Running through a dark alley at the ground level of the streets, a man with a messy appearance didn’t even waste time as he jumped over any obstacle and turned down any side alley he could spot just to get hidden from whatever had scared him.
He kept running until he pushed a random door open and slammed it shut and quickly ripped his phone out of his pocket and tried to dial in.
“Come on, come on, come on!” he kept saying, almost delirious until he heard the click.
“What?” An irritated voice on the other side asked.
“Sir! We need help! The fucking heroes! Military! They hit us everywhere!” he shouted.
“Who are you? Don’t call this number again!” he said.
“Sir! Please! They came in swooping and gave no time to even whip the data! The entire structure was completely upended! I'm still free because I wasn't at any base and barely spotted several raids happening! Please, you need to help!” he said, sweating heavily.
BANG!
Suddenly a loud bang came from the other side before a lot of stomping and guns sounded.
Shouting and screams common in a swat raid filled the phone, making the man pale as paper as he realized that the entire thing was up. Even the people at the top were caught.
Before he had time to react, the door against his back burst open as an arm ripped through it and grabbed him at the throat and pulled him and the door out and tossed him against the alley wall.
“Gah!”
Standing there was Marcus, growling and irritated, “Finally caught you bastard. You really took me for a fucking ride with this shitty game of hide and seek!” He said before ripping the door from his arm and grabbing the man by the shirt. “Unfortunately, even 5th rate shit has to be cleaned up today.” He said before headbutting the guy and knocking him unconscious.
Marcus casually shackled the guy and swung him over his shoulder and held him by his feet as he flew up into the air to get out from the alley ways quickly.
Soon he arrived at a group of streets that were under military intervention. Entire massive sections of New York were shut down and most of the city was put into military lockdown. Even the subways were shut off and every known base was currently being raided by Chasm Might and his brave men from the Beauro of Execution. Every exit from the city was closed off as well.
How the situation escalated so quickly was entirely the work of Kevin’s Gamer Space.
With the completion of Level 3 and all of its pieces, every system was naturally upgraded.
Naturally the scanner, quest, alignment and bounty systems were updated. The system could also access data to update the system and through that, it could rapidly identify evil people and begin monitoring.
Naturally, the result of this meant that all the people working alongside them were identified and each person was given a system bounty. Now here is where the upgrades come. Much more like a game, bounty targets will actually be pinpointed by the hunter as long as they were spotted by the hunter. The system said that it lasts for 10 minutes so losing them for longer means losing them and they would have to search for him again to pick up the signal. That said, there was a new system that further enhanced this and that was a minimap.
Yep, using each person’s body, the gamer space could make a small minimap of the surrounding area and make it appear on command. Within the minimap, the system would produce a perimeter that the bounty target was making pinpointing easier.
To say nothing else of this, the system instantly exposed a lot of crimes simply by monitoring them for as little as an hour. It naturally also picked up their voices and could scan cargo and other things. From huge drug warehouses to places building dangerous weapons, the underbelly of the underworld was instantly exposed.
At the same time that the gamer space happened, Techno had hacked the banks so everyone was already extremely agitated and openingly revealed a lot of dirt in their panic. With the hidden eye of the gamer space, it was all too easy to find the dirt after that. As such, Chasm Might simply had to properly compile that information into uploadable data and submit it to upper management.
It took only a short while after for the president himself to call Chasm Might to confirm this information and was informed about the Gamer Space’s sudden intervention after. With this confirmation, he immediately called for a military intervention and mobilized the FBI alongside it.
With the order from the president, Chasm Might just needed to confirm when the closure of the city was complete and call on all his followers before they began.
It was an extremely hectic day but once the city was closed off, the subways were shut down and giant heavy bulkhead doors closed down throughout the network sealing off any underground bases in these locations.
Hundreds if not thousands of people were captured and even more were dead for resisting. Although the bravemen and strongmen didn’t pursue after hitting these weaker members, that single hit was sometimes fatal.
As for the three interns, they were in the middle of this. They were official strongmen already so they were capable of being in the thick of things. They simply tried their best to avoid the most dangerous individuals.
Robin in particular took on slightly more dangerous groups because of his rubber body having blunt force immunity and to some extent, could stop bullets.
In fact, Robin has actually tested, during his summer break, how much his hardened rubber could support. To say the least, low caliber handguns can’t even stop him. Even low caliber assault rifles couldn’t pierce his skin but they were already starting to get close because they tend to be pointed tip and spinning for penetration instead of blunt force impact.
