[Congratulations, you have completed the first Invitation, granting you access to {Zenith’s Calling}]

[System notice: {Zenith’s Calling} is your current Invitation]

[System notice: User’s Source has been restored]

[Status has been restored]

[System notice: User has fully integrated with system protocols]

[Congratulations, you have formed your Source and earned the right to a Skill]

That’s a lot of golden words words. James groaned internally, debating how best to break down the string of notifications and information. In all honesty, he didn’t want to look at the system notification at all. He didn’t want anything to do with the nasty golden words. They felt poisoned.

Cursed.

If the looper could’ve returned to his life without the system, he almost certainly would’ve. But dealing with the system was better than death. A lot better. That didn’t mean James despised the thing any less, he just found it the lesser of two evils.

The fact was, the system was offering him something that would help. As much as he wanted to spit on its offerings, James knew better than to let his pride get the better of him.

I will be cautious. James told himself. Every time he interacted with the system, he would watch it as it watched him. The system had a purpose for him, just as it had a purpose for everyone it showed the golden words. So long as he could read that purpose, he would have power over it.

Not much, but better than nothing.

The looper let his body fall into the instinctual process of collecting and organising everything useful in the apartment, which he needed to drop off in Hugh’s pickup truck. Warm clothes, food essentials and a whole list of necessities were just waiting in their apartment for him to use.

As James assorted them all into bags, his mind was elsewhere.

Focusing on the golden words that burned into his vision.

Let’s start with this {Skill}. He could feel the system urging him to do it. The sensation almost felt like the system was poking his eyes towards it. Very uncomfortable.

The golden words in his vision faded, replaced with a trio of options that invited James to pick.

[You have been awarded a Skill]

[Skill: Skills are a union between the systems guidance and the Source of your potential. Through Skills, you will be capable of utilising your Source and further expanding the possibilities of your growth. Further Skills will not be offered until previous Skills have been completed]

[Skill options]

[Second Strike]

[Second Thought]

[Second Life]

[Skill points available: 3]

So they’re guides for how to use my Source? Skill use the system as an intermediary? Or are they whole different abilities produced from my Source? James thought, piecing together what the system was telling him.

Skills were a union between his Source and the system, which meant they were a composite of the two forces coming together. However, the system explicitly stated that Skills were a union between his Source and the system’s guidance. Not its powers or abilities.

James sensed a truth weaved between the lies there. The system said what it was but twisted the truth in such a way that someone could misinterpret it. He could easily see how someone would take a Skill as a gift from the system related to their Source when in actuality it was a direct manifestation of it.

Fig had told him that Sources were power. A supernatural type of power that allowed people to bend facets of reality to their will. So these Skills had to be in the same ballpark. Supernatural augmentations upon James’ existence.

Before the Loop, James would’ve been highly dubious of something like Skill and what it claimed to be capable of. But he’d survived being inside a star because of his Source, albeit as a burnt husk.

Nothing surprised him anymore.

It says I can pick. James noted. But I have three options and three choices. There would be more choices down the line. The Looper clocked it almost immediately. He would have more options down the line. Choosing skills was a process that would carry on past now, and he could likely choose not to choose a skill and save his two extra skill points.

But this is the only time those three will ever be offered.

James was starting to understand why Archive had recommended this option, especially if these Skills were only ever offered once. He had a choice to pick all of them, when usually people would only receive one. That would put him far ahead of the curve, which was something he could use.

Still, James held back on just nabbing them all up and calling it a day. His realisation that there would be choices for skills down the line put a thought in his head.

What if it was better to pick more later?

“It might not make sense, ” James said to his favourite blanket as he packed it into a duffle bag. “But it stands to at least some reason the Skills down the line will be better, right?”

The looper thought that made sense.

But then, Archive had told him explicitly to ask for all three. He could have told him to ask for a Skill that would usually be given later, or even just more options for each Skill.

Yet the eldritch librarian had told him to ask for the three starters.

It has be for a reason. The looper racked his brain while he sorted and grabbed all the goods he could find, almost up to his third duffle bag.

Nothing that he thought of stood to reason.

I have to look. James realised. I have to see exactly what I get for each of them before I can make a decision.

If they sounded worth it, he would pick them. If not… well, saving the Skill points couldn’t hurt.

