Arc 1 - Chapter 13 - System Lecture III

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------------------- Start of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) -------------------
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Hello everyone, LunaWolve here!

Chapter 8 (Digitisation) has just been released on RR.

There have only been minor alterations from the Patreon chapter, so it's not technically necessary for you to go over and check the new chapter, but I'd appreciate if you did and maybe left a comment, either way (for the algorithm, yknow!).

Going forward, this time (9pm CEST) will be my Patreon-release time for new chapters (if they're ready ahead of time. If not, this time will also be the announcement time for when I expect the chapter to be done instead).

The 1-hour delay between the RR and Patreon release is so that I can continue my interactions with both sides of the community, at the moment of release.

Releasing a new chapter is always my favorite part, as going through the comments of excited readers, minutes after release is an absolute treat.

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This chapter ended up being an absolute behemoth. It's by far the longest chapter in the entire novel for far (even longer tham 'Omega-Alpha'), as I could not find a place to stop the chapter, while retaining the flow of the story.

I also wanted to finish up the majority of the System Lecture in this chapter, as I intended for chapter 14 to feature some action-sequences, to break the monotony of the info-dumps.

So we ended up with a massive chapter instead. I hope that won't be too much of an issue, but I'll try to rein myself in more for the future.

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Thank you all for your overwhelming support on this Patreon so far. I was not expecting to get even 20% of the patrons that I did for this novel, so I'm thoroughly flabbergasted by the incredible reception.

I'll continue to work hard on the next chapters now, so please enjoy this absolute behemoth of a chapter! I'm looking forward to your excited comments and feedback, so don't hesitate to post them!

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Conjuring up the familiar blue box by requesting a full rundown of her profile by the System, Thea continued to brood over the potential future paths open to her.

[System Prowess Evaluation]:
Point Value: 130

[Status & Attributes]:
Thea McKay - Level 4 - Contribution Points: 113 / 440 - Unspent Attribute Points: 16
HP: 100 / 100 - Stamina: 150 / 150 - Focus: 200 / 200 - ???: ??? - ???: ???
Class: None - Specialization: None - Title: None - ???: ??? - ???: ???

Strength: 3 (+0%)   
Dexterity: 4 (+0%)   
Vitality: 2 (+0%)   
Recovery: 2 (+0%)   
Stamina: 3 (+0%)  
Focus: 4 (+0%)
Perception: 5 (+0%)
Resolve: 5 (+0%)
[Psychic: ??? (+0%)] (Locked 16/30)
[???: ??? (+0%)] (Locked)

[Abilities]:
Active 1 / 5 - Passive 1 / 8 - Class: None - Specialisation: None

Active:

• [Active (Silver) - Sensory Overdrive - Level 1]

Passive:

• [Passive (Silver) - Meditation Focus - Level 1]

‘Interesting… it seems that the System updates the information it presents as I learn about it… That’s quite handy. I wonder if I can influence what is shown and remove things, like all these question marks…’

In the next moment, the information inside of her Status & Attributes section suddenly changed.

[Status & Attributes]:
Thea McKay - Level 4 - Contribution Points: 113 / 440 - Unspent Attribute Points: 16
HP: 100 / 100 - Stamina: 150 / 150 - Focus: 200 / 200 - TBD - TBD
Class: None - Specialization: None - Title: None - TBD - TBD

Strength: 3 (+0%)    
Dexterity: 4 (+0%)    
Vitality: 2 (+0%)    
Recovery: 2 (+0%)    
Stamina: 3 (+0%)   
Focus: 4 (+0%)
Perception: 5 (+0%)
Resolve: 5 (+0%) [Psychic: TBD (+0%)] (Locked 16/30)
[TBD: TBD (+0%)] (Locked)

'Well... not quite what I wanted, but I guess it will do for now. Definitely a lot easier on the eyes... So, my main Attributes are definitely Resolve and Perception as it stands. Resolve seems to primarily govern my ability to withstand Psychic attacks or backlash, so investing in it might not be too worthwhile at the moment - Major Quinn did mention that having a 5 in Resolve is already quite high, after all...

'Perception, on the other hand, I can definitely see making my main Attribute going forward. As a scout and sniper, I'll need to make sure my squad is covered and avoid leading them into any ambushes or traps... So that's a no-brainer. Dexterity also seems like something I would want, but I'm a bit worried about becoming too lopsided with my distribution...

