Author's Note: Aaaaand things go crazy here! It's time to hit on that follow and favorite buttons! Haha.
Should the genre be Fantasy or Sci-Fi? or maybe both? :\
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hot.
My body was burning hot. I rolled over and over, trying to extinguish the flames. Even with my eyes closed, I could imagine myself slowly turning into an unrecognizable black mass.
Then, the sound of laughter entered my ears. Just like that, the pain disappeared as if it was all just a dream.
Slowly, I opened my eyes. There, in front of me, a man wearing a green tuxedo and top hat was rolling on the ground while laughing. His face was covered by an opera mask with a laughing expression.
Around us was a vast expanse of white.
I pushed myself up to a kneeling position and looked down at myself, and I too was nothing but white. I was naked, but there was nothing to be seen. I’m not invisible; just white and featureless. Like a blank sheet of paper.
“Oh, that was fun. I never get tired of that.” The strange man suddenly stood up at attention, making a sound by knocking his heels together. Then he spread his feet and placed his arms behind his back. Mysteriously, his mask had already changed to that of a stern expression. All his motions were like that of a soldier, and I could only stare at him.
“How was your first time?” he asked. “Was it… HOT?” He then suddenly fell on his back and burst out laughing. His mask was back to that of a laughing one.
Was this a dream? A nightmare? I don’t know anymore. Just what the heck is going on?
“Where am—” The man had disappeared. Then a voice came from over my left shoulder.
“Welcome to Geminus.”
I hurriedly scampered away. The man had suddenly appeared behind me.
“You don’t need to be so afraid,” he said while making exaggerated hand gestures. His mask had turned into a sad one.
“Who are you?!” I asked. He covered his face with his gloved hands, then made a hideous laughing sound. Then suddenly, he spread his arms wide. His mask had changed to a simple smiling one.
“I am… the Game Master!” He folded one arm in front of him, the other behind, and made a bow. “GM, for short.”
I was at a loss for words. I still don’t understand what’s going on. Seeing my confused expression, Game Master chuckled and stood up straight.
“I know that you are very confused right now, but don’t you worry. You’ll get the hang of things very quickly, like all the others before you did.” He then turned around and raised both his arms. The white world was then filled with colors. Out of nothing, various objects came out and disappeared. Mountains, forests, plains, rivers, lakes, seas, strange animals, huge rocks, deserts, snowy lands, cities, ancient structures, skyscrapers, space, stars, planets, galaxies, and things that I have never seen before.
“This is my world. This is my game. This is Geminus.” Game Master looked at me over his shoulder. Then, he snapped with his right hand fingers and everything disappeared back into the white world. He snapped with his left hand fingers, and an armchair appeared in front of him. He then jumped and turned around, and landed on the armchair.
“Now then, would you like to play my game?” he asked as he crossed his legs, intertwined his fingers, and rested them above his knee.
As I was still confused, I was not able to give an answer. A few seconds passed and as I opened my mouth…
“Wait! You don’t need to answer that.” He then stood up and the chair behind him disappeared. “I haven’t explained to you what this game is. Hahaha! Silly me!” He made that bow again and said, “I apologize.”
A familiar sound came from the ground in front of me. I looked down and saw my phone.
“Go ahead, answer it,” Game Master said.
I picked it up and answered, “Hello?”
“Rule number 1: You must answer the Call of Geminus.” It was Game Master’s voice. I looked up and saw his figure almost 500 meters away, a phone pressed on his ear. He then waved at me.
“What is this… Call of Geminus?”
“You don’t have to worry too much about it. Just answer it when it comes. It won’t interfere with your daily life.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He took my silence as an affirmation.
“Rule number 2: Never talk about Geminus to anyone unrelated.”
“Why?” I asked out of curiosity. Game Master chuckled and answered, “You’ll die if you break any of the rules.”
“Rule number 3: Have fun!”
The call ended and he reappeared in front of me.
“Those are the most basic rules. The game isn’t complicated, really! You just have to fight and win. If you win, you gain points. If you lose, you lose points. Very simple!”
He then inserted his hands into his pockets and said, “Pick a number from zero to infinity!”
The suddenness of what he said left my mind in a blank state.
“Have you chosen one? That’s good!” When I was about to say a random number, he then said, “Don’t say it! I don’t need it!” and burst out laughing. He then pulled his hands out along with a bunch of cards that fell like a waterfall and scattered on the ground as far as the eye could see. Strangely, they were all face down.
“Seriously, now… Pick a card!”
With no choice but to do as he said, I picked up the card closest to me and flipped it face up. On it was a king chess piece image.
“OHHHHHH! Lucky you!” Game Master suddenly exclaimed. All the other cards flipped up. They were all blanks. “You just managed to draw the king card which has a chance of one over infinity!” He then clapped his hands. On his final clap, all the cards once again flipped down.
“Now, because you got the king card, you get to pick a card again!”
I picked the same card. This time, it was a question mark over a pawn chess piece image.
“Hmm… not bad, but you could’ve done better.” All the cards flipped up revealing a variety of images. Most of them were numbers followed by the letters ‘PTS’.
“It’s the random pawn card. With it, you could get a pawn for free. The abilities of the pawn you get is random, though. It could be weak or strong, depending on your luck.”
All the cards then flew back and returned to Game Master’s pockets. He snapped his fingers and a sofa appeared beneath me. He then sat down beside me.
“I know you’re still confused, but don’t worry. Take a look at your phone.” I did as told. There was a new application installed called Geminus. “Launch it.”
I clicked the icon and the program launched. The first thing that appeared was a white featureless human figure. Underneath it was a bar of icons.
“That’s your game avatar! That is how you appear in this world. Now swipe it to the side.” I swiped the avatar to the side and was replaced by my image. It was how I looked in reality.
“Well, well, well. Isn’t that you. Hmm-hmm. You don’t look so good. Can you see the status icon? If you click it, you can see your stats and the points you can allot to them! You can even use those points to change your appearance!” As told, the status window showed a list of stats like STR, AGI, INT, and others just like in a game. There seems to be 100 points that can be distributed.
“I’m pretty sure you already know what those stats are, but before you distribute your points make sure that you have thought about it properly. Any changes made will affect your actual stats in real life, you know.”
I was completely shocked by what I heard. Affect my stats in real life? If I increase my STR, will I be stronger? If I increase my AGI, will I be faster? This is too ridiculous!
“Hahaha! Shocked, right? But it’s true! Oh, and before you go crazy over it, a piece of advice from the Game Master himself. Save those points for later, especially when you finally get yourself a pawn. You can use those points to strengthen your pawns, after all.”
After that, he stood up from the sofa and said, “I suggest you use that card as soon as possible. You can find it in your item box,” and suddenly disappeared.
While I was pondering on what to do next, my phone rang again.
“The app has a help page, by the way… And change that avatar! It doesn’t cost points, so go crazy and be creative! Ta-ta!”
As soon as the call ended, I woke up.