Chapter 12: And They Speak Your Name In The Stars

"Are you going to just lie there for another... thirty minutes or so, or are you going to talk to me?"

"Wherever this is, it's about twice as comfortable as the wall and floors were, and about thirty times as comfortable as my charging pod. I'm going to relish this as long as I can," I responded, with my eyes closed tightly.

"Suit yourself." I hear the soft rustling of fabric before the probable deity-figure lay down beside me. "At least hear me out?"

I grumbled away to myself. The nerve of this girl — usurping me from my respawn process to do business. Though I supposed that it was probably important business... Yeah, no, I probably needed to hear her out. Or I'd never get let back onto the mortal plane or whatever. Sigh. I nodded my head.

"Good. So, you're probably aware that this isn't your world? Just to be sure?"

"Yeah, I'm aware."

"Less work for me. Are you aware that this is a game world?"

That wasn't really a shock, but it was interesting to see it told to me in-world. At least, I imagined it was in-world? Probably? "I mean, sort of? I had a suspicion, but I wasn't expecting to hear it from the metaphorical horse's mouth. Aren't you an AI, then?"

She waved her hand around dismissively. "Nah. Well, sort of. I'm an artificial intelligence who's also sapient. I kinda run a lot of things around here, as you might expect of a sapient AI masquerading as a god in heaven. Technically the area around us isn't textured because I'm lazy, but it's a good impact on a lot of the people around here. Anyways. Business.

"I noticed your universe crossing lines with ours. Dunno why it's working out like that — would have expected it to cross with the universe one line up, but whatever works works. In any case, I'm trying to make sure our game (and especially me as I am right now) stays afloat and/or alive, so I took full advantage of the cross in our dimensions to bring you in. My, er, companion AI is sort of off the shits right now. I think her programming got destabilized. So monsters and such are kinda getting out of hand, as is the land around the borders of the map, and I needed someone to help me out with all that."

The unnamed deity looked over at me expectantly, which takes me fucking aback. Me? "I—Why me of all possible entities capable of rudimentary thought? You'd probably have had a better chance taking a cleaning bot. Even if you didn't have any choice, did you have to send me down to bumfuck nowhere with zero skills? In the middle of a giant antoid rave???"

She just chuckles. Fucker. "Yeah, no, that was all on you. I dunno how you did it, but you immediately found a problem with our spawning simulation and exploited it to get yourself sent at mach speeds out towards — in your own words, mind you — bumfuck nowhere. Actually, another person came through recently, too, but they uh. Pretty much immediately got taken in by my... colleague. You're what I've got for now."

"Alright," I groused, "What do you need me to do again?"

She scratched her head. I could hear her scratching her head. To hell with eye contact — I was going to get all my social cues through sound now, apparently. "Mmm. Well, you're doing pretty fine already. You should probably just head to a nearby castle or something, get some more info. Maybe finally get your shit together with those two mai~idens you've been courting." 

I threw a dirty look at her, and she laughed again. "Nah, just joking. Seriously though, it might be a good idea to get them to accompany you. Combat experience and mechanical experience could make for a pretty good team."

"Right. And, er, say I do this. Where do I... go? Exactly?"

"Oh, simple. You just go outside the bounds of the map."

"'Just go outside the bounds of the map!' she says. Firstly, isn't that supposed to be impossible? Secondly, wouldn't I just fall into the void?"

"There's no void," the god counters. "This whole place is sort-of procedurally generated. Just that the areas outside the traditional map are hard to traverse and full of monsters and shit. It's supposed to be a pretty common place for the endgame adventurers and players to go — that's why my g-colleague's core is there. Well, sort of there. Her place of power is there, just like mine's in the central spawning citadel. She reigns over all the monsters and PvP stuff."

Huh. I hadn't considered that there might be physical aspects to this pair of AIs. That'd be interesting to investigate from an in-world perspective. "So, uh, what do I do when I'm outside the map?"

