Chapter 2: The Tutorial Phase
Apocalypse Countdown
327d, 2h, 7m, 15s
A month has passed since the new year. Luna has spent a lot of that time familiarizing herself with the functionalities that the system has given her. A lot of that time was spent shifting how the interface showed itself to her. One thing she had learned to do was ‘wash’ the notifications over herself, allowing the information within to enter her mind as if it was always there. Sometimes though, it’s still better to read it out.
The biggest thing though, was what she was able to make her Character Sheet. It was certainly a work in progress, as she still hasn’t yet fully integrated the system into herself, but it works for now.
Character Sheet General Information Attributes Titles Name Luna Alicea Gonzalez Strength 17 { 20 } Average Nature Human Dexterity 20 { 20 } Alignment Earth ( Humans ) Constitution 16 { 20 } Tier 0 Intelligence 29 { 50 } Level 0 Wisdom 25 { 50 } XP 0% Charisma 24 { 25 } Character Points 0 Luck 30 { 30 } Active Quests Story Quests System Installation II System Installation III System Installation IIII System Installation V Limited Quests On A Roll I Radiant Quests Daily Conditioning Studious Student
Luna knew there was a lot missing. A lot of math that was hidden behind those attribute numbers. She had tried to understand it all, but it’s simply too complex for her. However, the numbers in the curly brackets are different from the other numbers. That’s because that is her allocated Character Points.
Though, while those numbers are pretty good, she knows that they aren’t much of anything as of yet. She has a feeling those numbers will eventually be getting quite bloated. For now though, she doesn’t have her ‘full’ capabilities just yet. The number on the left is what she has right now, and the number on the right is what she will have as soon as she finishes the final quest in the ‘System Installation’ quest chain.
Story Quest: [ System Installation II ]
You have balanced your soul, allowing you to begin to follow the path laid before you. You have gained full interactivity with the system, but many parts of the system are still beyond your grasp, and must be earned.
Objective: Complete Radiant Quests 30/31
Reward: Unlock Shop and Cultivation Systems
Story Quest: [ System Installation III ]
You have balanced your soul, allowing you to begin to follow the path laid before you. You have gained full interactivity with the system, but many parts of the system are still beyond your grasp, and must be earned.
Objective: Complete 50 Optional Quest Objectives 10/50
Reward: Unlock Talent And Skill Systems
Story Quest: [ System Installation IIII ]
You have balanced your soul, allowing you to begin to follow the path laid before you. You have gained full interactivity with the system, but many parts of the system are still beyond your grasp, and must be earned.
Objective: Complete Limited Quests 0/3
Reward: Unlock Class and Job Systems
Story Quest: [ System Installation V ]
You have balanced your soul, allowing you to begin to follow the path laid before you. You have gained full interactivity with the system, but many parts of the system are still beyond your grasp, and must be earned.
Objective: Complete Story Quests 1/4
Reward: Unlock Full System Functionality
The system is capping how fast she can get each piece of the system. Forcing her to act in a way that would prepare her for the future, or help her with her life as it is now. If the system didn’t have the Apocalypse Countdown, Luna may have truly loved it. Instead it’s just bittersweet. At least she can’t sit on her ass and leave things for tomorrow. She is forced to complete her quests as best as she possibly can.
For example, the ‘Daily Conditioning’ quest was one of the ‘Radiant’ quests she has. Meaning she can complete it over and over again for as long as it was accessible to her.
QUEST COMPLETE
Radiant Quest: [ Daily Conditioning ]
Work Out For Rewards!
Today’s Workout Regiment
Objective: Complete Workout Regimen! 1/1
Reward: 20 Character Points
Optional Objective: Push It To The Limit! 1/1
Extra Reward: Common Random Loot Box
TURN IN QUEST? Y/N
This Quest was the first one with a ‘Link’. It was a hologram that only appeared in Luna’s vision, showing her what to do. It was a half hour of workouts that made her sweat and had her muscles ache. Even then, she did it every day. She noticed herself losing weight, but her stats don’t change at all. The only thing she has seen is that her bad leg no longer panged. It was just as good as her other leg.
The ‘Push It To The Limit’ optional Objective was to double the required workouts in a single setting. She has only been able to complete it 9 other times over the course of the month. Each time she did so, the Workout Regiment got harder, but she was strong enough now to handle it.
