Ding!
[Congratulations, beings of planetary system #73FG7832HI74I! You have been selected as the next participants of the Gods' Game. The trial period will now end. Please proceed to the nearest check-in point to register as a player!]
Ding!
[Congratulations, X! As one of the beta testers of the game, you were granted a special awakening. Your skills and stats from the trial period will now be transferred.]
Zack woke up to the sight of two bright blue holographic window screens floating in the air right in front of his face.
"…The hell?"
Brushing his hair back, he sat up, a yawn escaping his mouth. The day before he had a late night, having a few beers at home to enjoy the last day of his leisurely life as a beta tester of 'Sky's Descent', but he hardly drank enough to experience… that, whatever it was. He rubbed his eyes a few times, trying to get rid of the remaining sleepiness, before taking another look.
But the screens were still there.
…Was he still not fully awake?
He slowly got out of bed and walked over to the window, pushing the blinds aside to take a look. The world outside was still calm and quiet, as always…
But there was something odd about the way people moved. They seemed confused, anxious even, discussing something with concern. It was hard to tell at a glance what it was all about, but it just seemed… unusual.
Not getting many clues, Zack turned his attention back to the windows.
'Gods' Game'.
The name was very generic, but at the same time, felt unfamiliar. At least Zack couldn't recall ever playing a game with such a title.
But the windows looked exactly like those from 'Sky's Descent'. Out of habit, after re-reading the notifications once again, he swiped his hand.
And the windows dissipated.
"…Huh."
Zack paused for a moment, staring blankly at the empty space. Then, without much thought, he muttered,
"Status screen."
Just like that, another familiar window popped up in front of his eyes.
The status window displaying all the stats and skills of 'X'.
Zack tilted his head, ruffling his hair.
Now, what was he supposed to do with that?
The game he had been playing suddenly became a reality.
Somehow, he accepted it pretty quickly. He didn't dwell on any hows or whys. Instead, he just closed the screen again, and threw himself on the chair, turning on his laptop. To decide what to do next, he needed to get a good grasp of the whole situation first.
And what was a better way to do so, other than looking at what people were saying online?
As expected, it was all over the Internet. It wasn't every day that holographic screens appeared in front of everyone, after all. The news reports varied from site to site, but most of them discussed the notifications, as well as the so-called 'check-in points' that popped up everywhere, from the cities to the small towns.
…But that was about it. Zack scrolled all the way down to the comments, checking multiple online threads, but no one seemed to have any more information. Some people talked about going to the check-in points and registering for the 'awakening quest', but after their quest started, they went radio silent, and never posted any further updates.
Perhaps they had yet to complete the quests, and they couldn't use their phones? It had only been about two hours since the holographic screens appeared, and according to the posts, the first awakening quests started an hour later. How long they could possibly take, Zack had no idea, since there hadn't been anything like that in 'Sky's Descent', but it was possible that they were still ongoing.
Or maybe the quests were so difficult that everyone participating had lost their lives.
Either way, it had nothing to do with Zack. What he was more curious about was that no one was talking about 'Sky's Descent'. Probably because the name was different, no one seemed to catch on yet.
But…
"Status screen," Zack summoned the holographic window once again.
Without a doubt, it was his status screen from the game.
Well… Almost.
[Player ID: X
Name: Isaac Reed
Server: Earth
Location: Zone 194]
The first difference was that following his player ID, a few other things were listed. Including 'Zone 194' as his location. Although he had no idea what that meant, he ignored it for now, turning his attention to his stats instead.
[Rank: B (currently E)
Strength: 71 (20)
Vitality: 74 (20)
Agility: 92 (20)
Magic: 79 (20)
Sense: 81 (20)
(!) The character is currently subjected to quest restrictions. ]
His level and exp points were gone, replaced by a rank. HP and mana bars were also gone - it seemed that from now on, it was going to get harder to keep track of his remaining health and mana. But most importantly,
"…Quest restrictions?"
[For the sake of fairness, until the end of the first Main Quest, all the stats and skills are limited to levels 20 and 10, respectively.]
"Huh."
That was a bit disappointing. Then again, it was only a temporary restriction. All of Zack's skills and stats were still the same as in the game, which put him far ahead of everyone else. And, since level 20 was the maximum allowed, it should be more than enough to safely complete the quest.
There was only one last thing he needed to check.
"Inventory."
A familiar window with square slots filled with items popped up in front of his eyes, looking exactly the same as it had been when he had finished the game the day before. Thankfully, its capacity wasn't reduced by the quest restrictions. All of his equipment was also still there. It was just that…
[Frost Serpent King's Fang (replica)
Rank: F
Attack: 5
Defense: 2
Special Effects: Ice Damage lvl. 1]
All of the items had been changed into 'replicas', reduced to the lowest rank. Only some of the consumables, such as health and mana potions, remained the same.
"Tsk."
If he had known this would have happened, Zack would have sold his equipment the day prior. Then again, all of his points had been converted into real money with the end of the beta testing phase, and with the world becoming a game, who knew if money was going to be of any value much longer?
Now that he thought of it… He had a lot of savings. Over the past few months, he had earned a lot of money as a beta tester, money that was now just sitting in his bank account, mostly untouched. It would be foolish to rush to suddenly spend it all when he still didn't know what the future might bring, but…
Using some of it surely wouldn't hurt. He had a lot to spare.
With a wave of his hand, he closed his inventory and status window. He took one last look online, confirming that there were still no updates from the first batch of newbies attempting the awakening quest, before throwing on his shoes, grabbing his keys, and heading out.
If his intuition was correct, the world would soon descend into chaos. Since he had nowhere he had to be, and didn't have to worry about his skills and stats for now, he might as well use his free time to prepare for doomsday.
The first step: stocking up.