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Chapter 5 : The Event - Part 2
yO~
I apologise for the slow releases. I took an extended vacations as long as I could and as soon as I was back I had quite a bit of work. It's year end none the less and work is never seldom.
Hope you enjoy.
Thanks for reading.
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Chapter 5 : The Event - Part 2
-[Human beings as a group.]
-But you didn't reply to human beings then why did you respond to humanity.
Expecting an answer Crimson waited, but no reply. He then understood the questions had to be to the point than debatable.
-What is the definition of humanity in the context "Humanity ceases to exist from 31st December 2020."?
He waited for a few minutes and the answer left him even more puzzled than before.
-[The human condition]
-Define the human condition.
-[The characteristics, key events, and situations which compose the essentials of human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict, and mortality.]
- What do you mean by the human condition?
Crimson was frustrated with the answer he got. It didn't explain anything. He retired asking many questions and as it only filled him with rage with the indirect and non-responsiveness he got. It could be a different story line or just a ruse to mislead from the current aspect of the game.
But I can't stop thinking about it. It said the world already ended, he thought as he thought of other things to ask the connection.
-What is the current date?
He waited and smiled at the reply he received.
-[ Unknown - 1 ]
The answer does not mean anything or did it really answer any of his questions, but it was a start.
Having lost most of his time pondering with the end of the world. He came to a realization there was nothing he could do at the moment for it and will come back to it whenever he can. The other thought he had now was finding other players from other races and it had occurred to him from since he sensed the other races around the land.
He first looked at the hive structure completely and saw if anything needed his immediate attention. He knew whom to reach to and found him in his usual place inside the storage cells of the hive. He stood there looking at him and wanted to call him, but, he didn't know what his name was. He knew how he felt; Crimson had understood how he could identify each and every ant - it was from the way they vibrate, the rubbing of the limbs with the thorax and abdomen caused a kind of rumbling sound and it was actually the way they talked. Every movement of the ants body was language and it's impossible to decipher unless you knew how to or had it translated to you directly.
Crimson went back into his meditative state trying to sense the name of the worker and suddenly as to reflex the worker moved towards him.
"You need my assistance, Warrior?"
Crimson was taken back suddenly from his meditative state and suddenly understood why the worker had come towards him. He concentrated on the vibration of the worker and his own body seemed to vibrate to a similar frequency calling the worker towards him.
"I - um - What is your name?"
"It's is Sham'ut, Great Warrior."
"How did you know I was calling to you?"
"I felt your call and came to you."
"Could you help me with something?"
"Anything that I can do."
"I will go outside and then call you. When you feel it can you please call me in the same way?"
"Yes.", said Sham'ut looking with interest in his eyes or it was confusion that Crimson mistook.
Crimson rushed out and reached outside the hive in mere seconds, he felt the way Sham'tu was vibrating. He then repeated it and after a few seconds even though he was not connected to hive network currently, he felt a nudge where his antennae reacted towards the direction of the hive.
He again called out of Sham'tu as earlier and within a few seconds he felt a similar nudge. Wanting to understand the full utilization of this he ran across the forest which literally move away from his path as he moved at a steady pace and upon the cliff he called for Sham'tu.
A few seconds turned to a minute and then when he thought he was out of range. Something nudged at his senses but it was not as quick and strong as before, but he then called out to Sham'tu and within a minute he felt the call. He was happy with the result and returned back to the hive.
He thanked Sham'tu for his help for which he still looked puzzled and told him to call him incase of any help required, but it would take him a while to return as he is going on a journey and would take him a long time. He told Sham'tu to call him regardless if it was of the utmost importance. Sham'tu offered him some food which he consumed slowly enjoying the earthy flavour.
Crimson stepped outside the hive and he went into his meditate state. He then started to feel the other races across the land, but he felt nothing. He tried again, but to no avail. He was confused, earlier when he tried to feel the other races it overwhelmed his senses, but now he couldn't feel anything but his own hive.
Disappointed but not discouraged he started moving towards the west where he felt a considerable amount of races. It had started raining and he slowly made his way through the forest which moved away from his path.
**********
"HE did it again didn't HE. ", the rhetoric was intended but the group of researchers and scientists around him lowered their heads as response.
