Pride Online

Chapter 707: The Start of The Meeting Part II

“Follow me and remember not to do anything stupid.”

Wisana laughed.

“Am I a criminal now?”

He looked around at those men in black and saw that they were all tall and muscular. Some were not even Thai. He did not have to guess what was in their pockets.

“Well, I won’t do anything if you didn’t initiate it first. Take me to mom now.” He followed Wipada.

They got inside the building. The lobby was full of employees running around in turmoil. Yet, when they saw Wisana and Wipada, everyone halted as if they were controlled by a remote control.

All eyes were on them. Some even whispered something to each other.

“Is that the king? He doesn’t change at all?”

“Has he really been awakened?”

“Is that boy Vincent?”

“Isn’t it too soon to bring him here?”

The whispers continued. Even so, Wisana pretended to not hear them. He did not even care about what they thought about him. Meanwhile, Wipada stole a look at her brother and glared at the employees so hard that they eventually had to go back to work.

Soon after, they went into the elevator behind the office. Instead of pushing the button, Wipada put her hand in her shirt pocket and took out a card before she touched it on the sensory pad until it let out a ‘beep’ sound. The elevator, then, started moving. And it was towards the basement.

“Huh~ The real office has been under here all along.”

Wisana muttered and leaned against the wall.

“It was a mess up there.” He said. “I’m not surprised since the Pride world is wreckage right now. But from the look of it, it seems to be like there’s something more to it. You’ve been so quiet for a long time. Don’t you think waiting for us to fall before you act is a little too late?”

The older sister was quiet for a while before she talked without looking at him.

“We have a lot to do. All that happened, it was within mom’s responsibility, so...”

“Huh!” Wisana scoffed. “That’s easy for you to say. Even though we did everything for Pride, you guys are living your lives happily here. Responsibility? That’s funny coming from you.”

He laughed. Wipada did not say anything more until the elevator reached the forty-eighth floor. The elevator doors slowly opened. In front of them was only a dark room with tiny rays of light for them to be able to see the path.

Wipada led the way. They walked along the narrow path. The atmosphere was like in a hospital. There were so many big glass rooms attached to the wall along the way.

Wisana glanced at one of the glass rooms and saw a human sleeping in a bed that looked more like a capsule. There were a ring and so many wires on his head. The bed was covered with glass, too. The human took his time to breathe. He needed at least ten seconds for a single breath he took.

He looked around and saw a lot of something similar to this one. There were over three hundred of them along the path.

“These people are the Cores.”

Wisana said with a low voice. No one had told him anything and he did not know why he knew it. He noticed their stable brain waves. They were getting weaker and weaker as if they were being sucked dry.

Wipada glanced at her brother and let out a long sigh.

“Yes.” She nodded. “These are the Cores that haven’t fully connected with Pride. We just got a hold of them recently. After the complete connection, we’ll seal the capsules and take them to the bottom floor.”

“Slowing down the body, which means you only leave their brain to function and freeze everywhere else, right?”

Again, Wisana talked like he knew everything. His sister raised her eyebrow.

“Seeing this with my own eyes, I’m so disappointed with this world.”

He stopped walking. Wipada did the same.

The older sister was surprised as to how her brother knew that she was going to stop here. Wisana slowly closed his eyes and stared at the glass in front of him. His heart pounded, even though he tried his best to calm it down.

He slowly opened his eyes back up.

What he saw was his most beloved woman...

The woman he had been calling ‘mom’ for all his life.

She was in the capsule with a ring on her head. Her face was so nonchalant as if nothing had happened to her before. There were a woman and a man in a gown, the same one that his sister was wearing.

“Mom.”

Wisana said softly. This was the first time his voice showed so much weakness. Even though his face was indifferent, Wipada knew how bad he felt.

“Can I go to her?”

Wisana asked. He stared at his mom, who was lying on the bed as if she was only sleeping.

“No.” Wipada was firm. “Your brain wave now is fully activated. If you go in there, the connection system of the PMC will malfunction and the link between her and Pride will be cut. Then, her brain will surely be dead this time.”

Hearing that, the man went silent. He slowly closed his eyes.

The PMC, or the Pride Medic Center, is a machine that helped stabilize the brain so that every organ could still function as usual, even though parts of the brain had been damaged. It also connected the patients to the Pride world by transforming their brain waves into Pride’s energy. To make it simple...

It was the only thing that kept mom alive...

All this information flashed into his brain without anyone telling him.

The man found it hard to breathe. His throat was so hot that he almost cried.

The effect of the Jammer Effect destroyed mom’s last connection with her PM. It was like cutting a safety rope while climbing the mountain. The main system in the brain wave was lost in Pride. To make it simple, mom’s soul was lost in there and only her body was back in this world.

“Do you want me to describe her condition for you?” Wipada asked.

“No need. I know everything.” Wisana shook his head. “When did you take her out?”

“Since the fight was over.” His sister answered. Her eyes were also fixed on her mom. “After you went offline, the link between time was still unstable. We took that chance to bring her here as soon as we could. We’ve been prepared ever since before the war started. We have an underground path that allows us to travel from Chiang Mai to here within only ten minutes.”

Hearing that, Wisana did not say anything more. He looked at his mom yearningly. He wanted to go to her, but he knew that he could not go near her anymore. The Signetic in his brain was too strong to control.

“You knew that this was going to happen. Then, why... why didn’t you save her?”

Wisana’s question did not change his sister’s facial expression. She put her hand on the glass.

“That’s not my duty.”

“Not your duty?” Wisana scoffed. “Isn’t she your mom?”

“....”

Wipada did not reply.

“Or does this organization not care about family? No one cares if that lady is the one who gave you life. ‘Family’ isn’t in your dictionary, so you can only do things according to orders.”

Wisana turned to his sister with his shining eyes. She did not show emotions. She did not even look at him. He shook his head with disappointment and clicked his tongue.

“You’re disgusting. Every single one of you.”