In the far, distant future, there is only war. Love and compassion lost in the warp, forever tainted in purple hues. Common sense radicalized, no longer a sensible thing but an action massively looked down upon, even to go so far as to label it as treason. Technology hoarded by the red of mars, techno priest hellbent on the Machine God.
Progress: halted.
Alliances: thin.
Humanity: dwindling.
The Emperor of mankind reduced to no more than a corpse. Worshipped like a god, fed a thousand psykers a day. Whether those souls sustain the Emperor, the Astronomican, or something far worse, few could truly say. Not even the most devout followers, not even his closest confidants.
Said to have a million worlds, the Imperium stands vastly outstretched. It's special demigods— The Adeptus Astartes— genetically modified super soldiers used as shock troopers— were no where near enough to defend the reaches of the Imperium. Where they lacked in numbers, that made up in strength and tactical superiority.
The Space Marines— their alternate title; where they lacked in numbers, the citizens of the Imperium made up for that weakness. With them stood the Imperial Guard. Trillions of normal men and women, drenched in the trenches of war spilled in glory and blood. Where one guardsmen stood, ten more were ready to take their place. With a world where demons and aliens ran amok, nothing more than human spirit burned against the tide; and it burned for 10,000 years, and it shall burn for 10,000 more.
— and I my spark was added to the toll.
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The Ultima Segmentum, Calaphrax Cluster, Unknown planet.
"So It begins," I said to myself.
I stood on a planet. I plopped in, my existence in this world was like a flash of light. Except, only the speed of which I popped into existence should be taken into consideration. No extravagance, just here... in the now.
"First things first—"
I can breathe. The air was thick with unknown sediments and smells— but I can breathe. Knowing that I can live for at least days with air, I checked myself. Torso, body intact, incased in clothing I've never seen before—
— well, it's the first I've seen in this life.
In summary, casual would not be the word to describe my outfit. Leather red trench coat that draped right down to my ankle. Underneath I sported a black tank top, complimented with matte black tactical pants with all sorts of pockets; all of which was buckled in with a murdered out futuristic geometric buckle that held the pants on me. My left hand in a black glove, fingers exposed, giving my hand some dexterous freedom. My footwear were heavy docs, the tip felt hard as I wriggled my toes a bit.
"Steel toed— nice."
Taking a moment, I never focused on my voice yet. It was young, not so suave in nature but it was at least male.
"Shouldn't be mistaken for a twink... I hope."
Next were my surroundings.
Light had enough pierce for me to see my clothing. But walls as far as I can see. Industrial gray, maybe even black. Pipes as far as the I can see. The mentioned light now flickered now and then as I focused around me. The sound of steam, unknown creatures littered about. Uneven pathing as rubble and metal stuck out of the cement-like floor.
"This feels so morbid and eerie," I couldn't help but voice out the obvious.
By process of elimination: I'm inside and I'm not injured. Though I'm not armed, I can at least move and maybe even healthy in this given moment.
"I'm not helpless."
With that in mind, as if reading my thoughts, a panel prompted itself before me. It floated, hollow and transparent as it was, it's magenta borders and lettering stopped me on my tracks before wondering about my next course of action.
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Host received: initializing system settings... systems green— welcome Monarch.
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Monarch; the word stuck to me. I'm suppose to be playing as her herald if my memory serves me right.
"Looks to me Monarch is a title reserved for her most devout followers... champions... I'll get over that hurdle at some point."
Keeping to the metaphorical script, I played along to the best of my abilities, "Avail yourself to me."
The words made me cringe. It tugged on the corners of my lips but I held it in, 'not doing that shit— nope.'
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I have no designation. I'm created as a smooth transition to keep your evolutions, skills, experience, military, inventory, and exploits organized.
In short: glorified spreadsheet for your eventual random bullshit
P.S. Those aren't the systems words.
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'No doubt her doing,' I smirked, "How shall I go about gaining those you've mentioned?"
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To start: your inventory is passive. Currently able to hold up to a planet as large as Mars. Simply will something to enter it and it shall. The only limits being that it has to be yours and non-living— on it, in it, or otherwise.
Your exploits are gained through your actions. The more awe inspiring, the better the exploit. The better the exploit, the better the passive ability gained. Note that no one has to be present, ?????? shall hold witness to your exploits and shall reward you in kind.
