I own nothing, Jon Snow.
"He's waking up!"
"Quickly go find the masters!"
I felt myself laying in some kind of bed, I could hear voices talking around me but I couldn't listen to them properly as I had a ringing in my ears that didn't go away.
I wondered for a minute if what I had experienced was but a mere nightmare as loud voices moved around me and lights were being shoved near my face.
"Can you hear me?" I heard a voice that spoke softly next to my ear.
I tried to speak but my voice didn't come out, my lips and throat felt dry.
"If you can hear me please shake your head." the voice begged in a low tone.
I moved my head to signal that I could, in fact, hear them.
"Oh god, he's conscious..." the voice exclaimed with silent joy.
As more silhouettes that seemed humanoid started coming near me the ringing became ten times higher, my ears felt like they were being pierced by a needle that was slowly digging deeper into them.
Then I saw it again, that place filled with those morbid flesh monsters, every time I blinked I could see that place for what felt like half a second and then it went away, the ringing in my ears slowly turning into a rhythm that was both beautiful and horrible at the same time.
My chest started to burn and I started to scream, my mouth no longer dry but filled with a liquid of coppery flavour.
"What's happening to him?!"
"I don't know!"
"He's biting his tongue!"
"Quickly sedate him!"
"Yes, sir!"
[You've slept on a bed, HP and MP fully recovered!]
I opened my eyes and the first thing that I saw was some kind of floating blue holographic alert.
I tried to touch it, and when I did, it disappeared.
"What..." I murmured to myself not knowing what was going on.
I stood up from the bed I was laying in and realized I wasn't in my apartment or a hospital.
Slowly, I started to look around in search of some kind of reference point to show me where exactly I was.
I didn't find what I was searching for but what I did find was a full body mirror in which, someone that wasn't me was shown.
Blond hair that went down to the shoulder blades, grey coloured eyes with a piercing stare and a stature that would put me in about 175cm/5'7", I moved my hand in front of the mirror and the image followed.
I was greatly confused by this yet I wasn't panicking.
As I continued looking at what I assumed was me on the mirror someone came through the door without a warning.
It was a woman, quite short about 150cm/4'11" if I had to say, in what looked like her mid 20's, she had blond hair, bright blue eyes and a buxom figure with a cute youthful face.
"What are you doing out of bed!?" the woman exclaimed and quickly moved to my side and pushed me to sit on the bed.
"I'm fine." I responded without really thinking it twice.
"What do you mean you're fine?! You got struck by a lightning how can you be fine just a day after!?" she exclaimed with a forceful tone.
'A lightning... what?'
I started to remove the bandages that covered my body, what was under those bandages was as shocking as it was disgusting.
"Stop! You're still healing!" she said with a worried tone.
A cup-sized crater seemed to be 1cm deep in my chest which made it look like a small asteroid had fallen on it, surrounding it was lines that stretched all across my body to my back and to the lower part of my neck making some kind of pattern that resembled a tree without leaves.
The weird part about this was that these wounds were already cicatrized and looked like I've had them for a long time.
"Wha..." I heard a sound that resembled more a breath than a word.
I turned around to face the woman who had uttered that sound and found she was crying while holding her hands on her face.
"Thank god..." I heard her mutter a few times.
After a few minutes of me standing awkwardly while she cried she turned to me and started talking again.
"How? How did you do it?" she asked while looking at the floor.
'Okay, let's recap for a second, I'm in a weird house or building, I'm apparently younger than I was, and a woman who clearly knows and cares for me was crying...' after forming my thoughts I came up with a simple solution.
'Amnesia is always a simple explanation, right? and if these people get to know I'm not the kid this body belongs to I could be in big fucking trouble...' after making my excellent and well thought out plan I put it in action.
"I'm sorry but, I have a question too..." I said with my impression of what a person with amnesia would sound like.
"Yes, what is it?" she said clearly paying attention to my words.
"Who are you?" I said with innocence in my voice trying hard to not let my face show any other facial expression that wasn't confusion and curiosity.
When I said those words the woman looked shocked for no more than a second and then her expression turned sorrowful.
"You don't recognize me?" she asked with tears ready to be discharged from her eyes.
"No... is that bad?" I said with the same innocence still on my tone of voice.
"No, it's not... You should rest, for now, I will come back later..." she said as she stood up and walked at a quick pace through the door, some tears could be seen falling as she went out.
'Holy shit that was mentally exhausting...' I thought to myself with a sigh as I let myself fall on the bed.
Beep
[Through specific actions, you have gained the skill "Acting"!]
