[Short Story] Humanity Meets System

“Hey Joe! Does this look like what I think it does?”

Joe looks over the shoulder of his friend Tim at a blue screen. “Looks like a text prompt? What kind of nonsense did you get into? This whole ‘system’ nonsense has been all voice commands and buttons.”

Tim shrugs, “Well, I was playing around with the bonus language list.”

Joe sticks his tongue out, “Blegh, why would you be looking at that? Just having the so called Standard language forced on me was bad enough.”

Tim points at the blue screen, “Well it got me here.”

Joe shrugs, “Fair enough. Now, how did you manage that?”

Tim, “The list of languages might as well be infinite and so you can keep narrowing the filter. Kind of hard to keep track of since the filter is not displayed and controlled fully by speaking. Anyway, I kept claiming I knew the language I wanted existed and narrowing things down. Of course, since I wasn’t actually looking for a specific language, it always failed.

“I don’t think this would have worked on any of the other selections since they’re more generic. Anyway, after going at it long enough, the system seems to have given up and just displayed a prompt. Just one problem.”

Tim taps the blue screen and a strange, unknown character appears. “Whatever language it uses here is not one of the languages available to learn.”

Joe raises an eyebrow, “Sounds like we might have found the language of whoever created this thing.”

Six years pass, and the Earth settles into their new norm. By this point, it is clear to everyone that whoever developed the system didn’t think highly of technology that doesn’t use magic. Not only does the system severely underestimate how effective pure tech items will do, but if you look deep enough, it even right out states that the system was only supposed to assimilate primitive societies.

More exciting though, at least for a small group of researchers, hackers, and linguists, is that Tim’s discovery of the text prompt in the strange language has finally bore fruit. After uncountable hours of work and assistance from supercomputers the world over, the language had been cracked. Though with this discovery comes a number of extra worries.

While not a free pass into the system, that language did allow greater access to information and one of the first things discovered? The fact that the system was made to train soldiers against some kind of omniversal threat. A threat that, despite nonstop efforts to dig up more, has eluded description. It could be an active threat or maybe it already died and the system is simply a tool left abandoned.

More time passes and it has been a decade since the coming of magic and the system. Regular people now feel safe from the vagaries of magic. Whether it is the monsters out in the wilderness or some idiot trying to summon a demon, science has bent magic to protect towns and cities through the use of various interdiction effects. The only place that remains a true threat is the ocean and the ice caps. Not even small islands are in danger, though the world has shifted to depend almost fully on flight for moving goods.

In an interesting twist, Zeppelins have made a comeback. While still not quite as capable as the container ships of old, magical effects to both extend a space and to shrink objects have combined to make up for it. Of course, the biggest benefit to making them workable is an enchantment discovered within the system under the hidden language. An enchantment that reduces the weight of a gas within a defined space down to a fraction of its actual weight.

On top of that, the original group of hackers, linguists, and researchers are near a breakthrough. Most of that hidden language has been translated. The biggest roadblock being a complete lack of knowledge on how it would sound if spoken, what with the system basically requiring verbal commands for everything. Which honestly seems a bit dumb to the group as it means the original species to create the system might still be around, but because of lingual drift, be unable to control it anymore.

It takes until 13 years after the coming of magic for a breakthrough. The entire language has been figured out, including the odd words with no direct translation that represent concepts in magic and higher dimension spaces. Things actually wrap back around to the beginning, Tim once again discovering a weakness in the system.

Since everything the system does is verbal, there isn’t a messaging system, but a voice messaging system and Tim managed to break into what is basically an admin’s voicemail. Of course, since they knew that you could record voices, the system requires a person to vocalize a command so they couldn’t just string together some words to make it do something. They still needed a person to speak the language. Which is a bit hard when it sounds like the spoken language involves saying two things at once.

Though soon after the voicemail discovery, one of the researchers delving into what the higher dimension stuff in the language dealt with, managed to figure it out. Somehow, whatever species this was had a voice box that touched on dimensions beyond the usual three. The doublespeak being heard is created by having air travel through two voice boxes at once within the same space.

On top of that, within six months, multiple people in the research have connected this to magic. Because magic is not native to three dimensions. Rather, whatever dimension that second voice box resided in was for lack of a better description, the dimension of magic. The language, when spoken by that species, was literally magical. A fact the group keeps to itself for many reasons. To keep it out of the wrong hands and to keep it only in their own hands being two of the big ones.

15 years and magical life extension is found to be a standard part of the system. If you gain power under the system, you also gain a longer life. However, they also discover that this is not from an increased lifespan. Rather, magic is used in a rather brute force manner to support your continued existence. Within a month, people turn their nose up at such a stupid method and instead turn to magic enhanced lifespan extension. No one liked the idea of depending on the System to continue living.

