I was floating in space, and I wondered if this was what always happened to souls that couldn’t embrace the soul of the people. The sensation was almost soothing, and I was glad my body hadn’t even had a chance to send pain signals to my brain before my aura started indicating that I was torn apart by the shock wave. I was dead so quickly that I barely even noticed.

Congratulations!

The thought was imprinted directly into my mind, which somehow existed despite my body’s destruction. Congratulations? For what? I was dead. My people were dead. There was literally nothing left to be congratulated for.

You were the last survivor of your exterminated people.

As your species was exterminated, all proprietary database information related to your people has been automatically declassified. The technological achievements were unspectacular, with only 8% of the sorcery and 6% of the technology exceeding Game of War standard.

Your racial ability ‘soul bond’ has been added to the powers registry, and is now cleared for general use.

Your race discovered over 100 Class D and above species displaying sapience and unconnected to the Game of War.

This made absolutely no sense. It was projecting its language directly into my soul, without the need for scent production, so I wondered if I could communicate the same way? It wasn’t like I had a body to produce scents for communication, and as a warrior I couldn’t soul bond transmit even if I knew how.

Most assumptions that were made about the Game of War’s guiding intelligence was that it was somehow a synthetic intelligence, despite its incredible versatility and ability to deal with billions of sentients and incomprehensible problems at the same time. It even displayed a somewhat sarcastic sense of humor on occasion, and it rarely directly interacted with its players after their introduction. Scientists claimed that or its intelligence it would have to be nearly the size of a universe itself, but it was still easier to think of it as artificial rather than consider the idea that it might be an immortal sapience with truly deific capabilities and intellect.

What does this mean? Does that mean I can use soul bond and join the soul of my people in death? Why does my race’s collective knowledge mean anything?

Negative. The soul of your people collective psychic entity was maintained by it’s living components. Without those components, the entity was dispersed. The collective souls have been either reborn or have been sent onward to their reward or punishment before being reborn, according to their afterlife beliefs.

Punishments? Rewards? I asked in confusion. They aren’t dispersed?

Some species believe that anti-civilization activities must be punished before a soul can move on to it’s rejuvenation. The Game of War does not have access to Souls that have moved beyond its reach, but according to the souls that have gained rewards, it approaches 60% certainty that souls are not dispersed or destroyed, and are simply recycled.

Your own soul was selected as being qualified for a reward for being the last surviving member of your species. Your species as a whole did not accept rebirth as an option in the event of personal death, according to Game of War guidelines, but due to it’s extinction this option was activated for the last surviving member. Would you like to activate this option?

Rebirth? Like putting my soul in a new body? My world is destroyed, if I am ahh… reborn there, my body will be instantly destroyed.

Unfortunately, you are not eligible for rebirth into your original species, due to the aforementioned extinction event. However, You will gain the advantage of being placed in a new species, on a habitable world.

Because of the release of the list of class D species that are eligible for inclusion into the Game, you may choose one of those species. An appropriately mature member of the species whose soul has vacated a damaged host will be located, the vessel will be repaired, and you will be inserted into the new host.

Your primary reward will be access to the best statistics and skills of both bodies, the original and the new host.

Some warnings, however. The psychology of different races is quite varied, thus your innate neurochemical signals may not match what you recognize from your original body. In addition, different species have different sensory systems. Some of your original senses may be available, some may not, and the host may possess senses that you are unfamiliar with.

While the host will already be adapted to those senses, you might require some time to adjust to unfamiliar sensations. Do you wish to make a choice among the Class D inhabitants?

I didn’t really know what to do. It looked like I was going to be reborn, although if I chose to do so now, I would get to keep my mind and skills intact. Denying this reward meant I might be reborn somewhere else, with no memory of this life, assuming that the Game’s guiding intelligence was being truthful.

What a paranoid thought! In my experience, while the game’s guiding intelligence could withhold information or sometimes make statements that were misleading or ironic without appropriate information, it never made any statements that did not prove to match known or verifiable fact. Why would I think it were any more capable of creating… fiction… than I was?

