“Bro!” Just as Dan entered the café, he heard Elijah’s voice.

His little brother with his golden curls that had never lost their sheen, was sitting at the table in the corner. He looked like a child although he was only five years younger than Dan, who, with his black, disheveled hair that resembled a very old hat, looked a little older than your average twenty-year-old.

“Bro!” Dan shouted at the top of his voice and waved. There was a time when he was shy in front of strangers and wouldn’t dare openly show emotions like this. And then, one day, he thought: Why do I care about what others think? His brother was all he had left, so why would he hold back if he was really happy to see him?

Elijah beamed with joy as he watched Dan slowly approach his table, smiling at all the surprised and displeased glances from the other people in the café.

“So, how do you like the prologue of my new book?” Dan sat on the chair and leaned on the uncomfortable backrest. He grimaced at how hard the cushion was — it was probably picked out on purpose so that people wouldn’t sit around too long. This way, they quickly left, freeing up space for new customers.

“It’s pretty cool. People see a star dying in a nova, the light that reaches Earth not only transmits the image of the explosion but also installs the system into everyone’s head... It’s a good concept, but are you sure you can make money on books? It’s a big market and the competition is fierce.” Sometimes, Elijah was as goofy as the next teenager, but sometimes, he was painfully rational.

“Look...” Dan began to write calculations on a napkin. “The books costs, what, three bucks? Thirty percent goes to the website on which we’ll sell it, thirty percent goes on all payments and taxes... So, we’re left with one dollar of pure profit. If a hundred people buy it per day, we’ll have made one hundred.”

“And if they don’t? A hundred readers is quite a lot. Especially in one day!”

“I like to believe that one day...” Dan smiled wide. “We’ll get a thousand!”

“Or a million!” Elijah beamed. “Can you imagine how much money we’d make then?”

The younger brother shook his fist, threatening some invisible enemy. Dan smiled to himself, thinking that if this turned out to be true, it’d be hard finding new readers after a while.

“And what happens next?” Elijah returned to the topic of the book. “All earthlings have accessed the system and received a message about the test. The main character decides to take it. What happens after that?”

“After that...” Dan began to explain the rest of his vision. “After that, everyone who saw the supernova has the opportunity to receive a spirit out of nine hundred and ninety-nine types of weapon spirits available!”

“Weapon spirits? Cool! There’ll be that many weapons?!”

“Give or take a few, I’m not sure yet.” Dan waved his hand as if to indicate that they ought to move on. “And that’s not all. So, there are weapon spirits and you can choose one of them. They’re primarily a way to help you develop your soul. And every soul, again, has a predisposition for one of the types of weapons.”

“Nine hundred and ninety-nine spirits and an equal number of predispositions... That’s like... A million possible combinations!” Elijah whistled. “Cool! I like it when it’s complicated.”

“I know you do.” Dan smiled at his brother’s usual catchphrase with which he was ready to celebrate any achievement in their lives, no matter how big or small it was. “So, if the soul and the spirit are on the same wavelength, you’ll get stronger. If not, you’ll be weaker. The higher the compatibility, the higher the chance to use more complex abilities. But that’s not all! In addition to the ordinary spirits, there are ninety-nine higher spirits that have physical bodies and names! And each of them is ten times stronger than ordinary spirits.”

“Are ordinary spirits stronger than humans?” Elijah asked, wanting to understand the system as soon as possible.

“An ordinary one is about ten times stronger than an average human. Those who embody ranged weapons are weaker, while those who embody melee ones are stronger. Speed and size also matter but the average increase is tenfold.”

“Ten again?!” Elijah snorted. “I’m starting to see a pattern here. A pattern of a lazy writer.” There was a teasing smirk on his face.

“Oh, shush!” Dan said. “It’s not that simple. Souls and spirits have different levels of development. The synchronization between them affects the chance of using abilities. There are also the aforementioned abilities, and stages of transformation that can strengthen both the spirit and its owner. And finally, there’s the Avatar Form and unique ways of development that you can choose. For example, if you kill all the wielders of the same type of weapon, even if you possess an ordinary spirit, it’ll become equal in strength to the higher one. As for the main villain...”

He didn’t have time to finish the story as something flashed in the sky. The bright light enveloped the two brothers and everyone sitting in the café, blinding them temporarily. Dan’s vision was still blurry when he heard the anxious voices coming from the table next to them.

“This must be some special government operation! We have to get out of here as soon as possible!”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“It seemed like a big flashbang! Normal light isn’t that bright!”

“I think it was some kind of bomb that went off in the sky! It looked like a star exploded!”

An exploding star?! The thought struck Dan like a lightning bolt, and then, a familiar message appeared in front of his eyes, floating in the air as if he had put on a VR helmet. Familiar, because he had written it last night.

In three seconds, your soul will be sent on a journey to find its spirit weapon.

Do not chase power for you do not know what it truly is.

I should’ve come up with something better, Dan thought but then he remembered something much more important. Three seconds... Elijah!

“Elijah! Pick whatever you feel most comfortable with! Remember my book! Compatibility is important! Don’t listen to everything the system tells you! Go with your gut!” he blurted out, hoping that his brother would hear him in time.

