Chapter 118 - Trey Bon's Family (Part 2)

“Please note that this is what your status screen should look like when arriving at your destination. You may increase your levels and in turn your stats and skills by gaining experience, and then assigning these stat and skill points to whatever you desire. Note that these designations are permanent and may not be undone. You may also gain stat and skill points through training or experiences without having to level up. You may gain experience through quests, training, fighting, killing, studying, and so on. Your stat points may be used as amplifiers upon your original traits as a human being. Your skill points are used to amplify the effectiveness of any skill you may obtain. Keep in mind a high skill point does not necessarily correlate with how skillful you actually are, but it will only add towards what you as an individual can master and amplify it. Your traits are individualized and are often obtained through the experiences you undergo. These can be bad or good and even effect how you behave. Attributes are used for magics and miracles. In order to use any magics or miracles you must first understand the origin and meaning behind the type of magic or miracle you want to cast. Titles are sometimes administered by the All Spirit and usually represent the greatest accomplishment you have undergone.”

A slender man to Ford’s left raised his hand uncertainly.

“Yes Joshua, what is your inquiry?” stated Nora.

“Uh… I thought we were going to another planet? This seems like a videogame to me.” The man smiled sheepishly at his fellows. “So… what’s the catch?”

“I’m not quite sure I understand your question Joshua, but let me try to explain to the best of my ability on what I think it is you’re getting at. You are going to another world, but these realms reside in a different dimension. The rules and laws of that universe differ from this one. Do you ever remember tales of dragons, fairies, demons, angels, or many other creatures of folklore in the past?” Nora waited patiently and Joshua finally nodded along with a few of his fellows. “Well the Nirvana Worlds are the source of all those stories. We believe the Nirvana Worlds to be somehow linked to Earth, though we are not sure why, and even in the past century have come across numerous instances where people of Earth have traveled to the Nirvana Worlds without our help. Dimensional flux indicating travel between realms were happening even before our own first trial. Many aspects of these realms are very much like what you would call a ‘video game,’ but trust me when I say it is all very real. The pain, pleasure, hunger, comfort, love, sadness, life, death, and senses are all very real. These laws of the new universe you will soon call home are as commonplace to them as drinking water is for you. But back to our topic at hand. You may access your status page by focusing on the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your vision. In the top left-hand side of your vision are your HP, MP and SP bars - symbolizing your health, mana, and stamina. Increasing these may be done with Vitality, Endurance, and Wisdom stat points. To see a list of what each stat does - you can focus in on your own status page to reveal their values.”

AI Nora pulled up a list and amplified the size large enough for all to see:

Strength – Governs damage output for many melee combat skills, what equipment you can carry or wear, and various crafting skills.

Vitality – Directly governs HP (Health Points) as well as general defense.

Endurance – Directly governs SP (Stamina Points) as well as general defense.

Dexterity – Governs ability to skillfully manipulate weapons or items. Governs damage output for certain melee combat skills, various crafting skills, as well as specialty techniques and archery.

Speed – Governs how fast your movements are and how fast you can run per point of stamina.

Intelligence – Governs damage output for spells and ability to call upon spells, as well as directly affects your actual intelligence relating to how smart you are.

Wisdom – Directly governs MP (Magic Points) as well as affects introspection abilities.

Faith – Governs effectiveness for miracles. Governs the amount of DP (Divinity Points).

Luck – Governs how favorably the All Spirit influences your actions and the actions of those around you. Also governs Identification.

Willpower - Governs ability to resist negative status effects such as confusion, fear, paralysis, sleep, slow, debuffs, mind altering effects, etc. Does not stop bleed or poison effects. Directly governs the amount of minion slots available for certain classes. Also governs innate abilities that do not fit into the leveling system.

“Please note that not all sentient life in the Nirvana Worlds can use magic - in fact most can’t, but according to our records every single one of the Earthborn participants have been able to do so and have been able to learn magics much faster than the natives.” commented Nora.

Andrew was stunned. He had already noticed the HP, MP, and SP bars and had pointed them out to his family - but now being told of magic, status pages, dragons, and other worlds had him kind of excited about this new trip. It would have been different if he had lost his immediate family, but they were all alive. Even Trey was apparently alive somewhere out there. Absolutely fascinating. Next to him Vick was having the same thoughts, though his parents looked less enthusiastic.

