Jacob Holloway was a man with only a few talents in life. He had been inordinately lucky every time he ever played a game of D&D with his group. He could take a package of ramen and turn it into a very delicious meal with his own secret recipe of spices and a couple of eggs. But his greatest talent was in creating gaming apps that just seemed to take off.

Before he’d started making game apps, Jacob had worked doing odd programming jobs on the internet. In his free time one day he’d started work on an admittedly terrible little game that was incredibly simple. Just a bird dodging pipes with a counter to tell you how many you passed. That game somehow seemed to break the internet within days of him having released it. Jacob found himself going from struggling to pay the bills and rent every month, to buying his own house outright within a few weeks. Honestly his life did a total 180 from that moment on.

Right now though… Right now, he had no idea what was going on. He knew that he’d been walking outside to take the trash out. He remembered walking, then suddenly he was where he currently found himself. Sitting at a desk inside a well-lit room. Looking around the room he found that there were no doors or windows. And there was no visible means of illumination within the room, yet it was bright.

Most anyone who suddenly finds themselves suddenly in a different location with no idea how they got there would freak out. He certainly felt his heartrate rising in his chest as he processed his surroundings. Had he been kidnapped? Nothing felt weird or sluggish, so he didn’t think he’d been drugged. So how had he ended up here? Come to think of it… yeah, he couldn’t remember his own name for some reason. Then it all clicked, he had to be dreaming.

He went to stand up when suddenly a feminine robotic voice flared throughout the room.

“Please remain seated until the System liaison arrives.”

The voice made him jump at first but for some reason he felt like he should listen to it. So, he remained seated. Letting his mind wander. At least he knew what he was doing in this room now, waiting for the System liaison.

He didn’t know how long he’d sat there waiting when suddenly there was a person seated across from him. As the person had been there the whole time. Normally this kind of thing would cause a person to jump out of there seat. But for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to have any form of response. Like he’d somehow been expecting someone to just appear and be there even though he was actually surprised.

“Ok, let’s get started, shall we?” What he assumed must be the System liaison stated in a voice that he couldn’t identify as having either masculine of feminine qualities. “Your transfer was not expected, however, this one is happy to report that the System is pleased that it got you. Before we proceed, this one shall explain what has occurred.”

The person pulled out a stack of papers and set them on the desk between them as it spoke.

“You were randomly selected as part of a trade between Systems. You and all that is yours has been transferred to this System from your old System. It is understandable if you are confused as this one is aware that your particular case was transferred from total system locked subrealm. Your world that you remember is part of an experiment maintained by your old system. Your world is far off from the norm of how the rest of the universe operates.” The person gestured to the papers on the desk, “Now that this one has covered why you are here, we can take care of the matters at hand.”

“Wait! What do you mean transferred? What do you mean by system?” he interrupted the person across the desk.

“Please say or think clearly the words ‘System Status’ from what this one has seen of your file that should clear up a lot for you.” The person said

He thought the words, knowing before he did that someone out there had answered his prayers, he was getting to be the protagonist of an isekia adventure.

Name: ???

Race: ???(?)

Race Level: N/A

Titles: None

Class(es): None

Attributes

?????????????????????????????????????????????????

?????????????????????????????????????????????????

?????????????????????????????????????????????????

Skills

N/A

Spells

N/A

BloodLine:

Soul Well

385,695,801 [Blank] [Mundane Souls]

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed when the sheet popped up in his vision. “Why don’t I have a name? or Race? I’m human, aren’t I?”

“Your race has yet to be determined, this is why this one is here. Your transfer is unusual as you seem to have brought with you a great deal of souls. How you managed to acquire that many souls is beyond this one’s knowledge. But the system has determined that it will not allow you to be populated into the Material Plane until a trade has been carried out. You will trade us your souls for whatever you like until there are no more left.”

He sat there for a few moments not knowing what he should do or say. He needed information to make good decisions. He knew why he had a lot of souls though. It had been in his user agreements, a little line written in as a joke. If the person who agreed to the user agreement to play his games died before he did, he got to keep their soul. It had been meant as a joke but apparently that shit was real. And apparently a lot of people had agreed and died before he did. That was a lot of souls. But back to what was at hand he needed to learn what he was dealing with. This System was game like obviously meaning that he needed to know more about it before he made any decisions.

“First off… How many souls will it cost me for you to answer any question I have regarding this System?” he asked.

“One Soul will be sufficient payment for any information you desire.” The person across from him said.

“What is the extra little question mark in brackets in the race column for?” he asked, it definitely was not the main thing he wanted to ask about, but he figured it would be best to start from top to bottom with his stat page before he got into the nitty gritty.

“That would be the Tier of the race.” The person responded

“What are the Tiers and how does it affect things?”

