Chapter Six: Infinite Multiplication
Ruins, Prism Soldier plant
Zircon Leader had been on the same mission for the past two millennia.
After being created as the commander unit for the Prism Soldiers, he never left the ruins once. (There were no genital parts on the unit; “he” was just a gender identity assigned for convenience.)
His initial mission was supervision and defense of the facility, but since it had no invaders for two millennia, all he did was supervision.
That meant he’d spent the last two thousand years merely managing the Prism Soldier factory and observing the creation of the other weapon here, Acra-Vesta.
Both processes were designed to be slow to prevent any energy signals from leaking outside. The speed at which it was happening was so lethargic that any person or animal would go insane.
However, Zircon Leader, being a machine, merely followed his program and continued to operate.
Most would find his existence saddening, but he himself had no problems with it.
Besides, he didn’t expect this mission to continue forever.
As a machine, he had no dreams of the future. However, he had programming that implied the need to fight enemies.
He knew he would eventually have to lead the Prism Soldiers into battle against one of mankind’s enemies, the Incarnation of Beasts, and protect the world.
That was his final goal, the purpose behind his creation, and he had been waiting to fulfill it for two thousand years.
The first change in two thousand years had come just a few days ago, with the mountain suddenly shaking.
It was highly localized shaking, so it didn’t damage the nearby town of Quartierlatin, but, as though it had been planned, the ground crumbled and exposed an entrance to the ruins.
Zircon Leader’s AI was advanced enough to let him understand it was no accident. But, rather than investigating it, he had to prioritize hiding the facility.
Burying the entrance was top priority, but since the other Prism Soldiers had no good energy sources and thus couldn’t leave the ruins, and he was equipped with a reactor just like that of the Prism Persons, he had to be the one to move out.
And so, he left the ruins.
His AI felt nothing about it, but there was something he realized when he did so.
None of what he saw outside was familiar — not a single bit of it was in the data he was provided.
The trees, terrain, and even monsters were different from the ones he knew.
And to top it all off, according to his list, none of the humanoids he discovered were actually human.
Zircon Leader was the commander unit of the Prism Soldiers. Although special, he didn’t have the intelligence or adaptability to match that of the original Prism Persons.
To him, the tians of this era were just “human-like, non-human animals.”
He also discovered information that implied the facility was in danger. There were signs of the incarnations — the pre-ancient civilization’s greatest foe — all over the place. They were weak and varied in comparison, but they were incarnations nonetheless.
Thus, he prioritized investigating the outside over hiding the facility.
Zircon Leader began gathering animals and using them as fuel to build and run his Prism Soldiers.
He sent out the first of them to gather more sources of energy and investigate the outside.
Something was happening here, and he needed to know what it was in order to protect the facility.
However, right as he let the Prism Soldiers move out, the facility was infiltrated by numerous signals reminiscent of the incarnations.
Zircon Leader tried to hold them back with sentry guns and Prism Soldiers, but they didn’t stop, and eventually, half of the facility was conquered.
Thankfully, it wasn’t the Prism Soldier plant, but a spare material warehouse and the living space of the human engineers that’d once worked here.
Losing those places wasn’t a big issue, but for Zircon Leader, who had defense as his mission, this was a major problem.
He considered initiating absolute defensive mode and making all the available Prism Soldiers protect the facility, but he decided to conserve units for the true battle against the Incarnation of Beasts.
Until this morning. This morning, he’d had no choice but to do it.
There were two reasons for this.
First, the intruders began entering a high-priority location — the plant.
Second, the sensors placed by the Prism Soldiers he’d sent out found an incarnation-like energy signature that was many times stronger than any other.
The creature was highly human-like, but the amount of energy within it was anything but. It was unmistakably an incarnation signature.
And worst of all, the entity and its devils were clearly invading the area.
Thus, Zircon Leader decided that this was the anti-incarnation battle he’d awaited for two thousand years.
He initiated absolute defense and prepared to intercept the invaders approaching the plant.
Zircon Leader was standing in the Prism Soldier plant, the high-priority area connected to Acra-Vesta’s hangar.
He was at least two times larger and significantly more colorful than the usual Prism Soldiers.
The stone he was named after could come in many colors, including red, gold, white, and more. Zircon Leader had all of them on him.
This design had been chosen by his developer, Flagman.
When he was being made, there was no time to create a new Prism Person, so Flagman had just taken an experimental, large Prism Soldier frame, equipped him with an original reactor core from Jet Chaser — a Prism Person that had already been destroyed by the incarnations — equipped him with various weapons, and left it at that.
Zircon Leader was an unplanned mess made of things Flagman already had, but the color itself had been Flagman’s decision.
The multiple colors were supposed to be the colors of the Prism Soldier commander who would become their hope. In a way, it was like a rallying flag.
“Detected.” Zircon Leader directed his eye-camera at the entrance to the plant.
