The Strongest Lord Is A Hack
Jay, an orphan teenager, along with the rest of humanity, had their understanding of reality shattered when Earth was consumed by a cosmic entity known as the Astral Arena. This entity abducts different civilizations from various corners of the universe and compels them to partake in its game for their survival. Now, the cosmic entity compelled the Earthlings it had abducted to participate in its game, categorizing them into two groups: those eligible to become Astral Lords and those entering as memoryless wandering souls. Those who ascended as Astral Lords were endowed with unique skills and an Astral domain. Conversely, those who failed had their memories erased, and their souls wandered the Astral Arena, awaiting to be accepted by Astral Lords as their subjects to be trained into troops or workers. Dragged into a cosmic game beyond his comprehension, Jay faced an uncertain future as the cosmic entity compelled him to engage in its endless cycle of struggle and warfare for resources and power to ensure his survival in the Astral Arena. Against all odds, Jay strove to become an Astral Lord, acquiring the unique skill 'Astral Hack,' unique title 'The First Murderer,' and his Astral domain. As he further navigated the treacherous game of the Astral Arena, Jay encountered numerous challenging quests imposed on him by the entity. As such he grappled with uncertainty: would he meet a grim fate attempting to fulfill these quests, or would he overcome them? If he did, when will this gruesome cycle ever end or was there no end to it? Join Jay's struggle for survival in the cosmic game, Astral Arena, as he contends with the finest and brightest in the universe fighting for their existence. ... [Title Name: The First Murderer Title Grade: Innate (Passive) Title Effect: As the first player to murder Earthlings in Astral Arena: i) Murder is like second nature to you. It is rare for something to move your heart and shake your emotions. ii) You have mastered every means of murder and torture the Earthlings have ever developed to the maximum. Note: i) Innate titles/skills are unique to the player. ii) The means mentioned here include combat arts, tools, firearms, and armaments.] [Skill Name: Astral Hack Skill Grade: Innate (Active) Skill Level: Max Skill Effect: i) The Lord can hack all units to retain the maximum crit rate to gain the unit's information, critical strike, max drop rate, etc. ii) A purple alignment marker will help the Lord use the 'Astral Hack' skill on hackable units. iii) The targeted unit will never detect being hacked, even if the 'Astral Hack' fails. Note: i) Astral Hack efficiency is limited to Lord's level. Units with higher levels/grades than lord/lord's domain have a higher chance of resisting Astral Hack. ii) Active skills have skill proficiency level. In the case of innate skills skill proficiency level is max.]
Hidden Stats
Hidden stats: Karma, Luck, Loyalty
Reading the system notification, I felt a headache learning about the hidden stats. Especially the fact that karma stats affected both luck and loyalty stats.
As for recruiting the nameless wandering soul as my subject, I planned to decide after using my astral hack skill to learn more about it. Adding a subject meant one more mouth to feed, unless it would be of use to me I did not plan to recruit subjects for now.
For now, I was more focused on quenching my thirst. The dungeon pond was clear, but I did not feel like drinking water from it when I had a better alternative in my domain.
Ignoring the nameless wandering soul, I headed to the fountain. The wandering soul followed me, I guess it would not leave until it got an answer. However, I did not rush because of it and continued to ignore it.
Reaching the fountain, I took out a water mana stone from the pouch and placed it in the fountain. Soon, I received a system prompt:
[System Notification:
> You have added a 0-grade water mana stone to the 0-grade Astral Domain Fountain. It will produce water fit for consumption and agriculture until the 0-grade water mana stone is consumed.
> Congratulations, you are the first Astral lord from Earth to establish a clean water source in your domain.
> Astral Lord is rewarded with the title 'Resourceful Lord' and a 0-grade Random Infrastructure card. ]
[Title Name: Resourceful Lord
Title Grade: 0
Title Effect:
i) Lord's Luck stats slightly increased: The chances of a monster dropping a reward card after being killed slightly increased and the chance of getting something you need when using a random card slightly increased.
ii) Minimum Loyalty: When you recruit a subject they will have a minimum loyalty of 30.
iii) Wandering soul affinity slightly increased: When you are in your domain the chances of the wandering soul stopping by and wanting to become your subject slightly increased.
Note:
i) The grade of title will increase with the grade of the Lord's domain.
ii) When a lord recruits a subject the subject is randomly assigned a certain loyalty from 0-100.]
I was disappointed learning that I needed to keep adding water mana stones to the fountain for it to produce consumable water. Therefore, drinking to my fill, I took out the water mana stone from the fountain. As soon as I did that I received another system notification saying that my fountain fill no longer be producing consumable water. I ignored that as it did not affect me in any way.
Then I filled the empty pouch with the fountain water and added the water mana stone to see if the water in the pouch would turn into drinking water. After taking a sip I confirmed my guess, the water mana stone could convert water in any vessel into clean and consumable water.
Learning this my disappointment relieved. I had found a more economical way to produce drinking water. Once the drinking water problem was solved I turned my attention to the title I gained.
From the title 'Resourceful Lord' description, I deduced that the Luck stats were related to the drop rate and random rewards. The higher once Luck stats were the higher the chance of one getting a drop after killing a monster and the lesser the randomness of the rewards. Since I had my astral hack skill this Luck stats seemed obsolete for me.
However, Luck also appears to play a role in a subject's loyalty. Because the subject's loyalty to the lord and domain was randomly determined at the start. I had a strong feeling that astral hack might also have a solution for it so I decided to use astral hack on the nameless wandering soul to see if my guess was current.
When I turned to look at the nameless wandering soul, the purple alignment maker looked at it and I used the astral hack skill. Soon a distinct purple hue enveloped the wandering soul, forming intricate patterns of light and code around it. The wandering soul seemed to be unaware of this and continued to look at him.
As the brightness of the purple hue covering the wandering soul gradually intensified, the wandering soul's body showed subtle digital distortions and glitches. Finally, when the purple hue vanished and glitches settled, I received a system prompt:
[System Notification:
> Hack Succesful! You have used Astral Hack to hack into a nameless wandering soul.
> You have triggered the maximum crit rate on the unit.
> You can now access the unit's entire information.
> If you manage to recruit the hacked wandering soul you will gain full loyalty.
<Soul Name: Nameless < p>
Soul Race: Human(♂)
Soul Class: None
Soul Level: None
Soul Title: None
Soul Domain: None
Soul stats: None (Dosen't have an affinity for mana)
Soul Skill: None
Soul insider:
i) Soul's past life name is Ray Benton and entered the Astral Arena at the age of 45.
ii) Soul was a low-level thug in past life back on earth.
iii) As a low-level thug the Soul had no notable skills.
iv) The soul tends to lean towards sin's rage and lust. It wasn't loyal to anyone in its past life and lived selfishly.
Note:
i) Wandering Soul can retain past life skill proficiency and memories if they practice similar skills after being recruited as subjects.
ii) If the wandering soul is equipped with the same class as in past life they will retain the class-related skills and memories.
iii) The nature of most wandering souls does not change even if they lose their memory.]
Going through the information about the wandering soul, I could not help but thank my luck for having acquired the astral hack skill because with it the hidden stats luck, and loyalty were useless for me. Not to mention it also helped me learn about the wandering soul's past life and potential.
Thanks to the information provided by the astral hack skill, I resolutely rejected the nameless wandering soul's pending request to join my domain as my first subject. Just as I rejected the nameless wandering soul, I saw another wandering soul enter my domain through the astral mist dome covering the domain.
I believe this must be the combined work of the title 'Resourceful Lord' and the fountain's effect.