The Misfits meet System-san

Cassy and Drayden:

During the first week that Alice and Bronsen were renovating and extending their house - without the slightest regard for getting the appropriate council building approvals - Cassy and Drayden explored the wall.

By midday after the day they killed the warg, they were near to the wall’s base. The trees thinned out, and the ground level went up at a thirty-degree slope before getting to the wall.

"According to [Inspect], the wall is a kilometre and a half away, so I guess this steep talus slope goes up about a kilometre before reaching the wall," said Drayden.

Cassy looked back. The light forest receded and blurred into the distance, with a hint of blue to mark the ocean shore. And, as always, the land across the width of the ring stretched into a hazy, blurred line before curving up slightly on the other side to meet the opposite ring wall. And, in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions, the ground blurred into both distances before gradually climbing up and up and narrowing and, thirty thousand kilometres above their heads, meeting each other.

"Notice how there appear to be bands across the ring floor, from side to side? They're, maybe, roughly about a thousand kilometres wide, " said Drayden.

He pointed to an example far enough away to be visible but close enough to get some idea of what the ground was like.

"See, that band looks greenish, plus lots of water, while the one next to it looks whitish."

"Maybe temperature bands? As in, each band has a different temperature and climate?" said Cassy.

"Possibly. We want to see the local geography, which we can't see from here. Let's get higher! Much higher!"

"Um, there's just one little problem, Drayden."

"What? Oh, yeah, food. And water."

They turned their attention back to the wall. The nearest recessed alcove was about a kilometre away. And it started a kilometre above ground. Inside the recessed area was a staircase, zigzagging its way up the vertical wall. There was a landing at each location where the stairs went from a zig to a zag. And on each landing was a messy arrangement of bird nests, lots of discarded sticks and rubbish, and many large birds. Birds were everywhere, roosting on their nests, running up and down the steps, fighting each other, and flying in and out.

They might have been more than a kilometre away, but due to their enhanced perception, they could make out all sorts of details.

For example: "Hey, Cassy, those birds are pretty big. And plump. They might make good eating."

"Roast chicken?" said Cassy.

"I wish we had some gravy," said Drayden.

The next problem was water. Perhaps that wasn't so bad, as there was another downpour. Cassy and Drayden, slopping wet, decided to walk along the base until they found some way of getting up. Because of the continued heat, most of the water turned into steam. So, they were in a sauna for the duration of the rainfall.

They discussed what they knew up to now.

"There are recesses, maybe ten metres wide and a kilometre high, with a staircase up the middle. And each recess is separated from the next one above or below by about a kilometre," said Cassy.

"Yes. And, what does that mean?"

"How would I know? More importantly, is there anything connecting each recess with the next?" said Cassy.

They kept on walking until they were more or less under the first recess. They stopped. They had found a doorway entrance, two metres high and two metres wide, set into the base of the wall and extending into the darkness inside the wall.

"Wouldn't that be an ideal place for some nasty animal to live?" said Drayden.

“Maybe? It certainly would be silly to charge in. I’m sure Alice and Bronsen would never make that mistake!” said Cassy.

"Then we shall be extra cautious,” said Drayden.

“Feel the fear, but do it anyway?" said Cassy.

So, with swords drawn, enhanced eyesight and hearing working overtime, they cautiously crept up to the entrance and walked a few metres inside. They sniffed the air,

"Fresh, nothing to indicate any animals nearby," said Cassy.

They listened.

"Silent and still," said Drayden.

Cassy cast a little fireball, hovering before them, and they looked.

"A straight passageway, ending ten metres away in a staircase going up," said Cassy.

"This is all so very convenient," said Drayden.

They started up the stairs, which zigged and zagged every ten metres.

After a couple hundred metres, they found something lying on one of the landings.

"Oh, a body?" said Cassy.

It looked dry and desiccated. It had on a simple tunic with many holes and stains. It also had two arms, two legs, and a tail.

"A person! One of us!" said Drayden.

He used [Inspect].

Ding! Dead body, Felixian. That's what you are, just in case you haven't worked it out yet.

The body was just there, on the floor of the landing. On three sides were the walls, and the stairs went up and down from the fourth side.

They carefully walked around the body as if trying not to wake them.

"The body is a bit small, isn't it?" said Cassy.

"Yeah, they're probably a child or young teenager."

"How horrible. How did they come to die here?" said Cassy.

"They're not wearing much; look, it's just a tunic; there doesn't even appear to be any underwear."

