Walker laid down on the mattress. It certainly wasn't the cloud mattress Zeus had once intimated that he knew how to make, but it would do. Taking a moment to rest, he considered everything he still needed to do. If his guess was right, he had twenty-four hours until the Founders were meant to seed onto Crescendo. Twenty-four hours for final checks on food, planning, the quick handshake and hug as they moved toward a new place for the first time in their lives.
Of course, there'd be a big party the night before, likely one he would have to skip. Nobody liked to break free of societal shackles when the boss was there to watch. No, he'd have to spend it doing something else. He also knew he would have to plan another significant speech to further motivate the Founders. The last one, if he was honest with himself, had been pieced together from multiple disparate thoughts. Walker couldn't do that this time, so he'd need to spend a good amount of time sitting and planning things out. But he still had a huge series of tasks to complete before then.
The Reward system needed to be created, not to mention the Event system. Founders had no way to talk to each other over long distances and he wouldn't be able to invent cell phones, towers, and charge them ridiculous fees in time. So, he had the option to either further enhance the Follower system's communications or invent his own. He didn't quite trust the Follower system anymore now that he knew Kwaya had created it. It seemed like everything the woman had made was with great nefarious intent.
As for creating his own communication system, he had a vague thought for how to do so, but it seemed quite messy and included using an experimental ability he'd never tested before. The system splitter allowed him to take a singular system and split it into three individual though linked programs. That could be the way forward, but he wasn't sure about what the difference would be between making an original program like he'd done with the leveling system, and just having an interconnected system that worked across multiple levels.
The steady beeping of the notifications in his overlay caught his attention for what felt like the hundredth time. He still hadn't checked them in the last several weeks, or even months.
When he had first started in the Alpha Protocol, each notification had been like getting a gift. Walker thought back to those simpler times, when it was just him and a small brown squirrel, staring at their creations come to life. Every moment was a wonder, and even new system felt like a challenge to overcome. Now, when he looked at the notifications, he only felt trepidation. He couldn't help but worry that they were going to keep him from completing the systems still to go. The last notification he'd received had shunted him into a metaphysical space for a good amount of time. While he'd only lost a few hours on Sonata, he'd lost days in his mind. Days of stress and fear, of mental and spiritual exhaustion and great hunger. That had an effect on a person's focus and Walker wouldn't be shocked to learn that he had some form of PTSD from dealing with all of the shoves and pushes that Kwaya and the protocol had put him through.
But, he had a job to do. Still, his Sapients did not have their big empowerment. That one thing that could let them fight against the Monsters and their enhanced tiers. He had always designed the system to allow for branching jumps in strength, but the Sapients, his Founders, were about to drop in with nothing to bolster their own. If those notifications had a reward within them that could ease his progress or even provide a secondary manner of gathering strength, he had to take it. With that thought in mind, Walker opened his notifications.
Due to the number of them, they were now organized by categories rather than flooding him all at once, which he greatly appreciated. He looked through the list then clicked one he knew hadn't come with any baggage in the past.
Evolution task complete: Evolve an entity: Part 6
New evolved entities: 100/100
Reward for completion: Diverse
...
Evolution task complete: Evolve an entity: Part 7
New evolved entities: 250/250
Reward for completion: Diverse
...
New evolution task given: Evolve an entity: Part 8
No description provided
New evolved entities: 134/500
Reward for completion: Diverse
- - -
Reward for completing the sixth evolution task:
Congratulations Dante! You've unlocked the Bond evolution!
The bond evolution allows entities to create a lasting connection with one another. This will increase an entity's empathic understanding and allow for greater communication with those with whom they are bonded.
. . .
Reward for completing the seventh evolution task:
Congratulations Dante! You've unlocked the Morphic evolution!
This evolution gives the entity to whom it is granted the ability to modify its body slightly. The greater skill they grow with the evolution, the more they will be able to do.
Warning: If an entity morphs its body to a great degree without understanding what it is doing, it may accidentally perish. It is recommended that entities with high intelligence be granted this particular evolution.