At present, Robin is already thinking about training to move with his heightened perception using live rounds of low caliber assault rifles to learn to move in that state. This way he could see and avoid the bullets without expending extra effort. The reason being that bullets, though small, pack a punch and could break his momentum and trip him so learning to avoid bullets is a very viable skill until his body's natural hardness improves.
“Here’s another runner. Thankfully the system recognized this guy as a member when he was out. I only caught him out of the corner of my eye before he bolted.” Marcus said as he tossed the guy down like a dirty rag.
“Thank you.” One of the military said before grabbing the guy by the arm and taking him off.
He heads into the base to check on the progress and the still uncounted for people. Honestly, these little stragglers weren’t really important but every criminal captured was one less crime that would happen.
Already there were the other two with Chasm Might.
“Mr Might, did you finish your current raid?” Marcus asked.
“We’ve basically finished the raids at this point. We have accounted for all the biggest threats. Anyone missing is likely already in hiding and will require a sweep search to find which would take a long time. Something that a city like New York does not have.” Chasm Might said.
“What are we waiting around for?” Marcus asked.
“That.” Robin pointed to one group of screens that built up into a single image with a larger screen. There was a huge press conference already starting up.
“Is it in relation to here?” He asked.
“Of course, do you think a military intervention would not attract the press.” Silk replied.
“All rise for the esteemed president of the American Union!” the announcer said and got off the podium before the president walked up.
All the people were already standing and clapped as he came out.
“Thank you, you may be seated.” he said and soon everyone was seated. “Thank you all for coming to this sudden press conference, I'm sure everyone is worried about what suddenly happened in New York with the sudden intervention,” he said.
The reporters began to instantly start but he raised his hand, “Please calm down. I will first explain the overall information of what led to this.” he explained and let the reporters calm down before he continued, “Last year we had the Time Tempest incident where the supervillain had gathered several crimelords to use one ability to heal himself. During this incident, eight crime lords were killed and many more high ranking underlings were either killed or captured. Since then, those still alive were investigated and information was extracted from them through many methods including hypnosis and mental diving under the careful hand of Esper himself. This information tipped us off into the structures of the underground in these areas and since then we have been steadily clearing out what remains.” he said.
Several reporters suddenly rose and one quickly asked, “Mr president, if the military has been dealing with these places, how come New york is such a large case!”
“New York is just that, it is New York. Billions of dollars runs through this single city every day as well as housing millions of people. It would be strange if there was no sort of crime here. What really made the event so large, however, is the scale that this reached. As we speak, not just one crime syndicate is being attacked but four. The reason is because the crime lord of New York fell during the event last year but those further out weren’t as large and didn’t have those kinds of people and remained unscathed. With the collapsing organization, rival groups from other places attempted to move in and so every bud in the city was squished but the most pressing was the true heads.” he said.
Behind him, the electronic screen appeared and dozens if not hundreds of faces of people who were not criminals appeared.
“From the governor down to the local police chief, a massive rotting political structure was discovered thanks to several undercover raids into different bases to extract information. Hidden in this was the source of where the criminal funding came from. It is also why the New York police force seemed unnaturally bad at keeping even weaker criminals from escaping their armored vehicles. After nearly a year of ongoing investigations as well as extensive information we are gathering from the data banks of the criminals, we are, as we speak, capturing all these criminals. This does not just include the new york governor. This extends to every group present in the underground infesting New York city. All the surrounding states are involved and we are now proceeding with the capture of every member of the local governmental branches.” he announced.
Instantly the reporters exploded with flashes from their cameras and everyone began to shout questions.
Watching everything, Robin asked, “Is it okay to reveal this? Other state governors will be on alert.” Robin asked.
“They will have a hard time to stop this. The federal government has a very powerful grip. For the next few weeks, the American union heroes are going to be busy. With Kevin’s gamer space filling in an entire region, it is impossible for them to avoid the eye of justice anymore.” Chasm Might said.
“Are we not going to stop only at New York then?” Marcus asked, shocked.
“No, it was supposed to be only New York for your internship so that you could learn how the process goes but we finished faster than we expected. Now we are going to move into the surrounding states around New York because, as the president said, the government bodies involved were all captured. Before criminals notice, we will be moving.” he said.
