Age of Space

“Have you ever heard of the phenomenon where a person is somehow able to use more strength than they should? More than should be possible?” Sleeping Empress asked, her previously perfect face now showing faint swelling.

Trying his best to ignore the piercing headache, Ronin considered the question. “No… I can’t say I have.”

During their match, Ronin had somehow managed to land a punch on the girl. His Presenceless technique had worked. Though it had only distracted her briefly, it had created the opening he needed, letting him momentarily slip past her guard.

He wouldn’t be fighting any more in VR today though — not with the state his mind was in now.

“Hmm…” Sleeping Empress pondered, daintily stroking her chin.

After a short moment, she exclaimed: “Oh, this should serve as an adequate example!”

She began gesturing with her hands: “Imagine a shuttle toppling over a child. Now, the child's mother should not be able to lift this heavy shuttle. It should by all accounts be impossible, but in a desperate attempt to save her own child, she does.”

Ronin's eyes shot up. “Wait! So that's what you're talking about? Isn't that just some old folk tale?” He furrowed his brows tentatively, “you mean to say it is not a myth?”

Sleeping Empress gently nodded her head. “It's far more than a myth. In fact, we've known about this for a long time, and there's been plenty of explanations for it over the years.” The beautiful girl wet her lips, then began explaining: “Long ago scientists believed themselves to have found the solution. They argued that, when faced with the extreme situation of, for example, losing one's own child under a crashed shuttle, the fight-or-flight response of the person would activate. This would, in turn, lead to their body being flooded with adrenaline, thus giving them enough strength to lift the shuttle.”

Ronin was confused. “—But this is a virtual game. A little adrenaline flooding your body in real space shouldn’t affect anything relating to your strength here.”

The girl acknowledged the statement with a slight nod. “Indeed, that would have been true if the science had been right, but as time passed, we soon discovered many cases of individuals breaking the fight-or-flight theory. Some people simply displayed too much strength for just adrenaline to be enough… so, we came up with new theories.”

She began raising her fingers, one by one as she continued: “We came up with the rare gene theory, which claims that the increase in strength can also come from some individuals possessing rare genes. But, alas, that also wasn’t enough, and we began claiming that this impossible strength, came from some people overriding their own mind's self-preservation instincts. This would effectively allow them to use 100% of their body's innate strength — in spite of their own body's destruction.”

Ronin, now entirely transfixed by the conversation, couldn't help but blurt out: “But using 100% of the body’s innate strength wasn’t enough either, was it? None of these theories explains how a virtual body in a game can become stronger.”

“Yes… this dilemma of finding explanations for this strange increase in human strength, then later finding out that the theories are insufficient, has been going on for millennia. We call this the human potential paradox and there’s still no scientific answer for this.”

“You said scientific, but what about other explanations?” He asked.

When he received the Potentia Panorama, in his vision, he’d seen planets destroyed from the mere aftershocks left behind by the four-armed alien’s fight.

Could this be another path to power?

The girl closed one of her fists, then stared intently into Ronin's eyes, her voice blazing with passion: “Willpower! It all has to do with the mind, but what we tap into isn’t neurons, adrenaline, genes or anything like that. Those things are merely side effects. Willpower is a force in and of itself that can directly affect the physical world, and it doesn't end with just an increase in bodily strength. That is only the beginning.”

“Affect the physical world!? Do you mean like moving objects with your mind or something?” This was it! There were others out there, just like himself. People with powers!

“I’ve already said enough. In this world, knowledge is a resource, and resources can only be exchanged for other resources, but—” she paused, did something with her hands and a ping sounded out, notifying Ronin of an incoming message.

“Plug this address into your quantum net portal and it will lead you to the Transhumanist Collective. It’s a group that organizes and shares all kinds of knowledge relating to human transcendence. If you have star coins, or knowledge of your own, you can find what you’re looking for there.”

With that, she ended the conversation, closing her fingers into a fist as she cocked back her arm.

“Wait! What are you—” Ronin began before a powerful punch crashed onto his head, ending the temporarily halted match.

Ronin, now with his face solidly planted into the ground, heard the game voice announce his defeat, then was promptly kicked from the lobby.

“…”

When he came to, he was once again back in the standard sandy colosseum.

Ugh, couldn’t she have just cancelled the match? He grumbled, rubbing his head.

