No Life

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The server of the virtual world was a huge photon-quantum crystal computer, that is, a huge five-metre square crystal of praseodymium, in which information was stored in the form of light. This server was safely hidden by Kayaba, so that no one could find it and disable it, and there were other servers, auxiliary, but they were hundreds of times less powerful and even if they were disabled, all people would still be locked on the main server.

Now I was the only one locked on that server... and apparently Kayaba, or what was left of him, because my silver threads had completely absorbed him, transmitting his memories to me, and my threads were also embedded in pale green ribbons, and I was receiving information from the Cardinal System, the Artificial Intelligence that was supposed to be monitoring the balance in the virtual world of Swordsmasters Online.

Kayaba entered the game through a device similar to the one he had sold to me as well. He himself hid in his mountain villa so that no one could harm him while he was in a medical capsule for about three years, which should keep his body alive, but even if he woke up, he would be severely debilitated, and despite stimulating his muscles with massages, they would atrophy severely. In fact, he had no plans to return to the real world, and so in case of any malfunction, his brain would have to be scanned, and a copy of his mind would have to be transferred to the main server, which was what had happened now. Currently Kayaba is lying in his villa with his brain fried and his mind absorbed by me.

The failure in the system was also because of me, and the reason for that is that it's as if I have a system built into me that has come into conflict with the Cardinal System and has begun to consume it.

Kayaba, while creating his virtual reality technology, studied the human mind, and found a special quantum particle in man - 'Vanishing Photon', which was located in the microtubules of brain cells, the totality of these quantum particles formed a 'Quantum Field', which could be called the mind, consciousness or soul of man. Kayaba thought of copying and transferring this 'quantum field-mind-soul' to a quantum-photon computer, so that the soul could exist separately from the meat body. And everything would have been fine if it weren't for me.

When testing the virtual reality system, Kayaba had encountered people who were incompatible with the system, most often because of brain problems, perception problems, and because of psychological illnesses, but what happened now because of me, he himself could not fully explain. Alternatively, we were living in a simulation ourselves, and I ended up being the administrator of that simulation, as should have happened to Kayaba himself in his world of Sword Masters Online. As a result, my system began to subjugate Kayaba's system.

- I remember when I was a kid, I had letters floating in front of my eyes that no one could see, and everyone thought I was crazy when I tried to tell them about them. So, what am I supposed to do? If I'm here, like Kayaba, then I'm sure my brain is baked in my skull right now... well, at least no one else was hurt by that idiot genius. Children could get into the game and die because of this idiot... Great, I paid with my life for the lives of at least five thousand people... quite a bargain, and I'm not really dead, if I think, I exist... I guess. - I continued to watch my threads take over more and more of the server, soon penetrating into the 'jellyfish of glowing ribbons', which was a visual representation of the Cardinal System's Artificial Intelligence Core, the silver threads began to pull me towards that core, and some letters began to reappear in front of my eyes, just like when I was a child.

My mind... or soul, apparently began to merge with the Cardinal's Core, and at that moment it was very difficult for me to think, my mind was filled with some images that were rapidly changing, and if I had a normal body, it would probably vomit from such a kaleidoscope of changing images.

In the real world my physical body was shaking in the capsule, because from my physical shell my soul was completely transferred into the photon-quantum crystal computer-server, which began to absorb more and more electrical energy, converting it into light with the help of laser converters. After some time all this system went to pieces, the crystal was saturated with photon energy and exploded, releasing my soul, which flew into the sky with a bright beam of silver light, straight into the silver disc of the Moon, which became a mystical portal that moved my soul to another reality, where the soul flew to the local version of the Earth, and was reborn in a new body.

I myself realised I was an infant with some inscriptions looming before my eyes.

≪Soul Cardinal System activated. ≫

Uh-huh, I'm glad, that means I'm now living in some kind of simulation, I bet the Argus have relaunched their virtual games project and I'm in one of those worlds now.

