《System Dilemma》47. The Reign of The Uppers
Advertisement
Two system screens appeared in front of me, one of them had details on the title that I gained and the other had the option of scrolling as it showed a wide variety of options.
[Title acquired: Initial Returnee]
Initial Returnee
Tutorials are supposed to be over after twelve days, but you’re already back on Earth!
Where is everyone else? Who are these weird creatures?
You’re the first Earthling to go back to Earth after clearing the tutorial!
- You’ll have your name broadcasted in the System Trading Stations for one week starting from the moment you returned. (Earth Time).
-You gain 80 free stat points.
That’s sweet! The extra fame is going to help, and the free stat points are good!
I realized that this title meant that my name was currently being broadcasted on Earth’s Trading Stations, so the alien races should’ve already seen it.
I grinned, as this would’ve made my negotiations with them much easier once I went back to Earth.
I closed the title’s description and took a look at the long list of blessings that appeared in front of me.
[List of Blessings]
Number of Options: 794
[Agni’s Personal Blessing]
[Check the Details]
[Almighty Holy One’s Personal Blessing]
[Check the Details]
[Anubis’ Personal Blessing]
[Check the Details]
[Aphrodite’s Personal Blessing]
[Check the Details]
[Azazel’s Personal Blessing]
[Check the Details]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
There were too many available options, and I kept scrolling for a while. I had no idea which deities offered the better blessings, so I went back to the beginning and checked the details of the first blessing on the list.
[Agni’s Personal Blessing]
Agni is a deity of the fire element, and many people believed that he was the personalization of fire!
Revered by many people as the true god of flames, he blessed many worthy followers of his and allowed them to hold a portion of his magnificence!
He’s been impressed with your control of the flames, and he wishes to bless you even though you attained your class through a shady avenue!
Can you prove yourself to be worthy of this deity’s support?
Advantages:
-Increases Fire affinity to 100.
-Allows you to teleport to his highness’s realm divine for personal training whenever you’d like.
-Weekly resources to increase your power and improve your progress.
-Imparts the [Brahmagni] method of refining mana.
-Gain a title; [Agni’s Chosen].
-Allows you to act as Agni’s only avatar on Earth; you’ll share his teachings with the other humans and convert them into his followers.
-You’ll undergo a special operation to go back to being a normal human; your system will stop glitching forever!
-The next class evolution would force you to choose the class [Agni’s Underling] (uncommon).
Warning: You’ll be able to accept a maximum of ten blessings if you accept this one.
[Accept]
[Decline]
I like the fire affinity, but this is too much…
I didn’t care much about the inane nonsense and just skipped ahead to the advantages of this blessing. It gave many useful benefits, but some of the ‘advantages’ were too much for me.
I didn’t want to become an avatar, as that would force me to take on many responsibilities and heavily restrict my personal life. Furthermore, everything would be for naught once they forced me to give up my class to get an uncommon one instead.
Advertisement
Besides, I didn’t want to become a regular human, as that would’ve meant losing my latent ability. It allowed me to defeat the primordial, and that was enough for me to have an idea of how useful it could be.
This blessing had many positives that I liked, but the weird clauses made it a no-go.
I’ll skip to the next one.
I opened the description of Almighty Holy One’s personal blessing, and read its contents intently.
[Almighty Holy One’s Personal Blessing]
The Great Church is one of the most popular organizations in the Intergalactic Systematic Union, and that’s for a good reason!
It saved many children from the slums and gave criminals second chances. Its leader is the Almighty Holy One, the High Deity of Light, Freedom, Prosperity, and Healing.
He’s been watching your interest intently and wants to recruit you as a Special Knight and one of his agents on your planet.
He’s so benevolent, and he decided to give someone like you a chance at redemption.
Advantages:
-Increases Holy, Fire, Water, and Ice affinities to 100.
-You’ll be assigned a consulting deity who’ll be responsible for guiding you, protecting you, and answering your questions.
-Allows you to teleport to your galaxy’s Great Church sector for personal training whenever you’d like.
