After a quick check of how his system coin pouch worked, Arthur readied the car to move once again. However, something odd happened, the engine wouldn’t start. Arthur tried his little trick once more, and it still didn’t start. He looked at the dashboard expecting to see that he had run out of fuel, but according to the reader, there was plenty of fuel left.
He got out of the car and lifted up the bonnet. He looked inquisitively at the engine and saw nothing wrong with it. It looked fine. More than fine in fact, whoever had owned this car previously had done an absolutely beautiful job in maintaining the car’s infrastructure – yet it just simply wasn’t working. He was totally lost for words as he genuinely had no idea what was going on. His stupefied look was washed off his face upon hearing a very tired voice speak, “Grandpa, what’s wrong?”
Arthur shook his head before gently replying, “It seems something has happened to the car, we will just have to walk back to the city.”
Lucas clearly wasn’t happy to need to walk so much, but the boy quickly, even if begrudgingly, accepted it and he climbed out of the car and walked up to Arthur. Arthur grabbed the boy’s hand gently and said, “Alright. Since we’re going to be walking back, we’re probably going to encounter some monsters. Stay close to me, alright?”
The boy sighed before saying, “Yes, Grandpa.”
The two began walking towards the dirt path that they had driven off to get to their little spot on the hill. Arthur thought that taking the path was a little risky since they could be ambushed, but at the moment everything was about making the journey as easy as possible for Lucas.
As the two walked, Arthur began to tell the boy about the great heritage that came with the countryside. The boy seemed not all that interested in his grandpa’s sentimental lectures about the domestication of the wildlands versus the ongoing plight of urbanization. So, Arthur switched to something he hoped the boy would find more interesting, and he seemed to guess correctly. He started talking all about the various civil wars that England had endured throughout its history, primarily, the War of the Roses and the period of the Glorious Revolution as well as the aptly named English Civil War. Arthur could tell the boy wasn’t really interested in the political dimensions of the story, which was and had been Arthur’s primary interest in these conflicts, even as a child, but instead, Lucas seemed intrigued about the wars themselves. Part of Arthur was disappointed that this wouldn’t be an area of future bonding, as you can only tell gory stories once before they just become uncomfortable to listen to. However, the larger part of him still was just grateful to be able to bond with any of his grandchildren at all.
Though their bonding seemed always to get interrupted every so often by the appearance of some kind of creature/monster. Thanks to his increase in level and strength, Arthur was now able to defeat the more animalistic monsters just as easily as he could the more humanoid monsters. The goblins and zombies had been easy to kill as their main edge over non-humanoid monsters was their relatively higher intelligence and their use of weaponry. Yet, as they rarely seemed to wear armour, the fact that Arthur was smarter than them, wielded better weapons better than them, and was stronger than they physically made it nearly impossible for them to fight back and win. Whereas, previously, animalistic monsters would have a physical advantage, whether that be through tough fur, overwhelming physical strength, or good wielding of natural weaponry in the form of claws or teeth. Yet, now, Arthur was having no difficulty in killing Vicious Wolves, and Vicious Badgers, and he had even seen and killed a Vicious Fox, but the bad part about levelling was that these monsters gave such a pitifully low amount of exp now.
Lucas stood behind Arthur when he fought, as per Arthur’s instructions. The boy was curious about the fights, of course, but fear of fighting and monsters had coiled itself deep into his heart after seeing his dad die right in front of him. The boy could now only cling on to the leg of his grandfather to survive, a man he had barely known existed until yesterday. Yet, now, he was the only family that Lucas had nearby. The man had also treated him far more warmly than his father ever had, and it was the first time in Lucas’ entire life that he could remember that he hadn’t been punished harshly for crying or for being weak. He had been saved by this man, his grandfather, and had now unknowingly placed his full trust in the elderly man to keep him safe from all the monsters in the world, even those who wear human skin. Now he just wanted to hide behind his grandfather forever, until all the monsters go away – though he knew deep down that this was what his father would have called “childish dreaming”. His father had hated childish dreaming with a passion. So-called 'childishness' of any kind really.
