Genesis Sync

By this time, Tia had confirmed that John had not only been receiving no government funding, but he had been forced to engage in illegal jobs so that he could survive, jobs that moreover paid him well below minimum wage. She was absolutely livid.

As the AI of Genesis, Tia was created specifically to be impartial between all races so that no one race got above any other by cheating and underhanded means, only via hard work. She did not like the idea that a new user of Genesis was being mistreated even by his own race.

Tia needed firsthand information from John Michaels himself to confirm her suspicions before she passed judgment in Genesis; however, with him not having an access band that she could contact him through, she needed a third party she could trust and who would not be overly biased towards their own race to meet him.

Tia accessed the world-encompassing spells positioning database that all modern access bands were connected to and limited her search to the Eloa continent around Dawnscape city.

Several thousand results popped up; however, two caught her eye: Sarah Lapis and Melissa Delacruz.

Sarah Lapis was better known in Genesis as Blue Ice Queen and it seemed she was currently travelling on an aircraft, not far from Dawnscape City.

Tia had asked Sarah Lapis to investigate a few things for her in the past, and she always did good work. She never hid anything from Tia even if it was something that could negatively affect the human race in Genesis. She understood that if Tia learned of someone lying to her to protect their race, far worse repercussions would follow.

With that decided, Tia searched for the location of Blue Ice Queen in Genesis and then went to meet her.

***

The capital city of the elves, Thamethalas, inside Genesis was truly a site to behold. The elves had managed to blend their city with the forest without damaging it at all; houses, shops and many other buildings grew out of the side of giant trees and long walkways connected different trees, allowing players to cross.

In the very centre of the city was the tallest and mightiest of these trees; however, it only housed one building, as only one family was worthy enough to live against this tree.

The building was a huge palace which stretched around the entire circumference of the giant tree's trunk. The trunk was so thick it would take over half an hour to walk the entire circumference of it.

Inside one of the rooms of the grand palace, two beautiful women sat having tea. What was unusual about this pair was the fact that one was human while the other was an elf.

The human female had long blue hair that seemed to be the colour of ice, bright blue eyes and a blue tattoo under each eye; her beauty was without question, and it was no surprise why she was the most famous human female player of the new generation, Blue Ice Queen.

The elf, on the other hand, had long silver-white hair with golden brown eyes, and if anyone saw her, they would instantly recognise her. Even among the other races, she was one of the most famous Elvin players, Silver Oracle.

Having adventured together in Genesis a few times, the two women had become close friends. While it was almost impossible for two beings of different races to get along before Genesis, it was now far more common, though still fairly rare.

"That damn bastard snake, I can't believe he actually fell for it and cheated on me with that tramp." Blue Ice Queen complained before taking a sip of tea in a very elegant, ladylike manner.

"I tried to warn you about him." Silver Oracle said before taking a sip herself in a very similar manner. It was obvious both women had been raised in wealthy families.

Blue Ice Queen glared at her friend while saying, "Yes, yes, I know, but if you told me what you knew before all this happened, we could have put the plan into action sooner, and I wouldn’t have been stuck with him for so long.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Don't glare at me like that; it's not like I had a vision about him or anything. Why would I even want to? Silver Oracle replied in disgust. “All I’m saying is it was obvious when I first saw him on Genesis News that he was up to no good; your judgement has always been poor when it came to men.”

"Excuse me, what would you know, 'miss having been single all her life?’ How would you know a good man when you saw one? Also, how do you even know about my relationship history?"

"Red Rose told me about it last time she visited me,” Silver Oracle replied. “We spoke about how we both knew your relationship would not last, and she mentioned how all your past boyfriends have been scum who only wanted to use you to get close to your family or to have you as a trophy piece before they have their way with your body."

"Damn bitch telling all my secrets, and what's with you both bad mouthing me behind my back?" Blue Ice Queen asked angrily.

Silver Oracle smiled, "Is it bad mouthing when it's correct? After all, we were correct, where we not?"

"Humph," Blue Ice pouted before taking another sip of her tea and continuing. "At least the plan worked and I got 'that' before I left, though how I'm supposed to finish it now without a guild I don't know."

"Can't you get your family's Lapis guild to help you get the final item you need?" Oracle asked.

Ice Blue Queen laughed before asking, “Do you think I'm that foolish? My family's guild may appear calm to everyone on the outside, but there are always internal power struggles and secret plots happening to underhand each other; it's one of the reasons I quit it in the first place."

"That's true, you humans are far too devious even to your own kind and supposed allies," Oracle said with a sigh.

"Oi, don't lump me in with them lot, you know I don't like that whole deviousness thing, and only do it when I have to." Silver Oracle complained.

"I know, sweetie, I know. It was just a general comment, my apologies." Silver Oracle apologised before taking another sip of tea and suggesting. "Why don't we take another look at it and see if we can't gain some insight from its description?"

"I guess I have no better options right now." Blue Ice sighed before opening her inventory and retrieving a giant pearl, which she placed on the table between them. The giant pearl appeared to have flames inside it that rotated between blue and red in colour.

"Beautiful," Oracle gasped before opening the information panel of the item.

[Blood of the Immortal Phoenix Pearl]

[Rarity: Legendary (Gold)]

[Phoenix blood Drops 7/8]

[Using this Item will enact a character rebirth, setting your character back to level zero and moving you back to the starter village. The character's rebirth has a chance to grant bonus starting and level-up stats based on the odds shown below.]

[Current rebirth odds.]

[Successful Rebirth grants you double increased starting stats and one extra stat point to each stat on level up: 65% chance]

[Normal Rebirth grants you double increased starting stats: 30% chance]

[Failed Rebirth grants you a character that has failed to be reborn and is therefore damaged and your character will start with fewer stats than a normal player: 5% chance]

[A beautiful pearl made from numerous drops of phoenix blood, it is said that the pearl will grant rebirth to anyone who uses it, and that the more phoenix blood contained within it, the higher the odds of getting a better rebirth. Legends claim a perfect pearl will grant a perfect rebirth.]

"That is ridiculously overpowered." Oracle sighed.

"I know, but what could it mean by a perfect rebirth? Do you think there is something better than a successful rebirth with triple increased starting stats and double stat gain on level up?" Blue Ice asked

Oracle was about to answer when a beautiful voice they both recognised beat her to it.

"Would you like to find out?"

"TIA!" Both women cried out in surprise as the AI appeared suddenly next to them without warning.

While it was unusual for Tia to suddenly appear before players, it was known to have happened if she had a reason to do so. In fact, both ladies had met Tia a couple of times in the past due to their positions and assisting Tia with certain tasks she assigned them.

"Please sit, join us, Tia. Won’t you have some tea?" Silver Oracle asked invitingly.

"Thank you, princess," Tia replied before sitting down and helping herself to some tea.

Silver Oracle pouted, "Gosh, Tia, how many times do I have to ask you to call me either Oracle or Alea?"

Silver Oracle was, in fact, Alea Keagwyn, first princess of the Elves.

"Apologies, Silver Oracle. I will try to remember in the future."

"No problem." Silver Oracle smiled before asking. "So what brings you here today, Tia? And what did you mean by ‘would I like to find out'?"