“The Tiers start a G-, G, G+. followed by F, E, D, C, B, A, S, O, and finally L. Each broken down into three Minus, Middle, and Plus for a total of thirty different Race Tiers. G- through G+ Tier receives 1 stat point to all unlocked attributes per Race level plus one free stat point to allocate. This increases by 1 stat point respectively per full tier until S Tier where the values begin to double at each minor Tier followed by tripling at the O Tiers then Quintupling at the L tiers.” The Person said in monotone

So, an S- Tier would receive 14 stat points to all unlocked attributes per level and 14 free points to use. S Tier would be 28, S+ would be 56! Then it started Tripling at the O Tiers? That was all really good information to know. But the most interesting tidbit was hidden in the words ‘Unlocked Attributes’ that meant that there were hidden attributes that most people didn’t have access to. He tucked that tidbit in his mind for later.

“What Tier will I be starting off as?”

The person cocked its head to the side for a moment before responding.

“It has been decided that you will be starting off as a G- Tier race. Though the race itself has yet to be determined.” It spoke.

“What Tier are humans?” he asked

“B+”

“What about other sapient Races?”

“Sapient races all start at B+ Tier.”

“So when I am ‘populated’ will I still retain my sapience?”

“No.”

“Is there a way for me to retain my faculties and sapience when I am ‘populated’ into the world?”

“Yes.”

The one-word answers with no elaboration were irritating. But he could play twenty questions to get to the bottom of it.

“How would I go about that?” he asked.

“You would need to trade souls with the system for skills that raise your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma stats to the threshold needed for sapience in that particular race. The requirements are slightly different for each one.” The person spoke.

As much as he wanted to nail down the particulars, he decided that he needed to move on.

“What are Titles and what do they do?” he asked.

“Titles are exactly what their name implies… Titles. As to what they do it depends on the Title. The System awards them based on significant actions or achievements. They can do anything from provide bonus stats to percentage increases or just ensure that you will never grow hair. There are a great many Titles.”

“Ok, Classes. How does one get a class? What do the Classes do? Can one have multiple classes? If so, what are the benefits and what are the drawbacks?” he asked

“If you can think of a profession there is a class for it. Classes are leveled independently from race level, provide varying amounts of stat points to specific stats, and come with skills oriented towards that class. You can have as many classes as you qualify for. Qualification for Classes is mostly dependent on the Skills you gain but is also influenced by Race, Titles, and Race Level. Each Class taken, with the exception of a few that are hard to get, adds to the total EXP required to level your Race.” The person replied.

“How does one normally acquire skills within the System?”

“By preforming actions, you will build up experience in that particular skill until it is granted to you by the system. One may also utilize a skill candle, or trade with the System at a town or city crystal. And before you ask, Spells are the same.”

“Then tell me about my Bloodline thing. And Bloodlines in general.” He said as that was the last thing on his stat page.

“Bloodline may be a misleading term as it is not actually tied to blood, but to the very essence of your soul. Your particular Bloodline is unlike any the System has ever seen. It acts a storage area for Souls, but somehow strips them down to a blank canvas while feeding the energy of those souls into you. This translates into +0.01 per hour increased regeneration of all resources.”

The implications of that were incredible but hardly important right now as he was going to have to go into this new life without the millions of souls, he has available right now. So now he needed to make sure he retained his sapience when he was ‘populated’ into the world. But knowing that he was going to be starting out as the weakest of the weak made him think of something. His own mortality. Maybe he could become immortal?

“Can you show me a list of Skills that either make the user immortal or somehow able to survive death?” he had barely finished asking the question when the blue boxes populated his vision showing him a list of skills.

Immortality lvl.N/A

The bearer of this skill cannot die.

Cost: 100,000 souls

Perpetual Rebirth lvl.1

The bearer of this skill, when killed or otherwise brought to death, dies. Will be reborn as the first race they started as in the system. They will retain all memories, all skills/skill levels, and all Classes/Class Levels through each rebirth.

Cost: 1,000,000 souls

On first glance one would wonder why a skill like Immortality was cheaper than a skill like Perpetual Rebirth. But it made sense to him. If you couldn’t kill something you could do something like seal it in a block of concrete and dump it in an ocean where it would be stuck forever. Immortality was a trap. Perpetual Rebirth was amazing though.

“I would like to purchase Perpetual Rebirth please.” He said to the strange person across the desk.

The person nodded and suddenly he felt a strange shifting inside of himself. Then it was done. He checked his status page and saw the skill listed there under his skills. It almost made him laugh. With that pesky thing called mortality out of the way he could focus on retaining his mental faculties now.

“I want all of the hidden and locked stats unhidden and unlocked. And I mean all of them.” He said this was the first step in his master plan.

The person across from cocked its head to the side for several seconds before answering.

“The cost of such a thing would be 100,000,000 Souls, with the addendum of removing free to spend points as a reward for levels. The free to spend points will be reallocated as additional points to racial benefits. I will warn you that some of these stats are not meant for mortal minds to comprehend, and many of them were not meant to be unlocked by anything ever. Is this acceptable?” the person asked.

