Infinitum Crystals - Conquest of Virtue [4]

Chapter 5.3 - Yumiko - The Virtual Dive

Having just removed his blindfold, White find himself inside a dark room. The dark room was lit up by the device that was in front of him. The device looked like a bed but he was certain that it wasn't made for that. It had headlights that are glowing. It was like an expensive personal computer.

"What's going on, Sam?" White quickly asked.

Sam, who was standing nearby answered, "Welcome White and thank you for accepting this invitation. You are currently somewhere in the campus. Where exactly is undisclosed as of now."

"Why the secrecy?"

"It's not secrecy as it is much more toward security." assured Sam. She continued, "What you are looking in front of you is one of the many device that we will be using to conduct an experiment."

"Experiment...wait...your asking me to be a lab rat?"

"No, I'm not asking you White. I insist." Sam suddenly stood in front of White menacingly.

Not wanting to escalate thing to a worse turn, White asked, "What are you guys doing with this thing?"

Sam then gladly said, "We are doing wonders today, White. First of all, allow me to introduce to you, Mr. Cyconix. He is the one who supplied us with this devices that we will be using today."

"Devices...so there's more than one...But where are the others?"

Sam then explained, "Before I tell you that. I have to expose you with what are our class is actually conducting today."

Sam then begins her long explanation. To put it briefly, The Magic Administration class decided to conduct a class wide competition. Everyone in the class will participate. The winner will be getting bragging rights as well full credentials to be rightfully be the person with the most highest leadership. Sam will remain as The Cardinal but she can still lose her credibility as one if she were to lose this competition. The kind of competition they were conducting actually falls under the lines of managing and administrating a civilization.

"And this is where The Virtual Dive come in." Sam concludes.

Mr. Cyconix then appeared from the shadows and explained further, "The Virtual Dive is a device that in its simplest explanation, allows you to enter a virtual world that my team have created specifically for this competition. How different is this when compared with other virtual realities, you wonder. It is fantastical."

"What do you mean?" wondered White.

He continued, "Your entire physical body will be scanned once in order to create the perfect avatar of yourself. Then through nonstop scanning of your brain, you will be controlling your avatar as if you were inside the virtual world itself. You will feel, see, hear, smell and even taste the virtual world. It is a technology like no other."

"And this is all working 100%?" White showed his skepticism.

Cyconix laughed and said, "Unfortunately, what I said just now was only what is being described for us to get a bunch of shareholders. In actuality, this is still a prototype. We haven't perfected the virtual world yet. As a matter of fact, We only perfected the avatar aspect. The AI however is still a work in progress..."

"AI...you mean Artificial Intelligence. So it's not just us inside there." White clarified.

"Exactly." nodded Cyconix.

Sam then told White, "As for the rules of our competition. Each player, will be automatically designated as a Lord of a city that can be found throughout The Land of Virtue."

"Virtue?"

Cyconix told White, "That's what we're calling the world we've made for this competition."

"As I was saying." Sam continued, "In the beginning of this competition, each Lord will be given 100 AI that will fight for them. They are allowed to designate their AIs to become troops or workers for their city. They can develop their city as well as amass an army that eventually conquer the entire land of Virtue. That is the end goal of this competition, conquering Virtue as a whole."

White then expressed his feelings, "You know...this reminds me a lot of a certain video game genre that I'm really keen on. It sounds interesting. Is it only limited to that though?"

Cyconix then explained, "Not quite. You can use the AI to do almost anything that pleases you as a Lord. If you do so plan to become allies than you are free to do so. At the end of the day, all you need to know is that all bets are off. You can wage war, plot an assassination and many more. The possibilities are endless especially when it comes from the limitless minds of humans."

"I see...This does sound interesting..." White was getting into it until, "But Sam, you told me that only your class are participating this. So what is my role in this?"

Sam smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked White. You and six other lucky students from the other class will become the mediator. A judge perhaps. Your task is simple, really. All you have to do is just observe the entire thing. All seven of you will be given a very special designation unlike us Lords."

"And what is that designation?| asked White.

"If only I'm able to obtain such designation but I have to win this..." Sam said unwillingly, "All 7 of you will be designated as Pantheons."

"Pantheons?" White was a bit surprised.

Cyconix then said, "In other terms, gods. Living gods. Like a real Pantheon, you observe your subjects. You may join in if you wish to do so. You guys are a lot more special in which you guys have a far more higher priority in the system. The Lords can try to appease you in order to gain an advantage and this is how the land of Virtue works..."

"So White...what do you say?" Sam handed out her hand to him.

With all of the information being forced into White at once. White had to make a decision at once because this is a very rare opportunity. All he had to do was to agree to join in. But something else was lingering in his mind as he made his decision...

TO BE CONTINUED