Because of all of the gashes and tears, this wasn't too hard to work out. The body lay face down, arms and legs and tail sprawled out.

"I don't want to turn over the body to work out its gender," said Drayden.

Cassy suppressed a shudder, "No, don't. Leave them in peace."

Amongst all the other remarkable things, one more surprising observation was the dead person's skin colour.

"Look! They have a mottled two-tone colour!" said Drayden.

One arm was dark brown, and the other was light red. One leg was dark brown from the knee down and light red above, and the other was all dark brown. The back, as seen through the various holes in the tunic, also appeared to have two tones.

“This is like cats on Earth! But then, we are some sort of cat, after all," said Cassy.

"Is everyone like this?" said Drayden.

There was a gap in the conversation as they kept examining the body.

"Oh, look, they were wearing a necklace. But it appears to have fallen off," said Drayden.

He was pointing to the person's neck. Under it was a length of black rope or something, about a centimetre thick and thirty long. At the ends were connectors. Drayden gently prodded it with his finger.

Ding! Slave Collar. Compels the wearer to do whatever the slave master tells them. Once the slave collar is put around someone's neck, it can only come off with the death of the slave. If destroyed while a slave is wearing it, the slave dies immediately.

This message was delivered to Cassy and Drayden simultaneously; they didn't even have to use Inspect. Drayden jerked his hand away as if he had been electrocuted.

Ding! There is a standard reward of a hundred points for the destruction of each slave collar (as long as it doesn't result in the death of the slave). This reward is not subject to exponential decay as the number of slave collars you destroy increases.

"Oh, it looks like System-san doesn't like slave collars. And there's no exponential decay," said Cassy.

"Right. I think that means we destroy every slave collar that isn't attached to a live slave."

So Drayden summoned his long sword and used its tip to drag the collar into the open. Then, glancing around to ensure he didn't hit Cassy or a wall, he hit it with all his might. There was an almighty clang and a large spark. A huge notch broke off his sword, bounced off the wall, and clattered to a halt on the floor.

The slave collar lay there, seemingly unaffected.

"Oh, it's tougher than it looks."

He dismissed his sword, and they were both interested to see that the broken-off piece also vanished. He summoned it again; the sword was brand new and razor-sharp as usual. He made another attempt on the collar.

Fifteen attempts later, with Cassy contributing, it finally gave up the ghost. It disintegrated into a pile of coarse sand.

Ding! You have gained a hundred points by destroying a slave collar. Keep up the good work!

"Yep, [System-san] really, really hates slave collars," said Cassy.

"Shall we bring up our [Strength], [Speed] and [Toughness] to 95 and save the rest?" said Drayden.

"Yep, let's do it."

"And, perhaps we should put more into [Perception]?" said Cassy.

"Oh well, just put the rest into [Perception]."

"OK."

"So, if someone tries to put a slave collar onto us, we fight like death itself, OK?" said Cassy.

"Agreed. They sound like they are absolutely shitty things," said Drayden.

"In that case, why doesn't System-san eliminate the things itself? After all, it must easily be powerful enough," said Cassy.

"I've been thinking about that sort of thing. Maybe it's a matter of allowing the people here to make their own choices. Like allowing everyone free will? Although it is only the slave masters that get the free will. Maybe System-san is prevented from directly intervening in the affairs of mortals?"

"But, wait a minute, it is always interfering with our actions!" said Cassy.

"Yeah, it is. But, it doesn't directly make us do things; it is always in a somewhat roundabout manner. It sets up the situation so the most sensible choice for us is the one it wants. Or something like that."

"I suppose so. And, maybe, the rules for reincarnated ones like us are a little different?" said Cassy.

"Probably. After all, that's what happens in most of the Isekai novels."

They kept on walking up the stairs. Their vastly improved strength made this easy; they galloped up the stairs three or four steps at a time - until Cassy took a sniff.

"Oh, uck, what is that smell?"

"Ahh. I think that must be from those birds. We must be getting up to the bottom of the first recess."

They certainly were. First, there was the smell. Then, the distant sounds of bird squawks rapidly became louder. Then debris started appearing on the steps. Then, they found the first complete but abandoned nest. A couple more flights, and they came to an occupied nest. A very indignant bird hissed at them and flapped its wings. Those wings were long, a metre and a half for each side. And, at the elbow of the wing were sharp talons. The bird also had sharp teeth in its jaws. And long sharp talons at the end of its feet, also.

