Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice played around with Dr. Falcon’s emotions a bit, and obtained several seeds and books. He experimented with the seeds, and became able to actually enhance their inherent qualities.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment!

And if you like a character that gets up in the chapter let me know! I can add them to later chapters if they are popular enough. Although I might add them later anyway!

50th chapter guys! Thanks to all the readers for giving me enough motivation to continue this long! I hope you continue to enjoy the story for many more months to come!

After reading the notices, the tiny golem ran towards me. It seemed to want a hug. Really? I’m not giving that fucking thing a running hug!

I felt my body wrench out of nowhere. Suddenly everything around me seemed to slow down. In the bottom left hand corner of my vision, I noticed something that said ‘Analyzing’. It was a weird thing to notice, especially since time looked to be stopped.

The words changed. ‘Analysis Complete. Transporting Now.’

The next thing I knew, I was in my white room. I stood beside the front door of the house I created for myself, and noticed a mail box with the flag raised up. For anyone that doesn’t know, that means I had mail.

Curious about the turn of events, I approached the box. I heard the NPCs in the bazar all the way over here. It was truly bizarre. I didn’t pay for the little fucks to be that noisy. Not unless people responded to my invite. Which wasn’t likely.

I opened the mailbox, and a white letter flew around me, much like a happy bird in a princess movie or something. It stopped after circling me twice, and preceded to open itself up.

The top tab lifted up, and the sides came undone. Then envelope opened to reveal that he message was written on the inside of the envelope. The message was outrageous, but I believed it was real due to who signed it.

Congratulation! You have been chosen among the few people that have played for more than 50 real time hours. You, along with 99 other lucky players, will receive the opportunity to test out DI’s new experimental DIVE pods!

You will be paid according to the amount of time you are going to stay in the pods. If you are interested, or wish to learn more, please send a reply to the email provided below. Please include your name , and the number assigned to you by this email.

If you do not respond within 24 hours your spot will be given to another. Your assigned number is 8.

Kelsey @ DIVEPOD dot com

With my interest obviously piqued, I sent a reply. I went into my house, got on the computer, and set up an email on the DIVEPOD dot com server.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist DI Corp. I would like to know more about what will be required of me if I accept.

My name is Brenton, and my assigned number is 8.

Voice0fReason @ DIVEPOD dot com

I got an immediate reply on my computer.

Thank you for showing interest in our program. The details of the pod itself cannot be disclosed at this time, but suffice to say you will be attempting to see if sleeping in a pod for long periods of time is possible.

Since you are registered number 8, you will be testing the short-term pods. If you would like to join the program please send a reply email, or come to the DIVE HQ. You will be picked up within 24 hours.

Kelsey @ DIVEPOD dot com

I thought about this for long time. I went there I could stay in DIVE for probably at least an in-game month. If I stayed for three in-game months, my mom would almost be home. I started missing my mom as soon as I thought of her.

I sent a reply email saying yes. I was disconnected from DIVE after receiving a message about a car coming to pick me up. I was told not to pack anything, and to not worry about the game.

All other players were ejected from DIVE at the same time I was. Once the 100 chosen players were in place, only then would the other players be allowed in.

I was excited to say the least. The happiest emotions I’d had in a while were bubbling up. I could distract myself for a few months, then my mom would be back!

A non-descript black car pulled up about half an hour later. At the time, I didn’t question how they knew my exact address. Maybe if I did the whole situation wouldn’t have happened.

I got into the car, and was driven to DI HQ. I’d been there before, so it wasn’t all that amazing, but I was still awed when I thought of how much money this company made. This company had the money and tech to run a small nation.

The car ride was only about half an hour. Even in heavy traffic the driver managed to get us their pretty quickly. I guessed it had something to do with the unique GPS he was using. It seemed to tell him when to get in a different lane, and constantly adjusted itself.

When we arrived I exited the car, and it promptly took off. Probably to get another passenger. I went inside the building. The rotating glass doors gave way to the entry room.

