'I died...'

At least, Victor thought that was the case anyway. The whole thing was a cliche affair.

He had just been walking down the street one day, the sun shining high in the sky as he minded his own business, when, out of nowhere, a group of hooligans appeared.

You know, the usual type that wields knives and stinks of drugs. But even after Victor gave them every bit of money he had, it didn't satisfy these bastards.

Oh no, the hooligans wanted more. Much more. So they took his watch, his phone, and lastly, even his shoes! Hitting him repeatedly in the process as he lay defencelessly on the floor.

'That's when my vision faded, and I ended up... here.'

Wherever 'here' even was, anyway.

The place was so damn dark that Victor couldn't see a thing. Nor could he move. Every bodily sensation just seemed to be stripped away... leaving him trapped in some bizarre space of nothingness.

How long had it been since then? Would he ever get out?

These questions lingered in the air, unanswerable.

At least to Victor, anyway.

You see, he was a good person in life, or at least he tried to be. Making friends rather than enemies, following all the rules, and yet, this is how it ended up.

Murdered by a bunch of greedy hoodlums in a shady back alley. Doomed to an eternity of silence in the darkness. It felt totally unreasonable. An injustice that filled him with a deep sense of rage and hatred.

As hours turned into days, and days bled further into weeks... the cycle repeated an uncountable number of times.

His mind left to wander. Staggering on the edges of insanity.

But just when he began to truly lose it, a strange ding sounded. And a little text box popped up in front of his consciousness.

[Would you like a second chance at life?]

[Yes] [No]

Victor blinked at this strange new intruder as his mind finally stirred.

'A... text box? In this place?'

He groggily thought. It was almost like something out of a game.

Yet, as he read the words... he began to doubt his own eyes, re-reading the entire thing again and again just to confirm that nothing was wrong. Each attempt brought back the exact same result.

It really did say another chance at life!

Victor's mind instantly woke up at the idea. He didn't care if it was suspicious or about any hidden setup that might or might not exist. To him, this was exactly what he needed.

A second chance. A do-over.

So, without hesitation, he selected yes.

The text box's contents changed.

[Are you sure of your choice? This new life will be completely different from that of before. This is your final warning.]

[Yes] [No]

This time, the words, especially the part emphasising 'completely different', made Victor pause.

What does that even mean, anyway?

'Different as in race? Different because of the world? Or maybe different due to the political climate?'

It could be anything.

'But... I guess it doesn't really matter. Not if you consider the alternative of being trapped in this hellhole forever.'

With no goals or future, only a slow and painful existence on the horizon.

Who would 'willingly' choose such a thing over a second chance at life?

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Victor scoffed. 'You'd have to be out of your fucking mind.' Picking yes without delay. The text box disappeared.

Then, there was a sudden gust of wind. Swirling around the space, faster and faster as more time passed. Slowly forming into what seemed to be...

'Wait. Is that... a portal?!'

He compared the two in his mind, looking towards the centre of the space. The darkness over there had receded somewhat as a blue, glowing sea took shape.

A suction force began to act upon his body, pulling him forward.

Closer and closer.

Until Victor entered the portal with a plop.

........................

When he finally opened his eyes again, he found himself still surrounded by darkness. But this time, something felt different.

He seemed to be able to... perceive his surroundings at will. Much like another limb, it felt intuitive. Natural.

'I can sense... a hard, rocky floor, patches of grass. Huh... a tree? And... wait, that's it? It only works up to a few meters away?'

He felt incredibly restricted by this fact. Especially since he couldn't even go over to investigate anything. He'd already tried multiple times, only to realise that his new body didn't have the ability to move.

Not a single inch.

'What the hell is going on? Am I crippled or something?' Victor tried to sense himself to get an answer.

Yet... the feedback he received was a shock, to say the least. He didn't seem to have any hands or feet, no skin or sense of hot or cold. No, just a hard, rocky exterior...

A soft ding echoed in his mind the next second when a small notification text box appeared.

[Gamer System initialising... Complete. Initiating status page.]

Name: Victor

Race: Sentient Rock

Rank: G-

Level: 0 / 3

Experience: 0/10

Health: 10/10

Stamina: NA

Mana: 0/0

Animus: 0

Strength (STR): 0 (G-)

Dexterity (DEX): 0 (G-)

Constitution (CON): 4 (G-)

Intelligence (INT): 5 (G)

Wisdom (WIS): 3 (G-)

Charisma (CHA): 0 (G-)

Skills

Roll: (G-) Level 1

Passives

Gamer: (SSS) Level 1

Dim sense: (G-) Level 1

It was a literal wall of text showcasing all kinds of different pieces of information, from menus to stats and even skills. But what attracted Victor's attention the most was his current displayed race.

'I'm... a rock? A literal fucking rock?!'

You're kidding, right?

He had suspected and prepared himself to accept anything for a second chance at life, but... as a rock? How the hell was he going to live from now on?

And could rocks even live to begin with?

Victor let out a long, mental sigh as he tried to come to grips with it.

'Alright. Let's stay calm here, shall we? Maybe being a rock isn't all bad. At least it's an upgrade on being dead, right? Uh... kinda, anyway.' If rocks could be counted as alive, that is.

'And besides, there's also this strange new system...'

His focus went to it instinctively for a distraction. Starting from the top of the status page, he skipped over his race and noticed the next one.

Rank.

Which was displayed as G-... In games, this would be worse than garbage. A creature so weak that it could be killed with little to no effort. Forget about the bottom of the food chain; these guys were below even that!

And the minus symbol told Victor all he needed to know. Right now, his strength was non-existent. Literal trash of trash.

He sighed again, moving on to his level and experience. 'My max level is... three. That's pretty low. But let's face it. I have absolutely no idea how I'll get experience from here on out. Roll off a mountain and kill a monster? Launch myself using some mystical magic attack?'

Both ideas seemed far-fetched to Victor. So he decided to drop it for now.

His gaze shifted to the following entries. 'Health, mana and stamina, huh? These are pretty much a staple resource in most games. Except. I don't have a speck of mana, and my staminas NA. What the hell is NA, anyway? Not available?'

Did that mean it was unlimited? Or was it just a useless resource for a rock?

He had no idea but leaned towards the latter.

Moving on to something unfamiliar called Animus below.

A little tooltip popped up as Victor focused on it.

[Animus: A currency and resource earned through various actions.]

'So, what? Is it similar to money?' He considered, eyeing his resources and that NA. 'Or maybe it's a replacement for stamina?'

The tooltips description didn't exactly explain a lot. Not mentioning how you'd get more or even how you'd use it. However, he did suspect that Animus would be incredibly important going forward.

Making sure to take mental notes, Victor looked at it for a while longer before proceeding to a stat spread.

Its presentation was almost identical to some of the RPG games he used to play, making it incredibly easy for him to understand just how shitty his current situation was.

'Three of them are actually 0's. I mean, what can I say at this point?'

He'd already grown numb to it all. So, he instead moved on without lingering too much...

Arriving at skills.

Of which, Victor only had one. It was a simple skill with a G- grade called roll. 'Apparently, this thing can be used every five minutes and costs nothing. Just a simple cooldown.'

So, with high expectations, he wasted no time and decided to use it for a test. Almost instantly activating it.

His stone-like body rolled about a meter forward.

'...'

He felt like a total idiot for expecting so much.