Chapter 04: How to build an Empire (Part 1)
[Clock - 15:20 - 03:20 PM]
[Calendar (D/M/Y) - 03/01/2002]
[Location: Noonan's Bar, Gotham City]
(Info Dumping Ahead)
---
Atlas asked for a little bit of time soon after he told Waylon that he would start his empire by convincing homeless people to join him- He needed information, he knew he was in the DC Universe, but as far as he knew, he could be in some sort of twisted sick fantasy of a fanfic writer! -so he could read a little bit. Thankfully, Sean Noonan was a good friend of Waylon and they were allowed to stay in the bar, so while Waylon talked to Sean, Atlas ignored Baytor (who was still talking about his many, many, many lovers) and focused on the book in his mind.
It was weird. The moment he opened the first book was like he could see the book right in front of him, but it was truly inside his head. Choosing the very first book was not that hard actually, because when he opened the system screen by focusing on the book icon in the corner of his sight, he was able to select [By Topics] on the screen- now, he expected to see many, many topics and although his expectations were not for nothing, he was still surprised by the sheer volume of topics and different types of books -and the very first topic was called [Start Here], let me show you.
---
Topics [Start Here]
Organization: Alphabetical Order
[Magic]
Learning Practical Magics | Theory of Magic | Tomes of Magic | History of Magic | Basics of Magic | Magic Across the Omniverse
A
Abjuration
Absorption Magic
Aether Magic
Akashic Magic
Alchemist
Alchemy Creation
Alien Magic
Ancestral Magic
Angelic Magic
Anger Magic
Animal Magic
Animancy
Antithetical Magic
Archery Magic
Architecture Magic
Arctic Magic
Armament Magic
Armor Magic
Artificial Element Magic
Astral Magic
Atmospheric Magic
Aura Magic
Aurora Magic
Autumn Magic
B ...
[Technology]
Theoretical Methodology | Experimentation | Books of Science | History of Technology | Basics of Tinkering | Technology Across the Omniverse
...
---
'Holy shit!' The sheer amount of different magical topics, different types of different related topics and so many options of things to read- he was almost overwhelmed when he saw the sheer size of the screen. It was long, long list that easily could wrap around the entirety of the earth at least a couple of times... He had to limit the list because he couldn't see the majority of it, so the list simply shrank into a small screen the size of a phone that he could mentally scroll down. But before he even did that, he started on the [Start Here] section! The moment he selected that option, a few sparks of golden glitter fluttered around his eyes as a small list appeared before his eyes, he could only see about 3 books in this screen, and they were... interesting in their title choices?
---
[Start Here]
[Book 1 - So, you've found yourself in a whole new world. What to do now? How to avoid dying like a little bitch, how to properly understand and accept your situation, and how to easily overcome your fear of dying by the snap of some omnipotent being.]
[Book 2 - How to properly understand this system (how to use and abuse your perks, quests don't really happen unless you want them to, and how to properly use the knowledge from the many books you have), who the fuck gave it to you, why you should love them deeply, and why you should really start developing some deep love for reading- seriously, this whole system was made for that!]
[Book 3 - Explanation about the many, many, many, oh so fucking many different worlds, dimensions, universes, multiverses, and other shit out there because god knows you'll need this like holy fuck.]
---
"...okay?" Atlas was... conflicted. Mostly because these titles sounded like those shitty Isekai novels that had very stupid long names. He was expecting to be reading tomes of ancient secrets and not [Chungledown Bim secret to shitting people in the face and how to make a thousand gold pieces for each time you do shit people in the face, how to threaten them to shit in their mouth, and how to avoid people into SCAT], okay!? 'Okay, I can start with... Book 1 seems a good one, the beginning of the beginning.' He selected the [Book 1 - So, you've found yourself in a whole new world. What to do now? How to avoid dying like a little bitch, how to properly understand and accept your situation, and how to easily overcome your fear of dying by the snap of some omnipotent being] and started to read it... "Well, I don't know what else I expected..." The book had about 100 pages, it wasn't that big of a book for someone like him that has had read 100,000 words almost daily in fanfic, but the content of the book was rather to the point.
The book could be summarized like this:
[ - "What to do now?" Try not to die, seriously, dying sucks unless you got some authority over death. The many, many, many deities of death don't really like dealing with beings like us, whose souls cannot be controlled by them.
- "How to avoid dying like a little bitch" This one is really simple, just try to stay away from the ones who your tingly reader senses tells you to stay away from... Unless you're trying to become an author, then to ahead and fuck shit up.
- "How to properly understand and accept your situation" Simple, interact with people. If you're having a hard time understanding or accepting the world around you as real, you will become one of the worst types of readers.