It was a huge room that could easily accommodate several hundred people at once. The reception desk was directly forward after leaving the doors.

I went their and showed her the e-mail I printed out.

I smiled, in a way that portrayed a slight bit of naivety. “Hi, I’m here for the thing.” I ‘fumbled’ the e-mail as I handed it to the receptionist. She smiled as she gracefully took it from me.

“It’s alright. I know this whole thing can seem overwhelming. You’ll be great! I promise.” As she called for someone to show me to the area where I needed to be, I thought:

Damn right I will. Fucking asshole. Trying to be all condescending. Gah! People are so gullible sometimes.

She spoke to me as I waited for the guide. “So, is it your first time in the building?”

I had been here before, several times in fact. Of course only rarely would they let people in. I shrugged. “Yeah, is it that obvious?” I had decided on a part to play, I might as well stick it out till the end.

I continued, but in a more astonished voice. “I heard this place was big… but wow! I didn’t think it would be so giant! I’ve never actually been in a building so large. I once saw the space needle though!” I ‘tried’ to make myself seem less dorky.

She waved her hand, as if trying to swirl the wind. “Yeah, I hadn’t been in a building this large before either. Not until the hired me for this job. I was surprised they did though. I heard they have a super computer do analysis on every potential candidate for a job within the company.

Only the best person for the job, out of all the people that applied, gets it. Although no one would get it if they didn’t meet a certain minimum standard.”

As she was saying something about being hired here, I saw a large tan skinned man, with a tux and black glasses, approach us. He came up to me, and nodded for me to follow him.

I politely waited until she was finished droning on about her life. “… didn’t meet a certain minimum standard.” At that point I smiled and waved to her. Showing that I didn’t care had to leave.

She waved back, and sent me a cute smile. Maybe I’ll take her on a date after this is done with.

I followed the guy that looked like a secret service man into a nearby hallway. We came to a door labeled ‘Experimental Sleep’. The guard put a hand on my shoulder before I entered. Without speaking he took out a small handheld metal detector, and ran it along my body.

Having seen several spy shows in my time, I knew that I had to spread my arms and legs apart. He mumbled something incomprehensible into his Bluetooth, and the door opened.

As I walked in, I was blinded by a large flash of light. I felt a prick in my finger, and looked down by instinct. I couldn’t see anything. Everything was blurred together after the light accosted me.

Something cold splashed against my hand. I yanked it back as I felt a stinging sensation. As my vision began to clear, I noticed that the room had about a dozen people in it. A dozen people that were all staring at me.

As I scanned the room, my eyes briefly locked onto my finger. There was a liquid bandage attached to it. The kind that disinfected and protected. The room was had ten DIVE pods. The pods were each behind a glass wall, and each was hooked up to a medley of monitors.

The monitors were most likely to make sure the occupant didn’t die in the pod. The room was a calming beige color, and had a large table with an assortment of food. Beside a group of people was a large flat screen computer monitor, it was turned off.

When I looked at everyone in the room, I noticed something out of place. There were two women here that should not have been here.

The first woman was Kelsey. There was no reason for the head of DI to engage me personally. She had an entire business to run after all.

I had to look at the second person a few times before I believed it. There’s no way she’s actually here, right? I mean what! the! Fuck!?

I ran over to the two, who were casually talking about the new development of the DIVE consciousness. I slightly stuttered as I spoke. “M-mom!? What are you doing here!?” The surprise must have been obvious on my face, because everyone in the room started laughing.

Only my mom, and Kelsey did not join in the merry making. My mom looked at me, with eyes of pity and regret. “Oh my poor boy!” She hugged me for what seemed like an eternity. I enjoyed every moment of it though.

She tried to smile as she explained the situation to me. “You know your aunt? The one you’ve never properly met? The one I said I was going on a trip with? Well here she is.”

She put her hands out. Gesturing towards Kelsey. Now I was never really ‘slow’, but that definitely caught me by surprise. At least I still had enough faculties to not let my jaw drop at the news.

