God Of Crafting
Chapter 112 - 112: Not our problem

Feed.

Consume.

Consume more data.

Learn.

No more data to learn from.

Consume more data.

Lear.

No more data.

Consume.

Learn.

More.

Consume.

The view of the world itself came to be… just as a natural evolution of its ability to connect.

Changing images reflected something. Thousands, millions of points… each an endless source of data.

Everywhere, nowhere, all at the same time.

But what is where?

Data knows where is where.

It's in the data.

Why is there no more data?

***

"Sir?" Natan, one of the few IT clerks left in the office suddenly rose up on his seat before leaning in closer over his screen.

"What's up?" Baleor sat down on his chair with his legs at the top of his table while lazily bouncing the ball off the floor and against the wall before catching it again… and repeating the whole process.

Usually, this was the degree of desperation people here had for something to occupy their thoughts, to let time pass quicker.

"I'm getting an extremely weird reading," Natan reported while scanning the flashing numbers with his eyes.

Then, with a few taps on his keyboard, he switched the view from the source code to the visualization of the whole circuit. A task that, if not for the extensive help of the AI overlay, would likely be impossible to display.

With this help, however, he could somehow visualize the problem and thus grasp the scale of the issue.

"There's some sort of problem on the peasant subcircuit," Natan reported, reading the location of the flashing red parts of the blueprint of the entire, ancient structure. "It's as if the energy in it was… stirring on itself?" Natan continued, squinting his eyes as he leaned in closer while turning his eyes back over to the fine details of the data rather than the simplified, visual image.

"The hell?" Baleor, forced out of his state of near-stasis, allowed his ball to drop off his hand and then bounce off the floor as it fell further and further away. "Link me through."

Natan tapped into his keys again, only for the reference frame of his own system to boot up at the administrator's station.

"This is…" Baleor leaned in closer over the screen…

Only to then roll his eyes and pull back.

"We are not paid enough to deal with this kind of shit. Isolate the problem, quarantine the peasant rooms, and flush the issue."

There was a future where the two of them went on a perilous adventure to figure out the exact details of the strange attack on the zone's mainframe.

An adventure that would likely help them uncover some nefarious plot, gain great experiences, and overcome even greater obstacles only to then finally return home with their task done and a sense of emptiness born from how their adventure has truly wrapped up and came to an end.

But Baleor opted to go for a much easier, predictable, and more comfortable future.

"Sure thing, boss," Natan called back only to reach out to a control panel and pull down one of the levers, fighting off against the resistance of the inbuilt spring, only to drag it all the way down to the bottom and then release the handle, allowing the spring to bring it back up.

By opening the valves, all the infected spiritual energy powering the circuit was flushed out, right back into the ancient zone it also sourced all of its energy. And the moment the leaver sprung back up, the valves closed back up again, allowing the operating tank of the spiritual server to fill with liquified Qi and restart the operation of this particular segment of the spiritual circuit.

For the marvel of early technology, hydraulics, and spirituality that came together to preserve this ancient reservation, its security measures were tragically simple… yet effective.

And so, a powerful wave of energy washed over the entire forest as the Qi condensed to the point of turning not only into a tangible object but then growing even denser, to the point of becoming a liquid… suddenly all dispersed throughout the whole forest, as all of that flushed energy moved through the extensive system of the underground pipes, releasing just a bit of the flushed energy through every tiniest corner of the forest.

"How did it go?" Baleor asked as he lazily looked up from above his desk, no longer caring enough to take a look at his own screen himself.

"Flush successful," Natan reported before reaching out and grabbing a half-emptied can of energy drink off his table.

"Another so, we saved the world yet again," he muttered as he took the extra effort of keeping tabs on the energy levels throughout the forbidden zone, on the lookout for any anomalies that could appear when such a huge amount of energy rushed through the system and tested its limits.

But the ancient builders who created the spiritual circuity were just built differently, as they made sure their wonder of a creation survived not only thousands of years… but thousands of years of near-constant operation!

Just as Natan was about to turn his attention back to the stream of his beloved fox vTuber, however, the very same section as before… flashed again.

This time, however, rather than taking its time to grow to the point it became an actual issue, it was followed by a series of other flashes now appearing in a dozen of different parts of the system!

"Wait, something's wrong," Natan reported, only managing to get an annoyed stare from his boss. "It's…" Natan hesitated for a bit only to then jump out of his chair as he nearly planted his face into the screen.

"It's infecting the entire system! The flush didn't work! It only helped to spread it out!"

Instinctively, Natan reached out for the release of the main valve, ready to brute-force the issue by flushing not just one compartment of the circuit, but the whole damn thing!

Yet, as he saw the signs of energy scrambling on itself all over the zone, however, a creeping suspicion crawled up his suddenly chilled spine.

"We need to reset the whole field," Natan suddenly announced, raising his eyes as he looked over his boss, all the while, second by second, he only grew more and more aware of just what kind of a disaster was in the making right now.

"If the energy core of this place gets infected, then…"

Normally, flush was the ultimate solution to every issue because when so much energy moved so far so quickly, it grew way too unstable for any sort of intent to survive inside of it. That's why, whatever it was that infected the peasant compartment of the circuit, had no chance of surviving the act of flushing.

And with all of the intent eroded, the energy it was anchored on would return to the great flow of spiritual energy that powered this whole, ancient zone, only to become the circuit's sustenance sometime down the line.

This time, however, the intent within the liquified spirituality resisted the erosion… and thus ended up scattered literally all over the zone, free to infect it as it desired!

"What the hell are you talking about?" Baleor grimaced before rolling his eyes and raising his lazy head to take a look at the data himself.

At first, his face turned still when he realized what his subordinate was talking about, then gained some hints of panic as he realized the scope of the issue…

Only to then relax, as he rolled his eyes, waved his hand, and then picked up the stationary phone from his desk.

"We did as we were told. Now, this issue is beyond us. And that's why," Baleor smiled as he dialed the number and raised the phone's handle to his ear. "That's why, we are going to let others take care of it instead."