≪You are the rebirth of a god from another Universe, with which you have no connection, only a gift in the form of a development system that was inactive in the previous world due to weak energy. ≫

Yeah, I see... great backstory in this simulation, it turns out that I'm the chosen one and I'm supposed to save the world... I'm the one who got me involved with this virtual game, and Tsunami, if she hadn't given me horns, we'd be on a honeymoon in Bali right now... also, I wish I'd spent that money on whores instead of the capsule. Although, since I saw some numbers in the previous world, it's not that that world wasn't a simulation, unless it was better than the world Kayaba created. If I have to choose, I want to go back to my simulation, because here I am a baby, lying in some stuffy shack, wrapped in a spiky blanket... even more likely in the skin of some animal.

≪The world is not a computer simulation, stop whining. The world is a magical-chaotic simulation within the Ocean of Chaos. Reality is real. ≫

Nobody's whining here... except a little, and I don't see much difference whether it's a magical simulation or a computer simulation.

≪The difference is system rights, in a magic simulation anyone with enough power can get them, the stronger you are the more you can control reality. In a computer simulation you can't become an administrator no matter how hard you try.≫

And I take it these messages are being written by the god I once was.

≪ Or rather, what's left of him and was able to recover by absorbing the Cardinal System. From the memories of our past, we have only general information, and so I remember as much about myself as you do, that is, practically nothing. The development system has also recovered, the only usefulness is condition monitoring and three bonuses. ≫

≪Status≫

Life 10/10/0.5 per hour (Physical shell status.)

Ki 12/12/2 per hour (Total energy of the entire soul and body.)

Characteristics:

Strength 1 (Indicator of physical strength.)

Dexterity 1 (Indicates physical agility and speed.)

Stamina 1 (Indicates physical endurance.)

Intelligence 110 (Indicates intelligence.)

Soul 200.

I'd also like to know what numbers I had before.

≪We used to have a slightly different soul structure, now it's more homogeneous and dense. And the current characteristics are based on the data from the past body, that is, we became a hundred times weaker physically, became a little smarter because of my appearance. Also, our soul has become twice as strong and gained back three skills. ≫

≪Skills≫

'Weak Light Manipulation'(Allows you to manipulate light at its most minimal level.).

'Regeneration'(Allows you to speed up the body's regeneration by using Ki.)

'Reborn'(If the physical body is destroyed, you will be reborn. If the soul is very strong, you will become a spirit and can live without a body or in another dead body or in an artificial shell).

'Accelerated Language Learning' (You learn new languages faster.)

'Cardinal' (Additional thought stream controlling the system or in other words, I'm your own personal schizophrenia.)

Something still makes me feel like I'm in a computer simulation, especially with those numbers in front of my eyes.

≪Whatever the nature of this reality, we have to live in it, and to live long enough, we have to get stronger. Good luck to us. Hopefully, in time, you'll stop being such a whiner. ≫

I'm not a whiner, I'm a realist, and the reality is that I stupidly died and was reborn unknown where and unknown by whom, and with some system calling me a whiner.

I liked the last world, it didn't have magic, but it had the internet and the benefits of civilisation, and judging from the hut I'm in, there's no computer here, and no toilet, so I guess I'll have to wipe myself with a burdock... although there's a good chance I won't find a burdock here either.

≪Hopefully my next rebirth won't be such a whiner. ≫

Frankly, I had good reasons to be a whiner, firstly, I was a kid, it was natural for them, and secondly, I was an orphan, my father had been eaten by a monster before I was born, and my mother had been eaten by a monster a couple of weeks ago. We lived on the southern edge of the local Empire, our tribe, the Ban, were supposed to protect the borders of the Empire from the wild Dangerous Beasts. My father was a hunter, as was my mother. Everyone here was a hunter, there was no choice as such, if you didn't know how to kill monsters, you became their snack... before your time. The settlement never had a cemetery, because no one here lived to old age or died in their bed of their own death, everyone died from the paws or fangs of monsters.

In a situation like this, where I found myself, it was simply a sin not to whine.

'To be honest, you're right.'

The Ban tribe was located in the rainforest, where in addition to the possible threat of death from monsters, there was also a high probability of death from various infections. So children only got their names when they reached the age of seven, and were initiated by killing their first animal and proving to the tribe that you were a worthy member. But since I liked my past name, I'll continue to call myself 'Gin'... though maybe after the initiation I'll get a cooler name... if I live to be seven and don't get eaten at the ceremony.

Everyone in the village was brown, so I was brown again, but I didn't like the tribe's current standard of living. The level of technology here was nothing, it was as if I was in an African tribe, except that, because of eating meat from the local Dangerous Monsters, all the members of the tribe were quite strong. Any member of the tribe, one on one with a spear can overcome some lizard the size of a rhinoceros, but such monsters are considered small, the average size of monsters here is about eight metres, stronger beasts easily reach twenty metres, because of the presence of such opponents, the population of the tribe never exceeds the number of ten thousand people. Metal for weapons was scarce here, and only for spearheads and was enough, and not for all, who did not get a spear, fight with the monster yourself, as you want, mostly with a sad outcome.

The strongest warriors of the tribe had spears, my father wasn't like that, so nobody expects me to be a strong warrior, and when I was orphaned, nobody cared much about my survival. I had to choose between helping the weak and weakening the tribe by wasting resources on weak warriors, or focusing on helping the children of strong warriors, who were likely to be strong warriors too. If I can survive, then I am strong and worthy of life, if not, then I don't care, it's natural selection, where the death of the weak is the norm. Well, the disadvantages of living in this place are plenty, and from the pluses, I can name only one plant that grows in the local jungle, it has wide rough leaves, which are very convenient to wipe, and this is the only plus I have noticed so far.

When children here can walk, and more or less become able to understand adults, they are sent to pick berries and fruits in the local conditionally safe forest near the village. If you don't go far, the chance to meet a poisonous snake is quite low, but there is no guarantee that the snake itself will not crawl to us... in short, I liked the past world even more, my childhood in the orphanage was still very much okay, compared to my childhood in an almost wild tropical tribe.

I was small and my hands were small, but they were straight, and I was able to make a nice dagger out of monster bone... for which I had to fight a couple of times with the kids who were planning to take my homemade weapon away from me... the third time, I was kicked by a mob and the dagger was taken away.

There was a blacksmith in the tribe, whom I even wanted to apprentice, but I was sent far away, for the blacksmith had his own children, and he planned to teach them, not some beaten ragamuffin. I didn't need to be trained, I just needed access to materials, and some adult protection to keep me from being kicked around.

In general, in the tribe I was expendable, my life here meant nothing, from the pluses of staying in the tribe, only access to meat in exchange for the collected fruit, and protection from monsters, if I grow up and can kill monsters, then to stay in the tribe I have no sense. I have almost the same chance to die myself or on a hunt in the tribe, only in the first case I will not obey the chief, who lives in a huge wooden house, and only does that with concubines entertains. In the village there was also a shaman, who made all sorts of magic potions from animals, so that the chief could continuously entertain himself with his concubines, he himself also drank these potions, and also rested quietly in a safe hut with his harem.... these guys I didn't want to serve or obey in any way.

Every day, I grew more and more fond of the tribe. Since I was psychologically unable to be in this world without some weapons, I made myself bone daggers, and I was consistently beaten when they were taken away from me. Each time I fought back, putting up a good fight, but the numerical advantage wasn't on my side, and when I accidentally beat up one of the chief's sons in one of those fights, I got a beating from the adults. The good news is that I can heal almost any damage in a day, but every day I just want to get the hell out of the tribe.

- Damn, but not in the belly of a snake. - When I was searching the woods for material for a new dagger, a huge snake appeared before me, and when I say huge, I mean that it was twenty-five metres long and three metres in diameter.

I had just found a fine bone to make myself a small sword when the snake lunged at me. I tried to leap into its jaws, grouping myself as much as possible so it wouldn't catch me with its teeth. I had no chance to run away from this thing, but I had a chance to kill it from the inside.

As I wanted, I got into the snake's huge mouth past its sharp fangs, and in order not to fall into the belly of this overgrown snake, I stuck a sharp bone into the wall of its throat. The snake obviously did not like the fact that it was pricked from inside, and it shook, which only harmed itself, because I under the influence of gravity and vibration, began to fall down the throat and at the same time leave a bloody cut line.

If you have been swallowed, you have at least two ways out. When the snake from the pain began to crawl away somewhere rapidly, then lowered closer to the ground, so I no longer fell anywhere, and stood on the wall of the throat, which actively stabbed and cut with a shard of bone. Would that snake know that food should be chewed before swallowing.