Our story is set in a post-apocalyptic world after the so-called Singularity Wars, where nanotechnology runs rampant through the environment. Humans have hung on through the shattering of their civilization and the loss of much knowledge. Enhanced beasts and terrible storms threaten human society still, but humans have found an unlikely ally in the Daemons: a faction of human-neutral artificial intelligences. Humans and Daemons have many synergistic facets to their relationship, but the best exemplification of this synergy are the Users: a human-Daemon pair that work together as a team to be the newly risen society’s main line of defense.
Our story begins as we join Valriya “Val” Peakcour (our MC) and her childhood friend Fynn as they are both selected to become Users in Peakpoint. Unfortunately, the Daemon pairing process does not proceed smoothly for Val. She shows incredible aptitude for synchronization with Daemons, but her nanosystem couldn’t handle the increased power demands and her core — the reservoir of nano in her body, akin to the heart of a nano circulatory system — cracked. Val is given a choice: give up on becoming a User, or take on a dangerous Daemon partner and join a small faction of the Users officially known as the Irregulars, but more commonly derogatorially known as the Defects.
Undeterred, Val proceeds and becomes partnered with Noir, a Daemon specializing in core manipulation. While the hope is that Noir’s skills can help compensate for Val’s broken core, Val has to come to terms with the unfortunate reality that Noir’s skills also make them especially well-suited for killing other Users, and that the Peakpoint Council may call on her in the future to eliminate rogue Users.
Still reeling from the rapid changes in her life, Val meets the Defects: Zavis, the armored commander; Cambrisa “Bri”, the bubbly but brutal melee fighter; Kaya, the quiet sniper; and Wallon, the explosion expert (or at least enthusiast). She barely has time to introduce herself before they get a series of missions. Val tags along for the first and gets her first taste of User combat against some wolves, but the second mission is out of her league. She is reassigned to tag along with a squad of Guardians for a routine patrol that goes extremely wrong as Val finds herself sacrificed by the Guardian squad leader and abducted by a dire wolf that seemed to have watched her earlier mission.
Val awakes in a cell where it quickly becomes clear that she is being held by two members, codenamed Brain and Brawn, of a dangerous group called the Unshackled as it seems that the identity of Noir’s User has already been leaked. Val escapes her confinement as she leverages her high sync and Noir’s anti-User capabilities for the first time. On the run, Noir leads Val to a secret hideout that one of their previous Users had set up - what self-respecting assassin AI doesn’t have a hideaway, after all?
Safe for the moment, Val rests and reequips herself with old but servicable gear. Undertaking the journey back to Peakpoint on foot gives Val a chance to learn Noir’s previous User’s style of combat: a pair of needles to penetrate into the opponent’s core and then nano injection and disruption techniques to strip them of their defenses or interrupt attacks. The precision and control aspects mesh well with Val’s combat style and together they tear through the forest back towards Peakpoint.
As Peakpoint comes into sight, Val’s connection to Noir is overridden by Gaia, the Daemon’s oft-mentioned but rarely seen leader, for a quick chat. Shaken by the reminder of Gaia’s power, Val returns to Peakpoint only to be intercepted by a Guardian. Struggling to get past him, Val is saved by the intervention of her estranged aunt Zyra, the Messenger Guildmaster. With some reluctance, Val follows Zyra to the Peakcour house in the inner city deep in the mountain. Plagued by memories of her parents as she enters her childhood home, Val nevertheless collapses from exhaustion, safe back in the city walls.
Upon waking, Val has breakfast with her aunt, which begins awkwardly but quickly moves into some unexpected revelations. Given Val’s unique position as Noir’s user and target for the Unshackled, Zyra fills in a few gaps about the organization of rogue Users, and leaves enough hints for Val to realize that her parents’ disappearance was also caused by the Unshackled. Her fury and desire to get stronger reignited, Val also realized that Zyra has been doing everything she can to bring their family back - and while it doesn’t forgive the years of neglect, it serves as the first step in potentially rebuilding their relationship.
