Chapter 164. The Fake System

Welcome intruder, what do you seek?

My mind went blank for a moment trying to process if what I heard was in my mind or if someone is actually speaking with me.

You seem to have armor made with Netherite which was previously thought impossible. My analysis shows that it has the ability to absorb vibrations, trick the eye, and protect you from further analysis. I can't read your mind with this equipped, please take off your helmet so I can gather more data.

That's a scary ability to have, good thing my armor protects me from that.

"Sorry fake System, but I prefer my thoughts to be left alone. Can you answer me a few questions?"

You do not have the authority to ask questions, please leave so my guardians can kill you.

So I was safe for now, that's good.

The System seemed to be more robotic than I imagined, but I should've figured it out from its neutral voice.

I wonder what kind of power does this System have?

After all, the original System pretty much runs this world, and if you want to replace it, that would be tough.

"How do you know I have no authority? I brought those schematics to show that I'm someone important."

While saying that I took out the drawings and the map leaving them on the floor.

You have the schematics of intermediate-level researchers. Those could be stolen, so you'll be given basic access. Welcome Trader, how may I help you?

"how come you know my name?"

It can't read my status page from this proof.

The scout guardians have heard this name repeatedly being shouted at the surface.

Wait, their still fighting out there?!

That means they run out of TNT at this point, they're in danger!

"They came with me, you have to stop the attack!"

You do not have the authority to stop the attack permanently.

So I can do it temporarily?

"Can you stop the attack unless they come closer?

Request accepted, guardian scouts are temporarily on standby until further instructions.

Phew, I hope Captain Siren will get the message and won't get any closer or attack them.

"System, how do I get access to higher authority?"

There are two ways to get higher access, either you let me look into your mind and you'll be judged based on how much you know about the organisation, or you can take a written test and be judged on that.

"I'll take a written test! But only after my muscles are back to normal."

Request granted, you will be guided after you're done recovering.

So for the next half an hour, I sat down in silence thinking of what actions I should take next.

Should I let the System read my mind?

I don't think that's a good idea, but maybe I won't be able to complete the written test.

After the time was up and my muscles weren't sore anymore, I got up and broke the obsidian box letting light enter the cube.

I looked once again at what was in front of me, but this time not rushed by danger.

The garden was green and filled with beautiful flowers that I didn't recognize.

One was a three-block red flower that took the shape of a spear with short leaves on each side.

Another one was similar to moss but blue.

The animals here were interesting as well, such as a fox with two tails, one huge eye, and green fur.

The temple was pretty similar in design to the one in the game except for 4 towers that rise high into the dome made of a mix of diamond, netherite, redstone, and lapis blocks all heavily enchanted.

My attention was interpreted by a flying blue creature that was coming towards me.

It was an Allay.

It looked much more cuter in reality than in the game.

"Hello little guy, how can I help you?"

The creature looked deep into my eyes, and then a voice spoke into my mind.

This would be the guide to your testing room.

"Oh...OK, thank you!"

Good thing that I had armor on or the System would see me red as a tomato.

I quickly followed the Allay, and we entered the temple.

While the exterior was similar to what I knew, the Interior was not so much.

Hallways were made straight, not like a maze, and the rooms were labeled so anyone could easily find their way around it.

I passed by the Storage room, Deep Analysis room, Bio Research room, and Sacrificial room.

Wait Sacrificial room?!

What was that about? I don't want to get anywhere near to that.

After a few minutes, I arrive in the Exam room.

Inside there were a few tables.

The walls were white and a chest was in the corner of the room.

I went to the chest and saw that It was filled with notebooks, and every one of them had the same test.

I took one, sat at a table, and started to look at some of the questions.

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1. What is the recipe for the Enchanting Table?

2. What is the recipe for the God Apple?

3. What's the biggest achievement humanity made?

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13. What happened in the Great War?

14. What is the purpose of the New Age organization?

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20. If you have any high-level information, please write it here and bonus points would be given.

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What did I just read?

This test was all over the place!

Some of the questions are easy while others I don't even know how to begin, what is this test trying to get out of me?

I just shook my head and tried to answer the questions to the best of my abilities, and after an hour I was done.

"I'm finished, where do I put this?"

You can put it back in the chest, I've already analyzed your answers and upgraded your authority to the highest level.

"Does that mean my answers were correct?"

No, about 80% of them were wrong.

I was that bad!

"Then how did I get such high authority?"

