16 The Meaning of Information
All sorts of colours and shapes floated around him. He looked towards the trees and noticed that there were green coloured tendrils flowing out of the leaves and onto the space around the bodies of Midas and Julio.
Midas looked towards the sleeping Julio only to notice that those tendrils looked like tree roots but they moved like tentacles that were fighting against eachother over some yellow particles that were leaving his body.
'What is that?' thought Midas. But he noticed something else that was weird with Julio at this moment. Some round lights could be found inside his body, one found on the base of his spine that glowed a bloody red colour and the other could be found at Julio's navel and it glowed a bright yellow colour.
'No way… Chakras?' thought Midas after his [Divine Database] sparked with some inspiration from the spiritual texts he had found in the library. Those positions were the exact same positions as the ones written in the holy books. The resemblance was uncanny.
Midas looked everywhere else on Julio's body and could not find any other bright glowing orb. He found some intertwined colours flowing all around, turning Julio's body into some kind of colourful painting. There was no way those orbs were Chakras right?
In the modern world, Chakras were thought to be energy centres that regulated a person and provided subtle energies that someone needed to coexist with the world and regulate their mind, body, organs and intellect.
There were seven chakras and regulating each chakra energy centre would allow someone to have a sense of their subtle body, or soul, and become one with their universe.
In recent times, Spirituality has taken a backseat with the advent of scientific progress though. The only people who still believe in or even practice anything remotely related to chakras would be yoga enthusiasts.
What people don't know is that the earliest mentions of ideas corelating to chakras could be found dating back to 500 - 1500 BC India in the ancient spiritual texts called the Vedas. In the teachings, the chakras refer to spinning wheels of energy that correlate to major bodily functions.
The chakras must stay in alignment for a human being's bodily functions to operate at peak capacity. The most interesting aspect of misalignment, is its ability to affect a human physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Midas knew though, that these may not be the same Chakras spoken of in those Hindu texts.
If these were chakras, why did Julio only have two that glowed? What were all these floating colours, objects and shapes? What was the situation with his body like? And what the hell were those tentacles doing?
His curiosity was beyond palatable at this point. He vowed to collect more information and unravel this mystery.
Midas found it unnerving how there were trees that were capable of absorbing emotions, and yet his Skill showed him some tentacle-like outgrowths of what seemed to be ethereal energies that were sucking out yellow particles from both Midas and Julio.
He tried to wave them away from himself, but he could not even touch them. Midas was apprehensive. These trees did not seem as innocent as they looked. The Trees had the orbs too, as Midas spotted an Orange orb and a Yellow orb on the insides of all the trees around him.
What made the situation worse, was that he could now see some gaseous purple particles being emitted by the trees, and the purple was everywhere around Midas, even inside his body.
Midas noticed that around him, these yellow particles he was emitting were getting more concentrated as it seemed he was emitting more. It was probably due to his frenzied emotional state. Midas tried to calm down and saw that there were less yellow particles that were being sucked from him.
'Terrifying', thought Midas.
He was not sure if these things could kill him. He was sure that whatever they were doing was without his consent, and he was weak to resist. That irked him to no end. He hated that feeling.
Midas looked at his own body in search of those glowing orbs and could not see a single one.
'Wait, why don't I have them? Why is it only Julio?' thought Midas, puzzled.
After thinking some more, he consoled himself, thinking, 'Maybe mine are the higher ones? Like the Third Eye…'
That direction of thinking led to an even deeper question. Why him? What was the significance and meaning of the difference?
Although he was consoling himself, it may be true. He could not see the final three Chakras located at the Throat, at the Centre of the Mid-brow and the Upper skull. Among those three, one or two of them may be a glowing orb he just could not see.
He turned his Skill off, sensing that he might enter into that weakened state again if he kept pushing it. That headache was a nightmare to have, and Midas would rather not experience that again.
Immediately, the world returned to its previous form, with darkness all around except for the illumination of the flames. Midas stood up and grabbed some branches to throw into the flames and sat back down, continuing his crafting.
He also spent some moments digesting his discoveries. Although he did not understand most of what he saw, he had this curiosity about it and his mind roved on and on about the possible meanings. In the moment, Midas had felt a fear grip him, but now, knowing that these 'lights' and 'energies' existed, he became excited at unravelling their meanings.
Most people would have panicked seeing ethereal tentacles surrounding and sucking lights out of them, but Midas was excited instead. It meant that there was so much for him to learn still.
After another hour or so of crafting and introspection, Midas resolved himself to test out the final Skill in his Authority of Omniscience.
|————————————
| Hidden Divinity (Lv. 1) |
[Hide Information from the World. Change Information in Creation. Deceive the Universe.]
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'God, please, no more tentacles haha.. [Hidden Divinity]'
When he focused on the concept, he came to understand that there was a shroud around him that hung like a dark cloud over his body. But he was surprised as he did not see any colours, but instead saw himself. He felt like he could hide himself from the world. Like an infinitely powerful Stealth ability.
'Is it just stealth?' thought Midas, disappointed. Every other Skill had given him a surprise and this skill just felt like a bit of a let down.
