1 Waking Up
In this age where multiple galaxies formed a cohesive whole through a civilization that called itself the Intergalactic Society, every inhabited planetary system, as well as every uninhabited one, had an administrative designation.
Taking into consideration the number of planetary systems in a major galaxy as well as selecting only those with the right conditions for life, without ignoring those whose conditions could be changed using terraforming technology…
Then what an average result looked like was an Intergalactic Society made of tens of billions of "urban" systems, and hundreds of billions of "rural" systems.
With only some rare exceptions, every rural system was comparable to any other one: They were indistinguishable amidst one another.
For the administration though, except for the capital system of every administrative region, they didn't care and didn't give any precise criteria to say if one system was rural or not. Not even base identification criteria like "being inhabited by less than 10 billion people" or "being out of the major space travel axis".
Overall, a rural system was only an appellation used for the less developed and less populated planetary systems.
And reality reflected this appellation of "rural" in maybe too much of a consensus as for those systems, being independent from the whole Intergalactic Society wasn't anything special or unique.
It was normal.
Of course, with effort, talent, and connections, any rural citizen could change his fate from being only a name in a ginormous administrative system, but few ever desired such a thing.
The majority, in fact, never even thought of becoming someone important or well known.
For a rural citizen, all that wasn't really important.
"Forming a family, making this family happy, having an easy job, and living one's life as one desired until they changed their mind and decided to do something different, like go on a journey across the galaxy."
This sort of life could very well be the definition of a true rural citizen.
If your passion, talent, or both, were too big to be contained in such a life, just connecting to the internet was more than enough to have a try at becoming a superstar or making your genius be recognized.
But as could be rationally expected from such an immense civilization spanning multiple galaxies, while every rural system was somehow equal in available funding as they funded themselves, their own culture more often than not diverged a bit with every year.
And this unsaid and invisible divergence, that often never bore something revolutionary or even interesting, was often the thing proving that even under the same circumstances, things could go on very different paths.
From utopian to dystopian cultures and societies, the Intergalactic Society allowed everything to exist as long as its laws and principles were followed, respected, and taught.
Take a rural planet named X125 for example.
Its designation meant it was the 125th planet of the X designation under its own administrative sector. No other numbers or letters meant it was, currently, the only inhabited planet in its planetary system.
Of course, if its complete name used in the databases of the IGS was used, an unending code would be the result.
As for how this planet had diverged compared to any other rural planets? Well, nothing interesting enough to be mentioned anywhere.
It was remarkably similar to what you would expect from a futuristic Earth, a 21st-century Earth, the origin planet of the Human species, with a lot more greenery and safaris, no borders, a space elevator, a spaceport, and reliable technology perfected millenia ago.
It was mostly occupied by humans as the company that colonized the planet centuries ago only sent a single expedition, and it had a mix of various people with different views on how the planet should be developed in the future.
That was it.
If you discounted the presence of the orbital station with transiting spaceships sending daily employees to other planets and systems, then this planet would be an utopian copy of that of an Information-Era civilization.
***
Rune had nothing to do with the way the IGS administered its space, his family was from a common and average good-standing IGS citizen background, the common background for all of the Human species if taken as a whole.
Having just graduated with average results, he had decided to take a 1-year long vacation before starting his professional life with his exploration engineer diploma.
But as of that time, he was currently doing one of his favorite activities: sleeping. Sleeping in his bed to be more precise.
X125 was discovered with all the right conditions to support life, the star it was orbiting around was a class-G star, a young one, so once the rotation speed of the planet was decelerated a little to adopt a normalized day time, it was colonized.
Locally, the star has been up for more than 6 hours and it was already past midday when Rune woke up and decided to open his eyes.
They were still a little red from too much gaming and video watching too late into the night.
As was usual when someone woke up from such a "night", the emotional quotient expressed by his face was close to zero.
The only thing that even made him not continue lazing about in his bed and totally dark bedroom was the fact that it was just the beginning of his very big self-created holiday.
With no worries or expectations to be had, nothing to wait for, and nothing stressing awaiting him… He woke up.
The first thing he instinctively planned was to first drink some water to quench his thirst while his old computer was similarly waking up from just under 10 hours of being off. A very respectable sleep time according to his standard.
Then, he'd see if today was a school day or not by just opening his door and hearing whether or not his 2 twin little brothers, Miro and Miri, were playing video games in the living room.
Rune developed a strange habit of turning off every time indicator when there was nothing planned for the day.
That way, he wouldn't remember when he woke up or when he went to sleep. It was for him a way to have no problem with having a shifted circadian cycle, or so he thought.
