'He implanted a Nano chip in my brain that doubles human abilities! Is this a hallucination?'
Roy questioned, his voice echoing in the silence.
In an attempt to dispel his doubts, Roy slapped himself hard across the face. The expected sting didn't come. Gradually, he began to take in his surroundings. He was amidst a sea of flowers, yet he felt nothing - neither the warmth of the sun nor the gentle caress of the wind.
"Is all of this just my imagination?"
Roy voiced his thoughts, struggling to distinguish between reality and illusion.
"No, this is as real as it gets. You died, Roy. You're alive now because of the Nano experiment,"
Reyman clarified, hoping to ease Roy's confusion. However, his words only deepened Roy's bewilderment. His father was claiming he had died, but Roy found himself more intrigued by the Nano experiment.
"Father, you never spoke of this Nano chip experiment. How is it possible?" he asked, his voice laced with curiosity.
"It's not my experiment, but your mother's. It's a closely guarded secret, known only to a handful of seven people. When she learned you were in a coma, she made me promise to carry out this procedure to revive you,"
Reyman revealed, his voice heavy with emotion.
"Mom did this!"
Roy's face mirrored his shock at Reyman's revelation. He was still unsure if this was reality, but he chose to trust his father. The information was exclusive to him, and he had no other option but to listen.
"So, no one else has achieved this reaction with the Nano machine, correct?"
Reyman probed, his tone mirroring Roy's earlier skepticism.
"No, I don't think so. You see, I've been in prison for the last 20 years,"
Roy responded dismissively,
"Forget about the small stuff. Are you saying Mother achieved this 20 years ago?"
Reyman respected Roy's reluctance to delve into the past and continued,
"Your mother nearly achieved it, or perhaps not. You are the only successful specimen that reacted positively to this experiment. That's why we had to terminate the experiment; no one approved human trials. Everything related was promptly discontinued. What we did to you was, in essence, illegal experimentation."
"What if something had happened to me? What kind of father risks his own son's life?"
Roy's voice trembled with anger, not at the experiment, but at the fact that his father had kept the truth hidden. His words, however, betrayed his inner turmoil as he vented his pent-up emotions.
At that moment, Roy was on an emotional roller-coaster, grappling with revelations from Taylor, his father James, and now meeting his father. His emotions were a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at the slightest provocation.
Reyman, regret etched on his face, apologized,
"I'm sorry, Roy. I didn't want to lose you too. I acted irrationally. Please forgive me."
Seeing Reyman's worried expression, Roy regained his composure, realized his mistake, and apologized,
"I know, Father. I'm sorry too."
With a more composed tone, Roy added,
"You did this for me. I'm sorry for taking out my anger on you. You really did help me to stay alive. Look, I stayed alive for 30 more years, right? I can die peacefully now."
Reyman, sporting the same playful grin as Roy, couldn't mask his guilt. He avoided Roy's gaze, his eyes darting around the place.
Roy, his face etched with annoyance, could tell his father was concealing something, raising his suspicion. He demanded,
"Father, what have you done?"
"After the Nano chip procedure, I monitored your brain activity to ensure everything was functioning correctly. I discovered that your chip has the capability of MUI (Memory Uploading Integration). I transferred your memory to a remote server I had personally set up and concealed. I then created a virtual reality body and eventually a materialized real body for you,"
Reyman confessed, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Holy shit! This sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel,"
Roy exclaimed, rubbing his temples in disbelief. The more he conversed with his father, the more bewildered he became. He had never heard of these experiments before, and he was taken aback,
"So, you're saying you created a duplicate of me from my memory? Does that mean I'm essentially a virtual memory now?"
"Yes, in a way. It might seem far-fetched. Do you remember our VRMMORPG Chamber pod?"
Reyman asked, his voice shaky with each response. Despite being his father, he feared Roy's reaction.
In stark contrast, Roy's voice grew increasingly firm and authoritative as he responded,
"Yes, I remember the Chamber Pod. It allows us to analyze one's body neuron motion and transmit it to enhance one's player accuracy moment inside the game."
"Your mother and I developed a synthetic human printing chamber. We didn't have any human memory to upload, so we didn't see any significant progress. We eventually abandoned that project, but it inspired us to create our VRMMORPG Chamber pod,"
Reyman explained, his voice filled with a mix of pride and regret.
"How is this even possible!"
Roy exclaimed, his mind reeling from the overload of information. Reyman, however, responded with a calm assurance,
"It is possible. I uploaded a small fragment of my final memory to your brain and programmed it to give instructions. Right now, I'm akin to a guide in a game, leading your new body from the beginning."
Reyman's words, which seemed implausible in reality, prompted Roy to question further,
Father, I don't understand. Are you saying you created a synthetic duplicate of me and transferred both your memories and mine into it?"
"Yes, exactly! I created a synthetic body. Your memory is currently being uploaded to that body. You're nearly 90% uploaded. Once your memory is fully uploaded, I will vanish, so I can't keep this a secret any longer. I'm sorry. I failed as a father,"
Reyman blurted out, his words tumbling over each other in his haste to confess. He took a deep breath once he had spilled his secret, bracing himself for Roy's reaction.
To Reyman's surprise, Roy kept smiling and turned to Reyman, expressing his gratitude,
"Thank you, Father. This time, I won't let you down."
Reyman, understanding the sincerity behind his smile, approached Roy and embraced him. Reyman then shared his parting words,
"Roy, before I died, I knew James would search for every project I was ever involved in or worked on. So, I destroyed your mother's project. Your Nanochip related or this new synthetic body project, everything related to those projects has been destroyed. If you die this time, there will be no other nanochip or synthetic body to revive you. Even this new body looks different from before. So, you can have a new life from the previous one."
Roy looked down, unable to utter a word, as Reyman, aware of the path that Roy would tread, placed his hand on Roy's shoulder and voiced his thoughts and advice.
"Roy, look at me. I am a coward. I only ever knew how to exist in this manner and lived like this till my end. I know neither I can stop you nor the power to make you do things differently."
Reyman's voice hardened, his demeanor shifting to a cold resolve as he issued a command,
"I won't stop your path, but if you want to go down the same road this time, destroy the entire Millner family. Leave nothing but their ashes."
"Yes, Father."
Roy's face broke into a wide grin, as all this time, he had been wrestling with doubts about whether revenge was the right decision he made. But once he received his father's approval, his mind was set on one thing - to exact revenge.
Roy and Reyman shared a final embrace before parting. Reyman uttered his final farewell words,
"Well, Roy, this is goodbye. When you wake up, you can find a few people's contact information you can trust. Don't worry; they are all your mother's colleagues. From now on, our relationship will be cut off. You are not my son anymore, at least according to the real world and…"
Reyman couldn't complete his sentence, as he was overcome with emotion and the realization of never seeing his son again slowly sunk in. He halted midway and offered a faint smile.
[Upload Completed]
[Transmission to Real World - 100%]
A mechanical voice resonated in the air.
Roy's eyes widened as he observed the world around him dissolve into pixels, the vibrant hues of the flower field fading away into a void. Soon Reyman, too, began to disintegrate into digital fragments. The mechanical voice continued to reverberate, cold and devoid of emotion, as the last vestiges of the idyllic scene vanished.
Roy's body began to disintegrate into dust, as he waved goodbye to his father one last time and offered final words that would allow Reyman to rest in peace forever.
"You will forever be my father, no matter how many times I am reborn. I'm going to miss you."