"Why do you keep slowly dropping these things on me?"
"It is exposition, Walker," Virgil responded with zero sarcasm in his voice.
"I guess this is the story of my life in a while." Walker smiled, "How about that?"
"A wise man in your world once said, Story of your life...so far."
"Hah, true enough. And who knows, maybe I'll be immortal after all."
"Nobody is allowed to be immortal Walker. Everything dies. From the stars to the Slicer. Everything. That is a fundamental rule in life. Now, the Creator Wars are no joking matter. Once you have completed a few tasks during the prelims, the first battle will begin, and if you want to win, you will have to truly create some monster-like entities."
"But I'm supposed to create a world," Walker replied. "If I make a world, and all I have are monsters, then won't that world collapse on itself as they all attack each other?"
"Excellent deduction, Walker. There are many ways in which you can go about fixing that. You can make systems that create checks and balances. You can create protectors, who go in and clean up or manage different habitats. There are as many options as you would like to use."
"Systems? Like the Alpha Protocol's stuff?"
"Indeed."
Walker smiled, "I think that's the way to go. It's straightforward and I don't have to worry about a protector suddenly getting it in their mind that things would be better off if nobody survived. Yep," He nodded to himself, "Systems are my choice for now."
"Indeed. Then, we will be creating systems to manage and simultaneously populate your entities. Think less of quantity and more of quality. While the first battle will only select a few of your entities at once, future battles will be different, and you will have to adapt to the situations as they come. I would like to give further warnings to help prepare you, but similar to the rewards I have spoken of prior, the battles change for each rendition. We will have to just wait and see what we get."
Walker considered not only what he'd just heard, but what Virgil and Mr. Harrison had been speaking of since he first arrived. What would happen to him if he lost in the Creator Wars? Would his own planet or universe be affected? He just knew, somehow, that if he asked Virgil, he'd likely receive no response. Just another restriction on what he was allowed to say. The idea of death didn't shake him. He was taught in the military, just before he deployed to Afghanistan, to assume he was already dead and live accordingly. To make each moment matter and try to stay in the present, no matter the circumstances or how dire they might be. But the idea of his world or universe being affected because he somehow screwed up terrified him.
In a now serious tone, Walker asked, "How much time do we have left?"
"You are in luck. As your entity and seeding were quite quick, we have extra time to work with the temporal subsytem. Please look at your overlay and read the status update from your seeding."
"Before, all of the updates were instant. Why are they minimized now?" Walker asked.
"It is all a part of the prelims Walker. They are slowly introducing you to the alpha protocol and the myriad of ways in which the system can be used. You will find, after completing the prelims, that a great number of tasks will suddenly flood your overlay. While I will keep track of them for you, they will seem overwhelming and impossible at first glance. You will learn to manage them as we go forward, or you will fail. There are no half-measures here."
Walker looked down as he felt the doubt creep in. "Do you think I can do it?" he asked in a quieter-than-normal voice.
Virgil dipped down a little so he could look him in the eyes, "Walker, I can see you have already survived a great number of trials in your life. While this will be the greatest challenge you will ever face, or ever can face, I believe you have great odds of completing the alpha protocol. It is not simple, and it is not easy, but it is within your abilities. In my knowledge base, I can see no other Creator taking that much time to create and perfect their first illustration. It may seem stupid to some, or lesser to you, but that kind of focus, wherein you can put your all into a simple idea, will take you far. You are fond of telling your students, There are a million geniuses in the world who do nothing with their lives, it is determination that matters. Perhaps by the end of this, you will embody that."
"Thank you Virgil." Walker said. "That helps. Maybe when this is all over, you can be a motivational speaker."
"No, that is a terrible job for people who do not have any further to go in life. My work is to focus on the alpha protocol and my Creator."
"So what happens to you after this?"
"If we succeed, I will be attached as your assistant for as long as you maintain your Creator status."
That means he'll be with me for the rest of my life if we win.
"And if we lose?"
With no change in expression, Virgil said, "Then I will be recycled into the alpha protocol for the next rendition."
"So you'll disappear? What about all that we've done?"
"My memories will be used by future assistants for greater help with their Creators, but I will cease to be."
"That's shit man. So if we lose, you die, if we win, you're stuck with me. What if I was some crazy prick who kept beating you with a baseball bat?"
"It is not good, or bad, Walker. It is what has happened and will always happen. In the first rendition, there were no assistants and all Creators had to compete with those who held massive advantages in intellect, dexterity, and genetic or ecological advantage. The assistant subsystem was created to bring balance and focus, to allow the creativity of the creators to shine. To create the best worlds for each new rendition. I do not feel fear, courage, pleasure, or pain. I am me."
"I know you picked your name because Virgil guided Dante in Dante's Inferno."
"Indeed. I felt it was apt as he was Dante's assistant."
"What would happen if I changed your personality in the Assistant menu? Maybe even add some self-preservation into your personality. Don't think I'd forgotten about it."
"This version of me would cease to be, and a new version matching the parameters of your choices would exist instead."
"So it would kill you?"
"I believe it would be a root change to me, so I would not be who I am now, intrinsically. By your definition of death, yes, it would kill me."
"Okay, never mind." Walker said, taking his hand off of hovering over the personality button.
