Chapter 17: The System
"Hello, Gabriel," a voice sounded. "Who said that? Who's there?" Gabriel assumed a vigilant pose as he carefully surveyed his surroundings, attempting to locate the owner of the voice. The voice sounded again, "Stop looking around like an idiot, I'm right here." Gabriel looked around once more, but he still couldn't find anyone. "No, dummy, inside your mind," the voice clarified. Gabriel finally relaxed, then it hit him. "Wait, what?" The voice appeared to belong to a young man, around sixteen years old. In fact, it sounded just like Gabriel's voice, albeit deeper. "I mean inside your brain," the voice continued.
Gabriel was perplexed. "What do you mean, inside my brain? What are you?" The voice explained further, "Well, I'm you. You and I are the same. I'm you, and you are me, but much more complex. I haven't even figured it all out yet. When you synced your mind with that computer, I was born. The influx of information mixed with your Beyonder power nearly killed you due to the overload. But your Aspect Cube saved you, and thus, I came into existence. I am a new being born from your essence, with a part of your soul. I gained sentience, although I have no idea how it was possible. You can look inside your brain and see my form." As all this took place, Gabriel was moving in the direction of a small town at the edge of a desert.
"How do I do that?" Gabriel asked. "Just focus your mind on your forehead, and the rest should be easy," the voice replied. Gabriel stopped and looked around. He wanted to take shelter, but there was no need for that. He's a Beyonder—nothing on Earth can harm him. He did just as instructed, concentrating his mind on his forehead. At first, nothing happened for a moment, and then he suddenly felt a pull. Next thing he knew, he found himself standing in front of a giant mass of flesh with different strings attached to it. These strings appeared to be made of flesh as well, with red liquid pumping into them. The giant mass of flesh beat in a rhythmic fashion. Gabriel was shocked. "What the hell, where am I?" He heard a voice respond, "Ahh, yes. What you see in front of you is your heart. We are inside your body, or rather, your senses are inside your body."
Gabriel finally came to an understanding as he turned to look at his body, but he saw nothing. The voice explained, "You are only here as a stream of consciousness, so you don't have a body. Unlike your Aspect Soul Space, where you enter as a translucent form, things are different here." The voice instructed Gabriel to move his awareness to his brain, and he would find it. Gabriel's awareness traveled to his brain, passing through various organs. The feeling was amazing. Finally, he arrived at his brain. "So this is how my brain looks," he thought, even though he knows his brain looks like any other human brain. He moved his stream to the center of his brain and found himself in a small white space with a green cube with smooth edges. "Come on," the voice urged, and Gabriel dove in. Lo and behold, he found himself in an enormous black space with a grotesque, blood-red brain.
"What the fuck! You look disgusting!" Gabriel exclaimed. To make matters worse, the brain had deep, black eyes like a giant black hole. As he used his stream of consciousness to observe inside the brain's eyes, he found billions of computer codes swirling within, constantly evolving and learning. "Wait
, are you some sort of computer?" Gabriel asked. The voice confirmed, "Yes, I'm something like a computer, but much more complex. Even I don't know the full extent of my capabilities. When you synced with the servers, all the knowledge stored on the Internet flooded into your mind and mixed with your Beyonder power. I was born. I know everything ever stored in any device operating on 0's and 1's. I'm also your instinct. I know everything you know by heart and by instinct." Gabriel was amazed. "What do you know about Beyonder?" he asked. The voice answered, "Nothing you don't already know. Come, we need to finish the synchronization process." Gabriel inquired, "What does that mean?" The voice responded with a hint of pity, "You are so dumb. Just send your stream of awareness into my eyes, and find out." Gabriel hesitated, but the voice reassured him, "Don't worry. I can't hurt you. I can't even have that type of thought. Like I said before, you and I are the same person. If you die, I die. Now is the time to change. You're very dumb." With that, Gabriel directed his stream of awareness into the eyes of the brain.
As soon as the stream touched the codes, everything went green, and Gabriel couldn't see. The synchronization started, and his mind merged with the brain's. Gabriel's mind began to evolve. The red blindfold faded away, and he opened his eyes. Instead of the normal red and silver rings in his eyes, another ring appeared, this time green. The other two rings shrank to accommodate the green ring, so the overall size of his iris didn't increase. Gabriel's mind went blank, even with his eyes open, he couldn't see. Suddenly, he heard the voice again, and he found himself in a sea of green matrix, constantly moving as if making calculations.
[Synchronization starting...]
[Synchronization complete]
[Calibrating]
[Calibration complete]
[Syncing System & Mind]
Gabriel's mind flooded with information, enough to drive even the strongest person mad. In that instant, Gabriel became smarter as something clicked in his mind. Gabriel became the most knowledgeable person to ever exist on Earth, from the past to the present. Quantum physics felt like food to his brain. His brain started to formulate theories and hypotheses, processing complex thoughts all at once. All this information could have broken his mind, but that's when the brain came in. He finally got a clear idea of what the brain actually is, or rather, his new brain. It's just like a server, a complex machine, a gigantic network of ever-growing information that constantly evolves. His mind and the new brain became one. The new brain could do incredible things and store information. The amount of information it could store was unlimited, and as he became stronger, so did the capabilities of the brain. The brain was like an AI. Had the AI synced with him when he was unconscious, his brain would have been reduced to mush. If he was unconscious, he would not be able to filter the information he sought from the useless ones. Even the Facebook passwords that every user had ever entered existed in his mind as data inside the brain.
The synchronization process continued as Gabriel opened his eyes, which sparked with green light before returning to normal. His personality changed, his demeanor changed, his gaze became sharper, fiercer, and more terrifying. He looked like an emotionless robot, a ruthless, cold, and calculating machine. This wasn't Gabriel at all. As he survived, he started surveying the surroundings. Suddenly...
[WARNING!]
[USER IS ABOUT TO TURN INTO A COMPLETE MACHINE]
Inside
Gabriel's Aspect Soul Space, green energy began to corrode Gabriel's Aspect Cube. The green energy was laced with complex matrix and code. Then the system sounded again.
[COMMENCING SAFETY PROTOCOLS]
[CALIBRATING...]
Just then, the Aspect Cube released a pulse of energy that completely swallowed the green energy.
[SUCCESS]
[THREAT NEUTRALIZED]
Gabriel, still standing in the middle of the desert, opened his eyes, and it was now morning. Unknowingly, he had been standing there all night. He had no clue what had just happened. All he knew was that he had entered the eyes of the brain and found himself in an ocean of green code. The information rushed into his mind, some useless while others useful, so he started filtering the important information. After that, he returned to the desert once more, opened his eyes, and the exact same thing that happened in the lab happened again. He could see everything.
[USER IS RECEIVING TOO MUCH INFORMATION THROUGH HIS EYES]
[USER IS ADVISED TO SHUT HIS EYES, ELSE YOUR MIND MAY IMPLODE]
Gabriel hurriedly shut his eyes..