New Game+

The room was quiet. Lynd and Meryl started to look pale. It was difficult to not believe Seeker's tale as a renowned and respected doctor seemed as pale as them. The chilling sensation soon disappeared.

"Ugh. Sorry. It seems that I can't control it easily." Seeker then resumed his usual happy-go-lucky look.

"You're the one that's doing that?" Charles asked in surprise.

"One of the more complex things an Unlocked person can do. I can emit different hormones that can cause fear to those nearby. It's uh… well complicated. We will discuss that once your research proceeds further."

"You're kidding, right?" Lynd found it unbelievable.

"Aren't we just scared because of your look?"

"Ok, then. Let me smile." Seeker smiled a very innocent and sincere smile.

But that smile caused Lynd's heart to race faster. The three-faced fear as if they've never faced before. And somehow they knew it all came from the smiling kid before them.

The sensation ended. Meryl started gasping for breath.

"Sorry that I have to show off a bit. I'm just making sure I become as believable as possible." Seeker paused for the people in the room to regain their composure.

"So, the future war with the Aragarians is between us against Russia and Africa?" Charles finally broke the silence.

"There were other countries in the mix. But again, let's skip those as we could either kill them or control them." Lynd still cringed at Seeker's passive thoughts.

"So to resume, we defeated them when the Unlocking research was implemented on various soldiers. They were on the run. It was then that we'd get a taste of their serious tech. The Aragarians took a different path than the technological advances we had on Earth. While we were busy perfecting the ways of selfies, they managed to figure out a science which was later dubbed as Stellar Science or Star Science for short."

Seeker grabbed a page from Charles's pile of papers. And laid it on the table.

Everyone intently studied the paper.

"To summarize this science, they basically could recreate the energy of a star's core. And eventually, they were able to improve on it. This allowed them the capacity to do a lot of incredible things, including interstellar travels, to finally reach our planet."

"This tech was shared with the nations that allied with them, and these nations were already developing weapons using stellar science. It was thanks to the efforts of many heroes that we were able to acquire these weapons. Our scientist was able to improve on it and used it against them. They were on the run. Literally leaving the planet was their only option. So we gave chase. And we were in for a surprise. Hidden behind our moon, was the Aragarian's invading flagship. A spaceship so big that we called them Orbitals."

Seeker took another page in the pile of documents and laid it on the table.

A drawing of a round spaceship was scribbled on the paper.

"It was then the battle became to our disadvantage. Their technology was just too advanced. A stellar battle was something that even our forces could barely manage. The orbital attacks were just terrifying. Soon the remaining nations of the United Nations alliance launched a daring gamble in hopes of destroying the stellar forces in space. We called it Mission Starkiller. And my task was codenamed Supernova."

Seeker smiled. This would have been his most significant contribution to humanity.

"I believe this would have been my proudest moments. Destroying one of these suckers."

Seeker sat down and started sketching something on paper.

"You see an Orbital is a very, very huge ship. The entire world was surprised to see its existence. And the problem was that there were now three of them floating on our space. Star technology allowed this massive spaceship to act as a planet. It could harness gravity. And in terms of scientific application, it means a lot of things. In fact, it is very possible to live your entire life in an Orbital."

"So, these Aragrian's may already be hiding near our planet?"

"Most likely. Now to continue..." Seeker quickly dismissed Lynd's serious question as if it wasn't necessary.

"An Orbital is divided into many compartments. It is made this way due to several reasons. By compartmentalizing each part, it meant stability for the entire ship. If a compartment is damaged, they can simply detach the compartment by controlling the gravity of that compartment. Using star technology, they can make this compartment orbit the ship and repair it."

Seeker then picked up the paper to show his sketch. Electric-like energy was forming, connecting a portion of the Orbital.

"Our scientist was able to make interesting technology by mixing star technology and other technology that we have long mastered. Nuclear technology."

"Why didn't we use nukes to fight them?" Meryl asked immediately.

"Why wasn't it used in the world war?" Charles asked a different question.

"To answer both, nuclear weapons were disabled even before the world war began. We had techs that could create a smaller form of it, but the grand weapons of mass destruction were already disabled. No doubt something the Aragarian's instigated. I figure they didn't want a nuclear war to happen as they still plan to inhabit this planet. However, the combination of the two technologies gave us a pleasant surprise. We were able to create a nuclear star bomb. Something even the Aragarians didn't expect. My mission was to attack the Balmung. A smaller Orbital created on Earth and was used by many of Earth's traitors to escape. We got the plans for the ship and made it look like we were trying to take over the ship. We succeeded with the deception and the Orbital Initiated Full Divide, which compartmentalized the entire ship. During that mission, we configured several compartments to utilize the nuclear- stellar tech we developed."

Seeker continued to sketch and displayed his work to make the image of his explanations better.

"Now on this mission, the compartments that we manage to configure fell a little off the mark from our estimations. However, I was equipped with this bad boy."

Seeker took the paper, which had the Four Force Accelerator.

"Because of the Unlocking, previously impossible weapons became available to men. And this was on the pinnacle of that! The Four Force Accelerator. Utilizing a fusion of nuclear and star energy, this bad boy can allow movements that go past the speed of sound."

