Chap 3

  Compared to the Twin-Knots, the colossal beast was 3 times as wide and tall, its length was 4 times greater, and it was coming towards us faster than the Twin-Knots herself could manage. It looked like a giant barracuda with dark scales and spikes along its body. Its irises were yellow and had an uncanny feeling of intelligence within them. But most importantly, it didn't seem to be hostile towards the ship.

  But I couldn't think about that, as it gave off a pressure that stifled everyone in their positions. We could not move and watched helplessly as it got closer and closer. Without thinking, my hand moved and sounded the foghorn. I kept the pressure on it for 15 seconds, unable to move my hand again. The creature in response circled us a few times before returning to the bow and setting its attention on us. Not the ship, us, us on the bridge.

  It soon turned to leave and dived down, gone as soon as it came. Its pressure finally left us a minute or so later.

  “Thump”

  “Thump”

  “Thump”

  Thuds were all that could be heard as we fell to the floor, as if we were all puppets that had our strings cut simultaneously. The sailors in better shape started to gather themselves first, followed by the rest of us. “Is everyone good?” I said while still dishevelled, and at the cursing that came my way, I assumed so. “Great, I want reports, bastards!” The bridge officers convened with their department members and were soon back to me with an overview. All systems and crew are the same as before the behemoth arrived.

  “Good, that’s enough reports and mystic bullshit for today-“

  Just as my second officer finished, we were all struck with splitting headaches that made many, myself included, buckle and grab at our heads. After some time, we rose and were met with ethereal screens that followed where our lines of sight went. “Fuck.” Confirm we were Isekaied, that or “blue planet”, got hit with some apocalypse shit. Either way, I knew one thing, myself, and judging from the looks of the surrounding squids, all had systems. Despite my own cursing, I felt excitement rise from my core, that excitement resulted in my attention being glued to the screen.

  And as if the system were some high school pick me, it activated only after it caught my attention. The blank blue screen filled with words typing themselves up at impossible speeds. It wasn't in English, but I understood it better than anything I've ever read in my life. And even if I couldn't, it wouldn't matter, as a voice soon followed.

  “Greetings, lesser spawn. I mean venerable host. Even though your speed far surpasses the wisdom chasing you, I have finally caught up. And I welcome you to the great Realms. This sea you find yourself in is the smallest of dozens on a planet called… hmm, I forgot. I don't pay attention to lesser details like that, Anyways you now have access to I, the great system, Enkidu. And I, Enkidu, will guide you to heights unseen, and we will finally fulfill our common wish. The freedom to explore.”

  Internally, the first thought that struck me was how similar this system was to C.E.Os trying to seem relatable. It definitely knew the name of the planet, and it definitely did not like its job.

  “HIS job, thank you very much.”

  I froze, “It can read my thoughts!?”

  “HE CAN READ YOUR THOUGHTS! He you lesser, HE/HIM, you damn lesser!”

  “Who cares!? I'm evicting you from my noggin!”

  “A futile goal, you insect! I'm a noble squatter!”

  Realizing it really was pointless, as I didn't know how mental evictions worked and the Tibetan Monks had no interest in training me, I gave up. “Well? What do you want, you performative bum?”. It scoffed and quipped back. “I just promised you the bare minimum. Not even prince treatment”. That caused me to think, “Yeah! You're right! The more bitchy the system, the more pairless the cheat!”. Wordlessly, it continued its Noble introduction, and we both tactfully forgot our arguments.

  “We are currently going through soul fusion, which is why our thoughts are meshed together. Think of it as making a house, before the walls are put up, it's just one big space.”

  I bounced off his comparison and made one of my own. “And if our minds are the rooms, our thoughts are the air currents mixing in the large empty space. But if it's souls, I'm guessing it's more than just thoughts that are mixing.”

  “Yes, mental images, emotions, beliefs, biases, personalities, and all those metaphysical and individual-defining things. But worry not, the process is like that for a reason. It allows the host and system symbiote to understand each other like lifelong companions, which lays the building blocks for perfect symbiosis to occur.”

  This did raise more concerns, but he quelled them by sending me the answers. “I see why you compared it to building a home. After a long time, the walls are built and so is the proper ‘ventilation system’, allowing us to separate thoughts, etc and send them to each other on command. But what about the currents (thought processes), are they permanently changed?”. He soon again sent me his knowledge, demonstrating the early ventilation system. Organizing the information, I put it in my own words. “Okay, so you can think of the current as not just air but also liquids. Mine is oil, and yours is water. ‘While building the house’, there is an emulsifier added, allowing oil and water to mix. But after the building is finished, that mixing process is reversed, and because oil and water don't mix, they force each other back into their own rooms”.

  “Yes, now. To further this, systems are chosen to match their host. Either through common goal pairs or supplement pairs. To dive deep into the selection process, systems with similar personalities, only different enough to prevent an echo chamber, are chosen. These systems are then split into systems with the same goals or supplementary to the host. For example, a similar goal pair is a system symbiote and a host that both want to control the world. A supplementary would be a system symbiote that is docile and always helps the host further, or vice versa. We are a main goal pair as we both want the same thing.”

  “Alright, so perfect-ish pairs to ensure smooth integration. Understood, but before I learn anymore,” I paused because as funny as it sounded in novels, this was genuinely life or death. “Where is my Golden finger?” Wordlessly but not without judgment, he switched his display from the first screen to the next.

