"Sir!" A groggy-looking skeleton scout waved its hand, speaking through a chip imbibed in its throat.
"Now what?" Harriot growled back.
"We have requests from unknown entities wanting to communicate with their chosen ones, but none of them are showing the required tokens for me to authorize their request.
"Are you defying gods, maggot?"
"I can always report the finding..."
Harriot had a third ear, which kept an ear out for one specific word. He hears it before it's said and chews out the person before they say it.
Harriot lowers himself on all fours and raises back up, now looming over the skeleton scout. In one huge gulp, he opens his maw and swallows the skeleton whole.
"How many times should I tell you not to use, you know whose name, when I am around," Harriot spoke in a muffled tone as he chewed on the skeleton.
"Sorry sir, but the..."
Harriot closes his mouth, locking the sound within.
"You're in so much trouble." MEL words echo's around the room.
Harriot's anger shifts target and MEL's next words resonate inside the system engineer's head.
"The irony is when the name emerges or if the name finds out."
"How much?" Harriot grumbles. He realized the vice-captain already had a workaround. Their species never speak unless it's beneficial for them.
"Seventy percent."
"Eh!" Harriot clears his throat, intensifying his gaze.
MEL inserts a slender rod, possibly a pinky finger, into its ear and raises the stakes while making a bogus motion. "Eighty," it adds.
Harriot learned their species had no organs, and the mere thought of chewing its metallic body sent a sharp pain through his teeth. But before Harriot can growl, MEL opens its mouth, revealing a toothless maw with several slim iron bars, making layers of its throat. With a raised eyebrow and mouth ready to up the price, it glared back at Harriot.
Harriot concedes with a nod, and in excitement, MEL enters the wrong code, unleashing death from the heavens to meet a mortal.
— — — —
Basal Vérin rose to power by luck. While the inhabitants of her planet fought over survival, she hid underneath the chaos of death and when the time came, swallowed the planet whole by receiving power from the heavens.
The system never shows bias. One needs to show the will to travel, and the heavens shall part ways to pave a unique path.
From a tiny insect, about to die from a child's slap to commanding a skill which can slap a star to nothingness; she rose above the mortal realm.
She even named the skill 'Power slap,' as it was one of the first and weakest skills the heavens bestowed upon her during the early days before she became a god.
It helped her throughout her mortal journey, kindling her fury to level. But anger can only get you so far in the multiverse.
Many thresholds block one's path to power. At first, she grew in levels with hatred, swallowing her planet, which did her wrong, and later with intellect, to break the many thresholds.
Placed beneath the Noor Quo, which is the top one hundred 'Orders' of the multiverse, is her current position of 170th; The order of Basal Vérin.
This should bring her a sense of pride, but she is aware that even one Order among the Noor, even the 100th Order has the power to wipe out all other orders in the multiverse on a whim, leaving only the top 110 orders alive. The 100 to 110 ranking orders, referred to as 'Sub Noor', are capable of rivaling the Noor.
The top hundred orders were simply born and lived in power.
The position is still a trivial matter. The top ten have never fallen or shifted their ranks since the dawn of the system, while the rest have fallen below 400 at times and struggled to reclaim their position.
These 'Omni Wars' were one of the biggest reasons the Noor stopped fighting amongst themselves.
While huge factions wasted resources on wars weakening each other, the others climbed up the ranks, making alliances and striking from the shadows.
This is how the omni being, Rot, the god of the undead, claimed the eleventh position.
That thing's rise to power was a wake-up call for the top ten, also known as 'Das Sar.' While any one order amongst the ten can destroy the multiverse, similar to that of the Noor, they are terrifyingly superior.
A single 'Das Sar' can obliterate the Noor.
They also face the misfortunes they deal to others, and it's not as if they don't fight against each other for the higher spot on the ladder. Every order continuously fights to grow or protect its region and followers.
Immortality might keep them alive indefinitely, but a loss meant being a slave forever as well.
