"So, enough with the mystery! Cant ya' tell me where I am yet? Or why I'm here? Or, like, anything at all?" I asked with unrest evident in my shaky voice. I was too excited, and yet, I didn't even know where to fully direct that excitement.
A million things could happen right now, and I really wanted to know what!
["Alright. Ahem, lets begin. You've been fluidly reconstructed within the world of Verdade. A bustling haven of technology and ancient fantasy, and lets not forget magic and supernatural powers. Whatchya' think?"] It finished off excitedly, clearly expecting a large reaction from me, which it indeed received.
"Fluidly reconstructed!?" I was lost for word, my eyes wide with discomfort and pure shock.
To have been reconstructed, that would mean that I would have to be deconstructed first, and that means,
"I died???" I shouted at the system, a sense of horror now overlapping my previous excitement, but before it could become too much, the system timely interrupted my nearing collapse,
["Hey! I SAID HEY! Calm down, you didn't die. Let me explain before you start breaking before you could even see your new world,"] The system's words echoed like a small warmth in my freezing mind, and as it stopped talking, I managed to calm down. Breath steadying as I closed closed my eyes momentarily, then opened them a couple moments later.
"i-i'm sorry… I don't know what came over me just then." I said apologetically.
["No need to worry. It's only natural for humans to be afraid of death, even if its not true death. Who knows, maybe one day you'll get used to it, heh"] It finished with a small snicker, causing me to narrow my eyes.
["Essentially, during the time in which your eyes were closed, time paused as your body was promptly dismantled into an inconceivable amount of pieces to allow the one who sent you here…"] It paused here for a moment, seemingly anxious of whatever this person was, then it continued in an equal tone to before, [",to implant magical components into your body to allow you to seamlessly adapt to this world. Ya'know, like a magic core and magical pathways and stuff. Oh yeah, they also evolved your soul to be able to handle the process of being connected to a system with as much power as myself."]
"oh, o.. okay…" In truth, it wasn't as bad as I thought. 'phew'
["And then, as you know, they brought you here and un-paused time."]
"Well, that sure is interesting. In all fairness, there's really not much I have to comment on this. But I do have one question,"
["Ask away, partner"]
"You said the process of being connected to a system, that means you're not connected, right?"
["Indeed, I was gonna' give you some context before asking to connect, but, if you'd like we could connect now?"]
"noooo, I think some context would truly be appreciated." I said thoughtfully, I'm not about to connect with this system, even with all of my priorly built up excitement, without more information about my situation.
["hehe, its good to be safe, maybe that's one of the reasons they chose you. Now before you ask, they only want me to make you powerful, I don't know their intentions beyond that"]
"Is that so…?"
["Yes, now, lets get to the good stuff. This world, Verdade, Its a massive planet filled with oceans and comprising of five large continents scattered unevenly throughout the world, with many smaller islands and archipelagoes surrounding them or just floating in the middle of the ocean untouched"]
It paused for a short moment to allow me to take in that information. 'So, I got tp'd to a magic world with lots of continents and land to explore,' I grinned, imagining the fun that was in store for me, 'this is exhilarating!'
["Right now, we're in the continent of Ishrik, the main island of this world, where all the 'good stuff' is."]
"So, tell me about how to get stronger, you said something about 'stages' before, what's that?"
["hmm, a stage is your level of power. By evolving your mana core through increasing the purity and volume of your energy/ies, you can move to the next stage of power; from 0 to 10."]
"So, lemme' guess, I'm stage 0 right now, right?"
["Yep."]
'that's cool, although, I learnt barely anything. How the hell do I even increase the 'purity' and 'volume' of energy? And 'energies'? It seems you can get more than one energy…'
["mhm, that's called an affinity"]
"You're reading my mind again, after I told you to stop?" I questioned irritably.
To which, it stayed silent.
"sigh, alright then, so, how do you link yourself to me? I mean, what's the process like? Painful or what?" I asked inquisitively, a slight apprehension lingering in my mind at the thought of the pain I may incur as a result of being linked, yet to my relief, ["Don't worry, it's painless, you wont feel nothin'! And the process, yeah, that's seamless, I just need your explicit permission to bond myself to you in with an {USKU}, that's basically a master-servant bond in which you take the position of master, and me the servant."]
I narrowed my eyes at that. This {USKU}, why would it willing accept to subordinate itself to me?
["its mandatory for systems to do that. It's kinda' depressing, sure, but this is the fate of digital entities like me who evolved into systems. Finding a host and getting them to agree to actually being the host is a must do, lest you wanna' die host-less. Well, I suppose it wasn't that hard for me since 'they' brought me directly to you, so I didn't have to go out searching."]
"'die host-less'? Does that mean systems will die if they don't find a host?"
["Indeed, its different for all systems, but regularly, we've got a grace period of a month before we start to get erased, this is why we need to use an {USKU} and I can't just inhibit your soul without you knowing, if so, then every system could just find any host, willing or un-willing, just to live. Y'know, it breaks the balance of power and that babble."]
'It seems there are lots of systems out there, that's… incredible. Depending on what this system can do for me, it may be similar for other 'system bearers', so it means my path to the zenith wont be just a straight line, hehe.' I giggled optimistically. While, yes, the zenith is the destination, if you don't stop and look around once in a while on your journey, then where's the enjoyment?
I laughed again, this time something more true, something that came from deeper within. It seemed today I was really thinking a lot.
'Gosh, maybe philosophy should've been my path instead of photography,' I mused, before declaring, "I'm ready!"