A powerful mind was both a curse and a gift.
Over the past few days, Orion had come to truly realise this.
This fact became ever more evident whenever he'd leave the house, and especially during the moments that he'd just admire his surroundings. In one way or another, he'd find himself analysing more things than he'd like unconsciously.
Be it the dimensions of certain objects, the expressions of the people around him, or even something insignificant like the imperfections of the sidewalk. Even during basic conversation, he found himself annoyed.
When it came to standard conversation where the person's words were predictable, such as when speaking to a cashier, he found their ordinary speech felt slow or even tedious to listen to.
He had gotten better at dealing with the issue over time, but that didn't mean it wasn't still a pain in the ass. The method he'd mostly been using was isolating his mind to focus on particular things based on the situation.
Even when walking, he'd made sure to focus entirely on his destination and his steps, actively avoiding admiration for his surroundings, which led to a damn banquet of unwanted thoughts.
The other method was simple... turn his damn brain off.
Not literally of course, he'd gotten pretty good at maintaining a clear and sometimes even blank mind while still functioning properly while on the move. Was it easy? Hell no, he'd bumped into a number of people or objects while getting the hang of it.
"What a pain..." Clicking his tongue, Orion muttered to himself as he walked out of one of the many convenience stores in the area. A thin popsicle in his mouth and a plastic bag in his hand. "I honestly feel more like a computer than a person."
Smart people think effectively.
Computers think more and faster.
The former filtered out anything they deemed unnecessary, while computers processed literally everything that was introduced to them. As of right now, he was feeling more like the latter.
Biting the entire popsicle off the stick, Orion chewed on the cold, sweet delight before glancing to the side. He noticed a trash can across the road, cars zooming past, and people walking by in front of it.
Not long after, he threw the stick with a powerful swing, and as it pierced the air, it sailed across the area, perfectly flying past the small gaps between the pedestrians and even skimming across the top of one of the cars.
With a faint thud, the empty popsicle stick perfectly flew into the narrow open bin slot that was in the process of closing after someone had just finished throwing their trash away. Seeing this, Orion had no change in expression.
"Out of 526 logical outcomes, 21, 67, 69, and 420 were the most likely to occur. Out of those four, outcome 69 had the highest chance at 45.24%. Final result... outcome 69." Orion muttered in a dull tone as he gazed blankly at the scene. "Seems I was right, yay... and with tons of brainrot. Kill me."
With a deep sigh, Orion glanced up at the sky.
When he did, his eyes were naturally attracted to the moon, certainly no normal moon, mind you. Currently in a full state, the moon was looking around at everything while wearing a pair of literal sunglasses.
It sounded utterly ridiculous, but Orion had come to accept the utter chaos that Planarcadia was. Any kind of common sense or logic from his old world, aside from the basics, meant practically nothing here in this space fantasy world.
"Phantasmoon Games, huh?" Orion, displaying a slight hint of interest, couldn't help but wonder to himself as his eyes remained fixed on the moon. "A game that grants the winner the power of an Aeon..."
While gathering information online about his new home, Orion had naturally come across the Phantasmoon Games. A competition that crowns the winner the chance to wield the power of an Aeon for an entire minute.
Eight individuals who managed to claim a mask pretty much duke it out in a contest of popularity and/or chaos, at least that's what Orion thought of it as based on the information he found online.
The one who manages to climb to the top is said to have their wish granted by Aha themselves, the Aeon of Elation, giving them access to the Aeon's power for an entire minute to do whatever it was they wished.
"Why does it sound like a holy grail war?" Orion deadpanned slightly as this thought crossed his mind. The similarities were honestly pretty damn clear. "If they really are the same, there's definitely some shitty catch to it all."
The power of a god given to a mortal?
Sounded like all kinds of trouble to him.
You can't tell him there isn't some shady shit going on behind the scenes.
As if sensing his gaze, the Phantasmoon seemed to turn its gaze towards him and gave an obvious wink. Seeing this, Orion stared blankly before scoffing as he turned his gaze away and began walking away.
He was a gamer through and through, but it's because of that, that he knew when to stay clear of things. The point of a game was to have fun, and based on his personal tastes, the Phantasmoon Games sounded more troublesome than fun.
As the gamers from his old world typically think. If you think a game isn't worth the trouble, don't play it. If you think it'll be fun, then knock yourself out.
O-O-O
Instead of immediately heading back home, Orion had decided to instead take a peaceful stroll through the city. Despite the time he'd been here, he had never properly taken the chance to explore his new home.
Given the fact that he had come from a world far more normal, at least by his standards, it seemed like a bit of a waste to simply not explore the place he'd be calling home from now on. Plus, a good walk never did anyone harm.
Even for him, as long as he kept his mind focused on particular aspects, even he could enjoy looking around.
