There had been no radio chatter from Scarshot, and after Kyto had finished his system message review, more than 180 of the 237 affected were dead. They must have all been killed during the aftermath of the slaves being freed, as the last message had been received during the 4-hour paralysis window. The only assumption that they had been able to come to was that the captives had overpowered the raiders and guards and taken revenge. Since leaving Scarshot, they had been travelling for seven days. The weather had turned horrendous, with near-blizzard conditions for most of the journey. They eventually pulled off the main road and entered a deserted small town, finding a building they could stay in.
They had left so quickly from Scarshot that they had not even considered taking any supplies, apart from their backpacks, with them. Lars and TJ had been hunting and captured some Wild Ones for their meals. They reminded Kyto of Earlopper's. Crystal had gone with Tabs foraging, and even though the winter weather was harsh, they had sourced enough to make a decent-looking stew. The five sat around the fire they had set near the building entrance, behind a wall protecting it from the prevailing wind. Their displays flashed:
System 2.0 will be implemented in t-minus 30 seconds.
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“What the hell does this mean?” Kyto said, looking over around the fire.
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“I have no idea.” Tabs replied.
“Has everyone else seen this?” Kyto said.
They all nodded, watching the countdown on their displays.
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∆∆∆
Sniffer was still lying in bed due to his injuries, and Elizabeth was sitting next to him reading a book when the messages began. Tiddles had also lifted his head above the end of the bed, turning to them both with a quizzical look on his face.
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∆∆∆
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They all screamed as the countdown ended. It was not a general scream but an all-consuming terrorising scream that every single pain receptor in their brains triggered. Kyto thought his head was about to explode; he gritted his teeth tightly, grinding them.
Neural pathway alignment is in progress – please hold while it is completed.
The pain was so intense that he struggled to open his eyes, but when he did, he saw that they were all suffering the same. Blood was leaking from Crystal's nose and ears, and glancing around, everyone was the same. He felt the warmth of his blood trickle down his face.
Once neural alignment is complete, the system will reboot.
Kyto could no longer keep his eyes open, the pain and sensation overpowering anything he had ever felt in his life. The intense feelings lasted several minutes before the pain slowly faded.
Neural alignment has been completed, please. Await reboot.
Kyto chanced another glance around the fire. Everyone was holding their faces in agony from what had occurred, tears rolling down most of their faces.
The system reboots in 5 seconds.
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Kyto lost consciousness.
∆∆∆
The Entity watched as the life forms reset with the System upgrade. It did not understand pain, so it could never realise what it had just done to every living creature of any sentient nature on the planet, but it had just caused the most excruciating experience they had ever felt. The challenge would start in 500 of their days, and he had chosen his first two Enlightened.
∆∆∆
Kyto came to. He was lying by the fire that was still burning but much lower than before. He must have been unconscious for a while. He slowly sat up, feeling groggy and had a nagging pain in his head. He looked at Tabs. She was still lying unconscious, as were the others. His display triggered:
Welcome to System 2.0
You have entered the Age of the Enlightened.
All previous skills and knowledge have been realigned, and you will find new skill paths for future development.
'What the fuck.' he thought.
He looked at his display readings, and his character sheet icon blinked. He thought over it, and it opened on his retina. His skill sheet was utterly different. He no longer had any previous skills or specialist skills, and his science tree was empty. Everything had been replaced with a single line.
Specialisation: Arcane Knowledge 53
He focussed on the 53.
You have 53 skill points to spend in Arcane Knowledge.
He had no idea what it even related to, but a secondary tab flashed. He left it for now as he heard Tabs groan. He came out of his display and saw her starting to come around.
"Tabs, are you ok?" he asked, as her eyes slowly opened.
She put her hand up to her head, holding it, "I think so. My head is pounding, though."
"Whatever happened has reset our skill trees," he said.
Tabs closed her eyes and looked at hers briefly. "Mine are fine," she replied.
"What? Mine is completely different," he replied again, focusing on his retina display and clicking on his character sheet.
It was then he noticed the other changes:
[https://i.imgur.com/qvwsKFJ.jpg]