章 1999: Commencement

In the past week, the world may as well have ceased to exist.

For Rui, at least.

He immersed himself in a deep meditation.

He refined his concentration, honing his focus. 

The world around him slowly ceased to exist as his mind entered a state of mental singularity, filtering out all information outside of the state of concentration. A state of consciousness is often referred to as the zone or flow state.

It was delicate and fragile.

Fickle in its ability to be achieved.

Rui would often immerse himself in psychological conditioning to allow him to enter such a state.

Yet, he had never entered it in less than a week outside of spontaneous luck.

This time, however, it was as though the sum totality of his being understood the gravity of the situation that he was in.

It understood the consequences of failure.