Not being able to spend free points to control his own build would be pretty terrible. But he would at least still get the points. His build would have to be controlled through Skills and Classes that he picked up. The warning was interesting. Stats that weren’t meant for mortals. Maybe he would be OP just because of that? Who knows? He thought it all through for several minutes before he nodded.

“I accept.” He spoke

The second he accepted he felt a strange utterly alien sensation wash over him for a moment. It was… pleasantly unpleasant? If you can understand that? The sensation only lasted for a few moments then it was gone. The person across from was staring at him intently. As if expecting something to go wrong.

“We had no idea what would actually happen there. Your soul could have been overloaded and caused a new universe to form for all we knew… But you appear to be stable… We have no clue how this will effect your evolutionary tree though…” the person wasn’t actually speaking to him but to itself as if he weren’t there. But he’d heard another interesting tidbit there.

“How does one increase their Race Tier?” it was a question he should have asked earlier but had forgotten.

“The G tiers, all of them, require one to reach race level five. At that point they will be given the option to evolve into a new Race based on skills, stats, Titles, or Classes even. The options vary and are not only geared towards moving up the Tier chain. A human for instance, could evolve into an orc if they met the right criteria. Those are Lateral evolutions that allow one to follow other paths of Evolution. F tiers require Level ten for the option to evolve. E tiers level 20, D tiers Level 30, C tiers Level 40, B Tiers Level 50, A Tiers Level 100, S Tiers level 250, O Tiers level 500, and L Tiers 1000.” The person spoke

That was a lot to unpack. It seemed geared towards rapidly getting creatures to the A tier then practically stopping them at S Tier. Although he was unsure how much EXP was required to level. Or how to get EXP.

“How does one acquire EXP to level up?” he asked

“Completing quests, killing creatures or people, leveling skills, absorbing cores that spirits coalesce into when killed, crafting, eating certain things, drinking certain things. Honestly, almost everything one does can give EXP if done correctly.”

“What skills will I need to have to maintain my Sapience when ‘Populated’ into the world?” again almost before he finished speaking a three blue boxes with skills listed on them popped into his vision.

Analyze lvl.5

This skill is used to see system information on visible targets.

+1 Int per level in Analyze

Cost: 100,000 souls

Zen Meditation lvl.5

This skill is used to concentrate and remember things clearly.

+1 Wis per level in Zen Meditation

Cost: 100,000 souls

Mimicry lvl.5

This is a passive skill that allows the user to more easily mimic sounds, behaviors, or actions of others.

+1 Cha per level in Mimicry

Cost: 100,000 souls

101,300,001 souls traded away so far. 280 some odd million more to go. He wondered if there were any Titles he could buy and low and behold there was one, but he wasn’t going to buy it. It was called “Pay To Win” for a million souls and it increased stat gains per level by 1. But the name of the Title made his very soul cringe at the thought of it. Those were the worst games ever. Even though he’d made one or two of them himself… He wasn’t going to stoop to that level. He was already kind of paying to win anyways but it wasn’t by choice. Then another thought occurred to him.

“Can I get an inventory? That can hold like anything and everything but not weigh me down or anything like that?” he asked, hopeful that there was such a thing. Just as he’d hoped a box popped up with a skill.

Soul Vault lvl.1

Can store and retrieve items from a pocket dimension created inside of the user’s soul.

Storage space: Unlimited

Limitations: Items must be solid; liquids or gases must be stored inside a container.

Note: Upon death any items stored inside the Soul Vault will be forcefully ejected.

Cost: 1,000,000 souls

“I’ll buy it!” he proclaimed. Feeling the skill being added to his repertoire as another million souls poured out of his Soul Well.

“How much to increase the level of all of my skills to ten?” he asked

“100,000,000 Souls.”

“Why the massive cost?”

“Level 10 is a milestone marker where additional effects, potential derivative skills, or skill evolutions occur. The value is reflective of the potential.” The person said.

He waffled back and forth on it for a few minutes considering what benefits he might squeeze out of it. Finally, he decided that it would probably be a good idea. Nodding his head he spoke,

“I can agree to that price.” And boom another hundred million down the drain.

“What else would you like to trade for?”

“Can I give myself a name?” he asked

To his surprise the person cocked his head to the side for a few moments before answering.

“For the rest of the Souls you have to trade, the System is willing to allow you to name yourself.” The person said.

He felt his own eyes widen at that. He still had over a hundred million souls. The fact that this System valued naming himself over everything else he’d purchased meant that there was probably a huge significance to this. In almost all the old stories, folklore, religions, and superstitions names had power. Hoping that he was right He decided. He couldn’t remember his old name, but he could remember his old Gamertag, Tsar Bomba, the emperor bomb. The name of the most powerful nuclear weapon humanity had ever tested. The blast wave of the explosion circled the entire globe three time.

“Then I name myself Tsar Bomba.” Tsar said and he felt the world, neigh, reality itself accept the name.

He was about to ask what happens next when the person across from him spoke.

“Beginning Population of entity known as Tsar Bomba.” Then everything went black.