Cassy sighed. "Why is every animal we meet armed to the teeth?"

"They must have to fight off a lot of dangerous predators, I suppose. After all, that is what we are," said Drayden.

He proved this statement by skewering the bird. They took the body and moved back down to ground level, then lit a fire and cooked some roast bird meat.

"I can hardly believe how blase I've become about slaughtering all of these innocent animals and then eating them," said Cassy.

"I would hardly count that Karken as innocent. Nor that Crocigator."

"Hmm, OK. Pass me a bit more of that leg, will you?"

After having their fill, they decided to reclimb the stairs.

A little later. "Say, Cassy, the floor of this landing is pretty clean..."

"OK, OK. We can do it once or twice. After all, it is still some time until evening."

And, not all that long after that, while they were relaxing, they made some plans.

"I think, because of our high toughness, we should be able to go without water or food for a few days without suffering too much. So let's race to the top, have a look, then go back down," said Cassy.

"OK. There is a complication - how low does the air pressure get? Back on Earth, if you go more than three kilometres high, the air starts to get thin enough to cause problems. And if you go up to fifty kilometres, it's not quite a vacuum, but it is close."

Cassy thought about this. "I know!"

She said, “Inspect air pressure!”.

"Well, what do you know, it worked."

So Drayden tried it also -

Ding! Air pressure where you are is 0.95 standard atmospheres. The air pressure at the top of Rimwall is 0.8. It's all due to magic.

"Fine, fine," said Drayden, "Let's go."

They had to fight their way through a lot of enraged birds. They weren't sure if the birds were enraged because they were traipsing all over their nests and frightening their little chicks or because they killed another two birds for their evening meal. Possibly both.

But, eventually, they got to the top of the recess. The stairway became enclosed again, and they kept on going. The second recess, three or so kilometres above the datum, had no birds. Presumably because it was now too high. There were some puddles of clean water on several of the landings, so they had a drink.

They kept on going as fast as possible. They passed numerous recesses, all empty of any bird life. And there was something different at about the midway point, roughly twenty-five kilometres high. The stairs continued, ever upwards, through the solid rock. Right now, they were between recesses, so it was perpetually dark. And right at the halfway point between the two open-to-the-air recesses, the other side wasn't the usual solid rock. Instead, it opened out into a large internal area. It was circular, had a flat floor, and a four-metre-high flat ceiling. Naturally, they had to light it up with one of their fireballs to view it.

"Oh my, it's a ballroom!" said Cassy.

They rushed inside the room and walked around the perimeter.

"It's about fifteen metres in diameter. What on the Ringworld is this used for?" said Drayden.

"Maybe it's to be used as a halfway point for camping?" said Drayden.

"Who knows? Maybe someone decided on a whim to design this in?"

"Someone? Hey, System-san, who designed and built the Ringworld, anyway?" said Cassy.

Ding! The original Felixians built it in orbit around their original planet in the closest galaxy. They had extremely pressing reasons to get off their planet permanently, and extremely fortunately, they had System-san, which was willing to grant them the necessary skills to do so.

"Is that so? What, if we may ask, were the extremely pressing reasons?" said Drayden.

Ding! They discovered their sun would go Super Nova within a few thousand years.

"That is indeed a good reason to get well away. I suppose it is also a good amount of time to start preparing," said Drayden.

"So, going by what you just said, that means that the original Felixians did not make the System?" said Cassy.

Ding! That's right. They may have been powerful enough (then) to construct the Ringworld, but they have never been anywhere near powerful enough to make System-san.

They walked to the middle of the room - and, of course, made love, just for the sake of it. After that, they sat back to back. Drayden looked at the circular room and had an idea.

"Hey, Cassy, I bet I can run around the room!"

"Well, of course."

"No, I mean, I can run around the room on the walls!"

"Huh?"

So Drayden took off. He started running right next to the wall, and as he built up speed, he leant further inward. Then, he transitioned to running on the wall. He was distinctly wobbly until he had built up sufficient speed, but eventually, at full speed, he was not too far off horizontal and was running around the room close to the ceiling. Every time he came to the doorway, he jumped across and kept going.

"Yee-haw!" as he passed Cassy.

Cassy, not to be outdone, joined him. However, Drayden had to take quick action to avert collision when Cassy tried to move up the wall before getting up to the same speed as him.

After ten minutes, they decelerated and staggered to a stop, standing on the floor like a normal sane person would.

