Chapter 1. Basics

While I was temporarily left to my own devices, I decided to delve deeper into the "Player" system. Specifically, how attributes affect my abilities.

Strength is the primary attribute for warriors' weapons and armor. Each point of strength allows you to deal more damage with weapons whose primary attribute is "Strength." Each point of Strength also increases your carrying capacity and melee attack power. The damage calculation coefficient is as follows:

GS = WS + ST - RS

GS — damage dealt, WS — weapon damage, ST — strength/agility modifier, RS — opponent's defense.

Seems straightforward, right? Not entirely. If, for example, you have a lot of strength but don't know how to use weapons, the likelihood of you inflicting any damage to your opponent is extremely low. It's all because you don't really know how to wield them. Therefore, the formula hasn't accounted for the Weapon Proficiency stat yet, which I mentioned in my request to the Administration. After all, if you were to master a one-handed sword perfectly while having around 40 strength, wouldn't it result in nearly every strike being considered a "Critical" hit?

Strength also influences a characteristic called "Stamina." The higher a character's strength, the greater the chance that the character may not even feel the effects of an enemy's attack. It's harder to knock down, send into a knockout, or, in simpler terms, withstand physical blows from enemies.

Stamina can also be acquired through other means, but the system didn't specify which ones. Again, gameplay intricacies, making my already dreadful life easier? Okay, moving on.

In general, it's a pretty useful attribute, but I don't think relying solely on brute strength can beat everyone and everything. There's likely someone stronger out there. Anyway, I'm confident that to improve this characteristic, you simply need to train hard.

Agility is the primary attribute for weapons and armor for rogues. Rogues or, as they are also called, DPS (Damage Dealers). In RPG games, they were called that because DD stands for Damage Dealer, essentially the one who deals the main damage. It's responsible for attack accuracy, evasion chance, damage from ranged and cold weapons, whose primary attribute is "Agility." Sounds pretty cool, unlike strength, right? But it's just how it sounds. To fully utilize all the abilities, professions, and skills of Rogues, a high increase in "Endurance" is required. This is because most of them require speed and continuous movement without the ability to stop.

Well... my luck is pretty self-explanatory here. If I bear the "Fate" mark, I can only remove it with the help of some higher entity. With the help of Chronos or someone else. At the moment, there's nothing to be done about it.

Intuition is an attribute responsible for the ability to predict the outcomes of events, whether they are good or bad. It's quite a useful attribute to avoid getting into even bigger troubles in the future.

Willpower is an attribute that affects mental resilience — protection against all sorts of mental attacks, telepaths, mind control specialists. In other words, it's harder to intimidate, persuade, or control me compared to regular adults. Or in simpler terms, what's the norm for this one? That's clear enough.

Wisdom increases the rate at which I gain any experience and allows me to learn skills and abilities more quickly. In general, it increases my adaptability. I think it's one of the most useful attributes, considering that I want to become stronger as quickly as possible... and I want to know everything there is to know. After all, my life is at stake!

Constitution — it's all quite straightforward here. Each point of this attribute adds 10 hit points and increases health regeneration by 0.005 per second. Not exactly Wolverine, but it'll do. So, with my current constitution, I can regenerate 0.15 HP per second.

Endurance — that's pretty straightforward too. Each point of this attribute adds 10 to the Endurance points. Here they somehow call them AP — Action Points, for some reason. Each point increases endurance regeneration by 0.01, so every second I can restore 0.1 AP.

Charisma affects persuasion/intimidation in various situations. With a high charisma level, you can successfully negotiate a higher reward for a task or even avoid a battle altogether by turning enemies against themselves. It's easy to guess that this attribute improves the disposition of the interlocutor towards me, something like a "trust aura."

Intelligence — obviously, the main attribute for a mage, and the higher it is, the stronger spells and other abilities will be. I can't say much about it because, for some reason, mana is unavailable to me, and I can't use magical skills for now.

We've covered the attributes, and the peculiarities have been taken into account. It's better to forget about my God for now while I'm here. I seem to be here to entertain him, not demand the impossible and ask for help every chance I get.

Karma of Chronos +5

Oh... You're even reading my thoughts, huh? Well, I'll try not to disappoint.

Karma of Chronos +1

He clearly likes my attitude.

While I still have time to pretend to be a vegetable on the mattress, and since no one can see notifications or the Player interface's blue window, it's worth taking the time to understand another important aspect.

"Inventory"

Like any typical character, I had it, but I couldn't bring myself to open it. What if there are surveillance cameras here, or if one of the neighboring cellmates decides to rat me out? No, I can't use it while I'm in my cell. I don't have the right to take risks. Yes, there's another "life," activated with the Reset ability, but I don't want to waste it on such nonsense.