-Daily resources to increase your power and improve your progress.
-Imparts the [Way of a Hero] method of refining mana.
-Gain a title; [Great Church’s Chosen].
-Allows you to act as the Almighty Holy One’s fourth avatar on Earth; you’ll share his teachings with the other humans and convert them into his followers.
-You’ll undergo a special operation to go back to being a normal human; your system will stop glitching forever!
-Your consulting deity will choose the next class for you when you can evolve it once more.
-If you don’t accept this contract, you’ll be hunted until you die.
Warning: You’ll be able to accept a maximum of three blessings if you accept this one.
[Accept]
[Decline]
‘…give someone like me a chance at redemption’, huh? These blessings are pissing me off…
I inhaled a deep breath and decided to look at these blessings objectively. The blessing would improve my affinities nicely, and that would allow me a lot of freedom in case I wanted to use skills of these elements.
Furthermore, it seems like they were more generous than Agni when it came to resources. On the other hand, it seemed like I would only meet my consulting Deity instead of the Almighty Holy One himself.
I only opened this blessing’s description to get a quick laugh, but the last clause scared the shit out of me. I didn’t know whether they’d send an overpowered being to hunt me, or if the Great Church’s blessed humans would hunt me.
According to what ‘Loki’ told me earlier, the Great Church wanted to kill me to have full control of Earth through their other Blessed heroes. I was curious about the identities of the three avatars of the Almighty Holy One, but I had a guess.
Stella, Igor, and Oleg… The identity of the deities that blessed them remained a mystery in my past life…
Advertisement
I checked a couple more blessings, but they were all somewhat restricted one way or the other. The interesting thing was that they all seemed intent on transforming me into a non-Glitcher. I had no idea why they hated Glitchers so much.
Too many mysteries about Glitchers, yet I am still in the dark.
I took a look at ‘Loki’, and we made eye contact as he was already looking at me. He was squatting and he was eating popcorn with a grin on his face, as if he enjoyed seeing my silent suffering.
“So…,” I said, “Aren’t you going to tell me which one of these is your blessing? Is it ‘Loki’s Blessing? Or something related to the ‘system admin’?”
He smirked and shook his head.
“The former is just an alias of mine, and the latter is my job!” he said loudly, “Just keep scrolling down; my blessing should be the last one on the list.”
It took me about ten seconds of scrolling to find the last blessing on the list, and its name was a bit weird. I opened its description to find more details.
[???’s Personal Blessing]
Ever since he became the system admin, ??? was always there. At times, he was Prometheus. At others, he was Loki. Sometimes he even had to erase a deity and take his place.
It was a tough job, but he had to keep the scenario going forward.
He seldom interacts with deities, let alone mortals. It’s a miracle that he took interest in a mortal like you, and he’s willing to bless you.
Advantages:
-No need for formality with ???, he’s your friend, ally, and partner!
-Teaches you the fundamentals of controlling your Latent Ability.
-Gives you the title, [The Candidate].
-Allows you to contact him through a special system feature; ‘InterGalacticLine’.
-Teaches you a forbidden chapter of history, [The Reign of The Uppers].
-You’re prohibited from sharing anything related to [The Reign of The Uppers] with anyone that ??? doesn’t approve of.
-Keeps the ‘Shop’ feature going; it’ll stop working if you accept another Blessing.
-Free Maintenance! The conflict between your system and your latent ability will be alleviated until you’re proficient in controlling your latent ability.
-Many growth opportunities will be unlocked!
Warning: You’ll be able to accept any number of blessings if you accept this one.
[Accept]
[Decline]
The lack of a name for the system admin startled me, so I asked him about it. He shrugged his shoulders and told me that no one remembers his old name anyway except for himself. He told me to call him ‘Loki’ or ‘Prometheus’, and asked me to treat him as a friend without being formal.
