NT veRse - Orcs Vs - Light Novels (Patreon)

Sebek lowered his phone in annoyance. It was the second light novel he had attempted to start that day while on the train. He could not stand how they all seemed to feature as a main character an A. Non-Incarnate Beastfolk male. B. An Elf of Ciar or most commonly C. An average height Human male with dark hair. They were all basically the same type of indulgent power fantasy that appealed to young men. He did not exactly have a problem with that, but how was any of that supposed to appeal to an Orc like him?

Sebek was quite big in terms of height, but unfortunately he was also quite big around. It was not unusual for his species but it was not typical as far as male aesthetic standards were concerned. He swore that to be popular you either had to be a super model or basically a girl with how handsome or pretty you needed to be as a guy. He hated it. In contrast he had a thick brow and was already bald less than a year into the Mandatory Government Service Program.

He glanced up over his phone briefly across the aisle. Behind a few people standing and holding  onto rails on the other side was one such 'main character' looking guy. Human. Pretty face. Dark hair. Most importantly he was surrounded on either side by attractive girls that were paying attention only to him. As the character looked up and caught Sebek's glance the Orc quickly averted his gaze to pretend he was watching the rapidly passing casino of lights that was the cityscape seen through the train window in the background. A brief glance was all the man needed, however. The main character smirked and stood up. Sebek began to sweat as MCS, main character syndrome, crossed the aisle to lean over the young orc intimidatingly. Though Sebek was almost as tall as the Human while seated, the Human still presented an intimidating air.

The delinquent women that were surrounding him erupted in a mix of cackles and complaints. A beastfolk with bunny ears and bronze skin clicked her tongue.
“What are you doing? Come back and sit down... You suddenly in the mood to pick up trash on the train?” Sebek bristled at that remark, but there was not much he could do. Orcs were not exactly looked upon kindly, to say the least. Though laws had forbid any type of segregation or discrimination in institutions, a long and complicated history between the Tryskan Federation, the Orc Holdings and the United Seraph Assembly made it very, very popular to subtly dis his Species. Sometimes not-so-subtly.

MCS ignored the one out of his many girlfriends and gathered saliva in his mouth while speaking. “You know, my dad's deployed in Warren”

“Congrats? I've... Lived in Orr all my life. I don't know what it's like over there.” Sebek was not sure what else to say. He had been getting the brunt of nationalist fervor for most of his life due to the ongoing conflict.

MCS spat down on Sebek's head. “Oops...” As the aisle of groupies behind him erupted in laughter behind him MCS drew out a handkerchief and polished Sebek's bald head with his spit. The Orc was shaking, but too afraid to do anything about the bullying.
“What? You aren't gonna do anything? You folks talk a big game over in Warren.”

“Like I said.” Sebek uttered, trying to remain calm.
“I've lived here all my life. Not-” MCS interrupted by giving Sebek's cheek a rough smack that could almost pass as being 'playful.' It still hurt a little. The automated voice on the train sounded off the next stop.
“That's us. I guess we'll have to continue our debate another time, huh?” MCS chuckled, making his way towards the door. The girls stood up as well and followed, barely paying him any mind.

Sebek was not going to do anything. He couldn't, but he could still fantasize about it. He committed the stop to memory so that in his mind he could confront them at some point as they were walking out of the station. He really, really wanted to.

“Then do it.” He heard a voice and glanced to his left and right. Everyone was ignoring him, of course. Nobody had rushed to step in, so why would they look at him now.
“Down here.” Sebek stared down his phone. It was glitching and crackling.

“Damn Chesan junk...” He shook it, incredibly annoyed because he could not afford another one if his current phone broke. It was an older model, so some glitches were to be expected, especially with the roll-out of the brand new Root Network.

“Who cares if your funny box breaks? You just got your ass handed to you by a pretty boy and his entourage of meat.” The voice sounded off like a drill sergeant in a voice far too loud for anyone to easily ignore it. Sebek confirmed however that he was the only one that could. Either the people around were very good at ignoring him, or it was only him that could see and hear it.

“Why aren't you talking?” Sebek began to sweat again. He glanced around. Awkwardly.

“It's... Rude to talk on the train.” He said quietly into the receiver.

“Wow! Okay...” There was a long pause.
“So this is what our species became after me.”

“Who are you?” Sebek whispered in annoyance at the cocky voice. It was definitely an orc on the other end. He could tell from the cadence and tone.

“Please tell me you've at least heard the name Malik.”

Sebek gulped. “Listen, if you're trying to sell me a Bible my family isn't too religious.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You said Malik. The Prophet Malik. The reason Orcs can be found from West to East.” Sebek noticed he was getting funny looks due to the subject matter. He was holding the phone as though it was a call, but it still made him blush to draw attention in such a way.

The voice laughed boisterously in his ear. “How have we not taken over the world yet?”

“Core Compatibility Theory.” Sebek offered.

“What?”

“Listen...” He sighed.
“This is really, really complicated and you sound old as hell. Can you wait till I'm off the train.”

“Sure, kid.”

* *

Sebek was able to sequester himself once he was off the train. “In the beginning our ancestors thought that we would be able to take over the world due to the way our physiology affected others. What they didn't realize was that due to CCT, which has only been fully explored in the past century, a combining of cores dilutes both.”

“The hell?” The voice was obviously confused.

“Think about a virus.”

“A what?”

“How old and dumb are you!?” Sebek shouted.

“Listen, explain it to me like I'm a  kid or something, because I don't follow this shit at all. Don't even know how I ended up in this thing.”

“Fine.” Sebek relented.
“Our ancestors predicted exponential growth because they usually only mated in such small quantities that the resulting offspring were re-integrated back into our larger group in Ancient Warren. When a smaller population reproduces within a large population they will inevitably dilute in favor of the larger due to sheer numbers and successive partners being of the majority Species. What happened during the Prophet's conquest was simple. For the first time the small population that was the Orcs were granted unhindered access to an incredibly large population that was humans, elves, beastfolk, et cetera. So, inevitably without even realizing it our Cores diluted with biases towards the larger population even though Malik's Holy Empire that stretched from East to West was in control during those years.” Sebek sighed.
“Some say it was the control the sealed our fate... The deep irony presented by modern Orc scholars is that the thing that was needed to utterly defeat our ancestors all along was simply to 'win.'”

“That is completely and utterly insane. We're all male so our population can only actually increase, not decrease.” The voice criticized.

“No, we're male presenting.” Sebek corrected.

“The hell?”

“Externally and reproductively Orcs are male, however there are male and female traits within our core that are passed on. Female traited orcs appear the same as male but accept more of the mother's Core Data upon birth. So what we thought was Females over the mother Species taking on Orc traits is actually Females taking on parts of the Diluted orc core while remaining the parent species and Orcs contining to be born 'Male' while actually just splitting evenly between the Female and Male orc Core Data. That statistics game is what allowed our Species most prominent traits to be diluted over several generations.”

The voice ignored the technical explanation. “Go feminize that bitch that slighted you.”

“Can't.” Sebek rolled his eyes.

“Okay... Use Sociomancy on them.” The voice demanded.

“What?” Sebek shook his head.
“Listen, old man. I don't-”

“Alright, I understand what I need to do now. Why I'm talking to you through this weird box. Let me try and put things down in a way that'll make sense to you.” Sebek's phone stopped glitching. The page that held the Light Novel he was attempting to read had shifted. The first chapter was a very basic novel with an Orc protagonist titled: How I, a Modern Orc Learned Social Magic and Got My Revenge. Where it did go into detail were the steps containing the sections to learn parts of the aforementioned magic.