It was insane to think that all of this coincided with the prologue of a book that didn’t even have an end yet. Or even a middle. Just the beginning and a vague idea of where the plot would go. But it’d be silly to dismiss this as a coincidence. Dan didn’t have time to think about anything else. The usual hubbub of the café, the hard backrest, the smell of coffee and bagels... All of it disappeared. His mind seemed to be transported into space and left to float there before it was hurled back toward Earth along with information about the strange end of the familiar world.

It was just like in his book!

“You are advised to choose a Scythe Spirit. Main attacks: Heavy Blade, Armor Breaker, Focus Attack,” an unknown female voice read the sentence that appeared in front of him. But he decided to follow the advice he had just given to Elijah.

“Get lost!” He waved away the assistant’s voice. If he was wrong about this, nothing would change. But if he wasn’t...

“Virtual assistant disabled.” The female voice went quiet but he was no longer listening, remembering the names of the strongest spirits that he had come up with.

“I choose the Dark Heaven Dragon Sword!” he called out the name of the strongest of the legendary spirits.

“Unable to process the request. Dark Heaven Dragon Sword is currently in use.”

“Damn it!” he swore. He hadn’t seen this coming. He was willing to believe that the name wouldn’t work, that he’d be told that he didn’t meet some requirements... but not that someone would’ve beaten him to it. “I choose the Mountain River’s Sword of Destiny.”

“Unable to process the request. Mountain River’s Sword of Destiny is currently in use.”

He didn’t waste any more time on swearing. Instead, he went down the list of legendary spirits but they had all found their owners. There still were higher spirits available — and some of the ninety-nine could still be snatched — but Dan, realizing that any advantage he could’ve had due to knowing the inner workings of the system was slipping out of his hands, wasn’t willing to compromise.

So, none of the heroic spirits are available anymore! He exhaled, though it wasn’t easy to do in his current ghostly form. Fine! I don’t have to choose a “good” spirit. Damn it, maybe I can go the hard way! I’m sure it’ll pay off in the long run.

Having made up his mind, Dan focused on himself, or rather, on what was referred to as a “soul” in the system message that had previously popped up. According to his book concept, this was what determined the compatibility of the spirit and its owner. In order to circumvent the rules, as the villain of his story had done, he would create a spirit that’d be a hundred percent compatible with him and that’d give him opportunities no other spirit could. In the beginning, at least. He’d come up with the rest of the plan on the fly.

“A-a-a-a-a-a!” He clung to his soul with his consciousness and tore a small piece from it.

He had planned to take more but the pain made him retreat a little sooner than he wanted to. It was a miracle that he had managed to do even this much.

“Come on, hurry up!” The pain was making his vision blurry, but he tried not to think about it. The planet he had been flying toward all this time was getting too close for comfort. “What can I make from a piece this small? A dagger? A pommel? Come on!” He couldn’t figure out what he needed but then the lump he had torn out of himself seemed to move away. “Hey, come back here!” he shouted after it. At the same moment, the piece he had created shot toward him, clinging to his hands, and then materialized in the form of brass knuckles with small claws.

“What am I? Wolverine?” he said but still smiled and immediately found himself back at his table in the café.

You have chosen your spirit weapon:

Brass “Claw” Knuckles

Compatibility level: 100%

“Bro! Look! I have a gun and the compatibility level is eighty percent!” Elijah had also passed the test and was now waving a huge flintlock in front of his brother’s face. No matter how crazy it seemed, he was excited to live in the reality of his brother’s book. It was every teenager’s dream-come-true.

“Out!” Dan shouted, remembering what was going to happen next. In order not to miss anything, he quickly grabbed Elijah and they both dashed out onto the street. Just as they stepped out, a huge silhouette of a robed and hooded man appeared in the sky, covering them.

“People of Earth!” his voice boomed in the ears of every person on the planet and echoed as a message appeared in front of their eyes. “Each of you has just received my gift: the spirit of one of the greatest weapons in your history! I have hidden my treasure deep in the dungeons in...” At that moment, the figure said something unintelligible, and something odd happened to the text message. It read: ZZZZZZZZ.

“What the hell does ZZZZZZZZ mean?!” Elijah turned to the suddenly blushing Dan.

“I couldn’t come up with a cool name so I just wrote that as a placeholder! I didn’t know it’d end up like this!”

“Should’ve known!” Elijah exclaimed and slapped his brother on the shoulder with satisfaction. “If there’s anyone who’d do something like that, it’s you.”

Meanwhile, the hooded man continued his speech.

“From this day on, a variety of passageways will lead from the surface to the center of the Earth, filled with ferocious and deadly beasts! No ordinary weapon will be able to kill them — but you have your spirits! Go and find my treasure! The one who finds it first will become the king of this world and will be able to change it as they please!”

“As they please...” It seemed that everyone, not just Elijah, repeated those words. “Bro, is this true? Will finding the treasure work or is he tricking us? Do you maybe know some quick way to get to it?”

Dan endured the barrage of questions with a smile, then shook his head.

“It should work. Unfortunately, I don’t know any secret ways, tricks or shortcuts. I told you: I’ve written only the beginning; I don’t know where the plot’s going. I thought I’d figure it out soon but... Well... As the dude said, we have the spirits. We’ll have to write the rest on the go.” He tried to summon his claws but he suddenly felt a terrible weakness.

Maybe creating a weapon out of my soul wasn’t such a good idea after all, he thought before he fainted.

[https://i.ibb.co/dmFJpTK/Eskiz1.png]