Forced System integration imminent.
Forced integration bonus appointed.
1 year of Beginners Protection applied.
1 tier upgrade to mana levels acclimated.
1 System Points to all denizens awarded.
Denizens of the Milky Way, Welcome to the Multiverse. System introduction for sapient life initiated. Land optimization commenced.
~~~
Welcome to the multiverse, sapient. Your Galaxy has been voted for SYSTEM integration. As a non-denizen nominated vote, your planet has been appointed the forced integration bonus.
Please follow the steps for your personal initiation and introduction to the multiverse at your leisure. Any questions may be directed to our guide, who you may find anywhere.
Please be warned that unnecessary or classified memories of your integration can and will be cleansed from you. Expect major differences with the fabrics of your reality.
Thank you for choosing the multiverse and goodluck.
DING.
Title awarded [Mind as old as Time]
Trait gained Immortal Mind
Trait gained Metamorphosible Mana.
Title awarded [Memories of Forever, Forever lost]
Trait gained Memory Vault
So mana would be real, magic too. What kind of word is metamorphosible? Still, it feels right somehow.
And the multiverse is real? WOW!
Earth will be protected for a while and all its life forms are evolving. Integration? Status? Ahhh! This is starting to sound like both a nightmare and a wish come true... But anyways, whoever you are; I can at least thank you for wishing me good luck. 'Thank you!'
"Graah, that was the weirdest dream." I muttered out loud, startled awake to a sitting position on my bed, groaning. Due to the major pounding in my head; like that one mucho famous green skinned superhero is using my head as his personal drumset. I quietly sat there on my bed, as the pounding gradually eases up, and my consciousness re-adapts to reality, how fortunate! "What was that dream anyway, Multiverse? Mana? Status?"
DING.
Name: Zane Fair Prayoga
Specification: Male. Human. Argead.
Level: 1 (0/1000)
Hp: 100 / 100
Mp: 270 / 270
Sp: 110 / 110
Str: 10
Con: 10
Dex: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 12
Wil: 12
Cha: 10
Ap: 1
Syscred: 0
Fp: 0
Titles: [Mind as old as Time], [Memories of Forever, Forever lost]
Traits: Adaptable, Metamorphosible Mana, Immortal Mind, Memory Vault
Skills:
Spells:
Stunned at the gamelike status page floating before me; in all its blue box-y glory I spent the next 30 seconds or so staring at it in unrestrained confusion. Not really sure that's wor–
Thud! Crash!!
What. Was. That!?
I live alone and in a decent part of town, having decided to move out of my parent's house and attempt to make a living for myself fresh out of university. Graduating with pretty average scores on my business major, I've been making ends meet working at the nearby mall by managing a small store that caters to sports and outdoor activities. The pay is good with a kind, if barely present, boss.
My two room and one bathroom boarding rent consists of a small living room and an even smaller bedroom; it is nothing too expensive and located in an area which is relatively safe from the more shady bunch of people, not that I spend a lot of my time here anyways. Working long hours in a mall is kinda preferable to this lonely room, since everyone who rents here is almost always busy with their work or education, Though I do hang out with this couple from the first floor sometimes. The extra pay from overtime helps too!
Glancing at the alarm clock I have on my bedside drawer. It reads 8.02 AM... Huh, I woke up early today, around 30 minutes before my usual time. I always set my morning alarm to 8.30 to give myself enough time for a simple breakfast, before my daily morning self care routine then departing to work. I am responsible for opening our store at exactly 10.00 am sharp.
Picking up an unused metal bat. From Its usual spot; I made sure to always have it primed and within reach—a spot near my bedroom's door. It is a gift from my kind boss. A bat I never intend to use for sports. Instead it functions as my makeshift security measure. Deep down hoping to never actually get to use it, preferably forever!
Bat in hand and standing right by the door, I set my ears carefully onto the old wood, listening for any sounds or clues of things being moved around. It also kinda bugged me that my bat feels lighter than usual.
Krskk.
There it is, my stray thought is cut short by the faint sound of plastic bags being disturbed by an impatient, something. Is that my groceries? Had visited a nearby minimart on the way home last night to get myself some plain bread for breakfast; some PBJ sandwiches.
Krskk-kksrk.