'Ah! That reminds me... the Professor did imply Vitality being important for Psykers too... Not to mention having a 2 seems to be vastly below the average compared to the rest of the Marines, so I should probably try my best to shore up that weakness in some way, if I intend to go down that route, especially considering that backlash the Professor mentioned. But putting percentage-based increases on it seems like an utter waste, with the low base…’

Thea was still deeply absorbed in thoughts about her future Attribute allocation and whether she should consider the Psyker route despite Professor Pierce's warnings, when he continued his speech, clearing his throat to regain the class's attention.

The sound of his voice coming over the audio system pulled Thea out of her reverie and back to the present moment.

"Ahem… Now, as I was saying before warning you about the dangers of the Psychic route, it is but one of two hidden Attributes on your profile. The last one is unfortunately not something you will encounter for quite some time, so it was decided not to include it in our basic-level 101 class at present.

"I am aware that not knowing about certain things can be frustrating, but having too much unnecessary knowledge can also lead to indecision. All I can tell you about the last Attribute is that it only unlocks once you've entered Tier 3 of the Allbright System. I hope this information satisfies your curiosity for now, allowing you to make the initial decisions about your future paths unimpeded."

The professor paused for a moment, taking another sip from the glass of water hidden below the front-desk. His eyes carefully observed the recruits, ensuring that they were following the information being presented before he proceeded with his lecture.

"Moving on to Abilities, this is likely the topic most of you are keenly interested in, although some of you might be more intrigued by classes as a whole… but we'll discuss those shortly.

“Abilities in the Allbright System generally consist of two types: Active and Passive. Everyone has a total of 5 active and 8 passive slots that you can freely slot your Abilities into as you see fit. During System Integration, everyone is given exactly one Active-type Ability from the System, with its rarity based on what the Allbright System perceives as your general aptitude towards it.

"The rarest starting Ability ever recorded was a gold-rarity Ability, so we assume that to be the general limit, considering the number of Marines that the UHF has integrated over the years. Oh! Speaking of rarities—I should probably explain the rarity classification the System uses right now, as otherwise, none of this will make any sense to you.

"The Allbright System classifies many aspects using specific keywords, also called 'rarities.' These classifications serve multiple purposes, but the primary aspect is to indicate - you guessed it - the rarity of a given thing. In order of most common to rarest, the rarities are:

“Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, followed by Palladium, Crysium, Exium, Galactium, and Unique.”

As Professor Pierce enumerated each rarity, he counted them off on his fingers for everyone to see, ensuring that each name was articulated slowly and distinctly for the assembled class of Marines to understand.

Thea noted that the Professor paid extra close attention to this particular part of his lecture compared to previous sections. While the earlier content was delivered with care, there was a distinctly different emphasis placed on making sure each rarity's name was properly understood and contextualised by the Marines.

“They are generally grouped into two separate ‘types.’ The first five - those being Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, and Platinum - are colloquially referred to as ‘base’ rarities, while the last four, barring Unique - Palladium, Crysium, Exium, and Galactium - are referred to as ‘true’ rarities.

“This particular distinction might seem odd at first, but it stems from a very practical origin.

“The base rarities simply indicate how often a certain thing generally occurs inside the System, akin to a random distribution with certain percentage values. The true rarities, however, indicate how often a certain thing can occur inside the System.

“To contextualise this using our current topic: Gold-rarity Abilities only show up in roughly one out of every 10,000 Participants. This is neither a guarantee nor a limit, however. Two Participants that get integrated right next to each other might both receive a Gold-rarity Ability right from the get-go, just as a group of 100,000 newly integrated Participants might not have a single one.

“This is distinctly different from the true rarities. Let's take the Palladium-rarity Ability, ‘Eyes of the Stellarch,’ as an example,” with those words, the projected data-screen behind Professor Pierce changed, displaying a faithful recreation of a familiar blue box.

[Active (Palladium 8,540/10,000) - Eyes of the Stellarch - Level 1]
Description: Allows the Participant to use focus and stamina to allow their vision to pass unhindered through obstacles of a certain thickness. This effect may be blocked by Materials over a certain Tier.
Cost: 100 Focus + 35 Stamina - Effect Depth: 5m
Effect Limit: Up to Tier 3 Materials - Effect Duration: 10 seconds

Upon seeing the description of the Ability, Thea's eyes widened, and her mouth opened in a mixture of awe and disbelief.