"Right, so. I've got this thing that might actually solve a lot of our issues." Her hand flew up to project an image of a glowing sword-sheath into the air above us. "This isn't what it actually is, it's actually basically just a virus I made that'd reset her code. Not to default, just to restrain her a bit while I run defrag in the background. But you don't have a sword sheath yet, and you probably need one. It'll implement into your suit and cloak, that way you can't have it just removed from your person, and any sword you put in it will turn into your weapon of choice. A gift, I guess."

She giggles. "Heheheh. In this case, more of a boon. You'll unlock more stuff for it as you level. And I've modified your data to be practically identical to a player, that way you won't arise suspicion for being someone who looks really out of place."

I imagined placing the katana that Flurry had given me into the sheath, and squirreling it away in my cloak and suit. It'd be useful, no doubt. But she kept going. "Anyways, you take this to her place of power and basically just jab it in there. It'll automatically inject itself and should immobilize all the NPCs around the world while it works into play. Then I swoop in, defragment everything thoroughly, and hopefully it's all over in only a few CPU cycles so that nobody in the real world notices!"

"Huh... So, er, am I just supposed to not get hit? I don't know how to fight with armor. I barely know how to fight without armor, actually, but it seems like some part of me does. Is that part of the whole game system deal?"

My words apparently shook her out of some kind of introspection, because she jolts to a sitting position and looks at me curiously. "No? The system should have guided you, but it detected that you had a much better knowledge of how to fight than the newb-level shit it was trying to teach you. That was definitely you fighting down there."

Hm! More things to store away for later. The silence started to grow between us as I refused to respond, and she eventually just sighed; the god lay back down beside me quietly. "You are a strange one, Cylinder."

"Hah. Sure. Since you know my, uh, name, mind if I ask what yours is?"

She reached both hands up, a quiet smile intended only for herself growing on her face. I could see it barely out of the corner of my eye. I looked away. This wasn't meant for me. "My name is Moira. Thank you for asking."

"S-Sure. Uh. What do we do now?"

"I send you back down to metaphorical Terra Firma, and you get down to business. We don't meet again unless you die again and need to ask about shit. Actually, uh, I'm probably also gonna implant some base knowledge of the world in you just in case you meet any players. And so that you don't stand out to NPCs."

"Can I pass on that? I'd rather just learn everything as I go."

"Sure."

"Thanks."

We lie there for a bit longer, before I asked her a question that'd been plaguing me for a while. "Do you, uh... do you ever feel like you're not doing anything right? That you don't really deserve the place in life you're at?"

Moira scoffs. "Nah, this is my life's calling. Of course I do, a little. Don't think it's quite healthy, but I do genuinely enjoy where I am and what I'm doing."

"Ah..." I sighed. No answers from someone who I only really knew through business, then. "Sorry for asking."

"S'fine. I did have to process all your data, y'know? I'm surprised you're not happier."

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"Well I am, but— h-hey! What the fuck! You can't just go snooping on a guy's data like that!" I stood up indignantly and looked down at the deity attempting to hide her laughter from showing. Badly.

"See? Fate knows best, and all that. Anyways, our time's coming to an end, I've really kept you for long enough already—" Huh??? "—so I'm gonna send you back now. Have a good time respawning, you've got company in your room!" HUH???

Before I could kick her for more information, I was tumbling backwards into the abyss. The scabbard from earlier fell from the speck of light in front of me, and I groaned. For the second time in 30 minutes. Nothing to it, though; I grabbed the sheath and suddenly felt my motion halt. It was jarring, but not like falling and then splatting on the ground — more like all my momentum was cancelled to zero with no adverse side effects.

I could make out parts of the room around me through the black fog. It was seemingly filled with knickknacks, books, and weapons. A single bed was located right next to me, holding two women — familiar ones — but I couldn't make out who or what they were before I was tackled to the ground by one of them. Voices startled in my ear, scratchy overlaid by smooth noise, and as I fully materialized I finally realized exactly who'd tackled me. 

