An Arcade Game 2
When Trex opened his eyes, he was surprised.
Even though he'd only spend a little over dozen of hours in Marko's body, he could immediately feel the height difference. Viden was a 5'4'' man while Marko was a 5'10'' guy. The six-inch difference in height did not only looked massive; even looking from the body felt very different.
One-step and Trex immediately felt disassociated with his body.
It didn't take long for him to realize that he must have been using the customized body.
In his vision is still the same HUD but the icons were different.
After checking the options menu, he realized the difference. This was the HUD for players; the one he had before was for admins and game masters.
That was right. Even though the name is 'arcade,' the world was designed like a typical FD-VRMMO. Seems like to become a player, one must use an avatar.
Looking at the once empty tree, he realized how much was gone. Besides the core system of the arcade realm, everything else disappeared.
How about the soul and the fruit? How exactly did that happen?
Unfortunately for Trex, he wasn't able to scan the design plans nor know how Jonathan managed to actually use something like magic.
There was just no antecedent for this to exist, so what exactly happened. The mystery involving this is just at the same level as him being alive.
Maybe if I found out how Jonathan managed to do this, I'll find my own reason for existence?
Well, that's not necessary now, is it?
Looking around, he realized he's in a blank world with nothing in it.
Moving a step forward, there was no sense of direction, nor did he feel like he had moved at all. It felt like walking on a treadmill.
Checking at the menu, he found a log-out button and immediately left. The perfectly white world instantly blackened.
When his vision returned, Trex found himself floating in front of the character fruit.
Besides an additional option in his HUD on how to log in, nothing else changed. It was almost as if he just blinked his eyes and thought of things.
He didn't know what to feel.
Things like morals and what's right and wrong are something he doesn't understand just yet.
But the fact that he used a dead body's likeness morphed it and became him. It didn't feel good. He was just unsure why he felt so. However, he did find it weird how willing he was when he did those things.
Well seems like my idea is wrong. These fruits can't populate the Spellworm plane.
Flying back to the Spellworm leaf, he couldn't find any way to add entities. He then thought of the smart mind.
This world was built with him as an OS. But since he became a living being himself, he lost all the specialty that being a computer gave him, including access to the source code of this world.
While he is aware that the programming language changed ever since mana invaded the tech, he knew that that smart mind was able to adapt and even change the source code of its own operating system to use for itself. He did those himself, after all.
But ever since he woke up, his mind had been foggy. It was as if he knew things but were blurred. Like a blind person, even though he can feel that there are things in his head, everything was dark.
He then thought. How about the throne? Wasn't that the console for the entire realm?
Flying back, he immediately took a seat.
Now, besides the admin and player modes, a new mode was unlocked.
"Tree of life mode."
Quickly tapping, his vision turned dark.
Suddenly, a holographic image appeared in front of him. In the center is the Vygradsil. And a little to the west is the Spellworm plane.
From this view, he could see a million cables connecting everything. He found this interesting as he wasn't able to see it with his naked eye.
What exactly are these?
Quickly, he assumed that these were mana lines that make the matter involved. But whether that assumption was correct is something he couldn't prove. At least not now.
He then saw himself in a different form. It was like his Chede form but black and smokey.
What would a curious cat do in front of something interesting? Touch it, of course.
Without further delay, Trex had his index finger towards the tree. The moment his finger touched the tip of the tree, a new option appeared.
Tree_Of_Life:V.2132_Code:Arcade
Vygdrasil: Dubbed by Trex OS.
*Cannot be moved*
*Cannot be customized*
*This object is absolute*
After the small UI appeared in front of him, Trex realized what this was.
During meetings and briefings, augmented reality and holographic technology are used to show and interact with the material. This was an interactive output, and with gestures, Trex could control the holo.
Widening his arms apart from each other, the hologram zoomed in towards the Vygdrasil.
Upon the zoom, he could see the lone leaf on the tree and the nine fruits.
Focusing on the leaf, he began to interact.
In the holographic view, the Spellworm plane became highlighted, including the cables of mana connecting the leaf to the mass of land.
Untitled01
> Edit Mode
> Delete Plane
> Initialize Game
Besides the three main menus are a bunch of jargons and nerd talks that even Trex is finding hard to comprehend.
Still, the three buttons made his eyes light up.
"Let's try it," he murmured as he tapped the edit mode.
The holographic view changed once again as the non-highlighted objects disappeared from view and the Spellworm plane zoomed in.
Trex's hands became solid as they returned to blue. Everything else stayed the same.
His HUD suddenly shifted into one similar to a game engine with an outliner, library, properties, and all he needs to create a game.
Unfortunately for him, there were no tutorials.
Well, let's take this slow.
Looking at the mass of land, Trex used his now solid hands as he began to move the trees around. What surprised him is that whatever he wanted to do in his head usually happens in what he sees.
If he wanted something stuck in the air, the object would remain suspended, unaffected by gravity. If he wanted things to settle on the land, it could also do so.
When he looked at the trees, he realized that these were procedurally generated trees. Something he was able to do by deducing the looks, shapes, and sizes of various trees to create an algorithm that could instantiate the same species of the tree.
That was when he wanted trees to grow in a specific region; he could control the timeline and grow trees. From a sprout all the way to young, the trees looked weird as the system lacked the data on how the actual tree grows, but from then onward, it looked perfect.
The same thing happened for trees and the like.
Then, Trex thought of something. He began to scour the library and was pleasantly surprised.
The reason why the world lacked the beasts was because every encounter is instantiated. Meaning they would only appear and disappeared through various conditions.
Scrolling down, he could see everything from the first slime all the way to the Stellen Wolf that he last fought with.
Tapping on the Stellen Wolf, new info appeared on his HUD.
Stellen Wolf
Completion: 5%
Intelligence Status: None
Sentience Status: None
Available Personas: None
Abilities: True (4)
Description: A wolf with metallic fur is assumed to be of the Stellen Alloy.
Seeing as the Stellen Alloy was a hyperlink, Trex tapped it.
Stellen Alloy
Type: Material (Assumed to be metallic in nature)
Description: null.
Specific information is unable to be displayed as there is no detailed database entry for the selected object.
A few more questions appeared in Trex's head, such as how did this information became stored in the database. Did this happen during his sleep, where he woke up lacking in mana? Did OS forcefully use him as a medium to fill the database with his memories?
There was only one moment where all of this could've happened after all.
The more things he saw, the more knowledge he learns, the more he feared the smart mind.
"What am I gonna do to you?" he whispered as he felt the smart mind in his pocket.
…
The smart mind… It's in my pocket… And I'm in the Arcade Realm…
A thought suddenly hit him.