The Index
Chapter 3 - The Index
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|| Index || Network | Trials |
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Earth Name: Midas Mira
AC: 1,300
Gift: None
Conditions and States:
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Nature: Neutral Evil
Trait: Hyper Intuitive
Mental: Machiavellian Personality, Avoidant Personality, Borderline Personality, Anxiety Disorder
Physical: -
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Stats:
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Dexterity (Agility, Flexibility) → 1.3
Strength (Speed, Power) → 0.8
Constitution (Endurance, Health) → 1.0
Intelligence (Memory, Reasoning) → 1.7
Charisma (Charm, Persuasion) → 1.2
Wisdom (Intuition, Adaptability) → 3.4
Spirit (Mental State, Character) → 0.7
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"Whoa..."
Midas gazed dumbfoundedly at the floating window and realised that this might actually be realer than he thought.
He still had a smidgen of skepticism in his heart about the situation as he tried to rationalise his situation to the best of his ability. This might not be Magic. Any advanced technology is no different from Magic. The question is whether earthlings even had such advanced technology.
He imagined the possibility of embedded micro explosives at the backs of people's necks to explain away the exploding heads, but these projected windows were something even he could not fully grasp. He decided to let go of his misgivings and focus on the task at hand for now.
Although he might not know what a Gift is, or why he does not have one, his Trait most certainly makes some sense to him.
There have been many times in Midas' past where he would make predictions about people and situations and find that those predictions would come true. It was his intuition which told him to get away from the green life-form and that proved to be something that may or may not have saved his life a few minutes ago.
'Wait, How do I have three personality disorders?' Midas thought to himself.
Well every person exists on every spectrum of personality disorder, so everyone has personality disorders to some extent. Maybe these are just the ones that manifest themselves above a certain threshold.
Midas smiled as he mused to himself that according to this description, he may as well be the clinical definition of a mental hospital patient. He listened in on other's ramblings to confirm his ideas and felt like surely he was onto something.
"Whoa, why do I have so many personality disorders?"
"Yeah, me too... Am I broken?"
"Oh my god, How am I a Narcissist? I mean I am handsome, but I don't go around rubbing it in people's faces..."
"Why is my Constitution a 0.4?" asked one woman.
Immediately afterwards, someone replied, "Maybe it's because you're fat," and that immediately caused a few people to chuckle.
Midas realised that he could not see people's information. He was grateful for that as it meant that probably, everyone else could not see his information either.
The stats made some sense to him, and although they seemed low at first after listening around Midas realised that most people's stats revolved around the 1.0 mark with some going higher and some going Lower.
'1.0 must be the normalised value for a normal healthy human being', Midas mused.
"Hey, what's your trait? Mine is Full Body Control." said the person standing next to Midas while looking at Midas curiously with a smile on his face. He had a black Hoodie on and stood at 1.7 meters tall, which was about the same height as Midas.
Midas turned to look at him and saw that he was a Latin American like those that would be found in South America, and from his accent he probably spoke Portuguese. He had a tanned face with some scarring on it that seemed like it was due to fights or altercations. His brown eyes shone brightly, and his square nose and good looks would make him seem friendly and approachable to most people.
"Do you really think it's a good idea to tell me your traits?" asked Midas with a smile on his face.
To that, the portuguese accented man said "Well, I am trying to make friends with you my friend. My name is Julio. What about you?"
With an outstretched arm and a smile on his face, Julio introduced himself to Midas and Midas responded with a smile on his own face and shook Julio's hand.
"I'm Midas. It's nice to meet you."
"Hey Midas, you still haven't told me your Trait yet. By the way, I am from Brazil. You are from Africa right?"
"You say that as if Africa is one country... I'm South African. And I'm pretty sure the green being is going to continue speaking again soon." said Midas while turning back towards the direction of the front.
"Huh, why would you say—" as Julio was about to continue speaking, the green life-form raised its arm and everyone became quiet once again.
Julio looked at Midas with a shocked expression almost as if his eyes were going to pop out of his sockets. After realising that Midas might never explain himself, Julio merely smiled and turned his head towards the front once again where the green life-form, which was now standing on top of the statue, continued speaking.
"As you can see, the Index offers you a basic summary about your existence. Of course this is only a basic summary that has been translated into your language of choice, and it will merely be useful for the purpose of these Trials. You sill soon find out that it can do much much more. Effectively, the Index is the means through which you will communicate with the world of the Trials. You may not understand what that means right now, but you will soon enough."
"Some of you may have noticed a section called AC. Those are Ascension Coins, think of them as currency that can be used to buy things. When it comes to the question of what can be bought or how things are bought, I have no need to explain it to you all. If you lower beings can't even figure that out for yourselves then you might as well die."
Midas' eyes shone with understanding. This was most definitely a clue to surviving the First Trial, the Trial of Self.
"And remember, you are being watched.", continued the green life-form with a natural expression. As if sensing the confusion in the eyes of those who were waiting for it to explain itself, it sneered and waved its hands and immediately the field that was coloured with green oak trees was now filled with floating silver coloured drone-like organisms.
They were as big as a basketball and their whole body was merely a head with one large eye on it. That golden eye would rotate, dilate and constrict occasionally like a camera lens. There weren't merely one or two of these. There were tens of thousands and all of these eyes were staring at the Chosen at this moment.
"Do not pay too much attention to these, they are just here to watch, and record every moment. They can never and will never interfere with the process of the Trials because they do not even exist in this dimension. And with regards to who is watching, Let us just say that anyone in the Universe with an 'Index-like' interface can watch. Even everyone back on your Earth is watching."
Shock and disbelief. They were being watched. Even by the people back on Earth? Did their people also receive Indexes?
'What does Back on Earth mean? Is this not Earth?' thought Midas. He couldn't help but remember the dream he had before waking up. That floating bus in space. There was no way right?
