Versatile: Alternate World



Mother is shaken, and Father couldn't believe the situation. Compared to my friends who were open to adventure and like to head to danger, my parents are not. They wanted to live as peacefully as possible. This might be also the main reason they were taken advantage of in the past timeline as well. But even then, I have to convince them. They are not angry about it but they definitely didn't like the idea that the world of what they thought was a game was actually a real world. And for Mom who keeps dying during the early days, she is shaken and confused now.

Still, compared perhaps to my deaths, I doubt she can even surpass the amount of death I experienced as well, and yet I don't feel or think of that troublesome crap. I am me, and even if I am a remade version of myself, I am still myself and nothing can change that.

"Uncle, Aunty, don't be totally worried. Everyone in here, save for Pandora who hasn't died yet in any of her play due to her extreme defenses, have already experienced death in the Alternate World. And even if we had died, so what? We returned and we are alive. It's not that much of a big problem and I don't think we needed to think of that and worry about the consequences," Rika tried to convince my parents.

"Yes, I agree with them. I doubt we should be worried about what happened after we died as we are currently alive right now. If we are truly dead, I am not talking to you two here, and everyone else here as well. This is a blessing in disguise. In fact, we should give this life a chance now that we know that we have died," I added to reduce their worries over it even though it shouldn't be necessary to think much.

"So what now? Learning the game we loved was not actually a game so suddenly is something we barely started to accept. Is this just the only reason you talk to us about this?" my father crossed his arms.

"Actually, no. After I learned the truth back then, the founder of the Nexus revealed his grand plan and he wanted me to cooperate. It involves finding the Tree of Life in the Alternate World."

"Tree of life?" Mother and Father suddenly got curious.

Labo who was just listening to our banter started to explain when he heard of the Tree of Life. He started explaining about it and even I have just heard of this tree from him and gained some significant knowledge on what it really does.

"The Tree of Life is considered the anchor of the worlds and the one who controls all matter of life all over the world. Even the gods and goddesses are born from the Tree of Life's branches, allowing them to exist and help shape the world. Although no one knows the exact location of the Tree of Life, many believe that it was just hiding from the eyes of people all over the world due to how much damage it received during the last Primordial Wars between the Goddess of Life and the Goddess of Death. It is believed that one can obtain tremendous power and immortality if they received blessings or have eaten one of the fruits the trees bear. It might be just an old legend but most inhabitants of the Alternate World still believe that the Tree of Life exists and once it reveals itself, it is predicted that war will occur as a result."

Then I chimed in. "And that war extends here in the real world now that everyone on Earth can actually enter Alternate World."

"That's horrible. Wars just destroy the normalcy of life and if magical stuff involving that is going to be added to the war, things will no longer work the same way again," my Mother thinks deeply about the future.

"Yes. And after he revealed the plan, I was hesitant of doing it as that was actually something I didn't expect so I needed enough time to learn about the stuff he was talking about. However, it seems he doesn't like that I know his plans but not helping him achieve them. As a countermeasure, he tried to erase my memory about the plan and call it a day, saying he will call me again when the right time comes."

"Huh? Son, do you have a memory wipe? Is that even possible?" Father, couldn't believe what he heard.

"I did but it failed as I retained whatever I learned back then without losing a single piece of info about it. I got suspicious of why he decided to delete my memory about our interaction even though the conversation we had doesn't even say much about it aside from finding the tree of life. So I immediately formulated a plan and discussed it with the elves to investigate everything which also resulted in us discovering the hidden agendas the Nexus company has been doing ever since we are using their product."

"What do you mean?" my mother frowned.

"Do you mean the thing you guys did earlier?" Father guessed.

"Yes. That is correct. The elves realized that the tattoo that was supposed to be the technology we use to log in to the Alternate World was actually a sort of teleporter that allows us to traverse the Alternate World and return here on Earth safely but with some other functions that everyone who knows is not happy they exist."

"Yep. Those bastards installed it with a monitoring spell that allows them to view and see whatever the user was doing, whether they are eating, taking a sh*t, taking a bath, or whatever things we do, they have all of that recorded in their company!" Riko is still furious.

"Monitoring spell? Wait, do you mean surveillance? Does that mean they are spying on the people who have this tattoo then?"

"Yes. They have eyes on us because of that and they know all of our secrets this time around my guess is that they wanted to use the footages they have on us as a bargaining chip in case they needed something for us and also perhaps to gather intel whether someone else has already gained a piece of information regarding the whereabouts of the Tree of Life," I explained.

"That's absurd! That is clearly a breach of privacy and the fact that they can record stuff using it means they can view us anytime they want and if they wanted to, they can also release information about us to the public populace and humiliate us with that!" Father is now furious.

"But we are talking right now. Shouldn't we fear the situation about this conversation being recorded then?" my mother is worried.

Renatta tried to calm her down. "No worries. Due to the spell we designed, we can suppress that spell for quite some time but due to its limited usage, it cannot be used for long. Aside from that, it also creates a sort of illusion of information to give to the people who monitor us something that replaces what we are doing now. That way, they won't suspect it. This is why the only time we use this spell is whenever we discuss the main plan and here we are, doing exactly that."

"Yes. That is why I am talking to both of you. And of course, Kigurumi if he is still accessing Alternate World join us on the plan to stop them."

"A plan huh? Now that I know some of the bad things these f*ckers are doing, I am kinda motivated to learn what plan you have right now against these people who have the power," my father grinned, showing his enthusiasm.

"I am not happy with what I learned today so if you have a plan to stop them from doing that again and again, I think I am in, my son. So what is this plan of yours?" my mother asked.

"We will be transporting ourselves to the Alternate World and living there for quite some time, running away from the real world as that is the only method for the spell that we are using right now to block their espionage on us is to remain in the Alternate World. We will be doing what we do best but this time, we will prioritize looking for clues about the whereabouts of the Tree of Life, race against them to know the location before they do, and protect it from what they were supposed to do because according to what Nobuhiko said before, he plans on using the Tree of Life to do something to the world."

I am not sure if I sound convincing there but I am not sure whether this is a necessary stuff that should be done. But based on the smiles of my parents, I think I have already received the answer I needed.