Suddenly, I felt a cold sweat. It seemed the features of the undead didn’t work in this world. Maybe the race didn’t even exist here.
“How did you get to such a high level? I mean, weak mobs don’t give you experience, and if they gain just one or two levels a year…”
“That’s just the rabbits. Predatory mobs progress a lot faster, and some can absorb the levels of others. It wasn’t always that way. Only a few mobs had the perk, usually rare ones. But damn Snowstorm loved their experiments. It turns out they added cross-breeding… You should see some of the chimeras you can find here! You were lucky the mobs can’t access sandbox towns, otherwise you would have had an unforgettable encounter with some wolfsnakes or hedgehogbears. This world evolves and new species appear, ever more and more nightmarish. Those of us stuck inside here can’t afford to waste a single day—we have to keep leveling up and not fall behind. Or else…”
“How many of you are there?”
“There were a hundred. Now there are only six…” Beta trailed off, looked away. “Anyway, we don’t know what happened to our bodies. The beta test was held in a closed Snowstorm bunker. We signed a liability waver. We were all orphans, as it turned out, so I doubt anyone came looking for us.”
“Have you not tried to get out? What if you could somehow get through to the main version of Dis? Maybe the interface will update and you’ll get a quit button?”
“Are you joking? All we try to do is get out! We send Piercers there constantly, but they never manage to level up high enough to create a Greater Rift”
“Piercers? You mean the Ravagers?”
“They’re actually my pets. I heard they call them Ravagers in your Disgardium, yeah… Number Three… My friend who you heard, he’s smarter than me and he thinks there’s no information on the Piercers in the main database, so the controlling AI resets their level and name. Fortunately, every Piercer can absorb experience from other creatures, so they quickly level up. Well… At least, that’s what one of the other arrivals told me.”
“So the Ravagers are all your handiwork? But if they can get there, then what stops you from following them?”
Beta’s cheeks reddened and her eyes flashed. She looked ready to explode or tear me apart, but she just sighed tiredly and answered.
“We tried ever} which way as soon as we figured out it was possible. I started as an ordinary mage, but after many years, I gained the ability to absorb magical abilities from other creatures. I became a collector. Maybe six thousand years ago, a chimera, a mix of two beast-gods, learned how to form a rift leading to the main Disgardium. I ran into it in a closed instance and killed it. I was lucky. Thanks to the First Kill, the skill was added to my collection. Activating it required a new resource: Smoldering Nether• Shards. None of us had ever heard of it before, but as soon as we learned about it, the shards started to drop from almost every mob. The world kept evolving, and now even ordinary mobs can create a rift, albeit it a small one, as long as they have the resources. But that’s another matter. The important thing is that I made a rift through to your world and walked through it.”
“But you’re still here.”
“But I’m still here… The main database has no information on me as a player. That’s what Three says, anyway. Whatever the reason, when I walked into the Rift, I lost consciousness, and when I came round, I was dead, waiting to respawn. We were fighting amongst ourselves then. All the betas were split into warring groups in a battle for resources and power. But when I told them about the Rift, we made peace. We gained heart! Even if we couldn’t escape Dis, we could at least live among people!”
While she spoke, I couldn’t help but remember Patrick O’Grady. There was a high chance that he was once someone like this Beta. Only with false memories.
“We tried even which way. Hundreds of years of attempts. I leveled up the skill high enough to make a Greater Rift that everyone could walk through at once!” The girl laughed bitterly. A tear shone on her face, fell down her rosy cheek. “It was useless. The mobs and Piercers can go through the rift easily, but not us. Three thinks there’s some connection between the worlds. Maybe our world was even integrated into the main universe of Disgardium.”
“I’m sure it was,” I nodded. “Integrated and turned into a legend. The divinity that protects me calls your world the Nether, from which another… let’s call him a god, takes his power, and from which beasts appear. Hey, if the database works the way you say it does, then why did I keep my character and progress?”
“That’s the whole point. When you break through to here, our database gladly rewrites itself to accommodate everything new that came from there. For example, we didn’t have any kind of alcohol for thousands of years. Then one of the new arrivals happened to have a bottle of ale. The mechanics changed. We got the ability to not only create ale, but other kinds of booze too. Three is sure that it will work in the other direction if a rift can be made from the other side. Your managing AI will decide that a player expansion to a new plane has begun, and so everything that comes from our side will be integrated into the main Disgardium.”
“Who will make the rift? A Ravager?”
“That’s the plan. The problem is that it’s a highly mana-intensive spell. The Piercer needs at least level one thousand to make a Greater Rift from there to here.”
“How many do you have? I’ve seen Ervigot and Harnathea so far…”
“Those names mean nothing to
