NOVEL WEB Chapter 65: Building buildings
After sending everyone away, Jack began creating screen frameworks for housing. He leaned into the work, trying to ignore the large life implications that had fallen into his lap. This was all a mess, Jack had firmly screwed up the world by putting Deis in a magically induced coma. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, even Plexion had agreed to it. But now this weird limbo was filling up with the people of Drowl...how many souls were already here?
Jack's hands shook slightly as he shaped the blue screens. He cursed under his breath, this whole situation was so messed up. Even the moment when he captured the spirit group had been ruined by the knowledge that he was the one who had trapped them here. His first chance to really feel powerful became nothing more than a harsh lesson.
Butterflies floated around him slowly as he worked, and Jack got the impression that they were trying to comfort him. Never quite settling around him, they seemed to float close, then back away when he moved. Once Jack had gotten most of the basic framework done, he reached out a hand and let a butterfly land on his hand.
"Thanks for the help. You guys did great." Jack didn't fully understand how his strange abilities worked, but he knew that the butterflies did most of the heavy lifting. The screens Jack could create in the white void were nothing more than the butterflies doing what he wanted. They responded to his thoughts instantly, forming into whatever shapes he wanted. Without them, however, he wasn't any more powerful than on the surface.
Unaware of his musings, the butterfly on his hand flitted into the air and bounced around happily. The rest of the system bugs followed suit, flying around playfully at the praise they had received. The sight of blue butterflies flying through the air excitedly brought a small smile to Jack's lips. If he hadn't been brought here and hadn't worked to make the system, then these little butterflies would never have been created. he still didn't completely understand how they had come to exist, but he was glad they did.
With newfound energy, Jack returned to his task. The framework Jack created was strange to look at, consisting of a tall central pillar with little protrusions every few feet on the front and side. The idea was that these pillars would be used as the corners of a basic square house, and a person could insert flat planks into the protrusions. The planks would slide into place and form the walls of a building. Jack didn't make a way to install ceilings, and he didn't think that they were necessary anyway. There was no weather in the void, so there was no need for a roof over the buildings.
Jack made a test building, copying and pasting enough planks and corner pillars to form a basic square before realizing his mistake. He had made a box with no entrance or exit. He went back to the drawing board, settling on a design of half plank/half door. The finished product was half a door that was attached to half planks and was meant to be affixed to a pillar. The other door/plank half went on the other side, a mirror piece that would complete the framework. The door parts were meant to slide together and attach via small hooks installed in the door frame.
Once his test model was complete, Jack decided to test the house's integrity. He pushed, pulled, kicked, and ran into the frame house, only to be bounced back every time. He could still take it apart easily enough, but once built the house wouldn't fall apart if someone bumped into it. Satisfied, Jack deconstructed the basic house. He would copy and paste everything once he brought it to the spirit's camp, but he needed to construct a few more things first.
A basic transport wagon was easy enough to make. Once Jack made the basic shapes, he was able to assemble them together and imagine a cart. The blue shapes bonded, and trying them out revealed that the cart worked exactly as intended. Jack's speed at screen construction had increased as he grew more familiar with how to interact with the blue surfaces. He didn't need to pay as much attention to the objects he wanted to create; the screens seemed to understand his intentions more easily with each new creation.
Furniture ended up being similar. Basic frames that could use smaller planks, as well as a variety of leg sizes. Jack made one of every combination he made and ended up with the materials for a table, stool, and bed. He imagined that people would find some other way to use these, but for now, he was pretty sure this would be enough to get them started.
With the cart and materials all created, Jack quickly made some screen pens. He had made some before for his and Plexion's whiteboards, but he made new ones with the ability to write on any surface. He also made some erasers, simple handheld rectangles that would erase whatever people made with the pens.
He loaded everything up on the cart, then looked in the direction the spirits had left in. There were apparently a lot of people in that direction, people that Jack now felt responsible for. He wanted to help them, he honestly felt like he needed to help them. But despite that...he sighed.
Would...the world just be better if Jack woke Deis up? If the God of Drowl took charge again, even if Jack got his soul incinerated at least all those people would be safe. It would mean that Abac could have a soul, and the bore-bot trio could accomplish the one thing they wanted above anything else. Maybe...maybe the world would be better off without Jack.
He clenched his fist and shook his head angrily. "No! I can't think like this. There has to be another way." Jack knew that talking to himself wasn't exactly healthy, but voicing his refusal to roll over and die helped him regain his mental footing. The people of this world deserved better than Deis, and Jack would figure out some way to help them with that. He thought about Plexion's magic to hide from Deis. Giving it to everyone on Drowl would be dangerous...but if people could turn it on and off at will then maybe...
Adding a skill like that to every status screen in the world was a surefire way to piss off not only Deis, but likely his entire church as well. It would mean that there would be absolutely no way Jack could live on Drowl, ever. He would be hunted, likely forever for what he had done. That was assuming Deis didn't do something drastic like killing every single person on Drowl.
Jack didn't know if the god was that crazy, but he also knew that Deis was absolutely nuts. No, the plan would have to wait until Jack could figure something else out. He wanted to try and live through this, one way or another. He wanted to help the bore-bots, the spirits, and all the people who felt wronged by the High Deity.
Sighing once again, Jack grabbed the cart full of supplies. He would go met with the spirits, deliver the supplies, then figure out what he would say to the bore-bot trio. Around twenty butterflies floated into Jack's cloak, disappearing into it. They would be his guards for this trip, invisible to everyone until jack needed them. He smiled slightly to himself, grateful for their company, then started dragging the cart across the white void.