Chapter 99. Moonlight?
"How do you feel?"
The tug on his mind rose again, and after bidding farewell to "Theresa," Xander's vision went dark.
Within a few seconds, he felt the metal box beneath him again.
The restraint unlocked automatically.
He took off the helmet, held his head, braced a hand on the inner wall, and slowly sat up.
As his eyes focused, he caught Cocolia's slightly worried expression.
He let out a small breath, put on a smile, and said to Cocolia and the girls behind her, "Don't worry, nothing's wrong."
Then he curiously raised both hands in front of his eyes, clenching and unclenching his fingers.
"It's really unbelievable," he sighed.
"Inside there, I could hardly tell virtual from real."
"Couldn't tell?"
Hearing his murmur, Dr. Tesla frowned, exchanged a look with Dr. Einstein, and whispered, "Looks like the realism slider is set too high. We should probably lower it."
"Mm."
"If people can't distinguish the virtual world from reality, that's quite dangerous, so we have to take it seriously," she added.
"For example, pain is capped at fifty percent exactly to handle that."
She stepped forward to stand beside Cocolia and asked, "Besides that, did you feel any issues during the test?"
"Issues? Let me think."
After rubbing his chin for a moment, he said a bit hesitantly, "Because the session was short, I only found two clearly noticeable problems."
"One is occasional but very palpable stutter."
"The other is that taste sometimes glitches."
"I ate a spoon of ice cream in there, and it burned me."
"I see."
Recording on her tablet, Tesla said, "The stutter's because we aren't using the most advanced communications system."
"That tech is currently held by Shencheng Technologies, but a partnership should be finalized soon, so it's not a big problem."
"As for taste, the program that handles the relevant neurons probably bugged out. I'll check it later."
Watching several girls hoist Xander up and gather around him like stars crowding the moon, Tesla waved them off impatiently.
"Since you're done, hurry up and clear out."
"Bird's-nest head and I still have experiments to run."
"When's the next test?" Xander asked.
He and "Theresa" had promised to play together again next time.
"One week later. We'll ping your phone then."
"Got it~"
They filed out of the lab in a lively group.
Seele, Yaya, and Kaguya finally couldn't hold back their curiosity.
They clustered at his sides, firing questions one after another.
Xander didn't mind.
He answered patiently and thoroughly.
Cocolia walked behind the children.
Seeing them laugh and get along warmed her mood, and the corners of her lips gently lifted.
After a while, when their curiosity seemed mostly satisfied, she walked up and asked, "XiaoXander, do you know who from Schicksal took the test with you?"
"Oh, that was The—"
His mouth stopped mid-word.
He halted and looked to Cocolia. "About Academy Head Theresa of St. Freya—does she happen to have a sister who looks very similar, or some relative like that?"
He had actually started to suspect when he first saw those eyes.
But a virtual avatar can be adjusted at will, and when he called her "Theresa," she didn't deny it, so he shelved the doubt.
Later, however, during their time playing together, the very obvious contradictions in "Theresa" made that suspicion return.
She's a principal in her forties, yet she acted like a fresh-faced girl seeing the world for the first time.
The way she kept a childlike curiosity toward everything simply couldn't be faked.
Especially whenever they went somewhere new, the surprise and delight in "Theresa's" eyes were unmistakable.
Honestly, she and the word "mature" were worlds apart.
"Mm?"
Frowning in thought for a moment, Cocolia seemed to recall something and answered uncertainly, "Now that you mention it, I do remember a bit."
"It was something Welt mentioned offhand."
"Apparently Otto actually has two granddaughters."
"One is Theresa."
"The other was frail from birth and has spent her life bedridden."
"Are you talking about that child?"
There really is one!
"Do you know her name?"
"Mm… I've forgotten the exact name, but I remember it had the two characters for 'Theresa' in it."
"Why?"
"Did you meet her?"
"...If nothing unexpected happened, yes."
Recalling how the two of them played together, and how Theresa looked like she was exploring the world for the first time, he couldn't help but think:
How is it that in real life she's still having such a hard time?
Looks like he had one more reason to look forward to the next test.
"Given current medical tech, is there no way to cure that girl named 'Theresa'?" Seele asked, puzzled.
"It's possible, but the process is quite troublesome, and it touches on a Schicksal secret."
Cocolia glanced around.
Seeing no one nearby, she pulled them into a random office and shut the door tight.
"What is it?" the kids asked, confused.
Cocolia pressed a finger to her lips to quiet them and gestured for everyone to sit.
"I'd planned to wait a bit before telling you this."
"But since it came up today, I might as well say it."
"What is it?"
"That Schicksal secret."
She paused, a smile tugging at her mouth, then met their eyes one by one.
"Do you know who currently runs Schicksal?"
"Otto."
"The Big Three tech powers, right? We're familiar."
"And do you know how old he is?"
"..."
"Doesn't he look very young even now?"
"..."
Put like that, everyone fell into thought.
Now that they thought back, Otto had always looked like this since they were little.
"Let me tell you," Cocolia said.
"When I was a child, Otto already looked like this."
"How is that possible?!"
People age.
It's the law of nature, and no one can defy it.
"Is he a robot?" Bronya hypothesized.
"No."
Cocolia shook her head.
Without keeping them in suspense any longer, she told them straight.
"It's Schicksal's gene technology."
"No one knows exactly how long Otto has lived."
"Rumor has it that his and his wife's 'ever-youth' stems from an accident."
"Thanks to that now-unverifiable accident, Schicksal developed a large suite of gene technologies."
"With their tech today, extending someone's lifespan by several centuries is no problem."
"But because of the physical burden, that girl named 'Theresa' has had to condition her body since she was little."
"She's actually even older than you."
"Ah?!!!"
Satisfied by the four children's shock, Cocolia went on with a smile, "Of course, on the one hand it could cause social chaos, and on the other the cost is enormous, so this technology has never been made public."
"It's not just Schicksal people."
"Welt Yang, Dr. Einstein, and Dr. Tesla over in Anti-Entropy have all had Schicksal's genetic adjustments."
"Otherwise, given their ages, how could they still look so young?"
"Dr. Mobius over at Shencheng Technologies even took it a step further, but due to excessive risk, it's banned from use."
"...So ordinary people just..." Seele began, troubled.
Cocolia chuckled and looked at her.
"You probably don't know, and governments have deliberately kept it quiet, but if you actually investigated, you'd find that over the past decade, average life expectancy has been rising in slightly abnormal ways."
"Eh?"
Realization hit like a jolt, and everyone fell silent.
After a long beat, Bronya looked up. "What about you, Mom Cocolia?"
"Me? Not yet."
"I haven't been in Anti-Entropy for long, so I haven't had the chance to go."
"This VR technology is actually Anti-Entropy's breakthrough, but hogging the spoils is the surest way to make enemies."
"So we're co-developing it via tech exchange and a limited pool of gene-adjustment slots."
She paused, then continued.
"As for what I have, I've already reserved places for you."
"!!!"
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