"K-king? Am I the King?"
Thud-thud-thud.
Caelus' heart beat faster every second.
[The Former King had set the rule that whoever he approved to be transported here would be the New King.]
He was shocked. "Alpha!" But what came more shocking was how the system was answering him like he was talking to another person. "W-who are you?"
[I am this Shelter Zone's Law Enforcer. I am the Core Essence of this Shelter. You can give me a name, Your Majesty.]
He just now realized that even though the voice sounded similar to the system, it was also different. He just assumed it was the system. Because only the system's voice can enter his brain without warning.
"Sanctuary…" He almost immediately came to a name.
It was too easy to decide. He wanted the place to be the sanctuary that they all so needed. A place away from all the hell outside.
[Would you like to name me Sanctuary?]
"Could you and the place have the same name?" He was curious.
[Yes. I am the law of this Shelter Zone. Naturally, I am also named after the Shelter Zone.]
"Okay. I name you and this place as Sanctuary."
[Naming complete. Welcome to Sanctuary Shelter Zone, Your Majesty! Any law you want to implement?]
He pondered for a while before asking something. "What is a Shelter Zone, exactly?"
[...]
There was a long pause before he heard the answer.
[A Shelter Zone is a Zone where a King or a selected individual can set a law the king sees fit. Anyone who steps foot on the Shelter Zone would be bound by the law inside.]
Caelus' jaw dropped wide. He was speechless upon a realization. "C-can I forbid fighting here?"
[Yes. But every law has loopholes. You need to know which law you want to enforce or it would backfire on you. If you want to know more details, I would have to use more Mana to search through the hibernating memories I have.]
"Hm…?"
However, he couldn't focus on what Sanctuary's last sentence was.
His attention was all on the confirmation. What he wanted to really confirm was if it is possible to create a safe place. And from Sanctuary's answer, he could create it!
*Alpha seems to know this… this must be why he transported me here… but… how did he know of such a place…? Did it mean he knew of this even before Super Phenomena started?* He had a lot of questions.
"... don't force yourself for answers right now. Focus on your strength instead. Once you're strong enough, answers would naturally come to you." As if to answer him, he remembered what Alpha said while he was coughing and stuttering.
"..."
He shook his head after a long while of silence. "I need to find people who are good with laws. Gouki! Also I need to find Asahi… Miya… how would I find them?"
He wasn't the type to talk out loud. But seeing himself get distracted with sadness when he remembered Alpha, he decided to keep himself together by talking out loud.
[I have a Search Function. But I can only search for five people for half a year. And my range is currently limited to how much Mana I have right now. With the portals opening up, it would be hard to even find one person in a month. Unless one is incredibly lucky.]
"Luck? That's my specialty," Caelus humored the Core Essence. "Wait, you can find people? Do you have a GPS function?"
[...]
[Based on the information I've collected, your world, Earth's Global Positioning System or most commonly known as GPS function is to pinpoint a certain location that the GPS is attached to by the monitoring satellite. It is a technological knowledge that could be recreated once the Super Phenomena is over or created inside a Safe Zone or Shelter Zone. Another alternative is creating the Protection System that would work for the unstable merging world.]
[As for my search function, it is searching people by their Life Signature that is attached to you, Your Majesty.]
"W-wow… t-this… is too much to take. G-give me a second." Caelus, who was weak with information overload, took a deep breath and organized his thoughts. "So, you're saying that your search function is different from human technology… but… all the technology that we have lost could still be made again? Only inside Safe Zones or Shelter Zones?"
[Yes.]
"But why did they stop in the first place?"
[All technological machines, apparatus and invention were disrupted the moment the Super Phenomena happened. Super Phenomena is the process of merging two worlds. As there is a lot of instability by merging two worlds, everything that isn't considered natural would be destroyed.]
"Ah…" His lips formed an "O" shaped when he got what Sanctuary was saying. Everything unnatural was disrupted because of the instability of the new world. Thinking about it, when he entered the Murloc's Zone, every gadget they had was still functional, but when the Super Phenomena happened, every man made things stopped working. Even mechanical watches.
[As all technologies were disrupted, GPS and satellites were also one of those which stopped working. The radius of the Super Phenomena is imbued in the whole Galaxy your world is currently in and the galaxy of the other world.]
[This is according to previous Super Phenomena data that I've witnessed.]
"You've witnessed? How many Super Phenomena have you witnessed?"
[I've witnessed XXX times of Super Phenomena happening and the XXX…]
*Huh? I can't seem to recall what has just been said?*
[It is natural for the merging world to be unstable as it would also open up portals that the System has collected.]
"Wait… p-portal?" Sanctuary also mentioned it before, however, Caelus was really weak with information overload… unless it was related to fighting. He was just really lucky to have Sho's brain who can remember everything.
[Yes, countless portals opened up in this world.]
"Are portals the Zones?"
[Yes and No.]
"What do you mean?"
[The Zones are the passageway from both worlds you could say that it's the lull between two worlds. It is a portal, but it's different from directly going to the other world. But some Zones have the portal inside them. Some Zones are actually a broken piece of the world itself.]
"What? How many portals are there?!"
[There are too many to count. As I've just awoken and am currently setting up back to this new merging world, I can't say for sure. I would need a lot of Mana to do calculations. My current Mana is insufficient to make concrete calculations. However, there are at least twenty portals near us.]
"What? Uh… how about Shelter Zones? How many shelters are there?"
[There are too many to count. As I've just awoken and am currently setting up back to this new merging world, I can't say for sure. I would need a lot of Mana to do calculations. My current Mana is insufficient to make concrete calculations. Also, for Shelter Zones near us, since almost all conquered Shelter Zones had undergone camouflage, I could only say I would need to spend much more Mana to calculate further.]
He tried to pry more, but then, he realized that he needed to wait for Sanctuary to completely set itself up for it to be fully functional.
"Ah. But how about technology here? I see this place has a medical facility… Does it mean you have technology that still works? Aren't you affected by the Super Phenomena?"
[Yes, no and no.]
"Can you elaborate?"
[All the previous technology in your world has stopped working unless they had successfully entered a Safe Zone or a Shelter Zone. As I've stated earlier, anything that was manmade and affected by the Super Phenomena stopped working. However, it is a different case for those things inside the Safe Zone and Shelter Zone.]
"Huh? Why is that?"
[Because of the Super Phenomena breaking the World Law XXXX XXXX XXXXX… Common Zones and Hidden Zones are part of the System's integration, while the Safe Zones and Shelter Zones follow the law of XXXXXX…]
"Huh? I can't seem to remember all the important stuff…"
[If you can't remember any of the things I've said, it only means that your rank is not high enough for the information I've disclosed.]
"Why does it matter to have a high rank before someone can absorb the information?"
[...]
Once again, there was a long pause before Sanctuary answered.
[If someone who doesn't have a high rank forcefully absorbs highly intelligent information. There are two ends for them. Either they would shatter their soul or be corrupted. This is a restriction created by the System after noticing how living beings' souls started to crack or be corrupted.]
"Whoa… at least this information I can remember. So… In the end, I still need to grow stronger." He joked at first but then sighed. His brows were furrowed in determination. "So what? I just need to be stronger, then! Strong enough to protect myself! Strong enough so no one would die in front of me!"
He didn't want to taste that bitterness again. The despair. The helplessness. The powerlessness.
He wanted to be stronger.
He needed to be stronger!