The day the world changed, no one saw it coming. I was at work, in a warehouse, at 23:58, 2 minutes from quitting time on a Thursday night. Kinda weird that the world changed on a Friday morning. I watched the clock as the seconds to the end of the shift ticked away, holding a broom, pretending to look busy for another minute and a half as all good workers would. My boss wasn’t too picky about things like that, but their boss was a stickler and was unfortunately in the building today.
Then it happened all at once, a light blue, semi-transparent, video game-like prompt appeared in my vision.
Welcome to the System, Planet 3 of the SolAR System, designation “Earth”. Please remain while mana values are calculated.
I looked around, and it seemed like everyone else was also seeing this by all the looks of confusion and bewilderment. At the bottom of my vision, 3 bars appeared, one red, one green and one blue. No one knew what to make of this, then the wondering turned to panic and fear as 5 giant black rats rose from the ground.
System Notification.
Due to starting in a PvP zone, players will be given a gift
Due to starting in a PvP zone with monsters, players will be given a gift
Due to starting in a zone with an expected level rating over 50, players will be given a gift
Due to starting in a zone with an expected level rating over 75, players will be given a gift
Due to starting in a zone with an expected level rating over 100, players will be given a gift
My brain was reeling from what was going on around me, but with a little bit of focus, I managed to push all the windows out of my vision for the time being to stare up at the rats. All 5 of them were suddenly twice the size of any person in the warehouse, and I knew I had to just accept what was happening at that moment if I wanted to survive, so my brain went into overdrive.
Alright so it seems that there are now some kind of monster rats here that look very angry and hungry, the world also has some kind of MMORPG thing going on, and I'm going to have to fight these things if I want any hope of making it out alive.
I set all these thoughts in my head and took a deep breath. Every exit, except for the door leading to the furthest entrance was blocked by giant rats. I snapped off the end of the broom I was still holding against the floor, to make a jagged, makeshift spear, as a rat came barreling towards my direction.
System Notification.
For the first 12 hours of system integration, all drop rates will be drastically increased.
I pushed this notification out of my vision and jumped back as a rat bit down in my direction taking a bite out of 3 people standing around me. 2 of them were lucky enough to have their heads cut clean off, but the third only had their right arm bit off and was bleeding profusely as they started screaming in pain.
You know what you have to do, either let them suffer or put them out of their misery.
I steeled my nerves and drove my broom spear into the chest of my suffering coworker. As I pulled it back out, I looked at the blood dripping from the end and tried hard not to gag at the viscera of human insides that were stuck to the makeshift weapon. I swallowed hard and moved to the side as the rat tried to bite down in my direction again. As its jaw closed on the air beside me, I drive my weapon into its eye as deep as I could. It screamed so loud I felt my head start to spin, but I held on driving it in deeper as blood splattered everywhere. The rat tried to pull back pulling me forward a couple of steps and I forced my strength downward, driving the rat's head into the ground, pushing the spear deeper into its head until it finally stopped moving.
First monster slain, Extra rewards are given.
My stomach churned as a window came into my vision, titled loot. 3 items were in it, a sword, a vial with red liquid in it, and a coin marked with the number 2000 with a “Loot All” button. As I wondered if there was some kind of inventory another window appeared. Images of what looked like my wallet, keys and phone were in it. I mentally hit the loot all button in the previous window, then I tried to take out the sword and it fell to the ground. I picked it up, expecting a window to show up with information about it, but there was nothing. Maybe information like that needed some kind of identification ability or something. It was a very stylized Roman gladiator short sword, the hilt was covered in a gold fabric to grip, a blue gem was embedded in the blade just above the hilt and the blade itself had some kind of inscription lightly glowing on it in a language I couldn’t read. I looked as if a righthanded person tried to freehand Chinese characters for the first time with their left hand. Without knowing anything else I turned my gaze back up to the other monsters still attacking the rest of the warehouse.
I knew I couldn’t help everyone but I had to do something, I had some training in wielding a sword but was by no means an expert, but anything would be better than just a jagged piece of wood. So with my new loot, I felt I could at least hold off the rats while everyone escaped. I ran towards the next closest rat and swung at its back leg while it was distracted by the potential meals in front of it. The blade went clean through and its leg flew to the side as the rat fell off balance. I was amazed by how easy it was to remove an appendage from such a huge beast but I didn’t stop and kept slashing the rat's body in quick succession. Blood and guts were spilling from it as my blade bit into it and squeals of pain rang out from the beast. There wasn’t even a chance for a fight this time as it dropped to the ground dead. Another loot window appeared in my vision but I had no time to look at it as another rat turned and started running towards me seeing its ally slaughtered.
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“RUN!” I shouted and everyone around darted for the exits. I readied to intercept another bite but the rat flung its claws at me, slashing my chest and knocking me over. Thankfully it swung just a little too early and the cuts weren’t too deep, but blood did start flowing from the wounds. I quickly got back onto my feet, my adrenaline-infused body ignoring the pain for the moment. I charged at it and it reared up on its hind legs, probably trying to crush me. I threw myself to the left as it came down. Rolling twice I got behind a table, bent down and used my whole body to throw the table at the rat's head. As they collided I stabbed my sword through the table into the rat, forcing my weight down on it. The blade was a lot sharper than I realized as I not only cut the table in half but also drove it through the rat's neck bathing me in its blood.
