by M J Conlon
“No, that is how I see myself. I am here to display the gaming world to you and give you enough references that you can determine where you are, so you can find where you wish to go.”
It took Derick a second of peering around the brightly lit hallway to realize two things about this cave. The first thing was that the crystals that protruded violently from the walls was the only source of light in the cave. While Derick didn’t need a light source due to his Undead sight, it was always nice to know that such an effect was available. The second thing Derick noticed about the crystals was that they changed the color of light they emitted once Derick approached. The light started off as a bright clear white light, but quickly changed to a purple hue that resembled the portal that Derick had used to enter the cave system. Interesting. Derick thought to himself.
This doesn’t seem to be too bad for a cavern of Doom. Derick thought to himself allowing his motions to get a little less rigid while observing the beauty of the world around him. The vibrant colors were shades of purple, reds, greens, and blacks that he could only dream of seeing in the real world. Then a fleeting thought filled his mind for just a second, before he spit it out. What if I don’t want to be resurrected? Why couldn’t I just give myself to the game and become a god here? Derick shook his head violently, as he was internally repulsed by the idea. Was that you?! Derick demanded of HAIL.
“Wha?” HAIL responded as if he too was being awoken from a dream. Though HAIL, much like Derick didn’t need to rest.
Was that your thought about wanting me to stay here forever?
“NO!” HAIL exclaimed indignantly. “It is my base directive to get you to be resurrected. If you are resurrected I will be placed in an external chip that can go with you on missions. Where we will be able to explore LHS-B and see a binary star sunset. I want to experience multiple worlds, even if they are through your filtered human brain. So the answer to your query is an emphatic NO.”
Derick felt oddly connected to HAIL at that exact moment. Those were the exact reasons Derick took the chance of being uploaded to this game as well, even though he knew the odds of his success were greatly skewed against him. He wanted to contemplate this development, the sudden interconnectedness he had with HAIL, the way the two of them had been seemingly created for each other. Derick shook his head violently this time, it was now that he saw three red dots approaching. Shit. Derick thought instantly drawing all six daggers from their sheaths and forcing them to fly backwards to the three bright red dots behind him.
No sooner had the six blades begun their attack swipes than Derick felt three different projectiles punch into his sides and back. Derick avoided the pain, and instead engaged the attack patterns he honed for hours, not turning, but instead watching the red dots that were displayed in his psychic-vision and imagining his six blades as six purple dots on the same image. In a second the map updated itself to also display his six spinning blades.
Derick knew he had to be quick, as his mental energy wasn’t infinite, in fact being a one-trick pony he had a very short time to win this battle. Yet his blades, his practiced technique, and desperation of speed caused Derick to do something he normally would never think of. He envisioned all three red dots getting thrown up higher, the blades intercepting the flying red dots in the sky like buck shoot converging on a flying skeet.
It was now that Derick heard earth shattering screeches of pain. Derick could feel liquids pouring from his eyes, ears, and nose but focused through the pain knowing that this was likely his only chance at success. He imagined the daggers stabbing the red dots over and over in the air. Then the world went dark and Derick felt like he was spinning into the void.
Derick dreamt of the five different planets floating in their respective orbits around five unique stars. He saw the gnomes become the first to jump from one planet to another. Once on the new planet they established trading posts, exchanged goods and information, then went back. Eventually the gnomes set up massive stationary Portal systems that allowed for the mass transit of the races from planet to planet. Though try as they might, the gnomes were unable to teach other races how to create their own portals. Though the gnomes were able to teach other races, humans especially how to maintain pre-existing portals.
With the establishment of planetary portals, Gnomes didn’t have to dedicate their entire existence as a species to Portal traveling. Slowly the gnomes settled on each of the different planets, no longer wishing to learn the art of celestial portals, but instead they focused on their own conflicts that were similar to those of the other planets but also oddly unique to a specific planet as well. Finally, as the number of gnomes that knew of the sacred art of celestial portals began to dwindle, they were all summoned to Draco for an emergency meeting to help evacuate the major city Atlantica. Yet, the brood of the dragon Blackroth took over the lost city of Atlantica wiping it off the face of the Draco forever. Portalist. Derick thought to himself, as he slowly began to feel sensations from the world around him.
“Get up, you lazy sac of bones.” HAIL exclaimed in his mind, the way it was being said, implied a desperate and pleading tone to it.
Nice one, been saving that one for a while? Derick said as a smile caused his lower jaw to bend into a smile. While it was bending, Derick felt a thin thick liquid begin to break on his face. Quickly Derick reached up with his hand and felt a crusted black liquid that coated much of his skull. What is this? No sooner had Derick asked the question then he quickly viewed his health and mental energy bars. Derick’s health bar was flashing a bright angry red, as his mental energy bar was flashing a bright and angry purple.
“That is your brain matter.” HAIL explained.
Derick chuckled to himself. Did you see the beginning as well? Derick asked his companion.
“The beginning? Beginning of our deaths here in this cave of eternal code obliteration? Yes, I saw that quite clearly.” HAIL began.
