Chapter 1
[Exiting from private mode, user will now see all notifications]
[Boot Completed]
Natural gift: W̸̠̿*̸̤̌l̵͚̂@̸̮̉i̷̝͝#̴̓ͅ^̵̒ͅ ̶̖̐T̸͔̀$̷̘͆!̷̺͆ ̴̜̚&̸̼̿@̷̩̓s̷͉̆t̶̘͊a̶̛͎&̶̺͝@̴̰͆*̵̺͛
[Natural gift corruption level at 100%]
Recommendation: avoid using this gift if at all possible.
[Decorruption Possible]
Recommendation: Seek an elder that knows of the older system, level up, or complete various quests in order to remove corruption.
[Feature removal]
Cause: corruption level too high. Natural gift has been reduced to basic functionality in order to combat system corruption.
[Ability to view stats: Locked]
[Ability to use inventory: Locked]
[Ability to ^̵͈̆@̵̹͂%̵̲̕$̴̱͌ ̸̛͍*̵̣̓!̴͚̽%̶͍̓#̷͙̂@̸̗̕&̴̘̍: Locked]
[Ability to *̷͕̎(̶̫̕#̷͚͑^̷̻͝%̶̨͒*̷͋ͅ@̴͆͜&̷̠͒)̸̼̍(̶̗̽&̴͎͋@̵̲͂%̸̙͂#̶̥͠_̷̩̕@̵̬͠ : Unlocked]
[Congratulations!]
Welcome to the new world you will be living in from now on.
I swipe away the blue screens from my vision as I stand up. The scenery around me finally coming in to focus.
I was standing atop a hill in the middle of a field. The blue sky above me, yellowish green grass swaying in the wind with not a tree in sight. The hills seemed endless in the direction I was looking.
I turn to my left and proceed to be blinded by a sun that had risen up in the sky not too long before. To my right is more rolling hills and yellowish green grass. Behind me is a trail, long and winding, ending some place off in the distance.
“I better take the trail, wandering off will do me no good, at least I might get somewhere if I have a trail.” I speak to myself, starting my journey with a single ste-
Level up!
A window appears, completely disturbing my train of thought.
Level up already? Did I crush a high level bug under my foot? I move my other foot so I can balance and check the bottom of my shoe.
Level up!
Another window appears when my foot touches the ground.
What? Why did I level up again? Thinking this, I take another step forward.
Level up!
Either there are way too many bugs here, or something is seriously wrong with this levelling system, a system that people can level up by walking forwards, simply impractical and everyone would be max level almost instantly.
I take another step forwards.
Level up!
Then backwards.
Level up!
This is broken. Completely broken! I want a refund!
Don’t throw me in to this world with a broken system! I was a good man in my previous life, paid my taxes, rarely late for work. Nice family, half decent friends, no complaints in life! Why do you do this to me!
I yell in my head, knowing clearly that there is no one that would respond to my cries of injustice.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“Hide all notifications.”
[Notifications hidden]
{Please note that important events will still pop up in notifications.}
Would you like to state the reason you are hiding the notifications, so we can better service you in the future?
[Choose: Y/N]
“No” I say this with an odd smile on my face. A survey inside of a system, what a weird place I’ve fallen to.
I start walking along the trail. Much to my dismay, I realize all to late that I am not, in fact, dreaming. Everything feels all too real for this to be a dream. I swallow the saliva in my mouth as my pulse quickens. I look around, all I see is grassy plains…
I have no food, no water. Just the clothes on my back. I look incredibly suspicious and anyone that even sees me from a mile away would turn around without any hesitation.
What about my looks, I was average height in my world, what if that isn’t the average height here? Will I be a giant compared to them or will I be smaller than them? My dark brown hair, blue eyes? White skin? Is that common here, or will I be outcast like those of different races once were in my own world?
My clothes… I was wearing a plain black shirt and blue jeans. I was wearing regular running shoes that happened to look like the brand name, but were actually some chinese rip-off called ‘Sike’. The name struck some sense of irony in me when I found them online, it was more of an impulse buy than the fact that I actually needed shoes. Not the time to get distracted!
I look around and notice someone cautiously walking up to me. They were close! Too close!
I let out the girliest scream a man has ever made in all of history as I jump back in an attempt to flee from the man that had been sneaking up on me.
A look of pity floats on to his face as he nears me. He offers out a hand and I curl up in a ball and protect the vitals.
“You were lost in thought, so I was going to remind you that this is no place to be absent of mind.” The man speaks calmly. “Your… slight, overreaction brings amusement to me. Where have you travelled from?”
“I don’t know…” I relax slightly and uncurl from my safety ball. “I was living a normal life and suddenly I was here.”
“Interesting…” The man narrows his eyes, “Not quite dodging the question, yet not truthfully answering the question. I shall rephrase my question. What world did you come from, surely you are not of ours by origin?”
