Sirius spilled some ideas every now and then, bringing forth their creation. Such was the case with the Herta Space Station, something that should have been constructed decades, if not centuries in the future.
One of the ideas that interested Herta the most was the so-called ‘Simulated Universe’. As it says, it aims to simulate the entire universe, capable but not limited to recording what happened in the past. Its core lies in its capability to simulate ‘Aeons’. Anything involving “them” takes her interest.
As for how Sirius knew about them in the first place…
That’s something she would dig out of his own mouth.
Herta watched from her office as Sirius proved he is the dragon slayer. Through some tricks, he was able to get on the back of one of them. The remaining four naturally targeted him as well as the dragon he rode on. The latter tried to shake him off, but to no avail.
The bottom part of the black boots he wore clung tightly to its uneven green scales. She watched him become disheveled, even losing his sunglasses in the confrontation. Unsurprisingly, Sirius aimed for his previous strategy. He waited until his ‘ultimate death ray’ could take down several dragons in one shot.
For the next five minutes, it was a chase of cat and mouse. The dragon Sirius rode on suffered varying injuries, one that came from fire breath, acid breath, and so on. The Path of Destruction it treaded on allowed it to ignore its injuries, even using its injured state as a ‘payoff’ for greater strength.
It is the type of boss whose All-type RES, attack, and crit damage increases the lower its health gets. It was a broken boss that would’ve been sitting on the endgame content, only clearable with pay-to-win teams!
Although he wasn’t one to speak. After all…
His ultimate is broken too.
‘Two is fine. I can’t get greedy anymore!’ He paused as he thought, ‘An arrow whizzing past…’
The calculated trajectory appeared on his left eye. It was well within the range he estimated manually. He no longer hesitated and pulled the ‘trigger’ inside his mind.
Another invisible ray came out of the gun’s nozzle. It traveled at the speed of light, piercing through two of the western-esque looking dragons’ bodies. One of them had its head blasted off, causing its large body to descend. The other one had its chest pierced, wailing in pain as it followed suit on the first one.
Awoo-!
A deep, drum-like sound came from the dragon Sirius stepped on. It performed a twisted maneuver, with its back facing the ground. The shift in gravity caused his cheeks to move momentarily. Riding this thing exerted more than a hundred G’s, straining even Sirius’ super soldier body.
His eyes inadvertently landed on his black leather boots. It was an artificially-made curio made by, to no surprises, Herta. Sirius’ ability hasn’t reached a level where he could ‘create’ them. Essentially they were objects stained with imaginary or quantum energy, causing them to turn ‘supernatural’. The manipulation of truth was also well within the confines of the Erudition Path, and in turn, imaginary energy.
By exponentially increasing the friction generated by the boots, it was fully capable of holding onto high-speed moving targets without losing ground. That was the very thing the boots pulled off.
‘I should stick to the death ray…’
Sirius thought of bringing his ‘other gun’ out, but resolutely chose not to. Compared to the sure-kill effect of the death ray, the dragons could effectively resist other phenomena.
Just as he thought about it, he was startled to see the two dragons rushing straight to the one he rode on. They no longer unleashed their elemental attacks; they are going to physically collide head-on!
Thinking of the massive force behind that acceleration, Sirius shuddered. He hadn’t reached a point he could come out of their physical collision unscathed!
‘If that’s the case..!’
He resolutely abandoned the dragon he rode on. The curio’s effect was deactivated, allowing gravitational force to pull him down.
Bam-!
Voom-!
A massive shockwave was sent out after the three-way confrontation occurred. The dragons’ bodies were half a kilometer long. Given the fast speed they had prior to the collision, the force generated was nothing short of a nuclear bomb shockwave.
In an instant, Sirius was pushed faster to the ground. His rate of descent spiked as the ground grew nearer to him. At this moment, he brought his other gun out. It had the exact same design as the black gun, but it was made of silver.
The designation between the two was simple. The black gun was used to calculate the trajectory of the death ray. The silver gun, on the other hand, was assigned to the sixth function of his mental landscape—information imprinting.
Simply put, Sirius has ‘limited slots’ where he could record certain phenomena. It could be as simple as lighting up a fire out of friction, down to the splitting of a molecule to produce immense energy. Its drawback lay in their complexity. It was easier to remember one person than it is to remember ten thousand people at once.
The former was the fire, while the latter was the nuclear fission.
Hence, Sirius opted to imprint less complex information. If the intensity of one fire wasn’t enough, he could simply add another one, stacking until it was enough. It is far more flexible, and at the same time, cost-effective.
Sirius looked at the virtual screen in his right eye. It started a timer ever since his fall. The same went to the built-in rangefinder of the silver gun. Sirius calculated the time he would fall as well as the force generated by it.
Theoretically, all he had to do was to counteract the force. It was said in the laws of physics—action has equal and opposite force. But counteracting them in one go would simply turn his body into a pancake. Thus, he had to pull it off gradually.
And so he did.
