CHAPTER 6 – A NEW WORLD
The sun was now getting lower in the sky as daylight was beginning to fade. Johnny had been driving for miles on the dirt path. The landscape still was a large savannah that soon started to turn into wooded areas. The road led past a few rivers with bridges and small towns. Johnny wanted to get to a bigger settlement as fast as possible to gather intel.
Throughout the day he managed to pass a few caravans with merchants. The groups were a mixed bunch consisting of humans, elves, dwarves, and some others he couldn’t identify just yet. He occasionally saw wildlife as well but paid little attention as he drove. He only worried about running something over. Albert would warn him of anyone coming in their direction. He would pull the prototype over and observe the inhabitants of the world.
The first time Johnny drove by a caravan in stealth mode made him question his sanity. Then he remembered where he was. Makes me feel like I’m in a fantasy game of some kind. He watched the group pass. It was small compared to the ones he saw as he got closer to the bigger settlement. There were four wagons being pulled by some sort of horse that he couldn’t grasp his head around. The horses had antlers which threw him off. The wagons were filled with weapons that Johnny was guessing were smithed by the dwarves from the looks of it. Their short bulky stature with long beards definitely was a dead give away. He continued his way after they passed.
Johnny soon got an idea for Albert. He asked him to add clothing styles of whoever they passed after a while.
“Can you add that clothing style to the prototype data?” Johnny asked Albert as he pointed at an elf walking by. “We are in an unknown world with no way of knowing how locals would react to me wearing my race suit. Also, add any others we happen to pass too.”
“Style of clothing has been examined and added to the list. Also, the request has been acknowledged.” Albert replied.
Johnny was soon getting bored with the driving. He had tried to find different ways to keep himself occupied. He listened to different tunes from the prototype’s terminal. He first listened to heavy metal ending with orchestra music. He eventually killed the music as he was flat out bored with it.
Johnny’s boredom was getting so bad he decided to play a game with Albert. He had to pull the prototype over to look at his phone. “Hey, Albert, want to play a game.” Asked Johnny as he was rummaging for his phone.
Albert responded to Johnny. “Shouldn’t you be focused on getting back?” The AI asked. Johnny just shrugged at the response.
“I’m honestly getting bored out of my mind. So I thought I could come up with a challenge for both of us.” He said as he finally found his phone. He scrolled through his media gallery and found what he was looking for. The photo was taken long ago in his earlier years of racing. This was way before his time when his racing career was a matter of life and death, but more for just having fun.
The event was a charity fundraiser. Drivers came in dressed up in ridiculous outfits as well as cars. It showed Johnny in an elf outfit driving a derby vehicle that had been decked out to look like Santa's sleigh. Johnny was dressed from head to toe in one of those elf outfits people would see at the mall.
Johnny grinned as he looked at the photo. “Let’s see what you can come up with that is worse than this. The only rules are you can use what clothing you see the world’s inhabitants are wearing.”
About six hours had passed now and Albert informed Johnny what he had come up with. The results were cringy. Johnny almost lost control of the prototype from laughing so hard. The outfit made Johnny look like a court jest who was a privateer for a living.
His figure had a jester’s hat that was white and black. The right eye was covered with an eye patch. While his left hand had a hook. His right leg also had a peg leg. He had a jester’s cloak over a privateer outfit to top it all off.
“Not bad Albert. That still doesn’t beat my Santas helper outfit,” Johnny laughed even harder thinking back to the event.
Johnny eventually lost track of time from driving. According to Albert he had been driving for a total of ten hours. He did pull the prototype over a few times along the way for a quick break or to do his business. By now the sun had now set and turned dark out. Johnny was starting to drift off into sleep, when Albert alerted him of a big settlement. It was now dusk when they reached the outskirts of the settlement. He drove the prototype around trying to find a good spot to stop for the night.
