Isabelle was locked deep in her meditation. To the outside world of Beaubinte, she was simply sat down with her legs crossed and her eyes closed and barely a second of time had passed, but inside her mind Isabelle was experiencing something else entirely.
Isabelle was, currently, having mental communications with a giant blue-eyed dragon that had asserted itself over her psyche in a jittering yet imposing fashion. Trying to look directly at the dragon was somewhat difficult, as focusing Isabelle’s mental ‘vision’ on it only made the figure morph and undulate incomprehensibly.
Supposedly, it was the soul of a dragon she was speaking with, the soul of a sleeping dragon. But of course all Isabelle had to prove that was the dragon’s own word, and who knew how good that really was considering the fact that Isabelle had developed a little habit of killing dragons.
At the present moment this dragon-soul entity had offered Isabelle something that she just couldn’t say no to. Namely, it had offered to her the opportunity to begin a sort of system tutorial led by it. Getting a tutorial from a dragon soul was definitely not what Isabelle had gone into meditation expecting, but it seemed like an opportunity she’d have to be crazy to give up, especially considering how difficult not having a tutorial had made her life in Beaubinte up to this point.
“I’m glad you’ve accepted my offer to train you, Isabelle,” said the dragon’s deep, booming voice. “It is through this that I hope you will succeed in your goals and quests, for I think you’ll find that while you are a human and I am a dragon’s soul, we have a lot of things in common.”
Isabelle wasn’t too sure about any of that, but she was pleased that the dragon was happy.
“First things first, you need to understand how the system dialogues actually function,” said the dragon. “Surely you think the green text you so often see imparted over your everyday vision from the system is the system’s backbone, do you not?”
“Yea, I kind of do,” said Isabelle. Honestly, she hadn’t given it a thought at all.
“Well, you couldn’t be more wrong,” said the dragon.
Isabelle would’ve rolled her eyes if she weren’t locked in a stone cold meditative state. This bit of the conversation reminded Isabelle a little too much of fighting training with Oglo. Was this dragon to become her next nemesis? Isabelle hoped not. She didn’t want a nemesis popping up every time she meditated, that couldn’t be good for her mental health.
“Isabelle, have you ever heard of the BDC?” asked the dragon.
“No,” said Isabelle. She immediately tried to parse the acronym in her head for meaning, but got nowhere.
“Okay. So, the BDC stands for Beaubintian Designer Council. The BDC was a group of a specialized class of wizards known best as developers, or devs for short,” said the dragon. “The devs at the BDC essentially built a GUI—that’s a graphical user interface, if you’re not in the know about that fun acronym—and that GUI helps players and NPCs in their party access a robust ecosystem for managing the system that leveraged its strengths and its weaknesses while being as unobtrusive as possible.”
Isabelle snorted. Was this dragon launching into business speak or something?
“What?” asked the dragon. “Why are you finding what I’ve said so humorous?”
“Well I found it hilarious how formal and business-y you talked, but also—” said Isabelle, “—mainly I’m laughing because you said that the ‘devs’ wanted the system to be as unobtrusive as possible. Is that really the case? It, honestly, has felt incredibly obtrusive since I reincarnated here. I can’t even sleep without staring at green letters telling me that I’m sleeping. How is that unobtrusive?”
The dragon sighed and tsked. “You poor, naïve player. If only you knew how truly obtrusive a system without a GUI could be. And, in fact, you will soon enough if you go through with this training. But for now, let’s just focus on giving you a full briefing.”
“Okay,” said Isabelle.
“Before the devs ever used their magic on the system, players did not reincarnate here. In fact, the function wherein you reincarnate is due to a deal the devs struck with a group of local dieties to introduce fairly normal people into Beaubinte with native systemic abilities. They established the reincarnation function because, before then, there was no way for people like humans or kobolds or dark elves, for example, to access the system save for communing with one of my people,” said the dragon. “As in, you could only get the system if you were on good terms with a dragon, essentially. And that’s how the devs got access to it in the first place. They were all very chummy with dragons. Back in those days you’d have to pony up a lot of gold and gems to get an audience with a dragon. Yes, back then we dragons were top of the totem pole.”