- - -
It looked like the Council had given up on providing task descriptions once you moved past a certain amount. Still, the rewards were pretty strong, and the bond evolution further reinforced his ideas of what to provide in the event rewards. The Morphic ability on the other hand was unique. He was a little worried that any monster who received the evolution would find a way to impersonate Sapients. That could create all kinds of chaos within the burgeoning world of Symphony. Walker mentally placed it in the back of his mind as he didn't feel his people were ready for that yet.
Moving along quickly while making sure not to click on one particular task series, he clicked on the next safe option.
Entity task complete: Create ten more unique entities: Part 2
New unique entities: 10/10
Reward for completion: Diverse
...
Entity task complete: Create twenty-five more unique entities: Part 3
New unique entities: 25/25
Reward for completion: Diverse
...
New entity task given: Create fifty more unique entities: Part 4
You have filled a world to the brim with the unique, the weak, and the exalted alike. Now, begin to produce a new world upon which you can further spread the majesty of your creations.
New unique entities: 49/50
Reward for completion: Diverse
- - -
It was curious that, numerically, evolutions moved much faster numbers-wise than unique entities. Then again, evolutions occurred naturally as a part of the protocol, whereas entities had to be manually created by him and his assistants. It made him wonder if there was a more automated way of doing things, or even an easier way to go about things.
That last wording gave him an idea of what the system was trying to do. Too bad he already had it. What would they give him in recompense for already having unlocked the Cosmic Genesis system? Universal Genesis?
Walker was a little disappointed that he hadn't reached the fifty part yet. But, as he had that thought, the last number trickled in just as he was scrolling to the rewards. He would have to thank either Virgil or Rimi when he had the chance.
Entity task complete: Create fifty more unique entities: Part 4
New unique entities: 50/50
Reward for completion: Diverse
...
New entity task given: Create one hundred more unique entities: Part 5
Filling an entire world with life is the ultimate goal of every Creator within the Alpha Protocol, and you have certainly succeeded in your endeavors. Now, develop your entities into entirely new species, allowing for a greater breadth of growth as you spread your plans across the cosmos.
New unique entities: 0/100
Reward for completion: Diverse
Curious about what he was seeing with the updates, he filled his eyes with darkness and looked at the tasks. Unlike before, where it just showed standard numerical additions with small descriptions, the writing behind the task updates showed how they were being filled in. He found a list of all of the entities being added to Symphony and its solar system. Scanning around, he found some plants like the Mana Tree and even the Verdure listed alongside the Battlefrogs and Virgil's strange goats. The Verdure was a curious addition as he didn't make it himself, it had grown naturally on Sonata due to the magical perforation of the grouped up Foundation Stones. That told him that the more Symphony grew, and the more things changed, the greater the odds that he continued to receive rewards long after the protocol ended.
That thought in mind, he continued to scan through the different additions that had added up with the Entity task. It looked like each human with a different Primigenial bloodline counted as well, meaning one-hundred more unique entities wasn't a longshot. Walker still had a large grouping of Primigenial notifications to go through, the forgotten gods having likely completed their steps while he was lying in bed yet again. The more bloodlines he added to Symphony, the easier it would be to reach the next task update.
With a smile and nod, he finished reading and scrolled down to the rewards.
Reward for completing the second entity task:
Congratulations Dante! You've gained a new evolution chamber!
...
...error...
Advanced evolution chambers detected.
...
Congratulations Dante! You've gained a new advanced evolution chamber!
The upgraded evolution chamber, first invented by the 3EF rendition winner Bander Sotfam, allows for greater control of entity evolutionary modifications. Further progress by the Creator in developing unique genetic entities may result in gaining more advanced evolution chambers.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Reward for completing the third entity task:
Congratulations Dante! The Monitor ability has been upgraded!
Although the Monitor ability seems simple when first viewed, it can have great power in controlling and managing a Creator's world. With this upgrade, the Creator may now make an unlimited number of monitors of differing sizes.
Reward for completing the fourth entity task:
Congratulations Dante! You've unlocked the Cosmic Genesis system!
...Error...
Cosmic Genesis system detected.
