Awaking in a primordial blackness. A message floats before me:
Congratulations! You survived the purge. Previous hands off approach proven unsustainable. System intervention increased. Reincarnation process will begin shortly.
When trying to blink it becomes apparent that I have no physical form. Nothing happens as I try to move my head. The message fades away. A new one replaces it:
Reincarnation will commence. Your 16.8 points have brought you back to the birth of life on your planet. You will have Five minutes to choose your reincarnation form.
The message fades away and a light streaks towards me. Actually it is streaking past me. My focus shifts to it and my consciousness follows besides it. Looking closely at the lump of speeding rock and ice my vision zooms in to the very heart of the meteoroid. A clump of frozen organic matter lies dormant within.
Your points give the following species options:
Archaea
Bacteria
Eukaryotes
Select one.
Blink. This time it seems the system interprets my thoughts and imitates a blink. After surviving all that. My Wife, John, the insect swarms, entrapment and finally radiation poisoning. My points only allow me to choose a single cell organism! Rage tears at my insides, metaphorically, until a prompt forces me to make a snap decision.
Seconds remaining – 5, 4, 3...
Eukaryotes.
Selection accepted commencing consciousness transplant in 3...2...1...
My vision follows as the meteoroid flies towards a somewhat familiar planet (the landmass looks unfamiliar but that could shift). The meteor warms as it travels through the atmosphere until finally the meteorite touches down in a large lake. Unable to observe and more, my vision zooms in to a small cell that is only just starting to stir. My new life awaits...
A quick inspection of my new being reveals an instinctive knowledge of what every part of me is and does. Remembering bits from my old biology lessons but also some things are new and don't fit closely with my memories. It takes a moment to focus closely on the nucleus and after a second a prompt flickers in my view.
Inspect result – Your nucleus, This holds your consciousness. It also allows you to give specific instructions to the cell.
You have gained the Inspect skill. Grants you information about objects or entities you Inspect.
Gaining your first skill has unlocked your Status sheet. Think status to call up your Status.
Oh shit. It seems just like a game. Is this what the system meant by increasing its intervention? Hmm as the saying goes Improvise, Adapt and Overcome. Better get used to my new life or it may not last long. Status.
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Name
Stan
Race
Eukaryotes
Age
<1day
Stage
Single cell
Energy
10/10
Mana
0/0
Energy re-gen
1 /s
Mana re-gen
N/A
Oh look. my name stayed the same. I'm Stan by the way... Hahahaha... Stan the cell... Stan Cell. Get it? Oh well. Other than my name my race is as I chose it. Stage being single cell which suggests progression can occur along the evolutionary path... How far can I progress? Energy seems like stamina? Would running out of energy kill me? Or would I fall asleep for rest? Since I'm now a cell it should be assumed all my functions require energy to continue so my guess is running out of energy right now means death. The final thing on the status at the moment is mana... Mana?! Does that imply magic now exists? Why tempt me cruel world? Showing me something so incredible exists but is out of reach. There's sure to be more things my status will show as they are discovered but to show this from the start... why?
Finishing up running through these new developments leads me back to what I was doing. Taking stock of the situation. Back to my single cell and to take a look at the rest of my parts.
Inspect result – Mitochondria, The power station of your cell. Provides energy from metabolising oxygen and nutrients.
Inspect result – Ribosome, Used to synthesise Proteins or 'Building blocks' for your cell.
Smiling because they function pretty closely to my memories. It's been dumbed down a little though by the system. Ribosomes didn't build bricks to develop the cell. New life, new world, new rules. Improvise, adapt and overcome.
Floating around my awareness is caught by small bits of debris floating past me always seeming to flow around me. As one piece gets very close my flagella kick out and touch it. I feel a significant drop in energy and when I check it's down to 8/10. My cell membrane brushes the piece of debris and draws out a stream of matter that begins to float around my cell. It moves gradually from one organelle to another. As some of it passes through the mitochondria and my energy jumps back up to 10/10. Almost at the same time the ribosomes get to work and 'pull' on my energy dropping it back down to 9/10. These processes fight with each other until equilibrium returns and my energy hit max again. A small store of proteins is gathered in a small stockpile. It reminds me almost of a city building game. You have to take in resources (Osmosis) process them through buildings (Organelles like mitochondria and ribosomes) and are left with energy and resources (proteins).
A vibration informs me that something has changed on my status and a thought brings it up:
Name
Stan
Race
Eukaryotes
Age
<1day
Stage
Single cell
Growth Points
4/20
Points needed to advance
25
Energy
10/10
Mana
0/0
Energy re-gen
1 /s
Mana re-gen
N/A
It seems that processing nutrients from the environment provides growth points to advance. Looking at my growth points causes a message to appear:
Growth points allow you to progress. They can be used to advance to the next stage or to develop your current body further.
Considering this for a moment, two cells means two of everything, two mitochondria, two ribosomes, hell even two nucleus. At the same time I'll have to move twice the mass and support twice the systems. Increasing the viability of this cell for less cost would surely be the better option initially. It takes only a thought to direct the growth points to construct a second mitochondria. They drift away from the storage and begin to knit together. After a few minutes a brand new shiny mitochondria sits besides the first one. A quick peak at my status shows my energy capacity has doubled although some of my actual energy was used in the process. It now sits at 5/20. Having the structure won't actually produce any energy to fill the potential it gave me until there's something for it to process. I casually kick my flagella at another bit of debris but the fluid shifts and causes me to miss! Energy 3/20. It flashes at me and an indicator appears in the corner of my vision. A little flashing lightning bolt. One more mistake like that and it's over. Focus Stan. This last action is the last thing you could do... Taking aim at a new piece of debris approaching, my flagella coiled ready. It gets closer. Almost time... Push!...