A day had passed since the announcement by the World Government. During that time, the gang had decided to complete a few more scenarios while Kane also dove to finish a scenario from the World and Memory stage each. He had gotten a decent understanding of the scenarios and what to expect in different stages from Eli, who had actually managed to finish five scenarios from each stage.
He had been curious about why she was still attempting the Dream stages though, when these stages took more time while providing lesser rewards. Her answer had been very straightforward.
"I told you how my first reward in the dream stage is part of an inheritance last time, right? Well, the GUIDE informed me that the following sections of this particular inheritance can only be obtained from clearing dream stage scenarios. So unfortunately, I have no choice but to clear more dream stages. The good thing is that this is all worth it. The final result from obtaining the complete inheritance is definitely going to be worth every effort."
After that discussion, Kane had decided to earnestly level up in skills and techniques for a while. Before they started challenging Reality stages, there wasn't much to do around. And while he had absorbed thousands of alternate versions of himself, he had found that did not translate to actual skill.
The magical techniques, various superhuman skills, and genetic enhancements that were given as rewards for the scenarios were special. He learnt of this after he obtained his reward for the dream stage he had cleared.
His reward had been an ability that allowed him to create illusions. Like the ones that had plagued him during his scenario. But what surprised him was the way that his ability worked. The source of energy for powering the ability seemed to lie deep within him, as if it was rising straight from his soul. Which had got him thinking.
By absorbing future Kane, he had learnt a lot from the thousands of memories that were inside him. But even after he searched through these experiences, he failed to find anything that resembled the ability he had obtained. Or like the one Eli used to control flames, or the frost arrows that Asche could shoot. There was something very different about how the abilities awarded by the GUIDE worked.
He didn't mean that there weren't such supernatural abilities in the countless realities out there. But that the rewards given by the GUIDE were special in a sense. So, he had finally decided to ask the GUIDE about this. And as expected, the answer did not disappoint him.
|*Resident Kane, the rewards for the stages given by the GUIDE are unique because these rewards are meant to directly enhance and support your soul. During the merger, you may have realized that the physical body holds no meaning. You have absorbed 1024 alternate selves, and you are able to call forth the physical mutations of those versions instantly. The physical bodies are not unique. Instead, it is the soul that is. Which is why all rewards are bound to your soul instead of your body. Making them special. Any ability, magic, enhancement, knowledge or technique is directly bound to your soul such that you can exhibit it through even without a body.*|
And that is how he discovered the existence of souls. But this revelation just made him more frustrated somehow.
'Ugh, this damned GUIDE. It should be illegal to call itself a guide if every time we have to actively ask it for something. And then there is the damned authority excuse it pulls up to avoid answering questions when it matters the most. And worst of all, it does not provide any classification, or rules or guidelines to follow. There is literally no aim or goal to seek. And it's driving me nuts, I can't.'
Kane was vexed. But so were the readers.
Nothing seemed to make sense, and everything only got more confusing. Bits and pieces of information kept popping up, and there was no way to keep track of it all at once. And worst of all, it seemed like there was no end to it. If only there was some order to this chaos that had enveloped the world.
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And that was when an idea of brilliance stuck him. It was so out of the ordinary that Kane felt like calling himself a genius. He got up excitedly from his room and called out to his friends.
"Everyone, gather up. I need your help with something, so get here quickly. This might take a while." He asked the GUIDE to ping them all.
He arrived at the room full of couches and waited for his friends.
Around five minutes later, the five of them finally all gathered up in the common room. Eli and Asche looked like they had been training, while Zephyr had definitely been in the labs from his appearance. He was in a typical white coat, and he was still wearing gloves. Kane then looked at Jay for a moment before deciding that his big friend had probably been in the kitchen.
Satisfied, he clapped and gestured at them to take a seat.
Asche looked at others skeptically, wondering if they knew what was up. All of them shook their head, still confused about the sudden invite.
"Alright, so I have come up with a plan. To bring some order to the chaos that has been clouding our minds as of late. Hear me out on this.
You know how the GUIDE often tells us that we don't have enough authority for some questions, right? Or why the rewards from the GUIDE for the scenario are unique? The use and effect of absorbing others? How and why are mutations randomly appearing sometimes and if they are of any use? There are many questions that are there, for some of which we have answers and for some we only have clues and guesses.
What I am planning to do is to set a framework and system to explain everything that we know, everything we know partially and also everything we don't know. The GUIDE reminds us constantly that it will play by no rules, but it doesn't stop us from creating RULES, does it? It doesn't have to stick to the rules since there weren't any. But since it is bound to fulfill requests of the Residents and help us survive through the merger, if we ask it to follow RULES that we set, it will definitely comply to them, right? What do you think? Sounds crazy or doable?"
He tried to catch his breath, looking at his friends in excitement. He wasn't sure that he understood his own words, but somehow it made sense to him. That this was the correct way to make use of the GUIDE.
He waited for his friends to completely process his words. He knew that the idea wasn't going to pop and make sense instantly like it had for him. But surely, they would see what he meant to do. And surely they did, as Zephyr was the first one to break the silence.
"You're saying to create a rulebook to dictate the GUIDE? Trap it in a paradox of its own making? I don't exactly get the idea, but maybe I'm picking on the baffling thought process." He sounded hesitant, but Kane could tell that he was on the track.
"Okay, maybe I'm getting what you mean. Since there is just too much info that we have learnt in recent days and none of it seems connected or related, you wish to form a basis for it all right? Like a system that can fit our current standing and possibly provide us with a goal to look forward to achieve? And you will use the GUIDE to enforce that system, thereby making it follow your RULES. Am I catching this right?" Asche, who had been looking at him confused, finally voiced his thoughts after listening to Zephyr.
Kane jumped up at his words, nodding his head like a pendulum.
"Yes exactly. Something like that. All the talks with authority and superpowers and absorbing have just been driving me crazy somehow. There is no up or down to it, the knowledge is all just there. As if it's drilling into me from all directions and that is just not right. The feeling is insane. I don't know how to express myself. But I know what I want.
I want some sort of classification that will give me a sense of measure against what we are facing. Right now, all we know is that there is something called absorbing, a group of super civilizations, future technologies and these random words being thrown around. But I can't focus with all this scattered knowledge.
I can't plan anything when I can't even measure or understand what I am planning for. So, some order will be nice, I believe."
His hands were shaking with excitement or maybe worry. Who knew, but his friends could finally tell what was going through his mind. The sort of ideas that were plaguing him. It was just that there was an issue-
"But do you think the GUIDE will agree to this?" Jay asked. He felt that it was hoping for too much for the GUIDE to be trusted. In his mind, he had already labeled the GUIDE as unreliable.
"There is only one way to find out now. We should get brainstorming to build this framework or system or whatever you wanna call it. We can have the GUIDE give its input to see how it will react to our demands."
And so they got discussing once more, only this time they weren't like headless chicken. They had a clear aim to achieve. And possibly this aim would lead them to resolve a lot of their worries and better their chances of survival in the merger.