With everyone gradually coming together, Vahn was at a loss but unsurprised to learn that a total of seventeen Sworn Enemy versions of himself would be populating the Hidden Floor. Fortunately, if they were anything like him, he didn’t have to worry about them endangering anyone. Rather, if they were a reflection of the way the girls saw him, he didn’t have to worry about them trying to kill anyone.
Far more dangerous were the Sworn Enemies based on a specific individual’s actual trauma and mental burdens. Mordred and Gray were prime examples of this, but, more so than any other Sworn Enemy, Vahn was most worried about those produced by Fenrir, Ryun, Ai, and, despite her having virtually no memories, Roen.
Fenrir’s Sworn Enemy, as could be expected, was a version of herself that had seemingly given in to her more animalistic urges. It was a reflection of the parts of herself that she did her best to keep in check, and, should it possess her ability to devour and process all forms of energy, there was a very real chance that her Sworn Enemy was the most dangerous among the bunch. As for Ryun and Ai, they had initially been against entering the Hidden Floor directly as their Sworn Enemy was virtually guaranteed to be Jahad himself. This meant, should the black part of their Good and Evil Monitors fill more than halfway, there would be two additional versions of Jahad running around.
Truth be told, Vahn was actually looking forward to facing the Jahad clones as one of his reasons for entering the Hidden Floor was to confront the original’s Data. Now, he had the option of letting the others face off against Jahad’s Data, and, depending on how things played out, there was a chance that everyone would have an opportunity to challenge the tyrannical King due to the Hidden Floor respawning Sworn Enemies indefinitely.
Unfortunately, as fun as it was to imagine the real Jahad’s reaction upon learning that his Data was being used as a training dummy, that would have to wait until later. There were a number of more important objectives to deal with, first and foremost being the elimination of the Big Breeders that moderated the Hidden Floor.
With his power, Vahn was able to move about freely even within a virtual environment such as the Hidden Floor. In fact, he was actually more powerful in a virtual world as Sis could interact with the data within his domain and use it as an access point to directly interfere with the system. This would eventually let her take over the entire system, but, until then, it gave Vahn the ability to interact with and even modify existing data. The simplest expression of this ability allowed him to alter variables related to the time of day and the weather, but, if he really wanted to, he could even alter the data of the Hidden Floor’s residents.
It was through the use of this power that Vahn came to learn more about the Big Breeders and their depravity. In particular, the Big Breeder in charge of the Town of the Wandering Minstrels was a true monster as he got off on tormenting the residents while modifying their data so they sing praises of him in the process. There were even instances of him modifying the data of residents to make them unable to perceive his actions as anything out of the ordinary. This allowed him to perform all kinds of violent and profane acts, as, with the use of a single command, he could simply ‘reset’ everything to how it was before he went on a rampage.
Though it wasn’t the best example, the Big Breeder’s behavior was comparable to someone Saving in a video game before using cheats to brutally murder everyone in a city. Then, by reloading their previous save data, they were effectively able to ‘undo’ everything before proceeding as if nothing had happened. This was a method used by some players to ‘harmlessly’ vent their frustrations, but, in a world virtually indistinguishable from reality, the consequences of committing such travesties had a lasting impact on a person’s nature and personality.
Unfortunately for Chung, the Big Breeder charged with watching over the Town of the Wandering Minstrel, his actions hadn’t been forgotten by the system. He could erase and modify the memories of individual residents, but, without the authority to modify the records of the system itself, each of his actions over the last several thousand years had been documented in detail. Some of these acts had been so heinous that it inspired an ‘awakening’ in the data he tormented, irreversibly affecting their source code in a way that even he couldn’t undo. He would eventually place these anomalies into Quarantine, but, before then, his sadistic nature compelled him to torment them in the most extreme manners imaginable.
Needless to say, Vahn intended to make Chung pay dearly for the innumerable atrocities he had committed over the years. It was one thing to torment emotionless and unfeeling Data that didn’t care or even understand it was being tormented. Giving Data the ability to feel pain and emotions just so you could enjoy their suffering was completely reprehensible. When you took things even further by specifically targeting those with a greater sense of self-awareness, you crossed a line that placed you squarely in the category of ‘monster’.
If there were any positive takeaways from the situation, it was Vahn’s understanding that the Virtual World needed reform, or, at the very least, failsafes against this exact situation. He couldn’t imagine anything more terrifying than being born as a Data Construct that fundamentally lacked the ability to resist its creator. It was even worse when you considered that the person in control could change everything from their memories to their appearance without much difficulty. This opened the door to a degree of suffering that real people simply couldn’t imagine, as, at the very least, people in the real world generally had control over their own life and death. Anyone who denied them that right was a monster beyond redemption…
—
Understanding that eliminating Chung’s Avatar served little purpose, Vahn decided to ignore the man until Sis could fully hack the Hidden Floor’s system. There was actually a ‘Hidden’ Hidden Floor within the primary Hidden Floor, so, until he could gain access to it, there was little sense in fighting the Big Breeders directly. Instead, he used the same functionality that Chung often took advantage of, effectively concealing his presence and location data to perform reconnaissance.