Experience is an alternate progression, a subsect to this system. Without using complicated words, repetition is key. A method to grind your way to the top.
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'I see,' I thought, 'inventory is a bit bust, no mention of range. Just that it has to be mine, non-living in it or on it or itself. Meaning if I was the owner of the current planet I was on, I could do something— I don't know— something akin to teleporting this planet inside of another.'
'Exploits and Experience seem to be my passive abilities. They either need to be acted upon or trained through repetition. It doesn't mention anything about exposure; whether that means resistances don't count or that they do but is implied.'
I noticed that questions marks. Six of them; strangly enough, that's the same amount of characters to spell Evelyn. A guess would be the system is not in the know of whom it's admin is—
—or this is just part of the play.
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Skills, Evolution, and military are as follows:
Skills are active abilities that can be gained through exploits as a sub reward. Skills— alongside military and evolutions— can be rewarded out of three Hyper cards. Each skills— furthermore— military and evolutions— are divided by rarities.
Common: Gray
uncommon: Green
Rare: Blue
Mythic: Purple
Legendary: Gold
Divine: Deep Orange
Absolute: Neon Black (white)
Skills have cooldowns (main source of input) varying between seconds to years depending on the effects of the burst. Furthermore, they require a second source of input. That being mana, blood, ki, corpses, etc. Meaning you may gain a skill that may be of no use to you if the secondary source of input is not met.
Alongside all three categories, if given you have an existing skill already acquired, choosing another of the same type— exact copy— or highly synergistic qualities— skills, evolutions, and/or military may advance in quality (rarity), function (use), and/or effectiveness (level).
Evolutions are another card that may present themselves to you via sub rewards (Hyper Cards) after completing an exploit. In short, they are another passive function you may acquire. They may change your biology, add on or remove innate positives and negatives. Change races. Add potential secondary inputs—
—and more.
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'That's a lot to take in,' I internally pointed out.
To sum it up, skills are burst effects. So... think of burst damage, burst healing, burst range— any action, just add burst to it and that sums up skills.
"Burst fuck?" I couldn't help but giggle.
It said it itself, evolutions are passives that may or may not change how I function. Assuming I'm currently human, I can turn Saiyan or go stay human and become perfect.
— how I know what a Saiyan is is beyond me. Maybe now that I've been conscious for a little longer, my know how and past memory topics and ideas is slowly making themselves known—
— but I digress— the important takeaway is this kind of works is reminiscent of roguelikes. The reason it's not a roguelite is— to my assumption— this is my one and only life. Meaning my one and only run; and just like roguelikes, my rewards are random.
'Still, no mention of restrictions on where they come from,' I thought of a caveat, 'If that is so, there's bound to be good in all verses.'
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Military is of the more convoluted progression the given system has instore for you host.
A separate dimension holds your military. The key being you.
You may not send any beings or things to said dimension that is not from a reward through Hyper cards or produced in the dimension via production buildings. Furthermore, you may only summon troops in your line of sight or places you've already visited as a sort of Fog of War. A 24 hour period on visited sites and areas before the Fog of War sets in. Once set, no units may be permitted to be summoned on those sites after the 24 hour period.
As an extension, reason must be reasonable during summoning. Units shall not spawn into existence from thin air. Neither shall they be spawned within line of sight from individuals outside ?????? influence. Summoning should be implied. If your military is in orbit of a planet, an implicated summon would be drop pods from your ships from above. Any of that sort.
Military cap is in function, varying depending on unit type and usefulness as well as combat power.
If units are too far from the host, combat effectiveness drops— significantly if given no way of long range communications.
Military functions vary between land, air, sea, and space. All cards shall be a variant focused on those four categories.
Hyper card related choices are:
Research: advancing unit effectiveness or function
Regular: common battleline units that take up the vast majority of the field and the fastest to generate and the most common to acquire through Hyper cards
Support: heavy or specialized military units that turn the battlefield to the host's favor
Leader: a hero unit able to perform unbelievable feats but also increase military unit cap and strengthen battlefield synergies and morale. Can be used as a way to relay orders from afar to bypass long range combat effectiveness drops. Can be used as bodyguards to increase host combat effectiveness
Base Function: ranging from passive unit generation, to battlefield abilities like long range artillery strikes
Similar to skills, a secondary resource input must be paid (the primary being unit availability): that being time. Resource needed may not be noted, but the time to generate, acquire, implement, deploy, and retrieve units and functions shall be noted. Your military is self sufficient and doesn't require outside help to form at the cost of exaggerated time.
