New Gods

Shingi was very familiar with the person in front of him, as he was a man he had worked with for many years.

Night Wind was another God of the Game, but unlike Aella, he was a New God.

All the Gods and Goddesses that existed before creating the Tower and the start of the Game were Old Gods. With the Tower's creation and after it, a few more individuals with God-like abilities have appeared and were referred to as the New Gods.

These individuals, in reality, were individuals from the Company that made the game to make sure everything ran smoothly in the game. They would stop anyone who tried any funny business. But there were rare cases that they made an appearance, and when they worked, the public wasn't aware.

The Company had offered Ameanum to become one of the New Gods, but he refused since it would ruin his game experience.

Night Wind also worked at the Company and had many discussions with Ameanum, as Night Wind was also one of the game's main programmers.

He started walking towards Shingi while slowly clapping, and with each clap, time seemed to get slower for Shingi for everything except Night Wind's movement. Finally, he got to the point that he felt like he froze in time, as everything was going too fast for his brain to decipher everything.

Shingi froze in place once more, but this time it wasn't a Spell or Skill holding him in place, but the System itself worked against him.

Night Wind stopped in front of him and looked at Shingi from his toes to the top of his head, and Shingi could tell from his eyes that he was using some Appraising Skill, as Ameanum's EAGLE EYES.

He tried to move, but nothing seemed to work as his mind seemed to be in a state not to focus on using even the Simplest of his Skills or Spells. Instead, his brain was in a state of just being able to understand what was happening around him barely.

But even in this state, he wasn't ready to give up, as he had one idea that he had to try.

Night Wind finished appraising him, and Shingi couldn't tell his reaction cause of his covered mouth and knew he was good at hiding his emotions.

"This is truly fascinating. It's been so long since we have encountered a bug, and it has to do with one of the listed NPCs. Well, I guess we have to fix this, although I am curious about the cause. Do you have any ideas?" [Night Wind]

Shingi couldn't respond, and Night Wind knew it, but he always acted like that when doing his job. Of course, he wouldn't talk it out with the NPC as he wouldn't get anything. He had to capture him for his people to check his code and find the reason.

Night Wind turned towards the nearby barrel with water next to the Anvil as he noticed something. After checking the barrel, his eyes got widened a little, and he put his hand over his chin as he started thinking.

After what felt like hours for Shingi because of the slow effect still being in effect, Night Wind clapped once more, and a chair appeared behind Shingi, and a chain appeared and chained him sitting on the chair. Then the time started moving naturally, but he could feel the chains putting a seal on him, lowering his stats and disallowing him to use any mana or related Skills.

"So you have my attention. Where did you learn this code?" [Night Wind]

What Shingi had done was solely focusing on his MANA MANIPULATION Skill to move some of the dirty water in the barrel and make it form three characters.

A06, his player's save id.

He knew the Night Wind knew the save file and would draw his attention no matter what.

Shingi had thought of this day to come at some point but not so early, but he couldn't do anything but act accordingly at the moment.

"I can tell you, but you won't believe me at the beginning. But trust me, I have proofs of what I am going to say." [Shingi]

It had taken Night Wind's attention. He found it interesting how calm this boy was, so he was curious to listen to what he wanted to say.

"I am Ameanum, and I am not Ameanum. I got killed by what I think are people of the Dark Guild and got trapped for two years in real life and just almost a month ago awoke on this body." [Shingi]

Night Wind put his hand under his chin once more and started thinking once more for a few seconds before he spoke.

"What about this proof you are talking about, then?" [Night Wind]

As he seemed to wait for it, Shingi started telling a series of 1s and 0s as it appeared to be a binary code.

When finished, Night Wind's eyes got more expansive than ever as he made a small clap, and Shingi's chain disappeared, leaving him free.

"So it actually works?" [Nigh Wind]

This response surprised Shingi, but then he remembered the Night Wind referred to him just a few moments ago as a 'listed NPC.' He had never heard this title given to any NPC.

Night Wind seemed to understand the confusion of Shingi as he explained.

"Well, this is something that few people know, but I guess you should know." [Night Wind]

"Does it have to do with how a Player got to give birth in the Game?" [Shingi]

Night Wind looked towards Shingi, and Shingi could understand that he wasn't expecting him to had known that.

