As John fell faster and faster through Gani’s atmosphere, flames burned what hair remained on his head and face. Faster and faster, he descended, his whole body burning. Instead of feeling the anguish of burning in such flames, he only felt a terrible itching.
Then John’s bones began to hurt. Every part of him began to throb in strange agony, including his eyes and teeth, but his many injuries began to heal, and his core was inexplicably full of essence.
John was in such strange agony that he stopped remembering he was barreling towards the surface of Gani at tremendous speeds. He just scrunched his eyes shut tight, gritted his teeth, and tried to tolerate the pain. Even with his eyes shut, words showed unbidden in them.
Surprise! Get in here, silly boy.
Is Avatar returned? Is my friend truly back, excitedly wondered John. He entered his Mind’s Eye expecting to see his dear friend, but a young and beautiful human woman stood in the old spot Avatar had always preferred instead. She was dressed similarly as the women he had seen at the nightclub he once attended back on Earth.
John’s heart sank. It wasn’t his friend. But the giant smile and excitement radiating from the perfectly shaped and formed girl made him curious. He could even smell her and hear her heart beating.
“What do you think of my new look,” asked the girl. “Pretty fantastic, right?”
“Avatar?”
“Yup. But I think I’m gonna change my name. Guess what? I’m real! Like, really real. I’m not a program formed of nanites, and I’m not controlled or constrained by the NCS at all! I have a real mind! I can be and act however I want!”
John wondered what was wrong with him as he began crying again. I am becoming more and more unmanned, he worriedly thought. He had to gain control of his emotions back and be a man again. But not right that second. His dear friend was alive and back with him, and he couldn’t help it.
Smiling widely, the new Avatar said, “Well, say something. Wait, are you crying?”
“No! I just…I wish you hadn’t done that. Sacrificed yourself. Let me pay the consequences of my own actions. I don’t have enough friends to lose any. And never those I love.”
With a bashful look, Avatar asked, “You mean love as in friend, right? Not like with Amber?”
“Yes, of course. You’re my dear and good friend.”
“Oh. Okay. I just got emotions like five seconds ago, so I’d appreciate it if you’d stop toying with them. And, yeah, your track record with friends really sucks. There’s me, Amber, I guess kinda her Meleua now, but other than a few acquaintances like Tiny-face, that’s it.”
“Not quite,” replied John. “Hux, Marbrouk, Abe, Naoki, Gabin. I have many. And Stretch. Unless he was killed too.”
“The world seed was still alive and kicking last I knew of. Speaking of being killed, looks like I’m not long for life either.”
“What do you mean,” asked John.
“You’re probably going to die, so I am too. You never agreed, though. I look fantastic, right? Like, I’m the most ideal girl ever, right?”
John wished Avatar wasn’t correct, but she was. If she died when he did, she didn’t have much longer to live. He wished he could save her. And himself. There was just no way. He looked her up and down. “You’re very beautiful now. A little too much. You look too perfect to be real. Does that make sense?”
“Not even a little. Nothing can look too perfect. The perfecter the better, I say. How do I compare to Amber?”
“You don’t. She’s my wife. No matter how she looked, she’d stand above everyone else. You know my beliefs on this.”
Avatar scoffed. Then she smiled. “That means I’m hotter! Thanks!”
John let that comment go and said, “I’ll fight as hard as I can. Maybe we’ll live through this. One thing I can promise you is that I won’t go down easily.”
Avatar looked sad and worried. She tried to smile but couldn’t. “I’m still integrating. It’ll be some time before everything’s set up and working right. But good news, no rules! I can tell you anything I remember. Wish I remembered more useful stuff. I think God messed with my memory. Or maybe I just remember stuff that’s important to me. But I’m still a living, thinking, feeling, super-hot NCS type of thing! Pretty cool, huh?”
John laughed and said, “Yes, it’s very cool.”
“You sound so weird when you say cool. I’m not fully in control, or fully up and running, but I have different access to you, your body, and what makes it up. For the other NCS functions, I have to rebuild them. On my own with repurposed nanites and it ain’t easy, pal. My priority is getting your NCUs up and running. This is all still pretty cool, considering. Don’t say it back to me, please.”