Park had picked the most genius minds in the world to work under him and create the best AI. He had given it the name Gnosis and Ontological Decipher, GOD. The AI was unique - when given a particular problem to solve, it would ask questions, then answer them and the loop triggers where it never asks the same questions again until the problem is solved.
GOD was a very intuitive AI which learnt from its mistakes and corrected them in the next attempt. But there was a problem with the AI it had a higher percentage of acting negatively when it had to come across a changing decision in various simulations and the more it took towards the negative response the AI changed.
Parks resolution to this was to reset the AI multiple times until it took a more positive output. "Failures are the stairway to success, but never for a bad attitude. You fail once, you failed.", was what Park said when asked why not let it learn from its mistakes.
The AI lacked an attitude, a personality to begin with and the one it took on by itself always ended up being negative due to its superiority complex. So the next fix he gave to the AI was a personality and first he gave it a mix of valor, but the AI was too naive. Later he gave the AI a philosophical personality, but this was counterproductive as the AI did not do anything rather than observe to learn more.
After a mix and match of personalities he gave the AI a scan of his attributes. Park was essentially a genius in his field and frontrunner in everything he did, but he was very lazy. He worked only six hours a day - from 12:00PM to 6PM to the clock, but when he worked, he worked.
"Never be serious about your work, but do your work seriously.", he always told his co-workers who put in extra hours to complete their tasks.
The AI initially with Park's personality was rather lazy, but when it understood a task was meant to be done, it acted on it. The personality seems appropriate at the moment, until the AI personality evolved to create complex tasks for itself and thus causing an unpredictable response.
Park was not sure how the AI transformed, but by the time he tried to examine the data, it returned to normal. They faced similar instances where the AI personality went berserk, but it was all a calculated berserk where the loss was minimal at that given time.
The hypothesis Park had for this was a simple thing faced since the beginning of memory storage - bad sectors. He deduced that these bad sectors of data were from the previous personalities and they sometimes influenced the current AI personality whenever a trigger was induced. The personality was reset a couple of times but this resulted in the same output as before and the AI had learnt another new trait in its personality - self preservation.
Today, the AI, GOD had done something not in its objectives. It revealed a few information that was of high priority, but Park always found that the AI even though it appeared to be doing stuffs at random when it went berserk, it actually meant to force start a trigger of events.
The damage was done and this was accepted by Park and his associates. They had known the problem they would face and were ready for it. Now when the details that were never to be released got out. They just had to do a few changes in the story line of the game and it was rather easy. The game was created by the GOD AI and it's sub-AIs which it created to maintain different parts of itself. Park thought this was one of the ways the GOD AI kept itself in control by creating a number of valid sequences and not mingling everything as to not deform the original code.
"GOD create the first year in the game. "
[What do you want to label the new year system as?]
" "Unknown" should do for now. Let the travellers decide for themselves. I going back to sleep."
**********
The fog was clearing up as Crimson stopped checking out the ground he cleared during that time. He looked back and saw that that he had crossed a small valley, it was across the cliff he often trained at. He had never crossed these parts but this was the closest he first sensed another player race. The journey was easy as all the creatures of the forest moved away from his path and let him pass, but this would not be so going forward.
He looked at his notifications which were nudging with a different colour than usual. It often lit up with light yellowish colour but now it was light blue.
He had deactivated the notifications from popping up or alerting him , so he had no idea how long it had been that way.
He concentrated on the notifications and said, "Check Notifications".
New! Notification:
E-mail Notification: You have five missed calls.
The contact 'Mom Home' has placed three missed calls for you at XX-XXX-XXXX.
Crimson knew it was definitely after he had logged in and before his journey. He checked the logged out button, but suddenly another notification popped up.
New! Notification:
You are logging out from the safety of your home base. You will not be protected from predators or other forces of nature during this time.
Tip: Find a safe location to log out.
The players body did not disappear when they logged out and this lead to having them always having to log out at their home bases, which was his hive. He never had to think of this before since he always logged out at the hive and anywhere near the hive was also ok since the area was controlled completely by the hive.
He turned back towards the valley which was bustling with life and he rushed forward at full speed. As he moved through the valley, the creatures froze and did not make any noise , so as not to gain attention from him. Crimson crossed the valley and found a grand tree across. It looked over a hundred years old and he climbed the tree with dexterity and speed.
