Alarm
"Ugh."
A teenager opened his eyes in displeasure of the blaring sound.
But he did not turn off the alarm, instead he gazed at the ceiling with his deep black eyes and ruffled his equally deep black, messy bed hair.
Exhale
After a few minutes he let out a tired sigh and finally sat up, grabbing his phone and turning off the alarm.
He then opened his gallery and found the photo of the school timetable, after finding the appropriate day of the week he saw:
1. 8:00-8:40: Physics
2. 8:50-9:30: Mathematics
3. 9:50-10:30: Literature
4. 10:40-11:20: Russian language
5. 11:30-12:10: Physical education
6. 12:15-12:55: History
7. 13:00-13:40: English language
"Blyaaa, bullshit timetable"
He opened up the alarm app and set another alarm for 10:10, turned off his phone and lay back down, covering himself with the big and warm duvet.
Mentally calculating that he could sleep two more hours and thirty minutes and then the fact that he could go early by skipping the English class, his sleepy face was graced by a smirk, and soon he dozed off again.
.
.
.
The same young man, now clad in three layers of clothes, winter mittens and a winter hat, was now trotting the snow-covered streets of the gray city he called his home. Everybody around him wore the same type of clothes, as they walked unhurriedly to their destinations, watching their steps in order to avoid slipping on the icy ground.
Another bleak day of their bleak everyday lives and their bleak futures.
The young man walked along the road he walked for years towards the place where he had learned nothing he wanted, in order to graduate and learn something he had no interest in, so that he could later land a job that was about nothing important.
That was his life and his future, just like millions of other people.
Unfamiliar sounds
Until he heard weird noises he had never stumbled upon before, turning his gaze towards the sounds, he noticed a group of hooded figures walking out from an isolated alley.
What put him in a stupor was the fact that they were clothed so lightly he felt a shiver just looking at them, but all the other people walking the streets seemed to pay them no mind, as if they were invisible.
The teenager spun around in place, trying to find anybody around that was also staring at the overly conspicuous group of hooded people.
But he didn't.
Alas the group was already quite far away, not that he wanted to strike up a conversation with them.
Then he remembered the weird noises.
He took off his mittens, took out his phone in order to check the time, but the battery was dead due to the cold.
Tsk
He decided to check the alley anyway and as he turned the corner, an inexplicable sight blessed his eyes.
A phenomenon he could only explain as a portal or a dimensional rift was before him, phasing in and out of existence as if broken, or perhaps manipulated by somebody or something.
Captivated by the sight, the young man walked even closer and the portal suddenly stabilised. As he looked through the rift, he saw… he saw something… something he shouldn't have seen.
A great red dragon, straight out of legends and myths, could be seen as it was doing…
Barrel rolls.
"Vroom! Vrooom!"
The teenager could have sworn he heard it making motorcycle noises.
Screech
The dragon screeched to a stop as its head flicked towards the gaze it could suddenly feel.
And so, a young man stood still staring wide eyed into the great dragon, while the red entity was also burning the mortal with its deep gaze.
"Kyah!"
It slapped towards the hole in space through which the mortal caught its childish act.
And the human lost his consciousness, while the rift was closed up.
.
.
.
Gasp
The young man woke up with a jolt in his bed, his body covered in cold sweat and skin pale, as if he had seen a nightmare that was enough to traumatise him.
He wiped away the sweat from his forehead with his forearm, and noticed that it was rather too bright for it to be 10:10.
Grabbing the phone, he checked the time.
14:30.
'What the…'
It was the first time he missed his alarm, not that he cared about missing the lessons, but something felt weird…
He got up and went to wash himself, then put the kettle on to have some warm tea.
As he sat at the table of his empty home, staring out the window at the sun that brought no warmth in winter, his mind was completely empty.
Tapping the rhythm of a song on the table, his being was simply waiting for the water to boil until he noticed his lapse in focus.
Chalking the feeling of absent-mindedness to him still feeling tired, he began to think of what to do, particularly - what game to play today.
Twirling the spoon in his cup, he began thinking about how to develop his character in Dark Souls 3 so that he could beat the Nameless King, who kept on handing him his ass.
That's when images of an unfamiliar character system surfaced in his mind, but he thought nothing of it.
Ringtone
The young man answered the call.
"Alexander, good day, where were you today?"
An aged voice of a lady spoke up.
"Sorry Nadezhda Petrovna, I fell sick again."