‘This…! It's like having wallhacks! How can this be real?! That Ability seems incredibly broken…! How would you even defend against this? Just sit in a room made out of whatever Tier 4 Materials are and stay there forever...? I wonder if there’s a way to get my hands on this thing…’

The other Marines in the class seemed to share Thea's amazement as they murmured among themselves, their eyes flickering between the description of the ability and their fellow classmates. Some leaned in to whisper to their neighbours, while others silently contemplated the potential applications of such an ability in combat situations.

Even Karania, who had been intently focused on writing down the Professor's every word in her data-pads, stopped mid-movement. Her hands froze just inches above the data-pads, eyes wide, and her mouth fell open in a similarly astonished expression.

With a slightly annoyed tone in his voice, Professor Pierce spoke up again.

"Quiet. I'm well aware of the impact a Palladium-rarity Ability has on the average Marine, but I need your focus for this topic. You can chit-chat amongst yourselves during our upcoming break."

Letting his eyes roam over the assembled Marines, ensuring that individual pockets of noise had properly quieted down, the Professor continued.

"As you can see, this Ability description looks fairly similar to the ones you should be familiar with by now, with one major distinction: the counter right after the rarity keyword.

"This counter is an indicator of how many versions of this particular Ability have been distributed by the System. The Ability can only exist up to a total of 10,000 times within the System, at any given time. That means if the maximum number has already been given out, it won't appear again until one of the 10,000 Participants either switches out the Ability for something else or dies. As you might imagine, this makes true rarity Abilities highly valuable and sought after, as they offer unique and powerful capabilities with limited availability.

“Don’t get your hopes up, however. True rarity Abilities are incredibly hard to obtain. Most are only obtainable as parts of very niche classes, incredibly difficult achievements or through similarly obtuse and hard conditions. Statistically, only a handful of you will ever run into one of these Abilities in your entire life, so simply note that they exist, but don’t fret too much about them.”

With that reality check from the Professor, the excited atmosphere inside the lecture hall suddenly disappeared, instead replaced by a sombre realisation of the unreachable heights that the System could provide for a select few individuals.

For Thea, however, this reality check had a different impact.

Fueled by the recent information and a more thorough understanding of her own comparative standing inside the Allbright System, Thea could only take it as a challenge. Clenching her fists, Thea's cyan-coloured, nebula eyes gleamed with a barely restrained fire from within.

'Only a handful, huh…? I'll definitely be one of them! I've already got great Attributes, two silver Abilities, and a high PV from the System.

‘I'm far ahead of the curve, so I just need to keep pushing, and I'll get there, no problem! This is just like try-harding for the monthly drawings, after all!'

Looking to her side, Thea saw that Karania had a similarly fiery expression on her face as she hastily noted down additional things in her data-pads. Thea couldn't help but smile widely at the thought that she wasn't alone in those feelings.

Back on Lumiosia, she had always been the only one inside the golden age arcade to go for as many high scores as possible, aiming for the monthly prize draws. Everyone else had usually only attempted one or two different games at most, as if to say, 'It won't make a difference anyway.'

The nihilistic attitude of the average undercity citizen had always rubbed her the wrong way, but she had never been able to pinpoint the exact reason why.

Seeing Karania as fired up as herself, however, Thea finally realised that it wasn't her who had been weird or wrong, as she had always assumed.

It had been everyone else in the undercity, who had been wrong all along!

Simply accepting their lot in life, not even attempting to explore every possible avenue of success, they had pretended as if bad luck was the sole reason for their current situation. Not making use of their own abilities, their own strengths, to try and improve their lives had always been the status quo for them.

These were things Thea had never even considered before, as she always tried her best, made the most out of any situation, and used any method available to her. After all, this drive had been a major contributing factor for her performance during the initial assessment trial for the UHF, as she had fought, bled, and struggled to get to the top of the leaderboard and win the challenge.

Seeing the exact same distribution unfold before her very eyes, among what she had initially assumed were all like-minded individuals, was an eye-opener for Thea in more ways than one.

Based on the sudden, sombre atmosphere inside the lecture hall, the majority of the Marines had simply accepted the fact that they would never be able to wield true rarity Abilities without a second thought. There was no fight evident in their eyes, no determination to beat the odds. They simply accepted their lot in life, just like the citizens of the undercity.