"Please Walker, if you have any changes you would like to make, go right ahead."
"No thank you. I'm not a murderer." Walker said firmly. "If you had pushed me, that'd be like a step off of assisted suicide. It's not right man. You're a living, breathing, person."
"I don't breathe."
"Whatever, you know what I mean. I'm going to look at the status update."
"Please do, and Walker, be safe."
With that weird comment, Walker clicked the status update.
Congratulations!
You've completed the seeding of your first entity!
You've unlocked the temporal subsystem!
As a little help for your first time using the temporal subsystem, you've been granted an allotment of 50 years.
Good luck Creator!
Before clicking on the temporal subsystem, Walker focused on Virgil.
"Can I rename these? That's going to take too long to say every time."
"Yes, hold a moment and you can make any changes you would like."
Each box lit up with separated dashes encircling them. After Walker clicked on the temporal subsystem, he changed it simply to Time in a bold font. He also changed Entity Creation to simply Monsters.
"Walker." Virgil interrupted. "You will not just be creating monstrous Entities. You can if that is what you choose to do, but from what you stated earlier, I believe you will want to create plants such as trees. Strictly speaking from your definition of what monsters are, trees do not count."
Walker agreed, "True, but it is so much cooler to just click on the monster tab."
"I see. Do as you wish."
"There's nothing else to change for now, let's dive into time!"
"Go right ahead" Virgil responded, and the dashes disappeared. Walker clicked on Time.
Welcome to the Temporal Subsystem (Time)!
You have 50 years remaining.
Please use your cursor to choose what you wish to move through time.
A simple mouse cursor appeared in his overlay. Using his hand to grab it, he moved it towards Virgil and found an outline hovering around his squirrel body. He clicked on it and found four sets of arrows like a video player from home. One arrow pointing to the left for going back, two arrows to the left for going back a lot, with the reverse on the other side. Clicking off of Virgil, he looked around some more and found that he could also select his small planet if he edged the corner of the atmosphere. When he targeted the Crater, it highlighted as well, rather than the granite underneath. He hovered over the water until a small quickly moving object was highlighted.
"Hey Virgil, what would happen if I aged the Slicer? I've got a thing floating in front of me that says I can move things through time" He asked.
"The average lifespan of that particular worm is twenty years Walker."
"How do you know that?"
"I can see its genetic makeup, which are the building blocks of how it will act, how it will age, what it will eat, as well as how it reproduces. I could not tell you how aggressive it would be as I am blocked until you seed it onto your landmass. I also cannot tell you how certain experiences will change the entity as time moves forward"
"Monster."
"Whatever. The point is, I can give you a breakdown of what to expect upon initial seeding, but what happens after is, as you say, up the in the air."
"That's fuckey." Walker said with exasperation. He moved the cursor toward the tree.
"What would happen if I aged the tree?"
Virgil grew still and said in a stiff voice, "Move the cursor away immediately Walker."
Walker quickly moved the cursor toward The Crater before asking, "Why, what would happen?"
Virgil shook his head, "I do not know. I only received a hint from the alpha protocol stating that would be very bad. I believe it has to do with what that particular entity is for, although I hesitate to call it an entity at all. I only receive warnings under the direst circumstances"
"Then what is it?"
"I do not know, and that should worry you as much as it does me."
"That's not ominous at all. So what should I use this thing on then?"
"Who says you have to use it at all? As I understand it, if you do not use the allotted time, you will keep the 50 years for when it is necessary."
"Where's the fun in that?" Walker complained.
"I understand that the idea of controlling time is appealing to you, but I would like to remind you of the consequences for not taking the alpha protocol seriously. You must manage any advantages you can possibly gain."
"Like the tree?"
"As I said, I do not know what that is."
"Will the other creators store their time?"
"Unknown, but I have to assume that advancing time for them would be greatly useful."
"Well, it's pretty crappy that the worm has such a limited lifespan. It'd be awesome if it got more powerful as it aged." Thinking over the exploding fish and his own instinctive terror he said, "Ok, maybe not so awesome."
Walker moved the curser over his left foot and had an idea.
"Can I change myself? Like, can I make myself younger?"
"Yes, you can Walker. Remember when I said to be careful? That was my reasoning. There have been creators who have, historically, aged themselves to death."
"Shitttt" He said, moving it to the grass which hadn't lit up at all since he'd clicked Time. "I thought we were in some kind of time stasis?"
"You are Walker, but you can influence yourself. If you bit your lip, as you did initially with your linking to the creation instrument, you would still have a wound and bleed. You and I are immortal due to the alpha protocol and its systems, but there has always been the choice of self-harm. Some entities gain benefits from doing such."
"Good to know...I guess."
"If you would like to store your time, click on the resources button. As you have decided to not use your allotted time, it should have appeared early for you."
Walker found the resources tab and clicked on it. There was an option to store years in resources, so after clicking on it his status update began pulsing immediately.
"So I have good news and bad news for you Walker" Virgil said, eyes still focused on a screen in front of him.
"Hit me."
"The bad news is, your landmass got a low score. That was to be expected. However, your entity received a high score and that'll help with what comes next."
"What's that?"
Pausing, he looked at Walker seriously. "Your first battle."
"Dramatic as shit man."
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