Draco checked the menu for the third Area Expansion and paid the bill right away. His face hardened as he felt the precious resources that could buy 4 continents believed away with ease, integrating with the Eternal Tree as they were slowly but surely processed into something usable.
Like before, a wave of energy pulsed out from the center of the tree and covered the area around the island. The island itself expanded greatly once more, going from an entire Area Zone to half the size of a Boundless continent!
Now, the land was big enough to house up to 500,000 Morningstar Clan generations without getting cramped. Draco was satisfied with this, but he paid attention to one thing more.
The energy that had been sent out contained the five-colored energies of the pinnacle elements. Dark blue for Gravity, Purple for Space/Void, Grey for Time, Black for Destruction, and White for Creation.
Gravity gave the island its own organic weight, and it took Draco some time to adjust to it. Previously, the elements had been simulated using energy, which was why it had seemed as if it had always been there, when in truth they hadn't been.
Now, the island could house anything of any size without problem, as long as its own weight did not surpass the island's.
Oh, at this point, it shouldn't be called the island in the void anymore, but the plane in the void due to its size.
Destruction Energy's presence meant that things would naturally degrade over time. It was not the same as Death Energy or the Death element, which was part of the advanced elements.
That one handled decay, which was organic and controlled by micro forces. Destruction handled general degradation until something would become utterly nothing.
Creation though, was one of the most crucial for the plane, or any world. Now, it meant that life could be naturally and organically generated on the plane through the unique Laws of Creation.
Draco wouldn't have to do anything, and flora and fauna would soon spawn on a small scale before becoming bigger and bigger over time, adding life and light to the plane.
It would start with animals and progress into unique monsters as the plane got creative. Such things were handled passively, and what Draco's plane could produce would not be the same as the main plane or the entire Western Fantasy section.
After all, his Inner Universe was only based off the Western Fantasy section because both items that had formed it had originated from this section, meaning they carried its fundamental rules.
However, Draco knew that the 4th stage would correct that, as it would introduce the World Rules system, allowing Draco to customize his Inner Universe to be its own thing.
ï½¢System to Player Announcement
Please choose one of the two methods of Upgrade:
1. Area Expansion (Level 4) - Cost: 2g Purified Anti-matter, 1g Universal Source Fluid, 10g Aurora Essence, 5g Origin Essence, 5 Supernova Star Cores, 1 cubic centimeter of Soul Source, 1 Source of Law, 1 Book of Rules, etc
2. Universe Growth (Level 2) - Cost: 100,000kg Pure Light Essence, 30,000 Darkness Orbs, 50,000 Thunder Sources, 10,000 Life Seeds, 5,000,000 cubic meters of Soul Energy, 2,000,000 cubic meters of pure Life Energy, 200,000 cubic meters of Creation Energy etcï½£
His lips twitched. Most of these resources were at least upper Divine-grade, with some being Semi-Origin and some straight-up Origin-grade!
Even though the Tower of Babylon had Divine materials and resources up, they were not too many and were of limited variety. For Legendary and below, it had a wealth of everything, and that was how Draco could easily get the stuff for the level 1 to level 3 of Area Expansion (technically, the same for Universe Growth).
He could only sigh. It seemed like even if he wanted to go further, this was his limit until he could find a repository for high-grade Divine resources and some lower Origin grade ones.
Rubbing his chin, Draco thought of the Vault of the Deep, which was the next Unique Quest he planned to go on. Given his handsomeness and valor, it wouldn't be too outrageous for the AI to coincidentally spawn what he needed there, would it?
He then put this aside and waited for the changes to settle before taking note of the most important one this time around. The addition of the Space and Time elements, meant that he could directly control both within the area of the plane.
Space would allow him to teleport anywhere on the continent or send anyone anywhere, as well as make pocket realms all over with ease.
Time though, was the whole point of what he had worked so hard for. He could now slow down time in an area, speed it up or stop it altogether. However he wanted to go about it was utterly up to him, and the level of dilation he could reach was also up to him.
However, there was a catch to this in the sense of brain resources. As was often seen, the limits of players when given unlimited power - like in Draco or Eva's case - was still functionally limited by their own bodies and the interface between the game and their brains.
Even Draco and Eva, with superior bodies, could not escape this. Even with the pods making things far easier, they were still a bit limited in the end.
Ah, but such talk opened a can of worms!
Because, unlike Draco and Eva who got stronger and stronger with stages, the normal players didn't! They were sub-humans through and through, so how was it that when they Ranked Up, they could partake in more taxing abilities that should be affected externally?
Well, this would have to be explained using the mechanic behind Rank Ups, a hidden mechanic that most players didn't know of, but Draco and Eva did due to their plateau in the previous timeline.
What did it mean to Rank Up? No seriously, it sounded real simple, you do a Quest/Event at a Training Hall and when you pass, voila!
