"Ugh, I know, I know," I mumbled to Chris, reaching to turn off the news. "That’s the third group this week praying to the system like some kind of deity. Don't get me wrong, they're harmless, I just can’t believe people are really that stupid. I did my best with the message, I even went beyond what I initially planned.”
“I can’t help but laugh at how they covered all the deaths. They seriously started praising all the politicians and celebrities that didn’t die. They could still be total dirtbags, but because they didn’t have a 1 or 2 score, they act like they’re perfect. I really hate how humans are. They covered the people who actually died for like 2 minutes and that was it. I knew the president was bad, but I still can’t believe that over 90% of all politicians in every country and half of all celebrities died.”
Chris, ever the optimist, sauntered over with a "oh well" shrug. "Dude, chill. You've been stressing out for three days. It's done. Honestly, it’s a way better outcome than I expected." A sly grin replaced his relaxed smirk. "That being said, let's get goin’. The sooner we finish everything the sooner we're ready. When Sim's done with the system, I wanna be the first tester, get a head start on leveling up ya know.
I just shook my head. I was pretty sure he already knew he was going to get perks that no one else in the world did.
“I just hit level ten in analysis and I want to go start playing with people’s numbers. I also need more money in my personal account. I gave the last of it away yesterday.”
With my curiosity piqued, I interrupted, "Explain the meditation part. What epiphany did you have to finally break past level nine?"
Chris launched into his explanation, and it became painfully clear: pure luck. He stumbled into the right path without even knowing what he was looking for. He’s gonna have trouble with level 20 for sure.
“Sweet!” I said. “I thought I was gonna have to guide you on how to break through. Wait, who did you give that much money to?”
As he explained where the money went, his voice got more and more animated. You could tell he was really emotional about the situation.
“I was walking out of the mall trying to level up my skill and I found a lady with two kids sitting on the side of the road. She wasn’t begging or asking for anything. She just sat there looking defeated. So I analyzed her. Her morality number was a 9. Only one I’ve seen that high. She said she had been homeless for a month after her husband hit her and she took the kids to get out of the situation. She had been sleeping in a tent. I asked if her husband died in the culling and she said no. I was just gonna tell her to go back to the house if he died, but she said he was still there. So after talking to her for a little bit, I took her across the street to the bank. I had her open a new account and transferred the rest of the money to her. It was like $400,000, so it wasn’t a crazy amount. Just enough for her to have a house and food until the system comes online.”
“What was her name?” I asked.
Chris, still visibly emotional, began to recount everything he knew about her. At least, he made it seem like he was telling me everything. “Riley. I didn’t ask her last name. After she told me her situation, the name didn’t seem important. Her kids, Connor and Claire, are just 10 and 7. After what they went through with their dad, I couldn’t just do a little bit. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for them until the system is done.”
As I listened, I sent a quick mental cue to Sim. Instantly, she placed a million dollars in the ring's storage as cash for easy future access in similar situations. Additionally, she transferred another 10 million into Chris’s personal account. Blocking notifications to the government was no longer necessary. Most systems had halted due to a significant loss of staff. The deaths had primarily affected higher-ups, but many employees had resigned, disagreeing with how things were being handled. They wanted to focus on self-improvement before dealing with the system. Consequently, most agencies were now offline and might never be restored.
“I agree dude. Someone with a 9 is obviously a very good person and deserves far better than to be sleeping in a tent with two kids. Good job. I just had Sim put 10 million in your account and added another million in cash to the ring dimension. Just think about how much you want out and it’ll appear in your hand. Don’t be reckless and do it out in the open. At least put your hand in your pocket or something. I don’t want you to accidentally reveal that I’m the admin. Doing magic this early would probably raise too many questions. Either that or people might think you’re one of the lucky ones who got powers and they would never leave you alone. Best to just avoid it.”
“Sweet! Hey, um… can I take out the Hummer? Chris asked in a weird hesitant manner. He never hesitates when he wants anything or when he’s telling me something so this instantly raised my suspicions. “I know you created it for Jeff, but since he hasn’t answered your calls and you don’t want to teleport to him for some reason, it’s just sitting in the ring. I’m tired of dealing with traffic and this would make it a lot easier. I really just want the auto-drive feature. Maybe have the AI change some lights for me. Hint hint”
I laughed and decided to help him out even more than just letting him drive Jeff’s hummer. “I’ll do you one better.”
