There's a lot to unpack. Quite a lot, really. So Carter decided to go at it in parts — from the easiest, "Active Effects", to the hardest, "System". There's a point to all of this other than the simple flaunting of his spoils, so please bear with me.
We will leave Shop for last.
________________
[SYSTEM] (!)
[USER] (!)
[QUESTS]
[ACTIVE EFFECTS] (!)
[SHOP] (!)
_________________
Especially since there was apparently something to be seen in every category. Out of all of them, 'Active Effects' was, in fact, the easiest — but also one he'd been mistaken not to keep an eye out for earlier.
[ACTIVE EFFECTS :]
[ Bound ]
[Broken Ribs (-2 CON, -1 STR)]
[Hairline Cranial Fracture (-1 INT)]
[Sprained Ankle (-1 DEX)]
[Phoenix Water (+500% HP Rec, 500% MP Rec)]
A grim picture to be sure — the kind that screamed "Hey, moron, you almost died" in big, caps locked words and then, unsatisfied with his reaction, proceeded to print them onto a hammer to beat him on the head with. But it was also a promise of some really, really useful information — because it calculated precisely what each affliction did to his body.
Again — really, really useful. And really worrying, but I'll get back to this.
'Quests' was the only screen that contained only what he'd expected it to, and that was fine, but the quests themselves were somewhat worrying. So far, he had gotten two Quests, though he was fairly certain he could push the System into making more if he set an objective for himself.
[QUESTS:]
[ "Merit and Mettle" ] ( ! )
[ "The Rat and the Rattrap" ] (!)
Fairly simple Quests, no? One for his revenge and one for the path that took him there. But things weren't as simple — and all that because of their contents.
Are you familiar with tabletop RPGs? If so, you'll be familiar with the idea of 'Railroading' — as in an inflexible game where the Player Characters are forced through the narrative to go through given circumstances thought up by the Game Master. Though it is generally considered a characteristic of bad Game Masters, that doesn't mean their use will be exclusively unskilled — a good GM can make their railroading appear natural for a good while by subtly manipulating events around the players.
Carter had come across the term on a number of used books he'd gotten his hands on as a child, and though he'd never gotten to play a Tabletop RPG like he'd wanted to, some of the terms and explanations stuck with him for a good while, for use as storytelling devices if little else. Of course, it had done him little good when he awakened his [System] — which had clearly taken inspiration from digital RPGs, as opposed to the pen-and-paper ones.
But he'd long since shone suspicion on his [System] and it's selective prowess in resources, and this was why.
"Merit and Mettle" had taken him somewhat by surprise, but it had been a cold, pleasant one — like a tantalising treasure for the taking, should he have the guts to see it though. At the time, he had assumed it the natural progression of his own boiling rage and cast his doubts aside — and even now, after said doubts had resurfaced, Carter had little doubts that he would inevitably and eventually complete that Quest of his own volition. But other than it's morally dubious proposition, "Merit and Mettle" hadn't been too suspicious.
"Rat and Rattrap" had — by means of the Bonus Objective.
Why? Because its presence implies an awareness by the System of the immediate future, or a contextual awareness by the System of not only his own position and intentions but those of others, like Captain Halt's. The 'Kill the Dreamers' Objective had been there from the start, though concealed, despite his having no actual way to know it was coming — therefore, the [System] had to be possessing some sort of awareness.
And therein lies the issue — with awareness comes will, and he already had enough to presume a will from the [System], that being his new Talent.
[TALENTS:]
[Thanatos: You are a being of Death, and in your blade lies peace and damnation for those you cease. When killing an enemy, their Souls will be collected and stored for use in the Shop.] (L)
Basically — the [Reaped!] Message that had repeatedly popped up during his fight was an effect of his collecting the Dreamers' Souls.
I assume you can see the issue — but if you cannot, I will make it clear.
The Souls are a resource of his that the [System] both gave him a way to gather and a means to exchange with the System itself. At the same time, it had strictly fed him objectives that would involve his taking the lives of others, therefore amassing more Souls for exchange in the Shop, with the System itself, after the System had demonstrated some degree, no matter how limited, of will.
Of course, this theory has its holes — or, rather, its necessary assumptions. For it to make sense, he has to assume two out of three things —
1 — The System has a will of its own or follows the will of another.
2 — The System is capable of directly or indirectly influencing the world around Carter.
3 — The System is incapable of simply harvesting the Souls of those Carter kills, or otherwise possessing him in any way.
