Staring at the distant towers from beyond the white mist, the Ruined City of Project Moon was vast. Unimaginably so.
As I sat atop a ruined skyscraper, I could tell this District was the size of a major metropolitan area. I had seen the sign along the way.
District 1
I had never expected to witness the most mysterious District in the City. It was like a municipal area. The only difference was that there were no singularities or system terminals in this place that would explain what had occurred here. It was spiraled around the borders. The outside seemed to be covered by a large wall, keeping this place highly secretive.
Just outside of these walls was Backstreet 1, which was littered with Sweepers.
No, it was more accurate to say... this was the beginning of the City. The singularities and various other things did not matter because they had not yet existed.
However, where did these Sweepers come from? I surmised they must have come before the City. Perhaps they were related to the apocalypse that had swept through this place.
[ Loading 98.7% ]
I glanced down at the blue system panel. I'd spent an innumerable amount of time exploring the City. I found many time bombs waiting in various places. But thankfully, District 1 was peaceful. For now. There were no Bloodfiends or Abnormalities.
"If I had a physical body, I probably wouldn't have lived this long..." Sighing, I got up and went for another walk to make sure I didn't get bored. I didn't feel like my mind was going mad. Instead, I had always felt calm.
Was this the advantage of being some metaphysical entity? The Will of the City?
I could feel an extremely slow generation of emotions gathering within me. It felt ambiguous, like numbers. These were called Lunacy, or so the system said.
[ +0.1 Lunacy ]
The City generated at least 0.7 Lunacy every day, so it was extremely slow, at a snail's pace.
[ Lunacy Points: 37180 ]
Sighing again, I noted the system load was too slow. So I continued to explore the place. My mind always felt stable. If I were an ordinary human, I would've broken down and become a mental ward patient.
After spending another few years, the system had finally loaded.
[ Loading Complete! ]
[ The Will of the City ]
Authority: Administrator
Title: The Head of the City
[ You have been granted a starting package from the distant future. ]
[ Create a New Singularity Voucher ]
[ You have unlocked the function 'River of Entropy' ]
I was speechless. It seemed like all of that waiting wasn't in vain.
[ River of Entropy ]
• You can extract random materials, identities, abnormalities, singularities, and other phenomena in the City that can be transported to the current world.
[ Roll 1 (130 Lunacy) ] [ Extract 10 (1300 Lunacy) ]
"Seriously?! Gacha?!" I jumped up with a "yippee!" There was finally something interesting popping up!
Plus, looking at my excess Lunacy, I could finally spend it. It was no longer useless!
However, I stopped, squinting my eyes at the Voucher that had appeared in my hand.
'What can I use this for?'
Closing my eyes, I thought of ideas, and then after several minutes of walking back and forth, I conceived an idea most ingenious.
'There are several ways I can use this based on the novels I have read.'
I nodded, satisfied. I tucked the voucher into my pocket and glanced at the gacha panel, which looked like a glowing blue river continuously streaming in reverse.
I pressed 'Extract 10', and light began to fluctuate from the key that had sent me to this world.
"Eh? Wait. Wait. It's that damn key--" I wasn't able to finish as my eyes were flash banged by the same luminescent light.
What appeared were chains revealing 8 greens and 2 reds.
--Red Cards--
[ Blade Lineage Identity: 00 ]
[ K-Corp Ampoule ]
--Green Cards--
[ 1kg Metal (3) ]
[ 1kg Wood (2) ]
[ 10 liters Clean Water (3) ]
I continued to pull. As time went on... I had managed to get something good.
--Gold Cards--
[ Singularity R Corp ]
[ 1st Kindred Blood Vial ]
[ WhiteNight Identity: 000 ]
[ Abnormality Random Voucher (2) ]
--Red Cards--
[ Liu Association Fixer Identity: 00 (4) ]
[ Zwei Association Fixer Identity: 00 (7) ]
[ Cinq Association Fixer Identity: 00 (5) ]
[ Tres Association Fixer Identity: 00 (3) ]
[ Seven Association Fixer Identity: 00 (5) ]
[ Devyat Association Fixer Identity: 00 (6) ]
[ Dieci Association Fixer Identity: 00 (4) ]
[ Öufi Association Fixer Identity: 00 (3) ]
[ K Corp Ampoules (10) ]
[ Nuovo Fabric (17) ]
--Green Cards--
[ 1kg Metal (87) ]
[ Enkephalin (102) ]
[ Fabric (43) ]
...
...
...
[ Lunacy: 780 ]
After my gacha addiction had finally faded, I had gained a lot. So much that all of my hundreds of years of waiting had finally come to fruition.
