Chapter 162 - The Origin Node
By the time Natasha opened her eyes, things were different.
She was standing on a large floating platform in a sea of drifting lights and shadows. No sky, no sun, no nothing, just a continuous flow of gleaming cascading code tumbling down heaven wards like a digital aurora. It was the air that was unweighted, speechless, eternal.
In the middle of the platform the ship had erected something half temple and half server core, its architecture thrilling with bizarre uniformity. The stone had a dull sheen of silver-blue and the characters carved in it were more ancient than the game itself.
Origin Node.
And her heart thumped as she started upon her way. Every step she took, the ground responded to her movement as the symbols flared up before her boots. The system did not define her as a player, not even as an intruder but another thing altogether.
A voice, rather a memory, whispered in her ears.
The Mark does not simply pick out the deserving… but the ones who are willing.
The words aroused a feeling within her heart. Something that is entombed since the dawn.
What are you really?
At the middle of the platform she halted. A holographic interface appeared in front of her with only one prompt:
System Admin Override - Waiting Identity Confirmation
Her hands shook as she stretched to it, and paused. Was she prepared to learn? To know what was beneath surface of the game? To view what the Mark had reused in her?
She felt the interface.
This is how the world split open.
---
She was not standing on the platform any more.
She was in something--an ancient recollection, not hers yet known. The world was defeated into pieces, as one would watch a video with damaged frames.
Voices shouted.
A lab. A genuine one.
Programmers, scientists engineers debated over a round terminal. His words came out garbled, though Natasha caught snatches of them:
> "We can't control it it's evolving on its own."
She has got herself synced too much. By dragging her out we might be killing her."
The player is not a player any longer. Now she is a part of the code."
and then....jammed.
In the glass of the observation window her reflection showed. Or rather it was not she.
The face and the eyes were hers, the face and the eyes in the reflection had on a hospital gown. The silver Mark behind her ear beeped steadily and her skin was faintly glow-lit with blue lines of circuitry.
It is no dream. It is not a simulation.
A forgotten history.
Natasha was a member of the project.
---
The memory melted out.
She was again on the stage, breathless, palpitations.
I am born here, she said, whispering. Or had been part of me.
All at once the platform shook to and fro.
An inhuman, guttural voice spoke with low, rumbling voice.
The Awakening has been seen ahead of time. This was not so, and the intention was not so."
There came forth a figure out of the nothingness machine, shadow, code, forgotten. A gargantuan avatar, featureless, morphing into different shape like a virus seeking to take form.
This was not where you were ever to come back.
Natasha was not defeated. So, why do I have a response at the Node?
It is due to the fact that the system knows what you were. But memory is not conduit."
The creature lifted his hand.
The ground even under her fractured lines of corrupted data moved toward her like tendrils.
Natasha was responding to that in kind, and next thing she knew, her eyes were full of symbol and code in multiple layers.
Command lines. Triggers. Backdoors.
She didn't understand how, but she knew how to respond.
Construction at Merge layer: Override protocol: Merge layer zero. authorized: Natasha-Prototype 01.
A flash of shockwaves came out of her body.
The hyssops were dissolved.
The avatar shuddered.
The Origin Node became even brighter and the air was shaking with raw energy.
That is impossible, hissed the voice. The initial prototype was cancelled."
Well, then your system would not be perfect, Natasha jeered.
With eyes burning silver-blue she came forward.
Now this is my world.
The creature yelled and the nothingness around her broke.
---
In the ruins, her team was trying to battle an uphill war against corrupted players. Ira was flickering, Eldric bleeding at a cut on his shoulder, Dren down on one knee, cursing.
With a sudden twist the air became distorted.
The sky was filled by a burst of light.
And Natasha came out--all wavy above the wreckage, her eyes flashing, a blazing Mark hovering after her ear.
Time froze.
The bribed threw the weapons aside.
Alison gazed, in amazement. "Natasha…?"
Slowly she flew down, and settled amid the ructions, the earth about her glittering under her footfall.
Her abducted players turned to her--but rather than assault her fell on their knees.
Their red eyes turned to grayish.
Her code… was obeyed by them.
I am not a player anymore, she whispered, and viewed her team. I belong to the first system.
Dren blinked. A what are you? A GM?
She nodded her head.
"No. I am the key that the system put in the ground. The one that they believed was gone."
Ira looked at the sky. "Then whatever's trying to rewrite the game… it's scared of you now."
Natasha didn't smile.
"Good," she said. "Let it be afraid. Because I'm going to find out who's behind this… and I'm going to shut them down."