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Many Worlds Chapter 51
The book landed gracefully on the shelf behind Jules. If it weren’t for the fact that there was room for at least 3 books where he had aimed, and the fact that the book was upside down, he might have even said it landed perfectly. Given the circumstances, he was surprised it landed on the shelf at all.
“Umm… hello? Is anybody in there?” Also behind him, Jules could see Robin. She looked like she was about to tap him on the head with a book to get his attention.
Jules stood up, careful to not hit his head on anything, and turned to face her. This girl fit the picture of working in a library. Not that she was necessarily frumpily dressed like a stereotypical librarian, but her demeanor and style fit perfectly. Normally, that would also be true of her glasses, but she apparently wasn’t wearing them. That was fortunate, and probably why she hadn’t particularly noticed the flying book. “Yes? What is it?”
Robin held out the book she had with her. “This was sent to my section by the computer. I don’t think it belongs in romance though, it’s pretty obviously primarily science fiction.” After Jules took the book, Robin crossed her arms and looked annoyed. “I don’t know why I got assigned to the romance section anyway. Is it because I’m a girl? I specifically applied to be in the history section.” She sighed.
Jules shrugged. “I’m not sure, but based on what I’ve seen of that guy, he won’t be around too much longer. He’s a piece of history himself.”
“I want to be there now though! Think of how much read- err… organizing I could get done.”
Jules nodded. “Yeah there’s certainly a lot of… organizing to be done.”
Robin nodded seriously. “Anyway… you play Many Worlds, right?”
“I do.”
“I heard that after the big earthquake there were ancient structure that came out of the ground, is that true?”
“Umm…” Jules thought about it. He certainly hadn’t seen any of that, but… he remembered Douglas. Douglas had brought them up- and mentioned how it should be impossible for any structures to have survived outside of safe zones. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“Really? That’s awesome! What are they like inside?”
Jules shrugged. “I’m not sure, I haven’t seen them.”
“Why not? How could you not go see something so interesting?”
“What’s so interesting about a building?” Though, Jules thought they must have been made out of something very interesting to have survived, so there was a point there.
“Buildings are culture! Inside there could be art, pottery, writing, history! Who knows what you could find! It’s enough that I want to buy the game myself… I hear there are still some available from the new batch.”
At first, Jules wasn’t much convinced. Then, he realized something. Either the Uesmethi had lost the technology to make unbreakable structures somehow, or they were made by someone else. He wasn’t sure how they would have lost such technology, because all they would have had to do was make one or two in a safe zone. Therefore, it had to have been made by someone else… and that intrigued Jules. If it was really a game, Jules would have been less interested in its appearance, because it was possible it would just be regular structures, and the developers didn’t think about the fact that they should be only dust. However, since it was real, perhaps the structures had something to do with why the players were even on the planet to begin with. “Well, I should probably get back to work.”
“Yeah, me too.”
After Robin left, Jules fixed the book that was upside down. He had been exceptionally lucky that she hadn’t been wearing her glasses. He would need to be more careful in the future… but it was just so hard to resist using telekinesis for everything.
—–
“… and thus, we should visit one to uncover the boundless mysteries of the universe!” Jules finished the pitch to his friends.
“Plus we don’t have anything better to do,” Robert pointed out.
“That too.”
Everyone agreed that visiting the structures would be the next best place to go. Though they could remain in the city refining their skills, they didn’t want to do so indefinitely. None of the structures were within a convenient distance, and vehicles were both very expensive to rent and in high demand in the cities at the current time. Thus, the group began to prepare for a journey. It would be perhaps a few days of travel to the one nearest to Fesmoilia, but they packed for two weeks, since they wanted to be able to spend time there, the trip might take longer than expected, and of course they needed to be able to make a return trip.
Besides their equipment for combat, they also brought with them food, water, and tents. Everyone prepared various things, but it was Isaac who made sure everyone remembered the essentials. It took some time to gather everything, since stores weren’t operating on a normal schedule again quite yet, but they wouldn’t have been ready to leave even if supplies were immediately available. Everyone had to make sure to coordinate their schedules, and unlike Jules, some of his friends had other things in their real life to attend to.
After a few days, everyone was ready to head out. The terrain was obviously different. Fortunately, Jules had managed to get a location for where they were going, and it seemed that he could direct them to at least the general area. There were no longer any familiar landmarks to be guided by. The most interesting thing was that plantlife still somehow survived. Jules saw trees that were half buried under ground still growing, and new shrubs had already sprung up in less than a week. On the opposite end, there were fallen trunks already covered in fungus and well on their way to decaying and becoming a new top layer of soil. Perhaps with a year or so of growth, decay, and weather, the terrain would look mostly normal again.
Jules had been worried about monsters, but he found that there were actually not as many of them as there had been before the landshift. Not that they were gone, but they had returned to their caves, or more correctly, they had started digging new burrows, and a new cavelike system was forming underground. Thus, although Jules wouldn’t have called the journey safe, it was at least nowhere near as perilous as it would have been just before the landshift.
Thanks for the chapter, great story!