Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 25: Title

Congratulations! For deeds related to the System, you have achieved recognition by a large number of people.

These people have used countless words and phrases to refer to you and the most common ones have been noted down. Choose two to keep and display at will.

Lunatic

Frat Guy

Rambo

Ragdoll

Ninja Wannabe

…

As you have only just unlocked the Title System, you may give yourself a personal Designation.

Warning! While you may be able to choose any name here, including the wording of another title, you will never get another chance to create a custom designation. Think this through!

Titles were a common thing in stories about the real world turning into a video game, powerful boosts that made achieving great deeds that much more profitable.

These … weren’t that, sadly.

Titles were, in essence, [System] enforced bragging rights. Once enough people had become aware of you for actions related to the [System], you got access to this cute little time waster. You could choose to add one of the many phrases people used to refer to you due to the actions that had earned you your fame to your Status and freely switch between them.

But you also got to pick a designation, any designation, to be displayed in the final slot. People could check whether said title was [System] given or person chosen, so picking ‘Lord Admiral, Supreme Commander of the Seven Seas’ as your designation would earn you, at a minimum, odd looks.

Most people chose either gamer handles or edgy nicknames, though a few did create custom designations that sounded impressive at first, but they stopped displaying those.

As to how the [System] calculated ‘fame’, that had never actually gotten properly determined, simply because calculating how many people knew about someone or something with a significant degree of accuracy was pretty damn hard. Sure, it was possible to check how many people had clicked on a certain video or bought a certain book, but that still didn’t give any data about things like how many people had been in front of the screen while a video played and so on and so forth.

The only thing that had been determined and scientifically proven was that not all knowledge and fame were equal. A grainy cell phone video wasn’t the equal of a high quality one, co-authoring a paper wasn’t the same as actually writing the damn thing. Basically, the more you the thing people knew was, and the bigger your contribution was, the more it counted towards earning you a title.

So between a poor quality cell phone video of him facing a powerful monster and having helped write a rather famous paper … let’s just say he was extra glad to have [Hundred Faces] right about now.

Isaac was also very aware of the fact that he needed to hit Level 10 soon and evolve, given that not only unlocked [Skills] to inspect people, but also ones to block said [Skills].

Everyone could get the basic version, regardless of their [Class], then spend more points to upgrade it into something more in line with it later. And being a [Rogue], his anti-Inspection [Skills] would be top notch.

So, keep fighting at his current Level to enjoy the XP boost a little longer, then upgrade all the way when he had the points? Yeah, that sounded about right.

Of course, cutting yourself off mid-word like that drew attention, so Isaac just made the screen visible to everyone.

“Oh.” Bailey said “You can never, ever make that public.”

“Why?” Isaac frowned.

“Because if people realize that there is a way to get what basically amounts to the world acknowledging your fame, then there will be idiots doing whatever they can to get that. I think we all know the stunts people have pulled for what amounts to worthless points in the internet, what do you think they’ll do for this, especially given that it has to involve the [System]?” Bailey said, sounding defeated.

“To be fair, some of those people use the fame from those ‘worthless internet points’ to launch a career.” Raul cautioned.

“And how many people have done more stupid things to keep that fame?” Patrick just shook his head “Besides, there’s plenty of people who don’t actually do anything with internet fame, they do something just for the sake of clicks, views, likes, what have you, and that’s that. This is in no way something that will stay secret forever, but the longer it takes to get out, the better people will be prepared for the mess this will bring. It’s like this whole Title thing is a trap for the dumbest and vainest of us.”

“It’s literally in the manual.” Raul said, opening up the relevant page and leaving it hanging in the air next to him, visible to all.

“Except you knew it was there, which is why you found it so quickly. Normally, people would have to dig through the entire thing to get to that part.” Patrick argued “Besides, I never said it should be hidden forever, or that that’s even feasible. We should prepare a statement about these things, gather as much information as we can and tell people … when it won’t cause mass chaos. Remember, Isaac clearly got that thing because he fought a monster that can punch through concrete. What happens when Internet Prankster Mc Brainless decides it would be ‘totally cool’ to see what happens when he sticks a random dinosaur bone, which he bought at a whim, into a summoning circle?”