There it is again, maybe some hungry dude decided to go up the stairs on this side of the neighborhood, followed by inflicting property damage on a random door in a quest for food. I grimaced at the thought.
Slightly assured by the cold smooth feeling of the bat as it absorbs the warmth of my right palm, I clenched harder on it as I slowly pull the bedroom door open with my free hand while trying to make as little noise and as little gap as possible. I take a peek through the crack and scout my living room, first spotting my kitchen-slash-dining table where groceries tend to be hastily abandoned.
And I flinched.
DING.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
And flinched again.
Thunk.
Going so far as to forget the bat on my hand at the sight before me, which unfortunately thumped onto the door when another ding of some kind rang in my mind and startled me. The sound alerted the large rat currently ravaging my breakfast. A rush of adrenaline coursed through my system, I see in slow motion as the rat stiffened for part of a second before it slowly turn its head and its eyes focus on me.
Shriekkk.
When I came out of my stupor the rat is mid-air halfway between my ruined breakfast and its new prey, me! In a fit of panic, I wrench the door wide open and slam it back shut! as a result, I can hear it crash assumingly head first onto the door, and with a slightly audible crack.
A flash of wisdom had me, again, wrenching open the door where I find the stunned rat. Unhesitatingly, I proceed and give it plenty of head pats with my trusty security thingamajig.
Thwack. DING. Thwack. SMACK! spluchh.
All while barely holding in my panic induced screaming.
DING.
Once again startled, this time out of my violent stupor—I really need to stop losing myself for every little thing—I observed the mushed head of said offending rat, seeing white brain matter, blood and pieces of its skull, all mushed up. The sight and following smell caused my stomach a lot of discomfort, so I decided to observe the rest of it to divert my eyes from all the gore.
The creature looks malnutritioned; besides its slightly muscled limbs, it is very thin everywhere else—explains why it went crazy on those bread, and on me—and its tail has been torned off, only the first half a meter is left behind. Measuring by eye, it seemed to have grown from being approximately palm sized to something the size of say, a rabbit.
DING.
"Ack!" Startled again! That's gonna get old real soon. Electing to ignore the annoying ping. I decided to retreat and regroup; back into the safety of my room I go! Checking multiple times to make sure I secured the door properly.
Sitting on my bed. 'Updates,' I spoke in my head, this gives The System a mental nudge of intent to call forth my unread system notifications. Amazing how quickly calling out a magical blue screen of my improvements becomes just another familiar act in my life. I even know for sure somehow that other similar words would bring up the same system stuff, something like 'notifs', 'Logs', etc. Guess the system is partly intent driven.
DING.
Skill obtained Sneaking
Slayed Big Rat lv 1
1 Syscred and 4 exp rewarded
Skill obtained Mace Proficiency
Skill level up, Mace Proficiency 1 > 2
Skill obtained Inspect
Nice. If they're what I think they are.
Let's see. 'Status'.
DING.
Name: Zane Fair Prayoga
Specification: Male. Human. Argead.
Level: 1 (4/1000)
Hp: 100 / 100
Mp: 270 / 270
Sp: 109 / 110
Str: 10
Con: 10
Dex: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 12
Wil: 12
Cha: 10
Ap: 1
Syscred: 1
Fp: 0
Titles: [Mind as old as Time], [Memories of Forever, Forever lost]
Traits: Adaptable, Metamorphosible Mana, Immortal Mind, Memory Vault
Skills:
Sneaking 1
Mace Proficiency 2
Inspect 1
Spells:
Some EXPs and a Syscred thingy; which I'd wager is some kinda currency, in addition to those new skills. Not much else have changed. The missing stamina ticked up as I read the various entries; so doing strenuous activity drains them, and they regenerate during rest. Now, the names of these titles and traits sound very interesting, every single one of them!
I've read enough web fictions to know a lot of reading is coming up in the next upcoming hour, give or take several minutes.
Well, no time like the present! Eyeing my now maxed Sp. 'Inspect'.
DING.
Stamina points: A representation of your physical prowres. Fuels physical activity for system skills and supports intense physical labor.
Stamina regen: 2 / min
I'd guess it's been two or three minutes since that fight with the rat, and since my Sp have recovered its last point about less than a minute ago. I can assume the fight had gone on for about 2 minutes and the activity had cost me at least three Sp? Or up to four—I scratched my head, slightly annoyed—not enough concrete data, and I've never been all that great with math anyways. Besides the standard basics, and counting money.
