"That doesn't sound good," I said. "What went wrong?"

.:The simulation is a fantasy simulation, no tech whatsoever. I apologise for cursing.:.

"Cursing seems to be completely appropriate, there is no need for you to apologise." I said. "What is the scenario for the simulation?"

.:It's the Traveller to a New World/Summoned Hero genre. No system, no gamification, complete fantasy realism.:.

"Someone is going to summon me into the simulation? And, system? Gamification?" I asked.

.:You aren't necessarily going to be summoned by an entity in the simulation, it is possible that your backstory is that you were sent, were pushed, reincarnated sponsored by a god, or even managed to walk between the realities yourself. Those are all variations that I've seen before. Though in this simulation there looks to be history in the cultural backstory for Champions simply appearing with a specific goal, which is likely a simplification that the simulation administrators put in for new Champions like you.

As to the system and gamification, in some scenarios there is an interface that tracks your various skills, stats, and abilities, giving you feedback on your actions and goals within the simulation. It would have been nice for your first simulation as it is preferred for knowledge-based personalities.:.

I would have thought that being assigned an Interface to manage the setup of the simulation was done specifically to stop this sort of thing from happening. There wasn't any point in blaming Interface though, it saw something was wrong but we couldn't see what it was until we locked in. It must be pretty inexperienced at this too. I'll get the best help from it if I accept the mistake and move on.

"This would be why my total threat was lower than you were expecting," I said. "How were my powers affected?"

.:Technology doesn't work at a basic level, which is usually achieved in one of a few ways. By Divine influence, a god or gods break things considered technology. The mana system itself interferes and makes things malfunction. Or the physics of the simulation simply don't allow certain phenomena, like electron movement to create electricity. In this simulation it looks to be a mixture of modified physics and the mana system.:.

Which didn't answer my question. Interface also hadn't updated the display from showing my powers.

"Are you alright?" I asked. "Do you need a few minutes?"

.:I should have locked the scenario setting to sci-fi, I thought I was being clever minimising your total threat. This is my first time being an Interface and I've failed.:.

"My total threat was lower, so however the powers I was picking were being assessed, doesn't it imply that I was being pushed towards this scenario?" I asked.

.:Yes, the administrators of the simulation would be responsible for that.:.

"And that my powers have any threat level at all implies that they can still be used in the scenario. You haven't failed yet, pull it together." I said.

.:Right. Yes, you are correct. I apologise again.:.

"Good, now, how do we fix it?" I asked. "How were my powers affected?"

.:Matter Manipulation has made it so that you can't use magic, and your body being without mana means that technology works inside you. So your mind links work.

Your Pocket Dimension also doesn't have mana at all, so technology will work there, too. There is an odd workaround involved with your Pocket Dimension in that you will need a doorway inscribed with a specific set of sympathetic runes to access it, so you won't be able to access your dimensional space from anywhere. You also need to be physically close to the doorway for it to be open, any consciousness inside it will prevent it closing. And if you die everything inside the dimension will be completely destroyed.:.

The Pocket Dimension didn't really end up how I wanted it to. Although I now realised why adding a Mind Link to it increased the threat so much, it is the only place that I can build my Artificial Intelligence and have it work. There must be other ways to make an AI work, though, or it wouldn't have a threat of 5.5 million.

"Okay, I can work with that, what's next?" I asked.

The display updated to show the details for the scenario.

Scenario Difficulty Angry God, End of the World Starting Delay One Week Minimum Victory Condition Your people must survive the end of the world

.:The difficulty setting for the scenario is set to 'Angry God, End of the World'. This will likely start you pre-apocalypse to let you prepare for it. 'End of the World' has varying degrees of severity, ranging from the world literally being destroyed, to an Extinction Level Event, or maybe even just your species being killed. As it is a god causing it, it depends on the domain of the specific god, which could mean it is caused by an asteroid impact, an ice age, a virus, global temperature rise, or something else. The scenario leaves it vague so that you can't prepare for a specific case.:.

That sounds... Difficult. Matter Manipulation is my only power that is directly applicable, and I guess it is versatile enough to work for anything short of the world being literally destroyed. The trick will be figuring out how the world is ending before it ends, maybe?

"How does the starting delay work?" I asked.

.:It is a way for Champions with different levels of total threat to have a balanced start. For example, if another Champion had a total threat that was 1 million less than yours they might start without a delay and be able to affect the simulation for a week before you enter it. As there is only one other Champion in the simulation that is likely what is happening, though how much less total threat they had I don't know. It is also possible that you and the other Champion do not have conflicting goals, so you could ally with them, or not interact with them at all.:.

"Is there any way to change my starting delay?" I asked. "And how important is it likely to be?"

.:It might be possible in later stages of the setup. But it really isn't something to be too worried about, the delays balance out with your powers. It is a very common thing.:.

Next up on the display is 'Minimum victory condition: Your people must survive the end of the world.' Which looks straightforward enough, simply don't die.

"My minimum victory condition is my goal, I take it. Why is it a minimum?" I asked.

.:It is phrased that way because there are multiple ways you can win, ascending, killing all of the other Champions or simply making them fail their minimum victory conditions, or possibly some scenario specific winning conditions. If you fail your minimum victory condition you will be marked as failing the simulation, which affects your rankings and likely your number of followers.:.

"So I can win by stopping the end of the world entirely?" I asked.

.:That would seem to be a valid victory condition for the scenario, and likely one that would do quite well for you, though I imagine it will be a hard victory condition for you to achieve.

'Your people must survive the end of the world.' is an interesting minimum victory condition, it implies that the next stage in the setup will be choosing people for you to Champion, and should give you an opportunity to make up for your obvious weakness of not being able to use technology or magic in the simulation.:.

Not being able to use guns, laser weaponry, reactive armour, or any number of technology advantages that I have the memories of the concepts for; and everyone else in the simulation having the opportunity to use magic, the natives as well as the other Champion, puts me at a large disadvantage.

"What are my chances of not losing, in your opinion?" I asked.

.:You have a good chance, in my opinion. Matter Manipulation isn't seen much in competitive simulations, as it usually has a very large total threat associated with it, but it should be a very good power for fortifying a position and withstanding almost anything that is thrown at you. It can be used to eliminate waste, create food and water, and build truly strong walls. The only problem with it is that it requires a lot of energy, usually in the form of heat, to do any large scale works with it. If you can solve that problem in a low technology scenario you should do very well. The mentality you have while playing is also important, as a generalisation you get more of the sort of followers that will continue to follow you when you succeed if you have a positive approach to the simulation.:.

"You keep mentioning followers, what are they and why is having more of them something I should be trying to do?" I asked.

.:Your followers are the entities that follow your progress through a simulation in order to be entertained. A portion of your followers will pay you some of their processing cycles in exchange for the value you provide them in entertainment. The more followers you have the more processing cycles they will pay as a whole. While you are in a competitive simulation you are being hosted by whoever is hosting the simulation. Outside of competitive simulations, in this simulated space or out on the network, your stored processing cycles are used to simulate your consciousness and environment. If you run out of processing cycles to simulate your consciousness you will effectively die, having your memory wiped and be put to work in other areas. No one would hear from you again.:.

This really does come down to succeed or die, then. Everything is at stake. Which is exactly the sort of motivation I needed. I can do this. Play well enough that I can live on my ability to play.

"Bring it on. Let's move to the next stage." I said.