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(Word Count: 4,211)
Callan and Hadrian Stone. We are a pair of brothers, twins even, currently driving back home from campus. As usual, we were taking potshots at each other.
“Oh my gosh, you nearly hit him. Look at that. The man’s even wearing a uniform! Have a little more respect for our men in the military won’t you?” Hadrian snarked in the passenger seat.
“Oh shut up, there was plenty of space! I wasn’t even close.” I replied, uncaring.
“No respect these days. Honestly.”
“Yup, don’t care.”
Hadrian scowled in mock anger, “Momma didn’t raise you like that, what would she say? Oh! And you stop for her! Just cause she’s pretty?”
“There’s a crosswalk!”
“Simp.”
I punched him in the shoulder. “Slugbug.”
“What! There’s no slugbug.”
“There was one, down the street we just passed. Scouts honor. What, you don’t believe me?”
“Of course not!”
I gasp in fake surprise. “What! You’re doubting me?”
"You should really pay attention to the road."
"I can't, looking for more slugbugs."
"You're such a bad driver."
"Excuse me? I'm a perfectly safe driver."
We would have continued bickering all the way back to our apartment, but then something strange happened. The car in front of us froze in place, and I had to slam on the breaks and swerve to the side to avoid crashing. I laid on the horn and shouted. “Hey! What gives!” I looked at the driver of the car to see what the idiot looked like, but noticed something strange. There were two guys in the car, but they weren’t moving. They looked like they had been frozen in time.
Hadrian let out a relieved sigh, “Whew! That was scary! Hey, those pedestrians… they’re frozen.”
With his words, I looked around and noticed it wasn’t just those two in the car, but everyone around us. The pedestrians were frozen mid-stride, a jogger was even frozen mid air. “Is it just me, or did time just stop?”
Then a bright white light overtook our vision and suddenly we weren’t in my car anymore, but in a large expansive room. We had appeared close together, which was lucky because we were in an enormous crowd. Everyone had the same confused look about them. They must have experienced the same thing. On one of the far walls there was a large man standing on a balcony overlooking everyone. Beneath the balcony was a large set of doors.
The man was tall, had long silvery hair, and was dressed in long ornate robes that shimmered in ethereal light. He honestly reminded me of one of those cultivators from manhuas.
“Welcome, all.” As soon as the man spoke, it felt as if there was a great presence that demanded everyone’s attention, and everyone in the crowd immediately all turned to look at the cultivator man. “You are all standing in the reception hall of the Akashic Library. My name is Ura’Cartengin. I will serve as your guide during your stay here. You were all summoned here for the very purpose of saving your planet.”
Murmurs ran throughout the crowd.
“Allow me to explain. You see, in the infinite cosmos, energy permeates every planet. However, there are different levels of concentration so to speak. Your planet is at Tier 0. This means that there is only enough energy to sustain life. It is normal, and even expected, for worlds to rise in Tier as time progresses. But in rare cases like your world, they can jump directly to a higher Tier, in your case, your world is currently making a very rapid transition to Tier 3. This influx of energy will cause the wildlife and plants to grow in power, and monsters will be born far quicker than humans can adapt, and you will die out. In cases such as yours, we step in to aid a select 100,000 in becoming more powerful to give you a fighting chance. The rest of the humans on your world will be receiving a basic system to aid them, but all of you here will have 5 years here in the library to customize your own system how you wish as you traverse the many worlds within.”
“However, there is no such thing as a free lunch. All the different features and upgrades to your system cost World Points. You start with only 1,000 World Points, but you can gather more World Points by completing tasks related to the world you're traveling to. The worlds you travel to are considered ‘doomed worlds’ so you can do whatever you want in them, put things back on track or not. Now, you can open your system by thinking, or saying, ‘System’ and dismiss your system by thinking or saying ‘Dismiss.’ Feel free to try it now.”
Throughout the crowd a chorus of “System” was heard, along with gasps of surprise.
I shared a look with Hadrian. “System”
STATUS SCREEN
NAME: Callan Stone
TIER: 0
WP: 1000
A blue screen appeared in front of me. I looked around, but no one else had screens in front of them, even if it was obvious that some of them were poking around the air in front of them. Looks like no one else can see your screen. That made me feel a bit better.