With the ability to move at relativistic speeds without adversely affecting the environment around him, Vahn was able to map a large portion of what he initially believed to be the first floor. Instead, it turned out that many of the so-called ‘Stages’ denoted by the Quest system were regions on the same floor. This made things exponentially easier, as, rather than having to complete Quests that were, by design, intended to lead them circles, they could simply head to their destination directly.
The only caveat was that the Hidden Floor, much like a Planar Realm, was massive beyond compare. It took several minutes, even traveling at the speed of light, for Vahn to move from one edge of the floor to another. This meant, accounting for the fact the floor was shaped similar to a disc, it had a surface area of more than four-quintillion square-kilometers. This meant it was nearly eight-million times larger than Gaia, and, even with his speed, it would take more than a hundred years to map the entire region.
Fortunately, much like the Virtual World, the Hidden Floor cut corners to ensure the stability of the system. As a result, much of the floor seemed to exist in stasis, and, by monitoring the flow of data, it was possible to track and locate specific individuals and places of interest without much difficulty. Thus, rather than wasting a hundred years, it only took Vahn a few hours to reach a vast wasteland whose only notable features were a colossal ice cream cone, a river of mercury, and a blooming red poppy hat was nearly five-kilometers in height.
Though he had grown used to the eccentricities found within various Records, Vahn couldn’t help but pause to consider the rationale behind choosing to live in a 10km tall ice cream cone. It was the kind of thing he would have expected to see in the Actualized World of One Piece, not something he expected to encounter during his search for the strongest entity within the Hidden Floor.
Shaking his head, Vahn moved to what he presumed to be the entrance to the massive construct, a giant straw sticking out of the top. Even this was beyond comprehension, as, despite appearing as a normal straw from a distance, the thickness of the plastic rim was more than 10m. As for the interior of the straw, it was easily a hundred kilometers in diameter and more than two-kilometers deep…
Before heading inside, Vahn bent down to scoop out a handful of the straw’s material, confirming that it was, indeed, a form of plastic. Had they been in the ‘real’ world, such a structure would have collapsed under its own weight, but, thanks to the properties of Hidden Floor, it was able to exist as a static object uninfluenced by conventional gravitational forces. Rather, based on the flow of data, it was actually just a simple ice cream cone that had been scaled up to a ridiculous size, seemingly for no better reason than to pander to the person living within.
Rather than wonder what kind of person he was dealing with, Vahn simply leaped into the mouth of the straw, sliding along the sloped interior for just under a minute before reaching an icy chamber seemingly formed from a hollowed-out scoop of pink and blue ice cream. There, a handsome youth with dark-blue hair, sharp eyebrows, and delicate blue eyes stared back at him with what could best be described as a look of incredulity mixed with excitement.
Though he lacked the pale blue of most members, the youth was easily identifiable as a member of the Khun Family due to the hoop-like earrings in his ears, the peculiar tattoo on the right side of his face, and the electrical sparks that appeared within his pupils the moment their gazes met. He also had a peculiar blue staff in his hands, that, from the looks of it, could be broken down to function as a chain-staff or a pair of nunchaku.
Just as Vahn was about to say something to break the silence, he found himself at a complete loss as the ‘youth’ began to suddenly blow a bubble. He had apparently been chewing bubblegum, and, though the atmosphere had become progressively tense, it didn’t prevent the youth from blowing a rather impressive pink bubble while maintaining eye contact. Then, as if to parallel the situation, the bubble eventually exceeded its material threshold. As a result, a small pop sounded throughout the chamber as the lower half of the youth’s face became covered in sticky pink residue…
With his smile becoming increasingly wry, Vahn took advantage of the moment when the youth was licking up the remnants of his bubblegum to ask, “Where is your father?”
Demonstrating his surprise for the second time, the youth raised his diamond-shaped brows quite a bit, but, rather than answer, he elected to blow a second bubble. This gave Vahn a powerful urge to roll his eyes, as, even without the Law of Identity providing insight into the youth’s thoughts, it was obvious they were attempting to rile him up. The growing intensity of sparks within their eyes was a dead giveaway; so, rather than waste his time with idle conversation, he used his Unit Management to summon Scathach, saying, “Teach this brat how to handle a spear properly.”
Before the youth could feign surprise a third time, Scathach forced him to get serious by cutting his cheek with a ruby-red spear before he could react. Then, before he could open his eyes to express genuine shock, she sent him crashing into the far wall with a kick, her voice a cold monotone as she said, “That makes two. If you reach one-hundred before my Master decrees the battle finished, I will reward you a fate worse than death…”
Shortly following Scathach’s words, a torrent of vibrant blue Shinsu erupted from the debris caused by the youth’s intimate encounter with the wall. This revealed the injured youth, an expectant smile on his face as he wiped away the blood from his lips and attempted a retort. Unfortunately, he had severely underestimated how serious Scathach could be when following orders. Thus, the moment he opened his mouth to speak, her fist slammed into the exact center of his face, reintroducing him to the partially destroyed wall without mercy…
(A/N: Alternate Titles: ‘Imagine if Vahn had started in SAO or Log Horizon…’,’Big Mom would like to know your location…’,’This boy about to learn a hard lesson xD…’)
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