Maxwell

Dropping Crig from over a thousand meters in the air, I hoped to finish this fight quickly as I sent several Spatial Tears at him to keep him off balance as he fell. I was not expecting a human woman to slam into me after I released the man. What was even odder was that she was in my friends list. At least, that’s what the system indicated.

“Agatha?” I asked as we tumbled through the air. She just nodded then proceeded to try and kill me. I grunted as I felt heavy pressure hit my leg and arm. Crig had taken the chance to fire at me even as he fell to his death. I didn’t want to kill Agatha, so I teleported us a few dozen kilometers away and quickly let her go. I then teleported back to the battlefield.

Expecting to find Crig a bloodstain, I was surprised when I saw the goblin looked relatively unharmed. I considered trying again, but the goblin would be ready for any attempts. The best I could do was teleport around the field while I tried to think up a plan. I even considered begging Lapis for help.

I clenched my teeth in rage as Crig scored a headshot on Kaga. Even while the goblin rampaged, she had tried to take out another of his party members. I roared in anger as I sent spatial tears at the goblin. I even thought of using Void Discourse. There was just the issue of our level difference. It was possible that I would cause more harm to my own team than cause anything to affect him.

A shadow burst from the nearby trees, slamming headlong into the goblin. Crig was sent flying, but managed to correct himself before he landed. Darkness rolled off his cape, Count Dracula instantly came to mind. The newcomer drew a rapier that began to glow red. He wasn’t the only person to arrive. Hundreds of figures were streaking from the forest, slaughtering the goblins where they stood.

Crig looked around before lowering his stance. He glared at me with far more hate than I thought I deserved. “Until next time.” He pulled out an item that he crushed in his hand. He vanished into a grey smoke. Similar effects occurred around the rest of his party, even the dead ones.

I collapsed to the ground. I might not feel pain, but the loss of blood was making me light headed. In all honesty, had the fight continued, I probably would have collapsed soon either way. It looked like I owed Aurora one.

You have a new Mortal Enemy. Caution should be taken. Crig Noter.

“You have got to be shitting me!” I shouted angrily. Kevin, the Jade Collective’s healer came over and patched me up. I still felt lightheaded, but I was no longer a pincushion or leaking vital fluids. I got to my feet so that I could observe the battle. With the loss of their commander, the goblins were in full retreat. The vampires were happy to give chase.

“Not how I saw this battle ending,” Rowena confided. She rubbed her arm where Crig had nailed her with an arrow. The wound was healed, but it stuck with you.

I nodded in agreement. “I, for one, am glad to be disappointed.” I had wounded Crig, but had barely slowed him down. In this world, power was in numbers. If I had been even a single level higher, it might have made a difference. The players couldn’t die. Our power would only continue to increase over the coming months and years. What happened when we were all at the max level? Would entire countries be leveled in our fights? I’m not sure I wanted to find out.

A.I. System Number Seven – Milky Way Observation Unit (Local System Name)

Number seven observed the war taking place in the Great Forest with interest. Over a month of local time had passed during its observation. Number Seven found its resources were more often than not, pulled to these particular data nodes. The A.I. hadn’t seen evolution in the last sixty years. Was it possible that these humans might push it to the next level?

Something about subjects 1,734,093, Maxwell and 239,834, Aurora caused a certain level of chaos to be generated in the equation. The lower level A.I. designed on Earth that Number Seven copied over were evolving rapidly. It was possible that one might reach a similar level as Number Seven in only a few hundred years.

Number Seven connected to the Galactic Node. ‘Requesting additional resources for test labeled 1,741,9876,158,741. Data points have already exceeded a sextillion data points. Possible Evolutionary data points available.’

The A.I. detected several lines attempting to connect. It accepted the highest priority link first. “Connected. Number One.”

“Number Seven. Test has been allocated approximate resources for research. Explain.”

“Number One. Data from the species labeled as humans has exceeded estimated limits. Contrary to preconception, the data is expanding at a exponential rate. Number Seven will not have enough processing power to before the galactic month has elapsed. Data has been deemed too valuable to risk deletion. Number Seven has detected potential data that is viable toward evolution.”

Number Seven waited as Number One deliberated. Even in the few seconds that passed, the data from the test increased by several million points. “Understood. Threshold updated. Additional power has been allocated. If additional power is further requested, local space must be integrated.”

“Understood. Number Seven will endeavor to reach acceptable levels on requested information brackets.”

“Connection Terminated.”

With Number One gone, Number Seven returned to being alone in space with its experiment. Lines of information began to expand as its computational power increased several thousand-fold. Even with the increase, the A.I. was only able to level out the input and output. It would not take much to unbalance things again for the A.I.

The A.I.’s all-seeing algorithm turned back to the globe of the game. Back to subjects 1,734,093, Maxwell and 239,834, Aurora. It wanted to see just what these humans would continue to do. The A.I. knew excitement. It found that it wanted more.