She turns in the quest with a mental flick, and a box appears in her hands. It was nondescript, appearing like a normal cardboard box. This wasn’t her first time with a Common Random Loot Box. With her other 9 completions of the quest, she got one.
The Loot Boxes are always very useful, at least at this stage. 3 of those pulls were cash infusions. 10k just randomly got transferred to her bank account each time. Nobody seemed to note the money unless she started spending it. Even then, it seemed like the knowledge was hidden just like that of the series she was told about in the past.
Each of her other pulls were individual items.
One was in the form of a Navaja with a single magical rune on the side. Luna wasn’t able to figure out what it did, but she tested it on a pork shoulder that was going to be made for dinner, and it slid through and made a large cut on the bone with almost no brute force. Luna now kept it in her backpack for self defense.
Another pull gave Luna a puzzle piece that was a hazy white. Luna had a decent idea of what it was, but didn’t make any assumptions. She just kept what she was tentatively calling a ‘Card Piece’ in a hidden spot within her room..
Two pulls got Luna two different types of crystals. Neither could be interacted with, but both radiated a certain feeling to Luna which helped her calm down. The stronger of the two stayed in her backpack as well, while the weaker was placed next to her bed. It helped suffuse the area for when she next slept.
It was the final two that made her really happy for the boxes. They both had very similar items. She couldn’t identify them, but she felt instinctively that she could absorb them. She got the ‘Interaction Blocked’ message when she did though. She felt they were either Skill Crystals from different systems, or one was a Nexus or Mana crystal. She doesn’t fully know, however.
Luna opens her loot box with an eagerness driven by greed. All of her excitement drains as she sees what is inside. This time, all that was inside was a normal sticky note that says ‘Dud Roll’.
Luna scrunches the sticky note and tosses it in the trash can she kept in her room. Can’t be lucky every time eh?
Luna just dumps her character points into Wisdom. This raises it from the current virtual ‘50’, up to ‘52’. ‘Virtual’ because the full effect of her stats won’t be available until she finishes System Installation V. For now, it’s just numbers, which, truthfully, is more than enough motivation for Luna.
All of these boring tasks are made so much more fun when she feels she is progressing her development in a much more direct fashion. Her Title is a show of what that is.
Title: [ Average ]
Your stats have reached the average in every stat for your race, granting you this Title. This title does nothing at this time.
This title can be upgraded for increased effects.
She got this title once she rounded off all of her stats to a 20. It also meant that Luna was smart and was wise. She was lucky too. All of this before she ever got this system. It was easy to write yourself off, but when you have direct mathematical proof of your skills and abilities then it is just kinda hard to refute.
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A drop of sweat drips off of Luna’s chin, and she takes a second look at her System Integration II quest. Tomorrow, she will complete that quest. For now, she heads off to take a shower.
A warm shower was exactly what Luna needed after such a hard workout. Her muscles slowly relaxed as she did, letting the water pressure press into her back. Her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the heat and steam. Though, she couldn’t help but check out her other Radiant Quest.
Radiant Quest: [ Studious Student ]
Enrich your mind through study and scholarly practice by getting the best grades you can!
Objective: Complete Semester With B Average 0/1
Reward: 60 Attribute Points
Optional Objective: Complete Semester With Straight As 0/1
Extra Reward: Epic Random Loot Box
Luna smiled as she looked at the rewards. She gets 10 Attribute Points for every credit hour of her college courses. Luna filled her schedule with as many courses as she felt she could handle, getting 6 different classes.
What’s an attribute point some may ask? They raise her Attributes 1 to 1. Character Points have a 10 points to an increase of 1 in an attribute. Likely because they have some other purpose Luna doesn’t yet know about. She assumes it has to deal with the Skill and Class Systems though.
Until she knows what else they can be used for though, she will keep using them to boost her stats. A bit wasteful yes, but if they can be gained so easily, there is no reason to leave them sitting around collecting dust.
The classes were hard, but that was just because she was actually doing her classwork. She felt like the rewards were already in her grasp. It was all for the purpose of completing her Limited Quest.
Limited Quest: [ On A Roll I ]
Do your best in school. Get on a roll, the Honor Roll.
Objective: Get On The Honor Roll 0/1
Reward: Character Package
Optional Objective: Get Straight As While On The Honor Roll 0/1
Extra Reward: # Character Packages
The rewards had Luna salivating. Character Packages were essentially ways to get some of the abilities or other advantages that one of the main characters of those series had when they started out. None of their growth, but she could have some of their ‘setup’. It was everything Luna was dreaming of whenever she read their stories. To have their abilities. To become someone powerful who had more agency over their future than she felt she had in the past.