Charles took the paper from Seeker's hand. He intently scanned the article. Surprise shined in his eyes.

"I get it. If you who can perceive faster than milliseconds, traveling in the speed of sound is possible!"

"That's right. And this particular technology was the reason I died in my mission. You see, the star energy of the Balmung wasn't overloading fast enough. And I knew the answer that could solve it. I dove straight to the core of the Balmung's star energy and overloaded my FFA, which should have led to the energy going Supernova. I don't know how the mission ended obviously or how big the blast was. But the thing was, we were prepared to sacrifice half of the Earth if the Supernova would explode beyond our calculations. And that brings us to the present." Seeker concluded.

"But that doesn't explain how the new you came to be." Charles immediately responded.

"Everything that I will speak from here on is pure speculation. And I will need you to clarify this doctor. At that time, my personal Unlocking was 74.56%. For the benefit of Meryl and Lynd, my current Unlocking is somewhere between 15-18%."

Lynd and Meryl were surprised. If 15-18 could already dodge bullets, what could someone beyond 70% do?

Charles was as equally stunned.

"At that moment of my death, I remembered having the phenomenon of seeing my life flashed before my eyes. And that was something miraculous." Seeker smiled.

"How is it miraculous? People at the normal 10% can go through it, so why would it be amazing if you did it? You have over 70% Unlocked!"

"It's precise because I had over 70% unlocked that made it a miracle. It wasn't just a normal life review. I felt like I literally relived everything I've been through! Think about it, a person with 10% unlocking would already have a chance of experiencing a life review, what would happen to someone at 70%? When a regular person undergoes a life-threatening situation, its brain may push itself beyond the 10% norm. It could go from 13-18%. Of the 10 percent, the brain pushes itself and increased 30 percent of its original percentage. Let's say a guy has a normal 10 brain-effort usage. If they go through a life review, you increase your brain usage by around 30 percent. So, someone would reach 13 percent at a minimum."

"Wait. I'm confused. How did ten plus thirty become thirteen?"

"No. What Seeker means, that out of the ten percent brain usage, you increase it by thirty percent. Meaning you add thirty percent of ten."

"Oh. I'm confused with all the percentages." Lynd shook his head.

"Yeah. Now, I already had 70%. If you do the math, and I did the minimum, meaning 30% of the 70, what would have been my Unlocking?"

Charles was silently calculating his brain while Lynd did several finger math tricks to solve the equation.

"Around 90." Meryl answered.

"Ninety-one if your flat on seventy."

"Right. Thirty percent of seventy is added on me. But that's a minimum."

"Eighty percent? How's that possible?"

"Well, We don't fully know the capability of our brain. We can theoretically gauge up to how much strength a man's muscle can exert. But for the mind... not so much. We simply went along with the whole ten percent thing to make it easy. " Seeker laughed.

"So what happened when you had an 80% increase? That's like one hundred and twenty!" Meryl exclaimed.

"I don't know the actual percentage. I had a feeling what I got was something nearer to an 80% increase. I reached a realm unreached even by World Champions. I now realize that the highest point of Unlocking wouldn't be at 100%. Because if human muscles can be trained and can exert strength way beyond its capacity, so can the brain! Haven't there been people who time and time again broke world records in any feats of strength? So at that time, I probably broke through the 100%."

"Was it then that you managed to time travel to this point because you went beyond 100%?" Lynd asked with a confused expression.

"No. Of course not. Now that would be science fiction. There are probably two more factors that made me travel back to this time. One, the Thought Transmitter. Only those of high Unlocking can utilize that. The Aragarian's could hijack and interpret whatever communication devices we have. The Thought Transmitter, however, could send thoughts. It was something which even the Aragarian's couldn't interpret. The second cause was the overloading of star energy. I theorize that at that moment, when I overloaded the system, it created something that could alter time and space."

"A black hole!" Lynd realized immediately.

"Exactly. A black hole may have quickly emerged when the star went Supernova. Somehow because of that, I was able to transmit the entirety of my thoughts! You see, you have to think of the person to transmit thoughts. At that moment, when I was dying, I started to think about the days when Earth was at peace, this time. Probably the Thought Transmitter worked together with the generated black hole and allowed me to send my thoughts back to me now!"

"That's sounds impossible. Why would the black hole know which timeline to send you?" Lynd argued. He has watched several Sci-fi movies and TV series and would intently discuss things with Seeker. Somehow the math didn't just add up.

"As I said, I'm speculating. But it's not impossible. It's improbable. Right now, that's the best explanation we got."

"So you sent your memories to your present self? But how did that push you to Unbecoming?" Charles asked as he perused over the thought transmitter.

"You forget doctor that I was probably beyond 100% of unlocking. I wasn't just able to transfer memories, I was able to transfer everything. The massive dump of information pushed my current brain beyond the limits."

"I see. Some sort of intense shock therapy?"

"Yes. And that, in turn, gave me an idea of how to increase the number of Unlocked individuals."

Seeker gave a devilish grin.

"If things go well, we should have a squadron of Unlocked people by the time the world war begins."