《Welcome to the Upward Bound System, V.2》Interlude 1, The first 12 hours of the System, The Founder
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Back on earth...
The system pylon sensed as the fabric of reality was pierced and a gate was formed upon the Earth.
Unusual gate spawning outside of expected area...
Beginning analysis...
The system began to scan over the area where the gate had spawned.
To the sensors of the system it determined a divine entity had stepped from the gate triggering several failsafe's.
Analyzing all available data to determine identity of offending entity...
Error, Conflicting information detected...
Error Suppressed...
Divine entity identified...
Scp-001: The Gate Guardian, Uriel
Entities race has been identified as Archangel...
Analyzing available information...
Establishing contextual framework...
Analyzing all available data trying to determine the best course of action...
Entity is deemed to be a threat to the system...
Insufficient data for meaningful measure of entities power...
Bringing full power to bear to eliminate the threat...
Requesting assistance from system administrators should course of action fail...
The system pylon once more began to unfurl its enormous cannon.
This time it would not renew the world. Instead it would lay this entity and surrounding several miles to waste.
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Uriel looked up as he felt the shifting of manasphere and the buildup of an enormous amount of mana far above him.
Even to human eyes the building light was obvious.
This would not stop him, for he had been given this task by the father.
He would not shame the father with failure!
The angel moved its great wings to shield the gateway behind it, awaiting the impending blast.
Awaiting his time to give just retribution.
-------------
Far from Earth near a world laid to ruin a system a notice appeared before them and so they turned their gaze to the location in question and what they saw shocked them.
"A system pylon is about to attempt a preemptive strike against an angel. This isn't good. I apparently need to update their threat assessment systems..." They spoke as they reached out across the void to avert this certain calamity.
---------------
From the void a voice spoke, a voice that was old and yet ever new.
The system pylon stopped.
Not since it had been made had it heard that voice.
The voice of the Systems creator.
The voice of the Machine Ascender.
"Do not attempt to strike down this entity." The voice spoke calmly and quickly.
No sooner had the voice spoken then its presence receded into the dark of space.
Orders received from System Progenitor...
Standing down...
-------------------------------------
As the numerous people of Earth selected their tutorials, so came the avatars of the System.
Many had tried selecting a tutorial option whilst driving. In great flashes of light those individuals were transported to their assigned normal tutorial zones. Thanks to a safety measure put in place by the system, when individuals were transported away, Avatars of the system spawned in their places. When necessity called for it, that was.
Cars whose drivers had vanished in bright flashes of light were suddenly replaced by golden figures. Those system avatar's now drove, as gently as they could, bringing the car's to a stop along the roadside. All around the world car's pulled over, driven by golden figures made seemingly of light.
Some car's however kept going, be they individuals who had yet to select their tutorial or system avatar's that needed to get something to its destination. This world had to keep running after its people had completed their runs through the tutorial zones. Semi Trucks carrying cargo still needed to arrive on time. Emergency vehicles needed to arrive at their destinations.
There was the occasional occurrence where an individual that had been slain by the system had left important business unattended. Thus an avatar of the system was summoned to attend to it.
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Those system avatar's who had been spawned to replace individuals piloting planes kept the planes from crashing, they alerted their passengers to select a tutorial.
Around the world mothers and fathers selected their tutorials and in a flash of light they too were gone. However, their children were not left to fend for themselves. Children appeared with their parents in the tutorial zones assigned to them.
Individuals under the age of 18, under most circumstances could not select a tutorial. Instead they were transported alongside their parents to more specialized tutorial zones. Some teenagers were exempted from this rule. The reasons for their exemptions were varied. From a lack of parents, to abusive or overly controlling parents.
Most people would be gone for several hours, on earth anyway. To those who had been transported however, it would likely be month's before they saw their world again.
In a geostationary orbit of the Earth's moon, the colossal system ship that served to bring the system to earth now turned its attention to a new problem.
Estimated time to system resource depletion: 1 Day...
Resource conservation and reclamation methods have been enabled...
Devising a greater plan of action...
Sorting through records for possible solutions...
181 viable solutions found...
Prioritizing immediate needs...
Initiating process of elimination...
Two options remaining...
Solutions have been chosen...
Operation, Star Forge, will now commence...
Operation, Eclipse, will now commence...
From the sleek metal exterior of the system relay ship seams began to emerge. The otherwise sleek exterior was interrupted as a dozen colossal hangar doors opened wide. Each hanger door was more than a mile high and wide. Behind each door were multi floored hangers and in them countless ships laid in wait for this moment.
From these hangers emerged countless worker drones or varying sizes. Each drone seemed to resemble some form of insect. Within the grip of each drone it carried the materials to accomplish a portion of its task.
