Since I’d gained a conceptual understanding of time my doubts as to what could surprise me kept falling like dominos. That same acceptance of my new and surreal reality didn’t seem to show any signs of hitting the brakes either. After all, I was currently being addressed by what was in all likelihood an omnipresent, omniscient, force of nature… And that force of nature was being a smart-ass.

  It took me a few moments to compose myself.

  Why did it matter if the creature was being weird anyways?

  I suppose it felt like it was being dismissive. Here I was risking my entire network to foolheartedly dive core-first into the unknown and it was like this creature was laughing at my efforts.

  But… Did that really matter?

  The nihilistic outlook over my predicament faded pretty quickly. Maybe my initial disdain at the absurdity of the situation was due to the urgency I felt? I’d put a lot of thought and effort into getting to the point where I could even attempt something this reckless and the nonchalant attitude of the creature responsible for the pop-ups had thrown me for a loop.

  “What do I call you…” I vibrated cautiously.

  If nothing else, I decided that I did not want to offend this type of creature if I could help it. The last thing I needed was an enemy capable of sculpting my own reality.

  So despite the incredible urgency I was feeling, I intended to project a sort of decorum. Whatever was creating these pop-ups had demonstrated sentience and a personality. It was undeniably powerful as well… or at least more powerful than I was by a worrying magnitude.

  *Tick*

  The torrential cosmic winds froze in an instant. It felt as if everything had been put on pause. Strangely, my focus was still hyper-fixated on the task at hand… but the strain was no longer there. The original pop-up had also faded to the background becoming unreadable as a new one populated into view.

  As I read, I started to feel the familiar tug of vertigo along my network. Parsing through the dialogue of this creature was surreal. Back when I’d begun receiving these pop-ups I had barely questioned it. I mean, I had… but It didn’t really register to me that a sentient creature was responsible. Eventually that thought had crossed my mind, but I didn’t feel like it was something which would cooperate so easily with me.

  I focused on the lightly pulsing button and accepted.

  As if it had never been otherwise, I found myself completely removed from my original surroundings. Nothing signaled my departure from the former dimension of temporal wind and strife. It just happened.

  …It was an abrupt and immediate change… and It was… concerning.

  No longer embraced within the endless expanse of the void, I was locked in place with my gaze affixed forward as if it were magnetized. A two dimensional plane in the same crisply radiant aquamarine as the pop-ups shimmered before me.

  I narrowed my gaze, trying not to glower. It wasn’t as if I expected to perfectly acclimate to the gap of intelligence which was obvious between myself and this creature immediately. I was just disappointed in myself for not being able to understand the first answer I’d been given… This was going to be difficult.

  I waited for a moment as System seemed to be contemplating. A few dots extended and receded as if I was being told to patiently await the next surge of information. I took the time to contemplate my surroundings. This was a curious dimension I found myself within now…

  I was glad that I’d resigned myself to simply accepting everything regardless of how ridiculous it was a few moments prior. If I hadn't then I’d be questioning every crack and corner of my current situation. Instead I let my frozen network go slack in the embrace of this temporary reprieve.

  The inner voice I was imagining for System… no, not imagining, I corrected myself. It was more structured than that. It had weight. This was what System intended as its voice.

  I didn’t know how, but the weight behind the text projected itself in a higher register than my vibrations. It was soft and comforting with a light fry to it.

  …And the exchange between us felt informal. System’s tone was casual… giddy even.

  The mechanism behind the dialogue was alien to me. It was as complete a mystery to me as whatever it meant by a ‘construct’. All I could do was hide how awestruck I was as I watched my thoughts manifest as a written language upon the flat glowing surface. It felt natural and well balanced unlike my shakily evolved vibrations I often sent through my network.

  This was panning out to be, despite my inherent confusion, an efficient and relaxed exchange. I only wished my ignorance was less pronounced and my intellect was more adequate.

  Finally, the dots vanished as text populated the surface before me.

  Of course System and myself weren’t the same at the moment. I’d been hoping however, that System was a more advanced version of myself. By System’s response it seemed that wasn’t the case.

  A light, airy chuckle echoed throughout the two dimensional space.

  I hadn’t realized I’d said anything funny, so I assumed the joke was at my expense. I didn’t sense any malice behind the laugh however, so I stayed silent as I waited for System to finish.

  The way System had responded almost immediately to assuage my fears of being made light of confirmed a suspicion that had been on my mind for a while. Could System sense what I was thinking? Obviously… yes. I didn’t know whether it could read my mind perfectly, but System could at the very least read my intentions and emotional state.