The boy answered without much thought.
"That's the second time this month, young man."
She said sternly, while Alexander grimaced at his lapse in judgement.
"It's my stomach this time, ate something bad apparently."
"I will need a doctor's slip this time from you, get well."
"I understand, no problem, have a nice day."
They spoke their farewells and ended the call, while Alexander rolled his eyes and exhaled a tired sigh once again.
Taking his cup of tea, he went back to his room and booted up his PC, but he was in no mood to play anything anymore, so he opened up his last watched anime.
After hours of wasting his time and life being unproductive, he paused and decided to lie down for a bit.
Ever since waking up he was truly feeling unwell, his head and stomach ached and he didn't want to eat even though he felt the hunger gnawing at his stomach.
With a prayer for this feeling to wash away after waking up he closed his eyes again, but was greeted by the same seemingly tangible system he kept seeing throughout the day.
Getting angry with the state of helplessness, he grabbed the pillow and put it over his face, cursing for the thoughts to go away so that he could sleep.
One hour.
Two hours.
Three hours.
The boy jolted up in rage, he just couldn't sleep, the image of the system kept on plaguing him and his aches kept on getting worse and worse.
Cursing aloud he stormed into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
Seeing it empty, he felt himself boiling even more.
'What a shitty day'
He slammed the fridge door and decided to go out to eat, there was a decent shawarma place nearby.
.
.
.
The biting evening cold prickled his face and fingers as he kept biting and gulfing down the warm shawarma on the way back home.
All around him, children walked with their parents, probably after finishing after-school activities, his gaze lingered for some time on a family that radiated joy and laughter, but he averted his eyes after catching himself starting to care.
As he neared the apartment building he lived in, he decided to sit on the bench by the entrance to finish his food and smoke a cigarette.
As he was doing so, his mind once again drifted to the image of the happy family, while comparing that to his own lonesome self.
Unknown mother, absent father, but at least he had his own apartment and received money from him in the cold periods.
Construction in the spring and summer, a solid amount from his father in autumn and winter.
He flicked the butt towards the trashcan.
He missed.
"Blyat"
He got up and picked it up, then put it into the trashcan, dusting his hands off. Afterwards, he finally went inside the complex.
Feeling much better, he made himself tea again and sat at the table, booting up the PC again, then starting a game called Genshin Impact. Daily tasks wait for nobody, after all.
But as he was starting to feel happy, the same images plaguing him throughout the day started surfacing again.
This time however, as a responsible young man Alexander simply started laughing in despair, not heaving in rage.
He slapped his forehead.
"I have gone crazy, haven't I?"
He spoke aloud, while mentally surfing the system panels in his mind.
[Perk Tree]
Scrolling through the options, while holding his head he soon stopped at a certain interesting one.
[
Wonder Branches
Protagonist
Novice: Fast Learner (1 Point) - You gain proficiency in all skills 20% faster. You learn from doing things with uncanny speed. You automatically can speak the language of the entity you are conversing with.
Adept: Unlocked Potential (2 Points) - Once per world, you can refund all perk points and reassign them, allowing you to adapt your build to new challenges.
Expert: Plot Armor (3 Points) - Once per week, you automatically survive a killing blow. You are left on the brink of death, but alive.
Master: The Chosen One (4 Points) - Major quests and pivotal individuals are naturally drawn to you. Your luck is supernaturally high. You occasionally get a "hunch" about narrative tropes, allowing you to sense ambushes, betrayals, or key story moments.
]
He once again chuckled aloud.
"Yep, I truly have gone insane"
And since he accepted this development, he simply started reading through the perks with interest, as if researching what his convoluted mind has cooked up. And he stumbled upon another option under the wonder branches.
[
Travel
Novice: Hop (1 Point) - Uncontrolled, short-range "hops" to adjacent realities. No cooldown.
Adept: Anchor (2 Points) - Can target worlds he has a strong conceptual anchor for (a person, a place, an item). Unlocks fast travel to 3 saved "Soul Signatures."
Expert: Gate (3 Points) - Can open stable, two-way portals. Cooldown significantly reduced. Soul Signature capacity increased to 6.
Master: Odyssey (4 Points) - Can travel to any known world at will. Soul Signature capacity increased to 9. You are now a true master of the multiverse.
]
'Ooh, great minds think alike'
Alexander thought, complimenting his now-psychotic mind.