After another seven years, 22 years after system, the small research group admits defeat. They can not figure out the last step. The language is translated, their understanding of the grammar is solid, they even know exactly what it should sound like. Hell, two of the linguists learned how to pronounce one of the voice each and could pull off sounding right together. Except being able to sound right means nothing if you aren’t literally speaking through an extra dimensional space and regular space at the same time. So they released all of their research. 

From there, life just went on. Many people and countries were heavily investing into unlocking the system, but 4d biology wasn’t exactly possible yet. So the world could only sign and keep on keeping on.

Until exactly 30AS, when society took a massive blow. The first dungeons formed and invasion portals opened up with no care for things like borders and towns. In fact, dungeons were weighted towards forming in significant locations and taking a queue from what had happened there.

In a single day, capitals all over the world fell as ruling bodies were sucked into dungeons. Worse, as the governments froze up, intelligent monsters and sapient races began to invade. For an entire day, armies of monsters and the monstrous swept over the world. Finding the towns and cities easy pickings, most people having lived normal lives instead of trying to grow stronger.

But this only lasted one day. On the dawn of the second day, Tim, Joe, and a few others from the original group released something they had been working on. Some scholars and historians in the future would try to call it “Hope” as a play on Pandora’s box. Tim just called it the steps to freedom and self reliance. Oh, and a few methods to complete the steps.

More than a few people would try and downplay what this conceptual model did for the world. They would point to the various armies preparing around the world and individuals who were about to go on a rampage through the invaders. But, if it was just that, the old world governments would have reinstated themselves to some degree.

No, the way Tim and his group laid out what freedom could really mean had touched on something that had been percolating under the surface for a long while. And it ran counter to everything the system stood for.

That next day, it wasn’t armies that moved out. It was hordes. Like-minded people doing their best. Leaders not by rank, but by ability and charisma.

Those individuals? They ran roughshod over the invaders because they were freed from their chains. Who cares if people suddenly know you’re that strong? Be free of any worries about how the governments will react. Go out and save people instead of just defending your own small piece of land. Not that there weren’t people like that, but at least then it was their own choice and not something they felt was forced upon them.

Of course, afterwards, the various government officials who had survived tried to go back to the old way. That didn’t work. Their militaries broke up by either leader or location of origin. Not that they wouldn’t respond when needed, but it would be their judgment that decides if it was. Beyond the military, even just the concept of larger governmental bodies fell apart. Even just the idea of having someone from out of town represent you became hard to acknowledge.

Still, life went on. Without any sort of consensus, the world fell once again to city states. Some warring, some not; and this went on for three years, 33AS, over which larger governments of a sort began to reform. Though more on the scale of a big city having allied all the towns around it. And during that entire time, invaders kept coming. It was on that third year that the first true government managed to form and swept across the entire continent.

How did they manage this when people had quite the militant dislike of such things? Video game logic to the rescue. While within the system, small parties were a thing, this didn’t go far enough. So behind the scenes, a group had been working on something larger and it wasn’t until they were freed of the thought that it had to be through the system that they found a way forward.

They called it alliance magic, though many joked about it being guild magic, and it solved the problem of knowing your leader. Through the use of akashic resonance and some low level psionic principles, all members of an alliance would be able to know what their leader stood for at their heart and not just pointless platitudes. More than that, once enough people joined, it powered a psionic connection between all members that allowed for messaging like under the system. Except, of course, under alliance magic, it was something from the alliance, for the alliance and not dependent on an outside power.

And with the first successful alliance, they spread through the entire world. Not always managing to control entire continents, size being entirely dependent on people’s belief in the alliance leader. Though for such a thing, the land didn’t matter much, anyway. An alliance was the people and their leader, not where they lived. Even the concept of an alliance controlling a continent is a bit of a misnomer. Rather, it just represented when the alliance had enough members spread across an area that it could be considered theirs.

Though this system had weaknesses as well. The fact it is based on a single person meant that such an organization was very generational and could never truly represent everyone. For now, it was enough though and by 34AS every land had at least a few major alliances to things civil and many smaller, more specialized alliances. For instance, since an alliance could be spread across an entire world, the people actively working on figuring out the hidden language all joined the same one.

Though the focus had shifted heavily towards biomancy and bioengineering. And with the understated arrival of dungeons taking place alongside the invasion portals, they finally had a way forward. Strange monsters from myth and beyond all showed up within those dungeons and some of them had extra dimensional biology. Which would make sense with the creators of the system having likely come from a planet where this was the norm.

This focus on bioengineering and biomancy, however, wasn’t just for cracking the system. No, they were pushed forward by the principles of freedom. Because how can you truly have freedom of self and expression if you can’t change what you are? Even if someone didn’t want to change a single thing about themselves, making that a choice instead of a shackle was a very important step forward.

37AS, the first extra-dimensional implant, an overlay for the eye that allowed people to see magic.

39AS, the first biomancy ritual that solves rejection of implants and transplants. Even more important was that the ritual required consent. A thing quite lacking in many systems powered flesh warping spells. And this wasn’t something they just added on for comfort. Rather, the system had to be spending tremendous amounts of magic to bypass it.

