Chapter 281 - The Battle Of The Mind [2]!

"Tom Brady, we have compiled a comprehensive report after your days with us. Your commanding aptitude and instincts are not refined enough".

"I am sorry, but I advise you to take another profession".

"We cannot take you".

"You're still in your budding years, you can be as impressive if not even more impressive if you take any other profession. No profession is the best, your success depends on how much effort you put in to become the best and your mentality".

"NO! I WANT TO BE A COMMANDER!"

"I WANT TO COMMAND AN ARMY OF WARSHIPS! I WANT TO COMMAND AN ANNIHILATOR ONE DAY! I WANT TO BE LIKE COMMANDER LEON!"

The young blonde-haired boy looked at his parents, especially his mom with teary eyes as the ever-present water conveniently watched the tears away.

"Mom, please tell him, tell him I can do it!"

The beautiful equally blonde-haired lady suppressed the sound that was about to escape her throat, she conveniently let the water watch her overflowing tears away as she leaned in to hug her son.

"Tom, you have to understand something. Life is filled with uncertainties, as the recruiter said, no profession is the best…"

"No!"

"NO! I WANT TO BECOME A COMMANDER!"

"Madam, we have other candidates, please take your child out or we would have to do it ourselves".

"I HATE YOU!"

"I HATE ALL OF YOU!"

…

"Congratulations, cadet! You passed the strength test with flying colors".

"Thank you, sir!" The little kid shouted enthusiastically.

The middle-aged man with the report file revealed a slight smile before glancing at the book again, it took some time before he raised his head back to look at the kid. "Tom, what do you think of the Atlantian reserve army?"

"Huh?"

"Ok, let me ask you, what is the motto of the Atlantian army?"

The little kid immediately perked up as his voice rose into a crescendo.  "Brave as an Eagle! Unrelenting as a Phoenix! Excellent as Atlantis!"

"Ok, what is our core motive of the 3?"

"Excellent as Atlantis!".

"Good, now do you know what it means?"

"Yes". The little kid raised his head proudly. "Excellence is the creed of Atlantis, it is the reason for our rise, it is the reason for our domination so every soldier of the Atlantian army must embody excellence".

"Good kid!" The cadet trainer smiled.

"Now, this is what I'm trying to say Tom. You passed your strength test with flying colors, coming out among the top 3 of your cadet team but you bottled every single one of the other tests".

"This contradicts with our motive; this is not a sign of excellence".

"If it was left to me, I would have given you the go-ahead to join the army, I believe in your enthusiasm and your conviction to keep on improving but I have an obligation to our race".

"Tom, I'm sorry, you can't become a soldier prospect yet".

"…"

Tom wanted to scream at the trainer like he was used to, but he paused on seeing the sincere look on the trainer's face. He was close to the cadet trainer; he simply couldn't bring himself to yell so he simply stood up and numbly left.

That night, young Tom cried himself to sleep.

…

A year later. "Congratulations Tom! You are now a soldier prospect!"

…

6 years later. "Sorry Tom, your overall scores are too mediocre, you cannot become a full-fledged Atlantian soldier yet". 

"You cannot be accepted into the Atlantian military".

…

A year later. "I'm sorry Tom, it still can't work out with us!"

"I advise you to start another profession now while you're still young enough to take it, it will help your future prospects a lot more".

…

Another year later. "I'm sorry Tom…"

…

Another year later. "I'm sorry Tom…"

…

3 years later. "Congratulations Tom, you graduated!"

"You are now a certified Doctor!".

"…"

The now grown-up Tom had a listless expression on his face. After a series of hard to forget and traumatizing encounters with the military, Tom submitted to the cruel reality of fate and was now a doctor.

Despite this, he never lost his drive to perform. Amid the numerous failures, he found a reason to keep on living.

His new motivation to live was to prove his previous leaders wrong. He would show them that even as a doctor, he could still become the most excellent soldier and commander that the Atlantian army had ever produced. 

…

"Um, Doctor Tom…"

"What? Spill it out!"

"I'm sorry sir, but this is forbidden research. This experiment is too impulsive and against the rules of our race, there has never been any successful merge between a mechanical machine and the brain tissues of a living predator".

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't believe that your dreams to create a sentient mechanical shark is possible".

"Our predecessors already proved that it is impossible".

"Shut up and watch!" 

