New writer. Hope you like it. Please pm or comment here for grammar errrors or any kind of message about the chapter. Oh, yes, before you ask. This was in the works before I started reading Change : New World (which is really good, I recommend it if you haven't).
Sorry for the first readers, formatting wasn't great. Should be better now.
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Chapter 0 : Alea jacta est
July 27th. It was the day that everything begin to change. And as everything horrible that has a link with internet, the first signs came from /b/.
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Holidays. The perfect time to spend all night playing games. Well, I say all night, but it’s about 8 o’clock. In the morning. Ah, well, who cares, I can sleep until mid-afternoon.
Yeah, I’m pretty negligent… but come on! What’s the point of having holidays if you can’t completely change your sleeping rhythm? Well, anyway, I’m about to go to sleep now, guess I better have a look on 4chan to see if anyone has planned to crash a website or something agan.
Aaaaaand, nope. Oh well, guess I can… Uh, wait, what’s this?
Anonymous 07/27/16(Wed)08:04:08 No.9241623 [Reply]
Guys, tell me I’m not hallucinating, I swear I’m off that shit. I was playing with my d20 while preparing for my next D&D session, and while I was thinking about new character concepts I could do, I shit you not, I fucking screen showed up before me and told me I had fucking selected my class and I could finish my character creation. It mentioned a load of other bullcrap like bonuses and stuff, but I swear this was like a fucking D&D sheet! Should I go to the hospital or something?
Tell me anons, please tell me I’m not crazy!
Well damn. He’s definitely crazy. He, looks like one guy also said it worked, guess /b/ never changes... Especially all the others telling him to hang himself. Mah, I’ll just go to bed…
Oh, right, my dice are next to my bed... Can’t hurt, can it? Yeah, right, as if. Guess it would be cool to be a ranger, I could have a nice pet and all… Haaaa, so tired. Good night.
…
…
…
Ah, dammit, I really should go to bed earlier. I feel like shit. Anyway, let’s go get some…
…
What the fuck is that?
….
Okay, I’m still dreaming… Ouch, wait no I’m not. It wouldn’t hurt otherwise, right? … Which means, there’s a little blue window waiting for me at the left side of my vision. It’s definitely floating. It’s definitely floating on air. I’m getting scared now, what the fuck is happening?
It’s moving with me… I guess I should open it? Although… how the hell do I do that? Maybe… can I click on it?
I move my hand, gently, to the place where that unnatural thing is floating. And guess what? I can feel it respond to my click. I really hope I am dreaming, or otherwise maybe the CIA is back to randomly giving LSD to people? Not that I know what it actually feels like, somehow I don’t think this is it.
Anyway, I manage to click on the blue screen. It feels just like I had pressed on a keyboard key. I mean, except for the fact that it’s floating in the freaking air. Anyway, it’s opening, what the hell is it going to say…
Welcome!
You have managed to discover the hidden character menu. You can now choose a few options for your character before the Advent. Please choose a race, class, stats and your physical appearance. All non-chosen options will be set as default if you don’t choose them. You have 15:12:13 before the Advent.
Bonus:
As one of the first discoverers of the hidden menu, you will receive a very favourable score to statistics, and also the choice between all basic race and class variants.
Temporary choice:
Class : Ranger
Race : NA
Stats: NA
Physical appearance: NA
Confirm?
Well…. That’s surprising. … Yeah, I calmed down, I mean, this is crazy, so I might just as well go with it, right? Also, somehow the fact that this was basically character creation, which is something I am used to do, is helping me calm down. And I shouldn’t be the only one right, if the other guy also saw this. I wonder if he has any special bonuses as he is the first one?
Now, what should I do…? I like the idea of being a ranger, but somehow I feel like being a druid would be better, right? It must feel awesome being able to transform. Maybe I should look if there are any ranger variants…
…
Well, there certainly are enough classes that can be taken, shit. And that’s without the variations! Oh god, I can choose Ninja. And Duskblade. And Warmage. And… No no no no, stop, I’ve chosen ranger, can’t change now, let’s see the variants.
…
Okay, I think I’ll settle for Wild Shape Ranger, that’s exactly what I need. I remember seeing that somewhere though, I wonder where. I can just focus on distance combat until I get strong enough transformations. What about the race?
Dammit, so many possibilities…
*half an hour later*
Yeah, so I’ll take lesser planetouched Aasimar, it feels cool to have celestial ancestors. Also, sweet bonuses to stats! I wonder if they are part of the bonus race, well, I’ll guess I’ll see if I see a lot of others with the same kind of air. Speaking about stats, how am I supposed to choose?
Oh, apparently they’ve already chosen for me, I just have to put them in their proper place… What do I have? Pretty nice, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17. Shame I didn’t get an 18, guess I can’t be too lucky. Well… I’m probably going to put a lot in the psychical stats, as the physical ones are going to be replaced later. Yeah, I guess that’s done. Now, what choices do I have for my appearance? Oh, just basic stuff. Well, since I’m supposed to be descendent of a celestial, let’s go flashy! Silver hair, bright blue eyes and fair skin. Since I’ve got some pretty good charisma, I should have a lot of success with the ladies... heh heh heh.
Ah well, I’m probably hallucinating, but at least I guess I did my choice properly, right? Maybe too seriously, too. Still, I’m a bit worried about the timer. I wonder if I should... tell someone? No, they would call me crazy. But if it works? And if something happens when the timer ends? I don’t know…
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Ah, well, guess I’ll just do a general message saying to think something like ‘warrior’ while holding a 20-sided dice. Maybe some will believe me. I should insist a bit more with my friends… Ah, I’ll just be mysterious and see what happens. Worst case I was drunk, I guess.