“How would they not notice any of this?” Marcus asked.
“Because this isn’t being broadcast anywhere within the region and using IP addresses and other types of technology we are isolating this news from the entire region’s population. We are seeing it now because we were given access but besides knowing that military intervention happened, they have no way of knowing what is going on in the city. Also the reporters were put under a non disclosure agreement for the next two weeks, the time frame we have to clean out as much as possible. Besides me, Blue Phoenix and Esper are all working on this. We are in charge of New York state, Phoenix is Connecticut and Esper is in charge of pennsylvania.” He explained.
“And New Jersey?” Silk asked.
“Well… that is in the hands of Miss America.”
The three gasped when they heard him. Miss America was the Union’s most powerful hero. It goes to show when she was permitted to use the union’s name as her alias. As for her powers, she is basically a better version of Chasm Might and doesn’t even need True Qi to reach that level. Whereas Chasm might’s traits evolved when he obtained a higher level energy, Miss America already had overpowering traits from birth but the most overpowering is her complete invulnerability to damage across all forms of physical force and extreme resistance to natural energies like fire, ice and electricity. Her resistance to metaphysical energies is also nothing to sneeze at either. She is a modern day superwoman. If any flaw was to be given to her, it is that she can’t fly like many of her colleagues but she doesn’t really mind this because she possesses enough strength to literally kick off the atmosphere and use sonic bursts to propel herself when needed.
“Wow! Miss America herself is moving! The president must have really pushed hard. She rarely ever follows governmental orders.” Silk said.
“She moved because the president got the Seer to talk to her to help clean out the government corruption. Even so it took a bit of convincing but in the end, her moral compass won over and she accepted.” He explained.
“Damn, why does she not like to follow orders?” Silk asked.
“The only time she followed a major order, it caused the death of her husband and partner. She’s rarely followed orders from even the Seer without it being absolutely required. This time it wasn’t an extremely dangerous mission but it is required in case a super villain snuck into the country to try and fill the vacuum of power which is why there is a hero in each state working on this.” He explained.
“Is the gamer space going to be revealed as well?” Robin asked.
“Obviously not, who wants to reveal the spying power of such an ability that we want to reach full maturity. Doing this would invite super villains to our doorstep every other day aiming for Kevin’s head. A lot of the features are upgrading and there are likely a lot of new ones that Admin Server is already analyzing. Hopefully we will get new things to work with.”
They all understood, Kevin was, technically, a national secret.
“Has anything besides the quest and bounty tracker been confirmed?” Robin asked.
“Yes but you will learn about it when we get back to school when the internship is done. Don’t worry about it, what you need to work with is the obvious parts.” Chasm Might said.
The other two nodded and continued to watch the news as they listened to what could be regarded as a cover up.
“Mr President, what kind of technology was used to find all the bases? From what is mentioned, the entire bureau of execution was moved in on New York and has attacked no few number of places included within the subways? How were all these, possibly hidden, areas found?” a reporter asked.
“This is attributed to Techno who submitted micro spy bots. They are roughly a fourth of the size of the current most advanced spy tech machines making them even harder to locate. Because they are even smaller than normal without reducing performance, these machines were capable of entering everything from subways to sewers and entering any entrance and vent and was part of the search effort during the initial investigations. Thanks to video retrieved from these, we were also able to make a comprehensive archive of their criminal organization members.” he explained
“Sir, could this technology not be used for invasion of privacy?” another reporter asked.
“No, because all production is limited to Techno himself and all usage is limited to the military only. You will not find this technology in any open market and even among the military it is not extensively used. This was put into usage because of the scale we had to search at and make sure we can properly identify and pick out the most lethal threats in these organizations.” the president said.
“They're good.” Marcus said.
“Just so you know, the invention is actually true.” Chasm Might said and took a small cylinder from his gear pouch and handed it to Robin.
He looked at it and uncapped it before letting a small bit come off.
“Woah! This isn’t even close to a fourth the scout flies size, this is nearly 1/50th. It is like looking at ironsand.” Robin said as he saw the small grains move before he had his visor connect to their system.
The cylinder was its own group and after he connected, all the microbots moved to his command and flew out like a small cloud of tiny flies.
“Woah…” Silk said. “And this was still not used?” He asked.
“We were going to use it actually. Kevin just happened to be a step ahead.” Chasm Might explained and had Robin return the robot's to the cylinder. “Remember, if anyone asks, we used the robot's.”