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I was expecting a little more restraint. Given the blessing she has given me, I wonder how much entertainment I can bring. With the skills, experience, and evolutions— not going to even mention inventory— I could potentially steam roll this verse. But with the added military function this system has classified, Evelyn has given me a snowball function. Afterall, there's only so much I can do myself. I could also gain the trust of this world's residents, maybe gain my own military through that kind of effort. Then I'd have to contend with this worlds morals, ideals, individual wants and needs, constrictions and oddities.
"But with this, it has no mention of worrying details like revolts. It seems to me that the moral implications is combat effectiveness."
Meaning the worries given managing military is simplified.
'What kind of power house do you want me to be?' my thoughts goes unanswered.
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Further hidden or implied functions shall be presented to you later, host. For now, please accept your starting build:
Minion: One chosen leader unit of your choice. A common unit of your choice (x5)
Solo: Skills of your choice (x2). An evolution
Naked: Start off with no Hyper card choices. Gain an increase in exploit rewards and progression
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Three choices, three merits.
The minion build has two things to keep in mind: I as the host will be weak and I'll need to utilize the military category heavily to progress. But at the same time, I'll have to contend with the fact that the residents of this world will definitely question myself and my military.
Going solo is a safe bet. I'll only have to rely on myself to progress, plus my military is always available later down the road and might be easier still considering I have time to make up bullshit to increase my implied summoning conditions.
But naked has it's own perks. Something within me wants to risk the increase chance of exploit gain and rewards. If the increase is substantial, I may have more Hyper card availability sooner than later. Potentially beating both solo and minion in a short time. Also given the benefit of a clean slate.
Between the three, I had to make a choice soon. A noise took me out of my head, small chatter, almost gibberish, and many by the sounds of it.
I'm new to this world, weak as many but not powerless. I'll have to come out swinging or bide my time— either way, I'm in it now—
— and my choice here shall factor how hard I'll have to fight.
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"'Ere!"
"That there's the spot."
Dirty and unkempt, the sound heard before was the sound of these individuals. They were undisciplined, spoke hurried street slang, and carried with them weapons belonging their stature.
In the distance, they spotted someone down the tunnel. They wore red, and to the exposed skin one their face, fare and unblemished.
"Oi! Spire-meat!" one of them hollered, pointing a gun at the individual. A gun looking like some hodgepodge of metal put together. It looked to be worn, may even fall apart any time soon.
"You've dropped too far down the pipe, glit-folk," another chimed in.
The person in red looked over, eyes held fear but were steady and held firm enough to look at them in the eye—
—and that person was me.
First thing of note, I have no idea what they just said. Gibberish is all I hear.
"You trackin' high-born?"
Seems my unresponsive nature ticked them off even further— whatever their insult may be.
I count five: three upfront illuminated by flickering lights. The other two were obscured by the bodies and lack of light. Armed, I'm guessing all of them given the three up front are. Malicious intent— that much is clear— meaning I have seconds to act as they see me clearly; and knowing that I don't understand them, I sure as hell won't be trying any communication.
—I'd be a fool too.
"Here's the tally: you unpack your kit, or we carve you for scrap," one of them threatened.
The rest followed with snickering giggles. Fanning out as much as possible to make no space for me to escape— their way at least.
I slowly raised my hands, heart beating fast. I glance to my right without turning my head. Running being an option I can risk.
"You've hit the Sump. Don't go driving up the repair costs, topsider."
One of them quickly aimed their unknown rifle at me, "Don't go testing my lead-time."
My eyes snapped back at them, 'perceptive, caught my eye.'
The lot of them smiled, maybe because of the fear I'm definitely showing. How could I not, this is new. Scary is an understatement. I could die, no respawn, no next life.
'Was the risk worth it, is this worth it?' my doubts coming through, thinking of my previous choice.
I did as they asked— their implications at least as I still don't understand them. At some point, I went on my knees, vision blacked out, a throbbing pain on my head, and the pulling of my clothes.
'I hope this works,' being the last thought before going unconscious.