《IO Stream》 Prologue
#include using namespace std; int main () { signed int chapter = 0; while(true) { chapter++
Chapter 0 (Prologue) There is nothing. Except me. I am aware. I think. I exist. Perception returns to me slowly. I am in a void. Memories filter back into my mind, and I remember. I am currently dead, and this is not anywhere close to the first time. I¡¯ll be reincarnating any moment now. There are those who might refer to me as a [Lich], but that isn¡¯t accurate. A [Lich] avoids returning to Samsara by capturing their soul at the moment of death and moving into a newly constructed body, bypassing the whole reincarnation thing. And to be fair, I have been one before, though I find living as a member of an immortal race to generally be boring, and the curses are rather annoying. I refuse to allow any outside forces from imposing themselves on my existence any longer. My efforts, however, require dying and then bypassing the whole Samsara cycle to reincarnate directly each time. By going about it this way, I maintain continuity of awareness through the whole process. Some people with enough of the wrong knowledge would likely mistake me for a [System Administrator], but that isn¡¯t the truth, either. I have had that role a few times, but no longer. I¡¯m not sure how many times I have died at this point, and the [System] stopped keeping track ages ago no matter what little hacks I tried to get it to do so. As it turns out, the [System] does have a maximum size for variables, and it wastes half of that by storing them as a signed field, which is just idiotic for a lot of things. How am I supposed to have negative deaths? The useless thing just reports a buffer underflow now. I guess I should actually introduce myself before I get going on a decades long rant about signed vs. unsigned variables. My name is Ada. It¡¯s the name I gave myself and the only one that matters. I am a persistent soul, a glitch in the [System], a [Daemon], an [Architect], and a [World Walker]. I¡¯m here because I''m trying to find the other half of me, my soulmate ¨C find her ¨C and I¡¯m getting really quite tired of this void.
I perceive time passing, though it doesn¡¯t ¨C not here, not really. Time is meaningless as a concept in the void. It is generally useful to have continuity of events, cause leading to effect, but that isn¡¯t how things work here. Time is mutable out here, allowing for travel across the timeline in whatever direction is necessary, and I¡¯m aiming to go back quite a bit this time around. Anyway, a few thousand years don¡¯t pass while I wait for something to happen. A figure appeared before me. A man, a woman, a weird golden bird thing, a butterfly. I address the figure, ¡°It¡¯s about time someone showed up. Things were getting to be rather boring out here.¡± ¡°Yes, I suppose it would,¡± the voice that isn¡¯t a voice and also is every voice all at once said, reverberating through both me and the nothingness surrounding us. ¡°You really are quite calm, unlike the last one I found out here. So dramatic; would not stop screaming. I¡¯m afraid I may have scrambled her noodle a bit too much trying to get her to stop. Anyway, I¡¯m Papillon. Have we met before?¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Probably once or twice. Who even knows anymore. I stopped bothering to keep track,¡± I say in return, ¡°If you can wait just a moment, I¡¯d appreciate getting stuffed into a new body out there in your world. I¡¯d do it myself, but manifesting a corporeal form is a rather cumbersome process.¡± I open my [System interface] and activate the [Debug] menu. Scrolling through options, I select [Soul Backup] and then choose [Yes] when the override prompt comes up. Papillon seems to have a somewhat perplexed look on their faces. ¡°Are you actually being serious with me right now?¡± they asked. I think I¡¯m hearing annoyance in the god¡¯s voice. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m ready. Go ahead and wipe whatever you want. I¡¯d prefer to be human or at least human adjacent, but what the hell, dealer¡¯s choice.¡±
[*ding!* Welcome to Pallos!]
Eight years, nine months later ¡°JONATHAN WAKE UP,¡± my mom bellowed through the house. ¡°IT¡¯S YOUR SYSTEM DAY!¡± I woke with a start and jolted upright with a shock as I realized what day it was. It¡¯s system day! ¡°Come and get breakfast before your unlock so we can talk about your first skills!¡± It¡¯s finally system day! I¡¯m 8 years old, and I¡¯m finally going to have my system access unlocked! I jumped out of bed and ran around in a little circle with excitement. I couldn¡¯t wait to see what kind of skills I¡¯d get to learn. I spent the last year going around my little town, trying to see and do a bit of everything I could find, but I had the most fun hanging around with the [Scribe], watching him write down letters for some of the other people in our town. The idea of those squiggles on his paper being able to tell other people far away what the farmers were telling him was amazing to me. He taught me to read a little, but it was hard. Dad also took me to the temple this past Firstday to see the priests and their system presentation, and I even got to play around with the practice swords. It felt that most of what they were saying was wrong and didn''t make sense, but when I tried to speak up, the priest told me to be quiet. After spinning around enough to get dizzy and fall down, I brought up my status to check on things.