James drew his focus towards the first Skill Second Strike and the golden words heeded his direction, dissolving away into an explanation.

[Second Stike]

[Description: Using the power of your Source, you become capable of looping your strikes against foes, creating physical echoes. Second Strike allows you to enforce your blows with a loop of the same destructive force, making them far more effective. Progression of this Skill will require you to understand the factors that create the destructive forces you employ, and how to effectively channel them with the power of Loop. The User should also be aware that this Skill can and will cause blowback, as the force looped is indiscriminate until the User learns to mitigate it]

Okay, so it’s literally a second strike. It creates a loop of my own strikes and duplicates their force. That sounded like something James wanted. It sounded like power. Real, undeniable power. He didn’t even need to think about it to know it was something he wanted. The concept resonated with him perfectly, as it gave him exactly what he wanted.

Physical power.

Not a Skill with a nonsense capacity that might help him in the long run like telepathy or breathing underwater or something else equally magically but not useful in the next twenty-four hours. No, it was just power.

If he hit something and used this Skill, he just hit it harder. Direct and straightforward.

If I’m only picking one, I’m picking this one probably going to be the winner. Then again, if the others were all standouts like Second Strike James might end up picking all three. He still hadn’t decided that.

The only thing he knew for sure was that he’d be selecting Second Strike Regardless. The sheer magnitude and versatility of it was ticking away in his head as an endless stream of ideas. James was sure there were limits, but what exactly counted as a destructive force that he employed?

Could he use it on guns?

The tag at the end started to make sense as that possibility unravelled. If he somehow put twice the force in a firearm, there was a decent chance it would blow up in his face.

The warning’s there so I don’t kill myself with it trying something dumb. It sounded scary but James had a feeling it was a simple warning. Force was indiscriminate. If you punched yourself in the face as hard as you could, it didn’t matter that it was your hand, you’d still feel the pain of getting punched.

So if the force he looped collided with him, that force wouldn’t suddenly be negated.

The looper saw the drawback and still felt the Skill was more than worth it. Far more. Plus, it says that blowback from the Skill can be mitigated once I get good at using it. I wonder what it will even feel like.

Excitement tingled at the edge of his fingers even as James restrained his curiosity. What would it feel like to wield power like that. Like magic.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

There were still more Skills to narrow down and the question of whether Archive’s advice was worth it.

James finished with his sorting, having collected all the necessary items from his apartment. Five duffle bags could all fit snuggly in the tub of his father’s pick-up sat at the door, waiting for him. The looper checked the time and found that he was on track. The minutes he’d wasted had been countered by speeding up. Then he checked his betting and bank account, finding the numbers much bigger than they’d ever been.

He had enough money for everything he needed to purchase, everyone he needed to bribe, and any possible bartering he could foresee past system integration.

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“I guess I’m rich,” James said to himself, feeling the irony of it seep through. He finally had money and there was no guarantee any of it would be worth a thing. “Better get cash out, just to be safe.”

He did one final check and then grabbed his five duffle bags at once with a kind of awkward precision.

As he locked the apartment door James waved goodbye to the apartment that had been his home for so long, knowing that he might never come back there again. That might’ve been a sad moment for some, but James almost felt relieved.

He could leave it behind.

He could wake up in a different bed.

Strange how something so mundane sent a thrill down his spine.

Hugh had taken Michael to school in his beat-up sedan leaving the truck for James to mess around with. He’d drop the bags there and text Hugh letting him know that he’d be out. James had other places to be, and a checklist of things to finish before traffic started to pick up.

His main concern besides getting out of the city was picking up a generator, gas, weapons and Jake.

James wouldn’t leave without all of those.

As he moved down the stairs with his duffles bags in hand, James focused back on the problem at hand. His Skill selection. The looper pulled away from Second Strike and moved towards his next, very mundane-sounding Skill.

James had guesses, but as he read the description, he quickly realised all of them were far off.

[Second Thought]

[Description: Using the power of your Source, you become capable of looping your thoughts, creating an echo of yourself. Second Thought allows for a second looped stream of thought to run juxtaposed to the original, making true multi-tasking and maintaining multiple thought processes possible. Progression of this Skill will require you to delve into your mind and explore the endless hallways of possibilities consciousness holds. The User should be aware that this Skill imposes a mental and physical tax on the brain that can severely affect cognitive ability until the User learns to properly mitigate such side effects]

This…

James didn’t want to take it. The looper felt it in the bowls of his stomach the moment he read over it. Then he felt it again when he reread it. He felt himself recoil at the thought of having another him in his thoughts again. He’d felt it once with Fig. That connection between two of his own selves before one devoured the other.

