LOCATION - NETWORK. 2

|Location: Wasteland, Network|

-ZERO-

"Ugh! What just happened? Where am I? Aren't I with somebody just now? Wait who was I again, surely, I can't forget that about him."

I kept on scumbling my head in this empty space, my head running wild and wild. But no matter how hard I think it was futile to even try and remember what happened before I passed out, it felt as if something was blocking my memory. I could only remember the warm palm of his hand under the cold wind and that tree but before that my head was blank.

"I remember that tree, she planted that tree with him. But who were they again? Yid? Yig?" It continued for a while before a sudden spark in my head told me their names, muttering under my breath I remembered their faces.

"Ygg, Drasil."

That's right, those couples are somehow related to me, but how?

Suddenly their images flashed before me, it was SAI. It showed me the two people in lab coats. The first one is a woman. I immediately assumed her hair to be dyed in bright green because I could see traces of her original black hair growing on the roots, her white skin, and meticulous eyes screamed sophistication. The second one shows a muscular man, his long lab coat couldn't hide his muscular frame, I also find the color of his eyes to be that of an almond and his short hair made his face look contrasting from his massive body.

[Authority unlocks, file 045.]

Below their faces I saw groups of letters which I assumed to be their names, my eyes gliding from one end to another as I read it. "Ygg Alaman, Botanic Scientist. Drasil Alaman, Biochemist. Log October 31, 3110. The two renowned scientists of @#$%^ crop was nowhere to be found, Scientist Zarhe will continue their last project, Yggdrasil. It is encouraged to report on the @%#$^ Department as per ordered by @%#$^! if any news related to the whereabouts of these two individuals."

The file was relatively long but the rest that followed didn't seem to be that important so I continued to skim on it, when I encountered a red highlighted paragraph. "Just a year after taking on this project I made groundbreaking discovery, I can't believe they manage to design a tree that can self-sustain a wide range of land just from pure information alone and through molecular reformation, it could even help me finally complete my own project and it might also lead me to their whereabouts. But it's best to make preparations. The last line of defense on the north has failed to stop their advances."

The highlighted paragraph ended with that but I saw another one after scrolling down more, "I failed to plant the seed on the desired location, I was being chased by 'his' apostles and don't have the time to input the necessary data it needed so I have no choice but to plant it next to the signal tower, hopefully it should extract the data it needed to grow. Also, I was saved by an unknown apostle. It didn't seem to be 'his' but the moment I planted the scene it appeared out of nowhere and that thing helped me escape. But I can't shake the feeling I know about that apostle, especially the way he limps his left leg."

And that's the end of the file, it was mainly a mixture of a memorandum and a personal log, but those three parts are what I focused on reading. The rest was just describing the potential of the project Yggdrasil.

It was at this moment that I remembered something, that's right I was on my way to see the signal tower with Dia but then she suddenly saw that tree was sucking me in and Dia, she just watched it happen.

"But what's this 'Authority Unlocked'? Is it something related?" I continued to mumble to myself, there are still things that didn't make sense to me. Many things in fact, such as why am I like this, what's my purpose, and who are those people. In the end it will narrow down to 'What am I?'

However, some things did start to make sense to me, it wasn't that hard to connect the dots after I read those files. The tree is the byproduct of project Yggdrasil and the people involved in making it were those two couples but the one who finished it was that man. And to simplify my situation, the tree and the signal tower can be considered one since based on this file the seed was planted near it to extract the information stored in it.

But it also raised a question of why. Why did SAI mention the signal tower and was the voice before have some connection to why this thing happened?

After I came to that realization a sudden message popped up.

[Data extraction 50% please provide the necessary authorization to complete the file transfer.]

A blank panel appeared in front of me asking for a password I never knew, but before I even knew it my body moved on its own and began typing a very familiar word.

[SIGHTSEER]

[Accepted]

After that I snapped out of the trance and numerous panels appeared instantly flooding my sight with bright holographic panels. New graphical knowledge got drilled into my head, it caused me a very painful headache but unlike from one of my 'memories' it didn't or might not hurt as much. I just kneeled while pressing both my hands on my head and against the floor.

The massive information that got transferred to me managed to settle after a while, and instantly two pieces of information caught my attention. First of which is the internal structure of the Yggdrasil, from the layout the millions of circuits inside the tree are actually passing through a single core before it will distribute the information to its leaves, in addition the phenomenon that happening in the wasteland was actually due to the remnants of a god the seed got polluted because of it and thus making the things around it the way it is. There's also a possible solution and that is to make a container for where the seed grows and filtering all the stored data in it to make a new seed, after forming it will be removed from the host. The second information was about a robotic design that can be used to link an Artificial intelligence on it.

[Extraction 90%]

The moment this new panel appeared the rest disappeared right after, and my surroundings suddenly got brighter when a single tree suddenly appeared right in front of me. It's not huge like the Yggdrasil, but for some reason I felt nostalgic when looking at it. The green leaves it had and the brown rigid bark outside all the more it felt super familiar.

I tried to walk towards it but no matter how fast I walked or even if I ran towards it, the tree always maintained a certain distance. I realized that there's something near the tree. I tried to use the magnification but nothing happened, it was as if I'm super ordinary right now that it made me feel somehow pleasant. Because some functions won't work, I squint my eyes and there I manage to distinguish two very distinct figures.

It wasn't clear, but for some reason I smiled.

Everything felt peaceful at the moment but soon it all faded away when I received a notification from SAI.

[Warning.]

A massive screen suddenly popped up in front of me showing me a situation I almost forgot. There lying down on the ground is Nuk and beside him is another person, blonde, hair and blue eyes and a build closely similar to Nuk. But what really caught my attention was the fact that I saw 'my' body lying on the ground, for the first time in my life I felt fear for myself and concern for my 'friends'.

"Friends? I can't believe I can use this word." I laughed at myself thinking back about the things I missed, back then I lacked understanding but for some reason I somehow understand this feeling I have right now.

In the back of my head, I told myself, 'It might be slow but it's there.'

Seeing what's happening right now I can't help but panic, "SAI what's going on, where am I?"

[Answering, this place is the network connection between the signal tower and your data input. Due to the sudden blockage of connection when first attempting to make a link, It was in protocol to directly connect your 'Data input' with the 'Network'.]

"What? Didn't I tell you to inform me before doing these kinds of things." I tried to reason it out.

[Due to the sudden blockage of connection when first attempted to make a link-.]

But it only repeated what it said, I sigh in frustration.

"Just send me back." I immediately cut it off, because I know it won't lead to anything.

[With in the calculation, Please proceed rebooting. Permission required.]

"Just do it, when did you even require my permission? Talking to you right now feels a little more frustrating than before, is it just me or did you start talking more?" After what happened I'm certain it talks more than before, unlike when I first used it or back when I met Nuk and Dia it never said more than four or five words. But now it has changed.

After what I said there's a moment of silence before a new panel showed up.

[UPDATE COMPLETE… SYSTEM REBOOTING.]

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