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Chapter 332 The Crucible and the Truth

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"... You surprised me." Dale said as he looked at Roger\'s hologram

I had thought he would make an appearance, but this is rather sudden.

Was he hearing our entire conversation from the beginning? Not that there was anything special about it... But it\'s a bit worrisome.

Creepy old man.

"I made a promise, that I would give you the answers, and I\'m here to fulfill it." Roger replied as he adjusted his clothes

"First, let me apologize for the previous issue, I didn\'t expect someone would try to get in your way, information about your transport must\'ve leaked."

"I assure you it wasn\'t from my team, it\'s unfortunate but to make things work I needed to share some things with governmental forces… Several at that."

"It didn\'t look like an attack anyway, even if it was, I can only laugh at how shabby it was." Dale said with a scoff

"That\'s right, to me, it felt more like a test, but don\'t you worry, I\'m dealing with it, I\'ll give you a more detailed report on this once we\'re done here, if you wish to hear about it that is."

"Enough of that, come on, throw at me your questions."

"..."

Dale became pensive, thinking about everything he wanted to ask and learn…

However, he kept himself steady, opening his mouth to say:

"What is this place?"

"Hum… That\'s a good start… Let\'s see…" Roger said with a dry laugh as he looked at the dark window, pensive

"This is a joint military outpost belonging to all South American countries, some more than others…"

"A joint alliance with Brazil as its leading figure known as the Great Amazonian Defense Force…"

"It is the only official entrance to the American \'Crucible\', it is heavily fortified with enough firepower to deter even a country as it\'s funded by every single country in America."

"Expanding on that, although other countries from Central and Nothern America are far from this place, they also invest heavily into its protection, being essentially part of a greater alliance known as the American Oath Council."

"They\'re part of the reason why there\'s been little to no repercussions regarding your actions during that day… They are in charge of maintaining all of \'our\' world separated from the common modern one."

"What? Why would all American countries invest in a single area in the middle of Southern America?"

Would that mean there\'s a special task force to deal with the... \'Supernatural\' belonging to the USA as well?...

Maybe those police and military officers I saw that day...

"Because they have no other choice, if they don\'t, then it would mean they\'re accepting their fate to be in the hands of others…"

"Besides, this is a resource they cannot allow to fall into the hands of other Continents, it is consensually believed to belong to the Americas and they alone... Although it wasn\'t like that at first."

"The USA wasn\'t very keen on being pushed aside, it almost led to large large-scale War, there were some conflicts even but they didn\'t lead anywhere, at least, they did not escalate to a National one."

"Many died, but they were mostly forgotten by now aside from their own families, there are even some conflicts to this day, after all, it hasn\'t been long since then."

"The Crucible?" Dale asked as he raised an eyebrow

"Exactly."

"What is the Crucible? How many are out there."

"... Three." Roger said as he raised his hand

"The Crucibles represent the start of the new era, they are the withholders of the Oath, the Pacts of secrecy we made. The closed gates that will one day open to a new era."

"One is located here, in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest."

"The other one is located somewhere in Eastern Europe, but its location is constantly shifting."

"The last one is located on the Indian Ocean, and it\'s also constantly shifting."

"This one is the only one that has a fixed location, and it\'s also the only one in the Americas, you can imagine how precious it is for any of its countries, even if you do not understand its purpose."

"That partially answers my question, what about its purpose and creation?"

"Hm… That is more complex for me to answer…"

"You already understand the world\'s been changing for decades now."

"This is a continuous process that has been set in motion by an entity or group of individuals with powers and goals you can\'t quite grasp yet."

"... That can be said for me as well..." Roger said in a low tone as he dropped his head

"To be accurate… As much as I can… The Crucibles have existed for centuries by leaving behind all kinds of prints, but they never really manifested in the way they do now."

"It was only in the last one hundred years that things changed, they began to "manifest", a foreshadowing of what was to come, but it\'s not like they popped into existence from nowhere."

"Things really began to change around half a century ago in the year 2032…"

"That\'s quite the jump… Was there anything special happening at those times?"

"It\'s still quite a bit before full dive technology was even invented, I doubt it was even a prototype then…"

"You\'d be correct to think that, but the very reason why such technology was made was due to the Crucibles…"

"For what was to come, not the other way around."

"You may be under the impression something lodged itself into our world, making use of our technology to push forth an agenda… But that\'s not quite it."

"This story belongs to us, this change began before Elden Throne itself, no… It was the story that led to its creation."

"I\'m not quite sure of the details as I was not a part of it, but this story was what brought forth the Era we see today, it was what led to the discovery of the Crucibles and pushed Humanity to face the changing tides."

"However… As you may have expected, or discarded by now, was that it all began within Virtual Reality."

"... You\'re assuming quite a few things about me." Dale said with a scoff as he rested his head on the couch, feeling a headache coming

"And am I wrong?"

"..."

"... The late 20s to mid-30s were years full of development into Virtual Reality and Intelligence, a time of transition, I may even say as big of a transition as those of the early 2000\'s."

