I Become the Baby Tiger in a Beast Taming World

Chapter 120 - 117: Worlds Collide--Isekai

My parents. Here.

A bouquet of flowers held by Mama crashes to the floor, causing an eruption of peonies and lilies, Amber’s favorite flowers.

Dad nearly drops hot and sour soup, also Amber’s favorite, but executes a heroic save at the last microsecond. He puts the steaming container on a table.

"Son?" Mama reaches out a gentle hand.

Oh no. If they realize it’s truly me, System will register the encounter in its diabolical brain.

But the guilt eats away at me, and I can’t run from my parents anymore. System has already robbed us of family time and connection.

"Yes," I say. "It’s me. I’m not sure you can touch me..."

WHOOSH.

Amber’s hand passes through me. So much for my precaution about touching her. Hopefully, it doesn’t activate some kind of receptor that sends a signal to System. Although I think it’s too late to be fretting about that now. Far too late.

"How???"

Mama’s voice is a glimmer of faith in the darkness. She badly wants to believe that she’s seeing me, or my spirit.

"I’m not a ghost. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the pain."

My words demolish them. My dad’s eyes are red and swollen, even though the rest of him is a stone edifice. He’s built to last. Mama wipes her eyes.

"How could you--" Mama’s voice breaks, but she still perseveres. "Not tell us you were stressed?"

"Never mind that now. I need you to listen to me. I don’t know how much time I have."

There’s so much more I need to say, but System might pull me back at any minute. Wait...did it set this trap for me, or did Amber herself engineer this without knowing?

It doesn’t matter. I have this one chance to tell my parents what is happening.

Mama and Dad quiet down. Dad’s face and hair, so much like mine, have sprouted new wrinkles and gray accents in the time I’ve been in the coma. Mom’s hair is still light honey blonde, but I can see circles under her eyes.

"Tell us, Josh," Dad says simply. "We’re listening, son."

I give them the thumbnail sketch. "The online multiplayer game that Damon introduced me to, a way for us to bond and eventually an obsession, is real. That is, the world is real." I point at the screen. "Tanglewood is real."

Mama bursts out, "I knew we should have intervened."

Dad holds up a hand. "Real? Are you sure this isn’t you creating a reality in your coma, son?"

Only my father could ask a question like that. He did, after all, take a few neurobiology and neuropsychology seminars.

"Excuse me, but I’m trapped in it too, even though I’m not in a coma," Amber pipes up. "I started to play the game once Damon told me that Josh’s consciousness was trapped there."

"Trapped by the devil?" Mama bursts out.

"You’re not wrong in this case," I mutter.

I don’t think video games are evil or gateways to the devil, but now is not the time to have a Socratic debate over it.

"SOMETHING trapped me there," I continue. "And Damon--"

"Oh, DAMON." My mother’s lament sounds familiar. They haven’t given up on Damon, but they realize how different we are.

Dad erupts in a flash of anger. "You got your brother into this--"

I could point out that it was the other way around; however, Damon did start the video game sessions to be closer to me. "Yes, I did. And Amber, too. But I’m not alone. There are hundreds of players whom a rogue AI bot, almost a chatbot, has lured into the other life of the game. Some of them are still in the waking world. Others are in comas or dead, sucked into that world. System has an indefatigable hunger. It NEEDS souls. Energy. Lives. Not just players."

Mama and Dad sit down. They would have picked up the flowers long ago, and put away the soup. But now, they are mesmerized.

"I knew this was going to happen with AI," Dad growls. "We’re feeding it too much, just like our phones. We’re addicted."

Mama grabs his arm. "Yes, yes, but not now, dear. We know how we got here, but we don’t know what’s next."

Dad’s dark eyes simmer, and I’m the one who is mesmerized now. There is a wealth of thinking going on behind his cool facade.

"What are you and Damon going to do about this?" Dad asks. "And just let me at this thing."

