CHAPTER 141: THE GOD CUBE

The world flipped upside down as both Athena and Ethan slowly descended.

The humans...well, virtual humans, below didn’t seem to notice anything even though the two weren’t particularly camouflaged or even the least bit hidden.

They just went about their day, according to whatever data Athena had collected and uploaded into the virtual world.

Ethan landed softly on the paved street, his shoes making no sound as they stepped on the surface.

Now that he was close enough, he realized that the world had a startling level of realism.

Every single detail, from the conversation held between the people that walked about, to the movement of cars, to even the pollution in the air.

Dropped in this world, anyone would think they were still in the real one, since there was basically no difference.

Even the imperfections of earth had been re-created.

Ethan nodded in satisfaction, as he and Athena calmly walked through the crowd. This was good enough, no, it was working out a lot better than he expected for the first prototype.

At least this confirms that his idea worked...well, part of it.

There was still the future prediction part but he’d test that later, but for now, he had to make sure the chair wasn’t about to explode and fry his brain.

With a thought, a holographic screen that showed a couple of stats popped up in front of him.

[CPU load: 43%

Neural Sync Rate: 97.8%

Cognitive Feedback Delay: 0.0004 seconds

Core Stability: 99.6%

System Temperature: 34°C]

"Seems the core is holding up pretty well," he said as he scrolled through the remaining diagnostics. "Neural sync’s stable, memory latency is within safe range... I guess I’m not not frying my brain today."

Athena said nothing in response as they continued walking forward. The crowd still not noticing their presence.

[You have successfully surprised me this time, host. A fully simulated world rendered from raw observational data,] Athena’s voice suddenly came from behind him causing him to pause, [ and all this is achieved on your first try without my help, how impressive.]

He turned back coming face to face with Athena. Her face held none of its previous smile while she looked at him.

In fact, it held no expression, even her eyes had gone blank, reminding him that Athena definitely wasn’t the one speaking, which meant....

"System."

There was only one thing/being currently present on earth that could seamlessly overtake Athena like that....and also spoke like that.

The OmniTech system.

[You really exceeded my expectations,] it answered before muttering to itself, [I guess I really did choose the right host this time.]

Ethan wasn’t really surprised anymore, since it had done it before but this time, without his permission.

"I see," Ethan nodded as he switched the scenes to his office, since that seemed pretty private....even though no one could see them.

The buildings started pixelating and people froze mid-step, before the scene itself folded inward before reforming into Ethan’s office.

Athena, no, the system, immediately took a seat, completely unfazed by the change in scenery.

Why would it be?

This tech, at most, was only tier 4, two tiers below the highest tier tech it had. Which meant that this wasn’t that much impressive to it at all.

Ethan wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or unnerved by how comfortable the System looked wearing Athena.

"So," he began, his tone half-curious, "I’m assuming you didn’t hijack her body just to congratulate me."

[Correct.] The system simply responded.

"Didn’t think so," he muttered, sitting up straight. "Then go on. What did you come for?"

There was no response from it for a short while before it stood back up and slowly walked towards him, [I think it’s time I start telling you where I came from.]

Stopping a small distance from him, the system snapped its fingers and the scene immediately started changing again, much to Ethan’s surprise.

But before he could say anything, the system spoke,[I cannot show you everything right now, but this should be enough to answer most of your questions.]

Ethan and Athena were soon standing in the void, one barely kept lit by what seemed to be stars, the office and earth completely gone.

"Where’re we?" Ethan asked as he looked around.

Athena didn’t have enough data on space to upload to the simulation chamber, which meant that this was data entirely from the system.

[This is where I began] the system responded, [before I searched for a compatible host and before I found you.]

Ethan was curious, the system had refused to tell him anything about itself or even why it chose him, preferring to respond with either, he wasn’t ready yet or that it chose him because it needed time.

So what had changed?

Why was the system suddenly telling him about its origin? But, even with all the questions, he asked none... Not now at least.

They stood in the void for a while, as if waiting for something to happen.

And it soon did.

Ethan watched as the stars started twinkling brighter before they all started moving towards a particular direction.

Ethan watched as said ball of energy passed through him and started converging towards a single point, the very center of this place.

How did Ethan know that this was the center of this wide expanse? He has no idea,he just did.

The gathering stars caused the place to get brighter by the second with seemingly no intention of stopping, Ethan raised a hand to shield his face from the ever increasing light.

But he suddenly remembered that he was still in HIS virtual world, so with a thought, the light reaching his eyes were filtered, allowing him to keep them open.

The light got so bright that the entire void seem almost exactly like the white world that Ethan first stepped into in this virtual world.

But all of a sudden, all the light receded into the center before violently exploding in all directions, causing Ethan to instinctively flinch.

When he reopened his eyes, he noticed something at the place where the stars were previously converging...

A cube.

"What’s that?" Ethan asked.

[That,] the system took a small pause before.. sighing? [Is the god cube.]