Now... let's get back to the most important thing: my ability — Time Manipulation! It sounds cool, of course, but how much do I really know about this power? Practically nothing. From a scientific point of view, time is a force that controls the existence of this world. It's the most dangerous weapon in the hands of a human because the consequences of its use are unpredictable. The most famous example of such unpredictability is, of course, the "Butterfly Effect" from Ray Bradbury's famous story. So many theories were built, so many debates were held in an attempt to understand the truth... However, the theory remained just that because no one in my world managed to time travel to prove it.

So, the Administration mentioned something about me being able to influence time with Action Points (AP). Well, let's try it.

Focusing, I closed my eyes and imagined how the world around me should freeze. Instead of words, I decided to use a simple finger snap as a mental anchor for activating the ability. Opening my eyes, I saw a scene where colors seemed to vanish from the world, and only I was a living character in this strange painting: I could breathe, move, speak. And until the shock of what I saw consumed me completely, I quickly opened my status to check how long I could stop time with my current level.

The status displayed how rapidly my precious Action Points were being depleted.

Five Seconds.

Five seconds was all I had. Well, I won't complain; it's not bad for a start.

You have incurred the Fatigue debuff (until full recovery in 5 minutes).

You have unlocked the active ability "Time Stop" Level 1!

Ability cost: 20 AP/1 second. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Opening the branch of its development, I noticed that with each level, the AP costs would decrease, but the cooldown would remain the same. So, is the Administration trying to balance the power? The main skill had branched into a decent tree, but most of the abilities were hidden behind locks and didn't even have names. A bit weak, it seemed...

I hadn't even finished my thoughts when I heard noise from outside, and two Germans in black uniforms burst into my cell.

"Schnelle! Schnelle!!"

That's the only thing I could understand from their abrupt and menacing chopped phrases, accompanied by unpleasant prods from the barrel of an MP-40 submachine gun. Heh, it's amazing that I remembered the name of this gun because I played Call of Duty 2... The smirk accompanying my own thoughts was appreciated in its own way, and I felt the full force of the blow from a well-booted German. Screaming in pain, I fell to my knees. It felt like he had broken my leg with that blow!

They clearly had no intention of listening to my whining and complaints and dragged me again, like some kind of animal, across the floor. First, we ended up in an elevator with only three buttons. My cell was on the first level; I had no idea what was on the second level because we exited on the third. The atmosphere here was radically different. Gleaming white marble floors, wooden doors made of seasoned oak, to put it mildly, not cheap. And nameplates on every door assured me that this was the Management or Council of Chiefs floor. Bastards. Nothing else came to mind. They brought me to one of these sanctuaries. The office of our Professor Evil was well-kept and clean, fully conforming to office plankton standards. Only the abundance of swastikas, medals, and photos from the past war assured me that this guy was a mad scientist. And the H&K G3 hanging on the wall clearly indicated that the Reich was no more.

"Do you remember who you are?" he spoke in English, but my mind seemed to translate his speech into Russian. It sounded like a translation overlaid on the original audio track. This technique is often used for dubbing movies.

Your body is familiar with the English language, but due to the properties of your soul, it will be easier to orient yourself in Russian. Available languages: Russian, English.

"No," I honestly replied to him, for I didn't want to test my ability to lie.

"That's actually good. Your life before ending up here doesn't matter anymore. Congratulations, you're the only one who survived the experiment," he said in a casual tone, clasping his hands behind his back and asking me with mild curiosity, "You used that 'power,' didn't you?"

Damn, I never thought they'd figure me out so quickly. I had naively hoped to pretend that I couldn't use the power until I mastered it to some decent level.

"I didn't say anything. I can tell by your expression that you did. Our equipment detected an unknown surge that lasted mere seconds. What did you do?" His hands dropped onto my shoulders, and a terrifyingly fanatical gleam appeared in his eyes.

"I... I stopped time, sir."

"Mein Führer," you must always address me that way, "Führer," he corrected.

"Yes, Mein Führer."

"Good. Describe the details."

"It's... hard to explain. Everything around me froze, lost its colors, and... well, everything."

"Hmph, something like that was expected. How long did it last?"

"A couple of seconds," I slightly lied, hoping this result wouldn't please him, but...

"Ausgezeichnet!"* I had no idea what he said, but this phrase clearly expressed his joy. Your...

"You have only one path, 88th - to become our instrument for the resurrection of the Great Empire from the ashes! This time, we've found a true Wunderwaffe! And we won't allow the traitors of the Aryan race to hand it over to the Western swine!"

At the words "Great Empire," that abnormal fanatic fire flared up in his eyes again.

(Note: "Ausgezeichnet" means "excellent" in German.)

Psychological Attack Blocked.

Main Event Branch Launched!

Among Strangers

You need to break free from the shackles of your current captors. You have Three Paths:

"The Path of the Reich's Weapon," "The Path of the Hero," and "The Path of the Lone Wolf." What you choose depends solely on you.

