Chapter 3 - Transported to another world!
'Now, Host is required to choose from any of the three: Limitless Might, Unbound Speed, or Infinite Drone Spawn.'
'What Host must understand is that each of these talents has a complementing talent that will be unlocked at a much later stage—maybe a month later, or hundreds of decades later. It all depends on you, Host. These complementing talents are also powerful and will propel Host to god-like grandiosity and imbue him with irreproducible, marvelous greatness!'
'Choose carefully, Host! Take your time to make the right decision, as you won't be able to change it later. However, all options are great, formidable, and magnificently stellar, and will undoubtedly take you far in all of your incredible futuristic pursuits!'
'What? Why do I have to choose? I didn't ask for this! Besides, I don't know what you are. You suddenly melted into a cold, corporeal essence, infiltrated my mind, and resized into a planet within the region of my consciousness,' Jack, who was trying his best to understand what was really going on, furrowed his brows in utter perplexity. Then with a certain expression of strong curiosity and heavy bewilderment etching on his bedazzled face, he asked with a strong, unfaltering voice, 'What the heck are you again, if I may ask?'
'Once again, we are the Trifaceted Talent System, a potent, multidimensional interface that will reward you with points to increase your selected talent! As seen in the three visions you had—of strength, speed, and drone creations—you can gradually accumulate large amounts of talent development points—through the accomplishment of numerous tailored missions, to enhance your selected talent and gradually become a famed and venerated, interdimensional sovereign of endless godly might, immeasurable time-altering speed, or deity-suppressing, technological combat drones in the nearest future.' The three booming voices enticingly said.
'Wow! This sounds amazingly cool. But why can't I choose all three at once?' Jack asked with a stunned and dumbfounded expression on his face.
'With time!' The three mysterious voices replied, ringing out at the same time.
Then suddenly, Jack was pulled out of his mind space. Now, he found himself back in the room.
Unexpectedly, a HUD-like screen materialized in Jack's vision, displaying strings of important messages. However, it remained entirely imperceptible to others that may come across him, as the screen was shrouded in the secrecy of Jack's augmented reality—it was for his eyes only.
_
[Host is required to pick one!]
[Waiting for Host selection!]
~ [Limitless Might]
[Transformation into a living conduit for the
Mightcore Nexus]
~ [Unbound Speed]
[Transformation into a living conduit for the
Rapidflux Convergence]
~ [Infinite Drone Spawn]
[Transformation into a living conduit for the
DroneGenesis Nexus]
"But wait. Like, is this actually for real?" Jack excitedly asked, with an inexplicable expression adorning his face.
Then, many seconds later, after processing numerous thoughts and the superb, mind-staggering visions he saw, with a certain inescapable, indissoluble realization dawning on him and overwhelming his entire being, he said and strongly shook his head in both surprise and marvel, "This is actually real. I ain't dreaming. Oh my fucking goodness! But where did my grandfather get this insane stuff from?"
"That super-mysterious, stylishly secretive old man will be forced to spill all he knows when he returns. But don't tell me he is in communication with some enigmatic, otherworldly entities from other kinds of dimensions. My grandpa is simply going to draw the attention of the CIA and other clandestine government agencies towards us if things like this continue. Ugh! Anyway, now that the crystal has translocated to my consciousness-inhabiting territory, how do I get it out?"
Huuuuu!
Deeply inhaling and exhaling a long breath that carried away his burgeoning worries, Jack looked at the options on the display once again and began to think deeply, trying to make the right choice.
"With limitless might, I guess I will be really strong—perhaps strong enough to lift more than three hundred billion folds of nine hundred octodecadecillion tons. Haha. My imagination is truly wild. But that's it, or what would 'limitless' really mean? So, with unlimited strength, I should be strong enough to move entire clusters of universes, or vast, literally endless, solid planes of existences."
"Furthermore, at a later stage as the talent develops, it will possibly come with numerous other abilities like godlike speed, extreme durability and resilience akin to Superman, high atmospheric leaps, vast intercontinental jumps, devastating supersonic claps like that of the Hulk, earthquake-generating light foot stomp, terrain-altering and land-reshaping kicks in the air, mountain-splintering strike with the pinky finger, island-sundering palm press, continent-smashing palm slaps, and like in the vision I had, the emission of unstoppable, planet-destroying, and star system-obliterating shockwaves by merely punching at the air. Damn! I wonder what other abilities I would gain if I go with this perverse, tyrannical option."
"Besides, it will come later with a fully complementing talent. Hmm, so cool. I, Jack, will definitely be renowned across the boundless sea of stars as a multiverse-destroying, hegemonic emperor of irreplicable, endlessly-sundering divine might!" Jack said, envisioning tremendously great things about himself if he chose the limitless might option.
"As for unbound speed, it will grant me the ability to run at super speeds—possibly millions to infinite times faster than the speed of light. Or what would 'unbound' be interpreted as?"
