Fly consumed. Biomass; 0.044/1kg. Gained 0.002 xp.
I think I get it now. The biomass amount is in grams/kg. Terrible formatting, they should be the same units. Whatever, not like I can change that. What this means is that I'll have to wait until it gets to 0.1/1 kg to do the cheapest resear- tech. Which, at the rate of about 0.01 per fly, means around 5 or 6 more flies. Honestly, I feel like the rain is making me more lucky with how many flies end up crashing into me.
This also gives me a new path forward for my clones; throw shit into me to see what gives me resources and xp (preferably not actual shit, but if there's nothing else to test then I will reluctantly allow it). If there's something renewable and easy that gives me decent xp, then I'll farm that until I level up. Of course, I can only guess as to how much xp I need to level up. Worst case scenario is if xp isn't actually for leveling up, but is instead a resource for something else...
...
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if that would be the case. Clearly whoever designed this system was a complete asshole. No tutorial, no guide, misleading labels, and no way to get rid of these fucking screens. I have to make an active effort not to say th
Reloading Actives...
>:|
Available Actives: Unavailable Actives:
Generate Clone Generates a Clone Cooldown; 0:000:11:13:48:901
As you can see, terrible design. 3/10, at least it's mostly self-explanatory. And not in comic sans. Not the worst ui I've dealt with, unfortunately.
...
I can't think of anything else I can do other than either wait for a few more flies, or until I can make another clone. Both will take hours of waiting. During which I can't really do anything to speed things up.
I'm reminded of a study or whatever that I read about before. A group of people are given an electric shock. The shock is painful enough that most do not want to get shocked again. Then, they are placed in a boring room, on a boring chair, and aren't let out for 15 minutes. The only thing in the room is the button which they are explicitly told will shock them.
Surprisingly, a majority of subjects pressed the button at least once. Turns out, 15 minutes of nothing is very boring, while a button that shocks you is, technically, not boring.
...
I wish I had a button that shocked me. Or even a button that did nothing. Would've been less boring than being a puddle waiting for anything other than rain. Ugh, fuck, it hasn't even been 24 hours since I became a puddle!
...
Alright, I have an idea. An absolutely insane, stupid, dumb, crazy, useless idea. It centers on the fact that the screens have exactly 2 colors on them. If I move and overlap them in a certain way, then I can make some shapes. If you can make shapes, you can make art. I've always wanted to try out drawing, and I guess this is the next best thing.
...wait. I have two colors... can I make bad apple on this?
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"Huh? Oh, Hades! What're you doing here? You know death gods aren't allowed in the channel maintenance lines."
"I know, for the last time I'm not a god of death. Anyways, give me the records for channels one through seven."
"Dude, you know those are illegal channels, right? If anyone used them, then an alarm would've gone off. Computer, channel records 'U-d4v1-D-m5' through 'U-f4v0-R-p3'. Look, nothing's going to come out."
kch. vrrr trrrr brrrr trrrr vrrrr k.
"...oh shit. Something came out."
"Let's see... channel 6 detected an anomaly... 15 hours ago. That lines up with what I'm looking for. Alright, Legba, I'll be using channel 6. Thanks for the help!"
"Now stop right there Hades! That's a level 4 zone! You can't just... oh, he just walked in. Since when did he have level 4 clearance?"
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After staring at these screens for a few hours, I have found a few more things to complain about. The brightness changes automatically, which might seem helpful, except there doesn't seem to be any reason for it changing. It'll go from full brightness to 'phone screen at 3am' dark, and I can't do anything about it.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Honestly, it feels like the system's just fucking with me a-
Dragonfly consumed. Biomass; 0.872/1kg. Gained 0.1 xp.
oh? Oh? Holy fucking hell yeah! A whole fucking dragonfly! And it's worth so much! Thank you system! I take back wh... actually no, my complaints are still valid. But I won't be harsh on the functionality you do have for me. Like research!
Reloading Research...
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Rain, oh curse'd rain. From whence have you came? To where shall you go? Does your master cry? Or shall prayers scorn? Dear accursed rain.
...it's been a while since I've wrote poetry. I tried a foreign technique this time around, but the rhythm feels off. I guess there's a reason only scholars publish poems. Anyways, I've already gathered myself for the rest of the climb, but this rain shows no signs of stopping. The oracle never mentioned cursed rain. Well, they do say weather can't be predicted. I'll have to submit to unnature.
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Research Completed; Deoxyribonucleic Bases You can now extract adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine from biomass.
Research Completed; Genetic Reader You can now read the raw genetic information of stored genomes.
Research Completed; Ribonucleic Base You can now extract uracil from biomass.
Tada! Turns out there's no waiting with these research! Though that might change in the future...
Reloading Research...
Now let's see if there's any new research available. I bet the two bases unloc... wait fuck
Genetic Decoder Learn to decode the effects a gene has.
Biomass; 0.1 g,
DNA Bases; 0.05 g
Gene locator Learn to locate genes within a genome. Biomass; 0.1 g
DNA Bases; 0.01 g Genome extraction Learn to extract genomes from consumed biological materials. Biomass; 0.2 g Densification 1 Increase storage density, allowing for more biomass, ??????, ??????, ??????, etc. to be stored per volume.
Biomass; 1 kg or
DNA Bases; 100 g or
??????; 500 g or
...
Helpful Guide :)
Biomass; 10 kg,
DNA Bases; 1 kg,
??????; 1 kg,
...
Reloading Research...
:\
...
Anyways, there's quite a lot of new tech to res unlock, and I think I understand how I'm supposed to 'play' this 'game' (aka my cursed existence as a clone puddle). Currently, my clones are... just me, but low quality(?) However, I can directly edit their DNA, making improvements to the clones. This requires the tech, as well as biomass and 'Bases' derived from biomass. The improvements will make the clones better at certain tasks, with the cycle being clones hunting for stuff to throw into me for more biomass and even genomes. It's also implied I can store these genomes and directly transfer genes between them.
Now, I don't know too much about bioengineering, but from what I've heard about it, it ranges anywhere between 'change the color of an eye' to 'turn a goat into a spider'. I'm sure somewhere in there is catgirls and dragons, but my clones are, unfortunately, not girls nor reptiles... yet. Dammit, I can't believe I said that.
Anyways, 'Begin Genome extraction'!
Research Completed; Genome extraction You can now extract genomes from consumed biological materials.
Yay! Fr-
Fly consumed. Biomass; 0.285/1kg. Gained 0.002 xp. Extracted fly genome.
...automatic. Nice. One step closer to flying. Now how do I extract DNA from the biomass? 'Deoxyribonucleic Bases'? Nope. Is it any out of adenine, cytosine, guanine, or thymine? Doesn't seem like it. Man, I sure wish I had some sort of guide or something. It'd make this whole 'look for new part of system' so much simpler. 'Biomass extraction'? 'Extract Biomass'? 'Deoxyribonucleic Bases extraction'? I swear, I'll find it in a few hours and it'll be something stupid like 'Please extract Deoxyribonucleic Bases from stored biomass' or something.
Active; Generate Clone is now available.
Oh fuck, has it been a day already? Thank god... wait, no, it's raining and getting darker. Making a clone now wouldn't be a good idea. I'll have to wait until morning. Which means another few hours of waiting! Man, I wish I could sleep through the night.
Activating sleep mode. Warning, no active cooldowns detected. Sleeping now will be very inefficient. Continue? y/n
...oh for F