[NR] Remembering What Energy Is - Chapter 608 (Patreon)

Jason had been meditating over the last week on his realization. The fact that the lines placed by the System were attached to the space a person occupied and not their body, mind, or soul. Which when he thought on it deeper, was strange. After all, in theory, when you move space itself isn’t actually moving, your body is moving through space. So, why does it work?

Jason very much doubted that the System was adjusting the lines with every twitch of a muscle someone made. That meant there was something he was still missing. Space did not move to a degree that the lines would follow when your arm twitched.

So, Jason observed his own lines while performing a basic kata. Over and over, one kata to the next, it took him another three days to come up with a theory. What if the lines weren’t anchored or attached to space?

This had been his assumption until now because when starting out, Jason had been searching for how the lines attached to his body. But, is your blood attached to your body? No, it is contained within and can burst out with any cut or stab.

Though that does bring back the original question, how do the lines stay in place? Because, the System lines can maintain their position and Jason hasn’t exactly seen any blood vessel style containment for them. Is it possible that such a thing is there and he just can’t see it? Sure, and it would create a pretty direct meridian analog, but Jason doesn’t believe that is the case. Otherwise, why twist the threads into lines and tie knots in it? Much better to just let it flow. After all, as shown by his view of the world’s Energy, the System doesn’t need such things to control stuff.

So, with little surprise to Jason, it is within those knots and twists that he finds his answer. The Energy lines aren’t tied down, but suspended in space. As for why they stay in place for the System and not him? The answer goes back to another discovery of his, Energy is Inertia. Each small thread wanting to head in a direction until acted upon.

Though even when twisted into a line and knots used to contain it, those lines still maintain their own inertia. And so once Jason lets his attempt go, those lines begin to work their way free until the entire line and all the knots are bursting apart. This leaves the question of what the System is doing, but with that in mind, not only shouldn’t the lines follow how the body moves, it should honestly be flying off in a random direction.

It took a quick conversation with Courtney a couple days later to break Jason free from the loop he was stuck in. Because, while based on the physics they know, the three powers are still fantasy derived powers that can be pushed around by your own will. At that point, Jason should have needed to ponder about just what kind of will was forced on the lines to get them to stay in place.

Except that is obvious to him. For the lines to react to even the smallest muscle twitch and to apply across everything, they need to be synced with a person and it can’t be just to the mind. After all, the body can react without the mind and the lines keep up even with involuntary actions.

From there, it would be easy to assume that the System lines just connect to something’s physical body. That would match up to how it can stay perfectly synced with it. However, there has to be more to it. After all, there are creatures like the various forms of ghosts which are purely spiritual creatures, sometimes even lacking a mind. The one thing NeoRealm seems to lack are purely mental beings, something Jason knows can exist, if very rarely.

So, with that in mind, it is likely the System connects to either the physical body or the soul, depending on which is used as the primary form. The lines of a spirit possessing a skeleton wouldn’t follow the movements of the bones, but of the spirit itself. On the other hand, an actual skeleton would have the lines following the bones.

And this all wraps around to a minor fact about the races a player can be. Players are not allowed to be any of the spiritual beings. From a class on the history of NeoRealm, Jason remembers that the original restriction was blamed on balance. Can’t have players just ghosting through walls. Except that reasoning fell away with the years as people not only realized the NeoRealm locals were more than ready for that kind of nonsense and the discovery of new playable races, some of which had the natural ability to go insubstantial. Yet still, players can’t be ghosts or similar. One of the unsolved mysteries of NeoRealm.

Except Jason had just figured it out. The System doesn’t hook up to the mind, because it uses the lines to manipulate it as needed and so can either connect to the body or soul. Except, a player’s soul doesn’t stay in NeoRealm. So, the System can only attach its lines to the body. On top of that, if a player did end up as a spiritual being, then any damage they take in NeoRealm would transfer. After all, it is their soul being injured at that point and not just a puppet body that stays in NeoRealm.

Purely mental beings aren’t allowed in NeoRealm because of how the System uses lines to manipulate people. Players can’t be spiritual beings or the “game” would become like one of those cliche stories from the past, that whole, “if you die in the game, you die in real life” nonsense. And whether the lines could follow a player’s soul back to their actual body or not, it was hard coded that it can’t even try. Though Jason is willing to assume it can’t follow it back. After all, if the System can follow you, that likely just ends up with another old story cliche, where your powers in the game manifest outside of the game.