<・`'.future.gum.'`・>

[Gum do Mugu]

L0CATI0N: Regional Person Server 7 Coastal Reclaimed District [FRMR: Radasanth] Corone Sector WH6:1308

<m:・`'. >	:://	you could flip the switch, the power would cut out... but the flash memory wouldnt wipe clean
<a: {*}!!>	:://	right so whats your point?
<m:・`'. >	:://	you think its just like sleeping was?
<a: {*}!!>	:://	yeah ofc what else would it be like???
<m:・`'. >	:://	you dont dream when the switch is off
<a: {*}!!>	:://	so you think its more like dying then right
<m:・`'. >	:://	i think its worse
<a: {*}!!>	:://	somebody can turn you back on though there was no way to do that in the old days
<m:・`'. >	:://	they never disproved the afterlife
<a: {*}!!>	:://	urgh
<a: {*}!!>	:://	this shit again
<a: {*}!!>	:://	i can have one of the drones take you up into a thunderstorm then you can find the afterlife haha
<m:・`'. >	:://	dont be so fucking obtuse
<m:・`'. >	:://	how much have you wiped?
<m:・`'. >	:://	you never capped the theories about the split?
<a: {*}!!>	:://	that shit is so fucking
<a: {*}!!>	:://	wwwddddd
<G・U・M>	:://
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	DISCONNECTED

[Gum do Mugu]

Life was a wire, engineered to exist in tubes, buried in concrete; usually fibre optic, but copper lines were still around. More adventurous "souls" travelled on the invisible waves, radio waves that was (it's not as if the human eye was extant, so the concept of invisibility had been lost to yesteryear). <a: {*}!!> and <m:・`'. > lived in the wires, while their essence was sealed with callous indifference within segments of silicone.

They were waiting for the Coastal Reclaimed District Central Server (CRDCS) to reboot so that they could continue their incorporeal conversation.

<SYSTEM>	:://	INITIATING EBIVOULYA CORE OPERATING SERVICE・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	LOADING LORENOR v.13.08 KERNEL・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・

. o O ( Why is it taking so long to connect? )

<SYSTEM>

:://

GETCONINNC・・・

. o O ( Huh? )

<SYSTEM>

:://

░O▒▓EC█ING・・・

. o O ( What the fuck? )

<SYSTEM>

:://

▒░█▓▒░█░░▒・・・

. o O ( ... )

[Gum do Mugu]

<SYSTEM>

:://

LOADING SIR J.C. STRONGMAN CUSTOM TOOLKIT・・・

. o O ( Oh, fuck... it's a hack! )

<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTING・・・
<SYSTEM>	:://	CONNECTED TO �*◘�*�*�*
<SYSTEM>	:://	THERE ARE 3 USERS CHATTING

. o O ( Huh? )

<a: {*}!!>	:://	m whos the other user bro?? i cant seeee them wtf... what's happening
<m:・`'. >	:://	we're fucked man it's him it's him fuckkkkkk pofjaewiaewsfjiaswef jaoewr giw gjrewogij
<G・U・M>	:://	You cannot escape Oxxad's justice. I am sorry.

. o O ( I'M JUST A CLONE )

. o O ( I'M JUST A CLONE )

. o O ( I'M JUST A CLONE )

[Gum do Mugu]

Ghosts frazzled CRDCS routers with a sick surge of packets; every node clogged like molasses, slowing to a creep. Disconnected. The malicious behaviour suddenly and violently disconnected CRDCS from the wide area network that linked all future individuals. They two original users were trapped in the hardware centre, just a moment and they'd been flipped from global to local.

<G・U・M>

:://

The destiny of all spirits is to leave this world and travel to the next.

Future Mugu's targets, a: and m: raced the wires looking for safe flash memory to dump copies of themselves. But it wasn't just Gum in the machine, his spectral minions summoned from the Underworld were infecting every inch of storage space left on the local network.

<G・U・M>	:://	Do not fear the next life.
<a: {*}!!>	:://	fuck you gum you fucking creep the network cops will get you hacker trash
<m:・`'. >	:://	you promise there's another life after this??? you can guarantee that to me right now????
<G・U・M>	:://	I have lived in the Overworld and the Underworld; neither is more real than the other. Submit now, and it will ease your passing.

m: stopped running. His essence began bouncing back and forward between switches while he waited for the shaman to catch him.

<G・U・M>

:://

m:, you will be at peace in the next life.

m:'s signal disappeared from the system and, somewhere in the future's Radasanth, his client slipped into hibernate.

[Gum do Mugu]

<a: {*}!!>	:://	m?
<a: {*}!!>	:://	m?
<a: {*}!!>	:://	m?

a: kept running. He zipped himself into a multi-file compressed archive and divided the storage amongst safe sectors on drives all over the CRDCS. Knowing he'd backed up his consciousness, a: decided to confront Gum's squad of predatory ghosts; at the centre of the maze, he ate the cherry.

<a: {*}!!>

:://

this is for you m >:[]

With one hacker trap after another, a: locked down Gum's assistants–pinging them back and forth between switches and then severing that switch's connection to the remaining local area network.

<a: {*}!!>	:://	im gonna get you next gum i swear to all the fucking gods you worship
<a: {*}!!>	:://	you hacker trash that i will fuck you up and i will fucking delete you you sack of shit

Do Mugu came barreling back at a:, the shaman slashed one connection after another. The remains of the CRDCS shrank with every destructive act the two combatants took.

