Earth: The Second

The Trap

“Ugh… Argh…!” Adma is wailing in pain, as his entire body twitching because of his connection to the computer. His companions, Rika, Gon, and Hepaetus can only see him across the room, not sure what action they should have taken.

“Do something!” screamed Rika to the adults beside him. But either the Master Forger or the Merchant budge from where they are standing.

Responsibility is filling her chest, Rika thought to herself that she can’t leave Adma like this. Therefore, she jumped forward, intending to pull Adma out of that machine.

“Rika, wait!” shouted Gon. He noticed her student’s action and managed to grab her hand.

“Don’t stop me! Don’t you see he is in pain!?”

“You’re stepping too far! We don’t know what is happening with Adma right now! If we intervene, we might just make the situation even worse!” said Gon. Rika knows, but no matter what, she feels hurt to see him suffering like that.

Suddenly, a surge of force exploding from Adma. It’s not doing any damage whatsoever for him and his companion, but their mind is filled with anxiety. Suddenly, their environment was shrouded in darkness.

The artificial lights that come from the facility’s old function turned out to be inactivated. Hepaetus himself was dumbfounded. He has never tinkered with electricity, other than learning about it from the information inside the computer. Instead, he left it to manage the functionality of this place. Without the computer, what about the whole control of the base? Hepaetus have a bad feeling about this. 

“Damn! I can’t see anything!” said Gon.

“Wait, I’ll create fire using my mana,” said Rika. She closes her eyes, and imagining mystical power all over her body, converging into one place in the palm of her hand. “Burning bright for our desire, flame!” she shouted.

Finally, the dark room is filled with light once again. Rika’s light can’t be compared to electric light, but this is better than nothing at all.

But all of their attention is shifted to the person that is lying down in front of them. Adma.

Naturally, the three of them come to the man, his hand had returned to normal, and fortunately, he is still groaning.

“Adma! Adma!” Rika seems frantic, she is shaking Adma until he opened his eyes.

“Hah… Hah… Damn… It…” for the very first time since awake, Adma is out of breath.

“What happened over there?” asked Hepaetus.

Adma looked at the Master Forger with the corner of his eyes but then turned away. He knew very well what has happened.

“I’m sorry, I will try to bring this facility back on,” he is struggling to get up, but resting on the computer panel, he tried to press the keyboards.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. Neither one of us know what happened to you, but with your command, we might be able to help with something,” said Rika. Adma is still focusing on the computer’s keyboard, but there is no sign that it will turn back on.

Clara is the computer that controlling the entire base, if she is getting deleted, that is mean the control of this facility is lost within her.

As if Adma ignored the three of them, he speaks to Navigator.

“Navigator, what is the network situation around us?” 

“No network detected.”

“...What about Clara? Perhaps, you manage to salvage her backup data or something?”

“Negative.” 

“No way… What about you? Can you replace her control instead and override this facility?”

“Not impossible, but that would require you to have a turned-on PC first,”

Adma scratched his head. He thought hard about the situation they found themselves in, in fact, he even blames himself for what happened to Clara.

Suddenly, a big hand shoves his shoulder and grabs his clothes collar.

“How bastard can you be, damn it!? We all are people here, aren’t we?” That hand is Hepaetus’s. The flickering light that comes from Rika’s fire is illuminated by the old man’s firm face. He is not angry like Adma guesses, instead, his expression is composed and radiating wise feelings.

“Seems like you forgot about the people here, spewing ‘Navigator this, Navigator that,’” said Hepaetus. “At first I don’t understand. You look like a lunatic, speaking to imaginary people, until I realized that you probably talking to that device, aren’t you?” asked Hepaetus.

“After that, you look like lost control over yourself. Your hand turned into wire and connected to this machine. As if there are two people that actually controlling those bodies.” After some second lifting Adma’s collar, Hepaetus then put him back down.

“I bet from your point of view, our technology is primitive. But if you don’t explain what just happened, you won’t get anywhere alone like that.” finished Hepaetus. 

The Master Forger words worked as a slap for Adma. He is right, Adma maybe a quarter human with the body of a machine, but his ability is not entirely a wonder-maker.