The drones flew away from the system ship towards their intended destination. When the drones reached about a mile from the main ship they began to congregate. They began to build the foundations of what appeared to be a ship.
The system ship watched through arcane sensors as the hoards of its drones rather quickly expanded their materials and returned to the ship for more.
The frameworks of two ships began to take shape. On the left a ship bound to land upon the moon and begin resource extraction to supplement the ship's needs.
The ship on the right would be the base upon which a new construction facility would be created. However, this alone would not solve the problem. A factory was useless without the necessary materials to build with. This factory would take advantage of the most abundant source of material in this solar system, the sun.
After an hour the two colossal base ships had been completed and fueled. The large sleek white, almost T shaped ship had been made in the image of another.
A ship named Destiny.
These humans had never actually built the ship depicted, and likely would have been unable to do so for several millennia. This however, did not stop the system from using its concept and design.
The system watched as the good ship, Star Forge, lit up its engines. The large band of thruster's at its back end glowed blue as the ship ran through its startup process.
The ship, Star Forge, completed its startup and pointed itself towards Sol, this system's star. This part of the greater system could not help but smile in its digital environment.
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The ship turned on its drive allowing them a moment to warm up.
The ship was half a mile in length, a quarter mile in width, and more than 1000 feet in height.
Even given all of that, this ship went from idle to beyond the speed of light in less than 3 seconds.
Within the Star Forge many construction drones had taken up residence. They had been instructed to accompany the ship to its new destination and aid in the construction of the Star Forge base. A multipurpose space station that would allow for near infinite production of new items for the system. It would siphon material from the sun to enable its own construction and then the construction of other items once the station was finished.
As for the other ship the system had dubbed, Eclipse, it had no such light speed engines built into it. Its journey would be far longer than that of its sister ship. The sleek black system ship, Eclipse, lit up its engines, angling its nose downward towards the lunar surface. The Eclipse then proceeded to enter the atmosphere of the moon, beginning its descent toward the lunar surface.
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As the system pylon watched its two projects depart for their destinations it refocused its attention to a new issue.
Quickly the system pylon began to adjust its position. It rotated itself by 45 degrees allowing another of its many faces to face the earth.
Rapidly the face began to break down and reform itself from a once flat surface to a mile long spire pointing at the earth.
Created sub directive: Cleanse the earth...
Initiating sub directive: Cleanse the earth...
Charging main cannon...
The barrel of the mighty cannon began to glow with golden light as the system charged up the shot.
A moment later its capacitors had reached the charge necessary to affect the entire planet.
---------------------------
(Down on earth)
It had only been about 5 minutes since people began being entered into the tutorial zones, but 5 minutes on Earth, was more than 3 days in the Normal tutorial zones.
Plenty of time to die, or find another way out.
Even enough to finish, if you were ambitious enough.
But seldom was there such a person who accomplished that.
The first go around anyway.
All over the planet many of those few who had returned from their tutorials by one means or another, watched in awe as great domes of light erected themselves over cities and towns. The domes seemed to dip down in places however. Almost as if some places were being intentionally removed from the protection of these golden domes?
One such individual who had returned had simply decided to resume his job at the city dump.
"I ain't got time for this shit! I have work to do!" he stated as he began attempting to start an excavator and resume his work.
It was then that the system fired off its spell.
The brilliance of the beam's light was almost enough to eclipse the sun.
It took less than 1 and a half seconds for the beam to strike the earth.
From where it had struck a golden shock wave erupted and began racing forth over the planet's surface at speed exceeding mach 10!
The system held the beam on to achieve the maximum effect.
Tens of thousands watched as the wave rolled across the earth. None could see what happened to the land it had touched, though they feared the worst.
The man running the excavator in the city dump watched in horror as the golden wave washed over the city's dome without penetrating it. However, it kept going. It washed over the dome and quickly reached the section where the golden barrier had funneled down to exclude.
This dump.
The dump where he was...
--------------------------------
As the wave passed the unprotected earth it began to erase things that shouldn't be there. This dump was a perfect place for its power to be displayed.
As it passed it dived deep into the world until it hit the bedrock. It found many things in its way, plastic, tin cans, the occasional dead body, and many other things.
The wave cared little, for its job was to clean the world.
Plastics became oil, the oil from plastics became new creatures both familiar and never before seen on earth. Wood and fiber rotted, returning their nutrients to the earth. Metal decayed becoming but dust. Still the wave rolled ever onward.
-----------------------------
The man said his prayers as the wave washed over him. He turned the key once more and to his surprise the excavator started.