Records being reviewed
...
...
The Cosmic Genesis system was chosen from a set of awards during the second battle of the Creator Wars.
...
Compensation package created.
Congratulations Dante! Due to having already unlocked the Cosmic Genesis system, you now have the ability to choose your own reward. Please review the following options which were randomly created from your previous unchosen rewards:
1. Gain the Collosi Genus
2. Unlock the Replacement system
3. Gain one Magic Chamber
"Well shit...." He said while looking at the options. It was just a re-hash of what he'd seen several months ago, relative to his current displacement. He still couldn't see any of their descriptions, at least, until he remembered that he was a system administrator now.
"There are benefits to being on top," He said to himself with a grin. If these were all created during the time that Kwaya was still working with the Evolvers, that meant he could view their detailed descriptions for a preview. It was less of a cheat, and more of a perk for his new role within the Evolver's Multiverse. Walker covered his eyes in darkness and looked again.
1. Gain the Collosi Genus
Note from Administrator Kwaya:
The Collosi Genus are named such because they do not, stop, growing. They start out small and mostly cute, but within fifty years, they can grow to be fifty feet tall. It is not suggested that these creatures are seeded anywhere within a world that wants to hold its own, with the exception of war world breeding farms. They make excellent soldiers and can be trained to enjoy bloodlust, although that is not in their natural interests. The fuckers used to send them against us as shock troops, laying waste to any of our properties and destroying our grandest cities. Their biggest weakness lies in their ankles, in case you ever have to deal with them.
2. Unlock the Replacement system
Note from Administrator Kwaya:
I created the replacement system after constant begging from the Evolver bastards. It's a pretty simple set up. You designate zones or areas that you want entities to be grown in, then, POOF, they pop up with the same original evolutions that they were initially implanted with. It won't restore memories and any evolutions or growth that have occurred between the cycle of death and rebirth, but it is an excellent system for training soldiers and would-be heroes. Ah, the Hero system.
There are a lot of options within the settings for how you may want it to work.
3. Gain one Magic Chamber
Of course, the Magic Chamber had no information attached to it, making him wonder what the enigma could be involved with. But, using his outstanding memory, he had somewhat expected that when first seeing it listed. Magic hadn't spread until after Kwaya had disappeared from the Evolvers, so she wouldn't have any extra notes to go with it. It made him curious as to what she may have written, but he waved it off in his need to save time.
Looking at the Collosi Genus, Walker thought about what it would be like to drop them into his solar system.
"I do have a giant world," Walker said to himself quietly, "and I do know their weakness." He looked back and forth between the replacement system, which had great possibilities for lightening their future workload, and the genus just above it. He thought hard about his options, as having another Genus that wasn't earthbound could have bigger implications than expected. He still held the genus from Ccratch, even if it was unmodifiable. But, he'd never done anything with it.
Sure, it was always in his mind, but more in a villainous role attached to future possible events, rather than allowing them to grow as their own people. He wasn't Xenophobic, that he knew of, but with that particular species being unmodifiable, it greatly limited what he could do with them. That wasn't a warm and fuzzy feeling for the micro-managing Creator.
Looking back at the first two options, he chose to ignore the third one. He didn't know what the chamber's purpose was, and while the Evolution Chamber was a great boon, he didn't want to make the wrong move with one of his rare reward choices. Knowing what Virgil and Athena's advice likely would be, Walker went with the safe option and selected the Replacement system. It was better to set up Symphony as a whole to be more thoroughly prepared for the future than to get a new Genus for his assistants to play with. The reward information filtered in a moment later.
Reward for completing the fourth entity task:
Congratulations Dante! You've unlocked the Replacement system!
The Replacement system is necessary for Creators who feel the need to create multiple designed ecological focuses in a warlike world. With the replacement system, your world will constantly maintain an equilibrious state with the proper amount of control.
"That should make Virgil quite happy," He said with a smile. It fell away a moment later, "Crap, at this rate we're probably going to need more assistants." Then he smiled again when he realized what that meant. With a shrug and an "Oh well," Walker looked at the rest of the notifications. The Primigenial tasks were beeping at him profusely, but that was a moment for later. He'd already spent longer than he wanted just combing through all the updates he'd been missing.