He hates formalities, huh? Going as far as including a clause about being my ‘friend’ in the blessing…
I read the description in front of me, and I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, this mysterious deity seemed to tolerate my latent ability and he was even planning on teaching me about it. The title seemed interesting compared to the ones that the previous contracts offered, I’d have to take some random history lessons too if I accepted his blessing.
‘The Reign of The Uppers’, huh? I am curious about this one, and I suspect that it has something to do either with Deities or Glitchers.
On the other hand, this blessing lacked the resources and the personal benefits that the two previous ones offered.
I would’ve appreciated some extra fire affinity…
Another clause caught my eye; it said that the only way to keep the ‘Shop’ was to accept this blessing. It wasn’t that big of a restriction, because this blessing didn’t restrict the number of blessings that I could pick.
All in all, this blessing was much less restrictive than the previous ones.
So, I am free to take other blessings if I accept this one, but I’ll have to give up on the shop if I do so…
“So…,” I said as I squinted my eyes, “What does the ‘Shop’ have to do with all of this? Wasn’t it compensation for my problematic system?”
“Oh, it was meant to be like that!” he replied with a smile, “You see, the items that you’re buying are coming from someone’s pocket, and I am pretty sure you realize the advantage that the shop gave you. If you accept another blessing, then you’ll have to deal with the consequences of your greed.”
“You could’ve restricted the total number of blessings that I could accept if I took yours, right?” I asked.
“That’s true,” he said, “But I believe that the only way to build trust between each other is by giving you freedom of choice. I am pretty sure you want some extra fire affinity, and you can get it from another blessing if you deem it more useful than the system shop.”
He shrugged his shoulder and put his hands behind his head and started humming.
So, he’s allowing me some freedom of choice, unlike the other deities.
The system shop was one of the most important reasons behind my current success, in addition to my future knowledge. It would’ve hurt a lot to lose it, but it wasn’t as instrumental as it was before. I was already one of the strongest humans, if not the strongest individually; the snowball was already big enough to keep rolling on its own.
I understood ‘Loki’s perspective; a relationship based on trust was much better than one based on control and fear.
I was already apprehensive about the other deities, as some of the clauses in their blessings were outright detrimental. I was even suspicious that many of them offered me blessings to shackle me and hinder me from getting too powerful to threaten their other blessed hosts.
I thought about it for a while and checked many more blessings to see if some of them were relatively less restricted.
However, ‘Loki’ interrupted me.
“So, which blessing are you planning on choosing?” He asked.
Advertisement
- In Serial29 Chapters
Seeker
The Gods are dead As they bled dry, so did the magic which gave them birth. In the new era of technology, its pathetic remnants must hide in the shadows or be locked away. In the ancient era of magic two beings often stood out: Galileo, an immortal scholar obsessed with knowledge and Angelica, the most loyal servant of the greatest among the now dead Gods. But why are they worthy of mention? Because after millennia of isolation, the two emerge in the new world beyond their reckoning. The entire story is told from the third person, however, each chapter will be told from the perspective of only one of the characters. This will be signified by the first letter of their names after the chapter number to avoid confusion. I submitted this fiction as a [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] as well as a participant in National Novel Writing Month. The original challenge had been to finish this entire faction within the month of November reaching the 55.5k word minimum. This goal had been achieved. I do not own the cover picture
8 256 - In Serial21 Chapters
The Lion Cub (Hp SI)
Harry Potter stumbled through his life because others laid out a carefully planned path and treated Harry as a pawn since he was born. What happens when there is a Harry that refuses to accept fate? What happens when all those carefully laid plans of his enemies and allies alike go up in smoke?
