2 01 - The Beginning After The End
Chapter 01 - The Beginning After The End
Written By Dr Armstrong
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[Congratulations, Alexander Byzantine. You have completed the 1st Tutorial Mission 'Release from the Mortal Coil' with a success rating of C-]
[For this achievement, all of the Custom Made Archangel System's baseline functions will be fully integrated alongside 100 free Karmic Points as the reward for your efforts.]
'...What...?' Alexander stirred from his deathly stupor as he heard a mechanical voice in his ear, the voice was like a child, a woman, and an elderly man at the same time, it was quite unsettling.
'Wait...what happened...I...died!?' Immediately, recollections of what had occurred filled his mind with a sense of dread and panic. His body was drained of its vitality due to blood loss, which meant that his Soul was still—
[Be not afraid.]
[You have been issued the 2nd Tutorial Mission 'Be Not Afraid', completing it will grant you rewards based on your success rating.]
It was the voice again!
Alexander tried to take a deep breath to calm himself but was confused after he couldn't.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't move.
In fact, he couldn't even feel anything—the only 'thing' he could was hear that voice.
[To access the Primary Function 'Status Interface', please imagine a template for us to use.]
Alexander tried to look around, but he only found black nothingness surrounding him. This...was this Limbo? Purgatory?
Regardless, it seemed he really did die, even with the gift of rewriting the future, he could only rewrite the future, so he was bound to die anyway since his Earth was most likely in some Demon King's stomach now...
Alexander didn't know how to feel about his death, it came so suddenly that the shock that should have been there was simply nonexistent.
He wanted to scream so loud, scream like he was being tortured in the deepest pits of the Abyss, but he had no mouth to do so.
The family that he had...they're gone, dead as hell. All the friends that he had accumulated throughout his 21 years of life...dust in the wind.
With little to no warning besides that accursed novel draft, Alexander's life—no, his whole planet had been reduced to a mere memory, one that would be inevitably forgotten by time.
[Please imagine a template for use to use.]
Ah, right.
'Are you a...System?' It was a redundant question to ask, but he had to make sure.
It didn't respond.
'...What do you mean by...template?' Alexander easily figured out what was happening, he had been an author, after all. Such scenarios were the norm in his mind.
This was the Custom Made Archangel System...it probably had the same features as its demonic counterpart, just more helpful or something...
The System still didn't respond.
'...I guess you're not the talkative type...' Either that or the System was just an automated machine with no real sentience.
Still...a machine like this should be able to respond to some commands, right?
'System, can you tell me all of your functions?' It was a foundational question, an essential one to break the ice.
[The System's Primary Functions include: 'Status Interface', 'Creator', 'Creation Inventory', 'Missions', 'Record', and 'Rewrite'.]
'Okay...so where exactly is my status?' It must be like an RPG-style Stats menu, showing his biodata and other such relevant information.
[To access the Primary Function 'Status Interface', please imagine a template for us to use.]
'Oh, like a template for the Status? Don't you have one yourself? What kind of lazy ROB made you...' Alexander couldn't help but lampoon at the System's request.
'Then...I guess you can just use the CMDK Status for the template...' It made sense.
[Poor choice, the Custom Made Demon King System is vastly inferior in both capability and potential to us.]
...Huh?
[But we will oblige nonetheless, please say 'Status' in your mind to summon the Status Interface.]
'...Status?' Alexander said as he chose to ignore the System's apparent dislike of its demonic counterpart.
In an instant, a translucent blue screen appeared before him. On said screen was some kind of eye that after giving him a flash with its blink, vanished and was replaced by the Status Alexander had requested.
On the left, was a 3D model of a featureless golden ball with a pair of tiny feathers growing from its sides, and on the left was his statistics.
———[STATUS]———
True Name: Amon Aziz Dier Hauser...Apollyon Aiwass Iskariel.
Race: Angel (Trueborn)
Origin: -
Form: Developing Fetus.
Hierarchy: - (Unborn)
Attribute: Holy Light.
—Stats:
Strength: 2 (You're a fetus)
Speed: 1 (Fetuses can't move)
Magic Energy: 15 (Average for a Trueborn fetus)
Activity: 20 (Above average for a Trueborn fetus)
—Talents:
• Soul Peer: The ability to perceive and locate the Souls of the deceased.
• Pure Heart: Angels are creatures of justice and righteousness. It is tough for you to falter from your own beliefs. The Pure Heart acts as your literal heart that pumps magic throughout your entire being, it also grants a high affinity to positive elements.
• Judge, Jury, Executioner: The right given to you by the Creator God. Angels are the predestined anti-venom of the universe, annihilate any you deem sinful and wrong.
• Spiritual Body: Unlike most creatures in the universe, Angels are purely spiritual and only adopt physical vessels when it is absolutely necessary.
You need not breathe, drink, eat, or rest in the manner of mortals, though a brief rest of the mind like meditation will still ease things out. You also do not age like physical beings, instead, your body will morph and grow as you accumulate power.
