The Allbright System - A Sci-Fi Progression LitRPG Story

Continuing to mull over the choice, Thea leaned forward slightly, elbows on her knees, fingers steepled as her eyes scanned the glowing interface.

She was still turning over the same question in her head.

‘Could I solve the Focus issue some other way…?’

The real problem was how limited her options were.

She couldn’t count on stumbling into a perfect Focus-recovery Passive anytime soon. Those weren’t exactly common, and they definitely weren’t guaranteed to show up even if she claimed all her Ability rewards.

And waiting until Class-selection to fix it?

She scoffed softly at the idea. “That’s almost a year away. Way too late.”

From what she currently knew, there were only a few methods to reliably recover Focus during combat.

First and foremost—time.

The standard regeneration rate, tied directly to your Focus and Recovery Attributes. And from personal experience? That regen rate was painfully slow, especially in the middle of a fight.

Then there was [Meditation Focus], which she technically could use to speed that regeneration up… but only if she had the time to sit still for a solid chunk of time, uninterrupted. And that just wasn’t realistic most of the time.

“Right. That still falls under ‘time,’ technically,” she muttered to herself, making a mental note. “And that’s not gonna help when shit hits the fan.”

The third method was having someone else top you off with Focus—something she’d only seen a couple times so far. Both Orion during the Cube Trial and then again with Medic Johnsen during the Assessment, had used their [Focus-Link] on her to top her off for whatever she needed to do at the time.

But those were circumstantial. She couldn’t rely on that happening regularly. Kara might be able to do it too, eventually, but asking her to spend her own limited Focus every time Thea needed a power surge wasn’t practical—or fair.

“She needs her Focus more than I do, honestly,” Thea said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “So that’s off the table unless it’s a total emergency.”

That left the last option she’d seen so far: Focus Boosters.

They were probably expensive, definitely limited-use, and not something she’d want to rely on for daily engagements… But in a pinch? They clearly worked.

Vi had used them during the suicidal push across no-man’s-land back at the start of the Assessment, shielding the entire group under her bubble long enough to make the treck.

Without those boosters, Vi would’ve burned out halfway through.

Thea’s brows furrowed slightly as she ran through the numbers in her head.

‘Okay… say I use [Sensory Overdrive] early in a fight. I’ll probably have enough Focus left for one or two boosters to push me into [Psychic Reversal] range later. Assuming I’m not just spamming Abilities nonstop, I could potentially make it work… Barely.’

The more she considered it, the more doable it seemed.

“Not ideal,” she muttered. “But viable. If Psykers really are as rare as everyone makes them sound, I might only need to fire this thing off once in a Luminarus Festival... I can definitely plan around that.”

The more she mulled it over, the more realistic the option started to feel.

She really was swimming in System Credits after the Awards Ceremony—between the Accomplishment payouts themselves and the personal medals during the Awards, she had more than she knew what to do with.

And it wasn’t like she had any plans to blow all of it on equipment—not that she was likely to even be able to, considering all the sales voucher she had also acquired from the Awards.

Most of what she needed gear-wise was already covered anyway.

The only real expenses left before her Class Unlock at the end of the year would be Skill lecture purchases—and even there, she had a ridiculous stack of free vouchers sitting untouched for those as well.

The idea started to solidify in her mind. It wasn’t perfect… But it was more than workable.

Turning toward the only real source of concrete information she had access to right now, Thea called out, “Sovereign, how much do Focus Boosters cost, and how much Focus do they recover exactly?”

She couldn’t access anything in the menus with a System prompt active, not without making a decision, but thankfully, the Sovereign had a tendency to keep tabs on things.

“Tier 1 Focus Boosters, available for all Marines of Tier 0 and above, cost 220 Credits—200 Credits if the Squad Medic role is held. They restore between 50 and 100 Focus Points, dependent on the recipient’s maximum Focus pool,” the AI responded immediately.

Thea perked up at that. "What are the limitations? How many can I actually use per day?"

“Booster-type consumables are limited to three per day for individuals of Tier 0 and Tier 1,” the Sovereign explained. “This limit increases by two for every Tier gained beyond Tier 1.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, ‘Booster-type…?’

“What do you mean by Booster-type? Can you list them?” She asked.

“Booster-type consumables refer to items that recover specific System Resources. These differ from Buff-type consumables, which temporarily enhance performance. For your current Tier, available Booster-types include: Focus Boosters, Stamina Boosters, and Psychic Boosters. HP recovery is excluded from Booster classification and instead requires specialized injectors or medical treatment, typically administered by a Squad Medic.”