"There was once a strange App on the Web, a seemingly harmless Role Playing Game available on all sources, and free at that."

"An App?"

"Yes, I… I used to remember its name, but I\'m afraid even that was stolen from me." Roger said as he touched his head, scoffing at the end as he shook his head

"It boasted all kinds of things, from mechanics to large interactable maps, things to do and accomplish, good combat and crafting systems, compatibility with Vr..."

"The developers listened to feedback and it did not have any kind of microtransactions, the only moderate support one could give the developers were special supporter packs that gave them nothing but a tag in-game."

"It was an existence that simply could not exist for its time."

"People began to play it, spread it around, but strangely enough, it never got the traction it deserved."

"Those that liked it continued to play it feverishly, discovering more and more to that endless free game they found by luck as they looked for what to do, while those that did not like the game could not understand why others liked it so much."

"They were scorned, called… Tasteless… I was one such person, though I can\'t say if I was lucky or unlucky for having chosen such a path." Roger said with a laugh as he looked at Dale

"You talk as if playing the game led everyone to their deaths."

"Heh, not all."

"..."

"As the years passed and people continued to explore more about it, things began to change."

"From here on out I\'m not quite sure what happened since all information on this time period was wiped clean from all corners of the world… I\'ve tried looking for it but I\'m not quite sure myself either."

"The reason why the game was so compelling wasn\'t solely because of its design, it was a good game, fantastical even, better than 90% of what you see here today even with advanced AI technology."

"There was something that compelled certain people to continue to play, people the game deemed… \'Worthy\'."

"Those that it did not… Were just sent away, not destined to pursue it, failures."

"I always found it funny, everyone dreams of being a chosen one, but there I was, I got the chance to pursue it, but I wasn\'t good enough… Not that it matters now."

"One day, someone reached the \'Truth\', they \'finished\' the game, and with that, the clock began to tick."

"Not even a day after the truth was reached, the game was terminated, leaving many confused and furious at the sudden destruction of their favorite pastime…"

"Many tried to track the company that developed it, but that in itself was impossible because they never existed... Or ceased to."

"But to those people, unfortunately, only one could reach the end."

"We call this person, Progenitor Zero, and those that followed him, Generation Null."

"In comparison, I am a Generation Zero individual, while you are a Generation Three, but that..."

"Wait wait wait a moment, I think you skipped something rather important though…"

"I did not, I was going to talk about it now, so please, patience."

"... Although the truth uncovered by Progenitor Zero and his identity remains a mystery to this day, what he set in motion does not… Albeit the effects of it would only begin to appear after the first instance of, you guessed it, Elden Throne\'s appearance."

"Progenitor Zero set in motion the start of a new world order as his actions led..."

"They led to the top 1000 of the game\'s leaderboard to inherit their in-game character\'s abilities and powers."

"..."

"And with it, a part of what was once but codes on a screen became reality at the palm of their hands."

"What? How\'s that even…"

\'Wait… Isn\'t that kind of what happens to me? Albeit in my case, it\'s a 1-to-1 exchange whenever I leave the pod…\'

\'Is this somewhat connected to the Green Box? Or is the Green Box just an aspect of said change?\'

\'Gears of the same machine, aspects of the same design...\'

\'Still, one thing would be to apply what you learned in Azimuth in real life and grow from there, and another is to receive the power you cultivated there into your original body.\'

\'But one requires a base to have already been established, the other requires... The intervention of powers I don\'t quite understand... Just as Roger said.\'

\'I\'m…\'

"Kid, I do not lie, they exist, and most are even still alive."

"Generation Zero, the original \'Adapters\' of the world, many decades may have passed, some died of old age and other natural causes, others from injuries, and some from unnatural causes, but they all played their part in shaping the world you see today."

"It is almost impossible to see anything that hasn\'t been touched by them."

"The higher their ranking and the closer they were to the truth, the more mysterious they became."

"I barely know anything about the top twenty Rankers of the time, and even for the rankers underneath it, that is no reason to underestimate them."

"They\'re specters, ghosts that live in the darkness of this world."

"Most of them explored their abilities, setting up bases, growing forces… You\'ve already clashed with one of them."

"..."

"They wait, for what exactly… You\'ll have to find that out inside the Crucible."

"The Crucible is the source of it all, the reason why the App was untrackable, the App itself was but a method through which they thought proper to do... Whatever they wanted to do."

"I apologize for being lackluster but I\'m not sure of their goals myself, from their creation to the future..."

"Still, don\'t get yourself worked up over those people."

"As said before, they did not reveal themselves once they got their powers; the world did not end with their arrival… And neither will it now."

"And it\'s all thanks to Progenitor Zero and the Crucibles."

"They and all others that came after them were all bound by a set of rules he created, or so we hypothesize."

"Until the time comes, they hang on and push their own agendas."

"This is the truth of the world, it\'s not much different from what you were already used to."

"The world is ruled by the Megacorporations and the people sitting atop them, does it matter if they are mortal Humans or not?"

"Aren\'t you special in your own way as well?"

"..."

Dale remained still, pondering over what he just heard.

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