May 13, 2034 | 5:50 PM | Inside the Virtual World: GREM

  Flash! Mook materialized with a sense of excitement and defiance. However, in an instant, the mental image of lush grasslands teeming with people vanished. It was replaced by a desolate, vast expanse of meadow, devoid of any living soul.

  “Took you long enough to get in... Mook.”

  A deep, low voice of an older man echoed from behind him.

  “Who are you...?” Mook turned around quickly, his guard up.

  “William Wilson... we meet again.” William introduced himself, greeting Mook with a tone of familiarity as if they had been close for years.

  “Uh... do we know each other? And where is this?” Mook felt a strange sensation deep within. He felt as though he had seen the man before... a long, long time ago.

  “In this place and at this time, one could say we don't know each other. But in ‘another time,’ that’s a different story.” William finished speaking and waved his hand lightly in the air.

  Whoosh! A translucent blue holographic simulation of a brain appeared between them.

  “When Saito successfully created GREM on his own, I tried many ways to use it to cure my daughter. Though I didn't succeed, I accidentally discovered this...”

  Whoosh! William waved his hand again. The single simulated brain split into four. Three of them appeared jagged and incomplete.

  “I discovered that within the human brain, there are four massive layers of memory overlapping one another. There is one primary layer, and the other three are memories suppressed deep within the subconscious... All three of these layers have been damaged by something. But they are not beyond my power to repair.” William snapped his fingers three times.

  Flash! Flash! Flash! The previously damaged brains were restored to a perfect state.

  “I tried repairing them and transferring them back into my own mind. The memories I once thought were just dreams came flooding back until I realized they were reality... the reality of another timeline that someone had traveled back to alter.”

  William turned to look at Mook with a smile that was warm yet mysterious. “Do you want to know what you were like... during those timelines?”

  ***

  May 13, 2034 | 11:15 PM

  Inside a pitch-black bedroom...

  Mook walked back into the room, staring at the mother and child sleeping soundly in each other's arms on the bed. He looked at them as if they were strangers, despite them being his own wife and daughter. However, before long, their bond pulled him back as he began to accept the truth he had just learned.

  Mook gazed at his year-old daughter, wondering how this little girl would grow up in a world where GREM was consuming everything.

  “Up we go...” Mook gently lifted the child and placed her in the crib. He then sat on the edge of the bed beside his wife and leaned in toward her.

  “Mmm... you want to?” Linnea mumbled as she drifted awake. “I thought you were having so much fun in that world that you’d be exhausted by now.”

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  Her words were so clear... Linnea often let slip strange things, seemingly knowing future events she shouldn't know. Before, he had never suspected anything, but now, everything was crystal clear. Mook stared into the beautiful eyes that had dragged him to his death twice. Memories of death are often the most vivid, and he remembered these eyes very well.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you so quiet?” Linnea stared at her lover, whose gaze had changed.

  “Nothing... You just look unusually beautiful today.” With those words, his heavy hands undid her thin nightgown before he leaned down to kiss and caress her beautiful chest.

  “Unusually?” Linnea asked in confusion, hugging him tightly as a faint, shaky moan escaped her lips.

  Grip. Squeeze. Her soft skin was gripped firmly. His thick lips nipped at her as if he wanted to bite and tear, yet he held himself back. Mook consumed the body before him with an intense, burning hunger.

  “Ngh!” Linnea moaned in her throat. Her lover was invading her with such speed and aggression today. He threw himself at her over and over until she felt a slight sting of pain. Yet, within that pain, there was a lingering sense of pleasure. Is he angry about something? Or stressed...? she thought, stroking his back to comfort him. Regardless, he was her husband. No matter what he had encountered, she would be here to soothe him.

  ***

  June 1, 2034 | 6:30 PM | At the Hot Spring Beside the House

  “My, for someone who looks like that, he’s quite a talented designer.” Jia praised with satisfaction as she soaked in the hot spring Mook had built. Her eyes scanned the surrounding atmosphere, decorated with stones and trees as beautiful as a Japanese onsen.

  The three girls—Linnea, Meena, and Jia—were soaking and relaxing comfortably, completely unaware that at the door, Mook was secretly swapping their three watches with newly crafted replicas.

  ***

  June 15, 2034 | 9:20 AM | London, England

  “We will build ‘TREAM’ here.” William took Mook to see a futuristic building he had purchased for him. It wasn't just the building; he also provided the capital to hire over a thousand employees.

  “Thank you,” Mook said with a smile before walking into the building, where a crowd of employees stood waiting to welcome their new director.

  ***

  October 30, 2034 | 3:35 PM | At William’s Hospital

  “Thank you for helping to cure my daughter once again,” William said from his director’s chair.

  “It’s no problem,” Mook smiled shyly.

  “But this time, not a single test subject died. How did you do it?” William read the report in surprise. In the previous timelines, the results hadn't been this positive.

  “Well, last time... when I realized people had to die, I felt terrible. Whenever I had free time, I checked every single line of code in detail until I found the errors and fixed them all.”

  “Excellent...” William patted Mook’s shoulder lightly. “No... brilliant as always.”

  “Thank you, hehe.” Mook smiled and chuckled shyly at the praise.

  ***

  December 1, 2038 | 7:15 PM | Japan

  “Help!” “Please help us!”

  Cries for help from men and women drifted from a large bus that had plunged to the bottom of a ravine. The screams were desperate, but no one heard them. In this era, most people preferred traveling in the virtual world rather than the real one.

  BOOM!!! An explosion roared as flames erupted from the rear of the bus. The fire incinerated two families who had coincidentally won free winter vacation tickets. Not a single person survived.

  ***

  December 16, 2038 | 2:30 PM | The Hague, Netherlands

  In front of the Intellectual Property Court, Mook—now looking thin and gaunt—watched Saito and his team walk away in fury after losing the case for intellectual property theft.

  “Are you sure you want to return their memories and invite them to dinner in TREAM tonight?” William whispered.

  “Yes... it’s better than letting the grudge last forever.” Mook gave a faint, bitter smile. It pained him to make Saito—a man who had once been his benefactor—this angry.