“Yer saying the System is an experiment?” Quol asked a little while later in a quieter meeting room that Cindy had dragged them into.

“No, I’m saying I think that the System is doing experiments and that we either are one of them or are in one of them.” Kay corrected him.

Both Quol and Cindy stared at him.

“Well?” Cindy demanded, “Keep going!”

“Alright, but I’m going to monologue about it for a bit, so hold your questions till the end, alright?”

They both nodded, and Cindy waved at him to get on with it.

“Alright, so some of my theory comes from little discrepancies or weirdnesses that I’ve noticed since I arrived here. First, isn’t it weird to you that everyone who’s originally from Torotia is allowed to choose their first Class when they come of age, but every Outworlder gets one randomly assigned? And native Torotians get to choose from Classes that are related to their actions and decisions up until the point where they come of age. But I’d never done shit related to blood magic before I came here, and my assigned Class was originally Blood Mage before I made an Oath to the System, and it changed to Blood Manipulator. Cindy, did you have any precognitive abilities back in your original world?”

“No.”

“And your first Class was Dream Seer, right?”

“Novice Dream Seer, if we’re being specific, but yeah.”

Kay nodded emphatically. “Exactly. So-”

“Wait.” Quol’s hand cut through the air as he interrupted, “What’s Outworlders being different from people who’re from Torotia originally got to do with this being an experiment? You guys are different! You come from different worlds.”

“That’s what I was going to say next,” Kay reassured him, “That is the thing that really sets us apart from native Torotians, and I don’t know if it directly relates to my theory, but it’s a data point that led me in this direction. We are different, and not only that, the System recognizes that we’re different and makes changes because of that difference.”

“Oh,” Cindy exhaled.

“Yes!” Kay excitedly pointed at her, “You get it!”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah…”

“Well, I don’t!” Quol grumped.

“Why is there a change?” Kay asked. “We’re different, sure. It’s even an easily distinguished difference. But why does that result in a noticeable change in how the System works? Or reacts or manifest or whatever verb you want to use.”

“Well, the System doesn’t know anything about you, so it doesn’t have the experience to apply to your first Class.”

“So it randomly assigns something? Why doesn’t it just make us wait a certain amount of time before getting our first Class? The person from the BOA that talked to me when I first arrived told me that the BOA set up a working that locks the Status of all Outworlders that arrive so they don’t get some crazy Class and go on a rampage or get themselves killed or something. The working lets them unlock an Outworlders Status in a controlled place. Before the BOA set that up, however, they did it; Outworlders connected to the System and got their first Class immediately after they arrived.”

“Okay…?” Quol replied slowly, looking unsure, “So what?”

“So if it doesn’t know about my experiences from my life before to give me Class options, how did the System know my name? Or how old I am? Or anything about me that it obviously did?”

“… Oh.”

“See? I don’t really have an answer about why the change happens, but it’s an important data point, and it started me asking all the questions that led to this point. It’s a big noticeable change with no real explanation, so what else is there?”

Quol stared off into space for a moment. He turned and locked eyes with Kay. “This isn’t my strength here, looking at things deeply. Philosophy and all that shit. But keep going.”

Kay’s lips curled up in a smile, “Oh, I’m going to. You deserve to hear about it just from your work with Cindy here, let alone being one of our Class Line Progenitors.” He opened his mouth and then shut it with a chuckle. “Also, we immediately broke the no questions till the end thing, but we can ignore that since there’s only three of us.”

“So, where was I…? Right, okay. So, there’s a change in what happens between Outworlders and natives. So I looked at that change and asked more questions. Why do we end up with the Classes we get? Is it random? Or deliberate? Does the System give us a Class it wants us to have, or does it not care? Some Outworlders get crazy classes, comparatively, like Cindy with a foresight class, some get normal stuff like Chef or Farmer, and some get some completely random Class like one guy I read about who started with a Novice Fish Cleaner Class.”

Cindy frowned, “How is that random?” She asked, “It sounds like one of the normal ones.”

