In a room where the walls were illuminated by "Hologram" lights, showing drawings and symbols that no one would understand except the person who wrote them.
This person was the boy standing in front of the illuminated wall. No expressions appeared on his face other than complete focus, but inside, he felt optimistic; he felt he would make significant progress in the thing he was searching for.
He continued writing for hours. From time to time, he stopped to wander around the room, contemplating for moments, then returned to writing while thinking:
"Yes... Yes, I think I will achieve the progress I want this time... It is definitely like this..."
Suddenly, he stopped again to think.
A minute passed, followed by an hour, then another hour.
This time, the period he stopped was longer than the other times. He kept pacing around the room, examining anything in front of him: the books that held some of his memories and had gathered dust, and the applied model of the theories he discovered. He had designed this model to simulate them on a device he also designed, surpassing anything anyone else on the planet had made.
When he looked at it, he thought:
"No, this will not work."
Then he went to wash his face. As the water drops fell on his face, he looked into the mirror and saw the face of a boy in his mid-teens, with black hair and ordinary facial features. However, the most distinctive thing about his appearance was his wide black eyes, which resembled the eyes of children.
Then he thought, addressing his eyes:
"Oh my eyes, tell me how you can see the memories of others? Do the eyes of others possess memories of what they saw and felt, storing them in some way, and you read them to make my mind confused? Or are the eyes of others an entrance to what people call the 'Soul', and you read them and make me affected by their personalities and lose myself? Or are you just cursed eyes that exist, along with my curiosity, to be my curse?"
"Black" knew that these explanations would not see certainty unless the full nature of the world was revealed before his eyes. After that, he would seek to control it to turn what seemed like a curse into an advantage, but... he still had a long way to go.
Suddenly, "Black" clenched his fist and went back to thinking about the problem and moving back and forth across the house; sometimes doing some sports exercises, and other times going to prepare something delicious to eat.
After four days of thinking about a solution to the problem he faced, and continuous scrutiny and searching for solutions, he decided that he should sleep a little; so he went and lay down on the bed.
An hour passed, then two hours, then two days passed, but he could not stop thinking or sleep. Therefore, he climbed to the top of the house, hoping that seeing the sky this night would make him forget thinking and fall asleep.
When he climbed up and lay down on the roof of the house, he found the crescent moon looking like a malicious smile of someone mocking him and all his efforts, as if "Black" would never reach what he aspired to.
If "Black" had a reaction to this scene, it would definitely not be anger or despair, but we do not know what his reaction was at this moment because he had already fallen asleep.
When "Rush" challenged "Black", this was not something unexpected for Black, as he always took all possibilities into account. Rush's challenge was something he somewhat desired; to see the amount of power other players had, and if they would cause any progress in his research, and to test the extent of his own progress.
When "Black" agreed to the battle request, "Rush" thought that he was still underestimating him, so he said boastfully:
"I hope you did not accept this challenge because you think I am an easy opponent. I am—without pride—one of the best players in this game. I have defeated many strong opponents to the point that they call me the 'Weapon Ghost'."
"Black" replied:
"Good, I want you to show me the extent of your power. So, how do you want this battle to be?"
"Rush" replied:
"If you do not mind, let us make it in an area of one hundred meters, and... let us use everything we have."
"Black" did not mind the conditions, and then "Rush" submitted a request to the system, saying:
"I submit a request to the system to hold a duel."
The system voice replied:
[Is the second party in agreement?]
"Black" replied:
"Yes."
[Let the duel begin]
A spherical shield formed, invisible, around the match arena.
At that moment, "Rush" and "Black" had summoned their weapons; "Black" had only a sword, while "Rush" had a sword similar to Black's sword and a gun.
The opponents stood in front of each other for only a second. Then the fighting began when "Rush" fired from his energy gun, which he held in his left hand, while the other hand was ready holding the sword below it.
In the game "Rebirth", carrying long-range weapons like Rush's gun was not common, and the reason was very clear.
There were two advantages that all players possessed at the beginning of the game; the first was the external energy system that most players used as shields to protect them. The other advantage was the speed enhancement of the players' bodies in addition to their high durability. Therefore, it was easy to defend against bullets or dodge them if the weapon was not special or the user was not skilled.
