"How do I approach this?"

Designing a functioning system was far harder then coming up with a random backstory of the origin for the game. He needed to decide a few things.

How interactive would the system be?

After thinking about it. Somnus decided to not have the system behave like an A.I. It would instead have consistent functions.

The system would work based off intent and mental commands.

Somnus needed to experiment with the soul fragments. He needed to be able to tap into the thinking of the person. Right now, he could sift through the memories of the fragments. But that wasn't the same as reading their thoughts.

"I created a spiritual brain using my artifact. Why not create a computer? A brain itself is far more complex then a computer."

A black book appeared in his hands.

Somnus didn't create a traditional computer. He had the advantage of being able to directly manipulate the data for it. This meant more intuitive programming.

You might think it would look like a server. But, why would he be restricted to the forms in reality? Instead, he created what appeared to be a blackhole.

But he lacked 'resources' to build this server. So he directly used the soul fragment of Visdre as the foundation of the processor.

Visdre in reality started to hallucinate and go crazy. He saw endless information. He wandered the streets in a phychotic state. Eventually he was admitted to a mental hospital. He was restrained and drugged. But none of this disturbed his soul fragment.

Somnus was essentially turning the soul fragment into a server. It was like making a person inhuman. Making them a machine. A processor.

Soon there were strands of data growing from the ball of energy. It looked nothing like a soul fragment anymore. It looked like some sort of eldritch horror. But on a smaller scale. It wasn't something easily described.

Visdre was basically braindead at this point. If he wasn't in an assylum... he would of died from a lack of support. Doctors were confused and disturbed by his state.

Somnus didn't really care about the fate of Visdre.

Perhaps in another reality, he figured he would experience a similar fate. It was himself after all.

Somnus found that by overloading the soul fragment. He could essentially turn the person into a waste. Transform them into a braindead being that operated off instinct.

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But he didn't quite have the full permissions yet.

So he directly tested the system on Visdre.

[System]: Do you accept system integration? Y/N?

"..."

There was unfortunately no response. It was impossible to get consent from someone who no longer had a sense of self.

Somnus looked intently at the server. He now only had one real soul fragment. The fragment of a mortal.

This was a bit of a gamble. If Mark didn't accept system integration. That would be the end of the story for him. He would have to wait years to generate enough energy. If they died for some reason and there wasn't enough potential. Somnus didn't want to think about the consequences.

He needed this to work!

Somnus didn't have access to foreign information anymore. He had to create this system based off his current knowledge.

"If a random system appears, why would anyone trust it? This thing needs to have an origin. Simply making it be created by gods isn't enough."

"There needs to be a an event. Something that is special about the person. A reason they were selected. A reason their world was chosen for this game."

Somnus soon realized something from his experience of creating a server using the soul fragment as the foundation.

"I can scramble memories... alter them."

Somnus held out his hand and the only remaining soul fragment flew into it. He very carefully sifted through memories until he was at the part where he got the person to perform his ritual. He then blurred this memory.

His hands shook as he tried to cause the least amount of damage possible.

"Now that person won't link the weird occurences around them to the ritual. They won't link it to Visdre or Somnus."

This was important, because the server was running off the 'hardware' of the brain of a human. If someone traced this weird system back to Visdre. Perhaps they could kill him. This would flip the state of the server.

This wouldn't change much. But the mechanism behind mental energy generation would be stopped. Transforming physical energy to mental energy. The path would be cut off for the server.

It would turn into a lose lose scenario.

But if his plan worked. It wouldn't matter at a certain point. But at the start. He didn't wish for ANYONE to know about 'him'.

He planned to lurk in the shadows. If Somnus had learned anything through his experiences. The villain always seems to lose.

He didn't want the world to react harshly to him. He needed the world to embrace his existence. This was something tricky as hidden existences were naturally hated by the world. He had learned this from experience.

When he used to try to take control of someone elses body. Or when he had manipulated the dream realm. He had experienced some force turn him into paste.

He needed to be incognito for this. But more importantly. He needed souls! A lot of souls!

He hadn't even collected a single soul yet! The fragment he had was simply a part of the whole. It was due to him making the person offer a 'key'.

They had offered him their processing power. You might wonder why he didn't simply make them offer their soul? Imagine that some random guy ask you to draw a magic circle in the ground and then chant something about giving your soul to some entity. Would you play along? He needed to be more clever then that.

He had tried to do that with Visdre. But his spiritual body instinctly rejected the contract.

Somnus closely monitored the situation of the remaining soul fragment. He didn't have to worry about energy consumption as he wasn't creating more things. He simply used his server to further refine the game he was creating.

Days passed.

Weeks.

Months.

What was he doing? He was looking for an opportunity! Somnus figured that he needed the right moment for the system to appear.

Since he only had to focus on one person right now. It wouldn't simply be just a program. It would function like artificial intelligence! Because... He would be the system itself!

The prompts from the system would be written by him...

But the main functions would be automatic.

The moment finally arrived!