Alex woke up to find himself floating there in the void. The was nothing around him except darkness. He couldn’t see or hear anything around him. Even when he shouted out for help, no noise came from his mouth.
Scared and confused, he began to walk. He didn’t know where he was, but surely if he kept walking eventually he would find something, right?
He walked... And walked... He walked for what seemed like hours, or it could have been days. Everything was just... Gone.
He tried calling out again and again, but there was no sound escaping his lips. He ran this way and that way, but there was just nothing.
Time passed. Days? Weeks? Years? Alex didn’t know. It’s surprising just how much you rely on things, even for something as simple as telling the time.
After running and running, Alex’s eyes grew, he thought he had seen something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly whipped his head around to scan the area. There was a faint glow hovering in the sky above him.
As he walked closer, the glow got brighter and brighter, until a figure emerged.
Floating there in the sky above him was the most... Ugly fuckin’ thing he had ever seen. With a weird distorted body that seemed to collapse both into and onto itself, twisting and turning into all different disfigured shapes. On its back, or what Alex assumed to be its back, he saw 10 sets of wings. But the most disturbing thing about all of this was its eyes. In the middle of this creature was one giant golden eye with pulsing blood vessels, surrounded by hundreds of smaller eyes of varying colors.
Struggling to even look at this thing, Alex couldn’t help but think how gross it was just to look at.
“???????????????????????????????????????”
Alex, screaming in pain, suddenly dropped to the floor clutching at his ears. Never in his life had he felt so much pain. It was akin to somebody piercing through his ears with long, hot needles and digging them directly into his brain.
He lay there on the floor, as blood oozed from the hands which were clutching his ears. His eyes became bloodshot and his nose bled profusely as he slipped away into the darkness.
The strange creature floated there looking at Alex before its body brightly glowed and with an eye-piercing light, reformed itself.
“Shit,” the thing said “I forgot how fragile these things are,” it said, poking Alex with its now human-like foot.
With a wave of its wing, a bright light swirled around Alex, seeping into his body and reviving him.
It didn’t take long for Alex’s heart to start beating once more, with a gasp of air filling his lung, he sat back up.
This time, when he woke up, he wasn’t alone. Floating across from him was an old man with a walking cane.
“Ah, you’re finally awake,” The old man said “Sorry about killing you and all that. It’s been a while since I’ve done this kind of thing.”
“Uh... That’s OK?” Alex replies to him.
“Excellent, now as to why you are here. You died. Well, technically you have died twice now. Again, sorry about that.”
“What’s going on?” Alex Asked.
“Oh right, here!” The old man taps Alex on the head with his cane.
Suddenly, some floating words appear in Alex’s vision.
[Initializing... 0%]
[Initializing... 10%]
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[Initializing... 26%]
[Initializing... 41%]
[Initializing... 64%]
[Initializing... 80%]
[Initializing... 99%]
[Initialization complete]
[Create your Character]
The old man then chimes in “Once you’ve done that, press accept and you’ll be transported to your new life! Good luck!” and with that, he vanished into thin air.
“Wait!” Alex shouts after him, but he is only greeted with silence.
Standing there for a few moments, he realized that the old man wasn’t coming back. He turned back to his interface.
Alex has spent most of his adult life reading novels, reading manga, and watching anime, so this concept wasn’t new to him. Although it was still a shock to think this was happening to him.
On his interface, he noticed that there were sections on his character information sheet that gave him hints as to the kind of world he would be transported to.
[Territory Level: ???]
[Territory Rank: ???]
[Territory Type: ???]
[Army Size: ???]
“So I’m going to be a territory lord? It’s quite a familiar troupe” Alex thought to himself. This would help him with building his character.
He knows that the biggest problem when starting these kinds of stories is finding food and materials, as well as fighting monsters.
As he was thinking, he noticed a flashing icon on his system menu. He tapped it quickly and saw a message.
[Dear Alex, as an apology for killing you. Again. I will provide you with a fun little gift. Enjoy~]
Alex could only laugh at this wacky old man. Going back to his character sheet he saw the change.
[Trait: ???, [Give me more]]
Tapping on the [Give me more] it brought up information on its bonuses.
[[Give me more]: Gives you a 10x multiplier.]
Alex was shocked, this was such a broken trait, especially early on. This would mean that he would level 10x faster than anyone else! When it comes to building a territory, this would be a great help.
[Create Your Character]
Alex always loved creating characters. He was the type of person who would spend hours when he first got a new game customizing and designing the perfect-looking character, even though the rest of the game was spent wearing a helmet, he didn’t care.
For the next few hours, Alex sat there tweaking every little detail until it fit his style perfectly. He wanted the perfect nose, cheekbones, eye shape, and lip color, everything had to be to his standards.
The character he designed was handsome. He had long black hair that was tied in a braid that dropped down his back, thick dark eyebrows with the perfect curve, a strong jaw with a full beard, a perfectly sculpted nose, and high cheekbones.
He was fully satisfied with how he turned out. The complete opposite of his he looked in life.
He tapped on the other icons such as race, abilities, traits, etc., but they all came up with the same notification.
[Unavaiable - will be randomized after character creation]
Sighing that there was nothing he could do about it, he was finally done.
Looking over his options one more time, he nodded in satisfaction and tapped the [confirm] icon.
[Processing...]
[Confirmed]
[Loading World]
[Loaded]
[Welcome to Lunaria]
[As a new lord you will have 30 days of protection]
[Remaining Protection: 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 48 seconds]
Looking around, Alex noticed that he was in a completely barren wasteland. There was nothing as far as the eye could see. In the distance, he saw a mountain range, on the opposite side was just nothing.
Just off to the side, he noticed a small building, which was next to a gate. He went over and examined them both.
The small building had certainly seen better days. The wood which it was made from was weathered and rotting, the dark-gray roof was missing tiles, and the windows were covered in dirt. It looked like something from a horror movie. Which, now that he thinks about it is quite fitting...
[Lords Manor]
[Level: 1]
[Durability: Infinite]
[Description: Basic dwelling for the lord of the territory]
[Can be upgraded]
The gate looks like it is made from black rocks or lumps of charcoal, on each of these rocks is a symbol that he was unable to recognize. It stands quite tall at roughly 6 meters (Approx. 20ft) and 3 meters wide and joins at the top in an arch.
[Summoning Gate]
[Level: 1]
[Durability: Infinite]
[Description: Basic summoning gate for the territory]
[Can summon 5 followers daily]
[Can be upgraded]
He then had a look at his character sheet to see what abilities he received.
[Character Sheet]
[Name: Lord Alex]
[Race: Undead]
[Abilities: Summon Skeleton Soldier Level 1]
[Trait: [Lord of Death][Give me More]
That’s when it dawned on him. [Race: Undead].
With wide eyes, he ran into his manor shouting.
“No, no, no, no!” panicking he ran to the mirror and looked deeply into its reflection. Staring back at him was an unblinking, emotionless skull. With very nice cheekbones.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”