“So, why and how did it all change? Why did the dragons even let the devs add all this stuff if it took power away from them?” asked Isabelle.
“It didn’t take power away from the dragons,” said the dragon. “Like I said, you could only access the system if you were in good with a dragon. And the devs were in very, very good with the dragons of their time. You see, they were essentially in their respective dragon friends’ parties. Of course, there was no GUI for the system back then, so it was ultimately and fundamentally different experience using the system than you or your party members have had, but it was in a somewhat similar vein all the same.”
“Okay,” said Isabelle.
“Everything changed when the dragons all got very sleepy,” said the dragon.
Isabelle chuckled.
“What? What’s so funny?” asked the dragon.
“You just said it so ominously,” said Isabelle. “But all you were saying is that, what, the dragons were tired?”
“Yes!” said the dragon. “Do not you, too, player, have to rest? We dragons are the same. Of course we have normal sleep cycles like you do, but dragons also hibernate. And when we dragons hibernate, we hibernate for centuries, Isabelle. Centuries on centuries.”
“Oh, I know,” said Isabelle. She remembered Tahsi, the bread loving kobold she was really starting to regret kicking from her part, saying that there wasn’t supposed to be a dragon in Beaubinte for something like ten thousand years.
“Yes, the dragons knew it was time for hibernation, and were ready to cut off access to their system for all that time,” said the dragon. “But, you see, the devs didn’t want the to happen. They wanted more people to have systems. They wanted the whole world of Beaubinte to have systems. Why? Well, they figured they’d never be out of a job if they all got permanent gigs maintaining the system for all of Beaubinte, and since the devs had given up so much money to the dragons in order to get in cahoots with them they’d all found themselves strapped for cash. And, seeing as they all communed with the dragons so often, they came together one day to meet with the eldest dragon in his deep, imposing cavern and suggest something. That something was the seed of what the system has become today. You see, they suggested to the eldest dragon that they would use magic and their own access to the system to create a framework and a GUI that would allow ordinary people to use the system as natively as dragons use it. See, it was very difficult for the devs to learn the language the system was written in, it was originally a very dragon-first kind of thing. The devs pitched what they did to the system as an upgrade benefitting the whole world, and though he was originally very skeptical, the eldest dragon eventually yielded to their whims. You see, the devs had a very high speechcraft. They had to, what with all the communing with dragons they were doing.”
Isabelle wasn’t sure how to feel about this dragon. He wasn’t as irritating as Oglo had been, but the dragon was definitely a little more long-winded than Isabelle had felt necessary. Along with that, he just kept talking about dragons. Couldn’t this dragon just get over himself? Then again, most dragons carried around poems about themselves in their inventory in the form of dragon scrolls, so maybe Isabelle just had to accept that dragons were somewhat prone to unhealthily large egos.
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“So the devs, after convincing the dragons to allow it, began their work and built a framework and a GUI for the system. It was a long, arduous, dragon-filled task. Once they’d finished their work, they were exceedingly proud, but they had a problem. There was no easy way to propagate the system throughout the races of Beaubinte. The devs found it impossible to force the system natively into everyone’s minds, which for a long while was their goal,” said the dragon. “So, instead, the decided to build the framework that your system currently operates within. Essentially, it acts as thus: the system is constantly searching for non-dragon souls to reincarnate into this world. Any world touched by the system opens all the souls up to the possibility of being reincarnated in this world. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering how the gods feel about all this.”
Isabelle wasn’t really, in fact she hadn’t thought of the gods at all until this moment, but she figured she’d let the dragon keep talking because she found it interesting enough.
