[NR] The Wilderness - Chapter 438 (Patreon)

Jason’s backpack now sufficiently full of heavy feathers, they left the ostrich based monster nest. That meant he would now be able to focus all his attention on grinding out Lily’s stats. A task which would be much easier now that not only was she at a bottleneck because of Jason’s level, but an actual bottleneck so more can go towards stats.

Or at least that is something Jason assumes matters. Companions like Lily always did seem to have the oddest edge cases when it came to how the System handled them. Pets were easy, without sapience they could be twisted however the System wanted to and no one would know.

Well, no one would know and care. While not something that happens often, the System has been known to completely rewrite everything about an animal when it becomes a pet. Not to bring it up to some standard or lower it to be in line with other pets. The System instead is doing stuff like changing the creature’s brain and  memories so it follows the commands of the person who now owns it. This little quirk stirred a few activist groups into a tizzy, though the fact NeoRealm isn’t considered real kept things running smoothly.

Companions, on the other hand, don’t get modified at all. In fact, compared to even just the regular locals, companions are messed with the least. While difficult to pin down, the System does a lot of work to smooth over all the chaos the players cause. Not so much that players don’t suffer the consequences of their actions, but certainly enough that no place outlaws their presence.

Even the nasty places with more than their fair share of bigotry tend to let players wander around. Not that many players go to those places. Well, a certain kind of person does, but thankfully, with the introduction of players a few hundred years ago, all those places have started to lose ground. There are just way too many people wanting to relive their ancestors “glory” and fight against some evil empire or another.

Though the fact some of them still exist is also likely thanks to the System. After all, got to keep some toys around for the players to fidget with. A bit nasty when you realize this isn’t just some game, but Jason had seen worse so it wouldn’t be too surprising.

After a certain level of power, beings tend to get a little puppet mastery if they aren’t careful. Not even necessarily on purpose, they just can notice the small things and adjust the flow to get what they want. This can be devastating when applied to someone who can sense everything that is going on in a city and, without even thinking about, shift stuff within that area.

Now just look at the System. It probably never had to experience a time when it wasn’t all powerful within NeoRealm. On a whim, it can control every non-sapient in the world and likely has a decent idea what every sapient is thinking if it wants to. Though that last part is the important one.

Jason isn’t certain what form the System takes nowadays, but doing something like that would take a lot of power. So, while he isn’t certain how much the System is watching, it isn’t going to be some inescapable net. Sure, if you’re doing something interesting, the System will know, but what really counts as interesting in a world the size of NeoRealm.

While no one has gotten exact measurements, NeoRealm is an odd mashup of a science as we understand it and a fantasy world. In other words, on the outside, it appears that NeoRealm matches the real world in size. Except because there is magic and such going on, certain areas are larger than the space they take up.

This is especially true for “The Wilderness”. That loosely defined area Peter talked about exploring. Jason has no clue what is up with it, except that it might be a semi-separate realm over top of NeoRealm proper. The biggest problem, though, is the fact that you can “civilize” an area of The Wilderness.

While Jason isn’t 100% certain, likely the bamboo illusion kingdom was at one time a part of The Wilderness. It would explain how Peter was able to explore the place so often. Because sure, you can map it, but with how messed up the place can be on a spatial level, a small blank spot on the map might end up being a giant kingdom.

Of course, Peter hadn’t been this open about where he was exploring. Jason had just picked up on it from some of his stories while they were traveling together. Though he likely wouldn’t have if he hadn’t looked into this sort of thing as a kid.

The idea seemed so absurd to Jason at the time that he had to look into it more. A place that you can draw on a map yet isn’t there? Sure, he has experience with pocket dimensions where you can enter an entirely new area. Problem is, those places aren’t somewhere, instead they just have an anchor point through which you can enter.

The Wilderness almost seemed to have more in common with a fae realm, except once again, you can map it. Jason isn’t certain how the System managed to set it all up, especially since they all look up to the same sky. In fact, he could be on the outskirts of the place right now and not even know it.

While the danger there is certainly greater, you have to delve deeper to get to it. So for the moment, whether they are there or not, all Jason and Lily are fighting at the moment is large kangaroo mice.

They’re about the size of two fists and for some reason the end of their tail has a poof ball of fur that hides something akin to a scorpion sting. The mice aren’t that good at using those stings, though Jason can certainly see their main use being defensive. With how the things can jump around, a nip of their tail might be all most predators can grab, only to find the hidden surprise.