Time for completion: Unlimited

Reward: Selective (???) Failure: Death

Read the details later?

I mentally replied "Yes" just to make this quest finally disappear from my sight.

"Always ready, Mein Führer," I said aloud.

"No, you're far from ready yet. First, I'd like to clarify something between us..." He pulled out a silver collar from under the table and promptly secured it around my neck. "This is your leash. The moment you use your power without my command, you'll be in for a very unpleasant shock therapy. For instance..." He reached into his pocket and took out a small control device with a single red button and... "Like this."

My body was engulfed in a burst of electricity, and a strangled scream escaped my mouth. I wished they would stomp all over him! Bastard! Monster! It hurt so much!

I writhed from side to side, but it didn't help, and tears involuntarily streamed from my eyes.

"Now do you understand? You belong to the Reich, and only I will decide when you're ready to become our instrument. Right now, you're just a worm who's been given a chance."

The demonstration ended, and I could barely stand on my feet. My entire body was numb and trembling. I hated him more than I feared him, but I tried not to show my emotions and attempted to feign genuine fear. It seemed to work...

"Good that you understand now. From this moment on, you will obey everything I say, until I'm convinced that you're truly ready to become our instrument. And now, our theory teacher will accompany you." Confirming his words, a muscular, almost bald man with a small beard and a vertical scar running from his eye to his cheek entered the room. "After all, you must become the best of the best..."

After that, I was escorted to the second level of the Laboratory. I couldn't tell exactly how large it was due to the wall formed by the escort, which restricted my movement. Usually, I was led into some enormous gym. On the way to it were barracks of soldiers with personal quarters for scientists. In general, this level belonged entirely to the "personnel." Everything was relatively benign and straightforward at this point. I received a simple quest to learn the German language and tactics, and upon completion, my Experience Points and, in some cases, even Wisdom increased by a couple of units. My teacher mentioned that I was learning incredibly fast, by the standards of an ordinary person. In just a week, I managed to master the German language and the basics of battle tactics, which unlocked and improved new skills.

Bonuses from books:

+5 to Wisdom

+10 to Intelligence

+5 to Intuition

Passive:

"Art of War" - You now know how to behave in various situations on the battlefield, granting you a permanent bonus.

Your proficiency in Cold and Firearms has increased by +5%, the chance of catching you off guard is -20%, and the Critical Hit chance is +1%.

Theory wasn't the only thing I was taught. There were also, in turn, grueling physical workouts that left me almost collapsing.

Thanks to these rigorous and constant workouts, over the course of this week, you've improved your attributes:

+14 Strength

+14 Agility

+7 Stamina

+7 Constitution

+2 Willpower

Through training with cold and firearms, you've gained permanent skills:

Knife Proficiency Level 3 (40.5% to the next level)

Hand-to-Hand Combat Proficiency Level 2 (12.5% to the next level)

Pistol Proficiency Level 3 (56.3% to the next level). You can use: Walter P38, TT, Colt 1911.

Submachine Gun Proficiency Level 2 (61.5% to the next level). You can use: MP-40, MP-5, PPSh-41.

The first level of proficiency gave a bonus of +4% + 1 to Critical Hits, and each subsequent level increased this chance by half. So, the ratios were as follows:

2nd Level: 7.5%

3rd Level: 11.25%

4th Level: 16.875%

5th Level: 25.3%

6th Level: 37.9%

7th Level: 56.8%

8th Level: 85.2%

9th-10th Level: 100%...?

The 9th-10th levels are probably the "Grandmaster" level, where a character can master the weapon perfectly.

I also raised myself by 2 levels thanks to the successful completion of simple assignments, and now I understand how the leveling system works. Upon leveling up, you receive 10 attribute points to distribute as you wish and 1 point to unlock a skill/ability. There are many skills, and they are divided into classes. There are "Common" skills that don't require specific specialization, and even an ordinary person with proper training can learn them. There are also Class skills that require you to choose your Primary Attribute for their use. If I want to become stronger as quickly as possible and escape from here, I need to decide who I want to become. This will also affect my leveling. Most of my physical training will primarily enhance this primary attribute.

There are three main attribute branches:

+Strength

+Agility

+Magic

With a high degree of development, I'm sure these attributes will intersect. There's something wrong with my mana, and for some reason, it's blocked, so the path to becoming a mage is currently closed. Strength is the choice of invulnerable tanks, while Agility users will rely only on damage and evasions, without high defense stats. Although, given my special ability, I don't think I really need defense. I just need to kill as many enemies as possible and deal maximum damage for victory. It's so easy for me to talk about killing, like it's a trivial matter, as if I were a machine. Perhaps because of the Cold Mind, I've already grown accustomed to thinking about things like it's just business as usual.