He knew everything about what was happening in the ruins, so he knew there was an intruder in front of the door, and that seven more of the same intruder were fighting another one.
“Prepare to intercept.”
His words made the 968 Prism Soldiers aim their weapons at the entrance.
If you included the makeshift units that had nothing but the base frame and weapons, their numbers would actually be more than double that.
No matter what came through the door, the barrage would turn them to dust in an instant.
The intruder opened the door to his demise...
“Our era shall meet a shining dawn yet again. Cease fire.”
...and spoke those words in the pre-ancient civilization’s language.
“Ceasing fire.”
“Ceasing fire.”
The highest-level control code spoken by the intruder made all the Prism Soldiers stop attacking.
Zircon Fire, Zircon Laser, and even the incomplete units were rendered immobile.
“Oh, it worked,” said the intruder, The Lynx, Tom Cat. “I figured it would, considering these ruins are untouched, but I didn’t expect it to be this effective.”
The words he’d spoken were an emergency code given to just a few researchers and Zweier Imperium elites two thousand years ago.
It was something that no normal Master could know. Not even Mario AKA Gifted Barbaros knew it, and he was Dryfe’s most renowned archeologist.
As he’d said, it was extremely effective against the Prism Soldiers. If he’d used it on the way here, while with other Masters, they’d have all made it here without any trouble whatsoever.
Despite that, he hadn’t done that. It was as if he wished to hide the fact that he knew it.
“Well, it didn’t work on all of them, though. You’re the commander unit, I assume?” Tom Cat shrugged and jumped back at supersonic speeds.
A moment later, a large blade cut through where he’d just stood.
“Continuing battle.”
The attacker, Zircon Leader, hadn’t been affected by Tom’s code. This was because he had a top-level control code that not even Tom’s words could override.
With the rest, since their codes contradicted each other, all the Prism Soldiers besides Zircon Leader didn’t know what to do and just stopped in place.
Meanwhile, Tom was using seven of his bodies to keep the marionettes away.
That made this a one-on-one battle.
As Tom ran and jumped from floor to ceiling and back, Zircon Leader aimed and fired at him with the Gatling guns installed on his backpack.
The bulletstorm followed Tom’s trail, but the guns were too slow for a single one to hit him. So instead, Zircon Leader aimed at Tom with the laser cannon installed in his forearms.
Tom noticed and quickly spun to dodge the light-speed beam while taking out a bow from his inventory and firing an arrow.
That was when Zircon Leader also began moving at supersonic speed.
Outspeeding even wind, his large body easily dodged the arrow. Though less mobile than Tom, he could still chase after him. That was exactly what he did, and he accompanied it with laser attacks, which he periodically stopped to give them time to cool off.
“I see,” Tom nodded. “I guess it makes sense to give a commander similar specs to a Prism Person’s. Your gear isn’t special, but you have more of it to make use of all that extra energy. Since I’m all alone, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here...”
He was analyzing the state of the battle.
“Heyyy, uh... I’m only here for the weapon inside. Can I have a look at it? If I don’t have to destroy it, I’ll just leaaave.” Those words went directly against the quest he’d taken. “Sure, I’ll break it if I have to, but it doesn’t seem like you Prism Soldiers are my targets here, so I can just leave you heeere... Whoa!”
Zircon Leader paid no mind to those words and just kept on attacking Tom.
“Yeah, I knew this wouldn’t work. You pre-ancient civ weapons are really hard-headed when it comes to this. It’s actually a bit noble. Still, I want to finish this before anyone else comes, so I’ll just destroy you.”
“Continuing battle.”
Thus, Tom decided to face Zircon Leader, a foe stronger than himself, head-on.
He couldn’t use any of his clones, which were his greatest strength, and could only rely on his powers as a Superior Job. And yet there was joy in his expression.
He moved away the bangs hiding his face. “It’s been a while since I’ve had only one life left... but that just makes it interesting.”
His exposed eyes were exactly like those of a feline.
Monster Cat Mansion, Tom Cat
He was well-known by everyone in the kingdom, tian and Master alike.
Once the Altarian duel champion, he was now the second in the rankings.
He’d been dueling for eight years now.
That amount of time was notable because it was more than the amount of time that’d passed in Infinite Dendrogram since its release in the year 2043.
There was also the fact that he’d lost his position as champion after his defeat to Figaro over two years ago.
The time just didn’t add up.
It could only mean that Tom Cat was no normal player.
When asked, tians would describe him as a Master who’d been active before Masters started appearing en masse, leading many to believe he was a player working for the developers — an alpha tester.
When players asked him if that was true, he’d always go, “No commeeent,” and that was it.
For a while, people in online forums and the like had held heated discussions about whether it was all right for a tester to sit at the top of a duel rankings list, but that had died down when someone proposed a theory that Tom Cat’s Embryo couldn’t go beyond the sixth form.