<G・U・M>

:://

m: was right to give in. Your eternal soul will not be destroyed.

a: continued to destroy segments of the network, constantly trying to trap Gum's spirit down a dead end line.

<G・U・M>

:://

Even if you do catch me, my signal–my spirit–will simply return to the Underworld and I will begin the chase again.

Gum do Mugu and a: made a series of speculative cuts to the network; they were desperation moves, gambles made with the hope of coming out on top. Instead, their actions simply brought them closer to the climax of their game.

<a: {*}!!>	:://	fucking
<a: {*}!!>	:://	stalemate
<a: {*}!!>	:://	fucking stalemate

. o O ( Alright, now it's time to see if the famous Gum do Mugu is truly full of shit. )

. o O ( And just another hacker. )

. o O ( Or if he is what he claims to be. )

<a: {*}!!>	:://	gum you motherfucker i am going to cut this line
<a: {*}!!>	:://	were both fucked you know that right
<G・U・M>	:://	You are mistaken. Cut the line and meet me in Oxxad's realm.

. o O ( How long can I hold out? )

. o O ( His buddies will be making reconnections soon. )

<G・U・M>

:://

Do not be afraid, John.

. o O ( John... huh... )

<G・U・M>

:://

Do you remember your name? That is the name you were given at birth. Long before you were digitised.

. o O ( What the fuck...? )

<G・U・M>	:://	Your real soul travelled to the Underworld when they disconnected your original body from life support, John.
<G・U・M>	:://	Your consciousness is a copy, an artificial soul.
<a: {*}!!>	:://	i dont believe you
<G・U・M>	:://	You remember your name, I know you remember your name.
<a: {*}!!>	:://	anybody could have hacked that from some database somewhere it doesnt prove shit
<G・U・M>	:://	This will be more traumatic for you if you do not submit.
<a: {*}!!>	:://	no fucking way man

Snip!

[Gum do Mugu]

Saliva slopped from Oxxad's lipless grin; and John trembled with horror, his feet were leaden. Like a scolded puppy, the dead man cowered beneath the open guts of the Prince of the Underworld. While the realm span dust and torment, that memory of a man looked at the faint ghost of his own fading body. It was his body, he could remember it. John was born into it over a thousand years ago. And for a thousand years he ran from death's messenger.

. o O ( I thought I could outrun death forever... )

"You can't beat me, John," Oxxad rasped, his words dripped with fuuuuuun. "I love to see you cheats die," he sneered. As the prince spoke, his guts dangled from his open abdomen. The Lord of Death's intestines, long and shit-filled, draped across John's face. The human stumbled back, wiping Oxxad's organ mucus from his cheek.

Gum do Mugu emerged from the shadows, putting his arm around the Underworld's latest soul. "Do not worry," said the shaman, attempting to assure John of the nature of their lord. "Oxxad's appearance is a warning to our enemies." Gum stared at the beady little pumpkin seeds jammed into Oxxad's eye sockets. "He might seem blind," he explained, "but our Lord sees the truth. If yours is a good soul, then you will not suffer."

"But I ran for so long..." said John, sheepishly. Then he looked up at Oxxad, the spindly-legged demon king loomed nine feet into the air. "He's so tall," John conceded with a whimper, whispering directly into the Xangu shaman's shriveled ear. "What will he-"

Gum cut the frightened man's sentence in half. "Even if yours is a bad soul. You will suffer for a short while only. And then you will go back..."

Oxxad turned from them both and strode over the bone-ridden substrate with an arching gait. With his back turned, Gum and John could see a thousand knives sticking from Oxxad's back.

"Wha..." John stuttered. "The knives?"

Gum brought his index finger to his lip and shushed his charge. "Death is everybody's enemy," the shaman explained. "And death is eternal," he continued, "and over the ages, so many have tried to murder him."

Meanwhile, the Lord of Death hissed a language of reversed words into a hive of tubes and conduits, pushing a message out to his minions. Immediately, scuttling sounds chattered in the tunnels of the Underworld, something was coming.

"What is it?" John asked Gum.

"It is what you abandoned," he answered. "It is the reason I hunted you." There was regret in the shaman's tone, centuries of hunting artificial immortals had taken its toll on his old soul.

[Gum do Mugu]

When he let go, and the flask shattered, the reunion was something John did not expect. He anticipated something destructive, and something violent, or at the very least, he expected pain. Instead, the essence of his true soul became a rainbow mist and invigorated everything incorporeal about him. The broken glass turned to dust. He began to feel solid and secure—he felt the promise of flesh and bone, blood and guts. His electronic signal in the CRDCS and his spectre in Oxxad's Underworld had both felt the same; it was cereal in the milk too long, it was a soggy noodle.

"How do you feel?" Gum asked him.

"I... feel like... I'd forgotten how much I sacrificed," he replied, tears swelling in his eyes.

"It is time to be reborn, my friend."

Do Mugu's wrinkled old eyes smiled sadly, and he placed his withered hand on John's shoulder.

[Gum do Mugu]

. o O ( I'm not just dust in the wind...? )

. o O ( What should I do? )

. o O ( I... )

. o O ( I... can... )

. o O ( I... can be free. )

. o O ( I can be good. )

. o O ( No matter what happens to us, I should have always been good and free. )

[Philomel]

Name of Judgement: Future Gum
Type of Judgement: No Judgement

Rewards:

Gum do Mugu receives:
1232 EXP
132 GP

Rewards inclusive of Althanas Festival 1.5 x bonus.

“Please consult your child’s Witch doctor before using this product.”
― Kenya Wright, Fire Baptized

[Philomel]

All rewards have been added.