The descriptions attached to every option were overwhelming. Walker didn’t know where to look even to get started. After he tried to scan everything, failing again to understand how all of this worked, he found a tab on the right labeled Simplify. With a snort for his limited intelligence, he clicked on it.
The screen faded out, then returned with what he considered a cleaner breakdown of everything he could do. There was also a new tab labeled Simplified Architectural Description.
Simplified Architectural Description:
The Communications system is a Foundational program necessary for all Omniversal interaction.
Without a connection to the different levels of personal interfacing, confusion would run rampant across the greater versi, leading to chaos.
The abundance of settings demonstrates the value that communication brings to all Omniversal citizens. As each setting is chosen, the System Architect is making a choice for the betterment of their people.
Costs will be associated with every choice.
Choose wisely.
“Costs?” As he clicked out of the description, a cost button appeared below it.
Current cost for activation of the Communications system in the Symphony Universe:
One-time cost: 1000 Primordial Resources
Current cost for activation of the Communications system in the Evolver Multiverse:
One-time cost: 1000 Primordial Resources
It wasn’t as steep as it could be. That also brought back what he’d read when reading the Universal system’s description. He was pretty confident…he was supposed to get paid for all of this.
Training his eyes on the CLE, he knew he had to head back out to space. After briefly glancing at the settings within the Communication system, he knew it was time to start bringing everything he’d been working on together, rather than haphazardly throwing things to see what would stick.
The training wheels were about to come off.
Looking around one last time, the planet's warmth brought a smile to his face that only lasted a short time. He had things to do, and while the time off had been nice, he couldn’t put it off much longer.
Placing a small amount of kinetic energy on his feet, with a gentle hop, he soared off of the planet and toward the large gray machine floating in the sky.
Space trembled as he approached with another kick, “What are you doing?”
Walker smiled, “Just looking around, trying to figure out how all of this works.”
“Ah,” The voice boomed again, “Are you ready to activate the seeding?”
He shook his head, “Not yet. I think there are a few things to do first, if you don’t mind.” Remembering what Ulysses was working on, he asked, “How's Dimensionality?”
“Better. I believe I am starting to gain a hold on the rules of everything. However, there is a problem.”
“Oh?”
“I believe my control of Dimensionality may be restricted based upon which strands interact with it. The Cosmic strands, as you call them, are intuitive to me. As is Kinetic and, to a small degree, Origin, although that is not what the Engine calls it.”
“What does the Engine call it?”
The Universe managed to sigh, “Do not worry about it. I know how you feel about names.”
Walker laughed as he grew closer, “Fair enough.”
“Yes…As I was saying, the other strands are an enigma I would like to solve over time. Though I am not a Strandbinder, like yourself, they still nonetheless make up parts of my body. I believe I will eventually gain a modicum of control.
Walker gave a thumbs-up, “Hey, good for you, man. It’s always good to have goals for yourself.”
Ulysses spent another moment speaking to him before saying it had to go run some tests. Walker said a quick goodbye, then spent the last bit of time before reaching the machine, thinking about what he wanted to do. They still had a little less than six months before the bubble popped. Time for the Founders to prepare for a new world, adjust to all of the changes coming their way, and prepare themselves to the best of their abilities. To lead and develop their societies to the fullest.
His mind moved on to what his Assistants had been working on.
Rimi had his monsters—creatures of both darkness and light; who would evolve, grow, and become something more than just the things that go bump in the night.
Cagna had been working nonstop to build Milestones, trackers that would allow Walker’s future systems to work and reward those who had earned them.
Neus, with his territories. Cities and nations that would expand and grow into something powerful. Communal. Environments that were more than just steel and stone.
And, of course, there was Virgil. The squirrel with the plans. When Walker left for this sordid trip, he was working on Landmasses. Tests and trials for the Conservatory that would help Walker further shape what would become Symphony proper.
A lot of how those ideas that they had built together came into focus on this particular moment, at this particular time. Difficult decisions were just ahead of him, and rather than stressed by the thought, he was excited. With this one system, Walker was going to be able to push forward many of his plans, and as it turned out, the Omniverse held the key all along.
He tried not to think about what the Evolvers had done with their own Omniversal systems. It wouldn’t matter much soon anyway, as he was going to change things. He was going to…Fuck. Their. Shit. Up.
