„Hey! What is wrong with you, dude! If you start thinking again about beast girls form again, please do so after the lecture. If professor caches you're not paying attention, I will be in trouble too.” Ahren with an exasperated tone brought Gerald back to reality.
At least the current one.
“Sorry… Say, what is the current lecture about?” Gerald asked sheepishly after dismissing all system windows.
Ahren only reply was a side eye that could kill.
Right… Paying attention.
Fortunately, there wasn’t any time limits on choosing his abilities.
First things first, I should come to know myself and my environment.
Gerald patted down his body making sure that everything is where it should be, especially his big brother, but without a mirror and in a middle of the classroom a cursory inspection is all he archived.
Afterward, he tried to focus on a lecture on interstellar navigation, as he came to know. It was useful knowledge, but Gerald’s mind was too full of novelty of his new existence to truly appreciate it.
He began to comb through memories of his alter-ego, focusing on discrepancies between the world he lived in and the current one.
First and foremost, he was a noble. Baron of a whole star system no less but in a context in his current social circle it is accurate to conclude that he is a step from a bottom of a barrel in North Star Military Academy. In the social hierarchy of this inherently classist society only wealthy children of successful business owners without noble titles like Ahren ware below him, with plenty of room up the ladder. Outside the academy it was different, but in the context of his immediate surroundings it was everything.
North Star Military Academy is in the top three academies in the Empire, basically guaranteeing a stable middle rank leadership position In the imperial army upon graduation. His elder sister pulled some strings form within the military to enroll him here, even sacrifice of his father might not have been enough. A far cry from public collage in his previous world.
Second discrepancy was in the laws of physics. Not in a sense that technology that allows to bend them far more effectively, but there are literally different, mainly in astrology. In this world, object outside gravitational pull of nearby celestial bodies do not move near endlessly like in his previous world. Instead, when an object becomes free of external forces it stops, not in a sense of relativity to other bodies but literally.
The same principle applies to planets, they do not move around the sun but are stationary and only rotate in place, making change of seasons a foreign concept in this universe. Even entire star systems, star sectors and even galaxies are stationary. Crazy!
Additionally, the speed of light it this world and what follows the maximum speed a matter can attain in space-time continuum is much lower here. From billions time faster than the speed of sound in average atmospheric density to only millions time faster. Comparatively, of course.
Lastly, although cosmos is also three-dimensional, due to the O`Brian effect as the locals call it, every movement outside a flat two-dimensional plane known as stratum gets exponentially harder the funder you get from it.
Naturally, it makes navigation in space a very different experience compared to Gerald’s previous world, because spaceships in this universe function more like their aquatic counterparts. Additionally, this civilization, as expected from interstellar Empire, invented faster than light travel, more than one kind in fact.
“What are you taking for lunch, chicken or vanilla flavor?” Ahren asked, standing up.
“What?” Ripped from his musings, Gerald looked absentminded to the side.
“Nutrient packs, what flavor?”
“Chicken” Gerard gave the answer according to the most frequently chosen option in his memories.
With Ahren gone on to the errand, Gerald saw other students around dispersing.
Break time… I did not notice.
Sensing the opportunity, he headed towards the exit of the lecture hall.
“What starship will you use next semester?” asked one student to the other he was going around.
“Tier 2 medium interstellar destroyer – Jackal” he answered with pride in his voice.
“Solid choice.” Boy nodded, “It is the most popular type of firs spaceship in the last decade for a reason, worth the money. A shame I don’t have funds for it and would have to go for a frigate”
When Gerald walked out of the classroom he took his time but eventually by combing through memories found his dorm room.
Finally, at a somewhat secluded location, he once again thought of his system options.
Option 1:
Restriction: The host's abilities can only work on male crew
Boon: Fleet combat power bonus - passive
Encouraging voice - Active
And like before, he began going through the explanations one by one.
Fleet combat power bonus – passive:
All active ships under Host command gains a boost to all actions taken to damage the opponent during combat.
Gerald grunted in frustration at the cryptic answer. By what margin? What percentage? Does it apply only to weapons? What kind of weapons? Does it apply equally to rail guns and missiles? Does thrusters count when ramming the enemy?
Sadly, the soulless voice and blank writing did not answer any of his thoughts.
Encouraging voice - Active
By hearing the voice of the Host, all members of the crew gain a morale boost.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
What does it mean?! Is the crew the only crew of his current starship, or does it apply to his entire fleet? Can this effect be achieved only in person, or can communication devices transmitting his voice count? Can I spam this ability endlessly, or does it cost something?
Too many questions, too little answers.
Option 2:
Restriction: The host's abilities can only work on female crew
Boon: Fleet luck bonus – Passive
Eye of Insight – Active
Fleet luck bonus – Passive
By bending the entropy, Host gains a passive boost to fortuitous encounters and a decrease in misfortune.
What the…
Previous explanations were vague, that’s a fact. But this, this is a whole new level of cryptic massage ` fortuitous encounters`, `misfortune`?! What does this even mean?
Gerald was never a pious man. In this live and in previous one he did not believe in gods, heavens, hells…or superstitions like luck. All of it was explainable by the lack of comprehension, will or knowledge. Being hit by such an unscientific answer have thrown Gerald into the loop.
Determined to get this over with amidst the growing headache, he ordered system to provide answers to the rest of abilities.
Eye of Insight – Active
By making eye contact with the valid target, Host gains insight into current disposition and skillet of said individual.
