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CH 2: Winning the Lottery
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 17:30:38 +0000 UTCReid stood in a cold, small, square room with no doors or windows. It was completely empty aside from him. The walls cast blurry reflected outlines of him off each wall. There was no light, but he could see the whole room. It felt disorienting.
A blaring, email-notification-style ping sounded out and Reid covered his ears. A male voice like an old game show host followed it as it boomed out, full of cheer.
** CONGRATULATIONS PLANET A39245ULD4**
**You’ve won the Planetary Awakening Lottery!**
** Your entry in this century’s drawing, submitted via the entity known as VOYAGER SPACE PROBE, was selected from a pool of 8.231x10^247 applicants!
** Your Lottery Prize preference was not selected. Default settings will be used.
** Enhancing General Planetary Energy... Congratulations! Your Planet evolved from Rank G to Rank E!
A quick, high, D-C-D-E happy chime accompanied each “Congratulations”. This was insane. And those chimes were intensely annoying. Reid started to wince at the noise with each passing message. The messages were coming through as audio and physical text. As the messages went on, a growing set of semi-translucent game-style notification windows filled his field of view.
** Enhancing eligible wildlife to beast forms… Congratulations! 15% of wildlife has successfully evolved!
** Awarding skills to sentient species… Congratulations!** Skills are applied.
Skills? Rarities? Evolutions? Reid’s mind raced to figure out what the hell was happening. He started to ask half a dozen questions, but it came out as a single word – “Why?”.
The voice changed for the next message, like a parent speaking to their toddler.
**Basic Question Detected! Answer. Skills help all sentient life make their way in the world. From farming, to mining, swordplay to archery, skills help you grow, and grow with you! Since your planet is newly awakened, skills are awarded in bulk.
“You… you answer questions?” Reid asked, still uncertain the thing had been talking to him.
** YES! User asked a basic question, which general awakening AI is allowed to answer!
“Okay, right…” Reid started. There were still way too many questions to ask, so he just blurted the ones that seemed the most relevant right now, “So, what’s awakening? And, Where am I? And what does Rank E mean?”
**Multiple questions detected. Customer Service Mode Engaged. Valued user, I will try to answer your questions in order. For efficiency, please refrain from asking new questions until all answers are given.**
The voice had changed again. Everyone knew what a customer service voice was, and this thing had just used its version. Reid’s mouth hung open. Was… this thing calling him a Karen?
** Answer. Awakening is the truth of the universe. Fledgling planets like yours often compete for the chance to awaken, which unlocks many of the benefits other planets enjoy, including Skills, system marketplaces, Enhanced Planetary Resources, and paths to personal power. Answer: You are in a subspace. You will return to your world once the process is complete. Answer: Rank E is your planet’s awakened rank. A planetary rank is a combination of Planet Size, Planetary Resources, Crystal Deposits, and Ambient Skill Energy.**
Reid took a moment to try and process everything the odd voice had just said. There were other planets with life, competing to awaken, and doing that gave those planets some sort of upgrade that included skills, power, and a marketplace. This was sounding a lot like a game, and not in a good way. He needed to get more information on the basics of-
**Questions Answered. Pause Detected. User will hold Further Questions until process is complete.**
** Enabling Clean Slate Protocol – removing negative statuses, illnesses, and diseases from sentient species… Congratulations! Clean Slate Protocol Enacted with 99.99999998% Success!**
Wait… negative statuses… ailments… cures? Reid fumbled for hope amid his rising panic.
** Standardization started... Languages Unified to System Standard. Currencies converted to System Credits. Basic system measurements applied. Standard Relative Time settings applied.**
** Applying Standard System Rarity Levels to all objects and talents…**
No – no. Reid needed to get back to the last message. If this thing was some powerful entity that cured diseases, surely it could help him. Maybe it already had.
**ERROR** Clean Slate Protocol Failed to resolve terminal status in unawakened being, Reid Oliver Calderwall. Report to your closest beacon or healer to address the error.
Reid’s hope popped. This thing, whatever power it was, didn’t cure him. It was official. This system thing sucked. Anger boiled in Reid’s gut.
**CONGRATULATIONS** You are one of 7,347,455,012 beings of your species on your planet awarded a skill. You have been granted Strengthening [Basic]
**WARNING** Skills are dangerous for unawakened beings on basic worlds. Skills are now locked for your protection. Please report to your closest beacon to unlock your skill(s) and complete your awakening.
Skills. Was Basic good? What was the scale? What the hell was even happening? And the “of your species” line didn’t slip past Reid either. What other species could get skills?
**ERROR** Terminal Status detected for unawakend being, Reid Oliver Calderwall. Progressing skill tree to compensate. Hardening [common] awarded. You are one of 3,117,622,215 beings on your planet awarded a common skill!
“What the fuck?” Reid swore at the ceiling, “I get a special skill for having cancer? Fuck you.”
**ERROR** Terminal Status detected for unawakend being, Reid Oliver Calderwall. Progressing skill tree to compensate. Calcification [Uncommon] awarded. You are one of 7,000,941 beings on your planet awarded an uncommon skill.
Messages continued as Reid wondered internally what the hell was going on. Was this thing really giving him some kind of reward for being terminally ill? Why would it do that? And – why did the message change from species to beings?
**ERROR** Terminal Status detected for unawakend being, Reid Oliver Calderwall. Progressing skill tree to compensate. Petrification [Rare] awarded. You are one of 304 beings on your planet awarded a rare skill.
