1 Chapter 1: Death
[ Talent: Eternal Scribe
Status: Partially Unsealed (Hidden conditions incomplete)
Rank:SSS
Type: Assist
Effect 1: Memory transcending time. What is seen, felt and experienced will never be forgotten. The rate of access to the memories is dependent on the User's mental strength.
Effect 2: User's mind, body and soul will adapt and will not experience any discomfort storing these memories. Mental strength increases.
Effect 3: (Sealed)
Effect 4: (Sealed)
Effect 5: (Sealed)
Effect 6: (Sealed)
Description: One of the many ■■■■ talents of ■■■■ ■■■■. The ■■■■ ■■■■'s mind and soul's prowess can be connected to this talent.
It has attributes similar to the Akashic Record. Be it past, present or future the record in your mind and soul will forever be etched in the chaos and multiverse but only be accessible by you.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
(Unseal talent to unlock full description) ]
In a dark room sat a young looking man with black hair and black eyes, seemingly staring into the void. But from his perspective, he was seeing an information panel with a light blue font.
Hatred and anger could be seen in his gaze, but who could blame him, for the last 9 years this panel has yet to have any changes despite all his efforts.
The young man furrows his brows and then slowly closes his eyes. He drops his back on a gelatinous feeling bed. The bed emitting subtle warmth, easing his brows and slowly taking him towards the dreamlands.
'Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah'
Just as he approached la la land, he started hearing moans from the adjacent wall. His eyes shot open and sleep ruined.
"KEEP IT DOWN YOU BASTARDS!!!"
The young man slammed the wall and shouted.
'JUST TAKE A FUCKING WALK OUTSIDE! THERE'S NOTHING ELSE FOR ME TO DO IN THIS SHITHOLE!!!'
A voice yelled back.
The young man huffed but couldn't argue back as the man on the other side wasn't wrong.
The young man sighed and stood up, opened a shifty looking earthen door and walked outside.
What came across his eyes was a land and sky unlike any seen on Earth. Winds blew and snow crashed into circular looking mountains, resembling heaps of mud stacked on top of each other.
In the sky there were no galactic arms of the Milky Way galaxy but an unsettling looking web of gray galactic clouds with hints of reds and purples here and there, dense swaths of stars twinkling in between. The scenery above partially covered by drifting clouds.
The young man gazed at the sky, and thought:
'If we Earthlings didn't fuck up so bad, I wouldn't have been grinding in this place. I wouldn't have lost them eit-'
"Oi, Felix! Out here cause of Pedro too?"
A middle aged man, Roach, called out to Felix from his right, taking him out of his reverie.
"If I didn't know what he was going through, I would have ripped out his two little balls already."
"Easy there easy young man, this recon mission is taking a toll on everyone here. Why don't we go hike the mountain for a bit, shall we? Its also the recon mission I was assigned, so help me out a bit l, will ya?"
"Not like there's anything else to do here, I'm in."
"Great!"
Roach extended his hands and the snow started to converge in front of him. The snow compressed and became a crystalline sledge with foot and a half tall walls and a sharp front, size perfect for two people. Looking almost like a boat.
Felix stared at Roach with envy, and in response Roach could only smile wryly.
Everyone here had heard of Felix's almost useless talent of 'to never forget'. It was more like having an HDD than an SSD in his brain though, as some memories were far easier to access than others.
Despite his useless talent, he was one of the most efficient members in the squad. Everyone knew how much work he had to put in himself to achieve that kind of finesse, so he had the whole squad's respect.
Everyone knew his talent was his reverse scale so no one really talked about it in front of him.
They both hopped on the sledge and Roach started moving it at an extreme speed towards the uncharted mountains.
They both kept quiet as they were out of the sound dampening barrier's range. They slid down the valley and traveled for two hours until they reached the recon point.
Felix gestured to Roach to stop and the sledge stopped near a steep incline. He pointed at a strange rock formation up there and got a nod back from Roach.
Roach controlled the snow in the air and directed it towards the rock formation, trying to pick up any signs of life. He couldn't find any so he gave Felix the affirmative.
Felix got out of the sledge, finding a good foothold, he jumped 15 to 17 meters vertically towards the rock formation and landed on one of the rock spikes like it was everyday's business.
