“All of this is real.” Dylan looked and asked Iris again, his fingers pointed to the monitor. The monitor displayed a small but growing world with characters copied from one of his favourite games. This was the 2nd time they met. “Tell me again, how? Why? Where have all these been all these years?”
Iris sighed, tied up her long black hair and then took a deep breath. “Alright, alright, where do you want to start?”
Dylan frowned and looked back at the screen. “Alright, first question, where have you been for all these while?”
“We were always here.” Iris said, her eyes unwavering. She wasn’t lying, Dylan was sure of it.
“No. That doesn’t answer the question, why didn’t we know of all this? This is earth-shattering stuff.”
“There are people who know about it. Earth, as one of the market-worlds, is generally neutral ground, and the Great Contracts made pacts with many of the other world gods to maintain a mostly non-magical quality to Earth and the other market worlds. The great Contract of the Market Worlds dictated that these worlds are to keep magic’s use to as minimal as possible. In exchange, the magics of the market world are siphoned out to support the other world gods in their battles with the Pactless Gods.”
Dylan’s eyes arched. “Repeat that again. There’s a magical pact?”
“Yes. An ancient divine agreement between the Great Gods and the Great Contract.”
“What’s the Great Contract?”
Iris paused and adjusted her dress. “It’s a god.” She stared at Dylan.
“So there is a god.”
“Yes. But absolutely nothing like the religions of Earth. You may think of the Great Contract as a ‘law’, ‘judge’, and ‘enforcer’. It enforces the non-magical world and creates the way that this world operates, mostly. You can think of it like the immutable laws of Earth.”
“So all those prayers are for naught?”
“Not really. The Great Contract harvests them for magical energy, which it trades with the other gods.”
Dylan struggled to process this. “Alright. I need some time to process that, but back to this.” His fingers pointed back at the monitor. “All of this is real.”
“Yes. You’re their creator and you are a minor god. If I am not wrong, with each upgrade of your tier, you can create another world. My master and employer have three private worlds as a Major God.”
“This is a private world.” Dylan pointed at the monitor. The words, ‘Agea’ indicated the name of the world.
“Yes.” Iris said. “...I certainly did not expect things to escalate to this point.”
“So, how many kinds of worlds are there?”
“I’m not sure, but there are private worlds, which are protected creations of each God, and the battlefield worlds, where the gods’ and their followers battle for influence, and also where they struggle against the intrusion of the Pactless Gods. Then there’s the Market Worlds, like Earth.”
Dylan took a deep breath, and used his mouse to change the view on his monitor. “And all these candidates.”
“Real people, from Earth. Sent to the battlefield worlds to fight against the creations of the Pactless Gods.”
“Pause. Pause. If there are gods on the other side, why are their powers so ‘fixed’.”
“All of us, even the Great Contract, operate within the scope of the Fate System. Even Earth is controlled by the Fate System. So, although they are gods, and you are now a minor god, the powers you can grant and give are extracted from the Fate System itself.”
“So this is the Fate system?” Dylan pointed at the monitor
“Part of it. It was initially my access to the Fate System, which I extended remote access to you, but it seems the Fate System has decided to give you access in your own right.”
“Who controls the Fate System?”
“No one. The Gods can attempt to submit requests to the Fate System, and petition for changes. It also has a pattern and set of procedures it mostly follows, but we have seen it diverge whenever it wants to. Like with you.” Iris said frankly.
Dylan sighed. “Okay. Okay. Are you the only representative in this world?”
“Certainly not.” Iris said. “The Great Contract permits thousands of representatives from the various gods to set up an operating branch here, for trade, for diplomacy, for recruitment and for protection of the Market Worlds. Should the Great Contract summon us to its defense against the incursions of the Pactless Ones or the creations of Fate, we are contractually bound to obey.”
“This is a lot more than I expected from an online job posting.”
Iris smiled. “Eh, I thought this was an exceptional turn of events. It is exceedingly rare to witness the birth of a new minor god, already my employers are keen to meet you. They would also like a continuance of your candidate screening services.”
“Not yet. Tell me about avatars and going to the other worlds. What exactly is happening in the battlefield-worlds again? Why do the Gods choose people from Earth?”
“I am certainly not sure about the Avatars. It is an ability of the Gods. You may want to ask the Fate System yourself. As for the second question, as I said, there is a Great Contract, and there are the Pactless Gods. That creates two broad ‘sides’. Those on the side of the Contract, and those outside, thus their name. In theory, you are a Pactless God, as you have not joined the Great Contract.”
