Mr Love: Dream Date Chap 23 The Door of Eternity

Thankfully things have cooled down on the global server. Those who want nothing more to do with the game have left yet surprisingly the FB page only lost like 1000 fans. I guess players were just upset at the lost of content more than anything else. Let’s just hope we find the new VAs soon, not sure any Americans would still want to work for the company after this fiasco. They did manage to save both Lucien and Shaw’s VA but I am sad to see Kiro VA replaced. This kind of high handed manner of dealing with matters without any explanation to the community really did leave a sour taste but having come from a country that isn’t too different in its treatment towards its citizens, I am used to it. And besides this is just a game, not life and death itself.

Anyway going back to the story, chapter 23 continues the plot from the previous chapter after you have miraculously survived the attack from the mechanical arms and Gavin was taken away by NW for ‘reprogramming’ after he lost control of his powers. I actually like this chapter very much as it focused on both Kiro/Helios and Lucien/Ares. We finally get a glimpse of this mysterious organisation called Black Swan. Spoilers ahead!

NW let you go after they had verified that you had nothing to do with the bomb blasts at the Northern Mountains. Dragging your tired body back to your apartment, you were surprised that your key didn’t work in the lock. After checking that you were at the right place, you tried the lock again. This time the door opened from inside and you were shocked to find a stranger frowning at you from the other side. You demanded to know why he was in your house. He replied sarcastically that he should be asking you the same thing. Apparently he had been living there for the past few years and even got the security guard to confirm that. He alleged that you had been breaking into his apartment thus he grabbed your wrist, insistent on bringing you to the police station.

It then dawned on you that in this new world where everyone has forgotten you, perhaps you have also never owned a place to stay. Which was kind of curious because since waking up here, you have been home at least twice and yet you didn’t have any problems getting in. Just another one of those gaps in the plot. Suddenly a familiar voice broke the tension. It was Lucien calling you from across the hallway from another apartment. He asked if you have forgotten the apartment number again. He apologised coolly to the angry man and led you away from the confrontation to his place. Strangely, no matter how dangerous Lucien makes himself out to be as a member of the Black Swan or that his actions towards you were always driven by cold calculations, there is this gravitational pull that makes you yearn for more. Perhaps anticipation for when either Lucien finally gives in to his conflicting emotions or that he snaps and kills you.

Lucien warmed you up with a cup of tea and then proceeded to treat the bruises and lacerations on your hands after the battle with the arms. You tried to refuse his offer but he was firm in his hold so you relented. He told you to stay in the apartment in the meantime. You rejected the offer thinking that it wouldn’t be right to inconvenience him but later learnt that he didn’t stay here and had only gotten it for you. Even more curious as to how he knew where your old place was in the other dimension and could count so many steps ahead to appear right at this moment. Either he is a genius, a liar (he actually stays here) or the writers were just lazy. Anyway you thanked him for the gesture when you realised you had nowhere else to go without proper identifications. After Lucien made sure you were settled, he told you to rest well then left the place.

You gathered your thoughts alone in the room. There was only 24 hours left before the satellite was to launch. Even though you wanted to put your trust in Gavin to sort it out, you didn’t want him to endanger himself even more in doing so. Having exhausted all potential leads, you decided that going through STF to find out what NW had found out was your only option. After pleading with Shaw for help, he told you that something would happen at STF HQ around 1am and it would be your best chance to get in and out without a hitch.

Donning back your Mary Sue disguise, you made your way into STF HQ and true to his words, the security seemed a lot more lax. You managed to sneak your way into the archives to gleam information about the satellite launch location. However it seemed that even NW’s investigation had grounded to a halt with no known satellite bearing the same signal frequency as what was found in the underground base. You resigned to leave the HQ for now but heard voices approaching down the corridor. Two agents were talking to each other about some conspiracy that STF had hatched to bluff the people (were the terrorists attack all part of STF’s ruse to have Evolvers censured?) In any case, before you had the chance to hear more, a loud boom rocked the HQ.

