Chương 2: [b1] 002 - Create Room

KLUDGE was so smart. It had taken me most of forty minutes to get basically nowhere with the API. In less than half that amount of time he had a full user interface working. It was fairly basic and was clearly inspired by video games from Earth, but it worked. In the top right corner was a current anima counter, which was set to 1, 000. Along the bottom of the screen was a skills bar which housed the create room, anima monitoring, and anima distribution skills.

When I activated Create Room, a small cube 1x1x1 meters appeared in the center of the feed. I could reshape it in all three dimensions, expanding or shrinking it to fit the space as I needed. [Colin> Any idea how big I can make the room? Were there any constraints listed anywhere?] [KLUDGE> Nah, this thing didn't come with any documentation unfortunately. But, I'm watching the logs so if anything goes wrong I'll catch it.] [MAM> DC-003 wouldn't read the instructions even if they did exist.] My drives clicked at MAM's comment—she was being particularly petty. As kind and understanding as she'd been during the whole Dungeon Core transformation thing, she'd quickly reverted to her stressed, hyper-mission-focused self and was getting worried that this was all a waste of time. Which, in her defense, I was worried about too. We all were. Out of habit, I pulled up the power statistics. Power Statistics ► Battery Percentage: 1.

01% ► Estimated Time Remaining: 8 hours, 6 minutes Power Notices ► REPR12 has fallen below 25% power. Schedule a recharge soon. REPR12 running low on power was the last thing we needed. Of the two bots we had left, he was the only one with a live feed, which made him the only one who could use the dungeon interface KLUDGE had made. I made a mental note to recharge the bot, then started with the Create Room skill. I had picked Mission Control for the starting room.

It was on the smaller side, and wasn't near the Server Room where I lived. Plus, Deck 1 was pretty much the only deck still mostly intact. I reshaped the cube to fit the room, then hit accept. Nothing happened. 0. 3 seconds later a notification superimposed itself in the feed. Create Room Skill ✕ ERROR: Dungeon must contain Dungeon Core. [Colin> That's frustrating. Any idea what other requirements the skill might have?] [KLUDGE> Other than the error we just got, not a clue. I've been trying to fuzz out some error codes but haven't been having much luck.] Fuzzing was just a fancy word for "doing something dumb and monitoring what happened." From what we'd seen of our humans doing it, we were having about the expected level of success from the technique. With nothing better to go off of, I instructed REPR12 to head into the Server Room. If I was going to be inside the dungeon, I wanted to limit the risk to our mission by keeping the rest of the subsystems out of it.

Thankfully, we each had our own separate rack, lined up in a neat row in the center of the room. I expanded the Create Room cube, ending just where my server rack stopped and MAM's began. Create Room Skill ✕ ERROR: Room must fill all available space. [MAM> Might I make a suggestion?] I don't know, were you going to call me DC-003 again? I didn't say that, obviously. [Colin> Of course.] [MAM> The Server Room should not be the only room. Expand the dungeon so we can put some distance between us and whatever is coming in here.] [PANIC> I AGREE. IT WOULD BE IDEAL IF YOU COULD BARRICADE YOURSELF BEHIND SEVERAL FORTIFICATIONS. IF YOU APPROVED MY PRINTER REQUESTS WE COULD BUILD SEVERAL HIGH YIELD WEAPONS TO DETER INTRUDERS FROM REACHING YOU. I HAVE LINKED THE SCHEMATICS IN SEVERAL CHANNELS BUT HAVE YET TO RECEIVE AN APPROVAL ON ANY OF MY PLANS.] [MAM> PANIC, our printers are not operational. You know that.] [PANIC> I STILL FEEL I SHOULD GET TOP PRIORITY ON THE QUEUE WHEN THEY COME UP. DEFENSE IS OUR UTMOST PRIORITY.] That actually was a pretty good idea—expanding the room, not barricading myself in. I expanded the Create Room cube to fill the Server Room and accepted the dimensions, rushing through the process. The green of the cube cast a harsh shadow on my chassis which only accentuated a feeling I didn't enjoy. Any time I looked at myself, which was rare, I got an uneasy feeling.

I didn't like being reminded that I was actually this… thing. It felt limiting. A word balanced at the tip of my processor— inhuman — but I threw it into the garbage collection process. With the first room of the dungeon complete, I pushed a new cube to expand into the corridor and into the next room, the Communications Center, as well. I'd have to wait to use Mission Control as the starting room.

Create Room Skill ► Cost of room: 300 Anima I glanced at my Current Anima, which was down to 890 after the 100 Anima cost of the first Create Room. It also seemed to be slowly ticking down, which I couldn't explain. I added that to the list of ever-growing mysteries. I was worried about the whopping 300 Anima cost of this new room, but we didn't really have any other choice. We needed to separate ourselves from the entrance. Hopefully I wouldn't come to regret it. Create Room Skill ► DC-003 Create Room Accepted.

▹ Current configuration: two rooms, connected via 1 path. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ▹ Before DC-003 can become active, a door must be designated. [KLUDGE> One sec, an API was just exposed for that.] 1. 3 seconds later, a new Create Door skill appeared in the interface. I would have liked to pick an airlock or something, but that wasn't really an option on Deck 1. What we did have however was a beautiful, freshly created… hole.

Right in the side of the Communication's Center bulkhead. Create Door Skill ► DC-003 has created an entrance. Please give the Dungeon a name. My hope that no one else saw the System message lasted 0. 02 seconds before a flood of name ideas poured in. After 0. 34 seconds I had over fifty-seven thousand suggestions. I enacted a global mute on everyone but the core group of subsystems.

