at this point, Andrea and more importantly Vincent realized that they never told Obelix about the incident that Daniel caused while playing with his soul, with no harm and no foul they just put it behind them
after adding to the explanation what happened at the start, Obelix took a thinking pose and after several minutes said "since it's an accident and they are already completely subjugated to Daniel with the added promise that those things won't come out until he can completely control them, I can accept the facts as they are, anyway, you are not the smartest tool in the shed Vincent"
and Vincent thinking he was talking about the accident said "how could I know those things would develop a soul"
Obelix said "old mutt, I'm not talking about that, the nanites are tools, with a blueprint they can make anything but they will never invent something new, the same way they can infect any tech but can just use it, but never recreate it without a blueprint, the nanites used Daniel 'system' to develop the ability to talk and learn, they practically borrowed a part of his brain, you forgot he has mutated, you can't compare him with the regular people of your race he is different after all, you should have already hired some specialist to analyze him"
Andrea nodded she already knew all this but didn't think Vincent wouldn't, and Vincent said "so what you are saying is that the nanites borrowed Daniel's brainpower to research and develop those abilities in a few seconds, but he isn't even two years old, mutated or not is this even possible?"
Obelix and Andrea just nodded and soon later they ended the meeting and Vincent went back
Verulus, specter dimension, Vincent appeared at home while mumbling to himself, still not entirely convinced, after a while he arrived in front of the castle and Daniel saw him so he went running to him since he couldn't wait anymore to go to school "hi grandpa"
Vincent patted his grandson's head and said "here this is for you" passing him a small circle the size of a pumpkin seed
Daniel immediately took out the blue card, and like Phoebe told him opened one of the hexagons and put the circle inside, then closed the hexagon but different from the others it became white, soon later the hexagon 1000 connected to the internet and a message was displayed
thanks for buying a hexagon 1000 user Daniel Specter
connecting to the id module for web access
connected . . . age inferior to twenty years old, activating minor protection
minor protection activated, connecting with the legal guardian
found 38 possible legal guardians, selected Phoebe Specter mother, Joseph Specter father, Vincent Specter grandfather
connecting . . .
connection established
the first start it's complete, have fun with the hexagon 1000
as soon as it finished Daniel wanted to go to school, but noticed that Vincent was staring at him, so he asked "what's wrong grandpa?"
Vincent said "you know that you are really smart?" he asked the question rhetorically without expecting an answer
but Daniel had one "I know, these things" he said raising the ball in his hands "said that I am very smart"
Vincent started laughing heartily while walking inside with Daniel, without saying anything else
soon Vincent relayed Obelix findings to the couple, who were smiling happily with the news, he might not be able to cultivate but it's smart, no matter which race they didn't even hear of another child as smart as him
while they were talking, Daniel was wobbling to his room where the magic bed to go to school was, but as soon as he entered he found that his bed was gone and a big red chicken egg was in its place, after approaching, the egg automatically connected and his personal device vibrated, he looked down at it and a notification was displayed
virtual reality capsule model feather 9 tried to connect to your hexagon 1000, authorize connection? y/n
Daniel said "you want to connect to the chicken egg? ok"
order received, feather 9 renamed chicken egg, connecting to chicken egg . . .
connection established, do you wish to open the chicken egg?
Daniel smiled and said "egg's are cracked not opened, anyway ok"
order received, opening the chicken egg renamed to cracking the chicken egg
the ai was really user friendly, and soon understood what daniel intended, adapting to his wishes, even renaming things to please it's user
at this point the virtual reality chicken egg opened and a small step appeared to the side, Daniel wobbled to it and with effort climbed up and into the chicken egg, he looked around and apart from some light he was in a very comfortable oval mattress, soon another message appeared on the hexagon 1000
do you wish to close the chicken egg and connect to virtual reality?
Daniel thought for a moment, but since his parents said that the bed was to go to school, he didn't care what virtual reality was and just said "sure, let's go to school" with eagerness
closing the chicken egg . . .
connecting to virtual reality . . .
connection failed, authorization required from a legal guardian
do you wish to contact your legal guardian? y/n
Daniel thought for a moment then said "mhmm, call them and ask"
contacting . . .
in the meantime the trio was still talking about Daniel, when Phoebe's earring, Joseph's ring, and a small book in Vincent's pocket started vibrating, all three of them had the same message
Daniel specter requested permission to connect to virtual reality, do you agree? y/n
at this point, they looked around and saw he wasn't where they left him, with their spiritual sense they found him in the coffin in his room, not only he went there, but he found out how to open it, enter it, and now was already asking permission to connect to the virtual reality, how are they going to keep him under control if he could do all this before his second birthday
after a while, phoebe clicked yes and said "I want to see what he's going to do, after all, we can see what he does with the parental control option"
soon Daniel received the notification on his hexagon
legal guardian authorization received, do you wish to connect to virtual reality? y/n
Daniel said "yes"
connecting . . .
