The Year is 2058.
Thirty years ago, the world changed overnight.
A cataclysmic event tore open the sky and ground alike, leaving a wound in the middle of the Earth that no one could explain. Where once there was ocean and land, there was now a dome of utter darkness — 780 kilometres in radius, swallowing everything it touched. No light entered it. No sound escaped it. Satellites couldn't map it. Missiles fired into it simply vanished.
Governments called emergency summits. Scientists called it an anomaly. Religions called it the end.
People just called it the Abyss.
And then, as if that wasn't enough, every single human being on the planet manifested a black line around their wrists.
No pain. No explanation. Just there.
The people who entered the Abyss came back changed. Wide-eyed, trembling, clutching powers that shouldn't have existed. Each of them had received something upon entering: a Blessing, and a personal interface that lived inside their minds, visible only to themselves unless they chose to share it.
Their status had three components.
Blessing Slots.
2. Streaming Screen.
3. Corruption Meter.
The first was Blessing Slots. Everyone entered the Abyss with two empty slots, and the moment they entered the dome of darkness for the first time, one would fill with a randomly assigned Blessing — a power unique to them. Additional Blessings could be earned through various means inside the Abyss, and clearing each floor unlocked one more slot to hold them.
The second was the Streaming Screen. Activating it broadcast the streamer's existence to every person on Earth, who could tune in through a screen that materialised from their wrists. The more viewers a streamer drew, the more Abyss Points they earned — Ten viewers per minute generate one point. Those points could be spent on mystery encounters, shops hidden within the Abyss, or to strengthen their Blessings via the rare Blessing Craft encounters.
Fame, in this new world, was its own kind of power.
The third was the Corruption Meter. The Abyss was not meant for the living. The longer someone remained inside, the more it ate at them — not their bodies, but their minds. Their memories. The meter tracked how far gone they were, and at one hundred percent, they would begin losing random memories every ten minutes, gone forever. Corruption-cleansing items existed, buried in shops and tucked behind rare rewards, but they were among the most valuable things in the world.
The Abyss itself, people eventually discovered, was not a single place. It was a descent — a series of floors, each one as vast as a planet, each one its own world of geography, monsters, and secrets that shifted entirely every week. The deeper one went, the stronger the Blessings they could claim. The cost, naturally, was everything.
The first streamers who returned from the lower floors were unrecognisable. Not in appearance, but in power. They moved like something the laws of physics had simply agreed to ignore. They drew millions of viewers. They lived like kings.
And the rest of the world watched, wanted, and followed as people who braved the dangers in the Abyss became the focus of humanity.
Thus began the Era of Abyssal Streamers.
…
"Collaboration between Night Hawk and Mystic Lady in the recently discovered S-rank Trial on the third floor?! That's crazy big news!"
"It seems both guild leaders decided to tackle it together, given that this is only the fourth S-rank Trial discovered so far, and only two were cleared successfully."
"I wonder what blessing I'll awaken."
"I want an S-rank Blessing!"
Students who had finished their basic studies in combat and information from various academies were gathered at different spots around the large Abyss.
This was a common sight every year.
Although it was possible to acquire Blessings inside the Abyss, the first Blessing mattered a lot to the students because it would decide their initial fate.
Awakening a high-ranking Blessing meant one would at least get sufficient backup and could get recruited into a Streamer Guild.
All students from various academies in the surrounding areas of this vast abyss were hyped and excited.
Among these many students, there was someone not from this world.
He was from another Earth, and his name was Michael. A young plumber who died while piping a slutty customer. She wanted to fulfil some kind of plumber-fucking fantasy, but her husband arrived and shot him in the head.
Never pipe a customer. A lesson learned too late for the first life.
But he got a second life here, new name Ravexis, though everyone called him Rave. He had a family of three here, unlike the orphan he was in his past life.
His parents were teachers at an Academy, and his sister studied there at fifteen years old.
Both mother and father had F-rank Blessings, which was the lowest rank of Blessing one could get.
Braving the dangers of the Abyss with their Blessings was foolish, so they became teachers.
Abyssal Streamers were abundant, but still not enough given the exploration of the Abyss. Many would give up before managing to reach the second floor due to dangers and uncertainty.
Still, the competition among Abyssal Streamers was high.