The Advanced Evolution Chamber was nice, as it was a handy replacement for the one he'd blown up when creating the first Foundation stone. The Monitor upgrade was a great pickup as well, and he found an option to allow his assistants free range of control with an attached cost. Walker selected Magic as that seemed to be in a constant state of growth with the unmodified Mana Trees. Based on his estimates, he'd never have to worry about it again. Now that he'd seen the Verdure, he didn't know what that would mean for everything else. The Tree of the Gods hadn't grown for a hot minute, but that didn't mean more changes wouldn't eventually come to Sonata. Once again, Walker thanked his luck that he'd had Awakened beings who were willing to help him along the same path. Without his upgraded memories and quicker physical reaction times, he'd never have kept up with everything that was necessary in managing his own Solar System.
Overall, things were only getting better and better. With that happy thought in mind, Walker clicked over to the system designer.
The first thing he had to do was create a reward system. Of course, that had already been thought of in the few thousand years that system designing had existed in the Evolver's multiverse, but the current model certainly lacked something.
The Prize System:
A system designed to allow entities to spin a wheel, receiving a pre-designated reward.
This system allows Creators to reward their entities based on set parameters.
Flexibility: Medium
Difficulty to modify: High
Resources used: Variable and Selective
Limits: The Prize System can only be used when at least two pre-designated rewards exist
Note: This system is a combination of multiple older systems found in the multiverse
It wouldn't work for a multitude of reasons, not to mention he'd still have to link it to Mac in the end. That could set off bells at the Center and cause him untold headaches. If he was going to create a new system from scratch and not burn through all of his darkness again, he needed to hide any of his actions within the system creation itself. There was no guarantee that any older system he worked with wouldn't alarm his pseudo-evil, unfeeling overlords.
The big reason he wanted to create it separately from just having an event system, and the combination it would require, was that he had ideas for how to attach the Reward system to Milestones, potential Reputation systems, and, of course, Factions. This would be peppered throughout his future creations, such as the Tracking and Milestone systems currently. That required he take a current system that came close to matching it, and this was the best he could find. But still, it wasn't great.
Walker pulled up another system that seemed similar based on the name.
The Benefits System:
A system designed to compensate entities based upon a specific and tracked performance.
This system allows Creators to reward their entities based on tracked requirements.
Flexibility: Low
Difficulty to modify: High
Resources used: Variable and Selective
Limits: The Benefits system only allows specific rewards to be given based on achieving set goals
Note: This system was designed by Creator JohnQ in rendition 2AO
This one was much better, but still too restricted. He knew the solution was to combine it with the Adaptation system, but, that would be hellish for them. They would have very little to do as his plan was to create the Reward system for all other systems to pull from. Still, he didn't see much choice in the matter. Not if he didn't want to burn through a large allotment of his soul.
Putting it into the back of his mind for the moment, Walker pulled up the Tracking system.
The Tracking System:
A system built on the idea that everything a person does, should be recorded.
This system is designed to track any entities of the Creator's choice within any filters they choose to create.
Flexibility: Extreme
Difficulty to modify: Low
Resources used: A localized receptacle for storing information
Note: A system designed by Creator Ju in the alpha protocol of 2BC.
Walker was not a fan of the new note his System administrator view could now see. When he'd first planned out the Milestone system, he knew it was very iffy, morally. But he did not enjoy seeing a note that openly stated what he was doing could be akin to tyrannical or oppressing styles of governance. However, for everything to work, it needed to be done. He wasn't the one who had placed him here, and if he wanted everything to work as it should, sometimes things had to be sacrificed.
