Note: This chapter details the Unlocking as most readers assume that this is the "10% of the Brain" thing. While it does copy and follows certain formats of this trope, the Unlocking is more complicated. So this chapter is meant to reveal various details about the Unlocking while avoiding spoilers of the story itself.
The time when the following events happen is sometime between chapter 296 and chapter 297.
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"Thank you for attending this online meeting via Connect. We if you are here, then you are part of our main force. So it's expected that you should be able to perceive, hear and understand the words that I am saying. I trust that you all can even tune out the other words that I am saying simultaneously in this online webinar that currently holds over five hundred civilian attendees. Of course, you should not worry about being found out, as this webinar is highly encrypted, and you can only hear the sounds through your respective devices. So as instructed, please leave your mics on, but be sure not to make any other unnecessary sounds as it may disrupt our the other discussion." The speaker began.
The speaker had paused in speaking, but at the same time, to most normal humans, the speaker kept on speaking to introduce the topics and line up of speakers in the public webinar entitled, 'how to survive a collapsing world.'
Yet unknown to most attendees, the speaker was actually speaking in subsonic or ultrasonic sounds. The sounds were still encrypted, and it required certain techs to decrypt these subsonic or ultrasonic sounds to hear the original subsonic sounds.
"Alright. So, let's get started. What exactly is the Unlocking? Most of you have taken our latest versions, and it seemed to brought you to what we call the Unbecoming stage. In this stage, your brain is working in a capacity that it can't. Your brain is maximizing every form of faculty, from memory, sight, hearing, smelling... everything. To use a famous analogy, you are like one of those people in sci-fi shows that have now gone beyond the 10% brain capacity. But is this case? It technically isn't. But you could say that certain concepts of that trope have indeed occurred in your brain. Yes, Lieutenant?"
A young woman sent a ping to inform them that she had a question.
"So what is it exactly? Most of us have been thinking along the line of the 10% brain capacity, but then some explained that it is not the capacity of the brain that we broke through but that our brain broke the limits of its designed nature."
"That is exactly what it is. You know that those who have successfully reached the higher parts of Unbecoming are offered a set of vials to help the brain before it literally burns itself and crashes. The 10% brain sci-fi trope refers to the fact that people only use 10% of the entire brain. So if we look at the parts of the brain, be it the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and even the brain stem, that sci-fi trope tells us that out of all that, only 10% is used. The rest of the parts of your brain are dormant. Other versions of this trope tell us that there are 'parts of the brain' that we don't use or cannot access. It is not necessarily 10%, but it could be a small part of the brain. in any case, this is not what the Unlocking is."
"Then why do I keep hearing the phrase 10% from our scientists?"
"The answer is a bit more complicated than you think. When the Unlocking was discovered, we have set a theoretical limit on what exactly the brain can do. Right now, the speed you perceive the events is already eight times faster than what normal humans perceive it in. Some of you can even see bullets with your current Unlocking, granted that you have the skills and abilities that make you special. Have you ever wondered, what is the limit of this ability? How slow can a person perceive time? We know those in the Inhuman stage can slow down time up to fifteen times the normal speed. So what is the limit?"
"So, the one hundred that these scientists are talking about is that limit? Like, how slow we can perceive time?"
"Correct. The limit that we set on that category is one zeptosecond. After all, you cannot perceive slower than that. If you do, then it perceives in a time where time has actually stopped. The same goes for your ability to see. Some of you need not use a sniper scope to snipe down someone two kilometers away. So the question is, how far can you see? Or if it's close, how great can you zoom in? Just like in time perception, 100% means you can see according to Planck length. Which is the smallest measurement possible."
"But you guys just set everything to the highest limits! I know that if we try to cut Planck's length into smaller parts, it will cease to exist. The same goes for the zeptosecond! There is nothing slower than a zeptosecond! It is physically impossible to quantify or see it."
"That's exactly the point. We don't know what kind of brain is capable of looking at that. No one, not even in Seeker's alternate timeline, has seen that kind of brain. That's just the theoretical limit. So using that as a measurement, we charted the perception time and sort of grouped them into the different stages of the Unlocking. If you can perceive time ten times slower, then you technically have a perception that only Inhumans have. Yes, General? It's been a while." The speaker turned to another teenager who sent a secret signal to ask a question.
"It has, hasn't it?"
"I heard you're someone awesome now." The speaker laughed.
"Whatever, Charles. My question is this. I recall you and Seeker talked about the previous limits of the Unlocking. You said that the Unlocking begins at 13%. Then that means regular humans are able to reach the eleventh and twelfth percent?"
"Yes. Some because of training, some because they were born with certain conditions that naturally allowed the brain to work stronger. Those with photographic or eidetic memory fall into these categories of being able to surpass the 10%. Some people who are smarter or more talented in a sport, game or what have you have these things. That is why we went after gamers who have always been able to tap on the higher levels of the Unlocking naturally."
"OK then. What about the standard limits of each stage? We use to talk about the stages and what levels of strength they have. But suddenly, three months ago, we stopped doing that. In fact, I heard that we are revising the percentage attributed to each stage of the Unlocking. Why?"
