Merely assimilating the new knowledge associated with creating one’s avatar was sufficient to reflect for an entire day alone like a philosopher in Rune’s opinion.
Nevertheless, before he even began to read about it, he understood something instinctively: A new era was dawning.
And this moment he was in was the critical opening, the astonishing start that would be recorded in the history courses used to teach the future generations.
Now wasn’t the moment to be impulsive or hot-blooded, and after carefully reading through the guidance given by the Compensation Law, he instantly calmed down.
Rune thought of himself as the careful and attentive sort, and though his parents saw him as being a little slow on the uptake, he consoled himself by thinking he just thought very carefully about every decision he had to make.
Thinking about the best course of action to take, he instinctively thought the best plan to take was to wait for the “frontliners” to make more intel circulate.
Like his friends had said, creating an avatar now was really a bit too impulsive for his taste.
If he sought to optimize his time while he waited for the frontliners' intel to come, he could familiarize himself with the other functions of the global system, discuss with other people, forge himself an opinion on everything he learned, be as subjective as possible…
There were so many things to do that creating his avatar in a hurry didn’t even come to his mind.
‘Ok, let’s do that, open everything and wait for the stupi- Brave people to come back. No, I’ll just call them stupid, nobody can read my mind anyway.’
Rune decided to continue exploring the global system.
Dimensions
Information Board
Ether Wiki
Event
Willing this menu to appear was still as easy as before, describing it as “making a mental effort” would be a straight-up lie if he had to describe it honestly.
The Dimensions, Information Board, and the now disappeared one-time Compensation tabs, Rune had already checked, so only the Event and the Ether Wiki tabs remained to be open and see for himself what they were about.
He could also search the information board for people who had already done that, but if he could do it himself, why wouldn’t he?
Opening the Event window, he was welcomed with…
Event
A barren screen. Fan-tas-tic.
‘Half of my work plan just disappeared. Amazing.’
Making such a statement was his instinctual reaction before becoming speechless at this barren screen.
After staring dumbly at the empty screen for a few seconds, he pulled himself together and followed up with the next logical action, opening the Ether Wiki.
Ether Wiki
Knowledge vault for a critically defective dimension that needs all the help it can have.
Every statement will be verified by the Ether Law itself before being made available to everyone once verified. The Ether Wiki isn’t dependent on delimited dimensional sectors. Statement-verifying power is limited by ether density.
Search?
Contribute?
‘Is a critically defective dimension so in need of help? Is there maybe a mistake? Can something so rule-breaking exist?’
Thoughts swirled chaotically in his mind as he got the confirmation that he had correctly understood what the Ether Wiki was about.
Considering the celebrated universal saying “knowledge is power”, having something that could distinguish truths from lies was a game-changer.
Soon focusing back on more mortal considerations, he analyzed the words that made up the description.
‘Delimited dimensional sectors… I wonder what’s their size, is there currently unknown minor civilization in the information board communicating with the IGS actively?’
He wasn’t above understanding something seemingly as simple as that.
Still, Rune didn’t know if he could base himself on the “100% truth” intuited by the description.
Yet, just thinking about having the possibility to search for pieces of information based on this 100% truth assumption… Even if it seemed unreliable for his logical and rational mind, who was he to judge the power of the Ether Law?
If the Ether Wiki worked… Then just having it would be more than enough for him to complete his short term goal of understanding the situation.
Having nothing to contribute, he selected the “Search” option.
It turned out the way to search for information was the same as the wiki of anything he had knowledge of.
The interrogation about how the Ether Law translated everything to have a system so understandable was lost on him. It just was.
As for the detailed working of the wiki, he just had to think about keywords and results would appear depending on them.
The associations with gaming wikis was obvious, even more so when terms like ‘stats’, ‘ether resources’ and ‘energy’ gave an overwhelming number of results. Modified in real-time too. Probably by the Ether Law confirming pieces of information contributed by others.
However, Rune had a little problem once he decided to make the Wiki his source of knowledge.
‘What am I even searching for? Ether resources gathering? Ether resources absorption? Avatar? Stats? Delimited dimensional sectors’ range? The Ether Law? The Compensation Law? The global system? Dependent entities? Independent entities? Tier 1? Ether density?’