—Skills:
You have no Skills, nor any special ability that is not inherent to your Species.
—
You have 100 Karmic Points.
Evaluation: What a sexy fetus.
——[-]——
'...Amon? That doesn't really sound like an Angel's name...' Alexander read his new, overwhelmingly long name as he skimmed through the entire Status screen.
He remembered a bit about True Names and such from CMDK, the gizz of it all was never to reveal your full True Name to anyone less you want to become someone's summoned slave. Just use parts of it or a nickname.
He skipped over the obvious and unsurprising parts like his attributes but stopped as he viewed his Talents.
Talents, the inherent abilities granted by one's heritage and or genetic predisposition...the talents he had seemed to just be the common Talents shared by the Angel species.
And, oh yeah, Alexander was an Angel. It was a bit weird to know that you weren't a human any longer, but it wasn't a surprising fact in the least.
It was the Custom Made Archangel System, after all. Not Custom Made Gorilla...
'No wonder Angels are so self-righteous in media...with this kind of blessing straight from the big man himself...' He muttered as he considered the J, J, E Talent.
He needed to be careful with his behaviour, Alexander didn't want to become a corrupt Priest who goes after little Timmies...
'Alright, this seems a little different than what Roy experienced...what are Karmic Points?' The CMDK System consumed Souls directly to fuel Roy's bombastic rise to power, though Alexander's System seems to be using some kind of Cryptocurrency instead...
[Karmic Points are what allows the System to bend the rules of the universe and manifest something from nothing. They are generated when you affect the destiny of the world around you with acts of good and kindness.]
'Affect the destiny of the world? With the power of kindness...? Huh, is this a kid's show...?' That frankly sounded like a lot of bullocks, but who was he to argue with the cosmic Angel machine...
'...Well, I guess it makes sense. I'm an Angel, after all.' There must be a reason why Angels are consistently known as the good guys, if they literally get power from doing good deeds then that's a pretty great motivation to not be a jerk.
'Wait, what is the definition of kindness? Is it determined by you, System? Or are you following the popular definition?' He needed some specifics. If he were to kill baby Hitler, would that grant any brownie points even if he were a newborn at the moment?
The System didn't respond.
'I guess that's up for me to decide...' Maybe he just needed to believe what he was doing was good or kind, some Angels from media depictions are just straight-up serial killers, after all. But they don't fall because they believe in themselves...
'Alright, so KPs are the equivalent of Souls...is the Creation function the same as CMDK's?' Alexander asked. With the existence of the System's demonic counterpart, he already knew what the primary ability of the CMA System was.
[By consuming Karmic Points, it is possible to create anything from nothing as long as you have enough of them. Any Item you create will be stored in the Creation Inventory].
'That makes sense...but what about this...Rewrite?' This was never in the original novel...
Well, Missions and Record were also not in CMDK, but Alexander had this thing called common sense and naturally knew what those functions were. Missions referred to quests and the like, the one he had been given earlier was an example.
Record seemed to be some kind of archive for his statistics, creations, System notifications, and etc.
[Rewrite allows you to change the future by rewriting destiny. It can only affect the future that is at least somewhat related to you and will consume Karmic Points based on how much you have altered. For this function to work properly, you may need to already know the future in the first place.]
'Change the future...?' Alexander held his currently nonexistent breath, he already had Roy's signature cheat, but now he could also influence the very destiny of the world?
'But I need to know the future...? Then isn't this a bit redundant, I could just change the future on my own if I already knew it...' By the use of the butterfly effect, Alexander could change the plot of an entire story just by existing...
However, after thinking about it for a few more minutes, Alexander reconsidered his previous opinion.
There was no problem in 'already knowing the future' as the CMDK multiverse was one derived from Earth's most popular fictional worlds.
So Alexander should be able to use this function as long as he had ever consumed that piece of media, which wasn't that much of a problem since he was a shut-in.
Alexander considered his status for a few more moments before glancing at the 3D model displayed just left of his statistics. It was a ball, a perfect sphere that seemed to be made of...golden yarn? It emanated bright light and from the back of its sides were a pair of small, underdeveloped wings.
Actually, no. Those weren't wings, they were just a few feathers growing out. It looks like Angels don't have any meat under their feathers for some reason...
'This is me...? I look...I look like nothing...' There were literally no features on his new face, one could even argue that he had no face.
That was most likely because he was a fetus, but even inhabitants of the egg should have eyes and a mouth, right? Maybe not for Angels...
The feathers Alexander had were like those possessed by doves. Particularly, of the pure white variety.
His 'skin', if you could call it that, resembled glowing strings of gold connected like a ball of yarn.
Alexander stayed silent as he admired his new body before getting rid of the bright status panel with a mental flick of his nonexistent fingers.
He then started to wait.
...And wait...
He was a fetus, thus his current best course of action was to simply wait until he grew enough to hatch.
Of course, God wouldn't have reincarnated him at the very start of the gestation period, right?
And so he waited.
Then waited some more.
Waited...
