay, the player has to survive the assault caused by the enemy.

"OK, your task is to run away from the place. Get up! Run!" he commanded the player to see what was his response to it.

"The player is determined to stay at the place of assault." a female mechanical voice gave him insight about what the player had its intentions.

"Leira, can you tell me what our enemy intends to do?" he asked the helper in the game, who was just found to be fiddling with the rose.

Dane has to order the virtual brain to think in a certain way to increase the level of a particular feeling, which would make it easier for him to make the player take some action. But first, he has to make it think effectively.

"The enemy wants a piece of information from our player who doesn't have it with him," Leira spoke in the background, keeping a tab on the timer as well as the possible strategy Dane could follow.

"Remember, it didn't get deleted altogether." Dane anticipated the next move on the screen. "The reaction disrupted the process."

"The protagonist can't determine what his enemy could do. He feels scared of not being able to recognize the nature of the information." the mechanical voice spoke. "And we're left with three minutes and twenty-nine seconds."

"Oh no!" he panicked as very little time was left with him. 'She' must not watch him play at any cost! "Come on! Someone do someth---"

BAM! The protagonist got his head crashed as Dane waited for a move from either of them.

"Not fair!" Dane spoke through his gritted teeth as he looked at the screen that showed a slow transition of areas of pain the protagonist received.

"Retort!" commanded Leira to Dane to do something. The protagonist hit his head but before it could feel the shock, Dane hit the keyboard to activate 'numb' command. That would create a virtual cushion to bounce the pain off to somewhere else. The pain chemical now shaped into a tiny virtual packet that jumped in random directions. "Here we go again." Dane facepalmed himself. "NOT THIS BOUNCING THING AGAIN!" he nagged as he watched the tiny thing kept moving in every direction, hitting the boundary of the virtual cell.

"Retort before it turns into a concussion." Leira ignored his pleading looks that reflected the need for help. Dane straightened himself and scratched the pen on the touchpad till he could trap the packet. "Two minutes and fifteen seconds remained." Leira's lifeless voice aggravated him. "Come on! Take a breath," he said irritably as he got motivated to catch the packet that speeded up. "My system doesn't support respiration." the mechanical voice sounded even more lifeless.

He focused on that packet without even blinking. Under one breath, he managed to catch that under the virtual point under the pen. Now he kept pressing several keys that stopped it from fluttering. He hit another key that created a virtual vessel to capture it and save in a very tiny space between cells. "We're gonna need that soon." and took a deep breath.

"Warning! The subject is being suffocated to death." Leira reported before he could start relaxing again. "The health is dropping to critical levels. One minute and twenty seconds remained."

"OK. I got this!" he read the graph that showed a blinking bar of 'health'. It was at a ridiculous level. "Are you gonna choke me, you monster?" Dane got frustrated with the assault this enemy was doing to his protagonist. "I'll give you a taste of your medicine one day, I swear." he took off his eyes from the enemy and focused on the thought process of his protagonist instead. He was slowing down and about to lose his consciousness soon.

"Oh no! DON'T SLEEP NOW!" he was horrified the way the transition showed the senses being tortured that was equivalent to putting one's hand on the fire. "IS IT EVEN TIME TO SLEEP? WAKE. NOW!!!" he screamed on top of his c.h.e.s.t. He was worried that he would be dropped down to a couple of levels if he didn't win this one. He knew what it was like to win those, he can't afford losing it as he didn't have time.

" Current action might reduce game time." Leira sounded a bit angry over his stupidity.

"OK sorry." he apologized and hit the command on his keyboard where his protagonist's senses would get cooled down. That had to be done if he wants him to survive at this level. The protagonist instead felt like dying that clearly showed on the health bar. He typed a message that would convert into a signal to wake him.

"The system isn't programmed to resist the assault," Leira spoke as it observed him putting consistent effort. "So what? It can still listen to the commands!" he protested as he saw the blockhead nature of his protagonist.

"Careful not to break the unknown barrier as that might cause permanent injury to the brain." Leira stepped ahead to remind him of the environment of this gameplay.

"Never got the reports, right?" he decided to create another virtual vessel to store all the incoming pains his protagonist was receiving. "It's not fragile by the way, so no worries." meanwhile he continued giving the same command to this mind to be aware of the situation. "At least we can get some new information. The rest can be taken care of, you know." he was waiting for any slight signal of the initiative so that he could make him do anything.

"As you wish, Master Lonphour." Leira gave up convincing him. Maybe it was better to watch good things unfurl on their own.