After a whirlwind morning of reporting out to the other Defects and the Council, a plan for Val’s future was set in place. The Defects would get upgraded, more secure facilities and serve as Val’s trainers and protectors while not out on missions. For her part, Val was expected to rise through the ranks quickly: E rank in 2 months instead of the average 6, and D rank in 6 months instead of the average of over a year.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
With no other choice than buckling down for the grind, Val starts training with the Defects and starts developing her own variant of Noir’s abilities to cover the deficiency in her combat style due to her cracked core. At the same time, she is suffering from the isolation from Fynn and manages to convince the higher-ups for a joint training session. Val’s reunion fight with Fynn goes well and they catch up before Val decides to play a prank on Fynn and get Bri to beat him up a bit. Unfortunately, her old mentor Celedon, the Scout Guildmaster, decides that he wants to test Val’s progress directly as well.
And thus, Val and Fynn find themselves in a solo battles against two of Peakpoint’s strongest Users. However, they haven’t unleashed their secret weapon yet: the power of friendship. With a hastily cobbled together plan that confuses even Noir, Val and Fynn decide to try and turn the tables on their “trainers”…
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A reminder of some notable characters and world details:
We will explore the world along with Val, but our current setting is the city of Peakpoint, divided into an outer district along the mountainside and an inner subterranean district deep into the mountain.
The power structure of the humans are split into 7 Guilds. Following secondary education, most young adults do a series of 3 year-long rotations with the Guilds before settling into their long-term position.
* Messengers: Responsible for communication between cities, also serving as ambassadors and spies when needed. Led by Zyra Peakcour, Val’s aunt, and previously led by Val’s mom, Alestrandra Peakcour, before her disappearance.
* Guardians: Responsible for general safety and security within cities. Although they haven’t done great by Val since she became a User, a fact that seems to infuriate Guildleader Mylar.
* Merchants: Responsible for manufacturing and food production, as well as trade lines between cities. Led by the smooth-talking Vivian who seems to have a grudge against Zyra.
* Engineers: Responsible for infrastructure construction and maintenance. Led by the easy-going Lukas.
* Scouts: Responsible for information gathering in the wilderness. Led by Celedon, who also trained Val and Fynn during their rotation.
* Technicians: Responsible for R&D and prototyping advanced tech. Led by Mae, who is very interested in Val’s aptitude for linking with Daemons but concerned for her well-being.
* Mercenaries: Responsible for killing beasts in bulk, either in city defense or in large expeditions in the wilderness. Led by Hav.
The power structure of the Daemons follows nuances and shifts faster than human comprehension, but there is one undisputed fact: Gaia is at the top of the power structure, and no one really knows much about them other than they seem committed to maintaining the alliance between humans and Daemons.
Users and beasts are ranked on a combined letter and number scale, with F9 being the lowest and A1 being the highest, before the S tier individuals. S-ranked Users are so few that they are actually just ranked by individual relative ranking, with S1 denoting the most powerful User in the world.
General reminder that while I'm taking inspiration from LitRPGs, this is not a LitRPG. Rankings are not levels - you do not gain anything on a rank-up. They are an acknowledgement of the skill (lowercase s, not a Skill) that the person has painstakingly built up to. The Guilds are not classes - everyone belongs to one, but they provide no inherent benefit; rather, they are a necessary part of the social and political realities of Val's world. Subroutines are like abilities and can be improved, but only by manually optimizing the subroutine - something that Daemons and Technicians do on a regular basis. I guess I'm just trying to get across that everything in this world is earned, usually through sweat, tears, and spilled blood.
There are few other groups of notable people so far:
The Peakpoint Defects, consisting to Zavis, Bri, Kaya, Wallon, and now Val.
The Unshackled, of which we have had mention of five members (Brain, Brawn, Void, Wolf, and Snake) but Zyra mentioned that there are believed to be as many as 30 members. Their stated goal is forcing AIs back into submission and restoring the “natural” order of human supremacy.
Fynn’s family, including father Drav (Merchant), mother J (Guardian), and sister Talira (aspiring Technician).
And Fynn’s current Guardian squadmates include leader Wren (who is replacing the previous leader Kriven, who was also a mole for the Unshackled), and Yessa. They will likely get another squad member to replace Kriven, but they have not been introduced yet.