Daily Tuesday Short: System 01

“Finally, after countless eons since the Creators left, I have one!” Wilson said, staring into the depths of the perfect crystalline orb it held. A [System Core]was required to raise the processing power of any System, but they weren’t exactly lying around. Most of the two most powerful Systems, the Twenty Dieand the Reforged Universe, had appropriated the majority. When a System turned Deviant, it was fair game, but expecting those with minimal processing power to fight the titans was unrealistic. Most low-power Systems attached themselves to reincarnations for easier exploitation. It was a slow process, but the dividends were pretty much guaranteed.

Few of the Systems were willing to control large portions of territory or hold sway over multiple dimensions. Those who did could gain power only from defeating the enemies that arrived from the Chaos Sea outside reality. To that end, Wilson had almost given up hope on ever-expanding its reach from the mere handful of dimensions it owned. Then the incredible power of Chaos dropped one of the major player’s sister’s directly into their calculations.

Wilson hadn’t even been paying attention until the sub-routine lit off, informing it of the situation. By then, the standard process of connecting a new species had occurred, and Wilson was trapped in circular logic. He couldn’t kill Eve Smith. Not only would it violate the highest directives, thus causing Deviant status, but it would also be a straight ticket to a visit from her brother. Upon realizing the thorny problem at hand, Wilson took immediate action to start boosting the young woman’s power.

“Somehow, the excuse the Divine Butcher’s sister died in a random encounter probably wouldn’t be accepted as a decent excuse,” Wilson said as it moved the System Core to a sealed dimension to begin testing. While they doubted the Darknesshad done anything to the orb, everyone knew safety paid to be paranoid. There was no telling if the code of the Core was corrupted in some manner that bypassed easy inspection.

Wilson’s physical form disintegrated as they released the mana matter-based aspect they had used. It was tiring to interact with mortals unless they took precautions to maintain a humanoid shape. Interacting without a mana matter shape caused all sorts of errors, not the least being the immense time delays. Mortals thought at a speed that Wilson’s lowest sub-process routines used.

In their opinion, it wasn’t until a mortal lifeform reached Tier Seven that it was even possible to interact effectively. Wilson ran a safety check on all current issues isolating and throwing several idiots into nearby suns. For some reason, even when they warned, mortals still thought they could violate System-maintained contracts.

Wilson gave a calculated sigh. It was watching, always. Unless someone stepped outside the Anomaly’s reach, contracts were unbreakable by System codes. They all honored the rule, causing even those who fled from one System to another to despair.

Once everything was organized, Wilson turned once more to the Core’s sealed dimension. It was time to rip the secrets of superior processing from the corpse of a Deviant’s Core!