"He's one shot! He's one shot! I swear on my life, he's just one shot!!"

"You liar, I emptied 3 mags into him, and he still soloed me as well as the third-party team!!"

"Ugh, great, now he's looting our boxes and doing emotes."

Dominic sat in front of his computer silently, munching on some chips while watching the death screen, even as his online friends raged and complained about their collective demise.

He wasn't too bothered because he mostly played for the experience of messing around with his pals rather than any sense of achievement. That's why even though his K/D was around 0.7, he wasn't ashamed or bothered.

"Yo Toretto, is your mic muted or something? If you're speaking, we can't hear you," one of his pals prompted after they calmed down.

"I was listening to you guys rage while chewing some chips. It's the highlight of my day," Dominic teased with a smile.

"Look at this foul beast. Instead of training your poor aim, how dare you enjoy our daily gaming session?" Another friend retorted with amusement.

"Brother, just as J Cole said, 'Don't save her, she don't wanna be saved.' I am not talking about a woman, by the way," Dominic joked at his own expense.

"Hahaha, your aim can't be saved, that's true. Still, I wouldn't play with anyone else in the world, homeboy," his third friend admitted with a laugh.

"Hmph, such words will not work on me. You owe me a season pass for this game," Dominic cruelly put a stop to this fellow's tricks.

"Ugh, you…" The fellow could only lament that his attempt failed.

"Man, I gotta go. I have to get online for my Data Analyst Course, or I'll get a bad grade," the first friend sighed and bid farewell.

"You're lucky you get to do it from home; I have to leave home in 3 hours to get to my night job," the second friend said with depression after being reminded of reality outside of their temporary bubble.

"Welp, guess we all have to go off then. I know you also have to do your game dev stuff, right Toretto?" The third friend checked in before leaving.

Dominic sighed internally but sounded chill. "Yup, we're almost done with our indie platformer game's demo. Hopefully, it can reach its goal on the Kickstarter project we planned, in order to secure funding."

"Ay man, the moment the demo is out, send me a link so I can play. The images and trailer you sent so far are dope as hell."

"Also, the Kickstarter link, don't forget that. I have a lot of friends on Snapchat and IG who might be interested."

The group then dispersed after promising to keep in touch on Discord, and Dominic was left alone in his room. He leaned back into his gaming chair and spun it around slowly, silently thinking about… well, everything.

At the age of 21, he was doing pretty well, despite everything. His parents were still alive and well, even able to support him comfortably throughout life until now. He had a strong circle of friends, both close and afar, as well as no prevalent health issues.

In fact, minus his belly, which had begun to poke out, he still retained most of his 7/10 attractiveness that allowed him to live as a casanova during his high school days. Though given his less than perfect physique, he should now be a 5.5 at best

.

Dominic felt unsettled by his thoughts and stood up suddenly, walking to the kitchen downstairs to make himself something to eat. The house he lived in was not very large, simply a two-story building with three bedrooms upstairs, plus a living room in the center, as well as two bedrooms downstairs, a kitchen, lounge area, and even a separate washing room.

This wasn't a house he bought with his own money but was simply the second house his parents had built a few years ago when he went to boarding school for his senior high education.

Dominic moved here after his endeavors in his game dev career brought some small dividends, which made his parents feel that he was qualified to live alone. Of course, the main reason was that Dominic was also pursuing a Master's degree in Intellectual Property.

As he microwaved the food one of his 'partners' made the last time she came over about 3 days ago, Dominic leaned against the counter and fell into thought once more. He was reaching a crucial point in his life where, while everything seemed to be going well, it simply wasn't enough for him.

He wanted more, to succeed, to shine, and to explode into the eyes of the world. However, to do so required a lot of work and a healthy helping of luck, so Dominic was not sure he could cut the bill for such a thing.

Sighing, he took the plate out of the microwave and only had time to take a single spoonful before his entire body shuddered uncontrollably, his hackles raising to the limit as goosebumps visibly appeared all over his body.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

In that moment, Dominic felt as if he had been stared at by the most vile thing that one could imagine, like a monster that did not care about his existence, his beliefs, or his goals, simply wanting to end his life just because it could.

