POV - Tad

I was scrolling through all the various fish that formed a staple of a Waterprowler’s diet when I suddenly realised that I had control over the Shop Interface. Why was I acting as a personal shopper when I didn’t actually need to.

I knew the Ssrah would need a Guest Invite to use the Shop. I certainly didn’t want her to contest the ownership even though I was pretty sure that I had only been offered that option because the Level was abandoned and the Shops were all unclaimed. In fact maybe she didn’t need an invite if she was recognised as a denizen of this Level. A citizen even. Hoohoo. And I needed citizens.

I pulled up the Sovereign’s Control Interface and selected the Admin tab. Hmmmm. Where was [Bestow Citizenship]? I would offer Ssrah the honour of becoming the First Citizen of the Dominion of Oreol Level 1. Hopefully she would also get some sort of Title or achievement as well.

ERROR!

Monsters are expressly barred from being Citizens or Residents or Guests.

Monsters are explicitly prohibited from accessing System Artefacts.

All System Artefacts are completely protected from interference from monstrous entities through both direct and/or indirect means.

Okay. This was not as straightforward as I had hoped. But I was not going to give up here. No, something the original message I had received when I accepted ownership the Shop was nagging at me. I pulled up the Shop Administrative Panel.

SOLO SHOP INTERFACE

Administrator access

Security overrides

Supervisor authorisations

Impose limits

Zero rated exemptions

Excise tax levels

Aha. Yes, this was my Assize. I was the Crown. Judge, jury and executor all in one. I could set the rules.

I entered my name under Administrator Access and [Ping] I was in. Did I want to allow anyone else full administrator access. Ahhh nope. Thank you.

I flicked through the other headings. They were all pretty self explanatory. Working my way back up I briefly scanned each one. Excise levels at 5%. Check. No changes. Confirmed. No zero rated supplies at this time. Good. Any limits? Yes. Must be a Citizen or approved Resident to buy or sell or alternatively must hold a current Level Appropriate Visa as a Guest. Approved. No limits on any goods and quantities bought and sold. Okay, no changes. Confirm. There were no authorisations queued for sign-off and here was the tab I was looking for; Security overrides.

I opened Security overrides. Now, how to enforce my desire? I selected Specific User Overrides.

I entered in Ssrah’s full name; [Joyful Hunter Silently Strikes From Shadows]. And it prompted me for her Species. I baulked at entering her monstrous species name. She was not a monster. Instead I claimed the honour of naming her as a sapient species. I followed our own nomenclature, taking inspiration from her resemblance to the terrestrial mammal she resembled so much. [Otto Sapiens]. Wise Otters. Ha, good fun. This Wise Man chuckled at his own witticism. Yes, I desperately needed someone to talk to.

And this sent the System into another brief spin before it came back with another query.

ERROR!

Unrecognised Species.

Hardware confirmed as up to date. No further patches available.

Query: Confirm originating universe.

Hmmmm. How was I supposed to know that? She was here before me. For all I knew she was a monster species that had achieved sapience within the System itself as opposed to the normal uplift from the Dust Tier. This resonated. This Level had been abandoned for an absurd amount of time. Billions of years. I cast my mind back to the prompt when I claimed ownership of the Kiosks. No, it was hundreds of trillions of years! This number was so big my poor limited human intellect instinctively rebelled against it. I needed more INT. Logically the Level and the System would have suffered the inevitable heat death of the universe before even a fraction of that amount of time could have passed. And yet the Support Ticket notice had intimated that the System could refresh a dying sun as easily as changing a lightbulb. Surely this was fantastic on just so many levels. It absolutely refreshed my determination to ascend and enter into all that the System offered.

Thinking of that Support Ticket, I pulled it up again. Hmmmm. It referred to S1352 as part of my reference number. Was this the location of 1352nd System uplift? And wasn’t our earth like 7900 and something? I cast my memory back. It seemed like a lifetime ago. In all likelihood it was probably only a week or so ago at the most. I was somewhat fuzzy on how much time had passed in the dump.

The memory sprang out of the recesses of my mind. 7912th. Yes, if I was right then there had been 6559 other species uplifted after Oreol but before Earth. That was incredible.

[Ding] Bonus MEM stats. I allocated them to IMA.

