Chapter 9: Im your first kill
A strange man appeared in front of Peter while he was talking to Elsa. He appeared so suddenly that Peter did not notice that the world stopped. Elsa, the elves, the gluttonous jungle cats as well as all the humans in the immediate vicinity stopped moving. It seems someone has frozen time for everyone except for Peter and the strange man.
"Sir you have already passed the test and you can leave this world. As for the people of this world, you cannot help them at the moment."
The strange man stared straight at Peters eyes when he spoke. Peter can even detect a hint of fear from the strange man. Its as if he is afraid of something.
"What are you saying?" said Peter. As he asked his question he realized that Elsa is not reacting to the strange man. Just as he tried to approach Elsa the strange man spoke.
"This world is actually only a virtual world. The humans and elves in this world does exist and are only trapped in capsules so that they are forced to participate in this virtual world. You included. You will pass the test when you reach a point that you become someone of importance, power or influence in this virtual world. which you have done." The strange man explained. He stopped speaking when he saw Peter looking at his ears. Then he added. "Im an elf. Elsa is my daughter. The first apocalypse that she experienced is real. The succeeding apocalypses and worlds she experienced and visited are only virtual worlds. She, along with my people and the humans of this world have been chosen as your fuel. One thing that every merchant needs."
"Fuel? Merchant? What do you mean? Explain properly?" said Peter. He grabbed the strange man in anger. He can feel that what he said is the truth. That feeling created a fear in his heart. He wants to know but at the same time he is afraid of what the strange man is going to say next.
"Let me explain the basics first. Every world has a shell. It isolates them from other worlds. This shell is like the shells of newborns that protects them while they are weak. In this case, the shell isolates the inhabitants of that world while they are weak. This shell can only be broken from the inside. Possessing strength that can break a shell of a world is the requirement to travel to other planes."
"A world must have resources to sustain life. To replenish a worlds resources it will concentrate all mana underground. You called it 'world refinement'. At that time the mana underground is chaotic. The inhabitants aboveground wont be able to use mana until the change is finished. It takes a long time for 'world refinement' to complete its process. After that mana will be sent above ground."
As the strange man talked, Peter felt the world changing. Reality is fading. The more he knows the stronger the feeling gets. He can faintly detect the capsule he is in as well as the capsules of the other people. He immersed himself in this feeling hoping to gain the strength to leave the capsule.
"Your people are known as 'dimensional merchants'. The only race that can travel freely and move between planes. Also the only race that can enter a world while its shell is intact. Your people used that skill to obtain everything of value and began selling it to the higher planes. At first you were content on selling low level items from these weak worlds. But your greed is not easily satisfied. You found a way to force a world to focus the mana above ground. What this world calls an apocalypse is simply your flexing of your powers. Using your dimensional ability you connect different worlds that are undergoing 'world refinement' and then send a portion of their population into a world of your choice. That world would experience an artificial apocalypse."
The strange man laughed as he looks at Peter.
"For example, theres a planet called Barr, recently your father has tampered with that world and opens a portal to a few other worlds so that the people sent would kill or be killed. He was not content with that so he also sent monsters. The deaths would accumulate death energy on the planet. Which will become miasma. And to cleanse all of this miasma then that world would have to focus mana above ground. The effect of forcing a world to redirect mana above ground is impure mana. This makes it harder for the inhabitants of that world to increase their strength through cultivation. So they will have to find other ways. This is what merchants are after. Runes, artifacts, potions and certain skills are researched more by these worlds. The products of such research are graded as medium and sometimes graded as high level items. And since only merchants can enter a world whose shell remains intact then all those lovely items can only be taken by merchants. Because of you merchants, many worlds experience apocalypse and are unable to break their shell. Forever becoming your item farms."
At this point Peter cant even say a word. As he listens to the strange man, his connection with the capsule becomes stronger. At any moment he feels that he can gain control of the capsule and open it soon. At that time he will know whether the things that the strange man are saying are true or not. So he let the man continue speaking.
"Each merchants or dimensional merchants are known to have an entire star system of storage space. But they cant take advantage of that if they dont have mana. It will take too long before they are strong enough to use their entire storage space as they please. Without outside help they can at most use several square miles. The range of space they can use slowly increase as their strength increase. That is not good enough. That is why you merchants developed a way to harvest mana. You pick a world whose shell is not open yet. Let it experience an artificial apocalypse and capture the strong ones before they reach a level where they can escape to another plane. You then place them in capsules and let them live in the virtual world. Everyday they will be stimulated in the virtual world and their mana would slowly be absorbed by the capsule. The more they exert themselves in the virtual world the more mana they release. That is the current fate of the elves and humans in this world."
Peter's control of the capsule has reached a point that he is pretty sure that he can leave when he wants. But the last sentence stunned him.
He asked the strange man a question, "You said that I am a dimensional merchant, right? Does that mean that I own this world? And more importantly, I can free Elsa?"
"This world is still the property of your clan. As per the clans rules you can only use this world for the next fifty years while the test is ongoing. Whether you use it or not is up to you. If you want to free Elsa and anyone else all you have to do is to obtain a good score in the evaluation and buy this world with the reward."
"I cant free her? And what is this test that you are talking about? I didnt sign up for any test?
The strange man, Elsa's father, saw Peter's confused expression and explained further.
It turns out that dimensional merchants have extremely long lives and have lots of children. That is why they decided to test every child of a dimensional merchants. Those who pass will become part of the clan and receive its help and protection. Those that fail will be turned into dimensional storage rings.
The test begins by sealing their memories. Then they are sent to a world experiencing an artificial apocalypse where they must stay for fifty years. They are evaluated by how fast they are able to escape the virtual world and how much control they have on the other world when the fifty years is up.
Peter tried to leave the capsule but a message box appeared in front of him informing him that he needs a key to leave the virtual world. He does tried to ask Elsa's father. As soon as he said the word "key" a knife appeared and a symbol of lock appeared on the chest of Elsa's father. It is clear that he needs to kill him to leave the capsule.
Seeing that Peter is hesitant to strike, Elsa's father spoke. "If in three minutes you still have not stabbed me then the lock will appear on Elsa's chest. That will free me and it will be Elsa's life that you needed to extinguish to be free from this virtual world."
"At least tell me who you are?" Peter asked while tears are beginning to fall.
"I am your first kill."
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