Walking down the stairs, there was not a sound in the house, so it was probably a school day.
"Still pretty early," he noted aloud.
Having lived for so long in this house, all his life so far in fact, he knew approximately how to use the window as a sundial, so he knew that if the sun shone there, it meant that compared to waking up at night, it was truly early.
After refreshing himself in the bathroom, he got back to his bedroom, his computer already had the time to boot and was ready for another internet and gaming day on the infinite web.
Following only 1 hour of entertainment though, a very tragic time where he only started to ease himself into the correct mindset for the day, he felt a buzz at the back of his head. An uncomfortable sensation that just wouldn't go away.
2 hours later it was still here, and it was ramping up.
Rune was living in his parents' house, near the central square of a rural village, not far from a true city.
From what his life spent in this house and village had taught him, it was completely normal for no one to be on the street, but once he paid attention to what was going on outside… Strangely, he seemed to hear the sound of ambulances.
It would not have been unusual, if it wasn't for the fact that after opening his window he could hear at least 4 different truly cacophonic sirens.
Just from the proximity of the sound he deduced they should all be close by, in the neighborhood of his street undoubtedly.
A bit perplexed, he tried to think of what could possibly be happening, but as there was no evacuation alert and he was living in the middle of a flat farming region, he came up with nothing but stupid morbid conclusions that were only relevant for a crazy mind such as his.
'Nothing like a chemical gas could have been released in sufficient quantities to affect the whole region right?'
That was his first general conclusion.
As a way of trying to understand what was going on before ultimately not doing anything and waiting for it to pass naturally, he turned on the messaging app that he generally turned into silent mode when he didn't want to play video games with his friends.
Once it was opened, he saw dozens of unread messages. Such a number was normal as his "friends" could talk between each other without him.
Once he started to read though, his theory about gas nearly started to make sense and he decided to describe his own situation to share that he was also reading.
[Rune: Yo guys, I also have a buzzing in the head, is it only for our region or can someone from outside say if it's also happening to them?]
[Jules: Oh Rune is finally awake, we thought you succumbed to the buzzing headache.]
[Peter: Still alive, congratulations, it's the end of the world!]
[Romain: My friend from another planet says he also has this buzzing in his head!]
[...]
Jules, Peter, and Romain were his gaming friends, they had formed a gaming group while also studying together for their 5 years in university, from freshmen to graduates.
They weren't really "friends" as much as "coincidental companions with somewhat similar tastes", and Rune personally didn't feel involved in maintaining the relationship at all. They could even exclude him from the group that it wouldn't impact him much.
While they joked about how the situation could be comical in a lot of cases, the true urgency such as what was happening or were they all going to die couldn't get to Rune. He had the habit of being passive and the buzz wasn't really that painful, just annoying.
So after observing that everyone was like him, what could he possibly do? Be proactive? No way.
He was just going to wait and see, "wait" translating to returning to his dear entertainment. His big holliday had just started and he had too much to watch.
Returning to his dear entertainment, the buzz still present, he ignored it as much as he realistically could.
It wasn't a headache anyway and everyone was feeling it, so Rune didn't think medicine could be the answer to solve it.
'Yeah, probably just some hyperreactive old people that called for those ambulances…'
He concluded absent-mindedly as the ambulance had still bothered him.
Yet, even for a passive like him, there was a limit to his tolerance, and after hours of silently enduring it he started to look at the information sites, news sites, anything he had that was easily accessible.
And there it was: The buzz at the back of the head, something currently happening to everyone intelligent, be they humans, azorans, or even rululus.
No one was excluded.
"That's freaked up…" Saying it aloud like someone unconcerned by it made the situation a little more funny.
With a dead fish face and his usual unfeeling eyes, the result of long years of being and acting like a spectator observing from the side, he could only continue searching for information concerning what was happening.
And 10 minutes later, he was back to his lovely entertainment.
End of the world or not, he wasn't the key to solving it.
Even when he walked down the stairs to eat something, even when his parents came back with his twin little brothers and twin little sisters…
He continued to endure the buzz.
It didn't exclude anyone, though fortunately, it wasn't dangerous for anyone, or the news would have said something. So he and his family just acted as usual.
His twin little brothers played with holographic projections in the main room, his twin little sisters did whatever, and his parents did the same thing he tried to do earlier, doing what they could to understand what was going on.
But like him, after 30 minutes of searching, they stopped. And just like Rune, they started to wait.
2 days of perfect hedonism later the buzz disappeared, without any explanations.
