Intervention
As if knowing what Eduard and Chunghee were talking about, The Game Master notification appeared again.
「The Game Master suggests you accept his
Eduard snorted. As if he would let a dumb AI take advantage of him, he opened the in-game overlay again. Quickly navigating towards the in-game browser, Eduard tried searching for a solution.
He tried finding the Outer Rim forum; usually, a dedicated forum would have been set up so that testers and developers could communicate with each other. However, the only results he found were random images of stars and silly board games.
Ignoring his friend's comments, he continued searching for anything Outer Rim related. However, the results were less than expected. He couldn't find anything Outer Rim related on the web. To further add to his annoyance, the game master pinged again.
「The rampant energy is getting closer. It will collide with the floating island in 10 minutes. Whilst the Cleanse Program will need 13 minutes to arrive.」
「The Game Master took pity on your dedication to the cause and is willing to suffer a bit of loss to help you out. For the next 5 minutes,
「The Game Master hopes that you'll accept this deal to establish an amicable trading relationship with each other.」
Although tempted, Eduard knew once he had taken this deal, paying it won't be easy. It's best not to accumulate them. Knowing how much time he had left, Eduard quickly resumed finding a solution on the web.
Soon, he caught a lucky find. His search of suspending the game on Stellarium Deep-VR headset came back positive. He used this technique on online games before; to artificially induce a quick disconnect from the game server; to get a better server.
With the key to the kingdom now in hand, Eduard followed it, step by step. He quickly navigated through the in-game overlay to find the search bar. With its help, Eduard found the Resource Manager. Navigating down the long list, the only item Eduard saw belonging to Outer Rim was "outerrim_alpha.edvr".
The moment he hit "suspend", everything stopped. The ranging energy, the Cleansing Program, the despotic sky and cold wind were all frozen in place. What was once a world in the blink of destruction now transformed into a polaroid picture.
Yet strangely, immuned to the program suspension, Eduard could still move around. The energy from his sigil was still automatically transferring to the membrane. Yet, the membrane neither expanded nor receded. Feeling weird, Eduard tried to sever his energy connection.
Energy stopped the energy pouring out from his body. Yet those that already left were now frozen in place.
Not knowing how to answer his friend, Eduard stood still, trying to observe the severed floating energy. However he looked at it, the logic behind it was so bizarre.
Moving a bit away from the tree, Eduard arrived at a snow-covered ground. He swatted down and tried to create a snowball, one the size of an adult hand. Once it was formed, Eduard put it on his elbow. He tilted his arm downwards and the snowball followed. Everything behaved normally, yet the moment it rolled off his hand, it froze mid-air.
Eduard poked it to see if there was any reaction. As he had expected, it continued downwards but stopped instantly after. With his theory sorted, Eduard looked toward the Cleanse Program in the far distance. He started to formulate a plan to save his island and tree.
'The rampant energy is 8 minutes away whilst the Cleanse Program is 11. All I need is to move it at least 2 minutes north.
From initial observation, the island itself hovers up and down slowly. Hence, I can infer that it is possible to move it.
The island movement also follows a vertical axis without any degree of deviation. This only means that either its centre of gravity is huge, or the whole island itself is under the same law of gravity. I'm more inclined to believe it's the latter. So, no dropping off enough heavy stuff to make the island tilts to one side. Hence, the only feasible option is inducing enough horizontal force to move it.'
Although, he finally had a plan. However, he didn't know how to execute it. The island itself was the size of his home city, Singapur. Only those of a second-tier have enough power to impact a city. Through 8 years of hard practice, he had only managed to reach the rank of a third-tier initiate.
A sudden thought flashed his mind, 'What if I push the island instead? This avatar could fly after all.' So he went and tried it. It took him a while to fly toward the edge of the floating island. Eduard dove down and looked for a good spot.
On the outer edge of a floating island, an idiot was pushing with all of his might. Grunting and wailing sounds could be heard echoing from Eduard's mouth.