You hurried in the opposite direction away from the STF agents. As you rounded a corner, you slammed into someone, petrified that you have been caught by the enemy. However instead of a STF agent, it was Helios who was staring at you with the same cold indifferent eyes, in contrast to the look of surprise on your face. Helios looked like he was injured and was clutching something in his hand. Was he the one who had caused the ruckus? Soon the escape path had been sealed off by STF agents as they closed in on both of you, their gun barrels raised at you. You figured that Helios would have no trouble to escape on his own but you on the other hand was a different story. Helios didn’t seem like he was going to help either.

As you tried to run off in the only available route, he pulled you back and told you it was the wrong way. Then as if to protect you, he pulled you behind him. He turned to face the agents and you saw his eyes turn amber as he commanded them to put down their weapons and walk away. With that same power, voice and action, you immediately reconciled that Helios was indeed Kiro. No matter how Helios deny it now, you knew in your heart that this man was Kiro as tears filled your eyes at the longed for reconciliation.

However any happiness your felt was cut short when Helios started to convulse in pain as he seemed to experience whiplash from the use of his powers. His clothes started to stain red from the slashes that were appearing on his body. Helios gasped in pain as he momentarily lost his ability to stand up straight. He told you that the anti-Evol system had kicked in. It was also during this period that the STF agents broke free from the mind control and turned back to look at both of you. With Helios injured and barely able to hold his own, your mind worked overtime to escape from this mess. You remembered that the power control switch was nearby and rushed towards the panel to turn it off. The corridor turned pitch black and the agents all started to fumble in the darkness.

Taking advantage of the momentary loss of focus, you quickly supported Helios and led him away to the exit. He told you to leave him but you wouldn’t hear of it. You told him you would never leave him behind and looked at him fiercely. Helios seemed to heave a sigh of resignation and then you felt him lean his weight on you as if to mark his growing trust in you. Finally you made it out of the STF HQ but was at a loss of where to go now. Once out of the reach of the anti-Evol system, Helios seemed to have regained his strength. He grabbed your hand and pulled you away to an abandoned warehouse where he had parked his SUV. He opened the door, looked at you briefly and then smirked. Whether you liked it or not, you were now officially his accomplice.

A loud peal of thunder cracked in the skies. Apparently Shaw had been observing the proceedings from a bar and could have probably helped you and Helios to escape capture.

Noticing that Helios was still bleeding from his wounds, you pushed him into the passenger seat and took the driver seat. He looked at you quizzically. You mustered your courage and told him that you could drive and wanted him to trust you even as you trusted him. You took off down the highway and Helios finally seemed to relaxed slightly as he closed his eyes to rest. You noticed that he was clutching a black cartridge in his hand. Was this what he risked his life for? As you continued to observe him through the rear view mirror, Helios opened his eyes and asked you coldly what you were staring at. You tried to break the awkwardness by suggesting to listen to music or whether he should go to the hospital.

The brief serenity was broken as gun shots sounded from behind you. A fleet of cars had appeared on the horizon and were giving chase. You reckoned these could be STF agents hot on your heels for either the intel you have stolen or what Helios has in his hands. With your focus trained on the cars behind you, you didn’t noticed that a car on fire was lying in wait in the middle of the road. Helios leaned over and deftly pulled your steering wheel away from the impending obstacle. He cautioned you to keep your eyes on the road as more traps could lay in wait. Your palms started to perspire heavily, this was afterall your first time in a car chase with gunshots no less.

The car chase seemed endless and you were soon losing stamina and didn’t noticed that you had swerved into the path of an oncoming truck. You pulled the steering wheel violently out of its path, causing the car to skid on the ice before landing on a thud on the ground. In that moment, you felt a body dive towards you to shield you as you braced for impact. In the course of that action, Helios lost grip of the black cartridge in his hands so you hurriedly caught it before losing consciousness from the accident.

