Chapter 4: A Table of Unyielding Mundanity
The main hall of Novia was a pristine, white-walled canvas, a perfect space for a new community to grow. It was, however, quickly becoming a battleground. Wednesday, with her usual unyielding focus, was attempting to construct a "mourning statue" in the center of the room. It was a lumpy tribute of mud and sticks, its misshapen form meant to honor some obscure 17th-century torture victim. Enid, meanwhile, was trying to "brighten the place up" with an assortment of pastel ribbons, glitter, and a large, inflatable unicorn. The contrasting colors of gothic black and pastel stood out in jarring relief, a physical manifestation of their clashing personalities.
"This aesthetic," Wednesday said, her voice a low growl, gesturing to Enid's pastels, "is an affront to all things beautiful and morbid. It's an eye-sore."
"Your statue looks like a lump of mud!" Enid retorted, her voice rising in an indignant squeak. "It's depressing!"
Alex felt the pressure of mediation, a familiar weight he hadn't expected to carry in his new life. He was no longer just the Sovereign. He was also the babysitter. He walked into the middle of the room, raising his hands in a placating gesture.
[Novia System: Tutorial: Conflict Resolution Module. Option 1: Offer emotional support. Option 2: Deploy peacekeeping golems.]
Peacekeeping golems? Alex's eye twitched. Are you serious, System? I'm not running a prison camp. And offering emotional support is what got me into this mess in the first place. The System was a terrible mediator, and its advice was laughably unhelpful. He had to do this himself.
"Okay, guys, guys, let's take a breath," he said, his voice calm and even. "This is a big space. There's room for... both." He gestured vaguely at the empty expanse of the hall. "We can make a goth corner and a pastel corner. A truce. For now."
Wednesday looked at him, then at Enid, her expression a mix of suspicion and grudging acceptance. "A compromise. It's... illogical, but I will consider it."
Enid, meanwhile, was already busy wrapping a pastel pink ribbon around a cold metal pillar. "I'll take it!" she said, a little too cheerfully. The hall, with its conflicting aesthetics, became a bizarre, and surprisingly effective, representation of their fragile truce.
After the fight, Alex realized he needed a different strategy. He couldn't just throw people together and hope for the best. He needed to build a community, a foundation for Novia. He went back to the command center to find a new way to build. He accessed the System's "community-building" functions, a new set of menus he hadn't seen before.
He tried to use the crafting tools to build a communal table. Something simple, something that would bring them together, if only for meals. The interface, however, was a glitchy mess. He selected 'wood,' and the System's response was immediate and absurd.
[Novia System: Crafting interface active. Select 'wood'. Item category: 'Mundane Artifact'.]
"Mundane Artifact? It's a table, System. Just a regular table," Alex muttered, shaking his head.
He laughed, a little bit of the tension releasing. "You know, this is kind of ridiculous. But at least it's not a 'Furry Menace'. The thought was a private joke between him and the System, a strange, silent banter that he was growing accustomed to. He reflected on the absurdity of the situation. It's like a video game, but the developer has a strange sense of humor. And no QA team.
He continued to craft, following the clunky, overly dramatic prompts. After a few frustrating minutes, a simple wooden table materialized in the middle of the command center. It was unassuming, and a little wobbly, but it was a table.
[Novia System: Item crafted: Mundane Artifact—'The Humble Table of Unyielding Mundanity.' Boosts morale by 1% when used for communal eating.]
Alex sighed, running a hand over his face. "Okay, that's just a regular table. Stop giving it an epic title!" The System, of course, did not respond. It just floated there, a silent, inscrutable box of text.
As Alex worked on the table, the System gave him a new message, a new function he hadn't seen before.
[Novia System: New function unlocked: Sky Messages. Use to recruit new citizens remotely.]
This was a new mechanic, a vital one. He needed more people. He needed a healer, someone who could help Enid with her transformations, someone who could help them build a real, functioning community. The table was a good start, a small, tangible step, but it was not enough. He needed more hands, more hearts.
With the table finally built, Alex looked at it with a sense of pride. It was a simple thing, but it represented a new beginning. He knew what he had to do now. He needed more people. He needed to send a message. He went back to the command center's main console and activated the "Sky Messages" function.
He thought of the other outcasts of Nevermore. Divina, Yoko, the other students who were just trying to survive. They needed a place to go. They needed a home.
Alex typed in a message, the words appearing on a vast, holographic screen. "Outcasts of Nevermore. A new path awaits you. A refuge. A home." He smiled to himself. It was a shot in the dark, a desperate gambit. But it was all he had.
It's a shot in the dark, but it's worth it. We can't survive alone. He looked at the message, a simple call for help, a beacon of hope in a dark world. He sent it, and as it left Novia, a faint flicker of the message as it entered the atmosphere, he saw it. For a split second, he saw a dark, unblinking eye staring back at him, the eye of the shadowy figure from his "processing error" vision.
[Novia System: Message sent. Energy signature anomaly detected. Possible tracking. Source: Unidentified.]
The message was unsettling, but Alex shrugged it off. "Probably just a glitch," he muttered, though a cold dread was beginning to settle in the pit of his stomach. He was a new player in a very old game, and someone, or something, was watching him.
He looked out at the cosmos, feeling a strange mix of hope and unease. "Come on," he whispered. "We need you." The sky message was out there now, a tiny ripple in a vast ocean. He had thrown a line into the darkness. Now, he just had to wait and see what would bite.
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