As the white light faded, Sam found himself in what could best be described as a white void. There was nothing, just a bright white space. Looking at his hands, and his body, he could see fine so it wasn’t in his head or his eyes, but rather it seemed and felt like he was in what he guessed zero-gravity was like.
There was nothing to see, nothing to hear and nothing to feel. The temperature was nice, and the air was clean but there was nothing outside of this, a surprisingly terrifying white void.
From nothing, a small black spot formed, there was no way to tell the distance to it, no point of reference, but it grew outwards, then upwards into the vaguest of humanoid shapes. It had a colour much like a shadow, just dimming the ‘light’ in the area it covered, but not having any depth or any detail of its own. Still not being able to tell the distance made a weird feeling of not being able to tell how large it was, it could be man-sized and just a few steps away, or it could be towering over building and being quite the distance away. It started moving, it tilted its head down towards Sam, still standing upright in this void it had a strange presence. Sam saw no eyes, heard no breathing, saw nothing besides the vaguest of shadows, but he felt it stare at him, staring through him.
This sent a powerful shiver down his spine, he felt like he wanted to run, to get away from this. Fight or flight kicked in, he tried to hit it with his Psyhands, to reach it, but nothing made it there. Even by expanding his area and using only one hand, he couldn’t reach it. It was either out of reach or just something he couldn’t touch.
Opening his mouth to speak, Sam closed it again without a sound, he wanted to run, but couldn’t move, like in zero gravity there was nothing for him to push against. He moved all his Psyhands around him, trying to get hold of anything to pull or push against, but couldn’t feel anything.
“Do not -- Afraid.” The being spoke in a loud and thundering voice, it came from everywhere at once, feeling like there were speakers all around Sam connected to the same microphone, turned up just barely enough to make it uncomfortable in volume. One word sounded almost broken, like reality glitched, like someone wiggled a loose cable while using the attached microphone. The volume didn’t increase but it sounded like a horrible static glitching noise. At the same time, the shadow almost vibrated and tore up before mending itself, like reality was glitching or having rendering errors in real time.
“Who.... What are you ?” Sam managed to force out, he heard his voice break as he did so, feeling utterly helpless and on some fundamental instinctual level knowing almost for a fact that this being could just casually wave in his direction and kill him.
“I am -- friend, do -- fear. I mean -- no harm.” The booming voice replied without any movement from the shadow, almost like it wasn’t doing the talking and was just... there, the only hints that it was doing the speaking were the matching timing of the glitching of its voice and shadowy form. Every few words glitched and crackled out, forcing Sam to understand through context.
“Where... is this... what do you want?” Sam hesitantly asked.
“I am #%!)%§” The creature seemed to try to say its name, or what it was, and for all Sam knew it might even be its name, but compared to before, as it spoke its name or what it was, there was a horrid noise, like whatever vocal cords it had tried to tear itself apart as it pronounced it, whatever it was, Sam wasn’t meant, or couldn’t hear it properly.
“-- what you -- an Entity.” It added to the end of its explanation. And this made things fall into place a little bit.
“-- need help. Your help. -- Towers aren’t what -- think, -- are being -- advantage of.” The Entity continued explaining. Though some of the words kept glitching out, Sam felt that the important ones were still present.
“What do you mean? We don’t even know what the towers are, how can they be something else than we think?” Sam felt almost insulted, though there might be people who know what they are, if that were true they weren’t sharing.
The Entity finally moved. An arm lifted out from the vague shape, its hand being almost like a mitten without any defined fingers, it stopped and reached out to its side before an almost glass-like sphere grew from nothing over the hand into one comparable to a basketball in its hand. It started displaying images like it was a spherical TV displaying a premade recording.
“-- are killed, their -- is absorbed. It fuels --. Your -- is entertainment. Anything -- be given, anything can -- removed.” It explained things as the video looked like Players fighting, almost as if someone was on-site and recording it, but there was something extra.
