章 19: Etraverse
Of course, Dante might be overestimating himself. Just because that high-dimensional lifeform helped him once didn't mean it always had its eyes on him. It might have been a casual act of boredom before forgetting Dante's existence 0.0001 seconds later.
It could also be that a high dimension lifeform was too lofty to care about the underestimation of a mere lower-dimensional lifeform. After all, how could Dante understand the thoughts of such a being?
It was like a worm or an ant trying to guess what a human was thinking. The ant would think the human was considering grander things along the line of building a hive, expanding and storing more food, meanwhile the human was probably thinking of Tracer rule 34.
He settled down and did not cause any more trouble. After all, the words of Beatrice were easily verified with his current connection to the Etranet so he could tell that while superpowers were generally mysterious in terms of their deeper functions, some basic fundamentals had been dug out after centuries of exposure.
While they were on their way to the Eternal Academy, Beatrice told him about something he should try.
"I'm sure you've logged into the Etranet and experienced the Quantum Network of yourself right? What do you think?" She asked with a smile.
Dante pondered for a bit then gave his honest thoughts. "It's amazing, sort of like my mind exists outside my body. The Quantum Network feels as real as reality itself. It's sort of like FIVR."
Beatrice raised an eyebrow. "FIVR?"
"Fully Immersive Virtual Reality. It's a theory about how the mind can…" Dante paused as he realized that talking about this was stupid.
Beatrice was speechless. "I swear Dante, you are so weird. Sometimes you act like a native and sometimes you act like you're someone who time-traveled to the future from our ancient past."
Dante could only rub his forehead and change the subject. "So what did you want to bring up by asking about this?"
"Hm, I was going to suggest that you buy a subscription to the Etraverse," Beatrice stated with a casual glance.
Etraverse?
Dante had his AI search it up and was granted a wealth of information right off the bat. Once he understood what the Etraverse was, his eyes couldn't help but narrow and his heart beat rapidly.
The Etraverse was basically a platform that allowed creators to host their own virtual worlds so that others can explore and use them. By paying a subscription fee of 0.1 Etrans per year, you can access all the affiliated services and worlds linked to the platform itself.
Of course, there were independent worlds belonging to indie creators where you had to pay a fee set by the world creator to use. Most of the top worlds in the Etraverse were like that while the 'free' worlds were usually just entry points for newbies.
There were a variety of worlds that were styled by different categories. Anime worlds, RPG worlds, fantasy worlds, cultivation worlds, racing, slice of life, sports, everything.
The Etraverse was the most used service in the universe, with almost 99% of sentient civilizations using it almost daily. Many people worked and lived through the Etraverse and its worlds, and many economies worked around its functions.
Many schools also used it for their training and testing of students. As you could imagine, militaries of various factions also used the virtual worlds here to train their soldiers. It was very versatile and adept.
"You'll be having your entrance exam in the Etraverse, so I suggest you register for it asap," Beatrice advised sagely.
Dante glanced at her askance. "Entrance exam?"
Beatrice scoffed. "Of course. Did you think you were such hot stuff that they would let you in? You're applying for the Unique Batch, so you naturally have to prove what's unique about you. You say you have a superpower, and I know it and you know it."
"But do they know it?" Beatrice shrugged.
Dante was left speechless. It did make sense, but he really did think he would be passing some backdoor.
Also, how the fuck was he supposed to use his Quantum Entanglement in a virtual world? He would be plugged into a quantum network at the time, so would he just… pop back into the quantum network of his home universe?
How would that even work? And was it even possible? What would be the likely outcome if he used his power in such a place?
Dante couldn't sit still, because this was a very valid concern. He understood that superpowers had their own rules and were not so flawed, and he also believed somewhat that the higher dimensional being that modified it for him was not so short-sighted.
But still.
Beatrice saw Dante's uncertain expression and snickered. "What, you're scared? You think your superpower is something so special that we haven't seen something like it before?"
"Tsk, tsk, what a backwater civilization we are. How could we possibly comprehend the length, breadth, and height of almighty Dante's abilities? Why, just using it is enough to destroy the fabric of reality!" Beatrice made exaggerated gestures of remorse.
Dante calmed down and glanced at her casually before looking away. While annoying, her words did calm him down and bring rationality to his mind. He had to get it out of his head early that he was some uber-special entity that was chosen by some cosmic force to wow the universe.
He only got here through a fluke and would have become primordial soup if not for a bored 4th dimensional or higher being thinking it would be fucking funny if he survived.
Beatrice noticed Dante had settled down and smiled slightly before focusing on her holographic screen. Meanwhile, Dante closed his eyes and entered the Quantum Network.
He naturally chose to enter the Etraverse and he was brought to the front of a large mall-like building. When the pushed the glass doors opened and entered a foyer, he noticed that there were AI receptionists again.
Likewise, he was in an instanced lobby for visitors and clients, so he was quickly received and guided amongst strange looks from aliens. After all, given the ratio of pure humans to aliens, most aliens could go 3000 years without seeing a single pure human live in the flesh - or in the data - so this was quite an event for them.
However just like before, they did not come up to him nor stare too long. Not only was this due to racial tension, but even if they hadn't seen a pure human in such a location, they had either seen pictures or videos of them, so they were not too shocked.
Let's not even talk about Dante, because he felt that if he dared to act like the shocked one here, he would be the victim of a social event where everyone treated him like a white person in modern America.
Dante was led to a counter where he then spoke to a receptionist about the Etranet and its benefits. Dante skipped this because he could simply download it and this was done for those old-fashioned fellows who liked the experience of chatting with the receptionist.
Naturally, he was not interested in such a thing. Rather, he paid for the initial subscription for the first 11 years, of which the first year was free. In all, that was 1 Etran and he now had 299 remaining.
In truth, Dante felt a pain in his heart spending so much! 1 Etran might not sound like much, but one could literally compare the value of an Etran to that of a Bitcoin at its peak.
No, based on Dante's research, one Etran would be about the value of $100,000 before the whole BRICS super alliance. It was big money that most people did not see a year after working even top-end jobs.
Most Etrans were used in decimals, going as far as 0.00000X and beyond. For the Etraverse to charge 0.1 Etran per year, that was a yearly payment of $10,000!
Is there anything on this earth you would pay for with that much money?
Funny enough, if Virtual Reality did come to earth, it realistically would not be as cheap or free as people thought or as fiction presented. There would not be a benevolent billionaire or secret supernatural entity promoting VR through a game, but more likely that it would be overpriced for a select few, and heavily focused on porn.
After all, with VR real enough, one could capture all the fringe groups who had unattainable fantasies due to limited science or social/legal restrictions and grant them their dreams in the most realistic way possible.
No one was going to use it to make a game for some lucky NEET to gain a broken skill and then continually break the balance of the game as he rises to the top.
Likewise, the Etraverse captured to all of those things for the entire universe and there was money to be made. If Dante could spend his Etrans on anything, he would definitely want to buy shares in the corporation behind it.
Can you imagine the profits they were raking in?
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