Some planets are System-run. Some use cultivation, some the dark arts. Some, as I have had the unfortunate duty to look after, have no way to power at all. Mana Deserts, they are called. Where mana of any kind, whether System-gifted, meridian-cultivated, or lifespan-sacrificed, refuses to exist in any way.

Winlei, my home planet that existed long ago, but no longer, was not quite a Mana Desert. Not quite. But close- it was the next best thing. It was a System Failure.

When you mortals write your silly LitRPGs, you seem to forget the fact that everything has a finite amount. And that includes System-gifted Skills, Classes, Titles, everything. Now, of course, the System limit should, in theory, be practically impossible to even come close to the halfway point, let alone breaking through the limit entirely and straining the System to the point of it shutting down. But sadly, as both philosophers, scientists, I, and so many others have learned, in theory does not mean in reality. Theories, afterall, take place in your mind, and not in the real world.

When the time came for our Initialization, I was not in existence. Nor were my parents, their parents, and so on and so forth. No, it happened such a long time ago that Pre-Initialization had long since died out of common memory by the time of my birth. The System was just beginning to Fail by the time my grandparents had hit their Awakenings at 12, it's symptoms just barely visible, and it's effects were fully visible and in full effect by the time I hit mine.

The Administrator in charge of our Initialization was a roluik named Pid’stu. Roliuks were by and large one of the stupidest races you could’ve ever encountered, with great teeth sticking out of a head the size of one of your mortal “tennis balls” that was balanced precariously upon an obnoxiously tall stick figure, its spiny tail being the only thing that kept it upright. Roliuks did not have much going for them; perhaps that is why they are now extinct. Which has nothing to do with me. Pid’stu was especially moronic, even for a roliuk, carried to his position as a lower-ranked Administrator via his higher-ranking relatives and his abnormally large teeth. Teeth which, despite making it so that he couldn't really walk and had no choice but to roll around, the lady ruliuk’s found quite attractive.

Pid’stu, instead of looking after the Initialization of Winlei, was enjoying the company of said “ladies.” I shall not describe in detail what happened.

Know, however, that the roliuks are no more graceful in their love-making than they are anything else. Which is to say- not very graceful. At all.

And so, in ecstasy, the naked bodies of ruliuks slammed into the Administration Panel of System #2344323432345677, dooming Winlei forever.

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They deleted most of the Common, Uncommon, and even some of the Rare Classes and Skills. Millions of Skills and Classes were deleted, forcing thousands to go Classless and thus quickly perished in the hell that was the Initialization.

They set the settings of the Initialization to 1% Survival Rate. One percent of the billions of Winleins were supposed to survive- and System estimates are always high. A 25% Survival Rate, which it was supposed to be, would have ended up with maybe 10% actually surviving. As I said, System estimates are always high. Years later, back when I was not yet numbed to the waking nightmare that was immortality, I would find the actual Survival Rate- it was closer to 0.0002103%. Out of billions.

But perhaps the worst thing they did? They turned off the auto-renew function. While it is exceedingly rare that System limits are ever hit, it has happened. Which is why, after the first System Failure, auto-renew functions were installed within every System. After the System completely ran out of Classes to give, it could choose to sacrifice parts of its denizens to harvest their mana and slowly but surely begin to recreate their stockpiles. Terrible, I know, but a worthy sacrifice to avoid becoming a System Failure. Anything would be better.

The cataclysmic loss of life following the Initialization ensured that, at least, the System would have a few hundred generations before the lack of available Skills and Classes would begin to cause problems. In theory, that would be enough time to create a solution. In theory.

In actuality, the previous System Failure had fallen into obscurity, and Winlei was too rural, thousands of light-years away from even the nearest asteroid belt, to warrant anyone’s attention or money. And so what was just a theory stayed just a theory, and Winlei’s System #2344323432345677 became the second System Failure in history.

••••••••••

When a System fails, it runs out of available xp to inject into its monsters, forcing people to kill others in order to get stronger. Its dungeons are no longer controlled, allowing millions of monsters to spew out into the open, while the adventurers gain no experience for fighting them. Because the beginner’s classes were no longer available, 12-year-olds were forced to accept Legendary classes with no ability to wield them, no way of meeting the advancement requirements without being killed, and with an invisible spotlight shining down on them, calling all of the nearby monsters to their location at all times. The Common Farmer, Gardener, Hunter, and Gatherer Classes died out, and with them, the food necessary to feed a planet. We had been dependent on System-provided technology and Skills for so long that we had completely forgotten and destroyed our pre-Initialization technology. When System-issued tech and gear began failing, so did our strength- our gear, some passed down through generations, became useless, rotting as the enchantments malfunctioned and sometimes backfired.

To say it was a disaster is like saying that mortal humans are one of the most stupid races. A gross understatement.

Great cities that housed millions were reduced to rubble, huge Legendary-level monsters wandering the streets but with nothing to be gained from killing them. Children running around with classes they were too weak to use, while simultaneously calling every nearby monster to them. All older non-combatant Classers were slaughtered as one of the few remaining sources of xp, young Legendary children murdered by the old, more experienced Classers.

This was the world I was raised in.