  I’d thought it had been possible from how System’s tone had shifted in our first true interaction to a less sarcastic, more cordial tone. After it had read my most recent fears however, I was sure of it.

  This also further supported System’s claim that we weren’t the same type of being as well. From what I knew of myself, I couldn’t read the intentions or thoughts of anything else, nor could I see myself learning that ability.

  System seemed to ponder for a moment before continuing with a lighter more sympathetic tone.

  My head swam with confusion. Aside from System’s intended info-dump, this interaction had allowed me to glean another unintentionally exposed piece of information. In each instance system had invoked ‘you’ as a personal pronoun directed towards me, the weight and meaning behind it had slightly changed.

  It was at that moment I realized there was more than a transcription occurring between System and its construct. It was a translation. More than that actually, it was in all likelihood a siphon for whatever immense meaning System was trying to pass onto me. So it wasn’t that System was having trouble communicating with me…

  … It was most likely that I was incapable of receiving the full meaning behind its words.

  For a moment I imagined my network being overloaded by the weight of Systems full intelligence and exploding into a billion tiny, glittering pieces which scattered themselves across the void like a firework. Yikes…

  I’d just met System, even if we did in fact have some interactions previously.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Those interactions seemed like echoes of the entity I was conversing with now. Like shadows on a wall contorting in a way which obfuscates the true intentions and form of the caster.

  The jarring appearance of multiple pop-ups had heralded me to this point where I was gazing into the heart of the creature I’d only seen the shadow of previously. The puppet had finally met the puppeteer, so to speak… and the one holding my strings was far different than I previously anticipated. For starters… there was no animosity.

  It wasn’t as if the pop-ups had felt adversarial. It was just that they hadn’t felt sentient. They felt neither caring nor hostile, just indifferent. I’d thought there may have been a creature behind them at certain points, but the reality was far different.

  The true System felt warm and kind. Funny… Crazy powerful but… It had a way of making me feel calm despite my rattled nerves.

  System continued, cutting off my train of thought.

  I narrowed my gaze a bit in concern. I was beginning to sync with this weird dimension I’d been funneled into, specifically the tone and timbre of System’s words. It was an odd sensation but I was acclimating. What worried me was the slight pause before System said they would release the freeze. The phrasing had a pronounced trepidation woven into the tone…

  Unfortunately for myself I wasn’t nearly as practiced in this method of communication as I’d become in reading System’s tone. As a result, anxiety gripped me as I transcribed one of my inner thoughts onto the construct.

  Before I could retract the hastily posed question the pulsing blue plane had accepted my subconscious musing. It might not have mattered given System was obviously keyed into my thoughts on some level. That being said, posing the question outwardly didn’t allow System to ignore it.

  I grumbled to myself. Whatever… etiquette be damned, I couldn’t take it back now.

  The truth was a part of me felt an uneasiness I didn’t quite understand. It was a mixture of sympathy and commiseration. Two emotions which had a sort of kinship, yet still felt the need to fight for dominance within me. Inquiring about this entity's well-being did feel important. My main concern was that it felt rude to ask.

  There was a brief yet pungent pause that hung in the air. I could sense System was taken aback.

  I grimaced. There was nothing I could do if System wasn’t forthcoming.

  I hadn’t intended to ask the question in the first place. I would just have to respect the answer even if It felt like I was being herded away from a response.

  I begrudgingly set my concern aside and decided to steel myself in order to push through the line of questioning.

  There was a lot of nuance involved in this conversation but the longer I spoke to this entity, the more sure I became that no amount of time would be sufficient to answer the questions that I had. For that reason I needed to buckle in and make the most of this.

  There was another pregnant pause. I could feel Systems unease at this specific line of inquiry.

  It was my turn to pause in thought, seeing the several small dots fluctuate in place awaiting my next mental transcription. This time I made sure to keep my subconscious thoughts guarded. Even if System could guesstimate my thoughts I wasn’t about to force it to answer every random question that crossed my mind.

  I of course, intellectually understood time to the extent that I understood that larger numbers meant more time. What I was understanding now from System, was that I would emotionally understand the concept if I completed my task.

  It was disconcerting but I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it. I needed to make use of the time I had afforded to me in the moment and worry about the time I’d lost later.

  I needed to ask the big question before this proceeded any further…

  The basic knowledge related to ships, oceans, and other nautical terms flooded into my mind. I’d slowly become more synchronized with System and due to that newfound resonance, the information I was receiving had become more potent.

  I watched the aquamarine plane piled with words melt before me. It was replaced by a vast, raging liquid severed by a clear gaseous overworld. The liquid surged and roiled like a sheet of molten glass and atop it sat a lone gargantuan mass of wood and metal.

