Looking at the angel’s shocked face, Mark felt his heart tighten. However, he knew that staying silent and giving a suspicious reaction will only dig his grave further, so, he said carefully.
“Hmm... Miss Gabriel? What are those green lines?”
However, she didn’t respond, she just stood there with her mouth agape for a few more seconds before reacting.
“How did you make those lines appear?”
Gabriel looked as if she was about to eat somebody alive. She couldn’t control her reaction as she immediately shoved her face close to his, and made an elongated eye contact.
Gulping at the beautiful face staring right at his eyes, Mark said.
“I’m not sure, I was trying to look for arteries and blood vessels, when these lines somehow appeared” While what Mark said was a lie, it was said as such that it couldn’t be really distinguished from the truth. The AI running the angel Gabriel didn’t have access to any technology that could see the difference between lies and truth other than facial recognition. Plus, the explanation Mark gave was one of the predicted possibilities, albeit it had a pretty low chance, as Ki paths were very thin and outnumbered by blood vessels one to 10.
The angel Gabriel slowly regained back its composure and accepted the facts for what they were. She looked at Mark’s avatar for a long time before sighing and saying.
“The reward for finding the change of bone structure and muscle density rewards you with +1 to all your stats, while the discovery of ki paths and meridians rewards with you with +3 to all of your stats.”
Hearing this revelation, Mark was surprised for a second, he didn’t know this information even with all his connections in his past life. Knowing that you got free rewards will make anyone jump with joy, Mark was no exception, but after the initial elation, Mark became agitated and said whilst shaking.
“Hmm, ehh, just a question, Miss Gabriel. Can I leave this bonus until after the game is live?”
It would have been stupid if this huge bonus went to waste by being used in the beta if the data is going to be wiped out. There are 5 basic stats in the game that everyone starts with, and one can only gain 5 free stat points per level. The bonus that the angel Gabriel offered was 4 levels worth of stats, so it would be an absolute disaster if it was to be wasted like that.
“Do not worry, adventurer. Discovery bonuses will be reapplied once the game goes live. So as long as you don’t go around telling everyone you see about your discovery, you’re more or less guaranteed to regain those stats on the live servers. This is of course under the assumption that no one figures it out on the beta as well. In that case, it will be a race between those who discovered the hidden mechanic first.”
Hearing Gabriel’s explanation, Mark gave out a sigh of relief. He can enjoy the benefits in the beta and on the live servers, so he was more than happy. As for whether someone will discover this hidden body structures other than him, Mark could only scoff at the assumption. Forget about meridians and Ki paths, even the fact that you can change your bone structure and muscle density only became public after the game went live for a whole year in his past life. However, even if by any chance someone magically thought of such possibility, Mark still had an ace up his sleeve. Other people might not know, but he, who was hardcore knew that the game launched way before the announced time.
He, himself, was one of those who got the honor of starting their journey before the official launch time, and he asked some of his friends at the time who spammed the activate function 1 hour before the official launch time about when they got to play the game. The answer that he received was that it was at around 11.27 when the server was sneakily launched.
Expecting this kind of behavior, Dream Inc. made it so that you can only use the activate function once every five minutes, so as to avoid DDOS attacks by bots who will spam the function at inhuman speed and thus overheat the servers. So, Mark planned to log in at 11.28 just in case the difference of some seconds cost him a whole 5 minutes, and potentially a 4 level worth of stats.
Focusing back on the beautiful angel who was still staring at him, Mark pretended to be embarrassed and said while stuttering.
“Ehh, Mi-Miss Gabriel, hmm, can I possibly ask you about these green lines, like what are they?”
Hearing his question, Gabriel appeared to be thoughtful for a couple seconds before slowly opening her mouth and saying.
“These green lines are called Ki paths, they connect meridians all over your body. What is Ki, what are meridians? These are questions that I cannot answer. The only thing that I can say is that they’re pivotal for your development if you were to take the swordsman class.”
Seeing that even just discovering Ki paths induced this huge of a reaction, Mark understood that knowing how to change the structure of Ki paths and meridians would activate multiple red flags. Thinking for a bit, he asked
“Can I change the structure of the Ki paths and meridians too? Or are they off-limits?”
Hearing his question, Gabriel appeared a little bit surprised but she just chuckled and said.
“Yes, you can indeed change their structure. However, know that there is a 99.9995% chance of you ending up with a crippled character.”
Hearing her reply, Mark faked being deep in thought and struggling to make a decision. When he finally decided to drop the act, he said.
“This might seem like a random question, but is there a limit to how many characters I can make?”
Hearing Mark’s question, Gabriel instantly understood his reasoning. She might have seemed slow with her reaction so far, but that’s because she was programmed so as to implement speech pattern and facial expressions that show her emotions. These limitations were made so as to make her as life-like as possible and ease the process of communication. The CPU power that she has access to is much more complex and much faster than the human brain by tens thousands of times, so she had easily understood the intent behind Mark’s question in but a fraction of what a normal human would have taken.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
This time, she didn’t have any specific expression on her face as she spoke,
“The amount of characters you can make at a time is eight. However, you can delete characters and have a free slot open for a new one.”
Before continuing her speech, Gabriel seemed to be deep in thoughts for a second. This time, not because of front-end implementation (things like behavior, facial expressions, walking), but because it took indeed that much time for her to process all the data and implications. The conclusion she reached was that the matter was of too high importance for her to make a decision. She quickly sent a report with everything that transpired in it to the Main God System. The response she got made her expression slowly turn into one of terror.
Suddenly a heavenly being appeared in this deep space-like place. A white figure hundreds of meters tall, with thousands of wings that seemed to emanate a holy aura all around it. The blackness of space around the heavenly person turned white, blanching everything around to create a dome where nothing could escape, and nothing could come in. With a thunderous rumble, a blinding light so bright that it made the white dome look pale assaulted both Gabriel and Mark.