Those who get higher views can explore more and get better rewards as they generate more Abyss Points per minute.
There were many famous Abyssal Streamers living like kings and queens, but there were also those who preferred privacy despite being very strong.
Streaming had an option of privacy that would hide the Streamer's face, so if privacy was on, people wouldn't know the person streaming, but their powers wouldn't be hidden, so if they were caught using it outside, and a video spread about, people would know.
The bad side of privacy was murders. There were streamers who specifically streamed about hunting other people every now and then.
Many were caught, and many are still on the loose.
Rave had something in this new life he didn't have in his previous life.
A family. A very loving family.
He had been here for a year now, and he had properly integrated here.
He loved his family as they loved him.
And he wanted to change their current poor situation.
"Walk forward fifty steps, students! We will enter a space of darkness that will last for ten seconds. You won't be able to see each other, so stay still and don't do anything."
Rave was at the very back of the second column. To his left was classmate Ruby, and to his right was classmate Amon.
The students had received basic combat training for three years, and these three were the top three students in terms of martial arts.
As the group began moving, watching a veil of utter darkness nearing, the students were talking or whispering excitedly.
Teachers issued the important matter one final time.
"Students! Don't let go of each other's hands! Otherwise, you'll spawn at a different starting area in the abyss!"
"Rave, this is the last time we are on the same level," Amon smirked. "After this, I'll leave you far behind."
Rave just continued walking, face ahead.
But Ruby responded with a snort.
"Yeah, yeah, we know your uncle is a Tier-3 Streamer and vice-leader of Howling Tiger Guild. They'll babysit you and help you acquire good blessings even if you awaken a shit one here."
"Humph, so what? That's the part of my ability."
Ruby rolled her eyes. "Part of your ability? Yeah, sure."
Rave picked his ear as the veil neared. "Whether I get a shit blessing or a good blessing, I am going to become an Abyssal Streamer."
Because that was the future.
Only by becoming an Abyssal Streamer could he become stronger and truly change his and his family's lives.
In his past life, he was a plumber, but he was studying other stuff on the side because he didn't want to do plumbing his whole life. No offence to plumbers.
He just wanted something more for himself.
In this world, there was an opportunity to become god-like beings!
So he did wish to get a good blessing at the start because that'd make a massive difference.
"We are entering! Don't do any stupid thing in the darkness!"
The Abyss was not fixed in the first place, so all information one acquired about a floor would become useless.
Every week, the structures of each floor would dramatically change. From geography to the monsters, everything.
Only the top guilds sent teams to explore the new designs and map them out, however much they could, as each floor was as big as planet Earth, so it was impossible to map it out entirely, but they prioritized noting some important farming spots or mysterious areas.
You want that information? Join their guild.
Today was the start of the new week, and it had been past seven in the morning, so the floors had already changed.
[You have entered the Abyss for the first time. Triggering the Blessing protocol.]
"Hey, stop touching me!!"
"Someone just farted! Who is it?! Damn it, what did you eat in the morning?"
"It's Kawen! He farted!"
"Who is it!? Who spoke my name?! IT'S NOT ME!"
"Students! Shut up!"
Rave saw the chaos unfurling in the absolute darkness as students did what they were best at. Causing mischief.
But ten seconds passed by soon, and the darkness disappeared.
There were 1000 starting areas in the abyss, and people would always spawn randomly unless they held hands.
The students had held hands as instructed by the teachers, so all of them appeared together in one starting area.
A massive hall with one exit leading to a grassy land with a thin forest and littered ruins of some exotic civilisation.
[You have acquired your first Blessing.]
The two teachers are both middle-aged. One was a woman with short pale blue hair, and the other was a man with a shining bald head.
The massive hall had many people, and a few other groups of students as well.
"Alright, all of you must have awakened your first blessings. I can see some excited and some disappointed faces, but it is what it is. You get what you get. Now, we will be registering your blessings. Based on that, we will decide who will come with us to explore this floor."
Rave looked at the interface that had popped into his mind and frowned. 'Are you shitting me?'
[Ravexis Mox]
[Race: Human]
[Liferank: Tier-1]
— Blessing Slots —
1. #%@& (X-rank)
2. —
— Streaming Screen —
— Corruption Meter —
What the fuck is that blessing?!