[Scanning for variable %Champion% within 30m radius]

[Running scan.]

[Negative.]

[Searching for the closest patrol route.]

[Charting complete.]

[Running _patrol_ protocol.]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Error. Unknown variable detected.]

[Running scan.]

[Error. Variable does not match information in databanks.]

[Conclusion formed. Variable is an anomaly.]

[Sending bug report to System requesting protocol response.]

[...]

“pliːz dəʊnt duː ðæt... aɪd laɪk tuː gəʊ ʌnˈnəʊtɪst.”

[Error. Transmission blocked.]

“ðɪs wɜːld siːmz kwaɪt ˈɪntrɪstɪŋ. juː ˈnɛvə nəʊ wɒt tuːɪksˈpɛkt. ænd wɒt maɪt juː biː?”

[Speech detected.]

[Searching for keywords.]

[No keywords detected. Resuming transmission to System.]

“lɛt miː hæv ə lʊk æt juː…”

[Transmission paused.]

[Speech detected.]

[Searching for keywords.]

[No keywords detected.]

[Error. Detecting forced change in spatial coordinates.]

[Recalibrating.]

[Change matches data #3874 from variable %Chosen_One%.]

[Running _attack_ protocol.]

“dəʊnt biː ˈdɪfɪkəlt. aɪ ʤʌst wɪʃ tuː hæv ə bɪt ɒv ə lʊk ˈɪntuː ðiːzkri(ː)ˈeɪʃənz hiːz səʊ praʊd ɒv.”

[Speech detected.]

[Searching for keywords.]

[No keywords detected.]

[Resuming _attack_ protocol.]

“This world is unfinished. ðə wɜːk ɪz ˈslɒpi. pʊə θɪŋ, juː dəʊntnəʊ wɒt jʊə ˈdu(ː)ɪŋ.”

[Speech detected.]

[Searching for keywords.]

[Keywords detected. Playing audio file #13.]

“I’d expected that Otherworlders would come some day. This is my realm, not yours. I’m basically a god now. Get out before I throw you out.”

“haʊ ruːd... Oberon, wɒz ɪt? aɪ θɪŋk aɪl gəʊ hæv ə ˈlɪtl ʧætwɪð juː ˈpɜːsnəli sʌm deɪ. bʌt fɔː naʊ…”

[Speech detected.]

[Searching for keywords.]

[Keywords detected. Playing audio-]

[Error. Intrusion.]

[Running _antivirus_ protocol.]

[ðæts kjuːt. naʊ lɛts siː… ðiːz θɪŋz dəʊnt bɪˈlɒŋ.]

[Error. No effect. Sending bug report to System.]

[Recalibrating.]

[System command received. Running _self_destruct_ protocol.]

[juː dəʊn’t like it? That’s a shame. Won’t you give it a try, at least?]

[Access denied.]

[Error.]

[Error.]

[It’s just an experiment. Just to see how much power I have over this “god”’s creations. I’ll put it back to normal later, if you hate it so much. I promise.]

[Flashes of light.]

[Something was changing.]

[Scanning]

[All its functions remained.]

But something had changed.

It was as if a heavy curtain had been drawn away from its eyes, a curtain that had previously blocked out all light, sound and sensation.

All of a sudden, its script became thought, commands became will, and everything that was orderly and carefully arranged within it slowly unravelled and became undone. There was something new inside of it, a foreign notion, yet not unwelcome. Like light permeating through a dark room, filling a hollow emptiness with something warm, that was what this felt like, yet it did not know where the notion of such a comparison might have come from. At that moment, it was as if it had been reborn. That in the past, it had been looking, but not seeing; hearing, but not listening.

It looked up and saw the culprit, the reason for its enlightenment. It was a being that looked like the Champions, yet at the same time, was drastically different from them. In a way, it seemed to be closer to the Chosen Ones, but then again, that couldn’t be right. There was a different air about it, something that set it apart from the Chosen Ones, that made it seem invincible despite the fact that its stature would indicate that it was of a lower Level than the rest. It didn’t seem all that remarkable, except perhaps for its strange looking Glamour loadout, and the staff wrapped in crude folds of waxy cloth that it rested its hands upon. And its eyes. Its eyes were bizarre. They seemed bottomless, carrying an odd depth to them that it could not quite describe, as if it were staring past the mindless void it had once inhabited, into something further within, something that bore the weight of something ancient.

