( While Max was playing Omega in his VR pod )
Only a few hours were left until the first awakening and Rudra was expecting a fight for this planet when the mana barrier finally opened.
Although he had a strained relationship with Max over the last few months because of his girlfriend, Rudra decided to check-in on his younger brother before he went to war for the good of humanity.
With his wife dying and his two new-born infants over at the hospital infirmary, it was a hard personal time for Rudra.
Although he did not need to, in such stressful times Rudra decided to mend things with his brother for once, lest he not get the chance in the future.
Knock! Knock!
" Max!" Rudra said In a domineering voice, although he did not mean to, his anger with Max was evident with his tone.
Nobody answered and Rudra decided to enter Max's room anyway.
Although it was locked, Rudra's strength had far surpassed superhuman levels at this moment and when he cranked the door handle the entire lock system came unhinged as he entered the room easily.
Rudra saw the familiar blue light blinking over Max's full-dive VR pod meaning the kid was playing Omega at the moment.
Rudra sighed, it was the last damn day before the first awakening! He expected Max to spend some time with the family…..
He thought about sending Max a message to logout of the game and meet him, however after reaching for his phone he stopped mid-way, his pride getting in the way of his emotions.
Looking around Rudra saw a notebook lying on Max's desk and hence decided to leave an old fashioned physical note instead.
" Still use books eh Maxie" Rudra said with a smile, in the 22nd century, pen and paper were a relic of the past.
Not many being able to afford or having the knowledge on how to use them properly. Rudra had personally tutored Max in using them when he was a kid and taught him the importance of storing important passwords and information physically so that it cannot be hacked.
It gave him great pride and joy to see his brother using the book set he gifted him on his fourteenth birthday.
Picking up the pen Rudra shuffled through the pages that Max had written before today just out of curiosity, however when he started seeing the dates and the events written his expression turned from a smiling one to that of being deadly serious in an instant.
He studied the events and Max's interpretations of stuff extremely carefully, memorizing everything in great detail in his enhanced brain.
Rudra said " Gaia, delete the records of you ever seeing these notes right now ".
" Aye, master Rudra " Gaia, Rudra's personal A.I. replied.
Rudra's breathing became erratic, as he left Max's room, cursing heavily on the fact that he broke Max's door-knob on his way in.
Being the influential figure that he was, he dialled a few calls and within 15 minutes staff had arrived at his home carefully cleaning and fixing Max's door as if the break-in never happened as Rudra went into the upcoming war with a heavy mind and heart.
Nobody knew the curse and the boon that reincarnation brought with itself better than Rudra himself, because he too was a reincarnator who had been sent back in time to one day before Omega the tutorial started in the year 2100 from the year 2109.
His reincarnation knowledge had ended a year ago and he had no idea that Omega was just a tutorial or that there would be a new universal game called Sigma around the horizon when he reincarnated, but now once again because of him accidentally finding Max's notes he had the cheat of knowing future events under his belt.
Rudra read about a lot of disturbing events that were going to happen in the future and was especially shook by the comment " Save big brother, Jake and Amy ".
On the positive side, Rudra at least knew that Max was indeed his true blood brother who would never betray him, however on the negative side it meant that in the future he would die.
Rudra could use this knowledge to change his own destiny, however despite all the knowledge he had at the moment he solemnly resolved to never use it in a way that would create a massive butterfly effect.
He had lived the life of a reincarnator once and he had his chance to rise to glory. This was Max's timeline and Max's chance now and Rudra was not going to take away his brother's opportunities from him.
Although Max did not know yet, he had inadvertently secured the support of his biggest backer in the years to come.
*********
( Meanwhile somewhere in the universe)
Hazriel smiled at the developments on planet Earth. She had spent a significant amount of divine essence to not only reincarnate Max and give him a path, however she went over and beyond when she manipulated fate to make Max write his future notes down and to subtly influence Rudra to go and read them.
With this she not only changed Max's destiny by giving him the only true backer he could fall on without repercussions of failure, but also changed the destiny of Rudra Rajput himself to whom the angel race owed a huge debt.
" We are even now Rudra Rajput, take care on your future adventures.
As for you Max, I will be keeping an eye on how your future shapes up, I'm extremely curious about it. "
Nemesis : " Master, did you know that self talking is considered a sign of psychological disorder?
You may be discharged on your role as an archangel if the council finds out.
You need to act like a proper lady and carry yourself with poise and grac- "
" Shut-up nemesis or else I will trade you in for azaroth". Hazriel replied clearly annoyed by the comments of her personal A.I
Nemesis shut her mouth instantly as she did not wish to risk the wrath of her master anymore.