Hit The Road, Jack! : Hit Run For Your Lives!

Things suddenly turned for the worse.

Around the world, hundreds of governments (most of them, to be fair) demanded Squeam to handle the control codes of Another World, as well as the other Servers. All the telecommunication and IT facilities on those countries, owned by Squeam or not, were taken by force of arms. The Squeam employees had been taken hostage, and the Squeam property was seized.

Another World was to be split-up amongst the worlds' countries. At least, that was what resolution C1 was all about.

Just like the Qing dynasty of china was no match for the power of the western countries in the past, the actual Squeam had no way to maintain the power over their little "New World".

Indeed, Another World was too precious for the worlds' governments to let things go like Shabe wanted to.

The past three years where ones in which the world thought Another World was just another game. That it couldn't be anything more than that - and addictive game.

But now Dòlccy had given then a new look on things. Squeam had been concealing some data about Another World. Katagary's division was the one responsible for looking up into it, and Dòlccy had been the one responsible to leak it to outsiders.

What exactly happened when one logged into Another World?

The neurosets had tech in then that prevented complicated image recognition software to be used while they were active, so the neural activity wasn't recorded.

The neurosets couldn't be easily reverse-engineered either. Much of the tech in then was exclusive to Squeam, including materials like new chemical compounds, metallic alloys and so on.

Major governments had put some priority on reverse-engineering the sets, of course, but they were made with the idea of blocking the possibility of doing so in the first place. Designed, indeed, by the best in the world in doing so.

So, when Dòlccy briefed the world about what happened - that the person entered a vegetative state and their brain activity mostly stopped during the use of the neuroset, at first, they didn't believe it.

But then, with the use of some really inhuman means, that was confirmed later on.

If one's brain was shut-down during the use of the neuroset, what exactly was happening?

Squeam said in plain letters to all - Another World would make your mind travel to a mental dimension!

But men of science obviously didn't believe in that. Most people in Squeam, indeed, didn't do it.

They thought the brain was being thoughtlessly stimulated by the neuroset, and that created the "illusion" people experienced.

Indeed, by saying in plain letters that the neuroset would take your mind away from your body, Squeam had been successful on directing the world research and reverse-engineering teams towards another, totally different, direction.

When one used the neuroset, their minds where transferred to a mental dimension. There, with the used of Squeam tech, the energy on that dimension would be then transformed on things. Mental things which, for the mind inhabiting the mental-energy avatars in that world, were totally real.

It was, indeed, a whole new world. Not a game, but a reality on itself - a mental reality!

Once one's mind returned to their bodies, the brain would be overwhelmed by information, and new synapses would be then created. In fact, even new neurons would be created by the process.

And this was why one needed the goo-chamber to stay on for long periods of time, and also why the use of the neuroset was restricted to a few hours a day.

One's brain could literally be stressed to death by using that.

Then, the most important point in all of that…

Once one died in the real world, what would happen to their avatar?

Kin Katagary didn't use human subjects to this kind of test at first. He begun with animals, and only a long after would he use willing human subjects.

The result was that their avatars kept on living on.

Under the control of the Squeam code, they could be changed on other races, transformed on new things and so on.

Their minds would be trapped inside Another World, and that was a great relief to these test subjects - as they were people with strong neurodegenerative diseases and the server used by Katagary was real-world like.

At that moment, Shabe looked at the huge city under his feet. This city was the Squeam Headquarters, and beyond the city walls, a military encirclement had taken form.

The governments on earth were in a state of dismay when they found out about the truth - not in a single one of the physical servers on their countries there were any clues about how to access Another World.

In fact, as soon as the Squeam facilities began to be stormed in masse, many of the objects inside imploded, destroying all evidence.

Samanta hugged Shabe from behind, as the military outside kept on announcing that Shabe should surrender and accept being taken in custody.