But what was this? Was I so lucky that I got this many goodies? It would've been normal if I hadn't gotten a single gold. But somehow, I managed to do it. Several times!
Thanks to the R Corp Singularity, it seemed like one of the ideas that I'd thought of could be used right now with all the resources I had gathered.
Plus, what was this WhiteNight Identity? Wasn't this the ALEPH Abnormality WhiteNight? One of the most powerful abnormalities in the game?
I was wary because identities can have side effects. What if I lost control of my hard-won clone and it turned into a literal killing machine?
I had to think more about this before using this identity on the clone that I'd be creating to interact with this world.
The only good thing was that I'd gotten a 1st Kindred Blood Vial, which meant I could turn a clone into a 2nd Kindred. Powerful enough to be physically comparable to a Grade 1 Fixer who had already gained numerous augmentations.
And with a long time and experience, it might be possible to become a low-tier Color Fixer.
I stepped inside the wide, circular building, which had numerous floors. I had decided to name this base Shelter 01. The first area where the new singularity will be placed.
[ Create a New Singularity Voucher ]
I ripped the Voucher and suddenly, in my mind's eye, I was able to drag a blue, somewhat-transparent, square structure with my thoughts. And I finally understood how I could use it.
[ Reading thoughts… ]
[ Input Complete! ]
[ Singularity: Gestalt System ]
• A complex, 5-story-sized black terminal with various complex, alien-like features that have glowing tubes connected to it and to a black, 1-story-sized capsule. It allows the terminal to connect to Planet Earth's Wi-Fi in the Milky Way Galaxy and also enables consciousness to transfer into bodies.
I placed the singularity in Shelter 01 and also placed the R Corp Singularity next to it. They seamlessly connected to each other, with the glowing tubes changing to any size, allowing them to connect to every type of port or singularity, even those without ports or connectors.
As I sat down to boot up the system, I had almost forgotten one simple fact. I had to power the terminal.
"I have Enkephalin, but where should I put it?" I looked all over.
There was a slot at the top of the terminal. I placed the green box of Enkephalin into the slot, and then it powered up.
Since it was connected to the R Corp Singularity, that had also turned on. I placed several more boxes into each allotted slot, 100 of them, into every available one.
When I turned on the monitor, I could see a battery status loaded with countless port batteries.
[ Overall Energy Consumption: 0.1% Daily ]
[ Overall Energy AE Boxes: 100 ]
[ Report: Current Energy Stored is enough to last for 10 years. ]
I began to look through ways to create a clone. All it needed was 1 Enkephalin Box to complete one single cloned body.
[ 1 Box of Enkephalin has been consumed. ]
[ You may customize the clone. ]
Thanks to the Gestalt System, I was able to see much more functions than just the R Corp's Replication Technology. Otherwise, I would've needed a human body's gene to replicate it. However, the Gestalt System had many stored genes that could create various appearances, stats, and many more strange features. If the R Corp Singularity was the brawn, then the Gestalt System was the brain.
They both had great chemistry.
I began to customize this character. For my plans to work, I needed the first NPC. My first customized character to be the representative of A Corp. The almighty, mysterious Head of the City can't interact with the real world, so there must be an avatar.
It was a handsome, light-green-haired man. He was 6'2" and had a lean, muscular build. His face was perfectly proportioned.
"Hm! Hm! Not bad! This will do. Charisma is an important factor for trust and approachability."
However, the Gestalt System suddenly sent me a message.
[ Name Input: ]
"A name, huh?"
I paused and thought about it before pressing the buttons of the keyboard.
[ Liam Arknights ]
[ Do you wish to grant this vessel the authority of administrator? ]
Somehow, the Gestalt System also started to send me another message, and as I pressed 'yes', the screen loaded and it finished.
The system panel that was usually in my head appeared in front. I was now able to control this character.
"Ahem." My voice sounded sharp and deep. It seemed like all of those specifications had come to show the results. It was my first time customizing a character using the Gestalt System, but it certainly was satisfying.
-"Initiating opening of capsule."-
As the Gestalt System began to release my body, I managed to regain full strength, and as I breathed in the dusty air, I finally felt alive in so long.
"Ahh… fresh air." I stepped out and breathed the air from the City. It was gloomy, but being able to breathe was a privilege for me, who had been transmigrated into this world as a metaphysical entity who didn't need to breathe. It felt like I was just a machine, but now I felt human.
Though, my skin felt cold. I didn't have any clothes on.
"Hmm…" I glanced at the system storage.
[ Nuovo Fabric (17) ]
[ Fabric (43) ]
'System.' With a thought, the system panel menu appeared. I finally found something good.