He opened his eyes to see a forest had sprung up around him and the golden wave was receding into the distance.
The excavator he had complained about for months, now appeared as if it were brand new and ran much the same.
Roger the dump worker wept as he turned off the excavator, thankful to be alive.
"I guess it's time to find a new job. I think this one isn't needed any longer." Roger said with a conflicted smile.
What surrounded him was no longer the mounds of garbage covered with dirt, but a lush forest that looked as if it had always been here.
As he hopped down from the seat he found the usually hard, packed earth soft beneath his boots.
his boots sinking about an inch into the soft soil.
He bent down and plunged his hand into the ground pulling up a handful of the richly colored soil.
It felt soft and loamy to the touch in his hand.
As he stood up he saw that all around him life was abound.
From the tree's to the grass and even flower's.
Then he saw something small walk out of newly made foliage.
"Why's that raccoon walking on two legs?" He questioned aloud and was dumbfounded when he received a reply.
"Hello?" the Raccoon questioned in a small childlike voice.
-----------------
Not long after its firing the wave had reached an ocean.
It did not glide across the surface as it passed however.
Instead it dived deep tracing along every inch of the sea floor.
As the wave passed all that didn't belong was erased from the ocean. Things such as plastic were reduced into oil and transformed into new and magical fish.
It was then that some merfolk came to be, but this was also when many horrors of the deep were born.
Though, such horrors had to begin as children.
The system wanted as many as it could, and fully grown creatures in most cases took far more resources than children of the same species.
The system had to give the ecosystem a chance to build around these new creatures.
--------------------
The system avatar hovered a few hundred feet above the drilling platform.
Every member of its crew had already been shipped off to their tutorial zones.
So, now came the fun part.
The air bent and the sky twisted as the system avatar raised its hands invoking the tremendous magic it had been made to perform.
Slowly it felt the drilling platform give as it was severed from the seafloor, and yet.
It didn't fall.
The avatar smiled as it turned for a moment and saw the golden wave of light approaching quickly from the distance.
Then the system avatar shined bright like the sun, pouring all of itself into its task.
Space itself bent as the spell took effect.
In a flash the system avatar and the drilling platform were gone.
In another flash that same drilling platform appeared just off the beach, somewhere along the South American coast.
Where the wave had passed several minutes ago.
All across the earth, this process repeated itself.
Everyone who had been working on said platforms was notified that their respawn/return locations had been moved.
Soon the oceans would be teaming with creatures humans weren't exactly prepared to fight effectively.
Leaving people on drilling platforms in the middle of a monster filled ocean, was not a system approved option.
Such structures would only breed dungeons if left unattended for too long.
People being spawned on a platform dozens or hundreds of miles from the shore, whilst that same place is slowly becoming a dungeon.
No.
So, for a variety of reasons this was the option chosen.
-------------
Harmlessly the wave swept by where the platform had been but a moment earlier.
Upon encountering the bore hole the wave washed down it like so much water.
Converting the materials it encountered.
It reached down deep into the world through the hole humans had made and converted the oil they had been drilling into new creatures.
Their arm length tubular segmented bodies showed natural purple plated armor in the light as the wave receded into the distance converting ever more materials.
Billions of baby purple worms born in a moment.
All began squirming to find rock to burrow into.
----------------------
The wave continued to sweep across the earth and achieved its goal of full conversion in little more than an hour.
Thus the world was forever changed.
--------------------
Arthur walked into the forest hoping to find any nearby predators.
He walked for what seemed like hours. Only hearing the sounds of birds chirping and singing in the treetops and the crunching of twigs and leaves beneath his bare feet.
It was after some time something caught his eye up ahead.
You have walked the monster covered forests of the tutorial zone on the first day when they still brim with monster's...
And yet you've encountered not a single one. Lucky you! Or very suspicious. +3 Luck...
You have garnered additional attention from the system...
Arthur's eye twitched at that notice as he reached the edge of the forest.
"Fucking kill me then! I cheated!" He yelled for all the world to hear trying to garner a response from something.
But only succeeded in scaring some birds away due to the sudden noise.
He clenched his teeth and continued forward.
Beyond the edge of the forest, a few dozen feet from him was what appeared to be a light blue wall, the same color as the sky.
As his eyes tracked upward he realized that this entire area seemed to be under an enormous dome that even went so far as to make an artificial sky.
"Well fucking shit..." He swore, his expression and voice showing his dissatisfaction.
Along the wall he could see many doors spread equally apart from one another by about 10 feet.
There were doors that stood out amongst the others however.
Every 10th door seemed to have windows above and next to it.
In his vision the system identified these places as System Hospitals.
