Ever since Luke informed Cervantez that he was moving to the VIP sector and that his brother was 'TheBoss', their relationship had not been the same.
Although on the surface the two functioned normally, with neither of them avoiding each other, the warmth and comfort that they once shared was not reflected in their conversations anymore.
There was a constant underlying tension whenever the two of them were in the same room and there was an evident lack of blind trust, which led to a slight deterioration in their relationship.
This odd dynamic had forced their relationship to turn strictly professional, with communication reduced to only the most necessary exchanges.
Unfortunately for Cervantez, this shift didn't trouble Luke as much as it troubled him, as while Luke was immersed in his personal growth and on making remarkable strides through the [Mind Meditation Manual], Cervantez could not move-on from their deteriorating dynamic.
Luke's casual aloofness became an increasingly sore point for him as although he kept his growing frustrations to himself, he couldn't help but feel an increasing sense of jealousy towards Luke every passing day.
His jealousy stemmed from the fact that PinkLotus had also achieved the rank of master a few days ago and had taken to the VIP residence as her new home.
This gave Luke ample opportunities to communicate with her, however, Cervantez did not have the same privilege.
Desperate to spend more time with her, Cervantez threw himself into training daily, aspiring to reach the realm of a master.
Yet, the path to becoming a master warrior was long and grueling and to his absolute dismay, despite his best efforts, the reality of the situation was that unless he had a miraculous breakthrough, he had no real shot of attaining the master realm within the next 12 months at the minimum.
Hence, unable to attain mastery himself, Cervantez found it difficult not to resent Luke's privileges, as unlike him, Luke could enjoy the benefits of the VIP sector, not through his own mastery, but simply due to his status as TheBoss's brother.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! This is not who I am… I am not a petty man, so why do I feel so jealous just because my vice guild master is doing better than me in life? I should be happy for him, but I'm not…" Cervantez wondered, as he clutched his palms and tried to figure out what was wrong with him?
He knew for sure that at his core he was definitely not a jealous kind of man, who could not tolerate the success of those who worked under him.
He was the kind of man that rooted for his friends to win, regardless of his own circumstances, however, whenever something related to PinkLotus came up, it was almost like his mind refused to align with his personality.
"Why? Why am I so obsessed with PinkLotus? It's not like she was my girlfriend in my past life, I had not even held a conversation with her? So why do I feel so possessive about her?" Cervantez voiced, as he could not understand why he had this obsession over PinkLotus when the two of them never shared a deep bond, in this life or the past.
Yes, PinkLotus was beautiful, perhaps more so than any other woman on the Arc Ship, however, that was not reason enough for Cervantez to feel this obsessiveness around her.
He could feel that something was amiss here, however, whenever he tried to think too hard about it, he felt a searing headache threatening to split his brain in half, as somehow he could not question his feelings for PinkLotus, or he was instantly punished by some unknown force.
"Gah…. Not this headache again" Cervantez complained, as clutching his head, he sat down in one corner of his office.
The pain was so severe that even moving his head a single inch, gave him a severe case of vertigo, as just thinking about why he liked PinkLotus? left him nearly incapacitated.
What Cervantez did not know was that just like every other special player on the Arc Ship, he was an ongoing experiment as well.
The regressor class was not real, and he had not been mysteriously sent back in time to live for a second time.
What actually happened was that upon his system evaluation at the start of the game, he was evaluated to be the most suitable player for the 'regressor' experiment, whereby he was implanted with the memories generated by the game world A.I. of events that were most likely to unfold.
The future he thought was real, was not actually real and the feelings he had for PinkLotus were not real either.
The feelings he had for her, were planted by the system, who wanted him to chase her relentlessly, pushing his own boundaries in hopes of someday forming a connection with her, however, it was not really an obsession of his own.
This was the main reason behind why he could never question his feelings for PinkLotus, as the moment he tried to do so, the program implanted in his head messed with his brain signals and manufactured a severe headache within him.
The program made him physically incapable of thinking too much about the reason behind his feelings towards PinkLotus, as it was a control measure implanted by the operators to make sure that the 'Regressor' experiment did not fail midway.
The ultimate dream that the operators had for Cervantez, was that his obsession over PinkLotus would someday force him to become a Master warrior, however, the methods they used to achieve this were nothing short of cruel.
The system made Cervantez obsessed over something he never truly wanted in the first place, and it was now interfering with his real life relationships, with him having no clue as to why?
*Knock*
*Knock*
As he sat paralyzed in the corner of his office, he heard someone knock on the door, however, his stupid vertigo would not let him lift his head and answer.
He hoped that whoever it was would just stop knocking and let him be at this moment, but then, he heard the unmistakable sound of the office door unlocking, as someone just walked into his office, without him asking them to.
—-------
/// A/N - Guys I have some GREAT news to share. Our book Terra Nova Online has been shortlisted as one of the 15 books recieving an award at this year's WSA ceremony. I know some of you won't be able to understand how significant this is, but take it this way, that the WSA awards are the Oscar equivalent of webnovel industry awards, and it's a career milestone for me.
We are sure to win something at the ceremony now, whether it's gold silver or bronze. But we win something for sure.
Now there is an event page open within the webnovel app where you can vote for Terra Nova Online, and help push it higher, and whether we win gold, silver or bronze, now completely depends on the votes you guys cast.
So please support me and cast a vote at the event page, it won't even take half a minute, so please consider doing it.
At the time of writing this, we trail the leader by only 51 votes, and I'm sure we can bridge it, but even if we can't, every vote really matters a lot.
Also apologies for the longer than usual author note, but I couldn't help it///