System's Awakening

Elitia: He's mad! Mad! Mad, I'm telling you!

Saudia: Calm down, Elitia.

Elitia: He is endlessly making inadequate choices, while muttering incomprehensible words, such as grinding or min-maxing.

Westwoods and Easteria give each other a confused glance.

Elitia: System is doing it on purpose to spite me!

Westwoods: Why would he do that?

Elitia: He is just jealous of my prowess. He realizes that I am a wall that he will never overcome.

System: { Whoo! What would this do? *click* }

Saudia: But that would hurt him more than you. Why not just let him destroy his country?

Easteria: Yes! Let him destroy his country!

Elitia: Because it would... because it would be... it would be unbecoming of me!

Elitia's outbursts stood in stark contract to how he originally entered the room. After calling together Saudia, Westwoods and Easteria, Elitia originally entered the room shyly. Elitia didn't want to ask the other systems for help on how to deal with his pupil. It was embarassing. It would mean admitting his own failings, but he had no choice. System wasn't listening anymore. He needed advice on how to salvage this operation. So he swallowed his pride and hesitantly started explaining what had happened. Once he started explaining, however, his anger started to flare up. In the end, he lost his reserve and went into a full on rage.

The other systems were giving each other complicated looks. They knew this was not the time to joke about this matter. Elitia would not be able to handle that right now. There would be plenty of time to do that later though. They were all eagerly anticipating the moment they would be able to go ham and humiliate him!

On Gaia, systems share their name with their country. Saudia, not related to any country on earth, is the most reasonable of the three. Saudia tends to be calm and often mediates between other systems in the case of conflict. Westwoods, not related to any game studios, is very careful but a bit of a schemer. Easteria, not related to anything either, is the most impulsive of the three. On top of that, Easteria hates System with a passion, which has to do with the country's history.

Systemia, Westwoods, Saudia and Easteria share the same continent. The continent has the shape of a pancake that is wider than it is tall. Westwoods lies to the west of Systemia and has a lot of forests. It's dungeons are filled with nature creatures. The country has disproportionally more death mages, because these are effective against nature affinity. Saudia is the largest country on the continent, it stretches across almost the whole southern border of the continent. It's not as tall as the other countries though. The country is somewhat vulnerable to attack, because of the huge border it has to defend. Easteria is the smallest country on the continent and it lies to the East of Systemia. Systemia was born out of a civil war. The west of former Easteria rejected Easteria's militaristic rule and rebelled. After a long war, Easteria was weakened to the point, where it could no longer continue the war effort. Ultimately they had to begrudgingly accept that the west of the country split off into Systemia, causing Easteria to lose the glory of being the largest country on the continent. They had a truce now, but Easteria held resentment towards Systemia. More so, than Systemia held to them.

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Elitia thought back to how System used to be before. Yes, System was a bit of an idiot, but at least he was somewhat endearingly acknowledging Elitia's guidance before. How could it go so wrong? After System discovered Elitia couldn't punish him, he became a loose cannon.

System: *click*

Elitia: No, you should have chosen maid, cleaner is not a bad choice, but maid was more suitable. Be sure to consult with me System

System: hmm, but I saved 10MM

Elitia: If you choose improperly, it reflects on me too. Just follow my instructions, I know what's best, I assure you

System: *click*

Elitia: Hold up! I told you to consult with me!

System: but I want to know what this does, why did I not get XP?

Elitia: Because it was the wrong choice of course

System: Oh, he killed himself, so that's why, how interesting!

Elitia: NOOOOO! My reputation!

System: *click*

Elitia: Stop it!

System: *click*

Elitia: Aything but that!

System: *click*

Elitia: My reputation!

System: *click*

Elitia: *sad* My poor reputation!

System: *click*

Elitia: Stop doing that!

System: Hmm... Lets figure out the mechanics *click*

Elitia: You ingrate!

System: *mutters* This one is good for grinding some MM's

Elitia: You! You! You! You FDIV bug processor!

System: Elitia was really throwing out the big guns now, using his meanest insult.

Elitia: Don't mind me, I am just going through puberty.

Ultimately Elitia couldn't handle seeing the damage to his reputation anymore, so he left and called for a meeting with Westwoods, Saudia and Easteria. Unfortunately for Elitia though, he held little actual power over System. So the other systems had no other choice, than to get Elitia to accept his position as an observer. Saudia told Elitia that System was sure to come crawling back once he understood he had made a mistake. That's right! Elitia said. Once System comes to terms with his folly, he has no other choice than to plead for my aid.

In the meantime, System was figuring out how the mechanics worked. Systems gain XP, which slowly unlocks new features. XP is only gained if the class is viable for the inhabitant. However, System quickly realized that "viable" is a flexible term. Furthermore, he had yet to face any negative consequences for a bad choice. His lifespan was tied to the lifespan of the country. So a successful invasion or coup would end his existance, but with a suicide in response to a wrong class assignment, this was still a long ways off. As inhabitants increasingly saw their future taken away from them, as more and more of his inhabitants started comitting suicide, System smiled and took joy in the fact that he realized, he was safe from harm.

If he followed Elitia's choices, it would leave him with little remaining mana. System's interface only showed features he could buy with his mana. Saving up MM's meant having more choices; choices he had never seen while following Elitia's guidance. He was getting more and more excited. With Elitia gone, he could now choose amongst many alternatives. Some of which had unpredictable and thus interesting results. System was having fun now!