The Local Tech Center's history module flickered to life, projecting the same lesson Theo had seen countless times in school. The emergence of systems three thousand years ago, humanity's explosive growth from a single-planet species to a galactic civilization, the construction of the great megastructures that now dotted the galaxy like artificial stars.
Theo watched the familiar images scroll past - the first system interface, the early space colonies, the massive construction of the Nexus. But something about the timeline never quite added up. If systems were so transformative, why did they feel so... constrained now? The historical records showed capabilities that made his simple interface modifications look like child's play.
The projection showed ancient footage of system interfaces morphing and adapting in real-time, responding to their users' needs without explicit commands. "Early systems exhibited remarkable plasticity," droned the narrator, "until the Great Interface Collapse. As systems grew more complex and interconnected, an unknown cascade of events caused widespread system failures. Many lost their ability to interact deeply with systems, their interfaces becoming increasingly opaque and rigid. Only a handful of users retained their deep connection to system architecture, eventually becoming central for any sustained existence."
Plasticity. The word stuck in Theo's mind as he pulled up his own interface. He'd been trying to modify the production counter again, but now... what if he stopped trying to force changes and instead listened to how the system wanted to flow? His fingers hovered over the familiar blue lines, but this time he didn't immediately start tweaking protocols.
The mana streams pulsed with their usual rhythm, but tonight something felt different. Maybe it was the ancient footage still playing in his mind, or maybe it was the way the system's light seemed to dance at the edge of his vision. Without thinking, he found himself moving his fingers in sync with the mana pulses, like conducting an invisible orchestra.
The counter's display stuttered, then blurred. For a moment, panic seized him – he'd broken something, surely. But then he felt it: a subtle shift, as if the system's usual rigid patterns had become liquid, flowing around his consciousness rather than just in front of it. The sensation was both foreign and oddly familiar, like remembering a dream he'd never had.
His fingers moved on their own now, weaving through streams of data he'd never noticed before. The standard command matrices glowed like constellations, but between them... there was something else. Raw mana, unbound by preset protocols, dancing in patterns he'd never seen before. He felt his hands move on their own, as if a muscle memory long lost had been activated.
The counter was changing, but not in the way he'd intended. Instead of just modifying existing protocols, he was somehow... creating new ones? The realization hit him just as a sharp ping jolted through his awareness. On his interface, a new matrix had formed - something he'd never seen in any system manual.
He whisperred, "Have I just created a new Resonic?"
The interface displayed what every student learned to recognize - the familiar crystalline structures of Resonics, those intricate configurations that took teams of engineers decades to craft. Each one was a masterwork of layered logic, countless mana streams woven into precise lattices that could process vast amounts of data. Standard Resonics glowed with a cold, artificial precision, their edges sharp and defined by thousands of interconnected protocols. But this... this was different. The Resonic taking shape before him was fluid, organic, its edges softly luminescent like a living thing. Where traditional Resonics were built through meticulous calculation and rigid rules, this one seemed to have grown naturally, adapting to the mana flows around it like water finding its path downhill.
Resonics were the building blocks of system functionality, intricate configurations that could be applied to enhance or modify system capabilities. The Factory Resonics, crafted centuries ago by master system architects, were standardized packages distributed to all workers. These industrial-grade Resonics handled everything from production tracking to quality control, each one representing thousands of hours of careful system engineering.
Resonics were traded in Stellar Credits (SC), with prices ranging from a few thousand stellar credits to millions. For perspective, a factory worker's monthly salary was around 200 SC, making even basic Resonics a significant investment. The factory provided their workers with specialized industrial Resonics, a cost that would have taken an average worker eight years to afford independently.
Meanwhile, somewhere far away on Nexus...
"Kiramel, look at this!" exclaimed the old man.
"Hmm, someone created a Resonic on a tier-3 planet. Has he applied to the Nexus?"
The old man replied, "No, the deadline passed 3 days ago."
"Send him an invite."
The old man raised his brows but didn't question him.