Meanwhile, Lucien was monitoring the proceedings through a screen in the Black Swan tower. He saw Helios unconscious and bleeding profusely as he tried to protect you from the brunt of the impact. As he observed your profile, he noticed that you had the black cartridge in your hands as he narrowed his eyes.

You awoke to unfamiliar surroundings. Footsteps approached and you found out with a certain cold dread that it belonged to Lucien or rather Ares dressed rather smartly in a suit and a large overcoat bearing the Black Swan brooch. Lucien told you that it had taken him considerable effort to pry you from STF’s hands and expected that you should be slightly grateful for that. You thanked him for saving you and asked after Helios. He replied that Helios was the last person you should be worrying about and then in a rather uncharacteristically jealous tone, he said you should now rather focus your attention on him after spending a wonderful evening with Helios. I guess seeing Helios throw himself sacrificially to protect you must have irked him somehow.

You told Lucien that you wanted to leave now as you had other business to tend to. Lucien smiled slyly at you and said you were free to leave but this being Black Swan HQ, he wasn’t too sure how you would be received if you were caught wandering around alone. Understanding the thinly veiled threat, you puffed up in anger. Lucien reached out and held your chin and turned your face towards him as he leaned in close to you. Staring defiantly at him, you questioned whether he knew anything about the Eternal Winter incident. Since your leads had dried up at NW and STF, perhaps BS might know something. Lucien nodded but quickly added that this wasn’t the time to answer that question. Instead he quipped that what you should be curious about is the black cartridge that Helios had stolen from STF HQ.

Lucien opened his hand to reveal the small black box in his hand. He explained that this was the key to the Black Cabin which STF had gotten their hands on but didn’t know how to operate. In fact, the only person who can operate the Black Cabin was you. He added that through the Black Cabin, the portal to all other worlds, you would be able to learn the truth about why you had been forgotten in this world. Lucien’s black eyes bore deep into you. He knew exactly what would make you tick. He said that the only person who could resolve the Eternal Winter incident was you – seemingly taking a swipe at Gavin who told you not to shoulder the burden yourself. This is why I like Lucien, he knows the solution to everything and is able to pay whatever price it takes to get it.

You asked Lucien what his objective was in helping you. Like a patient teacher, he explained that the queen is the most powerful piece in chess but also most easily captured. Instead of letting others get rid of you, he rather be the one to groom you into your full potential. With that he turned on the lights in the chamber and walked into the middle of it where a door of light had appeared. There he stretched out his hand towards you, with the Black Cabin on it, bidding you to accept his offer of alliance. Though you knew that you could never fully trust Lucien, you also knew that he of all the people had the capability to help you resolve this matter. You got up and walked towards the door, half apprehensive and half curious as to what lay on the other side.

You felt your consciousness sucked into the portal. In this otherworldly dimension between time and space, you witnessed multiple doors leading into countless worlds. Through each door, you saw a version of yourself going about your daily activities but what was common in all of them was your excruciating demise in one form or another. Each time your death ends, you were reborn again and again into consciousness in another world. This emotion of endless cycle of torment and torture seemed to materialised into the familiar black figure who was now walking towards you – the Black Queen. As she held your face in her hands, you could feel every pain that she has experienced in her countless lives seeping into your body. She asked if you were going to run away again.

It finally dawned on you that the world you were familiar and fell in love with was one out of many possible outcomes. It just so happened that you had the opportunity to be in one where you were able to experience love and care from those around you. You continued exploring the future of this current world you’re in, one where the Endless Winter had consumed the whole world. Would it not be better to encapsulate the world in an eternal whiteness where decay and destruction would never reach as everyone falls into an endless slumber. As your visions faded, Lucien appeared before you again. Observing the expression on your face, he commented that it must have been better to have continued being kept in the dark than to learn the cruel truth. He also shared that only you have the power to decide which worlds would stay or go.

