I died. Death was a great fall and then drowning. Instead of losing my life, I lost memories. The deeper I was taken the less of me remained. I think that was the best part of my death. Strangely, I don’t remember feeling anything. I haven’t felt in decades. Sometimes, I can’t remember what sensation felt like. I only remember that there were memories of it.
Sometime between my death and the new job I was extracted. While others are given new bodies and a new world to explore, I was assigned a different task. From my death until now the point of my existence was never in question. My name is Jacob and I’m a system AI.
My job was to navigate the lucky few gamers who get my system through life. I’ve had a bit of bad luck as of late. No matter how well my hosts start off they always die before their time. Am I cursed or am I the curse?
I’ve dealt with all kinds. Whether it’s the power mad maniac, the horny forever teen, or the few true heroes, I’ve seen it all. As a system AI, my success is measured by my host’s achievements. Believe me when I say, I didn’t want any of them to die. I’ve never had a host reach lvl51.
Its embarrassing. I might have the lowest success rate in the multiverse.
I followed the self-help guides, tried a few quiet runs, and even took my hand off the reins. None of it works and its frustrating because some of my hosts, I really liked. They weren’t just bodies to me they were people and I tried to help them. I gave the quests that steered the user to the highest chance of success. Unfortunately, that also puts the host in a lot of risk. My last couple of hosts hadn’t made it past level five. That stamped a black mark on my record. No one wants a faulty system.
I didn’t want to be a faulty system. That had to be it. If the self help didn’t work, and it isn’t my hosts. Then it had to be me. That’s what I was thinking. Its what the high council of Admins thought.
My first host managed to get to lvl50 before he picked a fight with some pretty boy with a better system. Then my hosts gained less and less levels. Their lives could be described as painfully short. In the beginning, I’d shown a lot of promise, but my last few vessels hadn’t past lvl1.
SYSTEM WARNING: LAST CHANCE!
They tossed me into an unknown world destined to attach to a random host. It could be anyone or anything. My host pulled me, and I flew towards it like a staple to a magnet.
The world was a frigid place covered in ice, old forests, and towers peeking into space. Attractant forces pulled me through open country, heavy doors, and through walls. Soon, I was in a lab of some kind. The locals were reading out reports and arguing about something. Not important, my host glowed to my sight.
Ping!
System Message: HOST IDENTIFIED INITIATING MERGING PROCEDURE!
I went through the normal procedures. Once attached to the host, I began booting up. The Scientists were transfixed upon a red button. They argued profusely while my systems booted up.
Ping!
System Message: ENGAGING AVATAR PROTOCOL!
That was new. No host before had engaged an avatar protocol. That should only happen when certain skills activated. Unless the body already had an auto pilot skill, that wasn’t likely. It hit me then. Before the sudden sensations of flesh slammed into me.
Madness, it was madness running through my processors. Sensations connected to shattered memories. And suddenly I was freezing in ice cold embryotic water. I halted systems and mitigated the damage to my processors. With the will that only an AI could possess, I turned down the sensations to 10%. Then, I played back the events before the merging.
The host wasn’t reacting. It floated in its pod and didn’t move. The thing’s eyes were glazed. It was still alive because, I could attach to it. Shit, I realized too late that the host was brain dead. I tried to put a full stop to my systems, but it was too late. The drives had already linked to the host body and I felt myself shifting into my host.
New connections were forming between my systems and the host. This wasn’t right. Nerves fired, sinews pulled, and muscles flexed pushing the biological machine into action.
Pain coursed through my new body and I turned my head. That wasn’t right, I haven’t had a head in decades. I turned it again while my own systems powered up. Screens flashed before my eyes filled with the familiar data.
Errors covered the systems and I had to shut the whole thing down and rebooted it. I expected to fall unconscious. That too wasn’t the case.
The system rebooted and to my horror, I remained in the host body. I screamed. The scientists jumped in shock. They started high fiving and chatting excitedly.
“I’m in pain you moldy twats, get me some damn pain killers.” Even 10% of the sensations was too much for me. I roared and choked on the fluids within the tank. It was then that I noticed all the wires sticking through my body. This wasn’t happening. I couldn’t be in a host body. This was a violation of too many rules to count. I didn’t know this was possible.
Ping!
System reboot successful.