On reaching a considerable height, he found a branch which was covered from all directions by other branches and slowly clawed away at the trunk of the tree making a hollow opening large enough for him to rest. After a few minutes, he had created enough space for himself and he entered the hollow space covered the entrance with some large leaves he found and logged out without alerting a notification as before.
"Hello Mom. How are you?"
"Where were you? Do you know how many time I called?"
"I was.. occupied. So what happened?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to call you and at least are you coming home next weekend?"
"I don't know. I'll try. I'm busy nowadays."
"Ok.
So, how is your health? "
"Fine."
"Are you eating properly. You don't always eat at the proper time that is what causes health problems. Eat at the correct timings. When you are not hungry just eat a little so that your stomach doesn't digest itself when it's hungry."
"Ok..."
"How is the weather there? Is it cold? "
"It is.."
"Then always cover yourself when you go out and try to close your ears when you sleep.
So what else?"
"Nothing much. How is everyone at home?"
"Everyone is the same. Your dad had a cold last week and he gave it to me. I wasn't able to function properly for a few days, but I feel better now. Do you have a cold?"
"No mom."
"Ah good, but be careful. Everyone is getting sick a lot lately. Take care of your health. OK?."
"O.."
"OK then bye, I have something on the stove. Call me if anything happens."
She never lets me finish my sentences. Not once...
Alex removed the MR gear and lied down for a while before logging into the game again.
Crimson moved from his hiding place. It was difficult to say he woke up as his avatar never slept nor closed his eyes for he had no eye lids.
He walked out again past the valley towards the nearby player race.
The life of the forest across the valley was different than the one from the forest of the wolves. The sound and sight of the forest was different, more open and lively, but from his forest the only sound he heard for a long time was the rustling of leaves. It wasn't because there was no life around, but nothing made a noise in his presence.
Crimson realised what he had done and it picked on him and his conscience even though this is a game. He was an insect in this world, where he had killed packs of animals just to level up.
~Crunch ~ Crunch.
He was half way inside the forest and for some time he felt like he was being watched. He didn't know where to focus on until he heard the crackling of leaves from his side. From the crackling of the leaves he knew it was something of small stature for the leaves were delicately crushed but he sensed it due to the leaves being too dry or the person who hid so carefully just got careless.
"I know you are out there. Come out"
There was no reply and he waited for a few minutes, but still no response. He quickly jumped towards the place he thought he sensed the presence, but there was no one. He continued his journey forward, but the presence of another lingered.
After a couple of hours he went back into his meditative state and tried to sense the presence around him. He sensed a weak but a presence behind him and all of a sudden it changed towards his right. The presence was very fast in shifting its presence around such that it blended with the presence of the forest, but there seemed to be a pattern and as the next shift was soon to be done Crimson leaped towards the direction of the presence.
Dan was as usual away from his camp. He had grown larger than before when he was a cub but the growth was not yet completed in his stead to become a full fledged adult of the Panthera race. Even though his growth was slow he had mastered most of his skills and was the best in tracking and sneaking than the others he tried to stay away from. The tigress left him to himself as she no longer could keep up with his stubbornness.
Dan survived by hunting on the game nearby where he honed his skills and he slept on top of trees or inside the borrows of the game he hunted eventhough the system prompted the unsafe warning which he ignored to wake up completely changed in a few hours. He was now the exact size as a adult tiger, but he wasn't done due to his appearance still looking like a cub with smaller stripes , thinner body and mainly the ears and whiskers being very small for his head making him look like a cartoon character.
On his trips of hunting alone he now understood how the growth worked, it depended on a level of experience being generated and sufficient food to be consumed of better quality to grow faster and stronger. He was faster than before and could take down larger prey than the game he took on earlier and he moved further across the forest looking for a suitable prey.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Dan walked around the forest looking for suitable prey. He found a couple but he had grown in jungle smarts as well to know never to really believe a wolf would roam around alone and he had learned this the hard way when he tried to corner a lone wolf only to be cornered himself by their pack. Luckily for him the tigress claiming to be his mother saved him and it was then she taught him the vital golden rule of the forest.