His rough plan was already complete, he had opened everything the system introduced, but now he entered into an even more critical period: Information gathering.
‘Let’s start with… Hu… Well, everything, I guess? Am I missing something before starting…’
Pondering on the seemingly infinite available information that increased by the second on the Ether Wiki, and probably also on the net and on the information board, he found that he was missing something to really put himself into it.
A little bit of music.
Chill music, perfect background music.
Turning on his speaker, he chose the right playlist, one he had started using long before today.
Soft music immediately started playing in the background as he started to slowly and carefully read the information that may change his life. Maybe.
‘That’s better.’
He felt relaxed and ready.
…
As Rune was reading through the wiki, the world known to the IGS found itself having a strange lull in its normalcy.
The IGS was an optimized society and nothing had come close to disturbing its working since a very long time, but the problem was self-evident considering the recent events: It was due to people that already created their avatars and acquired power based on the stats they decided to take.
Stats. A whole new concept that had only started being explored.
No news reported someone suddenly becoming a world-killer weapon, but for those who did an all-in on their strength stat and got just below 10 strength stat points after it was transmitted from their avatar to their original body… They became as good as true super-beings compared to everyone else, crushing reinforced material like it was dough.
The IGS government, the military, and even the major private companies called for emergency meetings as complicated situations started appearing in every part of the known universe with sapient beings involved.
Decisions had to be made.
All those situations weren’t negative however.
Old people returning to their prime mobility after creating their avatar.
Terminally diseased patients considered a lost cause because some diseases just couldn’t be healed even at the current age, waking up like nothing was wrong with their body.
Induced comatose patients and cryogenized people woke up, telling tales of a spiritual journey where from complete nothingness, a pure white light appeared, their souls becoming real...
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Their awareness had woken up after hearing the announcements and creating their avatar allowed them to break free from invisible chains that the previous defective law had imposed upon them.
Be it school students, murderers in prison, or universally known celebrities, everyone now had access to a strength that surpassed common sense.
And the key to this strength resided in something everyone had access to, the Ether Points, the EP.
In parallel to the real life events, on the information board, some public forums already gained traction for the sharing of information that everyone wanted.
Those who already created their avatar described their situation and what the different stats did not only with their avatar but also with their original body.
At the same time, pieces of information were fed to the wiki continuously according to what was shared, expanding the knowledge base of everyone.
The subject of the dimensional sectors was also quickly elucidated as the IGS just happened to not be separated in multiple dimensional sectors by the Ether Law, for size-related reasons it seemed, not by coincidence.
A dimensional sector was massive, more than hundreds of galaxies wide by conservative estimations, and the IGS was only a few dozen galaxies wide.
Some forums and users were already actively communicating and popularizing the fact that they had no idea what the IGS was because they came from a still grounded and completely different civilization.
Different forums told the tales of living on their own single planet at different technological ages and their whole civilization being shaken by what was happening.
Some of those civilizations were still in what could be compared to the middle age, some were in the industrial revolution age, and others were in a more advanced and developed society, but no one reported being able to travel between star systems.
First-contact protocols established by the IGS were totally annihilated by the current events as the curiosity of everyone allowed intel to be shared without any form of restraint.
Such a delicate subject like first contact should have been better left in the hands of professionals, but what was done was done, and magical communication without language barrier with regular citizens had evidently already affected the ways those new minor civilizations would be integrated.
Cultural assimilation had always been what the IGS did for that matter. It was never forced but it always worked.
The regular citizens of course knew it, so they shared stories of how every previous civilization was integrated peacefully and could even decide to isolate themselves if they so desired, to the strange delight of a few minor civilizations.
At the same time as yet more extraordinary events were happenning, the front liners that were in fact not all stupid people, began to increase explosively.
Those who created their avatar after such a short time already had their own plan and weren’t indecisive like Rune was.
Maybe the majority were unaware of the possible dangers involved with such a reckless advance, but with a population of trillions of trillions… The more time passed, the more smart people with concrete plans would act.
They would then perpetuate a virtuous cycle of information sharing as more information sources were born.
