3 - Chapter 2 - Day 7
Adya mentally called up the notification in her view and a series of messages started to cascade across her vision. Instinctively she asked for the messages to be sorted and summarised, a throwback to her military mindset in HUD management.
[4 external physical, 6 external mental, 6 external soul entities merged into Adya Gurg]
[Universe CMG KZ5 ZAC FRO inaccessible, integrating in 10,000 Sol Cycles]
[Universe GYT 2KW NRR 41F inaccessible, integrating in 756 Sol Cycles]
[Universe TY1 OEZ WZC ECU selected for reincarnation]
[Warning self limit imposed to mind, body and soul]
[Self Limit set to 1]
[NOTE: Limit may be removed by showing appropriate level of control]
[Error….Body too weak to contain Mind and Soul]
[Artificial limit engaged to avoid damage]
[Mind limited to MAX for mean Class Rarity Limit]
[Soul limited to MAX for mean for Class Rarity Limit + 1]
[Warning scion protocol activated]
[Warning protection protocol activated]
[Status online]
Adya looked at the messages in shock. With only a few lines, her whole understanding of the universe was shaken. At first Adya had thought the messages in the HUD were from her personal AI or equivalent, but the messages seemed to hint at a system that would control life and death across multiple universes. The immensity of it staggered her mind.
Adya read the messages over and over. This system had access to at least 3 universes and if the numbering was anything to go by, then it could be billions if not trillions of universes. Another realisation to rock Adya, was that her ‘original’ universes were not accessible for significant amounts of time 10,000 years in the first instance and 756 years in the second.
Barring a miracle, she would not live long enough to get access. Her family, her world, hell her whole universe was lost to her. Not just one, but both universes from her memories were lost to her. She really was starting anew in a new universe.
The cultivator in her stirred, a memory floating to the top. True immortality was possible, if she could cultivate to the high enough rank whilst staying alive. However, this was a small solace, as even if she made it that far, everyone and everything she knew in her universes would be gone and changed during the hundreds or thousands of years it would take her to get there.
No, there was no point in holding out hopes of returning to a past life, to hoping to reconnect with friends and family. Her cultivation life had already taught her these harsh lessons, in her nearly 5000 years of life cultivating she had lost countless friends and lovers. Only her sister had managed to stay by her side. Now, her sister, or should that be sisters’ memories were part of her.
The memories from 4 past lives, 2 pairs of intertwined memories were hard for her to parse. On top of that all the memories and information contained in her 2 AIs had also been merged into her, creating a vast amount of knowledge that created a chaotic jumble in her mind.
The first thing she had to do to maintain her sanity would be to somehow segment and partition the knowledge. She didn't want to lose it, but she couldn't function like this. The merger had made her significantly stronger mentally, but the amount of knowledge from almost 10,000 years of life and 2 insanely powerful AIs was still too much to manage consciously.
Adya tried to consciously push away the information and to partition her mind. She attempted to use her advanced knowledge of meditation to calm her thoughts and bring about control over her overwhelming memories.
[Meditation skill learned]
[Meditation skill is now level 1]
The pop up on her weird new HUD almost threw her out of her focus, and only with difficulty did she persist. Slowly she managed to establish her focus and cleared her mind.
Several hours passed. One small advantage of being a baby, no one tried to disturb her assuming she was asleep. With time she managed to order her thoughts.
Finally, she could think clearly and follow a single train of thought. She needed a plan for her new life, new goals, new objectives, but first she needed knowledge. She needed to know details about this new universe. Then she could work out what she wanted. As she considered what she needed, her meditation faltered and a mass of knowledge intruded into her thoughts once more.
She forcefully calmed her mind again, taking conscious control over her thought processes. She would need to keep meditationing to be able to think, she realised even a moment in lapse of concentration would leave her overwhelmed. First task she needed was to find a permanent solution to this memory issue.
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She decided to query her new HUD to see if it would tell her anymore about this new world.