“When you said ‘them’ earlier, who are you talking about?” interrupted another well built teenager. “You mean there are other people that live there already, right?”

“Yes that is correct.” replied Nora. “You were not paying attention when I referred to the natives thereafter. Allow me to show you some visuals we recorded so that you may understand. Again, nothing may harm you - at least not here. This is only a simulation. When you finally arrive at your destination is when danger may or may not present itself. So do not panic at any of what I am about to show you.”

Abruptly the field disappeared and the hundreds of earthborn were hovering in space. A selection of thirteen different solar systems with a planet highlighted in each of them was labeled.

“The thirteen realms: Ecten, Nagochus, Quoram, Vorth, Burthol, Adenine, Polime, Dedeni, Zefer, Ulo, Lasrime, Citrus, Walmaki. To our knowledge there are other extradimensional connections known as The Hells, The Heavens, The Void, The Spirit Realm, The Abyss, and Oblivion - but it is unlikely any of you will be assigned to these latter places. Each of the thirteen realms has a similar gravitational pull, atmosphere, and environmental variety just as earth does. Or should I say - just as Earth DID, before you humans destroyed it with your carelessness.”

Ecten was selected by Nora with a point of her finger and suddenly they had zoomed in on the planet. It was as if they were in the international space station looking down at Earth - but it had strange new continent shapes and a greener outlook of the land mass. Probably because all the vegetation was still there. In another brief second they had flown through the clouds and plummeted towards the ground - causing many of them to scream in fright before immediately stopping over a riverbed. Below them a small brown farmhouse with a man and his two daughters chopping wood while the wife was shearing sheep for wool. Chickens were stored up in a pen and it looked very homey.

“This is actual recorded footage of some of the locals on a northern continent of Ecten. As you can see, life can be very similar to what it was in your medieval ages here in the thirteen realms. Many of the same species existing on your world exist in these worlds. Then again, it can also be very different.”

In another blur of motion they had been transported to hover over a horde of green, tall, and very muscular men. Orcs. They had huge bottom-row canines that protruded up and out over their lips and they roared, raising their axes and swords, as they charged into battle with another smaller army of what Andrew could only assume to be trolls. The trolls stood twice to four times to height of each orc and they met the orcs in battle - some of them eating the smaller orcs as they went with screams of the dying and fallen reaching the ears of the earthborn.

Then another vision appeared - this time they were in a glade of extreme beauty with ancient trees flowering to litter their blossoms onto the soil beneath. Fairies of a variety of extravagant colors flitted about and laughed with one another as they played together, ate fruits and nuts, and laid about.

A new vision again appeared after another swirl of motion. They were now overlooking a school where magic was being taught. Young men and women scribbled away taking notes while others in other rooms applied their teachings to conjure electricity, grow plants at exponential rates, and levitate objects with their minds.

And finally the last vision settled. This time it was of an enormous walled city. Battlements had stationed soldiers at intervals but they were relaxed and chatting away as numerous civilians bustled about below. Orcs, goblins, humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, lizard men, and cat men all shared this absolutely massive city and lived in harmony with one another. The architecture was absolutely beautiful and everyone seemed happy as they continued about their daily lives. Surprising and startling many of them - three large drakes each with a soldier riding atop of them swooped down and landed upon a platform protruding from the wall. The soldiers dismounted, saluted, and let the drakes be taken from them into a strange stable on the inner side of the walls.

“Imagine having one of those come at you,” muttered Vick.

Ford gave a humph. “I’d kick its ass.”

Andrew and Vick snickered while Ford’s wife Michelle scowled at him. “Why do you always have to be so crude?”

The vision vanished and they were again standing in the original meadow surrounded by forest. AI Nora smiled at them warmly. “We hope you like what you saw. Many of the people taken from Earth in the original three waves, as well as many of the ones processed just recently, are enjoying their new lives very much. Though there can definitely be hardships, there is much opportunity to be found. In the third wave of Earthborn sent we had to cut connections off from the Nirvana Worlds in an emergency situation - not enabling us to endow you with language capabilities. That situation has now passed so that you will be enabled to learn the first language you hear instantaneously, which should make things a little easier to manage in the early days there. We have also improved our transportation system so that your clothes may accompany you into your new life, whereas in the first wave many of the earthborn sent were naked. The All Spirit has been quite helpful in fixing these problems and is more than happy to take all of you Earthborn into these realms! It is currently waiting for you now, as it is many others across Earth. But before we continue into the final phase, are there any questions?”

