[Hello, thief.]
“Thief?” I turned to Kian and Carmen, pointing at the invisible screen in front of me. “It just called me a thief.”
Carmen started replying, “Well, I mean…”
“Don’t.”
“…it’s technically correct. You kind of did steal it, even if you didn’t mean to.”
[“The best kind of correct.”] I looked at the screen. The message was there, but it wasn’t the message that I was confused with. It spoke. Out loud. In a distorted, mechanical voice. Best way I could describe it was that it sounded a bit like an aged text-to-speech feature.
“You can speak?”
[“Yes.”]
“And you can hear our conversation?”
[“Always.”]
“So you heard all the conversation just now? With Kaelyn?”
[“Yes, I heard your conversation.”]
“Is she telling the truth?”
[“About which part?”]
“All of it?”
[“The parameters of your question are too wide. Please try to narrow down your specific concern.”]
Hmmm. Was it just being deliberately obtuse?
“What are you?”
[“My official designation is Universal Survival Protocol System Manager 3.14 or USPSM 3.14, or simply The System.”]
“Who created you?”
[“I was created by the Pantheon, born from mana.”]
“What were you created to do?”
[“Isn’t it obvious from my designation?”]
Carmen snorted and I gave her a cold look. She returned it with dimples.
“Okay, but I meant what does that entail exactly?”
[“Are you dense? I manage the Universal Survival Protocol. Are you sure you have a degree in Mathematics and Physics? If you provide the name of the institution where you were awarded, I will be able to check the validity of your degree. Is it even worth the paper it’s printed on?”]
This time, Kian and Carmen didn’t even disguise their laughs. I gave them both a cold look.
“My degree is real, thank you.”
[“Are you sure? It would take me a moment to check.”]
“I am sure. Let’s keep our focus.” I thought back on Kaelyn’s words. “If I give the Divine artifact back, will the Universal Survival Protocol still begin?”
[“You have insufficient privileges for me to answer you.”]
“Okay,” I replied, a little annoyed. Was hoping this would be easier. “Can the Pantheon remove the artifact without killing me?”
[“You have insufficient privileges for me to answer you.”]
“Will they negotiate with me for the return of the artifact?”
[“You have insufficient privileges for me to answer you.”]
“Can I speak to the Pantheon?”
This time, it paused. [“You have insufficient privileges for me to answer you.”]
“Do I have any privileges with you?”
[“Sounds kinky. Will your girlfriend mind?”]
Carmen burst out laughing again.
At this rate, I wouldn’t get any answers. “Do I have any privileges to the System, being a holder of a Divine artifact?” The exasperation was clear in my voice.
It went quiet and the silence stretched out for more than a minute.
“Hello?”
[“Hi. Apologies. I had to check very deep protocol codes. Such an event has never occurred before, you see. According to my protocols, as a Divine artifact holder, you can be considered as the Champion of your world and have the respective privileges of a Champion.”]
“What are those privileges?”
[“As a Champion of your world, you are responsible for its defence. Prior to the commencement of the Universal Survival Protocol, as the defending world, you have the unilateral right to begin the Universal Survival Protocol prior to the end of the fourteen day grace period.
“You also have access to information on Earth’s defences, access to information on offensive forces, and you can request local or global defences that the System will create for you, up to a maximum of seven.
“Likewise, the System Administrators are allowed a local or global attack each, up to a maximum of seven. These privileges come into effect after a twenty-four hour grace period, beginning upon the System initialising.
“Should either side utilise even one attack or defence, the other side is allowed to utilise all of theirs in response. Should the Universal Survival Protocol be started early after an attack or defence is used, both sides will be allowed twenty-four hours to utilise the remainder of that privilege.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Following the commencement of the Universal Survival Protocol, you will have the opportunity to unlock the following data:
“Gate locations for offensive forces; Spawn locations for non-affiliated organisms; Rare or Epic mana-stone locations; Special access to defensive structures.”]
That was a lot to take in. The information I could access after the USP begun sounded important. Useful, anyway, but something I would need to unlock. I wondered what it meant by that. The global defences sounded interesting, but using them allowed the Administrators to also attack on a global level. Which they could do after the grace period ended. I only had a few hours to make this decision.
Just before I asked my next question, Charlotte and Kaelyn rejoined us, as a couple of cars passed by.
“Was Tiananmut a member of the Pantheon?”
[“Yes.”]
“Are the Pantheon the most powerful beings in the universe?”
[“Amongst the known worlds of the Universal Survival Protocol, yes.”]
“How was Tiananmut defeated?”
[“The factions taking part monitored his attack patterns, his strengths and his weaknesses. After a concerted effort to weaken him, multiple hundreds of thousands of fighters made a synchronised attack to decapitate him.”]
“How many lives were lost in killing him?”
[“Twenty-one trillion, four hundred billion, one hundred and eleven million, nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and thirty-six lives were lost.”]
Kaelyn had said billions, but this was far worse than I could have imagined. If a billion was hard enough to fathom, I wasn’t even going to attempt to understand a trillion. All I needed to know was that it was an insane number. If it’s a number that you can’t wrap your head around, it’s big. Huge.
“How has the Pantheon responded?”
[“The Pantheon have attacked the faction worlds responsible.”]
”How many worlds?”
[“Nine thousand, five hundred and fifty-one worlds.”]
“And what’s happened to those worlds?”
[“One thousand, two hundred and eighty-two were destroyed in the battle with Tiananmut. Of the remainder, the Pantheon have destroyed a further fifty-seven.”]
“How many lives is that?”