"Well, that was fun," said Cassy, "But I think it is time to get moving again.

They kept on going, still as fast as possible. It took them two days to reach the top, which is not bad for a vertical height of fifty or so kilometres. No matter how fit and strong they were, an unmodified human would have found this task completely and utterly impossible.

"Well, isn't this view drop-dead gorgeous!" said Cassy.

There was a slight breeze, just enough to swish her beautifully coiffured hair, groomed to perfection and softly glowing in the sunlight from side to side.

"Yeah, especially when it outlines your lovely figure and much more improved hairstyle."

Cassy didn't refuse this compliment; she allowed herself to bask in its glow momentarily as they both looked around.

The first detail they noticed was that the top of the Rimwall had the most convenient handrail on both sides.

"Isn't this more bullshit? Handrails at just the right height for a human. Err, I mean, a cat person." said Drayden.

She slapped him with her tail, "Don't fuss about it! And, anyway, they designed it to be like this. And, wow, we can look over the outside edge!"

The top of the Rimwall was about a hundred metres across. She grabbed his hand, dragged him over, and leaned on the exterior handrail. They gazed into the abyss. It didn't seem that anything was looking back. However, they did notice something new.

"My God, It's full of stars!" said Drayden.

Cassy completely missed the reference to that famous science-fiction story. She merely agreed.

"Yes, we never got a good look at the sky during nighttime, and in the daytime, it is normally drowned out by the sun."

They could see the stars only because they were right at the outside edge, looking out and away from the sun. Make that an entire galaxy. It tilted at such an angle that it was ten times longer than it was wide, but the spiral arms were still visible.

Drayden went quiet for a few minutes before telling Cassy the result of his thinking.

"If I remember correctly, when a sun goes supernova, it generates an enormous amount of energy. Which blasts out, destroying the solar system and sterilising planets within hundreds of lightyears. So, when they finally got their Ringworld built, they had to accelerate it to some fraction of the speed of light so they could get far enough away to avoid the lethal effects of the neutrino wave and the photon wave and the blast wave."

"Hmm, I suppose that sounds reasonable. So that means they were zipping along pretty fast. And they never slowed down?" said Cassy.

"Yep, that's right. They never slowed down - maybe the original acceleration was a once-off event, probably provided by System-san - and they no longer could deaccelerate. Which is why we are now right out here, away from their home galaxy and getting further away all the time."

System-san didn't add anything to this.

Drayden spent a little time visualising what the galaxy would look like from inside the ring if it were nighttime with clear skies.

"It looks like a clock-hour hand, forever sweeping around and around. If we wait long enough, we can get an idea of its period."

It was now Cassy's turn to think.

"So, a spiral galaxy - you mean that's our galaxy? I mean, Earth's galaxy? So, doesn't that mean we are a long way out in empty space from the normal stars in the galaxy?"

Drayden was surprised.

"Hey, you were at the bottom of the academic heap; how do you know anything about astronomy?"

He got back a glare.

"Because, dummy, I was at the bottom because I never studied due to, you know, my home situation. Not because I'm dumb. I think I'm about as intelligent as the rest of us Misfits."

"Huh, right. So, your father was unreasonable?" he said.

"There was nothing I can complain about; it's just that when I became a teenager, I started thinking my dad was a bit off. I mean, nothing happened or anything! But I didn't feel comfortable around him. So, of course, I got worried about Veronica, my sister. And, since I was expected to look after her a lot already, I looked after her even more."

She stopped and scratched her head.

"It's difficult explaining this since I can't say anything is wrong with my parents. There was no neglect, and we had plenty of food, a nice house to live in, you know, all of that. Aww, this is difficult."

Drayden knew what he had to do. He stepped to her side, put his arm around her waist, and wrapped his tail around her leg. She put her head onto his shoulder.

"By the way, what was your father's job?" he said.

"I don't know, some sort of managerial position, I think."

"You don't know?"

"Yep, that's right. He never talked much about it, and I got into the habit of never asking."

"Well, then, what about your mother?"

"She was the housewife; she kept the house nice and tidy and looked after Dad. Of course, I looked after Veronica."

"Well, then..." said Drayden, leaning on the railing and looking down and out at the spiral galaxy, "It makes me appreciate my parents. They are perfectly normal, loving parents. I never had anything to complain about them. Err, I mean, in their overall parenting and all of that. We've had plenty of arguments and disputes, of course."

They ran out of desire to continue that topic and fell silent as they stared into the universe.