Together with the wiki confirming dubious intel, there was nothing that could stop the explosions in terms of knowledge quantity and quality.
Those like Rune, only reading and not contributing accounted for the majority, but such a majority was only comparing trillions of contributors to hundreds of trillions of readers.
“So freaking unreal,” Rune finally said after more than 3 hours of browsing through the wiki.
One hour in, he had hoped to have something to write on, and the global system answered by opening a little window where he could write his thoughts, a sub-function of the information board he found. The system could really read his thoughts, even the nearly subconscious ones.
The following 2 hours were used to compile information he judged essential for having a good start, or, in academic terms, copy-paste the introductory paragraph of what he found.
The strength of the Ether Wiki resided in the possibility to make assumptions and verifying them without experimenting. Any doubt could be cleared instantly or within minutes.
As the Ether Law had to sort every contribution though, and its statement-verifying power depended on the ether density, it seemed that organizing the wiki itself was not a part of its function.
The way such a fact translated into reality was that the wiki of each subject was just made of sentence after sentence of confirmed fact without any logical link. It was a shopping list of short facts.
Linking everything was, by itself, a guessing game that tired the mind more than searching for what he wanted.
‘Strength doesn’t affect longevity but allows non-ether life forms to function at maximum metabolic strength without consequences independent of the entity's age… Clearly, someone was contributing for himself… He probably already created his avatar, right?’
Analyzing everything at this point in time didn't make sense as too much was possibly not taken into account, or maybe too much was?
Refining his search for what was actually useful, he searched for what would soon happen, but came up with no answer except from a list of events that already happened.
As he searched for even more information about the avatar creation and what was needed to progress further, he realized how simple the compensation law had made the process.
Little by little, Rune made up his mind to reach for the maximum potential from the start.
He realized he didn’t want to be average.
It was an opportunity like nothing else, who knew what would happen in the future? Maybe the Ether Law awakening presaged something even more amazing or horrifying?
Possibly something more fantastic than even the most extreme imaginations could come up with?
Magic?
Already, he could see himself as someone traveling the Universe with his body alone, an adventurer that would be at the forefront- No, the second forefront of exploring dimensions for new sightings!
‘If I want to become like that, I need to really make up my mind.’
Skipping through the hesitation process, Rune started wondering.
Would he surf the incoming wave of change? Take on everything it implied, including risking his life?
‘If I do… I won’t do it just with words, but also with actions. But first I need a plan, a big plan. What’re my problems? My advantages? Does every second matter?’
Reflecting on oneself has never been easy, but as a spectator never taking active parts in any event, he had the chance of having gained maturity in that department and was able to think clearly.
Who liked being told by others that you were stupid and slow-witted? Sure, it could be as much taken as a joke as accepted due to the situation, but self-derision had a limit when a serious situation came up.
A serious situation like now.
‘What’s my strength in this situation?’
Rune reflected on what his advantages could be.
At the start he only came up with common talents, useless ones at that.
He didn’t have an inborn eidetic memory, and even if he had one, he didn’t have the necessary brain and body configuration that came with it like the Rululus.
He wasn’t a genius in anything and, in the end, his only strength was that he didn’t start his professional life yet.
He was free.
It meant that if he decided to dedicate himself completely to his still non-existent plan, he’d have all the time of a day, except sleep time, which he could use to get a head start, a cumulative head start.
And with what he saw of the stats…
With lively eyes, Rune turned his eyes to his research, more precisely, the starting situation of going to the Void Dimension.
[Appearing in the middle of a vast nothingness, only your perception stat can help you see the resources. Your sight is useless, to move you have to use your momentum, it’s like space. Ether resources emit an easily recognizable light…]
It was a summary of what he found after searching for Void Dimensions’ resource gathering on the board.
As it was confirmed by lots of people, he decided to accept it as the reality.
The situation was the same for everyone, but from what Rune gathered, not every stat had the same use at the moment.
If resource gathering was put as the core objective, with a simple deduction, momentum and perception were the king stats. Because obviously, gathering more resources was the goal.
Gathering ether resources meant gaining EP, and gaining EP meant more stats.
With a simple “invest everything you get” plan, it meant that gaining EP through gathering ether resources was a snowball-type plan.
