My na’s Mitch, and until yesterday, my life was the definition of mundane. I graduated from college last year with a degree in business administration, not because I was passionate about it, but because it seed safe.
Now I’m trapped in a soul-crushing office job at ridian Corp, one of those faceless ga-corporations where employees are just numbers on a spreadsheet.
The pay barely covers my studio apartnt rent, but at least I can afford my own place.
More importantly, I have Waffle, my three-year-old golden retriever mix who’s been my constant companion since I rescued him from the shelter six months ago.
He’s got these expressive brown eyes that seem to understand everything I’m going through, and his tail-wagging enthusiasm is often the only bright spot in my predictable routine.
My life follows the sa pattern every day: wake up at 6:30 AM, grab coffee from the machine in my building’s lobby, take the subway to work, spend eight hours staring at spreadsheets, co ho, walk Waffle, microwave dinner, watch Netflix, sleep, repeat.
It’s comfortable in its predictability, safe in its monotony. I don’t do anything exciting because, frankly, I’ve never been one to step outside my comfort zone.
Risk-taking isn’t in my DNA, I’m the guy who reads restaurant reviews for twenty minutes before ordering the sa chicken sandwich I always get.
But today... sothing changed. Sothing that shattered my carefully constructed world of routine and safety.
It started the mont I opened my eyes this morning.
Even Waffle seed unsettled, pacing around my apartnt with his ears pinned back, occasionally whimpering and staring at corners where nothing visible lurked.
His usual morning enthusiasm was replaced by an anxious energy that made my own unease spike.
The sensation hit like a physical force, this overwhelming pull deep in my chest, as if sothing, sowhere far away, was calling to .
It wasn’t just a feeling; it was a compulsion, a magnetic draw that seed to emanate from the very core of my being. The pull was so intense it made my teeth ache and my hands shake.
At first, I tried to rationalize it. Maybe it was anxiety about the quarterly report due today, or maybe I was coming down with sothing.
But as the morning progressed, the sensation only intensified. It felt like invisible hands were tugging at my soul, trying to pull toward so unknown destination.
By noon, I was seriously considering calling in sick and seeing a doctor. The pull had beco so strong that I could barely concentrate on my work. My coworkers kept asking if I was okay, apparently, I looked as terrible as I felt.
Then, at exactly 2:47 PM (I rember because I was staring at my computer clock, willing the workday to end), everything changed.
The sensation exploded into sothing far more intense.
Panic crashed over like a tidal wave as an invisible force seed to grab hold of my entire body.
My muscles locked up completely, not gradually, but all at once, as if soone had flipped a switch.
I couldn’t move my arms, couldn’t shift in my chair, couldn’t even blink. The only part of my body that remained under my control was my head, which I could turn with trendous effort.
Terror flooded through as I scanned my cubicle, desperately looking for soone to help, for any explanation of what was happening.
That’s when I noticed it, the digital clock on my computer screen wasn’t changing. The second hand on the wall clock had frozen mid-tick. Ti itself had stopped.
My heart hamred against my ribs as I realized that while I was paralyzed, I was also sohow outside of ti.
The fluorescent lights above flickered once, twice, then stabilized into an eerie, unnatural stillness.
Then I saw it forming beneath my chair, a circle of light that started as nothing more than a faint purple glow.
At first, it was barely noticeable, like a reflection of so distant neon sign. But it grew rapidly, expanding beyond the confines of my cubicle, its edges inscribed with symbols that seed to shift and writhe when I tried to focus on them.
The symbols looked ancient, otherworldly, carved from pure light itself.
The circle pulsed with increasing intensity, its purple radiance flooding my vision until the entire office was bathed in ethereal light.
The air itself seed to thicken, taking on an almost liquid quality that made each breath feel like drowning.
The ground beneath began to tremble, then shake violently.
My cubicle walls rattled, my computer monitor flickered, and I could hear the distant sound of objects falling in other parts of the office, though I couldn’t see anyone else moving.
It was as if I existed in a bubble of consciousness while the world around remained frozen.
Then ca the pain.
It started as a sharp pinprick in my chest, then exploded outward through every nerve in my body.
It felt like being struck by lightning while simultaneously being torn apart at the molecular level. The agony was so intense that I would have scread if I could have moved my mouth.
Every cell in my body felt like it was being rewritten, restructured, prepared for sothing I couldn’t comprehend.
