Chapter 2006: Second Attempt

Ning had already seen enough from Crownus’s first attempt to become curious about what came after it.

"If that was only your first try, then I want to see what else you made," he said.

Crownus gave a small nod before the space around them changed once again.

The asteroid, the distant planet, and the sentient robots all vanished from Ning’s view. A moment later, he found himself standing on top of a large mountain beneath an open sky.

A city stretched across the land below.

Ning looked down at it with interest. The buildings had a style he had not seen before, with unusual roofs, tall, narrow towers, and broad structures that seemed to combine several different architectural ideas together. Even so, there was nothing so strange about the place that he could not recognize it as a human settlement.

People moved through the streets below, and from what he could see, they were ordinary humans as well.

Ning glanced at Crownus. "What are we looking for?"

"You will not see anything by looking at the city," Crownus said. "You only need to wait."

Ning raised an eyebrow.

"How long?"

Before Crownus could answer, something appeared directly in front of Ning.

Transparent words formed in the air, hanging in his vision no matter where he looked.

<Welcome to the Heavenly Records.>

Ning stopped and focused on the message.

<You have successfully awakened.>

Another line appeared beneath it.

<Please choose your Calling. If you do not make a selection, an appropriate Calling will be assigned to you.>

Ning stared at the words for a moment before a new window opened.

Three options appeared.

<Priest>

<Boxer>

<Winemaker>

Ning looked through them once, then again, mostly because he had expected there to be more.

"The heck? Only three?"

He did not believe these to be random at all. Something had evaluated him and decided these were the three Callings he was allowed to choose from.

"Heavenly Records, huh?"

Ning looked back at the options briefly and pressed on ’Winemaker.’

Ning immediately felt information begin appearing within his mind.

<Calling selected: Winemaker.>

<Relevant knowledge and skills will now be granted.>

It was not overwhelming, but it was remarkably direct. Knowledge about fermentation, fruit selection, storage, temperature, aging, flavor balance, and dozens of smaller details settled into place as if he had spent years learning them himself.

Alongside that came several skills that felt more instinctive than academic.

Ning examined the changes for a few seconds before turning toward Crownus.

"Alright. What exactly is this?"

Crownus looked out over the city below. "This was my second attempt at creating a System."

Ning glanced back at the floating words that only he seemed able to see.

"Another worldwide one?"

"In a different way."

Crownus explained that after his first experiment, he had decided against creating a System that needed to function separately for every individual. Instead, he created a single structure capable of connecting itself to every living human on the planet.

"Every human born here becomes connected to the Heavenly Records at birth," Crownus said.

Ning looked down at the city again.

"Every single one?"

"Yes."

That was a considerable number of connections for one System to maintain, although Ning supposed scale was not much of a problem for someone like Crownus.

"And they all awaken like I just did?"

"Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen."

Ning nodded slowly.

Once a person reached that period of their life, the Heavenly Records presented them with several Callings they were compatible with. They could choose one themselves, and if they refused or waited too long, the Records would eventually assign one to them.

"What does the Calling actually give them?" Ning asked.

"Knowledge and skills associated with it."

Ning thought back to what had entered his mind after selecting Winemaker.

"So someone who chooses Chef suddenly knows how to cook."

"To a degree. They would usually already have a great deal of knowledge about cooking from the life they had lived until then, so it wouldn’t be as sudden as you may be thinking."

Ning narrowed his eyes for a moment and nodded.

The System did not necessarily turn someone into a master immediately, but it gave them a foundation they would otherwise have needed years to acquire. From there, they could improve through practice and experience.

Ning looked thoughtful.

Unlike Crownus’s first attempt, this one actually resembled the sort of System Ning was familiar with. There were choices, granted knowledge, and a structure that interacted directly with the user.

The difference was that none of it belonged to the individual.

The Heavenly Records existed outside them and merely maintained a connection.

Ning turned toward Crownus again.

"Why did you make it this way?"

"I needed to determine how a System could interact with people."

Ning waited for him to continue.

"My first attempt taught me how Souls could be temporarily connected to machines, but that was not sufficient. If I wanted to create something similar to what I believed you possessed, I needed a reliable way for the System to communicate with a person, provide information, and alter what they were capable of doing."

Ning looked at the fading window in front of him.

"And this was your solution."

"Yes."

A single System spread across an entire world, connected to every human from birth and capable of giving them knowledge and skills later in life.

Ning had to admit that it was a fairly effective answer.

It was not what he would have done, but Crownus had clearly been working through the problem one piece at a time.

Ning looked back toward the city, where countless people were going about their lives without any idea that he was standing above them with the being responsible for one of the most important parts of their society.

"So the Heavenly Records were never really about giving people Callings," Ning said.

Crownus turned toward him.

"Not primarily, no. It was merely a test to see how people would interact with a System and to understand all the changes that may be necessary to make for my other attempts."

Ning smiled slightly.

"You were basically testing an interface, weren’t you?"

Crownus slowly nodded. "That would be accurate."