A Guardsman's Game, Chapter 83

Hidden Quest Achieved!
 Establish Your Own Civilization!
 Reward/s:
 Rare Gacha Token (x2)
 Random Skill Upgrade!
 Access to Omniversal Market

My eyes widened, fingers hovering briefly over the softly glowing screen. It had been a long while since the System last chimed. Long enough that the sudden flash of script felt almost strange. The words lingered bright and sharp, suspended in air like whispers of light that faded slowly into nothingness.

I touched a finger to the display, tracing each line as though feeling the pulse of the System beneath. The tokens were familiar enough; they appeared on occasion, silent gifts from whatever governed the hidden mechanisms behind this inscrutable existence. Rare Gacha Tokens, two in number. Valuable things—powerful trinkets, strange enhancements, useful artifacts. Even with luck gone sideways, they offered something worth the effort. I tucked them away in my inventory, intending to flip them later. Not now.

I focused again upon the shifting letters that reformed beneath my gaze.

Random Skill Upgrade!
 [Flesh Shaping] can now be performed without direct contact for as long as your intended target is within ten meters of your person.

I leaned back, breathing slowly through my nose. A brief warmth brushed my fingertips, a sensation like soft rain dripping from unseen leaves. I flexed my fingers experimentally, turning my wrist as if holding the newfound power, testing the invisible threads that bound it to me. A good upgrade, this one. Useful.

I recalled times where healing or shaping had required subterfuge, delicate maneuvering to avoid notice. Once, I turned entire sections of my body into tendrils so thin and so lengthy that they had essentially become strands of flesh-hair, just to reach my enemies. Direct touch was obvious, dangerous, leaving too much exposed. Sure, I was as close as one could get to unkillable, but I’d prefer not to take my chances at all if I could. Now the limits shifted, changed. Ten meters of reach without contact, the System promised. The possibilities stretched before me, each a quiet advantage; now, for instance, I could heal people just by passing by them or break down my enemies into biomass without so much as a touch. 

A breeze stirred gently through the half-opened window, shifting curtains slightly in a slow ripple of white. I let my hand fall onto my lap and waited. A final prompt lingered patiently at the corner of my vision.

Omniversal Market Unlocked!
 As a Gamer, you now have access to the Omniversal Market, a place where you may sell or buy anything and everything that exists—for a price, of course. In your case, your main currency is in your three main resources: [Warp Energy], [Raw Material], and [Biomass].

I stared at the final sentence, its stark outline burning quietly in the darkened room. Omniversal Market. I knew the name, remembered it from long ago when first learning the nature of my existence as a Gamer. Currency, the system had once explained to me, could take forms beyond actual currency, depending on the nature of the System and the Gamer; in my case, as the bearer of the Shaper System, my tradeable currency came in the form of . It told of trade on an impossible scale, of commodities ranging across entire worlds, universes, realities—all for purchase, should I possess the means.

I had almost forgotten it.

Now the System opened it fully, unbidden, unfolding before my gaze in silent revelation. The letters blurred and shifted, became a screen, then a vast plane, then something stranger yet. Before me lay the market, immense, sprawling without limit. Rows and columns filled with countless items, stretching away in every direction until lost in shadow and haze. My eyes tried to take it in, tried to decipher meaning among the sheer enormity. Goods ranged across all scales, all categories. A crude wooden comb, lacquered red and chipped slightly along the teeth. Rugs woven in intricate patterns, colors muted by age and dust. Small tokens carved from rare bone, polished carefully, threaded with leather cords. Beside them, displayed without judgment or context, sat engines capable of annihilating cities, of boiling oceans into vapor, or turning stars into projectiles. Planet-killing devices whose names flickered quietly in deep crimson script.

All of them were just there–for sale. 

I scrolled slowly downward, feeling almost dizzy at the enormity. Weapons, tools, foods, clothing—all gathered together here by, as I understood it, my fellow Gamers from across the Omniverse. Items practical and frivolous sat beside one another, indifferent companions waiting quietly to be claimed. Strange organisms preserved in clear fluid pulsed gently, their alien hearts pumping slow rhythms against glass cages. Beside them lay farming implements, dirt-crusted tools whose simple forms told silent stories of labor under distant suns.

Each item showed a price. [Warp Energy], [Raw Material], [Biomass]—all were accepted forms of payment. My own stores glowed quietly in the corner of the interface, steady and reassuring. I’d honestly forgotten about my [Warp Energy] resource as I hardly had a use for [Warp Shaping], beyond pulling souls out of bodies–something I rarely ever did. I allowed my finger to hover briefly over an artifact, an etched dagger of black glass from some distant, dead empire. The screen shimmered, displaying its cost: four hundred units of [Raw Material].

I moved my hand back slowly.

My gaze continued wandering, touching briefly upon oddities and wonders alike. Small jewelry of impossible metals that seemed to shift and reshape their forms. Crates of bottled liquids glowing faintly blue, each label unreadable. Books, their pages yellowed with age and their covers embossed with sigils beyond comprehension. Quiet weapons that promised subtle destruction; loud engines that sang violent symphonies of ruin.

