AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 2
So I died, not really surprising considering what I went thru. Massive injuries before plane fights aren’t really recommended. The system interface was transparent enough so I could see well enough to copy the four characters by hand.
Translating didn’t help much so I googled it, and soon discovered something I wish I hadn’t known. According to one website it was ‘Roughly equivalent to: Those whom the Gods love die young.’
So instead of heaven I got a Chinese system. I wonder if it was because of where I died.
I turned to the system, I still had points to spend. I filled the level bar with positive karmic points and it changed:
0/150 (2) Level
899/1500 positive points
949/1500 negative points
1 Active Skill
0/1 Passive Skills
At the bottom New Skills lit up, but upgrade Skills stayed gray, I selected the only available option and five items appeared:
Passive Skills Available:
~蚊子再小也是肉 mosquito no matter how tiny is also meat (0/4)
~脚踏实地 feet on solid ground (0/4)
~天作之合 heaven considers perfect fit (0/3)
~含沙射影 spit sand at someone’s shadow (0/4)
~瑕不掩瑜 a flaw in jade does not conceal luster (0/4)
I tried seeing if it would give me more information, but it only wanted to know if I selected that Skill.
“Which one of these gives me a super power?” I asked out loud.
Feet on solid ground blinked. Huh, that’s nifty. Must be the expensive Scribe helping me out. I tried something else.
“Which one of these will help me feel better?”
Heaven considers perfect fit blinked.
“Which one helps me be safe?”
Spit sand in someone’s shadow blinked.
“Which one is best for me to pick?”
Mosquito no matter how tiny is also meat blinked rapidly. It was a 4. Did that mean there were three additional upgrades? My first skill didn’t look like it was supposed to upgrade, it had been marked as two out of zero.
I picked mosquito, and confirmed, it’s full details appeared:
蚊子再小也是肉 mosquito no matter how tiny is also meat (1/4)
- good buzz, karmic points are generated by everything you do, not just big actions, gain a constant yet small flow of karmic points every hour
My positive karmic balance immediately ticked up five points, a light red’+5’ drifted up my vision. Well that’s got to be helpful when I can’t go anywhere.
I looked at my points again:
0/150 (2) Level
904/1,500 positive points
949/1,500 negative points
1 Active Skill
1 Passive Skill
I dumped 149 negative points into the level, just to see what would happen:
149/150 (2) Level
904/1,500 positive points
800/1,500 negative points
1 Active Skill
1 Passive Skill
I added a positive point, and it ticked over, and provided a notice that I could upgrade a skill or pick a new Active Skill, the interface change was interesting. That told me two things, one negative and positive can both be used to level up, and secondly that the upgrade option is not exclusive to either active or passive skills, as I got access to an active skill, but got the option to upgrade a passive, as it was the only upgradable skill I currently had.
0/200 (3) Level
903/2,000 positive points
800/2,000 negative points
1/2 Active Skills
1 Passive Skill
I kept dumping points into it:
0/250 (4) Level
903/2,500 positive points
600/2,500 negative points
1/2 Active Skills
1/2 Passive Skill
0/300 (5) Level
903/3,000 positive points
350/3,000 negative points
1/3 Active Skills
1/2 Passive Skill
I now had 2 active skills I could pick, or pick one and upgrade it. It also looked like my bank was ten times the threshold for the next level. It was also becoming clear that the level marker was showing me how many points into level 5 I was. I was currently at level 5, but with zero points. Once I got a full level, I would get another passive skill opportunity, because odd levels give you passive skills.
I checked my new skill options, it asked which I wanted to add, which meant I could add out of order, I picked Active Skills to see what kind of offerings I would get. I had enough points to jump forward another 4 levels, if they kept going up by 50 each time. I also knew that Active levels used points, so I didn’t want a skill I needed to use, but no points to spend. I learned that lesson when I was a kid when I used all my money to buy a nice new wallet. It was a nice wallet, but what did I need it for, as I now had nothing to put in it.
Pick a New Active Skill:
~半斤八两 half a jīn, eight liǎngs (0/4)
~东张西望 looking in all directions (0/4)
~闻鸡起舞 hear chicken get up to dance (0/2)
~热锅上的蚂蚁 on hot pan is an ant (0/3)
~请君入瓮 please sir go into the pot (0/1)
I ran thru the usual questions with the scribe, he thought looking in all directions was by far the better choice, please sir would protect me, and hear chicken would make me more comfortable, and half a jin would benefit me second most, but I couldn’t figure out from my questions what it would actually do.
I had a second pick, so I picked what the scribe suggested.
He was so right:
东张西望 looking in all directions (1/4)
- when distracted by pain, injury, or sickness spend points to rapidly heal, cost variable 1-50000 points plus 1-50000 minutes, each point spent reduces healing time by one minute, total will equal 50000, must face east or west while you recover, facing a different direction will pause rapid recovery, can add more points at anytime to shorten healing process, not stackable with other actives
Quick math told me that I could spend 1 point and be fully healed in 34 days. I immediately added 1 positive point, and felt better. Instead of six months to get to mostly good, I was going to be all good in one sixth of the time. It was fortunate that the TV was on the west wall, and I was already facing it.
“System you are awesome!” I cried aloud.
The whole system flashed at me, so I added, “Scribe, you give the best advice I’ve ever had.”
There was no response.
“Ok Scribe, how do I heal faster?”
I followed the flashing prompts, to get a new active skill, the list was almost identical:
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