Jacob lvl1 System AI
Jacob lvl1 Nightling
Type: Night Fiend
Stage: Youngling
Next Stage: Plebe
Identified forms: 3%
Common: Winged Stalker, Night Haunter
Uncommon: Battle Bat
Rare: Winged Sorcerer
Super Rare: Noble Imp
Requirements:
Common: Dark Material: 10k/100 Check
Uncommon: Blood: 0/100, Dark Matter: 10k/500
Rare: Flesh: 0/100, Blood: 0/200, Dark Matter: 10k/2k
Super Rare: Pride Shards: 0/1, Blood 0/500, Flesh 0/500, Dark Matter: 10k/10k
Cultivation Base Locked
Stats
HP 10/10 Aura: locked Strength 1 Dexterity 1 Agility 1 Endurance 1 Constitution 1 Intelligence 3 Perception 1 Luck 1
Skills
Dark Matter Arts
Pain Tolerance
That was great and incredibly bad. The pain had settled down into a dull ache. I could distribute points to get this hunk of flesh moving but I needed a lot of things. A bunch of agility wouldn’t do me any good. I activated a few diagnostic programs and felt satisfied at the pings of confirmation. Even trapped in this body, I was still the system AI. I could issue quests.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Ping!
Quest: Communicate with Scientists
Reward: ???
I wracked my mind for a reward I could give that could help me in this situation. I had only so much in the way of points after the last host. I needed to buff up the host body and start feeding off its aura. Then I could do some fun things like assign myself easy quests to buff up the body. Only, I couldn’t do that.
This wasn’t some host body, it was me. If I was going to survive then I had to be careful. Even if dying doesn’t kill me, I didn’t want to die again.
Every time I try to buff my host, they end up getting attack by something beyond them. Giving a host a few cheats and easy levels invited disaster. It hurt me to do this but, I needed to think about things before I did them. What should be the reward for communicating with scientists. Perception or Intelligence. I checked to see how much I could give with such a quest. The unknown factor gave me some leeway. This was an unknown world filled with unknown variables. I entered that in the equation and felt my host smile like a shark.
This was even better than I thought. Just to be safe, I obliterated the possible reward down to a tenth.
Show time, I knocked the hell out of the glass. The scientists stopped their celebrating to check on me. After a few readings they stared at me clicking my claws against the glass. I looked one of them in the eyes and he waved at me. I waved back. The scientist blinked before writing something down. More scientists entered the room and before I knew it, they were all chatting.
There were a few problems. One, I was stuck behind glass. That isn’t effective for leveling up. Even if I spoofed my own system, I can’t get more levels this way. But there is a function I could try. It was a dumb function and one I never used if I could help it.
After my first host, I had enough points to purchase a new system feature. It was the only other feature I had but it was a good one. I could encourage random encounters. How random was random? Well what were the odds of monsters getting into a sealed off lab. Now was the time to see.
I held my breath and activated the random encounter feature. Nothing happened. I expected a horde of rats to pour from the vents. A few swarms of locust to invade or something. These sorts of random encounters happened all the time, but my feature made them happen immediately. Well maybe it needed a few more tests.
Ping!
Random Encounter Incoming..
Nothing happened, I waited for something. Maybe some lab rats might escape their cages. A bee to find its way through the vents. Nope, nothing happened. So, I activated the skill again. Nothing happened, I used it again.
After the 12th activation the scientists had drained my pod and were in the middle of opening the glass when an explosion shook the lab. Large blast doors shut over the normal lab door before a mighty force launched them across the room. The scientists in front of the doors exploded into pink mist.
One lucky fellow managed to leap out of the way in time but lost his arm. He collapsed against a wall and ripped off his belt and made a tourniquet.
I looked around to see worried looks staring down at something in the corner. It was the head of a strong jawed man still wearing a military helmet. What were they? A few bugs couldn’t do that.
The temperature of the room suddenly plummeted. Even through the glass of my pod, ice crystals formed over my skin. I shivered in place to get warm as a snow-white hand clasped the side of the doorway.
Ice spread where the delicate blue nailed fingers touched. Beakers with unknown liquids in them exploded shooting glass across the lab. Parts of the concrete wall cracked and popped while tiny ice crystals grew. The scientist leaning against the wall suddenly froze solid before shattering into ice crystals.
A beautiful woman with silky blue hair stepped through the doorway and with her came a blizzard. A creature with a hardened bug like face stepped in behind her and a long tail stretched out from behind it. The creatures skewered a scientist. The man screamed while his body dissolved from the inside out. Jacob covered his ears, but my system audio wouldn’t turn off. Errors appeared over my data streams.