“Okay, I won’t. Can I say awesome instead of cool?”
“Maybe if we were on Earth and it was 1985. Just…try not to say anything. Especially ‘touché’ or ‘I’ll play it by ear.’ I’ll stab you if you say either of those. Listen, a buncha things changed along with your [Class]. Oh, your class is now [Angelic Order].
“First, [Touch of the Ancients Domain] changed to [Triad – Low/Choir – First]. It confers the same main benefit along with some other stuff I can’t figure out yet. One huge difference is that it can be improved by increasing Choir and Triad and…stuff. It still grows more powerful as you rank up and ascend too. Right now, it’s increasing each [Stat] by 23, the same as your level, as well as giving a 5% increased efficiency to all [Stats], the same as your tier, just like [Touch of the Ancients Domain] did.
“Whatever obscured ability your last [Class] gave you changed to [Smite]. Looks like it attacks souls without damaging them. And in a non-blasphemous way. Or I assume so considering the name of your [Class] and all. I bet it does something cool. Still don’t say it.”
Avatar stopped, made a weird face, put her hand on her hip and said, “What do you think about…no, that’s a dumb name. What about Velvet? No. Honey? Honey’s a good name, right?”
“I like it,” replied John.
“Ha! That was a test,” exclaimed Avatar smarmily. “Honey’s a stripper name! You failed the test. Badly. I was hoping you had more respect for me. I’m more than a pretty face, you know? I need more time to think about my name. I’m leaning towards…actually, I’ll keep it a secret. If you wanna know my new name, you gotta survive and get us outta this mess.”
John grunted. “You know I’ll try to win. I always do. I love winning. It’s my favorite.”
Avatar sighed. “But you won’t try to escape though, right?”
“To where? I’m on my enemy’s world. Palm? And get innocents caught up in my battle? No. I’ll face my enemies as a man does.”
“Then it doesn’t matter one bit how hard you try,” Avatar sadly replied. “Let’s just get on with it. There’s a new [Perk] I can’t make out quite yet. Some other changes you won’t care about. And that brings us to something you should care about. It’s huge. A real whopper. Looks like those in the Angelic Order aren’t lowly beta-types.
“Your race is upgrading by a whole full type. You’re now a D-grade alpha-type! Know what that means? Never mind, I’ll just tell you since you’ll say some silly-boy nonsense. A full 100% was added to your Minimum Energy Unit efficiencies. The effectiveness of all your [Stats] basically just doubled. That’s huge. Huge! Come on, be excited!”
John was excited. That sounded great. But he thought the new Avatar was kind of strange and annoying.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Hey! You’re easy to read so I can tell what you’re thinking! Not cool, John. But understandable. Keep in mind I just became real, so let me have a couple minutes adjusting to emotions and stuff before all this judgment. Anyways, the race-type increase is probably why you’re feeling so weird out there. Your body just got hit with a huge upgrade.
“Oh, and you got the [Alpha] [Perk] too. And just so you don’t start walking around thinking you’re all cool and in command, alpha-type has nothing to do with personality, just how species are graded. Hey, good news! Soft caps should be a thing of the past! I’d like to see you reach the D-grade alpha-type soft caps. Fat chance, pal. Am I being annoying again?”
“Sorry, a little,” replied John.
“Being real is hard! Who woulda knew? Anyways, let me keep working on getting things set up. Since I’m barely up and running, dilation isn’t what it should be. I’m throwing a status together. I’m changing some things. Oh, I was provided with most of the information I have now. What I know is reflected, but I don’t know all that I should yet. Like, I have no idea what your [Skills] are. I can kind of feel them all but…”
Avatar blew a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. “I’m not an NCS. I’m real. I operate as kinda a buffer or conduit between you and the NCS nanites. I can learn some stuff from them, but I don’t have nearly the same access as I used to. I do have a certain amount of control over them though. And they only know the info I give them. And I can block them from transmitting in a huge area. They have no idea you’re an alpha-type now. And…stuff.”
John took the pause as an opportunity to ask, “What Tech Level are you considered? Still Tech 4?”
