It was a totally normal Tuesday for Ray. Totally normal if he was insane. He was currently falling. Not falling out of bed or down the stairs. He was falling from the sky and had already fallen for 58 seconds. Felt like much longer. Like time with his ex-in-laws. 10 seconds later Ray could see the ground rapidly approaching. He prepared himself to be smashed into a nice tomato paste. Another 10 seconds and he bellyflopped the ground.
“Phenomenal timing. Our first Contestant has arrived. If you would, please join me over here,” a voice said in a gorgeous voice that sounded as if Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones had a baby.
Ray lifted his head and saw the speaker was a humanoid made of almost solid black fog. “I’m not dead?”
“Yes. That is correct. You are not dead so why don’t you come over here and wait for the others?”
“What others?”
“The other Contestants of course.”
“Contestants?”
“Yes. Now come over here before someone lands on you and you really die.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I know.”
Ray could sense he wasn’t going to get anything else out of the figure, so he got up and walked over beside it. The figure didn’t speak anymore while they waited. 30 seconds later a girl fell from the sky and landed in the same spot as he was just in. She didn’t bellyflop as he did. She landed like she was a superhero from a movie. Only two Contestants in and Ray was already looking bad. The figure repeated itself and asked the new Contestant to join them. Another Contestant arrived about 1 minute after the new girl. The next one was about a minute after that one. Contestants kept falling from the sky in 1-minute intervals until there were one hundred people gathered around the foggy figure.
“Ok. This is everyone,” the figure began. “You may all call me Producer. I am sure everyone is curious as to why you found yourself here, falling from the sky rather than waking up at home in your comfortable beds right? Well, the answer to that question is that you have all been chosen to represent your race in The Game!”
All the Contestants began whispering to each other. One of the bolder ones asked, “What’s The Game?”
“Ah. An exceptional question. The Game is a show for the gods. They all got bored and produced the show to keep them entertained. Now for each season of The Game, we visit ten new universes and take 10,000 random healthy members of the dominant species from a random place in those universes. You should all consider yourselves lucky. The odds of being chosen are astronomical. There are more planets in your universe than there are seconds since its creation.”
A different Contestant asked, “Why are we lucky we get to participate?”
“Another great question. You are lucky because the prize, if you win, is monstrous.”
“What’s the prize?”
“Your universe and any others that win get to join the rest of the winners and you continue your journey until one day you have the power to join the gods. There’s also an individual prize decided on by the gods for whoever wins.”
The Contestants whispered to each other again. They were excited about the potential to be gods. Ray realized something the figure mentioned earlier. “Didn’t you say 10,000 Contestants? Where are the others?” This made the other Contestants quiet down.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“There are 99 other versions of me having this same conversation with the other groups right now.”
“But where are they?”
“We are currently in an instanced world created by the gods for the beginning of the tutorial for The Game. So, the other ninety-nine groups are exactly where you all are standing just in other instances of this world. You all will join back up once we complete the first stages of the tutorial. Speaking of, we should be starting soon.”
“Wait,” one Contestant said. “What if we lose The Game?”
“Oh. That? Your Universe simply ceases to exist.”
Hearing the consequence of failure sobered the Contestants. If they didn’t win not only, would they not join the winners, their homes and loved ones would vanish and it would be on them.
“Now I want everyone to think the word ‘Status’.”
There were collective gasps when they followed the direction. A table that looked straight from a video game appeared in front of their eyes.
General
Name:
Raymond Ross
Level:
0
Race:
Human (Contestant)
Age:
22
Stats
HP:
100
MP:
100
SP:
100
Attributes
Strength:
10
Dexterity:
10
Constitution:
10
Intelligence:
10
Wisdom:
10
Charisma:
10
Resistances
Skills
Abilities
Titles
None
None
Linguist
None
“You will notice your Status is pretty bare. As you gain strength, more will be added to it. We have seen video games from your world. This is similar. There are no experience points, however. You gain a level by accomplishing an impressive feat whether that be for good, or evil is up to each person. Gaining a level makes each stat worth more. A level 5 with 10 in each stat is equal to a level 0 with 15 in each. You gain stat points by doing things that would raise the stat naturally such as working out or reading. There will also be rare and hidden quests that will give free stat points that you can allocate to whatever you’d like. Titles are given for certain actions and will help or hinder you. You can only have one title equipped at a time, but unequipped titles will still give 50% of their bonus or drawback. The rest of the sheet is self-explanatory or must be figured out by yourself. Now, if you’re all done looking at your Status, follow me.”
Producer led them down a path to a cliff face with a tunnel into it. They entered the tunnel and were led down below the ground. They walked deeper for 15 minutes before emerging into a massive cave with crystals of every variety embedded in the walls. Producer led them to the middle of the cave which had a circle of boulders covered in runes.
“Once the last person enters the circle, you will all be transported to the beginning of the tutorial. That is where you will meet up with the other 9,900 Contestants from your world. I wish you all luck and I hope you put on a good show.”
The Contestants entered the circle and began to be surrounded by a barrier made of the runes that were on the boulders. When the barrier finished forming a dome around them, they vanished.