The three nodded, serious this time.
The press conference continued for a while as the president made sure to explain the sufficient amount to appease the public.
“The military intervention will continue for approximately a week. Subways will be closed today and tomorrow and police forces will be replaced with military officers from the National guard. This is primarily because of the corrupt police force being a major threat to public safety. All police officers, during this time, will not be allowed to do patrol duty and it will be military officers in their place. Furthermore, we will be auctioning off the properties of all confirmed corrupt men and women in the heroics profession who were caught. After this press conference is complete, everyone will be handed the names and photos of all corrupt members who were confirmed to be in league with criminal organizations. This includes all of New York and every other area we will be raiding.” the president said.
“They aren’t leaving any back doors huh?” Robin said.
“There is no place for this kind of person in heroics. That kind of person is no better than the villains we catch.” Chasm Might said coldly.
Robin looked at him and saw the cold expression and knew there was a story behind it but didn’t ask. “Are we going to do more raids today?” he asked.
“No, all the places that needed to be raided were hit. For the heroic companies, they have, likewise, been raided and their patrons captured personally by me.” Chasm Might said.
“So we are on standby until it is time to move on?” Robin asked.
“Yes, take a good rest and eat up while you have the chance. This isn't going to get any easier from here on.”
Like that he turned and left while the trio looked at one another and watched the rest of the press conference.
***
Kevin was with Admin Server as they watched the conference as well. With them were the other 14 pieces of the main system as well as the brave men from Admin server’s company
“Woah. Did this happen because of the gamer space?” Kevin asked.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“No, it was already in progress. They were supposed to use some new tech from Techno to search, your system just happened to speed up the process.” Admin server said.
“Can’t this make a lot of security development obsolete?” One of the children asked.
“Even if it could, it won’t stop criminals, also you still need video footage and help with hacking so there isn’t a problem with continued development.” One of the braveman explained.
“Still… to think the government had gotten that rotten.” Kevin said.
“Don’t be surprised, since the appearance of the heroes 80 some years ago, the american union has done over 60 government closings during that time. This is nothing new, what is new is the system helping to such an extent. For sure the Federal government is going to love working with the system. After all, every region has their problems with corruption, we just have to let the system analyze people based on already gathered information. We could very well eliminate the hidden foothold that the supervillains have.” Admin server said but looked at the children. “Kids, you have to be aware that from this point on, it is more and more likely that you will be noticed and targeted if someone even remotely realizes that the gamer space is responsible for revealing so many hidden conspiracies that would even allow us to uproot entire underground organizations.” He said.
When he said this, the 15 children swallowed hard but nodded.
“It is good that you all realize. Everyone will be undergoing heavier training to pull out your potential, especially those who have yet to begin building their system parts.” he said.
“Sir… are you talking about using the save and load?” Kevin asked, worried.
“Yes, until now, our men who had advanced systems that worked only for themselves hadn’t been able to connect but you all have fully integrated their unique powers into the system. From the visual options, sound control and even save and load. These are reaching the aspect of reality bending. Even so, it gives you all an immense capacity for special training.” he explained.
“Sir, don’t forget that even for me, there are limits to Save and Load.” the braveman in particular who was the de facto owner of this ability.
“Yes but unlike before, you are connected to the system and are getting powered up by it.” He said.
“Even so, it hasn’t reduced the side effects. All it’s done is fused my power with Mulitlife’s.” the man said.
Multilife is a gamer hero sitting nearby who possessed the ability to revive depending on how many ‘lives’ she had. Her normal limit is 5 deaths and her 6th would mean game over. When the children gathered these active gamers, her ability and save and load option merged into a single system. It made both system’s stronger.
Previously the power, save and load, allowed only the person himself to revive up to 10 times daily. This allowed him some leeway in how dangerous he could act and how much danger he could jump into.
That said, the gamer space couldn’t maintain this aspect because it would draw too much energy. That is why the two powers were combined and made it that everyone possessed 5 extra lives daily. Furthermore, saving was not free in every location as he previously had, instead most people would only be able to save and load in their homes or areas regarded as a safe location like a school or hospital.
Only he maintained the flexibility of 10 deaths and was free to save any place.
“Sir, you shouldn’t make the children value life less because of this.” Save master, the alias of this braveman, said.
“I’m well aware, that said it opens the possibility of crazier training.” Server Admin said.