Entity status
Name: Adya Gurg
Body: 1 [x3125] [x1.0] [x1.0]
Mind: 1 [x823,543] [x1.0] [x1.0]
Soul: 1 [x823,543] [x1.0] [x1.0]
Cultivation Stage: Rank 1 (Initiate)
Stamina: 3,125
Stamina regeneration: 31 per minute
Willpower: 823,543
Willpower regeneration: 8,235 per minute
Mana: 823,543
Mana regeneration: 82,354 per minute ( dependent on sufficient ambient mana)
Mana density: Rank 1 [x1]
Essence: 0
Entity 1:
Class Ranger (Rarity Rank 8 - Guru) - {Hidden}: Level 1
Entity 2:
Class Scholar (Rarity Rank 8 - Guru) - {Hidden}: Level 1
Entity 3:
Class Warlord (Rarity Rank 9 - MahaGuru) - {Hidden}: Level 1
Entity 4:
Class Font of Knowledge (Rarity Rank 9 - MahaGuru) - {Hidden}: Level 1
Entity 5:
Class Merchant (Rarity Rank 7 - Grand Sage) - {Hidden}: Level 1
Entity 6:
Class Diplomat (Rarity Rank 7 - Grand Sage) - {Hidden}: Level 1
Entity 7:
Class Child (Rarity Rank 1 - Trainee) - {Displayed}: Level 0
[Artificial limit engaged to avoid damage]
Body: Limited to 1
Mind: Limited to 1
Soul: Limited to 1
General Skills
Meditation: Level 1
Adya took a few minutes to calm and centre herself again. The status had shaken her. It seemed she had classes for all her old memories including her AIs. The system seemed to know everything about her past lives and had even taken into account her experience, the rarity of the other classes a nod to her extensive experience.
Since the system seemed to be treating her AIs and non AIs the same way, it seemed the system thought the AIs were sentient and sapient. This was something she had started to suspect during her own interactions, however, seeing it stated in the status window solidified her suspicions.
She also noted that her Body, Mind and Soul were artificially limited to 1. She assumed this had to do with her being a baby. One could only imagine the damage that would be done if she had her old strength when in this form.
She decided to take a chance and see if the system could help her with the issue of memories. As much as she could maintain the meditation long term, she would not be able to do anything else if that's all she could do. She didn't want to effectively become a captive in her own mind.
She looked again at her status, each of her forms was identified as a separate entity. She could only hope that the system was able to split out the memories and functions and that the integration was not one way. Adya decided to try the same format she had used when dealing with her old AIs. She needed somewhere to start.
System query: is it possible to separate entities from the merger?
[Warning separating entities will lead to the separate entities ceasing to exist. Remaining entity will need to be reconfigured. Do you wish to proceed?]
Adya scrolled back to the system logs, and reread the merging message again. It seemed her 4 bodies, 6 minds and 6 souls had merged into this new baby body. Removing them would impact what was left. She didn't want to take the risk of a significant part of her being lost. Did she really need to separate the entities entirely? The problem only seemed to be with her memories. So she tried again.
System query: is it possible to partition memories from entities and provide an appropriate interface for memory and skill access?
[Memory separation is possible. Separate memories will create separate personalities. Once personalities are created they may not be merged again without damage to all personalities. Do you wish to separate memories?]
Adya didn't want to have multiple personalities in her head, 7 would be too many, effectively leaving her with multiple personality disorder. It would also significantly limit her ability to utilise skills from across her memories coherently. She needed to minimise the number of personalities whilst still being able to function. The biggest issues seem to come from the two AIs. The amount of knowledge needed to be separated, the only question now was did she want one AI or 2 AIs.
Looking at the classes again, it was obvious that Entity 3 was the Military AI and Entity 4 was the general AI. Could she live with 2 voices in her head? If she split them out she could have the full capabilities back depending on how the personalities developed. However, if they disagreed, she would struggle to function. She decided to ask the critical question regarding who would be in control.
System query: will the separated personalities be able to control my body? What would be the order of control? Could I override the control?
[All personalities will have the ability to control the body. A hierarchy can be set during creation, but may not be changed without merging personalities again. Warning merging personalities will lead to significant damage to all personalities.]
So Adya could split the personalities and create a hierarchy, but it seemed it would be a one of process as the downsides of repeating the process seemed to be very high.
System query: Please separate memories from Entity 3 into a new personality named Mai. Please separate memories from Entity 4 into a new personality named Sai. Please set the hierarchy as follows. Primary controller, Adya, can overwrite control of all other personalities. Conditional hierarchy during conflict secondary controller Mai, tertiary controller Sai. Conditional hierarchy outside conflict secondary controller Sai, tertiary controller Mai. Please validate this setup before proceeding.
[ Personality split possible. Validating conditional hierarchy based on conflict status. Calculating time to implement.]
[Warning significant change process requested. This change is irrevocable.]
[Time to implement change 53 sol cycles.]
[Warning all entities will be offline during change.]
[Proceed with change?]
Adya, took a deep breath, reviewing her request again, before confirming to ensure she hadn’t made any mistakes.
System query: please proceed with the change as requested.
[Initiating changes. Taking all entities offline]