[Acting has leveled up x2]
'I'm out of the frying pan just to fall into the fire...' After pitying myself for 3 microseconds I decided to find out what those blue holograms were.
As it turns out I didn't really have do much digging as another hologram window appeared.
Beep
[Hello and Welcome to The Game! (ᗒᗨᗕ)]
'Oh god, why?'
[How rude! Here I am welcoming you and willing to give you answers and that's your response? (ʘдʘ)]
"Can you read my mind?" I asked with curiosity ignoring the previous message.
[Of course, I can! I'm a part of you after all! ( ̄^ ̄)]
"What does that even mean?"
[Who knows?¯\_༼ ಠ‿ ಠ༽_/¯]
"God fucking damn it, why am I always stuck with useless people? Are you even a person?" I said with a tired sigh.
[How rude! (ಠ益ಠ)]
"So can I just talk with you through thought?" I asked again trying to get answers to my now piling by the second questions.
[Yes you can but I won't answer you if you do, that's what you get for being a meanie! ( ̄ε(# ̄)]
"What purpose does that even serve?" I asked with a tired sigh and massaging my glabella.
[To make you look either stupid or like you are crazy ಠﭛಠ]
With yet another sigh, I decided to just move on and change the topic.
"So, you haven't explained yet what any of this means..."
[Well, you died and then got transported into the body of an already dead person who died by the same cause as you (ㆆᴗㆆ)]
"Why?"
[Who knows ¯\_༼ ಥ ‿ ಥ ༽_/¯]
"Oh god, please, just kill me now..."
After asking more questions and getting vague and inconclusive answers I asked the main one that has been on my mind.
"You said and I quote "Welcome to the Game" but what does that even mean?"
[Ever played video games? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
"Yes."
[Ever played MMORPGs? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
"Of course."
[Well it's like that the only difference is that only you are a game character ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
"So what, do I say like "Menu" and a menu appears?"
As I finished saying that a blue window with different buttons in a horizontal formation was in front of me.
[INVENTORY|STATUS PAGE|SKILLS|LOCKED|LOCKED]
"So how do I do this? Do I just tap them or something?" I said while tapping with my index finger the Inventory button.
Another window appeared showing an empty grid and an image of my current body with what seemed like slots to put equipment in.
"That's kinda cool..." I said to myself in a low voice.
[Of course it's cool, I'm related to it after all ( ̄ー ̄)]
"During the whole time I asked you questions you didn't give me a single clear answer, the only thing you have done until now is being fucking annoying." I said with a deadpan expression on my face while messing around with the inventory window.
[You're a meanie you know that!? (ಥ﹏ಥ)]
Ignoring the annoying little shit I proceeded to tap the Status Page button and another window popped up with an alert.
[Combining previous life status with newly acquired status, please wait...]
"Is that normal?" I asked the hologram thingy creature.
[I dunno ┐( ̄ヘ ̄)┌]
With the Status Page doing its thing we ended up with an awkward silence.
"So, what are you? Do you even have a name?" I said trying to make a conversation.
[Well to answer you in order, I don't really know what I am and I don't think I have a name (-ω-)]
"So.. should I like, give you a name or something?" I asked trying to do something while waiting.
[Oh my, how bold and direct of you, I didn't think you were that kind of guy (*≧∀≦*)]
"Forget it..." I said with an irritated tone in my voice and a sigh.
[WAIT WAIT! IT WAS A JOKE! I WANT A NAME! ΣΣ(゚Д゚;)]
With yet another sigh, I continued the conversation.
"So what do you want, something like a God's name?"
[EEEH? No way, that's putting to much pressure and expectations on me, plus God's names are usually not cute at all Σ( ̄ロ ̄lll)]
"So, something cute? Western, Eastern, Asian, European?" I asked not really invested in the conversation.
[Asian, pretty please =(ゝω・)/]
"I guessed as much you fucking weeaboo..." I murmured to myself.
[I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS BUT IF YOU ARE CALLING ME THAT IT'S PROBABLY AN INSULT, SO SHUT UP (ಠ益ಠ)]
"How about Akira? Is pretty common but at the same time it's kinda both cute and cool." I said ignoring the previous message.
After a minute or two I got another message from the now named Akira.
[Akira... I like that, thank you...]
"No emoticon this time?" I asked but got no answer back.
Once again an alert popped up.
[Status fusion complete! You can now use the 'Status Page' function!]
After closing the alert I opened the menu and pressed Status Page.
Previous Name/Name: George Walker/Jörg Goldwasser
Title: The Gamer
Class: n/a
Race: Human?