Walker arrived at the CLE. It was still the same as when he’d first seen it. It was a drab grey machine, unremarkable in any way except for its size and the white braided light connecting its top corner to a hole in the universe.
As he moved only a few inches away, Walker reached his hand out and placed it on the machine. Rather than the cool feeling he expected, it was warm to the touch. Writing appeared on his overlay.
…Owner recognized…
Hello Architect Dante
Welcome to the interactive screen of the Symphony Universe’s Cosmic Life Engine
Please select from the following options:
Resource Allocation
Seeding
System Connections
Walker clicked on connections first, as he already had a slight idea about the other two. The program shot out a very long and tedious breakdown of which systems could connect to it and what they could do. But they all came with negative repercussions. Like reducing his allocation, such as the Universal system, or restricting Ulysses’s growth, like the Partition system, something he hadn’t seen before. The only system he could connect to it was of course the Universal system, as everything else was still greyed out.
Shaking his head, he clicked on Resource Allocation next. This one was much easier to digest.
Resource Allocation
Due to your connection to the Omniversal Order, you are primed to receive a stipend of resources to continue your growth. This stipend will increase or decrease, based upon the amount of life within your universe, the growth of your universe, and your rank within the order.
Current rank: System Architect
Current lifeforms: 2
Current universal size: Small
Allocated stipend: 10 Primordial resources per hour
Current collected resources: 30
Would you like to make a withdrawal?
Yes/No
Clicking no, Walker sniffed at his overlay. He could make way more than that by just combining some more of the strands. Still, it wasn’t nothing. With Ulysses having an upgraded temporal speed, that would hit quite fast when he was gone.
Walker looked at Seeding and passed it by in his mind. He didn’t want to get distracted again. The whole reason he’d come up here was to see what the specific Omniversal allocation was. If it was big enough, it could’ve made a difference in what he was about to do. But, sadly, that wasn’t the case. He’d just have to be more circumspect in his choices.
Ready now that his curiosity had been sated, Walker clicked on the Communications system again.
The Communications system settings:
Access settings: Control, Management
Auto-translation settings: Languages, Options, Restrictions
General communication settings: Broadcasting, Options, Preferences
Identity settings: Membership, Naming
Interactive settings: Contracts, Duels, Shop, Trade
Inventory settings: Items, Limits, Resources
Limitations: Organizations, Range, Rank
Mission settings: Events and Tasks
Personal Interface settings: Design, Identification, Mapping, Notifications
Privacy settings: Access, Anonymity, Sharing
Social settings: Contacts, Group, Party
Upgrades: Options, Mergers, Popular
Walker sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. That was a lot of settings- twelve main categories, thirty-five subcategories, and countless options within. It could take him days to break everything down. But he had a better idea.
Using his prodigious talent for reading quickly, Walker stepped into every setting and subcategory he could find, taking a mental snapshot as he went. When he was done with each main category, he spent a few minutes organizing it in his mind before moving on to the next. Even though he was only scanning everything to bring it fresh to his mind, it still took almost an hour to read it all. Nodding when he finished the last portion of the upgrades section, Walker smiled to himself.
“Kage Bunshin No Jutsu,” he muttered with an amused expression. Old David was right, it was fun.
Walker made two copies of himself for every subcategory, each with a two-hour timer and low Dimensionality. After all, he needed their minds, not their physical features. Every David came into being with his memory, fresh from reading all of the subcategories, and with an idea of what he wanted them to do.
Walker organized them into pairs of two, assigned them to a subcategory, and reviewed his current resources to give them a quick update.
Primordial Resources: 29.3k
Speaking loudly to be heard, he looked across them all. “Minus the two thousand resources we’ll lose for activation, we’ve got about twenty-seven thousand to burn. You all need to discuss and agree on what settings to use, then report your plans to me. Extra points for moving quickly.”
“Points!”
“I want the points!”
“Brownies for all!”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Walker nodded, “Get to work.”
And that’s just what they did. As nearly a hundred reflections started discussing their assignments, he floated around the area, giving small bits of input as he went. It reminded him of when he’d first started teaching. He’d enjoyed the clashing of young minds back before…everything.
It was something commonly seen in the world of education: bright young teachers come in, and burned-out, bitter teachers leave. But this time, there was joy in the moment.
The first pair to finish were the Access settings. Walker pulled it up as they spoke.
Access settings:
Grants access to all, or some, of the individual programs within the Communications system.
