"I am here to help..." A familiar voice said
Dave and Sandra's eyes turned misty. They knew it was someone they could trust and perhaps the savior they'd been waiting for all this time. They turned their heads toward the voice and saw the familiar silhouette of a man they used to hang out with.
Nostalgia hit them as if the time were chased by Androids wandering in their city felt like it was just yesterday. They remembered how hard it was to make their way to Markus's house to get a flash drive which was their only hope. They were brought into a pinch and that same man came to them to do the saving.
"Who are you?" Michiyo asked as the man walked towards them. She stood between them and the approaching person.
A man with a bonnet entered the tent dressed in a blinding light from the outside and was holding a staff, which made her think of him as a dangerous guy.
"You can call me his Nanny..." the man smirked and leaned forward to the dying kid. "I don't know what exactly happened but he needs to be treated, right?" he looked Michiyo in the eyes. "... his wounds are quite serious." his voice is both raspy and imposing.
"I never knew you would come..." Dave said with relief in his voice. "How did you get here?"
"Long story...but mostly because of his dad." The man pointed his staff to the kid on the floor.
"Can you treat his wounds?" Ken asked, he lowered his guard.
The man looked at Hachiro and said, "I can't...".
Hearing those words, Dave felt a snap on him. "What?! I thought this is when you can help." He exclaimed. "And you always treated his wounds since we were young, right, Uncle Ned?"
Ned turned to Dave and said, "Calm down kid. I can only give him first aid..." he felt nostalgic. "..like the old days..." he said.
"Can't you do something, Uncle Ned?" Sandra weakly said.
"I'll try something," Ned replied.
"You'll try?... If not you..." Sandra started to sound weary. "Who can heal him?"
"I can't treat his wounds but I've brought someone that can do the saving," Ned said.
"Who?" they asked.
A lady in a white robe holding a staff came inside the tent wearing a cheerful smile. Her robe hugged the curves of her body. Her long emerald hair dangles on her shoulders. Her pale complexion makes her look like an angel.
"Hi everyone.." The lady said. "Don't worry about him kids, I've got this...Is that okay?" her eyes glitter under the dim light. She was full of compassion and angst despite her angelic appearance.
"Who is she?" Dave whispered.
"My wife.." Ned replied with a poker face.
A minute of silence came to them until the fact hit them hard.
"EHHHHHHHH??????" they all exclaimed.
"She's too beautiful to be your wife, Uncle Ned!!" Dave exclaimed. In a few seconds, he felt something in him was lifted. "She's got a nice body, cute curly emerald hair, pink cheeks and..."
"Her glasses look good on her... and not to mention she's got a warm voice..." Ken continued, his eyes sparkling.
"Sooo?" Ned replied, keeping his laugh.
The girl kept walking towards them and gave a soft smile as she saw that even in that situation, the kids were able to feel less burdened.
"Ex-wife dear.." the girl said and walked past Ken who was still star-structed. "I'm Monica Lockwood. Ned's ex-wife, this kid's mom's cousin." She kneeled to see the poor kid lying on the floor. "He looks bad.." she murmured. "He's quite pale.."
Lockwood they thought. Silence dropped by again in their midst. Questions are starting to form in their heads but they were not able to materialize it.
"Can you heal him?" Sandra fervently asked, holding his friend's hand dearly.
"Don't worry. I'm a doctor before I become an Agent." Monica replied. "I've got this kid..." Assuring the sad little girl. "Besides, his mom begged for her son's safety so I can't really refuse. "
She raised her staff and it glowed, turning into a white briefcase. She opened it and medical stuff came in handy. Everyone was awed.
Monica started to dress Hachiro's wounds and took out the debris left on them. She was able to get a 2-inch thorn and showed it to his friends.
"Do you know what's this?" she asked. "Haven't seen this kind of stuff before."
"Hai.." Michiyo raises her hand. "That was a spider's leg hair. He shielded me and it struck him instead." She added.