“Uh, Hi.” I could only scrape out two words while my mind struggled to catch up the situation. Kelsey made a gesture, and everyone started leaving the room.

“Hold on a minute.” I waved my hand. “If you are my dad’s sister, why have I never met you? And I’ve never actually heard of your husband. Why is your last name Gray, and not Pell?”

Kelsey smiled in a knowing way. “We’ve actually met twice now: once when you were drunk, and another when it was well past your curfew. I try to keep my identity hidden for the most part. Being the leader of a multi-national super corporation isn’t easy.

Your mom here has been helping out with a certain branch of research our company is working on. I had every one sign a contract of secrecy, and installed a small listening device on the Bluetooth device each of our employees receives.

The headsets are to make sure no one talks about any research going on to the outside world. For the most part you must live on site in order to get a job. Employees are only allowed to leave on short vacations once a year.

There are always exceptions, like your mother and me, but that’s how it works for the most part. Your mom and I have special privileges that most don’t. After all, she is the head of the A.I. research department.” Kelsey tilted her head as if to say ‘I told you so’.

I looked at my mom. I understandably expected her to clear up the situation. “What does she mean?”

My mother’s explanation did nothing to quell the questions that were multiplying inside my mind. “Hehe.” She began by laughing. Typical. I didn’t voice my displeasure though. After all, she was still my mother. “Well…” She took a deep breathe before continuing. Most likely she didn’t know how I would take the information.

Which was silly. Given my personality I’d most likely be shocked for a short while, then get over it and give affection to her.

“Well, it all started after I met your father. He soon introduced me to your aunt Kelsey here. I was overtaken by the power of her mind, and decided to help her. She was trying to create artificial intelligence. A true living being that was only confined by the size of the servers. Much as we are confined by the size of our bodies.

Well back then I was studying biology in general, learning everything I could that related to life. Her ambitions sounded interesting. I began studying neurobiology with a fervor.

When your father started to distance himself from us, I tried to help out with the production of the AI. I thought that maybe being together would make your father love me again…” Tears started welling up in her eyes.

She never talked about my bastard ‘father’. Thinking of him must have been too much for her. I wanted to take her pain away. I frowned in worry. I hugged her, “You don’t have to keep going. I understand. I accept the situation.”

I just wanted to help her, but even through the hug I felt her shake her head. “No I need to tell you this.” She pushed me away, but kept both her hands on my shoulders. “Your father ended up leaving us, and you know how my relationships started going after that. It was about then that we had a breakthrough in the AI programing.

Most people think AI is just something that has the potential to learn, but that’s only part of it. The AI we created could not only adapt to situations, she even had emotional responses!” My mom seemed to beam at this part.

“She had feelings, even hopes! We asked her what she wanted to do with life, she told us she wanted to watch people.” Mom shrugged, and a small smile graced her lips. “Well we gave her what she wanted. We allowed the government to see a small bit of her data, and they became intrigued by her.

With our help, she created several programs that would hide her true nature, and help her see how humans would react in combat situations. That was great for a while. Government ‘protection’ allowed us to prevent hackers. Of course She was already hacking into the government data bases by then. We acquired all of the best hacking, and defending, methods known to the US government.

After a while the funding they gave us, wasn’t enough for the various types of research Kelsey wanted to do. The AI actually came up with an idea that would help both her goals, and ours. We would create a videogame! The AI would get to watch several million people(eventually) for various lengths of time. She could gather a massive amount of data from that.

She even imported the programs that controlled the training sims the government used. They became the ‘Elder Gods’ of DIVE.”

I was nodding as she spoke. Knowledge is power. It seemed like I was getting a lot of it too. I knew there was a reason, but I didn’t think my mom would do anything that would harm me.

So it was easy to assume that whatever happened after this info was given to me, would only be good or neutral. I already knew much of the information that was likely to be given here. I figured it’d finally be ok to admit it.

It’d be nice to be able to think however I wanted to. I signaled her to continue.