Each person who died had translucent smoke leave their body, every person who was attacked and was hurt had a much smaller puff of smoke left, both of which were suddenly jerked up into the sky and disappeared suddenly as if exiting through the ceiling.
Sam had consumed enough media to at least assume he got the contextual information of what this smoke could be, but he wasn’t entirely sure.
“You’re... harvesting us?” His tone was insulted.
“Yes.” The entity replied short and harshly.
“The cost of this power is... you’re farming us?” Sam didn’t sound as hesitant, more commanding in search of answers.
“Yes.” Again the Entity answered simply.
Sam pondered this for a moment. Though he had only known this fact for a few seconds, it was enough for him to at least get over the initial shock. Like many before him, there was no logic as to why the towers gave them these powers, but this made sense. If there are massively powerful entities capable of making this, capable of giving these powers...
“-- was not supposed -- -- like this. It -- to be -- choice. But -- others did -- care.” The Entity continued explaining in its broken manner. The video it displayed seemed to glitch out horribly as it showed nothing related to the other Entities, but it continued explaining.
Sam gathered from all of this, adding questions to confirm, that these Entities, immensely powerful beings, had gifted these powers to Humans. It was meant to be voluntary, explaining things to them before it was activated. But the Entities in control didn’t care, they wanted the life force, they wanted the entertainment. They liked to see lesser creatures struggle, so the Towers and the System were ‘gifted’ to Humanity.
Considering the cost, and knowing how humans worked, hell; knowing how he worked, most people would still accept it. But it was the lack of control through lacking information that got him. Once someone accepts being a Player, the control of their life passes into the System, which influences them to continue fighting and continue climbing, never controlling directly but hinting and making it easier to bring out their deeper desires. To fight the monsters, struggle against the all-powerful System, especially the ones inclined to fight against each other. Those in power abuse those without, and this was extremely entertaining to the Entities. The perpetual torture for a collective ‘puff of energy’ to be harvested was horrible, but at the same time; if the pain happened anyway wasn’t it better that it served a purpose?
The main thing he caught here was that the Entities are doing this for entertainment, to create drama and feed on the energy from it. This included the things happening on Earth.
There was also a subgroup of Entities that didn’t think this was right, and who wanted to give Humans a choice, to explain things before they went into this. The problem is that these Entities don’t have any control over the System, so they can’t do anything, and their internal struggle on the topic gets them nowhere.
One important detail was that the power given to Players was real, it wasn’t just some illusion or something that could be randomly taken away, this seemed to be a core concept of the System. This also explained why the powers worked on Earth, outside of the Towers’ influence, not to mention the tech created from things found within the tower which was now used in satellites and on Earth far from the Towers, meaning that even though it was gifted or ‘from the Tower’, it was still a real, tangible thing.
“So, the monster sent to my neighbourhood on Earth, was all for the sick entertainment of the Entities in control?” Sam’s tone darkened, he felt he already knew the answer, but he still felt like he needed to hear it.
“Yes.” There was no emotion nor any apologetic tone in its voice.
“And what about Dia, my companion, she was ‘sent’ there to create more interesting content?” His voice flared into anger at the thought of this.
It had started as an intrigue and was indeed interesting, but though their time had been short so far, he had developed honest feelings for her in his way.
“Yes. -- no.” There was still no emotion in its voice, but there was a hesitation. “-- in what -- call Dungeons, do -- have --. But -- outside has -- intelligence.”
This was harder to understand due to the lack of words and tone, but adding what he had seen before in monsters inside Dungeons vs outside, meant that the ones outside could be actual living beings but the ones inside were just... monsters in a dungeon.
“So, the creatures in Dungeons are just... fake or halfway mindless for the Dungeon process, but the ones outside are living, breathing, sapient and intelligent creatures?” Sam felt like he had to add some extra details mostly for his own sake.
“Yes.” As Sam expected, the Entities’ response was short and simple.