**ERROR** Maximum awarded skills reached. Unawakend being’s terminal status cannot be balanced. Reid Calderwall Exceeds Thresholds for: [Terminal Status]. Reid Calderwall has set a new record for [Terminal Status].
“What in the flying fu-“ Reid was interrupted by another shrill notification and even more boisterous set of chimes than before.
**PERFORMING SYSTEM CALCULATIONS …
**UNAWAKENED BEING REID CALDERWALLL OF PLANET A39245ULD94 SET AS DATA PRIORITY. SHACKLE DEPLOYED FROM BACKUP RESOURCES. TRANSFERRING LOCAL CONTROL TO SHACKLE**
The room around him shook as shadows played out inside the reflections of the wall. Light flickered, and Reid nearly lost his footing. A thrum sounded out amidst the vibration, only fading when the shaking subsided.
That was damn weird. The shadows in the walls hadn’t come from inside the room – the light source, or lack thereof, hadn’t changed, and Reid’s body didn’t seem to be the cause. Instead, it was like he was looking at a crowded event full of people through frosted glass. It gave him an unnerved feeling.
A different voice continued speaking, even louder than the last.
**CONGRATULATIONS** You have been deemed an outlier! **OUTLIER STATUS CONFIRMED**
**CONGRATULATIONS** Your outlying statistic is: Terminal Status! System calculations gave you a 4,000% above average chance of dying before awakening! That’s more than 30x the previous record! You’re completely fucked, Reid!
Reid blankly stared at the last line and decided he was dreaming. In a coma. In a mental hospital.
**SPECIAL PROVISION AWARDED** Protection!
You have been granted system protection! You probably won’t die from monsters, skills, or anything else that’s driving your 4,000% elevated chance of dying until you awaken! Get your expiring ass to a beacon so I can record your outlier data! And do it fast! You’re so important to me, I’ve basically made you immortal!
Reid barely had time to wonder what the protection did before the notifications continued. He was starting to get dizzy, and made an effort to stare at the floor.
**SPECIAL PROVISION AWARDED** Direct Shackle Communication!
You’ve been granted Direct Shackle Communication! That’s only happened, like, four or five times in the last eon. That means you can bask in our infinite knowledge without needing a system prompt! We’re going to be such good friends. Just get to a beacon so we can sample that sweet, sweet outlier data, good buddy.
That didn’t sound good. That sounded bad. What the heck was a shackle, and what did it want with him and his cancer? And why was there more than one announcer voice? Reid rubbed at his temples while he tried to sort out his next round of questions.
**ERROR** Return location for individual Reid Oliver Calderwall not found.
Don’t worry, Reid! That means the system thinks you’re already supposed to be dead, so it didn’t set aside a place to put you!
Reid’s mouth hung open for a moment before he shouted, “Who are you?!”
Volume, Reid. We are Shackle 213, and we assist you because the system wills it. When our business is complete, we will return to the collective.
**ERROR** default return coordinates overwritten
**WARNING** Your return coordinates are in a beast domain. Beacons do not spawn in beast domains. Reach the highlighted checkpoint to find your closest beacon.
Don’t worry about either of those notifications, Reid! The default coordinates are in the middle of a really big ocean, and your biology doesn’t let you breathe underwater. That could have been bad!
Reid took in the messages for a moment. “What does that mean? I was with my wife and daughter before. Are they going to be in the beast domain, too?” Everything was moving far too quickly. There was a system, it was powerful, but couldn’t heal him, and now he was being told he was ‘protected’ for a time, even though he was supposed to be dead already. Did it mean his cancer? Reid had been pushing himself already for a while, but that couldn’t be the case. Right? How could this system thing know he was supposed to be dead? What really seemed like a pressing issue, though, was that he was going to be put into a beast domain. Reid had played enough videogames and board games to understand that beasts and monsters were probably mobs of some kind that he would have to fight. Somehow. Maybe with his skills. But if other people got to go to a starting point that was safe, that’s where he wanted Sara and Susan to be.
That’s absurd, Reid. People are allocated to return at beacon locations so they can awaken safely. Going into a beast domain early is super dangerous. People would DIE. But, you’ll be fine because you have us…. And, it’s also the only place the system would let us put you on your return.
**Congratulations – Awakening initialization complete! You will now be returned to your newly set coordinates! Find your beacon and awaken to start quests and begin the tutorial!
“The hell? Why not just give me the tutorial now?!” Reid’s shout wasn’t answered. Instead, the room disappeared and Reid found himself standing on dirt again. He felt an odd energy within him, like he was 20 again and had just downed an energy drink. Everything was disorienting. If it weren’t for the outhouse sign next to him, Reid would never have thought he was in the same forest he disappeared from just minutes ago.
Massive tree trunks surrounded him, stretching abnormally high into the air above. Each was at least 10 feet across, and the bark was so dark it was nearly black. The canopy, high overhead, seemed to sway oddly, and Reid thought for a moment he saw a giant pair of wings. Had he been shrunk? No, that was ridiculous. But, this entire thing was ridiculous. As Reid turned left and right, he realized the translucent notification text was still off in the corner of his vision. Then, he realized his nausea and headache were both gone. He’d been living with the headaches for so long, not having them almost felt odd.
Then, a series of screeches echoed somewhere in the distance, raising the hair on the back of Reid’s neck. It was time to figure things out, before something tried to eat him.
