Sam made his way into the library after an hour of running that had barely covered a hundred feet in objective space, and entered it. As soon as he did so, the effect of the street stopped and he was able to walk normally. The inside of the library was not filled with books, but with small cubicles that had strange machines within them that looked vaguely like sci-fi devices for the purpose of entering a digital reality. Sam wondered what the makers of all those movies would have thought if they had been able to see this world for themselves.
Most of the cubicles were filled, but one nearby him was free and he sat down within it. Picking up the wire that connected to the side of the wall, he stared at it, confused. It was not clear at all what he was supposed to do with it, but the wire took initiative for itself. The thing jumped out of his hands and thrust itself into his ear. He did not feel any pain, but the sensation was strange nonetheless.
A flash of green light blocked everything else out and he found himself standing in the middle of a starry void, surrounded by words. Each of them was connected to a massive pile of documents that appeared as if they were physical. Wondering where he should start, Sam decided to ask what the Dao Annals were. The System had briefly mentioned them and he wanted to know more about them. Speaking the words into the void, a series of papers drifted up to them. Upon picking one of them up, the information was downloaded into his mind.
You have used 0.1% of your allotted data space within the Interweb. Upon filling this, you must either delete something else within your space, upgrade your citizenship, or progress in rank.
This seemed like a good deal to Sam, until he read what had been implanted into his mind. It was barely a paragraph in length.
The Dao Annals(System Entry)
The Dao Annals are a semi material accumulation of all of the possible states of matter within reality. As concepts emerge and form into their own Daos, their nature and interactions with other concepts are tracked by the Dao Annals. This creates a self fulfilling series of templates that work together to manage the progression of causality. Dao Archetypes are part of this cycle, and they are formed when sapient beings interact with the Dao Annals. The creation of something, such as a culture, language or non physical concept creates a space within the Annals for this to be formed. These Archetypes can be drawn upon to create versions of themselves, similar to blueprints within a construction process. Much about the Annals is unknown, such as when they were created, why they exist and how something that is not accessible anywhere physical can still be drawn upon.
See also;Akashic Records, Causal Templates, Theory of the Creator.
Sam had heard of the term Akashic Records before, and it was the only thing within this that he recognized instantly. There had been a similar interpretation of what this meant back on Earth, but it was mainly the domain of cultists and weirdos who believed in some universal truth. As it turned out, they had been right. Sam wondered if they had come to the recognition of this truth because of the subtle influence of the Dao Annals, which seemed to be the only right answer. Did that mean that many of the civilizations on Earth were based on something further off in the Multiverse? Was Sam a clone of someone else? As he pondered these questions, he was ejected from the Interweb and spat out onto the floor of his room. Sam’s time had run out.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The robot still stood there and as Sam got up, the bot spoke to him.
“How was it? As a robot, I am unable to access the Interweb in the same manner as a natural sophont.”
Sam’s look of confusion signaled to the robot that he had no idea what it was talking about.
“Sophont? Is that Latin or something?”
“It simply means a sapient being. Is that a term that is out of use within your lexicon? I found it when a knowledge pack was imported into my brain of the culture and language of Earth. As a naturally occurring word in your language, the System translation feature did not kick in. Never mind that though. I need to recharge. My new capabilities are taking a toll on me.” The robot sat down in a cross legged position and then started to make a noise like that of a human breathing in and out. It seemed that it was cultivating, in some way or another. Sam could see energy start to accumulate within the robot, and energy that he had not seen before. It was of a rainbow color, and it felt like a wellspring of potential to him. Recognizing the feeling, he was able to figure out what it was. It was essence in its pure form. That must have been what the robot, and indeed most forms of System sanctioned technology, ran off of, seeing the disdain that the System had for higher forms of conventional technology.
The bot was not really a robot in the traditional sense, but rather a form of monster that acted like one. It did not run off of electricity or have a central processing unit, but it still was able to do things that a normal robot could do.
Sam left the room, with nothing else to do there. It was time to watch some more of the fights. As well as that, he wanted to see the rankings of the battles so far and who was out of the tournament for good. He made his way into the room, and saw a much diminished crowd as opposed to before.
Looking up at the leaderboards, he saw that barely a hundred people remained, within both the losers’ and winners’ brackets. He was near the top of the winners bracket, in all of the categories. At some point during the final segment of the tournament, the System had started ranking the fighters, to create some sort of audience engagement. It even seemed that there was betting going on. The top segment of the leaderboard looked like one of the lineups in a betting shop.
1. The Overlord:2/1 odds
2.Rodney Kane:3/1 odds
3.The Arbiter:3.5/1 odds
4.Profound Visionary:5/1 odds
5.Reaper:6/1 odds
The names did not follow the power leaderboard after third place, and Sam wondered why Andrew Munro was not on it. Was he not as strong as his placement on the leaderboard indicated, or was he simply not suited to arena battles? In fact, Sam had not seen the man fight yet, and he wondered what his full abilities looked like. He had sparred with the man in the monster hunt, but it had been clear that he was holding back then. Sam doubted that some magnetic abilities and a few other tricks were the extent of the man’s resources. One did not get into the top ten without a reason. As he read the rest of the leaderboard, the next fight began.
The one that had been running when Sam had entered had not been worth looking at, just a duel between two of the bottom ranked fighters. Their movements had been unrefined and slow to Sam’s sight, and looking at them was almost painful. The next one seemed more promising though.
It was between the woman who had joined them during the monster hunt, and some man from the upper twenties on the leaderboard. He didn't know either of their names, but it didn't matter to him.
The System announced the fight, and he learned their names anyway. Her name was Eliza Williams, and the man was called Big Boi, one of the most ridiculous aliases that Sam had ever seen. The man was not even big in real life, and was shorter than his opponent by almost five inches. Either the man was delusional, or he was being sarcastic. Most likely the latter of the two. Sam wondered what the woman would do against him, as the last time he had seen Eliza fight, she had been quite bad at it. Her style had been off and she had been much weaker than him. Now it was time to see if she had progressed.