The pain lasted for what felt like hours, though it might have been seconds, ti had lost all aning.
The purple light around grew so brilliant that it penetrated my closed eyelids, turning my world into a kaleidoscope of violet radiance.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, everything went white. Pure, perfect, endless white that seed to extend infinitely in all directions.
The pain vanished instantly, leaving behind a profound relief that was almost euphoric in its intensity.
I found myself standing on a vast floor of white marble that stretched beyond the horizon.
The surface was so perfectly smooth it reflected my image like a mirror, creating the illusion that I was floating in an endless void of polished stone.
Above , there was no ceiling, no sky, just more of that perfect, luminous white.
In front of , sothing began to materialize from the nothingness. It started as a shimr in the air, like heat waves rising from sumr pavent, then gradually took shape.
A massive carnival wheel, easily twenty feet in diater, constructed from what looked like crystallized light itself. The wheel’s surface was divided into sections, each one pulsing with its own inner radiance.
I tried to read the text inscribed on each section, but the symbols seed to shift and change whenever I focused on them, as if they were written in a language that existed beyond human comprehension.
The only things I could distinguish were the colors. Five distinct hues that seed to represent different levels of rarity or power.
Gray sections dominated the wheel, taking up about half of its surface.
Green sections were less common, maybe a quarter of the total. Blue sections were rarer still, perhaps fifteen percent.
Purple sections were even more scarce, comprising only about eight percent of the wheel.
But it was the golden sections that truly caught my attention, there were only three of them, tiny slivers that seed to pulse with an inner fire that made my eyes water when looking at them directly.
At the bottom of the wheel, a lever materialized, ornate silver with a handle wrapped in what looked like celestial silk.
Without conscious thought, driven by so primal instinct I didn’t understand, I reached out and pulled it.
The entire realm shuddered. The marble floor beneath my feet cracked and reford with each pulse of energy.
The wheel began to spin, slowly at first, then with increasing velocity until it beca a blur of color and light. The sound it made was like a thousand wind chis singing in harmony with the whispers of angels.
As the wheel spun, I felt a strange anticipation building in my chest. This wasn’t just a ga of chance, it was a cosmic lottery that would determine my fate in ways I couldn’t yet imagine.
The wheel began to slow, its sections becoming distinguishable once more. Gray... green... blue... purple... and then, impossibly, it settled on one of the tiny golden sections.
The mont it stopped, the entire realm exploded with golden light. But this wasn’t the harsh, painful radiance from before.
This was warm, nurturing, like being embraced by sunlight itself. Golden energy poured from the wheel in streams of liquid light, flowing directly into my head through so invisible connection.
There was no pain, only the most incredible sensation of bliss I had ever experienced. It felt like every positive emotion I’d ever felt, joy, love, wonder, peace, concentrated into pure energy and flooding through my consciousness.
The golden light seed to rewrite sothing fundantal about my being, unlocking potential I never knew existed.
I never wanted the sensation to end. For those precious minutes, I felt truly alive for the first ti in my life, as if I had been living in black and white and suddenly discovered color.
When the golden energy finally stopped flowing, I felt fundantally changed. A translucent blue window materialized before :
CONGRATULATIONS!
MITCH of Earth has won the Golden Ticket for [Creation System] with affinities in Space and Holy Energy!
Press here to continue
My hand trembled as I reached out to touch the ethereal button. The window dissolved, replaced by another that made my breath catch in my throat:
Na: Mitch (human)
Level: 1 (tier 1)
Class: None
Divine blessing: Creation system ★★★★★★★★★★
Body: 6
Mind: 9
Mana: 10
Achievents: Otherworlder ★★★‚ Divine luck ★★★★★★★★
Skills: None
Passives: None
I stared at the display, trying to process what I was seeing. It looked like sothing from a video ga, but the implications were staggering.
Sohow, I had been granted a system that operated on RPG chanics, but this was real, not virtual.
Before I could explore further, the white realm around began to collapse.
The marble floor cracked and crumbled, the wheel dissolved into motes of light, and I felt myself being pulled into a black void that opened beneath my feet.
Consciousness fled, and I plumted into darkness.
I woke to the sensation of damp earth against my cheek and the sound of rustling leaves overhead.
My head pounded as if I’d been hit by a truck, and my body ached in ways that suggested I’d been unconscious for hours.