“Exactly.” Bailey ended Patrick’s diatribe while the younger man was pausing to take a breath “Let’s not give people a whole new reason to do stupid shit. Give it a week, see what other things we’ve managed to find out, then see where we’re at. It’ll probably be out by then anyway, so we’ll likely end up releasing our findings as well.”

Then, he turned to Isaac “So, what will your custom Title be?”

“I’m not sure.” Isaac replied, staring intently at the window before him.

Part of him wanted to just acknowledge the fact that he’d come from an alternate timeline and just never display that title. But there were ways to get a look at titles even if the bearer didn’t want to reveal them, so that was definitely out.

He could have also just gone with a generic, edgy name like ‘Isaac ‘The Knife’ Thoma’, but chose to not do that, for obvious reasons. Really, anything to do with his [Class] or fighting style just made him sound like some pubescent edgelord, so, hard nope on that.

And then there was the obvious option of just picking a gamertag he’d used in the past. Reasonably unique and nowhere near crude enough to backfire. Simply a good way to identify himself until someone got their own chance at creating a title and decided to copy his.

Part of him wanted to just leave that slot bare and empty till judgement day, but that was stupid as well. As long as nothing immediately incriminating went in there, he could show people.

And as for clandestine meetings, if someone was able to pierce his identity shields thoroughly enough to get his title, they’d also be able to get his name, another reason to reach Level 10 and get those [Skills].

Then, a bolt of inspiration struck him. A way to make a statement of intent, of giving himself a Title that worked as a solid designation, while also acknowledging his past. Except it did so in such a way that it had a totally different meaning, his true intent only deducible by someone who already suspected the truth.

“I think I got it.” Isaac announced, interrupting whatever the others had been discussing, then revealed his new nameplate. He'd also elected to keep the titles of 'Lunatic' and 'Rambo' so he could display them whenever he wanted to make a certain impression.

Name: Isaac ‘The Completionist’ Thoma

“That’s an interesting choice. Mind sharing why you picked it?” Amy asked.

“Because that’s what I want to be. Someone who has done everything, seen everything, known everything. Before, that meant working hard, getting an early retirement and then travelling the world. Now, with the [System], I can do so much more. And I want to see it.

I want to duel a Yeti on the top of Mount Everest, fight a horde of Tatzelwyrm in the Alps, summon Jormungandr in the Fjords of Norway, see the first new dinosaur in sixty-five million years walk the Earth, just … everything.”

“I can tell, no one gets a grin that dopey on their face unless they’re talking about something they really like.” Amy said, snapping a picture of his face before he could say anything against it.

When she flipped her phone over and showed the picture to everyone, Isaac had to agree. That grin was dopey. But the idea of wanting to do everything was near and dear to his heart. It was what had gotten him into hunting in the first place, then determination, caution, and yes, no small amount of luck had carried him to the top.

Now, he was just in it to still have a planet in a couple of decades.

But eventually, one day, when all was said and done and humanity’s future assured, it was what he wanted to be doing. Experiencing everything.

“Well said.” Bailey commented “Now, I think it’s time to move on to a few more administrative things and then we can get back to doing some actual science.”

Double checking that there were materials for almost every Tier 1 and 2 summon available in sufficient quantities, making sure the refrigerated boxes were actually made available again as their contents were brought into more permanent storage facilities … it was boring, but it had to be done, and it had to be done right.

The door opened as they worked on that.

“Good afternoon, everyone.” Wechsler announced, striding in with a briefcase slung under his arm “Is now a good time to be talking about your new building? I brought the preliminary plans and approvals.”

“Sure, come in.” Bailey waved him towards the table.

“What do you mean, preliminary?” Patrick wondered.

“It means no one knows about what is needed to confine some of the stronger creatures just yet, so the university’s getting preliminary approval to build most of the building. The plans for the rest will be approved on an apropos basis.” Wechsler explained.

“That’s a lot more reasonable than any bureaucracy normally is. Why don’t you do it like that normally?” Patrick frowned.

“Because, while it might not feel like it, that’s there to protect people. Imagine you build half your house, then want to build the other half but run into a million different issues getting the rest to also fit the building codes. No, it’s normally a whole lot better to approve the final design. This … this is a unique situation.” Wechsler explained.

“And why are you the one who’s bringing us this?” Patrick asked, sounding puzzled “You don’t work for the department of buildings, do you?”

