30. The Trail of Worlds

The entry to the trail of worlds resided on the second floor of the academy building. On the way, Flora crammed as much knowledge as she could into the grinning Eddie.

"I summarize: Stats are great, get higher ones. Don't level until I know what to do, and AIs are my friends?"

"You got it, dear!"

"Weren't we of the opinion that they take over the world and enslave humanity?"

"Shush! AIs are our friends."

"But I spend all my money on my lair! There's nothing left for an artificial friend to curb my loneliness! This daily limit is gruesome. We are old and rich. We should be allowed to waste the inheritance of our children!"

Flora tried to remit him 5000 VirDos, but the System only allowed her to transfer 1000.

"Thanks, I pay you back with RL Money!" Eddie paused. "The blue window says no. Oh well, back to the good old times where I'm a kept innocent boy getting spoiled by old women!"

"Nice! Follow me, Boy Toy!" Smirking, Flora swaggered away.

After entering together through a portal, Flora found herself alone in a circular room.

Before she had even time to get confused, a window popped up.

"Do you want to join Shiny Frenemy's party?"

After confirming, Eddie appeared next to her.

The lights dimmed. Stars and the sun started to appear. Then, behind the sun, a blue planet rotated into view.

Flora shuddered. Experiencing the space through the shuttle window wasn't that different than watching 2001 space odyssey on TV, but standing in the middle of a lot of nothing surrounded by glowing objects left an impression.

"Awesome!" Eddie whispered.

Next, the floor under her feet vanished. Flora felt herself moving into the direction of the planet. Of course, there was no wind or gravity, but still, she felt a pull from the planet.

Flora took deep breaths and slowly exhaled.

"Stop the flight, please. I need a moment to adjust."

"What? The fun just began!"

The pulling sensation stopped. The inertia carried her along, but Flora noticed that she could control her flight with her willpower or maybe magic.

"And why can you regulate this experience?"

"Because the AIs are my friends." Then Flora ignored Eddie and assessed the situation. "I can breathe. That's good. I'm not freezing. Great! I'm flying through space, which doesn't fit together with the first two observations, but I'm not complaining about not dying."

"Don't think, just feel!" Eddie somersaulted in slow motion.

The planet still moved in her direction, and Flora realized what had put her knickers in a twist: It was too fast, and it had no moon. While she was fighting to get a grip on herself, a quarter of a year had passed, at least according to the movement of the planet.

Now that she knew why her instincts screamed 'something is wrong' she was able to relax and look around.

Flora saw even fewer stars than at night, maybe because of light pollution of the sun, nor other planets.

Of course, she related her observations to Eddie, who chuckled. If he let overly detailed comments spoil his mood, he wouldn't be friends with Flora.

"Thank you. We can resume the journey."

Orchestral music did its best to create a majestic mood but was wasted on Flora, who started to get impatient.

"Feel free to speed up."

"They forgot to add the clouds, as well," Flora added as the planet got nearer and nearer. Now, she could distinguish the different landmasses, the Americas, Africa, Eurasia, and another continent in the pacific. She was pretty sure that she never learned about it in geography.

"Welcome to the Metaworld!" said a sonorous voice.

"Thank you, how may we call you?"

"I'm the Trail of Worlds."

"This is slightly awkward. We have a quest to walk you." Flora imagined a dog leash with a mini solar system on the other end and her waiting next to tree until it finished its business.

"Do you think it pees Meteorshowers?" Flora asked Eddie.

"Joining you was the best decision ever!"

"Another option would be trampling all over the poor AI. I neither want to do that!"

"You are currently on the Trail of Worlds. No trampling necessary, thank you." The voice answered wryly, which send Eddie into another 'rolling on the air laughing' fit.

Flora looked at her feet. They were a few kilometers above Europe.

"Alright. You would know best."

The Trail of Worlds told them about the Metaworld. Both entered it via the nearest node of their home country, which had been Frankfurt.

Users built everything besides the portals and the plaza they were standing on. An exception to this rule was the island Pacifica. There resided the gateways to the other worlds and Cities created by CentralTank.

The continent under them came closer.

She knew that from the context, she was zeroing in on Frankfurt, but she didn't recognize any country marks but the Rhine and maybe the river Main if their target was Frankfurt. Without any cities and the Autobahn, it was difficult to get one's bearings.

