The old man continued to share information on the way to the shelter, including the fact that he wasn’t really an old man, but an AI. His current form was simply a projection suited to training. If this took Barry by surprise, he didn’t show it. The only sounds coming from Barry were heavy panting with occasional grunts of pain. He kept getting regular flares of agony from his dislocated shoulder, but unwilling to ask Pokka to stop so he could try to take care of it, he stubbornly pushed through.
Not showing any awareness of Barry’s ongoing suffering, Pokka had gone on to explain more about the workings of the new system, which he described as a ‘meritocracy’. People are given points for their achievements, called ‘Value’, and that Value can be traded for various things. It could be spent on improving your physical body in some form, which was referred to as physical empowerment. Another way to spend Value was to unlock abilities. This apparently involved active use of the PE Node, which he described as challenging and potentially dangerous.
“The use of Abilities is steered by a miniscule Potential Energy controller, otherwise called a ‘PE Node’, embedded near the brain stem to have a two-way connection with your central nervous system. Once activated, people can use the stored Potential Energy in various ways. With some training, you will be able to weaponize it. You will also be able to strengthen yourself, growing faster, stronger, smarter, or more durable. In fact, I recommend you start doing that shortly.”
Barry, pausing to catch his breath, had then broken his silence to confirm he’d been given some Value for surviving that monster. Pokka had turned around to show him a wicked grin.
“Oh you’ve been given more than just some Value. A lot more. There are no penalties for indirect kills through traps, so you received full rewards for killing a creature from a dark orange zone, with a yet inactive PE node.” The old man’s grin had kept growing as he spoke, but then he paused, studying Barry, who was wearing a deep frown on his face.
“Is it not common for humans to celebrate when they receive rewards?”
Barry sighed, shaking his head.
“Running into that monster was a horrible experience for me. I don’t want to repeat that. You’re trying to turn me into some kind of monster hunter, or soldier, or I don’t know what exactly. But it would clearly involve me risking my life and killing things. I want to avoid that.”
The old man, still floating at eye level, was looking at Barry with clear disappointment, when suddenly an earth-shaking roar blasted out of the ravine. Barry flinched back, pressing his left hand to his ear, barely managing to regain his balance. Pokka showed no reaction.
“Red zone down there. No need to wet your pants, it won’t come up,” he clarified, then started moving again.
Barry followed in silence, moving a bit faster than before, a haunted look on his face. They continued like that for a while, until Pokka stopped abruptly, turning towards Barry. He stretched his arms forward, palms facing upward.
“There are many paths to take with the tools that have been given to you, also beyond fighting. Let me show you.” Images appeared above his hands as soon as he finished speaking.
First, the images showed people fighting, clearly making use of special abilities. A fierce looking red-haired woman, seeming to call down lightning on a bulging mass of tentacles with a wave of her hand. A brown-skinned man placing his palm on the back of a massive gorilla, after which black smoke blasted out of its mouth, its eyes exploding like overcooked grapes at the same time. Then, someone moving too fast to be seen, seemingly teleporting across a forest, thick black trees being cut through with every flash of movement.
Another man, hands folded behind his back, seemed to summon a laser from in front of his face, cutting through thick steel plating like butter.
Barry looked on with interest, as the projection started to show more peaceful scenarios. People bent over what could only be machines, working on inscribing pieces of leather and metal armor. Laborers digging up massive rocks and building houses with their bare hands at an inhuman speed. A stern looking woman in uniform, quickly swiping her hands through interactive maps as she addressed other people in the room.
“Many things that were impossible in your old world, will become real in this new one. Provided of course, that one learns to properly make use of the PE Node. Think of your goals. Think of the people you want to protect. Without training, you’ll just die a swift and meaningless death.”
The young man didn’t respond to that, just frowning as he slowly started shuffling along the ridge again. He couldn’t help but feel resistance to the idea, alarm bells going off as if he were being scammed. This group of alien nations could have all kinds of motives that he didn’t understand. There was nothing for it but to gather more information first, before making any irreversible decisions.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
After another short walk with the two ignoring each other, Pokka finally declared that they had arrived. Barry looked around, seeing no change in the scenery, then at Pokka.
“Well? Where’s the shelter?”
“Oh it’s just down here,” Pokka noted calmly, waving his hand over the ledge, “About 40 feet down, you’ll find a cave. This is the best option for safe shelter that was still within a manageable distance. I assure you this will maximize survivability.”
Barry closed his eyes, bringing his hand up to squeeze the bridge of his nose as he let out a long sigh. His other hand was still hanging uselessly by his side. “Just one thing after another,” he mumbled.
“Is there a problem? My records indicate that the average youth is capable of climbing 40 feet. Is your level of frailty above average?” Pokka asked sincerely.
“My shoulder is dislocated. But even if it wasn’t, I don’t have the skill needed to climb barehanded down a rough wall of rock like that.” There was heat in his words as he gestured to his right arm.
