Ray
Ray looked out over the gathered Orkin and Goblins. Several of the Orkin sported new clubs and Grok had some scrap steel wrapped around his chest as makeshift armor. The Goblins, however, wore loincloths and had their trademark spears. Even Gale was armed, having taken out the massive bastard sword she had threatened him with earlier.
Swallowing in nervousness, he brought up the timer to see how much longer they had to wait.
00:04:31
“Ok everyone,” he said, causing them all to look his way. “We have no idea what's going to happen when the timer hits zero. According to Gale here,” he gestured to the Drakling who nodded back, “The hex will become ours fully, allowing for development and upgrades.”
That got an excited cheer from the group. Once the noise died down he continued, “What we don’t know is anything outside of that. We are hoping there won't be any events, because that would probably end up with all of us dying,” he explained honestly. “but I have no doubt that if we bunker down here, with the improvements we have made to the building, that we could survive quite a lot.”
Ray turned to Grok, “Grok will be in charge of ordering the Orkin and Goblins around. Consider him my lieutenant for troops going forward,” he said as Grok puffed up with pride. “Make sure we are as ready as we can possibly be, we have no idea what may be coming our way.”
Nodding, Grok began to issue orders to the group, getting them placed around their small complex. Ray watched in apprehension as the timer counted down. All too soon it hit the thirty-second mark.
“Thirty seconds people!” he called out, confusing the Goblins who started looking around for more humans. Grok was quick to bring them in line, however.
Ray couldn’t help but laugh at their antics. The Goblins were weak, fairly unintelligent, and had a remarkable talent for getting into trouble. But he loved them. They were, for all intents and purposes, right out of a fantasy novel. He only wished there was a way to upgrade them. He froze at the thought as the timer hit zero. Immediately four screens popped up in front of him. The first three made sense.
The last filed him with dread.
HEX CLAIM COMPLETE
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CLAIMED THE FIRST HEX ON THIS PLANET
EVENT AWARDED: 20,000 NEX
EVENT AWARD: +3 TO ALL STATS
EVENT AWARD: CLASS SELECTION UNLOCKED
Ray had a seizure, there was no other word for it. The upgrades to his mind and body felt like someone had poured molten lava into his veins. New channels for power that he could hardly identify were carved into his very being as he went past being just human. Apparently passing ten in any stat had that effect.
He slammed back into the ground; the upgrade having allowed him to catch his breath for a moment. Unlike last time, however, the pain stayed with him. It was slowly fading, but that didn’t make him feel any better.
Looking at the other menus to distract his mind, he took note of his monetary reward. That was a mind-boggling amount of NEX to Ray. He could accomplish a lot with just that alone, and there were more rewards to be had. If he survived long enough to claim them. He continued down to the second screen even as Gale nodded in approval of the reward.
ALL LEVEL 1 HEX DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED
CONGRATULATIONS! HEX CLAIM SYSTEM HAS BEEN UNLOCKED
YOU MAY NOW CLAIM NEIGHBORING HEXES ONCE THEY HAVE BEEN CLEARED AND OCCUPIED
Ray's fist pumped, he could now claim more territory! There were quite literally metric shit tons of materials, tech, tools, and weapons that he and his fledgling group could find and bring back. Gale had briefly mentioned the looting and scavenging aspects so he wasn’t too clear on those. But he was sure of one thing, it wasn’t limited to just his hex.
Excited he closed that notification and pulled up the third one.
RESURRECTION SYSTEM IS NOW AVAILABLE
RESURRECTIONS MAY TAKE PLACE FOR SENTIENT BEINGS THROUGH THE TEMPLE OF RESURRECTION OR THROUGH DIRECT ACCESS TO THE CORE
“Fuck yes!” he cried out as Gale leaned over. With a great big smile, he grabbed the Drakling by surprise and kissed her on the cheek. “We can bring everyone back to life! This is awesome!” he yelled, turning away from Gale and missing her turn bright pink.
He dismissed the screen and then froze in terror. The next update was black with white lettering in his vision. It was different from any other notification he had ever gotten, and he knew he was screwed as soon as he heard the intake of breath from his advisor.
WARNING
WORLD SYSTEM SCAN COMPLETE
THIS WORLD HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS A CORE WORLD
MONSTER SPAWN +100%*CREATURE SPAWN +100%*UNDEAD SPAWN +250%*
WARNING
WORLD SYSTEM INTEGRATION HAS BEGUN
PRIOR TIER 5 CIVILIZATION HAS BEEN DETECTED
DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF A PRIOR CIVILIZATION THAT HAS A HIGHER TECHNOLOGICAL LEVEL, A DECAY EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE ONCE WORLD INTEGRATION HAS BEEN COMPLETED
WORLD INTEGRATION TIMER: 1439:59:48
WARNING
NEMESIS SYSTEM RESTRICTIONS LIFTED
YOUR NEMESIS HAS BECOME AWARE OF YOUR LOCATION AND WILL NOW ACTIVELY HUNT YOU UNTIL ONE OF YOU PERISHES
“What the shit?” Ray cried out, slamming his fist down on the table. The poor wooden construct shattered under his blow, causing everyone to look at him in surprise. He blinked, realizing that his strength had basically doubled and he hadn’t realized it.