“Sir, I know that you want to use death to cause their bodies to adapt to highly stressful trauma but you can’t forget that they don’t have my mental strength. I've been using this since I was 6 years old and you are well aware of my personality shifts depending on how many lives I have left.” Save master said.
Admin Server frowned and sighed. “Yeah… but the benefits of traumatic training can quickly get them to at least the level of a strongman. Beside Kevin who is over level 60, the rest haven’t even reached the level 20 benchmark.” He said.
“Sir.” the others said.
“It is fine to push harder because there is a safeguard now but don’t push too much or it could damage others. The system already proved that I have special traits made to keep me sane when loading after death. Other people don’t have that, for others, Save and Load is a massive health insurance from murder and death not caused by natural causes.” Save master said.
“Is there something special about your powers?” Kevin asked the two heroes.
“To some extent, gamer wise, it allows us to train without consequence that means you can do stupid shit like throw yourself from an airplane without a parachute and later you body splatter on the ground and be revived. Do it a few times and our bodies naturally adapt. It improves your constitution on all sides. You can have someone stronger thoroughly beat you up until you die and get similar results. You can even gain traits like resistance to different types of materials and attacks if you die enough times to it.” Save master said.
By the end of his words, all 15 children were already trembling in fear and looked at Server Admin with pleading looks.
“I’m not going to make you do that unless you want rapid growth. You level up by gaining a certain number of stat points and this would effectively improve your endurance and life force which would improve your stamina levels and health allow you to to survive longer. If you have more stamina you can also train longer and harder things.” he explained.
Kevin couldn’t even force a smile to try and calm down, he was as fearful as the others. Although he was training with the three strongest members of his year, it was still a very stressful position to constantly butt heads with those guys. His only advantage is that his levels gave more stat points but it was clear that others could achieve it by unlocking their metaphysical energies in all segments.
The system had already told him that everyone had some form or another that no matter the energy, all three storage points could hold it and unlock the potential of that system.
“After this, are there plans to move on to all 50 regions throughout the next year?” Kevin asked, trying to get off this dangerous topic.
“Yes, very likely the heroes at the academy will be busy when it is time but each region needs to prepare at least some level of evidence for the gamer space to work off of. It was unexpected that it suddenly gained access to data scanning but now it makes it easier to incorporate it into heroics.” Server admin explained.
“Beyond that are all the new gamer professions. I'm really interested in maybe retiring from heroics to build a chain based off of my power.” Save master said.
“I get you, with the ability to transmit our power in weaker capacities as a class, it would make managing unique services so much better.” one of the other heroes said.
“Hey, has the effectiveness of that training power been confirmed?” Multilife asked.
“Which one?” Several people said.
“Any of them?” She asked.
“From the estimates, their outward usage only works inside the confines of the gamer space and some tests on the civilian class children have shown about 10% improvement of training.” Server Admin said.
“Sir, how many types have you confirmed?” Keven asked.
“Too many.” Admin said. “From those that turn training rooms into dojo, energize tracks for improving the effectiveness of running, those that affect certain types of equipment. These are basically puzzle piece powers for a dojo system but they aren’t piecing together.” he explained.
Indeed, powers that were previously affecting only the user like many other gamer games all started to express outward effects and among them are training powers. These abilities literally add effects to certain areas for specific training effects that could otherwise be called a dojo system. That said, none of the children could draw these fragmented powers out to piece them together showing that it was probably a higher clearance ability.
“Have you been able to get a full unit and activate them all at once?” Save Master asked.
“Sure, it doesn’t change much, it just gives a 10% boost at most.” Server Admin said.
Kevin looked and waved his hand and started to interface with the gamer system.
The others with active systems each felt what he was looking at and helped control the system to draw more information out.
“Oh! So that is how it is!” the six active members said together.
Everyone looked at them confused. “What is it?” Admin asked.
“The abilities when used in the gamer space also gives an extra options menu for the people activating this, the gamer master, pieces or the admin to modify. It seems there is a customization setting to establish different levels of efficiency. I can’t be sure of it since I never got in contact with these powers yet but since you’ve at least activated them inside the space, it retained the activation of this.” he said.
“Options, like the ones that affect each person’s bodies?” Admin asked, referring to the main options menu which literally allowed the person inducing the changes to actually modify different things like in a game including even contrast and reducing sound levels.
