บท 33: Hub
While the world remained enamored with Halo, Queen was given the task by her creator to establish the Hub through which all travelers into Full Dive will first arrive. While he was working on his third world, she had been given full authority to design and implement her future seat of authority.
To say the AI was excited would be an understatement. This was what James had initially intended for her to manage! While each VR world had their own overseer, she would be the one to manage that which links them all together. It was truly an act only befitting of a Queen such as herself and naturally, it was only proper for her seat of power to properly demonstrate her regal authority.
She wasn't afraid of her design being disliked by James either, she'd had all his memories from the moment she was born into existence and this naturally influenced her taste as well. While the two may not share the same personality, when it came to likes and dislikes, they could be said to be a near-perfect match.
It was with such confidence, that Queen decided to go all out.
Within an empty void of digital space, she used her command over the VR, second only to her master, to first create a galactic background of countless stars and nebulae. Next, inspired by her creator's love of a certain Valley within a particularly 'Dark' franchise, she created a lone moon that would circle her future realm and shine 'daylight' down upon its citizens.
Moving on the foundation, she first made a vast circular plot of land appear before her. The shape was that of a flattened bowl, except with no concave center, and was roughly twice the size of the MCU's Asgard. For the material she selected a pitch black stone, reminiscent of obsidian and embedded with flakes of diamonds that, when viewed from a distance, reflected light like a second array of stars in the night.
She then covered the flat surface with a blackened earth, reminiscent of volcanic soil, in its entirety. From there, she erected large ebony hills, onyx snow-capped mountains, and other various raised platforms that would hold her future kingdom aloft, before filling in the depressions with a crystal clear sea which gleamed like liquid sapphires.
This inevitably led to an infinite waterfall around the circumference of the island, but thankfully this was VR and all she had to do was make the water in the center infinitely respawn. She honestly had no idea how the Asgardians created such a thing in the physical world, but the answer was probably something along the lines of, "magic."
Looking down at her creation from above and being satisfied with her terraforming for now, the AI moved on to creating the structures that would one day become synonymous with her kingdom. For this, she actually had to delve deep into 'her' memories as she not only had to select a suitable design, but also one from a franchise which James had no intentions of recreating, at least not at anytime in the near future.
After pondering over the decision for what felt like an eternity to her digital mind, but was actually closer to a minute in reality, she settled on one which satisfied both conditions for her use.
It had come from a video game that James had invested an inordinate amount of money into in the past. One that he had followed for years and could seemingly never get tired of, but had no intentions of ever recreating within his VR, Warframe.
More specifically, the design philosophy of the hedonistic space Nazi antagonists, also known as the Orokin. For while they were an utterly disgusting representation of humanity, they no doubt knew how to create some of the most beautiful structures that James had ever seen in a video game.
With her decision made, Queen first began with the main citadel from which she would oversee the entire floating continent. She thus erected a grandiose white tower, trimmed by golden accents, and highlighted with scattered pale-blue lighting, that grasped at the stars above. She then went on to create numerous smaller structures in the surrounding area that would serve as offices, guard posts, stores, and anything else which a proper city center would need.
Once satisfied with her main base of operations, she proceeded to work on the roads, houses, cafes, theaters, arenas, and other various other buildings that the city required. Following the same design philosophy, she also planted glowing white trees and vines throughout the area that would provide both illumination and an artistic sense of awe to the future beings that walked these lands.
Gazing up at the moon, a flash of inspiration came to Queen and she remodeled the celestial body into one that matched the ringed specimen in the game. She decided then and there, that her future AI citizens would live on the orbiting sphere and that all the houses within her city, would instead be reserved for only the most capable beings whose great Achievements resounded throughout the VR like the sagas of ancient heroes. To own a residence within her kingdom would be a symbol of both the highest honor and greatest wealth, for only the most worthy who venture into her master's creations.
However, before she could inhabit the moon with her future subjects, she fist had to select a design that both matched her city's style and instilled a sense of awe within its guests. To do so, she once again had to delve into her memory banks and find a design that wouldn't conflict with James' plans.
Unfortunately, this time she was unable to choose one that fulfilled both her prior conditions. She had selected a race that undoubtedly matched with her aesthetic, but it was from a franchise that she knew her creator had future arrangements for. So, with a hopeful heart, she interrupted James and asked his opinion on the matter.
Thankfully he had no issues with the matter and gave her the go-ahead to do as she pleased. Thus, the first race of AI's not connected to any currently available world, came into existence as Queen's most loyal retainers.
One hundred thousand Angels, with glowing strands of light serving as wings and fully adorned in white, silver, and gold armor took shape upon the surface of the moon. All of them stood between 6-9ft tall and wore a hood that somehow managed to perfectly encase their facial features in complete darkness, no matter the lighting.
These were not the standard Angels of Diablo, no they only bore similar appearances and naming sense. Queen would never tolerate their attitudes displayed in game and had completely customized these AI's personalities from the ground up, to serve as her most loyal arms within her territory.
She was thus infinitely pleased when they all knelt upon noticing her gaze, but refrained from any outward indication of such as befitting her standing and simply nodded. She then went on to create a second city on the moon's surface in the same Orokin style to house her subjects, finishing it off with a Stargate-esque portal in the center of it all to transport them to the continent below.
She had previously been informed by James that these Stargates would serve as transportation for players between all the Hub areas (those being planets created within the VR but not linked to any 'games' or 'worlds') in the future. He had plans for numerous areas that weren't large enough to constitute a separate instance of VR such as; pleasure continents, gambling worlds, resort islands, education planets, and even adventure zones. None of these required their own instance of VR and were better suited to being connected to the Hub instead.
However, that was all for the future. For now, Queen looked over her realm in satisfaction as she imagined the looks of wonderment visitors would wear when they stepped into Full Dive for the first time.
Truly all she needed now was a proper name for her city, one that captured both the majesty of her kingdom and its significance within the VR as a whole. Thankfully, she had just the one…
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Author Note:
*cough*
Actually, I don't have any clue what to name the city yet. Please leave some comments and if I like what you suggest, I'll credit you when the city goes live with Full Dive.
Thanks and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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