"I see.." She took a needle and sewn the wound. "Don't worry. He'll be fine. Now that the wound was closed and you gave him a healing potion, he's out of danger." Monica said.
"Thank goodness!" Sandra sighed. The others felt relieved as well.
"All he needs is a good hour of sleep and perhaps a mental rest. Let him recuperate; he needs both physical and psychological rest this time." Monica got a warm towel and wiped the kid's face. "He's gone through a lot." She added. "I can't believe this kid..." she sighed.
They all felt the same. They can't argue about what Monica has said. They knew that Hachiro had been exhausted all this time and they found themselves unable to help.
"..But, I commend this kid's strength though; He heals fast."
"He's got someone on his head," Ken muttered.
"What do you mean?" Monica asked.
"'That' thing dear," Ned replied. "We've talked about it on the phone, right?"
"Oh..." Monica said. "I thought it was just a joke. His mom did not say something about it when I asked about her son either."
"It's not a joke...he was saved by that quite a lot of times. I mean, he saved himself. Ne, Shi-chan?" Ned said.
Hearing his name, Shichiro materialized and stared with teary eyes.
"He's Shichiro. Marky's other half." Ned said to his ex-wife.
"Thank you for healing Ha-chan!!" he cried. "I don't know who you are but thank you so much!!" the wolf burst into tears.
"Don't cry now, Shi-chan..." Michiyo caressed his head. "Hachiro will be fine." But the wolf continued crying.
"Anyway.." Ned broke the ice. "We need to get a new map of the city and re-plan our strategy."
"A new map?" Dave asked. "New strategy?"
"What do you mean, Uncle Ned?" Sandra asked.
"Did you not know about the latest update?" Ned asked again.
"Update?" they said in chorus.
"Ahh so, you haven't noticed?" Ned raised an eyebrow and that gave the group a lingering feeling of confusion. "Look around you. You wore different clothes now than what you wore at the parade."
They all looked at each other and turned dumbfounded by the new set up of the game they are in.
"You're right.." they all muttered.
Dave noticed that his school uniform turned into red armor resembling lava-hued clothing with leather undergarments. His usual sword hangs on his side with a dark-tinted scabbard. His gauntlets are still on his hand and his feet are now wearing metal boots. "this is awesome.." he sighed.
"Awesome for you.." Ken complained when he noticed his skin turned into a glowing blue. He has a shoulder blade hanging on him. "What's this with me??" he muttered while turning to see his body.
Brent laughed under his breath seeing how troubled Ken was on his appearance. But he was silenced by his reflection from a water glass. "Why am I so tanned?" he cried. He realized that he was wearing a purple sleeve-less robe with a big belt covering half of his front and 2 rounded swords were hanging on his side as well.
"You look gross.." Ken said to Brent.
"At least I'm not blue.." Brent rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.
"That's enough you two.." Sandra muttered.
"You can't complain because you still look cool, Cassy.." Brent said.
"Do I?" Sandra asked. She looked around to see herself.
"Compared to us? Of course, you do..." Ken exclaimed. "Though your skin turned grayish but doesn't make you look bad. You also have this black archer's robe and you have a nice cape.."
"Yes, you have a cape.." Brent muttered. "And not to mention you have a full set of Bow and Arrows.."
"I didn't mean to have this.." Sandra complained and her nose turned red.
"But you know what's more unfair" Ken asked.
"What?" Brent replied.
"Michiyo looks like a princess..." Ken muttered.
"An Ice Princess not to mention..." Brent almost drooled. "That blue dress looks good on you Michiyo.." he continued.
"Ahh, thanks.." Michiyo replied blushing.
"You do resemble an ice warrior. With that furry white animal skin cape and a spear..."
"You look like a hunter.." Ken said in agreement. "But I'm blue.."
"Now that you've said it..." Brent said. "Is that the reason for your get up, Uncle Ned?"
