Forgetting Regret

The noise of an arcade game could be heard…

{YOU LOSE} A voice accompanied the text on the screen. It wasn't hard to make out the scenario.

Adam had beat her at a video game.

"Can we stop this now?" Eva asked like a horny ex-girlfriend trying to get a gamer off his console.

Which wasn't making any progress…

She wasn't interested in learning button combinations to beat him in a mere Fighting Game.

It was a useless skill.

The miracle gamer himself had to admit that she was particularly bad at this. Like… mind-numbing.

A three year old could get results by mashing random buttons, but she didn't even do that.

It was kinda boring…

"Alright, let's switch to something different for now." Adam put in a new game he ordered online.

Oh, the wonders of Psynet…

He put on a familiar game. Using his avatar-connecting controller, he moved a character.

It was the main playable character of a 2D Platformer, and was able to jump and attack.

Even shoot fire from its hands using an input.

"What's this game called?" Eva asked with curious eyes. She chose the second playable character.

An ice type girl…

Adam, being the one who knew what this was based on, sighed at such blatant plagiarism:

"Arsenio, apparently…"

"'Arsenio Apparently'…?" She repeated.

"No, I mean it's called 'Arsenio'. They should have called it Bario and called the enemy Meowser."

"Why so?"

"It would have fit better…" The gamer felt the urge to slap the creator. What was with this description?

He picked up the cover and manual for the game that had been sent to him, then looked at it weirdly.

*Cough* *Cough*

He felt his chest tightening…

"What's wrong?" The elf girl couldn't understand why he was reacting this way, until he spoke up:

"Apparently, yours is a dude." These words took her by surprise. It didn't really seem possible...

Moreover, Eva had a question:

"But mine has long hair and boobs? Even the character bio has 'female' as the gender on it."

"Contextually, he thinks of himself as a guy. So he's a dude." Adam corrected. It was a strange game.

This was because of Pandorica was homophobic and really didn't consider women as people.

They were thought more of like commodities.

Well, that's what an ancient society that allowed female sex slaves would do. No matter what new things were taken from Lower Realms, they still had a backwards mindset that fixated on 'dark nobility'.

Something Adam had yet to fully understand.

What was 'dark nobility' anyway? And how did it differ from the typical way nobles were seen?

Was it different from just being an asshole?

He had many questions…

"What's the point of this?" Eva could tell why the leather wearing guy in glasses was a thing, but why was there a girl that saw themselves as a dude? It didn't made sense. What was the point here?

"I think I have an idea about that." Judging from what Adam read, there was a reason it was like this.

"Which is…?" She casually lifted a brow. Becoming more immersed in the little fun moments they had.

Was what 'normal conversations' were really like?

She felt like it was best to take notes.

Her lack of a childhood or anything growing up made her go along with his rhythm of speaking.

Acting like the straight-man in a comedy routine.

"The designer probably has a fetish for this." The words he spoke kinda made everything darker.

Not something to joke about…

"I'm not sure if that's gay or not." Eva felt a twitch near her eyes. A headache suddenly struck her.

She felt like maybe 'normal' wasn't the right word.

And the sons-of-bitches that made their everyday conversation go so astray was these 'Dark Nobles'.

What was wrong with these aristocrat bastards?!

Did a old man really pay to design a fictional girl who believed he was a boy… due to a mere fetish?

More importantly, the enemy in the game…

"And then there's King Bull, he apparently-"

"Stop! Please… Let's just play something else. I seriously don't want to know…!" Eva almost roared after seeing the character illustration. There was an egg-like and a bit cute 'Demon King' on the back.

From the pages of the game manual, it seems like their two characters raid a castle to defeat him and attain his horns. Pretty much standard for a game plot. There was something there, and you got it.

The difficulty going from A to B becoming a 'game'.

But this wasn't what threw Eva for a loop.

What REALLY made her speechless was how there an illustration of this 'King Bull' wearing a diaper and pretending to be an infant. On top of that, he was harassing her character in very creepy ways.

Trying to fondle at every second he got…

"Right… Then how about we Smash?" Adam's word caused her eyes to glow, only to be disappointed.

*Clink*

He put an open CD case in her hand. On top of it was written in bold font: {Good Smashing Fighter Battle Deluxe Great Epic Ultimate Delicious Superior Supreme Smash Almighty Siblings 11}

"…I don't know where to start with this." There was too many things for Eva to be annoyed about.

"Let's start with how it says 'Smash' twice." Adam hid that he said it suggestively just to be a tease.

"What is this game?"

"It's hitting the other person until they die, Smash Siblings 11 Edition." The guy straightened his back.

"Didn't we do that earlier?"

"That was hitting the other person until they die, Alleyway Brawler 8 Edition." It wasn't even the eighth instalment in that series. These bastards were just adding random numbers at the end.

Though that was only natural. Games were a luxury commoners couldn't afford or even play, which was why there was no big company making a profit. It was just individual developers plagiarising content.

On top of that, these perverted fucks kept on adding disturbing content to their games.

Like how Alleyway Brawler had a 'Strip' and 'Assault' button combination in the games.

Well, at least Smash Siblings didn't have-

Wait a damn minute!

That name…

"The manual says they're step-siblings."

"Of fucking course they are!" Adam grabbed the manual and stomped it on the ground in irritation.

*Cough* *Cough* He covered his mouth. Making a furious look at the merchandise he'd paid for.