Dane hit another command that stretched the virtual vessel. He decided to transform the incoming pain into a defensive force like a trampoline. He waited till he gets any signal of refusal of assault. Because at that stage neither the enemy stopped nor the protagonist was willing to not cooperate his enemy. But Dane kept sending commands to the virtual mind to be awake. In the midst of this, the health of the protagonist was going to be zero. It felt like dying.

"Countdown to be started in five seconds." Leira ruthlessly snapped him to reality.

"WHAT?" Dane was disappointed by such a dumb behavior of this virtual brain. So it decided to give up health instead of fighting. OK. He was done with it. People showed him what they wanted to do, but he can't afford to lose. He decided to leave the stretched vessel so that it hit the unknown boundary.

"The game goes offline in five---" Leira started the countdown. This is it. He has to do it. There's no other way. He left the vessel through a swipe of his pen.

"Four--" the screen showed the transition as the stored forces hit the strong wall in the virtual brain. The health bar glowed and started increasing rapidly.

"Three--" he then saw the signal of initiation transmitting in the brain.

"Two--" he lifted his pen motioned his arms as if to push an invisible obstacle towards his right. "Here's for you moron."

"One." and BOOM. The screen went black. Before he could celebrate the success of his completion of a difficult level, he witnessed a series of events that whirled his mind. He couldn't keep track of the sequence but he saw the shaded glass panels being lifted, the table is cleared off the mess, a book with few stationary materializing on the table where he just played a few moments ago and even his neck being lowered, everything simultaneously.

He closed his eyes as the light hit his eyes. Also, he didn't want to witness the person he was going to face right now. "Thank you, Leira." he felt the tension being released from his neck from being held upright for a long time.

The door creaked open as he tilted his head to pretend to be submerged in his reading material. The hairs behind his neck stood up as he heard the footsteps of the figure coming his way. He dared not to look up and towards the figure. But curiosity can't be held up for long.

"Good morning, Master Lonphour." a deep familiar female voice made him look up at her. "Morning, Miss Zeppy." he was going to look back at the book in front of him quickly but he was caught by the touring eyes of her. Youthful yet serious, such eyes spoke the only language of certain detachment with a hint of some secret ambition. The lady in a black suit with black hair tied in a bun, she wasn't someone to look eye to eye with her. He dropped his gaze as she didn't appear to be looking away any sooner.

"Doesn't look like you were so engrossed in the current object of interest," she said as she walked towards the table and picked up the book from the table. "A magazine issued in the last year?" said Miss Zeppy with a smirk on her face. "Not interested, amirite? " and placed the book back. "Rather busy in some useless childish activity." and walked towards the window to catch a glimpse of the outside. "Oh! What can we expect from a child?" said Miss Zeppy with a mocking expression.

"I've lived two decades and three years till today, and I don't think that's something of a child's age." Dane felt the need to speak in defense of indirect allegations towards him.

"A poetic presentation of hidden anguish? How wonderful!" she looked around the room with hands in her trouser pockets. "With a growing mind, this child seems to be losing his education and etiquette. Isn't it, the lady with a rose?" Miss Zeppy approached the image of Leira, forever happy floating among the roses. But the image shrugged her shoulder in return.

Dane looked at her from the corner of his eyes. Seeing her ask the image, he rolled his eyes. Does she think Leira would ever respond to anyone except him? Something has to be done before this Miss does something unexpected.

"By the way, I came here to give you a little update about the health of Sir Lonphour. He is showing no sign of normalcy, and soon, he might be becoming one of 'them' who can never be woken up once they are in their deep sleep." she paused on her way to look at him, trying to catch his attention." And without the availability of modern technology, there should not be any expectation of my help." she looked satisfied as soon as she caught the look of distress on his face.

" A very kind gesture of yours that you took the pain in your hands to deliver the news personally to me. I'm grateful for having a mentor like you." he enjoyed as he saw her face going sour from fresh like a flower. "Is there anything I can do or help?" he thought that might be a nice final blow to her so-called etiquettes.

"Nothing." she turned her face from him and began walking towards the door. "Oh, just a little reminder." she turned to look at his blank face. "Try to learn something from your brother. He is doing something better, for all of us to have a better life. It's not late to follow his footsteps and to save this empire. And you can always consult me. I'd be pleased to mentor you for free." she gave a gentle smile to him and towards the image of the lady in the glass pillar, who seemed to be minding her own business.

" Just take it, before someone else takes your prize. " Miss Zeppy said this and walked out of the door without looking back.

"I know where this is coming from, Zephyra," Dane said under his breath with a smirk.

"By the way, don't you think this lady is cent percent ironic?" Dane quickly locked the door and walked to his bed and plopped on it.

"I don't even know why is she doing whatever she's doing." Leira sat on the edge of a flower, plucking petals from a smaller flower.