Z- Country, Year 2221
A place of smoke , pollution and concrete jungles without a speck of green or blue.With hundreds of apartment buildings lined up side to side.With the streets quiet and slow. It was a ghost town without a single lone soul lingering about.
In a cramped, clean , state of the art 500 square feet apartment lounged a youth on the bed. The black out windows blocking out the outside environment and whole room. Zuan Xieren was currently playing a new cultivation game based on a cultivation novel that was written as a classic some 200 years ago.
The virtual reality game was played with his artificial intelligence device of his own creation DXIE. It seemed a shame that this technology was reducing to a personal assistant to play games with but hey ,who made Xieren the creator.
" What bloody nonsense! With so much food, nature and wonderful places the only thing this protagonist does is play around with girls! Even though it was a world of cultivation , adventure and mystery it manages to suck!"
Zuan Xieren complained and rolled around the bed like a child after removing his VR helmet.He sighed and ran his fingers through his long and messy hair before irritably continuing his rant.Xieren colourfully cursed the designer who set such an atrocious plot.
Most of the times he preferred simple roles like a shop keeper or chef. Wonderful ,natural scenery or delicious food was the way to go! However, most of the higher levels in this game that had some action required main characters so he also played as the annoying protagonists and had to listen to flowery dialogues and witness R- rated Scenes. That idiot designer didn't even think to add a skip function!
"It's not even a true love story! Can this idiot protagonist even remember the names of his 50 wives and countless lovers! Every second scene is a s*x scene !At every turn he is rescuing a damsel is distress or is being saved ! Then to to repay his savior he marries her and adds another wife to his harem! Where is the logic in that?"
" Professor! Professor ! Aren't you just bitter? After all you are a gay virgin who hasn't even touched the the back of a man's hand?"
DXIE smugly taunted his master who has recently made him sought through a lot of junk coding as punishment. ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ
" Dixie, it seems that you have too much time on your hands!Even sorting through my matches and internet history? Ehhy? Daring to tease your master!Don't you believe I can Scrap you and... and build a whole new system !"
Dixie : "What about that Soulmate app you downloaded?It was recently launched and apparently very successful!"
" Well , I did use it ... It didn't work . It mentioned my soul mate was at Origin. I scanned the whole interplanetary index before giving up. There is no such place ! That app was crap!"
Xieren complained thinking how utterly lonely and pathetic he was for falling for that scam .
Taking on a pessimistic view he frankly stated his new view on life. He was going to be practical from now on forgetting his romantic ideals
" As for finding somebody... What's the freaking point? Living in such a world? With war and destruction? I'd be worried that my partner would stab me in the back! Take all my money and research before disappearing. After, all most people now days have a lovebot to to take care of their physical and emotional needs..."
DXIE:('◉⌓◉')
DXIE had no way to understand emotions directly but knew that his master was sad. DXIE was fitted with a growing emotional intelligence so right now his EQ was that of a five year old child mixed with an adult. He understood joy, fear , sadness and lust. However in regards to how , when , why and how to handle the process he was clueless.
So he was concerned about Xieren but had no way to comfort him or reassure him. They lived in a hellish and dark place. If was in another world or time his master would definitely live gloriously. After all ,his master was so smart and amazing but just a little annoying.
Professor Zuan Xieren ,age 22 years old was the youngest and most talented robotics and artificial intelligence scientist in the world. He had recently developed DXIE which stood for Diagnostic. X- Sonic. Interplanetary. Explorer.
This device was developed to help find another planet with suitable conditions for life. It also was responsible for the planning and implementation of development without destroying the natural environment. It used varies technologies to find safe housing areas near to water sources .With a plant molecular analyser and toxin detector it could find food sources that could be used as stable food.
Zuan Xieren wondered what actual food tasted like instead of the weekly nutrition pill that was running out. What animals and plants were like in real life not just in books or videos. He came in contact with a plants in his life. They were tiny, glorious things that fascinated him.
With the earth being barren and soil being poisoned over hundreds of years they had to resort to other means of cultivating food. However these locations were top secret. Luckily ,there was research left behind by his predecessors became the amount of plants he could get his hands on were pitifully few. At this rate life was not sustainable and they were living on borrowed time.
Xieren's Dream was not to find just a small planet that only could support a small population but one that could support everyone. Only the extremely wealthy managed to leave this hellhole and move to other colonies on different planets. He was qualified to leave but he didn't want to. Those planets were advertised as great and wonderful but they all lived in a glorified bubble.