However, he had to admit this made his situation both better and worse. On one hand, the monsters he had been slaughtering in Dungeons didn’t have a proper mind, they were just NPC’s as it were. On the other hand, it made Dia properly real, which was positive, but the negative side effect of this was that she was still ‘of the System’ and could be taken away from him.
“-- Ascendant.” It began, gaining Sam’s focus as it was the first time someone besides himself brought up the subject. “-- loophole. Outside -- control. Class -- free will.”
“So... the System can’t control Ascendants?” Sam wondered about this one. Given the fucked up shit it sent him through earlier, the flesh Dungeon and the Island... not to mention the ‘rental’ bullshit.
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“No... other -- around. System can -- Ascendants, but Ascendants -- control the System.” It sounded hesitant... somehow, at the end. “Slightly.”
“So... the System can still control us, but we... can control it back?” Sam’s eyes widened, if this was true it was nothing short of amazing.
“Slightly.” The Entity added with force.
They continued conversing on the subject, Sam had to ask a lot of questions to make sure he covered the missing words, but in the end, he pieced together that the System controls as the Entities wanted. Be that attacking with monsters and luring Players ahead with the promise of riches and power, or affecting them indirectly by letting them get used to or gain things, only to have that ripped away later. This latter part hit Sam differently, imagining Dia right away.
The important details here were the Ascendants, they were a technical loophole, like an elevated user of sorts. If Sam learned to properly harness this, he could ‘slightly’ affect the System in return.
“So... what does all this mean?” Sam finally asked. Parts of him liked the idea of the extra power... once he figured out how to use it, but he wondered what the motivation was behind everything.
“Ascendant -- hard to --. Easier -- you to -- around unseen -- them.”
“The Ascendant thing makes me harder to... see? I’m harder to film or something?” Continuing the fucked up reality show comparison, the Entity seemed to know what this was so they might as well use the analogy.
“Yes.”
Sam felt he had a clear motivation to fight this system, he didn’t want it gone... He liked the power and he wanted to keep Dia, but he still wondered what the point of telling him was.
“What do you want me to do, why do you want me to fight? Why are you even telling me this? If I stop this, won’t that stop feeding you?” He struggled to find the logic, ending up with a group of questions instead.
“Stopping -- -- only -- management. -- will allow -- to take control. -- it better.”
“So, if we somehow stop this... the current management will lose, or be demoted or something. And someone else can take over to make it better?” Sam did like the thought of this, but what if someone worse came into control?
“Yes.”
“What do I get if I manage to do this, then?” Sam wanted to know just what would happen to him if he managed to struggle through all this.
“If -- succeed. -- gain -- admin. -- part of -- changes.” The voice was still uncomfortable to hear, but at least Sam had somewhat gotten used to it.
“So... I get proper input to what changes I want to be done to the System, and... the Entities will listen?” This sounded too good to be true.
“Yes.”
Sam expected a longer answer or something like a perhaps or a wildcard, but a straight-up yes wasn’t on the list of his expectations.
The Entity leant forward, its arm dismissing the sphere as it returned to the blob of its main body. As it came closer to Sam, it covered more and more of his vision until he could barely see any light except in the corner of his eyes. It came closer with an uncomfortable pressure as if it was going to eat him or squash him as a bug. The sheer size of it was staggering.
“Ascendant, fight the --. Climb. -- in power. Abuse the --.” The Entity’s voice sounded almost energetic like it spoke about something it had a passion or burned for.
“Tear those fuckers a new asshole and show them how it feels to be on the receiving end for once.”
At the exact moment that Sam realised that the Entity managed to speak a full, unbroken sentence, he blinked and found himself alone in the white void. Looking around he was back to not seeing anything besides himself, nothing in reach or anything he could hear or see. This only lasted for a few long seconds before he felt the familiar warmth of the normal transporting light moving him.
Opening his eyes he found himself standing in a clearing in a mountain path, as far as the eye could see in any direction there were just more mountains and valleys, surprisingly clear weather with localized rainclouds in the distance. Somewhat close to where he had landed was a village halfway dug into the mountainside, with more caves than houses, a large bonfire outside almost as if it was used for both warmth and as a location signal. The air was very crisp and almost uncomfortably biting.
