A young man fished a pair of keys out of his pockets as he locked a rather big transparent door. He has black hair and tan skin, with ocean colored eyes that are brought out by the blue dress shirt he is wearing. He lets his shoulders slump as his eyes unfocus a little. Pulling out his phone, he sees that it's a few minutes before midnight.
'Spending the new Year alone this year as well, it seems.' he thinks with a small frown on his face. He makes his way towards the parking lot as he once again dives into his pockets in search for his car keys. All of a sudden, he hears a small 'ding' sound, which makes him raise his head, only to see a transparent blue box in front of his eyes.
As planet "Earth" has come of age, starting integration of the system.
As planet "Earth" has come of age, starting mutation for non-human life forms.
'I should have slept before coming to work last night.' he thinks, as he is trying to swat the screens from his field of view, although the hallucinations are not going anywhere. His brows furrow as he tries to shove the car key inside his car lock, but he instead scratches his car a little around the handle, as he used too much force. After a little trial and error, he manages to calm himself a little and finally sits inside the car.
He slumps against the seat as he tiredly looks to his right, hoping to see his suitcase, but instead seeing an empty seat.
"For fuck’s sake," he mumbles with a heavy sigh, opening up the car door again to go back inside the large building he just locked up. He unlocks the door he recently locked and makes his way to another large transparent door, behind which are desks with computers on top of them. He pulls out an identification card and swipes it against a spot on the door.
"Employee identified, welcome back Ambros," says the automated entrance message, as Ambros enters the room, quickly navigating through the desks to his workspace where he grabs his suitcase.
As Ambros prepares to leave, he hears the sound of something scraping against metal. He looks around, eyes glossing over his surroundings, but as he sees nothing, he prepares to head out.
Ambros heads out of the office again, preparing to leave the building and lock it up for the second time in the past 10 minutes, when he once again hears the sound of metal scraping, this time followed by a growl. As Ambros turns around to investigate, he is faced with a rather large, furless animal who is displaying its sharp teeth, ready to jump at Ambros.
'This is surprising.' Ambros thinks as he slowly tries to back away from the creature, but as he does that, the creature leaps at him. Ambros narrowly dodges the creature, as it flies through the glass door and lands outside.
As the creature is getting back up, Ambros has started to run towards the workspace area where he had just been. The creature quickly regained its wits as it started running after Ambros, who had just entered his workspace, and grabbed the nearest thing he could use to bludgeon the cat-like creature. That nearest thing ended up being a company bowling trophy with a dull and a sharp end.
'This is certainly an interesting situation I have found myself in. Maybe the screens earlier were not hallucinations at all.' he considers as the creature catches up to him. The creature once again leaps at Ambros, but as he was expecting that, he dodged the leap more efficiently than last time, and rammed the trophy at the creature's head who was at the middle of his leap, making the creature butcher its landing.
Ambros quickly sprinted towards the creature who was still recovering and hit the creature again, using all the strength he could muster.
The creature's head quickly became a bloodied mess as Ambros let the trophy fall to the ground. He once again heard a 'ding' sound as another blue screen appeared.
Congratulations, you have killed a mutated stray cat. Congratulations, you have received 5 essence points.
Congratulations, you are the first to kill a mutation in your continent.
Congratulations, you have received 20 essence points.
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Tip: Think or say 'status' to see your status and make use of your essence points.
"This is... Crazy. Alright, might as well try it out. Status!" he says out loud as another blue screen appears in front of him. "Jeez, what the hell. What am I supposed to call you, status person?"
Status of Ambros Imperim Class: N/A Health: 50 Essence Force: 25 Vitality: 5 Strength: 5 Dexterity: 5 Focus: 5 Skill List ( Think Skill List ) Inventory ( Think Inventory ) EP ( Essence Points ): 25 Coins: 5
Calling me System would be appropriate. I am not a living being, please refrain from calling me a person.
"Alright, cool, cool, cool. System, how did I gain coins? I doubt they have anything to do with real money. Also, how can I distribute my essence points." Ambros asks as his voice trembles in excitement.
Affirmative, coins are given out for every 5 essence points the user gains, they are also the primary reward for quests. You can distribute your stat points just by thinking where you want them to be distributed to.
"That's nice, alright, I would like to assign 15 points to strength." Ambros says as he feels a warm, fuzzy feeling worm through his body. He tries to stretch himself a little and tries to see how much strength he exactly has currently. He grabbed the trophy from before, which he could break with ease, and he was much more flexible. "System, what does the focus stat do, and what is essence force exactly?"
Focus: Grants the user 5 Essence Force per stat point. It increases the users thinking prowess and memory, while also enhancing the user's ability to retain a calm mind.
Essence Force: The equivalent of mana and stamina. Doing actions that require stamina, will instead require Essence Force and casting magic will require Essence Force.
"Alright, that seems useful. I assume vitality increases my health then. I would like to put the rest of my points into vitality and focus then." Ambros says after processing the system's explanation. He gets himself ready and prepares to leave the building once again, but as he starts to leave, another message pops up.
Mutation of non-human life forms has been finished, beginning the first stage of the test.