You are now at a higher Rank, can learn new spells and skills, can use new and more powerful abilities and you can level up again! Yay!
No.
It wasn't that simple.
Let's get this out of the way first so that it won't sound weird later or confusing; the human brain was the most powerful computer in the world.
According to Pseudo-Science, we only use 5% or so of our brain, while the rest is locked behind an organic limiter placed on us by nature. Without it, one could display psychic abilities, connect with various waves in the air directly and control the world around us.
It's also said that the body was placed under a limiter of the same nature, and that if we had full control of all our muscles, we could perform acts of superhuman strength with ease.
And yeah, that wasn't Pseudo-Science anymore, but fact. After all, the above sounded kinda familiar didn't it? Well, it was these exact limiters one broke through to attain Control.
This was how Control could still progress for Eva and Draco and how they knew about the existence of Tiers. Because unlike what modern science could fathom, Control had become more commonplace and well researched at the end of their previous lives.
Regarding the brain limiter, breaking it by 5% unlocked the Void of Perfection. Regarding the body limiter, breaking it by 5% as well unlocked Body of Godliness.
That was why it was so hard to unlock Control, it required continuous intense stress on these two and the right methods to pry open the 'seal' place on the mind by nature.
How does Control affect Ranking Up?
It comes full circle. The reason why so many were able to unlock Control despite being sub-humans or not even special or remarkable had to do with their progress in the game.
When you Rank Up, you gain access to more taxing skills and spells that had shorter cooldowns. Cooldowns were put in place not to control how you fought, but to prevent you from overheating.
After all, the AI only handled world generation and control. Your character's actions, powers, and abilities were handled by the player, or the player's brain.
That's right, what the Virtua Helmet, and to some extent the Pod, did was to interface with your brain and take your consciousness away into the game world. Then, it created a server and client relationship with your brain.
So through the Virtua Helmet, your brain connected to the server and would 'download' resources to process locally to allow the 'user' to enjoy the content.
To put it simpler, the game uses your brain as a sub-computer!
Even though the AI could technically process everything, it doesn't. Because that negates the obviously stated benefit of stressing the brain enough to push past the limiter and unlock Control.
Honestly, it was strange how the AI did this... as if it KNEW about Control and was proficient in unlocking it for the human race... huh.
Anyway, cooldowns were put in place to limit the stress one would cause themselves by activating skills, because when you did - regardless of equipment or class skills - you were the one handling the processing for it, not the AI.
Doing so once or twice was fine, but if there were no cooldowns, then one could spawn them endlessly within milliseconds as long as they had mana or stamina, which would be like downloading RTX Minecraft shaders on a shitbox of a PC.
Hehe, brain go kaboom!
Because think about it, since Mana and Stamina already existed, why was there a need for cooldowns? The limited amount of mana and stamina a player would have would be enough as a limiter to their power.
In fact, it would force them to be much more careful with this skill usage compared to having cooldowns. If there were going to be cooldowns, there was no need to implement Mana or Stamina.
If there was Mana or Stamina, there was no need to implement cooldowns. It was really poor game development to include both, no matter how you strung it.
So when you Rank Up, your brain doesn't become stronger but takes on a heavier load. But cooldowns are lowered and durations are increased, as we've seen from all the various Rank Ups.
How does this work? The aforementioned hidden mechanic of Ranking Up comes into play. The reason why doing so doesn't fry your brain is because the more you Rank Up, the more the AI subsidizes resources for you.
So if at say, Rank 1, your brain was handling everything on its own, by Rank 7, your brain and the AI were sharing the work 50/50.
Factually speaking, the amount of work your brains puts up doesn't change with each Rank Up, because the AI handles the new load perfectly. Now do this for billions of players and you can only respect the AI.
Also, it makes sense why Ranking Up was so goddamn hard. If everyone was allowed to reach Rank 7 and would begin firing off Legendary Skills and Spells, wouldn't the AI be swamped with work?
Wait, so if the AI subsidizes for players, how come Draco and Eva suffer under the weight of their OP skills so much? Well, it should be kinda obvious, hehe.
This AI mommy is not going to subsidize anything for those two reincarnator brats! They have whatever bloodlines and whatever rebuild bodies, so all the load can be handled by themselves, hmph!
This put Draco and Eva's power in a new light, because they were Rank 3 and using OP skills that could break anyone else with ease, despite not having a lick of help from the AI.
It also had to do with the pods, but their superior forms of life also helped significantly.
So, what did all of this have to do with the current situation? Well, it was important to note this, for it was crucial to Draco's entire plan and his reason for doing this.
Once, when Rank 2, Draco had pulled the core members into an illusion where he diluted time and trained them each for a short period of time. This act had tired him and significantly consumed his mental strength, because he had taken the place of the AI.
Time dilation, time dilation. We always hear that term and generally understand what it means, but how did it work?