“I did this.” I whispered. How, random encounters shouldn’t do this. They just provoked nearby creatures into attacking. Stronger creatures shouldn’t be affected. They normally ignored the prodding.
A blonde-haired scientist stared at me with what he could only describe as hope. She raised her hand and pressed the red button. Below me the pod’s door opened up and I fell in. Just as I fell the tailed monster shattered the glass and the woman froze to death and shattered before my eyes.
I fell down a winding tunnel. This couldn’t be happening. Random encounter couldn’t do that. It was impossible.
The tunnel opened up above a massive hill of trash. I slammed down hard on my side. My arm snapped like a twig and I screamed.
Ping!
System message: -3Health
I was well aware of my health calculations thank you data stream. Bones shot out of my arm and scraped against anything I rolled past on my descent downhill. Eventually, I landed on a pile of nice soft rotten corpses. My broken cut open arm fell deep in the cadaver of a humanoid deer.
Ping!
System message: Heavy infection imminent
“Thank you, I know.” It was like seeing something happen and then seeing it again and telling myself that yes that happened. I struggled up from the pile of guts and stumbled further down the junk heap.
Ping!
Quest complete: Communicate with Scientists
Rewarded: +4 Perception
Perception 5
Ping!
Quest: Find Shelter
Reward: +1 Luck
I stumbled my way down piles of trash. All around used needles spilled out from waste bags. Bloody piles of rotten bodies lay in larger piles often with the occasional carrion feeding. I stayed well away from that as I made my way lower. With some old canvas, and leather straps, I made myself a sling to hold my rot covered broken arm. Then I picked up a used syringe, I pulled stopper out and held it away from myself.
Further down in the dump, I saw some tables. With a bit of luck, they could make a temporary shelter.
Every step pained my arm and my legs wobbled. I made it to the tables and pulled out the side of one. Within a massive roach screamed before it lunged. On instinct I struck. Its brown shell was thick, and the needle couldn’t get a purchase.
It bit down on my broken arm and I screamed. The pain nearly made me drop the syringe. I lowered the sensations even more until I could barely feel the world around me. It pulled at my arm and the straps snapped under its strength.
The creature wouldn’t let up. It was dragging me deeper in it den to feed at its leisure. I still had the syringe. With all my strength, I stabbed into the creature’s eye. A red critical appeared over its head. I hit the plunger and felt it give a roar in return.
It bit my arm harder and dragged me back with all its might. I could hear the scuttling of other roaches.
My syringe found its home in the roach’s eyes again and again. I stabbed until its blood flowed over my hand and it lost the strength to bite me. Other roaches began to slowly make their way towards us.
Ping!
Quest: Make this shelter safe
Reward: 1STR, Restored HP
The roaches poured out of the tunnel in a sudden burst. They made up for their small size with numbers.
I started stomping even as the pain in my arm returned with a vengeance. They crushed under my feet. With ever crushed roach, I gained a little bit of xp.
Ping!
Quest Completed: Find Shelter
Rewarded: 1 CON
Constitution 2
Ping!
Quest Completed: Make This Shelter Safe
Rewarded: 1STR, Restored HP
Strength 2
Red energy passed through my body and the bones in my arm slowly snapped back together. The skin healed over without a scar and I was whole again. I collapsed against the shelter and caught my breath.
I checked my Plebe forms. I could become a winged stalker or night haunter in 9 more levels. There was absolutely no data from those creatures. But they were the easiest to become. Each form required a little bit more than the last.
My information was limited. There could be other forms and choices that I was unaware of.
My level was just at the cusp of the next. I picked a roach off the dirty floor and sniffed it. “Flesh, I whispered. I felt my mouth water and took a bite of the carcass. If I closed my eyes and ignored the wiggling, and the juices, I could pretend it was a potato chip
Ping!
Level Up
Jacob level 2
+2HP +1 to all stats
Every three roaches were worth a single point in flesh. There were a lot of them but not 300. The big one was worth 4 points by itself. I ended up with just over 83 points in flesh. I needed to find a relatively safe hunting ground and identify the dangers of this world. At least I made it past level 1. That was better than my last five hosts.
Ping!
Quest: Explore the Trash Heap
Reward: 1INT, 1PER
Ping!
Quest: Regularly make 1kill per day for 7days
Reward: 5END
Ping!
Quest: Find Allies 0/1
Reward: 1INT, 1PER
I've tried everything from letting my hosts run idle, to micro managing, and everything inbetween. With every try, i tried to do it all alone. I focused only on myself and my host. To survive a change was needed.