Option 3:
Restriction: The host's abilities can only work on beastmen crew
Boon: Fleet loyalty bonus – Passive
Universal charisma – Active
Fleet loyalty bonus – Passive
Dampens the reactance of valid crew in sight towards the Host.
Universal charisma – Active
For a period of time, bend the perception of a valid target to a more favorable one towards the host.
Gerald slumped forward with his head in his hands and lamented for a few moments that he have to make live changing decisions based on one sentence answers.
The first option he felt was the most straight forward one. With a restriction of only male crew, a flat boost to combat power is a simple solution to a complex problem. In this case Gerald would not break any molds but does not gain much either depending on Fleet Combat Power Boost.
On average, in this world, the majority of battleship crew are men for the same reason as in his previous word. Men are more prone to risks and more biologically expendable population compared to female, coupled with financial requirement of being a provider for a family makes being a soldier a coveted profession in Imperial economy.
The only problem is Encouraging Voice active ability. In comparison to other active abilities seems lackluster especially with other two active abilities hinting at working only in person it would be safe to assume this one would too which would be unsustainable in the long run when fleet number of ships crosses a certain point.
The second option is the most restrictive and with most cryptic abilities. Female crew are a rarity even in the Interstellar era, according to his memories of previous lectures to account just below 13% in the Imperial Navy. It would mean that statistically speaking if he were to recruit pheasant female soldiers the quality would be worse than the male simply because of a fact that you would have to choose from that 13% instead of 87%.
And here comes the kicker. The Eye of insight active ability, with understanding of skills of any, would be, crew member's disposition, recruiting the most promising and skilled solders from the rooster would make a world of difference. After all, in this world the vast majority of Interstellar ships requires living crew to man the controls with computers filling the gaps.
With heavy heart, Gerald turned his attention to the Fleet Luck Bonus passive ability, which is the most confusing one from all six. Although he heard about the entropy as the thermodynamic function of disorder, this is about all the information he collected on the enigmatic force in his two lifetimes. Before this, he never even thought to connect this concept to luck or misfortune, so he did not know what to think of it.
However, he would lie if he said he wasn’t interested, especially in decrease of misfortune. The most frequent cause of death on a battlefield is simply bad luck, in his opinion. Bad shot here and there, structural damage to the ammunition compartment or stay shot to the fusion reactor is all it takes.
Option three is the most unique, at least in terms of restriction.
Stellar Empire is the country Gerald currently resides in. And it is one of the big three superpowers collectively sprawling half of Andromeda Galaxy besides Neon Theocracy and Warhammer Republic. Although we are currently in a Galactic Alliance, the tensions are high, especially between the Empire and Republic.
And here lies the issue with restriction of option 3 beastmen as there are colloquially called are in fact various tribe descendants of a long past expansion era where some brilliant mad scientist managed to convince a bunch of politicians to genetically modify colonists in accordance with the environment due to lack of habitable planets in the galaxy. At lest it is the current version of the history on EmpireNet.
These collections of tribes are now called the Warhammer Republic, which is composed of over 95% beastmen population. In stark contrast, the population of Stellar Empire consists of over 85% humans, with the rest of the “undesirable” population considered the slave caste and are exempted of the majority of rights.
It means at the very least if he were to choose option 3 he would be forced to buy his would be crew from the slave market.
If someone were to ask Gerald a day ago if he would like to be a slave master, the old universe Gerard would categorically deny, treating it like an accusation or a trap. However, the new version Gerald would most likely answer that it depends. In fact now that he thought about it his family mansion on his homeworld should have a couple of them. The societal norms are just different.
In terms of abilities even if his Fleet Loyalty and Universal charisma ensure that his unwilling subjects quickly become cooperative that does not mean that they would be skilled and even if he were to specifically buy beastmen slaves proficient in spaceship piloting, they would not be chap requiring equal or even more investment compared to hireling human crew.
Considering all three options, the last one is easy to cross out, it does not have sufficient boons and is burdened with heaviest of restrictions. The first and second options are much more competitive.
The male crew in the first option ensures that Gerald won’t have problems finding effective crew in the short term and ensures a steady supply of new blood in the future coupled with an Encouraging Voice manning his ships will be a piece of cake.
With an additional Fleet combat power bonus, this would be the most conservative option, with good boons and lest downsides.
The second female option is the exact opposite. Restriction to only female crew makes employment much more constrained, especially in the long run. Although with the Empire’s more than 1400 star systems it would be somewhat easier.
Gerald honestly did not know what tangible benefits the passive ability of this option would bring.
Eye of Insight on the other hand, if not directly helping in ensuring loyalty and morale, would make choosing qualified personnel much more streamlined, requiring probably just a moment of eye contact to determine. If Gerald is right, and this ability will function like he thinks it will, then even screening for future leadership positions would be much easier.
Both options are viable, each coming with unique advantages.
However, all analysis so far was done with only logic in mind and if Gerald was to be honest with himself the prospect of spending the rest of his live surrounded by men versus surrounded by women… it isn’t even a context.
I have already isekaid why not dig into the trope all the way.
Warning! Choosing option 2 will result in expulsion of options 1 and 3!
Are you sure you want to choose option 2?
YES / NO
Congratulations! You have gained Fleet luck bonus – Passive ability
Congratulations! You have gained Eye of Insight – Active ability
Now I have to try them out.
Suddenly, Gerald was one again interrupted, this time by the rumble of his own stomach.
Did Ahren said something about food?