Ah, now the windows asks if I want to confirm. Guess I should click yes? Oh, it disappeared. Hum. Well. I’ll uh… just… go to the pub and wait for all this to blow over… There was about… 14 hours left? Oh, yeah, it was 8 am when it started, guess I have until 8 am tomorrow. Hum, maybe the time is important? 8 am here is midnight somewhere in the U.S.A… Nah, I don’t see any links. I think I’ll sleep properly tonight, can’t keep on hallucinating.
*9 pm*
Well, apparently nothing happened with other people, I must be crazy. I think I’m going to go to sleep. I wonder if the 4chan thread is active? … Nope, hardly any more answers, I must have hallucinated. I think I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow. Goodnight!
…
…
What the hell? Who is calling me on my phone at 7 am? Everyone should know that I don’t wake up before 10 during the holidays! I especially found an apartment far from the city centre so I wouldn’t have any loud noises, and now someone is calling me? Haaa… come on…
“Hi? Tom here. What’s up?”
“Tom! What the fuck is this! What is this thing? You sent that message, tell me now!”
“Yan? What are you… Wait, you mean you can see it too?”
“You bet I can, what the fuck is this? Why is there a fucking window floating in the air
asking me to create a fucking D&D character?!”
Before I answer him, I start thinking a little. Yan is a friend of mine, who’s also doing the Computer Science cursus than me at the same university in Switzerland. He’s a generally composed guy, hearing him like that is a bit of a shock. Well, if it is real, it kind of would justify it.
“Well, to be honest, I don’t really know, I saw that on 4chan yesterday, tried it and…
well, it worked. Maybe there’s more info now, I’ll have a look.”
“You better, and what the fuck is that Advent thing? There’s only one hour left!”
So, let’s see if the thread is still there, it should be… what the fuck it’s the top one. And the second. Okay what happened… Oh, I see. Apparently more people made it work, and started convincing others. Not many people saying what they have chosen, though. Couple mages, couple warriors, a few more exotic things… Oh, what’s this? If you hold your dice and say ‘Advent’ you get more info? And there’s possibly more key words. Let’s look at this.”
“Yeah, Yan, apparently if you hold your dice and say ‘Advent’ you get extra info..
Yeah, there’s a new window. I’ll have a look.”
Advent
The Advent (00:58:12) is the long awaited-change for this world. Everyone will be granted the opportunity to live a new life in a world full of perils and opportunities. All non-choosers will be given the default options. Technology and the science as known will slowly be disabled, please beware. All choosers will be found by masters, and new inhabitants will slowly start coming in the now bigger world. Please refrain using electronical ways of transport. Good luck.
“Shit. This is serious. I mean it looks serious. If it isn’t, it’s the most impractical
bad joke I’ve ever seen.”
+ “You’re right. I’m going to try to call my family. I hope they still have dice.”
“Mine don’t… Shit, I’ll call those who I know have dice then rush there. I hope
I get there on time. Erm. Yeah, if anything bad happens, good luck.”
“Yeah. Thanks Tom… Good luck.”
Aaaah, damn it all to hell, this is not funny anymore. It’s not even scary anymore, it’s fucking terrifying! So, dice, phone, let’s go. Maybe I should tell the police? Aaaah, no way I’ll convince enough of them in time, I’ll just rush there.
So I started running to my bike, and calling. I tried to convince them, I swear, but not all of them answered, had dice near them, or even believed me. I knew it sounded completely crazy, but I had hoped many would at least try… Damn. And my parents have turned their phone off again. My brother isn’t answering either, and even worst, the few that do believe me keep calling me back. I don’t have the time for this!
I stop rushing. If there’s going to be a problem with electrical devices… Oh shit, planes! Fuck, thousands of people are going to die! Can’t I do anything to stop them? The dices aren’t going to work, what can I… I know!
I start calling airports. My genius-desperate plan is simple. Bombs. I call all the airports I can find a number for, saying I have put bombs in the planes that just left. Hopefully that will make them come back. If that doesn’t work... I’ll be in prison for making false bomb alerts, so who cares?
Now, who’s next… let’s call Dub... What is this? Another screen? I don’t think I want to read it. I really don’t want to read it… Damn it. I click.
Advent
Dear citizens of planet Earth. The Advent is now in its final phase. We recommend you stop all electronic devices and leave all actual transport. Please act carefully.
Advent starts in 04:21.
Oh shit, this is bad. I’m more than five minutes away from my parents house. Why did I stop rushing! Shit, I hope I get there on time!
I turn off my phone and rush more and more. Time is flying. I see people outside their houses, talking to each other as in panic. So they also got the message? Good, that should save some lives if anything goes as bad as I think it’s going to. Aaah, stop being distracted, hurry! And why don’t these people get out of my way! I’m going to make it!
I don’t. A huge tremor makes me fall down from my bike. I faceplant. A huge blue and grey wave goes through the air, I hardly see it before it goes through me. I feel sick. My vision gets distorted… No, the colours around me are changing? They go back to normal. Silence. Then the noise comes back again. There is a car crashed against a wall not far. Other people are in shock. Damn, my face hurts. I get up and start running, I’m arriving at the neighbourhood, I start recognizing some people.
A hand grabs my shoulder. A strange man in leather green and brown clothes is holding me. He tells me to come. I refuse. I hear him say “shit, they’re coming” then his fist hits me in the face. I black out.