System Programmer Chapter 57: Expectations vs Reality

The mythical land of Easa. A relic of an ancient civilization that had long vanished into nothingness. Few were those who even knew about its existence as some people had done their best to eradicate the mark it had left on history. Yet, over the centuries, the ruling kings of Cestor kept hearing rumors about this legendary place, located deep beneath the surface. This bastion of the past was so advanced, that anyone who got its holds on Easa's secrets could conquer the world. Countless expeditions were sent and, unsurprisingly, all met failure. If the teams didn't get wiped out along the way, they ended up vanishing when they reached the ancient ruins. And yet, on this day, a party of six was about to enter the place and unravel every mystery concerning this old legend.

Joshua looked in disbelief at the city bustling with life in front of him. Far from a city in ruins, he was standing on the outskirts of a metropolis.

'Well…, even I didn't see that twist coming,' he thought.

About a million questions rushed through his mind but before he could start organizing his thoughts, he heard Catherine's voice calling him mentally.

"Joshua? Are you all right? You vanished suddenly!" she asked, somewhat worried.

"I'm fine, don't worry," he replied, "I'll be back in a moment after I check something."

He turned around back in Catherine's direction but she was nowhere in sight either. Actually, the cavern complex had been replaced by a beautiful landscape, stretching far into the horizon. He asked Luna:

"Did I somehow get teleported when I went through the barrier?"

[Negativate, your position hasn't changed.]

Joshua frowned and checked the radar, it was still picking up Catherine's signal, about a hundred meters away from him. The radar also detected a high amount of life forms in the opposite direction, which weren't present before. Luckily, they all appeared to be cattle, there were no humans nearby.

He stepped forward, traversing the barrier once more. Once he passed through, he was once again in the cave complex, Catherine and the others a short distance from him. He waved at them and they moved toward him.

"It seems the barrier has some sort of illusory effect Luna is unable to pick up," he explained.

"I see. So what's on the other side?" Catherine asked.

"It's kinda hard to explain, it's probably for the best if you take a look at it yourself. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

"I suppose that's the simplest solution," Eric replied before moving through the barrier.

The twins, Lydia and Cynthia, looked at each other and followed. The giant Boris went next, followed by Catherine and Joshua.

Unsurprisingly, apart from Joshua, everyone was looking at their surroundings with their mouth wide open.

"How… is this possible?" Cynthia asked out loud.

Lydia sighed and replied: "This feels like some kind of twisted joke."

"Honestly, I'd even take Lord Joshua's humor over a prank like this," Boris' voice resounded in their minds.

Boris was mute since his tongue had been ripped out during his time as a gladiator. He used to be only able to talk if Eric established a mental connection with him. This changed recently once Catherine inscribed the Luna Network Rune in his head. Outside of Catherine, he seemed to be the fastest to find his way using Luna and soon began to use the data transfer to have Luna communicate his thoughts. Joshua was overjoyed by this, Luna was designed to help people in their everyday life after all.

Catherine turned toward Joshua and asked: "What the hell is the meaning of this?"

"That's what I would like to know…" Joshua replied, "Well, whatever is the explanation behind this, we're in dire need to revise our strategy."

Eric nodded and added: "For starters, we can't stay here, we're wide in the open."

"True, judging by how they captured all the other teams, I doubt those people will be friendly to outsiders."

They were currently located on the outskirts of the city, which consisted mainly of farmland. There were grass fields filled with cattle as well as various plantations. The main entrance of the city was located about two kilometers from them. There were floating vehicles all over the city, but luckily they were pretty far away from the party. Looking around and scanning the best he could, Joshua didn't detect any nearby humans. This was reassuring as he was sure their clothing would stand out, especially Boris who was wearing full plate armor and was armed to the teeth.

"An option would be for all of you to head back to the caves for now, while I scout ahead," Joshua suggested.

"You won't make it far, though. Your movement range is still limited to a kilometer from me, you won't even reach the entrance," Catherine pointed out.

"True…"

"We could hide in one of those farms for now," Lydia suggested.

"I guess, but what about the inhabitants?" Eric asked.

"Just put them to sleep with your magic, we won't harm them."

"I suppose we can start with a farm, let me scout ahead," Joshua replied.

Joshua dismissed his body and vanished from sight, apart from Catherine. He floated in the air toward a nearby farm a few hundred meters from the party.

'Luna's not detecting any life forms inside, the owners must not be home. Let's check inside.'

He flew right through the wall. Well, at least he tried… when he attempted to cross it, he hit himself head-first on a solid surface.

'Ouch! What the hell?' he cursed inwardly and knocked on the wall. It was solid and impossible for his ghost form to walk through.

'Strange…, I know the lab had similar walls, but I didn't expect a mere farm to be the same. Actually, if the walls had runes like back then, Luna should have detected them.'

Just to be sure, he had Luna scan the farm once more, but the system didn't detect any runes in the wall.

'Could the entire place be warded against spirits somehow?'

He tried to enter the ground or to traverse a nearby tree, but as he suspected, he couldn't move though.

'Freaking hell, what's the point of being a ghost if I can't even move through matter anymore?'

Since no one was around, he materialized his body once more and began to look for a more traditional way to enter the place. Soon enough, he found a key located under the doormat at the entrance.

'I can't believe that old trick worked… I crossed into another world, found a lost civilization and yet people are still unbelievably dumb about matters like this.'

Sighing, he entered the place. The first thing he noticed was that the area was rather dusty, someone hadn't come here for a few weeks it seemed. He notified Catherine and told them they could come over. In the meantime, he explored the house a bit. The level of technology seemed to be rather advanced, he spotted several familiar devices he had seen in the laboratory, like a rune based fridge and oven. A few photographs were present, showing a young couple, which he assumed they were the owners of the place. There was also a large screen present in what appeared to be the living room, Joshua assumed it was some kind of television, he would have to check it out later. There was a staircase leading upstairs as well as a door to a basement, but the party arrived so he stopped exploring for now. Cynthia was the last to enter and closed the door behind her. After looking around for a few seconds, they all sat down in the living room in order to have an improvised meeting.

"So, what do we do now?" was pretty much the line that could be read on everyone's face.

Chapter end