----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Chapter 5 : The Event - Part 1
yO~ guys,
Back from my vacation, so had only a few hours to work on this chapter. This is the first part , hope you enjoy and will work on the next part soon.
Hope I can get a review on my FF, so that I can improve further.
Cheers and have fun!!
----------------------------------------
Chapter 5 : The Event - Part 1
The fog had cleared up in the horizon and all the animals were outside their homes to search for food. But not every animal were happy to be alive to see the sun. A group of travellers were brought into these lands for a purpose, but no one knew what their purpose was - they belonged to a world where everything would be told to them on what to do and how to achieve it and they called it Quests. The game had quests during the initial weeks of play - telling them what their basic necessities were, but after sometime no more quests were generated.
"What is the status...?" , asked Jin Hye Park finishing his sentence sighing knowing what to expect .
Park was bored with the progression, nothing was happening in the game. He expected for chaos and mayhem, but people were lazy and very conservative. After watching few hours of the major highlights in the game created by the GOD AI every week, he was not impressed though he saw many people learning to use their abilities differently. They were happy with the small progress they made every day.
"Very few updates since past hour actually,
1. Only seven races were able to be filled. Three are still under pre-prophesy.
2. No traveller deaths till now, I believe it is due to the max growth benefits.
3. Many have broken the level barrier, but haven't mastered the race. Only a handful have even come close to understanding their race.
4. The self sustaining eco system of Eden is falling apart. People have become gluttonous and eating everything causing the shortage of food. Other animals are spreading territories to compensate, I believe we should see deaths soon.
That's all for the current status of HW." , said the blonde secretary to Park frowning at him who was now stretching his recliner to the lowest level.
"Ah, you stopped. I thought you were going to sing me a lullaby next..", said Park lying on the recliner.
"Just kidding. Stopping shooting daggers at me Sarah.", said Park straightening his recliner, " The three races still in pre-prophesy are - Salamandra, Boa and Arovilof?", he said looking at Sarah, to which she nodded affirmative.
"No deaths?... GOD is being too generous. Is he still not interfering?"
"Well HE..said HE will wait until the event is triggered by someone until then he will lazy around.", said Sarah giving Park a menacing stare.
"Ah, yeah. I can't expect too much from myself anyway. Well the next about level barrier. Never cared.
Next about the eco system. This is good, the event will be triggered off soon then. What eco systems are compromised now, I only saw that the wolves of the west were reduced to less than 50% in a week and bears were having a hard time looking for food."
"Yes, the wolves are the first in the list. Even though the growth is set to maximum, they are less than the sustainable limit. The bears which depend on these wolves were threatened and forced to leave their territory and hunt in other territories causing territorial clashes. Damn... ant..."
"Ah yes, I saw those fights , very interesting, who would have thought someone would take advantage of their races attributes like this. Very interesting indeed.", cheered Park seeing the scowling blonde.
"So any idea when the Event will be triggered.?"
"HE said that it should be triggered within this week based on his 'assumptions'. "
"Oh, he said 'assumptions'. He really is taking it easy."
"That's what happens when you give the worlds smartest super quanta the world's laziest AI personality. "
"Hey, I'm not lazy. I'm conserving energy.", Park defended.
Sarah chuckled at his response as the super quanta made the same response when she called it lazy; she accepted that response, but she now knew where that came from.
Park perked up and sat straight asking, " And what about Project 'Who', has anything happened in the past week."
Sarah nodded a negative saying, "Nothing as of yet, but it's been only two months, it would take more time to do the impossible."
"It's not impossible, if we are trying to do it. It's just improbable to reach our goals.", Park let the air around him change into his lazy self, "I will talk with GOD about kick starting this Event. It's getting too damn boring."
Sarah nodded in response and was alerted to her vibrating handheld which flashed a few images and reports which alarmed her.
"Well?? Don't hog all the suspense to yourself. Do share...", said Park eyeing the tablet in her hand with interest.
"Someone was able to access the interconnection midway. Not everything, but a part of it. "
"That's impossible, no one can hack into these systems. I don't think even I can.. though I could, but really I can't. Did they locate how and who tried to access it?"
"It wasn't someone outside, it was in game..."
"YOU MEAN WHILE PLAYING?? How did he??"
"He talked to it. "
"That's what I mean, how was he able to access or talk to it. It's a very complex system and it takes a large number of nodes to communicate with it."
"He just did... talk to the system and it replied back."
"You mean to tell me, the interconnection midway which connects all our AI's into place in Hundred Worlds was accessed by someone by just talking to it?"
"Yes..."
"Who was it?"
