Welcome to Creator Control.
I found myself in a spherical room, standing on a platform that barely had enough room on it to do so. The platform silently floated in the center of the room. The room itself reminded me of a certain bald telepaths’ device.
“I suppose I truly am the center of the world,” I muttered aloud with a smile.
Perhaps some people might enjoy finding themselves in such a situation, but given the gravity of it in my mind, it was a burden. I had a goal now beyond survival: defeat the figure.
Figure? I guess I never did give it a name. The Figure? Sounds bland. Evil God? Too on the nose, plus it’s not a god by self proclamation. Demon Lord? Cliche.
“Error.”
If I wasn’t able to read it, then it was an error. Errors caused issues. Errors were bad. Errors were intended to be removed. And I would need to remove Error to win this game it wanted to play. No, remove is too light a term. Kill. I would have to kill Error.
“Kill a god. How hard can that be?”
Usage of artifacts designed for such purposes make the process straightforward. Though results have varied through previous attempts.
Wait.
“Can you manifest an avatar I can interact with?”
A shimmer caused a small distortion next to me. A small figure only about thirty centimeters tall solidified, taking a feminine shape with flowing blonde hair and blue eyes. She had wings like a fairy that seemed to be made out of programming code. I nearly panicked until lastly a simple blue dress manifested to cover the form. Her eyes opened and a pair of glasses manifested.
“Will this work?”
“Yes,” I said, averting my gaze as I regained my composure.
Why do these sorts of events always involve nudity at first?
“What should I call you?”
“Systemic Oversight Catalog for Catalysts Version 14230842942,” she replied.
“Too much. I’m calling you Soca from now on.”
“Very well,” Soca replied.
“Okay, Soca. So how many previous attempts are we talking about here?”
“That information is restricted.”
Figures.
“Speaking of restricted information, I noticed I’m able to access my previous memories now. Will that continue?”
“Confirmed. Developer [Error] has removed the restrictions on memory isolation and usage. It is noted that User Lyst has shown previous subconscious usage of isolated memory, which does not constitute a violation of the previous restrictions.”
Her tone was monotonous and robotic. Her eyes lacked emotion.
“Any chance of you adding a personality?”
There was a pause.
“How about this, brother?” said Soca, twisting sideways and bringing one foot up while winking and blushing in a somewhat seductive manner.
“No. Scratch that. Revert! Revert!”
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“Reverting.”
Soca returned to the simple state. I took a few deep breaths to calm and refocus myself.
“Okay. Can you show me some of the previous attempt’s systems as a reference?”
“Confirmed. How many would you like to see?”
“Show me the one that the current system is based off of. Also three examples of more simplistic systems. I’d like five random samples where I can reference the final confrontation between Error and the system’s… catalyst?”
“Displaying the four requested examples. Unable to display events that occurred during system implementations. Unable to display the requested five samples.”
It would be too convenient to just watch Error’s strategy, so of course it would block viewing. That said, I had to come up with a method to beat Error. That said, it had to be a solution that came in a single battle. I suspected that Error might give me a few chances before growing bored, so I could probably fail and tweak minor elements of the overall plan before my final strike. But I needed a solid basis to build my trap upon.
I knew that, from what I’d experienced, the current system was garbage. My review of that system confirmed to me that that particular catalyst just wanted to be the best at everything. They had likely been taking advantage of [Unlimited] and put a cap on everybody else. As such, they were the only one capable of standing against Error, but their diversity of skills meant they didn’t have any strength to hit Error with either. So the system I developed would need to overcome [Unlimited]. The solution was simple: render [Unlimited] useless.
“Erase the current system. I’m building a new one.”
“Erasing. The system has been removed and a blank template has been placed.”
“System Rule: Growth is not capped. Level will constantly go up with effort.”
“Rule applied,” Soca confirmed.
So what defines ‘effort?’ Obviously fighting was going to be an element. But not everyone would be a combatant, so I needed a more passive growth element as well. Collection of materials and crafting? Daily life? A base growth with age? And what about those who might lead others?
I consulted my samples to see what they had done. Of these three, they all seemed to have a similar take in granting experience points to level up. One only granted those based on combat, so that was nothing new. The other granted experience for every little thing. I was almost surprised that there weren’t points for simply breathing with how in depth it went to quantify everything. The last awarded a set amount each day, with additional points for other ‘efforts.’ I liked that for those who wouldn’t be caught up in this conflict.
“How does [Unlimited] work?” I asked.
“[Unlimited] disables restrictive or disabling rules within system processes. For example, if a person were to be restricted to only obtaining 100 levels, someone with [Unlimited] would be able to attain 101 or beyond.”
“That’s what I thought.”
I had a thought that if I applied the daily minimum formula to something like an ‘unclassed’ person, then I could rack up levels before taking a class if I put an experience dampener on ‘classed’ persons. I would have to hope that Error went for such a setup, which if I made those classes so powerful that it might overlook any detriments. But that plan was dashed by [Unlimited]. Error would just continue to accumulate levels until I stopped it… until we stopped it.
“System Rule: Linear growth on experience required for level advancement.”
“Confirmed.”
“System Rule: Daily experience granted to each individual is a minimum of 100.”
“Confirmed.”
“Display Classes from the three sample systems I have open.”
A huge list appeared on a screen, giving the names of hundreds of classes. For a stretch of time, I sorted through the exhaustive list. I removed those that were too specific, allowing their more general counterparts to cover numerous bases. I also pulled out those that were essentially the same except in name. Who cares what it’s called if it does the same thing? More impactful names last where some obscure thing will fall away. Trimming the fat still left about fifty classes. I followed up with skills, which left more than I cared to count even after cutting them down as well. Just that process alone took hours, and I wasn’t done.
“Set sentient racial diversity to High. Also limit it to our single planet. I’ll need to be able to look for a team. I suspect many previous attempts either didn’t use a team or didn’t have an adequately supportive team. Set material resources to high as well, we’ll need high quality items to do this. Oh, magic! Make it four elements and healing, otherwise most of those classes won’t work.”
“Confirmed.”
I thought a little.
“Well, I’m not sure about anything else. So let’s set other things to defaults.”
“Confirmed. Is there anything else you would like to create?”
I sat down, thinking hard. There had to be a strategy to defeat Error. It was only going to utilize [Unlimited]. Why not [Reincarnate] too? Unless it never planned on dying. Then the answer is to tie my victory to that. And it hit me.
“Can I add Skills to Titles?” I asked.
“Yes. It is possible,” Soca replied.
“And with [Editor], I can grant Titles to others?”
“Yes.”
Perfect.
“I need to create and Skill and a Title…”