[ POINTS ARE THE SYSTEM'S CURRENCY FOR TRANSACTIONS OF ANY KIND ]
'Like money?'
Aurelius questioned it, still incredulous, still unable to fully believe any of this was happening, still entertaining the possibility that he might just be losing his mind. The only thing keeping the young prince even remotely sane at this point was the fact that he already knew the literal future, and that was a far greater abnormality than having a floating screen in his face that only he could see.
[ EXACTLY. IT IS THE 'MONEY' OF THE SYSTEM ]
'I have a lot of money. How do I convert it into points?'
It was true. He had more money than he could ever reasonably make use of. He was eager to test what this thing could actually do and wouldn't mind parting with a few gold coins to find out. However...
[ THE SYSTEM DOES NOT REQUIRE PHYSICAL ASSETS OF PRIMITIVE VALUE. POINTS CAN ONLY BE EARNED THROUGH MISSIONS ]
'Missions?'
Aurelius echoed it with a frown. This was getting more confusing by the second.
"What do you mean by missions?" he asked aloud, even though he already had a rough idea of what it was hinting at.
[ THE SYSTEM WILL OCCASIONALLY PRESENT THE USER WITH TASKS TO UNDERTAKE. IN THE CASE OF SUCCESS THE USER WILL BE GIVEN REWARDS WHICH ARE DIVERSE AND DEPEND ON THE DIFFICULTY OF THE TASK GIVEN. THERE IS ALSO THE POSSIBILITY OF PENALTY IN THE CASE OF FAILURE. ALL TASKS ARE GIVEN IN LINE WITH THE PLOT OF FATE OF WHICH THE SYSTEM HAS A GLIMPSE, BUT BEAR IN MIND THE FUTURE IS NOT FIXED AND IS ALREADY CHANGING. THE SYSTEM DOES NOT KNOW THE FUTURE, ONLY POSSIBLE FUTURES FROM THE ******** ******* IN LINE WITH PROBABILITIES OF FATE. THE SYSTEM WILL THEREFORE GIVE TASKS MOST CONDUCIVE TO ACHIEVING THE USER'S FINAL OBJECTIVE ]
'...And that is?'
[ SURVIVAL ]
'Does this mean I wouldn't have survived on my own even with the advantage of knowing the future?'
Aurelius felt that same unease tightening in his chest.
The more the system explained, the more plausible his theory seemed. There was a real chance this wasn't his first attempt at revenge, his first attempt at escaping his death armed with foreknowledge of the future.
'The fates have intervened again.'
That sentence resonated in his head on a loop. The fates intervening again. That phrasing was no accident, and at this point he felt he had decoded exactly what it meant. It meant there was a reality just like this one, where he had come to know the future and had enslaved the Heroines just as he had done now, then set out on his campaign of vengeance against practically everyone.
There were very few the young Morningstar was not bent on settling scores with. Sheila sat at the top of the short list of those he wasn't, and then a handful of others. Everyone else was fair game. That included the treacherous Morningstar family, who had simply disowned him after he lost in the first Battle of Heirs, as though that alone wasn't enough. His father had branded him with shame, stripped him of the Morningstar name, and his siblings had most certainly taken pleasure in his despair, Aegon chief among them.
It was a future that made his blood boil, much like the betrayal his poor, naive, foolish future self had endured from Sarah, from Amelia, from Liliana, from all of them. It was as though the moment he lost the Morningstar name everyone who had secretly despised him and politely concealed it finally showed their true colours.
But that was beside the point.
His actual thought was this: that version of himself, from that other reality, had failed. Because whatever entity governed the way the world played out, the fates as the system called them, had discovered him as an anomaly. And the cause was most likely the enslavement of the Heroines, something the original version of him was never supposed to do. The fates had intervened to smother his ambitions before they could bear fruit and had him killed.
'I made a grave mistake,' he realized.
Which likewise meant it was happening again, just as it had happened in that other reality.
All of this was hypothesis. But he had a strong feeling it wasn't far from the truth.
'Could it be that other version of me didn't have a system?'
He turned that over. Because that version of himself having a system would mean he had come to the same conclusion Aurelius had now reached.
"No," he said quietly. "It said again, so unless it happened before that version of me appeared, the system wouldn't use that word. Which means that version never came to this conclusion." He worked through it quickly. "But... what if that version did see this same 'again' message? What if he was having this very same thought I'm having right now?"
Then that version of himself would have tried something smart to avoid dying.
But he still died.
"...This is bad," Aurelius muttered, sinking deeper into the thought.
There was no denying it now.
His foreknowledge of the future was not invincible.
The fact that external forces were actively identifying and eliminating every anomaly that threatened to alter the course of the story meant the future would continuously adjust itself to bring about his death. That version of himself must have tried everything possible to survive.
And he still died.
'Is it even possible to evade death?' he thought, feeling as though the walls of the world itself were closing in. Even with all the money, influence, and resources at his disposal, at this moment the young Morningstar felt impossibly small.
[ IT IS ADVISED THE USER DOES NOT FALL INTO THAT LINE OF THOUGHT. THE HUMAN BRAIN IS NOT DESIGNED TO PROCESS SPACETIME CONTINUITY. THE POSSIBILITY OF ONE REALITY ALSO BEGETS THE POSSIBILITY OF A BILLION RUNNING SIMULTANEOUSLY THROUGH THE TIMESTREAM. ATTEMPTING TO COMPREHEND SUCH COMPLEXITIES WILL ONLY HINDER THE USER ]
"Then answer me," he said. "How many times have I died to arrive at this point of having a guide?"
[ IT IS ADVISED THE USER DOES NOT... ]
"Tell me."
[ ...INCALCULABLE ]
"What?"
[ THE RESULTS OF THE USER'S ATTEMPTS TO CHEAT THE FATES ARE INCALCULABLE. I MUST ALSO STATE THAT THIS IS THE USER'S LAST CHANCE TO ESCAPE THE FATE BESTOWED UPON THEM, AS THE FATES HAVE LOCATED THE LOOPHOLE THE USER CONTINUOUSLY EXPLOITS AND HAVE CORRECTED IT ]
'This...'
[ THE USER SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT TO LEARN MORE THAN THIS, AS THEY DO NOT HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO. EVEN WITH 10,000 POINTS THE SYSTEM ONLY INTENDED TO TOY WITH THE USER AND HAD NO PLAN OF RELEASING THE INFORMATION THEY SEEK. IT IS ADVISED THE USER FOCUSES ON THE PRESENT, AS THEY ARE ESPECIALLY WEAK AS OF THIS MOMENT ]
"...What do I do?"
[ ACCEPT THE SYSTEM'S FIX. THIS IS THE ONE THING THE USER HAS VEHEMENTLY REFUSED TO ADHERE TO THROUGH ALL COUNTLESS RUNS ]
"What fix?"
That was all he managed to ask before the words glitched.
[ APPLYING FIX ]
"Wait. I didn't... ARGHHHHHHHHH!"