How was an 8-month-old going to contact a rogue AI ship?
Just posing the question to himself caused ideas and plans to swirl in his head. Convincing Fox he was still alive wouldn't be a problem He had passwords and codes in place in case he decided to fake his own death oddly enough. But since he was able to do that years earlier, without so much as a hiccup in his plans. He never needed to use them.
After seeing the news and after the system activated, he now knew he was reborn within 12 hours of his death It may have even been sooner. Time wasn't a concept before he came out of the womb and it was even stranger to remember these things as new experiences. He needed a communication console, a computer, or his mother's tablet. The latter would be the most difficult his mother never let the tablet out of her sight it seemed. The communication consoles controls are on walls, well out of reach. The computers would require timing and that wouldn't even be the difficult part his main obstacle there would be climbing up the office chairs they used. Any of this would need to be done using his pudgy and not very nimble fingers. Maybe this system could help him. Exploring this was fascinating to say the least he had stats and points to add. When he first saw the illusory screen he had 0/10 experience now he has 8/10. 'Could healing myself have done that?'
There were games he has played growing up that did things like this. Except for two his stats the rest were very low he could only figure this had a connection to his past life along with the high level skills. Apparently he has options for more skills but when looking into the menu everything is ****** out. Next down the menu Magic, he has four, spells? Heal started at lvl 1 but now it shows lvl 2. By the description of the spells he should be able to Inspect, almost anything.
'Might as well experiment.' he looked back up at the view screen and activated Inspect.
*Standard view screen, network connection. Showing unrelated image.
He then looked at the communication panel and activated Inspect again.
*Communication panel, active.
*Inspect lvl 2
*Royce Shepard level 2
*Strength +1, Endurance +1, Magic +2, Stat points +2, Spell slots +4.
'Are you serious?' he could actually feel the effects of leveling up. His HP, MP, and Sp went up. 'I guess they are spells.' He now had enough spell slots for Cure. So he checked the menu. His eyes went wide not only was Cure 05 lit up there was another one lit up next to it Meditation 02 and others under the other Stars as well. Under the dark star Mana Manipulation 03. Under the red star Fire Manipulation 03 turns out the colors matched their elements fire red, earth green, water blue, wind yellow. The white has to do with rejuvenation the dark so far Magic. All this and he hasn't looked over the abilitys yet.
'I'll definitely have to think a lot more about this magic thing.' As as far as abilities he had two and apparently space for more but when opening the list there were no options. So we write the descriptions of the two he has.
*Summon prototype: first time builds by your own hands or built by something you built any type of item size doesn't matter if you have to mana to spend. in straight to manufacture items number one off the line will be summoned. Cool down 30 days
*Hardware manipulation: combine technologies and items for extra functions and benefits not all items can be manipulated in this way. The larger and more sophisticated the manipulation the more mana required.
'Wow, So how much mana would be required? The system is calling these abilities but they seem more like magic.' Summoning a prototype, he could think of a number of things he's built that could help him even in this situation but it might freak his parents out. Now the second one hardware manipulation that he probably put to use here but he really needed to test it first. there were an assortment of toys his parents have supplied for his entertainment though he's never used most of them. Eyeing them now he could spot multiple potential test subjects. He had more than one learning toy that spoke played songs used numbers and letters another did colors and shapes He wondered. 'Can simple items like these be combined?' activating the ability and watching as the two toys combined almost melting together to become one The screen became larger the buttons more pronounced It now held a combination of the characters around the outside of it. But when he activated it it was much more sophisticated than before on a completely different level than the two toys it came from.
"would you like to learn about numbers?"
"how about we read a book?"
'I wonder if I can just keep adding toys to it?' He grabbed another of the computerized numbers learning toys his parents obviously had high expectations of him this one was labeled for 2 years and up but he held the new toy and the one he just made close together and activated his ability and again the two toys melded together. instead of the buttons becoming more pronounced on this new version it became mostly screen the characters around the outside disappeared and it looked more like a thick tablet. And yet again it was definitely more sophisticated.
"hello Royce would you like to play a game?"
*Hardware Manipulation lvl 2
he'd use the ability twice but his magic points MP had only gone down in decimals again But he'd already leveled up the ability and for that he already got eight more experience. So far so good He really liked the direction this was going in there was only one more toy that had low level computer electronics in it He figured he might as well see where it goes. He held up the last toy an the bulky tablet activating the ability once again. The process happened a little bit quicker this time in what it was done It looked even more like a tablet still thicker than his mother's. But perhaps able to help do what he wanted.
"Hi Royce what would you like to do today Do you want to watch the news? would you like to play a game?" his new tablet spoke clearly.
He looked around to make sure his parents weren't in the room and figured he would try his luck. "I need to make a galactic connection to put a message on the barter boards."
"Wow, Buddy does your mommy and daddy know you use such big words. That's great. How would you like to sing a song with me?" It went on without answering his question.
"Shit!" He shook his head. "shut off." He threw it back in the toy box. 'Well I can definitely make an advanced child's toy.' after thinking for a second 'maybe I should hide that' He pulled it out of the box and put it underneath it instead. 'That should do, for now.'
Just knowing his ship was still in play gave him too much to speculate on. his home was still intact, his friends were still alive, as alive as an AI can be. He didn't feel he had time to wait. He might have to do something about his parents. 'Should I say something or should I just disappear?' He didn't want to hurt them just cuz he was impatient he'll definitely have to say something.
His parents kept to their schedule. They finally came out of their work mode for the day, had their meal, and spent some quality time with him before setting him down for the evening. There was a lot to think about finding the assassins that took his parents, finding the group that attacked and killed his sister and himself. finding out how his ship survived. Possibly unraveling his rebirth and the system within.