"Remember, your actions in these Trials will determine the future of your planet. Therefore, we have given your people the ability to watch the action live from the perspective of any Chosen. They will see you struggle. They will see you triumph. They will see you die. This is the ultimate viewing experience. It is your honour to participate in these Trials, cherish it. None of this would be possible if it were not for the Great One. Praise be to the Great One's Name." said the green life-form in the most animated of manners and immediately voices sounded from everywhere around the Chosen.
"Praise Be to the Great One's Name"
"Praise Be to the Great One's Name"
"Praise Be to the Great One's Name"
The praise echoed over and over as if it was being reverberated by the Eyes in the sky. The Green Life-form waved his hands and all those Eyes disappeared again, probably going back to their dimension.
Shock, Fear, Terror, Anger, Resentment. This is what Midas felt at this moment. They were probably being turned into some form of entertainment by these people. These Hunger Games were for the whole Universe's entertainment. They were merely just pawns in the game that this Great One had set up.
The worst thing is that they had no choice but to play the game.
If they didn't, they would die. If they fail all the trials, the Earth and everyone on it would die, including them. Midas felt his blood bubble in indignation. This was the first time he had felt so insignificant.
"This brings us to the second Gift given to you all by the Great One. The Actualisation. The Actualisation is a realisation of an incarnation's Wish. That's right, if you could wish for anything right now, what would it be?"
"..."
Silence filled the plaza as people were hesitant to respond. And it was good that they didn't because the Green Life-form carried on.
"In a moment you will all be asked that question by your Index, and the first thing you think of will be taken as your answer to the question. Thereafter you will be taken to another space to claim your Actualisation. The way in which you claim your Actualisation will be a test, wherein the better you perform, the better rewards and thus Actualisation you will get. If you do not want to be stuck with a weak Actualisation, do your best and think your hardest for this next part. Now, I will allow you all to ask some questions for the first time. If anyone has a question, you could go ahead and raise your hand."
Right then, numerous people raised their hands and at the same time large screens showing the Green Lifeform's face were projected in such a way that even those who were standing hundreds of metres aways could see it clearly. On one of those screens, a green eyed, brown haired girl with rosy cheeks and small nose had her hand raised. Midas recognised her as the girl who was the one who woke him up.
"If your face appears on the projection, you have my permission to speak." said the Green Lifeform. The girl on the projection looked around, then looked up at herself on the projection and realising that it was her turn to speak, channeled her courage and spoke.
"Uh yes, umm... I have a question. You said that the Actualisation can be anything. Can it even be supernatural?", asked the girl tentatively. The rose in her cheeks grew a deeper shade of red as if she was shy or embarrassed about her question. The green lifeform's answer came soon enough.
"Yes the Actualisation can be anything. And there is no such thing as 'Supernatural' Phenomenon. All phenomena obey the Laws of the Universe, or what you Earthlings call the Laws of Nature, and are therefore Natural. Just because you cannot explain something with your fragment of Scientific 'knowledge' does not make it impossible. It just makes you ignorant. Next Question."
Immediately the projections in the air cycled to the next person whose face was coloured with surprise and confusion at first before composure. The Indian looking man said "You said that we will be tested and our performance in the Actualisation Test will determine how good the Actualisation is. Could you explain more about that?"
"Actualisations obviously have grades. There are Universal grades of course, but for the sake of your Index they have been translated into grades going from F for the lowest grade to S for the highest grade according to the level of your existence. Your Actualisation will manifest as the Gift under the Gift Section with its grade. Some of you might even earn additional rewards too. Next Question."
Midas' eyes shone with understanding. The Gift in the Index was actually the Gift that they would be given through the Actualisation Test. They would be asked what they wish for the most and given a test pertaining to that.
Depending on their performance on the test, they would be rewarded with the Gift and any additional skills and maybe even with some Ascension Credits too.
Midas was excited in his own way for this. He had an idea of what he could wish for to increase his chances of survival but he still felt that this was a bit too easy. As such he raised his arm hoping to be chosen.
And like that a few timid questions and prompt answers rang forth. The most interesting thing is that non English Languages were being automatically translated into English for Midas. He wondered if that was due to the Index.
"Umm.. Hi. Sorry... Oh Umm Could we ask for items instead of Skills?"
"You may ask for anything that you want right now. It will get turned into a Gift for you depending on what it is, and your performance. Next."
"What about the size of what we ask for. If we asked for a planet, would you give it to us?"
"I said it before, whatever you wish for will be given in some Normalised form. Next."
When the projected screens showed Midas' face even he was surprised, but he immediately calmed himself down and asked the question that was on his mind.
"Is it possible to die while undertaking the Actualisation Test?"
The people standing around Midas had surprised expressions on their faces as they hadn't thought of that. Even Julio looked at Midas and gave him a thumbs up. On the other side of the field, the green eyed girl who asked the first question was a bit confused when she saw Midas speak. 'Wasn't he mute?'
"You will not die. But you will experience something far worse... What do you earthlings say, there is no such thing as free lunch? The more troublesome the Wish is, the more troublesome the Test will be. That is all."
Midas nodded to himself and realised that his assumption was spot on. There are more terrifying things in life than death, even Midas knew that. The key to navigating this would lie in weighing the pros and cons. It's not worth having a weak Gift just so that he doesn't have to suffer in the Test. He chose to vow to do his best, and whatever comes, would come.
After a few more questions, the Green Life-form had somewhat of an annoyed expression on its face as it said, "No more questions. Let's start." It waved its hand and immediately everything went dark around Midas' vision.
The world went black. Then, right in front of Midas, A blue panel materialised itself:
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| Actualisation Test |
[If you could wish for anything right now, What would it be?]
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