“So the Pactless Gods are not all bad.” Dylan interjected.
“Yes. Some pactless gods are neutral. As I was saying, the battlefield worlds are not creations of gods. Battlefield worlds are naturally ‘occuring’ worlds, created by the Fate System. The Battlefield Worlds are larger, and they naturally also contain more treasures created by the Fate System itself. Unlike the private worlds where you have assorted constraints conferred by the Fate System. Followers on your private worlds do not generate divine energy, followers on battlefield worlds do.”
The mention of divine energy clicked for Dylan. “So what’s divine energy?”
“The fuel of the gods, the power behind the miracles, the energy that you use to create things anew. It is generated from various things, followers, great buildings and achievements, or traded. Just as how you earned divine energy by spending less than what you were paid.”
Dylan somehow chuckled at that part. “You didn’t know I was doing that?”
“I did not. The Fate System clearly had planned for this to happen.”
“Okay, okay. I think that’s it for the infodump. What’s next?” Dylan asked.
Iris frowned at the question. “I don’t know? You’re the minor god, you should know?”
Dylan laughed. “True. You said there are other representatives?”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Well, yes, but I am only in contact with a few. There are many, many representatives throughout the world, many whom I do not know..”
“What part of my powers can I use here?”
“That depends on your agreement with the Great Contract. Which you may want to meet at any library, religious place, police station or government institution.” Iris smiled sweetly. “Anyway, my masters are keen to know whether you are continuing the arrangement?”
“Ah... I’ll continue.” Dylan said.
“Good. See you around.” Iris got up to leave. “Feel free to ask me anything.”
----------------------------------------
Dylan sat in his room and looked at the screen again. Agea, his little project in the past 1 year was real. Suddenly he felt bad for mostly neglecting it. His creations were going about their daily affairs, fighting the monsters generated by the world. They could get stronger too, but it was really slow. Since the day he created them, the very first character he created, a female knight from Agea called Alistair, only reached Level 4. Partly because he hardly spent time with it, between the job assignments, and his real life, and sleep.
He checked the settings with far more focus and attention. The monster spawns were set at normal, and wondered whether that had anything to do with it. He could spend divine energy and level them up, but he also needed divine energy and strange items that he could not create to ‘upgrade’ their classes.
He scrolled around the view, and looked at the cities of the world of Agea. There were only two cities, one of which is the capital with a small but beautiful castle, and the other was a coastal city with a small jetty. There’s plenty of space for expansions, there were the regular citizens who lived in the two cities.
The rest of it were just jungles and forests, and beyond that, a void. It costs 500 energy to ‘clear up’ a segment of the void. It was like those city building games where they could buy more space to further grow the city.
Right now, he cumulatively has 10 characters. He clicked on the interface which showed a list. There were also the ‘NPC’ soldiers and knights, these mostly just stood guard around the castle and he couldn’t give them commands directly. He would have to speak to any of the 10 created characters and then they would carry out his orders.
Still, he enjoyed looking at the characters walking around and live their life. They were like a group of digital pets he kept in this. They practiced, they had food. He could even see their little happiness bars as they walked around.
“Food variety is quite low.” Sarah commented in one of the chat-interfaces. Rather than ignore their comments as he usually did as just ‘fluff, this time he clicked in and saw a new link. Dylan discovered the ‘produce’ menu for the first time.
‘Resource Management Menu unlocked.’
He was the creator of this world, wasn’t he? Surely he could create more...
‘You have reached your variety limit at your current power levels. Additional varieties must be ‘traded’ and ‘acquired’ from other worlds to be unlocked, or when you unlock additional variety limits by increasing your god-level.’
“Alright, where’s the trading option?”
‘World Portal and Trading Menu unlocked. Each private world can generate one type of unique goods. Your unique goods are used to trade with other realms for their unique goods. Unique goods are used for special upgrades and abilities. Unique goods can by trade, or by acquisition from battlefield worlds.’
Dylan complained to himself as he sat in front of his laptop. “This is bad design. All these additional things should have appeared as an icon on my main screen. Why is it that I have to click it through a comment from one of my characters.”
‘Do you wish to create a shortcut menu to ‘Resource Management’ and ‘World Portal and Trading’?’
“Well yes.” Dylan gently tapped his mouse. “What else is hidden?”
There was no response.
“It’s one of those ‘everything is hidden and you need to find it to unlock it’ kind of interface.” Dylan complained. “Really feels like there are more of these kinds of games these days.” But now Dylan knew it was real, so he was willing to spend the time to find it.
