45: The Simulator
Original (Probably) or fanfiction
So here I am, a transmigrator, and what do I have to show for it?
My world is a world of supers, where technology has reached the realm of tomorrow, cultivation is a thing for many people, powers can awaken at any moment, and magic is a thing again. However, that is more than five centuries into my future. I was born in the first years of the superhuman phenomenon, where it was people who were mostly (or completely) normal running around in masks like weirdos. So, yeah, not that glamorous.
On the plus side, I awakened a superpower!
An F-Grade superpower.
Now, most of you wouldn't probably recognize what an F-Grade is, but you could probably guess. F-Grade is the lowest grade, a mostly useless, mostly unusable, and rather weird power with little to no utility, like being immune to fall damage from 10.2 feet up as long as the wind is blowing from the west and the moon is neither full nor new, or something like that. Specific, mostly useless, and weird. E-Grade is situationally useful, but not that great, like having gills, or being immune to fall damage precisely in between the heights of 8-12 feet. D-Grade is basically a party trick, like making sparks from your fingers, but not that costly or troublesome. C-Grade is useful, but not earth-shaking, like a true multitool, or mage-hand level telekinesis. Not a big deal, but not a bad one either. The next level is B, of course, and that is what is considered a 'strategic advantage', like being able to negate the fall damage of an object the size of a semi, or being able to run at 120 MPH. A bigger deal, but still beatable by a normal person. A-rank, however, is on another level. For a power to be an A-rank, you should be guaranteed victory over any group of people less than one hundred if they are not trained, or less than twenty peoples if they are. Above that is S, which is 'conventionally unbeatable', or 'just let the supers handle it' mode, and EX, or 'super-extra' mode. Being able to turn into electricity at will and manipulate your body would be S-Class, and reality warping, causality-breaching, or true immortality would be EX-Class. And, just to be clear, US-army combat training and experience to a professional level counts as a C-Class, or even B-Class, if the person decides to be a super without gaining any other powers, items, or abilities.
Included in that, thankfully, there is another system of measurements, the Rank system, which, in ascending order, is: Zeta, Epsilon, Delta, Gamma, Beta, Alpha, and Omega. This is a measure of the power's utility, adaptability, and efficiency. Zeta-Rank means that it will either kill, or nearly kill, the owner to use it, has such specific activating conditions that it can almost never be used, or is almost useless, like bubblegum hair. Epsilon would normally wipe its target out stamina-wise, need a narrow, but attainable, range of activating conditions, or be pettily useful, like the ability to unlock any lock that is yours just by wanting to. Neat, but not that great. Then you have Delta, which is called the 'cross-ranker', which is still limited (possibly even to Zeta-Rank), but can be used in another situation, usually by storing up the effect for later use. Most tinker-type supers fall in this range due to the fact that their tinkering would be Epsilon-class in a pinch as a general rule, but it compounds to make them capable of combat with those of much higher rank. Gamma is general useful, but not all that powerful, like being able to hit whatever you want with a baseball at near-professional speeds, but only in baseball clothes. A lot of 'material-specific' powers are under this heading. Then there is Beta, which is where the 'true superpowers' are said to be, and are normally part of a package (flight and wind resistance and minor enhanced biology); and Alpha, which are considered strategic resources for their country (same as the Beta package, but with super-strength and toughness added in, and all the others bumped up a level). Finally, the Omega-Level: no activating conditions, no obvious flaws, and near-absolute utility, like true telekinesis. NOT something the average person wants to meddle with. Sadly, even with this safety net, I was still an Epsilon-rank.
Finally, as these don't cover every power out there, a series of modifiers are often used. For example, a person with the ability to create mechanical robots to serve and fight for him, but they grow strong the older they are, the more tech they come into contact with, and the more they win or survive fights, as long as they can be repaired. This would be a C-Grade, Delta-Rank power (Self-Refinement Type, Resource heavy). The Self-Refinement Type indicates that that the constructs improve over time without the creators help, and the resource-heavy indicator is there to show one of the biggest flaws of the power. The most common modifiers are Weak (has some flaw or performance issue), Strong (is more efficient or powerful than it should be), Refinement (can be improved with time and effort), Growth (will improve with time, effort, and/or resources), and External/Internal (can only be applied to others, or can only be applied to self). THIS is where my power begins to shine!
