"Speech"

'Thoughts'


In a white endless space which seemed to be completely void of any sound whatsoever, was a young boy that appeared to be fifteen or so. His eyes were closed and appeared to be unconscious.

He had black straight hair with pale black eyes, his skin was fair and was lean but was well built, it wasn't overly muscular but looked to be built for speed and strength. He wore a light blue t-shirt with a black short-sleeved open hooded jacket over the top, he had on a pair of black jeans and white running shoes.

This was Koshiro, an unfortunate boy who died to an extremely rare heart disease which plagued him since birth and was slowly killing him, his life was already decided for him before it even began. Despite this, he lived as much as he could before he moved on.

Koshiro's eyes twitched as he slowly opened them, revealing his pale black coloured eyes. He blinked before sitting up from his position with a hand to his head. "Where am I? The last thing I remember was living my last moments in the hospital... is this the afterlife then?"

As he thought on the matter of him perishing, his eyes began to grow tears that streamed down his cheeks as he gripped the left side of his shirt where his heart was. He then looked up to the white void. "I wonder how my family is doing... especially big brother, he always stayed by my side."

Just the thought of leaving all of the people and things he loved behind just crushed his heart even more, sending more tears streaming down his face. This was interrupted when he heard a ding sound and opened his eyes and wiped his tears away.

He looked up and saw the source of the sound, but what he saw confused him greatly, the holographic screen that displayed itself in front of him. "What is this?"


Game Over

It would appear that you have reached an unfortunate end to your life, if you so wish to live once again. Select Yes or No

[Yes]-[No]


Koshiro had no idea what was happening to him right now, he thought about, he then clicked the [Yes] option, he still wanted to at least live a longer life. He just had a question in his mind... Where was he going to end up living?

"Alright..." Koshiro muttered. After clicking the option, he flinched when everything around him gave off a bright light that made him cover his eyes. "What's happening!?"

He tried to look forwards and before everything went white, he saw a couple of words in front of him that said 'When you awaken, swipe your hand downwards and good luck'. With that, everything flashed white.


Koshiro's eyes twitched as he opened them, what he could see was a bright blue sky with clouds stretching across, he gripped the ground which seemed to be grass. He blinked before sitting up and looking around.

"What the..." He found himself in a grassy plain with several trees scattered in multiple places, he stood up and looked into the horizon as the wind brushed against his clothes and hair. "I guess... this is my new life..."

He looked down and stared at both of his hands before clenching both of them tightly, he then sighed before dropping both arms to his sides and closed his eyes and relaxed feeling the breeze calmy brushing against his skin.

He then opened his eyes before remembering. "Those words I saw... it said when I wake up, I was supposed to swipe down with my hand, right?" He then brought his right and swiped downwards in front of him.

He jumped slightly out of surprise, this was understandable due to the fact that a holographic screen that displayed many options appeared in front of his face out of nowhere, he calmed down and read them all.


Menu

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Inventory]

[Current Mission]

[Quest Log]

[Shop]


"Huh..." After scanning through the different options, he decided to end up hitting the [Shop] button first, which ended up resulting in a screen saying 'This Option is Unavailable'. "Strange, I guess I have to do something to unlock that..."

After consideration, he then selected the [Stats] option, in reality, he probably should have clicked that first since it would make sense to want to know about yourself before anything else. By doing this, a screen filled with stats appeared.


Stats

Name: Koshiro

Balance: $1,000

Level 1

EXP: 0/100

(Damage: 30 per hit)

Helmet: None

Chestplate: None

Leggings: None

Boots: None

Weapon: None

Accessory 1: None

Accessory 2: None

Health: 100/100 (Regen: 10/min)

Mana: 200/200 (Regen: 20/min)

Strength: C (Rank: 0/550)

Agility: C+ (Rank: 0/600)

Special Attack: E (Rank: 0/100)

Endurance: D+ (Rank: 0/400)

Intelligence: B (Rank: 0/750)


"What is this? Am I some game character now...? Wait, I think I've read something like this before, The Gamer, was it?" Koshiro wondered. He had remembered the time he would read different stories in his spare time.

One being a story about a man gaining the ability similar to if he was a game character in th real world, the story intrigued him, and now he was living it. "This setup is a bit different, but It seems to be pretty straight forward."

He scanned his eyes over the rankings his stats had and he really couldn't complain, he did like to work out giving him some strength and quite a bit of speed, he also liked to read so his intelligence was good.

He wasn't exactly good at taking too much damage due to the virus that plagued his heart, so the ranking in there made sense. Though he wondered what Special Attack was, he considered maybe magic, but he wasn't certain.

"So, instead of using points to increase my stats, I have to train them up on my own... I guess that would make it a bit more realistic." Koshiro said to himself. He then exited the [Stats] screen and back to the menu.

He looked at the other options and ended up clicking [Skills] and [Inventory], but they didn't have anything in them. The [Quest Log] was also empty, so he then went into the [Current Mission] menu... but still nothing.