He browsed back to the capitol again. “Is there a more detailed city management option?”
‘Advanced City Management Option is locked. You must create a ‘Prince’ or a ‘Lord’ character to unlock the option.’
He frowned. Alright, next. He looked back at the option he saw a while earlier.
‘Do you wish to create an avatar? 1000 DE required.’
1,000 DE. That’ll eat up half of his stockpile. “Alright, if this is real, what’s an avatar, tell me more.”
The Monitor flashed a screen.
‘An Avatar allows a God to enter other worlds without using his real body. Should your real body perish, you will die for real. Loss of Avatars will impose a time-penalty, and each successive avatar costs more DE to create.’
Dylan understood it of course. “Earth is safe. Those other worlds with their magical weapons and creations are not safe! But what if I get into an accident in the real world?”
There was no answer. Maybe the Great Contract could answer.
----------------------------------------
The nearest library was actually just a short walk away. The library looked really normal, and he didn’t even know how to contact the Great Contract. “Ah well, let’s just go inside.”
He opened the door-
-and he was now in a vast, white room. There was a very old man with a long gorgeous beard. He had a wooden staff, and he looked like a carbon copy of a wizard.
“Hello, Dylan.” He spoke with an authoritative voice.
Dylan gulped. “Hi. Are you...”
“Yes. I’m the Great Contract, a part of it. I’ve been expecting you since your first meeting with Iris.”
“You know we’ve met?”
“Of course. We have eyes everywhere. You also stick out like a sore thumb, your status as a minor god makes you glow, wherever you go.”
“I see.”
“Come, sit.” A chair magically appeared and they both sat down. “You must have questions. Let us start with the common ones.”
Dylan nodded. “Sure.”
“You can die should you try to. But for those who strike a deal with us, we offer them protection from the common sources of death, like disease, accidents, and so on.”
“Uh...” Dylan wasn’t sure why that was the first item.
“You don’t want to die, right? It’s a common issue. Being formerly mortal, most still harbor a fear of death.”
“I guess.” Dylan answered, and there was a period of silence. The Great Contract soon continued.
“As the overseer of the market worlds, we will watch for all use of magic and powers of the Fate system. The Fate System has granted us administrative and supervisory authority over the market worlds. You, as one who received the Fate System’s powers, are free to stay, but you shall obey our administrative authority.”
“Tell me what I can’t do.”
“We have already restricted your powers. Currently, you may only use limited powers in selected places. You will know where you can use your powers. You may trade your divine energy with us for various advantages, like money and so forth. Excessive use of your limited powers in those selected places will result in the local law enforcement being dispatched and you will be expelled from the market worlds.”
“Okay. So what exactly do you need my agreement on?” Dylan’s immediate response was that the Great Contract had already sorted everything out.
“We do not require your agreement. We merely need to notify you in order to apply the first stage of our authority over you.”
Dylan paused and processed the statement.
“Your very presence here is a sign of acceptance of our administrative authority. Do you choose to reject it?”
“What happens if I do?”
“You will be expelled from Earth.”
“Then I accept. But am I free to travel to other worlds?” Expelled from Earth was a big no-no. He had no intention of living in the other worlds permanently.
“Yes, but we will place certain travel limits in order to minimise magical interference. You will see it in your fate system interface.”
“Okay sounds reasonable. Iris mentioned that I can strike some kind of agreement with you.”
“Yes. We are aware of your intention. Currently, we have no specific needs that would require a special agreement. As it is, you are required to respond and support at least one defensive mobilisation. It will be notified on your Fate System.”
“At least one?”
“Yes. If you have fulfilled at least one defensive mobilisation, you will not be required to attend further mobilisations for that year. If you fail to attend at least one mobilisation per year, we will impose a fine of 200 Divine Energy. If you are unable to pay the fine, you will be expelled.”
“I see.” Alright, sounds simple enough. As long as he has at least 200 Divine Energy he would not be expelled. “How do I meet you to trade with you?”
“We will add a trade function to your fate system interface. You will see it when you return to your home. We believe that is all you need to know at the moment. Goodbye.”
A flash and suddenly Dylan was sitting on a chair in the library. How’d he even get here? Freaked out, he quickly went home and checked his computer.
There really was a new submenu and a prompt on his computer screen.
‘Trade with the Great Contract added.
‘Mobilisation alert added. Do you want to create a wearable alarm?’
Dylan clicked ‘Yes.’ A smartwatch was delivered that same day in the mail.