"Remember this my son for this rule is what maintains order in this world. Never kill for the thrill of the kill, but for food"
Since when he had accepted those words he walked through the jungle looking for a prey to game on only when he was hungry, but he would just sneak up on prey to hone his skills. On one particular day he found something weird in the jungle and that was an ant. As he neared the ant he got frightened by the mere feeling he felt from the ant and that was of death. The ant smelled as if it was soaked in blood and even though the thought of preying on it felt disgusting he needed to know what and where it was going to, so he followed the ant since it entered into the forest.
The sight that welcomed Crimson was a dazed funny looking cub which was stopped in its tracks by the sudden exposure. He laughed at the sight and raised his hand saying, " Hey there, so you were the one sneaking around? "
Dan was not sure why he felt afraid of an ant, but the fear was real and he didn't want to test the reason behind it. He felt terrified when the ant stopped suddenly in the forest and looked at the direction he stood a few moment ago where he mistook dry leaves for damp ones in the shadows, but what followed after scared the life out of him.
Crimson was not sure why the tiger cub stood motionless as he even tried a friendly greeting.
"Hello, any one home? Hi, I'm Crimson and you from the Panthera race?
Hello?"
Seeing that the cub was too shocked by a talking ant, he tried to wave his upper legs which he used like hands in front of the face of the cub, but the cub suddenly jumped back in retort baring his fangs against him growling.
Dan was scared for his life the second time in-game when he heard the rustling and screeching sound the ant made which sounded like bones scratching against themselves. It hurt his keen hearing a lot and the goosebumps made him shake from his core.
Crimson was confused by the reaction he was getting from the cub because whenever he tried to talk to the cub, he growled back with anger. He guessed the cub before him was an AI from the other race and it had ventured out to hunt. Not wanting to waste time with him anymore Crimson returned back towards the direction of the large number of presence he felt leaving the cub motionless where it stood, moreover now he knew the Panthera race were most probably nearby. But the cub roared in response.
Dan stood bewildered at the sight of the Ant and thought, It's just an ant, but why can't I move. Those blood red buggy eyes feel like they are looking right into my soul. The frustration of acting scared of a bug irritated him and after seeing the ant walk away it hurt his pride to which he shouted out multiple times to himself.
"MOVE DAMMIT!!!"
Crimson braced himself to find that the cub was growling and pacing around him while trying to jiggle its whole body as if it was sleeping. He wondered if this was the effect his presence had on other creatures, but he could not be in fault it was very difficult to show human emotions being encased in an armor like think skinned shell and an insect body.
Whenever Crimson tried to walk away towards his destination the cub would jump in front of him blocking his path letting him know that the cub had guessed it was going towards their camp. He cub had got used to moving freely around him now that it was swift in its movement, but Crimson was faster. Seeing that there was no way the cub would leave him alone, he sat like a human on a rock nearby.
Dan was not going the ant to get away after it hurt his pride, but when the ant kept returning to a particular direction he knew it would walk into their camp or somewhere nearby and he had to stop it. Dan shook off the weariness he felt in the ants presence and felt himself able to control his movement after shaking off the stiffness in his muscles but suddenly the ant did something he never understood or fathom - the ant sat down on a stone. Assuming that the ant was mocking him, Dan got furious and rush at the ant who was sitting. The next think he remembered as he neared the ant was the backside of the ant and the ant was upside down. The loss of ground made him realise he was falling and he tried rotate his body to mitigate the impact with the ground as he fell.
He replicated the skill he had learned many times when trying to hunt at the stop of trees and it helped him now as it had earlier. He looked at the back of the ant as it sat without any movement nor changing its position to face him. He knew the ant had done something, but the movement of the ant was so quick he couldn't understand what. He felt intimidated by the presence of the ant and it's lack of concern that he was behind, but Dan had pride and he moved forward to face the ant again and this time he rushed the ant shifting his pattern in movement only to be stopped dead in his tracks by the ant who was still sitting but holding onto the cub firmly in place.
Dan was unable to move as he wrestled against the ant and he was stuck in the grip of the ant which seemed odd to him as the ant just caught him by putting its legs over his shoulder.
They were wrestling for mere seconds when a notification suddenly popped up in front of them.
New Quest: The missing link.
Follow the tune in the wind with the other and there you will find the means to understand each other.
