Chapter 17: Ch57. Comatose - 4 [MEMORY FRAGMENT]
In Kurt’s hospital room, Dr. Lee was getting ready to move him.
"We’ll move him to the C-wing." She told Octavius and Nina. "His readings are too erratic and off the charts for him to be suffering from CMI, so he must be awakening."
When they listened to these words, both had widened their eyes in shock.
How could their son be awakening before the time? How could he be awakening even before waking up?
When Nina asked these questions to Dr. Lee, she smiled bright and spoke in a very effusive tone.
"I might have a theory for that, but I gotta run some tests on him." And after Octavius shot a deadly glare towards her, she added. "Of course we’re going to go through the treatment. I’m just going to run some tests alongside it. Don’t worry, your son has more than enough chances of waking up."
Inside the system’s [HIDDEN ROOM], the younger Kurt and his older version clashed against each other.
Meanwhile, the older Kurt didn’t stop explaining the intricacies he learned about the system.
"... But the most interesting point of becoming part of it, after getting the help of Arias and Orkas, and taming two fragments of the Disaster, is that I became able to hide in this [HIDDEN ROOM] ’while’ learning about the thought process of the system. It’s not much what I’ve learned, but I can tell you that the stronger you get, the hungrier and more aggressive the system will behave towards you."
Older Kurt had lent one of the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] to his younger version, and it seemed like his younger version was learning the ways of a rogue quite well.
Even though he wasn’t able to use his older version’s skills, younger Kurt had become acquainted with sharpening his senses so that he could feel where older Kurt’s attacks were going to come from.
The time inside the [HIDDEN ROOM] flowed differently from the outside world, and they had been fighting for weeks nonstop until younger Kurt a state of perfect concentration.
"Once you level up properly, with the help of the daily quests and the raids, you’ll be able to learn different skills that’ll help you become a perfect rogue. But I have designed a little thing that will help you even more than the quests, since I don’t know how the system is going to behave towards you once you wake up."
The blades clashed, with younger Kurt blocking, dodging and striking back with perfect accuracy.
But die to them being the same person, only from different world lines, it felt almost impossible to younger Kurt to actually land a decisive blow to the older him.
"And what is it?"
"I blocked my skills so that they look like inexistent to the system, and when you reach certain requirements, you’ll be able to unlock them. I also made some changes to the skill [STEAL] to make it more fit to the Rogue class. With it, you’ll be able to steal abilities related to your class, and there’s even a hidden function called [MERGE], with which you can fuse skills and abilities that have synergy among them, to turn them into much more powerful skills. Like this one."
And after older Kurt said that, he activated [GHOST STEPS OF A THOUSAND FEET].
Younger Kurt froze on his fighting pose, mesmerized by the countless of his older version’s after images that surrounded him.
"Holy Moly! What’s the name of this skill?" Younger Kurt asked with, slack-jawed.
"Hehehe... It’s called [GHOST STEPS OF A THOUSAND FEET], and it’s perfect to confuse the enemy, just like how I confused you right now."
Younger Kurt scratched his chin, thinking for a few seconds. His eyes glowing with unknown intent and genuine curiosity.
"You told me that when you lost the [INVISIBLE HAND], you were still able to feel the mana, and forced yourself upon it so that you could use the mana just like with the skill, right?"
Older Kurt stopped, his after images fading one by one. He looked at his younger version with awe and a bit of curiosity.
"Yes...?"
The [HIDDEN ROOM] became dead silent as younger Kurt thought, so focused that older Kurt would probably be able to hit him a couple times before his younger version noticed what happened.
But after what felt like minutes, younger Kurt began vibrating, as if having a seizure, but not.
And after he began vibrating like that, one by one, after images of him began appearing all around older Kurt, who watched with wide eyes and jaw dropped low.
"It... It won’t be this easy in the real world, but boy... What kind of monster are you?" He laughed.
"I just paid attention to your movements while you were using the skill. I figured out that since we’re inside the system, and as long as it remained in the realms of what the human body can reproduce, of I just paid enough attention to your movements, I’d be able to reproduce them with the right amount of focus.", He smiled a childish smirk.
Older Kurt laughed wholeheartedly, but his laugh was suddenly cut by the feeling of the familiar cold metal touching his neck.
His younger version stood right behind him, smiling with one of the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] close to his throat.
"You beat me, Kurt." The older version clapped his hands. "Even though, as I told you before, it won’t be this easy to forcefully reproduce the skills in the real world due to the lack of strength in your body, that will only be covered up by you leveling up, your wits tell me that you already are a far better rogue than I am."
Older Kurt sent the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] back to his new [HIDDEN INVENTORY] and looked at his younger version with a smile on his face.
"Now... The time has come for you to understand the hardest part of what you’ll have to face out there."
Younger Kurt looked perplexed.
"After I died and became a part of the system, I was supposed to have my consciousness travel to another version of my world, but due to something that I can’t explain myself, I ended up trapped here. But it also allowed me to run through some things that the system had already prepared for me. And even as I couldn’t meet the requirements of the last quest given to me before I died, I was able to go through one of its rewards."
He paused for a bit and watched his younger version grow perplexed.
"It’s a [MEMORY FRAGMENT]." Older Kurt went on. "And I thought it was meant to be mine as soon as I finished the quest, but it wasn’t."
"So...?"
"It’s yours." Older Kurt said, seeing his younger self’s eyes growing wide.
"But how?"
"I don’t know. But you’ll understand the memories as soon as you finished watching them. Now, I feel that our time here is drawing near its end, so watch it carefully, and if I’m not here when you open your eyes again, just remember to not make the same mistakes I made."
Older Kurt had infinite sadness in his eyes as he said that, and after a second, younger Kurt heard a voice echoing all around, followed by a holographic window popping up in front of him.
[YOU HAVE RECEIVED - MEMORY FRAGMENT]
[DO YOU WANT TO WATCH THE FRAGMENT?]
[YES] [NO]
Younger Kurt touched the [YES], and everything went dark as he listened to his older version’s voice.
’I never thought that they were right.
You know, when people say that when you die, life flashes through your eyes.
But as the hands of Octavius Blake wrapped around my neck, squeezing the air out of my lungs...
I saw everything that led me to this very moment.
The moment I died.
And came back to life...’