After a quick scan around the room, Thea only managed to find a handful of Marines, aside from Karania and herself, who had determined expressions on their faces or a raging fire behind their eyes.

'If this is all it takes to break their drive to strive for the top, it's no wonder that the majority of people never manage to obtain true rarity Abilities… At least, I won't have to worry about these people stealing my slots.'

With a renewed clearing of his throat that started to annoy Thea in a way she could not put into words, Professor Pierce continued his lecture.

"Ahem… As I was saying before our brief tangent onto the rarity keywords, every Participant is given an Active-type Ability by the System upon integration. We are not sure why the System decides to do so, but we won't look a gift-horse in the mouth now, will we?

"There are a total of four different ways to gain new Abilities. The first and easiest is to simply buy them. Any Participant can spend their Merit to acquire new Abilities via the System Store. Accessing the System Store can be done in one of two ways: either go to a System Terminal, which is a piece of technology provided by the System to Factions, or request the System itself to open the System Store.

"Be advised that you can only open the System Store in calm situations, however. This means that you cannot have taken part in any combat over the past 24 hours and cannot be considered a prisoner or under duress by the System itself.

"The Abilities available for purchase inside the System Store are exclusively of the base type and may be locked through various means, such as Level, Tier, Class, specific Achievements, or any combination of these. While they can be a great way to round out a build, they should not be your primary method of obtaining Abilities, as you don't want to use up too much of your Merit for reasons that should be obvious to everyone here.

"The second way to obtain Abilities is by having the System itself grant them to you. Just like with integration, there is a chance you will be granted a random Ability under a myriad of different circumstances. Sometimes, Marines receive Abilities as rewards for completing missions or Achievements, while other times they are rewarded for creating something entirely new within the System.

"The third way is somewhat related to the previous two, as you can also obtain Abilities by expending available Achievement Rewards. Achievements, as the name suggests, are accomplishments that the System considers difficult and publicly acknowledges. These can include incredible accuracy in a battle, extremely high kill-counts, the number of lives saved, and so forth, which can all be considered official Achievements by the System if they exceed certain thresholds.

"Generally, you are given a reward for an Achievement, but if you dislike what you've been given, you can choose not to accept the reward and trade it in for other things, such as the aforementioned Abilities. This can be done in the Achievement screen, but don't try this out now. You will be given a handout with different 'System Commands,' if you will, once this lecture concludes, so you can peruse them at your leisure.

"The Abilities available in the Achievement screen are similarly locked as those in the System Store but offer a wider variety, as well as some select true rarity Abilities if you manage to fulfil their specific requirements for purchase."

Once again, the Professor counted the different ways on his fingers, making sure each and every Marine in the lecture hall could clearly see them.

Thea found herself inwardly impressed by Professor Pierce’s ability to maintain and focus her attention on key parts of the lecture.

Given the vast amount of information being presented, it would be easy to lose sight of the main aspects. However, the Professor's use of the projected data-screen behind him, his body language, such as counting on his fingers in full view of everyone, and the way he emphasised certain aspects with his voice, all contributed to her natural retention of what she felt were the most important points.

She was relieved that the UHF had selected a competent Professor for her System 101 class, as she had been concerned about becoming bored and potentially missing vital information. While Professor Pierce might not have been the most exceptional Professor she could imagine, he was certainly adequate enough for the task at hand.

This concern was particularly relevant, as during her basic training over the past two years, Thea had encountered this exact issue on several occasions. She vividly remembered dozing off in one of her decorum classes when the teacher had monotonously read different phrases for hours without pause.

As a result, Thea had ended up having to request the class’ transcript to study the important parts for the subsequent exam, sacrificing many nights of sleep in the process, to make sure she passed it.

Luckily, it was unlikely to happen again in this class, as Professor Pierce seemed to know how to properly engage an audience, or at the very least, keep them focused on the important parts between the long stretches of rapid-fire information.

"The final option to obtain more Abilities, which leads perfectly into our next topic, is to gain them from your Class.

"Each Class comes with its own set of Active and Passive slots, as well as Abilities. Every Class has exactly enough slots to fit the Abilities it grants, and those slots cannot be used for any other Abilities, nor can you swap out these Abilities for others, as you can with your regular 5 Active and 8 Passive slots.