On the screen was just my name, tier, and WP, which I would assume to be the World Points Ura’Cartengin was talking about. There was nothing else though. “Dismiss” The screen went away.
“You may be wondering about the Tiers.” The voice of the guide brought everyone’s attention back to him. “There are ten in total. Tier 0, is for the mundane or natural life forms. These are the people or beasts without any form of mystical energy. Tier 1, is for beings that can use a mystical energy. Tier 2, is for heroic level beings. Tier 3, is for demigods. Tier 4, is for the conceptual gods, gods that hold dominion over a single concept or domain. Tier 5, is for World Gods. These are Gods that hold enough power to create and destroy entire worlds by themselves. Tier 6, is for Universal Gods. Tier 7, is for Multiversal Gods, Tier 8, is for Omniversal Gods. Tier 9, is for Nigh-Omnipotent Gods. Tier 10 is for Omnipotent Gods.”
“The Library was created by the Tier 10 God, Akashan. Hence its name, the Akashic Library. I myself am at Tier 5, a World God. When we use Tier when referring to a World, it is a level of concentration of energy needed to sustain a population with the same average Tier. So a Tier 3 world would have inhabitants that are, on average, Tier 3. In your World’s case, since the level of energy is so much higher, the inhabitants are forced to quickly adapt or die.”
“Moving on. The System Store is where you will be spending your WP. You can only access the store on your System screen when you are next to an Index terminal, which can be found at every reading lounge. At the terminal, you can purchase upgrades for your system and choose your next world to go to. When selecting your next world, the terminal will show you any world quests that are available to complete. When you select a world you wish to enter, the terminal will summon the book directly to you. Then, simply place your hand on the front cover and say “Enter.” When you are in the world, and you wish to leave, simply open your System screen and press the “Exit World” button at the top right. Time flows differently depending on the worlds, so be careful. You may end up losing more time than you think. Please note that you may not leave a world while you are currently fighting, so be careful. Also note that you cannot enter into the same world as other guests. You’ll have to purchase the Friends List module for that.”
When the guide said that, I suddenly got very worried. Not necessarily for myself, but for my brother Hadrian. We shared worried looks.
“No need to worry though. Should any of you die, unless you’ve sold your soul to some demon or god, your soul will be returned to your home world so you can go to your appropriate afterlife.”
That didn’t help.
“Alright, the introduction is now over. Everyone, please enter into the Library. And remember, this is a library, so no violence will be tolerated.” With that, the man vanished and the doors beneath the balcony opened. From my current angle, all I could see from beyond the doors was some bookshelves.
I shared another look with Hadrian. “Well, let's go find one of these terminals I guess.” It was kinda hard to process all of this, but there wasn’t anything we could really do but just go along with things.
Hadrian nodded and we made our way with the crowd and eventually passed through the door.
The next room was a massive, neverending library. Rows and rows of a dark mahogany wood contrasted the pristine white marble floors. The central aisle extended out in front of them, and looking up they could see an endless amount of floors above. It was a bookworm’s heaven. My kind of heaven. The Library was beautiful.
Most of the crowd was going straight down the main aisle, so Hadrian gave me a nudge and said, “Come on, since we can summon the books to ourselves, I don’t think it matters which reading lounge we end up at.”
“Yeah, let's go find somewhere quiet.”
So we took off to the side, with much fewer people. As we were walking I couldn’t help but comment. “So. Other worlds, huh? It's like all those fanfics we’ve read. Kinda hard to believe.”
“Yeah. And 5 years to become demigods to save the world.” Hadrian sighs. “It sucks that we can’t travel the worlds together. That would have been fun.”
“Yeah, now I’ll just be lonely.”
“Pfft, builds character.”
I couldn’t help but smirk at the little inside joke. Anything emotionally hurtful? Builds character. Your knee hurts? Walk it off, builds character. “My character is going to be so built by the time this is over.” Why did that sound so sad to me?
We found a reading lounge without anyone else, so we plopped down on the cushy couch. In the center of the ring of chairs and couches, there was a podium. The Index Terminal. Out of curiosity, I opened my system and there was a new “Store” tab. “Hey, it looks like we don’t actually have to stand at the podium, we can access the store from here.”
