Chapter 1: Welcome Home

Startling awake to the shock of pain and haze of drugs makes for a bad start to the day. That is especially true when you have that conviction that you don’t know where you are and don’t recognize the room.

‘Wait, where am I?’ Trint thought. ‘This is not my place.’

Trint shuffled to the window, pain striking with each movement. He pulled the curtain to the side enough to let the sun illuminate the room.

“What?” Trint was so confused. Blue skies, green grass, a typical middle-class suburban landscape that could be almost anywhere in the United States. It looked normal, but it wasn’t the view his home had.

“Where’s Cara? And what is going on.” Trint asked in the quiet room. ‘The drugs were still confusing, but he quickly had a hot ball of guilt and pain in his gut. “Right, I killed them in a car accident. He almost collapsed. ‘Why? What is the point of this? If a god exists in the universe, he sure doesn’t care about me.”

After a short time of quiet sobs sitting on the end of the bed, his curiosity won out, and he decided to figure out where he was and what was wrong with his memory. He went down the hall to explore this place.

‘Ok, average one-level house, decent furnishings, not my style, though.A kitchen, table, living room, and modern style furniture. Not my home. Cara wouldn’t let me get the contemporary style. She was always a cozy home with fabric furniture.This was more sleek and formal modern.

Trint sat at the glass table. He looked across a slight hill out the window facing a fenced-in backyard and saw rows of middle-class suburban sprawl. Twisting in his chair, his body still not healed. His left hand is still useless from before the car crash. He was now disabled and debilitated. Now add to that some memory issue or kidnapping.

‘I must have brain damage from the car accident,’ Trint jumped to his most logical conclusion. ‘Maybe I’m missing memories since I went home from the hospital till now?’

System Integration: Welcome & Introduction

Trint picked himself up off the floor. Pain radiating throughout his entire body.

After the words appeared right in front of him, he fell backward, over the kitchen chair. Unfortunately for his sanity, the words trailed his eyesight every moment of the fall.

“What?” Trint questioned out loud. “Yeah, definitely brain damage, and probably going crazy too.’

Welcome, Trinten Atlas Henderson, to The Ten Iterations of The Eternities.

Please prioritize this period of introduction and prepare for your coming journey.

To Assist With Your Survival, Your Memory, Understanding & Intelligence Have Been Improved Upon Integration.

System Introduction: History 1

You are currently in Iteration ’11.’ There are ten iterations, and this 11th will be a short introduction and transition to iteration 10 or “i10”. Iterations start now in i11 and ascend to i1.

While in i11, you will have the opportunity to learn how the iterations work. Utilize this time to prepare for the ascension and face the fate of restart. Your ultimate priority during each lifespan is to ascend through the iterations and achieve True Ascension by ascending beyond i1. The Eternities are endless, yet two ultimate destinations await; Restart or True Ascension.

I11: Tutorial (1-year timeframe starting at arrival)

I10: Levels 1-20 (1-year life span starting at arrival) Restart delay 40 days

I9: Levels 21-30 (10-years life span starting at arrival) Restart delay 400 days/1 year

I8: Levels 31-100 (100-year life span starting at arrival) Restart delay ten years

Advancing to i10 will begin your next 1-year countdown. At that point, your goal is to go to i9 and beyond till you reach the final iteration i1 and achieve True Ascension beyond the Eternities or die and restart. Each tier grants you a countdown life span ten times greater than the previous tier. “Find rest only through True Ascension.”

i11 introduction is designed to help guide you towards a successful transition to System Integration and help you achieve ascension.

Trint, at this point, was trying to follow along, but this was a lot to digest.

You and everyone else in i11 (population ~11,000,000,000) will have 30 days with introductory system access to tutorials, your town center, and virtual assistance provided by system guides.

After 30 days, your recruitment will begin. Your lifespan timer for each iteration restarts after each ascension and each restart.