- "How to easily overcome your fear of dying by the snap of some omnipotent being" This one is also very simple: They can't. You're now part of the Endless Library, one of the many Omnipotent beings in the Omniverse.
This is the basic of the basic, go read the other two books. If you have any questions, use the Q&A function of the system, it will answer three questions per day, based on the world, universe, or wherever the fuck you are with the truth for the place you're in.
Good luck.]
...let me explain a little bit. The book starts by congratulating him on joining the Endless Library and becoming a Rookie Reader, and telling him to always read good stories. Then, it starts explaining that there are two major categories for people like him that are linked to this same system- the Authors and the Readers. These categories are not exactly categories, more like clubs that you join once you start acting a certain way with the system you've been given... Authors interact with world they are reading, writing new stories within the stories they are inside and even manipulating the story to go as they want it to (that's the most basic definition of the so called "Authors") while the Readers usually only watch from the sideline, believing that they were there tk see the story happening and not influence it with their actions, whims or wishes (But that's the textbook definition of the "Readers"). These two categories are also deeply integrated in the very system, because in the future he would receive the option to choose between the Authority of an Author, or the Freedom of a Reader.
And that's just the beginning, because as soon as he finished reading the first book in about 5 minutes- he loved the [Fast Reading] Perk -a new screem flashed before his eyes, with his new Perk being shown to him:
---
Act Like you Know It, Learn as you Do
Acting on the knowledge you have about a Topic, you can learn more about this topic. The greater the amount of books you've read about that Topic, the greater your proficiency over said Topic.
---
"Just like the book said, huh?" The first book also told him that although he couldn't be given details about future perks and had to discover them by himself, he was warned about the first one being one of the most important perks he'd have, seeing as this was the backbone of his future power. "...I need to learn more about magic, huh?" Magic was one of his topics of most interest, because Technology would need external materials to work while some types of Magic might need simple internal energies or more depending on the type of magic he is going to learn- because by acting like he knows it, he gets better at using it. And as someone who loves to read, he is very interested in the many, many books that this endless library has to offer! He really wanted to read the first book on the topic of magic, but he decided to focus on the next book - [Book 2 - How to properly understand this system (how to use and abuse your perks, quests don't really happen unless you want them to, and how to properly use the knowledge from the many books you have), who the fuck gave it to you, why you should love them deeply, and why you should really start developing some deep love for reading- seriously, this whole system was made for that!]
And this one had about 250 pages with information about the perks he had and how to use them creatively- some ideas were things he already had, but others were things he had never thought of -some things about "quests" that were... weird? They only happened if he wanted them to happen, and the moment he didn't want them to, they would disappear. Quests are beneficial for those who don't know what to do, but they may be detrimental to those who already have plans to do things in the universes they're in. The book also went into detail about how the [Act Like you Know It, Learn as you Do] perk had some flaws that he could exploit to learn how to do things quicker, and that he should start learning the basics of essential things, like cooking, medicine, survival, and some self-defense techniques from the many scrolls of martial arts.
[ - "How to abuse your perks" the Fast Reading perk can be used not only to read words, but also other things such as body language, emotions, flow of a fight, the techniques of an opponent, the magic of an opponent, computer language, magical runic languages, other languages out there, and so fucking much more.
- The [Act Like you Know It, Learn as you Do] perk can be used to learn about anything you wish to learn how to do, and this can be boosted by the way you interact with the thing you wish to learn. At earlier stages, when you haven't read even 1,000 books yet, this method is very efficient to learn: Act with confidence, act like you're an expert in the thing you're trying to learn, and the perk will receive a massive boost!
- It is recommended that you make mental shields as fast as possible. Although the [Calm Mind Mode] might protect you slightly against Telepaths, you need to make your own mental shields. Both [Fast Reading] and [Act Like you Know It, Learn as you Do] are very useful in making a mind shield, and you should absolutely believe in them- the more you act like your mind shields are invincible, the stronger they'll get.]
There was more information about other things there too, but the most important one was this- The owner of this system, the one that gave it to him, was called The Librarian, and they were the one Omnipotent Beings that protected every single of their Readers and Authors against other Omnipotent Beings and Death itself. The Librarian was also a very chill person, because they were the ones who answered the Q&A, which was why it was limited to 3 questions per day, and the answers he would get were only valid for the universe he was in.
Any questions about other universes? He would need to either learn the answer or go there himself.
And that tied into the third book... But before reading that one, he opened his system and got to the [Q&A] section- There was something he needed to know.
---
Q&A
Q - Is this universe born out of fear, and destined to be destroyed? Like, is this one of those negative universes like Earth -22 or something like that?
A - No. This is Earth 16-Z
---
"Oh thank god."
At least he knows there won't be any edgy mutant love child of Joker and Batman going around with his thick, thick plot armor.