And a few hours after the buzz faded, the biggest change in the Universe to date started, at the near end of the 745th cycle of the IGS calendar, in great fanfare, by projecting to every sapient being a wall of text that anyone, even children, could perfectly read and understand.
Compensation Law Quota Announcement
Fragmented Defective Ether Law successfully patched up.
Rebooting the dependent entity system to accommodate new changes.
Ether density in the universe attained the necessary threshold for the reparation of the Ether Law and subsequent opening of the Void Dimension.
Ether density in the universe attained the necessary threshold for the awakening of the Ether Law.
Current low-consumption Ether Law variants will gradually be elevated to its normal-consumption equivalent.
For an undetermined duration, the Ether Law will actualize the law of this dimension and all consequences on intelligent life will be managed by the Compensation Law.
Please wait until Law Initiation happens.
The Compensation Law has received a 'Newly Awakened Dimension' Quota.
'What?'
Rune, like any other sapient beings in the IGS right now, suffered the first major incredulity.
And as if it wasn't enough, a second one appeared soon after.
Compensation Law Quota Announcement
Defective Law Scan Result
The currently used Defective Law is an extremely under-developed and low-consumption variant of the Ether Law.
Degree of completeness
0.0501%
Evaluation
Dimension is judged to be critically defective.
Compensation Law has gained the right to display all Ether Law actions to the eyes of the native sapients without the usage of the given quota.
Compensation Law has gained the right for a 'Critically Defective Dimension' help quota.
'Hu… Ok, yeah, yeah, seems legit. The Universe dimension is too much garbage and defective or something like that… If I understood right?'
Not one to be overwhelmed by something like a floating text screen he couldn't touch or interact with, Rune reacted with sarcasm.
Yet, this "Compensation Law" seemed to really be on their side considering that a third window appeared soon after.
Compensation Law Quota Announcement
Critically Defective Dimension Evaluation Confirmed
No ether lifeforms.
No ether stat-able entities.
No energy-capable life forms.
No dimensional breach.
Ether density equals tier 0.
Only newly integrated dependent entities.
This single text window told so much more than it should have. Pictures of magic and special effects went through Rune's mind as fast as he understood what was being displayed before him.
And it was far from over.
Compensation Law Quota Announcement
Emergency Knowledge Foundation Pack
Subject 1: Ether Law
Ether increases automatically without end, employing a process of self-replication using matters with no loss involved, resulting in a perpetually increasing ether density.
Living matter isn't affected by this process. Once the ether density reaches a certain point, the non-etherized matter will be subject to ether erosion.
To become an ether lifeform, you need to gather enough ether points to recreate your body once the ether density has reached tier 1 ether density threshold.
Subject 2: Compensation Law
For every dependent entity, compensation will be created on the account of the Ether Law itself, giving Ether Points (EP). Compensation depends on the degree of defective law use.
Subject 3: Global System
Dependent entities' main way to access the newly awakened Ether Law. Can be opened through will once ether density allows for it.
Subject 4: Information Board
A global information system using the ambient ether to maintain itself. Allows unified communication and information transmission across designated dimension sectors. Range of dimension sectors depends on native dimension's ether density.
Subject 5: Compensation Law's Quota Usage Summary
Basic Compensation Enabled
'Defective Dimension' Add-On. Every dependent entity will be compensated depending on the degree and proficiency of defective law use.
Ether Density Progress Bar Enabled
'Defective Dimension' Add-On. Will show the progress of the ether density compared to the previous rupture point that led to major events.
Ether Wiki Enabled
'Critically Defective Dimension' Add-On. Information can be confirmed by the Ether Law following submission to this add-on. Unlimited use, database size depends on native dimension ether density.
Event Enabled
'Critically Defective Dimension' Add-On. Using Quota, EP compensations can be given to guide the dependent entities to do certain tasks.
Avatar Creation Enabled
'Critically Defective Dimension' Add-On. Allows for the creation of an avatar, which will maximize the survival rate of critically defective dimension native sapients.
EP Loan Enabled
'Critically Defective Dimension' Add-On. Special compensation of 1 000 000 EP will be given to all dependent entities on Avatar creation.
While not completely understanding all the implications behind all those add-ons, with too many foreign terms that despite being able to be read, didn't make any sense, Rune at least realized something.
'There's a system…'
On this thought, he tried to access the "global system" but failed. Getting his messaging app back on screen, he confirmed it was the same for the others.
Then, without an answer, he got back to his entertainment while repeating in his mind the word "Global System".