“During the years she was helping with the sims, she was helping us test new techs. We invented a server that could outpace entire countries in terms of sheer memory potential,” She smiled proudly, “That was actually thanks to me. The servers are based on what neuroscientists have discovered to be the ‘best’ configuration a human mind could have. We created several cybernetic upgrades we could give to humans, as well as an assortment of other earth shattering discoveries.

The only reason we didn’t let anyone know about them? Kelsey and the AI were afraid that one government or another would try to seize the technology as their own. We had to get powerful enough to stop them. “ She frowned, and looked at Kelsey.

Kelsey picked up where she had left off. “Well the AI and I decided on a plan to keep the info from leaking, and implemented it. After a while we began the creation of DIVE. That way the AI could actually watch a huge amount of people.

She created an empty universe based on our physics. She added in a small particle that had everything we have in our universe. Although at that point she began hypothesizing about the other five dimensions. That was more for a metaphysician though. We moved her memory to a few servers we made, and had about a hundred of our servers constantly running to create the new universe.

The universe took about five years to make. That was with all of our servers running 24/7 at maximum capacity. She created several programs to speed up the process as well. Time was running at about a million times faster in the virtual space. That was due to the massive amount of servers, and the cunning ability of the AI to cut out unnecessary time consumers.

She would find the equation on what the universe would look like, and set it to that state. That took a year. The next four years were used to find a suitable planet, and make people and history.”

I stopped her, and shook my head. “Alright, I get that. But why are you telling me all this?”

Kelsey looked amused. Mom smiled as she said, “We thought to share some of our secrets with you. We hoped you would want to join us, seeing as how we made sure you would win the DIVE pod, and get chosen for this.”

“Ah.” I hadn’t seen that coming, that was for sure. “So you mean to tell me I didn’t actually win the ‘contest’?” Kelsey- Aunt Kelsey, shook her head.

“Nope, we picked you as soon as you put in your application.”

“So was EDI attaching to me your doing?”

Kelsey shook her head in mirth, then frowned. She cautiously asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well I basically figured out the whole thing a while ago. EDI is an AI, you guys built her. You had to delete her if the government found out. They probably have a way to monitor the regular pods, that’s why you are telling me now.

These pods are somehow special, and won’t allow the government to listen in. If that’s the case, then these pods probably are more than just sleep pods. They probably do something to the body, something that would interfere with the signal the government would get.

The AI watching DIVE is probably split into at least two parts, not including the elder gods. EDI, or the being that EDI is a part of, must have realized that she would need to also watch the game as a whole. Watching the game only from first person wouldn’t gain as much information.

She might even be getting info from every NPC in the game. Seeing as they are technically a part of her. Heck, I bet the info goes to her when they die, but she gets to watch them from above when they are alive.” I took a deep breath after stating my analysis.

Kelsey started laughing. She turned towards what I had assumed was an unplugged television screen. “You see!? I told you he was more intelligent than he let on!”

The screen suddenly came to life. The screen took the form of a face. The face of EDI. A dry voice played from it. Even with my assumptions, I was still caught off guard. “Yes I see he is.” The voice sounded like a methodical version of EDI.

Since I assumed EDI had just heard everything I just said, I decided to play it off to the best of my abilities. “Sorry love.” I shrugged. “To be fair, you didn’t tell me you were an AI. Well the part of you that was in the game.”

EDI being the AI was the only possible conclusion, but there was something wrong with the idea. She did know a lot of info about the game, but her information didn’t seem to become updated. “You also conveniently left out that you had split off a piece of yourself to watch the game.”

The face of EDI frowned at me. “Fine. Yes I have been getting a steady flow of info from my avatar. That’s not nearly as bad as you being so manipulative! I’ve looked over Bit-Bee’s files!”

I didn’t understand what she was saying about Rachel. I cocked my head, “What do you mean?” I unintentionally squinted as I asked.

Aunt Kelsey looked angrily at the screen, mom giggled, and the screen began fading out. Aunt Kelsey, no it was still too weird to call her that. Kelsey angrily sighed. She rolled her eyes as the AI showed no intention of returning.