“You mentioned we get unique traits that don’t show up at first? What do you mean? How would that help us if we don’t even know what they are?” asked a woman cautiously. “Could you give us an example?”

Nora shook her head. “I cannot give you an example. I am sorry.”

Vick shot up his hand. “Are the things from these worlds able to travel to Earth?”

Nora cocked her head to one side. “Yes. They would have to be incredibly powerful in terms of magical ability to do so though, at least from what I understand. Earth and the laws of physics here do not allow magics to be cast without serious repercussions.”

“Are there undead as well? Like maybe skeletons?” Vick blurted it out and many of the onlookers were obviously confused as to where his questions were heading.

Nora smiled again. “Well many things have ‘skeletons’ Vick. But if you’re talking about animated skeletons in the form of undead, then yes. Necromancy is a branch of magic practiced by many in the Nirvana Worlds, though many others view it as evil and shun it. We also have a very accomplished scientist here working on coding for these worlds with the All Spirit itself, and he has been able to work with us as well in figuring out how to transport goods back and forth between worlds. In the early stages we even played these worlds off as a game, just as some of you had spoken about, but it is anything but.”

A couple people began to whisper to one another and Vick nodded slowly. He couldn’t help but keep thinking about the robed skeleton with glowing blue eyes that he had seen standing next to the large machine - just before he was about to be executed. And the sudden bolt of electricity before his sentencing was changed. It seemed so weird to him and he was grasping at straws here but he continued to brainstorm on the subject as Nora continued answering questions.

“Will there be people willing to help us?” another man called out.

“It depends on where you end up. The All Spirit will drop you off, after you pair up into groups, at a random location upon any of the thirteen worlds. We of DLIAL have no say on where you go.”

“We’re literally just being put out on one of these planets at random? What if we end up in some sort of terrible situation like starving or being killed by wild animals or worse!? I want out!”

“Your mind has already been incorporated and is being processed, there is no turning back. From here on, it is survival of the fittest.”

The room was abuzz with chatter and questions being thrown out. After five to ten minutes of talking the group had taken on a silent stance as eyes flickered back and forth between one another nervously. In time, they began to form groups as instructed by Nora.

Andrew, Vick, Ford and Michelle stood by one another as larger groups started to form. Many people seemed to be completely disregarding Nora’s warning on large groups being placed in more hostile areas, but Trey’s family stuck together as a unit and watched in solemn silence.

“I’ll be useful! I promise!” pleaded a teenage girl as she begged one of the larger groups to let her join. She looked to be anywhere from 15-17 years old.

“Get lost brat, you’d be absolutely useless to us.” stated the leader of the group, a thin tall man with a shaggy beard with folded arms. His overalls and boots made him look like an absolute redneck. “All y’alls gona do is get in the way and have us take care of ya. I’m not letting you in. Sorry.”

The girl seemed frantic. She was probably about five feet tall and still in her growing stages with long, dark brown hair. She wore a hoodie with jeans and shoes that seemed worn down. Tears collected in her eyes as she continued to beg, but he pushed her down when she came close.

“I’m about to go over there and kick his ass,” stated Ford as he started forward. Michelle rolled her eyes while Vick shook his head. But Michelle didn’t stop her husband this time, her heart went out to the poor child in front of her. Andrew on the other hand followed his father to where the tiny girl sat shaking on the simulated meadow grass.

“What’s it you want?” started the bearded man before a swift jaw shattering fist rammed into the side of his face. The man cursed as he stumbled back and hit the floor himself. The others in his group looked on to see what he would do - but after getting back up to take a look at Ford’s intimidating figure - he just spat and said: “It aint worth it.”

Then he walked away.

“Dumbass redneck fuck.” Ford spat back at the man while puffing out his chest.