When he thought back to the behaviour of the tentacles previously, he realised that it was almost as if they could not see or find him, as they merely gravitated around him, while for Julio, the tentacles would invade his body and touch him at times.
Midas thought that the difference between the way he and Julio were being treated may have something to do with this Stealth skill. He thought about it more and realised that this Skill had always been active.
Looking at the description and understanding that this was a Skill from his Authority, Midas felt like it could not be this simple. What other possibilities could it be hiding?
'Index' thought Midas and that very same Blue panel materialised itself. But this time, Midas noticed that it was different. Midas instinctively felt that he could edit the Index. Maybe that was the true definition of 'Deceive the Universe'.
Midas changed some information and on his index into a form that he liked. This was a more realistic form that would let him blend in better. He would hide his high AC and his Authority, and augment his Gift to some extent.
He would hide anything potentially threatening about himself, making himself seem more normal, and maybe just a bit outstanding.
|————————————
|| Index || Network | Statistics |
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Earth Name: Midas Mira
AC: 8,300
Gift: Gift of Knowledge (A Rank)
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| The Gift of Knowledge (A Rank) |
[The memory of the world is with you. This Gift enhances the ability to communicate with the Universe, receive knowledge from it, and give knowledge to it.]
Skills: [Eye of Judgment (Lv. 1)], [Information Database (Lv. 1)], [Memory of the World (Lv. 1)]
|————————————
| Eye of Judgement (Lv. 1) |
[View the Information of all existences in Creation]
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|————————————
| Information Database (Lv. 1) |
[A database holding some of your memories and knowledge, with methods that allow access and utilisation of memories in high level ways]
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|————————————
| Memory of the World (Lv. 1) |
[Access the memory of of any Existence based on some conditions]
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<—————
Conditions and States:
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Nature: Neutral Evil
Trait: Hyper Intuitive
Mental: Narcissistic Personality, Paranoia, Anxiety
Physical: -
<—————
Stats:
—————>
Dexterity (Agility, Flexibility) → 1.6
Strength (Speed, Power) → 1.4
Constitution (Endurance, Health) → 1.3
Intelligence (Memory, Reasoning) → 5.7
Charisma (Charm, Persuasion) → 4.0
Wisdom (Intuition, Adaptability) → 4.5
Spirit (Mental State, Character) → 1.9
<—————
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'Hmm Not bad.' thought Midas with a smile on his face. If [Hidden Divinity] could really deceive others, then if they had an Information viewing Skill, this is what they would see. Midas was excited to use this Index page later on, to fool others into thinking whatever he wanted them to think.
The first person Midas had to fool was lying next to him with a dumb look on his face and drool sliding down the side of his cheek. Midas would convince Julio to be his comrade. And then he would finally have someone with physical capabilities by his side, that he does not possess.
Midas understood that it was only a matter of time until people became violent in this secluded place. With no laws and regulations, a conflict for space and resources was bound to happen soon enough. Physically capable Chosen would be pivotal in surviving in a world of violence.
Midas thought even further about [Hidden Divinity] and realised that this ability to control the flow of Information was a heaven defying ability.
Midas had always been fascinated by Information. Actually, the whole of humanity had always been fascinated by the concept since the dawn of civilisation.
Around 10,000 - 20,000 years ago, Humans discovered that they could represent ideas in the form of images on clay, representing the first recorded ideas in history. Then, they took the concept a step further by representing concepts not as images, but as the sound one makes when recalling an image, and thus evolved their whole concept of information and ability to share ideas with others using symbols and characters.
After thousands of years, this lead to human language being the way it is today. But in the 19th century they realised that they could stretch this further. In the age of electricity, and early transmission, humanity created a way to share information across borders using long and short beeping and sweeping that could later be retranslated back into normal spoken word. That is the story of Morse code and the Telegram.
Later, humanity discovered a mathematically structured way of sharing information in the form of binary digits, or bits, and this discovery later revolutionalised the way people experience information nowadays.
A normal human would use their phone to swipe through social media posts without recognising that every pixel on the screen of their phone is a block of information containing even more information on position, colour, size, feedback…
Even now, in 2024, humans are still rediscovering the depth of their ability to mould and shape information with the advent of quantum computing. According to the latest science, the concept even applies itself to the Laws of Energy, Entropy and Dynamics in the Universe.
According to Information Theory, Information can be analysed in the same way as any other physical quantity. It can even be seen to move, transform, reshape and decay like any existence.
That is because Information is a Physical existence. It is as if every subatomic particle was something like a pixel on the cellphone screen on the universe, containing vast swathes of information and data that when viewed in the whole could be interpreted as something meaningful.
If [Hidden Divinity] allowed him control over Information, that was effectively giving him free reign over Physical Existence itself.
Full Control over Physical Existence.
Midas felt his heartbeat rate increase sharply at the implications of his reasoning.
When Midas thought about all the uses [Hidden Divinity] possibly had, and all the uses he had not discovered yet, he became even more excited for the future. Maybe he could hide aspects of things? Maybe even hide the total existence of things? Maybe even create new things.
Midas kept working at his wooden tools until the sun rose in the morning. The whole time, he had an inexplicable smile on his face that no person could decipher.
