**Communique**

  Salutations, David!

  As a participant in Wave_1 of this Integration, your Life Stage has been closely scrutinized to aid your world further moving forward! As fewer than 25% of Wave_1 participants have now secured a level-based evolution, and fewer than 10% have currently completed (4) or more quests, we have begun to move forward with dataset adjustment.

  Due to your continued high cooperation and interaction metrics, we have intervened to offer a Special Evolution. We sincerely hope that you continue to provide a wealth of data moving forward as we continue with the Integration of Earth.

  Ω

  **END Communique**

  David waited patiently as the screen that floated in front of him populated with text, line by line. He had experienced a moment of terror when the text hung for a moment before spitting out the error, and only became more worried as it resolved and began to continue. He’d never seen those colors, or those symbols used by the System except the messages shortly before the disaster had begun and then once more as he’d woken within his egg. The communique that followed shortly after superimposed itself on his vision and temporarily obscured the window from his view, the signature at the end of the message all but confirming several of his tinfoil-hat suspicions. Somebody was in charge of this lunacy, and they had the power to step in and make sweeping changes however they saw fit.

  The knowledge that someone had willingly and knowingly done this to an entire planet full of people made David want to bite them in the face, bribe or no bribe. He spent several minutes internally cursing Omega, Alpha, and whoever the last one was thoroughly inside his mind after failing to do so out loud. Eventually, however, he was forced to minimize the communique and return his attention to the screen hovering languidly in the infinity of grey mist that dominated wherever he currently was. David read the names of his three options and then read them again, paying careful attention to whose symbol was attached to what before selecting the first option for inspection. The glowing blue screen flickered almost imperceptibly before displaying the information just like he somehow knew that it would and David began to read with interest.

  That’s…that’s not bad, I guess? I could always dump some points into Offense and Defense but I’m not sure how many I’d have left for Mutagens and Abilities. That Defense rating is awful, and if that Landmark Quest taught me anything it’s that sometimes you don't have the option to run. I could probably fix it up, and that ability cost decrease is great but…Eh, let's see what the next one is before I make any real plans.

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  David rejected the option and the screen resolved slowly into the first image it had shown once more, the error code now missing from the text and simply displaying the altered generation code with Alpha and Omega’s symbols. With a mental roll of his eyes at the attempt to clean up a temporary menu, he selected the second option and began to read once again.

  I can see how that’d be useful, honestly. I wonder what it’d be like to have Screech not suck? I’m not sure it’d be worth it picking something so heavily focused on area damage though, that’s come back to bite me in the ass a few times. Still… how's that joke go? ‘I didn't ask how big the room was…something something’? I miss memes. Dammit, David focus. Super high defense and pretty good offense. Same problem though, it’d take a lot of Points to fix up I think..plus Claire would definitely call it a flying punching bag.

  David repeated the process and returned to the first screen before pausing a moment to collect himself. He eyeballed the last option nastily, debating whether it was worth it to skip it entirely because of his growing dislike of whoever this Omega was but…this was more nerve-wracking than he’d thought it would be. David was painfully aware he’d never really been good at the type of game that required meticulous character-building. That said, he couldn’t afford to be rash or get too comfortable with anything when the worst-case scenario was being eaten by something that had simply been willed into existence as an optimized killing machine from the first time it opened its eyes. In the end, he simply selected the last option with a sneer and started looking over his final option before he had to move on.

  The defense is bad again, everything else looks good though. I wonder if that Health drain thing makes up for the crappy defense? I haven’t seen anything else so far that drains health, that might be big. Every single one of these has mentioned Dusklings don’t generally fight at all…What the fuck is Predatory Physiology supposed to mean then, that I can actually fight? The other ones just have flat increases or decreases to stuff, so that’s gotta be it. Fuck, that’s easily the best one for what I have isn’t it?

  Twilight Seeker.

  That’d leave me with either 17 or 20 Points right? If I remember right a basic ability is 2 Points at F rank…so even if the costs double every rank I should still be able to get a good ability and a couple of Mutagens. Mutagens might cost more, so I'll just have to look at those first.. Yeah, I’d be stupid not to at least increase the defense when it’s my ass on the line.

  David spent a few moments mulling it over before eventually choosing to spend 6 Points, dropping both enhancements into Defense without a second thought. After far too many brushes with death in a short amount of time he was willing to spend some hard-earned resources on his survivability. He eyed the final screen with a bit of apprehension but decided to err on the side of caution for once, resisting the urge to split the bonuses apart.

  I accept.