"What to do now..." Koshiro wondered. His thought process was interrupted by a ding sound, he looked at the screen which had switched to a screen that displayed.


{New Quest Acquired}

[Title]

Clearing the Goo

[Objective]

Defeat 5 Dogoos

[Failure]

Death

[Reward]

50 EXP

$100


"A new quest? Ok, we're getting somewhere." Koshiro said. He then read over the quest once again to make sure he understood. "Dogoo? What the heck are those... and why do I feel like there's a pun in there?"

He then heard a strange noise, he turned around to find the source, he rose an eyebrow at the creature that stood before him. It was a teardrop-shaped doglike creature with a brown tail, its body being light blue.

He then deadpanned though, the reason for this was when he looked up, it was displaying the name of the monster and its health. "Oh, that's why I felt the way I just did before about the pun... it's literally a dog that looks like goo!"


Enemy

[Name]

Dogoo

[Health]

50/50


"I'm supposed to kick this things ass, right?" Koshiro asked himself. He widened his eyes when the Dogoo leapt towards him in attempt to attack, he then narrowed his eyes before punching it while it was in the air sending it a few meters away as it got back up looking dazed. "Wow, these things sure are weak..."

Koshiro looked at the health bar of the Dogoo and saw that it had dropped by thirty, leaving the monster with twenty health points. Koshiro took the dazed state of the Dogoo to his advantage and used his impressive speed to get to it really quickly and uppercutted it into the air.

Koshiro watched as the airborne Dogoo shined blue before dispersing into small blue particles, leaving the Dogoo nowhere in sight. Koshiro blinked at the phenomenon before shrugging his shoulders. "I guess that's what happens when a monster dies."

Koshiro then opened up his stats to see that he had gained five experience points, it made sense for the creature to give such little experience considering how weak it was. He closed the menu and stretched his arms.

He then heard a familiar sound and turned around to see four Dogoos growling at him, he just deadpanned because they did not look threatening at all even with the growls. He then smirked before using his speed and catching them off guard with his agility.

He arrived in front of one of the Dogoos before kicked it up before roundhouse kicking it into another one of its friends. The Dogoo that he attacked turned into particles as the Dogoo that was hit with the destroyed one's body had lost ten health points.

He charged at that one grabbed its body as it appeared to be quite afraid, Koshiro turned around to see one of the others jumped at him, he grinned before using the body of the Dogoo he grabbed and spun around in a 360, resulting in sending the Dogoo that jumped at him into a tree and burst into particles instantly.

He then quickly slammed the Dogoo in his hand into the ground making it explode into tiny particles, he stood up from his kneeled position and faced the last Dogoo that was shaking. "Sorry, little buddy, but this has to be done."

Koshiro ran at the Dogoo who attempted to run away but couldn't as Koshiro punched the ground behind the Dogoo creating a shockwave that sent the Dogoo into the air before Koshiro jumped after it before delivering a strong kick by spinning multiple times before slamming his leg onto the top of the Dogoo, sending it crashing into the ground and bursting.

Koshiro put both arms on his hips as he gave a sigh of relief, he then heard a familiar ding sound, he looked at the screen which displayed the completion.


{Quest Completed}

[Title]

Clearing the Goo

[Objective]

Defeat 5 Dogoos

[Reward]

50 EXP

$100


"Finally, now that's done with, let's just check in case." Koshiro said. He then opened up his menu and went into [Stats]. He sighed in relief when he saw that it did indeed give him the cash and experience points. He also saw that some skills increased, though by a very small amount.


Stats

Name: Koshiro

Balance: $1,100

Level 1

EXP: 75/100

(Damage: 30 per hit)

Helmet: None

Chestplate: None

Leggings: None

Boots: None

Weapon: None

Accessory 1: None

Accessory 2: None

Health: 100/100 (Regen: 10/min)

Mana: 200/200 (Regen: 20/min)

Strength: C (Rank: 8/550)

Agility: C+ (Rank: 5/600)

Special Attack: E (Rank: 0/100)

Endurance: D+ (Rank: 0/400)

Intelligence: B (Rank: 0/750)


As soon as he exited the [Stats] menu, another popup occurred.


{New Quest Acquired}

[Title]

Sharpening Skills

[Objective]

Obtain 2 Skills [Tip: Skills can be learnt from Skill Books]

[Failure]

-30 EXP

[Reward]

120 EXP

$200


"Skillbooks? So, like in one of those RPG games..." Koshiro muttered. He was kind of stumped with this one, he was standing in a grassy plain, he highly doubted that he would find books around here.

"I wonder..." Koshiro narrowed his eyes as he carefully scanned the area around him, it took a couple of seconds, but his vision then locked onto something that looked to be made of stone in the distance. "Is that... a path?"

Koshiro started running towards where he saw the 'path', as soon as he arrived, much to his words, it was a stone path that seemed to lead wherever. "I don't have anything else. So, I guess I should just follow this.

