NOVEL NEXT Chapter 559: Cause of Illness
While Alex ate, Jack's mother watched him carefully before finally speaking. "How's the war? Did you get good loot?"
"Yes, Mom, don't worry," Alex replied, slurping the soup. "I earned enough to cover our bills. But I got something even better."
Jack's mother raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. "Better than money?"
Alex set his spoon down, meeting her gaze with a calm confidence. "I got a skill that might be able to heal you."
For a moment, she just blinked at him. Then she let out a soft chuckle, shaking her head. "Jack, that's not something you should joke about."
"I'm serious," Alex insisted, his voice steady. "It's still untested, but if it works, you might not need the healer anymore."
Her smile faded, replaced by something much more complicated—disbelief, hope, and a growing sense of dread. "Jack… What did you do to get this skill?"
Alex hesitated. He could see it in her eyes—the creeping fear, the worry that he had done something reckless, something dangerous. And to be fair, that was exactly the kind of thing Jack would have done. "You didn't…" She leaned forward, gripping his wrist. "You didn't go into a dungeon, did you?"
"No," Alex said quickly, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "It wasn't from a dungeon." That wasn't a lie, at least—not entirely.
Jack's mother let out a slow breath, still watching him carefully. "You're not lying to me?"
"I wouldn't lie to you about this, Mom," Alex said, giving her a small smile. "Just trust me, alright? I'll figure it out."
She exhaled, visibly forcing herself to relax. "Alright. But promise me you won't do anything dangerous. The healer said I'm showing good progress."
Alex's eyes narrowed slightly. "Good progress?"
She nodded. "He came earlier today—said my condition is stabilizing. If things keep going well, I might even recover a little."
Alex frowned, but he didn't argue. He knew better. The healer wasn't lying, but stabilizing didn't mean healing. It just meant they were keeping her alive for now. Fading Hunger never truly stopped—it only stalled. And the moment she missed a session, her body would begin deteriorating again.
Still, he let her have this moment. He didn't want to worry her more than necessary. "That's great, Mom," Alex said with a smile. "Really."
She gave a tired nod, her expression softening. "So don't do anything crazy, alright?"
"Yeah, yeah," Alex waved off her concerns, picking up his spoon again. "Now, let me finish my soup before it gets cold."
His mother chuckled, shaking her head. "Alright, alright. Eat up, my brave soldier."
Alex smiled, but deep down, his mind was already working—planning, calculating. He had to find a way to heal her without drawing attention from the system or this world's administrators. 'If my guess is right, the body she has here is just a manifestation of her mind, not her actual soul. Healing her here won't do anything.'
His real suspicion wasn't that Jack's mother suffered from a true illness within this game world, but rather that something was wrong with her capsule in the real world. A malfunction—one that prevented it from providing her with enough nutrients.
After the meal and a long exchange of small talk, Alex finally stood and stepped closer to Jack's mother. He knelt on one knee, gently taking her frail hand into his. "Mom, close your eyes," he said softly.
Without a single question, she obeyed. Alex took a slow breath, steadying himself. His skill activated, his mind working in overdrive as he reached past the surface of what this world allowed.
This was the same way he had entered this game in the first place.
The memory surged forward—how he had bypassed the game's restrictions, how he had forced his consciousness into a digital existence. The capsule didn't just transmit signals to his brain; it exchanged raw data between his real body and the game world, mapping every neural impulse, every thought, and every feeling. That meant, if he could reach deep enough, he could intercept those signals. He could find out what was really happening. "Mom, no matter what you feel, don't panic," Alex warned, his voice calm but firm. "You might feel something… foreign inside your mind. But don't be scared—it's just a side effect of my skill."
Jack's mother furrowed her brows slightly but remained still. "…Alright, I trust you, Jack."
Without another word, Alex focused, diving deeper. Deeper than this body. A part of his soul detached—only a fragment—slipping into her. Not to possess her fully, but just enough to let him see beyond. He felt his consciousness split, half of him still kneeling beside her, while the other half descended into her body's data stream.
Darkness. Then, clarity. Alex's senses expanded, no longer bound to the game's simplified perception of illness. He could see it now. The liquid surrounding her real body in the capsule lacked nutrients. The machine responsible for sustaining her was failing, slowly depriving her of the sustenance she needed. His suspicion had been correct. She wasn't dying from some in-game disease. She was starving to death in the real world.
'Now what the hell am I supposed to do with this?' Alex frowned, his mind racing. 'If my main body were here, I could just inject nutrients manually. Simple fix.'
But that wasn't an option. That left him with two choices—hack the system to override the capsule's nutrient supply or infuse a small amount of his life force into her, just enough to push her body toward recovery.
The second option seemed like the safest. Jack's mother wasn't strong; even the tiniest bit of life force would be enough to stabilize her condition. Her body didn't need much—just a push. But the real problem was whether the system would detect the sudden change in the liquid's composition. If it did, alarms might go off.
Hacking was the riskier option. The technology running this world was leagues beyond anything he fully understood. Sure, given time, Alex knew he could crack it. But the moment he attempted something so direct, the system might flag him as an intruder. And that… that was something he wasn't ready to deal with.
'There's still too much I don't know.' His fingers curled slightly around her hand, mind weighing the risks. 'Do I take the gamble with my life force? Or do I take the risk of hacking and blowing my cover?'