At last, I withdrew my attention. The market vanished, folding inward like the closing of a vast book. I was not really interested in buying anything at the moment and I was quite certain that- wait. In the assumption that the Omniversal Market contained every single thing that existed, did it–perhaps–have an item that I could use to find the God Emperor? With a shrug, I looked it up on the Omniversal Market. 

“An item that will find anyone,” I simply asked aloud. And, apparently, that sort of input was more than enough for the Omniversal Market as it then found exactly what I was looking for. 

[Person Finderer] - Odd name, I know, but I built this thing to find just about anyone across any reality or universe or dimension. It doesn’t even need a real name. It works based off intent; what I mean by that is that this device finds exactly the person you’re looking for, even if you can only give it the most basic description, like hair color or some shit. 

Cost: 1,000,000,000 Units

You do not have enough funds to purchase this item. 

By the Emperor, I couldn’t possibly afford that for another thousand years. Was there not anything cheaper that did something similar? 

[Compass of Tia Dalma] - A compass that does not point North. It points to wherever the bearer’s greatest desire is located. However, this boon comes with a curse; if you betray this compass, then it shall unleash your greatest fear. 

Cost: 100,000 Units

Huh, I could actually afford this, but it’d take quite a bit of my remaining [Biomass], which would trigger that vampiric curse of mine. However, the amount was certainly well within my ability to purchase. All I needed to do was to find and devour as many of the irradiated desert beasts and monsters as I could–fill up my [Biomass] reserves and purchase the compass. 

Alternatively, I could use my [Warp Energies], considering my reserves of that particular resource remained unused since the final battle against Athulhum’s fiery Barlog form, a staggering 400,000 units of [Warp Energy] that was just going to sit there and do nothing, because there wasn’t a lot of things I could do with [Warp Shaping]. Now was a good time to use up some of it.

So, I did. 

The purchase was immediate. 

Thank you for buying from the shop of Gamer: Kurikuri! Please, come again! 

Item has been transported to your [Inventory] and can now be used.

I pulled out the compass and, sure enough, it did not point northward. Instead, it pointed roughly to the northeast of my current position, the arrow remaining fixed on that point even when I moved or rotated the compass. The God Emperor had to be there. 

It was night time. I’d noticed that night lasted far longer than daytime in certain places–and, in others, it was the opposite. I figured that was due to the very unstable climate. The wind was calm for once and I did not have to repeatedly regenerate my skin after walking through flaying sand storms. I looked out of the small crevice on the ceiling of the ruined building I’d walked into for a quick prayer to the God Emperor. I knew that, at this point in time, the God Emperor did not exist yet, but I suppose I was a creature of habit and the act of doing so–of praying–brought me no small amount of comfort.

Before I somehow forgot, I pulled out the two Gacha Coins from my [Inventory] and tossed them into the air to activate them. I could not help but smile. It’d been quite a while since I opened one of these. And every single time I’d used up a Gacha Coin, I’d always gotten something immediately useful or useful in the long term. Still, with them being rare Gacha Coins, I honestly did not expect or hope for much. 

New Skill Unlocked!
[Precognitive Blank] - Your existence can no longer be seen or otherwise perceived by precognitive abilities or means–regardless of their source or expression. This means no one will be able to predict your future or predict a future with you in it; thus, derailing every single precognitive prophecy. Fun.

That was… a certainly interesting catch. Looking back, have I ever dealt with foes who looked into and saw the future? I was pretty sure I haven’t faced such an enemy just yet. I suppose, if he truly wished to do so, Athulhum could look into the future, but– that reminded me, was Athulhum here as well or was it stuck in the future? I didn’t know. But, I suppose I’d find out soon enough. In any case, if my enemies were unable to predict my actions in the future, it could only be good for me, moving forward. 

Actually, could I use [Concept Shaping] to see forward in time? The idea seemed possible, in theory. But I don’t think I had enough fine control with what was arguably my most powerful ability to pull something of that magnitude off just yet.

New Item Gained!
[Pot of Gold] - A literal pot that is made entirely of gold and is also filled with gold bars. Weighs maybe a ton idk. 

Eh, not so useful, but maybe I could use it to trade or something. Or drop it on someone’s head. That being said, I do remember–somewhat–that gold was something of a commodity in the Imperium.

People sold and bought it for high prices, which I assumed–and still do–that it must have some other use besides just being shiny and pretty. Whatever the case, I wouldn’t waste this. 

The sky was pitch black when I emerged from the ruin. The Kharsons greeted me outside. Around them were the bodies of fallen beasts that’d tried to enter while I prayed. They followed my orders perfectly: not let anything inhuman in, until I emerged. I walked by the corpses of the monstrous mutated creatures and absorbed their bodies into raw [Biomass], which was added to my reserves. Now that [Biomass], [Raw Materials], and [Warp Energy] could be used to buy a whole host of useful things in the Omniversal Market, I seriously had to begin expanding my reserves–something I’d somewhat neglected as of late as there was never a need for it. Now, they were gateways to even greater power–or utility. 

I regarded the Kharsons with a blank stare and nodded my thanks.

“We head Northeast.” I said.