The rock formation had spikey stone pillars jutting outwards from the center of the almost vertical cliff wall. The center spikes were the most parallel to the ground, naturally Felix landed on one of those.
In his head was a database of all the information he had collected and had access to, one of the few good things he could do with his talent. Second only to being able to remember his family clearly.(Though the memories of getting birthed from his mother still haunts him to this day. Also the time when he walked into his parents' room when they were *Ahem* 'working out', he would pay top dollar to somehow unsee that.)
After comparing the samples with his existing database and testing with the apparatuses he brought with him, he couldn't find anything anomalous about the rock formation. The rocks themselves were completely ordinary.
'Perhaps it formed eons ago when the environment here was completely different. Anyway, I can't make any concrete judgment, I'll just report my observations over.'
Felix shook his head towards Roach and got a signal to come back in reply.
Felix jumped down on the snow and got back on the sledge. It was deep in the night and winds were picking up speed, taking the snow with them. Before the visibility got even worse, they sped towards the hideout.
The visibility got worse but they could still see some familiar landmarks to correct their route. After approximately 2 hours they came close to the hideout's invisible barrier which provided both sound dampening and detection features.
They stopped near the barrier's border which was marked by a white rope, suspended slightly above the ground in tension with other anchor points . Roach took out an oval plate, injected mana into it and whispered:
"Code: 406, asking permission to enter"
"...."
Two minutes passed but there was no reply, not even static noise. Roach looked at Felix and Felix looked back at him.
They both wanted to believe that the reporter was sleeping or even fucking someone but they have been in this line of work for too long to have such wishful thinking.
They both stopped their breathing and calmly turned around, and walked, trying to make as minimal noise as possible.
Tension was in the air, both towards whatever was in the barrier and towards each other.
Felix's heart palpitated, he somehow knew, at the end, he will become the sacrificial sheep here. Just didn't expect it to happen so soon.
As soon as they got close to the sledge, Roach jumped on it and launched his sledge at the highest acceleration he could muster, creating a tall wave of snow behind with his speeding sledge.
Felix, left alone with the view of a snow wave directly in front of him, summoned his spear from his personal space and lifted his foot to turn around.
But during the motion he felt something lodged in his chest, the falling snow wave having hints of red in it. Looking down he saw a spike jutting out of his chest, colored in his blood. He felt another impact around his tailbone and saw a spike coming out of his gut, pointing upwards. The intense pain ironically made him feel numb and almost completely out of energy.
As a former "player" his life-force was extraordinary, giving him a few seconds before his demise to see who killed him.
His neck turned to its limit and saw the assailant. It was a matte white octopus/squid like creature.
The creature had tens of tentacles, each with a foot long spike jutting out of their ends. The spikes dyed in red, probably from the people in the barrier. It had a four foot tall, oval main body, covered in matte white skin, curiously its white skin had no blood stains on it. Its body was bejeweled by four iridescent pale blue eyes shimmering in the light from the galactic clouds and stars above.
The eyes showed hints of joy and intellect, confirming his hypothesis that it was sent by "Them". No unprepared creature can bypass detection from the barrier.
Similar creatures also started coming over, moving rapidly towards the trail of disturbed snow.
'Phew…I knew I'd get a pretty bad end but didn't know I'd be pegged in the ass to death. Roach you bastard, atleast get away from them now that you have sacrificed me already.'
His eyes became drowsy and his consciousness was slipping when a notification popped up.
[ Hidden conditions achieved ]
[Unsealing new talent features ]
[ Your memories are eternal ]
[ Your memories will be sent back in time by consuming your remaining power.
Congratulations, memory transfer routing succeeded!
Estimated time reversal: ~17 Years ]
"'Fuck this shit!!! This talent finally responds when I'm at death's door!'
He couldn't help but respond, voicing out his thoughts physically from his mouth with his waning strength and next all he saw was pitch black.
(A/N: The story will pick up pace slowly after this. I just thought a slow and pessimistic start would be a good contrast to what will come in the future.
The POV will switch between first and third whenever I feel like it's the best for it but I'll give a heads up before I switch.
I can't really guarantee daily uploads, but I'll try my best.
P. S.
I can't believe I'm actually writing an author's note after being a reader for so many years.)