Therefore, he decides to tell what happened in the virtual space, despite they understand or not.

“Clara… She has been terminated…” said Adma. finished his story with that word.

“That name is the name that you use to call that fetcher right?” asked Hepaetus. Gon and Rika answer with a nod.

“I see, I have never given her name myself,” said Hepaetus. “Come with me, I know how to fix our problem.” he continues.

The four of them descend to the floor facility, where Hepaetus put all of his inventions. He walked to one of the walls and pointing into a panel, that is hidden from plain sight. 

“This is…?” asked Adma.

“I am the one that owns this place, of course, I have to know everything about it. For the last years, she taught me about the concept of electricity and that the facility is also mainly powered by her. ‘Clara’ said that if anything happened to the computer system, the electricity might also be affected. But at least with this, we can activate the door, and have a way out of this place.” 

Hepaetus gouge that panel open with a crowbar, and they can see a bright red switch. Without any doubt, the old man pulls that switch up.

A loud beep can be heard near them, as they see the green light appeared from the iron gate, similar to what they encounter at the top of the mountain.

“This is the ground door, opposite from what we came, it is connected to the hidden side of the mountain.”

Hepaetus pressed the button, and the iron gate slide opened.

***

Wind flowing to the opened door, and the group finally found themselves out of the mountain. They also realized how stuffy the air feels inside Hepaetus’s base, while the air outside feels cold and refreshing.

At the same time, they can see the stars that shine bright in the night sky, enough for Rika to repel her fire magic.

“See? There is nothing to worry about,” said Hepaetus, when something catches his eyes.

The fetchers that used to fly high above now fallen to the ground. Some of their components are broken because of the impact, and no sign for it to come back to life. Without the computer that controlling them, even if Hepaetus would successfully fix them, without Clara, they are just that. A machine.

Hepaetus lift one of them up, he feels a bit melancholic seeing what happened to his invention. The scene makes Adma feels more guilty.

“Don’t be sorry,” said Hepaetus suddenly, startled Adma up. “Don’t be sorry. You already tell us what happened, none of them was your fault.”

He put back the fetcher gently. 

“Clara’s loss is regrettable, but if I have depended on her all the time, it will hurt my pride as an inventor,” Said Hepaetus, as he walked past Adma. They are going to the spot where Gon and Rika tie their horses and carriage.

An hour later, they make campfire near the carriage. Three of them are sitting in a circle, while Adma laying down, not far from there.

According to Navigator’s suggestion, Adma needs to take longer rest to recalibrate his body and function. She also said that the virtual-space experience has possibilities to leave the trauma for Adma’s brain, AKA: the processor of his body.

None of them speak much that night, especially to Adma. He may have acquired a lot of information from Clara, but now even more mysteries emerge.

The ‘central data’ the figure talking about is supposed to be the ‘dungeon’ that they are planning to go next. Moreover, this seems like a trap, and Adma will only find trouble if he went that way.

“Suggestion: went southwest 56 kilometers from here, you would found a town where you can resupply. After some days or weeks, you can continue your journey into another settlement,” said Navigator.

“Are you telling me to run away?” Asked Adma.

“I choose the option that will mostly ensure your safety.”

“Safety? But what about the actual purpose of our journey? We had just gathered our first intel, and they are not even one percent of the entire knowledge of the old world!”

“The situation… has changed,” said Navigator. “You also realized what happened right? Diving into the virtual space may risk us more attacks like that. In the outside world, with brute strength, you can found the way out of everything. But it’s different on the other side.”

“... I know what you are thinking, Navigator. We maybe walked into the trap, our actual enemy is probably hidden in the darkness.” utter Adma, his fist clenched. “But I can’t stay here, ignorant to that fact.”

Silence enveloping them as Adma starring at the stars.

“These are the record that Clara send me for the last time,”

“Record? What are you talking about?”

“Before we got completely ejected, Clara quietly send me a feed of conversation with the AI from central. It goes like this…”

Navigator put that recording to play, and Adma listening to the conversation that he did not hear. At first, it was hard to listen to the voice of someone that has been gone, but Adma’s attention toward one sentence,

“I have found the new master.”

And those words are coming from the mysterious figure that terminates Clara.