NEW PLAYERS

NEW PLAYERS

Gilbert entered his sister's room with determination, carrying what looked like a simple compact cabinet"but in reality, it was a next-generation portable processing center, highly optimized for magical connections. He carefully placed it on the desk, pressed a side button, and within a second, the device opened, deploying an ultra-thin monitor and activating a keyboard and mouse in the form of holographic projections floating above the surface.

No cables or physical connections were needed. Just one mana vial, and the machine would power on as if it had an infinite battery.

He sat on the swivel chair, turned around, and frowned when he saw Loli, frozen, staring intently at a few vials.

"Hey, little sis. I'm glad you want to play with me, but that doesn't mean you should use so many mana vials..." he started with a smile. Then he leaned in and examined the vials on the desk. "...These are high-quality. Why didn't you use the lower-purity ones? You know these are meant for healing or artifact catalysis."

"These aren't yours," murmured Loli, still staring at them as if they were sacred artifacts.

Gilbert frowned. He stuck his head out of the room and checked the bag of magical supplies he had left by the doorway. Everything was still there. Nothing had been moved.

"Where did you get these?" His voice tightened with a hint of disbelief. "You can't just find high-quality mana vials that easily on Earth."

Loli swallowed hard. "The… the game. The invitation… the core. It charged them by itself," she explained in a low voice, almost ashamed.

Gilbert stared at her for a moment, trying to see if she was joking. But her expression was too honest, too shaken. This wasn't an act.

"Are you serious?" he asked gravely, slowly stepping closer, focusing entirely on every word his sister might say.

Loli nodded. In that instant, the lightness in the room vanished.

"Tell me exactly everything that happened," Gilbert said"more like Bert, his nickname among the mining crew, where he was known for his near-perfect memory, system analysis skills, and his weird obsession with the technological history of mankind.

Loli began to speak. She told him about the woman with strange eyes, her odd behavior, the fragmented phrases that didn't quite make sense, as if she were repeating pre-recorded lines… and then the moment when the cores recharged physical vials in the real world. Gilbert didn't interrupt once. He didn't take notes. He just stared, absorbing and assembling the puzzle in his mind with frightening speed.

"Did she say they 'died'?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah," said Loli. "But then she corrected herself. Said no, they renounced… though she didn't seem sure."

Gilbert narrowed his eyes. "Did she mention anything about code, type of intelligence, any phrase like protocol or AI architecture?"

Loli shook her head.

"Then... she's not an artificial intelligence. Not a traditional one, at least. Do you remember the story of the 2100 AIs?" he asked, already beginning to mutter to himself.

"Of course not. I don't have your human-archive brain, Bert," Loli scoffed.

Gilbert went on, barely registering her jab. His tone turned low, more academic.

"In 2050, AIs were so advanced they were indistinguishable from humans. By 2100, it became law that every artificial entity had to carry a visible source code identifier"some kind of marker to differentiate them from people. It could be visual, auditory, thermal, whatever... But it was law. If it had none, it wasn't a registered AI. And if it wasn't a registered AI… then it wasn't AI."

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Loli asked.

"If the woman you saw didn't have a marker, then she wasn't a cataloged AI. And if she was an NPC who believed she was real, then…"

Gilbert slowly stood and began to pace, murmuring almost in a trance.

"...then she wasn't a simple automated code. She was a brain record. Maybe the developers copied human consciousness. Maybe she was one of them. Maybe even the last, and the others were wiped out."

"And why would they do that?" asked Loli.

Gilbert stopped. His voice dropped a tone.

"Because they knew we'd need help one day. Because this world is collapsing, and maybe that was their only way to reach out."

"So... is the game real?"

"More real than you can imagine," Bert answered gravely.

Loli hesitated. "But... how did it charge mana into real vials?"

"That's not as far-fetched as it sounds," Gilbert replied, already back at the computer. "When I worked in the mines, we used teleporters to move energetic objects from one side to the other. Never living beings. But energy"mana"is considered matter in energy state. If the developers found a way to stabilize it from that other world, they could transfer it directly into compatible containers."

"But that would mean... there's an open channel," Loli murmured.

"Exactly," Gilbert said. "A channel between our world and that one. If we keep it secret, if we use it carefully, we can restore Earth."

His face tightened.

"But we must remain invisible. If the elves detect us, they might come back."

"They haven't completely left?" Loli asked.

"They left... for now. They're busy draining other planets. They see us as a dead field, useless. But if they see sprouts of life… if they see hope… they might return."

"And what will we do?" Loli asked, a mix of fear and hope in her voice.

Gilbert looked out the window, toward the gray, polluted, lifeless sky.

"We'll do what we do best. Adapt. Survive. Use this virtual world as a bridge. As a source. Step by step, tree by tree, drop by drop… we'll bring life back. But without drawing attention. Like silent livestock."