“I guess this simulation is pretty legit. You ok?” asked Andrew as he knelt down to help the young girl up to her feet. “You can join us if you’d want. What’s your name?”

The little girl was still crying softly and didn’t look up. “Alex.”

Andrew sighed as his father turned back around. “Alright Alex. Do you not have any family here?”

Alex shook her head and hugged herself before pulling the hoodie over her teary eyes. “They died.”

There was a long awkward silence as the two men exchanged glances.

“I’m really sorry. I know it’s hard, we’ve lost some cousins and grandparents too. And our dogs. And, well… we weren’t going to have anyone along with us either. To be honest, you’re probably better off without a large group if what Nora said earlier is true. There are only four of us right now though! Five won’t make much of a difference I think. If you want to come along with us, we’d be happy to help you. Right dad?”

“Of course!” said Ford with a cheery smile. “We’re definitely the better option anyway. Andrew here might be ugly and scary looking but don’t let that get to you. He’s harmless.”

The banter was ignored, but the tiny teenage girl sniffled a couple times and nodded again.

“Honey are hurt?” said Michelle as she walked over with Vick and knelt down. “I’m so sorry about that, tensions are high right now… but it was no reason for him to be a jerk like that. We would LOVE for you to come with US though!”

Having another woman there seemed to ease the tension as Alex finally made eye contact with Michelle. Her lips quivered a moment and she sniffled again, wiping at her face to clear the tears.

“Thanks.” mumbled Alex. She stood up and was quick to latch onto the outstretched hand Michelle had given to her. Together they walked back to the original spot from whence they came to stand anxiously awaiting the trip.

Not a minute more had passed before Nora had concluded all groups to be formed and ready. A large orb of soft white light appeared behind Nora and hovered there. “Now that all groups have been settled, and all questions answered, we will proceed with transfer. Please proceed with your group towards the orb. Upon touching the orb - the person touching it along with anyone I have registered as a group member will be transferred into the Nirvana Worlds. You may experience some slight nausea, vomiting, fever or chills after your initial touchdown - especially if you are prone to motion sickness. This will soon pass. Prepare yourselves and may luck be on your side. From the moment you are transferred, you will no longer be in a simulation. You will be in a real world. Keep in mind that DLIAL will have no further contact with you afterwards, so if you have any last-minute questions please ask before approaching the light.”

The five of them stood with increasing anxiety as they looked around. Others did the same. None of them wanted to be the first to give it a go. Some were even terrified to the point that they were wetting themselves, but no one thought it was funny.

Andrew’s breathing picked up and his heart started racing. “Let’s go. I don’t want to stand here all day.”

“Fuck yeah boi let’s do this shit,” replied Vick encouragingly with a high five to his brother. Michelle felt Alex squeeze her hand even more tightly as the girl tensed up - Michelle wished she could seem more encouraging, but she herself was scared too.

“There’s always room at the top, let’s be the first.” stated Ford with a half-hearted smile. Together the family alongside their new acquaintance Alex were the first ones to approach the orb of light.

Hundreds of eyes followed them as they neared it and AI Nora gave an encouraging

Nod. Ford cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and reach his hand forward. Upon touching the orb his consciousness first went bright white, and then to black.

Preparations complete.

Initiating vortex and opening gate.

Total earthborn participants registered: 76,589,332

Uploading consciousnesses and DNA sequences to Nirvana Worlds in:

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Upload sequence round 14,035 commencing.

***

Name: Ford Bon

Level 1

Name: Michelle Bon

Level 1

Name: Vick Bon

Level 1

Name: Andrew Bon

Level 1

Name: Alex Hunts

Level 1

Ford woke up with a splash of water to his face. His once soaked clothes felt dry now, and he wiped away the water to look up into the face of his giggling wife. She had taken water from a stream not even three feet away - cupped in her hands - to pour it onto him while he slept. “You think you’re funny don’t ya?”

“I’m the funniest!” replied Michelle haughtily to brush her brunette hair back.

“I’m becoming enraged woman!” scowled Ford playfully as he picked himself up and dusted himself to look around. They were in a mountain range. Beautiful towering snow-capped peaks hovered over them on all sides with pine trees and wildflowers blooming about. The songs of birds met his ears and he smiled. It reminded him of Utah, the place he had grown up. Excitement flowed through him and he became happier than he had been in a long, long time. He couldn’t actually believe what the DLIAL machines had accomplished in sending them to this place - but it definitely felt real. He checked his status page, his HP, MP and SP bars, and took a moment to make sure all of his senses were intact.

