Chapter 97

Iris’ Past (5)
Six months had passed since Iris returned to her home country, and in that time, she had undergone a remarkable transformation.

She had easily skipped grades to complete high school and became the youngest person in history to enter Harvard without an entrance exam. Both accomplishments were historic feats, and Iris's name resonated around the United States.

Of course, Harvard didn't let her in without strings attached. Iris was continuously subjected to advanced testing, and she was required to consistently pass these tests to maintain her status.

However, such challenges were irrelevant to Iris. She was someone who delivered results. Thanks to a shift in Carls' parenting approach, she actively sought out social interactions, joined numerous research groups, and achieved commensurate results.

That said, Iris's social interactions were limited to merely participating in social circles. Despite not fully mastering how to interact with others, she followed her parents' advice at least in form.

On the other hand, her relationships with Takuto and Takuto's grandfather, Gensai, remained strong, and she was able to build a friendly rapport with them. Gensai, in particular, would challenge Iris to games of Shogi or Go online every week, but he was almost always defeated.

The Shishido family prided themselves on excelling both academically and physically. Gensai, in his younger days, had once held the title of Ryuo (Dragon King) in Shogi for a year—a title of significant prestige. However, Iris, with her computer-like brain, could see through all of Gensai's moves, leaving him no chance of victory.

Takuto would laugh heartily at the rare sight of his grandfather floundering, but this only resulted in even more rigorous training for him. Still, they would exchange updates on their lives through weekly video calls.

From Takuto's perspective, Iris remained an enigma. By this time, Iris's talent had started to be recognized in Japan, and she occasionally appeared on television. Of course, Iris never actively participated in such appearances, so it was mostly paparazzi photos being shown. In all of them, Iris's expression appeared utterly bored.

Takuto couldn’t understand why Iris continued to do something so uninteresting, or how she managed to keep going. Iris's life was consumed by studying. Even for a genius, mastering so much was not easy, especially at her age. To Takuto, it seemed she was pushing herself too hard.

Meanwhile, Iris used her talent to achieve a groundbreaking success—the world's first practical application of virtual reality, making a name for herself globally.

This was something Harvard had requested Iris to work on within a school research group, and she managed to accomplish it in just three months.

At around eight years old, this young girl continued to expand her capabilities. By applying this technology, the performance of artificial limbs could also be improved. Iris's research, which had fully decoded brainwaves, was highly versatile and could be applied across many fields.

Naturally, Iris was listed as the strongest candidate for the year's chemistry prize. However, this was where Iris's patience reached its limit. In short, she found no enjoyment in it. She hadn't studied to appear on television. She hadn't studied to be praised by others.

Iris declined all the awards.

"I'm not interested in such things."

Iris spat out these words to the persistent paparazzi, her eyes clearly filled with anger. She hated the paparazzi, who followed her everywhere and constantly rang the doorbell at home.

While she could tolerate their relentless pursuit outside, she couldn’t forgive them for persistently visiting her home. Her family, who returned home tired from work, was there. The paparazzi, who only added to their fatigue, were Iris's enemies.

And so, Iris earned the nickname of "the arrogant girl."

The world became divided between those who acknowledged Iris and those who didn’t. The girl who still hadn’t appeared in the media—her talent, her achievements—had it all, yet she remained out of the spotlight. While some TV programs ridiculed her as an eccentric girl, Iris couldn’t care less as long as they didn’t intrude on her home. She only watched news programs that covered current events and didn’t see any need to watch anything about herself. No matter what anyone said about her, she remained indifferent.

“Takuto~You have a package from Iris-chan."

A few moments later, Takuto received a package from Iris. The contents were a high-performance PC and an unfamiliar headset. The total cost of the items was in millions of dollars. What this expensive kit is? A device to experience virtual reality. This device was supposed to be the only one in existence, but Iris and Carlos miniaturized it on their own and sent it to Takuto.

The original device was quite large and used equipment equivalent to an early PC, but Iris and Carls shared their ideas and realized a device with performance and price that could be used in the home at any time. If it could be mass-produced, the device could be purchased for tens of thousands of yen. However, since nothing similar existed yet, the current price was unimaginable. Of course, Takuto would be a millionaire if he brought it to the right place.

Takuto did not sell it. Takuto did not sell it because he could not recognize it as a huge fortune.

For example, would you consider a stamp on a letter sent by an acquaintance to be worth several million dollars? The answer is no. Takuto read the handwritten instructions with great interest and logged in at the designated time.

It was Iris's Japanese mansion. Apparently, the virtual reality created by Iris was modeled after Japan. Takuto was standing there all alone. Then, something like a particle of light appeared in front of him. It seems that he was a little too early. Then, the particles of light gathered into two, making up the bodies of two people… and Takuto's thoughts stopped. What appeared was a naked man and woman… or rather, a naked family of two.