Level: 1
HP: 2100/2100
MP: [LOCKED]
STR: 14
DEX: 11
INT: 42
WIS: 36
CHA: 7
LUK: 2
"What? Why is there a question mark next to my race?"
[Maybe living your previous life like a pig made you Half-Orc or something ¯\_༼ ಥ ‿ ಥ ༽_/¯]
"I swear to god, I'm gonna figure a way to beat the shit out of you..." I said with an irritated tone.
Moving on I continued reading the rest of my Status Page.
'The Gamer... What a fucking cringy title, if I was like 10 I would be jumping with joy but now everything I can think of when I hear "Gamer" is people who are fucking retarded.' I thought to myself in disappointment.
"Hey, Akira, why is my luck so low?" I asked with a little bit of irritation in my tone.
[Well aside from having a pretty not-very-good life, you technically got hit by a bolt of lightning TWICE my dude ༼ ಥ ‿ ಥ ༽]
"So, how do I increase it?" I asked not wanting to get hit by yet another lightning.
[You can't ┐( ̄ヘ ̄)┌]
"Then what's the fucking point in showing me this?" I said with an irritated tone in my voice.
[LET ME FINISH! (ʘдʘ)]
Sighing I let Akira continue what he/she/it was gonna say.
[Have you played Fallout?(⌐▨_▨)ゝ]
"At this point who hasn't played at least one Fallout?"
[Well it's kinda like that, you can't increase them YET, you need to either level up or perform a specific action related to the stat (⌐▨_▨)ゝ]
"What's the point in increasing the stats anyway?"
[Because your skills rely on you increasing your stats, if you don't, then you'll be both dumb and weak instead of dumb and strong (⌐■_■)]
"You are such an annoying little shit you know that?"
[You know you love me (*ノ∀`*)]
"Kill yourself."
[GAH! YOU ARE SUCH A MEANIE! Σ(T□T)]
"Okay, so what about luck?" I asked ignoring the previous exchange and getting back on the main question.
[Luck is the only stat that increases on its own, you can't use Stat points or Specific Actions, Luck affects a bunch of things but most notably Loot and Real Life Luck (⌐▨_▨)ゝ]
"I'm fucked aren't I?" I asked to the air while despairing for 10 nanoseconds.
'I have to find a way of increasing Luck soon if it's as important as the "Game" plays it out to be.' I thought to myself while making an imaginary list in my mind.
Seeing as I was done with the Status Page I closed it and pressed the Skills button.
The Peacefulness of the Demented(Passive): LvMAX
Maybe it was watching all those 4chan threads with people dying in gruesome ways
Maybe it was the fact that you got soul raped by an eldritch being
Either way, your mental state isn't what it was since a long time ago.
Strong emotions such as Fury and Ecstasy are completely negated
Infuses a constant state of calmness in the user while in combat
Mental Interference of any kind is completely negated
Hallucinations may occur from time to time
"Great, I'm your basic edgy protagonist with a twist, just kill me already." I said with a sigh.
I continued looking at the rest of the skills.
Blasphemous Body(Passive): LvMAX
Your body has been altered in a way that goes against everything that is sacred and natural.
The user is not able to feel pain
This body gives the ability for the user to perceive life as a game
As long as the Health Points don't reach 0 the user can't die
Dismembering and Decapitation are not effective against the user but they still deal Critical Damage
"Well that's one thing less to worry about." I said after reading the Dismembering part.
Seed of ?(Passive[INACTIVE]): LvMAX
In your body resides the seed of ?, you will be ? for the court of ? when the time is right.
All actions related to ? get a 10x EXP multiplier
All actions not related to ? get a 70% decrease in EXP
Gives the ability to Summon ? from ? when in dire situations
"Fucking great..." I breathed out with a tired sigh.
Acting (Active): Lv 3
Cost: None
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.
Allows the user to imitate mannerisms and facial expressions to play a specific role
(15%+CHA/2)=18.5% chance to have a believable act
"And that's the last one..." I said as I finished reading the skill description.
"Hey, Akira, there are two more buttons but they are Locked, what does that mean?" I asked the useless holographic window.
[HEY WHO ARE YOU CALLING USELESS?! (ʘдʘ╬)]
"God, stop hanging on the little details and just answer the question."
[HMPH! Whatever! ( ̄ε(# ̄) ]
[Like I said before you perceive life as a Game Character and like any other game there is also progression (⌐▨_▨)ゝ]
"Too long, didn't read, give me the short version." I said while laying in bed and playing with my hair, it's pretty soft and silky if I had to describe it.
