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Chapter 374: Just One of Each
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“The Blueprint!” Maki shouted.
Only after he was sure that he was in synched with his troubles and newly recovered memories did Siva took in a deep breath and really made an effort to consider the entire situation.
First things first... he had to accomplish all of his agenda —whether it was the original agenda or an impromptu adjustment agenda from the time he had come to a decision to meet the Humans.
If Cortana was capable of shock right now, she would be surprised to how Siva’s minds worked right now.
Fast, precise, calculated, experienced.
Before… Siva’s mind worked like that of a really desperate teenager.
Now, he was like a seasoned soldier, a frontline warrior whose decisions and insights have their purposes and as well as a place to overlay in the secondary, tertiary, all the way up to the final plans.
Mature.
Right now, Siva’s mentality is too mature and too target-oriented for his biological age.
Siva was much calmer and there was a sense of a detached atmosphere in him.
“For a mere AI, you’ve developed a long way to be as close to a real person as you can get so never act as if you’re above mea and throw your hard work away. If I felt like doing it, I can crush you the way I pinch a berry on my fingers!”
It was a clear threat.
They all knew that he was capable of doing it.
Siva’s words felt like an admonishment coming from some king or some rich descendant of a big company towards his employees.
It felt heavy that even the dignitaries were all clad in cold sweat when they realized that all his words were also meant to them.
“Hmph.” After a snort, Siva flicked his fingers and sent a panel window to Maki. “Now that settles it all so what’s left is only my promise to fight the invading demons.”
Maki eyed the blueprint and then frowned at him before saying, “Wait for the information after an hour. I will have to sort all of my copies’ data first before I can give you Intel.”
Maki can be treated as a wandering spy and his ‘copies’ were all over the planet. Given the time that he had existed until now, it was easy to think just how many ‘copies’ he had in the planet.
Sorting all their data from the day of the attack in Alexandria until now will really take at least a day if it wasn’t an AI on the level of Maki or Cortana.
“But more than that…” Maki’s next few words was layered with freezing hostility. “…where do you think you are going?”
Maki was intent on blocking him.
Right now, they are already in the last door that separates the main duct panel doors and the area of the circular cathedral where the memory crystal was —used to be located.
With just this alone, it was clear what Siva was planning to do here.
“I need to upgrade my gear.” Siva said with a hint of icy indifference, “I need nine NM-Converters, four PNFs, and a few other items that was inside that… cough… buffet… cough… table.”
Maki was an android and shouldn’t be capable of facial expressions despite being already a fully converted Artificial Life-Form, and yet, his brows can’t help but twitch in anger. His circuits’ sturdiness is being tested!
He was incensed.
“This is our resource warehouse! You are not in any way allowed nor in liberty to even come close to the door of this place! You’ve already robbed us of a precious resource! Do you think we are only to just sit down and look at you with puppy eyes and watch you bring us down?!”
Higginson Bollard was also angry.
This is not part of the deal.
Scion was also puzzled. Is this still Rex? It’s as if she was looking at another side of Siva that she found rather mischievously and viciously funny.
In fact, this little joke was so sinister that no sum of cleverness could make it sound funny when it was the Humans’ resources that’re in question.
[Ara… ara…… this is the [Siva] I know…]
“Shut up, old hag.”
Again, something cracked in the Elf but Scion is too clueless, no, too dense to know what it was.
Siva —no, Rex Kingsley— back when he had first arrived in Terroa had to learn how to survive. And only when he had learned how to do it efficiently did he start to expand his horizons and meet the civilizations closest to his place of arrival.
And yet in there, where Gods who wielded all kinds of powers are the rulers and that personal power is your key to survival, Rex had to crawl his way up using any means possible.
And when it means “any means possible”…. that included layers upon layers of clever trickery and planning….
It should be noted that the Terran Universe back then was yet to be engulfed in a total war and that Terra back then was yet to abandon her divinity in order to save the entire universe.