‘But it’s not min-maxing, people that have gone all-in with perception and momentum have an increased chance of dying.’
He clearly remembered reading on the information board about people dying for a very precise reason.
Even by rearranging your stats so that you had the minimum allowed for the creation of your avatar, or 1 point per stat, you’d have 90 free points to invest which, for Rune, represented near-complete freedom in reaching for what he wanted.
The basic, however, was of course the perception stat, its direct use was to form a sphere of perception around you with its radius being equal to the stat number itself.
With this information, everyone who knew basic math would know that one more point in this stat cubically increased the scanned volume, and subsequently, the ether resource finding efficiency.
So, if he planned to go the ether resources gathering path, increasing his perception sphere was even more important than the second king stat.
Momentum was a much more linear stat, and simple math once again helped to determine something very useful.
Major gains at the start were easier, 20 meters per minute was double that of 10 meters per minute, but every time you decided to double it, the price increased explosively.
It was pretty easy to decide that with 90 free stat points to invest, allocating 20 to momentum, reducing his available point to 71, was the apparent best move before investing more became senseless.
As for the rest? Investing everything in perception would, of course, be the supreme resource gathering stat build.
‘The problem with this is that sustaining damage from anything equals being dead, I’ll only be keeping 1 health after all.’
Deflating a little, Rune scrapped the idea of a full perception and momentum mix stat build.
“Maybe I should go eat something, still haven’t eaten anything…” After hours of intensive wiki and board search as well as planning, he decided to take a break. A well-deserved break.
The dawning of a new era hadn’t changed his life much. Apart from the fact that his computer was turned on but was only used to play background music compared to being used to watch entertainment, he could find nothing else.
After eating a snack, Rune willed the Information Board to appear and then got to his friends' forum.
Following a cursory glance, he asked his official informants slash friends about their latest findings.
[Rune: Re, anything’s happening?]
[Rune: Guys?]
When even after 5 minutes of waiting, no one responded, his brain started to give strange possibilities from over imagination.
‘Did they already create their avatar and they’re focusing on it? Maybe they’re just not here and gathering info, it’s only been, what? 5 to 6 hours since the opening? Oh…’
And then he realized something.
‘Well, never mind, it’s obvious now that I think about it. They should just have gone to sleep after the all-nighter they pulled off…’
Returning to his information-gathering activity on the wiki and information board, he stopped after only 30 minutes, the reason being that he didn’t know what to search for anymore.
Be it the stats, the Void Dimension, or even the Ether Law itself, he had searched for everything he wanted answers to.
This relaxation made him inadvertently have completely random thoughts.
‘Conspiracy theory will have a hard time against something that doesn’t exist, hehehe.’
The “awakening” of the Ether Law, or even the basic principles ruling the ether… It was similar to mana in fantasy, mana sometimes moved and did things without life being involved, it was the same for the ether, just that it obeyed a set of laws called the Ether Law.
The quantity of content on this subject was one of the current behemoths of the wiki, and summarized: The Ether Law wasn’t sentient, the opening of the Void Dimension wasn’t controlled, the compensation law wasn’t different from the Ether Law itself…
If anyone searched for them, hundreds of such statements were present on the wiki.
The speed at which knowledge was gathered was higher than the speed at which it was digested, Rune even tried to contribute a little after he finished everything. Nothing actually made it to the wiki though.
He tried to contribute sophisticated statements, only to understand that he wasn’t the only one able to make stupid but true statements.
‘The Ether Wiki only contains true information, but omissions aren't managed, meaning that a piece of info can be true but not complete.’
Rune was pretty sure such a statement was true, and it really was already here before he contributed a sentence similar to it…
‘Not like I’ll ever forget that…’
Putting it to practice was simple: Believe nothing you read, try yourself.
And so, while trillions, possibly hundreds of trillions of people, considering the entire Universe, already entered the Void dimension with their avatar, Rune completed his day by just hanging around on the information board and the wiki.
“What a satisfying day, I really look forward to tomorrow, hehehe,” creepily laughing like he pulled out a successful prank, Rune decided to go to sleep. He was pretty much delirious from brain use.