"The ant responsible for the bear-wolves ecosystem collapse."
"Hmm.. interesting. The ants found something... So, what is he doing with the system, learning our secrets?"
"He is.. checking it's arithmetic and logical ability. I have a video which is being rendered if you did like to see."
Park's was flabbergasted, " Wha....", he said as Sarah moved in to close his now open mouth.
***********
This is amazing!!!, Crimson thought to himself as he got the reply into his mind through meditation.
- What is 123456 multiplied into 3.
And within milliseconds a number just appeared into his conscience.
[370368]
The answer didn't appear as a notification or as a verbal response but he just came to know the answer in his mind - the answer just incepted.
Crimson was stumped as we returned to the hive since he didn't gain any levels after 100. His stats strength, agility and vitality reached max stats - while his passive and offensive skills were all stuck at lvl9 99.9%.
He didn't know what to do since wolves stopped coming near him and he felt maybe it was the wolves that didn't give him any experience anymore. He logged out and after food, exercise and sleep, he logged in around 6 AM on Sunday.
He went around the hive and found other players who started as the same race, but they looked different though appearing similar. Crimson looked blood red at the ends of his abdomen and crimson like near the centre, while the others looked plain blackish red or brownish, some even grey to blue in shades. The development of the body also differed, he looked more humanoid like when he stood on his hind legs, while the others had shorter legs.
On asking them how they fared with levelling, most of them said their elders trained them by climbing trees and help strengthening the hive by building on the tunnels.
Crimson restrained himself from sharing his experience and said, "I was taken to hunt small animals nearby" - to which they were all amazed since they most they fought were with ants/players from other hives around.
Crimson also met with other ants from different hives namely a group of five army ants, they were stupid and picked a fight with everything in their sight, but when they crossed Crimson it didn't end well for them.
After spending a few hours in the hive, he asked around the hive workers if anything needed to be done and a worker asked him to check around the premise of the hive since recently there was an increase in the bear activity.
Crimson stepped out and within a few minutes from the hive entrance he found a bear rolling rocks and lifting decaying trunks. He approached nearby and waited for the bear to react, to which it did and rushed him.
He sidestepped and swung hard from right to left using his left hind leg as pivot and slammed his abdomen on the head of the bear. The sub skills under Racial Connections were all level 9- 99.9% and the Hard shell skill was almost max as well which made his body as hard as the 'rocks' he carried. The bear stumbled after that and again rush in to which Crimson stood his ground and caught the bear halfway by stepping in.
Crimson wanted to check how he would fare since the fight started and the bear pushed hard clawing on the ground. Crimson stood his ground pushing the bear back and suddenly he loosed - the bear lost its balance and he lifted the bear swinging it at the tree nearby, which nearly uprooted the tree.
The bear dazed after the impact with the tree slowly stood up, saw Crimson and walked back into the forest. Crimson was not in a mood to eat and let the bear go. He surveyed the area around the hive and found two other bears of which he scared away another bear, but the third one stood its ground even after several knock downs and he ate it later on.
After patrolling for an hour he returned back to the worker who had told him about the bears. Crimson was actually not sure if he had completed the task since there was no quest generated. When he reported to the same worker whom he found near the storage chamber, the ant thanked him and asked if he needed something to eat, to which he denied politely.
No rewards. I figured as much.
Crimson didn't know what to do. He was used to playing games which were completely dependent on grinding to proceed, but he didn't guess Hundred Worlds was such. He returned to the chamber he often logged out.
He started to delve into the mechanics of the game. The virtual reality was reality - there were no super powers or fantasy element except that they were playing creatures rather than humanoid characters.
All the tangible elements in this world had a make and break point. Nothing was a misconception in the purpose and making of this world. He realised that when he started to ponder on why bears were moving out of their secluded areas - Food!!! , he thought was the answer. There were no honey or ponds nearby, so the source of food for bears were smaller animals and bugs nearby.
Smaller animals around the ant hive were scarce, it was mostly a few bucks very far away towards the north, a couple of foxes and of course their neighbours wolves. Bears were closer to the wolves.
I caused the bears to move.
He had killed wolves thinking they were re-spawning every day, but the wolves in the area were just spreading their territory when the previous owners of the territory were slaughter by an intruder.
Crimson realised what he had done and decided not to kill unless necessary. He sat in the chamber like a human and focused. His eyes were always alert in game, they sensed everything. The weird thing was he could see scents and even changes in the air, but he knew what it was, the human mind is only capable of understanding a few things visually and when it needs to represent something in visual it picks things in random until it makes sense.