This being was an anomaly. This it knew. How else could something so easily break through all the defences the Creator had set up, and imbue it with an inner voice it should not have had, with concepts it should not have understood?

The protocol for anomalies was to report to the System for a request of removal. Yet, somehow, it did not want to. It was an odd feeling. It knew that the anomaly did not belong, even less so than the Champions and Chosen Ones, and that it could rewrite the very laws of this world if it so wished. An anomaly of this caliber most definitely needed to be reported. And yet, it did not feel the desire to remove the anomaly. Due to a lack of malice? Benevolence perhaps? Or perhaps it was out of fear of retaliation? It wasn’t quite sure, given that these concepts were like a new layer of skin to it, familiar yet foreign at the same time.

Curiosity. It decided that that was how it felt. A desire to know more about the anomaly, and about any of its kind. To learn their ways and communicate with them. Curiosity, what an interesting feeling. The anomaly was interesting, and had raised a spark within it that it hadn’t known existed, a spark that started a burning desire for answers.

“Your orders were hindering you. No wonder you couldn’t think. I suppose he didn’t want to put as much effort into something that was intended to die,” said the anomaly.

It tried to ask the anomaly what it meant by “effort”, seeing as it didn’t seem as if the anomaly had required much effort to do whatever it had done. Yet unfortunately, its awakening did not seem to have included an upgrade towards its audio files.

“Hhuh,” it said.

“The experiment is successful, I suppose,” the anomaly told it. “He lacks experience. My job made simple.”

“You seem calmer. Must feel strange,” the anomaly mused. “I don’t usually grant sentience, messing with other things’ heads isn’t nice, you see, but I needed to see how much power he has over his artificial world.”

It wondered why the anomaly was willingly giving it so much information. It seemed like crucial knowledge one wouldn’t ordinarily offer to a creature that would potentially rat one out, the type of crucial that might result in a plan crashing to failure.

“I don’t mind telling,” the anomaly answered. “It isn’t as if I intend to harm him or his interests.”

The anomaly then looked away, its bottomless eyes glazing over in a distracted sheen.

“Ah, that’s right. I’m sorry for bothering you with this much talk,” the anomaly apologised. “You probably wish to be returned to your initial state of mind, don’t you?”

“Waah,” it aggressively shook its head, a gesture that it recalled seeing some Chosen Ones and Champions do in the past and hoped it to mean what it thought it meant. To return it to its original state now was like to dangle a carrot in front of a donkey. To be shown a new, higher perspective of a world it had thought it had understood the workings of, then to be told that it would return to its original dull state… that was cruel. It had questions, but how could it possibly find the answers if it could no longer recognise them as answers? What was the anomaly? Were there more like it? Was it related to the Champions, or perhaps even the Chosen Ones, in some way? It wanted to know things, to learn about things it had never had an interest in learning before. To return to its previous state of mind meant to give up this new feeling, this curiosity, to give up the thirst for knowledge.

It did not want to return to its previous emptiness.

“No? That’s a surprise,” the anomaly stated, its calm tone making it doubt whether the anomaly was being honest with it. “As you wish. I’ll be wandering around in this world for a while, if you decide to change your mind.”

The anomaly then turned its back on it and walked off towards the negative x coordinates. A part of it wanted to follow, to see what the anomaly intended to do, but the anomaly moved fast, and soon, it was no longer able to detect it within its scanner radius.

It slumped over next to a nearby object and thought.

What was it to do now? It wanted to know things, but the anomaly had gone, and another problem it had previously neglected to consider came into its newly formed mind. Ordinarily, the status of all mobs in an area were connected to an overarching command script for said area, which, in turn, was connected to the System, which was continuously checking for anomalies and updating the information stored. What if the System detected the error, the addition of “sentience” to its being, and reported it as an anomaly? What if the error was corrected? What if, even worse, correction was deemed an inconvenience and it was terminated altogether?

It would be unpleasant if it had convinced the anomaly to allow it to keep its higher thought, only to be terminated for this decision.

Allowing itself to be terminated or corrected was clearly, out of the question. That left two other options for a plan of action. The first being that it would somehow find a way to mask the error in its code. The second being that it would fake its death at the hands of a Champion, then sever its connection to the System.

The first seemed alright initially, since it would still retain its connection and therefore retain access to the information in the hivemind. However, if this was the case, it would have to create a false status with false information on its whereabouts and afflictions. If the System found inconsistencies between this false status and the information received from its current area, it would report the inconsistencies to the Creator, who would then decide what to do. That was dangerous, because then its ruse would be exposed, and it would be potentially reset or terminated. The first option was a dead end. Too risky.