“Hey Sim, give Chris the teleport skill. Start him at level one and he can be our test leveler.”
“Done,” she responded almost instantaneously.
We were far past the need for me to verbalize commands, but it was always fun to see Chris’s reactions. Normally calm, he couldn't contain his excitement when something like this happened. Having experienced a life of mediocrity, the rapid succession of extraordinary events was something he relished.
A box popped up in both mine and his vision:
Skill: Teleport
Rank: Basic
Current level: 1
Damage: N/A
Mana usage: 10 per activation
Range: 1 mile
Description: This skill gives you the ability to teleport yourself and any objects you are holding to a location you have previously been to within 1 mile of activation. Items may not be teleported without the user at the current level. Additional people may not be teleported at this level. Advance in levels for increased capabilities.
As I watched him read the skill description, I noticed something peculiar. His excitement seemed a bit too ingenuine. My eyes widened as realization set in.
“You knew I would give you this skill if you asked, didn't you?”
He just smiled a little and laughed under his breath.
“You could have just asked for it.” I said
“Where’s the fun in that? You’ve been manipulating people since I met you. You always say and do things so they think it’s their idea when you want something, so it was my turn to do it to you.” He said, though his voice carried a hint of hesitation.
I thought for a moment, recalling his expressions and the subtleties in his voice when he told me the story about Riley. I didn’t quite understand why I was able to pick up on the little details but then I remembered I have magic powers and I could basically be a lie detector if I wanted to.
“Wait a damn minute, how old was Riley?”
His eyes immediately shot to the ground, and he turned away.
“How old was she Chris?”
“Alright, alright, but that’s not why I gave her the money,” he said defensively.
“You little punk. How old was she? What does she look like? Did you kiss her?” I teased, waggling my eyebrows at him.
“You're such an idiot,” he retorted. “She had her kids with her, remember? She’s 32. And don’t worry about what she looks like. She got a room at the Hilton by the movie theater until she finds a house. I’m meeting her for dinner tomorrow.”
I feigned offense before mockingly laying into him. “So, let me get this straight: you meet a girl who’s close in age, single, probably gorgeous, just happens to be outside while you're walking, has a 9 in morality, already has kids, and you like her enough to give her hundreds of thousands of dollars? And now you have a date with her tomorrow night? Sim, did Chris have you create his dream girl for him and you’re just not telling me?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Chris just shook his head. “Shut up!”
“Dude, you haven’t dated in years, and you’ve been celibate since your divorce. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go on a date.
Hey! I get it now! You really did want the Hummer to take her on a date, didn’t you? You manipulated me, I’m so proud of you! You didn’t want the teleport skill; you just played it off because you didn’t want me to know about your date.” I started laughing and gave him a playful shove, making sure to control my strength so he didn’t crash through a wall. “Go ahead and take the Hummer. You can even keep the teleport skill. Just use it as much as possible because you only have a mile range right now, and you’re gonna want a lot more than that soon. If you notice anything you would change about it, let me know.”
Chris just smiled at me, knowing he got everything he wanted plus some, and had even made it seem like it was my idea.
…
The connection between Sim and me was now complete. If I wanted something done or a skill created, she would read my mind and just do it. It got a little tiresome having my thoughts instantly materialize, so I asked Sim if I could request things more explicitly. She could still create new skills or items when needed, but they should go straight into the ring so I felt like I was actually doing something myself to get them.
“Hey Sim, have you considered adding a display screen with personal information? Something that shows current health, stamina, and remaining mana? I’m thinking of a small bar across the top of their vision, with the ability to expand it to see stats, notifications, and current system quests. Kind of like a menu option.”
“Yes, I am building one into the system. Would you like to see the current version?” she replied in her usual efficient manner.
“Show me,” I responded eagerly.