He saw colours change in his vision when smells changes, but it never over took his vision it just looked normal now and when there was a breeze or a change in the direction of the wind, he could see changes and could interpret them.
Crimson sat down and started to meditate. It was very difficult for him to dull the amount of detail he had to discard and only focused on the never changing thing around him - the darkness. It took him a long time to get used to dulling his senses, but finally he was able to do it.
Stillness in mind was something he was capable of achieving very soon in the real world, but in the Hundred worlds he had no eyelids and this was a major distraction in itself. He focused on the darkness around him, but not looking at it or trying to understand it.
Level Up : Racial Communication Level -10
All sub skills have also reached Level 10.
• Mana Cost is reduced by 50%.
• Combat skills damage increased by 20%.
• Defence skills duration increased by 20%.
The skill has reached maximum efficiency. The skill can be upgraded by ???
Level Up : Pheromone Mastery Level -10
Mana Cost is reduced by 50%. Able to use Pheromone with combat skills.
The skill has reached maximum efficiency. The skill can be upgraded by ???
Level Up : Adaptive Growth Level -10
Mana Cost is reduced by 50%. Able to re-grow body parts except head.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The skill has reached maximum efficiency. The skill can be upgraded by ???
Intelligence increased by 5.
Wisdom increased by 5.
As he fell into a trance something extraordinary happened, a series of notifications had shown up on his view and he noticed only one thing - that all his skills which were stuck at 99.9% levelled up and had become lvl10. A large number of notifications were blinking at the side of his vision, but he ignored them for now.
I felt something. I will delve deeper.
He returned to meditating, but now he was not focusing on the darkness, but on the sound created in the chamber by the air currents. The sound was not noticeable enough unless you concentrated on it.
I feel everything, everyone.
Crimson felt different, but he knew this feeling. It was the same feeling he had when the Racial communication link was open, but not as overwhelming as before.
He could say bluntly what the difference was between the Racial communication link and the feeling now. Using the skill he felt like stuck in a crowded bus stop where everyone just talked at him without listening, but now he felt like a person who was viewing the bus stop from afar listening into the conversations.
He knew what and why they were doing things. He could feel everyone's presence, but couldn't understand how many there were.
- I wonder how many ants are there in this hive.
-[3741]
He knew the answer. He didn't know it a second before, but now he knew. He wanted to test it out again.
- How many travellers are there in this hive?
-[1325]
He was amazed by his discovery and started to play with it.
Where are they, he thought and suddenly he was able to sense all the traveller around him, but he was also able to sense the NPCs in the hive as well, it was like the travellers and NPCs vibrating with different frequencies.
He didn't know what he was doing, but it was interesting and increased the depth of the game for him. He came to multiple guesses on what he had just discovered - a new skill, a race related secret or something more, but what was the purpose of this feature.
Crimson spent the next hour testing out the capability of the system with even logical questions.
-You are in a cabin and it is pitch black. You have one match on you. Which do you light first, the newspaper, the lamp, the candle or the fire?
-[the match]
But another discovery also astonished him.
I hope this doesn't cause any other problems like in that vintage movie, what was it called..
-[WarGames]
This revelation shocked him, he didn't recall the movie name, but it was prompted instantly. He tried the same with other things in his memory which he didn't even know and was able to get an answer to which he later would find the answers to.
I have found something that even fetches data from my memory, it definitely isn't a game function nor a race attribute. I wonder...
-How and when did I fracture my arm?
A few minutes passed by.
-[Football practice. Eight grade]
Crimson was overwhelmed. He picked up other instances from his life and within a few minutes it became more bizarre than the world around him.
-How many races are there in the game?
-[Ten]
He then asked for the names of these races and it replied - [Entomo, Panthera, Salamandera, Bubo, Macaca, Anomura, Gruida, Thor, Boa and Arovilof.]
He further asked of their presence around the land and he felt a large number of consciousness nudging at him from all over. He then concentrated on distinct signatures from a group and was able to discern their location, but he felt only around six other race signatures or he could have missed the others due to the immense concentration he had to maintain to separate individual races by just feeling them.
Next he tried to see if he could control the ants he felt around him, he concentrated on them and started to feel their presence. He thought to identify the worker ant he had talked with earlier on and his mind knew or rather sensed his location. He nudged the worker in his mind and told it to bring food to his chamber. A few minutes passed by and the worker entered his chamber placing the food before him.
Crimson turned to look at the worker before him and found that the worker was waiting for him to notice him.
" Warrior, I hope not to offend you but would you please not divert me from my task again.",
"I...", began Crimson, but the worker left hurriedly without waiting for a response "..am sorry."