What felt like a day passed like the blink of a frog's eye, yet Alexander stayed patient for it was understandable that it would take more than a day.
But then, he started to reconsider his thoughts as entire weeks of silent nothing turned to months of waiting in the egg.
Well, it wasn't truly nothing...
"This still isn't it." Even after months of writing, Alexander still couldn't find a proper ending to Rewrite Revengence.
The grind never stops and Alexander took this quote seriously as he had invested 1 Karmic Point into creating a new function of the System; [Story Writing.]
Aside from just being somewhere he could write without worry of anyone finding its contents, it also provided him with some extra tools like an assistant writing AI that could read his mind and properly translate his thoughts into words instead of replacing his writing with weird bullshit.
It wasn't really a waste of KP as it only cost 1 Point, meagre additions to the System that didn't influence his power in any shape or form seem to be particularly cheap. He also used another KP to make a [Video Games] function, allowing him to play any offline game throughout all mediums with no restrictions.
In total, he had spent 3 Karmic Points on entertainment with the final KP being used for the [Cinema] function, which is just the [Video Games] function but for watching movies and the like.
Overall, not a bad investment when you are all alone inside an egg with not much to do. Death by boredom was a very true and real threat in this situation, and perhaps, even the highest priority one to be avoided.
Even if months had passed, Alexander wasn't so dissatisfied as he living the shut-in dream life. But it started to get old really fast the moment the one-year mark had passed.
How much time he had lived was recorded in the System, and yes, it did count the time before his birth. After a year passed, and there were little signs of growth, Alexander started to reconsider his options.
He had much time to mull it over and eventually decided on just creating something that would jumpstart his growth in little time.
Drugs.
Particularly, performance-enhancing drugs ie, steroids. After all, Roy had used a similar method to boost his own growth, and the effects shown in the novel was quite satisfactory.
The best, most popular steroid of them all that he could use was the Super Soldier Serum, but that ended up being too expensive for his current budget, so he aimed for less.
The SSS would require him to make the entire machine that injected the damn Serum into Steve Rodger's body, something that was quite the impossibility inside of an egg.
Creating a version of the SSS that could be directly consumed was possible, but it ended up being too expensive, costing nearly triple the amount of KP he currently possessed.
The SSS was not just a Serum consumed to gain superpowers, it gave whoever it was injected the physical strength and durability that the body could possibly produce, ignoring all other factors. Steve Rogers became the absolute peak of humanity, whereas if Alexander were to get access to the SSS...
Peak physical strength of his hierarchal Angel rank.
He could also go the same route as Roy, using the T-Virus to accelerate his growth and grant him Psychokinesis or whatever.
But with the limited Karmic Points he had, he doubted he would be able to afford a strain of the Tyrant Virus that lacked all of its disgusting side effects.
Then there's the Blacklight Virus that Alex Mercer had...wait, actually...
The screen flickered as Alexander accessed the 'Create' function. Now there was a large box where a 3d space could be seen inside, beside it was a bunch of parameters and settings with a search bar-looking section at the top.
He filled out the description, and regarding the box; Alexander just clicked the paint bucket button before making a simple splotch of black in the middle. Clicking the save button, a notification flickered before him,
—[Create DX-1118 C (Severely Weakened) for 121 Karmic Points?]—
'Damn...that's still too expensive?' Even a majorly nerfed version of the Blacklight Virus was still too much for his wallet, just goes to show how overpowered Mercer actually was in the game...
The Blacklight Virus was not much different than the T Virus when it came to interacting with mundane lifeforms, turning them into shambling flesh monsters.
Alex Mercer, the protagonist of Prototype, wasn't excluded by this fact. He just died immediately upon contact with the Virus, so he didn't turn into a monster.
Rather, the Blacklight Virus took control of his freshly deceased cells, and having no immune system to fight off, did what the scientists that engineered it originally intended; creating a powerful lifeform by 'resurrecting' Mercer and assimilating his body into itself.
Yeah, the Alex Mercer controlled by the player was actually just sentient Blacklight taking on his form and memories.
Of course, Alexander didn't want to follow this gruesome process and made a severely weakened version that would simply fuse with his body without killing him—but it still turned out rather expensive...
That's a bummer. With the Blacklight's signature capability to absorb biomass and DNA, then change its biological makeup to mimic that DNA—his potential could have gone through the roof.
But well, it is what it is...
...What was he going to absorb, anyway? His egg yolk? Thinking back, it would probably be better to acquire the Blacklight Virus at a later date. Preferably, once he wasn't literally just a ball of piss-coloured yarn.
But absorption...it was still a great concept that would exponentially increase his potential, but what absorption ability could he possibly use that would be viable both in the egg...and outside?
Hmm...it couldn't be something physical, and since he was the only one here, inside of his egg...
What about...something spiritual? Soul absorption is way too demonic, and it wouldn't really work since there was only one Soul here, his.
So that leaves only one option.
—[Create Siphon Magic for 39 Karmic Points?]—
"Yes." Alexander confirmed with slight nervousness in his mental voice.
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Thoughts?