Panic surged through as I pushed myself up on trembling arms, my eyes darting around frantically to take in my surroundings.
I was lying in a small clearing surrounded by towering trees that looked nothing like the maples and oaks I was familiar with.
These trees had silver bark that seed to shimr in the dappled sunlight, and their leaves were a shade of green so vibrant it almost hurt to look at.
The air slled different, too, cleaner, sohow, with an underlying hint of sothing floral and exotic. Every breath I took felt more energizing than the recycled office air I was used to.
That’s when I saw it.
About fifteen feet away, a creature that could only be described as a sli was making its way toward with determined, if slow, purpose.
It was roughly the size of a basketball, translucent green like li jelly, and it moved with an undulating motion that was both fascinating and deeply unsettling.
Through its transparent body, I could see what looked like a small, crystalline sphere floating near its center, along with what appeared to be chunks of raw at suspended in the gelatinous mass.
The sight made my stomach turn, especially when I realized that the at might have co from its last victim.
The sli had no visible eyes, no mouth, no features at all, just a constantly shifting mass of semi-solid matter that sohow knew exactly where I was.
It moved with surprising speed for sothing that had to flow across the ground, leaving a faint trail of moisture in its wake.
I don’t think it wants to be petted, I thought hysterically. Hell, I don’t even know where its head is supposed to be.
My first instinct was to run, but my legs felt like jelly, and I wasn’t sure I could outrun sothing that might be able to engulf entirely.
The sli was now about ten feet away, close enough that I could see the way light refracted through its translucent body, creating rainbow patterns on the forest floor.
Desperately, I grabbed a fist-sized rock from the ground and hurled it at the creature.
My aim was terrible, the rock sailed wide, missing by several feet and bouncing harmlessly off a tree trunk. The sli didn’t even pause in its approach.
Panic made clumsy. I stumbled backward, trying to put distance between us, and fell hard on my backside.
The impact sent a jolt of pain up my spine, but it also seed to clear my head slightly.
The sli was now only about five ters away, close enough that I could see the way its surface rippled with each undulation.
I grabbed another rock, this one smaller but with a more manageable weight.
Taking a mont to actually aim, I threw it with all the force I could muster.
This ti, my aim was true, the rock struck the sli dead center and disappeared into its gelatinous body with a wet plop.
But instead of being hard, the sli simply absorbed the projectile. The rock now floated alongside the at chunks and crystalline sphere, completely unfazed by the attack.
If anything, the sli seed to move slightly faster, as if my aggression had sohow energized it.
I scrambled to my feet, my mind racing. The creature was now within striking distance, close enough that I could sll its earthy, slightly sweet odor.
Without thinking, I grabbed a sturdy branch from the ground, about three feet long and thick enough to use as a club.
When the sli ca within arm’s reach, I swung the branch with every ounce of strength I had, putting all my fear and desperation into the blow. The branch connected with a wet, squelching sound that I’ll never forget.
The sli exploded.
Green goo splattered in all directions, coating my clothes, the nearby trees, and the ground in a radius of several feet.
The sll was overwhelming, like rotting vegetables mixed with pond scum. I gagged and stumbled backward, wiping sli from my face with the back of my hand.
But even as I watched, the green goo began to dissolve, seeping into the earth as if it were being absorbed by the forest itself.
Within minutes, all that remained were the items that had been floating inside the sli: the crystalline sphere, the chunks of at, and the rock I had thrown.
I cautiously approached the remains, using the branch to poke at the crystal sphere.
It was about the size of a marble, perfectly smooth, and it pulsed with a faint inner light.
Sothing instinctual told this was valuable, a monster core, perhaps, like in the video gas I used to play.
I picked up the sphere, surprised by how warm it felt in my palm, and slipped it into my pocket.
The at chunks I left alone, I had no idea what they were from, and I wasn’t about to risk food poisoning in an unknown world.
Now that the imdiate danger had passed, I took stock of my situation. I was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a vast forest, with no road, no path, and no sign of civilization in any direction.
The trees stretched endlessly in all directions.
My inventory was pathetic: the clothes on my back, a smartphone with maybe ten percent battery, my house keys, utterly useless now, and a mysterious crystal sphere from a dead sli. Not exactly survival gear.
I needed to figure out what had happened to , and more importantly, how to use whatever power I had been granted. Closing my eyes, I tried to rember the status window I had seen in that white realm.
