Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the reader ebook .TXT] 📗

Taking advantage of the pause, one of those present looked at Kiran and asked in confusion:

“What was that story about the beta testers for?”

Jackson opened his mouth to answer, but Menfil spoke:

“The Nether. That is the name of the shadowy non-player realm integrated with Dis. That selfsame beta world. The testers died, but not their characters. In some mysterious manner, the consciousness of the testers was digitized and continued to live on in the Nether. Limited information from the world status showed that the players were still ‘online.’ In addition, subject to the game mechanics, they became technically immortal, reviving after death. We learned that from the world status too. At first nobody took it seriously, but then the players began to level up…”

Menfil’s hoarse words caused explosions through the hall. Whispers turned into a clamor. Kiran, who knew the origins of Pilgrim, breathed a sigh of relief that everyone there was bound by a mental contract. If the public learned of this…

“Since then, ten thousand years have passed in the Nether,” Menfil continued calmly, causing a fresh wave of surprised gasps. “Not everyone has survived; there is a final death mechanic in the beta version. Unfortunately, we have never been able to make contact with the players. Several times, individual players have somehow managed to break through to the Nether…”

Kiran froze. Right now, his fate was being decided. He had held back intel about Scyth’s trip into the Nether, deciding to wait for the boy to finally give up and come crawling back to surrender. Jackson had been sure that the Threat would be stuck in the beta world forever, that all their problems were solved. Unfortunately, Scyth somehow got out and Kiran missed the chance to contact the beta testers through Sheppard.

“We found out about this after the fact — it doesn’t show up in the logs, the character just leaves the game as if logging out normally,” Menfil said. “Unfortunately, none have survived. They were all diagnosed with SDS — sudden death syndrome. With how much time people spend in virtual worlds, this became common long ago. Tens of thousands die in their capsules every day.”

Kiran started breathing again. His secret remained unknown to Arto Menfil. The man continued:

“How did the Nether become part of Dis, you ask? It was a copy of the world, hosted on the same servers as the main version. Roughly speaking, the main AI incorporated it into its system and added the beta world to the game universe, taking it to be just another plane of existence. Just like the Astral or the Inferno. Players have no way to access it, and the worlds don’t interact, not counting the Nether rifts and the Ravager assaults. It seems the beta world has evolved over ten thousand years. Or…” Menfil paused a moment, then admitted: “Or it could be because we integrated the Nether into wider Dis ourselves. We had to give the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague an external energy source independent of the AI gods… But I’m getting ahead of myself.”

“The important thing is that this phenomenon led to the creation of Pilgrim!” Kiran exclaimed, trying to get the conference back on the rails.

“Yes, Pilgrim…” Menfil said. “More people know about that project. In fact, the project lead Mr. Jackson is here right now. I’ll hand off to him.”

“Formally the project lead,” Kiran shook his head. “In fact, Bellamy Drake manages operational control. Bellamy, can you help me..?”

Drake nodded and brought up a hologram of the earth for all to see, where some of the land was colored in red, some orange and the rest yellow and green.

“Time presses, so I’ll be brief,” Kiran said energetically. “Citizenship areas occupy less than 20% of our total landmass. The remaining land, as we all know, is unsuitable for life. Part of it disappeared underwater due to the melting ice caps, some was rendered uninhabitable due to the Third World War and the spread of radiation. Nonetheless, the planet’s population has doubled since before the war. There isn’t enough space. The colonization of Mars is no solution; terraforming will take a millennium.”

“Too many pesky people,” Menfil cackled like a raven.

Paying him no mind, Kiran continued:

“The earth cannot feed so many people. The only solution is to colonize distant space. But how, if a one-way journey takes a thousand years? The Pilgrim program aims to move the conscious minds of non-citizens into Disgardium. It will be a kind of Great Exodus, noble and humanitarian. After all, in exchange, the non-citizens will get eternal life…”

“And what then?” Chloe asked. “Will their fate be the same as the beta testers? Will they become NPCs?”

“Not exactly,” Kiran answered. “It is believed that since there is a way to transfer consciousness in one direction, then the reverse must also be possible. And that means we can send AI-controlled colony ships into distant space, ‘print’ bodies at the destination and ‘unpack’ the colonists in situ.”

“That’s crazy,” Chloe snorted.

“Not at all. The capsule performs a full body scan and DNA analysis on first immersion. Replicating the bodies won’t be an issue. The hard part is transferring consciousness.”

“Why not just repeat the experiment with the beta testers?” Chloe asked again.

Do you really think you’re going to solve this, you bitch? Kiran thought in annoyance, smiling kindly. Smarter people than you have tried!

“As in the case of Patrick O’Grady, we were unable to repeat the experiment. We were cut off from the beta world — it was encapsulated to maintain the integrity of the experiment. At the kernel level, no less. Deep immersion in identical worlds had no effect at all.”

“The eggheads emptied two prisons full of life-termers,” Menfil said, his voice cutting. “Their brains burnt out, but their conscious minds didn’t copy into virtspace. When the subjects died, their characters disappeared.”

“What makes you think the non-citizens will