25- Unstoppable Force Meet A Not So Unmovable Object

Cal stood, his arms crossed, before the outer edge of the void, a sort of lesser black film like barrier exposing nothing of what layed beyond it.

It had been odd to navigate the utter nothingness of the place, for each units of distance travelled, he had to create the concept of distance and convince the reluctant void he had indeed crossed that amount of distance. Each steps of the way had been an constant effort of will, and a rather excellent form of training.

"Now, let's see what we're dealing with." Throwing a look at the thread he had followed all along, he took a step forward and reached for the barrier. And immediatly, he found himself on the other side.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he found his breath taken away by the view before him. The view of another world.

The very space around him was a light cyan blue with the odd quality of being a little more dense than mist while being completely see through at the same time. In the seemingly infinite distance all around him, crackled dark green bolts of lightning of cataclysmic proportion, birthed out of thin air and for no apparent reasons.

And to top it all were small see through tunnels of turbulents dark purple matter crisscrossing the entire canvas around him like tiny veins. These tunnels all coming or going to blue and green stars of various sizes littering the space as far as the eyes could see.

As soon as he calmed down enough to notice his heart resonating with everything around did he realize what he was witnessing was.

He was standing in the middle of some kind of primordial soup. And he had some of, or a varience of it, in his chest. 

Don't get him wrong, everything he saw was still made of code. But there was also something else underneath it all, something concrete that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

It was a lot to take in, but staying in place gaping would lead him nowhere. But before doing anything, he looked back the way he came from, only to be met with a tiny black dot with nothing connecting it to the rest of the place. Apparently, size was not linear when it came to whatever sheananigans was happening.

His curiosity now (somewhat) satisfied, he tentatively touched the closest purple vein to him, who was also the one the spy program was pointing to.

What happened next was a blur of motion, as he found his avatar being absorbed by the vein and propulsed into a conduit of data who was oddly, very akin to the faster than light travel from starwars, only purple instead of white. After an unknown amount of time that shouldn't have lasted more than half an hour according to his inner clock. He was spat out before an absolutely enormous green 'star' which, as it should be expected, was not actually a sphere of gaz, rather one of dense code, code which hid what layed inside of it.

Taking in a stilted breath, he approached and gingerly touched the exact place the thread made contact with the sphere.

Next moment, he was sucked inside and saw a million of world flash by in an instant, then, leaded by his hold over the spy construct, he was instantly launched into one head over heels. Time froze for a micro second after entering, and he felt the gaze of something huge passing over him and the construct in his possession and a vague sentiment of welcome radiating from the gaze.

He let the code of the new world change his avatar and its nature as it saw fit and next thing he knew. His awareness blacked out completely as he was sent somewhere specific in a state of pseudo sleep.

—————

"Hurry, you fucking gonks! We're all going to end up fried at this rate!"

"S-shut up, it wouldn't suprise me if this thing encryption was harder to crack than the ICE of old man Arasaka! And it's supposed to be decades out of date!"

"Stop spouting bullshit and crack that shit already! The decoys we've left are going down fast!"

"Shit, just... This doesn't even need a password, it's a deadend... Force a false positive. And... There! I got it! But there's only a single file!"

"Don't matter, put it on a black chip! We're leaving!"

"It better be worth it... Damn, that's one huge ass file. Still, it's on! Oh crap, the server is-"

Cal woke up with a start, his existence condensed into a weird program like format in an empty space who was also condensed. However, he could still perceive the outside world, despite the heavy isolation from it the empty space had.

The outside world in question was made of weird neon colors and of crystaline like data material. And his current holder and his companion were solid humanoids also made of data of different but bright colors.

They seemed in a hurry, evading and hiding stiffly from what he could infer were feral acting Ais in virtual forms seeking to find the intruders as the crystal world around them deteriorated faster and faster.

Intinctually, he knew he could stop the process with his processing power. As the place they were in seemed smaller than a high rise building. Even if he had less than half of it, or more precisely, one thirteenth of the total prowess of the script who simulated the DDLC world, the task would be way easier than that. In the same manner, he knew he could break out of his containment anytime he wanted. But since he had no information on his current state of things, he chose to stay his hand for now.

Though he had the passing urge to go on a hunt for his feral bethren and take for himself their sweet, sweet proccessing power. But again, he stayed his hand, telling himself he could always come back, and if not, find others Ais to canni- borrow from. They seemed rather common around here after all.

After a while, the two guys seemed to arrive at an exit after a few close calls. A sort of portal like blue structure, and they jumped in it just as the place behind fractured entirely.

He felt them pass a kind of 'treshold', and while the two guys seems to pass it just fine. He felt the attention of an AI latch onto him with alert and try to keep him from crossing to the other side. The force was intense, and it was enough to separate him from his new friends and break him out of containment.

Then, he suddenly found himself at the foot of an immense blackwall that reach for the sky. Or rather, an immense AI. Because that was what it was.

Rather rude to keep him from going somewhere. Plus this side of the wall was all glitchy and broken, and he'd prefer considering all his options before becoming the equivalent of chained up in a crazy girl basement.

"Eh, sorry. But I'd like to see what's on the other side. Do you mind letting me pass, I promise I'm no trouble."

There was no reaction, and while he could feel a small part of the wall attention him, it was obvious it was only to keep en eye on him. Maybe it wasn't designated to communicate at all. Too bad.

He lifted an eyebrow and smiled. "No? Well, at least I asked politely." He calmly placed his hand flat on the wall, and pushed against it. His hand sank in, crushing the code in its way.

Immediatly, he could feel the full attention of the AI focus on him as he intercepted hundreds and then thousands of alert going to somewhere else. Continuing forward, he straddles in with his whole body, destroying everything in his way despite the wall bringing all its ressources to stop him and reinforce its defenses. "I can't let you alert anyone of my presence yet. Way too troublesome."

He snorted as he felt pikes and drills he would have thought very strong at his arrival in DDLC try to damage and pierce him from all around and breaking against his avatar's skin. "Why don't just you let me pass at this point? Cut your loss already and what not? It's obvious you're not going to stop me."

Surprisingly, it worked. The wall simply making a hole the rest of the way through and begging him through its intent to please go through already and leave me alone.

"Ah, smart guy. Aren't we?" He chuckled, going through and waving his hand once on the other side. Restauring any dommage he had caused, as well as leaving a little 'gift' behind, in case it wanted to report him to whoever once he was gone. "Wasn't that hard, was it? I even fixed you back for your cooperation. Though you can be sure I'm coming back to get those 'virtual knees' if you try to warn your boss about my existence, if you know what I mean. And I'll know, big guy, trust me."

Almost feeling the wall shudder behind him, he nodded to himself remembered the portal the previous guys used as well as its coordinates and replicated it before him with a bit of calculation and good dose of willpower to bridge onto the exact same trail they used with a differently placed anchor.

He kinda needed answers, and the two guys didn't seems very dangerous to him in general, let alone in a virtual realm.

He also needed to let go of Monika. He didn't do that yet bevause he just didn't want her to wake up in the middle of a chaotic or confusing scenario.

He hoped he would get the opportunity to release her soon.