"Well, kinda. I can't explain everything yet, but I can tell you something. As you said, you aren't really Ameanum, but you also are." [Night Wind]

Shingi didn't understand why he said that, as it was easy to see as he wasn't on his regular body, so he wasn't Ameanum anymore.

"I don't mean the change of body, but the reason the change of body could happen. This NPC body is a body made using the code of your DNA. That is why you can control it." [Night Wind]

Shingi's mind, at this moment, went to search and decipher the mode of everything he knew and had heard. Translating the DNA to code was something he had heard of working on. They were trying to make possible clones or even teleportations, as one machine would read and deconstruct your DNA and send it to another device to reconstruct it.

But that was something that was still only possible in sci-fi movies only as far as Ameanum knew. But there was some progress in translating part of DNA as code.

But using that code in the game to create an NPC was the first time he had heard about it.

"I know you think this makes little sense, but it was part of your contract." [Night Wind]

Shingi would typically want to say something, but he hadn't read the contract thoroughly back then, so it could contain something like that. He was more interested in working on the project, so he wasn't paying much attention to the paperwork he had to do.

"But all the NPCs created are like yours. Some that aren't able to act normally. Yours wasn't supposed ever to wake up from his curse." [Night Wind]

Of course, Night Wind knew the background of the 'corrupted' NPC he was going after, as he had to know everything about his target to not have any surprises.

"But I can't be sure why you woke up in that body, but it probably has to do with the way they used to hack you and the security of your account." [Night Wind]

Night Wind was fully aware of the Dark Guild and what they could do. They were causing problems in the game, and usually, he and the rest of the New Gods would act, but they ordered them not to take any action against the Dark Guild by the Company.

Shingi told him more about his time as an NPC and even told him about the SPECTATOR MODE, but he didn't mention that Little Phoenix seemed to have something to do with it.

The story impressed Night Wind and explained more about Angel's Feather situation.

She seemed to be like Ameanum.

She worked with the Company that made the game but in a different studio than the one Ameanum used to be, so the two never met each other.

She also decided not to be one of the New Gods and was used as a prototype to create the listed NPCs.

Annoue seemed to be just a prototype with no DNA code, only for them to make sure the process was possible to succeed. After that, they stated it with Ameanum's DNA code, and the result was Shingi.

But there was a problem.

They hadn't counted on Angel's Feather to love those children as being real, and after some point, they had to ask her to leave the game. They could allow her to find the real cure of the Never-Ending Sleep as all the Quests given to players were for fake treatments.

Also, his waking up seemed to be a bug to the System, but Night Wind could understand the cause, as the curse's cure shouldn't be available for no Player to help with.

Shingi didn't mention her song as even if he trusted Night Wind, he knew he would report at some point what he knew, and he couldn't trust everyone in the Company. Especially after learning that they ordered the New Gods not to mess with the Dark Guild.

But Night Wind told him he wasn't planning to say anything and try to cover Shingi's tracks, so no one else like him came. But he had to keep his guard up and be careful not to let many people know of his existence.

Night Wind appraised him once more and then put his hand over Shingi's head. Shingi could avoid it, but he understood he wanted to help him somehow, and he would not say no to it.

A notification appeared, and Shingi didn't know what to think of it after reading it.

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SKILL FORGOTTEN

The skill ACCELERATION has been forgotten and can't be relearned

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He wasn't sure why Night Wind did that and didn't like it since ACCELERATION had saved his life multiple times. But then another System's notification appeared.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell HASTE (Base Grade) has been learned

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He knew the Haste spell as it worked as his ACCELERATION skill, but it was using MP instead of SP to activate it and keep it active, and it wasn't just boosting his speed but also his reflexes and reaction time, which ACCELERATION didn't.

It was a timely update for him and would increase his chance to get a better Mage Class by knowing another Base Grade Spell.

He had to spend some time to get used to its effect, but he was confident he could reach a more than good enough proficiency with it after a night at his TRANCE ROOM.

Night Wind made his way, trusting that everything would be ok, but he didn't know the plans of Shingi. Tomorrow, he was going to hunt the Dungeon's Boss.