Thea nodded slowly, absorbing the flood of information.

‘So there are Psychic Boosters. Interesting...’ she thought, already filing that away for future use.

But even just the Focus Boosters alone would be a game-changer.

The fact that she could get three Focus Boosters a day, made this whole idea of accepting [Psychic Reversal] a lot more viable.

As long as she carried around three of them on her person at all times, which she could probably fit into the Spectre—or have it adjusted to fit an extra storage compartment for Boosters, potentially with an auto-inject feature even—she would rarely, if ever, run into a situation where she was completely out of options.

She had rarely dipped more than 150 Focus during the Assessment.

Only in absolute emergencies—usually involving her pushing her Psyker capabilities to the limit. For a regular day, or even most fights, the combo of passive regen and one or two Boosters would already be more than enough.

Three if she was really getting to the end of her rope.

With the Sovereign clearly willing to assist, Thea figured she might as well squeeze in one more burning question that had been gnawing at her thoughts.

“Sovereign, can you tell me what the Ability Alterations for [Psychic Reversal] are?”

“I cannot,” the Sovereign replied at once, tone perfectly neutral. “Ability Alterations differ from participant to participant, based on their individual usage of said Ability. While there are many known Alterations recorded within my available data, your current clearance level does not permit access to that information.”

Thea exhaled sharply through her nose, leaning her head back against the wall.

‘Clearance… That’s definitely a UHF restriction. Figures. Gotta prevent build poisoning somehow—can’t let people meta-chase the seemingly perfect combo if you’re trying to encourage experimentation and adaptability… Probably a lesson they learned the hard way. Makes sense. Even if it’s massively annoying for anyone who actually knows how to build shit properly…’

Still, something about the Sovereign’s phrasing caught her attention.

“…Can you disclose how Alterations generally work?” she tried, careful with her wording. “Specifically, I’m looking for whether [Psychic Reversal] has a Focus cost reduction as part of its Minor Alteration path. All of my other Actives had one at Level 5—was that just coincidence?”

“I can indeed disclose this piece of general information, Recruit McKay,” the Sovereign replied without hesitation. “All Active-type Abilities have cost reduction Alterations available at Minor thresholds—specifically at Level 5 and Level 15. The form of cost reduction, however, varies. It is determined based on the user’s combat behavior, Ability usage pattern, and frequency of activation. Flat reductions, reductions over consecutive uses, conditional discounts, and more are all possible.”

Thea nodded, more to herself than to the voice. “Perfect, thank you.”

Her thoughts were already turning again, stacking the new info on top of everything else she’d gathered so far.

‘So. I’ve got Focus Boosters. Three a day. 10% cheaper if I have Kara pick them up under the Squad Medic discount—gotta remember to tap her for that... That’s 200 each, 600 for a full set, which is easily affordable with my current funds. Kara could even stockpile a bunch just in case. Hmm…’

“Sovereign,” she said aloud, eyes narrowing slightly. “If I have 225 total Focus, how much would a Tier 1 Focus Booster recover for me, exactly?”

“With a maximum Focus of 225,” the Sovereign responded, “a Tier 1 Focus Booster would recover 58 Focus.”

A slow, satisfied grin crept across Thea’s face.

‘That’s 174 Focus minimum, with all three. That’s almost enough to let me cast [Psychic Reversal] even after heavily using [Sensory Overdrive]...! If I then get even a small cost reduction at Level 5, I’ll be absolutely golden. Practically guaranteed to have at least one emergency use of it—even during heavier fights.’

And realistically, she wasn’t going to be using it all the time.

Only when she came up against Psykers; potentially one-on-one duels, infiltration counter-ambushes, or extreme emergencies.

That kind of encounter was rare enough to make the tradeoff viable.

The duo of Psykers during the Assessment had been the only one recorded in the entire Assessment—Thea had checked. And everyone had made it sound like a complete anomaly to begin with.

Viladia, Arrow Squad as a whole, Major Quinn during the Awards…

So there was no real reason to base her entire build around fighting two Psykers at once.

Besides, her Focus would increase over time—especially after her Class selection. This wasn’t a permanent bottleneck, just a temporary hurdle.

And now, it was one she could overcome.

With everything finally tallied up in her head—resources, boosters, Ability scaling, fallback plans, and even Sovereign-confirmed Alterations—Thea finally made her choice.