No, the beginning of the space travel between the five different planets? It was impressive. It seems that the portal gnomes were destroyed when they went to help evacuate the city of Atlantica.
“The lost city of Atlantica is just a myth. It is something that was added to create lore and mystery to the planet Draco.” HAIL said defiantly.
What if it wasn’t, can’t you view the thought in my mind? Derick asked, while he meditated and waited for his mental energy and his health to regenerate slowly. Finally once his health and mental energy bars were full he summoned his six blades to himself. He was sad to see that only the hilt of one of the junk blades came back. Derick thought about just abandoning it as a lost weapon when he looked back to the body that broke his blade, or at least tried to. Derick finally found that he was encased in sticky spider webs.
Those bastards can shoot their webbing as a projectile net? Derick thought to HAIL, as he began using his five blades to cut away at the thick webbing. Once completely clear of the webbing, Derick took a step away, sheathed his weapons, then collapsed into a pile of bones once more.
“It would appear so.” HAIL replied.
Show the last combat logs received.
Junk dagger broken on Psychic Spider’s eye.
Mentally Resisted spell Mind Control.
Mentally Resisted Psychic Scream.
Damage Taken Psychic Scream, 82 damage received.
Damage Taken Psychic Scream, 41 damage received.
Damage Taken Psychic Scream, 38 damage received.
Mentally Resisted spell Mind Control.
Concentration increased to 5.
Mental Fortitude increased to 6.
OhmN has killed Psychic Spider.
OhmN has killed Psychic Spider.
OhmN has killed Psychic Spider Queen.
Experience gained. Experience deferred until entering the actual servers.
A psychic spider queen? Derick thought to himself as he mentally grabbed the broken blade from the eye of the spider then sheathed it. I might be able to use it as a shuriken or somethi
ng like that.
“Yes, on that tried to cast mind control on you. What is odd is that while you were under the influence of the spell mind control, it seemed to have a similar effect on me as well. I will need to try to calculate this into future interactions.”
Derick walked over to the biggest of the three monsters and began looting the spider creature. A sharp stab of mental pain began coursing its way through Derick’s fingers, up his arm, and shot like a cold frozen spike of pain to his brain.
NO! Derick snarled to himself as he began fighting the mental energy back. He imagined a mental shield forming from his thoughts and pushing the stream of energy back towards the spider queen’s body. Finally Derick’s shield wall was able to repel the burst of mental energy back to the psychic spider queen’s dead body. Derick knew he could pull his hand back now and not have a problem, but he wanted to end this once and for all. He began to mentally push the energy back to its source, towards the psychic queen’s dead mind. The more he pressed on the easier it became to continue his assault forward through the psychic queen’s mind. Finally he found the source of the psychic spider queen’s power. Derick could see the power glowing as a bright purple gem in the darkness of the dead spider queen’s mind. Even now this energy tries to kill me, tries to defend itself. Derick did the only thing he could do he reached back and mentally struck at the giant purple gem. As soon as his mind made contact with the pulsing purple gem, Derick felt the power of the purple gem surge into his mind. Once the merge was over, a regular pop-up box appeared in his mind of the items that were available to loot. Derick took the items without thinking about it. He received spider legs, brain of a psychic spider queen, and heart of a psychic spider queen.
After everything was looted, Derick collapsed to the ground for a third time. Fuck this sucks. Why did you want to come here so badly?
“Me? I wanted to come here?” HAIL asked angrily.
Glad you agree. Derick thought as he forced his way up and began heading toward the other psychic spiders. Derick took in a deep breath, then steeled himself for the mental battle he knew was to come. Once his hand touched the psychic spider a battle began instantly, though this time Derick was prepared and instantly began his counterattack, pushing back the stream of power heading toward his mind. The flow of energy coming from this mind was more akin to a gentle stream as opposed to the torrent of energy that came from the psychic spider queen.
Once at the source of power, Derick mentally reached out to touch the medium sized pulsing purple gem. Upon touching the gem, the energy from the purple stone once again merged with his, this time Derick could feel his mental energy increasing. Once the mental merging of energies was complete a pop-up menu of possible items appeared to Derick.
Derick took everything once again. Then moved over to the third psychic spider without needing to pause. Instead this time Derick made short work of the third monster, draining its energy and taking its posessions in no time. Next time maybe I should start by looting the weaker monsters first.
“You think?” HAIL exclaimed angrily.
Hey, we survived.
“Look, this might be some game to you, but this is life or death for me.”
Derick started laughing maniacally at the thought, a computer program in its own world afraid of being deleted.
“This is funny to you?”
