POV - [TOTALLY AWESOME DUDE]

>SENDER: [Zorbling.786123]<

Okay…? So he was enthusiastic and he was coming to see me. Teleports were real and his name also was Nige. But I was still in the dark as to who he was and how he knew me. I didn’t know any other Nigels and what a Zorbling was I still had absolutely no idea.

However, I had no objections to meeting up with him. He sounded like a fun guy. Already griefing me, the cheeky blighter. But, he was right - I was a noob and I knew it. And rather than go explore I might as well check out these notifications. It would be rather silly to go off half-cocked and find out there was some crucial information I desperately needed.

I pulled up the most recent one.

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I had received an award? What on earth for? This felt like I was being scammed. No way was I going to accept some random award without knowing the details. I hesitated, perhaps even expanding the link would trigger some sort of trojan malware. Now I had freaked myself out. Get a grip Nige! You’re in a new world. The System has totally rebuilt you. It doesn’t need to trick you into anything. I mentally shrugged my shoulders and expanded the notification.

<“Perfect is the enemy of progress”>

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Well. This was somewhat obscure. A quote from Winston Churchill of all people. I stuck my bottom lip out as I considered what I knew. Which was not much. Surely there must be more. What did the award actually do for me? Or was it just a sort of status symbol or a collectible to satisfy those achievement driven people? I felt no wiser than before.

I focussed on the underlined award and it expanded again. Yeah, baby I was getting the hang of this.

Well, darn. That was a sucky award. For something I didn’t even remember doing. Or not doing it sounds like. And what's with 89.75 years? That can’t be right. The thing must be glitched. I wished I had something to shake or kick or somehow reboot it somehow. Now I was feeling pissy. Suck, sucky sucks. And repeating myself. Stupid award. I was strongly minded to decline this dubious honour. Crappity crap, crappy mc crapface. Decisions, decisions. It didn’t do anything for me, did it? Another blue box appeared, replacing the previous notification.

Oh, it did. And it was gimped, hardly a reward seeing it would surely hobble me. I was so not going to accept this.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Well! That sounds better, balances out the first effect somewhat I guess, but what were better? Skills or Stats? I didn’t know enough to make an informed decision. I kept reading.

And - no! That totally sounds like making a rod for my own back.

I leaned back in consideration. Now that was starting to look more promising. Percentage growth and it looked like they stacked as well. This should be fantastic at higher levels. Compounding returns for the make or break. This was one of the few secrets of successful people I already knew. My interest (heh) in the reward rekindled. Initial pain but long term, the stat gains should totally eat it.

In fact that last award effect sounded great but still, did it balance out those big Skill negatives? I guess that was the point of the award. If I accepted it there was no way my build would ever be perfect. And I hated the thought of marring my brand new self before I even got started. But on the other hand I was totally used to an imperfect body. It sounded like this award would actually enhance my body while penalising my mind. Or at least my Skills, that is, I corrected myself. Presumably my mind Stats would be enhanced as well.

From what I guessed though, Skills would be crucial to being able to operate in these fantasy, might and magic worlds. I stopped to consider. How did I know there was magic? Well duh, I had a new body. I wasn’t debilitatingly ill any more. That was sufficient for me. Definitely magic. Or at least such advanced technology I couldn’t even begin to decipher how it had achieved what it had. Yes, there was absolutely magic. And I wanted it. And I would absolutely need a magic skill to be able to use it. Botheration!

This led me to wondering how Skills were gained. Were they something which downloaded directly into my brain and suddenly I just ‘knew’ how to do it? Or did I have to earn them somehow? Jump a thousand times and get the jump skill? Hmmm… Maybe there are skill trainers. I didn’t have a clue how to unlock any skills let alone a magic skill…

Maybe there was a wiki?

“Open wiki!”

Nope.

“Help”

“Open Menu”

I remembered trying a whole range of these commands already.

“Display Character Sheet”

Nope, nothing had changed.

Darnit. Maybe Zorbling.something,something,123 would know. No hang on, his name was Nige. Yep, He definitely would know. Nigels are awesome. I figured I would put this all to one side until I could find out more. Hopefully I could close off the System prompt without committing one way or the other. I willed the current notification to minimise. It obediently funnelled down into the flashing icon in my lower right vision. Immediately another box appeared. Bother.

Ahhh. I relaxed back down on my bed. I had two days to make up my mind. That was good to know. I dismissed the box.

A fresh ding sounded, in time with a pulse of blue light in the periphery of my vision. The box didn’t automatically pop up this time so I assented to the new notification appearing.

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Well, whad-da-ya-know! My first skill.I wondered what I had done to trigger this one in particular. Perhaps I could expand this and find out a little more.

Arrggghhh! Was this a good skill or not? That second part did not sound that flash. Weren’t Skills supposed to be overwhelmingly positive affirmations enabling me to do stuff and generally make my life easier. I was all for the positives. Why, oh why, was everything so vague. Would I ever get a clear answer? What were the actual outcomes of taking the Skill? What did it boost? Was it active or passive? I returned to considering the Skill.

The title was white. Which was distinct in itself from everything else I had seen. Or was it? No - that ‘fear of imperfection’ award was blue. I’m guessing that means the award is better, or a higher rarity as blue is generally further up the grading scale. Hmmmm. Maybe it is all to do with the relative rareness or frequency of the skill or whatever dropping, rather than about the grade, or how good it was. More questions, I sighed to myself.

This uplift system should have some sort of a tutorial or at least an orientation process to help us get to grips with everything. I think I’ll park this too for now. I chuckled - that’s validating my fear of imperfection alright. Ah well, as Mum always says ‘Act in haste, repent in leisure.’ I would mull on this a bit first I think.

Just as I closed my eyes, a vigorous knocking rattled the door.

<…Dude it’s Nige! Open up buddy.> A somewhat familiar voice was muffled through the door.

What? That can’t have been half an hour already…

I got to my feet and went to lift the latch.