Bab 45: Mayhem? Beneath us!
Even though Call me Daddy 2 was an omen for bad news, his message was received with a cry of happiness. The Gods have spoken to them, delivering joyous news, The monsters will soon be no more. Their victory is imminent. All their fallen comrades will be avenged, they do not have to fear for their lives anymore.
They were glad that the Gods blessed them. Their gift, the magic in this world enabled them to fight back and vanquish this abhorrent evil.
When this world is finally free of monsters everything is going to be perfect. No mothers have to cry about sending their children off into war, only to see them never again. Praise be to heavens for their trust in us.
People started to celebrate and dance around wildly in the streets. Poor or rich everybody was the same upon hearing this news. A gigantic burden has left their shoulders, the looming threat over their heads is going to disappear soon. Most of them could not even grasp how far the current extent was. The news alone was enough for this period of pure extasy.
Each and every road got decorated. Young or old, sick or healthy, everybody dressed up for this occasion. They hugged each other and tears of joy began to pour down their faces. Those festivals continued into the deep of the night all over the World.
Not a single one did take a look at the whole message, in their eyes, it was the word victory that erased any logical thinking. For them, it was all that matters, after all, they are Chosen. The Gods want a world that is free of evil, a just and pure world. And with each killed monster they are coming closer and closer to this ideal world.
After having lost all their worries, why would they willingly go back to their old horrendous life? After this time of pure darkness, the light is just that enticing. The light promised an ideal world, devoid of all this pain and suffering there was no need for sacrifices any more. Every sane person of this world would never give up on that little piece of heaven.
This utopia is going to become reality soon after all their Gods made a promise and the words of Gods are to be trusted. The thought of people faking the message of the Gods never crossed their mind. Blaspheming the mighty Gods was something that was never even considered in the first place.
Even the mighty Church declared Call Me Daddy 2 as a prophet and vowed to increase their effort to eradicate the filth. They all kept their eyes on the promise of victory. Every single warrior increased their effort and nearly doubled their training, they all wanted to do their part to accomplish it. This world did not have a phase like this for a very long time.
This wave of vigour swept over every nook and cranny and even the world of "Primal Survival" was not spared from the increased commitment. The monsters were killed left and right, this process repeated itself over and over again. For them this was no place to train, it was a breeding ground to prepare for the vanquishment of monsters. If they died, the just went back and fought again. They explored seeking stronger monsters and more challenges. They wanted to prove their worth, to be able to kill each and every monster.
Those poor monsters did not stand any chance under the bombardment of magic, they had no choice but to die over and over again. The title was no longer fitting, at least for the Players. It became a gigantic house of slaughter. Boredom was nowhere to be found. Though there were still some people, who were searching for something in this world other than the thrill of slaughter.
As the time passed, so did the attention on the rumour of that strange entity. Fewer and fewer people kept on searching after that predator. Even though it looked promising to fight, they would not waste their time, searching for something that may or may not exist. If it does exist, some player will find it sooner or later anyway.
So they continued their training session and lit up yet another war-pig. Just as the bugboy, the mutated Nagants disappeared as well, as if they had been swallowed by the earth itself. But with enough targets to choose from, even they began to disappear out of their minds. Even though the time period was not big, everything faded.
Even though there were some rumours regarding the stability of the soil, that just collapsed underneath some players, those were quickly denounced as hoaxes and the disappearance of landscapes was deduced to just be the impact of the magic remnants in this server.
There was only a small amount of people, that were worried about the status quo, due to the sudden craze the server costs were increasing by the minute. The poor technicians had to find a way to minimize energy consumption, otherwise, they were forced to watch their hard-earned funding melt away in front of their eyes. Even after searching through all their formulas, they could find a single thing, that would be responsible for such an increasing demand for supply. If at first they only needed to add a minuscule amount of mana into the system, because the rest was self-regulating, then now they were forced to pump more and more into it to keep the world stable.
Normally mana would be changed into data and then formed into the shape the player imagines. Now the system would evaluate the impact on the surroundings and change the data to simulate the impact of the magic. The destroyed surroundings would return to its former state after a certain time frame. Magic is a near neverending supply of energy and the data in itself does not consume magic it just converts it.
That is why the current situation was that baffling to the technician, their first guess would have been that the increasing demand was caused by the staggering amount of simultaneous acts of destruction due to the players.
