Madman’s Retirement

Grant and the system went way back. As the first player in the system, he had acted as moderator and consultant to the system, as his system guide, system guide 0, was the main system ai, and oversaw everything within the system, and it’s authority was only second to the administrators.

System guide, unlike the other guides, was not developed to his preferences, but was a monotone, neither male nor female, basic guide, which manifested no form. This had not changed in their centuries of companionship, and the form it seemed to find the most comfortable was a slime, so non-binary. And no personality either.

“System” Grant called, “give me a status report on your current implementation of the reincarnation program.”

[Of course. So far:]

[40,000 people have been selected.]

[10,000 have died so far, and we are currently on the second batch.]

“Lower death rate than I thought it’d be,” grunted Grant. “I guess this is due to the fact that the people of this world are not ignorant to the harsh realities of the world.”

Grant’s version of earth was one where the majority of people were completely unaware of magic, treating it as a fantasy one reads in their past time. As a side effect, whenever the reincarnation program was used, and these people were brought back as monsters, many had a hard time dealing with their new situation. So about 60 percent died in the immediate time frame.

It made sense that without the illusion of magic being a fantasy, but rather being a harsh reality, that people would be more wary and prepared for their situation. They knew what a fight was really like, and their death was often far more gruesome than the death of people back where he was from.

“These are all from the empire alone, right?”

[Of course.]

“All right, then proceed to lower the third batches numbers to 1000.”

[I have already done so, though I lowered it to 2000.]

Grant shook his head.” The empire may be the major power here, but we can’t focus all the players here. Pick 4000 players from the surrounding countries. They’re smaller, but should be enough to support maybe 300 players each.“

The system went quiet, contemplating Grant’s suggestion.

[Very well then. I was planning to wait longer, but at this rate, we are bound to disrupt the worlds current sooner than later.]

Grant agreed. The political situation of the world was bound to be flipped upside down by the system, but the system would want that prolonged while it properly set itself into the world, before fully integrating itself into the lives of the people.

“All right, give me a report of the most promising players? I’m gonna be waiting for my students for a while, and as an avatar of the system I do have a responsibility to fulfill. “

[Of course. I have 300 promising players to overview.]

Grant cracked his knuckles.

“Bring it.”

…

[Player 15: Dragon]

Grant frowned as he looked through it. “He hasn’t run into that much danger though.”

“Ah. I see, blessed by Isis and Nemesis in return for being crippled his whole life by Nemesis. Alright, I can see why there’s less suffering than I thought there’d be. He’s not doing bad so far anyway.

…

[Player 69: spider]

Grant frowned as he looked over the papers. “Is this numbering a play on the fact that he was constantly sp****ng with guys?” He asked, mostly curious.

[… No]

He snorted. “And they say you don’t have a sense of humor.”

[… Who says that?]

“But why a spider? No offense, I think incubus would’ve been been better, considering his past life.”

[We do have something similar in mind for his future options. Speaking of which…]

“?”

[We’d like to request a design that’s a mix of spider and incubus.]

“Sure. Considering his rate of progress, within the year or so right?”

[Indeed. I’ll inform you if his progress speeds up.]

“Alright. Hey, you never answered me about the incubus part.”

[…]

…

[Player 75: Canine Kobold]

‘Whistle’ “Damn, that is one hell of a rap sheet in his first life. One hell of a hunter, that’s for sure. Definitely worked his way up the ranks. Is that a dragon?! Not bad for an ordinary hunter with low mana potential. If you ask me, he lived a rather fulfilling life here. Why’d you choose him?”

[There was a kobold village that could use his help in the long run, so it was considered worthwhile to send an experienced hunter.]

[And the hunter always regretted the loss of his family, so we wanted to give him a second chance.]

[You understand right?]

…

“Next”

…

Grant furrowed his brow as he looked at the player before him. Player 72 died in an attack on her village, and her final moments wanted to be somewhere safe.

The system made her a dungeon. That was perfectly fine. It’s normal for the system to grant that desire and turn the person into a dungeon.

But she was 10!

The anger could be seen on Grant’s face “system” he asked, barely calm. “Why is there a child here?”

[She wished to be safe.]

“And she’s a child. You’ve turned her into a dungeon! A home of monsters! How is she going to deal with it! She’s only TEN!”

[She was an orphan, ignored by the people around her, and in the end, it was a human bandit that killed her.]

[She does not fear monsters as much as she fears men. An apt choice to make her a dungeon then, correct?]

“… Fine”

[… You are more accepting than I thought you’d be.]

“It’s too late anyway, she’s already been reincarnated. Tell me, does she enjoy her new life?”

[Yes]

Grant sighs, as he rubs his head. “Fine, but I get the right to send her a gift.”

[… Fine. If it will get you to agree to this, very well.]

“However! I want you to assure me that if you use children from now on, that they must be orphans, must be more mature than others of their age, and they must have lower difficulty than adults who have experience.”

[Of course. That has already been the practice. I would not reincarnate a child whose family awaits him in the afterlife.]

“All right then.” Grant picks up a rock haphazardly, and begins carving in runes, until eventually the whole rock is carved up, having taken the shape of an egg, culminating in a weird circle at the center of the now carved rock.

Infusing mana into the rock, causing the runes and lines to glow softly in response, Grant pulls out a fossilized crocodile-esque skull, alongside a group of bones that had a texture similar to rock, cracked with hazardous red and yellow glows permeating throughout it.

Perhaps a paleontologist could’ve identified the creature, and would’ve celebrated upon discovering a specimen so well preserved it still had dna inside of it. He would even cheer, discovering a brand new and undiscovered species, and be even more excited to discover that Grant had a whole skeleton, perfectly preserved, bigger than any crocodilian ever discovered before.

Said Paleontologist would also throw an absolute fit, chewing on his hat and throwing his head against the wall as he discovered Grant would waste the skull like this.

Grant pushes it into a carved circle on the center of the stone, upon which the bone and fossil melted into the stone, and Grant took out one last scale he put into the stone, before injecting more mana into the rock, finishing the spell.

The stone lights up fiercely one last time before finally dimming, finally settling down, and the light fades, and somehow the rock seems even duller than before.

The stone begins shaking a little, as thin layers of minerals slip off the stone, fragment by fragment, until the surface has completely fallen off, giving way to a fierce red segmented rock like object, which shook, ever so slightly, as it trembled with new life.

“Give her this” says Grant as he holds the egg up to thin air.

[…]

[… You’ve always been too soft on children.]

“Whatever, you said I could give her what I want, and I’ll do just that. If you don’t give it to her, I will go there myself. You may as well make it easier for everyone.”

The system stays silent, but a blue screen appears and swallows up the egg anyway.

[I remember why we don’t usually work together often.]

“Same.” Grunted grant. “Now that we’re done with the report, unless you have issues again, contact me within a year, and we’ll talk again. I look forward to seeing how far these new kids get”

[Very well.]

And the system was gone once more, with Grant and guide 0 going their separate ways.