In the case of Boundless, it was at a ratio of 4:1, which meant 4 hours in the game was 1 hour in real life. So within a day's regular 24 hours, you would mentally experience and live through 96 hours.
Of course, time dilation was likely the most taxing thing a brain could suffer, so the players didn't 'pay' for that. The AI did instead. Handling time dilation for players accounted for 50% of the AI's total workload.
So when Draco dilated time for the players even further, he took on the task of dilating time for them to that degree, and just for about 20 people and 1 minute of transformation time, he had exhausted himself.
This was also why when he used the Scrivener's technique recording thing, he couldn't stay long. The time dilation in that was so brutal that the AI had to share it with him, taxing his brain greatly.
Now, Draco's plan here was obvious. He wanted to dilate time around himself further to practice more within the same amount of time. So say, 1 week in a time dilated area would become 1 year.
If he had to do this - and he could with his psychic prowess - he would likely fry his brain, bloodline be damned. So why put in so much effort to upgrade the Inner Universe to specifically acquire this ability?
Well, if you followed the long and tedious explanation above, the answer was simple. In situations pertaining to a player's own works, they handled the resources themselves, but when it was pertaining to the world, the AI handled that one.
So Draco's evil and dastardly plan was laid bare. By using the Inner Universe's laws to slow down time around an area which coincidentally happened to have him, Eva, and whoever else in it. The AI would have to handle the time dilation for them without they themselves paying anything for it.
Despicable! Evil! Heartless!
BASTARD DRACO, STOP RIGHT THERE!
However, had Draco ever been stopped when he wanted to perform evil upon others?
He directly swiped at the area before him, and two fellows appeared before him from where they had previously been. Clarent was idly solving a crossword puzzle while Qiong Qi was in a pouncing position, like he was about to catch some prey.
As such, when they were suddenly brought here, Qiong Qi target happened to be Clarent who was busy. The two fellows crashed into each other cursing and swearing as they untangled each other.
"Motherfucker, where did you come from? Shit, GET YOUR BLOODY DICK OFF MY FACE!" Clarent screamed with anger.
"Damn, what the hell is this?! This isn't my sleeping wife's booty?! Oh FUCK, THOSE SCALES FEEL LIKE KNIVES! ARRGH!" Qiong Qi screeched with pain.
Draco laughed at the two of them uproariously, stealing their attention. Seeing that they had both suddenly appeared before him, they immediately understood who was behind their sudden displacement.
They immediately disentangled and surrounded Draco on each side, their faces red with fury.
"Despicable fiend, how dare you inconvenience this Dragon Master?!"
"Shitty freak, quickly hand over an explanation for this slight! This Lion God is not in a good mood!"
Draco simply waves away their complaints. "It's not shameful to be into each other. What you two do in your private time is up to you. Whether it is to rub dicks on each other's faces or not, you are still my homies."
Fuck!
Qiong Qi and Clarent couldn't take it anymore, ready to engage Draco in a fight to the death. However, Draco didn't bother with them as he called them over here for a far different purpose.
"Hehe, you two handsome fellows, become the means by which I test my new powers!" Draco laughed evilly.
Immediately, the anger in Clarent's and Qiong Qi's hearts dissipated and was filled with endless fear. They finally understood why Draco called them over and it definitely wasn't for a comedy skit!
"Not good! Run!"
"Flee! Escape!"
"Heh heh, it is not possible to run. I AM INEVITABLE!!!" Draco stated as he snapped his fingers.
Immediately, both Clarent and Qiong Qi froze where they were, the expression of fear and unwillingness trapped on their faces like a still photo. Draco had stopped time around the duo, and was shocked at how effective it was.
He walked around them, kicking and beating them to see if they would react, but they didn't even move. Curious, he released them from the time stop and saw them run a few steps before falling to the ground.
"Aow Aow Aow, My leg!! My FUCKING LEG!!"
"Arrgh, dammit! Who kicked me! Who KICKED ME?!"
Draco watched the two squeal in pain and understood something. When time was stopped, it didn't mean whatever they suffered wouldn't be felt. It was simply delayed and served to them all in one instant.
Draco had a few ideas of what he could do. There were a few hentais he had seen with a similar plot and... hehehehehehe!
Suddenly, all his women who were enjoying their lives felt a shudder run through their body, a sense of foreboding making them shiver. Eva directly knew that the cause could only be Draco's evil mind, as nothing else could make her feel fear, so she searched for him.
She had to stop him before he walked down the path of evil!
Draco at this time was walking over to Qiong Qi and Clarent who were still rolling.
"Time to test how slowing down and accelerating time works on you two, my dear labrats~"
Feeling horror, Clarent and Qiong Qi sprung to their feet, crying out at the same time while hugging each other for protection;
"BASTARD DRACO, STOP RIGHT THERE!"