Johnny drove by the city getting a better look. The outside of the settlement was surrounded by fortified stone walls made of granite. The wall was surrounded by a lake on one side and forest on the other. The entrance to the city faced the plains where Johnny had come from.
Johnny couldn't make out much detail in the city now that it was getting darker out. He took his helmet off to try to help him see better. It still wasnt much use. He would have to wait for the morning.
“I’m going to do some scouting, Albert. I’m going to need your help too,” He told Albert in a tired voice. Johnny parked the prototype next to the lake at the edge of the forest.
“Okay, Albert, I need you to cloak me for now. I'm not sure how to activate the core fragment in my head just yet, but if you said the core fragment can do stuff for the prototype it should be able to make me invisible,” He said sitting in the prototype trying his best not to fall asleep.
“Of course,” Replied Albert.
Johnny got out of the prototype quietly. He walked a little around the lake and forest a little. Realizing there wasn’t anyone around. He got back into the prototype to setup camp for the night.
“Albert, could you set up a defensive barrier that no one can see me in for sleep tonight,” Johnny asked. Albert then set up a defensive barrier to keep Johnny safe for when he went to sleep.
Johnny ate some Stromboli that he had conjured up from the core. He sat in front of a campfire just drifting off into space. He took a bite out of the Stromboli and immediately spit it out into the campfire.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Albert noticed his reaction. “Is everything all right?” Albert asked.
“Well, they made the food edible, but not tasty. It just tastes bland,” Johnny replied with distaste.
“Hopefully the wine isn’t just as bad,” Johnny replied.
Johnny took a sip of wine and cringed at the taste.
“That is very bitter.” He sighed in frustration after spitting out the wine.
“Better to just make my own meals from now on.”
Johnny ate the rest of the Stromboli trying not to gag at the taste. He only had half of his wine before he had enough of it.
He decided to call it a night. He went back to the prototype and got out a sleeping bag. He then laid down and looked up at the night sky. It had unfortunately turned to overcast so he couldn’t tell if there were moons or any stars. With a sigh Johnny went to sleep…
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Johnny dreamed he was sitting by the lake on a beautiful day. The ground suddenly began to shake, spawning a portal right next to him on the ground. The portal started out small. It was the color of dark purple and began to get bigger. It swirled around like a whirlpool.
Johnny watched in horror as a beast began to rise out of the portal. He tried to get up and run but stumbled from the shaking. A wolf-like creature clawed its way out of the portal. Their fur was dripping with a black inky liquid, everything i touch sizzled with a corrosive touch. The beasts eyes glowed a bright yellow as of a car headlight, enough to make Johnny think he was looking at the sun.
Johnny managed to stumble away but not far as dozens of the creatures started to pour out of the portal now. They all ran past him ignoring his presence, heading for the fortified city. Everything the creatures touched turned to a black void. Johnny was watching the world turn I b to nothingness before him. Just when things looked bad it only got worse.
The ground then began to shake even harder and out of the portal came the biggest of wolves. It had the same look as the others but was six times as big. It let out dewfening howl. It then slowly turned its head to face Johnny. It eyes locked onto him with a primal rage.
Johnny froze in terror staring back. He tried to run but his legs failed him. The creature lunged at Johnny with its wide-open maw and snapped it around his neck. As the creature bit down, his dream went black.
Johnny woke up with a start. Albert noticed Johnny waking up. “Everything all right?” Asked Albert.
“Yeah, just a bad dream.” He mumbled to Albert, still half asleep. It was still dark out. “Anything happened while I was asleep Albert?” Johnny asked as he yawned and stretched his legs.
“I felt a presence from beyond the trees. I saw something but couldn’t get a good look at whatever it was.” Albert replied.
“So, we are being watched even though the cloaking shield was up. Something tells me I need to be on guard,” Johnny said. Johnny stayed awake the rest of time out of worry as he was being watched.
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Johnny's restlessness eventually led him to pace the camp back and forth in worry. He was worried about an attack, not knowing what was watching him. He waited tirelessly for the sun to come up to get a better look at his surroundings.
