Jax could sense the light beyond his eyes, but all he wanted to do was rest.
"Hello, welcome to the help desk! I am Routine 001, please call me 001 or Master Protocol. Also, I know you’re not asleep, so you can open your eyes."
Jax slowly opened his eyes and took a look around the rather large field covered in some sort of green and purple grass that he was in sprawled in and noted the rather suspicious clearly not human entity that was standing behind a desk with chairs in front of it before lurching to his feet.
"Please do not tell me your name is not Worf." Jax spoke slowly not wanting to offend or cause a misunderstanding.
001 glanced down at his body and with no further warning his body shimmered and transformed abruptly into what Jax could only assume was a giant wombat.
"I can change projected forms at will if it serves to help resolve communication errors." 001's stated with a informative tone.
"Ok. Can you tell me why you chose to assume the form of a extremely large wombat then?" Jax asked.
"Absolutely! The systems default mainframe has data on all known species. Within the notes on humans it states that humans like furry creatures. It also states bigger is better and that anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Is this not true O Great Sucky One?" 001 paused waiting for a response.
Jax would swear he was detecting some snark in 001's tone when 001 asked him that. Still he did answer my question at least Jax thought.
"Your case has been filed in the default error archives now and correction is mandatory. Hold one moment while I review your case." 001 promptly replied.
"Ah I see the issue. Due to spatial fluctuations you were able to enter the dungeon rift. However, due to how you entered this particular rift (which I will also add is an outdated dungeon rift) the system flagged the your entrance to the area as an anomaly and registered the error before events could cascade to critical levels in the secondary phase.
001 continued "Do not worry however, a new dungeon rift has been selected randomly for you and the others to complete."
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What would a error cascading to critical levels signify exactly? Jax wondered to himself as he slowly moved to take a seat in one of the chairs offered.
"At best it might trigger a structured reset, destroying all foreign contaminants. At worst the event could of potentially effected the spatial fabric of multiple dimensions. One could take a utter changing of the laws of physics to be one manner of symptom as one example of this case. In most cases if a dimension has an event which changes the laws of physics it causes celestial bodies in those dimensions to lose cohesiveness or at very minimum change dramatically. "
Jax froze. "Did my mind just get read?"
"Yes, it is entirely within my capabilities to use various forms of telepathy. In fact it is stated so within my prime directive that I can employ any methods of communication deemed necessary to fulfil help desk reque..." 001 looked curiously at the hand Jax was holding up. "I hope you know that you do not need to raise your hand to ask a question." queried 001.
"Okay okay, I get it. You think you are justified to read my thoughts and seem like you will not be convinced otherwise. If I could though I would prefer that you do so sparingly." Jax replied quickly.
"Please, have a seat O Great Master of Suck. The others should be with us shortly." the self-appointed Master Protocol replied rather glibly and seemed to ignore his request while gesturing to the several chairs in front of the desk.
"What others? You have mentioned others twice now?" Jax said, eyeing the mysterious being in front of him with curiosity.
Mere moments after he spoke however, he noticed a massive beam of light coming down from the sky finally touching down in the field about twenty yards from where he and 001 spectated. The beam flattened the surrounding grasses and as seconds passed by people started appearing on the ground sprawled out. At first the people appeared in pairs, then in groups of 5 or so until there was around approximately forty people all collapsed onto the ground. As the last of these people laid out upon he ground appeared. The beam of light vanished as quickly as it had come.
001 gave a bellow. "WELCOME! As you have all been already acclimatized to the system already and know how to summon your statuses the system has determined that all of you are qualified to take part in tutorial dungeon rift 7h3b4d\/\/0l=li/\/35 otherwise designated Tower of Beginnings. Worry not, due to time dilation within the tower each day spent within is equivalent to about 3 minutes and 14 seconds of your origin timeline."
With that 001 stomped his foot and I watched as another beam of light came down and enveloped the group who still where laid out on the ground. They started to vanish quickly and before a few seconds had gone by where nearly gone.
Turning to me 001 showed his teeth. "Jax Hills, you are going with them of course, and no you do not get a vote nor can you retain the item from the dungeon rift that you entered via anomaly."
With this 001 lifted a paw and Jax was picked up into the air by an invisible force and the club vanished like it never existed. "This 001 is just too overpowered." Jax thought as he was flung towards the beam of light. Jax barely had anytime to yell back at 001. "I'll be baaaccckkk!"