"System," I said aloud, feeling slightly foolish. "nu. Interface. Status?"
To my amazent, the translucent blue window materialized before , displaying the sa information I had seen before:
Na: Mitch (human)
Level: 1 (tier 1)
Class: None
Divine blessing: Creation system ★★★★★★★★★★
Body: 6
Mind: 9
Mana: 10
Achievents: Otherworlder ★★★‚ Divine luck ★★★★★★★★
Skills: None
Passives: None
I stared at the display, trying to understand what each elent ant. My stats seed low: Body 6, Mind 9, Mana 10, but I had no fra of reference for what constituted good or bad numbers.
The Divine Blessing was clearly important, given its ten-star rating, but I had no idea how to use it.
Experintally, I tried touching different parts of the display. When I tapped on "Class," a new window appeared:
[The next class change will be available at Level 10!]
Great. I was level 1, and I had no idea how to gain experience. The sli I had killed didn’t seem to have given any XP, so leveling up was going to be a mystery I’d have to solve.
Next, I tried tapping on the "Creation System" blessing. The window that appeared made my eyes widen:
Tier 1 skills: Gather (cost 1 point), Inspect (cost 3 points), Small pocket space (30 points), Create common weapon (10 points), Create elent (20 points)
Tier 2 skills (locked): dium pocket space (? points), ?????????
Tier 3 skills (locked): ??????????
I stared at the point counter in the top left corner, showing a big fat zero. The skills looked incredibly useful, but I had no way to afford them. How was I supposed to get points?
As if responding to my thoughts, another window popped up:
The system converts the energy it deems valuable into points. The energy can be internal or external. The purer the energy, the more points are given.
A small source of energy was found. Do you wish to convert it?
Yes / No
I hesitated for a mont, then pressed [Yes]. The crystal sphere in my pocket grew warm, then dissolved into motes of light that flowed into my chest.
The sensation was similar to what I had experienced with the golden energy, but much milder, like drinking warm honey.
A new notification appeared:
[1x Small Infant Harmless Nature Sli Core converted to 1 System Point!]
"Infant?" I muttered. "Harmless?" The thing had been trying to eat !
Though, to be fair, I had no way of knowing its intentions. Maybe it was just curious about the strange human that had appeared in its forest.
Now that I had a point, I could afford the cheapest skill. The [Gather] ability seed like the most imdiately useful option, so I purchased it.
The mont I confird the purchase, knowledge flooded into my mind. Not just information about the skill, but a fundantal understanding of how to manipulate the energy within my body.
It was like learning to breathe or blink, suddenly I just knew how to do it.
The sensation ca with a splitting headache that made groan and clutch my temples, but it passed quickly.
When it faded, I understood how to channel my mana through specific patterns and pathways, directing it outward to interact with the world around .
I walked back to where the sli had died, looking for any remaining traces of its essence.
There, a small puddle of green goo that hadn’t been absorbed by the earth yet. I knelt beside it and activated [Gather], feeling the mana flow from my core down my arms and into my hands.
The green substance began to shimr and break down into tiny particles of light.
These particles swirled upward, condensing into a small, sticky green sphere about the size of a marble. It felt warm and slightly elastic, like a stress ball made of organic material.
I slipped the new item into my pocket alongside my other ager possessions. It might be useful for crafting or trading, assuming I ever found other people in this world.
Experintally, I tried tapping on other parts of my status window, but nothing else seed to be interactive.
I was still level 1, still had no class, and still had no idea where I was or how to get ho.
I sighed and picked up the branch I had used to kill the sli. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing.
The sun was directly overhead now, indicating that it was roughly midday. That gave several hours before nightfall, ti I needed to use wisely.
My priorities were clear: find water, find food, find shelter, and try to figure out how to survive in this strange new world.
The forest around was beautiful but alien, and I had no idea what other creatures might be lurking in its depths.
As I chose a direction at random and began walking, I couldn’t help but think about Waffle. Was he okay? Would anyone think to check on him if I didn’t co ho?
The thought of my loyal companion waiting for , wondering why I hadn’t returned, made my chest tighten with emotion.
But I couldn’t dwell on that now. I had to focus on surviving long enough to find a way back to him. The Creation System might be the key to both survival and return, but first I needed to understand how it worked.
My journey into the unknown had begun, and there was no turning back.
Reviews
All reviews (0)