Let me make this abundantly clear: I wasn’t furious because of the fact that Amanda had created two new children in a weak attempt to replace the loss of my brother and me or even her constantly harassing phone calls; none of that really bothered me, as I treated it the same way as you would a bug buzzing around your head, nothing more than a slight annoyance.
No, it was the fact that she blatantly lied and tried to shift all the blame for her wrongdoings to someone else. That is what made me angry.
Gliding up the staircase, I heard Brenden call my name, followed by Paola trying to speak up, but my Father stopped them; meanwhile, I walked straight to my bedroom, slammed the door, and locked it.
Then, I summoned my Nexus mask, tapped it, and disappeared into Gnarnia.
I needed to clear my head of any distractions, and the one surefire way to do that was to burn some stamina within the training room.
I had been preparing for the eventual emergence of the players for years, and now that we were on the precipice of that event occurring, a wrench had been thrown at my head in the form of that Bitch Amanda.
Stepping into the familiar control room, where I had spent thousands of hours fussing over the other facilities, I had to admit that we’d come pretty far since 1999.
There were now a dozen different rooms attached to the command center, all of which were either earned through Emilia and Xilia’s quest rewards or even Brenden and I finishing the second quest thanks to our part in the Columbine shootings.
Unfortunately, though, I wasn’t able to get the first clear rewards because of a certain cult leader who had destroyed the ranking boards.
[Timeline Ranking Board]
{Descent of Arkadia: TBD.}
{Final Influence: 807 Years}
{This Event has been Concluded; only the Top 5 Ranks Will Be Displayed.}
{With the conclusion of this Event Quest, an Official Date will be assigned for the Descent of Arkadia.}
{All of the Energy Required for the Descent has Been acquired; please standby for the Announcement of the Descent Date.}
{1st Place: Draven Faircloth = 4057 Years.}
{2nd Place: Left Index = 1233 Years.}
{3rd Place: Right Index = 1121 Years.}
{4th Place: Right Ring = 1015 Years.}
{5th Place: Nexus = 807 Years.}
As Depressing as it is to admit, I had only come in 5th place, but more important than my place was the appearance of three names, Left Index, Right Index, and Right Ring, all their names based on a finger and all had extremely strong influences on the ranking boards.
While everyone I knew called them The Fingers, for the cult, they had an official title: The Guardians of Partaevian.
10 Powerful Rankers who were only second to Draven Himself; while they had their strength and were technically categorized by power, they were a powerful force that carried out Draven’s will, and the fact that three had surpassed me on the Ranking Board was more than enough to make me want to punch the wall until my hands turned to mush.
For Draven to have already gotten his pecking order set up was a massive issue, primarily because All 10 of them had died. I should know, two of the names on the ranking board fell to my own hands in the origin timeline.
This could only mean one of two things: first, he had chosen new people to fill in those roles, and second, he got his hands on multiple of the items Brenden used to bring our Father back.
Either way, it was a problem, one that I didn’t doubt I’d end up having to deal with at some point.
Looking around at all the new tech and facilities housed in Gnarnia, I couldn’t even feel the normal accomplishment I did when I walked in, thanks to Amanda spoiling my mood.
Several new facilities were available in addition to the previous ones; the Communications Relay, although an add-on to the Command Center, was vital, as it allowed communication anywhere as long as you had a receiver, which I chose to be a small device that could be added to our equipment.
Through it, no matter if we were in the tower, or an instance, or anywhere in the world, we could stay in contact and use it as a two-way radio.
Next was a meditation room, which, like the Grav Room, would create an environment oversaturated with particles Beta or Lower, giving you the perfect place to train your Circulation skills, freeing up the other two for actual training.
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Third was arguably the most important and earth-shattering, the Teleportation Room. Inside were two devices, one circular platform, and a control panel. So long as you had the coordinates of a desired location, they could be put into the control panel, and anyone standing on the platform would be teleported to that location.
Mind you, it was extremely expensive to run, and particle stones were used. Still, when paired with the Communication Relay, we could remotely access it and return it to Gnarnia in case of an emergency.
The fourth Facility, which was the reason I called the third, arguably the most important, was the Grand Exchange. Although inconsequential at present, when things pop off and more groups start setting up their facilities, it would allow for a seamless and anonymous platform to buy, trade, and sell resources.
What I didn’t realize, though, was that by setting mine up early, I had unlocked a function in Arkadia that wasn’t seen until year five after the descent in the origin timeline.
Anyone could buy from my exchange so long as they had access to Arkadia, as it showed up in the Arkadia Shop. Through this connection, I was able to sell off a bunch of my useless junk to new returners who showed up and earn some extra pocket change.
The next new Facility was pretty self-explanatory: an autonomous farm. Through it, we would be able to cultivate a stable food source that would automatically be taken care of so long as we used particle stones to fuel the automatons, small insectoid robots that would make sure all the plants were tended for.
Lastly…., there was another storage warehouse…ok, that one was pretty lackluster, I’ll admit, but hey, more storage isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway, by obtaining 12 facilities, Gnarnia’s status was upgraded to that of a strategic outpost. It was established in its own unique separate pocket dimension, so TECHNICALLY, if push came to shove and the world ended a second time, we could hold up here and survive.