“See, the devs actually had to take this suggestion to the gods themselves to consider. The gods, of course, are just a step above us dragons in the form of power and status. As the highest, the gods were in a way the original creators of the system, the system the way we dragons see and use it. Though, I will say, there is debate about whether or not the gods created the system, or whether the system is a part of them, or indeed if the system created the gods. Likely, we will never know. Many have tried to ask the system, myself included in all honesty, but it can only return null values and errors as a response when queried,” said the dragon. “With that in mind, it will most likely be a mystery for all time. Of course, it’s not that important we know which came first, it’s just an interesting little thought experiment.”
Isabelle could feel her mind wandering. This dragon was starting to bore the shit out of her. If it wasn’t important, why the hell was he wasting her time telling her?
“Sorry, sorry, I’ll get to the point, I can sense that I’m dragoning my feet a little with this. Heh. Get it? Dragoning? Because I’m a dragon?” asked the dragon.
Isabelle did not respond to the dragon.
“…Sorry again. It’s just hard, having all this infinite time as a soul in a meditative state, to not get a little carried away sometimes,” said the dragon. “Anyway, so, the devs proposed their framework creation for the system to the gods. And, fortunately enough, the gods liked it. Essentially what they enjoyed was that the system used its abilities to find them optimal reincarnated souls, automating the biggest part of the gods’ jobs without them having to even think about it. After all, if you’re a god and one of your big job is picking souls for reincarnation, wouldn’t it be nice to automatically filter through for the best candidates? With that in mind, the gods signed off on the devs work, and installed their service package to the system. This… changed everything, as I’m sure you can tell. Of course by then we dragons were well ready for our hibernation, so we figured everything would be just fine. However, I and a few of my other dragon comrades have been keeping watchful eyes over Beaubinte with our psychic soul powers, which is how I’m communicating with you.”
“Wow,” said Isabelle. “That’s crazy.”
“Yea, it is crazy,” said the dragon. “Crazy awesome, I mean. Now, on with my explanation. You see, once the dragons slept, there was a bit of a power vacuum. Now, as you know, the system functions in a way that allows players like yourself to add NPCs, or non player characters, to their system. The intention behind this was, well, that eventually everyone would be in a system. Each reincarnated player was to function as the overseer of their system, and they would get powers and abilities as a thank you and payment for their service to Beaubinte. In this way, even the lowliest beings with free will such as yourself would be able to have the benefits of the system and Beaubinte could become a fully systemized world. You know what I mean fully systemized, right?”
“…Not really,” said Isabelle with an internal sigh.
“Well, fully systemized would mean that every being capable of having a system in the world would have one. Being fully systemized would take Beaubinte and its surrounding universe from a tier C world to a tier B world, which for reasons not fully known at this time would be great for the gods. It is speculated that this could be due to a multiverse scenario, where essentially there are an endless amount of different worlds, some with systems, some without, some half systemized, some full, some maybe only a quarter systemized even. If there was indeed such a multiverse, and systems were prevalent in that multiverse, then clearly there would be some sort of ranking system for the whole multiverse. And, along with that, clearly there would be benefits to getting higher in said ranking system. So, essentially, the main theory is that the gods want to increase the rank of this world by fully systemizing it, but to do that they have to get everybody to have a system, but they can’t make every NPC their own system because there’s not enough universal bandwidth and if every NPC had their own system, well… the events could be catastrophic. It could mean the end of the world as we know it, Isabelle.”
“What, would everybody die?” asked Isabelle.
“Oh, gods no,” said the dragon. “Actually, probably a lot of people wouldn’t die, because if the system crashed due to universal bandwidth shortages it would probably just reboot into recovery mode. However, if the system rebooted into recovery mode, well… let’s just say there won’t be as many feauters available as normal, and it could get really irritating. Of course the other worry is that the system could get corrupted. A corrupted system is in many ways worse than a system in safe mode because all of the work the devs did to control the system and keep it from breaking down would go off the rails. This of course could make the system multiply at an intense rate, almost like a cancerous tumor, growing and permutating to quickly unstoppable rates. This in turn could then poison the whole world’s systemic abilites at large as the corrupted system takes up more and more bandwidth of its own until the system runs out and crashes. Which, if a corrupted system crashes and tries to reboot… well, we don’t even know what would happen. What could happen is, well, the system could just not boot back up. And nobody, ever in the world, would have a system ever again.”