“Yeah but it would help focus the abilities' effect and maximize the energy usage of the ability.” Kevin said.
“We will have to test it later.” Admins said and looked at the screen.
“Sir, are we going to move out and deal with corruption as well?” One of the other brave men asked.
“Not yet if too many heroes move at once, it will signal that the rest of the union is currently unprotected. Even Miss America is moving so at least 5 heroes are active in corruption cleaning. Everyone should be aware of the general reaction that happens once this starts happening.” He said.
Everyone nodded but the students looked confused.
“Is it that big of a wave?” Kevin asked.
“Every cleansing is followed by a rather large confrontation with the villains of oceania. The underworld is their domain and getting rid of corruption means destroying a massive market they spend years investing in. You kids had best be ready for this.” he said.
“They had best be ready because so many of our heroes have been growing stronger recently.” Kevin said.
Admin looked at him and saw his confidence before turning back and not breaking the boy’s bubble and telling him the truth of the matter. Only seeing the true dangers and military power of the villains would he realize how dangerous the world of heroics really is.
***
Techno groaned as he worked without sleep for days. His previously sarcastic personality was already gone even in front of the three children and he had clear bags under his eyes.
“Uh… sir, aren’t you going to take a rest? You’ve been sleep deprived since we got here.” Tristen said.
“No, I've not slept for almost a week before you arrived at this place.” He grumbled almost robotically as his hands were opened and machine fingers were typing at speeds impossible for humans.
They looked at the changed platform, it was much larger and its functions were slowly changing as it now radiated vibrant energy.
They were already at prototype model 5 of the wires and it was leagues better than anything before and it could properly capture every bit of information that Tristen passed through when going through. The platform however was made to emulate his energy and amplify it.
“Alright, go over to that spot with the large blue glowing circle. You will find plugs that are compatible with the one on your hand. Channel your life essence and then activate your power.” He said.
“Are we digitalizing something?” Oliver asked.
“Yes.” He said and a rat in a cage appeared. “But we are using the machines to do it so it can be properly analyzed how far I've been able to emulate your ability and how much the machine can transmit it.” he said.
Tristen looked at Oliver, worried, but he just nodded at his brother and walked over before extending the plugs and connected them. He closed his eyes as he started to spin his life essence and the nerve wires began to light up before it gathered at his hands and he injected the energy.
The blue circle began to glow like all the wires and the light started to transmit through the machine without being able to make it into data but it did fill it after a while and they instantly saw a change above the machine.
Techno was working hard while this happened and watched everything with both his eyes and dozens of different kinds of machines and cameras.
He slowly altered the programming and soon the waves began to gather and form a sort of barrier isolated to the platform while the rat at the middle was trembling like a glitching program before, suddenly, as Techno added a set of codes, machine hit some kind of sweet spot and everything rapidly stabilized many times better than what Oliver could do on his own and instantly the rat and the cage stabilized and was absorbed into the platform.
A tiny glow came from the wire as it was transported and they saw it enter the pillar before a screen appeared with the rat forming within the farm.
“It worked but… what happened at the end?” Tristen asked.
“It almost seemed like the energy got so much stronger but stopped trembling.” Zack replied.
At that time, Techno grinned and released a bellowing laugh. “I did it! I found the proper coding on the first try! I've never had such a successful first few adjustments!” he said.
Oliver was slowly turning off his power but the machine was fully active at this point and maintained the energy waves.
“What is going on? The energy waves are still going at it.” He asked as he reached the work station.
“Because that is how it is meant to be. Behold children, the first door to the digital realm. I was successful in coding the process of energy conversion into the digitalization force that you produce but the energy waves are a level more stable. This means that the waves you feel coming off this are at least like secondary vein channels if you had trained properly. This stability is much greater and it can safely make something digital and transport them inside.” he said and took another rat in a cage and casually tossed it onto the platform.
Before it even hit, the rat and cage was already digitalized and sank into the platform and moments later they saw it appear within the farm.
“That’s good, that means the first part of the program is done.” Oliver said.
“For the time being, this can still be upgraded as long as you can activate more of your ability but yes. Now I will have to program an exact copy of this platform within the digital world to act as an exit that doesn’t require your intervention to get people out. This will allow humans to freely enter and leave and if we can do it properly, it will become the newest mode of long distance transportation.” He said.
“I doubt this is safe for heroes right?” Oliver asked.