He knew how it ended.

And yet the thought of it almost made him salivate. The possibilities of this Skill stretched so much further than Second Strike. It would let him think twice in the same moment. Double the thoughts at the same time would allow for him to focus on two problems in the same moment. Do two things at once.

Or solve a problem twice as fast.

That almost sounded too good to be true. It likely was. James had been warned by experience that letting two versions of himself exist did not bode well. He would be stupid to completely overlook the glaring downside of the Skill for its many upsides.

James would live without the Skill.

There was a chance he wouldn’t with it.

The looper thought hard. He stood in his apartment building’s stairwell death gripping the railing trying to decide whether it was worth it to gamble the chance.

People will think it’s all good for you. They’ll see everything horrible going on in the world and see these magical golden words offering them power then think “I’ve been chosen”. They’ll see these as gifts and look over how poisonous they could be. Some will think twice, some won’t have the chance to, and most just won’t bother to consider that the system might not have their best intentions at heart.

James believed in truth. Jake had helped him see that. The looper hated those who deceived for their own gain with a fiery passion. Fig had reinforced that fact. He possessed a need for truth and discovering the truth of things that would go unmatched by any.

And the system lied.

He knew it and he still wanted Second Thought. The ability it would grant him was that good. Second Strike was something James wanted because of how simple it was to understand, and how simple its avenues for use were. Second Thought was something James both did and didn’t want exactly because it was far more complicated.

The side effects were complex, but also the potential of the thing.

Why do I feel like taking this is opening Pandora’s box?

Because he was, but James still wanted the Skill.

“Guess that’s two,” James mumbled, picking up his bags and continuing down the stairs towards Hugh’s truck. “Hopefully the third is a strike.”

The looper banished the complex nightmare of indecision that was Second Thought and moved to his third and final Skill.

If Second Strike was on the far side of simple and Second Thought on the far side of complicated, his last Skill was smack bang in the middle.

[Second Life]

[Description: Using the power of your Source, you become capable of looping your cells, creating an echo of your healing process. Second Life creates a loop of your body's natural healing process and cells, looping and accelerating the production of blood and healing of wounds along with enabling you to create supplementary vitality within your own body. Progression of this Skill will require an understanding of your bodily functions, the genetic limits you possess and the gaps of evolution that can be filled. The User should be aware that this Skill can impose a heavy toll on the body and its health if overused until the User learns to mitigate it.]

Super healing.

James wasn’t going to say no to that. In the same way, he knew he couldn’t say no to Second Strike. The Skill was simply too enticing. But it was also complex in its potential like Second Thought which ironically, didn’t cause any second thoughts about choosing it.

Second Life was a different kind of power from Second Strike or Second Thought. Someone could improve their mental capacity with meditation and knowledge, the same way they could improve their striking power through physical training and discipline. You couldn’t improve your healing process the same way.

Sure, you could take medicine and undertake practices to speed up the process, but you couldn’t increase your innate ability to heal. Not really.

And that’s exactly what Second Life offered. The name was so on the nose it was almost ominous. A second chance at life meant that James would be near death, didn’t it? The looper didn’t like the sound of that, and yet he couldn’t help but feed into the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Because an advanced capacity to heal was almost as good as an advanced capacity to think and almost as straightforward as an advanced capacity to destroy.

James knew he wanted it, the same way he wanted all the fancy Skills the system offered him. But unlike everyone else, he didn’t decide. The looper had paid for his reparations with horror and misery for thousands of years, and now, he was just starting to get his compensation.

I want all of them.

Those two Skill points were a bonus. A bonus James wanted to spend. Archive had said that he couldn’t lie to him, and he’d also said that picking the three starter skills would be a great boon.

Archive had also been a living library of mouths that had forced him to choose an option he might very well not have picked otherwise. Soooooooooooooooo…

[Congratulations you have acquired the Skill [Second Strike], viewable on your Status]

[Congratulations you have acquired the Skill [Second Thought], viewable on your Status]

[Congratulations you have acquired the Skill [Second Life], viewable on your Status]

James was midway through the building car park when he finally decided to pick his skills.

