Intermission: About the Pioneer Program
[General Information]
The Pioneer Program (a shorthand for "Pioneer of the Universe Program") is a constantly-evolving, multiversal program devised by the entity known as the Creator, made to gather data about other universes and how inserting an outside variable would factor in within the grand scheme of things within these universes. It is maintained and governed by an intelligence simply named the "System".
Barely anything is known about this "Creator", but it is a concrete fact that they are a godlike entity, for how else would the Pioneer Program extend it's reach beyond it's home universe and provide it's many recruits with what is basically the power of logical omnipotence; the power to do anything within the realm of possibility.
[Pioneers]
[Description]
A Pioneer is a recruited member to the Pioneer Program. A Pioneer could originate from various walks of life; a teenage scholar, an ordinary businessman, an unwilling criminal, a murderous terrorist, a genius scientist, an ambitious tyrant, or even a homeless vagrant. They could come from various species as well; humans, dwarves, elves, undead, therianthropes, and even spiritual beings both unholy or divine.
A Pioneer is given an Ability and an Item of their choosing to better increase the chances of their survival upon the world they also chose. Pioneers may allow the System to roll the [Wheel of Fortune] if they somehow do not wish to choose. Pioneers who are under a dire situation during their recruitment to properly choose will have their Ability, Item and Destination be randomly chosen by the System.
After reaching the chosen world, they will be requested to have an User Name. This User Name has little use beyond aesthetic purposes, but it could also be used to mask the Pioneer's true name in case they would be subjected to magics/abilities that utilizes the target's true name. Unless they used their true name as their User Name obviously.
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[Pioneer Cycles]
Every time the numbers of Pioneers dwindle to a certain amount, the Pioneer Program initiates a Pioneer Cycle; where the System would pick 100 random individuals to be offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance to become Pioneers. They are allowed to refuse the offer, in which they are still able to live their original lives, or they could agree to the offer and be inducted into the Pioneer Program after choosing what their Ability, Item, and destination would be (or randomly chosen by the System if their situation does not allow it).
Once a person becomes a Pioneer, it is impossible for them to go back to their original lives as every trace of their existence before being a Pioneer will be wiped out, but they could eke out a life similar to the original.
There has been 10 Pioneer Cycles thus far.
~o0o~
[Pioneer Rankings]
Every Pioneer is divided between five rankings, listed down below:
1) Junior Pioneers/Pioneer Newbies: Those who are just recently inducted into the Program. Junior Pioneers tend to have [Beginner's Luck] Ability; A rank-specific Ability that reduces purchasing costs, improves the Pioneer's luck, and giving Pioneers access to skills and equipment and a few features belonging to higher rankings. This Ability is only temporary however.
2) Senior Pioneers: Those who have reached a level of seniority, usually by surviving for long periods of time within a dangerous world. Senior Pioneers are allowed to purchase better Abilities and Items, are given harder and more rewarding Quests, and allowed access to many other additional features such as a [Friend List], [Smithy], [Pioneer Schooling], and [Chat], among other things.
3) Pioneer Adepts: A simple upgrade from Senior Pioneers. Achievable via being a successful teacher with the [Pioneer Schooling] feature and a far more accomplished survivalist than previously.
4) Pioneer Masters: The highest ranking attainable. As Pioneer Masters, they have little limitation on what they could do. They have access to the best Abilities and Items available, are given the most difficult and rewarding of [Quests], are allowed to decline most [Quests] without any penalty, may have limitless amounts of Friends within the [Friend List], and so on. The caveat is that it is difficult to reach such a ranking, and most Pioneers lack the ability/knowledge to do so.
5) Pioneer Ancients: Even though it is only a mere title, Pioneer Ancients demands some respect regardless, for they have survived for a very long time with everything the Pioneer Program have thrown at them. Currently exclusive to surviving Pioneers from the first 2 Pioneer Cycles.
Of course, it is important to note that it is ultimately up to the System whether to promote a Pioneer's ranking or hold them back. The System can easily demote a Pioneer at the drop of a hat as a form of [Quest] or promote them without the Pioneer doing the specific requirement to gain that ranking. Most who gained the ranking of Pioneer Master achieve their ranking this way, which helped confounding other Pioneers who want to reach the ranking.
There also exists a sixth, unofficial ranking.
6) Pioneer Journeymen/Semi-Pioneers: People who were not offered the choice to join the Pioneer Program by the System, but by the Pioneers themselves. This ranking comes with a watered down version of the Pioneer system. Only Senior Pioneers and above can recruit Pioneer Journeymen; Senior Pioneers may only have 1 Journeyman at a time, Pioneer Adepts can have 3, while Pioneer Masters are limited to 8. This ranking is permanent until revoked by the Pioneer.
Journeymen counts towards the [Pioneer Schooling] record, and as such recruiting them helps the attainment of the Pioneer Adept ranking.
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[Pioneer Gathering]
At certain points in time, there will be held an event called the Pioneer Gathering; essentially a meeting of Pioneers.