“I’m a lawyer as well as someone with the [Class] of [Lawyer] and I have an existing relationship with Professor Bailey’s department.” Wechsler explained “So, what do you know about the requirements for the summoning chambers?”

“I’ve fought a few of the bigger monsters and I can give you their dimensions.” Isaac chimed in “As far as how tough the walls need to be, I think we should summon a few different Tier 4 monsters because that’s the current maximum for most people to summon, see how tough they are and how hard they hit, then double what we’d need just for them.”

When everyone looked at him oddly, he shrugged “Or something.”

“A Tier 4 monster put you in the hospital barely three days ago.” Bailey shot him a look.

“And I’ve doubled my Level since then and I won’t be wielding glass shards I dug out of the trash, this time around.” Isaac said “I know better than anyone how tough monsters can get, and I know I can beat, at the very least, a Tier 4, Level 10 Swamp Knight.”

“Still not a good idea or something I can authorize.” Bailey warned.

“We do have a massive list of summons below that Tier available, though.” Amy said “Let’s just grab a … Lesser Hydra, maybe? You know, the thing directly underneath it in the list?”

“I’ve summoned plenty of Hydras and I know I can beat it, but those won’t fit in the summoning room.” Isaac shrugged, then flashed open the Aspect tab of his Status as proof.

“What’s their average Level?” Bailey asked, sounding intrigued.

“Six, though they’re sometimes Level 7 or even 8, but those are rare and have never been issue for me.” Isaac said.

“And your Level?”

“6.”

“Ok, I’ll fill out in the paperwork to request us being allowed to summon a creature in an open space somewhere well clear of anything important on the basis of having a proven track record when it comes to beating them. Once you hit Level 8, we might be able to get somewhere. I can’t guarantee it’ll get anywhere, but we do have to check some things before we can build anything properly prepared and when we can prove that these creatures are beatable, the university higher ups might be willing to risk it.” Bailey suggested.

“I can do that now. I’ve got the XP, I was delaying my Level up to keep the bonus for fighting against higher level enemies.” Isaac shrugged.

“What did you do this weekend?” Bailey asked, mostly to himself “I thought you went camping.”

“And what do think I did all the time, especially now that I only need like two hours of sleep?” Isaac asked.

“Speaking of weird sleep habits, I’ve been talking to a friend who’s a doctor in a teaching hospital linked to the university about that and he wants to conduct a rather large sleep study on how changes with which Stats alter that sort of thing.” Bailey spoke up.

“And how would they be levelling?” Isaac wondered. That sounded like a good way to end up with a bunch of young people summoning when they otherwise wouldn’t be and ending up dead.

… or maybe it would just die due to incredibly tight and over the top security precautions.

“Actually, the idea was that the participants would be charging circles for people who want to fight monsters to use. That seems to be a relatively risk free way to level up, though it might count towards the limit of how often you can get XP from a certain monster. That’s something we’d be checking as well.” Bailey said.

“So basically, all you’d need is a safe area to do that, and then we’d have a massive supply of monsters?” Isaac said, barely suppressing a grin.

“Thought you might like that.” Bailey said, giving him a proper smile in return “The idea is to slowly level up the volunteers in a safe manner while someone who is actually willing to fight monsters can do the fighting. We monitor things like XP gains and maximum kills until they stop giving it while the hospital does a sleep study on the actual summoners. We still need a place to summon the monsters, but this should still be good.”

“Do we even need a full complement of defenses against monsters up to, say, Tier 5, like we want for ourbuilding?” Raul asked “Shouldn’t something that suffices against the specific monsters we choose to use be enough? We can safely summon them here and go from there?”

“And if we do that, I can get a pretty good sense of how they hit and what’s required to block them.” Karl spoke up “My [Structural Analysis] [Skill] is really useful for that sort of thing.

“The local police department is almost done building something to level up their officers and I’ve been consulting with them. We should be able to come to an arrangement.” Bailey threw in.

“That sounds just about perfect.” Isaac grinned.

And with the plans solidly made, things went back to the grind. Try something, see what happens, then try something ever so slightly, almost painfully, different.

But before he knew it, the day was over and Isaac was walking home. He wouldn’t be going back to the forest tonight, he’d be finishing up his recipe book for potions as well as a few research proposals he was planning on submitting in time.