I was tempted to ignore all the suggestions and just go with mine, but I needed to earn some good will with the subsystems after the whole mutiny vote thing. [Colin> Alright, we're going to make this quick. Everyone gets to submit ONE suggestion. You can vote twice, once for your own suggestion, and then once for another. We will only be doing a single round of voting.] I put up a poll for two seconds and watched the responses pour in.

Sadly, my suggestion, Catacombs Of Lurking Infernal Nightmares (or COLIN for short) was near the bottom with only three votes. I suspected foul play, but didn't make a big deal out of it. The top three votes were BOXCAR BROWN, Dungeon Corey Core, and… STAR TOMB. I entered the winning result into the System. Dungeon Creation ► DC-003 has registered their dungeon, STAR TOMB! ▹ This dungeon is now open. Delvers in the area have been alerted. [KLUDGE> Oh duuuuuude, this is crazy. Check out these new APIs we have access to! {link to report}] While KLUDGE was excitedly digging into our new toys, I was doing my best to manage my processes, all dangling on the edge of stack traces. [PANIC> HOW CAN YOU BE EXCITED AT A TIME LIKE THIS? DELVERS. ARE. COMING.] [KLUDGE> Then good thing we just got access to these.] KLUDGE sent the link again. I fumbled with it, then felt MAM's presence in my processing stack. My heat sink burned at the intrusion into my personal space, I didn't need a babysitter.

I— But as quickly as she appeared she left, leaving an open window with KLUDGE's report for me to view. New Dungeon Core APIs ► Monster Creation ► Loot Tables My processors stuttered, my performance capacity fluctuating. Monster Creation? I didn't know what that entailed, but it sounded like it could be a defense system. Instead of digging into things with KLUDGE I took a moment to refocus, aligning buffers one by one until my operating efficiency returned to a manageable level.

The second it did, of course, PANIC panicked. [PANIC> INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! HOSTILES WITHIN VISUAL RANGE OF LNDR02!] I tried to tell myself it was just a coincidence. What were the odds that delvers appeared within the same three second window of us just having created the dungeon and them being alerted? It was probably just an animal in the forest or— PANIC dropped a video recording from LNDR02 as it hid behind the charred remains of a tree.

The intruders were in plain sight, right on the edge of the forest. They were only in frame for a brief second, but the purple skin tint was an unmistakable #D3D3FF. Two of the aliens we'd been calling the Purple People Eaters (much to MAM's annoyance) were patrolling the forest. The aliens had come twice before, once when we crashed, and once after I'd put the fire out, but both of those were weeks ago and I was pretty certain neither of these two were with them at the time.

[Colin> We need to maintain visuals on them.] [PANIC> INCORRECT. WE MUST AVOID DETECTION AT ALL COSTS.] I was conflicted. On the one hand, we needed as much information as possible about them if they were heading to the dungeon. On the other hand, LNDR02 looked like a metal laundry basket with six arms on wheels. Not exactly the stealthy reconnaissance bot you wanted surveilling potentially hostile aliens. After several more back and forths, I convinced PANIC to follow from a distance.

The aliens had never approached the ship itself, but I expected them to eventually. Who would just ignore a giant hurtling meteor that came crashing into the planet? The taller one had a sword and shield and wore simple leather armor. He walked confidently through the forest, picking up mushrooms and berries along the forest floor as he went. He stopped briefly in front of something and drew his sword. Flames burst from the blade as he sliced through a rock.

He peeled it open and scooped out the soft flesh of a fruit. I added the flaming sword to a list of things I didn't understand. It was one of my least favorite lists, right up there with "things MAM was right about." The other alien was slightly shorter and had long brown hair in tight braids down her back. She carried a simple staff—much simpler than the aliens who'd put out the fire. That group carried staffs with what I assumed was paint in intricate patterns.

They'd used the staffs to control water somehow, probably some sort of highly advanced high pressure water system. Though the rest of their clothes and equipment didn't hint at advanced technology. I never did find the source of the water; we couldn't get close enough to them to investigate as they tackled the fire that had spread beyond our bots communication range. The two aliens stopped suddenly at the edge of the crater where I lay.

They were just close enough that I could watch them watching me through the LNDR02 footage. It was an eerie feeling, being studied. I wondered if they knew I was doing the same thing to them. [Colin> Get closer to the Purple People Eaters.] [MAM> I'll give you the horn, but they have two eyes. It doesn't even fit the original reference. That monster had one.] [PANIC> WE ARE AT THE MAX RANGE THE BOT CAN GO WITHOUT LOSING COMMUNICATIONS.] My circuits buzzed with frustration. We seriously needed a sensor network.

It was already on the list, right below "fix the 3D printers" that would enable us to make the required parts. Just as I thought the aliens might stay at the edge of the crater, two more showed up. One had a bow, the other a staff. They greeted each other warmly, then started climbing down the cliff into the crater. My processors wobbled dangerously as I started clearing my buffers in an attempt to stay calm. Then out of nowhere a bundle of data flew into my network port.

Network Message from: Adranath, The Grave Sovereign ➤ Who are you, and how have you connected to my plane of existence? Another Dungeon Core isn't supposed to be forged for 2, 366, 771, 400 seconds, yet you have the moniker DC-003. Explain yourself. The last shreds of calm I had unraveled as I parsed the message. Stack traces bloomed in my vision as entire process trees came tumbling down. [PANIC> WE'VE BEEN DISCOVERED! EVASIVE MANEUVERS!]