I didn’t even know where that concept of fiction had come from. My mind must be truly moving in strange directions, because I had another thought, based on the concept of punishment the guiding intelligence had introduced.

Is there a member of those races that is capable of delivering punishment on the species that destroyed my species? Not out of some sense of repayment for their loss or balance, but simply as a means of ensuring that they are no longer capable of performing such an act?

I had no idea where that concept had come from. The very idea of potentially destroying the lives of millions of sentients in order to defend others was utterly alien, and should have sent me instantly into shock, except right now I didn’t seem to have a shock instinct.

Class D species are not technologically nor magically capable of providing a serious threat to a class C species like the F’lok’nyran or the Sintar.

There is, however, one outlier species that is technically capable of developing the technology and magic to do so within a single individual’s potential lifespan.

They possess a nonstandard mixture of class C and E technology, and class G sorcery. They are psychologically more than capable of what you desire, although their body and statistics will be almost entirely unfamiliar to you.

Would you like to know more?

This might be what I was looking for. I was finding it hard to be emotionally attached to my own species destruction right this moment, probably because I wasn’t getting any empathic feedback from my body anymore. But the concept of ending a threat was surprisingly appealing.

Yes, please. I would very much like to know how this species could provide a meaningful threat to an enemy like the… Sindar.

This species possesses a Unique racial trait, and if inducted into the game this trait is considered balanced and will not be disabled, although it will be considered proprietary until the species withdraws from the game or is destroyed.

This trait is called flexible mind. They are not as intelligent as your own species, but due to their mind’s extraordinary flexibility they can adapt and develop new technological and sorcerous techniques extraordinarily quickly.

They possess extreme physical stats, but due to their limited intelligence their minds are considered balanced even with their flexibility. They are, however, considered on the class D endangered list due to their unique minds, as it is as much a curse to their species survival as it is a blessing.

Physically, they are bipedal mammals with high environmental tolerances, albeit with a limited range of breathable environments.

They are carbon-based, like your species, but unlike your species they require a minimum of 20% oxygen and breath a much lighter compound, similar to your upper atmosphere.

They also require H2O, or water, in large concentrations to exist, and regular intakes of such a substance to survive.

They live on a metal-rich planet that is approximately five times as dense as your own, and while there are other sentient species on the planet, they are considered the apex, and only sapient, species. They are bipedal, thus requiring the balance attribute, and are also mammals with an endoskeletal circulatory system.

Your designation would be female.

The creatures lived on an acid world surrounded by an atmosphere containing one of the most destructive elements in existence, and required regular consumption of an incredibly powerful acid to exist. They had flexible minds and could probably develop technology to oppose the Sindar quickly, and were heavyworlders to an incredible degree. It would be terrifying what kind of acid-blooded monsters they would be, if I were currently capable of terror. Bipedal and ensdoskeletal? They would be perhaps much like the vertebrates that traveled the liquids of my world, and engaged each other in an endless cycle of predation.

But at least I would be female. If they had two recognized sexes, I would be the dominant and intellectual one, at the very least. That should allow me to grow quickly into a leadership role, and if their oddly flexible technology were any indication, they should already be long past the protectorate government models and well into a pure meritocracy, in which I was comfortable I could excel with the best of both species as my intellect. Not to mention my technological and magical skills should quickly earn me both power and respect.

What is a mammal? I thought curiously. It sounded obscene.

It is a sexually dimorphous creature where the females hatch the eggs internally to allow the developing fetus to consume resources in excess of those provided by an egg. This adaptation is required to provide the nutritional and chemical requirements to support their unique racial trait. Their lifespan is relatively short, but their young have extraordinary retention and learning abilities just after birth, and do not require a pupate stage for maturity.

They tend to learn enough to develop into maturity in merely 24 cycles, at which point their learning chemically slows, and they undergo a chemical process that accelerates their biological maturity within approximately four more years.

They are technically considered biologically capable of reproduction at around 24 cycles, or 12 years, since their planet’s orbital cycle if approximately twice as long as your world’s.

This is, however, considered extremely risky, as the body is capable of reproduction but is not biologically mature enough to ensure their survival during the process. This risk decreases as they grow older, until the approximate maturity age of 16, but the risk is never entirely abated.