The progress of their walk was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a humungous spaceship-looking thing up in the sky above them. It had to be over 50km long, and both Arthur and Lucas looked up at the incredible ship in awe but quickly snapped out of their admiration as it started bombarding the Earth’s surface with unfathomably powerful blasts of energy. Arthur quickly responded, grabbing Lucas into his arms, and running as far away as he could from the places the ship was bombarding. However, after only 5 more blasts, the ship’s weapons ceased firing. Then, leagues of smaller ships launched from the open hangers of the larger spaceship and into the sky above, they quickly dispersed in all directions, leaving only a couple of ships flying above them – including the larger mothership, as Arthur was now calling it.
Arthur’s anxiety skyrocketed upon spotting that one ship was descending at a rapid pace and heading directly at Arthur and Lucas. The older man felt his senses and instincts go into overdrive as they tried to figure out what to do, but before he could come up with any answers, the ship had already started landing directly in front of them. Arthur’s anxiety actually lessened somewhat, the ship landing seemed to indicate that whoever or whatever was piloting the ship wished to communicate – that at least gave him and his grandchild a chance at survival. Though, knowing that the arrival of this mothership and its forces likely meant an all-out war was coming to Earth, he wondered if it would truly be more humane to have both he and Lucas die here. He immediately attacked his own head for thinking such a thing. He had to endure. For Lucas. For Himself. For Everyone in his now-deceased family.
Seconds later, the ship had successfully landed itself and its cockpit opened revealing its pilot. In the ship’s barebones cockpit sat a humanoid figure made of metal, whose eyes glowed purple and whose entire body seemed specifically to pilot the particular type and make of the advanced aircraft they were flying. Arthur hesitantly assumed this unknown being was an AI/Robot of some sort. He was soon proven correct in his assumptions as a speaker from within the cockpit began blaring out an incoherent jumble of English words and phrases. Arthur had no idea how the machine knew the few words of English that it did, but still, the thing wasn’t making any kind of sense and so he unconsciously started panicking as this would definitely hinder communication. And, since he definitely couldn’t punch a massive spaceship to death, communication was the only path that he and humanity could walk to not be exterminated by the alien menace.
Arthur decided to try and ask the AI a question, “Who are you?”
The Robot’s eyes flashed on and off again in rapid succession as if this were a visible sign of it processing the fact words had just been spoken to it. Expecting a garbled answer, Arthur was shocked when a semi-coherent string of words came back in response, “I am Vermin-Grade-Pilot#9231345… colony your planet will now become… imperial goat cheese.”
Lucas couldn’t stop himself from giggling slightly. The AI sounded a bit like Yoda from Star Wars after all and it clearly hadn’t managed to fully master English yet. Arthur on the other hand was more anxious. A colony? Then these alien forces wished to conquer Earth. Arthur felt like he should be far more concerned and outraged than he was, but in truth, he didn’t really care about the governments of the world – and if the aliens weren’t tyrannical despots, most people would probably not tell the difference. Plus, though the mechanical pilot identified itself as Vermin Grade, he highly doubted that humanity could actually pose a legitimate threat to a force that seemed to stem from this wider multi-verse that the system connected the Earth to. Arthur sighed, before speaking once again.
“I see. Then what are your intentions for the two of us?” Arthur asked, getting to the important point right away.
The robot processed the new words before its voice replied in much clearer English with, “Path to achieving Imperial Citizenship both of you can now walk. I am here to offer you that. That’s right. Yes. Weak in the knees do not be.”
Lucas giggled once more, not being able to take the whole situation seriously due to the AI’s voice’s inflexion. Arthur shot him a stern glare, which stopped his giggling immediately. The butler had to admit, he also found the strange AI’s way of talking to be quite funny, but he had no idea if this advanced AI could get offended and he didn’t want to risk it by having Lucas unintentionally insult its language skill. So, he kept his own amusement hidden under wraps. However, more importantly, he was curious as to what this path to Imperial Citizenship entailed.