Though that theory was proven to be incorrect, after it still increased even though, no new players joined in. So they took the time and effort to see, a general heatmap of the percentile consumption. They still failed to pinpoint the cause. Over a period of time, each sector had a much higher percentage than the rest but that lasted only for a fleeting moment until this strange situation happened in different sectors again.
This was not just a temporary state, it was recurring change. They questioned, whether a player would not have noticed something, that was responsible for such great acts of destruction. Though not even a single player voiced something in that regard. It just did not make any sense.
They failed to wrap their heads around the thought, that even though so much more mana was needed the number of simultaneous processes was stagnating. There has to be a leak, otherwise, there was no other way. But the question is if it is a leak why would it be moving? A leak should be stationary in nature. Is the system malfunctioning?
A malfunction would mean, that the magic just accumulates inside the system which in itself can be dangerous if the players come into contact with raw magic. The system itself notices every abnormality, even if it is just a little. And we tested such an interaction beforehand and the system prevented the conglomeration of both substances. This theory was quickly dismissed, although it was possible, it was hardly likely to be the root of all the trouble.
Another side effect is that the magic somehow gets exhausted or spent. Though this train of thought is more than idiotic, after all, there is no way magic to disappear, it just changes its shape. Even the fiercest monster is unable to affect magic, it can barely utilize it. So this conclusion seems to be nothing more than bad fiction. A stupid idea, a drunk person had. Even most delusional fanatic would not be able to seriously believe in something so absurd.
They sent teams of players to scout in different players, after simulating the path of that mysterious subject. After multiple players arrived at their destination, with the highest likelihood of its appearance. Still, they did not see anything, there was no destruction visible. Everything seemed just normal. But several strange occurrences happened to several teams that left the poor technicians even more confused than before.
One team fell into a gigantic hole because the soil underneath them gave in. They found that the whole underground had been hollowed out. Another team where attacked out of nowhere but no traces of monsters or players were seen. Yet another team was devoured whole, they could not muster up any kind of resistance. They only heard a weird clattering noise, before their bodies went limb, followed by a swift death.
The loss of 3 teams baffled them, especially because nothing happened to the other teams. Even more ridiculous was that every team died to a different cause. At least now its obvious that the destruction does not take place above the surface but below it. That still does not explain, how such a thing can happen in the first place. I doubt that any monster would have a digging speed like that. Besides what kind of monster would be able to easily clear a team of players, without any of them noticing anything at all?
The strongest monster is a fucking bear and that thing is not capable of such a feat. Even if some parts are solved another question pops right up. It is a neverending chain of mysteries for those, who just wanted to celebrate the joyous news with their dearest. After sending the other teams to the places, where the other teams died. They made a strange observation, the whole barren landscape was covered in deep holes.
As time passed the unthinkable happened, those holes still remained, every onlooker could not believe what was happening right in front of them. They approached each hole with caution and peaked inside of them, to gauge how deep each of them is.
Each hole varied in its depth, but they had a single thing in common a wave of nagants was found in them. It was the very same Nagant that caused them to fear for their very own lives. Why would those mutants appear right at this place? Why are those little creatures linked to every big event that took place in this world till now?
Questions like that kept appearing in their minds, yet the strangest circumstance was that the holes were not fixed. The system would automatically return everything to its status quo after a certain time frame passed. No monster, player, or admin can change that fact. Rather the only thing that can have any sort of influence is the observing AI. After all that is the purpose, it watches every action and interacts with the system to depict a realistic experience.
What reasoning would lead to the creation of those holes? There are more and more things, that happen around us without any reason. Bugboy, nagants, strange NPCs and of course this tunnel system. If everything the system does is for the sake of players, then this whole hidden world is made for the players.
Was it trying to create new content, since the world is currently stagnating? Those nagants were indeed posing the biggest threat so far and players would most likely jump head first into a battle if they were given the opportunity. After all the constant killing of weak monsters, those players must yearn for a challenge, that requires more than just throwing magic after magic at the monsters.
This world has gone astray from its name and the system wanted for the player to get on the right track again, that must have been the reason. A team like this can be eradicated by those Nagants quite fast, so its no contradiction to the previous condition. After finally getting the reason, the technicians told their chef about their new wonderful implementation.
A new location for fights, a dark deep cave system. The enemy inside the cave is stronger than any other creature currently available.
