Michael continued to observe Jake and Bruce in silence, but the two teenagers weren't doing anything particular important.
They were only chatting about their current situation while foraging the nearby areas. They appeared to be scouting as well, looking out to see if there was anything else around.
There were plenty of things could be found in the surrounding areas as well as the world at large. Just not other people.
The world was incredibly fast, and it would take Jake and Bruce their entire life to even take a glimpse at the edge of the world, assuming that the systems responsible for procedurally generating seas, skies and lands weren't functioning properly.
Michael just checked those systems to make sure they were operating at optimal level. As such, those systems continuously expanded the world in all directions, and they would continue to do so without his interference.
There was no reason to stop those systems from doing what they were designed to do.
Unlike being hosted on a computer with finite storage space and processing power, his world was truly infinite here and becoming more infinite as time went on.
There were no edges to the world. The sky went on forever, and one could fly skywards and never be able to reach space, as the suns and stars were all simulated. Likewise, one could dig forever and never reaching the core of the planet, for his world was not a planet.
But if they did try to dig as deep as they could, they would reach the underworld. Finding ancient ruins and more along the way there as well. There were many things waiting to be discovered underground as well as above ground.
All were created for the immersive experience.
While there were some places in the world that Michael and Linus and the others had crafted manually by hands, most of the world was randomly generated by a very complex algorithm.
It was just simply impossible to manually design and craft every little thing by hands.
Even though, it would still take a billion or more iterations for something to repeat itself, at least from the calculated probability. Since that was the case, it is safe to assume that everything being spawned into the world by the systems would be unique to some extent.
The only exception would be Michael wanting the same item to spawn into the world with every detail exactly the same. He had already done that the moment he resurrected Jake and Bruce and their other friends through the magic system.
Michael turned his attention away from Jake and Bruce towards their other friends, who were back at their shelter nearby. Even if he could not see them within visible range, he could still see them through the system.
As a bird, Michael took flight and flew to the shelter to have a closer look, finding Anna was with Lance, who was digging some sort of irrigation channels. The channels connected to the only river in sight.
From what was Lance doing alone, it was obvious to Michael that Lance was planning for the worst.
It was not necessary to prepare that far in advance, considering that trees and plants took far less time to sprout and grow and bear fruits and vegetables within this world than in the outside world.
This was because no gamers would want to wait days, weeks or even months for a tree to bear some sort of fruit. Games were fun, as it was a mean to escape from reality. Bringing reality into games was a stupid idea.
In any case, preparing lands for farming was only necessary for a large population. Large enough to be unsustainable by the current ecosystems of the world. It was also necessary for selective breeding as well as caring for livestock.
Neither of that should be possible. Or was it?
Michael checked the framework to make sure, and he was wrong in that regard.
Selective breeding as well as cross breeding between species, plants or not, were possible all thanked to several core systems. The only reason that livestock was not possible at the moment was because there were no animal models available for farm animals.
There were not enough lesser souls to spawn those animals as well, either manually or through what appeared to be a natural cycle of birth and death and rebirth.
Anything died within the world shall be recycled, including people. And especially their souls.
There was actually a system that handled deaths. Any sort of death. There was also a system in control of births and reproductions. Any sort of birth, whether it was natural or artificial.
In fact, there were actually over a billion of core systems that make up the framework, and they were all seamlessly working together to simulate the world. Furthermore, they allowed anyone living within the world to design and create anything as long as the thing they tried to create were plausible.
Basically, no birthing elves from humans.
These were just basic things to make the world work. For more advance stuff such as magic system or crafting system, Michael had to program himself or get others to do it for him.
Speaking of the current magic system that Michael had activated, it was not suitable for the people of his world. They would be gods if they had access to such a magic system.
The magic system was also incredibly unbalanced, especially for combat. A single spell could rend the whole world. Since that was the case, Michael would have to design a new one from scratch or take it from somewhere else.
Similarly, the crafting system needed a serious overhaul as soon as Michael had time. He could not do anything at the moment other than focusing on his objective.
Finding Dalton and enacting justice for Eric Cromwell. Only completing those objectives then Michael could return home.
As Michael recalled, there were also other surviving heroes in the last war with the Demon King. Sadly, aside from Dalton, Michael did not know their whereabout as historical records only recorded the war and nothing about their personal lives.
Michael wasn't too sure where Dalton was either, but he could have a very good guess based on what he knew so far thanked to Jake and Bruce.
Given the fact that Dalton had summoned these five teenagers to be basically meat shields, he should be at Celestia, the Holy City. It was the only place that could summon extradimensional beings without causing a breech in the dimension barrier.
Everyone knew the location of the Holy City, so getting there wasn't going to be a problem. Of course, Michael would like to confirm that Dalton was actually there before he started his journey. To do that, he must initiate contact with these teenagers.
Michael noticed that Emma was not at the shelter. She was not with Jake and Bruce either. He couldn't locate her with sight alone, and he decided to open an interface to search for her.
The framework pinpoints her exact location immediately, allowing him to fly there or teleport straight there.
Michael opted to fly to Emma since it was quite exhilarating to be a bird, soaring high into the sky and seeing the world below in a different light. He located Emma fairly easily from the sky.
She was alone, leaning against a tree. Her head was planted between her bended knees with her hands embracing her legs. She seemed to have been crying from her posture. Or at least, sobbing to herself.
It appeared that there some sort of falling out amongst the party. It would be a surprise if they all get along with each other, considering they were teenagers trapped in another world.
Michael glided down from the sky and landed nearby Emma before flapping his wings, attempting to get her attention. It actually took a moment to get her attention since Emma was in her own world.
Once Emma noticed him, she smiled faintly.
"Oh, hello there," Emma spoke up. "Where did you come from? Are you hungry? Here. Have some."
Emma reached out her palms and berries appeared out of thin air. She took them out of her inventory, obviously. The berries were edible. If they were poisonous, she would know as she would take damage to her HP the moment that she had consumed them.
Michael decided to humour the girl and peck at the berries. It was then that he realized he had never tasted anything within his world before, and just like their outer appearance, they actually tasted like real berries.
Or as real as the ones he could buy at the supermarket.
Michael enjoyed it so much that he swallowed one whole, nearly choking himself due to his far smaller throat size. He totally forgot that he was a bird since it had become so natural to him.
"Slow down, or you will choke yourself," Emma giggled, finally acting her age. She was only fifteen, as according to her profile and status window. She should still be in school instead of being summoned into another world.
They all should.
Emma took Michael in her palm and gently pet him, causing him to flap his wings in annoyance. While he was role-playing a bird, he was not a bird, and therefore, he disliked being treated like one.
He was a God. No. He was going to be a God.
But his reaction to her petting him did not stop her from trying to pet him again. He pecked her fingers to tell her to knock it off, and it worked somewhat.
"Ouch! Don't peck me. I'm not a bad person. I'm just trying to help," Emma sulked and tried to do the same thing again. Only this time, his response was different, mainly out of annoyance.
"Knock it off!" Michael spoke up, freaking Emma out. She was so freak out that she immediately tossed Michael against a tree on reflex. He took flight before the impact, however.
Michael landed on a tree branch and looked down at Emma, who stared at him questioningly.
"Did you just talk?" Emma asked, and Michael remained silence. "I'm must be going crazy. Hearing a bird talk. The others are going to laugh at me again."
Michael had figured something of sort for her to be here all alone. "No, you are not crazy, pretty lady, I can talk because I'm a very, very smart birdy."