The Dawn of the New World

It regularly changed form into various shapes of all sizes before returning to the original cubed formation.

The light was actually coming from somewhere inside the cube and could only be seen when it was about to change shapes. Hao Xuan extended his hand and felt the copious levels of radiation around the tube.

"What is this thing? It's giving off such a strong energy!"

Even with the glass tube holding back most of the energy Hao Xuan could feel it outside like the rays of the sun.

"Unable to answer. Please find a terminal to plug into. There are jammers placed all around the room making wireless data transmission impossible."

"Hmm."

Hao Xuan walked around the tube until he came across a glass panel on the other side of the tube with three buttons on the left and two on the right of it.

"What do I do?"

"Place your hand over it. The nanites will create a physical link."

Hao Xuan did as instructed. He could even feel the extremely faint movements within his bloodstream as the nanites were pumped towards the tip of his fingers. But when he came into contact with the glass panel a wave of electric current ran throughout his body, making him shudder.

"Everything good? Was that normal?"

"Yes. It was a kind of security check. Anyone with a different neuron structure than yours would have been permanently paralyzed with severe brain damage."

*Sigh*

"That's good to know. Can you get in? Find out what happened, quickly."

The glass screen came to life the moment he finished speaking and countless 3D characters began to appear a few centimeters above its surface. It looked like they were raining down from above.

"This is new," Hao Xuan mumbled.

"It is a method of long-term data storage created by the progenitor. Efficient and secure."

The 3D characters began to unravel one by one, breaking up into countless other symbols and letters many of which Hao Xuan recognized.

The glass screen started to get hotter and hotter to the point Hao Xuan got worried and quickly channel some chaos Qi to surround his hand.

"Is it supposed to be getting this hot?" he worryingly inquired.

"Negative. With the standard data conversion rate there would not have been a rise in temperature but since the process has been sped up on host's request several components have begun to overheat."

"Isn't that a bad thing?! Don't overdo it."

"Readings are still within nominal range."

Despite Baracus saying so at one point it got hot enough that it exceeded Hao Xuan's physical tolerance. Thankfully it didn't last for very long and soon everything returned to normal.

*beep*

"Data successfully unpacked," Baracus informed before a series of automatic notifications popped in the corner of Hao Xuan's vision.

[Loading Previous Command Sequence]

[Reorganizing Data Sets]

[Creating Timeline]

[Creating Event Sequence]

[Compiling Character Index]

[Audio/Video Files Loaded]

[Presentation complete]

Hao Xuan frowned upon seeing the last one.

"What presentation? Don't waste time on useless things," he berated.

"The presentation was already completed by the overseer unit when it saw the final events coming."

"By Altron?"

"Affirmative."

"Well...that does sound like something he would do. Go ahead, start it. And find out where he is too."

"I believe the presentation will answer all of your questions. Would you prefer a standard player or VR mode?"

"Just normal for fuck sakes, stop wasting time!" Hao Xuan cursed loudly in annoyance.

Suddenly the lights dimmed throughout the room and a screen popped up in front of his face.

The screen flickered several times and the sound of static noise rang loudly in Hao Xuan's ears for a few seconds making him grimace.

"Are the files corrupted!? What's wrong?"

"Negative. That is, unfortunately, how the overseer unit created them."

"Altron added the static on purpose? Why would he do that??"

"According to the notes: [For dramatic effect]."

Hao Xuan let out another deep sigh and waited for the feed to stabilize before Altron finally rolled in front of the camera. He looked the exact same as the day Baracus created him.

[If you're seeing this, that means I'm dead...hehe, I always wanted to say that. Does it sound cool? I think so and Steve32 agrees.]

[It is the year of the Lord 856. Ah, I started a new calendar beginning from the day you left, master. Eight hundred and fifty-six years have passed since your departure and...despite my best efforts, things did not go according to plan.]

[Why so long you may wonder? Well, as it turned out, we had greatly underestimated what this world was capable of. A year after you left something happened in the skies outside and the flow of time slowed to a crawl. I can't be certain but one hour outside was anywhere between 5-10 years in here.]

[We thought this would be a good thing, giving us more time to do everything perfectly you know? For the first two decades it was all going according to plan. We harvested more resources than we would ever need and I even started an expansion project to house all the new arrivals upon the successful completion of your orders.]

[The Orcs, they missed you dearly. Especially those five, you know, Arthur and the rest. They revered you as a God...and I think that's where all the trouble began.]