  The ship cut through the rage filled waves as dark plumes of humid gas curdled in the sky above it. White foam quaked from the ship's incision into the liquid beneath and a trembling creak of wood and the crash of waves surrounded me.

  Every sense within my captured network was at attention. What was this glorious sight? A ship soaring upon a vast ocean… but simple definitions did this sight no justice. It was as if I was witnessing something celestial… and humans made this?

  I watched another ship crest from my periphery, gliding across the waves like a predator stalking its prey. Unlike the massive warship, this one was sleek and quick. Its mass was half that of the gargantuan beast it hunted but its smaller stature gave it an advantage in maneuvering.

  It seemed built for pursuit... solely created for the hunt. Long iron tubes extended from its sides and began to belch fire. In a state of shock I plummeted beneath the waves, sinking beneath as I watched flashes of light and debris trail in after me. The vision granted to me by System was intense. It truly felt like I was plummeting to a watery grave.

  I began to feel myself fade from the vision as System’s words increased in volume and intensity. The two dimensional plane replaced the watery coffin which threatened to snap its lid tightly around me, and I was left… if just for a moment, haunted.

  My network trembled, taking stock of my re-established safety and I did my best to regain my composure. After a tense moment I was able to focus intently on the conversation between System and myself once again.

  I was left even more confused about who and what I was than I had been within the void. In that sensationless pit of nothing, I at the very least had accepted my formless and fluid state of being. I was now slowly coming to the conclusion that I couldn’t be told who I was. That was something I’d have to decide for myself. I could, however, get a handle on what I was.

  I exhaled a long, calming vibration through my network in a self-soothing tone. I was beginning to understand an objective truth about this interaction and needed to confirm it.

  Another torrent of visual stimulus pumped into my consciousness as the scrolling stack of words vanished. I braced myself, recognizing that a shift in scenery was occurring. My previous reality was being replaced by a painterly reconstruction of the idea being presented to me.

  This time I was adrift, afloat before a small fleshy bipedal creature in a fetal position.

  …It was a creature in the midst of gestation. Vulnerable and new to life, its body pulsed with each beat of its heart. Concepts and allegories were being slowly fed into my mind as I witnessed the dreamlike painting before me. Something about it was fantastical and unreal.

  As I understood it, this entire reality was built as an allegory but things within it were reconstructions of things which existed. They were just arranged in a way meant to elicit what System seemed to refer to as ‘a thought experiment’.

  Within the center of this small creature, something glowed. It wasn’t radiant at first… I would even go so far as to describe it as a pitiful spark begging to be fed. Something about it however, was brilliant and beautiful.

  I realized I was being drawn in, all of my focus shifting to that little speck. It was at that moment I heard it… a whisper of a want. A desire… a dream.

  “Build…”. I heard the small, fleshy, seed of life whisper.

  I stared in quiet curiosity. This seed of sorts must be the virtue System spoke of.

  My perspective shifted slightly as the scene contracted. The small fetal creature shrank as more of its kind entered my field of view. With them came subtle whispers and whines… small cries of need.

  Atop these small cries, Systems voice cascaded into my network as well.

  “Love”...” break”... … .. . “Consume…” … .. . “Want…” … .. . … .. . … .. .

  …. “kill” … … “Hope…” …. .. . “Despair…” ……..

  … .. . “build” … “family…”

  … .. . “Embrace…” … .. . “Enjoy…” “Cherish…” “Survive…”

  The words began echoing in a discordant symphony which sounded like wind rustling through the leaves of a great oak.

  “An oak..?” … .. . … .. . … .. . …….. . .. …

  My focus shattered as the scene melted in a kaleidoscope of indescribable color.

  I was barefoot on a lawn beneath an overcast sky.

  Before me I saw the back of an older human, crouched and repairing a device with two wheels. The creature slowly turned to look behind himself but the face was blurred. I attempted to make out the features but I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried and… for a reason I couldn’t grasp, sadness welled up throughout my entire network.

  The cacophony of whispered virtues had grown to a deep rumbling pitch by this point. Barely audible at this point, System’s voice struggled to cut through the mayhem.

  When did they get so loud?

  Who was…

  I couldn’t take this.

  This was too much.

  I wanted to scream…

  I wanted to fight. … .. .

  … .. . I wanted to hurt.

  … .. . … .. . I wanted to run.

  I wanted to kill…

  … but above everything else I wanted to…

  “Protect…” I whispered, as the voices around me fell dead silent.