Chapter 21: Inner World II - System

As Annabelle found her balance again, she breathed out a sigh of relief. Even if she knew that if she fell, she could just fly up again, magic couldn’t erase her natural instincts of being afraid of falling from a height. 

Especially when she couldn’t see the bottom of whatever was below her at all.

A bit resentful, she glared at the thing that had startled her. 

“A projection?” she wondered. The dark panel looked like something her comms could produce when she turned on the holographic. So was there a hidden projector somewhere?

Usually, holograms had small and faint telltale rays of light that betrayed its origins, but this time, Annabelle couldn’t find it no matter how much she looked. Finally, she gave up. “It’s just a dream. It doesn’t have to make sense.” 

The more important question was why she’d be having such a strange dream. Dreams tend to be reflective of what was happening in real life, but she couldn’t remember anything that might lead to her dreaming about this. 

There was a chance the dark panel might tell her something, though. She went up and took a closer look.

It was some kind of dark floating rectangle with ornate edges and corners lined of gold vines and leaves, partially transparent with glowing white text:

~The Akashic System~
[Welcome to the Akashic System.]

Confused, Annabelle scrunched up her eyebrows and cocked her head. “What’s an Akashic System?”

At her voice, the panel morphed. Or rather, the text on it did. 

Oh, so it can be voice controlled.

The label or title “The Akashic System” remained stubbornly present, but the welcome message changed to something else.

[The Akashic System has the ability to allow its user to become significant.]

“That’s... a really vague claim,” Annabelle said. “How significant and in what way?”

[With the help of the Akashic System, the user can become significant in any context and in any way she wishes. It all depends on the amount of work she puts in.]

“Third person reference?”

[Does the user wish to change the way she is referenced?]

Annabelle blinked. She hadn’t expected the panel to react to something she said offhandedly. The AI on the panel’s system must be quite advanced. As it should be, if it was as powerful as it was claiming.

“Ah, no, it’s fine,” she said. There wasn’t anything wrong with third person references to her—she just wasn’t used to it. It didn’t have to go out of its way to change it for her. “So you’re saying that if I want to be as important as, say, the president of the Balaruth Empire, I can?”

[That is certain.]

“Um...okay.” Annabelle just couldn’t take this system seriously. 

The Balaruth Empire was the most powerful superstate in the vicinity. Its domain stretches across multiple star clusters and no challenger has risen up against it in over a century.

Naturally, its president was a most esteemed figure, ranking among the most powerful people in the entire galaxy. For a mere figment of her imagination to suggest she could reach such heights was simply preposterous.

Despite the insanity, though, Annabelle couldn’t help but be intrigued by what the panel offered.

Studies had shown that when a person ran into a problem in the real world, the unconscious mind often presented solutions in a dream. If the System could do even a fraction of what it proclaimed to be capable of, it would make her life so much easier.

While she was still skeptical, she still trusted herself. “Well, let’s hear it then. How do I become ‘significant?’”

[Displaying the user’s status. Filtering to appropriate relevancy.]

The panel quickly grew to accomodate a greater amount of text.

[Status]

• Name: Annabelle Florent
• Species: Human
• Gender: Female
• Primary Profession: Mech Pilot
• Attributes:
  • Vitality:        15
  • Strength:    14
  • Agility:        17
  • Sensory:    16
  • Mental:    14
  • Charisma:    15
  • n@^&#:    2
  • Aptitude:    19
• Abilities:
  • Akashic System
  • Martial Arts
  • Mech Piloting
  • ...

The System suddenly dumped a load of information on her. But stats... 

“Is this a game or something?” Annabelle grumbled. “What do these stats even mean?”

[Attributes are the System’s approximation of an object’s abilities. The object or creature is evaluated to the best of the System’s abilities and aggregated into Attribute values.]

“I know what an attribute is,” Annabelle said. “How are the scores though? Are they good or bad?”

[The user’s scores appear to be mostly above average for her species.]

While that made Annabelle feel a bit better, it wasn’t like she didn’t already know all of that. 

She had kept herself fit during her time in the academy and her grades were among the best, so if she wasn’t at least above average, then perhaps the Margentian Kingdom was populated by a bunch of below-average failures.

