Extensive research

Levi logged out, leaving Aetheria for now, his mind racing with thoughts about the dream world, the assimilation rate, and the Ragnarok event. 

He had been online for more than seven hours and now the time was a few minutes past 4 pm. The bright evening sun poured through the window as he opened the curtains.

Levi wasn't in a rush to return to Aetheria since there weren't any pressing issues, but he was still curious about the event so he decided to check the community chat group on the AET app.

As he opened the app, his phone vibrated endlessly as messages flooded the chat group. From their reaction, it was clear that all the players had received the same message about the Ragnarok Event. But what exactly was it?

According to one of the members of the group chat Leviathan's group had failed their quest to Valhalla after losing the majority of their force, including Leviathan and his clan members. It resulted in the awakening of a sovereign beast and the Ragnarok Event.

Something similar had happened almost a year ago, when a certain player stole a dragon egg resulting in the First Ragnarok Event: The Draconic War.

The player that stole the egg was the world rank 6# warrior 'Fu Hao -The Dragon Tamer' and the one that ended the event was none other than her one and only clan member 'Zero -The Dragon Slayer'. 

They single-handedly started and ended an Event earning both of them their Draconic Titles. 

During the first Ragnarok Event Leviathan also gained a Draconic status. His warrior class was upgraded to 'Draconian Warrior' after he completed a quest given to him by a Dragon.

"Even with that he still led his followers to doom" Levi chuckled before reminding himself that Darcy was also part of the quest.

All the players that had died during the quest would lose 10 levels and also be unable to log back in for a period of 5 days and it was impossible to use a different account since the Xgear automatically does an eye retina scan for each player.

He felt sorry for Darcy, she had worked so hard trying to reach level 100 but now she had possibly lost 10 levels and would be unable to play the game for 5 days.

"Possibly," he said to himself making a mental note to call her later and check if she was okay.

Due to the amount of ranked warriors that had participated in the quest, the world ranking list was immediately reshuffled because of the massive death rate. 

Leviathan had dropped from 9# to 12# after losing just 10 levels. The competition at the top was even more intense that just a slight drop in level could result in you losing your spot as a top warrior. It was hard getting to the top but it was even harder remaining there.

From the looks of things, It seemed like most warriors were happy about the event. They saw it as an opportunity to level up even quicker now that they could get double the XP from defeating the beast, before killing it a second time when it becomes undead.

The few warriors on the group that had participated in the Valhalla quest tried warning them that the skeleton swordsmen they had fought were both very strong and scary. Some of the warriors swore not to step foot in the Badlands until the event had ended.

But there was no advising the other warriors, they hadn't witnessed the horror the warriors faced in Valhalla so all they could see was a chance to get special Classes and Titles.

For Levi none of this affected his plans, he would still do everything in his power to get his revenge on Leviathan and his group. Only that for now he wasn't strong enough, plus he had some stuff on his plate.

The most important one currently was the mysterious assimilation stat. Since he couldn't make any progress within the game maybe a little research would help.

His first thought was to ask the other players on the group chat, but no one had heard of such a stat. Although a few were curious to know more, Levi was wary about sharing such information when he didn't know much about it.

With the group chat having nothing to offer he had to do extensive research on the internet. 

At first, he searched for information regarding the assimilation rate and dreams in Aetheria, but there was no credible result, so he had to widen his scope to include the makers of Aetheria online, Active-vision, and Eternalblue.

As Levi read through the page he realized that the origin of the game was almost as complicated as the game itself.

The world's first and only existing super AI, Eternalblue, was being developed for research purposes by the United States military. It was supposed to be used as a secret weapon in the technological warfare of the modern world.

They had made the super AI self-developing so it continued reprogramming itself causing some of the programmers involved in creating the AI begin to fear that it would soon become self-aware and in that case gain a consciousness of its own.

At first, the US military tried to keep all this a secret, but after a sudden information leak, it was revealed to the public, sending the world into a state of paranoia.

The thought of a self-aware AI that could access any technology anywhere in the world including nuclear warheads, and space satellites made everyone feel unsafe.

The United Nations immediately set up a department of competent programmers and researchers called the 'AI Regulation Agency (AIRA)' to place restrictions on Eternalblue, preventing it from advancing any further.

It was a long and hectic process for AIRA, they had to make sure there was no loophole the Super AI could use to continue its ascension to self-awareness. Even after all this they still had to strip the AI of most of its access for safety purposes.

After everything was done they decided one man shouldn't have this much power. So they suggested that Eternalblue be destroyed, that was when Active-vision suddenly came into the picture.

They offered to buy the watered-down version of the Eternalblue to incorporate into their new virtual reality game, instead of just discarding something billions had gone into developing.

The AIRA advised against it but Active-vision offered the United Nations so much money that it would have been foolish not to take. The only condition would be that the Eternalblue was restructured to serve primarily as a super AI for the creation of Aetheria online, which both parties could easily agree on.

Being run on one of the most powerful servers on earth, the Eternalblue smoothly created the virtual world of Aetheria, with all its intricacies and lore. The super AI was so efficient that with a little bit of extra money, the United Nations allowed them to permanently use it to govern the world of Aetheria. 

With the Eternalblue now serving as the law and order of Aetheria, the game became what it is known for today. Due to the restrictions, no one was allowed full control of the super AI, not even Active-vision, so even they couldn't bypass the laws of Aetheria.

Just as the Eternalblue is restricted to only perform certain tasks, Active-vision can not randomly interfere with the world of Aetheria, they can only monitor the AI to make sure it's properly carrying out its duties. The world of Aetheria is almost as much of a mystery to them as it is to the rest of the world.

"That means they can't cheat for any character even if they wanted to" Levi mumbled to himself. But they did have a way of running ads and promotions inside of the game, so they were not fully restricted at least.

He understood why his AI, Blue, didn't want to get noticed by the governing system because if it was noticed by the Eternalblue it would immediately be flushed out of the game.

Even if the Eternalblue had made the AI for him while he was an NPC, he wouldn't be allowed special treatment now that he is a player.