Marisol awoke the next morning not to idle bird chirping or people setting up shop out the window, down the street—it was a sharp in her head that made her eyes snap wide open, and it was a flurry of metallic voices that immediately made her wince.
[Archive registration complete]
[Syncing data backlog… Syncing... Complete]
[Displaying 4,862 notifications]
[Weather Forecast for Whirlpool City: Gale-force winds in the upper city, rising mist levels in the lower city, and a 60% chance of mild acid rain near the Symbiosteel factory district. Suggested actions: Avoid dockside markets until after 10 in the evening]
[Navigation Alert: Spiral Road submerged under rising tides. Suggested detour: Wyrmfrost Archway. Estimated travel time: +12 minutes.]
[Bug Bounty Alert (176 kilometres): Titan Spiderling—A-Rank Giant-Class—claimed by ‘The Hurricane Fang’. Timestamp: 59 days ago. Status: Confirmed]
[Bug Bounty Alert (265 kilometres): Rile Scorpion—B-Rank Giant-Class—contested by multiple Hasharana. Arbitration pending. Estimated resolution: 5 days]
[Hasharana Assistance Signal Log (618 kilometres): Source: ‘Saltcarver’. Location: Glassreef Cradle, Canal De Sussoro. Timestamp: 38 days ago. Status: Ignored]
[Voice Message received from ‘Saltcarver’. Playback commencing...]
[System Reply Sent: None. Suggested Action: Block user]
[Restaurant Suggestion: ‘El Azúcar del Remolino’. Review excerpt by ‘Sea Manic’: 4/5 stars. Comment: Closest store location: 0.8 kilometres east. Pull up navigation map for more more accurate directions]
[Death threat received from ‘Rustspine Predator’. Parsing content...]
[Text Complaint lodged against ‘Sea Manic’ by ‘Rustspine Predator’. Parsing content...]
[Voice Message received from ‘Gilded Widow’. Playback commencing...]
[Bug Bounty Alert (451 kilometres): Sunscale Scarab—C-Rank, Giant-Class—claimed by ‘Thornblade Alchemist’. Timestamp: 42 days ago. Status: Reward pending collection in Whirlpool City]
[Restaurant Review: ‘Faro del Sabor’. Review by ‘Sea Manic’: 1/5 stars. Comment: ]
[Navigation Alert: Strong currents detected in Coralroot Boulevard. Suggested route through Tidegrove Steps. Warning: High ambush risk of mild acidic rain]
[Voice Message received from ‘Whispered Fang’. Playback commencing...]
[Death threat received from ‘Rustspine Predator’. Parsing content...]
[Festival Announcement: The Niebla Marine Festival begins tomorrow in the Coral Plaza. Reminder: Increased Swarm activity reported in the area. All Hasharana must be on guard]
[Restaurant Suggestion: “La Caracola de Oro.” Review by ‘Sea Manic’: 3/5 stars. Comment:]
[Distress Signal Log (1,725 kilometres): Source: ‘Bone Weaver’. Location: Salmorena Northern Stretch. Timestamp: 43 days ago. Status: Ignored]
[Notification overflow. Summarising final 4,845 entries...]
[1,075 Bug Bounties posted. 1035 resolved. 40 currently underway]
[682 Distress Signals received. 648 resolved]
[74 Death Threats recorded]
[816 Text Messages archived]
[79 restaurant reviews flagged as noteworthy]
[182 Arbitration Cases involving ‘Sea Manic’. 0 resolved]
[1,937 Local Navigation Warnings. 0 resolved]
The Archive hopped onto the bridge of her nose as she folded her pillow over her ears, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to block out the voices in her head. They came from her head, so she had no idea what she was trying to do by covering her ears, but she just wasn’t thinking straight anymore.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
She had half a mind to dig her nails into her neck and rip out her system, but if she made a bloody mess on the bed, it’d be her wallet on the line when the innkeepers eventually came to change the sheets.
At least the Archive silenced all the ringing and voice messages playing in her head, and now, all was good with the world again.
“What’s the difference between a registered Altered Symbiotic System and an unregistered one again?” she mumbled out loud, and that was because she to hear her own voice to know she wasn’t going insane. She kept her eyes closed, her face scrunched, her head still pounding quietly. “You said… back on the horseshoe crab island… that I can use the most up-to-date translation features if I’m a registered Hasharana, but what else is possible now?”
The Archive poked her eyelids with its sharp little legs, making her wince and roll around and attempt to swat it off her face.
“I’ll kill you.”
the Archive said, and she felt it changing shapes, morphing on her nose. She opened one eye slowly and plucked it off her nose, frowning at the silver metal worm it’d turned into.
“That’s a long way of saying you yammer a lot.”
it continued, ignoring her completely.
“The Worm God?”
—
She smiled brightly at the worm pinched between her fingers. “No.”
“Huh,” she mumbled, dropping the worm into her mouth and pretending to chew as she recalled a few voice messages she’d heard during the flurry of notifications. “But there ain’t any Hasharana in the city apart from me and Victor, right? Because they’ve all been blocked out by Protocol ‘Black Storm’? How are their messages still coming through?”
She thought about what that meant for a moment. “So all this time, Victor has been in contact with the outside world?”
“And now I’m also capable of sending messages to the outside world?”
“Can I send a message to someone and have them deliver it to my mama, then?”
“But—”
… But that better than nothing, so even if it was only the slimmest chance in the world, she wasn’t about to give up at the starting line.
With the Archive’s assistance, she managed to record herself talking—she spoke of what happened to Captain Antonio, her journey from the sinking ship to the Whirlpool City, and both the comfortable yet uncomfortable life she was currently leading as a Hasharana of the city—and there was no real planning behind what she said. She had so, many things she wanted to tell her mama she feared the Archive wouldn’t be able to record it all, but the Archive never interrupted her, and in hindsight, it shouldn’t even have been a worry. This was a man-made intelligence capable of storing and transmitting information from an entire continent away at the drop of a hat. A five-minute-long message wouldn’t break it.
She ended up recording ten minutes’ worth of her own voice, and then had the Archive send it out to the nearest Worm Effigy—whatever that looked like—in hopes it’d find its way to a Hasharana willing to entertain her request.
“What powerful bioarcanic equipment you Altered Symbiotic Systems are,” she muttered, sinking deeper into her pillow as she rubbed her eyes, trying to knock the sleep out of her. “Say, why doesn’t the Worm God just give everyone an Altered Symbiotic System? We’d all be for the better if we could access any information we want on the fly, right?”
“Oh.”
She shot up straight, running her fingers through her hair as she inhaled deeply. “Okay, okay, I’m getting up. Ain’t like I’m still shivering after last night, anyways—”
“What do you got for me? Anything fun for me to try out?”
The Archive didn’t bother responding. Instead, it pulled up a status screen next to her face, and she blinked only once before recognising it as a top-down map of the Whirlpool City—and there were hundreds and of tiny labels pointing at different parts of the city, all glowing, all marking something of interest for her to explore.
She could see how a Hasharana could be easily distracted by the navigation functionality.
the Archive said plainly.
Water Bug Facts #64: Marine worms, like palolo worms, communicate via environmental cues like moonlight. They synchronise their reproductive cycles to release gametes into the water at the same time to ensure successful fertilisation!
Next chapter on Thursday!
The link to the Discord server is with over five hundred members, where you can get notifications for chapter updates, check out my writing progress, and read daily facts about this insect-based world!