The skyline of the approaching city looked nothing like the Frankfurt she knew. The flight stopped with her hovering above the diamond-shaped plaza she had entered the Metaworld last Saturday.

"Well, I recognize nothing from the real world."

"I believe this could be the Roemer." Eddie speculated and pointed at a historic pink house. "Could you show us Berlin or London or Paris?"

The Trail of Worlds acquitted. In Berlin, they landed at the Brandenburger Tor, in London on Trafalgar Square, and in Paris in front of the Eiffel tower.

Flora watched out for other landmarks, especially London was full of them with the Big Ben, the London Bridge, the London Eye, and the Buckingham Palace but spotted none of them. There was a prominent tower, but it looked more like Big Ben's illegitimate child with a 22nd century UFO landing pad than a clocktower.

Flora wouldn't have thought it possible, but in this world, big companies and their logos and advertisement were even more pronounced than in the RL.

She spotted SAPling Palace and Daimeler District. Eddie pointed out Teutsche Delekom Magenta Castle ('My eyes!'), and the E.off Estate.

"So, I can build whatever wherever I want if another building doesn't occupy the place?" Flora asked.

"And if nobody bought the land before you and it is within your home country."

"I want a treasure island!" Eddie interjected.

"I want a factory!"

"You can build your factory on my treasure island. Not only to produce the treasure but also to blow smoke out of the eye sockets of my skull-shaped lair!"

"Great, let's make it cyborg skull, I want a lot of pipes and blinking lights as well."

Next, the Trail of Worlds told them about scenarios and the Metaworld TV. She already knew about the first. The second was where multiple TV Channels with news about the Cetviwos and view on-demand channels with movies and series produced in the Cetviwos. Most of the programs could not only be watched like TV but had a port-in-the-scene function. Here you entered the movie set and could ghost around.

Of course, experios for the main characters were the most popular feature.

Eddie asked further questions about the TV features. He had worked as an actor and later as a moderator on a shopping channel. Back then, he had met Flora at a launch party when they included a line of Flora's household appliances in their program.

"We might have to add a film studio on the island." Flora grinned, and Eddie flashed her thumbs up before he resumed with his questions.

Afterward followed a series of sponsored clips for a multitude of activities. Flora instructed Aidan to remind her of some, while Eddie commented on the quality of the presentation.

"Are you ready for the next worlds?"

"Sure!" They both nodded.

The Trail of Worlds whisked them to Pacifica.

"This is the Tourist Triangle, the hub for the gateways to the tourism worlds! You can access the tourist words via every node and gateway, but here you can find quests, special offers, and information about events."

Flora flew a slowly around the plaza. Between the big gateways, people mingled, and vendors praised their wares.

Neon signs surrounded the glowing arcs. "Today 50% off all horror houses" at the gateway to the Amusement Park world, "Buy one, get two jetski rides!" at the Water-World and "Triceratops Travels - Experience the Cretaceous Period on a groovy ride!" at the Paleo Planet portal.

The Trail of Worlds said a few sentences to every world, and Flora communicated with Eddie and Aidan about which she wanted to take a closer look.

"You may choose a world each for a sneak peek."

"I want to see the No Humans Planet. Especially, the region where on Earth Netherland is located. Without dikes, the area is probably underwater. On the other hand, it probably depends how much the developers attribute climate change to human influences.

Maybe Egypt is a better example. People used the power of the Nile for over 6000 years. Probably longer." Flora couldn't wrap her head around the concept of a planet based on the Earth in the current era but without any humans.

They took flight over breathtaking mountains, soaring with eagles. Packs of wolfs roamed majestic woods, and schools of orcas jumped through the clear water.

Gradually, Flora's frown grew deeper. The reason for her displeasure wasn't solely because of the lack of toasters. But she felt that the construction of the planet wanted to shove some anti-humanity propaganda down her throat.

"What happens when I build a cottage?"

"We reset the whole planet every week. Then, all traces of the tourists will be extinguished."

Flora snorted. "We can leave now. This is no place for engineers."

"Nor for artists. For inspiration, maybe, but what is inspiration without actualization?" Eddie added.

"Yes, and it feels artificial without being art. Please choose a better world than me."

Eddie decided on the Water World.