I selected the Store tab and the screen changed to have a long list of many different options. There were sub tabs to narrow down the list. The tabs were; Stats Modules, Class Modules, Skills Modules, Race Modules, Title Modules, Leveling Modules, Inventory Modules, Shop Modules, Quest Modules, and UI/Tools Modules.
There was a lot to go through as each section had a seemingly endless list of options. In the Stats modules, it seemed like you could be as general as “Body” or “Mind” to as specific as “Toe Strength” which seemed a bit asinine.
Eventually I settled on a good path to take in building my system base Stat, Class, Skill modules, then buys the Mind Stat Module, the Global Leveling, Class and Skill Leveling.
| STAT MODULES | Basic Stat Module | 150 WP |
Quantifies, tracks, and displays the user’s stats. Allows for free stat points to be assigned to these stats. All Stats have a maximum of 200.
Unlocks the Str, End, and Dex stats.
| STAT MODULES | Mind Stat Module | 200 WP |
Quantifies, tracks, and displays the user’s stats. Allows for free stat points to be assigned to these stats. All Stats have a maximum of 200.
Unlocks the Int, Wis, and Cha Stats.
| CLASS MODULES | Class Base | 100 WP |
Allows for the User to equip basic classes. One Class can be leveled at a time, the user needs to unlock them.
Max level for classes are capped at 10.
| CLASS MODULES | Basic Combat Classes | 100 WP |
User can now unlock the basic combat classes, such as Brawler, Swordsman, Gunner, etc. Classes that don’t require other classes as a requirement to unlock.
| SKILL MODULES | Skill Base | 100 WP |
Quantifies, Tracks, and Displays the user's abilities, with some basic information about them. Allows user to "unlock" skills. Levels go from 1-100, signifying the % of Mastery of the skill (so no increasing the cap)
| LEVELING MODULES | Global Level | 150 WP |
Allows for the accumulation of Exp. Global levels give you 5 free Stat points and 2 Skill points to be assigned however. Global Level has no Cap.
| LEVELING MODULES | Class Leveling | 100 WP |
Allows for the accumulation of Exp to be applied to your classes.
| LEVELING MODULES | Skill Leveling | 100 WP |
Maximizes the benefits of the user's efforts in improving his skills.
It feels like a rip off that we had to buy several different things to get some working Classes, like, I had to buy being able to equip a class, then buy the classes themselves to unlock, then I had to buy the ability to get Exp to level the classes up. Such a rip off. But with all of that, I felt like I had the barebones of a proper system. Levels, Classes, Stats and Skills.
There was a bunch of other cool stuff that I wanted to buy, like different types of inventory, and the Titles and Race modules were cool. They gave some benefits, and stats per global level depending on what race you were. Then some more advanced modules let you take samples from other races so you can then have the option of switching out the benefits as you please. Then if you get the Shapeshifter module, you can actually transform into the races themselves. The Luck stat would have been cool to buy too, but the one stat by itself would cost 8,000 WP to unlock. It may just be the most expensive option to buy. Still though, to be able to gain luck and have causality bend itself around you? Yes, please. It’s for sure on the “to buy” list.
There was Friend’s List, which the guide was talking about before. It cost 2,000 WP by itself. There was also a Party module, which let people team up on World Quests and share Exp between them. So many things to buy.
I purchased what I had listed out before. Now my System looks better.
STATUS SCREEN
NAME: Callan Stone
TIER: 0
GLOBAL LEVEL: 1 0/224 Exp
CLASS: None 0/10 | Select an Available Class |
STATS:
Str: 4
End: 4
Dex: 5
Int: 7
Wis: 6
Cha: 5
Free Points: 5
SKILLS:
Skill Points: 2
None
WP: 0
Well, it kinda hurts to see my Charisma to be 5. Maybe that was average? I wasn’t ugly, no acne scars or weird features, sure, I was a bit chubby, but I was working on that by going to the gym. So maybe 5 was average? I am on the weaker side, so the strength and endurance checks out, and I would like to think that I was relatively smart.