But he eventually sat down to play the game.

He took a breath and exhaled out his feelings.

Calm down… Calm down… If he wanted to play better games, he should develop them himself.

"Just ignore the 'Hiding from parents to do something they would be disappointed about' function." Since beggars can't be choosers, the gamer decided that it was better to get it over with.

"You mean Alabama Mode?"

"How the fuck did they- Forget it, yeah… Just go on the 'Versus Mode' and find a character," Adam had enough of this. He was going to enjoy a good game whether he liked it or not! 'Liked it or not'…

'Huh?' The gamer felt like he did a mental hiccup while looking for a character. Arsenio was there again among the roster, and also King Bull. They should really stop adding the latter to other games.

He decided to NOT go for Arsenio again…

Since there was others here, he went for the one called 'Alma'. That one should be different, right…?

"I'm not playing this." Eva put down the remote.

It looked like the fact King Bull being in there was the last nail in the coffin. She wasn't playing this.

Not caring if that hurt his feelings or not.

There was only so much she could stomach…

The churning feelings of disgust whenever she looked at the character spoke volumes of her taste.

She REALLY didn't like that kind of play…

"…Alright." Seeing her put the foot down on this topic made him disappointed, but not in her.

Adam felt sad there wasn't any good games to play. Should he really go design one himself?

Wait, no…!

'I have my Taboo System!' His power as one who defied fate was playing the video games called life.

Why didn't he think of this earlier?

But just as he opened up the interface, he saw a message that was barely appearing before him.

[Wa… rn… i… ng…]

A transparent pop up barely coming into reality suddenly made his heart jump, and that stress caused his mind to falter. He could hear the loud screams of Eva next to him, but couldn't make sense of it. Almost like raw, unrefined information.

He blinked a few times. His inability to feel pain caused this discomfort to come unexpectedly.

Adam realised that he should take better care of himself. It wasn't like his body was still immortal.

He needed to change his routines a bit.

Factor in that he required periodical check-ups.

When he woke up, the gamer saw that he was back in Hyuk's room. Sebastian and Eva there too.

Only Lucia didn't come.

Likely because she was with her mother.

Sebas likely didn't tell them what happened. It was just like him to hide things if they couldn't help.

Not causing needless commotion.

Although Adam found this trait of his likeable, he couldn't agree with the current actions being took.

Eva was being interrogated…

"What the heck did you do to him?" There was killing intent in his eyes while pointing his firearm.

This scene reminding him of Lumina…

"Stop." But before he could say anything himself, it was Hyuk that unexpectedly took Eva's side in this.

The aspiring Divine Doctor continued:

"She hasn't done anything."

Although the Magician didn't know why the Martial King was protecting this stranger, he stood down.

Lowering the gun's muzzle from her forehead.

"Then what happened to him?" Sebas sighed while asking, but Hyuk seemed too focused on Adam.

"You've lost your 'Inner Spirit'. It's causing the rest of you to slowly break down." The medic spoke up.

Adam wasn't knowledgeable enough to know what this meant, but it looked like Sebas knew something. The white-haired man quickly turned to the gamer, unable to hide his shock on the matter.

Asking the gamer a question:

"When did you lose it?"

"I have no idea what that means. Explain first." The miracle gamer naturally couldn't answer like this.

What was the 'Inner Spirit'?

Sebas took his time to come up with a good way to explain it. Hyuk wasn't good enough in that aspect.

The Martial King's way of explaining to esoteric…

Sebas decided to try and relate it with something Adam already knew. He waved his finger around.

Drawing circles in the air…

"You've been told before that the body is made up of the Flesh, Mind. Heart, and Soul… right?"

"I can't remember well."

"Then let me explain again. They say the four pillars that hold up your life force starts from either the Soul or Flesh. Regardless of which one, it goes through the Heart and Mind to get to the other."

"Yeah, and…?"

"Do you know how Gaia Humans work?"

"I'm guessing it's the same." Adam shrugged, but Sebas didn't completely disregard his theory:

"Similar. Not exactly the same. Their 'inners' are reinforced somehow before they are born. At least right now, that's what I'd figured out. To us, their Inner Spirit is called a 'Spirit Essence'." These words suddenly tugged at his heart somehow.

As if he was remembering something he'd forgot.

"Just to be clear, what's their 'Inner' for Flesh?" His eyes started to wonder while asking Sebas that.

"Magic Pathways."

"From that, I guess their mind's 'Inner' is related to Skills and heart is related to their Class." When he spoke up, the Magician nodded at him. This silent acknowledgment made 'that memory' surface.

Adam's lips quivered while holding on. He needed to ask something of Hyuk, so he looked at him.

Then started to inquire:

"Ummm… About my Dao Heart?"

"Yes…?" The doctor hummed curiously.

"The Mind Palace and physique are intrinsically linked, and the Dao Heart connects to the soul."

"That's right."

"Then… what'd happen if I lost my Heart Devil?"

Adam suddenly remembered about how his Heart Devil wasn't exactly killed, but was taken away.

Whisked away to the Hell Realm by Shaitaan.

"…" Hyuk silently thought about it, then made a relaxing smile that put his sick patient at ease.

He spoke up in an exceedingly gentle tone:

"Then you'd be fucked." These words instantly made Adam's face fall in a clear sense of dread.

The entire room became silent.