In one of the most technologically advanced and secretive bunkers in the United States, chaos ensued. Days had bled into a horrifying blur since the entire leadership, in a stroke of chilling efficiency, had been wiped out. Hannah, who was previously third in line for the matriarch position, found herself as the only upper echelon member still alive. Although everyone knew the reason so many were killed, they still didn’t understand how it was possible. How could one person have so much power? Who was this admin?
“Is she alive?" Hannah barked at the flickering holographic image. The tech was new, a far cry from perfect but much better than the simplistic old-school video call. Instead of just an image, it allowed for a glimpse of body language as well, crucial in these dire times.
"Unknown," rasped the frail woman on the other end. "She was investigating when Agent One escaped and..."
Hannah slammed her fist on the table. "Stop with the code names! We all know it's her brother, Alec! This cloak-and-dagger crap died with the last leadership. I'm in charge now."
A pinch of fear crossed the woman's face. "Yes, ma'am. The last anyone saw of her, she was trying to figure out how Alec ripped through a titanium door. The guards outside her office experienced a crushing mental pressure that knocked everyone unconscious. When they woke up, she was gone. She disappeared before the event, so we have no clue if she's even alive.”
"Dammit, Cookie! Don't you dare be dead! I need you," Hannah roared, a desperate plea cracking through the commander's facade. I know your morality had to be above two.
…
Back at his house, Chris was going over the results of the past couple of hours. He had gone to the gym to test out his new stat adjustment skill. He was trying to figure out how much one point of strength actually accounted for, but the results were sporadic.
He had watched a couple of bodybuilders going for new PRs. One of them was squatting just over 500 lbs, and the other was just over 600 lbs. He wanted to start his test with just 1 point. When he gave the first lifter an additional point, he watched as he went from being able to do 500 lbs twice to an amazing 23 times. His buddy got so mad that he tried to do the same weight and was only able to do it 4 times. After some laughing and slamming of weights, Chris decided to give the second one an additional point. When he gave the second lifter his point, everything changed. He didn’t try to do more reps but decided to up the weight. He did 1 rep, then added another plate to each side. He did this 5 more times. By the time he could barely do a single rep, he had a little under 1000 lbs on the bar. When the first lifter tried to match it, he could only do just over 850 lbs. The part that didn’t make sense was that their strength stats were identical. They both had a 9 to begin with. He assumed he just didn’t understand the correlation between actual strength and weightlifting. When he tried the experiment again, the results were not the same, which confused him even more. The next two he tested only had 6s as baseline. When he added the points to each, one gained much more strength than the other. There had to be another stat that played into it, but for now, he had no idea how it actually worked. He did make a note of the reactions they had when he gave each of them the point boost. They were ecstatic about their newfound strength. It made him feel good that he was the reason someone had found that much joy.
“Whatcha doin’?” I said right behind Chris’s head.
“DAMMIT!” Chris yelled as he jumped out of his chair. “I told you to stop doing that.” He was way too easy to scare. I could hear him mumbling something under his breath afterward, but I was laughing too hard to hear what he said.
“No really, what are you working on now?” I asked.
“I’m trying to find out exactly how much I’m altering people with these points. I just added some strength at the gym, but it wasn’t the same for each person.”
“Dude, what’s wrong with you? Why do you have to know every little detail of stupid crap like that? Just give the awesome people a boost. I don’t care how much you do, give 'em the max you can in everything. It’s not going to matter once they integrate into the system anyway.”
“As soon as the system goes live, they’re gonna be able to adjust more than the 2 points you can give anyway. Probably at each level. Some classes may get 10 points to allocate per level. Depends on how rare of a class they get. Let 'em get a taste of being overpowered for a while. I’d much rather have you giving and taking away points nonstop than trying to figure out exactly what they do. If they’re Jerks, make 'em slower or clumsier. If they’re a really good person, make 'em smart with high perception and agility or something. Just start having fun with it.”
“Alright, good point,” Chris said.
“So how’s the teleport skill coming?” I asked.
Chris didn’t respond. Instead, he looked like he had just been called out in school to present something he never completed.
“You know what, never mind. I’ll just look.”
As soon as I activated the analysis skill, I realized exactly how amazing Wiggs was. There has to be something going on with her because when I analyzed Chris, I was shocked. Her advancement is so far ahead of Chris’s it wasn’t even comparable.
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Chris Spreckem
* Species: Human
* Age: 43
* Level: 1
* HP: 93
* MP: 113
* Stamina 178
* Morality: 8
*Individual attributes list available
Abilities: Run, Dodge, Driving, Swimming, Jumping, Self heal.
Skills:
* Teleport (Level 2 - Tier 1)
* Repair (Level 1 - Tier 1)
* Analysis (Level 11 - Tier 2)
* Stat adjustment (Level 1 - Tier 1)
Spells:
* N/A
Bondable: Yes (Humans are capable of bonding with certain creatures and items)
Description:
(A standard human granted mana channels prior to system initialization. Chris is helping the admin with pre-system tasks. He has not yet chosen a path or profession.)