Justifying my stats aside, I turned to Hadrian.
“Hey, I’m done. What about you?”
“Yeah, I’m done too. What did you get?”
“The basic DnD stats, with the class, and skills, and their leveling modules to go with it. I’ll have to get the Stat leveling module later.”
“Cool. I got the Simple Stats Module, The base Skill Module, the Skill and Stat Leveling modules, and the Dail Task Generator.”
I had to look up the Stats Leveling, Simple Stats, and Quest generator.
| LEVELING MODULES | Stat Leveling | 100 WP |
Maximizes the benefits of the user's efforts in improving his stats, even beyond the natural limit (10).
| STAT MODULES | Simple Stats Modules | 300 WP |
Quantifies, tracks, and displays the user’s stats. Allows for free stat points to be assigned to these stats. All Stats have a maximum of 400.
Unlocks the Body, Mind, and Soul stats.
| QUEST MODULES | Daily Quest Generator | 250 WP |
The System will generate a small quest for you to do that day to receive a small amount of rewards.
Did he just get a Saitama daily exercise quest?
“Unfortunately, if I want to get actual stats out of the quests, I’ll have to buy that module individually. I think I’ll just be getting local currency or items from it. My goal is to get all the different Quest modules, then I’ll basically be getting Stats, Skills, and WP from everything that I’ll be doing anyway.”
“And get rich while doing it.”
“And get rich while doing it.”
“... Dang it. Meanwhile, I’ll be grinding out the levels in all the different classes I’ll be unlocking.”
“Respect the grind. It builds character.”
“So, if you’re going to be focusing on questing, it would be good for you to go to some of those generic fantasy isekai worlds and do quests like that. Remember that one manga where the MC had the same thing and he was getting double the rewards from everything?”
“Yeah, that’s the inspiration. That and Saitama’s routine. And since you’re wanting to grind out some levels, you should go somewhere with a lot of easy-peasy monsters to kill. Maybe a zombie world?”
“Yeah, I’ll go to a simpler world first to get the Immune System Module, that way I’ll be immune to the zombie bite. Just in case.”
“Good Idea. Just, don't go turning into a murder-hobo, okay?... Anyway, I’m wanting to head into Pokemon first. If that’s an option.”
“Pokemon? Man, I didn’t even think of that! But pokemon isn’t really a good place for me to slaughter monsters though.” I sighed dejectedly. “Man, if you can, can you catch me a Squirtle?”
“Yeah, man. For sure. What world do you think you’ll head to first?”
“I’m thinking of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Maybe see if I can drink tea with Uncle Iroh, or hopefully unlock bending somehow.”
“That’ll be sick, dude.”
“Hey, how do we choose a world to go to? Also, remember what the guide said about time dilation, we gotta be careful to choose a world that’ll gain us time, not lose it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I think we need to actually use the terminal to choose.”
We got up from the couch and went to the podium. On the podium was a blank screen. When we poked the screen it came to life with a search bar and a holographic little man about 6 inches tall, dressed similarly to the Guide that spoke to us in the reception hall, stood above the screen. An AI perhaps?
“Whoa.”
“Greetings. I am the AI Index. How may I be of service?”
I nudged Hadrian, telling him to go first.
Hadrian cleared his throat, “Hello. I’m looking for a pokemon world, if that’s available?”
Index nodded. “Yes, that’s a good first choice. Nice and peaceful, but with just enough challenge to grow a bit.” On the screen, lists started filling out of, assumingly, different pokemon worlds.
“Any preferences on what kind of pokemon world?”
“Well, I want to gain some time, so the time should be faster in world. And maybe one like the games, without any actual death in battles and you just faint?” Index nodded again, and one of the worlds on the list was selected. A screen containing info on the specific world and the world quests available came up.
As Hadrian was looking through that, I spoke up, a thought coming to me. “Hey, Mr. Index. When in the timeline would he be dropping into?”
“Unless you have a module for it, users will be placed within one hour of the beginning of what is considered “canon” to you, at a random location that is within the bounds of where the “plot” occurs.”
“What do you mean by 'within the bounds?’”
“If the entire story happens within a city, you will be placed somewhere within the city. If the story has the main character travel the entire world, then you will be placed somewhere around the world.”