Across the top of my vision, towards the right-hand side, I saw the three main stats: HP, MP, and Stamina. They were color-coded in the familiar gaming colors: HP was red, mana was blue, and stamina was yellow. A small arrow pointed down just beneath them. I mentally willed the rest of it open and could scroll through all my stats and current skills. There was also a spot for quests, but mine was blank.
“Why do my stats have the wrong numbers? My HP, MP, and stamina all show infinity symbols, and my other stats are all at 999. Is that part of the system not built yet?” I asked, perplexed.
“Actually, Mike, most of those stats are correct,” Sim explained calmly. “After our convergence, your body and mind are intrinsically linked to me. You have access to every bit of mana that I do, which is currently such a large number I didn’t think you would want it displayed across the top of your screen. Your current mana pool is in the octillion range. 1.36878794772 octillion, to be exact. To give you an example, using teleport on just yourself to travel to the moon and back would require 2544 mana. This means you could do this for more than 15 million years non-stop without running out. I am currently utilizing the available mana to finish the system and will consume approximately 69% of the remaining mana. But that still leaves such a large amount that I presumed an infinity symbol would represent your available mana just as accurately as the real number.”
I stared at the display, awestruck by the sheer magnitude of the numbers. “Many of your stats are tied to your body,” Sim continued. “After I prepared you for the admin role, your body and mind are now capable of speeding up so fast that the entirety of the universe will seem frozen. This is what happened during my reboot. You were acting so quickly that you thought you had stopped time, but in reality, it was just you that was altered. You were moving so fast that the universe seemed frozen. This is the reason for the 999 stat numbers. I have decided to make the scale up to 999, so yours is of course at the maximum.”
“Holy crap,” I said in amusement. “I totally forgot about my neighbor's doorbell. He never said anything about it.”
“It’s one thing to know you’ve been upgraded but an entirely different thing to see it in quantifiable numbers.”
Sim responded in an amused tone, “He noticed they were destroyed when he went to work, but as soon as you created the repair skill, I fixed them before he got home. He still thinks he hallucinated the whole thing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” I asked, curious.
“It didn’t seem pertinent and would have just caused further distraction,” Sim replied matter-of-factly.
“Good call, I guess, I definitely would have gone over and talked to him,”I said, nodding. Suddenly, an inexplicable wave of excitement surged through me.. For no reason at all, I raised both hands in the air and yelled, “I have the power!”
Chris came running out, a look of confusion plastered across his face . “What the hell are you doing now?”
“Nothing,.” I replied, trying to suppress my grin. “I just still get excited realizing all the power I actually have. That old cartoon (He-Man) from when we were little came to mind when I yelled and couldn’t pass up the perfect opportunity.”
Chris shook his head, a bemused expression on his face. “I still don’t understand who in their right mind would give someone so immature this much power. I’m not sure it was thought out very well.”
“Hey, I’m awesome and you know it.” I said while giving him two thumbs up.
He flipped me off and then, with a mischievous smirk, disappeared.
“You can’t just teleport away after you talk crap!” I yelled. “I knew I never should have given him that skill.” I said to myself.
Sim responded instead of Chris. ”He's too far to hear you. Would you like me to bring him back?”
“No, it’s fine,” I laughed. “I’m headed home anyway. Then I’m gonna go check out the Scotland territory. Since it’s going to get one of the biggest blasts of mana when the shield drops, I want to establish a huge settlement and a dungeon that can eventually advance to SS ranking.”
I teleported back to my house and checked on the kids. Both were still unconscious. Sim assured me that they were healing, but it still might take a while longer. The two types of mana they each possessed were battling for dominance through their mana channels. She had to create a new element to facilitate a double helix pattern throughout the channels, allowing both types of mana to coexist. Apparently, by doing this, the kids would both be stronger than usual and be able to utilize a bonded type of mana running through their cores. Cookie had Mental/origin mana, and Alec had Rage/origin mana. The information packet sent to Sim did not mention this possibility, so either whoever sent the info didn’t know, or they didn’t think it was necessary to include.
I looked at the kids, feeling a mix of concern and awe. “Okay, I’m gonna head to Scotland,” I said aloud. “We still need to find a way to control how far they advance at the beginning. I know we need to use up all the mana as fast as possible when it shoots out, but I don’t want any instant high-rank dungeons. An S-rank would obliterate everything if it breached right after integration.”
