(Meanwhile On The Arc Ship)
Raya monitored the increasing volatility within the game, especially within the forums with a concerned face.
"The system options for losing the war are very harsh, the players are not happy at all" She muttered, observing the situation, as sitting beside her, Raven raised an eyebrow.
"How bad is it? Let me take a look–" Raven said, as he moved away from his station and walked over to Raya's, peering over her shoulder to look at her monitor.
"Over 75% of the righteous faction players are worried that their faction will lose the war and that they will be forced to become prisoners of war, 17% are unsure on how they want to process this news and only 8% believe they can still win–" Raya pointed out, placing her finger on the screen where this information was displayed.
"Yeah and it looks like almost 99.8% righteous faction players are unhappy with the system penalties for losing the war, saying that it's excessive, while 0.2% feel excited at the prospect of defeating and looting the rebels" Raven read from the screen as frown lines appeared on his forehead.
These were some of the highest disapproval numbers they had ever seen since the game began, and it seemed like a cause for concern.
"They're brats…" a voice came from the control room's entrance, as in-came Captain Kid, with usual sharp uniform and practiced cadence.
"This game is designed to prepare them for life on planet Terra Nova, not to keep them entertained on their way there.
Once we land on planet Terra Nova, many of these players will be expected to take part in actual wars with actual consequences, where they can die fighting, be captured as prisoners, or cut open and sold for organs.
The new world they are headed to is no sunshine and rainbows and hence we will not alter the penalties.
Losing just 50% of your assets after losing a war is actually a merciful outcome. If they can't handle this, they won't survive on Terra Nova" Kid said ruthlessly as both Raya and Raven fell silent.
They knew captain kid was not wrong, it was a dog eat dog universe out there and their job as arc ship operators was to prepare the passengers for that exact world.
Hence even though the system penalties seemed like a bitter pill to swallow, in reality it was a watered down version of what many may have to endure going ahead.
"What's the status of the anomaly? Has he finally returned to the game?" Captain Kid asked, as Raven quickly returned to his work post and opened a report for Captain Kid to glance over.
It had been 9 days already since he killed the Emperor and surprisingly he had not logged into the game a single day since.
"Allowing him to choose his gaming hours was a mistake…. By letting him play non-stop for days, we have created a monster we can no longer control, 4 world bosses are dead, defeated in one on one battles and he is eyeing the dragon next…. Honestly, that boy has started to scare me to my core" Kid said, as he shuddered involuntarily thinking about Leo.
"The anomaly has not shown signs of dual-cerebral processing since logging back on, it seems like his secondary cortex has not fully activated. But heat signatures from his gaming helmet suggest that he has an increased blood flow to that region of his brain, compared to data recorded from a fortnight ago–" Raven reported, as captain kid let out a deep sigh.
[Parallel Processing] was an innate skill that only a handful of super talented geniuses in the universe were ever born with.
For most individuals, their subconscious cerebral reflex was only catered towards survival.
Hence, if they touched a super hot surface, their muscles knew how to pull away without their brain commanding them to do so, however, that was the limit of their abilities.
However, for the chosen few with an active subconscious cerebral cortex, they could train their muscle reflexes to do much more than just survive, and in his last battle with Arlen, Leo seemed to do just that.
In the final moments of their fight, where he evaded Arlen's arrow and countered by cutting off his bowstring, it was an action so fast that it exceeded the thinking and processing speed of a normal brain.
Instead, it was his subconscious reflexes that took over, not only helping him dodge, but also countering with an attack he did not actively plan for, as battle reflexes seemed to now be ingrained in his very being.
This movement was a sign that Leo had started to tap into his subconscious cerebral cortex and started to unlock the ability [Parallel Processing] which was going to make him a super anomaly in the future.
Even amongst [Master] and [Grandmaster] warriors capable of destroying armies on their own, fighters having [Parallel Processing] ability were deemed a cut above their peers, as they were considered heaven sent battle geniuses.
If Captain Kid thought that Leo was special enough before, he was absolutely stunned when he showed potential for this rare ability, as since that day he simply began referring to Leo as 'The Anomaly' instead of his name.
For now, it seemed like he had not mastered how to tap-into Parallel Processing at will and could only enter that state when completely immersed in a battle, however, with him meditating and producing new superior blood cells everyday, Kid had no doubt that he would learn to actively control it in a few months.
"I can't even begin to fathom what this kid's future holds as there's sure to be a frenzy to recruit him when we land on Terra Nova.
There has never been a genius quite like him before and he has not even unlocked the eight skill slot yet, which he most likely will in the future" Kid said, sighing nonstop after each sentence, as he could not see a ceiling to Leo's achievements.
"Don't forget…. He may even kill the dragon" Raven added, as at that point Kid simply gave up on thinking.
If Leo did manage to defeat the dragon and the demon king, he would become the only player ever to truly finish the tutorial game, completing all three of its most difficult quests.