Then for ATLA, It would be somewhere random in the world.
“So, If I wanted to start in the world of Avatar the Last Airbender, what would the chances be of ending up lost in the tundra? Or dumped in the middle of the sea?”
“The system wouldn’t place you in the middle of the wilderness. You would be placed within sight of civilization.”
That was workable. Even if I end up stranded in the Southern Water Tribe, they wouldn’t let me freeze or starve. And I could help out around the village until Aang and Zuko got there. Then I can hitch a ride on Zuko’s ship or Appa.
Hadrian finished analyzing the pokemon world’s info. “Okay, this will be just fine. It looks like this world goes wrong because Team Rocket actually succeeds in stealing Ash’s pikachu so I just have to make sure that they fail.”
“Any other interesting quests?” I asked.
“Well, there’s a quest for each gym to get the badges, then a quest to compete in the league and achieve at least quarter finals. Then a quest to actually win the league. A quest for catching all the different pokemon in the region, a quest to catch a legendary pokemon, a quest for pokemon breeders as well. There’s also some nastier quests for joining Team Rocket, or forming your own Team, destroying the league, and much worse things.” We both grimaced. I could see some sickos taking those sorts of quests for power.
“What’s the time Dilation?”
“About 25:1, so every 25 days in the pokemon world will be 1 day here.”
“Dang, that’s almost a month in a single day.”
Hadrian turned to Index. “I’ll be taking this one.”
“Understood.” The screen flashed white and on the podium was a beautiful leather bound book with a golden pokeball gilded onto the front cover.
“Hadrian.” I gave my twin a strong hug. “I love you man. You be careful out there.”
“I love you too bro. Be careful.”
Hadrian placed his hand on the cover and said “Enter.” And just like that, he vanished. The book was gone too. ‘How long will it be until I see him again?’ I had to take a moment to gather myself.
“Hey Index, can you pull up a good ATLA book for me? One with the same Time Dilation as Hadrian’s world.”
“Of course, sir.” the screen changed to give details on an ATLA world and its World Quests.
| Prevent the burning of Kyoshi Village | 300 WP |
| Slay the Unagi | 400 WP |
| Ride the mail chutes as a slide | 50 WP |
| Earn a white lotus tile | 300 WP |
| Prevent Haru from being arrested | 100 WP |
And it went on for every event within the cartoon, either for or against the Gaang. But realistically speaking, there's no way I'll be traveling around with a group of kids less than half my age. There were also quests to go into the spirit world but that place can be really creepy. Maybe a quick in and out would work? There were darker quests too, like kill the avatar, end the avatar cycle, become the dark avatar, ensure the fire nation's victory, and so on. So the only ones I could feasibly do was:
| Earn a white lotus tile | 200 WP |
| Have tea with Uncle Iroh | 50 WP |
| Meditate with Guru Pathik | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Earth Chakra | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Water Chakra | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Air Chakra | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Fire Chakra | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Sound Chakra | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Light Chakra | 50 WP |
| Unlock the Thought Chakra | 100 WP |
| Unlock your Chi | 300 WP |
| Train with Swordmaster Piandao | 200 WP |
| Save the moon spirit, and thus Princess Yui's life | 500 WP |
| Visit Wan Shi Tong’s library | 100 WP |
Those quests, if I’m efficient with my time, should be done by the end of season 1, then there were some for season 2 like save Appa from the sand benders. They give me plenty of WP to prepare for the next zombie world. If I run into the Gaang, then I’ll help out with whatever they're doing at the moment, and do a quest that way, but I refuse to be stalking a bunch of kids. But there's one more quest that I really want to do:
| Find the last remaining Lion Turtle and convince it to give you bending | 300 WP |
From the way the quests are laid out, it seems like I could unlock my Chi through the meditations with the Guru Pathik and unlocking the pure cosmic energy, but it won't give me bending. Makes sense, considering that the Guru himself doesn't have any bending. So I would have to get it the original way, from a lion turtle.
"OK, Index, I'll take this one."
Another beautiful leather bound book appeared on the podium, with the symbol of the four elements. I placed my hand on the book and said, “Enter.”
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