Again he didn't like how that thought filtered through his mind. He'd have to try to come up with some checks and balances for what he was forcing on Symphony's systems. As the saying went, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Planning what he needed to do before diving into the world of System designing, he stepped out of his cabin and jogged over to find Rimi nearby. After he made a few requests, the blue squirrel hopped to action, and the new evolution chamber really came in handy for what Walker was asking for. He dodged a few questions from Virgil, asking the large black squirrel to stay focused on Fortis for the time being, then spoke with Luna about needing all of the assistants to be ready soon. After that, he spent a few minutes talking to Athena and answering some of the Founder's questions about what they would expect on Crescendo. He noticed neither Lucy nor Runner were interested in hearing what he had to say about their upcoming sojourn to the forest planet, but they did ask about the Unending Summit's trials, extracting a promise from Walker that he would conduct the event with them soon.
Finding Dion in the back of the group, whom he had interrupted as they discussed different forms of resource management, he asked him a few questions and then performed a favor for the man. With a quick wave, he trekked back to his small abode and spent another hour of his precious time going through more of the designer's systems.
He found the Inciting Incident System, which gave him a good chuckle as the English teacher in him really liked that one. Connecting some dots, he had a vague idea of how the Event system would come together. Tracking, points, items from within Mac, and immediate translocation were all required. After another hour, he felt that everything was set to go and he was only delaying what he needed to do. The Creator was confident of his power and his unique ability to make things that hadn't been seen before. After all, while it may have been a slight accident, nobody else had discovered the key to Immortality was a combination of so many different elements.
"You can do this." He said to himself quietly, then without waiting another second, took the plunge.
Walker pushed his soul to cover his hands, then reached into his overlay and extracted a week in Temporal resources. As Virgil had pointed out, the first time he'd covered himself in it, he had immediately passed out for a good amount of time thereafter. But, that was before he'd completed his soul and transitioned to the third stage. He had a vague idea in his mind that the effect would not be nearly as pronounced a second time.
With a week in his hands, he smothered it across his body, pushing a paper-thin covering of his soul outside of his body as he did so. This way, he would be contained within the Temporal distortion without it directly touching his skin. He normally wouldn't chance things like this, but as always, they were on a tight schedule and he had the ability to cheat time. Why wouldn't he take advantage?
Now, within his own sped-up time, Walker clicked on the Adaptation system and, using the system linker ability, connected it directly with the Benefits system. He felt as the system pulled him into the AI but immediately jumped back out. If he stepped outside of his Cabin, everyone would be moving so slowly that he wouldn't even get the chance to watch them blink. That was the goal of this, after all. He didn't want to waste any unnecessary time as he only had a week to create five systems, one after another. Looking at the System Splitter ability in his overlay, the tag Experimental jumping out at him, he realized it would be closer to eight. Walker sighed then ran a multi-layered hand through his white hair. There was always too much to do.
At the top of his overlay, the notification that the system was now ready to be used came in immediately. The Center always seemed to match his speed no matter how much he distorted things temporally, but curiously, the Conductor system still hadn't finished forming yet. It made him curious about what it would eventually do. What else could they give him that he couldn't already do himself?
Walker went in and renamed the Adapting Benefits system to The Reward system. He would have to follow up with the AI after he was done within his personal time bubble.
Clicking back into the system designer, he chose the Adaptation system, the Inciting Incident system, and the Tracking system, before merging them all into one. The Inciting incident system was specifically used to identify local areas with no restriction in size. That meant he could designate a planet where rewards would be generated, rather than just small areas. Based upon the information it presented, he could even designate all of Symphony, every planet within it, as a part of the rewards.
The Tracking system would allow him to create a points-based program, rewarding his Founders for their achievements. How they would receive those rewards was not yet set up, but he also had ideas for that. There weren't any systems within the designer for translocating material instantly, with the only exceptions being the Item and Territory systems. But, he couldn't make copies of some of the items, particularly the living ones. It meant he would have to create one from scratch, with the answer always staring him right in the face. It would require some modification and even more of his darkness, but luckily, he had a renewable source for that now.
Walker waited a moment for the notification, taking much longer than the Rewards system did, then renamed the hodge-podge of information to The Event system.
Finally, he was at the moment he'd dreaded and been waiting for at the same time.
It was finally time to make the Skill system, and get his Sapients on a similar level of power to the Monsters of Symphony.
Walker clapped his hands together, then opened up the System Designer for a little help.