If Option 2 was true, Option 3 has to be true, but Option 1 doesn't. If Option 1 is true, Option 3 has to be true, but Option 2 doesn't. If Option 3 is true… you get it. All three, however, implicate the System in a position akin to the GM in a railroading situation — carefully guiding him in the direction it needed him to go, while taking away his option (or incentive, in this case) to follow a separate path. The Quest Rewards, under this lens, were akin to bribes — or a trail of bait for a beast to follow.
Which brings him to his second issue — The Shop.
Consider his User Sheet.
[User: Carter]
[HP: 250/250]
[MP: 105/105]
[Level: 4]
[Title: Bound]
[EXP: 238/1250]
[STR: 12]
[DEX: 16]
[CON: 8]
[CHA: 10]
[INT: 13]
[Points: 6]
Pretty admirable, right? Through his Level Ups, he had not only more than doubled his initial HP but acquired 6 Stat Points, 2 Skill Points and 2 Talent Points. Since he had proven concretely that even 1 Stat Point made for a considerable difference when push came to shove, these were gracious rewards, to put it mildly. With a 22 in DEX, he felt confident saying that he would be able to outrun pretty much anyone who wasn't actively using a [System] to boost their speed like he was, and maybe even then.
But then out comes the Shop.
[SHOP! ~]
[Welcome, Carter!]
[You have: ]
[ 15x Blue Souls ]
[ 0x Black Souls ]
[ 0x White Souls ]
[ 0x Gold Souls ]
[CATALOGUE:]
[ "A more helpful System!" (5 Blue Souls) ]
[ 3 Stat Points (10 Blue Souls) ]
[ 1 Skill Point (10 Blue Souls) ]
[ 1 Random Skill (6 Blue Souls) ]
[ 1 Random Item Blueprint (3 Blue Souls) ]
Can you see the issue?
Right — Okay, wait, calm down, Carter. I've got this. I mean, ah, he's got this. I mean…
Listen.
First, accept that the Shop proves that the System is:
Capable of possessing and withholding information
Actively encouraging him to deal in Souls by completely breaking its own balance
Acknowledging its own unhelpfulness by using it as a trade ticket.
Those are facts that have been proven by simple logical thought, correct? Yes! Yes they are! Which is Not Good!
It is said that there are 4 Elements to Game Design, and yes, I am treating this System as a Game — Quantity, Space, State and Action. From those, State, which governs objects in the game world, and Space, which is self-explanatory, can be somewhat excluded from the get-go (with a Caveat: it is still within the realms of possibility that the System is actively messing with circumstances instead of simply reacting to them, in which case not even those are safe.)
The other two, however, are completely and utterly exploited. Actions are, by definition, what makes something interactive — governing things as simple as shooting ammo or regenerating health to things as complex as one's actual, physical actions, like walking or making an active decision. Actions are actively exploited by a System that is either actively manipulative or predictive to the point of containing spoilers to real life, and it had the active capability to change his body with a self-contained currency, Stat Points.
Quantity, governing things like Health, MP, money, time and even Souls, apparently, was also actively tampered with by the tantalising Growth Curve presented. The Game would actively reward him for munchkinning — as in, purposefully and mechanically exploiting the system to unfairly make your character good at things — his character at lower levels by exploiting the Shop System — hell, it clearly implied that as the optimal pathway, which had to mean it won something from the processed souls.
(As a side note, Carter belatedly realized that all of this influence means that his first theory number Two —The System is incapable of simply harvesting the Souls of those Carter kills, or otherwise possessing him in any way — had to be true, otherwise it would simply hijack his body.)
And the worst part is — Carter couldn't afford to be paranoid, not when his life was bound to be at risk because of it. It was either exploit the System and let it exploit him back, or refuse out of suspicion alone and end up dead.
All in all — not a good choice. Which is why Carter found himself somewhere between being absolutely revolted and a little afraid.
He would assign his Stat Points later — his first purchases were obvious, at least to him.
[1 Random Skill] would let him test the limitations of the System's ability to grant him abilities, as roundabout as that sounded. If he received an ability that was either within the list or firmly within the limits of what he could see himself developing soon, the System was probably — and only probably, because that's how random things work, there's always a chance of fluke — adapting his existing skills (without a capital S) into Skills (with the capital S). If, on the other hand, he received, say, magic —
Well, then.
Then things would be considerably more complicated.
As for his second purchase… well, there was a reason "A more helpful System" sounded almost cheeky. It knew of his frustration.
God fucking damn it.
— Carter pressed both buttons in quick succession.