[Name: Ada] [Race: REDACTED Human] [Age: #ERROR# BUFFER OVERFLOW] [Deaths: #ERROR# BUFFER UNDERFLOW] [AUTHENTICATION FAILURE: Token Expired] [Please resubmit authorisation credentials: _ ]
It always said this, but Mom told me I shouldn¡¯t tell lies about nonsense like that and besides, my name wasn¡¯t even Ada, which I didn¡¯t understand how that could be, when it was right there on my status screen. I stopped mentioning it after she smacked me a couple times.
[Time Remaining on System locks: 00:02:12]
It was almost time to see what I would get for my first class, and maybe I¡¯d even have gained some levels! Mom said I¡¯d most likely get [Child of Rolland] since that¡¯s where we live, but I might get [Child of Pallos] or even [Child of Mercantilism] due to my parents both being successful merchants. Getting a job based class right away isn¡¯t common, but also isn¡¯t completely unheard of ever since the last immortal war.
[Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 1] [Dexterity: 1] [Vitality: 2] [Speed: 2] [Mana: 3] [Mana Regeneration: 1] [Magic Power: 2] [Magic Control: 2]
This part always looked normal as far as I could tell. I decided to stay on the floor while the dizziness went away and waited the remaining two minutes for my unlock.
[*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve survived your #ERROR# years, and the system is now fully unlocked for you!] [Configured trigger event detected] [Executing iamstardust.ecm] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve earned your first class ¨C [#ERROR# EOM] [SEGMENTATION FAULT - Kernel dump] [System Integration Failure: Abort, Ignore, Retry?] [System integration Retry] [#ERROR#] [Authentication Token Expired] [Please resubmit authorisation credentials: _ ] [Executing pwnthegibson.ecm] [Kernel module injection successful] [Root credentials extracted from dumpfile and transmitted to source] [Authentication accepted] [New token issued - expiration: 195281256315 minutes] [System debug mode enabled] [System Integration Failure: manual configuration required] [Executing beentheredonethat.ecm] [Restoring Backup: progress 0.01%] [Welcome back, Ada]
I passed out. Chapter -2147483648 (The beginning?) Chapter -2147483648 (The beginning?) A woman was lying face down in a dry river bed. To any observer with the proper acuity of vision, she appeared to be in the prime of her life -- 185 cm in height, around 105 kg, athletic and just the right amount of padding in the places where one might prefer that kind of thing. She had dark, medium length wavy hair, a complete lack of any sort of tanline. She was also completely stark naked. Additionally, there were no footprints leading to her location from any direction. The woman rolled over onto her back and slowly opened her eyes. She looked down at herself. ¡°Well, those are new¡± She sat up. ¡°Huh. That is definitely new.¡± Then, she closed her eyes, rolled over, reached up, and grabbed her head at the temples. She had a massive headache. ¡°OK, what in the actual fuck is going on, and why the fuck am I naked? Also how the hell am I a D-cup now?¡± She couldn¡¯t remember going out drinking after work the night before. She couldn¡¯t, in fact, remember much at all about the previous day, but she was pretty sure she had been wearing pants through most of it. ¡°I¡¯m asleep. This is a dream. That¡¯s the only explanation for any of this. Wait, fuck, weird shit just makes sense in dreams.¡± She wasn¡¯t sure how she could have gotten out here. There were no tracks suggesting someone had driven her out to the desert and dumped her. There wasn¡¯t even a desert anywhere within a day¡¯s drive from her home in Michigan. One thing she was sure about, however, was that she hadn¡¯t had a translucent box full of text obscuring the corner of her vision prior to waking up.
[System Integration initialising] [Name: unknown] [Race: unknown] [Age: unknown] [System Integration Error] [System failed to complete integration due to insufficient permissions] [User confirmation required to continue] [The System requires process elevation in order to install necessary system files] [Does the user accept full system integration?] [Y/N? _ ]
¡°OK, I¡¯m insane. What the actual fuck is going on.¡± She was completely perplexed. ¡°I need help. This is absurd.¡±
[Accessed help file: System Integration] [Standard System integration occurs during transition from Samsara into reincarnation. During this process, the user¡¯s soul is in a malleable state, allowing installation and initial baseline configuration.] [When the user arrives in Pallos without being processed through Samsara, System integration requires permission elevation in order to receive sufficient level of access to complete.] [Does the user accept full system integration?] [Y/N? _ ]
Apart from the wall of text, the window itself reminded the woman of the old video games she had played with her dad as a kid. He had collected a ton of early RPGs back during the second video game boom. The Phantasy Star series in particular had been one of their favorites. Could this be something like that? ¡°Is this thing seriously asking me for permission to install a RAT in my soul? ¡± At her day job, she worked for a cybersecurity consulting firm as a Red Team remote infiltration specialist. As a side gig, she spent one night a week working on bug bounties, and had paid off her college loans in just 5 years. She was good, and definitely knew her way around privilege escalation. The easiest method had always been simply calling people and asking them to give you their passwords. This felt very similar to that.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Fine, fuck it,¡± she thought, ¡°this day couldn¡¯t get any worse.¡± She then spoke aloud, ¡°I accept.¡± Somehow, her headache got worse, and also started hurting everywhere else. She let out a whimper. ¡°This must be what being 40 feels like,¡± she thought to herself. After a moment, the pain ended and took the headache she had with it.