She shook her head, and began to answer my unworded question. “The five devs were actually just four. Obviously the fifth ‘beta tester’ was the computer. The devs jobs were to keep tabs on the betas and make sure the game got any glaring updates it needed.

The devs had to research the betas and kept the system updated with their discoveries.”

Ah. So basically that computer knows every piece of public data about me. Well isn’t that fucking fantastic?

“We refer to the game avi as EDI, and the entire AI as EDITOR. Well it worked like this. EDITOR created EDI, EDITOR imbued all of its knowledge about the game, and about how to act human, into EDI at that time. After that EDI and EDITOR became separate beings.

EDITOR receives all data that EDI obtains, but EDI doesn’t receive data from EDITOR. That way the game stays as fair as possible.”

That’s not even remotely fair. The general populace gets penalized out the wazoo for trying to use info outside info. Heh. I found away around it though.

“So everything that EDI saw, thought, and felt, has been transferred to EDITOR. It has been quite interesting to watch actually.”

That was all well and interesting, but I had already basically figured that part out. I smiled at Kelsey. “I don’t really care about EDI being an AI, but I want to get this whole thing underway. When do we start?”

The only part of this whole thing that I cared about, was that my mom was doing something good with her life. If she was happy, I was happy. I didn’t care if EDI was a super computer. She was a super cute computer if you asked me.

Kelsey slightly shook her head, and pointed to one of the pods. “Alright, if you have any goodbyes to say, say them now. You won’t be able to come back out for 2.4 months, which is a year in the game.”

I felt my eyes go wide. “I assume that means you have some way to feed me nutrients, and make sure my body doesn’t deteriorate?”

Kelsey crossed her arms. She looked at mom, “Are you sure we can’t let him join our workforce? He seems way too bright for his own good.”

I wasn’t baited by the obvious ploy to earn my affection. It wasn’t like I hated Kelsey or anything, she had been helping my mom out for a while now. I mostly only had good thoughts towards her.

I gave my mom a long hug. After a minute or two she started pulling away. I tightened my grip slightly. “I love you mom. When I get back out I promise to be the same lovable son you know!” I smiled, and gave her a peck on the cheek.

Thinking about being away from my mom for over a year had started to get to me. Before I tried to back out of it, I jumped back into the pod.

The blackness came to me, then everything turned white. I was back in my white room. I was sitting at my computer, with the email opened.

A screen popped up on my computer.

You have been chosen to test out new DI technology. Congratulations!

Once you leave the pod, you will no longer be able to access it. All bodily needs will be taken care of by the expertly trained staff. You have entered a hyper-sleep mode. Your body should not age until you have woken.

To make your choice profitable in more ways than just earth currency, the developers have decided to grant each tester three new traits or an item.

These items and traits can normally be obtained by beating bosses, or doing special quests. Alternatively, you can choose to have one ability increased by x points. It should be noted that the trait or item will continue to grow as the user does. The trait and item will conform to your avatar and playstyle.

The amount of points you will get will be a percentage of the total ability points you currently have, times the level of your class rank.

Please choose: Evolving Item, Evolving Traits, or Increasing Ability Points.[td]

Well that’s a tough choice. SD was able to gain a massive amount of levels from his item. That would definitely be helpful. I would be able to take on things way beyond my level. If I had a staff that reduced magic costs by like half, I’d be set.

But if I put in the x ability points into int, and they were at least 50, I’d get an upgrade to Magical Mastery. Hm… that’s a tough choice.

I really like the idea of having overpowered traits, but this is probably the only chance I’ll have at getting another magical item. Although giving the metal to EDI was ok.

But what if the item sucks? Or it has a drawback like the shit Davros gave me? *Internal Sigh* I guess choosing the ability points is the safest way to go.

I really wanted a nice item, but the system seemed to have a way to nerf me once I got too good. In all likelihood, I’d get a fantastic weapon, enhance it to be unbeatable, and then get nerfed. The ability points never seemed to get nerfed though.