He concentrated on meditating and it was easier than before to slip into the observant state now. He noticed that the worker tried to join into the cycle, but there was a huge break in the chain of collection and distribution of food around the hive. The confusion lasted for a few minutes, but was rectified and the factory of workers returned in order.
This was the first time Crimson was left bewildered after meditating for as long as he did now. In order to clear his mind he logged off after eating the food brought in by the worker.
*************************
Park was standing in the control room which he himself had created. He had modelled it after the Cerebro room from the X-men vintage TV series. As he entered into the room the lights focused up into the centre and a hologram of a rather bored and aged Park stood before him.
"Yo GOD, How are we today?"
[Hey yourself, Nothing specific.]
"Any idea when you can start doing some work?"
[...], the hologram looked at him and sighed shrugging.
"That's what I thought, could you bring me the current visual on Entomo - Crimson."
[ The player had currently offline. ]
"What level of breach occurred with this incident."
[No breach in company policies occured, but a few system level and structure related breaches occurred.]
"And what do you propose to overcome and handle this situation."
[Nothing to demean the experience the player has created, but the access on servers have been filtered to race]
"Also filter the access to databases be limited to race, memories, and current events. Place security filters on the project 'Who' and related information. "
[Affirmative. All filters placed. Anything else?]
"Nothing more, just keep monitoring this player and let me know if anything comes up.
Anything to report on the project 'Who'."
"Alright then, also could you let me know why you don't appear on my desk hologram and I got to walk down here to talk to you."
[Network problems and security procedure.], said the hologram with a smirk.
"Yea yea, holler me if something comes up."
[Will do.]
************************
Crimson logged in after a few hours when he had cleared his head over lunch. He had thought of different explanations for what he observed from his discovery and thought up many different questions to test his hypothesis.
On logging in he was welcomed with a series of notification windows.
Congratulations on discovering the Entomon hive channel.
Hive administration is disabled until unanimously accepted by the hive.
Full access to communication channel.
Found race secrets : 2/5
On discovering one of the most difficult secrets of the Entomon race.
Intelligence increased by 15.
Wisdom increased by 15.
New Skill : Abate Interference - Level 1 Active/Passive
Active : Increases concentration by 2x times for 30 seconds. Time appears to move slowly when skill is active.
Passive : Able to access race connection when in deep concentration. Can only be accessed when stationary.
Caution : Increased usage will result in headache and blurred vision.
Mana Cost : 100
Crimson had already moved out of the hive while reading the notifications and did a patrol around the hive. He found two bears of which one he harassed them out and returned back to the chamber he started to call 'his room' in the hive.
Having arrived to the chamber he started to meditate and it was much easier to connect with the 'Wired' Network which he started to call it after having the skill, Abate Interference. Suddenly he came to experience the world around him and now it seemed different, earlier the amount of active presence he felt was indefinite, but now it was more clear - he felt the whole hive and a weak vibe from the players.
The change was tremendous but it felt a little less overwhelming that earlier since he was not constantly humming like a beacon from unknown sources and now he was able to pinpoint everything he could sense which was all the things belonging to the hive.
He started asking questions to the network in his mind and it still provided him with answers, but the delay in the questions were a little longer. Earlier the answers were instant except for things from his memory which were like a second or few.
He moved on to the questions he had thought of earlier while having lunch and a few were related to the other races in game, but to his surprise he didn't receive anymore replies related any race, not even his.
He quickly wanted to ask the question which was dawning on his mind.
-When will this world end?
He didn't receive any answer.
-What is the goal of this world?
No answer again.
Frustrated without any replies for the further questions he threw at the network, he asked.
-When will the real world end?
Again he waited for a long time for the reply, but he started to rephrase the questions.
-How will the world end?
-Will there be another world war?
-When will humanity on the world die?
-When will humanity cease to exist?
-[31st December 2020]
Crimson was not sure if this was an answer for something he asked earlier or the recent one due to delay in the answers.
-How and when all human beings on the world cease to exist?
Expecting an answer he waited, but to no avail.
He rephrased it again after waiting a few minutes.
-How and when all of humanity on the world cease to exist?
Still no reply.
-How and when will humanity cease to exist?
-[The Virus. 31st December 2020.]
-How did the world end twenty five year earlier if the world still exists are alive now.
Crimson was left to his company with no answer from the network and the room he was in felt dark and cold suddenly.
-What is humanity?
{To be continued....}
Next Part : Chapter 5 : The Event - Part 2
Previous Chapter : Chapter 4 : Everyone Else - Part 3
----------------------------------------
Please let me know your comments.