That was a poor idea.

Halfway to Hugh’s car, with heavy bags on his back, the looper just collapsed. All the pain in the world couldn’t put a dent in his ancient mind, but the process of a Skill forming caused him to keel over.

Not because it hurt.

Because it was new. The sensation was impossible to describe because it was akin to gaining a whole new sense. Becoming aware of the universe and its intricacies on a whole new level. He felt his entire perspective of the world around him shift ever so slightly as James was cursed with a new sensation.

There was something inside of him.

Something he’d seen before.

In the Spark that charred him to a crisp till he was more monster than man.

The wide expanse, an ocean of endless paths laid out before him.

The looper witnessed the Road Untread, much more lucid this time. He felt the massive weight of the endless possibilities that existed at the heart of his being disperse as they were cleaved away.

James felt his choice to take the Skills causing an endless number of roads to fall apart and watched as three much more solid paths took their place. The impossibly wide expanse of the Road Untread narrowed into three small paths that his limited understanding could grasp.

They felt like hallways in his soul, that his consciousness could tread down whenever he chose.

Then he was on the ground, head stinging painfully as it lay against one of the duffle bags he’d dropped. James rose, slowly, keeping himself steady as his mind wobbled from side to side. He went to take a step and tripped, barely catching himself before he hit the concrete.

Because when he stepped, James could move in more than just the world. Just as his feet could walk the realm of the physical, his mind could tread down the paths in his soul.

It took five minutes for the looper before he could take two steps without falling over, and ten before he felt comfortable moving with the duffle bags again.

“This is weird,” James admitted to the world, picking up the duffle bags and wobbling a little. “It feels like I’m in two places at once.”

And he wasn’t even using his Skills. Subconsciously, he could feel them now. They were there for him, whenever he wanted to step down those roads.

Am I naturally bad at this? James wondered, slowly moving towards the Hugh’s beat-up Toyota Hilux and slinging the duffle bags in the tub. Or is every other Spark going to face the same problem.

After five minutes James had barely been able to move again, giving all his mental strength and effort to focusing on just walking in the physical world instead of the new mental path to his Skill. Was that the average?

Would everyone be stuck incapable of moving for a few minutes after they got their Skill?

That sounded like it could be very, very dangerous.

I might’ve been screwed if I hadn’t have done this before everything went to shit.

James felt a shiver down his spine at being damn near helpless the moment that integration for the whole world began. A chilling thought. One he was glad he wouldn’t have to live through.

“Dad will be mad I took his truck.” James huffed, leaving the thoughts of his Skills behind. Now he knew how slippery a slope it could be to play with them, he would test them after he’d done everything he needed to.

The first thing on the list was borrowing his father’s truck. There was just no way he’d be able to move the diesel generated he also planned to borrow without the truck.

Then, as James was getting into the car and mentally preparing how he’d apologise for taking it, another weird thing happened.

A golden arrow appeared, pointing to his right.

“This day just keeps getting better.” James sighed, turning to his right.

Hugh always parked his car between two empty car parks. It was habit at this point. The man loved his truck more than he loved himself. He treasured the Hilux too much to ever let a car near it, leaving it out for some horrible driver to scratch or god forbid dent with their own vehicle.

So when James saw the Toyota Landcruiser parked beside his father’s truck that most definitely wasn’t there when he’d got into the car, the looper was a little surprised. What surprised him more was the custom toolbox attached to the truck's tray that looked suspiciously like the one he’d sketched on his dream doomsday car.

The Landcruiser was a sleek black instead of its conventional white, devoid of any badges and only recognised by its body. Equipped with a snorkel and tyre that were perfect for the great outback, the thing looked every bit the doomsday vehicle James had wished for.

James wasn’t ashamed to admit he almost squealed seeing the beautiful metal monstrosity sitting idly.

Beckoning him.

What made him even happier was the golden words floating above it.

[Reparations Contract]

[Physical request delivered]

He moved to get out of Hugh’s Hilux, and felt an unfamiliar jingle in his pockets. When he stretched his hand in the looper fished out an unfamiliar set of car keys.

“Oh fuck to the yes.” The looper said, gazing upon the most beautiful car he’d ever seen.

His car.