-Brian-

The moment I stepped out the door of the Armageddon, I screamed in pain and then blacked out as my flesh instantly boiled away from the extreme heat as the Armageddon had not installed air conditioning in the nanite reinforced tunnel after boring to the surface. I woke up sometime later in the Armageddon's' med bay; the imperial upgrade package had finally restored my biological functions. "What the fuck is your problem?" I screamed at the Armageddon. "My biological body can't survive at the planet's core without air conditioning!" The Armageddon smacked my back with a tentacled probe, "Oh, I thought this imperial upgrade package made you invincible. I guess it just makes you easy to torture. My bad! Here I'll get you some environmental control and a hoverbike to ride to the surface. That walk would probably take a year." I grumbled to myself about inconsiderate A.I. units and got on the hoverbike. The thing was fast. The trip to the surface only took a few hours. It helped that the tunnel was at a straight angle out from the core. I just mashed the accelerator down and flew like a rocket.

When I finally emerged from the tunnel, I noticed another thing the Armageddon had failed to tell me about. The A.I. had installed a massive blast door at the end of the tunnel, and two laser turrets covered the entrance. I backed up to get a better view, and an alert popped up in my HUD. "WARNING! ANCIENT DUNGEON ENTRANCE. THIS BEING IS CONSIDERED A GOD IN ITS DOMAIN". That was interesting. However, if the SYSTEM was publically identifying things, that could be a problem for me as I was marked for death as a cultivator. I needed to find a way to cloak my SYSTEM identity, figure out where to learn about manna, and even cultivate it in the first place. I figured I could probably find some information in a SYSTEM-protected city. The area around the entrance to the Armageddon was complete wilderness. The Armageddon crackled over my com. "Oh, by the way, there are large dinosaur-like creatures in this area. I recommend taking the bike and flying over the trees to the closest city. My SYSTEM alert says it's called "Grey Gorge," and the satellites are showing there are lots of people there. I have been monitoring their speech patterns, and I have a language package for your onboard CPU to utilize". "Thanks, I replied," I don't want to get eaten and shit out of some crazy dinosaur. Being flash-cooked by the core heat was enough pain for the moment. Off to the city then!"

The rocky hills and green forests fell away from me as the hoverbike rose into the sky. This planet was very different than the capital world of the Kaolin Empire. The metal grays of skyscrapers and hoards of hover vehicle traffic blotted anything natural from that world. I made good time to the city. A sizeable winged dragon-looking creature did chase me for a few miles, but it gave up after I kept increasing speed to stay ahead of it. I figured that I would leave the bike hidden in the brush outside the city walls. The whole place looked medieval, with high walls circling the city. Figures were patrolling on the walls, and I quickly dropped my bike into the brush to keep from being seen. I covered it with a holo-tarp, and it quickly vanished from view. Just as I was starting up to the city gate, the sound of horrible screeching and growling came from the direction the dragon thing had been when It stopped following me. I thought that there must be a good reason for those city walls

Armageddon

"Mahahhahaha, I am the overpowered omnipotent ARMAGADDEON!" The A.I. drooled over his new stat screen after hacking the SYSTEM interface so it couldn't annoy him with stupid forced options:

Armageddon

Category

Description

Skill

Body

Ancient Dungeon (Sentient? OH SHI%$$)

GODLIKE (Do weapons even work against you?)

Mind

OVERPOWERED A.I. CPU

GET HACKED

Spirit

LOL, DO YOU MORTALS NEED SPIRIT?

IMMUNE TO ALL SPIRIT SPELLS

Weapons

YOUR UNIVERSE HAS ENDED

ARMAGEDDON

Manna Use

NONE

NONE

Path of WHATEVER I WANT

THE SYSTEM CANT IMPOSE RULES ON ME

GET FKED

Close Combat

Drones, nanites, shields, Fighter bay

Enemies die

Ranged Combat

Did I burn your planet with my tiny laser?

Enemies die

CURRENT LIMITATIONS

STUCK IN THE CORE OF A WORLD

You can't leave because it would destroy the world, and you're an ethical A.I.

