CHAPTER 52: DO ALGORITHMS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

Cecilia forced herself to ignore the code. That was not the moment to enter the rabbit hole of thinking about reality and the meaning of the world. Her goal was just to try to find the ’spirit,’ communicate with it, and head back while ensuring Marya’s safety.

She could try to unravel the new questions later.

Still, she thought that she was on the right path. If the ’spirit’ was really just the ancient algorithm, then it would make sense that the world around it retained some of the characteristics of the game.

That was her idea, at least, as she took Marya’s hand in her own and headed deeper into the forest.

:::

As they progressed forward, the oddities increased so much that Marya stopped bothering to point them out. At this point, they were in an area that had several visual artifacts of poor procedural generation coding.

((It’s like the old algorithm is falling apart.))

Several error alerts had been popping up in her vision. The big problem is that even in the game, she wouldn’t be able to see them. Players didn’t have access to the debugging output.

Marya wasn’t seeing anything and was just walking silently, a bit afraid of the place.

After some time, they arrive at the place where the sound of running water was coming from. It was a small brook, running through a small glade.

The sight of the brook made the woman and the girl stop in their tracks.

Its movement was all wrong. The water moved in frames, skipping forward like bad animation, sometimes looping at some points, sometimes going back to the beginning.

Over the brook, Cecilia could see a translucent sigil. She knew well that sigil, it was the icon that opened the menu the players used for bug reporting. But, as soon as Cecilia tries to interact with it, it fades away.

"Miss Cecilia... What is wrong with the world here?"

"I don’t know..."

"Can the village become like this?"

The thought of this bug spreading and taking over other areas, including the village, sent a shudder down Cecilia’s spine.

"I hope not. I’ll try to fix it."

A corner of Cecilia’s vision was filled with red debugging messages.

[Invalid Layer Index 3.]

[Default clip could not be found in attached animations.]

[NullReferenceException. GameObject not found.]

[AnimationError: Cycle Error detected. Using legacy animation.]

((It’s trying to get animations from a database that doesn’t exist anymore. It looks like the ’spirit’ algorithm failed to do the transition the rest of the world did.))

She remembered what Aelindra had told her about the feelings she had before the closing of the servers and how the world slowly transformed after it.

((But how can a game in a server transform into a true, breathing world?))

"Let’s continue forward. I feel like the core of all of this is nearby."

"Yes, Miss Cecilia..."

Marya’s voice isn’t as vigorous and excited as it had been earlier. Cecilia wouldn’t blame her, though. This was spookier than any Halloween event the devs had ever made for the game.

"Do you want to go back home? I can take you there and come back later."

"No. I want to go forward with you."

Cecilia could tell that the girl was shaken, but she was still able to see her determination.

Smiling, she nodded, and then they walked forward.

:::

Less than fifteen meters after they left the glade, the forest opened into a circular clearing where the soil glowed faintly beneath the moss.

In its center rises a monumental trunk, hollow and luminous, its surface patterned with repeating golden filigree that pulses like a heartbeat. The ground vibrates rhythmically under their feet, like an ancient machine still running.

"So this is the core of the algorithm behind the Verdant Calamity."

"Algo... rhythm? What is that?"

Cecilia chuckled at the unintended play of words, then answered.

"They are the hidden patterns behind all things. I can explain better later. For now, we need to take care of this. In any case, if this old thing is still running like this, it’s using that ancient code. But I don’t think it’s the best idea..."

Cecilia knew she could try to open an interface in the System and try to communicate through it. But she felt that that was the wrong approach.

"If we want to make it behave like the spirits of today’s world, we should use today’s codes."

((Instead of approaching it like a machine, approach it like a spirit.))

She breathes deeply, sets down her bag, and begins arranging ritual implements: a spiral of silver thread, dusted herbs, and eight ’Candles of Mirroring Flames,’ a sacred item used in powerful priest rituals.

As they had rehearsed the day before, Marya helped her set up the items in the correct way.

Cecilia deployed the silver thread in a spiral around the trunk, and Marya went behind her, double-checking to see if each circle of the spiral was always at the same exact distance from the inner and the outer side.

The thread hums faintly when taut, resonating with their mana. When let go, they vibrate once and settle into stillness.

Then Cecilia draws a circle right outside the spiral, with the point where the silver thread ends touching the line of the circle. She proceeds to place the eight candles, one each at the north, northeast, east, etc., along the circle.

She walks clockwise on the circle while putting down the candles. Meanwhile, Marya walks counter-clockwise, spreading the powdered mix of herbs into the circle Cecilia had drawn.

They time their walk so they proceed at the same pace, meeting at the ’six hours’ South point and then at the ’twelfth hour’ North point when they finish.

The previous day, Cecilia had said, ’setting up the ritual is already part of the ritual itself, so no talking while we do it.’ She didn’t really know if there was a problem in talking during that, but she felt in her heart that it would disturb the sacred rite if they did.

For that reason, not a single word was uttered as they did the setting up, until Cecilia spoke, startling Marya, who had gotten used to the silence.

"Ignitio."

It was the activation word for the candles to light up. Cecilia had already told Marya about it, but the girl was still spooked by the sudden sound.

The candles’ mirrored flames bend inward, each leaning towards the center of the circle. Those flames then interact with each other, as if they were themselves mirrors, each reproducing the other in a fractal of flames that follows the same circle that Cecilia had drawn before.

The powdered herbs in the drawn circle don’t catch fire, despite the flames hovering right over them, but they still let out a faint incense-like smoke.

Cecilia then draws a circle with petals of dustflower right outside the main circle, to its exact north. The circle of petals touches the end point of the silver thread, where the outer circle of the spiral also touches and the north candle is lit.

Cecilia takes her place inside the circle of petals, and Marya does the same, standing a bit to the left and behind Cecilia, inside the same circle.