"The way this grants you Abilities, then, is by allowing you to move one Active and one Passive Class Ability to your general slots once you advance your Class at the end of every Tier. So, assuming you find an amazing Active and Passive Ability in your Class, you can simply choose to take them with you once you reach the next threshold. This is the primary pathway to create your own unique type of build and style in the Allbright System."

Thea was once again flabbergasted by the implications of the revealed information.

'We get to mix and match Class Abilities over time?! Just what in the Void does the endgame of the Allbright System look like? With wallhacks, gestalt-style mix-and-matching, and who knows what else is available beyond that…!'

While Thea's mouth was still agape in utter disbelief and her brain busy reconciling all the implications, Professor Pierce continued.

"While Abilities have a max Level of 20, they can also evolve. Once an Ability is 'maxed', if hidden requirements are met, they can be upgraded to the next Tier. They will subsequently restart from Level 1 of that new Tier.

"This 'keeping of Abilities' that I mentioned in regards to your Class Abilities has a couple of requirements. Primarily, you will need to max out your Ability to Level 20 of the corresponding Tier. Let's say you are a Tier 2 Ravager, a fairly popular type of heavy-armour Class among UHF Marines, and want to bring over one of your Abilities into Tier 3. For that to happen, you'll need to max out the Ability you want to move over, to Tier 2 - Level 20.

"This can lead to certain Marines lingering at their current bottleneck for a while as they try to upgrade their Abilities to the maximum in order to take them to the next Tier. We will go more in-depth on this during our build discussions, especially as you progress towards the end of the year and we're getting closer to all of you actually receiving your first Classes.

"For the foreseeable future of this class, however, we will mostly focus on general Abilities that you can acquire outside of your Classes in order to fill out the remaining 4 Active and 8 Passive slots you all have at the moment. You can replace Abilities at any time to free up slots again, after all. Do keep in mind, however, that after replacing an Ability, the old one is gone forever, unless you manage to find and obtain it again. But even if you happen to get it again, it will still restart from scratch."

Taken aback by the information she just heard, Thea frowned, '4 Active and 8 Passive slots? But we're at 4 Active and 7 Passive slots…? We got an Active and a Passive right at the start, after all…? I didn't take Professor Pierce as someone to make such a basic mistake, especially considering the way he meticulously explains every eventuality…'

Glancing over at Karania, Thea wondered if she had caught the mistake as well.

However, her confusion only deepened as she saw Karania still diligently taking notes on the professor's every word. This irritated Thea, as Karania had seemed to share her exact thoughts throughout the entirety of the lecture so far.

Deciding to investigate further, Thea opened her data-pad to check the message board, looking for any mention of the mistake. The message board had been in continuous use by the majority of Marines in the lecture hall, as they shared thoughts and ideas about the things Professor Pierce said and answered each other's questions to the best of their ability.

Not finding anything about the mistake on the message board, Thea wondered if she was just being pedantic about a small error in the numbers. As she pondered the issue, her gaming instincts and enthusiasm for theory-crafting urged her to question the discrepancy further.

'What if I misunderstood something in the slots…? I can’t risk losing out on a Passive slot, simply because I didn’t understand how it all worked. That would reduce my overall options and upper-limit by a fairly large margin…'

Determined, Thea quickly created a top-level post on the message board titled, 'Question: Why did Professor Pierce say we had 8 Passive slots available? Shouldn’t we only have 7 left?' and waited for her fellow Marines to hopefully come to her rescue.

Mere seconds later, as the Professor was taking another sip from his seemingly infinite glass of water beneath the front-desk, the first answers trickled in. Much to Thea’s chagrin, they did nothing to alleviate her worries. Instead, they only added to her confusion.

[FelReaver434]: 'Why would we only have 7? We have 5 free Active slots and 8 free Passive slots. We were given 1 Active Ability, so we’re down to 4 and 8 respectively. Did you fail math during basic or something?'

[Stellaron]: 'FelReaver434 is right, where exactly is the misunderstanding here? Five minus one is four. And eight minus zero is still eight. The Passive slots don’t get used up, just because we have an Active Ability.'

[MGMoonRabbit]: 'OP might’ve misunderstood the way the slots work? Active and Passive slots are separate. Active Abilities don’t fill up Passive slots, just like Passive slots don’t fill up Active slots. If that wasn’t the case, you could end up with only Passives, as we have more of those slots available than Active ones.'