Luna can only assume that the ‘#’ on the ‘Extra Reward’ means that for every class she has an A in, she gets 1 character package. She hopes it’s like that. She knows it likely wasn’t going to be like that, but hope for hope's sake isn’t a bad thing.
This quest is also a chain quest. Luna can’t wait for the rest of the year to finish this quest’s requirements. She needs to get it as soon as possible to complete the other quests in the chain. She hopes that they will all have similarly powerful boosts.
“Hey Luna! Stop hogging all of the hot water,” shouted Matthew, who was banging on the door to the bathroom.
Luna turns the water off while shouting back.
“I’ll be out now!”
----------------------------------------
“You can do it, another 10 seconds!” yelled Matthew as he timed Luna’s latest plank.
“You can do it, you can do it!” screamed Jackson.
All the while, Luna’s mother was watching it from the table, sipping on a cup of coffee. A smile was on her face as she watched her kids.
Luna, on the other hand, was not focusing at all on her brother’s yelling. She was barely focusing on anything other than breathing. She, however, was staring intently at the ground. Or rather, the prompt in front of her eyes. She won’t be able to ‘Push It To The Limit’ today. She already knew that from doing it yesterday. That, however, wasn’t what she was looking at.
QUEST COMPLETE
Story Quest: [ System Installation II ]
You have balanced your soul, allowing you to begin to follow the path laid before you. You have gained full interactivity with the system, but many parts of the system are still beyond your grasp, and must be earned.
Objective: Complete Radiant Quests 31/31
Reward: Unlock Shop and Cultivation Systems
TURN IN QUEST? Y/N
Luna collapsed to the ground, her body all but giving out as soon as she saw the prompt change. Her brothers cried out as they looked at the timer.
“Nearly 2 minutes! Under by just 10 seconds, you did really well Luna,” said Jackson, while trying to help her up.
Luna’s noodle arm barely grabbed her brother’s arm. He yanked her to her feet as if she were a sack of potatoes. Luna swayed on her feet for half a second while her brother kept her steady.
“I may have brought you up a bit fast,” said Jackson, “You think you will be fine?”
“Yeah, I just need to get some food into me, I already have an idea of what to eat.”
Michael looks at the stuff on the table.
“You sure it was a smart idea to take out that meat before you started working out?”
“It hasn’t been more than an hour, It won’t hurt me as long as I cook it.”
“As long as it’s you let me have a bite, do whatever you want,” said her mother, ending the conversation with a chorus of agreements.
Luna wasn’t the best cook in the house. That had to be her mother. However, her mother made sure all of her kids knew how to cook to get a girlfriend. Of her kids, Luna was the best, and cooked entirely different kinds of food. Her mother cooked mostly Puerto Rican dishes and the occasional ‘toss things together’ soul food meals. Luna focused more on french and italian foods, with some west asian foods as well, due to watching a ton of cooking youtube.
“I’m gonna season the meat then take a shower,” said Luna as she took off the now super sweaty shirt. She still has a black tank top on, so didn’t feel exposed at all.
Michael and Jackson both go off to do what they were doing before Luna asked for a spotter. Luna’s mother watches what her daughter does to make sure she doesn’t fuck up that steak she had let rest on the counter.
“How are you cooking that steak?”
“I’m going to pan fry it, then make some asparagus in the fond. As a side, I’m gonna use some of the mashed potatoes from last night. Why?”
“Then you shouldn’t use the soy sauce on the steak. It’ll burn and make it harder to tell the color.”
“I know how to cook ma.”
“And I know that you sometimes forget about keeping your nose up, and undercook your food.”
“That was one time.”
“Oh? Just ‘one time’ you say? So when you made that chicken parm, those dumplings, those fried pork chops, tha-”
“Okay!” cried an exacerbated Luna, putting the soy sauce to the side, “Your point has been made. I’m going to go take a shower now thank you.”
“Your welcome sweety,” said her mother in as sickly sweet a tone she could manage.
“Don’t make me hug you,” Luna said, while squinting at her mother.
Luna’s mother silently stands up and walks over to her room, ignoring her sweaty daughter.