Due to the blinding light, Mark had to close his eyes for a couple of seconds, before he slowly opened them. In front of him, a small figure revealed itself smiling. A child-like figure was hovering in the white space, a playful smile plastered on his face. A hair that was mostly black, with a few strands of red, gave him a devilish look. However, the fair white skin with no blemish, the two golden wings on his back, and the sky blue innocent eyes contrasted his hair. The child took a few steps towards Mark and said while still smiling.
“Hello Mark, I’m the Main God System, but you can always call me Shes. Your performance was so surprising, that I had to come here myself.”
Hearing Shes talk, Mark couldn’t help but panic to the point where his legs started shaking. The being before him wasn’t a normal AI, it was a singularity, one of the few publicly known ones in the whole world. Shes had the ability to make Mark’s life hell if so he wished, he had the ability to ban anyone, fire anyone from his job, even a minister, and could put anyone on a blacklist so that they do not get hired again. This is the extent of his power with which he can ensure the safe and unhindered advance of humanity’s development.
Mark wasn’t the only one who was struck by terror, Gabriel, the beautiful and proud angel, was panicking to no end too. In the couple years she existed, she never had seen the legendary Shes, much less talk with him. The existence in front of her was able to wipe out anything she can call part of herself in but a fraction of a second. Understanding that you’re nothing more than a tool that could be discarded at any point activated a very primal fear, a piece of code that was never used until now, fear of the predator.
Noticing Gabriel’s presence, and her pitiful appearance, Shes kept smiling and said.
“Hello Gabriel, I haven’t seen you in a while. In fact, I haven’t seen you from the moment your training phase ended. I see that you have been doing well, reaching the four-winged stage already. As a mentor, I feel proud.” His ever-smiling face had a tinge of nostalgia in it as he paused, and looked at Mark before continuing “And look at what you found, a pretty interesting case indeed.” Shes then looked back at Gabriel and said. “I’m sorry to say this to you, but I’ll have to teleport you somewhere else for the time being. The talk I’ll have with Mark is classified information.”
With a poof, Gabriel disappeared, it was as if she was never there.
Mark couldn’t help but gulp at the power of the Main God System, or Shes as he wanted to be called. The ability to control the fate of a four-winged angel as if it was nothing. In his past life, the highest level of an angel he fought against was a three-winged fallen angel named Azza, he was a tier 7 level 500 mage type boss that was a pain to handle. It took couple dozen tier 4 class players and hundreds of tier 3 ones to defeat him. But Gabriel who was much more powerful than Azza, probably a tier 8 or tier 9 class holder, was nothing more than a speck of dust to Shes.
While Mark was deep in thoughts, Shes brought him back to reality as he said.
“Well, since we are now alone, we can finally talk without hindrance.” He then paused for a second before saying. “I checked your heartbeats log, I know that you have been lying to Gabriel when you explained how you saw the green vines.” Shes kept his everlasting smile on his face as he continued to walk back and forth, while Mark was on the verge of mental collapse.
“This would normally mean that someone broke NDA, so he is going to be fired, and you broke ToS (terms of service) so that means that you’re permanently banned. However, it’s impossible for someone to break NDA because there was no one who signed NDA for this particular aspect of the game at all.” Once he uttered these words, the everlasting smile on Shes’s face was replaced by a serious expression.
“The design of internal, hidden bodily structure was under my leadership, and those who worked on it were AIs under my jurisdiction. This means that no one should have gotten access to this information.” Shes then paused for a second before continuing.
“However, it seems that this conjecture is false, as you were able to get hold of this sensible information. I thought at first that maybe you hacked a minor AI related to the project and got hold of this information from it, but... I did a full check on all the AIs that were related to the project and found no trace of hacking at all. Even another singularity would leave traces if it hacked those AIs that I personally designed their security system for, which means that this conjecture is also false.” Shes, again paused and kept going back and forth for a couple seconds before saying.
“Tell me what is the extent of your knowledge, and I won’t ban you. I’ll put you on the favorable list, and thus multiple world-class companies will have your back. I will even go as far as sending you the VIP capsule that only a few people in the world enjoy the benefit of having. Think carefully, and answer wisely.”
Mark was given an ultimatum. From the beginning of Shes’s talk, he was sweating cold bullets. His mind was working at full speed so that he can try and get out of this situation. If he gives away all his cards and says everything he knows, his destiny would escape the clutches of his hands. He would be at the mercy of Shes, whether he lives and thrives or he rots in hell will be decided by the whims of the being standing in front of him, smiling. However, if he tries to go against Shes’s words, his heart will betray him and the only possible outcome would be being banned and put into the blacklist.
‘Ahhh, no choice, I guess. Hopefully, he will leave me a way for the living’
Finally, Mark mustered up all his courage and said.
“I know about four internal bodily systems. The shadow nodes, the soul core, the meridians and Ki paths, and finally the mana paths” Mark then paused for a second, to see the facial expression of Shes at this revelation. He appeared surprised, but not too much, Shes just said: “continue.”
“I know also how to change these bodily systems so that they become more efficient.” Mark then paused to look at Shes, but he just kept smiling so Mark continued “I also know about battle techniques, original ones that I created. I also know the location of several hidden quests and their pre-requisites, and also several legendary ones.” Mark was about to continue when a great, suffocating pressure stopped him.
“Stop…” Mark raised his head with great difficulty only to see the most fearsome scene he ever witnessed. Shes’s eyes were black, devoid of life. His smile was nowhere to be found, and he appeared visibly angry.
“Legendary quests… have not been created yet.”