I look towards the man, his height was similar to mine. His hair was a deep green, eyes were blue like mine though. Green hair, how fantasy can we get here though? His clothes were similar to mine, but they looked much older and more shabbily made, most likely done by hand rather than being made by machine like mine.
He knew I am from another world… did he summon me here to be a hero…? Wait, if he did, why did I walk for a while before seeing him then?
“Has a cat got your tongue? Why do you decide now is the time not to speak?” The man sighs, “It doesn’t really matter which world you came from, as you are here now.”
“Earth. The planet I was from was named Earth.” I slowly stand up and hold out my hand to him, “My name is Kyle.”
“Derrick.” Derrick firmly holds my hand as he shakes it. “May I be the first to welcome you to Regnum Umbra. That is the name of the planet you now live on. Would you perhaps like a walkthrough on how to use the system, or have you already figured it out?”
“I figured out how to mute the notifications for level ups…” I lower my head and look at the ground. “Quick question before the tutorial, is this a high level area with a lot of bugs?”
“Not at all, this is a mid level area that has very few monsters as all that exists here is grass.” Derrick replies confidently.
“I see.” I look back up and notice that Derrick’s eyes had narrowed while he looked at me. I smile, “So how do I use the system here?”
“Just say, ‘Status’, and it should appear like the pop up window that welcomed you to this world.”
“Status.” I say with a quiet voice, it felt embarrassing after all.
[System Error!]
Reason: Permission to view stats locked due to excessive corruption of natural gift. Please reduce the corruption before attempting to view status again.
“What do you think of the system?” Derrick asks with a smug smile on his face, “Impressive to say the least, in my mind it is.”
“It says system error.” I tell him the truth, as this confused me as well.
“System error?” A brief expression of shock makes it way across his face, quickly replaced by confusion. “Does it say any reason why it would give an error on something so basic as giving you access to your own status page?”
“It says that my Natural Gift is too corrupted and features are locked away from me until I am able to reduce the corruption.”
“Corrupted? How can a natural gift be corrupted… the system would have replaced it… Hey, what color are the windows you are seeing?” Derrick asks me as he bring his hand up to his chin while thinking.
“Blue, kind of a dark blue.”
“Ah!” He slams his fist on to his hand. “You have an old version of the system too! Your natural gift was most likely incompatible with the new system, so an administrator took over and reverted to an old system version and forcefully injected you natural gift in it, causing corruption!”
“A what now? Administrator? The system has things like that?”
“Yeah, they are a god of sorts and they enjoy the turmoils of running a system on their own. Or so the legends say it.” He walks up to me and grabs my shoulders, “Do you have any idea what your gift is? It would have to be something truly broken for it to be incompatible with the current system… but that would mean that you have access to all the bug that were patched out with the new system… maybe the administrator patched them out though before giving you an old version of the system. Either way, we will have to test.”
“Uh…” I back away slightly.
“Your gift is probably something along the lines of summoning a holy sword that can slice through all! No, it must be something mightier! You must be able to use any and all type of magic just by thinking of it! Too weak! You must be able to kill other with just a thought… but then my life is also in danger! ‘Tis the life of a tutorial NPC, always to be slain in the name of testing new skills!” He leans back with his hand on his forehead, “No matter!” He springs back forwards, once again grabbing my shoulders, “I shall accept my death!”
“I level up by one level for each step I take.” I tell him so he shuts up.
“Huh?” An empty look appears on his face. “What did you say?”
“I level up by one level for each step I take… Maybe I should word it better, sounds kind of awkward. Every time I take a step, I level up once.” I nod my head, “Yeah, that sounds much better.”
Derrick quickly looks around, a nervous look on his face, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I said the only thing I have figured out is how to mute the notifications. That’s because I couldn’t stand the fact that every time I took a step I gained a level.” I step back from Derrick. “Is that something big… it probably is.”
“Big…” Derrick shakes his head and smiles, “That isn’t just big…” He clears his throat. “Big would be having a cheat amount of strength. Huge would be having the ability to summon a powerful object of some kind. Massive would be the ability to kill with just a though. Astronomical would be using any magic skill that comes to mind. What you have is beyond the scale of reasonable thought. It takes people months to get to level ten when they start out and you have probably passed them by miles.”
“So… Gamebreaking?”
“Gamebreaking is the least it possibly could be.” Derrick sighs and shakes his head. “I apologize for getting too excited. The thing about natural gifts, they evolve and grow stronger as you level up. The nerf of not being able to see your own status is not anywhere near enough to set you on equal terms with the rest of the population.”
“Evolve? What could this evolve to? I level up with each step I take, how can it evolve?” I feel I ask a reasonable question.
“The system finds a way. Do you at least know the name of your gift?” He asks and I shake my head. He nods, “It must be corrupted with the rest of the natural gift. So, here you are, another world, an overpowered ability, a tutorial NPC, and no goal, what will you do?”
“I…” My voice falters, but I nod my head, coming to a decision. “I will walk ever forward.”