With that, Koshiro jumped onto the stony path that was slightly cracked in certain places with some moss growing ever so slightly on the edges. As Koshiro journeyed down the path, he had been attacked by a couple more Dogoos, but easily dealt with them.

"What's that?" Koshiro wondered. He stopped as he stared ahead of him, if you narrowed your arrows, you could see that there seemed to be some kind of structure in the distance. "Is that a house?"

Koshiro quickly put strength into his legs and bolted down the path towards the structure in front of him, as soon as he had arrived, he was greeted by a sight of a wooden house, it was quite small and seemed to be run down.

"I suppose no one lives in this place, just look at the condition..." Koshiro said. He was analysing the state of the building. "Someone probably had once lived here... but, definitely not anymore."

Casting those thoughts to the side, he walked up to the front door before pushing on it after turning the handle, as it opened, it released a creaking noise. He peaked his head through and found it to be a one-room house.

Everything appeared to be made of wood and had some vines hanging down, he walked in as the floorboards creaked as he walked. He saw a small table on the right, a bookshelf, a small bed and really not much more other than that.

"Oh...!" Koshiro realised. He turned to the bookshelf and walked towards it, he scanned the books that layed on it, none of them really stood out besides two of them, with them being the colour blue while the others were brown or worn out. "Are these what I'm looking for?"

Koshiro reached his hand towards the first one and grabbed it off the shelf before looking at it, he slightly flinched when a familiar ding sound was heard. He looked up to see another screen revealed itself to him.


{Item Acquired}

[Title]

Skill Book: Martial Arts

[Info]

Learn the ways of the Martial Artist, fight with a variety of different skills and show those your skills with your fists.

[Requirements]

Intelligence Rank C or Above

Do you wish to learn this Skill?

[Yes]-[No]


"Oh, definitely!" Koshiro quickly tapped the [Yes] option, that was when the book began to disappear as Koshiro widened his eyes as a bunch of information flooded into his mind. "Woah... that felt weird, guess I should get used to that."

Koshiro shaking off the sensation he felt just then before grabbing the other book and watched as a familiar panel appeared in front of him.


{Item Acquired}

[Title]

Skill Book: Swift Sense

[Info]

Feel your senses reach new heights, react faster then you ever did before and avoid your dangers

[Requirements]

Intelligence Rank C or Above

Do you wish to learn this Skill?

[Yes]-[No]


Koshiro accepted the skill wholeheartedly, it would definitely have been useful in the long run when he fought stronger monsters."Alright, now I should be getting..." Just as he was about to say, the screen popped up.


{Quest Completed}

[Title]

Sharpening Skills

[Objective]

Obtain 2 Skills [Tip: Skills can be learnt from Skill Books]

[Reward]

120 EXP

$200


Congratulations!

You have levelled up!


After hearing this, Koshiro accessed into his [Stats] menu, as soon as he did. He saw that his level had definitely increased but also his Health and Mana. He also saw the experience he got from killing the Dogoos along the way.


Stats

Name: Koshiro

Balance: $1,300

Level 2

EXP: 115/200

(Damage: 30 per hit)

Helmet: None

Chestplate: None

Leggings: None

Boots: None

Weapon: None

Accessory 1: None

Accessory 2: None

Health: 110/100 (Regen: 11/min)

Mana: 220/220 (Regen: 22/min)

Strength: C (Rank: 11/550)

Agility: C+ (Rank: 7/600)

Special Attack: E (Rank: 0/100)

Endurance: D+ (Rank: 0/400)

Intelligence: B (Rank: 0/750)


Due to your ability to level up without the need of assistance, you have unlocked the option to be teleported to the start of the main story. Do you wish to proceed?

[Yes]-[No]


"Main story?" Koshiro blinked. He didn't exactly understand what it meant as he didn't exactly play many video games, but had some kind of clue as to what it was referring to. "So... the world I've been placed in has some kind of storyline which I should probably follow, if that's the case, then it would be wise to do so."

Koshiro raised his hand and clicked on the [Yes] option, the next thing he knew was the world around him flash before everything changed. He didn't move as he was confused about what was happening.

"Eh?" He looked down and realised something, the sky was all around him and he could feel the breeze brush against his skin and hair, and below him was... the ground that was who knows how far down! "Ah~!"

He yelled as his body began to fall through the sky at a rapid speed, he had no idea what to do at the moment as he continued to fall. When he twisted his body upwards and was now facing towards the sky. "Who starts a storyline like this?! Wait... is that another person?"

Koshiro raised his eyebrow in confusion as he saw that above him was another figure that seemed to be falling with him, he couldn't get a clear view of them but could tell they were indeed a person.

"Wait, now's not the time! What do I do?!"

Koshiro could only continue to face the sky so when he made contact with the ground, he wouldn't end up face planting. The next thing he knew, his vision had turned black, but he could have sworn he felt the person he saw crash onto his stomach.