It didn’t take more than a few seconds before Sam was blindsided as Dia shouted his name just before she landed on him, riding him to the ground in a tackle. Her claws almost dug into him as she wrapped herself around him in an almost panic. She went into a long sentence of words he couldn’t understand as her voice broke, almost to the point of sounding like she was tearing up.
“The fuck is going on?!” Sam shouted in surprise after he came to his senses once he hit the hard stone ground.
“Dude, where the fuck were you?” Janik’s voice asked from behind Sam, an angle he couldn’t look in due to being locked down on the ground by Dia.
“What do you mean? I was gone for ten minutes, tops... right?” Stating how long it felt for him, he remembered through voicing the sentence the time dilation the last time he was gone, turning it into a question instead.
“Dude, you were gone for hours...” Janik had walked into Sam’s field of view, letting him see the honest worry on his face. Elara hung slung around his neck and shared his expression.
“What?” Sam was confused, he didn’t feel like Janik was bullshitting, adding Dia’s reaction this felt entirely real. But hours? It felt like 10... perhaps 15-20 minutes at the very most if he lost track of time.
“When she’s done with you, you have some explaining to do.” It didn’t sound like a question or request, it sounded like an order.
Sam didn’t have any plans to keep this to himself, but he could understand their worry. The last time he disappeared he was gone for much longer, and for Dia, though they only met a few days ago in the grand scheme of things, this was the first time they were apart. Given how obsessive she seemed to be, she might have taken this hard.
Giving Dia the time she needed to calm down, even though he had to coax her a bit to have her let go, she kept holding onto him as if he was about to disappear at any given time. Every time he tried to have her calmly let go she objected angrily. Sam didn’t mind enough to cause a problem out of it, she was just holding onto his arm, after all.
“Well? Explain yourself.” Janik commanded shortly after they got out of the landing area.
Sam started explaining, but in the middle of a sentence he saw both Dia and Janik look at him with extremely worried and surprised eyes.
“The fuck was that?” Janik asked with uncertainty in his voice, as if Sam just blurted out something racist in the wrong company.
“What do you mean, I know it feels out there, but it’s true. The Entities are controlling the system harvesting us for life force.” Sam repeated, but as he said it he could see their worry deepen.
“You... didn’t do that on purpose?” Janik asked.
“Do what? You want to hear this or not?” Sam sounded a bit annoyed, they could at least wait until he was done before they started with this.
“No... I do... But... you keep making the most horrible noise... Here...” Janik’s expression changed like he realised something. He brought up his phone and was taking a video or images of Sam.
“Say that again.”
Sam was hesitant, but he understood that there was something weird. He repeated the statement only to see Dia’s worry deepen considerably.
“That’s good-” Janik commented as he walked over to Sam, starting the video and turning the phone around.
Sam saw himself, speaking and explaining, everything was fine and normal. Janik had just filmed him saying a seemingly random sentence.
“What’s wrong with it?”
Janik looked at Sam for a few seconds. “That’s weird... I mean... In the video, you say that ‘it sounds weird but’-” After quoting that part, Janik proceeded to make crackling and weird guttural groaning sounds.
“I... don’t see that at all, I just see me repeating what I said... Wait, hold on.” Sam started realizing what this could be. The System was probably somewhat censoring him. “You can’t hear it if I say; Eentities are controlling the system?”
Janik looked at him like he was spewing enough nonsense to be institutionalised. “No... it’s like you’re just making random and horrible noises.”
Dia pulled at his arm, mostly saying things in her language he hadn’t learned yet, but he understood the word ‘stop’.
“Hmm... Seems I might be censored... Ok, let’s try this in a different way... I’m going to try and... abstract this... let me know if I make those weird sounds and I’ll change my wording...”
Sam pondered for a few moments at how to word this, but he had a few ideas.
“Imagine a computer game, with every player streaming...”