“Ray, thou art in trouble,” Gale said, pulling him back from his thoughts about his development. “Thou dost not have the resources to defend this hex from a Decay Event,” she said gravely.
He paused at that before asking, “What is a Decay Event? That sounds … ominous.”
Gale nodded in agreement, “It very much is. A Decay Event is when thine world is essentially reset back to previous levels. Anything outside of thy territory is … recycled. This wilt be catastrophic for thy development. Thou hast but two choices. Claim as much territory as thy can to preserve existing infrastructure, or abandon the world.”
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“Nope, not running. First choice it is,” Ray said with zero hesitation. “Looks like I have … a couple months to claim as much as I can before I get fucked over. Grand. Gonna buy like, a thousand fuckin Orkin.”
Grok grinned at that and even Gale smiled as she said, “I do like thy mindset.” Then she sobered yet again. “Thy possesses other problems as well. Thou hast a nemesis. It must be killed quickly or it may gain power to erase all thou hast built. Additionally, intrusion events wilt now be commonplace from neighboring hexes. Thy must increase thine military strength rapidly or risk-“
An alert came up in front of him, although this one was tinged yellow. This gave Ray the distinct impression that events were color-coded either by type or severity. Opening the prompt, he looked it over and facepalmed. It hadn’t taken long for shit to go even more sideways.
EVENT
UNDEAD HEX INTRUSION
THE UNDEAD FROM THE NEIGHBORING HEXES HAVE BEEN DRAWN IN BY RECENT EVENTS
NUMBER OF UNDEAD: 411
EVENT REWARD: 1000 NEX + KILLS
FIRST-TIME INTRUSION REWARD: 40% REDUCTION IN UNDEAD SPAWN IN NEIGHBORING HEXES
“That could ... have been far worse,” Ray said, cautiously optimistic. “I think we can take that number of undead. Grok, do we wait for them to come here, or attack them outside of the base?”
Grok grunted as he thought it over. Eventually, he said, “Well Boss, I’z thinkin we hit em away from da base. Less damage at da place we sleepin iz gonna make da guyz happy,” he said, thumbing over his shoulder at the Orkin and Goblins.
Ray nodded, “Can you take them, or do we need to tag along?” he asked.
“We gotz this Boss. Fukkin undeadz ain't gonna know what ran dem da fukk ova,” Grok said with a savage smile.
“Go get 'em, tiger,” Ray ordered with a grin. His smile faltered when Grok looked confused. “I mean go kill all the undead. Then go back to gathering resources. We are going to need them.”
The Orkin lieutenant nodded at that and led all the troops out of the building and towards the location of the intrusion. Shaking his head as the group left, Ray turned back to Gale and began peppering her with questions.
Gale and Ray spoke for several hours, going over the various functions of the screens, what various levels of buildings meant, capabilities, and the class system. Ray had access to it all and could even assign classes to those he owned or who had sworn loyalty to him. Although he couldn’t upgrade their stats directly, he could provide them tools, weapons, and armor which would, in some cases, provide bonuses. The system prevented anyone from altering another being's stats.
It turned out that all level-one buildings required base materials that the converter could provide. That meant that Ray would need to have his guys stockpile as many resources as possible before the Decay Event went into effect. He wasn’t entirely sure what it would mean, but from Gale’s concern, it would be world-altering.
During their conversation, Ray received notification that he had fourteen-hundred and sixty NEX. Curious about the breakdown, he asked Gale what the NEX rewards for creatures were. It was a more complex answer than he was expecting.
“Thine rewards are calculated on several factors, primary amongst those are if a being is a sentient, monster, or beast,” she began. “Beasts and monsters are further divided into four tiers; basic, evolved, legendary, and mythic. Beasts and monsters are calculated the same for the first two tiers. Thou rewards for which art one and ten NEX respectively. Beasts continue this trend with the rewards being one hundred then one thousand NEX respectively for the remaining two tiers.”
Gale looked at Ray to ensure he was listening. With a nod from him, she continued, “Monsters are more complex at higher tiers. Legendary monsters defeated provide a percent of their total accumulated NEX, usually eight to fifteen. Mythic monsters, of which there are very few, provide all accumulated NEX.”
“So the return for hunting mythic monsters is far greater, but legendary monsters are far more common. Both provide huge amounts more NEX in the form of a reward than the lower tiers,” summarized Ray.
