"Well fuck... how long until the system is initialized?" He asked the air as he collapsed into a nearby chair.
"System will complete initialization in twenty-six hours and ten minutes." System said. A small timer appeared on the bottom left of his vision.
Doing the math in his head, Ice groaned. "You slow piece of shit. That's only one minute before I fail the mission... Isn't there anything else you can do?"
"No." said the System.
Ice spent a few minutes swearing creatively. "Well what help are you then?!" Ice shouted in exasperation.
"System codeword HELP initializing, please wait. Now starting Tutorial Mode."
Another screen appeared in front of Ice this time asking him if he would like to take part in the Imperial Combat System Tutorial.
Tutorial Mode Task: Complete System Tutorial
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????????(Optional)
Time limit: 4 hours
Rewards for completion: Time Dilation Unlock, (Optional Reward Unknown)
Penalty for Failure or Refusal: Loss of body control X 26 hours.
Once again Ice hit accept. The world seemed to go black around him and suddenly he was sitting in what looked like his high school Biology classroom.
Ice looked around confused. "What the....."
There were a number of tables and desks scattered around the room. On the walls were several posters with encouragement: You can do it! Don't Die today! and the obligatory Don’t try this at home kids! There was an open doorway that led into a hallway on one side.
Ice jumped up and ran to the doorway but there was nothing on the other side. He couldn't even push his hand through the doorway no matter how hard he tried. He grumbled and turned to sit back down. As he did so he saw a woman around his age in a rather loose fitting suit.
"Hello. Please be seated, Ice." The woman said in a voice sounding suspiciously like that of the ever frustrating System. Ice slowly sat down.
The woman places a blue book in front of him with numbers on it. The cover reads 2:34 75 points.
Ice stared at it for a second before gesturing to it. "What am I supposed to do with this? What even is it?" He touched the book and it vanished. As a screen appeared in the center of his vision Ice jumped, cursing.“That is really annoying, you know? Can't you make a sound or something?”
Would you like to learn about the Owlette Class Corvette?
Yes. No.
*DING*
“Before you put the screen up next time.”
He stared at the screen for a second before touching the Yes with a slightly hesitant finger. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his skull like someone jabbed him with an icepick. He looked at the woman as knowledge slowly filled his head. “What the fuck was that?!”
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"The system will allow you to learn skills in tiers. This is the first tier of the skill required to pilot the Owlette Class Corvette which you are currently on." The woman droned in the same monotonous voice, completely ignoring his outburst.
"And... what does that mean?" Ice asked. He rubbed the back of his head as the pain slowly subsided.
"It means you have the ability to learn skills at an unprecedented rate by acquiring skill books from the store." The woman supplied.
Ice just stared at her bored out of his mind. He started to doze, until he realized she had said something helpful. "Tell me more about this store!" The shout echoed back at him.
The woman continued, completely ignoring him. "You are a specialized being who can fly modified ships alone without a crew.
Specifically a Type D Imperial Overlord. Very rare."
She placed a small chip on the table in front of him. It was a clear silicone substance. When he touched it; it absorbed into his skin and a counter appeared in the upper right side of his vision with a 1. “This is a Point, the currency used by the system. You can gain it from many actions you will take in this universe." The woman said as the Point disappeared.
"You mean currency for the Store?" Ice asked, “The one that doesn’t work.” He muttered.
"Yes. You may rapidly initialize the store now for the cost of one Point." The woman stated.
Once again, a screen appeared in front of Ice asking if he would like to initialize the store for immediate access. He quickly tapped the accept underneath.
A menu appeared with a number of items that were available for him to purchase.
Ice ignored all the other items as he searched for the repair kit before finally finding it.
Repair Kit X1 (100) current price 1 (Temporary)
Ice heard a sound and the woman stopped moving for a second.
*DING*
Optional objective cleared.
The woman started moving again and walked him through using the menu in the store. The second she finished he was back in his ship and his eyes were dry like he hadn't blinked for hours.
*DING*
A window appeared and Ice jumped.
Time Dilation now available
Below that a second smaller window read:
Optional Reward: Small Repair Kit X 1 now available. Do you accept it?
Ice rapidly hit the yes button and caught the small repair kit as it appeared. It had a symbol of a hammer in white on it. He held it and stared at the symbol on it for a second until the Tooltip, the System had told him about, appeared.
Small Repair Kit
Able to partially repair one system back to functionality. Does not fully repair.
Ice looked at it realizing that this should be enough to fix the life support system somewhat. He held it out and said,"Use."
A diagram of the ship materialized in front of him. Some parts of the diagram were outlined in red, some in blue, and others in green. He pressed on various areas of the diagram until he located life support.
"Would you like to use Small Repair Kit on the life support system?" Came from the air around him.
"Yes, you damn hunk of junk!" Ice almost shouted.
"Life support functions. Task completed. Rewards will be available on planetfall."
Ice sighed relieved that he wasn't immediately going to die.
"Well, I suppose I should go to a planet and try to figure out what on earth is going on. This is nothing like the website said the game would be." He said aloud to no one in particular.
Of course, as he said this another screen popped up.
*DING*
Exploration Task: Make Planetfall
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Time Limit: 3 days
Reward for completion: Industrial system unlock, Mystery reward box
Penalty for Failure : None
Once again, Ice felt like this was a no brainer and tapped Accept.He activated the flight mode as shown in the Tutorial and looked towards a planet starting the long slow flight.
Ice activated the store. It still said he had 0 points but he had been gaming long enough to know that all currency comes with time. He saw several options to filter the store and he tapped the one that seemed most interesting.
Ships: Skill locked to availability
Owlette class Corvette 500 I-chips
"Well that's rather pointless." He muttered to himself.His next thought was food. He hadn’t eaten since the granola bar for breakfast that felt like a lifetime ago..He looked in the store for food and drink. "Ah! There it is." He quickly tapped the filter option.
Food and Drink Locked to current Point Balance
Black Bread: Benefits: Filling Cost: Free
Globe of water: Benefits: Thirst Quenching Cost: Free
Well that's convenient. Ice thought as he bought one of each. He devoured his meager meal feeling much better afterwards.
"Time Dilation Available." The System stated out of nowhere.
Ice looked up from the last crumbs of his bread. "What is Time Dilation?" He felt silly asking the air around him but it couldn’t be helped .
"Time Dilation allows the user to speed his journey to a predetermined location using the System. Current Dilation level 5%. Would you like to use Time Dilation?"
Ice yawned suddenly exhausted l. "Yes," he said as he looked for a place to lay his head