Chương 36: System Choices

The world snapped back into motion like someone hit 'play.' The air rushed in, cold and sharp. Everyone but me staggered as if pushed, and Claire swore under her breath like she'd just been dunked in icy water. It was like they'd all been holding their breath underwater and finally surfaced. Odd, I thought. Why did Gaia ignore me? Why wasn't I frozen? Am I outside the system… or above it?

"What the hell was that?" Luke breathed.

"Did everyone just get…" Pierre started.

'A notification," Shelly finished, voice shaky.

"Yes." Wow, that's weird, I thought, but not about the notification. For a second there, it seemed like each of the humans had been in sync.

"I can see a notification," Claire said, still pale.

"The Gaia System," Tala said quietly.

"It's online." Everyone turned to look at her.

"You knew about this?" Pierre asked.

"I knew something was coming," Tala admitted.

"The mana tide was building to something. But I didn't know it would be... this."

"What did yours say?" I asked, looking around the room.

"Did everyone get the same message?"

"Gaia system activated," Luke said, clearly reading from memory.

"Global Announcement. Mana Saturation sufficient. Integration status for high mana areas and individuals. Class Selection Online. Evolutionary Paths Unlocked."

"And then?" I prompted. I was curious. Since I wasn't affected by the freeze, I wondered if I had been sent a different notification. Everyone went quiet for a moment until Claire whispered, "Message from Gaia. Try to survive." The room temperature seemed to drop again. That's not ominous at all," Pierre muttered.

"Try to survive," Luke repeated, sounding numb.

"Not 'welcome' or 'good luck.' Just...

'try to survive.' It's like she's expecting most of us to die."

"She probably is," Shelly said grimly.

"Gaia's not human. She's the Earth itself. If the mana tide is her way of resetting things, of dealing with what humanity's done to the planet…" She trailed off.

"Then we're not the heroes of this story," Tala finished.

"We're the problem she's trying to solve. We're the virus."

"Or it could be a warning that something else is also waking up and poses a significant threat," I said, trying to give them an alternative. I didn't want them to get too stuck on one idea and miss the big picture.

"Afterall, we wouldn't tell a virus to try to survive." But Tala was probably right, I agreed silently. Gaia isn't here to save humanity. She's here to save the Earth. And that meant humans had to adapt or die. Well. Try to survive.

"You know, she could have done this before, such as Noah's great flood or meteors wiping out the dinosaurs," Pierre suggested helpfully.

"Gaia's message wasn't a joke," I said.

"She's expecting casualties. This isn't just the world getting magic back. It's…"

"Natural selection," Tala finished.

"She's forcing evolution. Adapt or die."

"And those Wild People summoning things in the woods?" Luke added.

"They're part of it. Predators returning. Testing the new hierarchy." The implications hung in the air. I know, I, for one, was feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Okay," I said, trying to change the subject and focus on what we could control.

"So everyone got that message. What else? Did you get options? Choices?"

"Classes and subclasses" Shelly said, still looking at something I couldn't see.

"I was offered druid from the primal class and cleric and shaman from the divine class." She paused.

"I chose Druid."

"Already?" Luke asked.

"Shouldn't you have waited? You know, to research or consider your options?" Interesting, I thought. I hadn't even looked at my class or evolutionary options yet. Then again, I didn't really care that much. I was more curious about the others first. After that, I could make my decision.

"I've been training as a druid for fifteen years," Shelly said simply.

"It's what I am. The system just made it official." She blinked, and I could tell she was reading something.

"Level 1 Druid with nature affinity and a few new powers that seem to be locked at the moment." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"You can see powers?" Pierre asked. He appeared surprised.

"Yes. Can't you?" Claire answered, looking at Pierre as if he was an idiot. Luke looked like he wanted to say something before biting back the words he was going to say. Yep, he's as stupid as he looks, I thought. Pierre's eyes unfocused.

"Holy shit. Yeah. I can." He was quiet for a moment.

"I've been offered three classes, I think. I could choose ranger from the primal class. I was given two choices from the divine class, paladin and shaman. The last was aberrant werewolf. I'm guessing that aberrant must be the class." I nodded to myself, wondering if Pierre might have gotten an extra choice because of his race. While I was thinking about this, I noticed that Pierre had raised his hand and touched the air a few times. Then he looked at me.

"I chose the shaman." Then he added, as if to explain his decision, "Because of the totem connection." I rolled my eyes but wisely kept quiet. I did feel something pulse through the totem link, though. RECOGNITION. Pierre wasn't just my follower anymore. The system had made it official.

