AC: This chapter might eventually get updated. I've reread it a few times and this is what I came with. I'll also thanks my Beta-reader FollowerOfAnhamirak for quickly correcting this chapter.
I am wondering if I should put the new chapters before they are beta-read, instead of putting them later. I don't mind it, but I am asking what you want me to do? Wait for the next chapters to be checked by the Beta-reader or put it on Sunday.
You can expect some possible change in this chapter in the future. I will send an update. The information given in this chapter won't change, but the way it will be explained will.
"Wait!", Peyton yelled He coughed a few times as he got some sand in his throat. He hit his chest and once he could breath, he asked, "An Underworlder in Egypt? Seriously!"
"The file says it. Because of his appearance, they called the remains Set." Tom replied.
Alexandre crossed his arms, "Damn, and I thought traveling to the past while in another world at the same time was a hard thing to believe."
Tom scrolled down the file and showed them a picture of the remains. It looked like the skeleton of a humanoid jackal, "Once it was discovered, a group took the bones and analyzed then. They concluded it was an Underworlder much later, when they knew of Perim."
Sarah put her hand on her face and tried to contain herself, "What the hell? A creature in our world?"
"And in Egypt. Like the god Set." Kaz added.
"I should go on, because there's a lot more to cover. The faster I'm done the better." Tom looked around. The sand was still clean. No presence of creatures.
"You should." Alexandre said.
Cassandra nodded with a lightly paled face as she looked at the teenagers, "We should hurry this up."
Chapter 50: Project Harmony
"As the studies went on, a scientist made a project to reach the other world. As he made it, the first generation of the Chaotic card game began. The scientist lost the first project, which was to make a scanner that could reach Perim, but it disappeared and was never found." Tom continued.
"That was me who took it and when I came back, I destroyed it. My father made it and the prototype," Alexandre said.
"W-wait. How did they know there was another world?" Cassandra asked.
"Did you forget something?" Sarah asked.
"No. The first part is just a summary of things that led to the project. It was what Codemaster Crellan added before the project. He said it was to give some context, but not all of it." Tom scratched the back of his head and admitted, "I didn't think about that missing part."
"I guess they're are a lot of things that the Codemaster considered unimportant for you or didn't want to share." Alexandre concluded as he thought more about it.
"Anyway, after the failure of the first scanner, the scientist made a new scanner and it advanced the discovery of Chaotic." Tom added before he was interrupted once again.
"Chaotic?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah. When the scanner was first used, it brought the tester to Chaotic." Tom explained.
"Just looking around, it's clear that it was not entirely manmade." Alexandre commented. He raised his fingers, "I mean, Chaotic isn't anywhere on Earth. If it was, the creatures would already be certain it was the Cothica and Chaotic would have been on the map."
"I guess so too. No one knows about what Chaotic is. It's just where we hang out." Kaz sighed as he crossed his arms.
"Anything else dude, or does it go unto Project Harmony?" Peyton asked.
"It says that the recherche on the creature was determined to be an Underworlder, as one of the cards from the first generation had a similar one to him, maybe one of his descendants." Tom added before concluding, "And then, it reached Project Harmony."
"What does it say?" Kaz asked.
"Base on the many discoveries they made, a project was begun. The mugics found on Antarctica, the remains of a creature of Perim and a few objects that didn't exist on Earth, they came to the conclusion that the creatures will inevitably come to Earth, as their quest is to find the Cothica. For this reason, Project Harmony was made."
"Go on." Sarah said when her friend was quiet for a few seconds.
Tom took a deep breath as he began to read what was on his scanner, as it was easier than resuming the previous text: "Project Harmony. Phase one: Buy the Chaotic Company and put it under our supervision. Revive the card game with online features and the distribution of scanners."
"Sounds like they were making the second generation of the card game for something else other than reviving the game bro." Peyton commented.
"There's more." Tom said before he continued the first phase, "Construct Chaotic with security and install the Codemasters to supervise and protect Chaotic. Make sure that no creatures find Chaotic."
"W-what?" Cassandra asked when that was said. She knew they were there, but why in the beginning. Alexandre was pensive.
Cassandra had also found something was a little weird in that phase. He'd gotten nothing and decided to not voice his thoughts yet.
"Why could they reach it without any battlegear? They didn't have the Telebracers and no other ways to teleport to an unknown location." Sarah commented with a bit of confusion.
"Could Chaotic be on Perim from the start?" Alexandre thought out loud.
Kaz snapped his fingers, "Makes sense. A creature found in our world and somehow, we can go to Chaotic. If that creature used something in Chaotic to reach our world-."
Sarah interrupted him, "Then other creatures could do the same if they reached it." Sarah ignored the glare from Kaz, "That's maybe why they need us for something in Chaotic."
Tom continued, "Phase two: Release the game and distribute. Make sure that the game becomes popular. Then, offer the way to reach Chaotic as codes, for safety reasons. Then watch over the human's interactions with the creatures. Codemasters will supervise everything and keep the player under close watch."
"Interactions?" The group asked.
"Yes. What'ss going on between humans and creatures I bet." Tom replied.
"And why is that bro? I mean, does it have anything to do with the project?" Peyton asked.
"Yes. It's because they're suspecting that one day, sooner or later, creatures would come to Earth. I'll read you the rest." Tom looked at the scanner and went on, "Analyze the result of the interactions, positive and negative. Meanwhile, prepare a special group to deal with the creatures if the creatures manage to reach the forbidden location of Chaotic and reach Earth. Destruction must be minimized. Harmony must be reached."
"Harmony must be… reached?" Sarah asked, a little confused about the words that were said.