"N-Nora???" She's laughing, though clearly has been crying a decent amount from the strain in her voice. "Are you okay???"

I didn't like the rise in my chest that happened when she nodded, head over my shoulder. Warmth always felt out of place there. "Yeah! Yeah, of course I am! Why'd you take! So! Long?!" She punctuates each word with a half-hearted punch  into my back. I cough. Jeez, she was strong.

"Held up by a god or some shit. Got a scabbard, though! Uh..." I look over to the bed and see Flurry trying her best to stop herself from laughing. "Hi. To you also! Um." Why did everyone in this room have to be so cute??? Including I guess me??? Sort of??? "Is there a particular reason why we're in Nora's room and also why Nora's room is no longer fucked up?"

Flurry takes a moment more to chuckle, and Nora answers for her. "You respawned here because it was the last place you diagnosed as 'safe enough to spawn', and it's fixed because Flurry fixed it. You know, like she's supposed to as a mechanic?? What's this about a god?"

Hm. I didn't get to ask why the NPCs seemed to be sentient too, but that'd be for another time. Play it by ear, B-Cyl! "Ah, uh, you know how I was probably gonna do some shenanigans? Divine um, quest. Gotta fix this place. Before more people start seeing what's wrong with it, and by that I mean I have to go across the edge of the, er, world. And put the scabbard she gave me into some place of power for another god. To fix things."

Flurry gives me an incredulous look, and I could only imagine Nora doing the same from her position hugging me to the floor. O-Oh. She was hugging me to the floor. I, um. Hm. Flurry pipes up after a second. "You're not lying, are you? Oh god, that's gonna suck."

It took me a minute to figure out my response given my mind was spontaneously running at 50% efficiency, but I eventually nodded. "I'm willing to see it through, though. And, uh, I wanted to ask if you would be willing to accompany me? Both of you." I couldn't tell them that it was suggested by Moira, they'd feel obligated. But I did want their help, if possible...

Flurry took a second and then shrugged. "Eh, sure. There's others here who can fix shit, and honestly I've trained enough people that I'm able to just stay in my house most of the time. Give me a day and I'll be down." Nora nodded into my shoulder as well.

I, uh, guessed that was that. Maybe divine summons were a part of this world's fantasy structure? Seemed a little too easy... "Are you both sure?" I asked tentatively, after a bit of time had passed.

"Cyl," the rogue-assassin-thief girl jabbed at me verbally — poking me in the back as well. "I wouldn't be hugging you still if I didn't want to keep close by. Also, I know how it feels to get divine summons and shit. Me n' the Sparrows had one a while back, and uh. It wasn't as bad but it would have been much worse without them keeping company. So I'd be glad to keep you company."

Flurry nods. "Yeah, same here. Plus, I saw some pretty cracked shit when analyzing the fight scene you died at. I wanna see more of that! Feels like you attract shenanigans, honestly, and I gotta probe you for more info on your world's tech. Nothing to lose but a few respawns, eh?"

She winks, and my heart melts a little. What did I do to deserve this???

After cuddling (mildly-uncomfortably, I think) on the ground for a while longer, Flurry gets up and drags Nora to go get ready to leave. They're fully expecting to come back alive from this, huh? It must be easier than I think... or they're not expecting the level of difficulty I'm expecting. Not much choice for me, eh?

I really only need to like. Get the sword. I don't really have any earthly possessions. Beyovarian? Possessions? Whatever — seems like Flurry left the sword by the door on her way out, so that was my one sole probable thing that I owned checked off the list.

What else did I need to do? I mean... maybe check my status? Yeah.

I did the weird wrist... arm tapping thing that Nora taught me on my first day here, and all my status screens popped to life with the second tap in a clutter of overlapping menus. This time, though, I was ready. There was something I'd been wanting to try, but I'd been having too many panic attacks to really make it work. So now, when the fluttery feeling in my chest still banished all the shadows from my mind? Seemed like a good time to me.