Beware, survival is not guaranteed. Ascension, above all else, is your goal. Restarts await any who lack ambition. Loss of currency, items, levels, and experience will occur upon restart. Dying in battle or reaching your iteration lifespan limit will initiate a Restart.

Memories are retained, but experience/progress toward your next level and one additional level are lost.

Trint was completely confused at this point. ‘Survival? One year, then ten years? What is going on? Am I still on earth? Or is this brain damage mixed with a role-playing game fantasy?’ Trint wondered. “This isn’t my house; I don’t remember how I got here.” Trint voiced to the empty room while System messages continued to appear.

Question Received, please hold questions till after the initial introduction.

Trint felt his mind calm and focus on the messages somehow forced into his mind and embedding in his memory. Thoughts of how and why drifted away as his mind was forced to focus on the introduction.

System Introduction: Recruitment

Not all are given the same starting point in your race to ascend. Some will find greatness easily; others will have to fight for it.

You are allowed 90 days to find sponsorship through a recruiter during recruitment.

At the end of recruitment (Day 120), you will have access to i10.

You will have the remainder of the year to decide your affiliation. Accept sponsorship or ascend to i10 as an independent.

“This should be blowing my mind, but somehow I’m following these messages,” Trint puzzled.

“Wait! How do I possibly remember and understand all of that?” Trint thought out loud.

System Inquiry Response to questions:

The first question of location:

Answer: you are no longer on your origin planet. Inhabitants of the world, known by inhabitants as Earth, have been assimilated into the Eternities. Earth no longer exists but is now a part of iteration 10 but combined with many other worlds to form a planetary body closer to the size of your Sun. Gravitational laws no longer apply as your physics previously did. Other forces sustain existence.

All technology from earth was destroyed, and you will find each iteration advancement unlocks more technology and power resources. Your current location is part of the region formerly known as the United States, Midwest, Iowa.

Second Question: Context for the ability to remember and understand:

Answer: Memory, understanding, and system information processing have been increased by system manipulation. Cognitive improvements to your brain and its functions. This was done to increase your chance of survival, but further improvement is your responsibility.

“Wait, you can hear me?” Trint asked out loud.

Answer: Yes.

“Ok, tell me, what is going on?” Trint yelled at this point.

Answer: Upon initiation, many things changed. Your current Mind Stats were strengthened, but your Body Stats are substandard. Recommend focusing on Body stats to enhance your current abilities further.

Skill Added: [System Languages: Basic]

Every known Language will be translated into your native language. Please say “System Help.”

Trint was silent.

Speak the words, ‘System Help.’

“Oh, System Help,” Trint spit out.

System Help - Choose from the following:

-System History (Intro: Basic access)

-System Introduction (Limited access)

-Recruitment (Limited access)

-i10 Introduction (Limited Access)

The list went on for a long way. And Trint had no intention of reading anything right now. This was all a lot to understand and process.

“System can I read this later and close this view or something so I can just think?”

System Help:

Answer: Yes, say or think, ‘close, minimize, hide system screen.’ All commands should be intuitive and follow your known logic. The system is now integrated with your understanding, and you will quickly adapt.

Trint said, “hide the screen.” Then he thought, ‘show screen.’ After toggling the screens and finding a menu and other information, he closed the system view.

Trint settled his thoughts. Independence and freedom were ingrained into him. But he felt a sense of purpose and motivation. The pain and guilt of his family were still there, but it felt a little distant and numb. Was that this system?

“System, why do I feel different? Not physically, but emotionally?” Trint decided to ask.

System Help:

Answer: Memory has been increased while synaptic connections to emotion and memories of your past have been muted. You will remember your past better due to mental increases, but your mental traumas and feelings negatively impacting your mind will be temporarily muted due to the necessity to survive.

Other biological and Mana integrations have been improved or added to increase your ability to cope with the integration.