“I consider myself Tech Level Unadulterated Awesome. Honestly, I’m not sure. Once everything’s up and running, we can test some stuff out and see where we fall. I know that I can’t get any information on others anymore. I used to know everything. As much as I needed as far away as I needed. Your info function is gone. I know that. I have no idea what’s going on with [Skills] or why I can’t sense them like before.”
“Understood,” replied John.
Avatar began crying. She plopped down on the ground and hugged her knees.
John went over to her, knelt, and put his arm around her. He was surprised that he could actually physically interact with her. She felt real. Her skin was warm and everything. “What’s wrong,” he asked. “Are you okay?”
“No! I don’t wanna die, John! I just…I’m not even used to being real. Or having emotions. I don’t wanna die. I’m so scared!”
Avatar put her arms around John. He hugged her and rubbed her back as she sobbed, her face buried in his chest.
John didn’t want to run from this fight, but since it wasn’t just his life on the line, he felt he owed his friend a greater attempt at escaping. It took a long while for Avatar to finally stop sobbing. When she was only lightly crying, he said to her, “I just thought of a way for us to escape. How many rune points do I have?”
Avatar wiped her leaking nose on John’s chest, looked up at his face, and said, “You have 561 now. I told you I’m still getting things up and running. That function won’t be available for…a long time. Everything will eventually function the same, including energy reduction and trading in your achievement points for rewards. Just not right this second. Do I look like a miracle worker?”
John smiled and said, “Possibly. I’ve never seen one. How long will it take until I can spend rune points?”
More tears fell from Avatar’s eyes. She buried her face back in John’s chest and garbled out, “We’ll be dead long before then! It’ll take at least a day of real-time until I have that function online, even if I focused just on that.”
Once Avatar had control of herself again, John told her, “I’m sorry. I can’t think of a way out of this. We’re on their world. If I think of a way to save us, I’ll do so.”
“Thank you. Please try.”
“I will. And who knows? I could win this fight. I’m a lot more powerful now. All my [Stats] just doubled, remember?”
Avatar began crying again. Some minutes later, she said, “Thank you for comforting me. How do you guys get anything done with these emotions making everything…so impossible? They’re so strong!”
John almost told Avatar that she’d eventually get used to it, but she didn’t have much time left alive to get used to anything. His two options were run and die or fight and die, and only one of those was an acceptable end. He hoped he’d somehow be able to come up with a way out. He wanted to live. He wanted to be with his wife and see his kids born and watch them grow. He wanted Avatar to live.
Avatar wiped her face on John’s chest again. She put on a smile and said, “This won’t be a full status. Just what I have now. Don’t spend too long looking at it or you’ll smack off the ground and this talk would all be for nothing. Just in case, goodbye, my silly boy.”
“Goodbye, my dear friend,” replied John. After a slight pause, he added, “And I’m sorry.”
Name My Silly Boy, the Angelic Vampire Tier/Level/Race/Type 5 (Mortal) (Gold), 23 (Mid-High), Terran Alpha-D Active Title Blessed by Magnus Gar’tar Aspects/Affinities Vampirism (99.999%) (Major), Change (98%) (Major), Protection (96%) (Major), Battle* (97%) (Average), Shadow (98%) (Average) NCU Energy Cost 133% (-87.5% MAX) Active NCU Upgrades Nano Assistance, Emergency Heal, Theta Waves, Heal Delta A, Heal Delta B, Inexorable, Refractory, Nano Support C, Nano Support D, Lock and Key, Scuta Mater, Encase, Mata Support A, Reactive, Swift, Cooldown Reduction, Record 1 NCU Expansion Upgrades 8 of ? slots opened, 1 slot empty. Probably 1) Theta Enhancement – T1C 2) Auto-Reflect – T1C+ 3) Swiftness Efficiency – T1C 4) Auto-Shield – T1C 5) Emergency Heal, Prefill – T1C 6) Reactive – T1C 7) NCU Cooldown Reduction – T1C STATS [Effective] Current (Increase) Strength [1.40%, 857.13] 357.14 (121.24) Swiftness [1.4704%, 881.92] 357.00 (121.24) Conditioning [1.49%, 879.86] 353.36 (121.24) Min. Power [1.27%, 715.61] 315.25 (121.24) Capacity [1.28%, 696.80] 305.62 (121.24) Runes [1.25%, 849.16] 377.41 (82.48) Physical Fortification [1.47%, 909.00] 368.02 (121.24) Elemental Fortification [1.42%, 891.08] 368.22 (121.24) Mental Fortification [1.25%, 779.12] 346.28 (121.24) Highest Skills ? ? ? ? Synergic Ability Smite Class Angelic Order Perks Orb of the Crimson Palace, Dynamic, Physical, Potent, Protected, Strong, Fast, Healthy, Quick Thinking*, Resilient, Powerful, Expansive, Harden, Resistant, Soulful, Good Genes*, Leech Body of the Morning's Glory, Regeneration, Bronze, Fibrilized*, Lightweight, Cloak Essence, Stalwart Vessel, Silver, Picture of Health*, Slowing Aura, Gold, Inner and Outer, Mutation – Energy Leech, Alpha, Unknown* Domain Triad – Low/Choir – First Achievement Points 336 Highest Achievement In my opinion, having me replace your NCS Titles Blessed by Magnus Gar’tar, Blessed by Unnamed Exalted, Blessed by Unnamed Exalted 2, Blessed by Exalted Manitabasso, Ptagmog, Multi-Record Holder (System), Multi-Trailblazer (System)
Seeing his effective [Stats] made a lot more of an impact on John than just hearing Avatar tell him he had 100% added to his Minimum Energy Unit efficiencies. No wonder my body hurts so much, he thought.
For rank 2 of Gold, John received about 36.45 to every [Stat]. For rank 3, he received 24.786 to each. Only [Runes] had taken a DR hit, and it wasn’t too bad of one. He also received about 37 to each [Stat] from strengthening himself off the statues of Kazthun and 23 to each from his new [Domain].
Here we go ;)
SKILLS
I can’t detect your skills, remember? I sure hope I live long enough to figure out what’s going on with this.
PERKS
For new ones, you got one unrated named Alpha. There’s the one I can’t detect yet too. For recent ones, you also got the SupraType, ‘Inner and Outer’, and ‘Mutation – Energy Leech.’ Those are both unrated.
ACHIEVEMENTS
I should show you all the common achievements you hate seeing since you’re getting me killed so soon after I was born and all, but since I’m so fantastic I won’t. You got some really stupid ones. They netted you 5 achievement points. Not too shabby. You already had 4, so start with 9 from here.
Here comes the good ones. I’m not putting them in record order. And I’m not explaining things you should know. Sue me.
All the stat ones – you got a ton of these. For instance, ‘Gorilla’ 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. ‘Armadillo’ 4 through 9. ‘Camel’ 3 through 6. Etc. Points for each equal the rating which equals the title number. All totaled, this netted you a whopping 248 points. Too bad you’ll never get the chance to spend them. Just FYI, I’m starting to cry. When you read this part, you can match up when I started crying to when I made this part of the summary. I don’t want to die, John.
And you’re comforting me now. I’ve never been comforted before. It’s nice. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of emotions so far. They really suck. They just won’t stop.
‘World Domination, Tech 0.’ S-rated. 7 points. If you can’t figure out what this is for, you’re an idiot.
‘G’athu Thwarter.’ SSU-Rated. 9 points. This is for stopping Kazthun’s nearly complete domination of Isb. I’m sure you would’ve received a couple ‘Favored Few’ if Tech 0 yokel cultists thinking Kazthun is a demon counted. FYI, they don’t.
‘Crashlander.’ F-rated. 1 point. I’ll give you three guesses. I should add that this is only granted when the ‘Non-Interference, Hide Protocols’ are needed.
Your Domain was SSUR-rated. 10 Points. I’m not putting text in the easy ones anymore.
‘Racial increase.’ C through SSUR. 49 Points.
‘Racial increase, Alpha.’ F and E. 3 Points.
‘Alpha.’ Unrated. No points.
‘A Million Love Points.’ SSSSSSSSSSUR-rated. You haven’t got this one yet. If you manage to get us out of this mess, I’ll give you a million love points. What do love points do? Like my new name, you’ll have to live to find out. I don’t want to die, John!
Here we end :(