The Chef was delighted after hearing of such good news. He began to pull some strings to advertise this development in hope of gathering attention and more funding.
The teams were told to stay stationary for the time being and keep an eye on the Nagants. They were to inform the technicians on any kind of unusual activity.
As in tradition, something unusual happened. Some Nagants could be seen sitting on top of moles directing them in which direction to dig. Every onlooker could swear, that those nagants were enjoying themselves right now. They knew that those creatures were not like the other monsters, but the behaviour of that kind was neither seen or witnessed before.
Those creatures were not even paying attention to their surroundings, they were walking around happily, admiring the scenery they had created. As long as nobody disturbed then, they kept on doing their own bidding. Even after a player got too close and the ground gave in, the ants did not show any concern. As the player tumbled after his fall, he was mentally prepared to die. Strangely he was ignored and those Nagants just walked passed him.
Was that the bloodthirsty creature everyone had talked about? The poor man was perplexed and just stared into the air. But as times passed and the nagants were continuing ignoring him, he began to walk around and scout the area a bit. The cave area was mostly the same, the light from the surface was enough to shroud most of it with a dim light. The sheer mass of Nagants was astounding. It did not matter where he looked, those creatures could be found literally everywhere.
He walked into different directions and saw that the ants finally paid attention to him. They were just observing rather than planning to attack. The thought of attacking them crossed his mind, but after looking at his surroundings, he chose to rather continue scouting the area.
But those ants eyes never once left him, after he had begun walking in his current direction, it felt like they were paying more and more attention towards him. He did not continue onwards, instead, he called for the rest of his team. After a short discussion, the teams agreed to scout the area underneath. One team kept standing on standby, awaiting orders on the surface.
A total of 100 players began scouting the small world beneath the surface. They began to split up to cover a wider area. Still, the ants did nothing more than observing the group of players. The players were curious, what would await them. After all the system would not create such a place for nought.
They did not find anything interesting at all. Just a near endless cluster of nagants. Until a single player felt a faint tremor. His interest was piqued and so he followed the path to its source. As he came closer, the tremors became stronger. The reverberating air became noisier as well.
As he came face to face with the origin of the tremor, he thought to himself whether someone was playing a cruel joke on him or not. In front of him was a young child dressed in strange clothing punching the ground over and over again.
He spent the next few minutes, just staring at the strange spectacle that was unfolding in front of his eyes. The kid did not show any signs of stopping soon, there was not even a trace of fatiguee visible. The only prove of his hard work, was his body covered in sweat.
The player felt intrigued, he never saw or heard about such a small NPC. That NPC had to be important otherwise it would not be down here.
After he fixed his posture he started to talk to the NPC, demanding to know, why he was down here. The NPC continued his practice and straight up ignored the player.
The player felt baffled. NPCs should cower in fear upon coming into contact with a Chosen One. He should do everything he is told to and bow his yet in shame. Yet this NPC did not even show any kind of reaction. It might be deaf, that would explain why he did not even react.
Alexander Minimis saw himself as a magnanimous person, who did not discriminate against NPCs. He did not kill them on sight, that made him more tolerant than 90% of the player base. Yet how should he approach this NPC, when he is unable to listen? Just bombarding it with magic seems a bit overkill and defeats the purpose of talking to it in the first place.
So he decided to just casually walk up to him and touch its shoulder. Then the NPC would talk to him and tell him all the important details about this cave. The young child did not even seem to notice him as he came closer. As he put his hands on its back, the tremors and noise came to an abrupt end as the young child stopped punching.
It had the face of a human boy and was looking calmly into my eyes. As he turned around he began to crack his bones, without any worry in the world. Some noises left its mouth, but before I could even realize what those noises were, I found myself on the spawn point. What did just happen? I had to inform my superiors about it.
The technicians did not expect that something like that to happen. As they were gathering the information from the first victim, they were noticing that more and more people were calling them to deliver the same news. Before they could finish interviewing the first victim, the whole scouting team was annihilated.
But they did not find a clue what could have killed them, besides everyone only saw a small NPC-child that did not even speak to them right before they died. But each one swore that the child did not move before they died. It just stood there and spectated the men and women with great curiosity.
But none could explain how they all saw the same human child when they were split up in different directions. Why would the NPC haunt them?
This marked only the beginning of the strange deaths in that area.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone