[NR] Maybe He's A Ghost! - Chapter 647

Jason walked out of his house and paused. The sky had veins. It wasn’t terribly obvious and he would have likely overlooked it if he wasn’t specifically on the lookout for any changes in his sight.

Almost like the shimmer of air over hot sand, except unmoving, they extended deeper into the Deep Wilds. Though his view was limited, even with the little he could see, it was clear that the veins narrowed. This must be either part of how the System grabs pieces of the Deep Wilds for NeoRealm or more likely, how the System maintains functionality in these areas.

Jason closes his eyes and takes a deep breath through his nose. How much of the “system” was the System? He felt this was a new question for him to ponder, or at least, how he was looking at it was new.

This recent thought and one interesting thing to come of kicking out the System lines brought him to it. His stats still existed despite kicking the System out. Sure, the screen was obviously still being filtered through the System. His concepts are still being measured by the System’s own understanding.

There must have still been something there for the System to hook into, especially out in the deepest parts of the Deep Wilds. In places where the System’s only touch, is within those who come from NeoRealm. But what do those without the System get?

Jason honestly wasn’t even sure that he was fully separated from the System, even if it no longer had any control of him. The blue screens might be part of a subtler part of the System that had maintained connection. Or, what if this universe just naturally had blue screens?

Then he was interrupted from his thoughts when the other two came out of their house and called out to him.

Rosha, “Did you succeed?”

Courtney, “Of course he did, not dead, is he?”

Rosha laughs, “Maybe he’s a ghost!”

Courtney shakes her head, “A little too corporeal for that.”

Rosha, “Zombie?”

Courtney, “A possibility, but I do think he made it.”

Jason rolled his eyes, “Yes, I lived. Still seeing the blue screens, though.”

Courtney frowns, “Did you miss something or fail?”

Jason shakes his head, “Can’t feel anything else, so if there is something, it sure is subtle.”

Rosha is having none of this, “Stop being so paranoid. You can’t change it, so just keep a lookout in the future.”

Jason, “I think they might be a part of this world. Though I’m sure the System is messing with ours somehow. Whatever it is doing might just be something as stupid as formatting or it might be hiding critical information.”

Rosha raises an eyebrow, “I doubt it. Even if the System has gone beyond our control, it is still sticking to the original rules. That included rules for if expansions of content happened which would also account for new information in the status panel.”

Jason nods, “Quite possible. Though thinking about it is interesting, I do have something else to talk about. I need to get out more. Not just yet, I need to stabilize my cultivation technique and maybe advance it. However, in the coming weeks, we’ll have to work out a schedule so the clearing isn’t left alone for too long.”

Courtney, “Well, you’ve managed to get the important buildings up, so we need to do work on the whole ‘lake’ thing you were considering. That is, if you still want to?”

Jason, “For the three of us, we’ve used enough space and yet there is still a large amount of area between the buildings and the trees. Which I’m pretty sure is already expanding when we’re not looking, if not by much. I’m a little leery at how little we’ve been attacked? Like, something wanders into camp every week or so, but nothing worth mentioning.”

Rosha, “We’ve not stayed here all that long, but that lines up with what we’ve seen as well.”

Jason sighs, “And I suspect that once we do put up actual defense like a moat, that will change. Even with the permanent buildings, this is more like a hunting camp, easily reabsorbed when we’re gone. Also, we need clay. A ton of clay, for the lake project.”

Rosha, “What in the world do we need clay for? It isn’t like we’re going to make hundreds of jugs to haul the water with?”

Jason shakes his head, “Not for pottery or any sort of firing at all. The clay will be kept soaked at the bottom of the lake. You can’t dig a hole in the ground and expect it to hold water. I’ll need to line the lake with a thick layer of clay so that it holds water instead of having the water just sink into the ground.

“And we’ll also have to hook it up to an existing waterway. Once we have that done once, the Deep Wilds should maintain a connection, but that holds dangers all of its own. After all, who knows what might be in the water?

“Not that we would ever be able to directly drink from the lake or anything. However, this goes beyond making sure to filter and boil any water we want to use. It also means we have to be careful about giant snakes, odd water, and dangerous fish.”

Courtney, “We should have a holding pond that gets filtered through earth before it actually goes into the lake. The only problem is if it plugs up. Good thing we won’t need a large stream if the lake is properly sealed.”

Jason, “At the very least, if the water does flow directly in we’ll need to buy a grate to keep the bigger water bound stuff out.”

Rosha, “Thus is interesting, but we need to dig a giant pit and source a ton of clay first. Sounds like there is more work than ever.”

Jason nods, “There’s always something else to do. You don’t run out of projects like this. You only reach a point where you’re fine with your situation. It is a really old book, but that story about the family getting shipwrecked on an island has them doing a never-ending series of improvements to their lives.

“Only in the modern world has the idea of home improvement been so reduced in importance. Even over a century ago, we already had materials that allowed us to basically ignore maintenance. It is to our detriment, but it became the norm to wait for something to go wrong to get things taken care of.”