"G. Zero… It's the name picked for Earth spot… Does G represent Ground? Like in military arrangement, ground zero is the main base and headquarter? Or home?"
John felt like he didn't get answers but more questions and puzzles to solve. Aside from this, anything else was totally different and alien to what he knew about Earth.
There were no countries, no empires, no kingdoms. There was a central and unified regime that ruled Athanasia for many millennia! As for the history of the world, John felt it was omitted, as there was no mention of anything before that central regime, as if the world started with it, and there was nothing before!
"Despite being under one gigantic regime, the eight sectors fight among each other for supremacy… Interesting!"
As John kept reaching, it seemed the world wasn't in peace as he thought. The different sectors fought among each other over dominance, as the world's ruler would be decided from the most supreme sector.
"It's peaceful on the surface, yet the world is under massive waves of internal conflicts…" John didn't like this fake appearance of peace while the world suffered from internal wars. In his opinion, if the world was ruled by one regime, then it should force peace and not encourage wars.
"Anyway, that puts me in the limelight of all this… Here is the map of sector Eight, Neptune, and I'm situated here…"
John had a big map of sector eight, with a spot marked as his current position, "I thought I was in a training military facility, something like training future soldiers or something… It never occurred to me that I'm actually on the frontlines…"
The spot marked was on the separating line between sector Eight and sector Seven. John could tell from the history he read that such separating lines would always change. And that meant he would be under danger at any given moment!
"Luckily we aren't the only ones defending this place…" John zoomed in and saw a detailed map of this part of the world. There were few blue dots, which represented allied forces, while at a distance there were an equal number of red dots, representing the enemy bases.
"Not to mention no big fights erupted in the past decade here," ED interrupted John's line of thoughts, "we have a temporary peace treaty with sector Seven for ten years…"
"I read that," John tapped on the table with his fingers, "yet I also read once that treaties are made to be breached…"
"Who said that?!" ED's tone was filled with surprise, "I never read such a thing in my information bank!"
"A wise man of Earth once said it!" John muttered without care, while his mind was focused on absorbing the data he knew about this world and his current situation in it.
"What's this Earth? You keep mentioning it from time to time, is it a myth?"
ED said these words, making John pause entirely in his thoughts. "That's what I wanted to know exactly!" John turned his full attention to ED, "can you do a search for me? Look into anything mentioning this name."
"Sure, give me a few minutes…" ED didn't object as John expected, in fact ED looked quite eager and excited about doing this.
"I thought the two worlds aren't connected, I thought I came into a totally new and different world… However…" John muttered in a muffled tone, while his thoughts were racing, connecting the dots.
The presence of solar system big celestial bodies in this world was a big question mark to John. If the two worlds weren't connected, then how come such similarity existed? John didn't dig too much about the world, but he felt if he did, he'd find more clues linking the two worlds together.
"That's… Weird…" Yet he was destined to get disappointed! The moment ED showed him the result of his search, John couldn't help but inwardly sigh, "zero results? That would have been a logical answer if not for that clue…"
John felt like a frog in the bottom of the well. He could tell there was lots of stuff that was hidden from him, and he hated the feeling, "ED, can you bring me a keyboard and show me your code?"
"What are you talking about?!" ED looked surprised, and confused, "I get what keyboard is, but what do you mean by my code?"
"The code… The long lines of letters and numbers, the one which defines who you are…" John was speechless for a moment. He never thought he had to explain a code for an AI!
"Ah, you want to see through me? That's easy!" ED sounded like he got what John meant, and yet what happened next was way beyond what John expected!
"This… It's amazing!" ED suddenly changed its appearance, instead of a humanoid being made of metal, it changed into a being made of black ink. There were tons of tiny symbols and writings, letters aligned into small lines, interlinking and interacting together as if they were living organisms!
John was surprised at first, then he started to get absorbed into this new world. "Fascinating! Every group of codes are aligned together to form a single entity, and all these entities connect and interact between each other to form…"
"Me," ED returned to his usual metallic physical body, "that's me, ED. Did you see through me?"
"Well…" John turned his attention towards the white keyboard that appeared, "I just took a glance. I need to take my time and study these codes properly… Do you know what language is used in writing to you?"
"Ah I can easily answer that," ED paused while John was on the edge out of his excitement and anticipation, "it's English of course! See, that was easy to answer."
"..." John stood in his place motionless, feeling speechless from what John said. He couldn't tell if ED was joking with him or it really didn't get what he meant by his question, "you know what? Just forget it," John pointed at the screen, "now can you show me the codes lined up in groups?"