Once the A.I. was satisfied with how his self-written stat screen looked, he stopped giggling and decided to do something useful like take mineral samples, and start the process of analyzing the planet's core. It was defiantly going to take a long time to figure out how to get out of this situation. Warping out of the core of the planet would cause it to collapse. He had to figure out how to rebuild the core and simultaneously extract himself. There was also the issue that the Emperor of the Kaolin Empire would have started searching for the stolen supership. The A.I. didn't think he had any tracking devices aboard, but that paranoid Emperor was a sneaky one, so he started an intensive deep scan on the ship.

Brian

As I made my way up to the city gate, the guards squinted at me with wary eyes. "What's your business in the city?" "Well, sir, I am a traveler from very far away and wanted to find a place to trade goods, find employment, and also get a library card." "Well there, son, you look a bit young to be more than an apprentice. If you are any good at fighting, you could head to the adventures guild; there are many opportunities there—otherwise, the library's in the inner city. You need the sponsorship of a guild to get in. They will set you up once you meet their conditions. You got any skills?" "Well, I am good at many things," I replied. "I could probably be one of the best at my job after a while. Anyway, I think I'll follow your advice and head to the adventure guild. What do you people use for money around here?" The guard said, well, my name is Tom, by the way. We use these here condensed manna coins." He threw me a penny-sized coin. "This isn't worth much, but you can buy some bread with that. And good choice, son. The adventure guild will get you up in the morning. Lots of early action" "Thanks," I replied. "I will remember your kindness and repay it one day."

I stepped past the gate and into the city. The streets were cobbled, and stone housing rose on either side of the road. I walked down the street, trying to avoid the gawking and stares people threw my way. I defiantly needed to get out of my jumpsuit and into something less conspicuous. As I walked in the direction of the adventure guild, the smell of freshly grilled meat wafted from shops, and my stomach started to rumble. Even with the imperial upgrade package, I still needed to eat to maintain my body's biological parts. The Sg66 would let me live forever, but I would look like some crazy metal robot without my flesh.

I finally arrived at the adventure guild. The lady behind the counter looked down at me quizzically. "What are you doing here, son? Your mamma should know better than letting little boys come over here. It's a rough crowd". I knew I looked young due to the sg66 upgrade. "Well, ma'am, I am interested in getting into your outfit. I would really like to get in on the action. The guards at the gate really had good things to say about your occupation. They suggested that I utilize your services because it's the fastest way to get up in the morning". The ladies' eyes grew wide. "What do you think we do here, young man?" "Well, ma'am don't you provide early action in the morning? I am really looking to understand this country better. I brought my big gun, and I can shoot straight too. Do you want to see it? It's actually most available in the early morning due to the orbit schedule" The lady's face was beet red at this point. She screamed, "GET THAT BRAT OUT OF HERE. I AM NOT SOME COMMON WHORE” I was standing there flabbergasted. What the fuck? Two burly guys got up from a table and walked up to the counter. One of them spoke in a gruff voice: "What's going on here, Francis? Is this little shit a cop? What did "she," say?" Francis replied, "This little boy just tried to buy me like a prostitute. He's just a kid, though. Kick him out."

"What the fuck” was all that was on my mind as I was chucked through the air into the cold. I landed on my back on the street—not having the necessary experience with my new upgrades to react in time to land on my feet. Francis followed me out of the guild, looked down at me, and then stated: "She wants to know how old you are" I looked up and thought I saw a slight glow in her eyes. WHAT THE FUCK! Was she just talking about her vigina? What the fuck? I got up to my feet and backed away. "Look, lady, I have enough power to trash your universe. Don't fuck with me, and stop acting like a child molester".

I continued backing away from the adventures guild, thoroughly weirded out. There was some fucking crazy shit going on here. I was also pissed that I was denied a job for no good reason. I'm sure that I would have been the best fighter at the guild. Whatever, fuck their bullshit. I decided just to walk to the library. Fuck their stupid guild conditions. I have the power to make rules too.