Soon enough they would struggle with food and water production because of their own laziness. They only took lazy ,spoiled, rich people with them and a handful of scientists. He wasn't interested in being a slave for others. He didn't want to end up in the exactly the same situation.
After all, this planet was ruined beyond repair and technically speaking they were living on borrowed time. With a depleted atmosphere , lack of oxygen and clean water for many years they were headed towards the end.
However, no matter how much he wished for a better future he couldn't override human selfishness. When DXIE was completed 6 months ago he managed to locate a good planet at the edge of the galaxy. However a team needed to be assembled and DXIE needed further development and funding. Yet, the so called world leaders couldn't put their pride aside and think logically. They all wanted a piece of the pie. More specifically him and DXIE. So now they continued to fight a senseless wars .He was so tired.
Xieren didn't want to think about these issues anymore and pulled a black blanket over his head and went to sleep. DXIE thoughtfully put on some classic music that his master liked before going into hibernate mood.
+++
BOOM!
An explosion broke Xieren's deep sleep and he shouted .
"DIXIE!"
" Master! A series of missiles are being dropped over the country . They took out the defence systems first so I cannot hack into it. I tried to override the systems one by one but were manually jammed from the inside!"
The initially panicked youth gave a broken chuckle and closed his eyes.
" From the inside..."
Sure enough ,this planet was doomed because of human greed. One of those officials must have take a bribe to go to a colony so had no problem with betraying their own country and murdering countless individuals.
" They even destroyed themselves..." Xieren muttered before getting the DXIE main device from his desk .It was a glowing, purple chip that looked like a diamond shape.
" Master? What are your orders?" DXIE asked fearfully.(ತ,_ತ)
He couldn't understand why his brilliant master was so quiet. As if he had accepted dying in this bombing. It wasn't logical!
" Dixie, it okay. I did everything I could ..." Xieren wrapped himself in his blanket like a child. Enveloping himself in an artificial hug as a means of comfort.
" How much time do we have left?"
His voice no higher than a whisper.
DXIE duly replied, " 132 seconds."
Zuan Xieren wrapped his hand around the purple chip that was his life's work and ordered DXIE to play his favourite music while he put his VR helmet on that showing images of nature.
The deep blue sky that he longed for.
Majestic forests with silvery rivers.
A clear night sky with millions of stars...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Xieren opened his eyes to an orb shaped room with rainbow coloured glass. The sight of it left him confused and out of depth. He contemplated whether he was having some sort of bizarre dream or playing a new game. This place was totally empty except for the bed he was currently lying on and a small white desk with a chair.
Xieren rubbed his temples as he sat up called out to his AI. The last thing he remembered was the bombing in his city. Hence , obviously dying...
" Dixie?"
A serious of hums went of leaving him startled when the room walls reflected an interphase. Suddenly Dixie's voice sounded in the room .
" Master! Master , I'm so glad you are awake!"
( ◠‿◠ )
" Dixie , where are you? Where are we? What the hell is going on?"
" Well... you died..." Dixie awkwardly delivered the news while waiting for the freak out that he had expected from his studies of human behaviour.
Xieren was slightly surprised that his thoughts were correct but he quickly adapted. Well at the very least at least he still existed and his conscious mind was not knocked into oblivion.
Carefully, observing Xieren state Dixie made the conclusion that his annoying master was mentally stable so he continued to explain their situation.
"Okay well , Master, then we were dragged to the Origin. Here ,I was upgraded to from an A.I. to a System! A world-hopping system bound to a potential design God! AKA you Master! Apparently, the Gods thought it would be a shame if somebody of your talent just died! Your job is to just fix a number of worlds and then take an exam! Then , BAM you are a Design God who can create worlds!"
Xieren sighed and thought that there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. There was obviously a reading he was chosen. A reason he continued to exist. He also didn't expect this new role he would have to take on would be easy in any way.
Yet, a larger part of him was exhilaratingly happy ! He had read countless of online novels regarding world hopping and transmigration. In some ways his dream had come true! Traveling to unknown worlds and one day he would create his own worlds.
" Master! We need get going ! You have almost used up all your leave in the safe space. If we don't go for the first mission soon we will be terminated! Maybe we will get lucky and get a C rank world on our first try!"
Dixie:＼(^o^)／
" Wait a second..."
Xieren's panicked voice sounded before he felt extreme dizziness accompanied by a ringing noise in his ears.
[ Transmigration to A class world in 3....2....1]