World Seed: New Rules Page 24

  By the time I had gotten back to the city, Sharon had already logged back off, saying that we should meet up the next time we are in the same solar system. It’d be interesting to see what new tricks she learned as a druid focusing on her animal companions. Quickly making our way to the hotel, I went ahead and put everyone in my grove so that we could transfer over to my world.

  After logging out, I saw that it was indeed still daytime for me. So naturally, I wouldn’t be able to see if there was anything wrong with the moon by looking outside. Instead, I booted up my computer and had it run a search for world news relating to the moon. Almost immediately, a holographic video was brought up for me to see. While it wasn’t live, it had reporter commentary about what was happening.

  “Now, this just in. The cause of the disturbances in the ocean have finally been traced to a source. Many have feared that there was a giant monster lying beneath our waters, but the truth may in fact be more terrifying.” A female british reporter spoke up on the hologram while the image showed the moon. There seemed to be an abnormal amount of large cracks in it, and they appeared to be spreading.

  “As you can see, there have been changes within the moon itself. Now, until now none of these changes had been visible on the surface, so we were unaware of them. Watch here, as the changes begin to really reveal themselves.” Suddenly, the cracks grow wider, large chunks of rock breaking off. However, the moon wasn’t shattering with pieces falling to the Earth… it was standing up.

  The large stone chunks formed into massive arms and legs, as the moon itself seemed to become a giant golem. The golem turned its head towards the screen, or towards the Earth, with glowing red eyes before it simply flew off. The night sky was now missing one great big celestial object. “We have decided to name this creature a Lunar Titan, and label it as a planetary threat should it ever return. In the meantime, scientists have already begun speculating the long term ramifications of an Earth without a moon. We’ll have more information for you as the situation develops!”

  As the hologram turned off, I sat there with my mouth hanging open, various pieces of information I had gathered clicking into place one by one. Legion had been writing a space shanty in the blood of his victims, and he knew the end was coming. Speaking under my breath, I recalled the words I had once heard. “For cast your eyes up to the skies, the moon has danced away…”

  I had heard those words the first time I was on a ship, the Nostromo. At first, I had thought that they were referring to how a moon is a bad celestial body to use for navigation, and to trust the stars instead. I had never imagined that it was a warning, or a reminder, that the moon would literally abandon us. And, if that’s true, doesn’t that mean that the ‘game world’ is simply the future? The year 3016 A.G… After Genesis… The word that had been shown to the entire world at once.

  Then, in that case… the Cradle of Life, the First Journey… should all be from Earth, right? Every race claims it was them… but how many different alien species exist on Earth right now? But… then… the Cradle of Life was not an occupied world in the game, it had become a dungeon planet, where ships would be destroyed just for approaching it. Doesn’t that mean, if we don’t leave soon, more giant monsters will spawn and wipe out all other life?

  You have discovered the truth about the Cradle of Life.

  +15 Intelligence

  I couldn’t be the only one thinking about this. Anyone who’s heard the legends and the song should know. This isn’t the end… this is just the beginning of the changes. Most likely, there would be a global focus on space exploration now, using the technology we are able to retrieve and adapt from the game… No, from the future.

  “Wow… I did not see this coming…” Celeste spoke from over my shoulder, as much surprised by this as I was. “I mean… an ocean slime I could understand, but this? I haven’t seen a record of a Lunar Titan or whatever, but maybe they just aren’t near the Gallen system..”

  As I was staring at the screen, still at a loss, other posts began appearing on the internet. More large monsters were beginning to spawn around the globe. The sphinxes of Egypt were coming to life, the Statue of Liberty walked off her island, and loud roars could be heard near the himalayas. “So much stray mana has been going to giving birth to the Lunar Titan, that it was stopping the other large monsters from spawning…” The AI added in a mildly terrified voice. “Now that it’s done and gone, they will keep appearing.”

  It had been strange that only relatively small monsters had spawned so far, as if it was letting us adapt. If we are the center of mana in the universe, as the situation would seem to indicate, there should have been giant monsters spawning left and right, each no smaller than the nature wyrm that nearly killed me on the jungle planet. But all we’ve gotten were the small ones, like slimes and minotaurs.

  The Dungeon Planet, Cradle of Life, has been created in your vicinity. It is strongly advised that you vacate the area.