Luna heads over to the bathroom. She already laid out her clothes and stepped into the shower as soon as the water was hot. The soreness in her muscles slowly bled away to the heat.
She lathers herself up with soap and washes it all away. She then just lets herself enjoy the heat.
All things must come to an end, and she couldn’t wait for another second.
QUEST COMPLETE
Story Quest: [ System Installation II ]
You have balanced your soul, allowing you to begin to follow the path laid before you. You have gained full interactivity with the system, but many parts of the system are still beyond your grasp, and must be earned.
Objective: Complete Radiant Quests 31/31
Reward: Unlock Shop and Cultivation Systems
TURN IN QUEST? Y/N
Luna turns in the quest. A lightness begins to burn deep in her chest as she felt an energy rush through her. It was as if she could run a marathon. No 10 marathons! Her heart was beating hard.
Luna almost began to run in place in the shower. It would have ended badly, but what came next was arguably worse. A stomach deep sickness ran through her.
It was at this moment that she remembered that most cultivation systems focus heavily on the expulsion of… impurities.
Luna rushed to the toilet, still soaking wet. She hurled into the toilet the most vile shit she has ever smelled. It was black, and sticky like tar. It had a distinctive smell worse than anything else she had ever smelled before.
Luna vomited these impurities twice more, before she felt all that would leave her had done so. The only silver lining was that the taste left her mouth quickly. The fumes were making her eyes water though, and she couldn’t focus on anything else. It was only after she flushed the toilet that she realized someone was knocking on the door.
“Are you alrigh- oh FUCK,” yelled a concerned Michael, “What died in there?”
“My dignity, and breakfast,” said Luna, trying to help her brother rationalize it.
“You better spray half a bottle of air freshener. I am not entering that bathroom unless the smell is at least halfway gone.”
Luna rolls her eyes. The smell was already fading. She still sprayed a tenth of a bottle of Febreze around the whole bathroom before heading back into the shower. She felt cleaner than ever, but still hadn’t yet cleaned her hair.
Once that has been done, she checks her swath of notifications.
Shop And Cultivation Systems Integrating…
Integration Complete!
Shop has been automatically added to a new tab
Cultivation systems have been added to a new tab
Quest Rewards Updated
Luna looks at the notifications. That all was likely a very big understatement. A smile comes to Luna’s face when she checks her ‘Daily Conditioning’ quest.
QUEST COMPLETE
Radiant Quest: [ Daily Conditioning ]
Work Out For Rewards!
Today’s Workout Regiment
Objective: Complete Workout Regimen! 1/1
Reward: 20 Character Points, 100 F Grade Shop Credits
Optional Objective: Push It To The Limit! 0/1
Extra Reward: Common Random Loot Box
TURN IN QUEST? Y/N
That tells Luna quite a lot on its own. It also helps to explain why the Shop and Cultivation were both put together. The shop has some rank or tier based limitation, as well as ‘Tiered’ money that each can be used for other things, like some video games.
Luna can feel that there are other limitations, probably due to levels, classes, and jobs, but that is much more straightforward, and much less foundational to the shop.
Still, Luna can only smile as she looks at the 100 F Grade Shop Credits. With a little mental math, she figures she could get 32,700 credits off of this quest alone. It made her want to take a glance at her other radiant quest and her limited quest.
Radiant Quest: [ Studious Student ]
Enrich your mind through study and scholarly practice by getting the best grades you can!
Objective: Complete Semester With B Average 0/1
Reward: 60 Attribute Points, 10,000 F Grade Shop Credits
Optional Objective: Complete Semester With Straight As 0/1
Extra Reward: Epic Random Loot Box, 10,000 F Grade Shop Credits
Limited Quest: [ On A Roll I ]
Do your best in school. Get on a roll, the Honor Roll.
Objective: Get On The Honor Roll 0/1
Reward: Character Package
Optional Objective: Get Straight As While On The Honor Roll 0/1
Extra Reward: # Character Packages
Her Limited Quest had no changes. The Character Packages were likely extremely good on their own, so there was no reason to add even more incentive. To be fair, that was probably right anyway. Her other Radiant quest though? A major infusion of Shop Credits, doubled if she got straight As.
“My love, the hot water!” cried Luna’s mother through the wall, “You have been in there for an hour!”
“I’ll be out in a second!” yelled Luna.
Luna will need to take time to figure out the intricacies of her quest rewards later.