“Go jump off a lake.” replied Michelle with a huff. “Vick, Alex and Andrew all went further down the stream to explore. They’ll be back in a minute.”

“Jump off a lake?” repeated Ford with a raised eyebrow - judgement written across his features. “I didn’t realize that I married a Cedarian until it was too late. You Cedarians are so edumecated it’s scary. Jump off a lake. Well I’ll be.”

“Oh shut up you grump,” snapped Michelle. “You know what I meant. And Cedar City had perfectly good edumecation I’ll have you know!”

“Ya know Michelle there was once this thing called the Alamo.” started Ford as he sat down to take a closer look at the stream.

“...Where exactly is this going?” replied Michelle as she sat down next to him and put her arms around him.

“Well in the news recently this really sad story happened. There was a plane flying over the alps and suddenly it had one of its engines blow out. So they start descending deep into the mountains. The pilot is able to steer into a valley before he regains control of the plane. He gets on the speaker and says this: ‘Alright my copilot here is an expert mathematician and we’ve done the calculations. After dumping all of your luggage we still need an additional four to five hundred pounds off the plane in order to make it out of the valley without crashing into the mountainside. That means we need three men to volunteer their lives for the rest of us - and soon - to jump off the plane.’ People start arguing about who should be the ones to jump when an honorable englishman steps up. He opens the plane door and cries ‘God save the queen!’ before jumping to his untimely death below. Inspired by his bravery and selflessness a frenchman eventually steps up and cries out ‘Sacrebleu!’ leaping to his death. Finally a large texan steps up. He’s wearing his cowboy boots and cowboy hat and he looks around at the other passengers of the plane. Suddenly he cries out ‘REMEMBER THE ALAMO!’ and throws off a mexican guy right next to him. But that’s not REALLY why he threw the mexican guy off the plane - it was because the mexican guy was actually a Cedarian. People hate Cedarians. Consider yourself lucky to have found a sensitive new age male that would overlook your shortcomings, take you out of the backwoods of Utah, and put shoes on your feet.”

There was a long pause and gaze from Michelle as Ford snickered to himself over what he thought to be hilarious.

“That has got to be the most stupid joke I’ve ever heard. But we’re here! Look around Ford! Isn’t this amazing!?” exclaimed Michelle. “And Trey is somewhere out there! I’m so happy!”

Ford smiled back at his wife but said nothing. The chances of ever finding Trey were incredibly small and he had already told her so, but he wouldn’t continue to harp on it.

Then Michelle looked to the ground, and her face fell into a more sorrowful expression. “And… maybe we can start over. A life without all that crime… it’d be a nice change of pace.”

Ford frowned, but again didn’t reply.

Splashing noises sounded as Vick, Ford and Alex emerged from further down the stream. Alex had a smile on for the first time since seeing her over the very short course they’d know her, Andrew was laughing and Vick was soaked.

“Just when I was dry! This is some real bullshit!” exclaimed Vick, causing Andrew to laugh even harder.

“That’s what you get for trying to trip ME!” retorted Andrew who skipped away. “Hey mom. Hey dad. We didn’t find anything that way. But we didn’t go very far either… I still think following the stream would be the best choice. At least we’ll have water until we figure out what to do.”

The summer day passed by uneventfully. Occasional deer were seen along with a multitude of birds none of them were able to recognize as native to earth. The strangest thing they saw that day was a weird looking hog-bear hybrid that seemed to eat plants. It startled them upon first glance but it noticed them and continued eating at the leaves of a bush. Andrew was even able to identify the creature - much to his excitement - as he read off the stats to his family. They soon joined in themselves to try and identify it, much like AI Nora had told them to do by concentrating on the animal and trying to glean information about it. By nightfall they had found no sign of other intelligent life and were very hungry. They decided to stay the night near the stream’s edge - at least they had water that way. And the night breeze felt good upon their skin as they drifted off to sleep while watching overhead as the broken purple moon above lighted the sky in a dim strange light.