Sim processed my thoughts swiftly. “Could we create a storage dimension for the mana and use it later?” I inquired.
“Unfortunately, storing the mana isn’t feasible in this scenario. While we could create numerous mana storage devices, the core would almost immediately absorb as much mana as possible and escalate to an S rank if that were its design,” Sim explained.
I pondered the nature and construction of the cores. They resemble living computers, somewhat like Sim, but they aren’t connected to the universe’s framework and lack Sim’s intelligence. These cores have strict, predefined purposes. The mana they use is solely for creating monsters, crafting items, and building levels.
“What if we initially create all the cores at an F rank? This would cap the monsters at around level 10, minimizing the impact of any breaches. To increase the ranking, we could introduce a sub-core of the same level, designed to bond with the primary core. For instance, clearing an F-ranked dungeon would allow you to use an F-ranked sub-core, solely for upgrading purposes, to elevate its level. These sub-cores would contain enough mana for the upgrade but lack the intelligence to construct a dungeon themselves. This approach would enable us to create the necessary ranks, utilize a substantial amount of mana during the process, but prevent any single core from becoming too powerful and destructive. Is this feasible?”
Sim responded immediately, “I’m running calculations on the possibility of success. If I can perfect the design, theoretically, it should work. This could potentially solve a significant portion of the mana issues. Even with the territories and dungeons in all the hot spots I calculated, we would lose approximately 6.9% of the land mass due to mana saturation.”
“Done. I have perfected a design that will work with one exception,” Sim paused for a few seconds.
“Okay… Are you trying to be suspenseful or what? Spit it out!” I said, growing more impatient with each passing second. I’m already losing my mind trying to come up with all the details for stuff like stats and dungeons. Let’s hurry and get back to the cool magic. I’m not an AI, I don’t like details.
“We would need to create enough cores to elevate 45 cores to SSS rank and 24 cores to SS rank. Due to the extreme level requirements to clear dungeons of this magnitude, I would need to create new dimensions with trials and monsters to protect the cores. This would essentially function as a dungeon, but once cleared and the sub-core taken, it would vanish.”
If even one of these cores were to escape and bond with a lower-level core, it could instantly elevate that dungeon to the level just below its intended core. For instance, an F rank could suddenly become SS rank. To prevent this, I will implement a level requirement on the portal to the dimension to ensure people don’t accidentally enter and face fatal consequences. This portal will not pose the same breach risk because the core will not be replenishing monsters; it will be inactive, solely for upgrading.
However, there is another issue with this type of core construction. If an intelligent core is removed from its dungeon, the dungeon will begin to collapse. After total failure, the core will lose its purpose, and its intelligence will become unstable. These cores possess mental powers typically used to detect prize requests and create monsters that provide appropriate challenges for adventurers. They may be able to control a weak-minded adventurer within close proximity and convince them to transport the core to another dungeon. If two intelligent cores bond, their intelligences will battle for dominance, potentially resulting in the core rapidly advancing multiple levels or even exploding. Depending on the ranking, such an explosion could devastate the area around the portal. If this occurs with two SSS ranked cores, the explosion could destroy half the planet.”
“So the only downside is ensuring no one removes an intelligent core from the dungeon? We can impose a warning and a severe penalty for doing it, such as blocking mana pathways and removing all skills, or forcing a rebirth where they start at the creation phase again, maybe becoming a slug with no good memories of their past life, only the knowledge that they are being punished. Would something like that work?”
“Yes, that solution is acceptable,” Sim responded.
“We can always deal with the aftermath once they’re created. If someone is foolish enough to do it despite the warnings, I can teleport to ‘em and retrieve the core. Maybe starting over would be desirable for someone who messed up the first time. We could frame it as a hidden do-over quest. I’ll be ready to intervene whenever it happens. I’m fine with that.”
Just before I teleported, a strange tingle spread throughout my body. It felt as if a missing piece of me had returned. My entire body glowed warmly, and I sensed I was going to thoroughly enjoy what was about to happen.
Peaches, is that you?