The Demons, despite already in existence at the same time as Terra’s first [Primordial Gods] back then, are yet to launch their massive campaign to engulf the entire universe into the hungry folds of darkness’ corruption.
Thus, she was yet to gain a complete sentience; thus she was yet to manifest divine physical form; thus..……. she was still keeping her role as the overseer of all life forms.
Thus, the activities of the Demons are only known to a few parts of the universe. But these parts are all eaten alive before they could even spread the important news.
In all honesty, Rex back then just had to land on a corner of the universe where these demons have been active. As such, the environment where he had to crawl his way to survival was full of either bloody battles or the cleverest and most complex of his tricks.
As a matter of fact, it even included cosplaying!!
Once, in order to get a precious resource, Rex had to tie up a king and used illusion magic to pretend to be that king and take away the item.
It was an international scandal that the mortified king mobilized the entire kingdom to hunt him.
There was also a time where, in order to get the blessing of a certain virgin priestess, Rex had to pretend to be an apparition of the God she was serving, barging into the middle of her bath, and tricked her to pray for that blessing.
When the God found out about it, Rex had to flee the star system just to escape the God’s burning wrath.
And as for the maiden priestess, she had mental shock and occasionally gets seizures with her mouth bubbling up whenever she gets to see an eggplant or anything hand-sized and longer than six inches.
Basically, Rex had done many things and had to improvise most of the time just to get necessary resources and items for his survival.
Eventually, when he became the first Immortal and led the generations of ascenders, that was also the time when the war officially broke out.
Since then, trickery wasn’t going to work and all he needed to survive was pure strength and the heart to fight for his life to defy death.
*****
Now that he remembered “everything” that had happened back then until now… it can even be said that Rex Kingsley —Siva— had reverted back to his original personality.
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Perhaps, adding to that the fact that these are all merely NPCs, whether he’s bias or discriminating against them or not, this indifference radiating on his person really do indeed surprised Scion by a large margin.
His calculating mind, harsh and direct words, his apathetic speech, his observant and discerning condescending gaze, and his mischievous smirk that you can feel even if you can’t see it through his helm and his black smoke skin, all of them added were his weapons for survival.
It was something embedded on a complete Rex Kingsley which, upon seeing it for the first time, made Scion… feel a unique kind of excitement.
She was discovering more of Rex and this is the kind of excitement which makes a girl in love to feel wet somewhere.
Thankfully, he also had the real world side’s version of Rex Kingsley and Siva, so perhaps half of this extreme side of his personality has been lifted or have been doused in a cold bath; adding to that the existence of Scion who was standing beside him, this ‘face’ everyone in this place is seeing now may already be his best face to show in front of anybody.
Perhaps making an allowance for the ‘face’ he’d wanted Scion to see, he spoke to Maki, “What about this... I will throw in more Dragon Resource to this transaction. How about it?”
“Time.” Maki said coldly, “If you can give us your time and work for the resources you will be taking away from this place, then I at least will be considering your proposal. Dragon Resource is definitely tempting but no amount of it can make sure that, within the society that we are counted as mere refuges, we will not be shunned and even abandoned when the time comes.”
In the end, they are the weakest of the citizens of this planet and that as part of the deal they’ve struck with the Terrans, they are to provide their technology in exchange for the right to live in the soil of their homeland.
Siva understood it. In his memory, he had once also led a few people he found worthy to care for out of burning planets and became refuges to a foreign land, promising to pay their rent for the time they are allowed to exist in their planet.
This left a bitter taste in his lips because in the end….. those he had arranged the safety for had winded up being collateral damage during the last moments of Ragnarok.
But still, it’s not as if there was no solution with his concern right now.
Siva leaned his head to the side and said, “I need you to pull your strings, Old Hag.”
Reluctant, yes, but Gaia can’t say no to Siva. She could only smile as if she didn’t hear the last two words and assure Maki.
