n

n

nEldrian was a bit disappointed that the hearing was going to clash with one of his classes, he was on the fence about skipping his class to attend it. Yet if it ran long he would have to miss the ending in any case, seeing as he was writing a test in the next class.

nLuckily they had said they would make the hearing available on the forum, allowing anyone to review it when they wanted.

nComing back from class Eldrian grabbed something quick to eat and opened the forums, wanting to know what happened. He had already heard people talking about how Miracle Corporation came out of it without a scratch, having left the players no way of pressuring them anymore.

nAt least until something new happened.

nLoading the video Eldrian saw the empty courtroom, only the plaintiffs' lawyer, Miracle Corporation's lawyer and representative inside the courtroom. Other than the judge and jury that is, both of which didn't get much screen time.

nIt naturally made sense that the plaintiffs could not be present, seeing as most of them were from different countries. Yet not seeing even one inside the courtroom looked weird. This was actually a decision from the court, having decided that it would be difficult to choose one person to represent all the players.

n

"Can we start?

" The judge asked her voice carrying easily through everyone. Eldrian even felt himself sitting up straighter, her voice had a certain commanding tone to it, in strong contrast to her old appearance.

n

"Yes, your honor.

" Said Miracle's lawyer, the other lawyer also voicing his confirmation. After which the hearing started.

nThe plaintiff's lawyer placed their evidence, hammering on the situation in Vruntis. After a bit of back and fort, Miracle's lawyer managed to win over most of the jury. Strongly relying on the contract all players had signed, yet they could not win when Vruntis was mentioned.

nAs such the plaintiff's lawyer was forced to only try and fight for the Vruntis players, yet he had not planned for this. Having thought he would manage to gain more from it, yet not needing to rely on it.

nAfter a bit more of back and fort they simply came to the conclusion that those who had suffered in Vruntis would be paid a small relief of a few hundred dollars. The amount was so little since they could have simply not played the game for a few days and so doing have avoided being forced into action.

n

"If that is everything we will then end the hearing here.

" The judge said, waiting for one of the lawyers to say something more.

n

"We would like to say a bit more. We know it is not really the place for it, but we want to do it in the courtroom. As a way to show how serious we take this and that we do not lightly share this information.

" Said Miracle's lawyer.

n

"I will allow it.

" The judge replied, herself curious about what this was going to be about.

n

"Sir,

" The lawyer then indicated for Miracle's representative, who stood up and stood in the center of the courtroom.

n

"This is quite unconventional, but I feel we have enough time. The hearing was supposed to take four hours and only two have passed.

"

n

"Most of you likely remember me from back when I explained the trailer to everyone. Last time I gave a short description of how the trailer was created. But I did not really go into how we made the game. Due to the pressure we had been under from governments and corporations wanting to obtain our information, we have chosen to share a bit more.

"

n

"Hopefully this will inform them on our stance and that we will not budge.

"

n

"Firstly, who am I. I am one of the head developers of A New World. I was with Miracle since the start, since GAIA.

"

n

"This is also where I want to start, where we started. Years ago... We had finally made a breakthrough in a system we were developing, in both AI and computational power. That was twenty years ago.

"

n

"To test what our new system was able to do we decided to ask it to do something quite unordinary. We asked it to make a world.

"

n

"But we didn't want a normal world, so we split the AI's consciousness into two and called the pair GAIA. We tasked the one, GA, to create a planet and in fact an entire universe. But we told it to make this universe magical by design. Allowing GA to ignore scientific data -even gravity. Only using simple mathematics to ensure everything was whole, soon a wonderful place was born. One never before even envisioned.

"

n

"We then asked IA to find a way to let everything make sense. Telling it to use science and modify it, to make everything work as in reality, but with other rules. Through this magic was born.

"

n

"Giving GAIA this task took all the data allocation we could give, leaving us with a system we did not understand. Thus we went on to other projects while waiting for GAIA to finish. This took three years.

"

n

"When we could finally look at the world created, we were left astounded and clueless. GAIA using all the data and unable to be given more. To try and solve our own ignorance of this new world we set to improving our system. Managing, after two years, to increase the available data by 10%.

"

n

"We started using this, while still trying to increase it, to figure out what had been created.

"

n

"The way we did this was by making more AI's, GAIA was in too delicate a state to be changed. To each AI we gave a task, to figure out how a specific part of this world worked.

"

n

"After around 5 more years we finally managed to figure out enough to make sense of the world we had created. Next, we tasked the learning AI's to create fauna and flora. We even later tasked them with making humans and devils, letting the AI's use the internet to gather the needed information. Naturally, these mystical beings needed to be altered to fit the world's rules, yet most managed to be recreated in the world.

"

n

"Another few years passed and we had a fantasy world. A New World was born at this time.

"

n

"While this world was amazing, it was boring and stagnate. Thus we decided to instigate a war, using the nature of the creatures and nudging the AI's who created them, their gods. We managed to divide the races into three types, Kalos being good-natured races and Kako being Evil. Naturally some creatures stayed neutral and did not fall into either, these creatures normally being the strongest beings on GAIA.

"

n

"The goal of the Kako races is to annihilate the Kalos, while the Kalos was given a goal of survival. The AI then gave blessings to their creatures to try and make this happen. Yet we soon found that the Kalos races were heavily outnumbered. So we introduce a sign indicating the allowance of war.

"

n

"We then let this world simply live, introducing the war for over 2000 times. Soon it became clouded in the world's history and was come to be known as the monster invasions.

"

n

"By the time we felt the world was advanced enough, over a million years had passed in it. We slowed down the passing of time and started getting the world ready for the players.

"

n

"We decided to make this our last repetition. The invasion will not be stopped this time, thus if the players do not stand up and show strength, the gaming world will soon be destroyed.

"

n

"We do not really care if the game continues or dies. We have learned more than we ever hoped to and managed so much. We actually already have plans for when this system gets cleaned.

" This was more said aimed at those pressuring Miracle and not the players. It was meant to inform them that Miracle did not care for the game much. It is more just a pet project of theirs.

n

"So players, decide on who's side you are on. Perspective players, decide if you truly want to join the game. We are not in need of money and thus will not be selling any new headsets for the next few months. By which time the situation will likely be very serious.

"

n

"Now, as to why I explained this. It is simple, we simply wanted to inform you that we can only talk to the gods in the game, as they are our AI. We will give them an order to forbid NPCs from forcing players into something. While we do not care for the end of the world, we do care for the players. We at least want them to enjoy it while it lasts.

"

n

"A warning, before I end my monologue. NPCs will still be able to do terrible things to players. Use your suicide option if you feel threatened. We gave it to players for a reason.

"

n

"We are also loosening the logout penalty, allowing players to log out without penalty if they have not been in combat for 10 seconds. This should help players in many cases.

"

nAfter finishing his long talk, the representative walked back to his seat.

nAt this time the judge asked in a daze,

"Are you saying you made an entire world?

"

n

"No, we made an AI who made a new universe.

" The representative replied as he took his seat. Soon after the case was settled and Miracle only needed to pay around ten thousand dollars in total as compensation to the players in Vurnits.

nEldrian sat in a daze after watching this.

n

"Fuck!

"

n