Before he could exclaim, Dominic felt the entire world quake slightly, not enough to topple him but enough to know that something had fundamentally changed. He was not even allowed to gather his thoughts as a voice sounded in his head that was as neutral as possible, even more so than the most robotic AI.

These cold words that seemed incomprehensible but were actually very clear in meaning were followed by another 'voice,' only that this one was unspoken and more of something akin to one's own voice in their head when they read something.

Not only did it make itself known, but along with it came some visual stimulation in the form of an indigo panel that appeared in front of Dominic, completely stealing his attention.

Dominic was stunned. He understood every word that sounded in his mind and even went as far as to understand the current situation he was in. However, he could not reconcile the randomness and suddenness of it.

Just one moment ago, he had been thinking about his future plans and praying for success when the next moment, it was all rendered moot and useless as the end was upon him and everyone else.

Even worse was the fact that every single human, including the friends he had just been playing with, and - to a very hair-raising extent - even his own parents, had now become his competitors in terms of who would get into the slot of the final 100.

There were - give or take - 7 billion humans in the world, and a selection of 100 meant that there was an elimination rate of 99.99985714%!

Even if 100,000 people struggled against the incoming dangers and managed to survive to the end, they would be forcibly whittled down to 100 through methods that Dominic was not yet aware of.

Too little information had been given about the whole circumstance, but oddly enough, he had also received more than enough. He might not know how things would end, but he did know what he had to do now since he truly did not want to die.

[Participant Name: Dominic Addison

World: Gaia

Talent: Generating…

Potency: 0.8

Vitality: 0.6

Acuity: 1.5

Soul Points: 0/100.]

It was much shorter than Dominic expected when he was greeted with the panel that showed his details. It was just his full name, the world he was on, his talent, and his stats, as well as soul points.

Dominic understood what these things meant instinctively as he looked at them.

Potency was a combination of 'Strength' and 'Agility,' mostly denoting his physical effectiveness.

Vitality was basically 'Endurance' and 'Regeneration,' so his sturdiness physically as well as his longevity.

Acuity was naturally 'Intelligence' and 'Wisdom,' which basically dealt with his mental strength. It did not make him smarter per se but more perceptive, faster to react, and having a stronger active consciousness.

The values there were measured across his specific species, and the perfection of the average sampling was 1 in all fields. Dominic understood that he was below average in terms of Vitality due to his lack of fitness during this period of time.

The same was true for his Potency. However, his Acuity was high because what he sacrificed physically, he made up for in the mental work he did every day by leading his dev team, doing his work in crafting the world within which his games would exist, as well as playing demanding games with his friends.

As for Soul Points, they could only be gathered after killing 'monsters,' which were basically anything other than humans on this planet. Luckily, Dominic did not fancy pets much like others in the world and so did not keep any around.

Otherwise, rather than have time to stand around and contemplate what to do, he would not be locked in a life-and-death struggle with his darling pet now turned feral. Dominic glanced at the window nearby and went to take a peek through the glass to see what was happening outside.

He was immediately horrified when he saw that the house opposite his own was currently undergoing a stark change. It was also a two-story multi-bedroom house that had been rented out per room to various lessees.

They all usually lived in harmony, him and the residents of the other rather opulent houses in this neighborhood, but now, putting aside how his neighbors to his right and left were doing, the ones opposite him were fighting for their lives as their pets had morphed into monsters.

What made Dominic panic as his heart went cold was that the moment he looked out, he got to watch the scene of a young woman who usually made money through 'sex work' online was being mauled by her pitbull, which was more like an actual bull now than a dog.

The worst part was that after ripping her body in half while she screamed in agony, it turned its blood-covered face as well as its jaws towards Dominic's location and almost… smiled.

Dominic stepped back from the window and almost fell on his butt as sweat formed on his brow and he began to hyperventilate. It was at this time that his attention was forcibly stolen by a screen that appeared before him.