'The more I look around, the more the cityscape reminds me of Japan.' Orion thought to himself as he continued walking along the streets. 'Then again, the web said that this world used to be called Benzaitengoku, sounds pretty Japanese. Is this world just space Japan?'
It wasn't unlikely.
If anything, the appearance of this place was like an Akihabara on drugs.
'Seems pretty damn peaceful, despite the weird shit all over the place.' Smiling slightly, Orion felt quite satisfied. He was just glad it wasn't some apocalyptic world... that, or he just jinxed himself. 'Even so, this whole universe as whole obviously isn't void of danger. Perhaps I should find some way of protecting myself.'
With the information online about Aeons, he had naturally come across terms like Pathstrider.
Individuals who, while not directly blessed by Aeons, do draw power from their paths, allowing them to perform all kinds of incredible feats. As far as he was aware, he himself didn't seem to be fortunate enough to be blessed with such power.
Aside from the abilities granted to him through Mekhane's Blessing, he wasn't aware of any other changes in his person. It was even possible that it was impossible for him to draw power from the paths, being a human from an entirely different universe, after all.
That was only speculation though.
'Maybe I'm just worrying too much, though I would at least like some assurance...' Orion sighed inwardly as he took out a can of soda from his plastic bag before cracking it open and chugging a few times. "Ugh, this tastes like straight up sugar..."
"We love you, Sparxicle!"
"...?"
A sudden commotion immediately interrupted Orion's thoughts as he turned his head up towards the source in confusion, and when he did, the commotion seemed to be coming from the direction towards the plaza that was just up ahead.
He could hear countless cheers and applauses.
With slight interest, Orion sped up his pace and headed towards the source.
The plaza, not having been too far away from his previous location, didn't take long to arrive at as Orion was greeted by the sight of a massive crowd of people. All of them held light-sticks in their hands and were waving them about while screaming.
Even the upper elevated area he was standing at and overlooking the plaza had people cheering, and as for what they were cheering for, he honestly couldn't answer that.
'Is there a concert going on?' Orion cocked an eyebrow as he observed the crowd. 'Or did I walk into a cult meeting?'
"Oh my gosh, I can't wait for Lady Sparxie's stream to start!"
"I know! It should be soon, right?"
The chatter of the fans next to him naturally didn't escape Orion's ears, and based on their few words, he had naturally gotten a gist of the situation. It seemed that this... Sparxie was a streaming sensation or whatever.
If she could gather a crowd this large, then she had to be a pretty damn popular streamer.
"Sparxie, huh? Guess she's pretty popular..."
"Of course she is!"
With a bit of a dumbfounded look on his face, Orion turned his head to the other side where he saw a male fan standing next to him who had shouted those words. Based on his expression, the dude seemed in disbelief.
"How could you not know how popular Lady Sparxie is?!" The fan continued to shout before his body seemed to shake in excitement, and a fanatical expression formed on his face. "She's the absolute cutest... oh~, I'd do anything for her! If only she'd step on me...!"
'Okay. First of all, what the absolute fuck.' Orion felt his brain short circuit for a second as he processed what he had just heard. 'Secondly, how the hell did this guy hear my muttering?! Is he that much of a fan that he has a sixth sense for this Sparxie's name?!'
"As Lady Sparxie's greatest fan, it's my duty to educate ignorant individuals such as yourself." Perhaps with a little too much delusional pride, the male fan puffed up his chest. "Although you'll never be as great a fan as me, my instincts are telling me you're dying to become one!"
'Your instincts are shit.'
"Lady Sparxie is not only the cutest streamer in all of Planarcadia, but she is also the very light of hope in all of our hearts! Whenever you feel down, you can always rely on the adorable Sparxicle to cheer you right up! Whenever I get scolded for not being at work, her livestreams always cheer me up again!"
"...Then don't skip work."
"I have no choice!" Was the immediate response. "I can't miss a single Sparxicle livestream!"
'Then she's the source yet the cure to your problems?!' Even Mekhane's Blessing may not be enough for him to process the mindset of the individual in front of him. "I won't lie, buddy. You are living in a world of genuine depression and delusional happiness."
"Pfft, no I'm not!" With an outright refusal to the statement, the male fan waved Orion's comment away like a fart in the wind. "What do you know? She and I have a very special relationship! She always pays special attention to me and a few others, a majority don't even get to have the delight of having her speak directly to them!"
Dude was parasocial as fuck.
"She responds to every comment I make on her streams without fail! The cost for making the comments is simply insignificant when her alluring voice enters my ears. O-Ohh~, the idea of it makes me filled with joy!"
A parasocial super chatter.
Even worse.
Without responding to the male fan, Orion simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath, perhaps trying to connect himself with the peaceful consciousness of the universe to relieve any kind of mental damage this dude had inflicted on him.