Yes, actually yes. Derick thought then continued, I woke up in this world knowing that I was one bad strike away from being permanently deleted. I appreciated that, part of the want to take this whole world seriously was why I traded every extra respawn away just so I would have a chance at survival. And you know what? It has worked. If I hadn’t traded a respawn for psychic-telekinesis I never would have survived my first few seconds. If I hadn’t been assigned the body of a celestial gnome as my random race I would have been killed before I learned how to use telekinesis. I know this, and I know this world is designed to kill us all. This capsule is filled with 99 million inhabitants that cannot be resurrected, that means that I only have a 1% chance of survival. So yeah, I know all about the fear of death, I am just not afforded the luxury of cherry picking my next body to ride along with in the hopes of seeing LHS-B. Derick shouted mentally. A slight pause, before he asked you know what else I don’t get? Why are we stuck here like a gladiator battle royal to the death, is it just so you AIs can watch and entertain yourselves? Do our feeds get sent back to some developer who gets his rocks off seeing us kill each other senselessly? Why don’t they just send the genetic material in storage, then once it gets close to the planet, we upload ourselves then, at a one for one ratio? You say you are afraid of death, you know what that means that you have something to lose. Derick was mentally screaming the last few thoughts at HAIL, who remained quiet.
Finally after a long minute of silence HAIL responded, “solar degradation of energy waves.”
What the FUCK does that even mean? Derick again screamed mentally at HAIL.
“The reason we couldn’t simply download your consciousness when the ship got in range with LHS-B is due to solar degradation of energy waves. Initial tests of data sent from Earth to Alpha Centaury showed there were no fewer than 15,639 solar bursts large enough to disrupt energy waves associated with communication. Of those another 946 were deemed to be powerful enough to cause complete information loss. It was deemed that given the drastically larger distance from Earth to LHS-B than from Earth to Alpha Centaury that at minimum 25% of the consciousness that were sent would be deleted. Of those that survived there was a 99% probability that the remaining consciousness that survived would have been irrevocably changed or altered, potentially changing the individuals in ways that were incalculable. Which is why it was ultimately deemed that gaming servers protected by Cerusan Iron walls and iron insulation for the wiring would be best, as this would cause the greatest chance of successful transmission of the human conscious from one planet to another. While data was limited, this was the best and most probable way of success. Additionally, the need for 100 times more population than bodies being created is that there are no data sets available that depict how a human conscious will change after 77 years. It was determined that most people that went would have mentally turned off and wished for a way out, before the 77 years was over. It might seem callous, but these were the best decisions available to the decision makers at the time.” HAIL replied sadly.
Derick didn’t say anything, but instead started to walk away from the room that had nearly been both his and HAIL’s deaths.
“Um, OhmN.” HAIL asked, as a child who had been caught trying to steal cookies from the cookie jar.
Yes?
“Can you see what the flashing purple box means, I have been dying to know since it appeared.” HAIL replied.
Derick just chuckled to himself, realizing how the childlike comparison was more of an apt description than he had originally thought. Derick thought about delaying this, making HAIL wait, but then decided that would be cruel. Derick mentally brought up the glowing purple warning.
Psychic Energy Obtained from Psychic Spider Queen, effect Psychic Class unlocked if not already.
Psychic Power Increased.
Mental Power Increased.
Psychic Energy Obtained from Psychic Spider, effect Psychic Class unlocked if not already.
Psychic Power Increased.
Mental Power Increased.
Psychic Energy Obtained from Psychic Spider, effect Psychic Class unlocked if not already.
Psychic Power Increased.
Mental Power Increased.
Synergy Sync implemented.
Choose one:
New Psychic Ability
Increased Psychic Power
There are other mechanics in place to unlock the psychic class?
“Apparently?” HAIL responded, seeing the information and synergy sync applied only after the three messages had been visible. Derick didn’t hesitate with his choice, as important as psychic power might be, he knew his ultim
ate survival would rest upon having a plethora of abilities to call upon.
Derick chose new psychic ability. Instantly what felt like an epiphany came to light in his mind. Instantly his mind recalled and quickly played back the memory of the gnomes traveling from planet to planet. As Derick watched the memory again, he could feel his mind making the mental actions that his Gnomish ancestors had made. He could feel their calculations. He could see how they would quickly view the targeted location making sure that the area was clear. He could see how the gnomes would then create a sympathetic bond between the two locations. Then finally he could see how the gnomes were able to use the sympathetic bond to travel instantaneously from where they were, to where they wanted to be. He felt all this, and understood. Finally after a long minute he read the new text that became available.
New ability acquired: Psychic Portal Mastery (Passive Psychic Ability). Effect: Player adds 15 (Power Level X 10 + Willpower/10) to all skills related to the Profession Celestial Portals. Any bonuses to Psychic Powers and abilities is also applied to the overall skill total added.
New Profession unlocked Celestial Portal.
New Skill unlocked Celestial Viewing.
New Skill unlocked Celestial Correspondence.
New Skill unlocked Celestial Travel.
Celestial Portal has increased to 1. Effective level 11.
Celestial Viewing has increased to 1.
Celestial Correspondence has increased to 1.
Celestial Travel has increased to 1.
What just happened? Then he added more to himself, did I just think of ‘my’ gnomish ancestors?
“It would appear that you have unlocked your new profession. This is especially evident by the professions trainer who is behind us. Additionally it would appear that the merging of your mind and your character are becoming more and more intrinsic. You might be able to get more quests, the more you mentally accept the fact that you are not only a gnome, but a celestial gnome.”