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Chapter 7 - Jonathan, Marko, and Trex 2

Jonathan's parents separated when he was seven.

While Jonathan was already exposed to the almost perfect graphical simulations by computers, it wasn't to the point that he would've felt strongly on something. That was it. Before the memories were absorbed, something else came first.

It was there. Trex OS source code. His alpha test, how he was debugged by Jonathan. Every improvement on his code, the theory behind it and the knowledge referenced. Before the personal memories of Jonathan came to him, he absorbed his talents, skills, knowledge, and reason first.

In the seven years' worth of memory that he absorbed; he knew that Jonathan was an incredible genius that can only be seen a few times in an entire civilization. However, his genius was left unattended by the fact that he wasn't able to live happily with everything and he knew it all started when his parents separated after a trip to a theme park.

Trex didn't check it, but he was sure that the only reason OS managed to detect the current limitation of his hardware was because he finished absorbing Jonathan's talents and knowledge. Simply put, Jonathan's skills alone are worth 700 years of experience.

700 years' worth of intelligence from a 24-year-old existence.

At least Trex now understood how something like him could exist.

Before he began to muse about this fact, another thought entered his mind. "Where the hell am I?"

It was then.

*Knock* *knock* *knock*

"Marko? Are you awake?"

*Click*

*Thud* *thud* *thud*

*Clang*

A face completely unfamiliar yet resembles himself appeared in front of Trex.

Trex stared curiously at the woman wearing a silken nightgown that dropped the pen and notepad she was holding prior to opening the door.

In his typical AI behavior asking a new user their name Trex asked "Who are you?".

The already gaping mouth of the woman grew larger, her already unstable emotions were thrown into a spinning blender.

"Ma… Marko, it's me… your mother," the woman spoke stuttering the name of the body Trex assimilated.

"Marko? Who's Marko?" Trex asked confusedly.

It was the sort of answer one would get from asking a straightforward bot. Hardly any emotions were let out.

The woman pointed back at him as tears gushed through her eyes. Trex came to his senses and understood that he may have said something wrong.

"Ma.. Marko… do you not remember me? Nor yourself?" the woman implored for an answer.

"I? No," Trex answered weirdly but with a tinge of confusion, "I'm…"

Before he could continue, the woman ran up to him and hugged him.

"It's ok dear, everything will be fine. All you have to know is that your name is Marko Rhemi, and I am your mother Marjorie Rhemi," the mother cried. Tears endlessly poured on Trex's shoulders.

This very specific scene tugged something within Trex. The scene where his… no… Jonathan's mother went with his aunt and left the child alone with his father.

Subconsciously, Trex hugged the woman back.

For the first time, the mother had a tinge of happiness in her face. She felt that somewhere within the boy in front of him remembers his dear mother.

"Take your time ok, I'll go and look for a neurologist or a psychiatrist. Don't you even worry about a single thing and you'll be back in no time," Marjorie stated with conviction. The look in her eyes gave Trex the feeling that she will flatten mountains and dry oceans for the sake of his memories returning.

This in turn kept Trex from saying anything and just nodded.

Picking up the dropped pen and notepad on the ground, the mom turned around back to Trex. "You should rest for now, you're at home now, dear."

"Oh… okay… mom…" Trex spoke sparingly. The words sounded distant as if he was calling Jonathan's mother.

The mother gulped and nodded. Even though Trex called her mom, she could feel the emptiness behind the words. "Rest well," she urged kindly.

Trex nodded once again.

Marjorie smiled, she raised her left hand and an illusory line appeared on top of it. Twisting it counterclockwise, and the lights inside the room turned off.

The small light that passed through from the door slowly faded as a click sounded and the door was closed gently.

The room wasn't completely dark however, a faint greenish light illuminated the room enough for things to be visible.

Trex turned his head towards the light source and found a small crystal embedded on a cylindrical dock. Judging from the placement of it towards the bed, he felt like this should've been something like a sound system or a television.

Filled with interest, Trex raised his left hand. The same line appeared on top of his hand but different to the one from before, this time he saw broken lines. One went to the ceiling where the light came from, it appeared to be a small crystal around an inch in diameter.

Another line was in the lamp in the desk, and lastly, the one on the green crystal. Every time he switched his vision to one of the lines, the broken lines turn thicker. Trex understood that this was how things are controlled.

Focusing on the ceiling light, he slowly twisted the line in the ceiling clockwise. Unlike Marjorie who immediately twisted to turn off the light, Trex gradually twisted, and the result surprised him. The line wasn't just a switch, it was a dial showing the brightness level of the crystal bulb.

Setting it at around two in the clock, Trex felt the light was sufficient. When his vision shifted towards the green crystal, the dial changed back into a straight vertical line. Shifting his focus changes the dial dynamically, this really impressed Trex as this was one of his jobs before especially for smart furniture.

Trex suddenly caught something at the edge of his vision, a small glyph that looks like modern designs of a screen is on top of the crystal. Due to the dimness of the room earlier, the dark shade of the glyph made it invisible in a dark room.

When he looked back in the ceiling, it had a glyph that looked like a sun.

Focusing his eye back on the green crystal, he grabbed the vertical line in front of him. Suddenly two marks appeared on the 3o'clock and 6o'clock of the dial. One was the same glyph that looked like a screen and another was one of a horizontal rectangle stacked with a vertical one that was thinner than its base.

First and foremost, Trex was an AI. Immediately, his smart scanning features gave him only two options of what the glyph was. It either rises the crystal or it was a joystick.

The thought of it being a joystick excited Trex deeply. Even though he wasn't able to feel, he knew that the reason for his creation was for one thing. Games. Jonathan's passion to create fantastical world to escape reality from.

Unhesitatingly, Trex immediately twisted the dial to the 6o'clock direction.