Sign-In: Emperor Chapter 1 (rough draft) (Patreon)

As many of you have probably seen and voted on I have a poll up to gauge interest in various story ideas I have. Of those I had some inspiration recently for Sign-In: Emperor and wrote out something quick. 

Please let me know what you think!

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He woke up in a cloud. Sweaty hands gripped silk covers and he felt like he was drowning in the soft padding of the mattress. An unfamiliar ceiling of mahogany carved with peonies and lotus flowers loomed down at him. He slowly sat up and found himself in an opulent bedroom. Plush carpets embroidered with golden floral designs stretched across the floor. Various jade ornaments were placed on solid tripods along with vases and other decorative items crafted out of precious materials.

This was not his bedroom. This was his bedroom. He did not know where he was. He had lived here his whole life.

He hissed and grabbed his head. This was not his world, he was from Earth, and yet he had the memories of another life living here. He had a name, but he couldn’t remember it. His past memories were clear in every regard except what he had been called. Instead, a new name rang in his head, one that he shared with others who could only be looked up at. A name whispered by prostrate citizens and respected by officials.

Sima Ang was his name. Seventh Prince of the Yin Kingdom. His father was king.

“Fuck.” His heart beat heavily in his chest and he staggered out of bed, grabbing a polished bronze hand mirror off the end table beside it. A youth stared back at him. Black hair and peach eyes. Eighteen years old his memories said, the birthday banquet to celebrate his coming of age had been a month ago.

Was this a dream? No, he had never had dreams this detailed. He pinched himself to be sure and hissed at the pain. “Crossed into another world to be royalty,” he whispered. “I’m so fucked.” He was realistic enough to know that his modern knowledge would mean jack shit to ancient power struggles.

Ancient?

He sat back down on the bed and closed his eyes. Social parties, banquets, and hunting trips flashed in his mind. He didn’t see anything like phones or modern technology. What he did see wasn’t much better though. Men and women erupting with terrifying force, lifting blocks of stone larger than their bodies in the air to cheering applause, a duel between two armored soldiers leaping through the air and swinging their blades faster than the eye could see. One sword crackled with lighting, the other fire. There was one jealous word that rang through his head.

Martial Arts.

Sima Ang looked at his skinny arms. He was doubly fucked. Whatever those mystical powers were this boy prince did not practice them. How could he? He wasn’t in the Yin Kingdom after all. When Sima Ang was seven he was sent to the Southern Xia Empire, this room he was in was within its palace, and had stayed here for eleven years. The Empire wasn’t interested in assisting the practice of a foreign prince and Sima Ang had received no assistance from home either. Under such conditions, the prince wasn’t talented enough to make any progress on his own.

“What a wonderful situation to be in.” Sima Ang helplessly looked up at the ceiling. What he had gathered so far from his memories did not paint a nice picture of his situation. He couldn’t completely rely on them and their bias, he would have to see for himself to make a final call but from the looks of it he was a hostage who no one particularly cared about. “Should I be anxious or relieved?”

He fell back onto the bed. His best bet would be to lay low and avoid rocking the boat. Not that he had much choice in that regard. He sighed. “It would be nice to have some power.” Comfortable as it might be he was still in a helpless position.

That was when a bright blue screen popped into existence.

He cursed and jumped from the bed. The screen floated in midair, translucent enough that he could see straight through it. Bright white words were written down the front of it.

Sign-In to World?

He calmed his breathing. This was new to this world, nothing in either set of his memories ever had something like this appear. Did it have something to do with his appearance in this world? He tried to touch the screen only for his hand to pass through it. He waved his arm around but the screen

What did it mean by sign-in? Was he logging into this world? Was this whole thing some giant video game he was stuck in? Did that mean there was a developer? There was no register button on the screen, how would he sign in? It wasn’t like he was given a password or anything.

Touching the words still didn’t change anything on the screen. Voice commands? He cleared his throat. “Yes.”

The words swirled into a white vortex and cycled while he waited. “They really gave me a loading screen?” Sima Ang couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. “What kind of bullshit is this?”

He wasn’t forced to wait long however, the vortex shrunk and then exploded into fragments that assembled themselves into words once more.

First-Time Sign-In Bonus

Received: Mandate of Heaven

“Wha-” he felt something drop from the sky and fall straight through his head before settling in his chest. It burned with a golden light that filled his eyes and expanded till it filled his whole body and spill over. Indecipherable chanting chorused out from the golden light and he felt himself float into the air. He rose through the ceiling of his room and over the palace, around a building he instinctively knew was his throne room coiled an intangible dragon of mist that roared with his ascent.

He rose even higher until the palace was but a speck and the whole kingdom was within sight. From his view in the Heavens Sima Ang looked down and saw the Southern Xia Empire. A line of misty energy that resembled the dragon stretched out from him and went west. The land there was outlined in golden energy and the name of it came naturally to him.

Yin Kingdom.

More lines of misty energy emerged from the Yin Kingdom and connected to him. From far above another misty light fell from a distant star and did the same. The chanting stopped and only a single proclamation echoed.

Son of Heaven

Sima Ang woke back up in his bedroom gasping for air. He patted himself down and found all his limbs still attached. A quick look at the ceiling revealed it was unharmed. The Sign-In Screen was nowhere to be seen. It was like he had never left the room. He knew it wasn’t just a dream, he could feel the proof matching every beat of his heart and even know there was some higher sense in the back of his head that wasn’t there before.

He didn’t know what a Mandate of Heaven did or what being a Son of Heaven entailed but with grandiose titles like that they couldn’t be a bad thing. He tried to feel out the strange sense to no avail. He could clearly feel its presence but that was all. It was enough though, the fact it was there meant he hadn’t been hallucinating, he had really gotten something.

A smile bloomed on his face. It wouldn’t be the only thing he’d be getting either if his guess was correct. The Sign-In screen had called it a First Signing Bonus. Wouldn’t that mean there would be more in the future?

“Sign-In,” he said into the empty air. “Open screen, System, Status.” Sima Ang rattled off every command he could think of but there was no response. He would have to wait then and see if it came back.

He collapsed once again onto the bed and let out a long sigh. There was so much that happened in so short a time that his head was spinning. There was still his situation to consider as well. He wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he had the qualities to be a good leader. He would have gone into politics if he had that much foolish confidence in himself. He didn’t feel as afraid as he did before though. As sudden as his coming to this new world was it wasn’t all that bad. The sheer luck needed for him to be reincarnated in another world was already unimaginable. To be royalty on top of that? Could odds like those even be calculated? And a strange power on top of that.

He glanced at the bronze mirror still clutched tightly in his hand and looked at his reflection again. It was still the same face but there was something different about his features that he couldn’t quite put a finger to. Even if this wasn’t the face he was used to it didn’t look that bad. He touched smooth skin.

 “At least my acne is gone.”