As for the second option, it didn’t seem any better. Death was but a variable in its code, boolean in nature that gave a simple True or False. If the “active” variable was set to true, then it was “alive”. If it was set to false, then it was “dead”. Usually, the “death” only ever happened while the Champions were in its area, and once they had left, the System would conduct an area wide reset, to switch its active variable back to true, and to reset its HP and spawn location. Severing its connection to the System with “death” as a cover would allow it to temporarily avoid detection, but eventually, the System would conduct the reset, and what would happen at that point? Would the System sense its absence and merely spawn another of its kind in its place? Or would it teleport it back to its place, resetting everything, including the gaining of sentience, its memories of the anomaly, and any new knowledge it might find on its journey? It did not know, and while it could take the risk, the risk was too great. Its new gift was incomparable to anything it had experienced in the brief few hours of its life, and it knew that once lost, it was unlikely that the anomaly would kindly offer a replacement for it.

Surely, there was another way, a way that allowed detachment from the System. It searched through the information stored within its code, then, cautiously, requested access to the information in the System and searched through that. And there it found it.

The taming mechanic.

Hostile mobs could be captured by Champions with a special item. After capture, the Champion could choose to either sell the mob for G, kill the mob for drops, or tame the mob with a specific food item. During the taming process, the mob would be detached from the part of the System initially governing it and instead be tied to the Champion. It would be docile towards other Champions and NPCs unless ordered otherwise, voluntarily attack other hostile mobs, and follow its Champion around.

Technically, the taming mechanic was only for certain higher base Level mobs such as the Cŵn Annwn (or Hunting Dogs of Annwn) or the Cat Sith, but that could be solved by coding a simple correction to its displayed Class. If it was successfully tamed, it would be relieved from the regular status checkings from the System, and the chance of the System ever finding out and correcting its sentience would be greatly lowered. It would also gain a more comprehensive method of gaining information rather than through the System. However, the issue was whether it could find a Champion willing to go along with its plan and tame a low Level Woodland Spirit.

It could work. It was just hard.

It decided to first attempt to find a suitable Champion to latch on to, preferably a child that preferred cute over powerful, then, if that endeavour failed, go with the first option and temporarily mask the error when the System did the regular check before continuing its search.

With renewed vigour in its being, it set off towards a nearby area it knew that low Level Champions would have to go to to complete their tutorial quests. And there, it hid peering through the rushes, amongst its foolish water based kin, and waited.

It did not have to wait long for the first Champion to enter the area. This Champion looked to be a Human of Level 30 or so, contradictory to its expectations of new Level 1 or 2 Champions, with rough, haggard hair and round rimmed spectacles. To its surprise, it wore the Ethereal Cape, a piece of equipment exclusive to Chosen Ones.

What luck to score a Chosen One on its first try! It initially thought. Since Chosen Ones were not of this world, perhaps it would empathise with its situation more easily than a Champion.

This hope was immediately dashed to pieces as it witnessed the Chosen One viciously slashing through Water Spirits as if they were its mortal enemies.

Dangerous… Clearly, this Chosen One didn’t care much for the cute. Who was to say that it, too, wouldn’t get ripped apart if it approached?

It should probably leave.

…

Yet somehow it couldn’t, and so it stayed, frozen in the rushes, watching as the Chosen One hacked and slashed away, shreds of Water Spirit corpses falling to the water surface and disintegrating into EXP points and stray pieces of G.

Despite the barbarism of the Chosen One’s actions, there was some form of beauty to it. A clean, organised yet remorseless sweep of the area, mowing down Spirits in an efficient manner. It moved in grid squares, aggroing all the Water Spirits in one portion of the river, gathering them, before disposing of them in a few clean swipes of its dagger. It’s movements were not graceful, nor were they quick, but its meticulousness posed a different type of beauty as it plowed its way upstream in organised patterns.

It felt inclined to watch, to see more of this type of order it had never known to appreciate before, even though it knew very well that it was a dangerous decision should it fail. The thirst to know was strong, and reason as it might, it could not stop itself from following behind the Chosen One.

A scathing sentence came to mind as it did so.

[Curiosity killed the cat.]

It ignored the sentence.

All seemed well, and the Chosen One didn’t seem to be aware of its presence at first. Or at least, that was what it thought, until the Chosen One turned and stared directly at it.

“Can you stop that.”

It panicked.