[I will place the necessary arrangements so you don’t have to worry about those Sovereigns and other Seats in the Alliance.]
“But I will still require those Dragon Resources.”
“Pfft. Wow… you sure are greedy.”
“Take it or leave it.”
“Fine. Here.”
With a ripple in the fabric of space, more boxes appeared not far from Higginson Bollard. Again, this was something that surprised the man for the expected flash of light when accessing the panel option’s [Inventory Option] did not happen.
“There is no more need to any oaths or contract, just the promise between men. If you still won’t move aside, I will literary plunder this facility.”
Maki frowned and looked at Siva with a few very complicated twitches in his countenance.
Still, as much as he was assured by Gaia, it was them, the Humans, who will be suffering so he can’t just give away their precious resources.
“Only one of each items.” He spoke resolutely.
Siva grinned. There were no more traces of his earlier emotional fit in his current self, only the complicatedly intricate sets of atoms that is Siva.
“Only one of each items?” He asked making sure Maki was clear of it.
“This is our limit.” Maki was stern about it.
Siva’s grin widened even more. “Deal.”
[Ah!] Gaia was already feeling sorry for Maki.
If Thorn and Volt was here, they would be rolling their eyes and set up an “I am Sorry” campaign in honor of Maki.
That’s because this very scene itself is the same scene where Billion almost went crazy and almost lost his job —Billion even went and made a vow to never, ever again, make a deal with Siva.
Maki made a way for them and the panel doors to the production area opened up with a hiss.
It was a fifty meter-wide area with machines of all sizes lined up in one side and the assembly on the opposite side, with the wide duct entrance to the packaging area on the other end opposite of Siva’s location.
‘Cortana, start scanning.’
[Leave it to me boss.]
Gaia could hear anything verbally spoken by Cortana but she can’t hear any word when in the two’s ‘telepathic’ link.
Siva faced Higginson, “As far as our deal goes, almost all of the things you promised to explain to me have been explained with the events that had happened earlier…. except for one more.”
Higginson, with his AI, became aware.
“Yes. About the Options Panel…” he shot Maki a glance and made a sigh.
With his extensive experience, Siva had already become aware of how the Teleport Capability of the T-Devices works; as well as with their Item Analyzer, and the various items that The Alliance had showed after the Humans appeared Terroa.
—all of them are somewhat connected to the last [Memory Crystal] that Janus more or less had already used.
In fact, with all of the things that had happened so far and then adding in his experience, Siva is more or less 80% already aware of every [secret] this game had to offer.
He doesn’t have to worry about giving AG his last four set of H-Class equipment.
—ah!
No.
He doesn’t have to.
Because after his total recall, he’s already 100% sure that Augustus’ real plans rotated around the real [secret] not in the game —but in Terroa.
The game was but their tool to get to him. What AG, and perhaps, even Goldwyn City really wants with him wasn’t to play the game of RPG: Terroa, but actually him, Rex Kingsley, and his memory of the events inside the Terran Universe.
With that as the foundation, he was already 80% aware of what other surprises RPG: Terroa had to offer.
So, the only concern he has left is how—
“How are you able to access the Panel Options?”
Gaia wondered, [Isn’t that only normal?]
Siva looked at her and then to Scion, “No. It’s not normal.” —because there wasn’t something like this back then… and back then, I was the only one who had access to something like it.
This is a big question. Before, he might have not the slightest idea —even before he had decided to forget and forced a selective amnesia and start all over again, but now that he became aware that Terroa is but a game world, how then, did this player-exclusive feature is given to NPCs?
And to make sure of his conjectures, Siva made a gamble, “Higginson, tell me, on your panel… on the [Options Menu] was there a blank space at the very bottom?”
Higginson made a gesture in the air and Gaia, the curious one, also did the same.
[Yes. There is something like that. I have always wondered about why there was something like a blank space below it though.]
“True. Is there something that should have been there or is still to be put there?”