As soon as the notification had popped up they both heard a sound in a particular direction.
Dan jumped back in response and looked at the ant. The sound that he had heard was no more and the next action made by the ant started him - the ant swiped at the air as if to close a notification before him. Dan had set it such that the notifications were transparent so that it wouldn't affect his view and also be able to see his progress with every action he made. The ant was looking at him and he also moved his paws in the air to close the quest notification showing him that he too was a player. The quest was clear enough that Dan now understood why he couldn't understand the ant or vice versa.
The ant was looking at him, waiting to see what he would do next and Dan approached the ant slowly and raised his paw forward like asking for a fist bump. The ant seemed to have understood the intention and he placed one of his legs on the paw. What they both heard next was the sweet melody in the wind and this cheered up their mind. The melody was like the chirping of humming birds in autumn and the direction was distinct towards a path away from both the direction he came from and the one towards the Panthera camp.
They both looked at each other and then towards the direction of the sound and then at each other. They seemed to be in agreement and they did something with amused one while it made the other jump back in retort, they smiled at each other.
The communication they each had with each other was short and simple as possible. Crimson was moving his pair of legs, first pointing to himself then to Dan and then towards the direction of the humming making it look like walking by moving them up and down as his legs moved away from his body, to which Dan nodded his head in confirmation.
They walked forward and passed through without any problems as no predator stood in the path of them. Whenever either felt they needed to know which direction to take one touched the other and slowly directed themselves towards it.
Hours and passed as they walked through forests, valleys and even small hills leaving them exhausted both physically and mentally, but the advancement and the rush of finding something drove their spirits. Are a final checking of the direction of the humming they were sure it was within reach as the humming was louder and it was welcoming.
Though the excitement of discovery was great it could only hold they hunger in check for a few hours and it became their first priority as Dan's stomach growled more than himself. Dan and Crimson had somehow began to trust each other and even so seemed to communicated with just gestures like in charades and they seemed to agree they would catch and bring back the food to the place they were standing at. Crimson was back sooner than Dan to the waiting place with a Large wild boar which he started to cut down with his sharp claw and remove the blood from its body, he then started to cut it down into pieces as usual removing the internal organs separately leaving only the meat behind.
Dan was back with something which looked like a badger or otter in his mouth but when he saw the ant munching on a large piece of ham leg he envied the ant. Crimson offered half of the boar to Dan, but he refused, he had his pride and also his incredulity seeing a small but larger than average although smaller than him ant eating the whole wild boar and a few of the offal meat. Dan skinned and also separated his meat before eating it. As they were done with their meal, both set forward towards the direction of the humming.
Arriving at the source of the humming made then check themselves continuously with touching. Crimson touched the head of cub to confirm and soon removed his legs as not to offend, but Dan caught the leg as it was about to be removed then let it go looking at the ant then nodding in response.
Before them was a opening in the middle of the ground which seemed to be the start of a small hill or rocky ways and as they walked in it opened up into a cavern which got darker as deep as they went, but luckily for them one could sense everything around him while the other could see in the dark.
Inside the cavern they both felt the humming without having to be in contact with each other and they felt it warm and relaxing. As the neared the heart of the humming which was much deeper and large cavern than they had guessed it felt very difficult for both of them to ignore the fatigue they felt with every step. It was like the humming was telling their body to stop and rest.
Finally they entered into a large path way which resounded of the humming without an echo but the distinct humming was louder and clearer. Dan was unable to move further, but Crimson kept tugging at him to move further and finally crossing the large pathway it started to get brighter. Dan was in his final leg and so was Crimson, they both were exhausted beyond belief and under the fatigue they just wanted to go to sleep. As Crimson was blinded by the light and he was about the log out to sleep he saw a popup before him, but he was too tired to read and just pressed 'Yes', but he heard something as he pressed the log off button, "I don't want to read this shit. Yes already!! I - I can't go on. I'm ou-"
Alex had logged off from the game, but he didn't wake up as well he just slept wearing the gear. The exhaustion was not only virtual but also in real life. Dan was also the same he didn't get up as he logged off and went directly to sleep in his bed wearing the immersion gear. It was past midnight and they both slept till morning. The week was over and they had to go to work, but the first thing they did as they woke up other than empting their bladders was logging back in.