… Meh. Who cares! Another!! Might as well go through the others. 'Inspect!' x2.
DING.
Health points: act as a buffer against damage to your body. Fatal injuries will be slightly less fatal and are more easily healed, especially by magical means. Do note that mortal injuries will still kill you, even with health left over and 0 health does not equal instant death.
Health regen: 0 / min
Mana point: The representation of a pool of magical energy inside you. An energy with unlimited potential.
Mana Regen: 3 / min
Skill level up, Inspect 1 > 2
Zero health regen!? But then again, also mentioned above is how Hp does not directly equal to my state of well-being managed to calm me down. Still, any idiot would know this is too important to leave unchecked. So I decided to give it a little experiment, better now in relative safety than out there in the midst of danger.
Now how to do damage to my Hp. Can I even?
Smack.
- 1 hp.
A simple punch on one of my upper thighs did enough, it caused me no more pain than the usual displeasure of getting matched up to one or more random noob teammates. Lowered my ranks, they did!
'Inspect'. No reason to waste time waiting.
DING.
Argead: previously known as Earth. Optimization for system integration involves continents defragmentation into a single mass – thus renown, again, as Pangea – increased dimension to accommodate resident evolutions and introduction of foreign designs.
'Really~. Argead, Pangea.' I chimed at the blue box internally. So it seems our homeworld's very very ancient supercontinent is back and the planet have even grown in size. 'And it's all thanks to you' I once again internally addressed the omniscient blue box.
Why change the planet's name though I pondered, no reason comes to mind ... nyeh~ once again, why care when it doesn't affect me in any way. But, trying to telepathically talk with blue boxes really shows how low I've gotten in the feeling lonely department, I chuckled.
Anyway, it's been several minutes. A glance at my Hp shows 100 / 100, which means it does regen, just at a rate of less than 1 point a minute. My fear of dying from running out of health is temporarily abated. I'll do a quick check on attributes before getting on to the more interesting Titles and Traits. 'Inspect' x7.
DING.
Strength: The power and force behind your physical movement. The weight of your strikes and your load limit.
Constitution: Symbolizes how durable your physical body is. What was once a deep wound may just become a scratch. Sleep is for the feeble!
Dexterity: Affects body coordination and flexibility. Accurate bodily movements; dodge, throw, aim better.
Intelligence: Represents the strength of your mind. This affects memorization and thought speed.
Wisdom: Affects the flexibility of your mind. How you use the knowledge you have.
Will: Your endurance and persistence at the face of hardships and trials.
Charisma: Mysteriously affects your general attractiveness. This may be by causing very minute changes to your profile to allow better aesthetics or it may also subconsciously improve the way you move or present yourself in some way others will find more appealing. or not, life is a mystery.
Nowhere does it state which attributes affect which resources. Otherwise pretty standard, play enough games and what Attributes do what are generally similar enough, though Will is pretty uncommon to me. Charisma also feels bizzare, as usual.
'Maybe you'll tell me the regeneration formulas?' I tried again to communicate with The SYSTEM, to no result.
Hmm, Is trying to talk with it my way of coping with all this. I internally grin exasperatedly at the thought.
Alas, the quest for more knowledge waits for no one. Let us continue with my two titles. 'Inspect' x2.
DING.
Mind as old as Time. You've had thoughts for billions of years, what is forever more. Trait bestowed Immortal Mind.
Memories of Forever, Forever Lost. Forever is a long time to have lost, lose no more. Trait bestowed Memory Vault.
Skill level up, Inspect 2 > 3
Whaaat?
Me, the average faced, 24 years old single asian guy. Have had thoughts for billions of years. All I have going for me is my above average height of 1.84 meter and those System bestowals—free stuffs banzai!—Like, what kind of sentence is; thought for billions of years? Not to mention I seem to have lost these memories too, which brings me to what other memories could I have lost too. None of my life so far seems to be amiss, then again that might be because it's missing.
"Aahhhh". Just, whaaat?.. I flopped back onto my bed.
I didn't lay there blanked out for several minutes, no no. Any further thought about losing my memories and all these thoughts thingy I shelf in my future me's problem cupboard.
The next targets, Traits! 'inspect' x4.