Sebastian stood in front of what once had been the Royal Palace and was now a chaotic mass of building and stone hills flanked by giant trees, feeling lost without Anubis’s guidance.
What was he supposed to do now?
Text appeared, once more in his mind rather than being written onto the air in front of him, though this time without any accompanying voice.
System access granted. Interaction parameters: voice, motion, thought.
Grant direct mental data injection?
Sebastian let out a bitter laugh. “Not a chance.”
It was interesting that it asked permission at all. It could already somehow put images of text into his mind, but, what, couldn’t read his deeper thoughts?
Direct mental data injection permission denied. Interaction parameters unchanged.
Phase 1 status
Mode: Power Cards
Time Limit: 372 hours
Continuity Condition: Pinnacle Rank Upgraded
Failure Condition: Death
Success Condition: Survival
Exemplary Condition: Clear Forsaken, the first gate
Completion Reward: (1) E-Rank Gift
Phase Ends: 371 hours, 59 minutes, 51 seconds.
View your current status?
He looked over the information. It looked to him identical to what he’d seen when this whole mess started, though without the earsplitting voice reading it out.
“My status? I don’t give you permission to do anything to me, if that’s what you mean.”
The phase information disappeared, the phase end countdown moving to the corner of his vision where the initiation countdown had previously been, and a new message appeared.
All necessary information already obtained. No further interrogation needed.
View your current status?
Well then, no sense letting the invasion of privacy go to waste. “Sure. Why not.”
Current Status of aspirant Sebastian Finch
(status limited by current access)
Rank: F0
Holdings: 0
Heart Deck: 0/1
Core Deck: 0/0
Orbs: 0
Titles: The First Explorer, Prologue Jumper
Fusion-induced additional attributes
Advancement: No realm, Unranked
Core Type: Card system, uninitiated
Techniques: None
(further unknown attributes not displayed)
“Aspirant? And I have a rank?”
He thought back to Osiris’s soliloquy. How had it ended? ‘May you forever strive?’
Was this what it meant? Sebastian was supposed to compete, increase his rank somehow?
He wondered why it would care, and didn’t like any of the answers he came up with.
His gaze caught on the list of titles.
He’d earned titles when he’d gotten the first card from that transition zone on that strange, reality-bending roof.
He hadn’t given them much thought since then. But now he wondered if they were just for show, or had some actual use.
“What do my titles mean?” he asked the air, and more text appeared in his head.
Title: The First Explorer
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Effect: Apply to any travel or map card to add the ability to instantly return to locations already explored. Usable once every new-world day.
Title: Prologue Jumper
Effect: Reset one cooldown. Usable once every new-world day.
They seemed quite useful. The first one looked like it basically gave him teleportation once per day. And the second reset a cooldown. So maybe two teleportations in a day? Could a title be used on another title?
That could come in handy. Once he got a travel or map card.
Anubis hadn’t mentioned anything about titles that he could recall. And Sebastian had a hard time trusting anything from the Apocalypse System. But he’d already been changed by it, along with his world. And it had asked his permission to inject information into his brain.
For the moment it didn’t matter, since he didn’t have any cards to use them on.
Something did stand out to him though. “What is a new-world day?”
Predicted full rotation in approximately 90,000 seconds, or 25 hours.
The day was longer now? That was… well, actually now that he thought about it not that extreme compared to everything else that had happened.
He wanted the titles and message to go away so he could focus on the status text and was only mildly surprised when they disappeared at his mere desire.
View now unobstructed, he looked over the rest of his status text.
He understood very little of it, but one other part caught his attention: orbs.
They were some form of currency. Anubis had mentioned them. Said it was what he should focus on. That and clearing the first gate, whatever that meant.
And one other thing.
He looked down at the card he’d gotten from the treasure room. He was still holding it. He’d forgotten until now.
The image looked like some kind of organic hourglass with fire instead of sand, dropping down onto what might have been a representation of the Earth.
[https://i.imgur.com/4JbII1t.png]
As he stared at the image, text appeared floating above it. Or seemed to anyway, he could somehow tell it was actually inside his head.
He read over it several times, realized his brain was stuck in a loop, finally shook himself out of it.
He wondered if this was what being in shock felt like.
He read over the card’s text again, this time actually processing the words.
Blaze of Creation
Rank: Base
Cooldown: 300 seconds
Duration: Permanent
Uses: Unlimited
Card Slot: Core
Effect: Sand, fire, ash, and wood. Time, destruction, consequence, life. These are the tenets of your world. With this card, you may control one by sacrificing another.
Sebastian blinked, expecting more. “That’s clear as mud.”