Shivers run through Siva’s spine and he didn’t dare to say a word of it. Scion, who was beside him, felt it odd and checked her own panel; she was about to speak further when Siva spoke first.
“And to clarify, you all first experienced this and along with the appearance of the [Voice of the World] and the [Instructions] right after the war, 56 years ago?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right.” Higginson was feeling that there was something odd about Siva’s inquiry.
“Rex… what are you…”
“Don’t say anything.” Siva whispered to her but it was something that Maki can picked up so Siva had no choice but to secretly glance at him.
Scion bit her lips and gave him a nod.
“It’s okay. I was just curious. I think I know now.”
Maki voiced out, “I don’t care what you know or not know… just hurry up and move it.”
Siva eyed him nonchalantly. To him, Maki was just another ‘young kid’ —although he was a kid that had a rather rare origin: a [Universe Spirit].
Just how many [Item Spirit], [Formation Spirit], and even [Nature Spirit] that had gained atavism have he seen in his millions of years back then?
Maki was just one of the [Spirits] out there with his only uniqueness being his place of origins.
‘The Humans of this world… while every race and every tribe had their own talents as a racial trait, I just didn’t expect that the Humans of this world are talented at rearing [Spirits].’
[Based on your memories, Boss, do I have that same chance to be a true person?]
Siva gave it thought but since Cortana can read what was on his mind, she already had the reply she needed to hear.
‘Compared to Maki, you are nothing but a fetus so just focus on developing a unique personality algorithm that is yours and once you do, you will be able to achieve true atavism.’
Atavism = the reappearance of an earlier unique characteristic; organisms having characteristics of that of a more primitive type of that organism.
[Artificial Intelligence] are made by Humans with their interaction interface based on how Humans communicate with each other. In hindsight, the Humans developed the [AI-Technology] to ease a lot of their work and in this regard, they should not have their own “life” or in other words, their own sentience.
—that is, speaking on the real world Earth.
But this world is the game world of Terroa and this [world] is governed by 90% rules of physics of the real world with 10% magical elements.
That small 10% was the reason why Maki was able to achieve atavism that [enabled] him to be capable of free thinking —discarding his owner-bound programing and giving him his unique slot in the racial rankings… a [Universe Spirit].
Unless a [Spirit] is capable of this feat —of true atavism— will the [Spirit] be regarded as a true living organism by its right.
Siva had seen it many times and thus, watching Maki act with such open hostility and anger was like him looking at a 6-year old child.
It was cute… so he snorted, “Don’t worry. I will move it.”
Having said that, Siva neared the rows of item-making machines on their right-hand side from the panel doors and floated over at the center.
Scion and the rest only watched him since the space was wadded to only allow a single person in between the conveyor belts at a time.
When he was in the center, he judged that the item-making machines were inside his 40m-wide Inventory Plus Ultra-range of acquisition so he couldn’t help smiling broadly.
[I’ve already recorded everything, sir. And just like how the items sold in the stores are, we can decipher 95-98% of their material composition but the other 2-5% is the same type of unknown material that has the similar minute amounts of energy fluctuations that blocks my scans in the same way as the Memory Crystal.]
‘Hmm. That’s understandable. So how many machines are there?’
[54 in total, sir.]
‘Hmmm… I only need the NM-Converter and the PNF right now but in the future, we would also need the other item-making machines here in this facility.’
He looked around him, and his eyes gleamed at the sight of the item-making machines in side of his vision. His goal weren’t the items, but the very machines that make the items themselves.
If he wanted Asgard to be a self-sufficient state with its own autonomy over its territory, then he had to provide as much convenience to all his guardians’ needs as possible… to the point that the bounty was so much, it was overflowing.
Having decided such, he turned to Maki and he smiled behind his helm, asking once again.
“Any items?”
“Just one of each.”
“Alright.”
That was Maki’s biggest mistake.
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Next Chapter: the “InOSaRC” approaches…
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