Access Settings: Control
Please designate who will have total access to the Communication settings at this time:
Current members with access: System Architect Dante
Cost for each new member: 1 Primordial resource
“Virgil.”
“Virgil,” Walker repeated with a nod, “Anyone else?”
One of the Davids looked at the other and said, “No. Rimi and Athena have enough on their plate with the Founders. Maybe when the Founders are gone and Rimi upgrades.”
Walker added Virgil to the control setting before saying, “Good. Please split up and go help the other teams.”
The two Davids high-fived and went in two different directions. Then, pair by pair, they started to come to him. The main category, Access Settings, was the easiest one as it only had a few options.
Access Settings: Management
Please designate any members who will have access to a single setting within the Communications system at this time:
Current members with access: System Architect Dante, Supreme Assistant Virgil
Cost for each new member per setting: .1 Primordial resources
“Control for everything, management for individual settings, right?”
“Yep,” they said together. “We think this setting is meant to work with the merger sub-category. You’ll probably get more information from them.”
Walker sent them on their way and took in the next group, which focused on Auto-Translation settings in the language subcategory, the restriction group for the same setting right behind them. Walker brought both together and listened to their argument. He agreed with a grin.
American English set
Correction inputted…
Confirmed
The American Language is now set
All languages are now restricted to The American Language only
Now, he wouldn’t have to have any more arguments with world language professors who said that American was just a dialect. Forevermore, like the establishment of the great integer zero, American would be its own language. And it would be spoken with aplomb by trillions across time.
It was selfish of him, as there was a cost associated with everything. But this one was just for him.
The next two David’s approached a Walker grinning evilly to himself. Looking at each other, they shrugged. What was the worst thing he could do to them? Turn them into a universe?
Walker continued to move along at a rapid, time-saving pace, greatly appreciating his ingenuity. He set up the contacts system, something that would be direly needed in a new world that was constantly expanding. It only cost a little over five-hundred resources, but that was something he felt would be necessary going forward.
So far, he hadn’t activated anything. Instead, he moved through each setting, creating a triage system for what was the most important and what they could afford. The simple act of creating all of the settings, even with the Davids advice, took most of his concentration. As the Contact’s Davids spread themselves to other groups, he took a firmer hand on things as time was burning quickly away. Calling over the pairs focused on General settings, they talked about preferences and options.
They decided it wasn’t worth the two thousand resources to turn on video chat, but left audio and text as options. Oddly, one David thought they could add emojis, but Walker, remembering his students' emails and the plethora of annoying videos on his home world, nixed that on the spot.
Broadcasting was left off the table for now, as Walker already had an ability for it that he felt could be added later.
He then called over the sub-categories for Membership, Naming, Identification, and Anonymity. Each pair had a slightly synonymous discussion group, but they were all different settings for different situations. Membership tied into Faction control, which he left alone for now as he still needed to develop a system for it. Naming was easy enough, and the two Davids went on their merry way.
Identification was tricky. One option was to increase the power of identification in one broad stroke, but another was to increase it individually. The cost of increasing the power of every entity’s overlay was enormous—twenty-thousand resources, being ten per universe. Walker couldn’t justify it. Instead, he kept it simple and found an example of what it would look like.
Identify Setting:
Description: An ability gifted to all within the Omniverse, controlled by the Communication System
Purpose: This ability grants basic information to the entity about objects, creatures, and people
Cooldown: This ability requires time to recharge. The recharge rate is synced with the ability’s empowerment.
Example:
Name: Mr. Example Example
Category: Humanoid
Strengths: Physically Powerful
Weaknesses: Emotionally Crippled
“Huh,” Walker said as he looked at it.
One of the David’s looked over, “What?”
“I think the Omniverse made a joke?”
The David’s in front of him didn’t know what to think of that, so he moved on. Walker was allowed to change a few things in the Identify ability that wouldn’t prohibitively increase the cost, although it was certainly getting up there. Adding in what he wanted to see, he looked at the example again when he was done.
Example:
Level: 10
Name: Mr. Example Example
Category: Sapient
Skills: Organize It Two: Engage with Zorp
Walker laughed to himself as the Davids split again, moving into a full belly-laugh as they gave him odd looks.
Still giggling, he watched many of them head over to design, then looked at the last group approaching him. They’d been given the sub-category for Anonymity, and he knew it would be a challenging discussion. Allowing his people to maintain anonymity in the system was a big deal to Walker. After all, even the alpha protocol gave him some form of it. But there was also that paper he’d read about Online Disinhibition Effect.