He had an immensely powerful cloning ability, but his Embryo, Grimalkin, was limited to high-rank, as supported by the fact that he had been around way longer than any other player, yet he wasn’t a Superior yet.
As a supposed tester, he had a head start, but that came with certain restrictions.
Besides Embryo form, there was also the fact that his level was stuck at 1,000 — 500 from standard jobs, and 500 from his SJ, The Lynx.
These limitations led many to believe he’d been placed there as an obstacle to other players.
The Lynx, Tom Cat, had sat at the top of Altar’s duel rankings as a wall for those who came after, a challenge left there by the developers.
Once people began to look at it like that, those who’d complained about him were outnumbered by those who were determined to beat him.
Thus, many Masters tried to challenge and defeat Tom Cat.
This included the still-active duel rankers like the Kamen Rider, Riser, and the Raging Blaze, Bishmal.
They all grew better and struggled for this cause, and eventually one of them, Figaro, finally defeated Tom Cat, overcoming the challenge presented by the developers.
After that, instead of challenging Figaro to take his throne back, Tom just stayed where he was as a challenge to those who wanted the title of the second.
Soon after that, he stopped being relevant.
Some of the recent Altarian duel rankers, like the Black Raven, Juliet, and Vagrant Golden Sea, Chelsea, didn’t even know that Tom used to be such a big deal.
The controversy regarding Tom Cat was a thing of the past.
However — it was all true.
Tom Cat was working with the developers, had been active as a Master since before the official release, had limits set on his Embryo and level, and had only been the duel champion to provide a challenge to those wanting to reach the top.
All of that was right.
However, the theories regarding him were lacking something important.
Something that had nothing to do with the current duel rankings.
Roughly six hundred years ago, Infinite Dendrogram time, there had been an all-out war between two immensely powerful tians: King of Kings and Draconic Emperor.
History spoke of a third entity who’d interfered in this clash.
His name was The Lynx, Shrödinger Cat.
He happened to have the same Superior Job as Tom Cat of the present, and according to all the texts, he was a Master — an extreme rarity at that point in time.
The only link people saw between the previous duel champion and the third force in the great war was the job.
It was hard to say whether the battle between Tom Cat and Zircon Leader was equal.
Tom had more AGI, sure, but less of everything else, including firepower.
It might’ve been different if his level had been somewhere around 1,500, but with the limits placed on him, it wasn’t even worth considering.
The same went for battle prowess. Tom was a skilled fighter with many victories under his belt, but Zircon Leader wasn’t any worse than him in that regard.
This was because, between managing the Prism Soldier production and Acra-Vesta’s development, his program had spent the last 2,000 years simulating battles.
Though this was his first real battle, the ones in the simulations had, over the centuries, evolved in difficulty so much that all he had to do here was act like he had in them.
Thus, neither of them had the fighting ability to overturn the difference in stats between them.
Even so, Tom hadn’t suffered a single wound yet. His movements showed even more skill than in yesterday’s battle in the hall or today’s battle against the marionettes.
In fact, the seven clones fighting the field marshal were being a bit sloppy. It was like Tom was focusing everything he had on the one Tom that was here.
“MEOW!” Tom jumped like a cat and charged at Zircon Leader with blades in both of his hands.
He cut into his armor, leaving some marks, but not dealing enough damage to break through and damage the inner mechanisms.
“Close-Range Defensive Electromagnetic Radiation Construct.” Zircon Leader countered this attack by making electrodes grow out of the spaces between his armor and releasing lightning all around.
Tom avoided its effects by jumping backwards, but he couldn’t dodge the follow-up laser that scratched his left shoulder.
“Are you a bag of tricks or somethiiing?” Tom shot back.
He was rather taken aback by all the gear Zircon Leader had. He felt like he was in a fair full of pre-ancient civilization weapons.
Looking at its size, I shouldn’t expect anything like an Abyss Cannon, but I’ll be at a disadvantage if this battle drags on for too long, he thought as he became more alert.
However, Zircon Leader was also wary of Tom.
It wasn’t because he had a dangerous power, but because he wasn’t using job skills.
In fact, he hadn’t used a single one since Zircon Leader had first observed him.
It went far beyond their first encounter. Tom hadn’t used a single job skill during yesterday’s battle in the hall, or in any of his many duels.
This weird fact had been a topic of discussion between those wanting to beat him when he was the champion, and they’d concluded that his cloning ability came at the cost of making all active job skills unusable.
Many found the idea counterproductive, considering that The Lynx was part of the “The One” series of jobs, which was focused on skills, while others speculated that it was just a job focused on passive ones.
However, Zircon Leader’s issue with this was far more simple.
“A question — what are you?” the machine asked.
“Oh? You finally feel like talking? I’m The Lynx, Tom Cat, and I already told you why I’m here.”
“Another question — what is ‘The Lynx’?”
Tom fell silent.
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