Well, I think I've made my choice.

Right now, while I'm in the common dining area, it's not worth doing this. Who knows how it will affect me if I choose the Primary Attribute? Also, I've decided not to waste my hard-earned 20 points with two skill points just yet. I haven't decided where to allocate them.

While eating some "space" porridge, I once again glanced at the three points of my main task that could be performed simultaneously, but in the end, there would be only one outcome.

A friend among strangers

  Path of the Reich's Weapon

Destroy the top leadership of the organization and take its helm.

Reputation among the military:

Cold Weapon Master, "Fang," Level 35 - +60 (Interest)

Hand-to-Hand Combat Master, "Boom," Level 34 - +25 (Not entirely indifferent)

Firearm Weapon Master, "Marksman," Level 40 - +50 (Interest)

Reputation among scientists:

None

Reputation among the organization's leadership:

Head of the Organization, Geydrich Faust II - -900 (Valuable Asset)

"Right Hand of the Reich," Arthur Stultz - -500 (Doubt)

"Left Hand of the Reich," Magnus Trask - -2000 (Hatred)

Where do these positive relationship indicators from my teachers come from? Well, over this week, I never spoke out of turn, fulfilled all their demands, didn't complain, and always exceeded their expectations. It's not surprising that I only evoked positive emotions in their eyes. Another reason they were willing to connect with me was that they were just mercenaries and not outright fanatics. Work is work. As long as they're paid for it, they could do anything that doesn't go against their interests. At least, that's what Fang told me thanks to my Charisma. So, if there's enough respect/trust, is there a chance to win them over to my side? Interesting. But what can I offer them? I have no money, no connections. Well, we'll think of something.

As for what I did to upset Magnus, I have no idea. I've never met him once, but it seems he hates me more than anyone else.

The path of the "Hero"

Free yourself and the prisoners from the oppression of the "Nazis"!

Reputation with captives:

No

The Way of the "Loner"

Use all the means at hand to become free!

Well... It was not my plan to seize power, and the choice was either to get out with everyone, or to get out myself. Of course, the Way of the Lone seems to be the simplest and easiest to achieve, but it was as if this sense of justice and heroism awoke in me. I wanted to save these people. I didn't want them to live... so. Every day, when I returned to my cell, I saw a prisoner for fun being raped by one of the guards. I heard him screaming hysterically for him to stop, but he didn't stop and none of us could do anything about it. We are... were just a resource for them. If I was "special" to them, and for this reason I was not touched, then the rest were also turned into thoughtless dolls who were taught to fight for the future of the "Reich". The only difference between us was that I had the Chronos Clock in me, but it didn't.

At times, I would engage in conversations with the test subjects in the dining hall or training room. I built relationships with them and dropped subtle hints that it would be wonderful if we could all escape from this place and start anew. I nurtured hope in them while I decided to develop a precise plan for our collective rescue.

During the break, I chose Agility as my primary attribute, and then I browsed through the skills that had become available to me through my status menu. There weren't many, but among them were a couple of important and possibly necessary abilities.

"Acceleration" - Sustained.

Cost: 10 AP/sec.

You accelerate your body, significantly increasing your movement and thought speed.

"Indefatigable" Level 1 - Passive.

Your Stamina recovery rate doubles!

"Stealth" Level 1 - Sustained.

Cost: 5 AP/sec

You blend in with your surroundings and become nearly invisible. The "Stealth" will automatically be lifted when attacking an enemy, and in the case of a successful surprise attack, you will guarantee a Critical Hit.

Interestingly, at a high level of skill, the character, which is me, will never exit invisibility.

I'll make a note for the future. I definitely need to study it when I decide to escape from here. There's no need for it now because I'm under constant control, and I won't be able to train it.

The passive skill was too tempting to ignore, even considering my low level, so I invested one skill point into it. It was a bit sad to realize that the next skill level upgrade would only be available at levels 9, 18, and 32. It seems like "Balance" again.

Acceleration is certainly a useful skill, but considering my current low stamina, I'm unlikely to find much use for it. Even Time Stop looks better. Plus, I can't just casually spend skill points.

I also discovered the possibility of choosing a specialization in the future at level 10.

Assassin, Thief, Poison Master, or Tempest.

While the first three were self-explanatory, the last class is, in simpler terms, a versatile Alchemist-Rogue who creates elixirs and drinks to enhance his weapons and abilities.

The second specialization could only be chosen at level 50.

In the office of the Reich Leader.

"You have very impressive learning abilities, '88th.' You managed to learn the basics in just a week, while it could take others months or even years. This has caused some adjustments in our plans. From now on, you will undergo a special procedure in Room 172 on the second level. You don't need to know the details."

I didn't feel good about Faust's tone. What was he planning to do...?!