As you level and adjust, these limiters on the negative emotions connected with memory will be decreased. Use these advantages to grow strong and survive. The system estimates 2% survival without cognitive system support.

“What about my chances now?” Trint hated to ask.

System Help:

Answer: 7%

“That’s not that great,” Trint would probably feel dejected, but he was motivated to prove those numbers were nothing but made-up bull.

System Help:

Answer: You fall into the lower quadrant of survival groups.

System Help:

Recommendation (Minimal Access Answer): Seek recruitment. Probability of increased survival rate to 15%.

“Thanks, system,” Trint grumbled. “Oh wait, the last question for now. You’re sure I don’t have brain damage, and I do not imagine this?”

For the next few hours, Trint decided to get his mind around what the System had tried to explain. He explored the house and found some food in a refrigerator. A single book on the coffee table, “Introduction to the System.”

“Well, the title is in English. I can skim this, and then I’ll go outside and see what the i11 looks like. How long would it take me to read this book with my vastly improved brainpower?” Trint joked to himself.

The guidebook outlined the goals of recruitment and primary objectives for i10. The plans in i11 and i10 consisted of learning to fight, gaining levels, and learning to survive. Most people made the leveling cut-off for i10, and many made it in much less time than was allowed. Resources are plentiful even in a place with a new population of about 110 billion people. Since the new planet is the size of his former Sun. So efficiency, speed, and determination were important. So Trint, pushed along by his mental manipulations and improvement, made a clear choice to improve in any way possible.

After considering all the changes and the knowledge he gained in the guidebook, Trint felt better oriented and decided to step outside.

System Warning: Leaving safe zone starting location - “Home.” Entering Greater Des Moines, Iowa.

‘Iowa?’ Trint considered. ‘Ok, according to the guidebook, I need to try to gain experience surviving the world around me.’

Stepping out the front door, Trint looked around down the streets of the suburban Iowa neighborhood. “This is pretty nice.”

Trint walked down the sidewalk and came across a dog that was slightly glowing red. It wasn’t that big, and it was sitting peacefully. He wondered if he could get a companion to help him fight like in some books he read. He was approaching behind the dog. It hadn’t noticed him till he got to about 10 yards away. Trint looked closer and saw a label above the dog.

[Adolescent Wolf – level 1]

System Warning: Survive Encounter

“Crap, this isn’t Iowa, is it,” Trint exclaimed. That was enough to alert the wolf. It immediately started closing the distance to Trint.

Backpedaling, Trint fell after a couple of steps; then, the wolf was on him. He kicked toward the small wolf.

It worked its way up his body towards his face.He instinctively put his disabled hand up to block the wolf.Its jaws latched onto his wrist and shook side to side.

“Owwww!” Trint screamed. The wolf had bitten torn into the meat of his foot and shredded his wrist. Before the system, Trint would have become a mangle meal. But his mind was working quickly. “Help, someone help,” He cried out.

The wolf continued tearing his arm side to side. As it released the wrist to next lunge for the kill, suddenly its head caved in, and Trint’s face was covered in blood and bits of something.

“Oh, man! Your arm looks bad. Why didn’t you fight that thing? Quick, which house was yours?” The Good Samaritan asked.

Trint pointed behind him and passed out.

Congratulations: Experience Gained. Level 1 Achieved. $30 Q11 added to currency.

“What is happening?” Trint was baffled, filled with adrenaline, yet the pain was receding, and a warmth spread through his body like he was lowered into a hot bath of water from head to toe. Still sitting, he looked down and saw his foot healing, and his hand was bandaged. Signs of the wolf attack were still evident as the wounds were healing but not gone.

‘That was something the starter guide should have mentioned,’ he thought in frustration.

System Message:

Congratulations on surviving your introduction to combat. (Typical survival rate of 92%).

Introductory combat rewards were split: 97/3. You received 3% for your contribution.

Safety from additional system attacks is offered until exiting the Extended Safe Zone or entering i10.