The theory said that people didn’t act the same way in person as they did when they felt like their identity was hidden. Instead of Cyberbullying, Walker could be creating a system of…system bullying. In his opinion, a sharp wit could often cut deeper than a good knife.
But, the more he and the Davids hashed it out, the more he believed he shouldn’t take this away from his people. They’d made some excellent points, and even if they were just reflections of himself, it was good to have someone straight disagree with him. They’d even pointed out a particularly powerful situation.
If some Founders were rebelling against a tyrant, and they had no way to speak to each other with any form of safety, they were screwed. They also argued that it would help the introverts of his universe to express themselves better.
With those two points, he didn’t have the heart to take that away from them.
Walker left the anonymity option in there. It wasn’t much, but he felt like it would be a terrible move in the long run to disallow the option. The price area gave a weird definition. He’d have to see what popped up when he began to activate everything.
It also created other problems, as he called up the next pair whose focus was on something he should have expected.
“Chatrooms.” The Davids said, nodding their heads, “Basically, there’s an option in the General Communication settings to turn on different chatrooms based on your interests. New ones can be made, and there’s search functionality.”
Walker eyeballed the Creator chat feature he’d started the protocol with. He remembered the other Creators in there being dicks to each other and didn’t enjoy the reminder of what they’d said about him. But he could set them up differently if he wanted to. According to the Davids, there were a lot of different options he could pick. Walker spent the largest block of time yet working with the Davids to build a chatroom function that would allow Sapients to build their own, always with the option to leave if they’d no longer like to be a part of it. He also included the option to invite others at will and restrict it to only those who formed a particular group. He’d have to go in again and make modifications once all of his systems were online, but it was worth it.
When they walked away, Walker took a guess that he’d already burned half of their time and only taken care of less than half of the settings. The next two pairs focused on social settings. Walker didn’t want to impose group size minimums, but it looked like the higher the allotted connection, the more it would cost.
Walker set the upper limit for groups at no more than forty, then did the same with parties at ten. There was an option to go higher, with another option to create a third tier, but he didn’t think he could afford it.
Walker asked which groups felt their options could be skipped so that he could see what he had left to work with. The pairs for Contracts, Events, Mapping, and Popular came over.
Contracts were fascinating to Walker. It required the activation of a Supreme A.I., and the cost was over fifty thousand resources. Money was power floated through his mind, telling him how important this program likely was.
It allowed for the creation of Omniversal contracts with pre-determined agreements. But, once active, it disallowed the entity who agreed to the contract from ever violating it. Violation of any contracts would put a bounty on the target, paid not in regular currency but in Primordial resources itself. He had no idea how that would work and moved on with a sad look on his face.
The events pair told him he should just merge in what he’d already done and was planning on doing. Walker nodded, and that was that. Mapping was also expensive. It would activate small A.I.s per entity and had not only a one-time activation cost but also a recurring cost that he probably couldn’t not afford. It saddened him, but mini-maps would not be a thing, at least not for everyone, as he found an option to activate them individually.
Popular had a different issue.
“All of it’s amazing and way too expensive.” One of the Davids complained, “There’s VR Integration, but that requires a Supreme A.I. There’s-”
The other David was too excited and interrupted him. “There’s mini-games, man! Like, Omniversal video games, built into the overlay!” He threw his hands up. “Mini-games!”
“Was Extraction on there?” Walker asked, referring to his most recent upgrade.
“Yep!”
Walker pulled it up. Ten-thousand resources. He also pulled up his list of abilities, which had grown quite high after his experimenting with strands. It was still organized alphabetically, and there, right at the bottom, was Universal Translator. It had never appeared in his abilities list, which he always found odd. Walker sent them away and thought about why that could be.
Thinking on it, he figured it was another thing the Evolvers had changed. They didn’t want any of the Creators to tinker with that ability, so they hid it. When he clicked on it, the Extra ability appeared in a submenu. Walker looked at the grey’d-out System Link and smiled.
They spread out again, and the next group came up. This one Walker had been waiting for.
“So, Inventory, is it like we thought it would be?”
“Nope,” David said, shaking his head, “You can activate it, sure, but it’s going to cost five thousand Primordial resources per verse.”
Walker was shocked, “That much? Why?”
