“Welcome to Rotting Paradise.”
The old man said with grandeur in his voice. There was an unmistakable pride in his voice as he addressed the crowd of survivors.
“From now on, I will begin to explain our mission. Who we are. Where we are. And why you, of all people, have been recruited.
Ladies and Gentlemen. You may not have known this— And I do not blame you, it is completely reasonable that you do not know.
But for the past 50 years the whole world has been in a state of war. A war fought for the survival of the human race. It is unlike any other us humanity has experienced, and so there is no previous baseline of comparison.”
Janco’s brows furrowed in confusion. What was this old man waffling about? Was he talking about a civil war? No, that couldn’t be right— no current civil war he knew of lasted this long. Maybe this senile old man was reminiscing about the old days and thinking about World War 2?
And as if sensing his confusion, the old man seemed to address him directly.
“The current threat we face is even worse than nuclear war, where our death hovers over the trigger-fingers of policy-makers. It is worse than even climate change, that threatens to collapse our civilization. No.
This threat is a hundred percent guaranteed to cause our complete extinction, and the extinction of all life on Earth, if we do not eradicate it.”
There was a pin drop silence in the room and everyone stared at the old man in a daze. A chill ran down Janco’s spine and his mind could not even comprehend the idea of such a world-ending threat.
Meekly, he raised a hand— more afraid to break the pin-drop silence and be the first one to speak, than knowing what this threat was.
“Uhmm. What is this threat exactly? Is it biological?’
The old man smiled, as if Janco was almost on the mark but not quite.
“It is a hundred percent biological… But not in any way you think of.”
“Then what is it?”
There was a pause. And then a grave expression appeared on the old man’s face. As if sometimes, he himself couldn’t believe the threat that faced him.
“Lust.”
----------------------------------------
[The Architect wishes to grant you a reward]
I stared at the panel in my vision in stunned silence. For the first time, I truly felt what it mean to be slack-jawed. I could have believed it if I died and came back to life.
But this. This was truly the last thing I expected.
A System.
“He-Hello?”
I asked furtively, half-expecting the statue to move and the whole room to quake. But nothing of the sort happened.
[State your reward]
“Reward? Uh. Who are you?” I asked clumsily. Shit. Maybe I should’ve addressed it with more respect. Only God knew who or what I was talking to. Wait, it already told me it’s name.
Now I felt dumber than a sack of rocks.
[The Architect is amused by your question and offers you two rewards]
Now if I amuse him one more time I can get three wishes and carry out the greatest fantasy of anyone who stumbles upon the three wishes trope.
“Well. My first wish is infinite rewards.”
[The Architect looks at you in amusement. Even the eternal Universe is not infinite. He says]
I… I didn’t know what I was expecting.
“Well… My first wish is to have a thousand wishes.”
Thousand should be a good number. I could even renew it every thousand wishes and practically achieve the same effect.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
[The Architect says that recursive wishing is a fairytale]
Recursive wishing?... So my wish for endless sets of thousand wishes was not at all practical apparently. I thought long and hard about my reward. Even without the ability to have a thousand wishes, so numerous were the combination of rewards I thought of that it would be exhaustive to list them all out.
Needless to say, I was having the same trouble one faces when opening up a food delivery app and deciding what to eat: the problem of choice.
No. I was approaching this completely wrong. I had to know what it could offer.
“Pardon me asking, but could you tell me what I can expect as a reward?”
[Three answers to any question, and a System of your choosing. The Architect says]
Three questions… I had so many. How could I possibly reduce it all to three measly questions?
My lips curled up at my idea. But once again, I had to check if they were feasible.
“Do the questions start now?”
[The Architect answers ‘Yes’. And states that one question has already been answered.]
Fuck. If it was a ‘he’, he wasn’t playing nice. I couldn’t ask if my ‘question’ satisfied the format of a question. I just had to shoot.
