[SKILL MENU]
RECORDING SOUL MOVEMENTS....
Deep breaths.
One of my soul tendrils grow towards the rock I'm holding in my hand.
I throw the rock in the air and-
[SKILL MENU]
SOUL MOVEMENTS UNSTABLE.
SKILL CREATION FAILED.
FUCK!
The rock falls on my bed. I forgot how frustrating making skills truly was, you can't just know how to do something, you need to do it perfectly without getting distracted. See, when I create a skill, I need to do the soul movements the skill will try to replicate. Now that may sound simple, but since a soul moves ALL the time, how does the skill menu know what soul movements are the one related to the skills, and which ones are unnecessary?
That's the fun part, it doesn't. I need to keep my soul completely still, but I still need to show what the skill looks like to said soul. It requires so much concentration, it's no wonder I hadn't created any new skills for...I don't know, very, very long?
I increase my perception again, I need to keep it down whenever I create a skill or my soul gets absolutely restless. I wonder if I could just get away with doing manual surgery? I wanted to create skills specific to my new magical girl persona, but I'm sure no one will notice if the 'magic' isn't super consistent. And even if they do notice, I doubt they would care, I can just say I'm a special case and I don't know why.
Yeah, I'll do that, sounds easier than creating skills from scratch just for one universe, it's super annoying and I hate it and I just want to do cool magical girl stuff already.
I hear a gentle knock, and I open the door. It's Hotel and the blind...
Lei...lani, yeah, Leilani and Hotel are here when I open the door. Did Hotel knock? When did they learn to knock? Ha, whatever.
I push them inside, maybe a little too roughly, as the- Leilani stumbles and Hotel catches her before she falls over. It reminds me of...
HeY, I didn't NEED your help! WHY dO you hAve to-
I shake the intrusive memory away. It's not the same at all, so it shouldn't remind me of that.
"Why are you two not hanging out in your room anyway?" I sigh.
"Others are mean!" The girl Leilani pouts. "They hurt Hotel and- and- and they make fun of us! They only leave us alone when it's inside your room, Miss Leave!"
I'm starting to understand why Inadequacy just slammed that mean kid on the ground now, because I'm getting the exact same urge.
Hotel pats the girl on the head and say, "It's okay, they just don't understand."
I tilt my head in confusion, when did Hotel learn to speak this fluently? They didn't even hesitate with each word like they usually do. Hotel notices my stare and puts themselves between her and me, as if they are protecting her, it reminds me of nothing.
"Do...not...angry?" Hotel asks? Say? I don't even know anymore.
"I'm not angry, I'm just confused. Why do you speak so...weirdly with me, but not with her?" I ask, hoping I don't come off as too accusatory.
"You...angry...when...your words?"
"What? Why would I care if you use my words?"
Okay, let's think about this. Did I ever punish them for speaking normally?
Ho. Hoooo...I'm an idiot. Yeah, I see what the problem is now, I really am a terrible parent.
"You can dig into my memory and use sentences from there, I don't really care." I lie. Of couse I still care, but if those memories are going to haunt me anyway, they might as well be put to good use.
"...Truth?" they ask.
"Yeah, you'll just have to figure out yourself when it's a good idea or not to say certain things."
"Like this?" they raise their hand.
"Yeah, like this." I copy their hand movement.
"Like this!" Leilani chimes in, raising her hand too.
There's a few more 'like this' between Leilani and Hotel before I decide to leave the room. Seeing Hotel speak like this is kind of...weird. I always saw them as a child, but they learn much faster than one, is it a good idea to leave them around other kids like this? It's not as if I expect them to do anything weird to other kids, but I think they are self-sufficient enough that I can consider them their own person instead of a parrot that repeats everything others see and do.
I'm sure it's safe to leave them near Leilani, she's a nice girl, so I'm sure she'll be a good influence, although I'm not sure if it's a good idea for Hotel to get attached to her.
What if she dies? And when we inevitably leave, then Hotel won't be able to talk to her anymore.