He had no idea what it meant by sacrificing. Sacrifice what? A person? An element? Time?
He had no clue.
“Can I get some more information about this card?”
All available information on card effects are listed in the card’s description.
He was kind of creeped out that it had answered his question so specifically. Like he was talking to a person instead of interacting with an autoresponse bot.
But maybe that was exactly what this was. The equivalent of one of those chatbots on Amazon. Machines giving the impression of life.
Inside his brain.
“Why’d you lead me to this card?” Sebastian asked Anubis. “What does it do?”
After a moment, he remembered Anubis was no longer connected.
He felt an unexpected sense of loss at this. Like he’d lost a friend.
In a way, he had. Two, in fact. And he had no idea if either of them, Anubis or Magnus, would ever come back.
To distract himself from this thought, he pulled out the first card he’d gotten, eager to finally get a look at it. Anubis had said it would help him with dying. Which seemed like a very real prospect, what with monsters inhabiting the world, let alone whatever else the transfiguration had done.
He got a better look at the image on the card now. It appeared to be two figures surrounded by shifting lights in the shape of another hourglass, or maybe an infinity symbol. It was like one was watching the other, stuck in a loop. And not just watching, but in control.
[https://i.imgur.com/Ji8QNB6.png]
He shook his head, shaking off the feeling it had given him, and read over the text that had appeared in his mind.
Death Is Not the End
Rank: Base
Cooldown: 100 seconds
Duration: Permanent
Uses: Unlimited
Card Slot: Heart
Effect: Upon death you resurrect a short distance away. What remains of your body becomes a phantom that you may control.
Locked Effect: Entropy alteration. Unlock for full description.
“Wow.” He wasn’t sure what the locked effect was, but resurrection would certainly help take the sting out of dying.
But should he use it? Anubis had said it would make him a target again.
He looked around at the changed world, thought back to the man who had become a monster, who had then killed and absorbed another man.
There was no way to fight them, not as he was now. And it sounded like Scions would be even worse. If Magnus was anything to go by, Sebastian was sure they would be.
He could run and he could hide, try to wait this whole thing out.
Or…
He looked down at the card, and made his decision.
“How do I use this thing?”
Integrate card [Death Is Not the End]?
Warning: This is a heart card. Once placed, you may not remove or replace this card under normal conditions.
Trusting Anubis’s advice, he gave his assent.
The card shot from his hand and into his chest.
He stared down at the spot it had gone into. There was no hole, no damage to his shirt, and he hadn’t felt it enter at all. “That was easier than I—”
A sudden blinding pain travelled up the left side of his body into his neck and head and down into his arm.
He fell to his hands and knees.
Then his left arm went numb and his face met pavement. After a moment, the pain abated, leaving in its place a sensation of pins and needles.
He rolled over onto his back, taking in gasping breaths, feeling like he couldn’t get enough oxygen.
Finally, this too faded, and he felt completely normal again.
Or, almost.
Now, he sensed something within him.
He sat up, then got to his feet.
He felt… good.
Powerful. There was something residing within him now, waiting to be tapped. Something immense that hadn’t been there before.
He called upon it.
Heart card [Death Is Not the End] activated.
A colorless wave rippled out from him in all directions, distorting everything it touched, accelerating as it moved away from his position and through the city around him until he could no longer see it.
He looked up, and saw the ripple affect the strange merged skies, and beyond.
[Death Is Not the End] enabled. Effect active. Permanent effect.
He looked around, mouth open. The wave had seemed to go… far. Really, really far.
He thought back to the description, the locked effect. Something about entropy. Had he unlocked it?
“How am I supposed to test this thing out?”
Osiris, or its minion or daemon or whatever it was Sebastian was interacting with, didn’t respond.
He focused on his remaining card, Blaze of Creation. He had no idea what it did, but Anubis had led him to it, so he would use it.
“Activate,” he said, holding the card up. It made him feel a bit stupid, like he was playing make-believe.
If only.
Your core deck has no open slots. Initiate your core deck to gain ability to add cards to your core deck.
Oh, right. Money. Orbs.
How was he supposed to get those? Anomaly shrines? Monsters? What had Anubis said, only red and orange ones?
What did that even mean?
What was he meant to do, run around looking for aberrations and monsters?
All he wanted to do was go home, crawl into bed, and stay there.
But that wasn’t an option. Not anymore. He’d made his choice, taken the power.
And as much as he wished he could just hide away, he didn’t regret his decision.
Given the choice, he’d rather be in control of his own destiny than leave it to some government rescue that may never come.
“Right, then,” he said to himself. “Let’s go hunting.”