Looking at the green glowing novice option on the perk, he mentally clicked on it.
[Are you sure you want to buy this skill?]
Seeing no [Yes] or [No] options, he simply thought of acknowledging his wish.
No special effects, no sounds and no text prompts. But the skill option was now white, not grey as it was previously.
Scratching his forehead, which now had a red palm imprint, he decided to continue with this madness.
'Use [Hop]?'
He spoke in his mind unsure.
Swoosh
One second he was seated behind his table, the next he was flying into an endless water source.
"WHAT THE FUUUUUCK?!"
Plop
Endless darkness underwater and the deep blue surface blessed his vision.
"[Hop], USE [Hop] AGAIN DAMN YOU!"
Alexander screamed at the top of his lungs.
Swoosh
He now found himself amongst abandoned buildings filled with greenery and no life in sight.
He fell on his ass, flicking his wet hair back, as he heaved in and out, while clutching the wet clothes over his heart.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, what the fuck?!"
Seated, he now started feeling around the cracked asphalt around him, everything felt real and how it should be.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck"
He jolted up and started running towards the closest abandoned building he could find.
Going inside it, he caught his breath as it smelled of mold, or rot, or everything together, but what truly made him stand in place soundless was the monster running through the dark, loudly clicking.
As Alexander's body shivered and the hairs stood on end, the monster zoomed past him through the window and out into the open, right where he screamed out his indignation.
Blinking his eyes repeatedly, he felt the control over his body returning once again and without wasting even a millisecond.
'[Hop]'
The scenery changed once again, now he stood amongst towering skyscrapers dressed in neon lights.
Looking around, Alexander lost his breath once again, but this time in awe.
All around him, colourfully clothed people moved around in cybernetics, cars were flying above him.
He ran out of the alleyway into the street, his state looking rather pitiful with wet clothes and a shivering body from the chilly weather.
But nobody paid him any mind, Alexander himself was too busy looking around in shock and trepidation.
It was definitely the future and it looked absolutely stunning and it wasn't even the night.
After a couple of moments running around and looking at the different places, he finally settled down and took a seat on a bench in a nearby park.
While sitting, he was surfing the system panel he previously dismissed.
Unfortunately for him, the onlookers passing by only saw a disheveled young man staring into the distance with mixed expressions.
'A mad man'
They all collectively thought and took a wide berth around him.
Alexander himself didn't notice nor would he care even if he did. This was it. Everything he ever wished for. His chance for an interesting and fulfilling life.
[Perk Tree]
⇑
[Map] ⇐ ⇒ [Journal]
⇓
[Inventory]
The system panel showed four options, each one self-explanatory for a gamer.
Opening the [Map], Alexander could now clearly see the area he had explored, even the details of the places he had briefly entered. The rest, however, was greyed out, only the borders of the area could be seen, all in all, the city was huge.
Going back, he now opened [Journal] but it was empty sans the noticeable text [Pending…] and the bookmarks above it, [Active][Completed].
Returning to the menu once again, he now opened the [Inventory] option and was graced with emptiness once again, but as Alexander familiarised himself with the tabs, he grew more and more excited.
[Consumables][Armour][Weapons][Spells][Favourites]
He opened the [Favourites] tab and could now see his own figure in a T-pose, wearing the same damp home clothes he adorned at the moment.
All around his limbs were item slots, such as helmet, face, neck, cuirass, leggings, belt, boots, rings and many others.
Not to say that he felt overwhelmed, but he definitely felt excited at the prospect of his future.
Going back once again, he revisited the [Perk Tree] from whence he gained the ability to travel. There once again, he had a look through the main tabs:
[
1. Light/Medium/Heavy Armour
2. Melee Combat
3. Ranged Combat
4. Specialised Combat
5. Skill Branches
6. Wonder Branches
]
As he wanted to start opening from the start and getting familiar with each option again, he remembered that he couldn't get a word the people around him were saying and opened the [6. Wonder Branches] tab.
Once he did so, with no hesitation, he bought the most important perk at the moment.
[
Protagonist
Novice: Fast Learner (1 Point) - You gain proficiency in all skills 20% faster. You learn from doing things with uncanny speed. You automatically can speak the language of the entity you are conversing with.
]
He then scrolled some more towards the [7. Travel] tab and saw that his skill level was 7, nowhere near the needed level 30 to upgrade to the adept skill level.