"Because of Seeker." The speaker answered.
"Oh. I get it. So the range change?" The young man immediately grasped what the speaker meant.
"Yes. The levels and percentages that our alternate selves might have set in that future no longer apply. In fact, we determine the strength and limits of a person right now, not just the percentage since Amir came into the picture. It is possible for someone to have an Unlocked percentage of 17% to defeat someone who has a 24% unlocking state. With the rising numbers of Selective, we decided to scrap the old ways of recording and now use that game to have virtual battle stimulation and determine the Unlocking according to strength. This is because, just like the Heroes and Overcomers, it's more about potential. You, Dear General, is one such example."
"Then, if that's the case, has the theoretical 100 changed?"
"Yes. We do stick to that numeric structure for convenience's sake. Also, we don't know what something past 100 looks like. Can someone who breached it stop time in his perception? Can he reverse time? Is that possible? We don't know. The best way to think what this Unlocking is, is to see it as a step that mortals take to become those beings we've seen or read about. Cultivators."
"Farmers?"
"Uh. No. Vender? What are you doing here?"
"Hey, Call me by my title!"
"Your not a General in our book! Besides, I already explained this to you?!"
"You didn't use that term when we talked! What's a cultivator?"
"Really? For a nerd like you? You don't know?"
"Are cultivators close to a Jedi?"
"No! Immortals! I'm talking about Immortals that the Chinese talk about in their Xianxia, Xuanhuan, and whatever novels! That's what cultivators mean!"
"So basically... god-like beings?"
"Yes! For crying out loud, man! Why did you join the webinar? You could have asked me personally!"
"I wanted to meet the others."
While the speaker began to berate the infiltrator, many others murmured and began to chat with their friends.
"This is 'that' General that even the boss said had a strong path?" A famous female gamer asked a rather timid male teenager beside him who was watching the webinar together.
"I think so... the boss said, he's lying skills will shock us..."
"Going back to topic!" The speaker finally urged everyone.
"The Unlocking becomes a stepping stone towards becoming cultivators. By unlocking the limits of what we can do, even our physical abilities have grown stronger. While the range differs per person, the various advantages apart from the physical boosts that we get through the Neuro-Transcellular phenomenon make us monsters in the human world."
"How come this never happened before?" Unlike the previous people who raised questions, this person was older than most of the teenagers in the room.
"Why haven't these events happened before? Can we assume that the great heroes of old who raged wars, burned cities, and conquered empires were Unlocked?"
"General Lander... Good to see you. We have two conjectures regarding this. The first is if Eagle is right. If he is, then it might have been possible if we go back to the 1900s BC, then they might have already appeared. But my personal take is that it's unlikely for that to happen. I believe Eagle is wrong. This means there has never been an Unlocked that has surfaced this Earth until recently."
"Then why now? China. EAA. Pangea. Caliphate. Canada. These countries suddenly produced Unlocked on their own. And that is even without your drugs or Seeker Carlean. How was it that no Unlocked surface ages before? World War 1, World War 2, all those battles and fights even in the ancient world... Why was there no one who managed to become Unlocked?"
"That information cannot be divulged here. Your respective supervisors should know it by now. Ask them about this. But what I can say is that the Unlocked was introduced after a certain event about a century ago."
"The Third World War? Are you saying that the radiation from the post-apocalyptic world at that time caused the unlocked to rise?" A young woman asked.
"Ah... A Dalisay! You're his representative?"
"Yes. I've attended on behalf of my family."
"Alright. Actually, your conjecture is quite interesting. I haven't thought about it until now. But my answer remains... The world back then, the high radiation of that time, could have only hastened the real cause for the appearances of the Unlocked."
"What time exactly?"
"I can't say. Ask your supervisors." The speaker smiled.
"I know! The event was actually when the Star Wars franchised announced the Prequel-Sequel-Sequel or whatever they called it. People were so fed up with it that their disappointments allowed the Unlocking." The annoying man joked.
No one laughed.
The annoying man sighed and murmured something about no one appreciating his genius.
"To conclude..." The speaker continued.
"The Unlocking is something that we cannot box, what we do know, that it is the starting point to becoming something more. You see, if the brain is without limits, it can grow to the point that it will change our very physiology. The brain of a dog will always be a brain of a dog. But through the unlocking, we breach our genetic limitations and even recode the DNA. We have seen their power. Don't those monsters have brains that actually act like real computers? That is because they have reshaped their brain! Their brain more compartments, more lobes, and more parts than what normal humans have! They even have birthed their own organs. Who knows? Maybe soon, we'll be able to grow a physical organ that the Chinese called the dantian? For now, I hope this little session will clarify the direction which you should all take. Because all of you, you're growths, your power, can improve our studies. If you reshape your brain and show us something amazing, we might just be able to replicate it and pass it on to the humans who are stuck in the Unbecoming. So grow stronger! Become real cultivators! Cultivate to breach the heavens!"