After wondering for so long whether we were alone in the universe it turns out that there are plenty of other sapient races out there. Well, actually I should rephrase that as well. They weren’t out there. They were in here. In the System. With us. In with us. This was somewhat scary. And some of them had been here a very long time. Especially those who were uplifted before the disappeared, presumed extinct, Oreolians. I wondered briefly how many had survived all that time. Surely some had, and surely they would be massively OP if they had continued to grow in levels all that time. Yes this was scary indeed.

I entered System Uplift 1352 - Oreol Level 1 as the originating universe.

The System accepted the entry.

Just when I thought I had actually crashed the System a new notification popped up. [Ding]

I opened it immediately.

PROBATIONARY PARTICIPANT STATUS GRANTED TO:

[Ssrah; Joyful Hunter Silently Strikes From Shadows].

Provisional UEID allocated: 1352.39,853,486,158

This is pending a full review by a Tier S Administrator.

Standby for imminent moderation.

Fabulous. This was absolutely fabulous. Ssrah was now a participant. Not a monster. I reopened my SCI and once again tried to [Bestow Citizenship].

And it went through. I felt a strong waft of surprise from Ssrah, and then a curious enquiry.

“Yes, That’s from me. Do you want to accept it? You will then be able to buy from the System Shop.”

~Consternation~. The DeathStone?

The death stone? Oh. I see. The System dealt with monsters who got too close to the Kiosk.

~Agreement~. You vanish. DeathStone ate you? ~Confusion~. Very strange. Normal just sizzle you dead. And then snap. ~Surprise~. You are back. Not sizzled either. ~Very scary~.

I was getting better at parsing her projections. How accurate my interpretations were was probably a little questionable. “Um. Yes. This will make you safe from the Shop too. You will be able to buy food and other things from it.”

~Confusion~. Buy? What is buy? Get for something for something. ~Perplexion~. What somethings and what somethings? Why?

Oh. And there was a problem with my logic. Ssrah would need to have EXP to be able to spend it at the Shop.

I felt a tingle as she accepted Citizenship despite my very poor explanation of the benefits.

Waahoo. The Sovereign of Oreol had a subject. This was a cause for celebration. Ssrah picked up on my jubilation but was somewhat preoccupied.

~Query~. What is [Evaluation]?

Oh. That was quick. What happened to the 208.6 years? Maybe she could share the notification with me?

Ssrah understood my somewhat disjointed request and flicked the System message to me.

MANDATORY EVALUATION:

You have been nominated, sponsored and volunteered for participation in the System Multiverse despite your species not reaching critical population density.

As the Nominated Sponsoree you may choose to either progress individually or include your entire race in the assessment.

Note: Should you or any of your fellow specians object to volunteering to participate in saving your species you may reject the offered uplift.

You will be forthwith sizzled and ejected from System Infrastructure.

Accept individual uplift assessment? Volunteer to enter System Tutorial 7913 as an individual?

ACCEPT DECLINE

----OR----

Accept uplift assessment on behalf? Volunteer to enter System Tutorial 7913 as a complete Species?

ACCEPT DECLINE

Hah. I smiled. This brought back memories. At least Ssrah was getting offered the option to complete this individually and had some warning about what was happening.

“The System wants to examine you as a sapient species rather than as a System Monster. It will analyse you and assess and evaluate you and your suitableness to be a participant. You have nothing to fear. You are as sapient as anyone I know.” I tried to reassure her, feeling the apprehension rolling off her. “It would be best to do this yourself first rather than roping in your whole species. You, at least know what is happening. They will not. You will pass with flying colours.” Of this I was absolutely confident and this, more so than my words, convinced her.

She accepted the individual assessment.

Immediately a cylinder of light surrounded her.

I felt a sudden panic from her. An intense and frantic fear. Her babies. They were back in her holt. She was abandoning them. She needed to…

I interrupted her agitation “No. I will care for them. They will be safe. I promise.” I tried to express my absolute confidence again.

I felt her relaxation. She was entrusting her precious babies to me. She was trusting me. I would be a good Auntie.

“Ahh auntie? Um.” I forced myself to focus. There wasn’t much time. “What are their names? What do they eat?” I had any number of questions.

They all went unanswered.

The cylinder brightened and with a flash she was gone. Oh. I wonder if that's what it looked like when I was isekai’d.

And holy flipping Level of Doom. I had kids to look after. I was in so much trouble now.

I knew squat about kids. I had never even had a pet.

ARRGHHHCK!

It was my turn to panic.