soon Daniel's vision went black, and after a moment he was floating in a white space
a small blue cloud appeared in front of him with cartoonish features and said "welcome since it's your first time entering virtual reality I'm going to help you, my name is Claude the cloud nice to meet you, as you are still a minor you can only enter instances approved by your legal guardians, but before all of that, let's have some fun, in virtual reality, you can be whoever you want to be, you can choose a preset avatar or create your own with the creation software, who contains a lot of different parts to put together, but if you are feeling adventurous you can design your own in complete freedom, with the imagination drive, so what are we gonna do?" a screen appeared in front of him
enter preset avatar list
enter creation software
enter imagination drive
Daniel first entered the preset list but didn't like the options, then he entered the creation software but was still unsatisfied, for being little he was very picky, at this point the nanites sent him a message he smiled and said "enter imagination drive" inside it, he had a ball of something not better identifiable, that he could control and shape however he wanted just by thinking, but he already knew what he wanted, and soon the ball started to take shape
"mhmm I don't want to be that tall make him shorter, that's alright" was thinking Daniel, in front of him, there was a 120cm humanoid covered with perfect hexagonal scales, all of them were black and had a metal luster, under them a deep purple light was glowing, his eyes were like two cyan ponds with purple eyelashes, his hair were bright silver and moved with the wind almost looking like mercury flowing because of how shiny they were
on top of the head, there were two straight white horns with glowing purple lines around them, and in the middle of his forehead a single white hexagonal scale, both the scale and the horns had the same metal luster bringing contrast to the black scales, overall he looked like a tech dragonewt without wings
this image was one of the many put together by the nanites, that knew what he liked since they knew everything he knew, and sent to him a lot of randomized figures, this was the one chosen by Daniel
has he finished, sora said "wow I didn't expect it, this avatar it's completely new, do you want to copyright it?"
Daniel then asked "what does that mean?"
sora said "it means that no one can use the same avatar without your permission"
Daniel responded "ok, do it" sora smiled and a notification appeared
a request for copyright has been made, unique avatar detected, decide what to name your avatar, the name it's permanent if you don't want to decide now, the temporary name assigned will be px55458, and you will have one chance to change it at a later date
Daniel said "I will decide later"
copyright for avatar px55458 approved, owned, and created by Daniel Specter
setting px55458 as your predefinite avatar? y/n
Daniel said "yes"
you created a humanoid avatar, do you wish to pick some clothing? y/n
Daniel said "yes"
a screen opened in front of him with a lot of different categories of clothes, Daniel took his time and after two hours he had just finished scrolling the list at a speed that would make the computer we have today jealous.
after a while the wingless dragonewt was donning a silver chain with a ball strangely resembling the nanites' hazardous materials sphere, a white steampunk/ Gothic trench coat opened in the middle to show the bare chest only covered by the chain, and dark grey jeans just like the hero of one of the books his father read to him, except for the chain accessory that was once again new, once Daniel copyrighted it naming it funball5545 a new notification appeared
you have completed the avatar selection, you can now enter instances,
which instance do you wish to enter?
Daniel said "I want to go to school"
there are 1915326 instances related to school, 1 is approved by your legal guardian
do you wish to enter the approved instance: virtual academy?
Daniel nodded and said "yes" while thinking "this must have been the one mom and dad choose, just like grandpa said"
requesting connection to the instance: virtual academy . . .
connection approved, payment verified, connecting now . . .
soon Daniel's vision went black for a second, when he opened his eyes he was px55458, and was in front of a glowing red sign with virtual academy written on it
first access detected, welcome student daniel specter, first task chose a classroom . . .
a long list of images with a brief explanation appeared in front of him, he skimmed through it and then choose a classroom, the walls were gray with some black lines, in the center was a school desk that resembled a big tablet with legs, in the wall in front was a big tech blackboard, on the right was a metal double door, the back wall was empty, and on the left where big oval windows and one could see that the whole classroom was in space through them
first task completed, second task chose a professor . . .
a long list appeared in front of Daniel, but he chose directly based on appearance, without even looking at the brief explanation
he ended up selecting a cyborg type who had no compassion or feelings at all and was programmed to teach 'unwilling' students, soon the robotic professor appeared in front of Daniel, and he looked like a floating jellyfish with robotic tentacles, the umbrella portion of the jellyfish was like a glass jar with a big brain floating in a green and dense liquid with blue electric sparks flashing around it