  “INTRODUCTION TO QUIN-FORCE”

  “Quin-force is separated into, obviously, five areas. The Cultivation way, consisting of chi, mind, and body cultivation. The Arcana way, consists of the mana heart and mana core cultivation. The Phyica way consists of spirit summoning and beast taming cultivation. The Way of Mythicals, the strongest and rarest aspects of the Quin-Force, which consists of myth and Tri-Will cultivation. And finally. The Arts of Ether: This allows the creation of all types of constructs. It consists of True Formations, True runes, True curses, True blessings, True Alchemy, True Artifact creation, and True divine decrees.”

  “I asked for my golden finger, you damn snobby-”

  “But this is where you're different.” I quickly shut my mouth and pretended to be the patient elder, a man of my age ought to be. “Most entities and life forms are unable to use more than one pathway of the Quin-Force. And as the usable pathways increase, the rarity and strength of the being increase. Out of the hundreds of trillions of sentient species in the great realms, under ten thousand can naturally use all five branches. This group is referred to as the great ten thousand. Furthermore, having the natural ability to use all five Pathways, which is referred to as True Quin-Force, is not the same as efficiency. But even rarer than that are individuals born to races not in the great ten thousand who can use True Quin-Force proficiently. You and everyone on this ship are some of those individuals.”

  I sucked in a breath of air. Hundreds of trillions of sentient species? Let's say every species has an extremely low ten thousand; that's still one quintillion. Huh quin again. “Let me explain why this is a golden finger. Every path has tiers, each tier is divided into 12 realms, each realm has 4 levels called subrealms or minor realms. In addition to this, there is a power multiplier called the 10 degrees. It works similarly to a PH scale. At 0, there is no multiplier, but going down into the negatives gives you a potency multiplier. Which means you can use the same amount of energy, but it will have a greater effect.”

  He sent the knowledge into my mind, and I understood. “So basically it's like having the same gun firing the same bullet as someone else, but my bullets go further, faster, and also penetrate deeper?” He returned a mental nod and continued. “And as for if you have a positive rating, you have an effective range and effect area multiplier. Again, with your bullet analogy, it's like the same bullet, from the same gun, but yours is an explosive that also goes further. Every point of the 10 degrees, the effect multiplier increases by 10. ” Continuing with his explanation, I said, “So -1 is 10 times the potency, and a 1 is 10 times the effective area?” he gave another mental nod. “Yes, and that's your golden finger. Everyone on the ship has both 10 ratings while having Supreme grade proficiency with all five quin-force paths.”

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  “Supreme grade? And so you're saying everyone has 100 times the potency, 100 times the effective area, and 200 times the range as a normal person, along with the True “Quin-Force.”

  “Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. As for the supreme grade, it's a talent metric; it is the second-highest grade. Low, mid, high, peak, supreme, and celestial. This is the proficiency of which you cultivate the pathways. Also, another benefit of the True Quin-Force is that every major realm boosts your proficiency by 2 times. ” I sighed. “You know you're really bad at explaining. Is there anything more that you're missing?” He replied with what I could only call a guilty mental laugh. “Yeah, one last thing, the reason the way of Ether path has a true before anything is that every pathway tried to imitate its constructs, but none could match it, so everything in its pathway has the prefix ‘true’.”

  “So, to wrap it up.” I began

  “True Quin-force is extremely rare. It has endless tiers that are broken down into 12 realms and minor realms. We have it along with the second-best level of talent, which is multiplied by 2 after every major realm. And we also have 100 times the potency, 100 times the effective area, and 200 times the range.”

  “Yes, you are correct. Now time for the final step.”

  He said before his screen switched again, and this time it was four screens: a small, flat rectangle at the top and 3 large screens beneath it.

  Three options.

  I read the extremely short description, and I was only focused on one.

  “Is this even a question?” It was not that the goal we all chase relentlessly was the same. Not power, nor fame, nor wealth, nor luxury. What we craved was the unknown and the freedom to know it.

  “He Who Sails The Realms, I want it.”

  I made my choice and was shown the final screen with the stat point.

  “Doesn't this make me quite pitiful?”. The wave of smugness I got from Enkidu almost confirmed it. “Yes, yes, it does. This is where the little welps start off. You're the fifty-year-old bum they tell stories about at the campfire.” pissed off I quipped back and said, “Bum? Isn't it your one job to make me O.P!? If I'm a bum, doesn't that just make you a flop!” I could hear a snicker mentally and a smartass retort from a mile away. “Would I have this job if you weren't such a hobo? Now all you have to do is get off your hindquarters and freeload. My job might as well be end-of-life care.” Before I could start to seethe in more anger, he switched topics, “On the topic of O.P.”

  “Right,” I grinned back to nobody. It was about time I got my starter pack.

  Ding!

  Ding!

  Ding!

  Ding!

  “I don’t know if that's good, but I like how it sounds,” I said, trying not to rub my hands together.

  “Check your inventory host.” I paused and followed the instructions he sent mentally, and soon I was staring at four grimlocks in my arms, and one by one they disappeared. I was slowly sitting and absorbing the knowledge when the system spoke up again. “Host, do you have Alzheimer's? Did you forget what I said in the very beginning? The most powerful Pathway? I envy my elders' ability to forget. Tsk tsk tsk.”

  “What is it you incessant pest!?” With a benevolent voice, he began, “I was only afraid you were selling yourself short, host. It must be age, but do you not see that obvious notification?”. And there it was in fine print so small anyone not searching for it would have missed it. “You slimy box of washed-out circuits! You did that!” calmly he said, “We must not live in the past, host all that matters is the future we sail towards.”

  Before I could say anything else, the text enlarged, and I was able to read it.

  I gained another manual and finally some skills, so I wouldn't have to look at that zero again. Time to see what they were about.

  I was really frozen now because I had just been hit with the realization that the Twin-Knouts was alive and she was able to kick really hard.

  “WHATTTT!!!!”