He ignored them for they were the opposite of what he wanted.
Upon closer inspection of the door's the system didn't identify as hospitals he found the system called them dungeons.
All the dungeons were ranked and with a level requirement to enter the dungeon.
'If I go into an E rank dungeon, fate will probably find a way to make me win and level me a bunch. That won't do. So, I'll shoot for the highest rank I can get into. D rank it is.' Arthur thought as he began walking counter clockwise along the edge of the zone.
He walked slowly reading the names of each dungeon as he passed it.
Eventually he came to rest in front of an unremarkable D-rank dungeon named, "Goblin Warrens."
"Goblins like to gang up on people right? This should do." He stated as he stepped through the doorway alone.
What greeted him was a smallish cave tunnel. He walked onward into the dark, the stone bitterly cold against his bruised feet.
But pain was an old friend.
One that he knew very well.
He heard something that almost sounded like a laugh come from the darkness around him.
Then another, and another.
He heard the skittering of feet all around him.
All at once the skittering stopped.
He stopped for a moment wondering what had happened, only to hear a set of footsteps coming towards him from the opposite direction.
When the foot falls stopped a small light appeared before him.
Blinking a few times and raising his hand to partially block the light after a few seconds his eyes adjusted to the light.
What stood before him was a small creature with green skin.
It wore what appeared to be a trashy ceremonial robe dyed in greens and browns.
It had a hood that covered the upper half of its face, leaving its enormous pointy nose and pointy chin exposed.
It smiled revealing a mouth of sharpened teeth. Though it seemed to be missing a few teeth here and there.
At its right side it had a staff upon which it leaned. The top of which was a green crystal that seemed to be the source of the light.
It raised up its clawed left hand and pointed at him and spoke a single word with a malicious smile, "Breakfast!"
Immediately he felt the goblins kin descend upon him.
He didn't resist.
By blade, by club, by teeth, and by claws they dispatched him quickly from life.
--------------------------
You have died...
"Finally..." he thought, accepting the words in his mind.
His own words drifted off unto the eternal darkness that surrounded him.
He had finally managed to die. Here he floated in the black, finally free.
You have not made any meaningful connections to the local places of worship...
"What? No..." He spoke in disbelief.
You are one who rages against the Divine...
"They can eat a bag of dick for all I care!" He exclaimed with a small grin.
Thus no god has chosen to sponsor your revival...
"Fuck yeah!" His grin grew just a little wider.
You will not respawn in the normal tutorial zone...
That word gave him pause. 'Respawn? God damnit...' He suspected where this was going hoping to be wrong.
You have been given a free revival due to your low level and due to having died within a dungeon during your time in the normal tutorial zone...
"God dammit!" He screamed into the void.
You cannot return to the normal tutorial zone for 1.44 minutes...
Reviving in place of departure...
"Well at least I can die hanging from the tree like I planned." Arthur said unto the void before a sudden brightness forced him to close his eyes.
When he opened them again he immediately noticed something was terribly wrong.
Even as his eyes adjusted to the light he knew he wasn't where he was supposed to be.
It was too hot.
"Where the fuck am I?" He questioned as looking around he found himself upon a dirt road surrounded by rich looking farmland.
The fields were filled with some sort of floating water flower, what appeared to bamboo but was in rows surrounded by you guessed it water.
Then there was something he did know, flax.
Error...
Spawning location has been moved by...
Error...
Divine interference detected!...
He looked to the sky shaking his fists and screamed out at the top of his lungs, "Now you're just being a blatant asshole!"
He felt something touch his shoulder causing him to jump forward, startled.
Before him stood what appeared to be another of those things.
The golden figure that had snapped its fingers and made the President elect drop dead.
'Wish I would have dropped dead then.' He thought for a moment before he noticed something.
This one was different.
It was more... angelic?
It reminded him of the one that had stood before him when he tried to hang himself from a tree.
"What are you and where the hell am I?!" Arthur asked
"I am simply your guardian. I am also here to deliver a message. You are in Egypt." it said with a calm expression and voice.
"Guardian? Does that mean you're the one who's been keeping me from dying all these years?" Arthur asked bluntly whilst crossing his arms, aggravation plastered across his face.
"I am..." The figure said suddenly solemn as if it had remembered something saddening. "...and so we come to this moment. The message is as follows, "You have lost more in your life than you deserved. Come and let us speak." It spoke as it pointed off to their left away from the road.
Arthur looked and in the distance he could see a large, translucent, red dome.
When he looked back the figure was gone.
But still he heard its voice in his mind as the words scrolled across his vision.
Go there...
To meet your destiny...
--------------------------------
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