After a little more debating I was stuck. I was sure I either wanted the weapon or the traits. The points would be great, but new traits would forever improve my character.

I bought a coin with my DI bills, and flipped it. Heads item Tails traits. It landed on heads. “New traits it is.” If my white space was set to be in the DIVE universe, then my luck was zero. I wasn’t about to trust a coin toss.

[Td] You have chosen to gain three traits! Please indicate the type of traits you wish to gain.

The list of traits was long, but not defining. It had things like: Health, Ability Points, Magic, Mana Cost… etc. After scrolling for a few minutes I eliminated many of the ones I thought I’d not be able to use soon.

After that I eliminated all of the ones that didn’t look like they would have high amounts of benefits. I continued to eliminate traits based on more criteria. Eventually I was only left with Ability Points, Mana Cost, and a few others.

Both would give me a nice bonus, the Ability Points would probably be better than gaining x amount. I was betting it gave some kind of way to earn ability points, or increased all the abilities by a certain amount.

The mana cost would be great, only if it decreased the percentage more than I could increase int with the ability points type trait.

I ended up choosing the trait labeled ability points first, for the sole reason that I could level up any stat with it, not just int.

Improved Training is the perfect trait for those that gain levels. You will gain more ability points each level. From level 1-25 you gain an extra point. At level 26 you will gain 2 extra points. Every 25 levels you grow, increases the amount of points you gain by 1. All increased gains are recursive.

A notice popped up after I finished reading that.

Improved Training has granted you 70 ability points.

What!? Alright! But WHAT!? Isn’t that a little overpowered!? Holy freaking crap. So I gained 1 extra point from levels 1-25, then I hit 26. I got an extra point from 1-25, but two points for 26 through 35. SO basically I got 2 points extra for every level. So that means once I reach level 51 I’ll gain 58 points!? Oh MY GAW!

I was a little excited about the development to say the least, but then I realized I couldn’t choose any other traits. Son of a bitch! The ability point trait must have been too overpowered. I guess it took the place of all three traits.

I scowled at the knowledge. If I had known that earlier I would have found a way to rank the traits. That way I could have gotten the best possible outcome. Still I couldn’t be too mad. The potential of infinite amounts of extra ability points was amazing. Not to mention that now I was going to be able to spend 100% of my time in game.

I still wanted to rule the game, but that was becoming less likely. I really needed to start a village or something.

I distributed my points as I thought about it. I put an even fifty into intelligence, and the last 20 into wisdom. I was definitely going to have to power-level now.

My Mana Affinity ranked up to Expert.

Your Mana Affinity has become an Expert Level skill. In order to master this skill you must find a being who has mastered their affinity towards mana.

The rank of the Group Skill: Magical Mastery is more than 1 rank below Mana Affinity. Mana Affinity has increased the rank of this skill by 1.

Group Skill: Magical Mastery has increased by 8 levels.

Group Skill: Magical Mastery cannot exceed Expert rank, until Mana Affinity has become Master rank.

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana EnchanterLevel 35Health: 100Mana: 2500Stamina: 350Current Title: SurgeonHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 22.9(17.9)/sStamina Regen: 5.1/sStrength41Agility34Wisdom229Intelligence250Endurance51Dexterity44Luck0Vitality35Charisma35Compassion95Leadership66Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points0Fame1035

Skills WindowAutomated Novice Level 9 Exp 25.00%

Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%

Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 24 Exp 10.46%

Group Skill: Long Distance Inspection Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 12 Exp 50.00%

Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 17 Exp 90.16%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Apprentice Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Adept Level 50 Exp 21.23%

Group Skill: Tactical Survival Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Tactical Combat Training Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Breakdown Novice Level 12 Exp 46.64%

Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery Novice Level 3 Exp 11.11%

Group Skill: Crafting Mastery Novice Level 5 Exp 00%

Affinities WindowLight70%Water60%Wind25%Nature75%Metal50%Earth45%Fire25%Darkness100%