They shrugged, “The cost is the cost.”
Not very helpful, Walker said, tapping his chin. He still felt like he could do it himself using the Space strand, but it could be tricky. He may accidentally explode a Founder with his efforts, and that wouldn’t get him any goodwill.
Plus, you know, the whole murder thing.
But ten thousand was a lot of resources. He asked the Davids a few more questions and felt he had a good idea of what it would do.
Walker continued to break everything down with the poofing time limit quickly approaching. He set up all of the inventory settings, declining the option to allow non-Strandbinders to inventory strands. That was a recipe for disaster. He also skipped the limits sub-category as he already knew he was going to work through Mac for a lot of this. After all, he’d already turned the soul construct into a pocket dimension, and he didn’t want to deprive the giant floating planet of his purpose.
The Davids associated with Mergers popped up. The settings within were similar to the linking ability; instead of abilities, they worked with systems. That gave him some more thoughts about how to succeed with his plans. He noted that each system had an associated cost based on complexity, which made him again wonder about what would happen to the A.I.
Duels were interesting, but he set them aside for the time being. Trade had very simple options; shop did not. It allowed for customization and included a large cost for activation. He set that aside as well, as he found there were options within for further connecting it to Omniversal factions.
Walker continued to work, shifting through every group. He knocked out everything on the list except for one: design. Every David left was currently grouped up in a small circle, talking about what it should look like. The big problem was what should be shown and what shouldn’t. The more that was added, the greater the clutter their vision would take.
All seventy of the Davids were in front of him, discussing what they believed should be added. Walker did his best to listen with an open mind. After agreeing on two main points, the next hot topic was where to place abilities and future skill updates. They were split into two camps. Some believed it should only appear when accessing the overlay by clicking into it directly, while others thought they should have running updates live at the top.
Walker made the decision himself. He didn’t want his citizens to be in the middle of a fight and have updates constantly distracting them. That could get them unfairly killed and be annoying to boot.
Tweaking the settings, he made it so notifications would flash once for an update, then calm its ass down. He also spent resources to allow his citizens to modify some parts of the design, including things like color and text size.
Walker looked at the crowd and said, “That’s it, guys! Thank you so much! We did in two hours, what may have taken me days. I greatly appreciate your efforts.” He received a series of nods, huzzahs, and screams for points that he unjustly ignored.
The first David poofed not long after, the others looking at where they’d just been. They started to shake hands and nod at each other as, one by one, each faded away.
Walker queued up all of the changes, activating each as he moved through the system. A running total began to appear at the bottom in red, showing him what the costs would be when he had it all done.
-2000 Primordial Resources:
One-Time Activation for the two versi
-1 Primordial Resource:
Attachment of a second controller
-100 Primordial Resources:
Modification and restriction of Auto-Translation abilities
-100 Primordial Resources:
Addition of text chat for Entities
-500 Primordial Resources:
Addition of audio chat for Entities
-100 Primordial Resources:
Establishment of an Identity system for all entities
-500 Primordial Resrouces:
Establishment and modification of the Trade ability for all entities
-10000 Primordial Resources:
Activation of a minor inventory system for all entities
-2000 Primordial Resources:
Implementation of the "Chatroom" functionality
-1000 Primordial Resources:
Modification of personal interface design
-5000 Primordial Resources:
Establishment and modification of the Identify ability for all entities
+100 Primordial Resources:
Establishment and protection of Entity anonymity
-500 Primordial Resources:
Establishment of a Contact system for all entities
-1500 Primordial Resources:
Establishment of Group and Party sizes
Implementation of Group and Party functionality
Total cost for activation:
27,101 Primordial resources
He looked at the total again. That was a shitload of resources. He found it particularly interesting that he gained resources for allowing anonymity. That only made him feel better about his choice.
The total cost was still painful, but his remaining resources still provided a fairly large cushion. Doing some quick napkin math, he should have around two thousand Primordial resources left over.
Walker scratched his chin as he looked at all of the options he was leaving by the wayside. Making a quick decision based purely on instinct, he added one more cost.
-1000 Primordial Resrouces:
One-time Activation of the Mapping ability for two versi
Finalizing his decision, two screens popped up, asking if he was sure. Walker clicked through and stared at the final button.
All Communications system settings are now complete
Would you like to activate this system for the designated Evolver Multiverse and Symphony Universe?
Yes/No
Walker clicked yes; then everything went dark.