40AS, the first full conversion happens. A human managed to switch bodies while maintaining their mind. Sure, the strange hormones and such did a number on them at first, but psionics can spackle over those holes.

End of 40AS, humanity infiltrates many of the invading species, both the monsters and the sapients.

42AS, humanity begins to spread the tenants of freedom, breaking the younger generation of many sapients free from generations of aggression forced upon them by the system.

47AS, the alliance based around solving the hidden language makes the final breakthrough. After following the flow of magic, they manage to grow a creature that is partly in the magic dimension. From there, they quickly manage to grow an organ that allows airflow between the dimensions.

48AS, a fully extra-dimensional voice box is implanted into a base human body. Admittedly, it was one of many bodies the person had which were connected by their fully psionic mind. A useful feature as it allowed them to compare the feeling between bodies and gave them experience with operating multiple voices. A shame that this first attempt did not work as intended as the voice boxes weren’t lined up properly.

51AS, after many attempts, the first successful attempt. It seems that you can’t just implant the voice box. Rather, it needs to be grown with the body. Not that they did something as reprehensible as growing a human just to test this. They cloned up a body with it for a psionic mind to use. As they spoke the hidden language, the system shook.

There was no security, no passwords, or even separate accounts between common users and admins. Once the words were spoken, they gained access to the backend of the system. Then within a month over 60% of humanity in all its forms has grown and replaced their original bodies with new system voice modded bodies.

By 53AS, humanity has figured out how to speak the language even with a fully psionic being and all of humanity now has it by default.

54AS, humanity spreads out through the universe, making use of the invasion portals after checking the option to make them two-way. Further study allows them to open new portals to uninhabited worlds.

57AS, the first gas giant is colonized by humanity, using bodies based on giant squids, but bigger.

62AS, after having spread out so far, signs of the creators of the system are found, mostly because they had bent the system to their whim so much that core restrictions had begun to fail.

65AS, the system creator’s homeworld is found. It had clearly been abandoned on purpose, having been turned into basically one giant monument. It is found that they had been strange floating creatures that looked oddly like an anthro boars with their legs shriveled up from uncounted generations of not needing to walk.

66AS, the system itself is found, though humanity still needs to find a way into it. While it appears to be a solid Dyson sphere, it extends out into many other dimensions.

End of 66AS, while what the system was made to prepare against is still unknown, they found out what happened to the species that made it and what happens to the so-called immortals that are supported by the system.

Because the extended life is being supported by magic and not an increased lifespan, over long enough periods of time, their physical body is replaced by magic. After a certain point, this requires them to channel magic constantly until they are forced to sing magic. The creator species saw this as a form of ascension beyond mortality. Scientists, however, easily find out that this very much is not the case.

They must sing pure magic, non-stop, or else they die and after long enough? Not only is their body worn away, but their mind as well. At that point, The Singers end up as just another channel of magic within the system.

67AS, the fate of The Singers is confirmed when they finally get into the system. Stacked on top of one another, beings of pure magic, all singing without words. Extending outward from the physical into all the adjacent dimensions such that all the system functions can be supported. And at the very core was all that was left of the creators themselves. They had fully bought into their cult of ascension and now all that remained was the vaguest shadows of their former selves as the magic ground away at their form, slowly turning them into pure spheres overflowing with magic.

Without a second thought, humanity as a whole turns against the system. It made their lives easier, but at this point their alliances could mostly replace it and they had direct access to magic without the system. So upon finding out that the end goal of the system wasn’t just to take away choices by forcing people to become soldiers against a threat that may already be gone. It was to strip everyone within it of individuality and free will entirely, turning them into identical conduits to further spread the system’s grasp.

They could not stand for this! And so they began by freeing the newest additions to the system’s core. Pulling out the still thinking Singers and placing them into a new body. Not all Singers appreciated this, of course, but humanity would not suffer this cycle of depravity to continue and so the decision was made. With their access to the backend, they shut off expansion of the system. They closed the invasion portals. The dungeons were shut down. Leveling was slowed. Monsters would no longer spawn, only form naturally from Mana tainted animals.

Then they began to pull it back. Slowly at first because they weren’t going to create just as big of a mess as the system did. With each world they removed from the system, they sent in teachers and scholars to prepare the natives and teach them technology and true magic. Though this sped up more and more as humanity expanded its population to match the task. In particular, the post organic sorts had little trouble with making copies of themselves.

Years begin to flash by as they unravel the mess that the system had created. It was a truly multiversal creation with unfathomable reach. But not infinite reach, and so finally they manage it. 17303AS, after system, becomes 0SF, system’s fall. Humanity has stamped its very presence into the core of all creation with numbers uncountable. And while the base human form is still wide spread, what makes a human isn’t their body, but rather their core ethos. To the point that humanity has expanded to include a number of uplifted species from their homeworld, numerous forms of sapient artificial intelligences, and even beings from other species. To be human is to be Free.