"Yeah... the program was updated around 20:30. All the players were characterized according to their status, skills, and abilities."
"We're not on the same page.." Sandra muttered.
"Just as I thought," Ned replied. "Okay... we entered the game the same way you did though not at the same time. We got this watch..." he showed it to them. "to access the game without registering on the port. The president of the GStech gave this to us about two days ago. It's the same thing that Marky had."
"But, he was given the same watch as the ones we received at the port, right?" Michiyo exclaimed.
"Yeah, he used that. But he still has another watch." Ned said. "I made it with his father for contingency purposes."
"What? What will that do?"
"In all honesty, I dunno..." Ned said. "But I'm pretty sure if he'll use that, he'll get double of the stress that one watch can give him.."
"In other words, it will hasten the apathy syndrome?"
"Something like that..." Ned agreed.
"A double-edged sword," Michiyo said.
"But I do hope he won't use it.." Ned replied.
"That's horrible.." Sandra whispered.
"Anyway...The update was meant to discriminate the players among others. It capitalizes on your worth, your value." Ned explained. "...and how much life you still have".
"Worth? value? What was that?"
He swiped his finger in the air and a new meter appeared. "This is the new meter that dictates our status in this game. It measures the worth of your brain, the selling price of it in other sense, or you can just call it the measure of your Intelligence..."
"Worth of the brain, huh?" Ken asked. "Like how we can utilize our brain prowess when we work for the market?"
"Yeah. Something like that; or you can call it simply an IQ meter." Ned replied. "It was first developed by Ada Lovelace in her game called Synapse, a virtual game that has these biases. She said that it will highlight intelligent people in this game and can be a venue for companies to measure a person's ability based on his brain prowess. It's like capitalizing on one's intelligence and making it a market for a currency. In the game, you can actually sell intelligence or gain more based on your hard work in completing the tasks and fighting against the other players. You can buy skills using your intelligence as well. Rank up and get more intelligence." He added.
"That's pretty weird.." Dave whispered.
"She added that it will give value to the person's brain based on how he answers a certain number of tests: psychometric and the likes that can be used as reference in the real world..."
"But that's ridiculous!" Brent exclaimed. "People have different intelligences and abilities. Nothing can measure a human intellect just by measuring the brain's capabilities, you know! And mostly, tests are not meant for that purpose; It's degrading a human person. It's just labeling.."
"That's what the Board thought and decided that the game will be trashed. Not a word from GSTech came to talk about that game anymore, it's perhaps unethical from their point of view." Ned expounded. "That's also the reason why she was forced to step down from her office."
"Ahh, so.."
"But that was used here and now..." Ned said. "Then we can say that she's part of this scheme..."
"What the—"
"Anyway, this is my brain meter." A meter high of stick with grids and laminating liquid came into view. "This blue stuff indicates the value of your brain."
"Yours is quite high, Uncle Ned..." Dave mentioned. "145 is not bad..."
"That's rude, Dave..." Ned eyed him and Dave looked away. "Well, this goes the same way with the life meter. Once you get hurt or you attack a person with a higher meter than you have, yours will go down."
"I don't want to see my brain meter.." Dave sighed.
"Mine neither.." Ken muttered.
"The fights from now on will definitely damage your brain more than what the decay can bring you. The longer we stay inside the city, the greater the chances of apathy and that's still the case on this update." Ned said. "That is why we need to re-plan stuff and we're here to tell you something."
"Is that why are you here?" Dave asked.
"Oh.." Ned said. "Did I forget to tell you..."
"The hell you did.." Brent muttered.
"In that case, let's meet with the others." Ned said. "this info is for all and we need the others to cooperate."
"Meet with them?!" Dave exclaimed. "Cooperate? We can't do that! We just waged war against them because they want Markus dead. They won't listen to what we have to say."
"Well, we don't have a choice but to have them on our side. We should work together to get through this guys especially if you want to help Markus and stay alive".