“He landed in a completely landlocked area. No fish for miles and miles.” Kay shrugged, “It’s another data point. Leans some ideas in the ‘randomly assigned first Class’ direction, but then there are other bits of data that lean it the other way.” He took a deep breath, “So, questions and questions and no answers, only ideas. That’s where I was. And then there was that stuff with the Eldritch Being that was getting worshiped by a cult inside the mountain.” He gestured towards the wall, “And the Quest the System gave me. You guys know this, but partway through, the System actually started helping me directly. The System wanted me to win because it helped the System. It talked to me. That’s when we learned, well, I learned but semantics, that the System has agency. It can think on its own and make decisions on its own, for various levels of ‘think’ and ‘make decisions’. It said that me calling it a computer was ‘close enough’, so there are probably some limits, but again, semantics.” Kay stood up and started pacing back and forth in front of the table, “The System has goals. It wanted the Eldritch Being to be removed because it was a threat somehow, and it rewarded me for making that happen. Then there was the thing with guns. I asked the System why it wasn’t connecting with guns, for lack of a better word. It said it was and that the ‘Gun Update’ had already gone through. When I convinced it that no, that hadn’t happened, it found an error, fixed it, and then pushed the Update through a little while later. That shows that the System is fallible.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Because if it wasn’t, it disproves Kay’s whole idea,” Cindy answered, “If it’s an infallible god-like entity, it doesn’t need experiments.”

Quol thought that through for a moment, “Okay, I get that.”

“Before the Update happened, I had a lot of questions and some loose nebulous ideas about what could be some of the answers, but no real theories. Then the Update happened, and thanks to having System Access, I got to see the Patch Notes.” Kay let a dramatic pause happen in order to get the importance of what he was about to say across to the two of them, “And it wasn’t just for Torotia.”

“Oh shit.”

“The whole thing was a massive list of redacted lines, set up like a list. There were big main categories and a lot of sub-categories as well. The only parts that weren’t redacted for me were Torotia’s name and the part about the gun update being released. And there were other sections that had the same formatting as Torotia’s name.”

Quol’s face screwed up with a confused expression. “Huh?”

Cindy, on the other hand, stared in shock for a moment before shooting to her feet, her hands slamming on the table. “Other worlds!?”

Kay nodded deeply. “Other worlds under the System. At least, that’s what I’m thinking. But that’s not all. The world names? They were sub-categories.”

“… Fuck.”

“What does that mean?” Quol asked quietly, “Other… what?”

“Other galaxies, maybe? Or universes? Maybe planes of existence? I don’t know. And I don’t know if it’s that important outside of a purely philosophical discussion. But a bunch of them had different numbers of entries, even on the world level. Torotia had like five or six changes, and I could only see one. Some didn’t have any changes at all, and some worlds had what looked like hundreds of lines of text, all blacked out to me. That’s what really narrowed it all down from just thoughts and ideas to some actual theories. And then what you told me today brought it down even further to one theory.”

“Experiments.” Cindy stared at him, her eyes glazed over slightly. “Or, variables. It’s about variables, isn’t it? Other worlds might be running at higher or lower tech levels than we are.” She stared down at her hands, still talking, “Maybe even some with no magic, but still with some kind of link with the System.” Her head jerked back up, her eyes wide, “Maybe some worlds without a leveling system.”

“What the hell are you talking about!?” Quol exploded, looking both frantic and a little angry as he looked between Cindy and Kay.

“I think the System is trying to discover something, or maybe more than one thing. That’s why it has so many worlds and realities under it, and that’s why it isn’t letting us go beyond a certain level of tech. Because it doesn’t want Outworlders showing up from worlds with more scientific discoveries and overturning its experiments. It keeps things at a certain level so that it can study whatever it is that it’s studying without interruptions or disruptions.”

“But it lets us advance our technology and learning?”

“Sure, at its pace. When it updates things. Not when developments happen naturally, but when it lets them happen.”

The room was silent for a while as they all sat there and stewed in the implications of what Kay had revealed. Theory or not, it was a massive bombshell to drop.

Eventually, Quol spoke up again, “Does that really change anything for us, though?”

Kay grinned down at the older dwarven man, “No, not really. I mean, Cindy isn’t going to be mowing anyone down with assault rifles and missile launchers, but otherwise, guns as part of the System are still a new development that will give us advantages over the other powers in the world. We still want to make them and train people on them; it just explains why all of your prototypes fail in such spectacular or inexplicable ways. The System is making them fail.”

