OLD-WORLD EXTRA-Chapter 239: Net Weaving

'There you are.'

A smiling Emir had his gaze locked on the red beam in the night sky.

"I'm coming, Ragnar; don't die..."

With those words, he stepped forward and began his journey through the digital realm. After each step through the network, the landscape around him shifted and transformed.

Emir was 'stepping' into different sections of the Academy's network every time his feet touched the ground.

So the data he saw had also changed, reflecting the section.

He saw said data in many different forms.

At times they showed themselves as buildings, others as enormous icons reaching the sky.

But mostly, they were colorful grids of ones and zeros.

Emir walked past them, his objective being an easy access zone.

Formally known as low restriction zones.

Like the one he landed upon after entering, it would allow him to zoom past the sections at a much faster rate.

As indicated by his navigation program, the place was further east.

And the further east he got, the more data streams surrounded him.

They coiled and danced, like serpents of code.

They also emitted soft hums that reverberated through his icon, creating a stiff melody.

Clusters of data orbs floated alongside them as well.

Each one was a glistening globe of information.

'Hmm, Ragnar could survive one more session, right?'

Emir grew tempted to interact with bubbles, interested in the knowledge contained within the network's surface.

With a touch, he released their knowledge, causing the orb to burst into a dazzling display of fireworks.

His surroundings transformed once again, but this time it wasn't because he entered a new section.

It was simply because of the massive amount of hidden data that had spurted out.

And when the burst's glow faded completely, he found himself within a forest of data trees.

Their branches were laden with nodes, like leaves in a library.

Emir stepped closer and jumped.

His icon began to float among the trees.

As he neared them, he began to feel the information flow through him.

It was a sensation akin to having a thousand whispered voices filling his ears...

A feeling that he had grown used to by now.

Though he received ones and zeros, he had a program solely able to translate that binary language into English.

When it was done, his mind processed the data at a slow rate as he swam through the metaphorical current.

'Ah...'

Emir soon realized that the one orb he touched belonged to the workers in the academy.

Information regarding their names, conditions, working times, status, and even job history.

Things like salaries appeared to be stored deeper in the network.

'Interesting.'

With that simple comment as the conclusion...

He continued on his journey.

...

A data river was now before him.

Its currents of data flowed into the heart of the network.

Emir had arrived at a low resistance zone.

There were many potential forms they existed in and this resembled a river.

Streams of data converged and diverged on the surface, forming almost... illusionary

patterns.

'Well, let's hop in.'

He stepped forward and jumped.

His icon obeyed the fall command, and he landed on its surface.

After a moment, he felt like he was being dragged in, and then, as suddenly as that feeling

came...

It disappeared.

Emir's icon had now become one with the river.

His movements harmonized with the ebb and flow of virtual currents.

He closed his eyes, focusing inwardly.

Then a command left his neural network as he asked the river to drop him off nearer to the

bright red above.

Emir blinked.

'Ah...'

It was instantaneous.

Akin to what one might feel when sleeping.

His icon now stood next to the river, a meter or so away from it.

In the distance, he spotted a gateway that reached the sky's roof.

It was guarded by tall sentinels, digital guardians of this network's heart.

Simply said... they were AIs.

And thankfully, not the sentient kind that he had often met.

So that meant one thing.

They could be tricked.

Emir closed his eyes and concentrated on his nanobots.

Like a gallery of pictures, he scrolled through them until he found the one he needed.

This one stored the program that could essentially disguise him.

Now in the eyes of the AI, he would look to be no different than any other set of data wanting

access to the deeper levels of the network. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

After activating it, Emir headed towards the towering gate.

As usual, his every step caused the scenery to change around him until they stopped.

That was because the icon itself had reached its destination.

[01011011 01000100 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110100 01101001

01101111 00111111]

A set of ones and zeros appeared before him, and after a moment, he translated it.

[Destination?]

"01010010 01100101 01101100 01101001 01100011 00100000 01001101 01100001 01101110 01100001

01100111 01100101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00101110"

Emir answered, 'Relic Management.'

And the guardians acquiesced.

[01000001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01000111 01110010 01100001

01101110 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110]

With his 'Access Granted' he made his way in.

Once his foot reached the other side, he had arrived at a place he had never seen before.

This section had hundreds of spires of data that reached toward a virtual sky.

Each one pulsated with an inner light.

'The relics...'

Emir had reached his destination, and the red beam was now closer than ever.

At the end of the empty walkway was where the beam originated.

It was atop a spire.

'Damn, that's a long way up...'

Unlike before, he was now in a 'High-Resistance Zone.'

That meant that he could no longer float...

He had to climb that thing and reach the top.

Emir let out a sigh.

'I'm almost there Rag, just survive one more session...'

...

Emir's icon ascended the spire, and as he climbed, the structure further materialized around

him.

Each floor of the tower was a repository of knowledge, with data terminals and holographic

relics.

His gaze scanned them on the way up, and he was interested to look into them further.

But he couldn't.

There wasn't much time left on his friend's clock.

If not for Ragnar's impending death, however, he definitely would've stuck around to read a

bit more.

Upon reaching the summit, he entered a chamber bathed in a radiant light.

It was relatively empty, and at its center was where the object of his quest stood. Ragnar's relic.