"Who are those predecessors compared to me? Compared to the great Doctor Tom, those so-called predecessor Doctors are as good as shit".

"Implant the brain tissue!"

"Affirmative, Doctor Tom!"

30 minutes later…

Bzzz!

{Product Quality: Half-Defective/ Half-Sentient Shark.}

The middle-aged Doctor Tom grinned. "With science, nothing is impossible!"

…

"Doctor Tom, this is prohibited research trajectory!"

…

"Doctor Tom, this is a forbidden experiment!"

…

"Doctor Tom, you're becoming too unbridled!"

"MONSTER-ATLANTIAN EXPERIMENTS ARE FORBIDDEN! YOU WILL BE COURT MARSHALLED!"

…

"Your Excellency, you can't experiment on yourself, Monsters are incompatible with Atlantians. You'll only make yourself a monster, sir".

"Hahahahahaha!"

"If becoming a monster is what it takes for me to prove that I can become the most excellent warrior of our race, I will do it".

"Do it!"

Bzzz!

"All parameters are spiking in activity!"

"We're losing his Excellency".

"Your Excellency! Doctor Tom! Doctor, please hold on, please stay with me, stay with us, please!"

Bzzz! Boom!

"…"

"ROAR!"

…

"Doctor Tom Brady, you're already surrounded!"

"I don't know if you're still in there Doctor, but if you are, surrender and prove your excellence by presenting your body for further experiments".

"Doing that is the best way to show your excellence to the race, its significance will instantly wipe away every sin that you've committed before now".

"ROAR!"

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"Fools! I no longer prove my excellence to anyone; I believe in my excellence now! If you want to kill me, do it and quit the lecture!"

"Be assured though, I'm not going down without a good fight!"

BOOM!

…

After about an hour of going through the Sea King's memories like he was watching a movie, Sebastian was left flabbergasted.

The implications of what he just saw were so numerous that he was completely shocked to his very bone marrows.

The Doppelganger and Invisibility Sea King was once an Atlantian!

He learned everything about the Sea King's life from its memories. This Sea King was once the young driven Tom Brady.

As a fan of the legendary Atlantian, Commander Leon, Tom as a kid hoped to become a commander one day and replicate the success of this commander.

Unfortunately, his hopes were ruthlessly crushed. From there, he got interested in other professions, most notably being a soldier of the Atlantian army as he spent years on this pursuit but his hopes were crushed every single time.

At this point, Tom's life was practically defined by failure.

This series of failures turned the once enthusiastic young Atlantian into a shadow of his former self. After dabbling into medicine and succeeding as a doctor, the traumas of the failures were still there which pushed him to the edge.

His obsesses to prove his doubters wrong pushed him to engage in dangerous experiments. Doctor Tom Brady was the one who developed the sentient mechanical shark species that Sebastian encountered some time ago.

Just thinking about the difficulties involved and the implications of this feat left Sebastian in complete awe of the capabilities of this Doctor.

Despite his success in the medicine sector, his past failures still plagued him. He kept on engaging in dangerous experiments, even engaging in experiments that transplanted monster tissues in his body to make him the excellent soldier.

One of these experiments went wrong, then Doctor Tom Brady successfully became a huge Chameleon beast.

The Doctor escaped from his lab with his new body and slowly blended into the wild. The Atlantian army tried to hunt him down for centuries, but they could not until this predator turned into the notorious Sea King.

Also, he was actually the lead researcher of the experiment that took place inside this seamount despite being a predatory Chameleon.

This man may have lost his humanity, but his intelligence was preserved.

His life experiences were what culminated into the Doppelganger and Invisibility Sea King that Sebastian grew to know.

For some reason, Sebastian felt sad. 

Life was just too cruel. Having watched the circumstances and life experiences of the Sea King from his days as an Atlantian, he pitied him.

"Sigh!"

Sebastian could only sigh as he ravaged through the final memories of the Sea King. Once this was done, the soul of the Doppelganger and Invisibility Sea King was finally crushed into pure and unaffiliated soul power.

This power was partly assimilated by Sebastian while the other dissipated into the atmosphere where it was absorbed by the influences of nature.

This time, the Doppelganger and Invisibility Sea King died for real.

[Congratulations! You have killed a pinnacle Black tier predator- Level ???: You have gained Experience.]

[You have gained 823 Skill points and 5000 Adaptation points.]