“Use the empowerment system to increase your Stats. Where else did you imagine we might find shelter in a flat desert landscape? Are you capable of crawling under a rock like a filthy little insect? From your cowardly behavior, I might think that you are.”
“So now you push me into a corner and force me to embrace your damned system? I wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t gone and ruined our entire planet”
“You would stand no chance against the Ulm without this empowerment.”
“And what is now left to defend, you stupid fucking robot? An endless wilderness, filled with alien monsters?” Spittle flew as Barry shouted with rage, then wincing and clutching at his chest.
“Most of humanity is currently still alive. The Ulm would eradicate you completely.”
Barry grimaced, his rage dimming at Pokka’s calm and clear reasoning. His anger was justified, but he’d spoken too quickly. What was there left to defend? His family, of course. And how was he going to defend them, how would he even reach them, in this sorry state? Taking the moral high ground might feel right, but it would not bring him one step closer to his goals.
“If I were to, say, put a point into Durability, what exactly would happen then?”
“Your entire body would be strengthened.”
“I need you to be more precise than that.”
“Your skin and bones would be slightly adjusted on a molecular level, to become tougher. With more points come more changes and therefore higher toughness. The material will change over time, while still keeping all necessary physiological and biochemical properties.”
He had to push down on all the questions and objections that came to his lips, reminding himself that beggars can’t be choosers.
“It will not heal me in any way?”
“It will not. There are devices you may purchase that will assist with healing, but that must wait until you reach shelter. It is not safe here.”
Barry looked around, a trickle of fear welling up at the thought of more Roid-Bulls or other creatures finding him out here.
Pokka answered more questions, revealing that the physical empowerment system could be applied with different levels of detail. As an example, you could invest points into Strength, which would simply increase your overall strength, or you could choose to focus on specific sections like upper body or core, or even on specific muscles. The same principle applied to other categories like Senses or Durability, but there were also exceptions, like Intelligence or Speed. The old man had explained that functionally improving Speed required a complex series of changes across the entire body, including the nervous system. Speeding up only part of yourself was simply not possible.
At some point, he noted that question time was over, and simply disappeared into thin air. Barry stood there, flabbergasted. After a short pause, he shuffled to the edge and looked down. The sheer scale of the canyon was daunting, cracked sheets of sharp brown rock stretching miles down into a dark abyss. The other side of it was so far off it was hard to spot any detail, but it looked much the same. Looking closer, Barry thought he could see a slight protrusion in the rock, about where Pokka said the cave entrance would be. Despite the cracks and layers, the sheer rock wall looked impossible to climb. He had a deep frown as he stared down, occasionally whispering angry curses.
“I guess I’d better have a look,” Barry sighed as he turned around and followed Pokka’s instructions for activating the system interface, pressing his eyes closed while holding the back of his neck with his left hand. After 3 seconds, he opened his eyes to a jarring overlay of text and numbers.
Strangely, he was able to browse through the information very quickly. The interface felt so intuitive, he didn’t even have to read through everything, the information seeming to flow directly into his mind. He quickly found his Stat overview and how to increase them.
Again, he gritted his teeth not only at the fact that he was forced to do this, but that they were asking for consent, that he had to be the one to give the instructions, like signing his name under a contract. After wiping away human civilization without a word of warning, they still wanted to keep up appearances, to pretend to be the friendly neighborhood aliens, just here to help.
Barry closed his eyes again, taking a slow breath. Set your own rhythm, or you’ll simply be dancing to someone else’s tune. If he wanted to make a difference, if he wanted to help anyone at all, he would first have to survive.
That didn’t mean he would just rush into this and go along with all of Pokka’s suggestions. He resolved to approach this carefully. First, he would thoroughly review all the options, then invest a single point in a single stat. Then he would experiment, review the results, and decide how to proceed further. Step by step. He let out a long breath, feeling resolved and somewhat relieved.
The question was which stat to review first. If he prioritized ease of measurement, Speed would probably be top of the list. He could mark out a distance in the sand, then track how quickly he could cross it. Going to his status screen, he saw that the stat was sitting at 8 points now, so there should be a measurable change from that relatively large increase. He’d first have to mark the distance and sprint across, timing his sprint, before adding the point and trying it again.
Unallocated Value: 8760
Stats
Strength: 6
Durability: 7
Speed: 8
Senses: 7
Intelligence: 8
PE Capacity: 100KJ
Abilities
No abilities unlocked
He spotted a few loose rocks and set out to mark a start and finish area, but a stab of pain from his shoulder brought him back to reality. Could he even move at a decent speed now? His right shoulder was clearly dislocated. He had some idea on how to get it back in its socket, having seen it done before, but he’d been putting it off. With a sigh, he resolved to get the least pleasant task done first.
But as soon as he closed the window, his stomach dropped. In the distance, he could clearly make out a familiar, rapidly growing cloud of dust. It looked like there would be no time for careful testing.