"But that majestic aura of power that encased that woman's figure, which seemed to assume the possible form of a seemingly outerversal, cosmological deity from some poly-dimensional realm, should be Rapidflux, right?" Jack said with a contemplative face, trying to recognize what the aura was.
"The convergence of Rapidflux, for which the young lady possibly acts as a conduit, must be the source of power propelling her at that incredible, time-manipulating speed. With such an ability, I could traverse seemingly-infinite distances in seconds, or run forward and backward in time—possibly millions of years into the future and millions of years into the past. I'd be exceptionally quick in accomplishing myriad tasks, like overwhelming and subduing adversarial global military, navy, and special forces, all while reading hundreds of ten-thousand-page books on numerous topics and touring countless cities in hundreds of worlds, simultaneously. This is unbelievably extraordinary!" Jack muttered with bright eyes filled with unbound astonishment, as his wild and imaginative thoughts conjured marvelous images of himself achieving incredible feats if he chose the talent of speed.
"Then there's infinite drone creation, another extraordinary ability I wish I could gain alongside the others. I would have the power to create all kinds of drones, ranging from extremely tiny sizes to tremendously massive sizes."
"Just imagine spawning an enormous technological war drone, a hundred times larger than planet Earth, into existence in the blink of an eye. It's crazy. And, as seen in the vision I had of that boy, I can picture myself summoning millions of skyscraper-sized to mountain range-sized robotoid drones, designed for extensive and highly destructive melee battles."
Jack continued, vividly envisioning wondrous, spectacular things, "These multi-limbed, robot-like mech-fighter drones will possess numerous powerful robotic arms armed with flash-incinerator weapons, colossal circular blades, massive cryo-blasters, solid-energy blades and giant, super-heated slicing saws, as well as various other weapons like arm-mounted, shoulder-mounted, and back-mounted, huge multi-barreled annihilator cannons that will fully enable them to engage in devastating, battlefield-reshaping combats with huge enemy groups or powerful adversarial celestial forces."
"So, if I can conjure such into existence in whatever region I find myself, what would that make me? A frigging, godly drone commander of hovering destruction and inevitable apocalypse. Heck, I could become a dreadful, absolute invader of worlds and multiversal planes. Haha. This is just sick, but damn I imagine too much."
"Anyway, I suppose all of this will only happen when I reach the highest degree—the zenith level for each of the talent, which is going to take a really long time for me to reach. But wow! Where did my grandfather get this incredible item from, an ancestral heritage item passed down from many generations, or he came across it by a stroke of pure, massive luck? That old man, full of mystery," Jack said with brightly glowing eyes that exuded a strong sense of inextinguishable euphoria.
Speaking further, Jack said and then gleefully chuckled, "So, with all these, I could become a real-life Superman or Sentry on Earth, or maybe a real-life Flash if I chose speed, or... Hmm. Which super-powered being creates and controls drones? No idea. Haha! But I am really glad. The whole world will absolutely know of me. And aliens, which will definitely exist since this damned perverse crystal is real, will come to dread and reverence me!"
Looking back at the options, he said with a great smile etched on his face, after heavily pondering and finalizing his thought on the talent he truly wanted, "I choose limitless might."
[Limitless Might selected!]
[Activating program: Godly Sovereign of Unlimited World-Shattering Might...]
[Progress: 1%... 10%... 50%... 75%... 100%]
[Program activated!]
[Choosing a suitable World Cluster from the Sea of Worlds—the Nine-Thousand-Universe System for Host transference...]
[Progress: 1%... 20%... 45%... 69%...]
"What?!" Jack, who wasn't expecting to see what appeared on the screen, immediately screamed at the top of his lungs. But it was too late to do anything.
[World Cluster: Vacherygonia Planet Cluster found!]
[Searching for a suitable world for Host in the Vacherygonia Planet Cluster...]
[Progress: 1%... 17%... 39%... 63%... 100%]
[Suitable world: Planet Dotra (average world) found!]
[Transporting Host to average world: Planet Dotra, for commencement of missions and accumulation of talent development points...]
"What? Is it p-permanently taking me away from Earth? W-What have I done?! Nooooo...!!"
Jack couldn't end his loud, terrified scream of fright and alarm when an ethereal force, shapeless yet potent, suddenly materialized in his grandfather's room and began to enclose his figure like it was an invisible cocoon. It shimmered with an otherworldly glow, creating ripples in the air as if reality itself were bending to its will.
As the power fully engulfed him, a kaleidoscope of colors danced in the surrounding space, creating a mesmerizing, seemingly otherworldly spectacle. Waves of unseen forces pulled at Jack, causing his physical form to swiftly disintegrate into a cascade of luminous particles. Each particle carried a trace of his essence, swirling and merging within the currents of ethereal, space-bending energy.
In the blink of an eye, Jack's dematerialized form vanished from his original location, leaving only the faint echoes of displaced air. While the seamless phenomenal transition that occurred to him, transported him to a world, or more precisely, a realm far beyond the familiar...