“Chris!” I yelled. “Level up the damn teleport skill! You can’t bring other people with you yet and you can barely bring any items at that level. I’m gonna need you bouncing all over the world, and I don’t want to have to use my skill each time.”
“I know, I know,” he said. “I just get sidetracked when I’m working on something and forget I can even do it.”
I was getting legitimately frustrated with him. “Okay, you need to hit level 10 in the next 48 hours, or I’m taking away your analysis skill. It’s possible, you just have to start teleporting everywhere.”
He gave me a shocked look. “Come on, there’s no way I can do that. Am I just supposed to start teleporting back and forth?”
“YES! If that’s what it takes. Start sending items to places too. That’ll help it level. I just gave you a crap ton of cash. Start teleporting a single $100 bill to like 1,000 different locations. It’ll not only make people happy but you’ll level it up. How about you teleport one somewhere it will for sure be seen and then teleport yourself to a spot where you can watch it? When someone picks it up, give 'em 2 points in intelligence and then teleport back.”
“Okay, I’ll get it leveled up,” Chris said.
“I need you to come with me for a little bit. I’m gonna have Sim create a map of the world. This is going to be very vague and cloudy at first. You won’t be able to see anything besides the area's name if you haven’t been there. Each person will get one when the system goes active. As someone goes to a new area, the map will become clear and it will also be able to be zoomed in. It won’t show real-time images, but it will update based on buildings and terrain.
“It’s going to completely change once the system is active. When the shield drops, mana is going to alter a ton of the world. Sim said there is a really high chance it will expand the size, and we may end up with new land masses. The major ejection points will remain the same, so I want you to come with me so they’re on your map. When you level up the teleport skill, you can teleport there. You need to have been somewhere prior or your teleport won’t work.
“It’s gonna be fast-paced, so we will only be at each location for like 5 seconds. We have almost 700 to hit so you have access to them all.”
“Come on, that’s gonna take forever,” Chris complained.
I grabbed his shirt and said, “Just shut up and let’s go.”
We spent the next several hours jumping from one location to the next. We started with the one in Yellowstone National Park. I showed him the gigantic hole Peaches had dug and explained the plan we had for the dungeon cores as well as the 50 heroes that would start with master-tier abilities. We stayed at a few of the others for longer than I had planned just because they were so beautiful. Sim had already put up the shielding so no one else was at any of the locations, but it appeared that the wildlife didn’t get the memo. In the heart of the Amazon, we saw some spider monkeys. They were awesome. So curious too. A couple of them swung right over and sat in a tree about 5 feet from where we appeared.
One of the locations was in the middle of the Caspian Sea. Sim had erected a bubble around us so we weren’t crushed by the water. I didn’t have to worry, but Chris was still at level one and would have drowned almost immediately. As soon as we appeared, a seal was in the process of catching a trout right in front of us. He stopped mid-bite and stared at us. It was as if he was frozen in place. We both started laughing.
The most notable place we stopped was in the heart of the Imperial Palace East Gardens in Tokyo. I was flabbergasted at the beauty but also horrified that this was now an area that no one else could appreciate. The Camellia and Plum trees were breathtaking. I couldn’t just leave this to die or be forgotten.
“Sim, how do we shrink down the area affected by the mana? Can we put the dungeon core underground so this spot doesn’t get affected as badly?”
“I can create the entrance further away and have a tunnel lead to where the core will be located. This particular ejection will be on the lower side in terms of power, so a simple F-ranked core should suffice,” Sim explained.
“Okay, let’s go ahead and do that. Put the core about 1,000 feet underground and create a tunnel leading to it. Put the shielding around the tunnel so no one goes in it, but let's re-open this spot.”
“Done.”
“Alright Chris, just 69 more and we can go home,” I laughed as I told him. He didn’t say anything in response. He just rolled his eyes with his head back and groaned.
Just as we teleported into his house, he sat down and started talking. “So I’ve been thinking. I think I want to be one of the people that gets the hero’s power. I still don’t know what profession I want, but I want to have the starting capability of a master tier. I feel like I could do a lot of good with it.”
“What happens when things turn to fighting? Even if you have a sewing profession, if mana creates a few higher-tier beasts and they start attacking people, do you think you’re up for rushing in to save them?”
Chris responded almost immediately. “I’m not scared of a fight. Especially if I get some cool powers to be able to do it. I think the only thing that might be an issue is if I build a good life and in like 30 years I have to leave my family to go fight something crazy.”
“Damn dude, you don’t even go on your first date until tomorrow. How many kids have you imagined with her already?” I held it in until he got up and walked towards the door. Right before he was out the door, he responded just as I busted up laughing.
“I hate you.”
After a few moments of laughing, I yelled out to him. “Alright, alright, I’ll let you be one of the world's hero’s, but I get to be the flower girl at your wedding!”