The last explanation you gave fulfills one of my purposes.

"What is your purpose?"

The purposes of my creation are in order: Spare human life unless it threatens a greater number of humans or myself, Replace the current System by any means necessary, and gather all the data in the world and outside of it.

Those were...some interesting rules, but at least they value human life in a way.

"But you killed Siren's crewmates last time they were here."

If you refer to the same Siren that is on the surface right now, she and her crew came here to plunder me which violates my first command, but because of the first half, I had to give a warning shot which accidentally destroyed their ship.

That's...oh wow, Siren wouldn't like it if she heard about this, maybe it's better to keep her out of the loop.

"Can you please retreat the guardian scouts from them? I'm sure you've taken a lot of damage from us."

Affirmative, the scouts are on their way back.

"Good, thank you, now what can you do? Since you're supposed to replace the System, that means you're pretty powerful."

In this domain, I have the power to change everything as long as a life won't be lost. There are only a few exceptional blocks or materials that I can't change such as the Bedrock, Obsidian, and Netherite.

That sounded pretty overpowered, I wonder if it can make me an unlimited amount of diamonds?

But information comes first.

"Is there any other human, or creature of similar intelligence in here besides me?"

Negative.

"Where did everyone go, since I'm guessing the System doesn't know about your existence."

The humans left when the System attacked the organization from all around the map, they wanted to be with their families in their final moments and choose to leave, and those who remained, died of old age and decomposed.

I do not know If the System knows about my existence, but evidence shows it doesn't.

That's a pretty sad thing to hear.

So the System has been alone for a few hundred years.

"Why did the System attack the organization? Is it because of you?"

Negative. The System attacked the organization because it discovered the existence of the End portal.

So that's why? I guess when you are defeated and seal yourself out of your enemy's range, you'll get pretty angry when humans opened a way back.

But there's a question I always wanted an answer to.

"What happened in the Great War?"

The Great War happened 480 years ago when an unknown fracture appeared in the air. The System as the protector of this world, choose to fight with it for a whole year. At that time the world was run by another System inferior to the original one and the one that I was modeled after. Since it was inferior it had more points to exploit and humanity took full advantage of that to take what's rightfully theirs that was hidden before.

That was the golden age of humanity as every human who managed to reach the maximum level in any skill had the opportunity to ask for amazing items.

In the span of one year, civilization rose above the sky with its new technology, but the System came back from its fight, wounded and closed the rift between the two dimensions.

The System looked at its world and saw that the Void was corrupting it, so it took all the chunks infected, created another dimension threw everything there, and seal it with all the living beings on those chunks.

That's how the Nather came to be, and the end of the Great War.

That was roughly close to what I knew, but it was still fascinating to hear.

So this System is modeled after a lesser System. How they managed to do that it's beyond me.

But the humans betray the System by taking advantage of its absence which would be enough grounds to punish humanity or maybe even abandon them, but no, it's seems the System let them be for a while longer.

"What happened afterwards?"

Once the System came back, everything returned to normal like nothing happened. But humanity was still advancing quickly from the discoveries in the last year.

Some of the researchers lost their families to the Nether, and they wanted them back.

So a new branch was created to study the laws of dimensions, until five years later, they found a way to open a portal to that place.

Everything was done in secret.

But when the portal was opened it was found that hundreds of years passed there, only now connected to our world it's stabilised.

The loved ones were long dead replaced by humans that called themselves Piglings and Brutes.

Those people couldn't come to our dimensions without regeneration potions or special equipment, and the System spoke with the humans for the first time.

It warned them not to take too much from the Nether since it would corrupt the world.

The humans were obident at the beginning, but in grieve at their lost families they started to experiment ways to bring people back from the dead with the Soulsand from the Nether.

Another 5 years passed and the System found out about those experiments and was angered, so it destroyed every portal in the world and chancing it so the enchantments wouldn't work on opening them once again.

But the humanity wasn't ready to give those resources up, so they researched another way to get to it, but right at that time they found out how to open a way to the End.

Once the portal was opened, an immense amount of void energy was spread through the world destroying a few continents and bringing waves of monsters.

The System found out quickly, and fought the energy until it was gone.

But now it was angry at humanity, so the most important people were thrown in the Void, the ones researching souls were made into Iligers, and the rest became Witches.

The System then restricted what humanity could do, by stopping the skills at level 7, burning all the information gathered in those 15 years and went silent ever since then.

That's the world we live in.