You were puzzled at his words. You told Lucien that all you could do while in the Black Cabin was to observe the proceedings and there was nothing you could do to change anything. Lucien explained that once your true potential have been awakened, you would be able to wield the powers to construct the future as you like. The most precious thing to you would be the key to helping you awaken your powers. With that he got down on one knee and gently planted a kiss on your hand, as if commissioning himself as the knight who would help you ascend your throne and rightful place.

To be honest, after this episode with Lucien, I felt slightly disturbed. In a different world where Lucien never fell in love with you first, you would simply be the queen whom he seemed to idolise for her powers. There feels to be a disconnect between loving a person for who she is, rather than what she is. It would pain me to find out that the person I love didn’t love me for me but rather what I represented to him. In this order of happening, how would Lucien ever learn to distinguish between the two? Having seen a different perspective to Lucien, I do feel myself swinging a little closer to Helios/Kiro. Though Helios also didn’t know you before this, it didn’t stop him from shielding you from harm at his own expense during the car chase. Helios felt like someone you could trust over time while Lucien felt like someone you would trust less over time.

Anyway as the truth of the world unfurls, it gave me The Matrix vibes. It feels like you were created to be the reset button in a made up world of fictitious characters and settings. I even wondered if the writers wanted to break the fourth wall with the players, by reminding them that they are the ‘queen’ who can decide the future they can have with these various love interests. I’ve always imagined about the possibility that this world was indeed just a computer programme and our consciousness were uploaded onto it, while our real bodies were actually being trapped in a life support capsule. That would really blow my mind.

After you regained your consciousness outside of the Black Cabin, you felt a sense of bitterness having understood the reality of this world. However before you can fully trust Lucien and Black Swan, you needed to confirm that the Eternal Winter had nothing to do with them. Lucien noted your request and decided to prove his sincerity by bringing you to sit in the council of the twelve deities of Black Swan. After disguising you as a BS agent, he brought you to the council room, warning you not to react to anything you hear.

There were ten people seated around the table with both Hades and Helios missing. One of the executive mused over Hades’ absence and his insistence on going ahead with the Reset Plan. (Well in another time and place, it did work to a certain extent.) After Ares explained why he needed you at the meeting as part of his plan to resolve the Eternal Winter problem, the discussion commenced. It appears that Black Swan had also hit a roadblock in their investigation on the launch location. However what you did learn was that the culprit was one of the five traitors of BS who went by the code name Hypnos. He had the ability to travel through time and create dreamscapes.

As you continued to study the information displayed on the screen, you recognised a hexagonal symbol. Though it seemed of little importance to the discussion, you realised that the symbol was on the back of the concert tickets that Cyril had given you a few days back. Not only was the symbol the same, so were the time and date of the concert as the satellite launch. The reason what NW, STF and BS could not find the launch location was because it was out at sea!

Meanwhile in a separate room, Victor and Hades were having a meeting. Hades explained his Reset Plan to Victor hoping to win him over as a partner. With Victor’s influence and power, he would be able to enact his plan. Victor scoffed at Hades’ plan, claiming that it was a thinly veiled disguise to wrest control of the world for himself. He added that evolution of mankind can never be built upon the sacrifices of others. When Hades realised that Victor was not going to bite on his plan, he raised the gun in his hand with the intention to silence Victor. If he wasn’t going to be on his side, then he was an enemy. However before Hades could pull the trigger, he found himself slammed onto the floor with his own gun pointing at him. Victor must have used his Evol to control time and wrest the gun from Hades.

When Hades refused to give up on his plan to eliminate mankind, Victor coldly pulled the trigger and shot Hades point blank. The gunshot and scuffle attracted the attention of the executives in the meeting and they rushed out to see what was happening. You had followed along to see what was the commotion and was surprised to see Victor standing over Hades wielding a gun in his hand. When Victor saw you, he was unable to mask the shock on his face. But he reacted lightning quick and grabbed you as hostage, pointing the gun at your head. At first the BS agents laughed at his pitiful effort to take a peon as hostage. However when they recognised you as one of Ares’ aide, they started to hesitate.