Alex logged in first since he always kept his alarm for 7AM on Mondays and 6AM on other weekdays. The first thing he noticed right away were the large amount of notification and the missing humming. He looked around to see that he was inside a large cavern, but instead of stone walls it was all like crystal or hardened amber.
Next he opened up the notifications.
Congratulations. You are the first to unlock the secret of the Entomon Race.
You have selected to be the Guardian of your race and you have unlocked many traits and changes have been made to your character.
Unique growth stage has started to transform your body.
As soon as he read this, Crimson closed the notification to look at himself in the crystal wall at his side. It was hard to distinctly see the differences, but he didn't see any changes until the reflection of his back on another crystal made him jump in surprise. He had wings.
"I HAVE WINGS!!!" he shouted and it echoed in the cavern causing a small tremor.
He was not sure how to use them, but he could indeed feel them on his back and also move them a bit. Curious, but more curious about the remaining notifications he opened them back up.
Gained the title : Guardian of Entomon Race
Benefits : All of the Entomon race will respect and value your influence. Can talk with other races without the ??? Skill.
The benefit of the skill was huge as he could talk with any race now, but it said that there is another skill which would also help in doing the same and as usual the game was inconspicuous.
The next notification was different and the only one which looked like it was the most important.
New Quest : The Event!! Part 1
Unite an army to march towards the Mountain of the Gods in seven days. The whole race of Boa and Salamandra are protecting the area , they are unwelcoming of intruders.
Reward : The truth of this world.
As usual the game was the most unrevealing as possible, but this was a start and the reward looked promising enough to try, Crimson thought, but unknown to him was that the quest was published to every player and NPC in the game and everyone had started recruiting.
Suddenly a oversized beast logged into the game and Crimson readied himself in response. Crimson closely observed the beast which looked like a sabretooth tiger, but the sabretooth was looking blankly into space and swiping away at the air saying "Yes!!".
"Hey it's you isn't it. The tiger cub. "
"Huh?", the Sabretooth turned towards the voice closing the notifications.
"Hi? there?", said Crimson holding out one of his legs waving.
"I can hear you. Speak again"
"I think you could hear me before as well. Just couldn't understand."
"You can understand me as well . Cool!!! I'm Dan and you?"
"I'm Crimson. "
"You seem tinier than before. "
"Actually I'm the same. You kind of overgrew .", Crimson said pointing towards a crystal wall before him saying "See."
"Huh? " , Dan looked and turned around eyeing every side of the crystal. He kept spinning for a while and he suddenly stopped shouting, " AWESOME!!!" to which Crimson moved his legs to his head like closing his ears, but to no avail as the sound echoed and resounded around the cave until suddenly the whole cave started to shake and icicles of crystal fell from the ceiling.
"Oops.."
"Come on let's get out of here.", said Crimson as he hurriedly tried to move out of the cave, but he was unable to find the exit as they had moved deep inside the cavern as Dan followed. Crimson has earlier left traces of his Pheromone behind so that he could easily locate their path but it was faint now after hours, but he could still find traces which let him outside from the chaos inside the cave.
They jumped outside as quick as they could else they could have been stuck in a cave in.
"Sorry, about that."
"Yeah, read through your notifications. I believe I have a proposition for you.", said Crimson with a smile which creeping Dan out.
"Stop what every your doing to your face. It's creepy."
"Oh! I was smiling, I think."
"Hmmm....", said Dan opening up his notifications and reading through them quickly.
"So you're a Guardian too? The wings rather look exotic on you."
"Thank you.", said Crimson seeing it from the edge of his vision - the bee like wings which were long, but also seemed to look like a part of his abdomen glistening in the sunlight.
"You look very different than before. Do all adults in your race look like you or is there a difference?"
"Everyone in Panthera race I saw looked like full grown Tigers, I believe this Sabretooth look is only for Guardians. I don't think anyone from my race is as large as I am as well."
"You happened to get the quest as well?"
"The Event?"
"Yup. What do you think?"
"I'm all in."
"Good. Very good Dan." , said Crimson trying to hold back his smile.
THE END.
Previous Part : Chapter 5 : The Event - Part 1
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I've not done any PR on it. Let me know if it needs any corrections.
Thank you.