The Zone.
Contrary to the original meaning of its name, it wasn't a place, but more of a state of mind often observed in sportsmen.
To be in the zone generally meant to perfectly attune to their task, allowing one to execute things without calculation, without much thinking… just by combining their long-honed instincts and the knowledge of the craft deeply ingrained into their flesh.
A basketball player who entered the zone would have a much easier time landing the ball within the hoop. A programmer in the zone could write code he would later struggle to decipher and understand himself, but a code that would often work better than anything he wrote before.
But what if a simple guy with a system went to mine and, just like all those professionals, entered the zone as well?
The best answer to this question revealed itself when, several hours after taking a dip into the underground, Theo finally emerged from his mine.
Those few short hours had changed the man.
From a young, excited, and naive young man that delved deep underground, he turned into a… man?
His looks became rugged. His simple clothes grew torn and tattered, fully covered in the stone dust. His hair and even his beard appeared to have grown longer and thicker, even though mining stone out was never supposed to have any effect on the condition of his hair.
The greatest difference out of them all, however, the difference that most contributed to Theo's new look, were his eyes.
Deadpan eyes lacking any sort of emotion, more fitting on the face of a sleepwalker rather than a man aware of his surroundings.
Yet, mere seconds after Theo climbed up the last of the carved-out steps and finally reached the ground level of his base…
'Ugh… Wait, what?'
Looking around in confusion, Theo tensed up — all bewildered. It took him a second to realize that he was holding his pickaxe in his hand while resting the majority of its weight down on his shoulder. A few seconds more and he noticed the rugged state of his clothes and how the mining dust now ground against his skin with every tiniest move he made.
The final discovery, however, didn't come until Theo decided to take a look at his inventory.
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
Despite Theo's best attempts not to soil his mouth with curses over some minor stuff… Both the state of his inventory and what it implied just couldn't be classified as minor.
Because when it came to Theo's equipment, one of its slots was occupied by a shovel… while all nine of them were filled to the literal brim with full stacks of mined-out stone!
'There's like what, nearly six hundred blocks there?' Theo thought, gulping his saliva down as the state of his inventory finally provided a suitable explanation for the state he returned from the mines in.
Yet, if the discovery Theo made by opening up his inventory was the first hint of what was to come, then what came after couldn't be called anything else but a flood.
[Achievement: "Yearning for the Mines(1)" unlocked!]
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
[Lore: Mine out a hundred and fifty blocks of the same resource]
[Achievement: "Yearning for the Mines(2)" unlocked!]
[Lore: Mine out five hundred blocks of the same resource]
[Achievement: "Getting into zone" unlocked!]
[Lore: Enter the "zone" mindset for the first time!]
[Achievement: "Mining Zone" unlocked!]
[Lore: Enter the "zone" mindset while mining for the first time]
[Achievement: "Workout? You mean, going out to work?" unlocked!]
[Lore: Burn out half of your hunger meter while mining]
[Achievement: "Let's Rock!" unlocked!]
[Lore: Fill at least 90% of your inventory with stone by a single mining run]
Theo blinked a few times, not sure whether those prompt windows were real or just an effect of some sort of hunger-caused hallucination.
Yet, as he read through them, he could — at least — confirm one thing.
While he was out mining… his hunger meter did indeed drop below the first mark!
It wasn't even the achievements or their potential benefits that caught most of Theo's interest. Instead, it was the one notification that was hidden behind all of those achievement prompts, forcing Theo to close them all down before he noticed its presence.
[Do you wish to receive the achievement-related rewards?]
Theo glanced over at his equipment before heaving a long sigh and moving over to his chest, readily depositing all three stacks of stone that he could still fit into the storage before dismissing the inventory view and turning his attention back to the prompt.
'Yes.'
[Achievement: "Yearning for the Mines(1)" unlocked!]
[Reward: +2 inventory slots, +1 blocky subroutine level]
[Achievement: "Yearning for the Mines(2)" unlocked!]
[Reward: +3 inventory slots, +1 blocky subroutine level]
[Achievement: "Getting into zone" unlocked!]
[Reward: +3 character level]
[Achievement: "Mining Zone" unlocked!]
[Reward: +3 blocky subroutine level, allows for manual activation of the "zone" state]
[Zoned-out state — focus on completing a singular task until reaching predetermined limits. While active, host's perception ability is muted out while his efficiency at the designated task doubles.]
[Achievement: "Workout? You mean, going out to work?" unlocked!]
[Reward: Halves the calorie cost of heavy labor]
[Achievement: "Let's Rock!" unlocked!]
[Reward: Small chance to obtain randomized ore while mining out stone]
"Haaa…" Theo breathed out a long sigh, struggling to hold tight while some strange force suddenly surged from within… Only to then twist and turn the already malformed rules of the world around him. Yet, even when the process came to an end…
Even more prompts suddenly appeared before Theo's eyes!
[Achievement: Main Subroutine level 5!]
[Reward: You've unlocked the first passive ability for the "blocky" subroutine!]
[New passive: Oresmeller — You will now grow aware of any and all ores within ten-meter radius]
[Blocky level 7: 7% on every progress tick, -40% progress tick delay]
"That's…"
At this point, Theo wasn't really sure how he was supposed to react.
A simple mining run that he designed as the preparatory part for the project he had in mind already came in a clutch, providing him with a whole plethora of different bonuses.
The rewards ranged from extreme convenience — just like the inventory expansion slots, allowing him to haul more stuff and — at least for now — forget about juggling his spoils between his personal inventory and his chest, all the way to great optimization of his workflow when it came to mining itself.
"Still, for how awesome all those perks are… Why didn't I get even a single combat perk?" Theo despaired a bit, fully aware that if his plan to hunt the oilrat were to go south, he would be left with a dangerously low level of hunger and thirst meters.
"Maybe it's because I didn't do anything related to fighting?" Theo pondered out loud, sitting down by the still-warm furnace — its fires long extinguished over the lack of fuel — leaving his body in the sole warm spot of his base to get some well-deserved rest.
"But if so, how the heck am I supposed to get any combat perks if the only mob in the area is a damned boss?"
Theo took in a deep breath… only to end up sighing it out.
"Or maybe it was all planned, to force me to think outside of the box?"
Even though there was no audience for Theo to speak to, he couldn't help but smile at his last remark.
"Well, tough luck, I guess, seeing how making a kill-box for that rat is exactly what I'm planning to do!"