The Trail of Worlds showed them the longest waterslide in the Cetviwos with 23 km, the sky falls, a whole region with nothing but waterfalls, furthermore underwater cities, and boat cities. Over the entire planet, no natural surface but water existed. They even build floating islands with swimming pools.

After visiting the ice palaces on the north pole, they left the world, and Flora congratulated Eddie on a choice well made. She saw several fascinating sights she wanted to explore in more detail.

Next, the Trail of Worlds showed them the hub for the entries to the game worlds.

"The Cetviwos offer a place for every game humankind has ever imagined. Some of these games occupy whole universes like the Space-Game or at least multiple planets like the Merc-Game or the KingdomBuilding-Game."

Flora spotted an advertisement for "Manchester Allstars vs. Bavaria Munich - 20:00:00 CUT - Finest Football." next to gateway 'Sports and Boards' and pointed it out to Eddie, who wrinkled his nose. No respectable hipster would ever support Bavaria Munich.

"Milady, Tricky Beach is in this world."

"What? But I beamed directly from my lair to it."

"If you have discovered a port circle, you can teleport to it from any place beaming is possible. Most circles are free to use, but it is common in the tourism worlds to raise a fee. In the academy, you can find a list of public destinations you can beam to directly."

"Download the inventory when we are back, dear."

The Trail of Worlds introduced the game worlds to Flora and Eddie. Here the word "servers" was more often used then worlds because places like 'Panem et Ludos' were impossible to represent in the physical world.

This server consisted of arenas with the usual seating plus a ring of restaurants surrounding the pit. A popular stadium like '3v3 100lvl-200lvl, last man standing, no rules' offered 5000 seats. If they were full, a new instance was created with another 5000 open positions.

You could switch between arenas seamlessly.

The restaurants advertised not only their menus but also to which stadium they connected. Some didn't show fixed arenas but linked to guilds or star players.

"But what happens in the pit? Are there only fights or other competitions as well?"

"Every event has a fighting aspect. For pure sports or races, the server 'Sports and Boards' is the right place. Both servers feature mixed events."

The Trail of Worlds gave Flora a crash course on PvP modes like capture the flag, domination, jailbreak, missions, and deathmatch. Eddie filled in as a color commentator.

"Thank you. I think I have to see it to imagine it. People are always so creative in finding ways to kill each other." Flora was confused but amused. "And you didn't fib when you said you know about gaming! When did you have time for that?"

"I played a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplay Game in my twenties. Pretty intensively, if I may admit."

"But you were a huge movie star back then! Whole Germany wanted to *bleep* you, have you as a son-in-law or gay best friend! Or a combination of them!"

"I was shy! And in over my head. So I hid in a basement and behind a computer screen."

Flora nodded. She would have probably done the same.

Next, the Trail of Worlds explained the different servers.

First, Flora was excited when she heard that the kids-server had no blood and no killing humanoids, but she was soon disappointed to learn that she wasn't allowed to play at it. Only the guardians of kids could accompany them.

"Another reason to exert pressure on Robby! But when my future grandchild is old enough to play, I would be 83. Oh well, he could adopt an adorable 12-year-old. Are there adorable children this age? Probably not."

"I lend you Armin in 3 years when he's twelve. For a small fee, of course. Granny-sitting is hard in your case. He should be generously compensated."

"How is Aimee's marriage? Still going strong?"

"Yes, unfortunately. I would have called you immediately otherwise!"

They both sighed exaggeratedly. They spend years teasing their kids to hook up, which, of course, caused the opposite reaction.

Meanwhile, the Trail of Worlds continued the presentation of the servers.

The Massive Multiplayer Online Games shared one server, the Cradle for the first five levels. Then they split for level 5-100 on different servers. For the Merc-Game, every half year, a new 5-100 server opened up. The next one was scheduled in just a few weeks.

"I looked into it. It's beneficial to start on a new server because there are good rewards for competitive achievements. On the old servers, they rose unreasonably high with time. The new server is a clean slate. Are you up to it?" Eddie asked.

"I haven't decided yet. All I know is that I want to make a hero's entrance on the Cradle on Sunday. Because I have an appointment on Monday with Evailyn." Flora proceded to tell him about Evai.

"You should totally get an army of toasters and conquer the games!" Eddie laughed while Flora nodded earnestly.

Finally, the tour ended, and Flora and Eddie found themselves back in the round room they had started.