Great! Now he’d be able to get enough experience. Leaning over each body, he twisted their implants, ripped them out, and swallowed them whole. It was funny to watch the convulsive twitching of the man as he weakly tried to clamp down on his heavily bleeding wound. DAD didn’t kill his victim, he just took out what he needed. Now the blood ran even more freely from the man’s neck and shoulder wound.
Congratulations on achieving level 4
Available stat points:
15
Available skills:
1
Do you want to choose a skill now?
He thought for a moment, but then he decided not to delay and pumped the points into ‘Intelligence’. Last time it had been a success, after all.
Distribute stat points: Add 15 to ‘Intelligence’. Confirm.
His ‘Intelligence’ reached 54. Now, what about the skills?
Experienced (recommended skill), Cannibal, Training, Melee, Integrity (recommended skill), Shooter, Master.
This was very interesting. Now the skills were also distributed in a way that highlighted their importance, and the descriptions were much more detailed too. Let’s start with the recommended skills. ‘Experienced’ adds 2 stat points at each level. It is recommended to take early. ‘Integrity’ allows me to individualize. It is required for the skill ‘Lord’. I should also take it early.
Well, it was clear that the first skill was something he would need to level-up quickly and efficiently, and the second one would turn him into turn someone ‘cool’. More specifically, into a Luminary – someone who could control their low-leveled brothers and sisters. Still sitting on the soldier’s body near the warehouse, he looked into the open doorway. Eight of his brothers had cynically been finished off by shots to the head. None of them would ever get up again.
He couldn’t afford to let them go to waste.
Choose ‘Cannibal’. Confirm.
He went to the first brother to make sure that he wouldn’t regenerate. His heart wasn’t beating, and his brain was rapidly cooling. The nanorobots wouldn’t be able to restore it. Bringing his claws to the brother’s implant, he noticed a new message appear.
To transfer nanomachines, press the ‘Extraction’ button.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
So, it was unnecessary to twist it. He pressed the barely noticeable button, and something clicked and buzzed inside the implant, and then a few seconds later a thin small capsule appeared. Indeed, this way was much more comfortable. Before he thought about what he would need to do next, the ampoule disintegrated in the palm of his hand.
Experience gained, the message said. The ‘Experience’ really expended – even more than before. DAD 9996533 slowly went to each of his deceased brothers. One by one, he consumed the capsules, and his experience points increased. Soon he reached the fifth level.
Congratulations on achieving level 5
Bonus stat points were received
One bonus skill was received
Skill tree is open
Available stat points:
20
Available skills:
2
Do you want to choose a skill now?
Wow! An anniversary level bonus! Cool, he thought, looking at the skill tree that had now appeared in his vision. It offered a wide range of skills: melee, firearms, computer hacking, thermovision, building up armor and more. Unfortunately, most of them were available only at the twenty-fourth level, and they required a significant amount of skills.
Therefore, it was necessary for him to prepare in advance and choose wisely. That way he would be able to take the right talent immediately when he reached the twentieth level. What will I have available on the twentieth level? He checked for more details. ‘Invisibility’, ‘Immortality’, ‘Lord’!
Wow, again! He would be really cool in fifteen levels! Now he just needed to find out more information on each.
Let’s start with the ‘Immortality’. It’s a system of organs and mechanisms that allow you to survive a direct hit from a firearm to the heart or the head. Yeah, well, that’s cool. It just requires a lot: ‘Regeneration 3’, ‘Second heart’, ‘Hard skull 3’, and ‘Horn armor 3’. Well, it means that I must pump these skills at all levels to develop the talent ‘Immortality’.
The ‘Invisibility’ talent is the ability to become invisible and inaudible to a foe. It requires: ‘Quiet step 3’, ‘Chameleon’, ‘Silent run 3’, and ‘Ninja 3’. It’s not much of a difference.
The ‘Lord’ option is a self-healing battle drone providing fire support, which fires with high-speed projectiles. It requires: ‘Integrity’ (recommended skill), ‘Primal Self’, ‘Control 4’, and ‘Connection 4’.
Available skills: ‘Experienced’ (recommended skill), ‘Training’, ‘Melee’, ‘Integrity’ (recommended skill), ‘Shooter’, ‘Master’, ‘Hard skull’, ‘Quiet step’
Deciding not to risk it, he first added 16 of his available stat points into ‘Intelligence’, and the remaining four points he then distributed equally between ‘Stamina’ and ‘Dexterity’.
DAD 9996533
Strength:
62
Dexterity:
45
Intelligence:
70
Perception:
40
Stamina:
45
His mind became clearer. He immediately realized what he had to choose to best further his progress.
Choose ‘Integrity’. Confirm.
The world span. He began to remember the events of the previous day, which had seemed not to exist a few moments ago. Terrifying images flashed through his head. Suddenly, he remembered that had eaten people alive. Having almost vomited at the thought, he had to inhale and exhale deeply several times to control himself.
Opening the list of the remaining available skills, he selected the ‘Primal Self’ option. This required at least 70 stat points in ‘Intelligence’. His head span again, and he collapsed limply to the ground, falling into a deep, black nothingness. However, he wasn’t alone there: the huge Sun, the Supreme Mind, illuminated the blackness of the universe around him, and the sparks of its smaller companions glittered around it. Here it was – a simple and true form of being.
Choose your own name.
Choose a name? But he had a name – DAD 9996533. No, that wasn’t his name, it was just a sequence of letters and numbers. In his past life, infinitely far from this current moment, he seemed to remember that his name had been Alexander. Alex. He was a clergyman. Now, remembering what he had done during the last twenty-four hours, he understood quickly that he definitely wasn’t the Reverend Alexander anymore. He had become a demon in the service of the God.
Demon. Confirm.
Demon, welcome to the Brotherhood of the Mind.