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As soon as Max exited the capsule and looked at his system's menu, he was greeted with two new notifications. He smiled, knowing that he didn't need to worry about watching the glimpse of the future in his current exhausted condition.

Something else surprised him, though.

"Atlas?" Max called out to the blond-haired man that was somehow sitting on a chair with his girlfriend, Ferin, attending to him. "Aren't you going to do your second run?" He asked curiously.

"No." Atlas shook his head and looked at his hand. It was trembling. "I have used 100% SR too much. It's burdening my body and I can't continue with my best abilities. I believe if I go right now, I will need more than 10 minutes and die many times at the third and last test."

Max looked at his condition and, indeed… Atlas wasn't really in his best. He could still continue and was still as good as a professional player.

Still…

"I know what you want to say and I apologize. I tried to get the fastest time possible and lifted the setting that limits my SR to 99% for more than a minute."

A 1% difference. Max was curious about the difference between 99% and 100%. Not only him, but the chat was also curious.

— Is the difference that much? Why does he limit himself to 99% and not use his 100% SR for a long time?

— Burdening his body? Why? Researchers, tell us about it!

— It's just like high SR makes one tired quickly. At 100% SR, it's said that human unlocked a strange potential

— Like superpower? Nah, BS! We're not in a fantasy world

— Not superpowers, but their reaction times and reflexes increased. That much use a lot of stamina

— They just have no stamina to handle the burden placed on their body by their minds.

Max read the chat and looked at Atlas. He showed the chat and asked.

"Is this true? Because even having 98.5% SR, I don't feel anything different with my body, except that I can move better than my physical body because the VR Avatar is the ideal state that I can achieve."

"Hmm…" Atlas hummed and raised his head, "Can you mute the conversation a little? I don't think this should be published yet."

— ??

— Not published yet? What does he mean

— So there is indeed a secret! Damn it, I am curious

— Don't mute the microphone, Breeze. Let us hear it!

The chat urged him not to mute, but Max was curious of what Atlas had to say. The blond-haired man said that it shouldn't be published yet, which meant it was related to that research.

Lily, who arrived late, looked confused, but she just handed a towel to Max without questioning.

"Thanks, Lily." Max said. He turned to the camera and continued, "Sucker, you heard Atlas. Mute the microphone until I give you a thumbs up to turn it on again."

A message notification arrived as soon as he said that.

[BloodSucker: Done. You can talk.]

Max nodded and looked at Atlas, waiting for the man to speak up.

"Let's see. Ever heard of the theory that a human will have their memories replayed at the moment before they died? Time will go slower and they will remember all memories in their lives in just one moment."

That was bullshit. Max knew that it wasn't true because he didn't experience something like that when he died.

"It seems you don't believe that." Atlas said, smirking a little. "Let's just change it. Have you ever heard of Bullet Time?"

This time, Max nodded. Bullet Time, a condition where the world seemed to slow down due to extreme concentration. When a person was in a dangerous situation or in a high condition, sometimes the world slowed down for them.

'I have experienced it a few times when I almost fell off a building. When I got hit by a car that time, I also saw the world slow down and react, which saved my life.' He thought.

It was a rare but possible condition.

"Good. This will make it easier." Atlas said as he lowered his trembling hand. "At 100% SR, you will feel the VR World slow down considerably. You can move, but you will feel as if you're in the depth of a sea, surrounded by water pressure. It's hard, but in reality, you move so fast."

"You experience Bullet Time everytime you lift your limit?!" Max was unsure and unable to believe what he had heard.

But Atlas nodded.

"Yeah. The time becomes 1.5 times slower than normal, giving me more time to think and react. It's tiring, but worth it at the perfect time. And you somehow still managed to beat me. Truly, incredible."

"Yeah, Breeze is incredible. But, At. For me, you're the best!" Ferin hugged Atlas from behind and giggled.

The blond-haired man seemed cold from the outside, but he was a kind person. He returned Ferin's gesture by holding her hand.

Meanwhile, Max still tried to process what Atlas had said.

'Is that possible?'

If that was possible, then wasn't it dangerous? Human brain was pretty sensitive. But if that was possible, it was maybe due to Atlas having helped to test the VR Capsule.

Max's expressions changed a few times. From surprise to disbelief and finally into a thoughtful one.

"Max?" Lily called out worriedly, and only then did he snap out of it.

"Oh, sorry. I was lost in my thoughts." He answered with a smile.

He shouldn't think about many things now. If he wanted to find out, he just had to help create the new capsule and, hopefully, recalibrate it to increase his SR.

— Breeze, say something! Don't leave us hanging

— What kind of secrets are they talking about? The camera is not focusing at all, but I know that Breeze is surprised

— To make Breeze change his expressions that many times… This must be big

— Find out Atlas' secret! Do it at any cost!

The chat became chaotic because of the curious secret. If Max did nothing, it would escalate to something bad.

So, he gave a sign to BloodSucker to lift the mute and said.

"Sorry, guys. It's not that big of a secret but still very surprising. But don't dig into it. It is related to Atlas' personal privacy. It's a breach of a law if you try to uncover his secret."

At the mention of a law, everyone went quiet at once.

— I-I was just joking about uncovering it, right?

— yeah yeah, we won't play with the law no matter how curious we are

— We won't do that. Yes. Definitely. Won't.

— Don't be so serious, Breeze. We know that something is best kept a secret. (Do spill it to me later)

"It seems your viewers are curious." Atlas chuckled, enjoying the chaos he caused. "Please don't worry. After the third Horizon Cup in August, I will disclose this secret to all people. Support our team, Crazy Couple, to win this cup just like the last 2 years."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

— Sure!

— The unbeatable champions! Crazy Couple!

— I know that you're not heartless, Atlas!

While the viewers got excited, Max and Lily looked at Atlas in disbelief.

'So that's how you guys got the Crazy Couple title!' He retorted in his mind.