Second World

"Tampered? Why did you let him do that?" Jack asked.

"We didn't!" Wilted replied rather strongly. "It was the owner of Trigitech company that gives him the power, but we never permit him to do anything to the game. He approached the company and offer them his machine which he said can revolutionize the gaming world. It will make all the gamers feel as if they are playing in a real-world, a second world instead of a virtual reality construct. His credential as a respectful scientist and the vouch from the company owner's only daughter, persuaded the owner to give him access to the game's core data. We have strongly opposed the decision because we don't want a stranger to meddle with our creation, no matter how well-respected that person is. But in the end, we are still just people working for the company. A middle-ground was taken, Apollyon was allowed access but he was not to tamper with anything in the programming. He said he wouldn't do that, he just wanted to study the game so that it will work better with his machine."

"Let me guess, he didn't keep his promise," Jack said.

"He never intended to. He did it rather discreetly though. Although he was not a programmer, he was genius enough to learn to hide his meddlings. No one notice anything strange until I accidentally found some irregularities. I didn't link it to Apollyon at first, I thought it was just some bugs in the system. I share this finding with my partner, the chief designer. He was the true genius that had created this Second World, I simply aid him a little."

Jack felt sadness from Wilted's tone when she mentioned her partner. Jack assumed their relationship was not shallow, but why was she sad? Her next words revealed the reason.

"Unfortunately, not long after that, an accident happened. It took the life of my partner. He had fallen from the rooftop of Trigitech's main building. I had my doubt, though. He never went up to the rooftop. Some people even said he had committed suicide, but I don't believe it. I know him. He was not a person who gave up on his life like that. He was so eager to see the Second World game launched, there was no way he would commit suicide. And the incident happened too close to when I tell him my findings."

"You think Apollyon had something to do with that?" Jack asked.

"I do not doubt it! The life of others is nothing in the eyes of that devil!" Wilted replied with anger. "Anyway, I didn't suspect Apollyon right away that time. The talk about my partner committing suicide caused me to look through his logs. It turned out he was following up on the irregularities I've found. That's when my suspicion started. I picked up from where he left off. But after what happened to my partner, I tried to be as discreet as possible and erased any traces that I might leave. After some time, I finally found some tampering inside the program, especially where it got to do with the Gods and Goddesses and the Divine Treasures. There were also a bunch of new items inside that were not supposed to be in the game."

"The alien entity?"

"That's what you called them? Well, those Second Soul Remnants were one of them. The traces of all these tamperings came from the access we have given to Apollyon. That's when I knew he had planned something more than what he had shared with us. However, at that time I still didn't understand why all these temperings in-game were worth something that caused my partner's life. I didn't dare to go to management because of how close Apollyon was with the owner and his daughter. If I have to get to him, I needed more proof. All I got then was his tamperings with our game, nothing to link him to the death of my partner. But, I was so sure of my suspicion of Apollyon that I started digging deeper and even broke into his office. It was illegal but I didn't know what to do then."

"What did you find?"

"I managed to hack into his computer and that's when I found some files describing his machine. However, those files were only his old files on what he was trying to build. He was careful enough not to keep the newest files about his secret machine, but I could roughly link what he was trying to do then and why he approached us. Yet, what I had then was just conjectures, I couldn't bring them to the authority as evidence. So while I continued trying to gather evidence, I worked secretly through the program to undo what he was doing."

"What is he trying to do anyway? Why he tampered with the game?"

"As mentioned before, he was not content with just living in a world of his doing. He needed to be a God in it as well. He found a way through this using the Divine Treasures. The seven Divine Treasures were what my partner and I put in as the last achievements for gamers. They are the most powerful artifacts in the game. They could break the game to one side which is of course, not what we want since we prioritize balance. But my partner also believed that gamers needed something to pursue, something that they know will put them on top if they manage it. It is a drive my partner believed will make the game more compelling. But of course, for the sake of balance, we put many limitations to these divine treasures. One of which, was that no one player can monopolize these treasures. There are seven of them and one player can only utilize one treasure. Additionally, if the player possessing the treasure is killed, he will lose the treasure, even if said player equips Amulet of Rebirth. This treasure will then vanish and appears in a random SSS quest for other players to pursue."

"But Apollyon removed these limitations?" Jack asked.

"He did. Now the treasures won't vanish from a death protected by Amulet of Rebirth or the Immortal Soul, only a death that brings your level back to one will cause the treasure to leave your body. Not only that, he made it so that the seven can be merged. When they do, the power one will gain upon such a feat will be heaven-defying. It will be equal if not even more powerful than the Gods and Goddesses my partner and I had set up as the apex beings within the game."

"So, if I gained a second divine treasure, I can merge with it as well?"

"No. Even though Apollyon was doing tamperings. He wasn't able to do radical changes. My partner had implemented a sort of core system that locked or balance certain things up. I bet Apollyon took a lot of time to circumvent this core system when he was doing his tamperings. There is one divine treasure that he spent the most time to change which is also the one that allows him to merge the other six divine treasures. It is the Chalice of Space. This divine treasure of darkness element was originally meant to serve as the ultimate storage bag. It has the ability to store any goods inside, including trade goods that originally is unable to be stored inside a player's standard bag. Additionally, the volume inside this Chalice of Space equal the size of a small town."

"Sma–small town…?" Jack said. He was rather proud of his Large Bag which could fit a volume of one hundred cubic meters, but this Chalice of Space would dwarf his Large Bag significantly.

"After Apollyon's tampering, this Chalice of Space could now hold the other divine treasures within it. Making the bearer able to fuse the other divine treasures that would have otherwise been impossible. This was also why this particular divine treasure was his first target once he arrived in this world."

"So, the third divine treasure you said he has inside him, it's the Chalice of Space?"

"Yes. He already has three divine treasures inside him. Wind God Blessings, Earth God Blessings, and Chalice of Space. Without the Chalice of Space, other players like us will only be able to merge with one divine treasure."

"I have the Lightning God Blessing. Leavemealone has the fire one. So that leaves two more. Do you know where these remaining two are?"

Wilted shook her head. "The remaining two, Ice God Blessing and the Book of Creation, I don't know where they are, but so did Apollyon. Someone had gotten his hand on the Ice God Blessing, as you did, but my friends and I have gotten to the person before World Maker did. And… we find this person to have insufficient ability to protect the divine treasure."

"So you wasted the person?" Jack asked.

"Yes… You don't approve?" Wilted Tree asked back.