Thoroughly confused and irritated by the somewhat rude replies, Thea rapidly typed up a response.

[ViolentTeal]: 'Why are you all pretending I’m crazy here? During the System Integration, we all got 1 Active Ability and 1 Passive Ability, as our starting setup. That should leave us at 4 and 7 respectively, unless there’s some hidden mechanic I don’t understand?'

Just as she pressed the reply button, the data-pad flashed with a red error message.

[Error: Message could not be sent.]

Growing more frustrated, as it seemed that even the message board itself was against her now, Thea smashed the reply button again, only to be greeted by another red error message.

[Error: Message could not be sent.]

As the error message faded away and Thea was about to try for a third time, the message board on her data-pad suddenly refreshed automatically, deleting her written message entirely.

Her frustration bubbling over, Thea clicked her tongue in annoyance and took a deep breath, which prompted Karania to look over, a slight frown visible on her face. "You okay? What’s wrong?"

Slightly embarrassed by having her frustration caught but not enough to outweigh her irritation, Thea replied in a slightly annoyed, yet equally quiet voice that Karania had employed to avoid catching the Professor's attention. "The message board just threw some errors and deleted my message. I just wanted to know why the Professor made a mistake with the Ability slots, but people started mocking me. What is wrong with everyone…?!"

Raising an eyebrow at Thea’s statement, Karania leaned in closer before asking, "What mistake are you talking about? I didn’t catch any obvious flaws in what the Professor said…?"

Her irritation close to reaching a boiling point, Thea took another deep breath. "Haa… not you too, Karania…

"It's about the free slots he mentioned! We should be at 4 and 7, not 4 and 8. We got one Active and one Passive Ability during the System Integration, so we lost exactly one slot each, not only one Active slot.

“I know it’s somewhat pedantic to nag because of this, but I thought I might have missed something, like a way to have the starting Passive not count towards the slots or whatever. So, I asked on the message board, but all I got was people telling me I can’t count properly!"

Frustrated by the lack of a helpful answer from her fellow Marines, Thea put her data-pad onto her desk with just slightly too much force than necessary and closed her eyes, trying to re-center her emotions.

She wasn't even sure why this particular issue had ticked her off so much, but she was extremely frustrated that her attempt at getting a clear answer had been met with mockery.

Several seconds later, as she realised that Karania had not replied to her at all, Thea opened her eyes again and looked over towards Karania’s seat, only to be greeted by an incredulous look on the girl’s face.

Still frustrated but equally desperate for a real answer, Thea pleaded in a quiet voice, “What? Is it that obvious? What did I miss with the slots? Please, just tell me. I don’t want to be in the dark on this…”

Instead of answering, Karania posed a counter-question, her voice laced with surprise, “You have a Passive Ability?!”

Taken aback by the question, Thea didn't know what to say. Of course she had a Passive Ability! She had gained it from the System right at the integration, along with her Active one! She had gotten it right after the strange System err—!

Thea’s eyes suddenly widened as pieces of the puzzle fell into place in her mind. 'The error was an actual malfunction of the System! I wasn’t supposed to have a Passive Ability…! That’s why the other Marines had no idea what I was talking about… And it also explains why the Private during the inspection thought I had referred to the Faction Trait instead of my Passive Ability too!'

Shocked by the revelation and its potential implications, Thea simply slumped back in her seat, her frustration and irritation drained in an instant, while Karania continued to observe her with a mixture of surprise, incredulity and confusion clearly written on her face.

'Should I be honest with her? I mean, at this point, it's kind of already too late. I already let it slip that I have a Passive, even though I didn’t intend to…'

Having quickly come to a conclusion, Thea turned back towards Karania with an exasperated sigh and addressed the girl's question directly.

"Haa… Yes, I do. I think I understand what happened now, as well... During my System Integration, the System had a weird hiccup and got stuck right after creating my Active Ability. It simply repeated the same step again and gave me a Passive Ability too. I thought everyone had a Passive Ability until just now, so I ended up being confused with the slots thing…"

Thea's voice trailed off as Karania's eyebrows kept rising with every word she spoke. Unsure of the girl's reaction, Thea braced herself for the worst.