She shouldn’t fault the System too much though. It’s not like the System could just give her a magical explanation for what each stat meant. In the end, the attributes were just approximations of reality. All of them were composites of an incredibly large amount of variables that may even be fluctuating.

Since she wasn’t going to get anything more out of that topic, she changed it. “What is the garbled text? Is it a glitch?”

[The user must reach $# in n@^&# before accessing this information.]

“What?” Annabelle threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “Why? What do I have to reach?”

[The user must reach $# in n@^&# before accessing this information.]

Annabelle growled and looked away. 

“This is pointless. Get me out of here. How do I wake up?”

She turned to leave, when the panel blinked to a stop right in front of her. She jumped back, glaring at it crossly. “Now what!”

[The System requests that the user not leave, as the user has not yet accepted her reward for clearing a quest.]

“A quest?” Annabelle echoed. “When did I complete a quest? And what’s the reward?”

[Quests are located in the temple. Aside from managing her quests there, the user will also have access to a multitude of different facilities.]

“You’re not going to let me go?”

[...]

[Does the user wish to leave?]

Annabelle wasn’t sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she swore she just saw the system panel slump, like it was sad. The sadness saturated the text it displayed, making it look quite pitiful.

“I must be going insane. Fine, I’ll stay for a bit more.”

Helpless, and technically with nothing else to do since she was sleeping, Annabelle headed inland toward the temple that she had seen while flying. Even broken, the floating island was impressive, with most of everything still intact. None of the trees are withered.

She even heard the cries of birds, trills and chirps alike, from all over the forest. As she walked along a path that cut through the massive trees, she even spotted a few bugs flying or crawling around. It was as if this place was real, a whole ecosystem alive in here. Did the self-proclaimed Akashic System create all this?

“Hey, System?”

[Yes?]

“What are you?”

[We are the Akashic System, created by Annabelle Florent.]

While the answer wasn’t unexpected—the Akashic System was listed under her abilities—it still surprised her to hear it directly from the System. 

It was strange that she was called the creator of the System, though. Maybe it was being literal: while she wasn’t the one who came up with or designed the System, she technically created it in her dream.

Either way, finding out about the origins of the Akashic System, as it called itself, was probably going to be difficult. Perhaps after she woke up, it’ll all disappear and never come back, and she’ll forget all about it less than an hour into the next day.

She felt she’ll miss it though. The place really was beautiful. Without realizing it, Annabelle’s hand drifted up to her chest, feeling for a necklace behind her clothes.

She looked at the dark system panel that hovered around her, stabilized and in sync with her so that she could clearly read the text on it even if she ran. “Then, where is this place?”

[This is the Akashic World, a key part of the Akashic System.]

Once again, the explanation was brief to a fault. By now, Annabelle had realized that the System wasn’t very talkative. It’ll answer her question, only her question, and no more. It didn’t tend to volunteer information unless it was to push her into doing something, like when it told her about quests and urged her to the temple.

Annabelle truly didn’t know what to think anymore.

While this could still all be just a dream, she was starting to have her doubts. Dreams often reflected the dreamer, and she had never been overly imaginative. She didn’t think that she’d be able to come up with such a strange scenario.

Something greater than just herself was at play, which meant she must proceed with caution until she ascertained whether that something was going to be hostile to her.

The problem was she didn’t feel threatened at all by this Akashic System. She felt close to it, as if it was a part of herself. To distrust it would be like her distrusting her own arm or leg—illogical outside of certain circumstances. 

The path through the forest was long and winding, and she went up many flights of stairs, but she never got tired. Although it would have been faster to just fly up, walking through the trees was more calming.

She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so calm and at peace. It was probably when she went on a nature walk with Belevere. That was a different kind of feeling, though. 

With Belevere, what she felt was comfort from having a companion with her: safe. Yet she had to constantly watch herself around Belevere to ensure she presented an attractive side of her, so that Belevere wouldn’t find any faults with her.

Here in the forest, she felt more mentally free and harmonious with everything from her surroundings to herself. However, there was an uncomfortable feeling, the fear that if she ever truly let herself go here, she’d never be able to return as her soul got lost and disappeared into the aether. 

Almost too soon, the treeline ended abruptly and she found herself in a massive courtyard that paved the entrance to the temple complex.