“Highly unlikely, we might require the complete technology to confirm this. The easiest method to test it is probably to hire that demon girl you children hang out with in the club and get her life force filled minions to try and enter. We can see the result after that.” He said.
“What are we going to do now?” Zack asked.
“Now, we will start to focus on the programming part of things. You two are still taking programming classes, yes?” He asked.
“Yes sir, we were put into your sidekick’s classes for programming, it’s really tough but we have started learning the basics.” He said.
“Basics, guess we can only work with that. Have you gathered the separate programs that we will start testing?” he asked.
“Yes sir, we’ve downloaded some firewall programming with rather good reviews. Oh, I got another data bank from one of the teachers that concluded several deals and software searches for old games from the last two centuries. It should include anti-cheats, security programs and anti-hacking software.” Oliver said and took out two data bank units.
“Good, the digital eggs are only gathering random data at the moment but we will be installing these random software under the control of Tristen’s ability. I want to see if you can design the infant form instead of simply letting it take the natural form and I want to see what kind of form it takes.” He said.
Tristen nodded and they proceeded to plug it in and separate each data pack and software separately before Tristen took out a random chip from the pillar and with a phone for the sole purpose of this experiment, he put it in and let the data download.
It took a short while before it opened and then he connected to the console and picked out a firewall program and uploaded it to the egg.
“Hmm… it’s just eating the data.” Tristen said.
“Alright, now do like Oliver did and channel your life essence and try to manually control the process.” Techno said.
“How?” He asked.
“Here, try this.” he said and took out a round flat object with an opening for the phone. They plugged it in and Tristen looked for a moment before channeling his power and connected the plugs to the entrances.
His eyes instantly changed into their strange mechanical shape and the round object began to glow like the glowing circuits on his body before it reached the phone.
“Higher level command control achieved.” the phone suddenly sounded out.
“Tristen, are you alright?” Oliver asked.
“Yeah…” He muttered and they looked at the phone. Techno moved around and plugged a wire into the round object and it opened the same image on the screen but also accessed the data bank.
“Alright, I'm uploading the data pack of the firewall program. Tristen, can you still understand?” techno asked.
“Yes.” He replied simply.
“Good. What I want you to do is not install the program into the egg. I want you to install the egg into the program. Make it that the program is the primary and the egg is the secondary.” He said.
Tristen slowly looked down at the screen and his eyes seemed to look as if he was seeing through the screen instead of from his eyes. The next moment, a small data cluster formed and the egg began to glow as the life force and data began to break down before it entered the cluster and surrounded it.
Data compression has been achieved, digital spawn has begun to upgrade. Software upgrade detected, firewall systems detected, AI system upgrades. Digital spawn now possesses basic self thought beyond instincts.” It was just like the first time they produced a successful transformation from newborn to infant.
This time though the central code was the firewall and it was evolving rapidly but Tristen stopped it before it took form.
“Evolution complete, form has yet to take shape and hatch.” he said.
“You stopped it! Good, can you project the form it is going to take?” Techno asked.
He blinked slowly before a loading screen appeared as the data was being read and what appeared was a featureless quadruped with black eyes and short exposed stubby fangs. It opened its mouth to reveal a very disgusting interior.
“The form has taken the shape of what can eventually become an angelic digimon.” Tristen said, robotically.
“This is basically tokomon… the one that eventually becomes angemon.” Oliver said.
“That’s cool, they naturally take the forms of the animated digimon but they look so much freakier in real life.” Zack said, looking at the realistic rendition of the digital monster.
“Can you modify it?” Techno asked.
“Yes… sir. Form?” he asked.
“Let’s see… I'm going to upload the existing holy programming you all discovered to hold holy power. I want you to make either a ring or a halo and then change the shape into as humanoid as you can get it, if you can’t then make it at least winged and feathered.” He said.
After that the holy power programming was added and it appeared as a data cluster that was absorbed into the glowing mass.
“Holy power programming installed… core coding consists of firewall programming that has merged with the holy power program and enhanced the central coding. Adaptive evolution has commenced.” the voice from the phone itself said.
The display turned off and they could see the egg move around a lot more before it stabilized and Tristen once more stopped the formation.
What appeared in the natural state was a very similar creature but it now had a long silver ring around the body with a dulled program writing that had naturally formed like the one on the Holy Hacks.
“It isn’t much different and the ring is silver.”