At this moment, the group of agents parted away to make way for Ares who walked calmly onto the scene. Observing what had happened, Ares told the agents to stand down and let Victor go. When they protested that Victor had killed Hades, Ares coldly proclaimed that Hades was a traitor to BS anyway for wanting to go ahead with his Reset Plan without authorisation and would have been dealt with in due course. With a finality in his tone, the other agents retreated, allowing Victor to leave with you as his hostage. Lucien eyed you with a smile and said he would see you again very soon.

Contrary to your expectations, Victor and you were not hindered from leaving BS HQ. After you got out, you stammered about what you had just witnessed. Victor on the other hand just replied matter of factly that he had just killed someone. You figured that Victor always had a valid reason for doing anything and he was far from being someone who had no regard for life. Victor eyed you suspiciously and now questioned you over your involvement with Black Swan. You quickly explained about everything that had happened since you parted from him – your adventures in the Northern Mountain and the intel you have just gotten from Black Swan, put together with the revelation about the concert on the cruise ship. It seemed like you were the only person who could put a stop to Cyril’s plan to put the whole world into an endless icy slumber.

Victor eyed you incredulously and though he was still in doubt, he was willing to let you prove yourself right. With that he stepped on the pedal and drove off towards the harbour. You felt a lightness in your heart. It seemed like no matter which world you are in, Victor always knew how to motivate you to do your best to prove yourself to him. If each person was willing to work hard to survive, then surely you owed it to them to protect this world with your best effort.

Now that the truth of this world has been revealed, I am completely puzzled over the progression of the story after chapter 18. To make it easier to understand, chapter 1 to 18 happened in world Alpha where you had met all the four love interests, built a relationship with them and also were part of their past where Evolvers were harvested for their powers. Black Swan wanted to capture you as their Queen as you had the genes to cause humans to evolve. Black Swan’s first plan was to amplify Evol to awaken your powers but this instead caused Evolvers to go out of control. You were able to stop this by destroying the signal emitter atop Loveland TV Tower and this was also where you last saw Kiro.

Though their first plan was thwarted, Hades had the Reset Plan up his sleeves which he had gone rogue and implemented it even without support from the organisation. As humans started to die due to the strain of having Evol in their bodies, you learnt of the existence of the Black Queen. Because she had been through so many worlds and learnt about the depravity of mankind, she supported Hades’ plan to kill all humans, leaving only Evolvers. When it seemed like there was no other way to stop her, you told Victor to kill you so that she would not consume your consciousness.

Going by the plot of the story, it seemed like you dying is inevitable in all the worlds but it wasn’t a concern because you would always be reborn in another world. Reborn not in the case of reincarnation but rather like a reload button except in a different world. In this second world which we shall call World Beta, Cyril is a renowned pianist but also a traitor of Black Swan. He too wanted to stop the world from being destroyed by the mindless strife of mankind by putting it into an endless icy slumber. However to make sure that his plan goes on smoothly, he needed to make sure that you didn’t interfere with it. Thus when your consciousness was reborn into World Beta, he created a dreamscape of a perfect world of you with your love interests with the hope of trapping you there forever.

However you were able to break free from that dreamscape because your consciousness recalled the harsh realities of the hurt, betrayal, separation and sacrifice you had gone through in World Alpha. Thus you awakened in World Beta where you had never crossed paths with the four guys. The only person who knew you was Shaw, perhaps he too is an anomaly in this whole scheme of things. As you set about living your new life here, you began to learn that not everything was peaceful. In fact a hate for Evolvers was brewing which led to the humans causing acts of terrorism around the world and blaming it on Evolvers. This spurred Cyril forward with his Eternal Winter plan which you are now working hard to put a stop to because you didn’t want this world to end just like that.

I guess that is about the gist of it. Some missing parts of the story, I made it up so that everything seemed somewhat coherent. Once you start talking about time travel and multiverse, things get complicated and confusing really fast.