10- Boss Fight + Trauma

Obviously, his previous big brain insight had its limits. Meaning that he'll have to find the answers himself, eventually... Hopefully.

Now that he was here and had the time to inspect the place and mess around, he could infer more precisely what was happening, or rather, what he was doing.

One of those was his power to influence the world simply by his will, since his brain and mind was apparently made out of multi dimensional code or something, he could stamp and mess around the background code of the world. Overiding it per see, by the simple prowess of his mind muscles. He wasn't clear on the exact process, he just knew it had something to do with the cubic structure inside his avatar's head and the glow ball. 

As for his passive influence on the world, it was just that, yet also more. When diving deeper into the fleeting green lights as he was messing around, he discovered that they were, in fact, tiny miny lines of complex codes flying at prodigious speed all around him. Lines of codes that surprisingly, he could decipher a bit instinctively. They were, all in all, the easiest metaphor that came to mind ever — AKA the building blocks of his new reality, the atoms, the quarks, or whatever the real physics equivalent would be, probably one of those.

Interestingly, those lines of codes repeated themselves more often than not. More than that, they revolved specifically around him and the space he was in. As he found them following himself when he willed for his virtual avatar/soul to move around, they filled the space around him in a manner reminescent of the physical world, meaning they molded to the walls of whatever rooms he was in and specifically, everything he could see and interact with.

When he did nothing, they did nothing, only repeating themselves over some period of time, then when he interacted with something or quite literally thought of something strongly, they shifted and changed.

This somewhat confirmed what he was loosely aware of. Willingly or not, he was a big gear, maybe even the only gear making the otherwise stagnant world move forward. As the Mc and player, if he didn't wish to do anything, nothing was happening, if he wished for things to proceed normally, they would, if he wished to skip a scene, he could. 

This was quite depressing. Ironic considering one would think being the chosen one would be cool. But no, it kinda made him feel like he was the only person that was real and the only one who truly mattered.

Man, he never thought he could relate to Monika that much. But right now, he felt her.

Trying to think of domething else, and because he was curious. He went to see the said individual virtual house. And~ promptly got the fuck out when he realised that green lines of codes were present around her house too, and that somehow they followed a different flow than those around him. Though he took note that they were slowed down significantly just before zapping back to his virtual house.

He simply wasn't ready to confront her, too much could go wrong. And to be frank, he didn't know what he would even say to her.

That said, now that he had a better grasp on the underlying laws of the place. He began to make a simple plan of action.

Firstly, master the rules of the game. That'd be done by experimenting on what he could do to protect himself from the will of the world - speaking of it, it was strange he hadn't met it as he'd have thought it'd be somewhere here. Though it was true he wasn't really perceiving the world as a whole and more on a local scale. Maybe he'd need to dig deeper, or see broader?

Secondly, and somewhat cliche. Become stronger, reinforce his will and his ability to influence the world without his head exploding in the process. Something that from his observations, acted pretty much like a muscle, the more he used it, the stronger it became. The weird black cube in his avatar's head might be his brain muscle, literally, in this case.

And thirdly, fuck the canon and save the girls. And maybe fill up the world in passing, humanize it, perhaps? Make it as complete as the real one. If it was possible. Maybe add some spice in the mix, because why not? Though becoming basically a god would be pretty weird.

Anyway, he had no idea if was in his options in the first place, so there was no need to think too much on it right now.

All in all, pretty solid plan if he said so himself.

—————

Back in the middle of his empty virtual house, Cal got straight to business with the first step. Seeing his avatar and the three things that could as well have been his internal organs exposed to the void of the realm made him feel weirdly naked.

So being a pretty simple man, he flexed his will and wished for protection, not really sure what to expect. And surprisingly, he got something.

His brain cube began to glow a faint dark green light and wrote lines of codes that formed into a sort of thin green film that flowed over his avatar's form making a sort of weird form fitting suit, only to disappear into nothingness a second later.

More alarming, was that he felt something shift all around him in reaction. As if the ground beneath him was taking a breath.

Did he care? No. He already won once against this world's rulekeeper or whatever it was. Surely, he could do it again if it suddenly fancied itself some of his premium asscheek again. Surely.

On his next attempt, he didn't waste any time on all the logical step by step of what should be a learning experience of how things worked around here. And directly wished really hard for a suit of plate armor made of an alloy of chromium cobalt and nickel, which was stronger than graphene itself. A fact he came to know shortly before being isekaied.

Now, personally he'd say he had been pretty light in his demand. Or else he would have wished for the strongest material in the universe instead of merely the one on Earth. But his cubic friend seemed to disagree as it lit up like a fuckin star, even making his gatorade heart bother to pump once for it, sending some tiny wisps of energy to be absorbed by it.

Still, as a result, slowly but surely, his armor came to be. A beautiful, almost black dark shade of green, with some dark blue highlight. It was all bulky and sharp, a step up from the classical knight.

Immediatly after it was done forming, he proceeded to wish for it to stay there. Which made his brain cube — he should really find a name for it — flare even brighter for a moment and his chemical warcrime ball — for that too — send some more wisps to it. And then, something clicked, and his Black Brain Cube — after further reflection, maybe just Black Brain will do — went to light off mode.

*RUMBLE*

If before it was just a breath, now the world roared at his transgression. And for the first time, he came to set his eyes on the annoying prick who wanted him in chains and almost killed him multiple time, or probably a part of it from the look of it.

Why?

Because when he sent his perception upward, strangely sensing something akin to motion from there. It was everywhere, just a sea of dormant code that may as well have been the motherfucking sky at this point.

And that sky apparently decided shit out an angry mountain of dense code at him. A mountain who mid flight promptly choose to transform into a spider-like form with blade like limbs. Because why the fuck not?

As it fell just outside of his virtual home, he could almost feel the ground shake beneath him.

It was quite embarassing to say, but he froze at the sight of what could have as well been a giant monster kickdropping him from the sky.

Swear he wasn't afraid! More flabbergasted than anything really.

All of that to say he didn't have the time to dodge the spider as she shoved one its massive front limb at him in a stab like gesture.

Briefly, he saw his life flash before his eyes. From the moment he was born to‐

*THUNK*

'Uh.' Gazing down at the tip of the green spear poking his chest without even penetrating a single centimeter into the armor. He would have said the sound out loud if he could have, so much was his surprise that moment.

Heck, even the spider seemed dumbfounded as it retrieved its limb and paused and - he swear it was true - looked at him like he was some weirdo before trying again with the other. To sadly for her, the same result.

Only this time, he was ready and grasped the offending appendage of light as it tried to penetrate his bulwark, his gauntlet creasing under his grip.

Gazing at the spider from within the helmet, he grinned mentally as he felt the next course of action comes almost naturally.

With a burst of light from his hand to the limb, the entire leg of the spider exploded in a shower of pretty fragments. He could almost hear the spider ‐ wait, no, he really was hearing her screech in pain!

Before he could ponder upon that further, the montain sized crawlie jumped back and seemed to consider him for a moment. And then, and then...

It freakin fucked off back where it came from! Literally! It jumped on its back and fell up like it drank on of those op gravity potion from terraria and went back into the green sky! He swear he also heard a plop sound as it did too!

...

He think he might have lost some sanity points here. If he had any left in the first place that is.