Mark Alderman was tired of his terrible life, he was tired of his awful dead end job, he was tired of working under his incompetent boss, he was tired of coming home to his tiny barren apartment, and most of all he was tired of feeling like this was the best he could do at his age. Mark felt so stifled by his circumstances that he would give up a lot for a chance to be free, free from a society that seemed to place him and his generation at the bottom and denied any attempt at rising higher, free from having to work entry level job after entry level job just to make a living, freedom from the fear that any day he might be fired in favor of a younger more eager worker and have to choose between food and rent. And whether he knew it or not he would soon get that chance. 

These dark thoughts ran through Mark’s head as he clocked out after another crumby shift at work. Opening the back door showed Mark that the rain had neither stopped or lessened during his shift so it was going to be another cold wet walk to the bus stop. Sighing Mark opens his umbrella and walks out into the rain, closing the door behind him. Once he exits the back alley and starts walking down the street proper, Mark begins his usual internal rant about how bad his shift was.

‘Fuck this fucking job and all of its bullshit.’ Mark thinks angrily, ‘I'm pretty sure that today couldn’t have been worse. First of all it’s raining for the fifth day in a row so I get soaked getting to and back from work. The day manager still complains that I am not doing two mens work effectively. My coworkers are still strangers to me. And the boss came by today to give me a new checklist of bullshit busy work to do and to tell me that he is slashing a half hour off of all my shifts. If he takes any more work I am going to have to quit, I need those hours if I am ever going to be able to accrue any meaningful savings.’ 

While taking a pause to let out an angry breath a gust of wind rolls down the street and blows a wave of rain into his face. Adjusting his umbrella to block the shifting rain Mark shakes himself to dislodge as much of the rain off of him as he can before his clothes absorb it and leave even more of him soaked. Once the wind passes him by and allows him to go back to his thoughts he sighs and says, “At least the weather app says that the rain should end tonight so I won’t have to deal with this come monday.”

Arriving at the bus stop, Mark watches as cars roll past him as he tries to hide from the rain under his umbrella. Searching for any signs of a bus that he knows is going to be at least 10 minutes late, he feels something change. Nothing that he could see, hear, smell, touch or even taste had changed, but Mark still somehow knows that something important changed about the world in that moment. Peering around for any indication of why he felt that way failed to give him any answers. But right as Mark was about to chalk it up to not getting enough sleep or some chemical leak, something appeared in his vision. 

Name: Mark Alderman (None/None)

Stats: 0 SP

-Strength: 8

-Dexterity: 6

-Endurance: 9

-Constitution: 9

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-Intelligence: 5

-Wisdom: 7

-Mind: 6

-Willpower: 7

Skills: None

Classes: None

Paths: None

“Shit.” Mark remarks to himself. ‘Whenever these things happen in books, Earth is usually hit with some disaster or something’ he thinks quickly. While quickly looking around for any signs of monsters appearing, he is interrupted by another set of messages.

Congratulations Earth! Your planet has been liberated and integrated into the System. The  System is an autonomous magical construct that will help you refine your skills and empower yourselves within your now magical reality.

Assessing Planetary Stability…  Adequate

Assessing Planetary Ecology…  Damaged

Assessing Planetary Environment… Moderately Polluted

Assessing Planetary Sapient Population…  Exceeds Optimal Levels

Result - Approved for Colonization Initiative

Congratulations Earth! In order to ensure continued growth and prosperity of the human race, the System has approved humans for the System Colonization Initiative. Members of the initiative will be transported to a wild planet where they will use their skills and knowledge to create new colonies for their species. If you are eligible to join the program you will receive a message soon.

Congratulations, you are eligible to join the System Colonization Initiative. As the initiative is currently under-adopted among humans, the rewards for joining members have been increased. The rewards for joining right now are; Individuals' choice of starting environment, the Universal Tongue skill, three random Racial Skills, one random Magical Skill Crystal, and one Human Pre-System Skill Encyclopedia. To accept the offer simply say ‘I would like to join the colonization initiative’. 

After reading the messages twice to make sure that he wasn’t misreading anything Mark lets out a sigh of relief and says, “Thank god. It doesn’t look like one of those apocalyptic systems.”

Taking a moment to look for any signs of surprise monster, and finding none, Mark returns to the message and it’s offer. At first glance it appears like a great offer given the proposed rewards for joining but one also had to consider what was asked of those who joined. Mark didn’t exactly know what building colonies under the System entailed but if he took the historic perspective that meant building up a city using only the materials and food they found or produced. On top of that even if Mark accepted the offer there was no promise of ever getting to go back to earth.

As Mark was thinking over the offer he felt his phone buzz as he got an email. Fishing the phone out of his pocket Mark reads the title and sees that it is his next week’s schedule. Reading further reveals that he is being asked to work the entirety of next week, including weekends. “To make up for slashing half an hour off of your shifts, because I am kind and care for my employees” claims the email his boss sent.

Reading that one line made Mark’s decision clear. Mark wrote a quick email to his boss that he is quitting, stating that he cannot work under such a condescending boss who believes granting shifts after piling on tasks and slashing hours is a kindness. Right before Mark clicks send he takes one moment to make sure that this is what he wants, that he believes that trusting a System that just appeared in his vision suddenly with his future is more reasonable than working under his crumby boss. Then he smiled and hit send.

“Welp, guess now I really have to take the System’s offer.” Mark remarks. Thinking over what he will be leaving behind, Mark sends a text to his mother to let her know that he is taking the System’s offer, and another text to his brother to ask him to pick up his stuff as he is leaving it behind. Once both were confirmed to be delivered Mark said, “I would like to join the colonization initiative.” 

What starting environment would you like?

“Uhhh. How about a pine forest.” Mark questions.

Pine Forest located. Commencing teleportation.

For one ponderous moment nothing occurred and then Mark disappeared without a sound, leaving only a patch of pavement to be claimed by the rain.