"Rush" was not very skilled, but he had strong intuition, and he also liked gambling somewhat, so he used the gun to weaken and confuse the opponent.
After the bullets arrived, "Black" dodged them skillfully, but those bullets were not alone, as another flood of bullets followed them. This time, "Black" could not avoid all the bullets, so some hit the energy shield, and worse, one passed through the shield and a trace of external damage appeared on his shoulder, accompanied by pain.
Black's solid mentality was not affected by the pain. Instead, he started dodging more randomly and quickly, getting closer to "Rush" to strike him with the sword.
But seconds before "Black" reached "Rush", the latter suddenly stopped shooting and dashed to strike "Black" with his sword. The strike was aimed at the middle of Black's chest—the place considered the character's heart—and if hit, he would be eliminated directly. However, "Black" managed to block this strike at a very close range. When Rush's sword was recoiling after being blocked, he made a long cut extending from the right side of Black's chest to the tip of his right shoulder. Of course, he did not stop there, as his return to attack "Black" did not take time.
Attacks continued from "Rush" to "Black" using his sword and his gun, which partially turned into a dagger to exploit the gap of the surprise attack he made. But "Black" was blocking or dodging them. Despite this, some superficial scratches hit him, but he was the one allowing these scratches to give himself chances to attack "Rush".
When "Rush" realized that he was the one who would start receiving attacks, he blocked Black's sword with his sword and shot at him. "Black" responded by moving away from him, avoiding the bullets. Then "Rush" also retreated while still shooting, betting that he was faster than "Black". He turned his back and jumped to climb up the monster rock. He needed seven more jumps to reach the top, but he did not complete them; because if he had not turned around now to block the attack aimed at his back using his gun-dagger and sword, he would have been eliminated. However, he achieved his goal of being in a higher place than his opponent and gaining an advantage.
After "Rush" blocked Black's attack, the force of the attack pushed "Black" downwards, while "Rush" continued climbing upwards while still shooting, with a sarcastic smile on his face.
Before "Black" fell a distance, and in less than a second, he planted his sword to stabilize himself, then focused his energy shield to be able to block the bullets. He continued climbing towards Rush's blind spot to strike him again, but "Rush" blocked it with difficulty using his sword.
"Rush" was amazed by the amount of increase in Black's speed, but he still believed that his plan would succeed.
When "Rush" reached what looked like the top of the rock where the ground had a slight slope, he stopped shooting and used his sword to strike at Black's head to deal final damage that would eliminate him. But "Black" avoided this strike in an impossible way. So "Rush" completed his attack with the dagger towards the heart of his opponent's energy. However, "Black" used his external energy in a way no other player had used yet.
It was difficult to control external energy; it was like clay that is hard to shape for players, so they were content with making it a shield of equal density over their entire bodies. As for "Black" in this moment, he was controlling it as if it were water, controlling it easily to speed up his body's movement and make it perform moves that are difficult to execute.
In this way, "Black" avoided the blow and created an excellent gap to strike Rush's heart, so he hastened to direct his sword and pounced to deal the decisive blow.
The sword reached Rush's body and entered the place where his heart was, to eliminate him and have the system announce the end of the match... but this did not happen.
What happened was that "Rush" had activated his "Ghostliness" feature, which made Black's sword pass through him without hurting him. He rushed and passed through "Black" to appear a few meters behind him, aiming his gun at Black's back and fired.
In these moments, the energy of "Rush" and "Black" was almost running out; "Rush" had enough to fire three shots, while "Black" had barely enough to block two shots. Even if he blocked two and avoided the third, the level of damage he received was so high that any further damage—even if simple—would eliminate him. But he remained calm and reacted quickly to do what he had planned from the beginning of the confrontation.
The first shot he would not have been able to avoid at all, so he used the shield to block the first one. Then he used half of the remaining energy to dodge the second shot and adjust his body position to turn and swing his sword towards "Rush".
The last remaining energy "Black" had, he put into his sword to become a flying strike heading towards the heart of Rush's energy. When he swung his sword, "Rush" was split into two pieces and was eliminated.
But at that moment, the third bullet had hit "Black" in his leg, so he was eliminated as well.
[The match ended]
[Both players were eliminated]
[The result is a draw]