8 158 - In Serial43 Chapters
My Cruel Mates
Claire lives in a world where dragons, werewolves, vampires and other supernatural beings treat humans as meat and toys. All she wants to do is live a simple life away from anything that goes bump in the night. She does well, until the Dragon King sniffs her out, along with his werewolf mate.How will Claire adjust to the terrifying new turn her life has taken?*Trigger Warning*This story is much darker than my others. There are themes of abuse and suicidal ideation. Please consider this before reading.________________________________________"She smells good, doesn't she Bennett?" The deep timber of the man's voice rings out through the still night and my body shivers in fear and disgust. Suddenly another man is at my side, twining his fingers through my hair. I can't see either of them clearly in the dark. The man, Bennett apparently, leans down close to me and takes in a large lungful of my scent as well. My knees begin to shake in terror and a low growl rumbles from his chest."She does smell good. She's pretty too." He says, pecking a kiss to my cheek. My face crunches in despair as I try to pull from their hold. "Let me go." I beg and the first man chuckles. "Awe. The little human is nervous." He says, amusement evident in his voice. A sob breaks from my lips as I try to pull my arm from his grasp."You're hurting me." I say, tugging my arm again."Let her go, Rowan." Bennett says, making the larger man grunt."Don't get attached to her. You know what happened to the last one."Cover made by @ViaAlyssaNicole
8 574 - In Serial43 Chapters
Campaign: A Project Starfarer Sidestory
This novel’s lore, story and characters are entirely fictitious. Certain long-standing countries, institutions, organizations, agencies, and public offices are mentioned, but their histories and the characters involved are wholly imaginary. "What will you do with your freedom?"Growing up in a meritocracy, infamous for being lawless, Jordan Astros had been repeatedly asked this question, since times unmemorable. In a society where one's accomplishments and skills were tallied and ranked in order to determine one's standard of living however, Jordan quickly grew to understand that 'freedom,' was a reward earned by accumulating Merit. And so, after his 17th birthday, Jordan departed his Clan's habitat in orbit of Europa to embark on his century-long journey to rise from E-Ranker to S-Rank. And spread his name throughout the Galilean Powers. *** Campaign is a sidestory within its NanoPunk parent series, Project Starfarer. (Yet to be published. Be on the lookout for it!) In which the first transhuman known to humanity, the Starfarer, invokes a plan to seed terrestrial life throughout the galaxy. Campaign takes place around the middle of that timeline and explores the life of a key figure in that universe, Jordan Astros. And explores one of four great nations thriving in the Solar System during that time. A Meritocracy that spans Jupiter and its 79 moons, The Galilean Powers. What you'll find in Campaign: Brutal melee combat in airless and pressurized low gravity environments. A technology based progression system influenced by merit and accomplishments; using tech that's theoretically possible to exist in the near-future. An exploratory perspective of the dozens of Galilean societies, or 'Powers,' from Jordans; and sometimes others', POV. What you wont find: Romance. Harems. An MC who receives shortcuts, handouts, learns things unnaturally fast or has OP plot armor. Jordan is not a special individual. Jordan is not OP and he likely never will be. He's no different than any other citizen in the Galilean Powers and will certainly face as many defeats as he does wins. He'll suffer losses and grow as an individual, while the Powers evolves around him as well. This is semi-hard sci-fi/NanoPunk and takes place in a fictional version of our future solar system. Centered around technology that's plausible in the near-centuries to come. Everything abides by the laws of physics/thermodynamics (As best that I understand them, at least. I'm no scientist.) No artificial gravity, inertial dampeners, teleportation, FTL, or hand-wavy materials will be found in the Project Starfarer universe. Just advanced automation, nanotechnology, cybernetics and AI. Set in the backdrop of space. *I do not own the photo used for the cover*
8 250 - In Serial18 Chapters
Heart of Creation
What would you do, if given the ability to recreate yourself? To live in a world where anything is possible, and all dieties reside together. Tasha Heart has been given the chance to do just that, as a champion of Demeter. But how will she handle her new found life when what she agreed to is no longer relevant, and the other pantheons start fighting over her soul for her reincarnation?Follow her as she tries to recreate herself, and to keep from repeating her old mistakes.
8 152 - In Serial8 Chapters
After the Mask Falls
One sentence causes Naruto's mask to crack. After his mask cracks, many people start to notice that Naruto has changed. Will Naruto be able to survive without his mask to protect him?
8 117

