Chapter 149: Mom's family picture

"Where is Dr. Shunpei?" asked Richard to a researcher who was chatting with others, discussing where he's going to leave for the upcoming vacation.

"Shunpei-sensei? He just left with Mr. President. Probably escorting him to the car. How about…"

Before his words ended, Richard rushed outside, leaving behind the surprised fellow researchers.

"What has he gotten into?" "Who knows…" "Forget that nerd. You were telling something?" Ah, right. I was thinking of going to Ankrale beach. My daughter wanting to go for a while…"

As he exited the lab, Richard started mumbling, "I need to convince Dr. Shunpei to run tests on Neo to confirm my suspicion. If she's really turned out to be NB0A1's clone, then, the result might turn out devastating.

Oh, there he is…"

Looking at the backs of the president and the head researcher who were walking towards the elevator, Richard was about to call him but right then, a laugh escaped from Adler that resounded across the empty corridor.

He quickly hid behind the wall and listened to their conversation.

"Good job, Dr. Shunpei. With the success of this project, I'm confident that I'll continue to be the President in the third term too."

The head researcher smiled along with him, "not just the third term, Mr. President. I believe you will serve as the president for a long time. After all, we are saving humanity.

Our next step is to make immortality, a thing for real."

"Immortality? You mean, putting our consciousness into a robotic body like her?" scoffed Adler before folding his hands at the back, and looked away, "no thanks. I would rather stay as a normal human."

The head researcher shook his head, "no, you misunderstood me, Mr. President. I'm talking about the transfer of consciousness into real bodies. During infancy, the brain isn't much developed, and the body lacks a certain degree of consciousness. What if we send the consciousness into an infant and replace theirs?"

The President suddenly stopped walking and turned towards him with a surprised look on his face before letting out a wide smile, "that's a brilliant plan, Dr. Shunpei.

We'll talk about that later. But, first, I need to know how long you'll take till you give an army of these battle androids. You already collected several consciousnesses for the past couple of years…"

As they entered the elevator, Dr. Richard who was listening to their conversation secretly found himself sweating while his heart continues to beat rapidly.

"Replacing consciousness into an infant? That's murder. What kind of place I have entered? Isn't this a research center aimed for the betterment of humanity?"

He quickly turned around and return to the lab, without reporting his conjecture.

***

Ares City;

After finishing his business at the main branch of Heibei Corp., Wil went straight to the hotel and took a couple of hours rest before his sleep was disturbed by a call from Hyori.

"Hey, Wil."

"What's up? Aren't you supposed to be at the college at this time?" asked Wil with a frown, thinking whether she encountered any trouble as he knew she never skips college.

"Huh? Didn't I tell you the other day that prelims going to start?" replied Hyori on the other side.

Only then, he remembered their conversation the previous night and said, "Ah, yes. I remember it. Intercontinental Archery championship, right?"

"Yeah. Originally, I was selected for a seeded spot for my college but all of a sudden, the management decided to give it to a senior, instead. So, I might not have enough time to log in to the game."

Upon hearing her depressed tone, the frown on Wil became even deeper and he went into thinking as he sat on the bed, "it's strange that management of a reputed college like hers is suddenly changing their decision. I smell something conspiracy here. I need to talk to Silver about it."

"Hello… Hello… Wil? You there?"

"Ah, yes. Sorry. Something else was on my mind. Tell me."

Hyori repeated, "I'm saying that I might not afford the time to log in to the game for the next couple of weeks."

"It's fine. By the way, what about that pet scroll? The auction is scheduled for the day after tomorrow."

Hyori answered, "You don't need to worry about it. It's been taken care of. I actually…"

"Huh? Taken care of? What do you mean? Did you sell it off already? How much? No, that's not it. Who did you sell it to? I told you not to sell it in private, right? The auction will provide you a better price. Perhaps, you needed money? Why go for selling? I would have lent you…"

As Wil continue to lecture non-stop, Hyori interrupted him, "okay… okay… Wil, calm down and take a deep breath for a second. Let me finish, will ya. It wasn't sold or given. I used it to capture that water dragon."

"Eh? You caught it?" Wil froze for a second in shock upon hearing the least expected thing from her, "how did you find it? No, that's not it. It supposed to be the Black Leopard... Damn..."

He realized his mistake. Black leopard was a level-150 legendary grade monster at Reverie kingdom, not the Llyne.

"Sorry about that... I guess my information is wrong..." Wil quickly apologized to her.

"It's fine." Hyori took it lightly, and tried to tease him, "It's good to know that the mighty Time Traveler will also make mistakes..."

Wil blushed in embarrassment. He tried to divert the topic, "How did you capture it, anyway?"

"Well, it's all started when SnowDew shared her mission with me... I didn't expect to meet it. Quite a coincidence I should say."

Hyori then recounted their adventure after resurrecting at Deloris town. Two days earlier, to finish the quest, SnowDew/Evie and Hyori went to the same cave, which leads them to the hall of demigods, previously.

This time, instead of entering the tunnel, they explored other directions and found a giant dragon sleeping soundly in a cave, releasing water from its horns continuously.

After dragging it to the surface, both of them fought against the dragon and eventually captured the dragon after its health was downed to less than 10%.

Upon hearing her story, Wil understood how it happened.

"I see… Then, congratulations on acquiring the pet."

"Thanks," replied Hyori as a smile appeared on her lips unknowingly before she asked, "what about you? Did you meet your mother, yet?"

*Slap*

Immediately, Hyori heard a sound on the other side. "What is that sound? Did you trip and hit your leg or something?"

"Sh*t" Wil slapped his forehead in realization and mumbled, "I forgot about it, completely."

"What? I can't hear you."

He quickly replied, "It's nothing. I'm just tired, right now. I'll go in the evening."

"I see… Okay, then. I'm hanging up. You take rest."

"Bye." After disconnecting the call, he quickly dialed a number.

"Hello, Silver."

After talking with Silver, he took out his laptop and then, opened the mail to see the details Silver already sent to him, long ago.

"Flat no. 702, Seven Apartments, Santacruz, Hailey city. I wonder where that is…"

Opening the map, Wil went into thoughts once again, placing the chin on his hand while the elbow rests on the bed, "Hailey city is like at least 12 hours away. Sigh… If only I asked the address before leaving the western continent, it would have been easy. But, now, even going there seemed like risky."

Right then, he received another mail from Silver with attachments.

"Pictures of mom and her family?"

Reading the message, Wil clicked on the attachment and opened the downloaded pictures only to be taken aback in surprise.

Looking at the girl and the boy, two familiar faces popped up in his mind from a very recent memory from the game but it wasn't the siblings that surprised him. It was the picture of his mother.

After looking carefully at the individual pictures, Wil once again called Silver.

"Hello, young master. I sent a few pictures just now."

"Yeah, I know," replied Wil with a confused look on his face before asking, "But, Silver, what is my missing master, Andrea doing here? Where is my mom?"

"She's indeed Scarlet Smith. Your biological mother." A reply came from the other side of the phone.

"Eh?" Wil went into a daze as he stared at the picture once again.