The first shot came from his silver gun. Sirius felt an upward force pushing him back up. The force generated by gravity decreased slightly at a cost of physical strain. He did it over and over, repeating iterations of ‘upward impact’ striking at him. It made him feel the pain of falling from the third floor every time he did so. His bones creaked, his muscles were strained, and blood soon affected his internal organs. But it achieved its intended effect.
Bam-!
Sirius landed on the sand as a whole. His vision kept spinning, however, as he could not even muster the strength to stand back up. He felt like puking everything he had eaten this morning. Still, he was fortunate to not have broken any major bones.
‘I pulled it off…’
Sirius felt his rapidly-beating heart. The adrenaline of falling more than two thousand meters from the sky was something he had gone through several times, yet he could never get accustomed to it. As for the previous attempts, he was slightly traumatized, especially the first. His ‘landing’ failed at that time. That sensation caused his real body to enter shock, making it a traumatizing experience.
He did all of it, purely to test out Herta’s Simulated Universe prototypes.
His dizziness grew extremely strong, and before he knew it, he was back to reality. The buoyancy of the nutritional fluid made his body weightless. He was completely soaked by it inside the glass tank, with an oxygen mask attached to his face. These fluids were not just there to act like IV. Every speck of them were carefully designed medical nanomachines. They could resuscitate his heart if it suffers from the likes of shock. They could also regulate his brain’s stress-related hormones, erasing any physical deterioration the Simulated Universe prototype might pull off.
The next thing that greeted his sight was the large brimmed hat.
“How was it? Aren’t I a dragon-slayer?”
Sirius knocked on the circular glass tank. The microphone on the oxygen mask perfectly transmitted his words. As a response, Herta’s eyes merely scanned his naked body before focusing on the area covered by white boxers.
“Then should I call myself the dragon-rider?”
He was left speechless at her reply. Not in a million years did he expect the beautiful and elegant Madam Herta to make dirty jokes. But it had been so ever since the start of their ‘relationship’. It had been five years since their first time, and she could dare say to know Sirius’ physical body upside-down.
Around him, she acted very boldly.
Knowing her, Sirius knew their conversation would spiral out of control, eventually ending with his loss. He had learned his lessons for over five years.
Never, ever, engage in a verbal battle with Herta.
“That’s right.”
Herta flicked her right hand, sending a newly-created virtual screen to Sirius’ side. It was a simple digital newspaper published by the IPC. The headlines were direct—Asdana Star System lost official contact!
A slight chill went through his spine. Knowing was one thing. To see the future he knew come to fruition still feels something else.
‘It has come to this.’
It was currently the 2144 Amber Era, a full 14 Amber Eras behind from the game’s present timeline. Every Amber Era was inconsistent, ranging from 76 to 240 Earth years.
What shocked him more was the ‘timeline’. Sirius went back to his memories and knew that incident would have happened in the 2149 Amber Era.
‘Butterfly effect… this isn’t avoidable.’
The changes he had made to this world was no joke. Herta wouldn’t have commercialized a part of her inventions so early on. She would have focused more on her experiments, and if she lacked funding, she would have simply asked the IPC. Things were different now precisely because of Sirius’ existence. She trusted him with everything, down to her investments. It wasn’t an exaggeration that a single decision on their side would affect an entire world.
In this case, it was the Asdana Star System’s turn, or rather—
“Penacony.”
Herta came closer to the glass tank. She flicked it with her finger, breaking him out of his daze.
“It’s been some time since we went out.” She suddenly said, “I am also interested in its unusual memoria influx. I have a feeling that Memokeeper’s coming there too.”
Sirius’ eyes widened at the mention of the elusive Memokeeper. She was none other than the one who attempted to pry his memories open—Black Swan. He knew from Herta’s voice alone that she still holds a grudge against her, though that was how Herta is. She is petty to those who wrong her.
“Are you planning to kidnap her or something?”
A scoff came out of her mouth.
“Don’t take me for a terrorist. The cosmos has had enough with them.” She paused, flashing a meaningful smile, before continuing, “Though I don’t mind playing a trick or two on her.”
Just like that, their next travel itinerary had been decided.
*****
The Asdana Star System is a world enclosed with an imaginary barrier. Its significance wasn’t huge. Like any other known worlds, Akivili, the Aeon of Trailblaze, had laid out the rails on it, becoming one of the Astral Express’ transit stations. Its management also fell under the IPC.
Originally, it was a barren planet unfit for life. Its sole specialty made the IPC look at it another way—memoria. The Path of Remembrance deals with memories, and the people treading this Path are commonly known as ‘Memokeepers’. As of the moment, they have one official organization, the Garden of Recollection.
Upon the discovery of the Asdana Star System’s abnormal memoria overflow, the IPC had collaborated with the Garden. The former acted in accordance with their purpose, to ‘preserve’ worlds. But it does not mean they are as morally high as they proclaim. They are a corporation, and what works more with that word other than exploitation?
Thus they turned the Asdana Star System into an entire prison. They take in prisoners from various other worlds, transport it there, and have them do hard labor by taking the overflowing memoria within. It was basically a glorified labor camp.
It has been seventy-nine system hours since the contact within the Asdana Star System was cut off. At this exact moment, it received an uninvited guest—
“
—an Emanator of Erudition.