Rot paid a heavy price for power by sacrificing its own kind to climb up the ladder. In fear of Rot's ascent, the top ten orders formed a truce. They seized control of the system, expanding their influence and imposing their will on all other factions. Numerous modifications were made to the basic framework, resulting in the system we know today.
The system soon took over four spots on the ladder, from the eleventh to the fourteenth.
One kid amongst the top ten orders created the system as a joke which churned the egos of every leader to compete and reach the number one spot.
Previously, the system operated on a simple rule: it scanned the multiverse for power and placed the order with the highest power in the top rank.
Needless to say, the kid was a genius who created a system that could judge and place myriad orders of the multiverse into ranks. It could also recognize new orders based on word of mouth.
After the 'Das Sar' took over the system, people rose to power with intellect.
Coups, assassinations, and various means were used to manipulate top rankers into fighting amongst themselves or their superiors. The result was always the downfall of one 'Order', forced alliances, or complete annihilation.
Four new 'Orders' were formed from the top rankers of 'Das Sar,' to run and maintain the system, placing the new 'Orders' right into the Noor, and right after the top ten, nonetheless.
Basal Vérin started her journey late after the system fell into the hands of the Das Sar, but she did not consider this a disadvantage—far from it. The system grew every second and with the top four factions backing up every individual's progress with no bias; she broke out of her mortal shell and claimed a new faction amongst the thousand.
With her name popping into the ranking ladder, she immediately became the target of many orders, but she came prepared and raised through the ranks by devastating trillions of galaxies.
The system eradicated a few orders for not obeying the law, 'Rot' being one of them, but that undead slime somehow survived and reclaimed his title as Noor.
He always used loopholes better than anyone, and the system awarded every loophole found, instead of condemning the path. Of course, the same loophole can never be used twice, but one loophole catapulted the crafty bastards from lower ranks into the top hundred.
When she came to know about a loophole that never closes and which the Noor always used to stay in power, she showered her frustration over the orders weaker than hers.
The sudden attack caught the lower orders off guard and made her many alliances. They were orders who struggled to climb up the ladder and, by using them as shields, her order raised several ranks.
Information is key and being unable to figure out a simple threshold to reach the ranks of Noor, she created a new loophole to gain power.
It was minuscule compared to the first information, but every loophole is worth a step closer to Noor.
The first loophole was simplicity itself. The integrating universe is beaming with resources and potential future leaders for their 'Order' or a new one. She never understood wasting precious resources on future what-ifs and had raised through many ranks thanks to imbeciles wasting resources on what-ifs.
Low on power, after wasting their resources on the newly integrated universe, the 'Orders' were easy pickings. While other 'Orders' surpassed her by relying on such dumb luck, they almost always fell during the next lucky draw. She always thought relying on an ever-changing stat was a dumb strategy until she expanded the loophole and won the lucky draw at every spin.
Within the laws of the system, no 'Order' may move their entire force. A simple rule she never understood why it had to be reinforced, as it was utter stupidity to move all of your forces against one 'Order.' Even if you win, the others will take advantage of your weakened state. Sometimes even if they do not have the resources to do so.
Her 'Order' moved up the ranking thanks to many stupid 'Orders' acting on emotions and pride. The battle of power to reach Noor is a chess game. One has to safeguard their treasured pieces and wither down their opponent's hold over their section of the multiverse.
This game of chess played on a cosmic scale can't be measured by a simple board game, yet the rules are all the same. You can win within two moves or play a game for eons. Cosmic chess has innumerable pieces in play, from politics, alliances, betrayal, resources, power, and luck.
A single pawn or general in the right place can win you the game. Yet again, this is cosmic chess, where you are not playing with one opponent but with every order in the multiverse.
One victory should not leave you open to other checkmates. For one checkmate is enough to crumble the 'Order' into history, and no one in the multiverse ever remembered a failure's path.
Basal Vérin stagnated for centuries to understand and make a move using the all-knowing loophole of Noor.
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