Regarding what she’d said though… perhaps he should pay that site a visit. This was the first piece of information he’d heard of something related to the alien artifact. Though his abilities didn’t seem to come from willpower, they, at least, should operate on something similar.

The Transhumanist collective, huh?

Doing his best to ignore the worsening headache, he exited the game and entered in the address he'd been given. Within seconds, the dark-blue interface before him queried him on the change:

[Unregistered URL detected]

[Proceed? Yes/No]

He quickly affirmed his decision and entered the new site as his lobby began changing.

The carpeted stone floor was replaced by an ebony-colored continuous surface, the walls shifted into a faintly yellowish-white material, his red-velvet chair changed into a stylish white ball chair, and the swaying meadow outside his windows was replaced by a sea of stars scattered within a purple-colored nebula.

Finally, intermixed black and white futuristic-looking stations with rounded edges rose up from the ground, and the several screens placed within them, turned on. Every screen showed a double helix, rotating under a row of bold letters. The letters only spelled out two words:

Transhumanist collective...So, she wasn't lying...

Walking up to a station, Ronin entered the database and began looking for information. Rows upon rows of articles appeared, but they all seemed to cost star coins to read.

Looking into this new currency, Ronin found he could exchange other currencies for star coins, but not the other way around. Tar credits, however, could not be exchanged. It was not even listed.

Seems Tar truly is a backwaters kingdom... Ronin thought, frowning as he began looking for something he actually could read.

Scrolling down the lists of posts, he eventually happened upon a free article. It seemed to be some sort of general introduction on the paths to human transcendence.

He skimmed through the article, and, at least from what the author claimed, there were two main paths one could take:

One of these paths, were, as Sleeping Empress had said, through willpower. The other path was related to intuition and what some would call the 6th sense, allowing for abilities involving things such as psychometry and retrocognition. Ronin, however, found nothing related to the Potentia Panorama.

There was no mention of anything resembling the anomalous energy emanating from the alien artifact. In fact, there did not seem to be any mention of any energy whatsoever. Ronin frowned. Seems I’ll have to start earning star coins if I want something more relevant.

He decided to write a couple of texts describing how Presenceless and the Kalvrakian embrace worked. It was unlikely the techniques would work without the alien artifact, but if someone out there was actually stupid enough to buy the information, he’d at least get the funds needed to begin his own research.

After writing how the techniques worked, how to perform them, as well as some detailed illustrations where needed, he set the price to 1 star coin per article, then pressed publish.

What's the worst that can happen? He thought, rubbing his hands together as he exited VR. Some bad customer reviews? Technically, he hadn’t written anything false.

Somewhere along the spur of Cygnus, within the W51 nebula, a desperate man entered VR. He’d been logging in here every day for months now. Being from an old aristocratic family, Conrad had lost everything he'd ever cared about during the revolution. He’d seen his mother, father and sister being hauled off for an interrogation they’d never returned from, and he was angry. No. Something far beyond that. He knew no words which could describe the rage he was feeling. But he did know one thing — he would stop at nothing for his vengeance.

He once again entered the Transhumanist collective’s information site, looking for anything new that could help him make things right.

That was when he spotted it. Two new articles, listed for only a single star coin each.

He could afford that…

The two articles' abstract not only promised greater physical strength, but stealth as well. It was the perfect techniques for a would-be assassin. The perfect techniques for vengeance. Physical strength was not something some random detector would pick up. He would appear as unassuming as any random passerby. He wouldn't be stopped as he approached the nations false leaders. It would be the last thing they'd look out for when he made the killing blow.

He purchased the techniques, left VR, and began training according to the illustrations immediately, feeling euphoric as he made the first stance. The very energies of the universe itself seemed to flow into him, entering his body as they began strengthening every part of it…

It was then he noticed something else entering him as well...

Something parasitic that most definitely did not belong. Along with those magical energies, there was…something foul…something rotten.

A defilement.

He bent over, dry heaving at the horrific thing inside of him, but the strength he’d felt…

The feeling of doing those stances was too addictive, he needed more! If he got his vengeance, he could bear the rot. No, he would bear it.

Unbeknownst to Conrad, his need for vengeance, which was already almost all consuming, swelled, becoming even greater.

He quickly entered VR again, leaving a positive review under one of the articles. He wasn’t quite sure why, but he felt that more people needed to know about this new path to power.

It needed to spread…