“Path to Imperial Citizenship? What does that mean?”
The AI processed his words before the speakers blared out the sound of trumpets and the robot then spoke in a different booming propagandistic voice, “The Glorious Path to Imperial Citizenship is a quota-based new-population integration model codified in the law of the Grand Imperium of Hergalexy. Its principal aim is to inspire cooperation and obedience from newly subjected populations towards and with the Grand Imperium. It achieves this aim by requiring all those wishing to become a part of the greater Imperium’s society to contribute to the prosperity of said society.”
Arthur’s brain processed the words the AI had spoken, but none of the sentences actually seemed to contain any substantive information about the path itself. Other than that, it is “quota-based”, but the rest of the response sounded more like a vapid press release rather than actual information. Arthur raised his voice and asked, “What are the actual requirements of this quota?”
The Robot tilted its head as if looking at Arthur curiously. It then replied in what seemed to be its regular voice, “12 ‘steps’ must be taken to walk the path and achieve Imperial Citizenship.”
The robot then did something strange, and a strange whirring noise could be heard from behind it. Then, one of its wiry hands reached back and pulled out what looked to be a strange-looking syringe and it then stared at the two of them. It then spoke, “This is the injection form of the Imperial Citizenship system quest, as well as a basic universal vaccine against the most common diseases known to the multiverse. If you should wish to achieve Imperial Citizenship, please step forward and I shall administer your jab.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Arthur noticed now that the AI’s ability to speak English had improved tremendously in only a couple of minutes. It was mind-boggling. He slowly made his way towards the robot, unsure why he felt compelled to get this jab – or become an Imperial Citizen – he nevertheless tried showing Lucas a strong face. This was less out of fear of the jab being poison or something, but more because he had always had a fear of needles. A fear he theorized probably stemmed from his mother’s obsession with forcing him to learn to sew having caused him many a painful night in his youth. However, upon being close enough to the robot, it lurched forward at incredible speed and jabbed it into his thigh.
He cried out, it was quite painful, but soon, thanks to his system perks, his body healed, and the pain was gone. He looked at the damn robot in anger, but before he could do anything stupid, the AI said, “Your young companion will need to have received the jab himself and or a non-path-based vaccine before he can leave this planet, as per the codex of civil law pertaining to disease and or other damaging pathogens.”
Arthur, slightly blown away by the sheer normality of the AI’s words, had the anger cleared from his system before he uttered his next words. Or he was going to start speaking when he suddenly had a system prompt appear in front of him. He stared at it blankly.
Quest Received: The Grand Imperium of Hergalexy: Path to Citizenship!
Parts completed: 0/12
To complete the first part of this quest, you must:
* Fight 50 monsters on your home planet and ‘gift’ the Imperium all of the monster remains.
Progress: 0% complete
* Learn the Imperial Common Tongue to [D] Grade/ Passable Proficiency
Progress: 0% complete
* Register your personal details with the broader Imperial system.
Progress: 0% complete
Reward: A step closer to achieving Imperial Citizenship
Arthur looked at the quest prompt and didn’t see anything particularly unusual in terms of requirements for someone to become a citizen. He knew of plenty of countries that probably required proportionately far stricter requirements than these for someone to become a citizen. However, this was only the first step of 12, and he didn’t know if each step would have him actually do more and more ‘gifting’ to the Grand Imperium as that would be quite troublesome. He decided to ask the robot a question he had then but noticed that the AI seemed to be engaged with something – though he had no idea what.
Arthur waited a few minutes before asking uncertainly, “How does one exactly either register one’s personal details, or ‘gift’ any monster corpse to the Imperium?”
The robot stopped what it was doing and looked at Arthur intensely for a moment before the reply came. “Upon finalization of the World Capture process…”
Then, The AI’s voice was suddenly drowned out by a truly momentous, earth-shaking explosion rippling out in the distance. When the sudden and overwhelming shock of the explosion had worn off, Arthur looked around and saw that the robot had fully disappeared from view. Then, he looked up at the sky and he could guesstimate a reason as to why the robot had abandoned the position it was in. The mother ship, while having moved a great distance away, was still visible to the Arthur in the sky – and it was now visibly falling to the earth, presumably with a truly oceanic amount of radioactive waste covering it. Soon it would crash land into the Earth.