He knew that streaming was a very popular profession here in Planarcadia, especially for imagenae. Although it sounded ridiculous, for many, it was actually their main way of survival. They needed Wishpower, which came in droves as long as they were a popular streamer.
"Don't worry, my ignorant friend! I'll tell you ever- wait, where are you going? Sparxicle's stream is going to start soon!"
O-O-O
Perhaps staying true to his nature as a gamer, after today's little outside experience, he much preferred staying inside.
He felt it better to simply focus on entirely developing the Playverse, he did still have a lot of things he needed to work on before it met the standards he had for a fully ready to play world, not just some half-finished slop.
Game creation was no easy task, especially when on the scale that Orion was doing so.
In a world like this as well, the difficulty of it going smoothly was countless times less likely than back on Earth. One genuine concern was the future distribution of the Dataform Divers, he needed to have them shipped through the cosmos through the IPC's delivery service.
Aside from local delivery services, the IPC seems to have completely taken monopoly on the trading routes between worlds in this universe. The first set of Dataform Divers was no concern, but once the technology becomes more known, who knows what could happen.
He naturally researched on the IPC, mainly because it was their services he'd be using, and he could tell that issues may rise in the future with them. Given their nature, they'd no doubt try to take a generous piece of the pie, being the Playverse as well as the overall technology.
When it came to using their delivery service, the IPC would then naturally have a way of tracking down his general location. Unless there was an alternative, an encounter with the IPC was inevitable for the future.
Heck, it didn't help that the IPC seems to have established itself here on Planarcadia long before his arrival.
'There's not much I can really do about that. At most, I could hack into their network and delete any history before they trace it. Even then, there's no guarantee.' Orion frowned as he looked down at the eggs he had cooking on the frying pan. 'If it's inevitable, I need to have the power to stand my ground against them.'
He could have the greatest mind, but if surrounded by the IPC's grunts, let alone powerhouses, then he was pretty much powerless to do anything. At most, he could hide the Dataform Divers and/or escape temporarily into the Playverse until they leave.
'Another most likely outcome would be that they'd try to form a partnership with me. No doubt to get the secrets behind the technology behind the Playverse.' With a flick of the pan, the fried eggs flew perfectly through the air and landed on an empty plate. 'That in itself... sounds like a pain.'
The IPC was business obsessed.
He had no doubt in his mind that as long as the IPC tried to take influence on the Playverse, his initial ideals for that place would end up steering away in another direction. That... he absolutely refused to allow.
Being the literal icon of money in the universe, the IPC could easily purchase out his Dataform Divers in the future, and they may even do so for the sole purpose of being able to study and gather information on the Playverse for their own agendas.
A gamer's paradise infested with money-grubbing employees, the very idea of that pissed him off.
'There are things I can do to solve that issue, but they simply aren't realistic. Banning specific people is inefficient, and restricting access to certain groups locks out sole individuals who truly do just want to enjoy themselves.'
Orion was not naive, he knew that there was no such thing as a perfect solution.
He could only look for the best solution.
Could it be possible to create his own form of a Dataform Diver that functions on a larger scale than even the ones produced by the System? It very much was.
With Mekhane's Blessing, he knew all the knowledge he needed to develop something like that, it would simply take some innovation. The main issue was resources. Basic materials could be bought with the money he received from the purchased Dataform Divers, but the complex materials were another problem entirely.
He doubted that even a majority of the far more complex materials he needed were even available on the public market, and there was always the possibility that those materials didn't even exist in this universe in the first place.
"In other words, that idea is completely unrealistic..." Orion sighed to himself as this result made itself clear to him. "Even if I could gather those materials, the time it takes to create it would be far too long. At least I wouldn't be able to complete it before some kind of conflict already establishes. Logically, this method isn't feasible right now."
If he was being honest, any method didn't seem feasible.
All of them were illogical with current circumstances.
"Illogical..." Orion muttered as he placed his food down onto the table. "Logic? Wait a second, there might be something I can do...!"
Ignoring his food for now, he quickly rushed to his desk and took out a piece of paper along with grabbing one of his pens. He quickly began sketching some things along with listing down a few points of importance.
"I need to think outside the box, outside of the confines of logic... No, I simply need to create my own logic." Orion muttered silently to himself as he continued writing. "I have the entire realm of information at my fingertips, so I need to use it to the limits. What method would a gamer use to filter out the filth...?"
His eyes narrowed as his hand didn't stop moving, only once he practically ran out of room on both sides of the paper did he slow down. Scanning over the contents several times over in seconds, a small smile formed on his face.
"Although only a temporary solution and not without its disadvantages...this could work!"
.
.
.
I had completely forgotten to mention, this story takes place Post-Amphoreus but a fair amount of time before the Astral Express embarks for Planarcadia. I do have a number of things planned before the Phantasmoon Games begin.