"I don't know what they meant, but I guess it is about if we're friends or enemies with them." Tom replied before continuing, "Phase Three shall be made when we collect enough data in Phase Two."
"That's it for the plan? It's not even complete." Kaz commented.
"They're waiting for the result before making a possible scenario." Alexandre mused.
"If the document is up to date." Cassandra added.
"Anything else bro?" Peyton asked.
"What remains are some explanations from Codemaster Crellan," Tom began to read them, "For the moment, phase two has many problems. Some of the players are causing trouble with the tribes and raising tensions with the creatures. However, players like you and your friends are having the opposite effect. If the results are negative, the plan will surely go towards forcing the creatures to remain on Perim through brute force."
"They're going to call the army for that," Sarah said, quickly realizing that brute force would turn bloody.
"Can they even fight the creatures? I don't want to see what would happen?" Peyton said, waving his hands in protest.
Alexandre said nothing, but his face paled at the thought of a war between worlds.
Tom continued, "However, the project aimed at positive results. The director of the organization, name censored, aims to reach a relative peace with the creatures and avoid war. This is the reason why nothing has been done with your scanners and those of your friends to limit your movement, despite the dangerous knowledge you have. You are offering important results."
"What is the end goal if it's positive? '' Let the creatures come to our world like that?" Kaz asked in disbelief.
"There is nothing about that end goal, but Codemaster Crellan suggested that negotiation would be made to avoid any problem between our two worlds. Maybe it could happen." Tom guessed.
"Anything else?"
"Just a little. In other worlds, Project Harmony's main objective is to avoid war between Earth and Perim and push towards peaceful negotiation. For that, Chaotic Players who manage to become friends with creatures shall remain on Chaotic and the problematic players would slowly get booted out of Chaotic." Tom said.
"I guess some of them left if they didn't come back with the entire ordeal with the creatures coming here and-." Sarah said before she stopped, "Wait. They'll make the codes invalid?"
"This is what it said." Tom replied. The boy thought back and understood now why the Codemasters wanted to get rid of the group who destroyed locations after scanning them to exchange it for a price. It would cause great tension and conflict in the long run.
"W-wait. So… the entire game is just a big experiment? We're being tested for something when we spend time with creatures?" Kaz asked the question with the obvious answer.
"Dude. We made friends with many creatures. That's what they wanted right?" Peyton asked with some hope.
"And I guess that's why nothing was really done against you," Alexandre put his hand on his jaw, "because you're giving great results in that experiment. An experiment about the possibility of peace I guess." Alexandre quietly grumbled that he should find more about that director. What was written was probably true, but his father might discredit that.
"We're also being used for something! The Danians are using me for something and that group too!" Sarah grunted loudly as she realised that.
"What is even that groups name?" Tom wondered.
"They didn't put it or Crellan took it out," Kaz guessed.
Tom grumbled, "Maybe it's all secrecy," he made a few spy notices with his mouth, "and even he couldn't let you know that."
"I don't get how they planned all that," Cassandra commented, "Everything ready like that."
"It took years before the two generations of the card game and all of this began way before the first card game came out," Alexandre explained, "My dad told me that before he made the first scanner, he did more with that group. Don't ask me right now though. I don't know the name yet."
"You know. Crellan explained things, but not about the creature they found. Once he said they found the remains of the Underworlder, nothing else." Sarah said as she gazed around, just in case creatures might show up.
"Codemaster Crellan just brought up Set and nothing after this. What about it? Is it still existing or poof!" Peyton asked.
"It still doesn't explain how they knew of Perim." Cassandra reminded them.
"I got no idea about that," Tom answered, his voice filled with confusion.
"There might be old folklore stuff going on." Alexandre guessed.
"I mean. We have Set, an Underworlder in Egypt. Maybe some part of the mythology had things to do with creatures who came here?" Kaz suggested.
It did make sense if the creature had been named Set and his physical appearance was similar, even with the bones.
"And more might have gone to Chaotic in the past to use whatever there is and ended up on Earth." Tom sighed.
"And more legends of creatures in mythology. Maybe demons came from some Underworlder like Chaor. He looks like a demon from hell! It's a really hot place," Peyton commented.
"We're only guessing all of this. It could just be like when the card game was made with creatures looking similar or not. We know nothing about that." Alexandre warned them.
"Anyway, whatever they had on Project Harmony is involving us." Sarah concluded as she sighed loudly.
"I think we shouldn't search anymore." Kaz suggested.
"It might be best if I wait for a chance to get more from Codemaster Crellan. Maybe he might ask another question and I'll write something we come up with together." Tom suggested.
"That's something to wait for then." Sarah concluded as she crossed her arms, "As long as we don't search for whatever is on Chaotic. We know it might bring them to Earth and I don't want to imagine what would happen."
"We still have something to wait for," Cassandra told them.
"Sure mom." Kaz replied.
As the group fell silent Alexandre took his chance and told them, "There is one last thing. My father might try to talk with those of the group on Earth. I'm not sure what will happen, but you better be ready for anything."
"What do you think might happen?" Kaz asked, worried.
"I don't know. Maybe they might stop following you, but I guess it might be something else. It's best to be ready for anything. Knowing my father, it might lead to something else other than leaving you alone. Still, I can guarantee it won't be a problem. I'm certain they don't want to lose someone like him."
The others nodded as they took out their scanners. They just hoped that the man was right as they ported out.
AC: This is the end of this chapter.
Next: Spy Game.
Gal'Drad and a few M'arrillians tried to find what the plan of Milla'iin was. The rebels had to find what it was and how to destroy it.