Wait, that doesn't right. I remember another quirk of the sanity system, it also hid some skills because their very existence implied something I didn't want to acknowledge.
I need to make sure of something.
[CURRENT UNIVERSE DATA]
Name: Emotion Project (third test)
Description:
Testing how hard I can encourage specific emotions within vessels, and which ones create the most experience. I'll reuse some things I created in the last iteration to create conflict.
Coordinate:
-56S / 125L / 915N
System:
N/A
Thankfully, most true gods store general information in the same place, because it's usually the hardest place to access.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
It's also the easiest place to find if you know where to look, but what I care about here are the coordinates.
[PREVIOUS UNIVERSE DATA]
Name: N/A
Description:
N/A
Coordinate:
-1056S / -12L / 50N
System:
N/A
I'm looking at the "S" coordinate, if it's negative then that means the previous world's time is slower.
[PREVIOUS UNIVERSE DATA]
Name: God Meritocracy
Description:
Make all gods start off as mortals and work hard to get there, previous gods were too cruel and apathetic. Hope this one will go better.
Coordinate:
-1056S / -12L / 50N
System:
Self-aware / Stat based / Public / Experience cap.
If it's consistently negative, then that means I've been going in the same direction this entire time.
[PREVIOUS UNIVERSE DATA]
Name: Don't care
Description:
I'll just wait and see what happens, people became too dependent on me last time.
Coordinate:
-453S / 647L / -41N
System:
N/A
And if I've been going in the same direction this entire time, then that means the universe hasn't changed much ever since I left.
[PREVIOUS UNIVERSE DATA]
Name: FUCK FUCK FUCK
Description:
I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TO STOP THIS, THE MIST JUST KEEPS GROWING, IT'S MAKING EVERYTHING PRODUCE LESS AND LESS EXPERIENCE.
I'M LOSING CONTROL OVER MY OWN UNIVERSE.
I NEED TO FIND A SOLUTION FAST BEFORE I STARVE. IF ANOTHER SOUL CAN READ THIS, PLEASE HELP.
Coordinate:
-1378S / 247L / 347N
System:
N/A
Yup, every single S coordinate is negative.
I'm checking more and more universes, and S is always negative. This means that if I were to ever come back, not that much would've changed.
I didn't want to entertain that possibility, but it would be possible to communicate between universes, it wouldn't even be that hard.
Now, my main justification as to why I didn't do it was that time passes differently between universes, and as such by the time you send a message to another universe, then everyone you knew would've died. One second could've been a million-year over there or something.
But turns out it's the opposite, time passes a lot more slowly for the universes I've left behind, because for some reason my soul has been going in the same general direction this entire time. So I could...theoretically, THEORETICALLY, come back as if nothing had happened, and I hate it.
I hate that this is an option, or something I can consider.
Because it's simple when you leave something behind, right? There's closure, you don't have to think about it anymore because you'll never see this place and the people in it ever again.
I can't help but laugh, It is funny, isn't it?
All this time, I've been cursing my existence, that I didn't have a choice, that I'll just die and wake up somewhere else, and even if I did come back, that everyone I knew and loved would be gone.
I had nothing to complain about.
I was leaving out of my own free will.
You know what the worst part is?
Even after learning this, I still want to leave. I want to forget that coming back is even an option, I want to act as if I'm still the victim of some cosmic joke. But that's not an option anymore, the sanity system is disabled, and that means the two hidden skills are now in plain view.
Skill Name Description Drawbacks Hyper Communication
Allows you to communicate with a specific soul, this skill works between universes if the sanity value of the user is equal to or lower than INF.
You need to have known the soul before communicating with them, and know in which universe they are located.
Time dilation between universes might cause issues when communication.
Text is encouraged over verbal communication.
Universe Hopping
Transport your current body and soul to a specific universe with the right coordinate.
This skill cannot be used or seen as long as the sanity value of the user is equal to or lower than INF.
None. Your soul has hopped through so many universes that this skill now comes naturally.