World of path and energy

(97,722)

Alain awoke alongside Eloise, Emilie, Jean, and Ludovic.

He absently put away the demonic creature sucking nourishment to his body and left the World Energy's building. Direction: the world's end.

His five years-service-obligation was done.

He turned 20 this year. It had been so long that it seemed a dream.

He just experimented living in a middle Ages world changed by energy.

They need 'culture,' as they said. As for realism, they let it go the moment they switched from the first law of the Globalium to the second. From existence to imagination.

He called himself Alain caused they said so. There weren't many feelings for this surname.

Allar-An-Desiot contracted in Alain. It means "Desiot is my sun."

They didn't like the longness.

Understandable.

This world had improved his life condition. He didn't know how to think of this.

His people didn't know the truth, but they did: they were just insignificant beings in the now infinite largeness of time.

They felicitated themselves in capturing imaginary worlds, creating energy, and praying the Author.

Their existence made them complete their life's mission: safeguarding those whose progress surpassed theirs. If such upper worlds-layer destroyed themselves by their own progress, they would start from lower worlds-layer again to ever manage the black-hole civilization - the once black-hole civilization, as they couldn't eat away energy that had divided itself thinner than atoms. They once could protect themselves from attack, but now it seemed useless, as they were the only ones.

In the deepest world layers, humans apparently got replaced by animals.

Shameful and idiotic. Such behavior was so indefensible nothing could say about that.

Yet they finished his world and took energy.

It was like having a revelation.

They fold themselves from the still-diluting universe to stop growing so that it never reaches its peak and dies. For that, they put a barrier where even matter couldn't pass.

But as they never stopped wishing to progress - it was in their genes -, they created a conceived world thanks to the second law of the Globalium and pillaged its energy.

That seemed like waiting for death. Things were to be broken by someone eventually. That is why they created so many world layers, to impose their will, even after their death, to the endless ages that would follow.

Fortunately for them, the second law of the Globalium partially surpassed the first one. The half-God-like beings made dreams that created their world.

Then they scavenged their world for the little energy - barely anything, less than an apple, but by billions of years, such expeditions had more than tripled the place's energy. So they thought they could take some natives with them.

And here he was.

As Alain walked, the apartments left the place to houses. People of this world were strange: they separated into a child part and an adult one. The child part got ceilings between 2m50 and 3m30, with classic adult height, while the adult one doubled or tripled the size. A stair's step of more than 50 centimeters! They said it was a reminder to progress continuously; as one grew up, his environment also needed to follow.

He had some memories of this world, but few. He still didn't quite manage to feel at home. But of course, he wouldn't remain there long.

It had been some time since he had returned home. A month ago, when he had returned, he had been contaminated by the creature that should have helped him.

He had been first in contact with the thing and, as such, lost the most memories. All 4 of the test taker had been weak; that was the rapport he heard from the task holder, Ludovic.

Alain arrived at the city's gates and left it, the urban landscape transforming into a landscape of the countryside. The culture was one where different crops intermingled, and their coexistence significantly increased the short and long-term benefits. The energy transfer from the cultivators made it more than enough to nourish the 50 000 or so people of the 'island.'

He took a small path along the edge, which his body led him directly to; he was used to taking it to get to the village.

He had a sumptuous meal with his family and headed for the edge of the border.

He found a bench and sat down in front of the phenomenon. Before him, a cliff whose bottom could not be seen expanded to the farthest horizon. It helped counter most demonic creatures.

But not microscopic ones. That was the other reason for the test - strengthening one's will to guard against them. For such matters as paths, humanity was resilient, not anti-fragile: confronting would slowly erode the mind that couldn't be flexible enough. Death then appears, starting from 25 years old.

A brain is a problem-solving machine; it needs problems. That is why they incorporated these. Better truly living than existing, as they said.

That was why demonic creatures were transplanted to them, to accentuate emotions and motivation. That was what had separated them from Louis, he guessed.

It was not explained why a native had received the 'system,' but every world was different. Perhaps the divine contract between him and Jean had considered them one entity, and the system could have chosen another host. Or it was just as Ludovic said: demonic creatures somehow imitated humans and recreated their memories if they were to live too long. It was kind of what happened when you let a corpse without purifying it in the world he had been in.

Alain watched the barriers and the cliff behind them. Then high above the world, where the Red Star existed. It was said it had been forever punished to remain in the Globalium because it killed too much. It now was the only godly entity remaining. One who couldn't move without the Globalium watching, forever to be its slave, consequences of a crime it had committed long ago.

"I know," Alain said softly.

He passed some time before his phone rang.

"Alain? It's Ludovic."

"What is it?"

"We found the person who modified the test."

The test was supposed to last six months to a year at most. They would put in low-ranking demonic creatures that would feed them each for three months and change them before they were discharged to avoid any worries. But it could be dangerous to remove those who impacted their emotions forcefully.

"Who?"

"Eloise."

A few seconds passed without him finding the words.

"Did she at least find her path?"

"No."

"Got it, thanks."

"Huh, Alain? How about retrying an expedition?"

Did he ask to test him there? But evolution had all its time and attacked no one.

"Nah, I'm fine, thanks."

He hung up, then thought about it.

[Evolving village 14/2000 alive]

|Allows you to occasionally teleport to the vicinity of still-living characters in the visited worlds]

|Alive: Rodolphe, Michaël, Jeanne, ....]

He had to best special: he had never heard of a skill that could be brought into this world.

Indeed, Louis did not survive. They said anything could be brought alive in this world with enough energy.

'Wait, people from the ancient zone survived? Seriously?'

He also saw people they left in the ancient zone. They were six of them.

He saw some familiar names. People who had been lost since the explosion, only four remained alive.

'Was there a Jeanne in the village?' He didn't remember. Another name was listed as 'Unknow'.

'Well, that's too far in the future. Now, I need to join the expeditions so nobody will suspect us.'

Wait... he had a strange feeling about this. It was like--

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