Gale clapped her hands, “Thou caught on quickly. Indeed, thy rewards are greater, but so art the risks. However, in addition to NEX, there shall be additional material rewards that may be used for equipment, buildings, or advanced classes and skills.”
“So what you’re telling me is that we can basically harvest these things like we would normal animals. Hunter-gatherer style that is. Then we can use those pieces in System crafted goods?” summarized Ray.
“Indeed,” Gale confirmed. “Thou must do such things in order to come ahead, or thou may find that thy art weaker than opposing factions, creatures, or at the mercy of monsters.”
Ray shuddered at that, he didn’t want to just survive. He needed to build a place where humanity could come back into power at. That included having the resource stockpile to do so. Not having resources for advanced goods and technologies would ensure that humanity stayed, more or less, extinct.
“Tell me more about the Decay Event, how does that work?” Ray inquired even as he looked through the list of notifications and the menu for services and buildings.
“Such an event is rare, for it is not often an advanced civilization falls. Thy world was classified as a tier 5 civilization, one that has achieved extra-solar colonization,” explained the advisor. “This … event of destruction, one of such apocalyptic proportions, is equally rare. To have a species across multiple worlds extinguished by accident … it simply doeth not happen often.”
Ray prompted her out of her silence with a roll of his fingers. The Drakling responded by rolling her eyes and continuing, “There is but a single example of such an event, a planet-wide Decay Event. It took the world that it spread across and reduced everything, all beings, monsters, and technology, outside of claimed areas to nothing. Where these things and beings went, I know not. But the world was restored to pristine, Gaia-like condition. That is all that I was able to learn of such an event, thy world will most likely face a similar fate.”
“Were there any survivors of the event?” he wondered, looking up from the menus.
Gale only shook her head. “No. The race in question obliterated themselves in a hell storm of nuclear fire and biological warfare. There were no claimed territories for the System to preserve.”
Ray was quiet for a while after that. He had a lot to learn, but no more questions to ask. His first and foremost goal was to learn more about the building system. The Orkin and Goblins had been bringing in raw materials and scrap for a little over a day now, and the converter had been working constantly as the refuse was fed into it.
The strange machine turned out ingots of steel, iron, and dozens of other materials ranging from metals and alloys all the way down to neatly bagged fertilizers. It was a great machine, but it perplexed Ray over one aspect in particular. It had no battery or power source.
“Why doesn’t the converter need electricity or a power source,” he asked suddenly, pulling Gale out of her thoughts once more.
“Ah, thou hast recognized one of the odder aspects of the System. Some things, such as basic converters doth not require external power sources. Why thou may ask? Not a soul has discovered such a secret,” explained Gale with a bit of a twinkle in her eyes. “Such mysteries of the System have been studied for centuries by vast empires with limitless resources. Yet, beings such as they have come no closer to answering questions such as those.”
Ray stared at Gale as she looked away innocently. “Is that just a really round-a-bout way of telling me that you have no fucking idea?” he quipped.
“Indeed,” she replied simply.
Huffing, he returned to his menus. Eventually, he muttered, “The System is weird.” Turning back to his advisor he said spoke a bit more loudly, “It’s like … the System has the capability to do basically anything. But it's restricted on so many levels to what the user wants. I just can't fathom why.”
Gale chuckled, “Thy hast many questions, good ones at that. However, thou fail to understand that at its most base level, the System is a tool. Tools do not make decisions and are but mere extensions of their wielders. A hammer can no more choose to bash skulls than it can nails. Only the wielder has such choices.
Ray nodded at that. It was an analogy he could immediately relate to and, unlike many of her other examples, one he understood without further explanation. “Makes sense,” he replied, “I just wonder what the goal of having such a system would be … and where exactly it comes from.”
That question received another chuckle from Gale. “No one knows. The System simply “was” at one point, and now it continues to be. Why get rid of it when it doth nothing but help whoever interacts with it? It may be restrictive, but it provides the opportunity for such immediate and far-reaching advancement.”
He couldn’t help but agree with that assessment either. A tool was useful. One with multiple functions and purposes was even more useful. And one that provided you opportunities to become faster, smarter, and more advanced by guiding your choices based on your need was downright invaluable.
Ray went back to his studying, convinced that this was the right path to take after all. He only hoped that he didn’t die or fuck this opportunity up.
He doubted he would get another one.
***
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
RACE
HUMAN
CLASS
NONE
NEX
CALCULATING
LEVEL
1
PHYSICAL STATE
HEALTHY
MENTAL STATE
DETERMINED
ATTRIBUTE
BASE
CURRENT
NEX TO INCREASE
STRENGTH
5
11
50
AGILITY
3
9
30
POWER
0
3
100
WISDOM
4
9
40
LUCK
2
5
400