[YOU DAMNED NEANDERTHAL! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻]
[Sigh, basically the more you keep "playing the game" the sooner you'll get those unlocked ┬─┬ノ(ಠ_ಠノ)]
"Wow, you were actually helpful for a change, look at that..." I said while looking at my hands and nails.
[That's it, too much exposure to you is going to make me go crazy, bye. (ಠ ∩ಠ)]
"Hello?" I said but got no response back.
After calling a few more times I simply gave up and started looking around the menu and thinking about my situation.
As I was laying in bed I heard music, but not any music, a violin or at least something similar to it, the music was pretty low but I could hear it coming from somewhere.
I started to search around the room, slowly the music gained more intensity and more power, now I could hear the direction it was coming from.
I started to walk to the window where the music came from, it was spectacular and majestic but at the same time it was bizarre and otherworldly.
I looked near the window and the music reached a sudden crescendo and sucked me to the edge almost falling off but I managed to hold on to the frame of the window.
What I saw outside the window was an Abyss, there were no other words that could describe it other than something completely and utterly terrifying.
I threw myself back so I wouldn't be sucked in by the Abyss and let out a short scream without meaning to.
[Fear negated!]
[Insanity Inducement negated!]
I suddenly felt completely calm as if what I saw never happened.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" came a loud and brash voice from the door.
It was a man, looking about 210cm/6'8", he had a 5 o'clock shadow beard, onyx-coloured hair and, surprise, grey coloured eyes with a mean looking glare.
Without being able to look at him properly he spoke in a loud voice again.
"JÖRG, WHAT HAPPENED?!" He said loudly pronouncing what was supposed to be my new name.
Nothing coming to mind I responded the only thing that was on my mind.
"The window..."
He quickly moved to the window and his hand started glowing, he got close and looked around with a confused expression.
The glowing stopped and he turned around to face me.
"There's nothing here." He said with a stern and piercing look in his eyes.
[Intimidation Negated!]
Seeing as there was nothing I could say that could make the situation better I simply stayed silent with my mouth shut.
He kept looking at me for at least a full minute and then went out, not without letting me how he felt about the situation.
"Stop wasting my time, it's worth a thousand times more than yours."
As the man left the room and shut the door in a very angry way.
So I was left in the room thinking about what had happened.
'Was it a hallucination or something similar to it?' I thought to myself for a few minutes.
'Speculation won't lead me anywhere, if I start to form an image of what happened in my head without information it will just leave me assuming I know what happened, thus with the probability of leading me straight into a Bad Ending...' I thought to myself rationalizing my situation.
I started to think back to the things the man who came into my room said.
"Well, isn't he the loveliest of people..." I said to no one in particular.
[By finding new information you have gained 2 new skills!]
"Path to Gary Stu here I go..." I said without any enthusiasm in my tone.
I opened the menu and selected the Skill button which was blinking with a small 2 on the top right corner.
Observe(Active)
Cost: None
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
Allows the user to translate the capabilities of a being into a partial character status page
Shows HP and MP
Shows Name and Title
"Well, isn't that just the most useful thing ever." I said already exhausted with my day.
Evil Eyes(Passive/Active): Lv 1
You have... your father's eyes?
When looking at someone directly in the eyes it inflicts them with the 'Intimidated' status
Allows the user to use different sub-skills associated with these eyes which are unlocked when leveling up
-Evil Eye of Fear(Active): 100 MP
Inflicts the 'Fear' status unto a sentient subject
"I'm not gonna bother even reacting anymore..." I said as I read the effects of the new skill I gained.
Thinking a bit about the skills I gained I thought of something.
'Can I use observe on Skills?'
Only one way to find out.
I used Observe on my first 2 passive skills but nothing happened.
Then on the one with question marks and got a page full of question marks and corrupted text.
Then I tried to do it on 'Acting' and got a 300-page window about the history of Acting.
'Fuck that shit...' I said as I closed that window.
Finally, I used Observe on 'Evil Eyes'.
A bloodline ability recently discovered 2 generations ago in the Goldwasser family line
The discovery of this ability allowed the Goldwasser family to enter the Magicians' Guild as a D-rank family
Because of being discovered so late and not being developed enough in the family line there is not much information about these eyes.
'Well that's something at least...' I thought to myself as I read about the skill.
[By experimenting with your skills a hidden feature has been discovered!]
[You can now use Observe on Items and Skills to know their history and abilities]
As I was reading the alert I realized that the light in the room was beginning to dim.
I looked to the window and saw the sun was already setting.
Sighing I realized that for the moment I didn't have anything else to do.
I rested my head on the bed and tried to sleep.
'Hopefully, tomorrow won't be as mentally tiring as this today...' I thought to myself as I drifted to the land of dreams.
