The night was clear and starry, Captain Haben was enjoying his book in his tent at the outskirts of Black Monarch's newly conquered territory, Jing Bai River Town. This was one of the many strategic places they captured with ease from the Red Sun army.
The Red Sun Empire was never famous for their military. They rather pursue in arts, design and the nobility enjoyed leisure activities. Their achievements were inventions that came about from the utilising of fate crystal technology.
Although there were quite a decent technological breakthrough in the military aspect, the Red Sun citizens prefer to dominate the other two countries via soft power diplomacy and their economy. The many inventions that came about via the fate crystal technology was due to their natural affinity to fate crystals.
It could be due to their ancestral bloodline but no one knows entirely for sure since the appearance of Fate Crystals came approximately eighty years ago. Hence the Red Sun Empire was well known for being affluent and possessing the most number of mages.
The Black Monarch on the other hand was known for its harsh conditions in their environment. They have a history of various civil wars that lasted for more than a century.
It was till the emergence of the Fate Crystals that the Black Emperor Henry Udumelue conquered the entire territory and ruled with an iron fist. War was their way of living, their people knew no other way.
What was the best way can the Black Emperor do to make their citizens happy to work for you? Get to war again. The Black Monarch military expertise made the utilisation of Fate Crystals their utmost priority and they had produced effective fighting weaponry to increase their military capabilities.
The Red Sun might be the most technologically advanced but in terms of military practicality, Black Monarch is the powerhouse.
As Captain Haben was about to put his book down and have a early rest, he heard hurried footsteps outside his tent. So he decided to have a look to see if there was any abnormal situation. Sure enough, a slightly injured soldier bearing the insignia of Black Mantis was on all fours while panting heavily.
"Wasn't the Black Mantis Company supposed to be further ahead of us? " Captain Haben thought and immediately questioned the soldier. The soldier explained the details of what had happened.
"Someone betrayed us and used the Strider against us?" Haben knew that operating a Strider was no easy feat and one needed at least three years of army experience before being assigned to the vocation.
For the high mortality rate in Black Monarch environment, it was considered a minor honour to be a Strider Tank Driver. Not to mention, having a Strider increases the fighting force capabilities nearly to two fold.
Upon hearing the incident, whispers in the camp were mentioning about traitors or infiltrators but Haben did not believe it as the case. He did not not rule out traitors but considering the fact that they have to infiltrate the Black Monarch army for three years just to get an ordinary Strider mobile walker seems a little ridiculous in terms of the effort that the spy agent had to put in.
The Red Sun definitely have more advanced equipment than to steal the technology of the Strider. Hence, Haben deduced it could be one of the Red Sun Mages manipulated the Strider or a device that they did not know about, which allowed them to takeover the the mobile tank walker.
Regardless, Captain Huben put an alert out and temporarily double the night patrol guards while he asked his communications team to send an addendum to the intelligence report for the day.
The Black Monarch knows how to repay their debts, with much deserved interest. The question is when.
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In Hongshan Village, the night pass without any incident, allowing the trio who had been through a life changing event to sleep deeply. Morning came and Sen was lying comfortably on his bed. He had never appreciate it as much as now as compared to the past 17 years of his life.
He looked at the clock hanging right across his room. It was 7.40am. There was still some time before reporting in to Major Raizan so he decided to check the status screen and mission rewards. However, instead of a the usual status screen, a performance report came out in front of him for the first time.
*********
Congratulations on completing mission.
Current Days to Apocalypse: 2046 Days
Eliminating the Goblin Threat in Hongshan Village: +0.5 Days
Saving the Princess by giving her superior medical treatment: +30 Days
Eliminating the Goblin Army: +60 Days
Eliminating the Goblin King: +150 Days
Remnants of Goblin Army retreating: -20 Days
Princess promises to eliminate Goblin Main Base: -20 Days
Total Current Days to Apocalypse: 2246.5 Days
Mission Performance: B+
Mission Rewards: 200.5 Total Days x 3.5 = 701.75 Fate Crystals.
The System is generous and had round the rewards up to 702 Fate Crystals.
The Saviour Store will now be open.
Raizan Character Sheet is now available for viewing
********
"System, please explain to me this performance report."
"User, it is as shown. The System reports the results with utmost clarity."