Another loot window appeared in my vision but I minimized it and stopped to catch my breath and survey my surroundings. It seemed like the others had managed to kill another rat using more makeshift broom spears and were now all ganging up on the last one. I looked around and saw so many bodies of co-workers, missing limbs or sliced open, blood and gore everywhere, dead. Dozen didn’t make it out and my brain was reeling at the situation, but I pushed it all back, now was not the time to freak out. Once we got out of this I could…
My thoughts were cut off by the sound of a storage shelf being toppled over onto the rat. Everyone climbed on top of it and mercilessly started stabbing at the rat until it finally stopped squirming. All 5 rats were now dead and we could get out of here. I headed for the closest emergency exit as I pulled up all the windows I missed earlier. Starting with the loot, I got some kind of orb, a cloak, 2 more vials with red liquid and 200 more coins. I mentally clicked on the orb in my inventory.
Equip? Yes/No
Before I could select yes, I started to feel weak and cold. I fell to my knees and looked down at myself. Now that the adrenaline was leaving my system my wounds and loss of blood were affecting me. I looked back and my inventory window and clicked on the red vials and one appeared in my hand. Hoping that it was a healing potion I downed it in one gulp. I focused on the red bar in my vision which was reading ‘10%’ and was almost completely empty. After a moment I felt my strength coming back as the bar began to fill quickly. I looks at my wounds and saw them visible start to heal. I sighed in relief as I stood back up, realizing how close I had just come to death there.
I pushed the morbid thoughts away and went back to the previous window and hit yes. For a long moment, nothing happened. Sharp pain in my eye suddenly came and went before I could react and suddenly I could see like I never had before.
Equipped, Eye of the Analytical God!
This item is now bound to you and cannot be removed. You can now receive information about items, enemies and people as well as gaining darkvision, heat vision and mana vision. This is an evolving item and will grow with you.
I was taken aback as I read the information. Without even thinking I immediately looked at the sword in my hand and a new window about it appeared.
Evolving Short Sword
An ancient weapon forged by several master blacksmiths and great wizards. Its true power has yet to be discovered, will you be the one to unlock it? This is an evolving weapon and will grow with you.
Abilities.
Blood of the enemy: The sword will repair itself by absorbing the blood of those it cuts.
Getting 2 evolving items in such a short time was no joke, I guess they weren’t lying when it said drop rates were increased. In any game, items that would grow in power were always incredibly strong and rare. I noticed that there weren’t any damage numbers or stats, either that wasn’t inherent to the weapon like an RPG item or the eye needed to evolve more before I got that information.
Maybe thinking of this like a game too much might not be a good thing. I can't expect everything to be just like an RPG.
I shook off the thought before inspecting the other items of note in my inventory.
Cloak of Greater Protection.
This finely woven cloak of Azraiden silk and mana infused steel thread will give its wearer protection from not only harsh environments but also weapons of mundane and magical means.
+10 physical defence
+10 magical defence
+10 projectile defence
+5 to all stats
Abilities.
Protection from the element: protects the wearer's body from harsh temperatures and environmental effects.
I stared at the window for a moment feeling a little stupid. Well, I did say ‘maybe’ and ‘I can't expect everything.’ I put on the cloak, not having any reference yet for the actual numbers. It still seems good for just a cloak, even just for the protection from the weather.
Potion of Greater Vitality.
Consuming this liquid will restore health.
It didn't say how much it would heal me but looking at my health bar I was back at 98%. The only other thing in my inventory was the coins, which was just called coin, which I thought was weird to just call your currency 'coin' but whatever.
Next, I started pulling up all the other windows I had received.
New ability granted.
Aura Control: Not everyone can see or use an aura, but everyone has one. Gives you the ability to manipulate your aura.
I didn't know what that meant exactly but as I closed it, my God Eye updated giving me aura vision and I was able to see a very light and transparent energy surrounding me. I tried for a moment to move it but had no real success and just decided to leave it for now, going back to my normal vision.
New ability granted.
Fast Learner: Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you can do it well. Increase your learning speed by 150%.
That one seemed somewhat self-explanatory so I quickly moved to the next one.
New ability granted.
Stat Thief: Stats are very important, and the dead aren't using them anymore, right? Gain a chance on kill to steal 1 point of a random stat.
My eyes widened as I finished reading the prompt. This seemed very good depending on how high the chance was to take stats. But with how good that seemed, the next one seemed even better.
New ability granted.
Their Death Fuels Us: Whoever said that no one heals by hurting others clearly never experienced life in the system. Upon killing a creature take 10% of their max health and store it to be used at any point to instantly heal you.
With 3 kills under my belt, I had 30% of whatever the rats' health was to heal myself. But I had yet to find out how much that actually was. I then realized that if I was able to read that earlier I probably wouldn't have had to use one of my potions. I wasn’t sure how valuable it was but the prefix ‘Greater’ made me think it was rare.
No point in dwelling on something I couldn’t change now.
New ability granted.
Break the Chains: ???
???
I had no idea why there was no information on this ability but there was nothing I could really do about it so I closed it and moved on. I pushed open the emergency door to the outside as I went through a few Level-up notifications and opened my character screen.