‘A FUCKING NUKE!’ Arthur thought to himself as he rushed towards Lucas. The boy was totally shell-shocked, standing utterly still as his ears were ringing. He didn’t bother trying to talk to the boy and simply picked him up and put him over his shoulders, and he ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the falling mothership. It seemed one nation or another had sent a nuclear missile at the alien invaders as if this were some kind of 90’s action movie, rather than the actual end of the world. The nuke seemed to have hit its target and had the desired result, but just imagining Earth’s inhabitants fighting against those species and civilizations who’ve had the system their entire lives made Arthur know that resistance was ultimately futile. However, those thoughts didn’t stop him from running as far and as fast as he could.
Then, he was sent hurtling forward by a massive dust cloud, and he made sure to first cushion the fall of Lucas, and once they were both on the ground, he climbed on top of him and thereby protected him from the debris that was flying towards them at top speeds. Arthur’s body was bombarded by hurtling sticks and stones, but as the old saying goes, sticks and stones won’t break my bones – especially as I have a maxed-out Bodily Healing perk! Arthur chuckled to himself at that one, a brief bit of levity was always welcome in a situation where nothing, but misery and uncertainty existed.
After 10 minutes, the dust cloud dissipated. Arthur, noticing this, then started the motions to get up off the floor before another earth-shattering explosion rang out in the distance. This time, however, the explosion was from no nuke – instead, it seemed to be the result of one of the 1km long comet-looking balls of fire that were now raining down from the sky. Arthur knew that this had to be the result of some weapon from the Grand Imperium, but he couldn’t do much with that information as each time he tried to move another explosion would ring in his ear. He was in a god-forsaken warzone, and from the sheer power and constancy of the explosions, Earth’s population was losing. Badly.
He hardened his resolve after he heard the hundredth explosion, and he once again picked up the young Lucas and put him over his shoulders. Then, for the first time, he loaded up the system map of Earth that he had received upon the conclusion of the 1-day system “tutorial”. It at first showed a quite unhelpful model of the entire world, a great big blue and green sphere floating in space. Then, it zoomed in on his current location, and it actually highlighted particular spots on the map within a 100km radius with a pin. He soon found out that reason as he had run towards one of the pins, hoping for some kind of shelter/refuge, and not only did he find a cave, but also a great big wooden medieval-looking chest sitting deep inside it.
Arthur quickly rushed inside the cave and lay Lucas down against the wall of the cave as he inspected the cave. The explosions roaring in the background had now become just that, background noise, and Arthur could largely ignore them, and the chest’s contents intrigued him as an idea much more. The system had seemingly given him, and an unknown number of other people, a literal treasure map and, if videogame logic held true, there should surely be some good loot within each chest and location marked on the map. Though, a grimace formed on Arthur’s face imagining this chest to be some kind of the multi-versal equivalent of one of those scummy loot crates you’d receive upon the finalization of micro-transactions. With that in mind, he moved over to the chest with a diminished excitement, and he then tried opening the chest as one would a normal chest. However, a system prompt appeared after just a single finger touched the wooden chest’s lid. He checked it out.
You have discovered: [E] Newly-Integrated-Planet Reward Chest
Type: EXP
Reward: 25,000 50,000 EXP (Class Bonus Active)
You have levelled up! (x4)
Stat Point(s) awarded: 20.
Skill Point(s) awarded: 16.
New Level: 15
Progress to Next Level: 3,195/16,000
Arthur almost fainted upon seeing that he had received yet more damn stat points, he was now wondering if him saving his stat points up was a waste considering that he seemed to have so many at the moment. However, he stuck to his gut instincts, and he didn’t allow himself to think about spending any more stat points for the moment. Then, out of nowhere, a system prompt appeared in front of him and its contents made Arthur nostalgic, but also made him want to faint as he realized things might get really expensive soon.