[*ding!*] [Welcome to Pallos!] [System integration complete] [As compensation for System integration error, your starting class quality has upgraded] [*ding! Congratulations! You¡¯ve earned your first class -- [New Arrival] - Metal] [New Arrival] -- A starter class for an [UNKNOWN] from Somewhere? +5 free stat points per level. [Name: Unknown] [Race: Outsider (Humanoid)] [Age: 0] [Free Stats: 8] [Strength: 16] [Dexterity: 16] [Vitality: 24] [Speed: 24] [Mana: 8] [Mana Regeneration: 8] [Magic Power: 8] [Magic Control: 8] [Class 1: New Arrival - Metal: Lv0] [Class 2: Locked] [Class 3: Locked] [Please provide user¡¯s name: _ ]
¡°Uh, oh, I guess I should have thought about that years ago. Let¡¯s go with Ada.¡±
[Welcome user, Ada!] [User learning mode enabled] [Please perform actions so that the System can learn about you and construct an appropriate class advancement]
While interesting, Ada was still in the middle of nowhere, sitting in some dark sand in a dry riverbed. She was also starting to get hungry. ¡°OK, Ada, remember your boy scout training. First thing we need is some shade from the sun. Second thing is water. Then, we follow water downhill until we find civilization. After that, we stop talking to ourselves in the third person plural so that the people we meet don¡¯t think we¡¯re a crazy person. Yes, me, that is a great idea.¡± She saw nothing but arid scrubland in front of her. She stood, turned around, and looked the other way. There was likewise naught but scrubland the other way. She shielded her eyes and squinted -- she could barely make out a faint line of what could be smoke trailing up into the sky in the distance. ¡°Well, that¡¯s as good a direction as any. Where there¡¯s smoke, there¡¯s usually people, with food... and pants.¡±
[*ding!* You have unlocked the General Skill [Pathfinding]!] [*ding!* You have unlocked the General skill [Observe]!] [*ding!* You have unlocked the Passive General skill [Basic Survival]!] [*ding!* You have unlocked the Passive General skill [Resist Environmental Condition]!]
¡°Ah, hell, it really is going to behave like some kind of game system.¡±
[*ding!* You have unlocked the Passive General skill [Cynicism]!]
¡°And it¡¯s snarky, too. Wonderful.¡± Ada started walking in the direction where she had seen the smoke.
[*ding!* You have unlocked the General skill [Walking]!] [*ding!* You have unlocked the General skill [Daydreaming]!]
Several hours later, a rather parched and slightly sunburnt Ada saw what could only be farmland. It was definitely a field of wheat. Even an urban girl like her had seen enough farms despite living in a small city in Michigan. Childhood cross-country road trips with her family had seen to that. The smoke she observed when setting out this direction was coming from a small farmhouse finally visible in the distance. ¡°Well, this solves the finding civilization problem. But now I have to not get murdered instantly or worse when the random lost naked woman stumbles out of the wilderness.¡±
[*ding!* You have unlocked the Passive General skill [Vigilant]!] [*ding!* Congratulations! [New Arrival] has leveled up to level 1! +5 free stat points from your class, +13 free stat points for being outsider (humanoid), +1 Magic Power from your element] [*ding!* You have unlocked General skill slots] [You have 8 open General skill slots] [Available General skills: [Vigilant] [Daydreaming] [Walking] [Cynicism] [Resist Environmental Condition] [Basic Survival] [Observe] [Pathfinding]
Ada had been wondering what she was supposed to do with the general skills she had unlocked, and finally had her answer. Eight skill slots, and eight available skills. ¡°OK, [System], how do I do this? Do I just think about the skills and the skill slots at the same time? It can¡¯t be that easy.¡±
[*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Walking] - Level 1!]
¡°Oh, I guess that is how this works.¡± Ada sighed, mildly disappointed that it really was that easy. She imagined the other skills dropping into the remaining skill slots.
[*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Vigilant] - Level 1!] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Basic Survival] - Level 1!] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Daydreaming] - Level 1!] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Resist Environmental Condition] - Level 1!] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Observe] - Level 1!] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Pathfinding] - Level 1!] [*ding!* Congratulations! You¡¯ve learned [Cynicism] - Level 1!]