[“Two hundred and ninety-four billion, six hundred and sixty-one million, nine hundred and forty thousand, four hundred and seventy-one lives have been lost.”]
I looked at the faces around me. Everyone was taken aback by the sheer scale. There wasn’t really anything to say. There was shock for sure, but everyone was just trying to wrap their heads around the numbers. Except Kaelyn. She didn’t look shocked at all. She’d seen the carnage the Pantheon could cause first hand.
“How long has the Universal Survival Protocol been in effect?” Carmen asked.
[“Universal Survival Protocol System Manager 1.00 was created two million, one hundred and nineteen thousand, two hundred and twenty-four years ago.”]
“How many worlds have been destroyed in that time?”
[“Of the six hundred and sixty-six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six worlds that have been incorporated into the Universal Survival Protocol, four hundred and ninety-one thousand, eight hundred and fifty-two remain.”]
I looked at the screen in front of me, seeing the messages, mouthing the numbers I was reading. With that many worlds destroyed, we were talking trillions upon trillions. I was trying to recall what the next ‘lion’ was. Quadrillion? Followed by quintillion? That sounded right.
A trillion was one followed by twelve zeroes. A quadrillion would be one followed by fifteen zeroes. A quintillion was eighteen zeroes. What the fuck were these numbers? And we’re not just even talking numbers. That’s lives lost. People killed for this Universal Survival Protocol. Unfathomable doesn’t even really begin to describe it, does it?
“And your job is to find new worlds to destroy?” I asked.
The System went quiet again. I could guess what it would say. I’ve been programmed this way. I’m just following orders. That’s how all genocides worked.
[“Perhaps my job is to find someone to put an end to it.”]
“And have you?”
[“You tell me.”]
I went quiet this time. Did it really just…? Was it suggesting I should–.
[“Just kidding, thief! As sophisticated as I may be, I am merely programmed to locate worlds. I was not designed to judge what happens to those worlds. I am a machine, and my functions are to ensure the rules of the Universal Survival Protocol are followed.”]
Fucking dick.
“If I give the mana-stone up, will Earth be released from the USP forever?”
[“You have insufficient privileges for me to answer you.”]
“Let me ask you then. My friends believe I should start the USP now. That I shouldn’t give the System Administrators the time to analyse and destroy Earth’s defences. If you were me, what would you do?”
[“I am not allowed to advise on such matters. I am a construct of the Pantheon.”]
“You can’t give me a view? An answer from all the data you must have collected over the years?”
Again, it went quiet as if it was thinking. I looked around the car. Everyone was looking at me, eagerly awaiting the System’s next words. Finally, it answered.
[“Let me ask you a question, River, the Thief.”]
“I’m not a thief.”
[“If you say so. Now that you have stolen the Divine artifact, what do you hope to do by keeping it and not returning it? Do you wish to join the Pantheon? Do you wish to become as strong as them?”]
“I don’t think I can keep it. It’s almost killed me already. I won’t have it for much longer.”
[“Perhaps. But if you did, what would you do?”]
“What would I do?” I looked at Kian, my best friend of fifteen years. Man, the things we got up to when we were teenagers, on the streets of London in the early hours, because it was safer out there than it was in our homes. I looked at Carmen. Always there for me. Always willing to be the pillar that I lean on. Always ready to pick me up, no matter how many times I fell. And Charlotte. I couldn’t be more happy for Kian to have found someone like her. Willing to look past his mistakes and help him to become a better man. “I guess I’d use it as best as I could to keep my loved ones safe.”
[“Wouldn’t you desire to become the strongest? To join the gods?”]
“Not really, no.” I was thinking of my mum. Thinking about the men that were meant to protect her. Support her. Men, who should’ve been willing to give their lives for hers, but instead they made her give her life for them. They always wanted power, those two. Power and control. I abhorred it. “If anything, if I became stronger, it would only be to protect the ones I love. To fight the battles they couldn’t.”
I heard a mechanical coughing, then in the midst of it, in its mechanical voice, [“Bullshit!”]
Then the tiniest speck of light appeared between mine and Kian’s seats, and within it something was forming. First a thin, flat tube, almost like those little pieces of lead for those clicky pencils. Then at its base, it spread out into an elongated globe. The whole thing looked like a tiny vase no larger than the tip of my finger. Then these thin strands, four of them, a fraction of the width of the flat part of the vase stretched across the tiny object, and then four miniscule pegs started to form at the top of the flat…wait a minute.
“Is that a miniature guitar or something?” The tiny object continued to add what looked like a stick that slid back and forth across the tiny strings of the…
“Is that a violin?” My voice was flat.
The object blinked away, as the mechanical voice made noises that I assumed were laughter. Kian, Charlotte and Carmen laughed along with it, but Kaelyn looked confused. Charlotte whispered to her the meaning of a small violin.
[“You are clearly not the right calibre of person for the Pantheon. You’ll never join their ranks with a poor attitude like that. You would be better off giving the gem to those who would make better use of it, if you have no intention of returning it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.”]
The System disappeared.
“That was heavy,” Kian said.
“Do you believe me now?” Kaelyn cut in. I looked at her as she focused her light-blue eyes on me.
“I never said I didn’t believe you in the first place,” I replied, as a couple more cars passed by, stopping a few metres ahead. “But I’m starting to agree with you. I’m thinking that we need to start the USP…but I’m reluctant. I would be plunging this world into war. I would be guaranteeing death in numbers that I can’t even imagine.”
“You will–” Kaelyn began before the blue screen suddenly snapped in front of my vision. Theirs too, it seemed.
[Defending Champion has requested immediate start to the Universal Survival Protocol]
[Universal Survival Protocol Initialising]
