System Architect - Ch 122

I didn’t know what the economy would look like after the apocalypse hit, but I knew that continuing to rent was not the way to go. I helped Mom and Dad each buy a place that was close by to one another. The chances of everything being normal after the tutorial was not a gamble I wanted to take. I would much rather plan for an eventuality that didn’t happen than have to deal with it having not planned at all.

With a home base—or two—I felt a lot more comfortable building out an area as a workshop. I chose Dad’s house for this. Not because I didn’t want to be near Mom—though there was still some animosity left over from her betrayal. It was primarily because the property I found for Dad had more space for a shed with utilities run to it.

The workshop was set up with a forge on one side and woodworking tools on the other. The woodworking side doubled as the place I would use for enchanting. I made sure the workshop was secured since there would be valuable materials there—including all of the weapons I’d bought that were ready to be enchanted. I didn’t trust people to behave after the tutorial. Like with buying the houses, it was better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.

With the workshop complete, I felt prepared for what was to come. There was still plenty of time to gather the preserved food I wanted before I pressed the proverbial red button. It was then that my mind turned to completing the system. And that was when the anxiety of the coming changes really started.

Before, the apocalypse had been this nebulous thing that was coming sometime in the future. It had been far away. Now, it was in the near future. There were no more resets. No way to kick that can down the road any longer. Sure, I could have waited until the time ticked fully away, but that would have meant giving up Grandpa Joe. I simply couldn’t do that. So those nerves would have to be endured—along with the nightmares. They were back again after being intermittent for so long.

I pushed away the problem for when I could next see the shrink. Until then, I would focus on the task at hand. The system was nearly complete. It only needed some finishing touches. I scoured the features for things to spend experience on so that I wouldn’t inadvertently end up with too much experience which might make the monsters way stronger.

There were two features I kept for last. The first was Achievements because I didn’t want to mess up what was available to people by accomplishing them myself. And I didn’t really want to be spammed with messages. It was mostly the latter. The second was the one that would force newly gained experience to automatically unlock skills, level up skills, and level up classes and professions. That was the one the might get me in trouble if I had as much experience as I did when it was activated. The monsters would be world destroying!

For the rest, I forged ahead. The dungeons were set up and tweaked so that they would break if left alone for too long. I added a delay to let people get used to fighting—especially at lower levels. The higher-leveled dungeons would have both a longer delay before the breaks started and a longer interval between breaks. This—I hoped—would allow humanity to level up enough to deal with them before they became a problem.

Dungeons were set to spawn in free areas nearby to population centers. This meant that breaks would be dangerous but controllable as there would be people nearby to manage them. If I let dungeons spawn randomly, there would be some in the middle of nowhere. Those would invariably break and become an issue for humanity’s long-term survival—particularly if any spawned under water. So having them spawn in parks inside towns and cities was the best solution I could think of.

Finally, dungeons would have rewards. It could be anything from extra experience to equipment. The most common reward were materials. I didn’t want humanity to become dependent on system-created gear. Materials were needed for crafters—like me—to make equipment that would stand against the strongest monsters in the universe.

I tilted the monster levels so that there would be more lower-level monsters as well as higher-leveled ones. If I didn’t, the monsters would be too hard to handle out of the gate and also wouldn’t provide the needed challenges in the coming decades to see humanity rise above the aliens that were coming. In the end, I turned a wall into a ramp.

For the tutorial, I spent a lot of experience to allow people to take a weapon of their choice and some basic gear for their profession. These items would be basic—I couldn’t afford better than that—but they would be good enough to handle the early levels.

Another expensive tutorial upgrade was to allow the tutorial to give each person three options for their class and their profession. The first option was the one they most wanted—within reason, of course. The second was what the system determined best suited their talents. The final was what the system determined they would enjoy the most. For some people, those options would be the same. In that case, a random class or profession would take its place. Finally, the system would give its reasoning for each in a way the person would understand.

Then there were the miscellaneous items. Things like balancing the strength of everyone so that 10 in any stat was the same. I had gone back and forth over doing that one. On the one hand, everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. On the other, reducing differences would lead to less strife in the long run. That didn’t mean people weren’t different, though. Each person’s stats were within a band, but the people at the top and the bottom were nudged more towards the center. It was cheaper for me to go that route than to buff everyone—I simply did not have the experience to do that anymore.

The last thing I added was the ability to gain points with which to purchase or improve a skill. These would be rare dungeon drops that would allow people to chose a non-class or non-profession skill without having to get it through training. I felt it was important to give choice and customization beyond just the skills offered by leveling up.

With the system in a good place, I went about completing the rest of the pre-apocalypse checklist. I made sure I had plenty of materials for crafting and enough food to last a year in case supply chains got messed up from the monsters. I hoped they wouldn’t, but—as always—it was better to be prepared for any eventuality.

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Before kicking off the apocalypse, I went to see Jack one last time. I had a spear to give him, and the nightmares were getting worse. I hoped he could work his magic and help ground me. Maybe that would help?