"Ah… Iri ...Iris!!"

“mm? What's wrong?"

“NOOOOOOOOOO!! Iris, it’s a failure!! We forgot to generate clothes!! Or rather, you are a girl, so be bashful at least, strike that pervert with your fists!!”

Immediately Carls, sensing the situation, called up a console and typed something akin to a keyboard at ultra-high speed, and immediately clothes appeared on the two. The device handed to Takuto had no body scanning function, so it was an elaborate avatar created by Iris in advance. Therefore, Takuto was wearing clothes. However, Carls had forgotten the most rudimentary details.

Of course, Iris thought it was something Carls had prepared for her, so she didn't do anything.

And for Iris, a sense of shame did not exist.

"Something's off... The data construction seems strange."

"Iris, even your Papa can’t create perfectly comfortable clothes instantly. I’ll make a few later and adjust them... By the way, boy. You didn’t see anything, right? If you did, I’m not sure what I might do.”

“I-I didn’t see anything!!”

Though Takuto had seen everything and even mentally stored it away, he didn’t have the courage to admit it in the face of Carls’ intense aura, which was palpable even in the virtual world.

“By the way, is this really a game? It feels incredibly natural.”

“You can fly in the sky, and since this is a game, you could even go dragon hunting.”

“Come to think of it, game companies are already getting involved. Those guys sure are eager, considering the release is still far off.”

The technology, which should have taken years to miniaturize, was rapidly accomplished by the genius duo of Iris and Carls.

In fact, if this were to be discovered, it would cause quite a stir. It was almost as if they had exported the pinnacle of cutting-edge science to another country without permission.

However, Iris was Carls’ daughter. He was meticulous about patenting his inventions and discoveries, so Iris had also patented this technology. In other words, the technology was hers... although some things were still off-limits.

“From now on, we’ll meet here. It’s more convenient than phone calls.”

“Grandpa will probably be happy about this too. It’ll remind him of when Iris was in Japan.”

“We can create mini-games and do all sorts of things.”

Indeed, the technology was remarkable, but it was so far beyond Takuto’s comprehension that he remained relatively calm. There’s a limit to what a person can recognize.

“By the way, boy. This world has harassment codes, so be careful. If you try anything with my daughter, you’ll be sent to Azkaban. I’ve watched the movie thirty times. I’ve prepared a prison here that’s just like the real thing, so be mindful.”

Carls spoke with a smug expression, but Takuto, having taken Iris’s hand, had already wandered off to explore the Japanese mansion, leaving him behind.

Carls, who never imagined his daughter would leave him behind, was a bit downcast. He then called up the console and started fiddling with various settings. Carls was a perfectionist, after all.

"This is amazing! Everything looks exactly like the real thing!"

"I remember everything because we explored it together, Takuto."

The mansion constructed from data was nearly identical to the real one.

The natural patterns on the walls, the expressions on the statues—no matter where you looked, the world was indistinguishable from reality. In a sense, Iris had created an entire world. However, due to time constraints, there was nothing beyond the mansion. When Iris mentioned that she would eventually create Takuto’s house as well, Takuto was thrilled.

However, exploring a mansion they had already fully explored wasn’t particularly exciting. Iris, being somewhat of a homebody, had already thoroughly explored the mansion, including the basement. In the end, they returned to Carls after about thirty minutes.

“How was it, Iris?”

“It’s too well-made. There’s no sense of discomfort.”

“Yes, I’m also amazed by your memory.”

This entire world was created from Iris’s memories. Her ability to remember even the smallest details of the mansion was indeed remarkable. In fact, Iris could remember anything she set her mind to, including the exact number of times Carls had stumbled in front of her several years ago.

When Iris and Takuto returned, they found a lavish meal laid out before them. Carls had manipulated the data to prepare it.

Although the taste could be replicated, it was still just a collection of data that couldn’t satisfy hunger or provide a sense of fullness. However, the taste was excellent.

“Hmm, as expected, it doesn’t stimulate the satiety. But if we tamper with that, we might end up with people starving to death. There’s no need to make any adjustments here.”

“Instead, I’ll work on fixing the lag. There’s a slight discrepancy.”

“What?! I didn’t notice it... but yes, a bit of optimization is necessary. If we can’t move as naturally as in reality, it defeats the purpose. I’ll make adjustments when we get back.”

Even with the most advanced PC, there are limits to bandwidth and the PC’s capacity—it's being pushed to its limits, so it has to be almost exclusively dedicated to this. The cost of the PC might even exceed that of the device.

“Well, see you next week.”

“So, what should I do with this in the meantime?”

“I’ll occasionally add some games for you, so feel free to use it however you like. I’ll send Grandpa his own device in a little bit, too.”

With that, Iris and Takuto returned from the game world to reality.

And then, two years later, Iris would move to Japan.