It took about ten minutes to activate the magic system. This was because the newly introduced magic system had to be fully integrated into all of the currently active systems that kept the world functional.
This was done automatically by whatever framework Deus had given Michael.
Of course, it would have taken a lot less time to activate any new system if all currently active systems were deactivated, but for any of those systems to shut down while the world was still functioning was a bad idea.
Since his world – his universe – was currently devoid of all sentient life, deactivating any system should not have mattered in the long run. Insects were not counted as sentient life to Michael, unfortunately.
If any problems arise, Michael could have just reset the world. That meant instant death to everything within the world. It was the final solution, and it was always available.
Sure, Michael could have used it to kill Window, but that option would only be taken if there were no other options available. Resetting the entire world was not a good thing to do, especially when he had already done so much already.
A holographic window appeared in front of Michael when the new magic system was fully integrated and operational. It was more or less a command or control interface. The main display on the interface listed the status of the magic system, highlighting any errors or bugs that might come up in real time.
So far, all the highlighted errors or bugs on the display before Michael were warnings. While they were not world breaking, they should be fixed as soon as possible. In order to fix them, he must deactivate the system first.
Another option would be simply creating a copy of the faulty system and correct whatever errors that occurred before doing a quick switch. That way, the faulty system did not need to be deactivate, and thus, caused problems within the world functionality.
Since none of the errors were that critical, Michael decided to ignore them for now. It would take way too long to debug them, and since he was the only authorized user of the magic system, he would not exploit those errors or bugs. Not exploit them to the point that his world would head towards certain doom.
The magic system that Michael and Linus devised were not exactly incomplete or faulty. It was as good as any other systems they had programmed later on. The only reason that it was not used was simply due to external reasons, mainly due to lack of models and assets associating with the magic system.
"Fireball," Michael called out and outstretched his hand. He imagined a fireball forming in the middle of his palm before flying forwards, crashing into whatever he pointed his hand towards and destroying that.
A fireball formed in the palm of his hand before shooting forwards, impacting against the earth before a large bounder, resulting in a huge explosion.
It had worked like it was designed to, but his aim was a bit off. Michael wanted to destroy the boulder instead of the ground.
Michael casted the fireball again, finding that it was insanely difficult to aim with his hands as his hands weren't exactly pointy like a stick.
That gave him an idea, so he spawned a stick into his hand and used that as a medium to channel the fireball. His accuracy improved greatly, but it could be better.
"Firewall," Michael tested another spell, and once more, he imagined a wall of flames materialized in front of him, widening and soaring into the sky, intensifying each passing second and burning anything that passed through it.
The firewall was exactly that, and Michael nodded in approval.
"Ice Barrier."
"Thunderbolt."
"Rise Earth."
"Hurricane."
"Grow."
Any kind of magic Michael could imagine, the magic system would attempt to emulate and materialize within the world. It was quite a versatile system, and that was the reason for its abandonment in favor of other more limited magic system.
There was no way such a magic system could be feasible within the constraint of an MMORPG. Players were humans, and humans were quite imaginative, and they could come with all sort of spells as well as magical effects.
As such, any spell possible must be programmed, modeled, tested and balanced in a game. Since there were infinite possibilities via such a versatile magic system, it was simply impossible to program them all.
But his world was not a game. Not anymore, and it did not have the same constraints as the game did, and therefore, the magic system that he and his friend had created in the earlier days was feasible.
Not just feasible, but incredibly helpful, as Michael reshaped the landscape via magic rather than open up the terraforming interface. It was also much easier and precise too.
Of course, the only restriction was mana cost, which was absurdly high for anyone but Michael. Within his world, any abilities he used would cost him absolutely nothing.
It only cost him in the form of MP should he used these abilities in the outside world, and the cost was not up to him. Rather, it was up to whatever God that the outside world had belonged to. That was to say, the Biblical God.
The Biblical God was missing, but that was a problem for another time.
Michael had more pressing matter, such as returning back to the real world. And to return to the real world, he must complete his current objective.
"Revive," Michael said and thought of Anna and her friends. He was not sure if it would work, but from his understand of his world, it should, as they had died within his world. Their souls were trapped here and in his possession.
It took a moment for the magic system to process his request simply due to the amount of work it had to do. Reviving someone wasn't as simple as spawning them. Their memories, their personalities and much more had to be exactly the same.
A few error warnings appeared on the interface before Anna and her four friends materialized before Michael. Unlike before, Anna was now unconscious due to the shock of being ripped apart by Window.
Speaking of Window, Michael could also revive the monster with just a thought, and since it was part of his world instead of a foreign entity, what happened before would not repeat itself.
But since there was no reason to review the undead monster right now, Michael decided not to. While he did understand that the longer it remained dead, the more difficult it was to revive the creature, it was acceptable to him, as technically, he did not to revive it to make use of it. He actually only needed to spawn it.
Spawning a living being was different than reviving a living being.
"Awake," Michael attempted to cast the effect onto Anna, but it did not work like he had imagined. It was somewhat expected since the magic system was design for external effects rather than internal.
Furthermore, there were no systems that maintain the emotional and psychological state of a person.
It also meant he could not use the magic system to brainwash someone. Of course, he could introduce thoughts and ideas and more into their mind, but that would be intruding on their freewill. He rather not did something like that, considering that it was evil.
Sure, killing was evil too, but it was necessary for the cycle to continue turning. People died, and others would be born. He understood that the moment that he was granted his power by Deus.
Michael did wonder if there were some sort of Heaven or Hell if everyone were reincarnated in death to one form or another, but that was a question for another time.
Since Michael could not wake Anna and her friends through the use of spell, he could use other means to wake them up. Physically shaking them for one. Or better yet, let they wake up themselves in time.
Time was actually controlled by a system, and therefore, unlike the psychological state of a person, he could manipulate it with magic.
With a single thought, several days have passed within the world, and Michael noticed that Anna and her friends were no longer where they should be.
Of course, if Anna and her friends had awoken during that time jump, it would be safe to assume that they went off in search for foods and waters right after they figured out where the hell they were. As they could not leave his world even in death, he only needed to find them.
Despite the vastness of his world, it was not difficult for Michael to locate five individuals. He did not even need to resort to open an interface to do so, as their little shelter could be spotted with just the naked eyes.
Michael was about to greet them, but their current survival caught his interest. He had always had the love for Civilizations and similar games, and to see these five, three boys and two girls, trying to make the best of their situation, made him wanted to see how long they could survive.
It would not take much time at all, relatively speaking, considering that he could manipulate the time within his world.
And sure, it was an asshole thing to do, but he was a God here in his world, so he could be an asshole, and no one would dare to say anything about it. Furthermore, it was not like anyone would know what he had been up to. Right?