There was a thing I could do. That all corporate androids (and, in fact, androids in general) could do. It was basically monitoring all aspects of our CPU — a little more complicated, but the fact that we were quantum computers with an added kick allowed us to monitor the parts of us that usually went behind the scenes. And I had a sneaking suspicion that these screens were part of some behind-the-scenes driver or something, which meant I could manipulate input and output to them.

So I set up a diagnostic to check for any non-normal drivers, and sure enough — there was a driver labelled "INTEGRATION DRIVER" along with pointers to files with extensions dissimilar to any I'd ever seen before. However, a little issue like that wouldn't stop me. I was a top-of-the-line (circa three or four years ago) quantum computing device, among other things! As expected, my computing services and drivers made quick work of parsing the data into text and readable code — there were a lot of simple numerical values for variables, but I could figure those out by taking into account what I was doing with my menus at the time.

For now, I wanted to automatically sort all the screens I had into a simple tab-based setup. That way, nobody could snoop on anything I wasn't looking at, and it would also leave a lot less clutter. So I got to work coding up a simple GUI and making elements for it that'd house all the screens I had, then plugged it into the method that I suspected handled projecting all the screens into reality.

Success. I'd sorted all the screens into folders designated by whatever class title they used, and quickly updated all the files to have plaintext abbreviations of the screen they corresponded to — "SELF" for the one which handled my self screen, et cetera. I'd get to know all of them more in-depth later, but...

The first thing I wanted to do beyond just making it easier for me to figure out my screens was to make a spell-making program. A graphical user interface that'd allow me to build spells on the fly, using anything I'd learned and their corresponding magical effects to imprint it into my brain. To put it simply, I wanted a spell creator. But that'd take a lot of time.

...which I'd have in spades on the trip. So I'd save it for then. For now, I'd resign myself to not being totally overpowered via knowledge of absurd amounts of spells.

Hey, I wonder if crafting was also a spell-type deal..? Wait, no, focus. I wanted to check out my stats screen first, and see if anything changed...

Sure enough, something had. My title, Integrated Hellspawn, had changed — it now read Wingspar of Troubled Wind. Catchy. Apparently, it gave me a boost to... uh, something called "Luck Of The Nova's Dawn"? Or, no. It actually gave me something called "Luck Of The Nova's Dawn", which upon further inspection just symbolized a call to action by divine inheritance or whatever. And a promise of fortune, whether beneficial or not. Thanks, Moira...

Well, at least it was pretty much just my title. I hadn't gotten any XP for killing that big guy, since he'd kind of just exploded on his own — by the game's terms, at least. That, or XP reset upon death. Actually, it was probably both. I'd need to ask Nora later for real confirmation, but I'd read something like "indirect kills don't give XP, also XP resets when you die" in that book she gave me, so. Probably knew the answer already.

Man. Today had been, for sure, a day.

One of the most days, actually. Assuming it was the same day.

The sun dipped low on the horizon, settling down as if to meander underground and stay there for about 8 hours. Golden light streamed through the window, newly-fixed by Flurry today, apparently, and I yawned. Respawning made you ache, huh? Made sense. The creators of this game probably didn't want people to like, seriously abuse respawn mechanics by constantly going back into battle.

In any case, I was tired and my bones ached. I could turn it off, but... that made me feel more inhuman than normal. So I just flopped backwards onto the bed that Nora had loaned with me in mind, making myself comfortable under the covers and hoping she'd be okay with this. It wasn't really fine, but... if I wasn't a computer (sort of), I'd use the term crashing for what I was doing right now.

Yeah. Just a friend helping out another friend in need, and nothing more. I ignored the thoughts screaming that this was wrong, and simply settled into a soft, familiar sleep.

Tomorrow was the big day, and I felt like I'd need the rest.