บท 51: Hive Mind Game
Sling!
The cabin opened and Seth found Adam, his father, staring at him. Joseph was on an errand and since his old man was available he became the one looking after them while they were gaming.
"Welcome back!" The middle-aged man said with a smile as he helped Seth out. They exchanged some pleasantries before Seth walked to his room.
After resting, he ate food and went to look for Adamina but he was ordered to meet someone.
His family has called a doctor to check his condition because for the past week he had shown abnormality of having body strength comparable to a normal person.
The doctor asked Seth a series of questions, and in the end, he attributed everything to the Nutrient Solutions that players breathed during gaming. However, advised Seth to be thoroughly examined in the hospital.
The family aren't opposed to the idea, but anything that will tell the world Seth has changed due to a game they want to avoid. What if they were targeted?
Nonetheless, that was the best way for them to know the true condition of Seth, for all they know, this might not be a good thing.
.
.
.
"Adamina! You are hard to find!" Seth exclaimed as he found her in their garage fiddling with some old cars after searching the whole house.
"I'm working!" She said without sliding out from under a car.
"It's alright. I just want to ask something! What do you mean I broke the game?"
"What part of 'I am working' you don't understand!"
'Yeah! Shit!' She is like that. If she doesn't wish to talk, she becomes a pain in the butt. Still, Seth stood there, not leaving. She finished what she was doing fast and came out.
"Ever since you went back to gaming, your cabin has had a surge of power about 3 times now. The first and second were small, but the third was very strong."
She was no longer annoyed as there was a hint of curiosity as she explained it to him. "And it's on the third surge, that all of us were forcefully exited from the cabin while you remained inside"
"What time did these surges happen!" Seth asked. She explained the day and around the time and he nodded in understanding.
"But you said I broke the game. What do you mean?"
"Well, I just said what came to my mind. But there is an element of truth to it. Inside your cabin, there was no record of that surge. It was our Cabin and other Measurement Device affected that indicated that it was your cabin! To be honest, though, some of us have that kind of surge but the frequency of it was minuscule and the magnitude was small! And, in a secret forum I created, certain kinds of people were complaining about it. So, it wasn't anything super strange!"
Seth nodded in understanding and he already realized what caused the surge of power. It was him activating the Womb and charging it.
"Do you know that, whenever you dive there is always a surge for a moment before everything stabilizes?" She added. Seth shook his head.
"Well, Joseph and even Raaz didn't know what caused that!" She concluded and then she eyed him suspiciously and asked. "Do you know what caused it?!"
Seth stared at her for a moment before he asked, "What do you think was the cause!?"
She snickered, nonetheless, she explained that it was because his Constitution was very low and every time the game had to scan his body and synchronize it with his avatar. With that, the improvement of the Avatar will not scale far above the real body.
The next conjecture she gave was that, as Asteroids Online amalgamated the past Games into it, they have the element of Hive Mind Game that used the Mind of the players as the source of power.
And, in Seth's case, he might be under a Quest that demands his Mental Power which in that case causes the surge of power. Which was exactly similar to what happened when he was playing Hive Mind.
She backed this claim by saying the game tried to be impartial and thus generate Quest based on the capability of the player and in his case, his mind was stronger than his body.
She explained more than that but Seth stuck to the last conjecture. And he was amazed by her close hypothesis.
"Hive Mind mechanic is at the forefront of Asteroids Online. It's all about the brain." Seth asserted with seriousness. And that startled Adamina to gaped at him.
"Soon, players that have low Mental Capability will stagnate and won't be able to move forward. I think it's time we try to find a way to advance our Mental Faculty!" He added.
It wasn't because of the Womb that he came to this conclusion, it was because his body began to improve from the Poison only after the game acknowledged his Mental Power has increased. And this was exactly like Hive Mind.
Hive Mind was among the last VR Games that came right before Asteroids Online. And its players were the lowest compared to the other Games due to its intense requirement.
Before one buys its Head gear, one has to scan his head using a device and if their sync rate is passable they can buy the Headgear which was the cheapest of all the games that came before it.
Even though 8 in 10 people passed the sync rate, most were on average. The sync rate was 1 to 100%.
The passable rate was 50%. The game makes it so that anyone with 50% or above will still be seeing 50. But those that were below 50%, will see their actual sync rate.
The lowest sync rate was 15% and the game company even called the person and gave him some advice. He was on the news for some time.
The game was very simple and the classes were given the moment one dived in. However, it all revolved around Psychic Power!
And the lore was about a Monster King that will wake up from slumber and enslave humanity. Those that developed Psychic Power to a sufficient level will be able to resist him and even fight him.
The progression of the game was like a cultivation world. where people fight for resources to improve themselves.
Its levelling system was the most interesting.
There was no level one or two. It was about surpassing your region and moving to another. The region denotes the scale of the power and level. There was also a middle ground where people meet from different regions and fight in tournaments.
Seth has never scaled and swept the floor in any game and become the Apex, except in that Game.
The Game span multiple Regions in a Continent, there were 25 other Continents in that world Game. Seth swept through the regions and became the King of his Continent and was on a Quest to find a way to hop to another Continents where he will battle another King for supremacy.
Until all the Continents unite they will then stand a chance against the Beast King.
He didn't manage to reach his goal when his continent was invaded by a colossal Asteroid, half the size of his entire continent.
One of his Vassals that has Reconnaissance as his class, also has the strongest Scanning Psychic Ability informed him that the thing harbour an entity in slumber. And it wasn't even the Boss Monster, this one came from elsewhere.
Seth has to meet the colossal space rock head-on and used his Telekinesis to stop its descent and also push it back. If it was allowed, it will destroy his Continent and also Seth will lose his Psychic Powers.
Your Mental Power determine your energy output and Seth has never met his Energy limit till that day, but then the damn game server crashed when his output outweighed the game.
Seth shook his head as he stared at Adamina that has been talking while he was in trance.
"Did you get a girlfriend in university, are you thinking about her that you can't even listen to me?" Adamina teased
"Nah! I was thinking about Hive Mind!"
"That shitty game that resembled real-life situations!" She cursed.
Players with low Mental Power were reduced to commoners while the opposite were nobles.
"What I'm saying, you do know what was making the power surge?" She asked her earlier question.
"Yes! And I need to warn them that a more powerful surge will happen!" Seth confirmed.
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