“Okay. My question is this. Could you describe the truth of the old man I met on the train and the truth of the circumstances behind the events I’d experienced on the night of September 27th, 2023 in Amsterdam?”
[The Architect answers ‘Yes. I can describe them.’ And states that only one question remains]
My jaw fell slack and I groaned. I’d asked him if he ‘could’ answer my question. So of course the answer would be a yes or no.
“Okay. My last question…” I thought long and hard.
“Where am I and how do I get home?”
[‘You are in the world of Hayven, a world much different from yours. Make your way to the European Training Center on the other side of the chasm.’ The Architect answers]
I got isekai’d…
I expected to feel so much shock that I’d fall to my knees. Or be so surprised that I’d be unable to close my jaw. But I took it in as simply as one takes a sip of coffee. Maybe I’d come to expect the unexpected the moment I saw that tentacled monster.
But after the initial revelation of being isekai’d, my attention was caught by the mention of ‘Europe’. What in God’s name was a ‘European Training Center’ doing in another world?
But I couldn’t know. I had no questions remaining, so my mind turned to the other reward:
The System.
I’d read many webnovels so I wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of a System. But once again, I was faced with the problem of the food delivery app.
If I could choose any type of System I could have, how am I to decide? There were more Systems than grains of sand on a beach! That was an exaggeration. In all reality, there were probably only a dozen.
But this time, I didn’t have to think that much. If I’d decided on a pizza chain but was having trouble deciding what pizza— the answer was simple.
I’d just make my own pizza.
“Can I get a DIY System? As in, a modular system whose every aspect and feature I could build, design and tweak myself?”
Silent tremors ran through the whole room, as if the whole room shook slightly.
[The Architect roars in laughter. He gladly grants your reward]
And almost as soon as I’d finished reading that line of text, another panel appeared in my vision. A translucent blue one with a line of text that read.
[You have obtained a DIY System!]
[Set your command phrase]
I assumed that a command phrase was something you’d utter to open the system. This choice was self-evident.
“System” I murmured.
[Command phrase set!: ‘System’.
To call on your system, utter or think the command phrase with the intent of calling the System.]
A blue panel appeared in front of me and I furrowed my brows. I know I had said I wanted to design and tweak every every feature, but this was just absurd.
[Name: Enzo Amaris + ]
There was not a single thing on the panel except for my name and a plus-shaped button to its right. Curiously, I tried pressing it and although my fingers simply fell through, it triggered an effect.
The panel now said
[0/3 Components designed + ]
I clicked on the plus-shaped button and immediately shifted uncomfortably. A surge ‘something’ traveled to my fingers, up my arm and into my brain and I immediately knew how to design a component.
I had so many ideas that my mind was practically bursting at the seams and I thought of every possible loophole I could utilize to effectively increase the number of components.
But the Universe seemed to have other plans for me, as the room trembled. A few bits of rock and dust fell onto my shoulder and I looked up into the darkness of the massive hall.
[The Architect says that it is wise for you to leave immediately, lest you suffer a fate worse than death]
I was stunned. I didn’t want to know what a ‘fate worse than death’ could possibly be and my mind turned to one of the two other questions I wanted to ask.
“What’s happening?”
[The Architect states that all your questions will be answered when you reach the Training Center]
There was a deep rumbling in the cave— stone grinding on stone, and then it came to a stop. I could only sense that something was deeply wrong. And then my suspicions were confirmed by a deep and low rumbling.
Like the continuous and muffled thunder of heavy rain.
[‘Leave now. A great danger is approaching. One that neither of us could hope to overcome for now.’ The Architect says.]
An incomprehensible being who was capable enough to give me a System would definitely be able to face any threat. So then, just what was this ‘great danger’?
“I don’t understand. Just what is this ‘great danger’ that neither of us could overcome?”
The reply was a single word. One that seemed silly given any other context, but sent chills down my spine for reasons I did not know.
[Lust]