When the event starts, the Pioneers will be given the choice to accept or refuse to enter the Gathering. When they accept they will be transported to a special world of the Creator's by a week's time. The event itself is divided into multiple phases.
Phase 0: The start of the Event.
Phase 1: The actual meeting of Pioneers.
Phase 2: The Tournament event, where Pioneers test their skills against each other. Pioneer Adepts and Pioneer Masters are allowed to refuse participating in the event.
Phase 3: The end of the Event, Pioneers may stay for some time within the special world before they are put back into their universes.
~o0o~
[Removal of Pioneers]
A Pioneer can be removed from the Pioneer Program mainly in 2 ways: 1, they die from the results of their own actions. 2, they no longer have anymore data to collect for the System. In the latter case, they would be completely erased from existence as they have no more use for the Pioneer Program.
On the rarer cases, they are killed through failing to accomplish a [Quest], killed by another Pioneer for some Creator-knows-what reason (VERY often overlapping with reason #1), or because the Creator "says so" to the System.
On the topic of removed Pioneers it is to be noted that the Pioneers of Cycles 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 have all been exterminated; mostly through the former method of dying by karma. In the latter triplet (5th, 6th and 7th) was thanks to a mass conflict breaking out between Pioneers, coined the "The Great Pioneer War" by a neutral party in reference to Earth's "World War 1" which stuck. It seems that even something as powerful as the System could not stop the habitual tendency of people to destroy each other.
[Features]
[Quests]
[Quests] are challenges and tasks issued by the System to the Pioneers in order to gather data and recompense the Pioneers with rewards when they complete them. There are five forms of [Quests]:
1) [Daily Quests], which are given daily relative to the Pioneer's universe's time.
2) [Monthly Quests], which are given monthly.
3) [Yearly Quests] are given annually.
4) [Sudden Quests] are [Quests] that are given out of nowhere by the System, usually of high rank (3 stars or more), high risks and equally high rewards.
5) [Challenge Quests] are [Quests] which the Pioneers themselves ask for; challenges in return for rewards. This type of [Quest] yield random rewards, with randomized risks and objectives. Since it is completely random, [Challenge Quests] carries the additional risk of being able to accidentally kill the Pioneer asking for it. Asking for a [Challenge Quest] is not recommended unless the Pioneer holds some sort of trump card, like an incredibly potent ability or simply an amazing luck.
~o0o~
[Friend List]
In essence, the [Friend List] is a feature not too dissimilar to social media like Facebook, Skype, and Twitter. Accessible when reaching the ranking of Senior Pioneer, the [Friend List] allows a Pioneer to add other Pioneers as "Friends" or remove them from the list. Having a lot of Friends are recommended, as they can give a Pioneer an unmistakable edge over opponents. It is as the saying goes; "Quantity is a Quality all of its own".
The [Friend List] comes with a number of sub-features:
1. [Add/Remove Friend]: Self-explanatory.
2. [Invite Friend]: Invites a Friend to the sender's world.
3. [Visit Friend]: Sends a notification to the recipient whether the sender is allowed to enter their world or not.
4. [Chat]: Self-explanatory. Works like any social media's Chat feature; it can send letters, messages in the form of pictures and videos, and make a chat group. With the ability [Telepathy] – or an equivalent of it, one could send psychic images through the sub-feature.
5. [Pioneer Schooling]: This sub-feature recruits a willing Pioneer as a senior Pioneer's student. The same Pioneer will be immediately classified as a Friend of the senior Pioneer by the System.
6. [Pioneer Journeymen]: Recruits a willing non-Pioneer to be a Pioneer Journeyman. As explained at the ranking's description, it gives the one chosen a weaker Pioneer system and also counts as a student to the Pioneer, and is thus listed as a Friend.
~o0o~
[Smithy]
The [Smithy] is a feature where Pioneers can customize their Abilities (if said Ability is able to) and Items; like changing their appearances, adding/removing upgrades, fusing them with another, et cetera.
Technically this feature is not necessary considering the efficiency of simply buying them from the shop or using the [Fusion] (sub-)feature on them after buying, but the Creator – and by extension, the System – is fickle like that.
~o0o~
[Shop]
Another feature that may be considered redundant like the previous [Smithy], the [Shop] automatically gives Pioneers access to two features (now sub-features): [Buy] and [Sell], both of which are self-explanatory.
Then there is another sub-feature unlockable after reaching the Senior Pioneer ranking and gaining the [Friend List] feature, which is [Trade]. [Trade] allows two Friends to barter things at long distances, such as Items, Abilities or even Points. [Trade] can also be used by two willing Pioneers who are not exactly Friends.
Author's Note: This had been at the back of my head for awhile, and so I decided to write it down and publish it as an intermission. This is my own vision of Ligoya's Pioneer of the Universe Program for the time being, you're free to judge whether it's decent or not.
Of course, this thing is still a work-in-progress so there are going to be things that would be changed in the future, but I wanted to publish this so anything I pull outta my ass regarding the Pioneer System AT LEAST have an explanation, if a weak one. You can ask whatever you want to me about my interpretation in PM and we can discuss about it there.
With everything said, I bid you adieu!