Amber stands, her hands on her hips. "Excuse me, but I am also fighting." She points to the pixellated Lightning onscreen. "I’m sticking close to Josh. To his character, Blaze. His character is a tiger, too. Damon is a wolf."

Dad rubs his chin. "Predatory beasts. Fierce. Not bad."

"Yes, and I’m channeling my beast power. Not my logic," I reply. "This is no law school exam."

Mama folds her arms. "Right. I wanted you to go into working with animals, but your father wanted law school."

WHAT? My mother disagreed with my father over law school? Talk about an impenetrable united front, because I never knew.

"None of this is your fault," I assert. "Don’t take that on."

"Wait till you have children," Mama fumes. "And I knew I should have put my foot down."

"Dear, this is no time for that." The tips of Dad’s ears suddenly get a bad sunburn, and he’s looking like someone injected red ink into his face. "Later, when he’s home, there’ll be plenty of time. But for now, focus. Josh, what do you need to do to beat this thing?"

"And how do we play this game?"

Mama’s innocent question has me reeling. "You don’t want to do that."

"No, I don’t. You know how I feel about those online games. But my children’s fight is my fight," Mama asserts, clenching her fist.

Amber raises her eyebrows and looks at me, a question in her eyes.

Hastily, I change the subject. "I’ve staked everything on the outcome of a Beast Taming Elimination Tournament. If I win it all, or even place highly, System lets us go free. If not, well...let’s not dwell on that, because I’m going to win."

The unshakeable confidence stuns me, but then, I’m putting on a good show for my parents. Naturally. After all, they have suffered so much. I can’t let on that my fate might be predestined. That I might lose because System is too powerful.

NO. I can’t think like that. Think victory!

"And Damon and I will be right beside him," Amber announces. "We’re invested. We’re channeling our animal instincts, too. He’s right. There’s no need for you to join the game. This is our fight. This is our battlefield."

Mama’s and Dad’s shoulder slump in relief. Of course, they were prepared to immerse themselves in a world that flummoxes them, all for our sakes. But they don’t have to.

"We need you here to anchor us to reality," I urge. "To keep us from losing ourselves. If you joined, this entity would invade you. That’s its nature. It wouldn’t matter how much you resisted. We can’t afford to forget the mind-tricks it plays on us, or what’s important in life."

Once again, Mama and Dad relax into my words, appreciating the sense in them.

"You have to let us know your progress," Dad insists, his hands strong and his energy raw as he clenches his fists.

"I’m awake now," Amber reminds him. "I can tell you what’s going on. I can take videos. Or you can work with Damon. You can camp out in his apartment."

Mama’s face softens like sunshine. "He’s been cagey about letting us come over. What if we tell him that we know everything?"

"You both are the best. I will tell him, too, in the game."

I want to hug them, but I settle for brushing past them so that my energy ruffles their hair.

Mama leans into my affection. "Tell him. Tell him we are on our way."

All too soon, my body begins to fade, looking like cellophane. Something is pulling me back. Perhaps I have done what I came to do. I wonder if, just perhaps, the Mushroom Man had a hand in this family meeting via astral projection?

"I have to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can, in the real world for good." My voice is confident, optimistic. "We ALL will."

Amber blows me a kiss, and so do Mama and Dad. Their kisses make me want to stay...

FLASH.

I wake up back in the tiger den. Apparently, I fell asleep. Lightning/Amber sleeps beside me with the two cubs. No one else is present. Except I can smell Kasz’s earthy musk. He must be keeping watch over us. And where is Lobo? Probably with Minette, respecting Lightning’s space and her privacy and her bonding time with the cubs. But this news can’t wait.

[Brother?]

A few seconds elapse.

[You’re awake.] Drowsy but alert voice. [Shouldn’t you get more sleep?]

[Never mind that. Mama and Dad want us to win the tournament and beat System.]

Lobo is wide awake now. [WHAT?]