Jack found himself in a new place yet again. He was in a small white space of 2x2x2 meters illuminated by an unnatural glow. There were no doors, windows or anything else present. Only smooth white floor, ceiling and walls. Their surfaces were so perfect that he thought he was in an endless space of pure white in the beginning.

The young man lay down in the middle of the room, taking almost his entire floor space. The exact moment he began to ponder why the log out command brought him to this place a screen suddenly popped into his view.

Welcome to your personal safe zone! This is the place you’ll return to every time you decide to log out. Nothing can harm you here and none else can come inside*. Bear in mind that this place is another spatial dimension inside the Game World, therefore it still falls under its rules and regulations.

Now, you might be wondering to yourself: Isn’t this place just too small and barren? Well, worry not! All kinds of upgrades, furniture and special appliances can be acquired through your efforts.

As you follow your chosen path and complete its achievements, you’ll receive different reward options to pick from. Occasionally, other quests and activities can also grant you something to outfit your personal safe zone with.

Now, a word from the almighty before we go:

“Huh, why did I create the Safe Zone thingy? Because I wanted a base building and home décor game inside my game. A game within a game… I’m too meta!”

*special situations may still occur. The GWS (Game World System) takes no responsibility whatsoever for any and all cases that might contradict with the words “safe zone”.

After reading the whole thing, Jack scratched his head. Why did the entire instruction read like an add trying to sell him stuff? It seemed that God and everyone working under him were all eccentrics.

A safe zone, that’s nice. I can always return here whenever I need to rest and take a breather. However, what does that ‘chosen path’ mean? If I remember correctly, there was a Path option in the menu.

“Menu. Path.”

A notification suddenly popped up.

You don’t have any Path set currently. Would you like to choose a Path?

“A Path? What’s that? Oh, there’s a help command here! Help: Path.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A Path could be seen as your conduct or set of personal rules. For instance, there’s the Path of Good and the Path of Evil. In this example, people that follow the Path of Evil will be rewarded when killing and doing other evil like tasks while those that follow the Path of Good will be rewarded for their good deeds.

You can choose your path from the get-go or let the system assign you one based on how you behave. In case you choose the latter, be warned that you won’t be able to complete achievements or receive rewards before your Path is selected by the system. This may take an indeterminate amount of time, depending on how you conduct yourself.

After the path is chosen, the only way to change is by constantly acting against it, but that can bring dire consequences. For instance: a villain who sees the light will always be mistrusted and a good person turned villain will be more hated than the most evil of beings.

It’s kind of like an alignment system… I usually go evil when playing games, but this time I don’t think I could do it. Blowing pixels on a screen to let off steam is one thing, but this is different. That monk felt real… he had genuine emotion in his eyes. I’ll try to keep away from any humanoid enemies unless I have to.

Would you like to set your Path?

“Yes. I’ll follow the Path of Good.”

The screen with the question changed. It stopped for a moment on another screen with numerous names until it highlighted the Path of Good. The confirmation soon followed.

Path of Good selected.

“Wait, how many paths were there? Oh, no! I thought it was a binary system! I didn’t know there were so many options! I could’ve chosen something more suited for me!”

Path of Good main tenets: Help those in need. Don’t abandon your allies. Fight against evil beings.

“Well, at least it doesn’t sound too restricting,” Jack relented. “Whatever, no point whining about it now. Let’s see which skills I got! Menu. Skills.”

– Beginner’s Luck – Active – 5 minutes cooldown –

Greatly increases your chances of success in your next action.

All right! That’s a good skill! The cooldown is not short enough to be abusable, but not long enough to be trash. It seems it’s multipurpose too, so it should work for attacking, defending and crafting. Let’s see the other one.

– Unusual Aura – Passive – Always On –

You’re a blessed human with great amounts of luck and, as such, you have an unusual aura. Some beings will be able to detect your aura, consciously and/or unconsciously, and be attracted by it.

That’s… kind of vague. What does it mean by unusual aura? I don’t feel any different. It says some beings will be attracted by it… Does this make me more appealing to the opposite sex or something? But if it was only that they could just spell it out. This wording is just too broad. Welp, this one seems like a dud.

“I can still pretty much choose any profession. I thought my skills would help me decide which way to go, but Beginner’s Luck can be applied to everything it seems. All in all, it’s alright. It’s not like I’m in a rush or anything either way.”

Time to see what’s out there. If log out brought me here, it’s only logical that log in should send me back. Guess there is only one way to find out.

“Log in.”