Under the vast expanse of the blue sky, a metropolitan city stood tall and mighty as towering skyscrapers and metal tubes wrap around the city like Ouroboros and the world.
Trains as fast as jet planes travel in these metallic tubes, rendering roller coaster parks redundant.
/ "Arriving at San Lorenzo district in 15 minutes. Please be sure to properly always wear your seatbelts and LifeSaver belt at all times. Have a safe trip,"/ a pleasant voice rang in the cabin where a kid and his parents occupy.
"Mom! Dad! Have you seen this? This world looks so pretty. See! See! When my character moves the grass lights up!" The kid cried out in excitement as he kept shoving a 2D screen in front of a ghost parent's faces.
The parents looked at each other before looking at their kid smilingly. It was the father's work, a very aesthetic game.
"My, my! That really is beautiful, Jon!" The mother answered gleefully.
"Nonsense! Of course, it's pretty. Your dad made it!" Added the dad.
Feeling prideful of the positive response, little Jonathan screamed back, "Right?! Mom, when I grow up I wanna design a world as beautiful as mom! Just like dad did!"
The parents looked at each other strangely and quickly smiled at the kid, still currently brimming with happiness.
"Mystic Theme Park now open at San Lazaro district! A virtual world brought to reality, come one, come all!" A voice filled with excitement played in the speaker system of the cabin.
For the little Jonathan, it was a fantastic ride.
The world turned into a wireframe and shifted.
——
"Please leave the mixed reality glasses before you exit. Have a pleasant evening as we wish for you to visit us again!" A funny voice rang across the gates of the Mystic Theme Park. Little Jonathan is sitting on his dad's shoulders while his mother carries the stuff that Jonathan asked for.
Little Jonathan kept laughing as he happily told how courageous he was during the rides, utterly oblivious to the weird atmosphere that his parents are currently in.
Upon reaching the parking lot, there were only two flying cars parked side by side in the area they went. It was in the far corner of the entire lot.
Jonathan, feeling like the need to show off, immediately pointed at the cars. "Isn't the car on the left dad's car and on the right is mom's sister's?" he looked up towards his parents with a broad smile as if he earned a medal.
In contrast to his broad and happy smile, his dad was looking down on the ground while his mother had glinting eyes on the brink of crying.
Being the smart kid that he is, he realized something was wrong.
The world cracked.
——
Trex woke up as a bucket of ice, a lightning bolt, and a sound as loud as a rocket launch hit him all at the same time.
Immediately as he sat up, he grabbed every part of his body where he was feeling pain. Weirdly enough, his body was in perfect condition. Even his supposed tattered clothes were fixed. Realizing the changes, he finally noticed his new environment.
White walls, a desk filled with notebooks and pens with a lamp. On the walls are various posters and portraits of different characters that have incredible effects. Trex knew these weren't effects but actual magic. Still, he was used to…
His thoughts suddenly froze.
Used to?
No.
He was an AI, and even though all his life revolved around technology, including computer-generated graphics, he was an existence that can never get "used" to anything. He was only a code running from a processor, after all.
But the more he stared at the portraits, it only supplemented the feeling within him that it was only graphics.
Then, something clicked inside his head. It was memories. Jonathan's childhood and the day his parents separated.
Trex finally realized what happened. This was him assimilating Jonathan Strefi's memories, experiences, and personality.
He ought to seriously avoid the very thing to have his already empty personality devoured by his old master. It wasn't that he hated Jonathan, but rather, he wanted to still be himself while still being some who's grateful enough to fulfill the wishes of someone who enabled him to keep surviving.
A wry laugh escaped his lips. "Well, I already told OS that I'm ready to face this," he thought.
It was then that another realization hit Trex. What exactly happened, and why can he only remember up to that certain point?
Booting up OS, there he immediately saw the problem.
[Warning! Drive space is exceedingly low. Please delete some old files. Continuous use of senses will fill up the drive in 14 days.]
"OS show me the log of what happened," he commanded internally.
["I cleaned up the log as there were innumerable errors. While we can certainly process that up, it took up 72 terabytes of data, so I deleted most of it. I only kept the important part."]
[Assimilation Log]
[23:22:19 - Assimilation began.]
[00:05:23 - Due to the amount of data transferred, OS has finally detected the extent that the Trex's brain labeled as Main Drive has. Current capacity used: 70%]
[00:12:19 - Warning! Current capacity is at 90%]
[00:13:59 - Warning! The current capacity is at 99%. Aborting processes that are occupying data. Assimilation has been successfully aborted, revoking changes… revoking failed. Files under "Jonathan Stefri" are under hardware-level protection. Warning! Please delete files before proceeding as once the capacity reaches 99.99%, it will start deleting everything else that is not involved with "Jonathan Stefri" and the system itself.]
After only 50 minutes, his current brain capacity was full. Without filtering any sort of data, every single bit of memories was copied into him. This included every sensation that Jon had felt, his dilemma over the choices he had to make on the daily. None of it was filtered and was directly copied over.
"That shouldn't be!" he inwardly screamed. If Trex was to experience everything by himself, his memories would have enabled him to carry more than a thousand years' worth of memory.
His musings stopped the moment he looked at the posters once more.
Then it clicked.