"Where are the rest of the stats? It seems a little… basic, with minimal information," Pierre said.

"Maybe the system isn't finished loading," Luke suggested.

"Like a game that patches as you play?"

"Or Gaia's still calculating," Shelly said thoughtfully.

"She just activated the system for millions of people simultaneously. This might be all she can handle right now."

"So we get the full version later?" Pierre asked.

"Probably as the system stabilizes," Shelly agreed.

"Right now we just get the basics: Level, class, subclass, and maybe an affinity. The rest might come later."

"Great," I muttered.

"We're beta testers for the apocalypse."

"Anyway," Shelly said, giving me a quick glare as if telling me not to bring down the mood before looking at Luke.

"What about you, Luke?"

"Four options also, but only two different classes," Luke said slowly.

"I also got the aberrant werewolf option. In addition to that, I got to choose between beastmaster, druid, and ranger in the primal class." Hmm, weird, I thought. I wonder why Luke is pretty much being forced to choose a primal class. I didn't get the chance to consider for long, though, since he was still talking.

"I chose beastmaster. It seemed appropriate." He paused, and then added, "I also have life affinity."

"I didn't get an affinity even though I'm blessed," Pierre complained.

"You probably have a divine affinity from your connection totemic link," Shelly said absently.

"It's borrowed from Abe, not your own."

"Oh." Pierre fell silent. Then everyone looked at Claire.

"I only got two options," Claire said, voice tight.

"It says I can have a profession from the specialist class or a generalist from the support class. It also said that I was being 'force-integrated due to critical mana exposure.'" She looked at Shelly, eyes wide. The room went very quiet. I had to admit, that was strange. Apparently, mana exposure wasn't necessarily always a good thing.

"What does that mean?" Pierre asked, looking at Shelly.

"It means the system is making decisions for people," Shelly said, worry clearly present in her voice.

"People with high affinity get choices. People with low affinity get assigned. If she hadn't been exposed to so much mana tonight, maybe fleeing from that ritual site, she might not have gotten integrated at all."

"Or she might have mutated," Tala added darkly.

"Mana exposure with low affinity might cause mutations. The system did say evolutions. That might be for those people."

"So I'm lucky?" Claire asked, voice hollow.

"Yes," Shelly said bluntly.

"You're lucky. Because the alternative is being one of the people who don't get integrated at all. Or worse, people who get partial integration. Mutations without control. Powers without understanding." Claire closed her eyes. Took a shaky breath.

"Okay. Okay. I'm lucky. I can work with being lucky." After that, she took a deep breath and touched some unseen screen with her hand. I frowned, not having noticed Shelly or Luke making such a gesture. It made me wonder about the two types of people, those who interact with the system physically and those who do it mentally. After she lowered her hand, everyone looked at her expectantly. Seeing that she was still the center of attention, she said, "I chose profession. Now I'm apparently a 'warden.'"

We all sat there in silence for a moment, thinking before Tala spoke up, almost reluctantly.

"Apparently, I'm also considered an aberrant, just the spirit animal type. As for my other choices, I could choose from cleric, druid, and warlock, which appears to be from the exotic class." My tail twitched at that. However, Tala wasn't done so I kept on listening before saying anything.

"I chose the spirit animal." She paused, but then added, "It also says I am part of the Pantheon of Chaos." No one said anything after that as we tried to figure out what that meant.

"Well, that makes sense," Shelly finally said.

"You're Abe's…, uh, guardian and guide, and he's chaos-aligned. So, of course you'd be part of his pantheon." After a moment of silence as everyone nodded, as if agreeing with what she said. Shelly then continued, "I'm curious. Does it mention the other members of the pantheon?" Tala nodded.

"Actually, it does. There are three of us right now. Me, Abe, and Bambi." Again, silence descended. No one really knew what to say about that. Finally, Claire couldn't resist and called out in frustration, "Who the hell is Bambi?" Everyone looked at me. Especially Tala. In fact, she was starting to look a little scary. For some reason, she was blaming me for something and was quite pissed off. I just sat there, like a deer in headlights when inspiration struck me.

"Fudge me," I muttered.

"Bambi." Oops, I thought after seeing that everyone realized I knew who Bambi was, or at least had a good idea. Tala broke a walnut into two pieces, the snap reminding me of the sound my leg made a few years ago when that stupid squirrel startled me and made me fall off the roof. Fuck, is she going to break my leg? I wondered as she slowly stalked toward me. I carefully backed up and held out my paws.

"Who. Is. Bambi?!" Tala growled.