“Wow,” said Isabelle. “That’s a lot.”
“Yes, it is a lot, and it’s a huge responsibility!” said the dragon. “That’s why they have me tell everyone this when they enter meditation and start getting curious about the Nexus.”
“Sorry, come again?” asked Isabelle.
“The Nexus? Didn’t you want to access the Nexus? Weren’t you thinking about going to the Nexus when you started this meditation session, Isabelle?” asked the dragon.
Isabelle thought about the Nexus, that bizarre dimension that the Overlord had described to her where he’d been able to download system mods that changed and improved his power and abilities. However, hadn’t the Nexus also opened the Overlord’s system up to exploitation? That’s how Maviel and Sylfir had been able to duplicate his system into a system of their own.
“Holy shit, are you fucking serious?” said the dragon.
“What?” asked Isabelle.
“That stuff you were thinking about the Overlord and some of his NPCs. Did that seriously happen?” asked the dragon.
“Yes,” said Isabelle. “Also, how the hell did you know I was thinking that?”
“Um, hello, we’re in a mental space generated by your own meditation session, Isabelle. Your thoughtforms are open for me to read just as easily as your thought-speech,” said the dragon.
“Oh,” said Isabelle. She felt a little guilty about some of the mean thoughts she’d had about the dragon while he was giving her a huge infodump.
“Don’t worry about it, no need to feel guilty,” said the dragon.
That only made Isabelle feel worse. Had this dragon taken guilting lessons from Tahsi or something? Because this dragon was making her feel very, incredibly guilty. And thinking about Tahsi only made her feel even more guilty. She was really worried about that strange, bread-loving kobold. Isabelle wasn’t as guilty about kicking Sir Jingles, though she kind of missed him too.
“Wow, go to a therapist!” said the dragon.
“Really? You’re peering into my thoughts and you wanna go there?” asked Isabelle.
“Er, um, nevermind,” said the dragon. “Now then, what’s say we continue with your dragon led tutorial, eh?”
“Sure,” said Isabelle, though she wasn’t entirely certain that the dragon would be able to keep from devolving the conversation into yet another tangent about possible theoretic things that could or would happen vis a vis a system.
“Hey! Those tangents were important!” said the dragon. “Why, Isabelle, don’t you know anything about tangents at all?”
“No,” said Isabelle.
“Well then let me tell you, tangents are only as tangetial as you make them. A good tangent is forged out of thought, and sweat, energy and hard work. Tangents are equal in many ways to strength, to power, et cetera. Have you ever thought, Isabelle, that your charachter sheet is in and of itself a tanget of sorts? A diversion into numbers, a diversion into rationality that codifies through the system what in other worlds is left up the ones subconscious mind alone?” asked the dragon.
“Sorry, what?” said Isabelle.
“Allow me to rephrase,” said the dragon. “The system is akin in a way to your shadow self. Your subconscious, your higher mind and your highest filter of reality. Indeed, the system is not just ones and zeroes, Isabelle. The system is much, much more. The system is eternal, it is infinite, it is ethereal and the system flows through all of us, and yet we each contain the entirety of the system. It is a wonder it exists, and with its wonders it does many things, most of which are extraordinarily powerful and energetic. The system grounds you, and you ground the system. Without one another, you would surely persih. In your old world, Isabelle, you had a system too, even before the apocalypse happened and all those monsters showed up in your world you had a system. You just couldn’t see it. Well, now you can see the system, and now you can use that system vision to make the world what you want of it.”
“Did you just go off on a tangent of a tangent that lead you back to your original talking point?” asked Isabelle. She felt exhausted.
“Yes,” said the dragon. “Now you understand. And now that you understand, I can truly tell you the key to the system.”