“Lack of holy power causes the ring to lack.” Tristen said.
“Maybe because the AI isn’t connected and it is the one that understands what holy power is makes the ring unable to produce any in its incomplete state.” Zack said.
“Right, Tristen, do the changes I asked for.”
Tristen slowly nods and begins to affect it. Slowly the shape loses form before it slightly changes and forms a head while the ring forms into a coller, the back legs vanish and in its place, tiny wings form on the back and the arms extend a bit and form a single nail.
When it took shape, it made them feel a little strange but it was clear from Tristen’s frown that he was putting a lot of effort to change it this much.
“This is fine.” Techno said.
Like that, he finally released it and the glowing egg finally took the shape of the infant that was equal to Hacks when it first formed its basic sentience.
It stopped from hitting the ground just short as it began to levitate and look around and started to explore.
Tristen blinked a bit before disconnecting and instantly leaned forward and groaned.
“Are you okay?” Oliver asked, going to his brother.
“Just a headache…” He groaned and let the tool drop because of the migrain.
Techno picked it up and looked at it and examined the image on the phone.
“You all, the supposed evolution process is to provide it with a model, right?” Techno asked.
“Yeah, it can be as basic as a 3d rendered skin. After that the AI is frozen so that all the aspects can be designed and their potential properly drawn out. This includes abilities, biological habits and such.” Oliver explained.
“Alright, does it need downtime for it to gather data?” He asked.
They shrugged.
As such, since this was an experiment, Techno prepared what looked like a basic humanoid angel model. Both a male and female model and it was meant to install together and properly design as separate gender roles. Thankfully the basic system of the apps was flexible enough to understand this kind of setting and install it.
“Insufficient data. Activating data pillar.” the app said and suddenly the pillar activated at a high capacity, to Techno’s shock, and data began to rapidly gather until the small creature was ready to evolve.
“Stop!” Oliver said and quickly took the device and connected to control the transformation.
Even if it was a burden he connected and helped progress properly.
“Model favors the female gender so female angel model has been accepted. Adapting holy programming to model.” the app’s voice announced.
Tristen groaned as he kept the original model and began to modify as required to get the very basic shape done.
The end result was that the collar would transform into a pair of rings that floated around her wrists.
When it stabilized as a winged angel child it stopped and was ready for the input.
“Done.” Tristen said and collapsed backwards.
“You should have let it go naturally. The basic shape was already set.” Techno complained and shook his head.
He got some robot's to take him to bed but held back Oliver to show him how the programming step worked. He sighed and showed him how to highlight each piece. This included isolated clothing and separating it so it isn’t identified as skin.
Techno picked up on how it worked and was surprised by the advanced system for distributing potential. He designed a holy power bow that projects from either ring and arrow depending on which arm is firing.
When the weapons were designed he finally moved on to the main body.
“Female angels, messengers of god, they travel the world and help maintain peace, they are young and are still learning from the right and wrongs of the world. They attack with holy power. They are enthralled by the emotions of other creatures.” Techno wrote.
“That is a dangerous line.” Oliver said.
“How so?” he asked.
“Have you never studied mythology? Many angels and celestial beings tend to fall to evil because they become too possessed by mortal emotion and end up falling to their vice.” He explained.
Techno understood what he said and rewrote the line to “They are curious about mortal emotions and desire to learn about them from many different creatures.”
It was a far better design pattern.
After this was submitted the potential was used up and it began to change.
“Female Angel, messengers of the god, serve as the watchers and learners of the digital realm and help keep it under control from the negative aspects found in the world. They hunger for knowledge and are curious about mortal emotions. They venomously attack anything with virus programming.” the phone updated.
“Oh, this is quite a good direction.” he said.
Moments later, the model shined and all the aspects changed but instead of flying, she collapsed and huffed.
“Huh?” techno muttered.
“Warning, Holy power levels are too low and biological meters are incapable of fully sustaining this. All powers of this model are inactive until she comes in contact with holy power.” the phone chimed in.
“Well now…” He exclaimed. “Seems we can’t proceed until this is done. I'll call Mephesto’s daughter and by the time she arrives Oliver should be awake in the morning. I do hope this app can retain the energy.” he said but like that he found an impasse that could not be surpassed with pure technology.
He still had things to try such as trying to use programming to get the rats out of the data world and more so he released the boys and let them be as he called for the help of the young lady with the celestial minions.