Draconia Offline vol. 2

93.3. The Truth - Part 3

"You're right, it wouldn't be possible using conventional science," Sythara admits. "However, Divementis tech works differently. You might have noticed already that we don't use buttons or voice commands. That's because we send these commands telepathically."

"Your tech is telepathic?!" Erik widens his eyes. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that to them. When I was forced to sit in that special chair on Aurora, the ship's interface popped directly into my mind.

"That's right, Royal Consort," Sythara nods. "I know it's a difficult concept to grasp for anyone who isn't a Divementis. You can imagine it like this: Humans store data online, but it's still on a physical server somewhere. We store data in the telepathic matrix—in the consciousness of our entire species."

"That doesn't explain how Draconia Online managed to change us," Gotrid purses his lips.

"Mind is much more powerful than you think," Sythara explains patiently. "I know that it might sound esoteric, but the principle behind it was to convince a player's brain that they are the race they play as. For that, we needed to make the game as realistic as possible—to convincingly simulate that one has extra limbs, scales or fur. We made players eat in VR, we made them clean their avatars, change clothes and, most importantly, we made them feel pain. And not just any pain, we made them feel pain in body parts they didn't have in real life."

"But there are many games similar to Dragonia on the market," Liana opposes. "Maybe not as gore when it comes to pain, but similarly detailed."

"True, but hidden in the game's code, there was Divementis telepathic architecture and hundreds of Divementis powering it each day," Sythara reveals. "We were carefully instilling belief systems in the form of lore and DNA sequences of extinct Draconian races. We gave you the input, but the rest is the job of your own brains."

"Son, I said that humans were underdeveloped when we came here, but I didn't mean it as an insult," my father sets the record straight. "In fact, we were extremely lucky that humans, as a species, were still developing.

Human brains have amazing plasticity and, unlike Draconian races, they aren't that closely adjusted for a single biotope. Human brains are ready to embrace any beneficial change and their plain humanoid bodies are the best neutral canvas we could hope for. It's difficult to get rid of something, but quite easy to grow new body parts."

"How come everybody changed at the same time? Each player had a different starting point," Gotrid points out. "My beloved started the game with its launch while I jumped in much later."

"A year of intense gameplay is actually quite enough," Sythara says. "What we needed was to reach a critical mass. The VR world needed to be as vibrant as real life. Six years after launch, we finally had 15 million active players who were logging in almost every day and spending at least four hours in the game on average. We were confident that if we gave your brains the final push at that peak, we could hope for 10 million transformed players. In the end, we got 12 million—a huge success."

"That is quite an esoteric explanation," Erik frowns.

"Is it really?" my father shrugs. "For us, telepathy is as natural as breathing, it's the power of our brains. It only seems esoteric to you because it's beyond human comprehension. Ask your husband if he considers Celestial magic to be esoteric."

"What? Of course, it's not," I shake my head and Erik gives me a raised eyebrow. "Magic is just a fancy term for the power of Celestial brains to harness the energy our bodies naturally produce and project it outwards. We call it spells for simplicity, but it's a manipulation of elements. We use mana as a power source and manipulate matter with our minds. It's more science than actual magic."

"See?" the corners of my father's lips twitch into a smile. "Admittedly, it's difficult even for the Divementis to understand. Celestials were always mysterious to us just as we were to them. My son is the first person in the Draconian history who can understand both."

Ryuu, you never mentioned that magic isn't really magic, Erik pulls my sleeve and pouts. I must have looked stupid just now.

I haven't thought about it in this way either, Gotrid notes. As always, our beloved is in a different league.

Sorry, I didn't realise you didn't realise, I apologise and chew my lip. I thought it became obvious ever since we started creating magical technology and using crystals. Rina and our research department are aware of it. They've been calling it Celestial Science for quite a while now.

Guiltily, I look at Liana. I'm afraid to be scolded by her for keeping important information, but my Viceroy doesn't act surprised at all. Phew, at least she knew.

"Now then," my father claps his hands to catch my attention because he can tell that I'm lost in thoughts with my partners. "I guess now's the time for the big reveal."

I frown. What can be possibly bigger than this?

"It's time to introduce the Enemy," he says solemnly.