And for the first time in years, a spark lit up in Gilbert's eyes. The spark of someone who had lived surrounded by despair, but now saw a way out. A hidden path. A possibility.

A hope.

"That man in the mine said that after a first awakening comes a second one. And that's when the planet regains some intelligence and protects its inhabitants. Obviously, I don't know if we'll reach that level in our lifetime. But maybe… for future generations," Gilbert said, his gaze fixed on a distant point, as if he could already see that possible future.

"Alright," replied Loli, with a mix of respect and admiration. To her, her brother wasn't just intelligent… he was Bert, the boy who since he was little solved problems even adults didn't know how to approach. The one who, in class, not only got the best grades but also found mistakes in the books and corrected the teachers. He was logical, calculating, and at the same time, visionary.

In his mind, every thought was like a chess piece, moving on a board only he could see in full. When Bert spoke, everyone listened. Not because he shouted, but because his ideas worked. Always.

"So, what do we do?" asked Loli, knowing her brother already had a plan in motion before she even finished speaking.

"You still have one invitation, right? Invite Sig. I would like to bring grandpa, but if this game is what I suspect… maybe we can bring him in the next one. Sig, on the other hand, is useful now. She's good at investigating, knows how to manage resources, and above all, she's discreet. She'll be essential," Bert said firmly, like someone laying out a military strategy.

If he had been born in another era, Gilbert wouldn't just have been a leader. He would have been a genius remembered by history. But maybe… it wasn't too late for that.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the world…

Lua was sitting on the half-ruined roof of what once was her house, calmly chewing a blue mana stone. It crunched between her teeth like simple chalk, although to anyone else it would be like biting marble.

She had to go hunting. It wasn't something that bothered her " she actually enjoyed it. She liked challenges. Although beast cores were rare, she knew how to get them: hunting high-level creatures or gathering the right stones.

She knew the energy hierarchies as if they were part of her:

Mana Stone Fragments

Mana Stone

Great Mana Stone

Demonic or Beast Core

Each one was created by combining ten of the previous. And although they could also be found in mines, Lua had never been to one. Fighting was her thing, not digging.

Crunch.

Another bite. Then, three flashes appeared in front of her. Exactly where, days before, the fairy had disappeared.

Lua jumped without thinking, descending in a single leap from the roof to stand before the lights. Her jump was long, precise. Powerful. Upon landing, the three spirits before her froze. Well, two spirits and a fairy.

Lua observed them with her usual mixture of curiosity and indifference. Two floating lights, each glowing with a different tone.

The green spirit was the first to speak, with a masculine voice:

"Code identification!"

Lua blinked. "Huh?"

"Fuuu… at least you could get a fake barcode on your arm. Otherwise, they'll catch you," it muttered, as if talking to a lazy companion.

Lua just looked at it, not understanding.

SIA, her inner companion, spoke urgently:

"Host… maybe we messed up. From how that guy talks, it seems intelligences have to register."

"So?"

"Leave it to me," SIA replied. At that moment, Lua felt a tingling on her arm. A second later, a perfectly engraved barcode appeared on her skin. She scratched it indifferently before raising her voice:

"I am an artificial intelligence."

The green spirit sighed as if soulless. If it had eyes, it probably would have rolled them.

"Hey, hey! Why am I just a fart?" shouted the pink spirit with a feminine voice.

"You're a low-rank spirit," Lua replied matter-of-factly.

"Then why is Loli a pretty fairy?!" protested the pink voice again.

Lua explained in a didactic tone:

"Every certain number of spirits, some are born with an evolutionary leap. Fairies, Sylphs, Dryads, things like that. It's chance, but also energy. Spiritual evolution."

"Evolution?" the three asked in unison.

"Yes. At level 10, they can choose an evolutionary branch. Although, if they meet certain special requirements, they can unlock secret routes, unique races."

"Like what?" asked the pink spirit excitedly.

Lua began to list:

"The greedy for gold can become Leprechauns or Goblins. The intellectuals, Pixies, Imps, or Gnomes. And there will always be the basics: Slime, Mimic, Ratkin, Molequifs, Sproutlings, Elemental Sparks… Each with a peak form. For example, the Elemental Spark can become an Elemental Avatar if it follows its elemental path."

"Awesome! Sounds interesting," said the pink one, now more animated.

"So how did you get your race?" Loli suddenly interjected, having just arrived.

"Mine?" Lua shrugged. "I was born like this. But my line comes from a dark evolution of fairies. With nightmares, destruction, and all that stuff."

"Sounds… terrifying," muttered Loli.

"Alright, I'm interested in this game, it's super cool. So, what's our first mission?" asked the female spirit.

Lua tilted her head.

"Mission?" she repeated, confused.