They have, however, developed medical technology to abate this risk somewhat.

So they risk dying with every single egg they lay? And they reproduce like parasite wasps?

No, they do not lay their eggs in a host and allow the larvae to consume the host, their own eggs hatch and parasitize on the female until they are born.

The male possesses a unique form of ovipositor with which he fertilizes the egg internally. This process, unlike parasite wasps, is generally considered pleasant by both sexes.

This leads to a unique social dynamic that their race has taken advantage of, where the males are often aware of their own offspring. This dynamic allows both males and females to prioritize training and caring for their known biological offspring, ensuring that that offspring is given the best possible treatment for it’s own success under ideal circumstances.

This unique method of care for the young, combined with the aforementioned mental flexibility, is one of the keystones for their potential as tools in your goals.

The race is called ‘Human’, you will receive a more complete package of the local language should you choose to accept this species.

That sounds utterly disgusting. The females carry about parasites for the entire egg cycle? That must severely affect their ability to administrate and effectively run their nests at least until the grub is separated from its host. Allowing the male to individually train its own recognized offspring, especially if breeding line traits can be reinforced, seems like a good way to ensure a stable meritocracy.

A male or female that is already trained in an ability being able to pass on that training, knowing that the Grub is already talented at the task in question, has powerful potential. You might even be able to breed for particular traits! A mother and a father that has a mother with the same heightened intelligence might be able to consistently produce geniuses! A few generations of inbreeding and who knows, I might be able to create humans of my own genetics that are nearly as intelligent as my own species, with the added advantage of a flexible mind. If the grubs can be separated early without harm, the amount of downtime I have to spend hosting the parasite while it matures could be considerably shortened.

Tell me, will I be able to share the gift of Soulbond with others? You mentioned a shortened lifespan. How short is it, and is it possible to set up a new soul of the people?

Their initial lifespan is very short by your species’ standards, but as I mentioned, their flexibility greatly offsets this effect by producing meaningful intellects in a time often as short as 20 years. Unenhanced, their lifespan tends to equal about 150 cycles, or around 75 years, but this can be flexible.

If they are introduced to the Game of War, however, every bonus to their health attribute, to which they are naturally inclined, can have a significantly cumulative effect on that lifespan. If they can gain many ranks, they may approach or even exceed your species’ average lifespan.

As far as creating a soul of the people, that is not in my databases.

An endoskeleton, a poisonous atmosphere, toxic blood, and the entire disgusting mammal thing are a large price to pay, but with the twin advantages of my obvious intellectual suitability for leadership as well as being able to offer a way for them to dramatically increase their potential lifespan, I should lead these people in a few short cycles. We could immediately proceed to produce drones, only this time, their flexible minds might allow us to prevent an apocalypse like my home world. Very well, I accept.

Congratulations! You are now the first Human that has chosen to become a player in the Game of War.

You have received the Pioneer achievement!

A suitable body has been located. It is in a portion of a local settlement referred to as a city with the name of Chee Carr Goo within the province known as Ill-noise under a despotic and feudalistic protectorate referred to euphemistically as the United States. It is run by a local warlord under the authority of a much greater council of warlords referred to as a senate, with a figurehead overlord called a president that the locals are generally deceived into believing is chosen by majority opinion.

This body is currently aged 17 and ½ years, or 35 cycles, matching your approximate maturity. Please be warned, by local custom and rulership decree, you are not considered eligible for full employment or engaging in reproductive efforts. While violating this custom is unlikely to be harmful to you, if your age is known, it could prove very unfortunate for the male involved, resulting in his punishment.

Your local identity has been assigned as Tracy Nutack, as the closest approximation in the local language. Tracy is the designation you give to friends and designated family, while Miss Nutack is your designation for official and more formal sorts of contacts that do not refer to you by your title.

Your rank has been reset to level 1 due to death penalties. If you discorporate at this level, you will not be eligible for rebirth, so please be careful.

Please enjoy the game! And remember that you can receive special rewards for inviting new members!

Warlords? Protectorates? What, by the souls of my family, had I gotten myself into?