Chapter 2

Candice exited Chipz and waved to her. Sure, Chipz was not human. The trigger for most AI vehicles to drive away without saying anything though is a nice wave. Chipz would go off and be a bunch of other identities in the night. She always volunteered her services exclusively to Dimension employees. She closed her door and quietly drove off. A single thought would see her back on Candice’s doorstep in a flash. This box was getting far too heavy in her hands to linger out here any longer. The curious may get too curious.

[My goodness. What is in here? I envy anybody who had to carry this in a factory all day.] The five steps that came out onto her front porch felt as if it took five minutes to ascend them. Thankfully, these days unlocking the door were as simple as thinking of an action. In this case, it was unlocked, followed by a special phrase word to distinguish the home owner from guests and unwanted intrusion. [Unlock and open, Maxi.]

The door opened with a swiftness that Candice had never scene before. [Did the techs come round to upgrade my door firmware? That was unusually quick.] Candice stepped in without any hesitancy before immediately telling the door to close. Her trigger for that is a snap of her fingers if she’s the only one entering. Coming home from work or anywhere late at night, it usually was. The door promptly responded to the command by closing and locking itself for the night. Candice set the box down and greeted her one and only cat, Max who was now rubbing against her leg for attention. She bent down to pet her for a few seconds, and then directed her to her food in the kitchen.

She added fresh new food to her bowl and coaxed her to eat some of it. Satisfied, she went over to the mystery box.

[Chipz, or her programming anyway, had told me essentially they wanted someone who doesn’t play games. Are they trying to convert me?] Opening the box, she only saw a standard gaming rig, and a remote to control it. There were no instructions on how to set it up. [Oh, I’m not technical at all. Is it really as easy as plugging it in?]

She got her answer when she wheeled the device out of its box and plugged it into a Power Outlet. The display instantly came to life, telling Candice that the device was loading. It took about a minute. [27Th century and they haven’t got loading down to a science yet? This is not almost games, what about, oh, productivity perhaps?]

“Welcome to the Dimension Studios account Center,” the display flashed with output.

Not knowing what such an action would do, Benjamin played it safe and tapped control over a human head. Benjamin’s perspective immediately warped and he were now a participant in the drama that was about to unfold.

I was going to stop the fight. I was going to do what needed to be done. Suddenly, my body did not obey my brain. Everything stopped, and it felt as though my legs no longer worked, moved, or did anything. The Mermaid who instigated the challenge may be a pretty sight, but she sure as hell wasn’t nice. Two bolts of electric energy shot out from an exposed finger, and the Djinn was unable to withstand the blow, being pushed back from the impact. This Mermaid bitch meant business. In my 23 years of living in this place, nothing scares me anymore.

Our kind needs a body of water Why are you against our kind? Anybody against our kind living where the legends say we do deserves to die!” These ... abilities damn us to hell!”

To emphasize her point, two more electric bolts of energy slammed into the Djinn’s chest, making him immobile but still very aware from this distance. Suddenly, I began moving without thinking. It was as though my mind were thinking for me, and I moved toward the creatures with the intent to stop this madness.

“I demand that this fight cease and Desist right now,” I say. I pointed to the agitated Mer. “You will get your rivers and oceans. You will get water because it is already here. You have not found it yet.”

“Are you mad child?” the Mer directed her question at me. “Of course, there is water here. Somebody messed with the laws and made us serve humans for as long as they please. First it was humans, now its anyone else and that better not pass. No, you can’t be involved in this.”

An energy bolt that she just loves flinging around came casually flying toward my chest. It hit, but didn’t quite have the effect that I was expecting.

Benjamin lost control of the man as his spirit was flung back outside the pub. Benjamin got his entity back under control and saw the man he took control of exit the place as the fight escalated. The Djinn now was fighting back. The Djinn was not trying to kill his opponent, just appeared to daze, stun and confuse her. The Djinn had this constant blue haze around him. It was possible that looking at it for a few seconds may deceive the opponent, but Benjamin wasn’t sure. It was his world to command and control, yet the irony was that he knew next to nothing about his own inhabitants created by a computer. He decided then and there that gods don’t deal with petty fights like this, and zoomed across the map to a new location. Perhaps maybe he can find a location free from fighting.