“Good afternoon, Eddy,” he said when I entered his office.

“Hey, Jack.”

“What’s that you have with you?” he asked.

“A present for you—for what’s to come.”

“Oh, is it that time already?”

“I’m pushing the date up some to make sure Grandpa Joe is around for a while. You’ve helped me these past few years, so I feel obligated to help you in return. This gift should help with any wayward monsters you might encounter.”

“I see. Thanks, I suppose.”

He took a deep breath before continuing.

“So, how are you?”

“Could be better,” I said. “The nightmares are back. Not as often as they were when I first met you, but significantly more often than they were a few months ago.”

“Could it be because of the upcoming change? This is it, right?”

“Hmm… could be. I’ve certainly be stressing a lot more than usual.”

“That’s how change is,” he said. “It’s the unknowns. You’ve been working on this system for, what… fifty years?”

“Something like that.”

“You think you’ve covered everything—all eventualities. But in the back of your mind, there are nagging doubts that you missed something. That’s normal! With all the time you’ve spent on this project—and the consequences of it all going wrong—you’re holding together surprisingly well. If I had to guess, that’s because you have agency. You will succeed or fail on your own merits, not because of anyone else.”

“Thanks,” I said, feeling some relief.

Jack putting into words what I couldn’t, made me focus on what I could control. What I could control was a lot. For the rest of the session, he and I ran through all of the changes I’d made to the system and the ones I’d held off on until the end. Having someone to bounce ideas off of made me feel better. By the end, I was reasonably sure I’d done everything I’d set out to do. That he’d caught a few minor errors was helpful—if only because there was nothing major I’d missed.

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I left Jack with the spear before returning home. I called Grandpa Joe and Dad’s parents to come over the day I would pull the trigger. Due to the divorce, the grandparents wouldn’t be all together. But because Mom’s house and Dad’s house were close enough to walk between, everyone would be safe and accounted for. I knew that Grandma Rose wasn’t going to take the whole magic thing well. But she could be mad at the universe since it was beyond our control.

Because of Grandma Rose’s hatred towards what the system represented, I chose to spend that day with Mom and Grandpa Joe. In the flurry of activity that was sure to follow, I wanted cool heads rather than arguments and ranting. Grandpa Joe was the right choice for this. I would help the rest of my family, of course, but I didn’t want to be putting out fires immediately after the tutorial was over.

“Good morning, Grandpa Joe,” I said when he arrived.

“How are you, Eddy?” he asked.

“As good as can be,” I said. “Mom’s inside. We can talk more there.”

We walked inside and sat in the living room with Mom. The TV was on in the background, newscasters talking about the usual: murders and scandals. I treated it like the noise it was. My focus was on the two people in front of me. I took a deep breath.

“Mom, Grandpa Joe,” I began. “There’s something I need to tell the both of you.”

“What’s wrong?” Mom asked.

“Nothing’s wrong, Mom. But I need to tell you that today’s the day. I wanted to talk to you before everything starts. I made a spear for each of you. It’s been enchanted to hit harder than it otherwise should. You won’t be able to actually use the enchantment until after you gain mana, but it’ll help deal with any monsters you come across for a while.”

“How do you know it’s today?” Mom asked.

“Because I’m making it happen early. I could wait another decade, but I don’t see the point. The system’s ready and Grandpa Joe is alive. If I don’t start it soon, he won’t live long enough to get the benefits of a longer life.”

Mom was struck dumb by that. I could see she was between yelling at me and crying over Grandpa Joe.

“This was the best I could do,” I added. “Grandpa Joe deserves to live a while longer rather than being cut short. The tutorial will heal him—and everyone else on Earth who is sixteen and older. There’s only one exception to that. Me. I will be entering the tutorial early. Mentally, I’m rather old. I would hate to wait any longer to see the fruits of my labor.”

“But you’re so young!” Mom exclaimed.

“Time travel,” I countered.

“He’s right,” Grandpa Joe added.

“Will you be safe?” she asked.

“Yes. The tutorial is a place to learn how to fight as well as teach a profession. While I know you have your current profession, these are magical professions. Like the enchanting I did to the spear.”

“You’ll be fighting? What if you get injured?! I don’t think—”

“Mom! I’ll be fine! It’s virtual. There’s no chance of being truly hurt. I did this on purpose to give everyone a chance to learn how to fight so they can kill the monsters. It was that or see humanity die out!”

I went on to explain the after-action reports I’d seen when I’d reset. How humanity had fared each time.

“The comfortable world you’re used to will be gone,” I said. “There’s nothing I could do but make sure that we’d adapt.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I can tell you’ve been working hard on this. But I’m a mother. It’s my job to worry.”

“I know.”

I took a deep breath. I added the last features to the shopping cart. When everything was ready, I turned to Mom and Grandpa Joe.

“Prepare yourselves,” I said. “And good luck. I’ll see you on the other side.”

I mentally purchased everything.