POV Rarion
“What happened 100 years ago Lord Overseer?”(Clare)
“I am not to sure myself but I think I slept the 100 years”(Rarion)
Oh, they looked shocked, they did not expect such an anticlimactic reason.
“You must understand that we thought that you had an accident or just abandoned us.”(Riva)
Every NPC seems gotten consciousness one hundred years ago maybe I was transferred to a game world with only advanced AI´s? That was my first guess but that would cost billions no way I am worth that much. That leaves only that I am in a new universe or something? What will happen if I die?
And then suddenly I become father what responsibility do I have now?
“Clare, what do you now expect from me?”(Rarion)
“I am not stupid since half off Lux is related to you what can I expect?” (Clare)
Oh shit! Why do I feel so bad suddenly? Everyone did it with the NPCs! You gained skills and other bonuses from it! It is counted as the same as to masturbate! Make children with every race in your civilization... it was one of the standard quests... every top ranker did it, right?
I will make it up to them! I need to make it up to them! How am I else ever be able to look at myself in the mirror again if I don't!
Carefully I start to ask“Why do we not continue talking about it in the heart room over dinner but just the three of us?”( Rarion)
They seem slightly confused by my question.
“I can easily open the dungeon entrance and get rid of the mana strings whenever I want. But first I need to know more about my Civilization, the whole industry seems down so it is better to not rush things.”(Rarion)
After a commanding look from Riva at Clare, I got finally the answer “Than we will dine with you”(Riva)
I order the stone army back to the wall and stretch my mana out to them for teleportation , I got a bit of resistance from Clare but only for a few seconds.
“Welcome back father” (Rose)
“Ah Rose I brought beck guests”(Rarion)
“Ah yes my half Sister and Riva, hello.”(Rose)
Just what have I gotten into? First, let's turn back to human. This time, I am prepared for the pain from it.
Ignoring everyone I teleport to one of the first houses inside the dungeon, it is still here how nostalgic. I remember the first Clan meeting that was here and I was still a newbie dungeon master. After the ascend every one of us changed. I am the last that stayed, not everyone can play a game for 100 years.
The furniture seems still in order even after 100 years I expected nothing less from living mana wood. Since the only light sources are dim light stones embedded in the walls and ceiling of the dungeon, the clan center itself is cast in darkness, like the rest of the Clan member houses that surround it. With my skills, I do not need light to see but it is still sad to see it in such a lifeless state. After grabbing a small table and chairs, putting them into my inventory and then I flee from my past.
The Food inside my inventory should still be fresh and is made from one off the top player cooks. The Food will increase different organ without directly mutating them, you could not buy something like that for gold, but I should have more than enough of it stored away since I paid in precious Research which is even more worth than that food.
In front of me is now my NPC companion and my daughter eating food, I should stop thinking of them as NPCs . Even advanced AIs have earned human rights in the real world. The nearly perfect VR capsules are proof alone for me that we humans are nothing more than advanced AIs. A perfect VR capsule can read the mind and if you built a machine that can give the same mind output as a human would that not make it human?
In the Year 2270 most of the people started fleeing into the VR world, not because of war or any other disaster no it was boredom. Androids replaced humans in every field of work and had no problem working 24/7 they are even better at art or writing than humans. We lost our purpose. First humans thought it was perfect to have everything for free and not have to work for anything in life. But without purpose, we got depressed and VR was the cure.
In the real world, my body´s age should be around 22 years. The VR world can speed time up to 10 times and more since we exist as pure information and are supported by the processors of the capsule. Humanity faces serious problems because of it, but that are not mine to solve.
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The problem that I have to solve sits in front of me, I can deal with NPCs turning alive but I can't deal with becoming a father! But first, I need to solve the problem with my civilization.
“So how has Luxor been doing the last 100 years?” (Rarion)
Riva answers me dry“After you left 100 years ago the command center went dark, we lost contact with most of the outposts and the gates, pipes and everything in control of the dungeon stopped working, the warden also went still and so it took only one week for the first monster wave to hit us. As you know that the ceiling in Luxor is not hight enough for any real Air Force or artillery to work and we did not have any tanks or jeeps, we were jut not mobile.”
The tone of her voice is becoming sharper and sharper “As a result the civilians suffered heavy casualties, the army at that time did not function as effective without command. We stabilized eventually and created Lux with the senate and prospered economically, conquered new layers and made alliances with some friendly dungeons."(Riva)
"30 years after the fall The monster waves were becoming stronger and stronger one reason was that the mana made them envolve and another was that they made alliances themselves, and most dungeon dwellers hated us because you treated them as farm animals and we are since than at constant war”(Riva)
Now, both of them looking harsh at me, looking left over to Rose she is also looking harsh at me! I would have never done it if I knew that they could think and feel! But I have the feeling that they would not believe me if I told them. Do they think I am kind of a monster?
In the game, there was no real taboos when it comes to NPCs but even so I never did the darkest things but in the wars, the use of toxic gas was normal for example. Would I ever use toxic gas in the real world? No!
“But we also evolved and did built our own tanks and cars and so we still made ground with our slowly improving technology. 70 years after the fall our population did rise from the 8million to 50 million because dungeons dwellers joint Lux and we had rapid growth of some races like rat men or cracklings. But then our enchantments started to fail because of the pollution. The civilians economy crashed and Lux went into a full war economy! At this moment we do not have any civilians in Lux, everyone is some part of the military and the last population count was around 34 million.”(Riva)
“You had a hard time, but you must understand that I never intended for you guys to stay down there for so long.”(Rarion)
“Than when are you planning to release us?”(Riva)
Evadingly I answer: “Luxor should be 500 layers from here, first I will reinstall the node network there.”(Rarion)
“I already did start to install the node network .”(Rose)
“But you have only pure mana nodes, we need soon all kinds of nodes, good thing I always overproduced them.”(Rarion)
“Yes father I still need your help with that”(Rose)
Hmm, I do not like the idea that rose starts doing stuff on her own too much to my dungeon, I will have to pay attention to it in the future!
“Right, also I know it was hard for you guys but for me last night I had still an army under my command and now I am nearly a bagger! I need you guys to continue working for me or how else I am to restart the production of weapons that you will probably also need?”(Rarion)
“We can build our own weapons, we learned it from one of the best and you were the commander of 1 million not 34! So how about we give you 1 million and you let us out?!”(Riva)
“So you can give me 1 million cracklings?! Also, Lux should recognize that I have the absolute authority in the dungeon and at its only entrance!”
“About that”(Rose)
“You see as soon as we open the gate to the plane the wild dungeons can open their own path since I have no control over them. They will still be connected to us but also make entrances randomly into the other plane not too far from us. That is their instinct because of the mana pollution”(Rose)
“So my dungeon will have around 70 000 entrances.... ?!”(Rarion)