How did I get my power, you say? Didn't I mention?! Clumsy of me! Well, the exact method is uncertain, but I know that my father was a computer programmer who specialized in simulations, I was capable of awakening a power, and whoever ROBed me added a bit or two to make up for doing so. No idea who that was, though; just got a note.
Anyway, one day I woke up, and this is what I saw.
[Simulation System Downloaded]
[Congratulations on awakening your power!]
[Your status, as it is your first day, will be displayed automatically. Every time you wish to view it in the future, just say or think, with the intent to open it, 'Status']
[Displaying Status]
[Name: ? (Please enter)
Age: 5
Power level: Barely F-Rank
Combat Level: N/A
Professional Level: N/A (Early C-Rank)
[Powers:
F-Class, Epsilon-Ranked Growth Superpower, Personal Simulator
User can, AT WILL (Upgradable), run up to ONE (Upgradeable) simulation in REAL-TIME (Upgradeable) of HIMSELF (Upgradeable), WHILE MEDITATING (Upgradeable), with 10% ACCURACY (Upgradeable), PER DAY (Upgradeable), for up to TEN MINUTES (Upgradeable) in the FUTURE (Upgradable).]
D-Class, Gamma-Ranked Growth Superpower, Knowledge Inventory
User can, IF THE ACTIVATION CONDITIONS ARE PRESENT (Upgradable), Store knowledge FROM SPECIFIC MEDIA TYPES (Upgradable) AS IS (Upgradable), in the Knowledge Inventory, up to a SMALL (Upgradable) amount, and can SOMETIMES (Upgradable) retrieve and/or use said knowledge. Knowledge degrades QUICKLY (Upgradable).
Note: Sorry, kid, but that's all I can do!]
Now, all in all, I would have found that… barely interesting, but kinda neat, except for three things: One, people don't get transmigrated into calm situation, two: My powers were neat, but kinda crap, and three: I had to FUCKING GO THROUGH SCHOOL AGAIN! Still, it turned out alright.
Of course, it was YEARS before I tried to go out as a super. I was six, after all, and I waited until I graduated high school before doing anything. And yes, I graduated early, but not that early. I used that about-a-decade to train and improve my power. After that, what did I do? Well, three things, actually.
Not to long after I got my power, a few years, to be exact, I gained the ability to run simulations in an attempt to improve something, like a scientist or researcher was testing out new things. With that, I created several interesting skills and abilities; in fact, after a few decades of research and heroing, I discovered/ rediscovered/ invented cultivation, magic, and many other things, and advanced science by quite a ways as well. I used this to enhance the military and police forces by crafting better training regimens (not much better, truth be told, as they were already pretty refined) and used that and some weapon designs to get an in with the president so that we could start designing cape law. As supers were going to be a thing, I set out to get the world ready for them BEFORE they existed, to make things more stable.
On top of that, my research and training saw to it that I quickly (relatively) progressed from an F-Rank (mostly useless, or a child) human to a B-Rank (senators and congressmen were at that level), as well as to plumb the depths of science, technology, and martial arts, so that, when I started my career, I was actually pretty dope. Of course, the gap between C and B, and B and A, was pretty massive, with the B-to-A one being SO MUCH more difficult, so I wasn't all that, but I was pretty powerful.
The final thing was to train the heroes of this town. Our town, thanks to some anonymous donations to the cops, the city council, and the other first responders, as well as our city's impressive flourishing of martial arts, rapidly grew to the point where almost everyone was a D-Rank, easy, C-Ranks were common in professions, B-Ranks were relatively well-known, and we even had a couple of A-Rank corporations and businesses that kept the peace. That being said, this just seeded us to welcome dozens, if not hundreds of powered and/or dangerous people. As such, when the time came, I decided to improve our city's caped defenders. And BOY did they need it.
One guy who was just a weirdo with a crappy home-made shield and a poorly-fitting costume with attitude problems, a generally C-Rank, Beta shadow manipulator with only one B-Rank, Epsilon skill (shadow porting himself, but to a random place out of danger), and me. And our bad guys are: a genius businessman with disintegrative touch, a man who can channel, produce and control electricity and fly with it, and a Twenty-foot bipedal crocodile monster in the sewers who freaks out whenever he sees more than seven people in a group and charges away, causing a HUGE amount of property damage, some injuries, and a few fatalities.
Well, okay. Let's SIMULATE!