“Huh. Yeah. It’s not like we can do anything about the way the System is making things happen, is there? Just have to keep going.” Quol mused. He grinned and pushed himself up from his seat. “Well, best I get back to work then, huh? Still got work to do!” He patted Kay on the leg and headed for the door. “See you around!”

“Quol, wait.” When the dwarf looked back, Kay pointed at the chair, “I’ve still got stuff to talk about.”

“What now? You’ve already turned my view of the world on its head!” He complained as he stomped back over.

“This is about work.” Kay glanced over at his fellow Outworlder, “Cindy, you paying attention?”

“Huh?” Her head snapped over to look at him, “Sorry, yeah, just processing.”

“Do that in a moment, please. I still want you guys doing the same thing you’ve been doing, but I also have a new job for you three.”

“Three?”

Isla appeared out of thin air in her normal spot on Kay’s shoulder. “I’ve been here the whole time.”

“You aren’t freaking out about this?” Cindy wondered aloud.

“He already sprung this one on me, Eleniah, and Ahthia a little while ago. His different theories that he had then that is. I guess we’ll have to tell the others that we’re pretty sure it's this specific one now.”

Cindy shot Kay a glare, “And you didn’t have time to tell us?” She complained.

“It was going to be part of the meeting you’re in tomorrow, but your little revelation got things going a little earlier than I’d planned.” He held up his hand to cut off any other banter or whining, “What kind of guns are we stuck with?”

“Worst case scenario, American Civil War era rifled flintlock style weapons with better powder, moderately improved mechanisms, and whatever kind of benefits we can get by adding magic and materials that don’t exist on Earth to them. Best case scenario, a style of gun that didn’t really exist historically, at least on my Earth, that mix together some of the stuff from the same era as the American Civil War and some stuff from around the American-Spanish War. Most likely breech-loading single-shot guns with a weird hybrid of loose powder and actual bullets with casings that can be fired faster than a muzzleloader but slower than something with a real magazine or even a clip.” She paused and tilted her head to the side, “Maybe revolvers, although I’m not hopeful on that,” She mused, “Testings starting to look like the System has those locked out too, now that I know what to look for.”

“That’s within expectations then.” Kay looked at the three of them seriously. “Find me a siege weapons master.”

Ilsa gave him a serious look. “Finding a tier-five with a Master Class is going to be a pain already, but finding one with that kind of Class without them already being part of another faction is quite the tall order.”

“What? Oh, no, I don’t mean it like that. Just someone that knows what they’re doing with siege weapons. It doesn’t have to be an actual tier five or anything. We just need someone with enough expertise to be useful.”

“For what?”

“Cannons.”

Cindy grinned widely. “Oh fuck yes.”

“We need someone to be our first cannoneer, or whatever the Class ends up being called. It might be part of Cindy’s Class Line, or it might end up being the next Class Line Progenitor we get, so make sure we end up with someone trustworthy.” He paused as a thought hit him, “Shit, same thing with making cannons; it might not be part of the Gunsmith Line.”

Quol looked over with bright eyes, “Can I recruit people?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know every single person who's been playing around with guns, everyone who’s actually got anywhere with it at least. I can send out a few letters, and I’d bet you my new favorite Class they’d all come running to work for us. I know at least two of them that would make a good fit for our cannon producers if what Cindy’s told me holds up.”

“Work on it with Isla, but go for it.”

“Doesn’t hurt that this could get us control of everyone that could be a potential competitor any time soon,” Isla muttered gleefully.

“Right!” Quol charged out of the room with an almost manic grin.

Kay turned to Cindy when she clicked her tongue loudly. “What?”

“Cannons are cool and all, but I was really looking forward to making plasma guns. Can you imagine it? Enchanted plasma guns? It would have been glorious!”

Kay stared. “… Seriously? Plasma guns?”

“What?” She snapped, “I know I’d only started my first year of studies, but it’s not like I don’t know the theory!”

“… Cindy, what year was it when you left your Earth?”

“Twenty-fifty-six, why?”

“Okay.” Kay nodded, “Because my Earth was at two-thousand and twelve, and I sure as hell know we didn’t have plasma weapons outside of science fiction.”

“Ohhh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Right, I’m out of here.” He pointed in the direction Quol had run off, “He seemed a bit too excited, so sit on him for a bit and make sure things go smoothly.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see Eleniah. Things aren’t going to stay this peaceful forever, so it’s about time I go hit tier five myself.”