"Alright, I should rephrase. What does "Princess Zelanie promises to eliminate the Goblin Main Base" have to do with me?" Sen asked with a little annoyance. "Should it not be a good thing that the goblin main base be eradicated?"
"To put it simply so the slow-learning User can understand it. The System does not view the good and evil as a regular human perceived it. The System only wishes to maintain balance in the world. More good in the world will be a better place due to the User's closed minded perception but to the System, that may meant an imbalance in the world's scale. "
"In the case of Princess's promise, soldiers will be deployed from other villages and towns to help fight the goblin threat. This leaves the villages be more vulnerable to other threats and allows other insignificant threats to grow. "
"The result of Apocalypse is partially due to the severe imbalance of a certain side of the scale. Be it good or evil, every action has an reaction. Therefore, the result of Apocalypse is due to the inaction of the reaction or the poor management of it."
"Apocalypse will no doubt happen because it had already taken into account every Plane's consequences since the start of time even before you were borned. Therefore, what you did is not just delay the coming of Apocalypse but re-adjusting the world's scale, striving for balance. In addition, User needs all the time he can get to put in the effort to grow before the start of Apocalypse."
"I had totally no idea what the heck you are talking about, System." Sen was extremely confused.
"User, Please work hard to be the Saviour of this world."
"Alright, another question, why B+ and how are the rewards calculated?"
"The rewards are calculated based on your mission performance grade. 'B' grade gives you a modifier of 3.0 to your fate crystals and each grade gives an increase or decrease of a modifier of 0.5."
"For this mission, Fate Crystals are awarded based on the days you have earned for the world before it descends into Apocalypse. Other future missions might have other ways of rewarding you. As for your mission grade, there are many various factors that gave you a B+...Firstly.."
The system listed the flaws that Sen had made during the entire mission but no advice on how to counter them. Although some of the flaws were plain simple like understand your teammates abilities before going to the fight, there were also very complicated flaws that was being listed too, which made Sen felt he was extremely lucky to have survive.
Sen will have to study and learn from his mistakes if he wished to get a better grade, or in this case, to be a better Saviour.
********
Days to Apocalypse: 2246.5
Name: Haruyuki Sen
Age: 17
Strength: 2.4
Dexterity: 2.9
Constitution: 2.6
Willpower: 2.5
Magic: 1
Fate Crystals: 702
Abilities:
Heart of the Mongoose Level 2
Axolotl Regeneration Level 2
Weapons:
Saviour Zinger Rifle [Additional Upgrades Possible]
*Unlimited Ammo Clip
Machines:
Saviour Strider [Damaged] [Additional Upgrades Not Possible until repaired]
System Comments: Please work hard to be the Saviour of this world.
Team:
Feng, Junior Battlesmith
Raizan, Pending Profession
*********
Sen was elated to see the increase of attributes and his abilities going up a single level but a little saddened to see his Saviour Strider got damaged. He asked the system on how to go about repairing it.
"Option 1: Pay 300 crystals
Option 2: Wait for 30 days
Option 3: Unlock the Saviour Workshop and get Battlesmith Feng to learn about the machines.. However, he needs to be a grandmaster battlesmith if Saviour Workshop is still locked."
"Can I get the Saviour Workshop through missions or from the Saviour Store?"
"System is unable to comply to that request. The Saviour Workshop needs to be in a real world location allocated and owned by the User himself. "
"There are high requirements to be met by the System before the workshop can be created. In the meantime, the System will find a suitable location for User when the System has the opportunity to do so."
"Okay, thanks System and please show me the Saviour Store."
The status screen closed by itself in front of Sen and a button appeared in front of him with the words "Saviour Store". When he pressed on it, he saw various boxes with pictures attached to it. Sen was underwhelmed by the lack of choices in the Saviour Store.
He thought it would be something special with full of options which he will take his time to pick and choose. He was after all a son of a tailor, his expectations for quality items especially clothes were high. However, there were only a few items on sale while all the other boxes had a lock sign in front of it.
"User, as you complete missions and scale the balance of the world even further, the System will unlock these choices for User. With the commencement of the Saviour Store, the philanthropic System will gift User a lucky draw chance."
Six poker looking cards suddenly appeared face down in front of Sen's bed. Sen sat up and started to observe the cards.
"User, please choose and pick one." Sen nodded his head as he was thrilled for the free stuff.