She had come to understand that Karania was a very competitive person at heart, so the revelation that Thea had another massive advantage over her, aside from the PV they had shared earlier, was likely going to trigger some envy, regardless of how much Karania might try to counteract it.

Contrary to her expectations, however, Karania’s expression turned relaxed before she retorted with a sigh, “Haa… Honestly, that’s so relieving to hear... You having an extra Ability almost certainly has an impact on your massive PV! I was really worried that everyone in Alpha Squad had a similarly high PV and I was simply super far behind… But knowing that you ended up winning out on a super rare System error makes that much less of a possibility!

“Still, can’t believe you got lucky like that, that’s insane! Do you mind sharing what it is…? We’ve not seen any Passive Abilities, like at all, so I don’t even know what to expect them to look like…”

Karania hit Thea with her best puppy-eyes, which, coupled with the relief at Karania’s reaction, definitely managed to sway Thea in a certain direction.

Before Thea could reply, however, Professor Pierce’s throat-clearing noise echoed through the audio system of the lecture hall once again, signalling another incoming bout of information dumping.

Karania’s attention was immediately back on her data-pads, as she prepared herself to note down everything the Professor disclosed, but Thea had the distinct feeling that she would not get around another conversation with her squadmate about the issue.

“Ahem… Now, there are a lot more nuances to Abilities and their acquisition, but that should do for a general primer. We still have a full year to talk about these things in-depth, after all. I’d highly recommend consulting me or another System professional before you purchase any Abilities from the System Store, however. You don’t want to end up wasting Merit on Abilities that don’t mesh well with you.

“Before we delve deeper into the System in today’s lecture and take our first look at Classes and Builds, we will be taking a quick break. It’s been quite some hours and I require some sustenance, a sentiment most of you will likely agree with. I will also be going through the questions on the message board, so if something is unclear, write the questions now, so I can add them to the lecture during the break.

“If we end up with a lot of questions, we will move the Class and Build discussion to another day. They aren’t really that important for all of you right now anyway, as you're still quite the ways away from Level 10.

"You can’t go wrong with simply investing your Attribute into your highest base ones for now, if you really cannot wait to spend your points. Keep in mind, however, that you cannot spend more than 50% of your available points on the same Attribute, so you’ll need to consider at least two different Attributes to invest in.

“Now, I’ve talked enough. Feel free to stay seated or leave the hall for now. I will be sending out a message onto your data-pads, when the lecture is about to continue.”

With those words, Professor Pierce walked out of the lecture hall himself, likely to go and get himself that much-required ‘sustenance’ he spoke of.

Being reminded of the message board, Thea panicked slightly, as she realised her question was still posted for all to see! She wasn’t sure whether she should let others know about her lucky break or not, so removing the post would be the most sensible option for now.

Quickly grabbing her data-pad from the desk in front of her, Thea navigated towards the message board.

When she arrived at the top-level posts, however, she could not find her post at all.

‘Huh…? Where did…?’

Taken aback by this realisation, Thea tried navigating around the message board, to see whether she had ended up on the wrong page, but even after multiple checks and making sure she was in the right place, her post was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a message screen appeared on her data-pad, taking up the entire screen.

Startled, Thea read through the short message, her eyes widening in abject shock as she took in the unexpected and highly specific instructions:

[Do not share the information regarding your Passive Ability with anyone but Recruit Karania Faulkner for now.]
[The matter is being investigated.]
[-Sovereign]

Thea's heart raced as her mind reeled to process the message and its implications.

The fact that someone as important as The Sovereign itself was aware of her situation and actively investigating it both reassured and highly worried her. She had completely forgotten about the fact that she was inside of the Deep-Dive Simulation, a space entirely controlled by the Sovereign’s own AI. Unless she had whispered directly into Karania’s ears, of course the AI would be able to pick up their conversation!

The UHF would absolutely be interested in the fact that a newly integrated Marine had obtained a second Ability right from the start. It was undoubtedly a massive competitive advantage, and if the circumstances and result of the error could be duplicated, it would lead to a significant change in the overall landscape of the System!

Thea could not even begin to try and understand the magnitude and the ramifications of what had just occurred, but she was keenly aware of the potential importance of it.

Her mind still reeling from the fact that the Sovereign’s own AI had taken a direct interest in her circumstances, Thea simply sat in her chair, stunned, as the break time started passing her by…