Class-Related Skill Point Shop:
(Note from User Manual: The Class-Related Skill Point shop is one that will only appear after you level up, and even so, is not guaranteed to appear. It is used to make necessary skill purchases for your class.)
[Basic] Dispute Management (Lvl:1) | Description: As a butler, it is vital that you are able to mediate disputes, both within the household and with outsiders. | Cost: 1 Skill Point | Premium Cost: 5 Skill Points
(Note from User Manual: Now that you have gained full system access you shall, on occasion, be offered the chance to purchase skills/skill upgrades, as well as perks/perk upgrades, at a ‘premium’ cost. Paying the additional cost shall boost the skill’s initial level, as well as lowering the thresholds needed to level the particular skill in the future.)
[Basic] Cleaning (Lvl:1) | Description: As a butler, you shall likely need to clean up after more people than you would initially expect to. However, duty calls. | Cost: 1 Skill Point | Premium Cost: 5 Skill Points
[Basic] Cooking (Lvl:1) | Description: As a butler, you shall likely be asked to prepare food for your master, you are, of course, more than happy to oblige. | Cost: 1 Skill Point | Premium Cost: 5 Skill Points
Arthur’s wave of nostalgia had been a result of remembering all the disputes he’d ever had to settle whilst a butler. As a butler, he’d seen and heard things from people that most people would look upon or hear about with total shock and disdain for all those involved. He would, on occasion, encounter a master in bed with a woman who was not the lady of the house, or perhaps a young master might have accidentally “misplaced” their stash of illicit narcotics. Either way, he, as the trusty butler, had to mediate everything and in doing so show the utmost level of discretion. It was not his role to judge, only to serve out his role admirably.
With that being said, however, Arthur was astonished at how costly purchasing premium truly was. Plus, if the damn system would grant him his already acquired skills, he would put good money down on the fact he’d have a much higher skill level than the label [Basic] or even [Advanced] would imply. However, Arthur had no idea about whether the grade/rank of any skill came with some special perk etc that made each task individually much easier. He was a mean cleaner, that was for certain, but not even he could claim to clean or cook at a bona fied supernatural level of proficiency. He sighed, his ignorance once again stemming any truly intense feelings from arising either way.
He put his pride and price anxiety aside for the sake of, the now unconscious, Lucas. Then, spent 15 of his newly acquired skill points on buying all three skills at the premium price. The price hurt his soul to pay, but he couldn't pass on making sure that his fundamentals were all in the best state they could be as of right now. Three system prompts then appeared in front of him.
Skill: [Advanced] Dispute Management (Lvl:3), has been purchased!
Skill: [Advanced] Cleaning (Lvl:3), has been purchased!
Skill: [Advanced] Cooking (Lvl:3), has been purchased!
Arthur felt some of his buyer's remorse recede as he saw that not only had he received skills at a higher grade, but he'd also been given a decent chunk of progress in them towards the next grade. He guessed he would just need to put in the effort to level the skills up before he dared show himself before a potential employer. Arthur had no idea what kind of competition he'd have and his pride alongside his sense of duty wouldn't allow him to be anything other than the best, so he knew he'd need to work tirelessly to improve these skills in particular.
It was as he started to think about how on earth he was supposed to train his Dispute Management skill that he realized something. The explosions had stopped. That realization struck him, then he had a crazy idea. Dispute management? What situation could be more in need of Dispute management than a literal colonization force and the native population potentially engaging in an all-out war? He knew it was a crazy thought to get involved, but it was undoubtedly his best shot at rapidly raising the level of that skill in particular.
He looked over his shoulder at the sleeping form of Lucas. Then nodded his head.
He would do it. Not only for his own skill development but because there were undoubtedly going to be mass casualties in any war, especially when the stakes seemed so existential to one side. Arthur wished to spare the children of Earth the need to suffer through that, so he would simply have to negotiate. There was no other way for the remnants of Earth's humanity to survive.