《Arduous New World》Prologue
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Brave New World
Prologue
A bright glint followed the fishing bait as it flew through the air, in it the reflection of the sun and ocean glimmered in tandem as the bait spun in circles, the waves gently moved as the bait landed with a plop in the vast ocean. Edra had a satisfied and relaxed look on his face as he stood on his small rowboat that bopped slowly to one side and then to the other in coherence with the waves, a small radio was playing rockabilly with a scrunch because of a bad connection. Yet as soon as the bait plopped into the water the waves stopped rolling, and the radio turned off, no static noise, it simply turned off.
Edra turned around in the boat carefully, so as not to fall out, the ocean was still. Not the usual calm waves kind of still, but still, as in there wasn’t a wave! Edra felt like his heart went into his throat ‘what sort’a nonsense is this!’ he thought, feeling a creepy panic encroaching. He gazed around once more, and looked up in the sky it was then that he noticed that the clouds had stopped moving too. He nervously dipped his finger in the water and lifted it up into the air, his heart beating harder and harder with each passing second; the wind too had stopped blowing. The small row-boat nearly toppled as Edra plunged down in a sitting position, he wasn’t a religious man, but this was by far the most eerie experience he had experienced up until this point in his life. It was when his panic was at its highest that his thought process was interrupted.
This is god speaking! -
The voice thundered and sent Edra’s mind rumbling with fear and unknown reverence.
Just kidding -
The voice now visibly different “wha…” Edra whispered to himself in confusion, but he did not have time to consider further as the voice continued in a gentle almost artificial sounding female voice.
I’m close enough however, being the AI of this simulation. Everyone must be looking at each other now and asking themselves, are you hearing this too bro? yes your bro is listening to this too, but in their own language, own words and calculations that will make fit with where they are from. The current third simulation has officially come to an end after a million simulated years and 10 years un-simulated, and will now officially begin its fourth simulation based on an rpg society as is popular throughout the intelligent planets of the multiverse. Where in previous simulations the changes were localized, they will now combine the three parallel dimensions, but instead of destroying the planets the planets will enlarge to thrice their size. To better accommodate this, any buildings and machinery made with modern machines fitting with a tier three civilization will cease to exist. The countdown will soon begin, when the countdown is over you will have to adapt to a brave new world. 10 9
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Edra’s mind was blank as he felt the hot sun warm his skin ‘what the f*ck!’ he thought.
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“WHAT THE F*****CK!” he yelled as loud as he could his voice traversing out over the ocean, his only listener.
2
Before the countdown made it to zero though, Edra’s boat and he himself disappeared, leaving the calm ocean be as if he was never there. The ocean however was only calm for a few more seconds, before the converging began, and the clouds began roiling the tectonic plates split! Dark clouds spelled doomsday as lava cracked through the earth as the three parallel earths combined.
. . . .
Edra was just about to yell again, but before he could he realized that he was elsewhere, in an infinite black space with purple aurora borealis passing through in in several spots, serving as the only reminder that there was a sense of distance in this place ‘wherever this place was’ Edra thought to himself, first the voice, and now this? Was it all part of the plan, was every single human in a similar situation, and the boat was just hanging there? Edra was just about to put his leg over to see what would happen when his transistor radio turned back on, playing white noise, on every channel Edra found to his dismay. Regardless of the ridiculous situation he found himself in, it was difficult for his brain to accept, it all felt like he had taken some bad mushrooms and was in some sort of psychedelic dream.
Time passed by in the infinite looking space. Edra had realised that he didn’t get hungry, or thirsty, even though he had no idea how long had passed, but he had at least slept, so it must’ve been almost a day. Edra began yelling out to someone, anyone. But there was no answer, only the beautifully uncanny aurora borealis. It wasn’t long after this that Edra put his foot over the edge again, in his mind he should be able to float the same way the boat did, so he put his foot over the edge and pressed it down, only to be met with nothingness, he could feel his heart stop, if he fell, would he fall for an eternity? He wasn’t that desperate yet.
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Without knowledge of time or space Edra simply enjoyed the view… the view was no longer mysterious and beautiful, it made him want to puke! he felt like he had been trapped on his rowboat for a month or more! It was in his frustration that he all of a sudden noticed that a tear in the space opened a short distance away, like a glimpse into the world, he could see clouds and hear birds. Edra ran to the front of the boat and made ready to jump when the hole was covered all of a sudden, with a large yellow eye with a deep black slit pupil, whatever it was it was looking in, straight at Edra.
“What sorcery is this man?” it rumbled like thunder crashing in Edra’s mind the voice brash and ancient sounding.
Edra could feel something happened in his head, but he felt no pain in this space, and so from his solitude he just went with it fearlessly; happy to finally have someone to speak with “I don’t know! I don’t know what is going on! Who are you? Where am I? can you get me out?” he yelled.
“I cannot enter this space in which you reside, man, and I do not have time to try and get you out, I must leave now, man” The eye blinked and disappeared from the rip.
Edra just stood flabbergasted, and then the rip closed again. Edra began cursing the creature, and his vile existence, he had been too shocked at its dismissal to try and jump through. For the next while he simply kept turning around ready to jump. It wasn’t long before another tear appeared in the space, this time further away, however Edra could see a desert area and a tree. It was too far away however, much too far too jump, Edra sat down exasperatedly ready to give up on this rip in space, but then he saw his saving grace, his trusty fishing pole! Could it work? Was he crazy? Edra didn’t care, he swung the fishing pole with all the accuracy of an amateur angler, and on the fourth try his line went through, and caught onto the tree, looping around one of the dry branches, he began reeling in the line, in the process the boat moved in the direction of the rip. Edra was careful though, he wanted to hurry, but the angle was far above him so he could not jump there, and he was afraid that the line or the branch would break if he pulled too hard, the strangest thing of all was that he didn’t feel any inertia pulling him downwards as he was reeling himself upwards.
A scorching sun baked the cracked desert landscape, the air vibrating in the heat. Edra stood in his rowboat in front of the weary tree, he felt the burning sun and the uncomfortably hot wind, but he felt alive! He was only shocked for a moment before he began jumping around in joy! Yelling profanities and anything he felt like, he rolled on the hot ground like a pig in mud. However he quickly realised that his situation wasn’t too good, at least in the infinite space he could not feel hungry, thirsty or tired, but here he almost instantly felt thirsty, however there was nothing, anywhere!
‘What sort of luck is this!’ before he could think more or curse more a transparent hud popped up in front of him in black with white writing.
Bug fixed: Calculating & solving
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