Since he was already here, Alexander decided to finish scrolling through the wonder branches, taking great interest in the two last tabs.
[
Body
Novice: Peak Condition (1 Point) - Your body operates at the absolute peak of human potential. You are faster, stronger, and more durable than any Olympic athlete.
Sensory
Novice: Witcher Sense (1 Point) - Your natural senses are heightened to their absolute peak. You can hear a heartbeat across a silent room, see the faintest trail in near-total darkness, and smell specific individuals in a crowded street. This is the foundation of a superhuman tracker and scout.
]
But after taking a glance at the remaining three perk points, he hesitated to buy their novice abilities and instead started going through the armour, combat and skill branches.
Considering he had no weapon or armour, he just skimmed through the options, but bookmarked a certain combat skill in the specialised combat branch.
[
Specialised Combat
Sneak Combat
Novice: Light Foot (1 Point): You move with a preternatural silence. Your footsteps make no sound, regardless of the surface—dry leaves, gravel, or creaky floorboards are as silent as packed earth to you.
]
In the skill branches he bookmarked some more perks that would greatly help him down the line, especially in the beginning.
[
Speech
Novice: Silver Tongue (1 Point) - You are naturally persuasive and charismatic. You get better prices and can often talk your way out of minor troubles.
Ruler
Novice: Leader (1 Point) - You can naturally inspire loyalty and command respect. You can effectively manage a small group, like an adventuring party or a village.
Peasant
Novice: Hardy (1 Point) - You are inured to hardship. You can endure long hours of manual labor, poor weather, and meager rations without complaint or loss of effectiveness. You are, for all intents and purposes, very difficult to inconvenience.
]
Unfortunately, he only had three perk points and no idea how to earn them at the moment, as there was no character level, only perk levels.
After some contemplating, enough for the sun to begin to set, Alexander finally decided to purchase the novice perks of [Body], [Sneak] and [Speech]. Bringing his abilities up to the following:
- [Hop] for travelling the worlds;
- [Fast learner] for language purposes and for faster perk leveling;
- [Peak condition] for survivability and to get the body he always wanted but never worked towards;
- [Silver tongue] mainly to talk the way out of certain trouble.
Feeling content and the need to find a safe place to sleep he finally got up and walked up to a pedestrian.
"What do you need?"
The man looked at Alexander in displeasure and took a step back to put some distance between them.
"Oh, sorry, I just wanted to ask for some directions to a nearby hotel or something of the sort"
The young man put his hands slightly up, to diffuse the tension, thinking he was too excited and made the guy uncomfortable.
He also noticed how natural it felt to speak English, he could never understand before.
"Fuck off kid"
The man flipped him off and started walking away, while looking back and checking if Alexander was following him.
'What the-'
The teenager was shocked to say the least, scratching the back of his head he tried asking another pedestrian.
After some trial and error, he finally found a place where he could stay the night, some donated currency called eurodollars and a pack of cigarettes.
Pleased with the progress and not minding the untrusting nature of the people, which he believed had to do with his current appearance, he made his way to the recommended nearby motel.
It was decrepit, but beggars can't be choosers, besides he felt it was just the start. After paying for the night and checking into his room he was disgusted with the state of it.
'What in the hell? How could they let a motel get into this state, even if it's on the outskirts…'
He thought, so instead of lying down on the dirty bed, he decided to sleep sitting with his head on the table.
.
.
.
After staying up most of the night dreaming about what his life would be like now, he now woke up feeling surprisingly well rested.
It was surprising not because he had slept well, but because he had woken up in an unrecognisable place with only one source of light.
That being a lamp that shone upon him, while he lay on what could only be described as an operating table with a holographically masked face hovering over his own.
"Wakie, wakie"
The figure spoke in broken English with heavy Slavic vibes.
'Huh?'
Alexander opened his eyes wide as the face before him suddenly struck his own head.
"A rare organic body and no sense of safety, you can only blame yourself for landing on my operating table hahaha"
The teenager tried to move his bare body but he was strapped to the chair, and even with his olympic level of strength he could not get rid of the binds.
As panic started to set in, especially now that the masked figure was winding up a fucking chainsaw, Alexander finally remembered that he is able to easily escape.
'[Hop]'
He thought with desperation, hoping that yesterday was not a dream and soon found himself on a beautiful white beach.
With a relieved breath, he lost consciousness from the high pressure and worn off adrenaline. He dropped, naked and face-down, into the sand.