Candice created her Dimension account with success. The game then started the Worldgen process for her world. The game told her that she could pick from three genres, but since her world is the second world out of four created, the game would choose three additional hidden genres that her world would design scenarios for her to interact with. The three genres she chose are Fantasy, Western and Steampunk. The Worldgen process started, however, Candice noticed that the speed was just crawling.

“There are currently two worlds in worldgen. Please wait until these worlds complete worldgen and simulation. Do not power off your Rig unless this message goes away.”

Candice nodded. [With the feature list as advertised, is this even a game? Sadly, I don’t know enough about games to know.]

[One person’s already playing according to the game, and I and another person are stuck. I planned my whole fucking night for this thing!] Michael Mcclintock sat staring at his rig with a mixture of frustration and contempt. He was hoping this Almighty game would become his new drug. So far, their were launch issues. According to the game, only one person is playing and having a grand old time in his world. Meanwhile, Michael and another person were waiting for theirs to complete. Surely, other worlds will be generated a week later at a higher volume next week, so Michael hoped they figured out something quick. His crack withdrawal symptoms are setting in, and staring at a waiting message isn’t his idea of curing it. Playing this game is.

Michael reclined his chair back, dozing off to sleep. Sleep was his comfort zone right now.

Candice’s world opened in a forest. A small grove was below her. Her World map appeared in front of her. She could look around the map and see that her world was bustling with activity. To the north of her location, a large city housed Merchants and markets of all sizes. Smoke arose from the Blacksmith shop. Zooming out to the East, she found a completely different city, filled with beings she had never scene before. [Why did I start in this Grove? The significance of this must be something important.] She flew down in spirit form and floated in the center of the Grove. There was an inner piece here that nowhere else had. She flew back up again, setting off to explore this completely bazaar world. Suddenly, another spirit appeared and welcomed her with open arms by setting fireworks around her. The spirit made a very small smiley face before flitting away.

[My. That was weird. Well ... Thank you, whoever you are.] Candice could really tell communication was going to be a problem if the other gods did not know how to think to each other. [I’ll observe the events in the city to the North. This should be a good starting point.]

Candice was surprised that she didn’t have any limits on flying her little spirit character, flitting from place to place. Spirits had no limits on where they could go, it was an ability to let her see the artificially-created world she had brought fourth. Due north from that Holy Grove was, from what Candice guessed, a largely peaceful village. A large fountain stood in the middle of a town square, and citizens walked bye to drink the clear liquid within. One poor lad was limping on one leg. A cast covered his other leg as he dragged it along.

[Why is he drinking so much of it?] The man began curiously drinking the liquid from within the large fountain. Observing unseen, Candice watched as the man glowed in broad daylight as he consumed more of the liquid within. Candice couldn’t speak as a spirit, but what would she say to this man if she could? She always followed the middle ground in life, never really sticking to one side. Life was never one-sided. Life throws you conflict that may be out of this world evil, but following one side or the other may get somebody framed for evil, or they’re the culprits.

The strange man went around the fountain, heading toward the stalls. He fished a few coins out of his knapsack and began walking at a faster clip. Candice followed right behind him, unseen. She could easily be scene if she had wanted to, but maybe their would be a purpose for that later.

“I don’t have all of it ... I don’t have all of it, lord help me...” The man continued saying this over and over in a mantra as he entered a shop containing weapons and armor of all shapes and sizes. Candice had some options available to her. She could send lots of good energy for positive vibes. That wasn’t her style. She preferred a higher immortal power make this decision for her, if it were required of her. The man set the coins on the counter, trembling as he did so. The Merchant looked down at them, frowning. “Not only are these the wrong currency,” the Merchant scowls, “This is not even a fraction of the amount I’ve requested you to steal from that rich filth. This family has no use for you. You have failed the test of inner strength.”