In the meantime, he decided to have an omelet as he waited. He didn't make the prototype's core pop out an omelet, like the Stromboli he had the night before. He was afraid it would taste bitter. So he made the core produce ingredients to make it his way. He grabbed water to have with his meal as well.
Johnny sat at the campfire making his meal. He had eggs, bacon, ham, cheese, and saracha sauce. It took him a few minutes to prepare and cook the ingredients to it was crispy and hot. He let it cool off a bit before eating it. Johnny also was hesitant to try the omelet. “This better taste good,” He said aloud with worry as he nibbled into the omelet. His eyes widened with suprise as he savored it, it wasnt half bad in his opinion. He then finished it down with some water and let out a loud belch.
The sun was still low so he decided to mess with the core fragment in his head. He practiced summoning things from the fragment. The first few attempts did not spawn anything. The next few had better results of summoning something, but stuff he didnt need. Returning them was just as challenging. He finally got a hang of it by this time the sun was beginning to rise in the east.
Well time to go see what or who had been sneaking around last night, He thought.
“Albert I’m going to see what I can figure out who or what was around. Can you keep an eye on the camp and let me know if anyone shows up,” Johnny asked Albert as he walked away from the camp.
“Sure thing,” Albert replied.
Johnny headed for the undergrowth of the forest, where Albert had sensed a presence the night before. Johnny walked in stealth mode to keep himself hidden. After a few hours of searching Johnny had found signs that someone or something that had been around, but did a good job of keeping their presence from being known. Even his years of training in the special forces couldn’t help him find much of anything. Whoever or whatever they were did a good job of leaving little of any sign of being there. Johnny let out a sigh of defeat and decided to head back to his campsite.
While walking back Johnny stepped out of the forest and looked over to the walled city that drained off into the lake. A red crystal palace shone in the morning light, giving off a firey glow. Johnny was impressed with the city. He planned to visit the city nearby to find out more about the world.
Johnny strode up to tte lake to get a better look at the city. It look bigger from the shore. He was about to turn back to his campsite and head out when he looked at his own reflection to see himself. He realized he would definitely draw attention wearing his racing suit. Well I can't go looking like this…
Johnny walked back into the campsite calling Albert. “Anything happen while I was gone?” He asked the Albert.
“Nothing,” Albert simply replied.
Johnny then told Albert about his new problem. He needed to find a way to get into the city without causing suspicion.
Albert was quick to help Johnny with his issue. The prototype had a test feature for changing appearances. It was meant for changing appearances of the drivers to make up their own identities in the virtual test realm, but the leads to the project thought it a waste of resources and was quickly scrapped. The programmers who developed it were told to disable it, instead of removing it They were told it would take up too much time to get it removed.
Albert was able to reactivate the feature for Johnny. Johnny stood by the side mirror of the prototype as he tried on different clothing that Albert had gathered in the data from inhabitants of the unknown world to figure out what he liked. “No, that wouldn’t work.” Johnny talked to himself as he was going through dozens of different outfits. Johnny was getting frustrated not knowing anything about fashion. Worse, he had no idea what he should dress for. About to give up, he finally thought of something, asking Albert.
“Hey Albert, what do you think if I had the shard of the core cast a glamor over me. Since, I am not sure what to wear to be honest. I thought of having a glamor to deceive people into what they think I am wearing,” said Johnny.
“The idea is possible, Although, i'll need time to change the core's settings.” Albert replied.
“Although, I’d recommend you just take a single glamor so that no one will get suspicious of your changing. You can appear to be wearing whatever others expect from you,” Albert replied.
“Good point,” Johnny replied, watching Albert modify the core looking through the side mirror. It glowed a light blue color when the changes began to take effect.
Johnny stood waiting for the effects to change. “The nodifications are now done,” Albert replied. Johnny then had Albert activate the glamor over his racing suit as he headed towards the walled city with Albert.