CH 2 - Token Joke Build
Skylark had loved Survivor, Fear Factor, and Elimidate back when she was a teenager. She remembered when “Reality TV” had just gotten started, but the major tenets of what constitutes entertainment for anyone with higher brain function had never changed; Drama, Violence, and sex. What had she signed up for; Is this how those contestants felt, she thought? She opened her eyes against the odd liquid that kept her suspended in the transport module. She could just barely make out the Producers and One Universe network employees scuttling around. She had volunteered, she had been screened, she had said all the right things, and been ranked with a high propensity for generating interest and maybe even a catchphrase, they had some type of device that could measure that which didn’t make sense, but it did since nothing made sense after the singularity happened. Now she was going to be an “ambassador” to another world. A world going through the same changes Earth had experienced roughly 10 years ago.
Earth had done well with itself in the singularity. Popular fiction had depicted such a concept many years before first contact was made. The first contact wasn’t what Skylark48 or the rest of the population had expected. The “Aliens” came but it was the cosmic particles that brought them. Earth had been next in line to have all its matter saturated with an energy that connected everything. Ephemeral Origins was how it was translated into English. Ironically thousands of religions were validated in one fell swoop, it seems there was a seed or potential for this connection in everything and it had now awakened. What we dreamed about had always been there, it just needed to be germinated to bloom. And bloom it did. Skylark and the other earthlings received the prompt, the first pop-up message of many to come.
Congrats! Matter and Energy integration was successful. Tutorial initialization in 10 seconds…10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1!
Tutorial, Skylark scoffed to herself, she didn’t know of many tutorials with a 10% completion rate. The singularities Tutorial included rapidly evolved earth beasts and dark randomly generated dungeons full of traps and all kinds of other “tests”. Skylark winced thinking about the first day in the new world. She had lost all her college friends, they had all transported together but Skylark was the only one to make it out. She had to focus though, she felt the equipment around her start to thrum and she knew the teleportation would be happening soon, just as she thought this her entire reality bent in on itself as she had gone from living in a 4D world to a 3D, to a 2D.
She felt herself slip through something unimaginably small and slippery like water rapidly going down a bottomless crevasse. Nothing but darkness followed and then the next thing she knew she was hunched over throwing up onto the ground that had just materialized before her. More of her lunch splattered onto the floor, only stopping when some bile finally came up. Skylark wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and tried to steady her breathing. After a few moments her eyes peeled open from their intense wince and she got a determined look on her face, “Now where the F am I” She said to no one in particular. Opening her inventory she brought out a mana lantern and turned it on just enough for it to draw ephemeral origins from the air. Its weak light revealed a natural cave wall, with stalactites and stalagmites circling Skylark on the edge of the lantern's nimbus. I’m underground she thought to herself. She focused on her Air and Tech ephemeral origins she had suffused with all those years ago and tried to get a feel for how far underground she was. She’d done this in dungeons before and with her increased neuroception from her Tech and Air Ephemeral Origins. But instead of getting a read out from her head’s up display (another perk of having the Tech Origin) it gave her several 9s in a row and then flashed the words ‘NULL VALUE’.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Null Value, what the hell is that supposed to mean?” then her heart sank and she made the connection. She understood why the producers spent so much time asking her about her Origin skills, why they had smiled brightly as she described the amazing feeling of flight.
She raged, “I'm the token joke build then, huh? Think this is funny universes?!” She shook her clenched fist at the air where she assumed the Ephemeral Origins were piping a stream, back to the Collected Universes.
They knew. The producers knew the whole time. The 48th singularity was happening on a subterranean planet. There had been examples of this in the 13th Synchronization but she didn’t think the show producers would be so cruel. Skylark, the uncaged bird, the soaring Windsong of technology was just transported to a dirty hole in the ground she couldn’t fly out of.
“Fuck you guys” She yelled, giving the “camera” the bird. She rolled over into a seated position and began using her more diagnostic scans through Neuroception. It was very basic at first but it was 3rd tier now and had some nice additions to where it started. As Skylark concentrated further, she slowly enveloped the area in her consciousness. She felt the edges of the caves, all cut in angular harsh lines with a washed-out floor, smooth from flooding it looked like. Instead of a fairly rapidly expanding experience, it took longer than usual for Neuroception’s mapping ability to complete. It also wasn’t as long-range since it couldn’t penetrate the stone. Only light materials were permeable enough to seep through using the technique. Pretty soon Sky had a mini rendering in her HUD showing the edges of all the caves in the complex up to 300 meters away. Skylark was slowly digesting all the data when a blip appeared moving in on her position. Her eyes flashed open just as the creature made it into the outer edges of her lamplight. It was made out of thrashing orange tentacles without a body to speak of. The creature bellowed at her which ended up sounding like thick wet worms bodily smacking against each other. Gouts of tentacles exploded out and encircled Skylark’s wrists.
Skylark smiled at the thick coils now ensconced around each hand, “Joke’s on you, I’m into that shit!” She concentrated on her Tech Origin once more and helped the mitochondria in every cell bubble up to play their role as the powerhouse. But instead of the usual biochemical reaction, they pulled directly from the ephemeral origins that vibrated in all matter, producing great gouts of green electricity that cracked and arced over every inch of Skylark’s body. The tentacle monster's grip tightened even harder around Skylark’s hands before spasming and then softly falling away from her.
Level 10 Worm Horror Defeated - Experience Awarded! One Universe Participants get a bonus to Experience (25% capped).
Huh, that’s a nice bonus, Skylark thought. Must be one of the perks they mentioned for keeping the system balanced. And especially, since I took a hit to levels just to come here. Only fair really, she thought. Now, where to begin? I need to find the inhabitants of the 48th universe. Everyone will be racing to get to the closest civilization, I need to be too. Just then she felt another intrusion on her nebulous radar magic. Multiple Worm Horrors Inbound, Skylark dove to the side as a mass of writing purple worms slammed into the floor where she had just been sitting.
“I’m glad there’s more of you roper fucks,” Skylark shouted at the newest horror to arrive, “I was just getting warmed up!” A gout of green electricity crackled across the cave, the flash of the emerald light lit up the tunnel enough to see the encircling creatures that were sitting just at the light’s edge. Skylark needed levels and the bonus just made her that much more excited to get started.