A girl with long black hair that was so long it formed a chair which she sat in with her knees in her arms, and dead green eyes the shade of emeralds sat in a filthy room playing video games, the controller almost hanging from her drooping hands.
There were chips, sodas, bottles, and wrappers all throughout the room. Clothes were thrown everywhere, and it seemed as if she had never left the room before.
A stack of overdue bills sat on the coffee table in the center of the room.
The girls hair was so messy that it looked like a birds nest which she rested inside, and the long gown she wore was stained with food and drinks. She wore a dull look on her face as she blankly stared at the video game screen, while mashing the buttons with her cheeto dust covered fingers.
Bags and dark lines were formed underneath her eyes to the point where one might question if she had been sleep deprived for days on end- and the answer would be yes.
"Bored...."
"Ugh!!! SO BOREDDDD"
The girl slurred her words.
She paused her game and got up to take a sip of soda, which her hair was curled around.
"I've been playing games in here for the past few days.... perhaps its time I do something different..."
"But... I don't want to go out where people are. People only ever cause me issues. They look at me funny, they judge me, they laugh at me, they call me a bum, they look at me with their condescending eyes."
"No, there's no point in going outside. This world is full of trash, and I have no place among that trash."
A sneer drew itself across the girls face.
"That's right, I have no place among that trash! I should just stay in here for the rest of my life and enjoy myself. I'm different from all those idiots who spend their lives working hard among the rabble of society. Always trying to make themselves look good in front of other people, working so hard to avoid any scandalous behavior..."
"Everyone is stupid to work so hard"
The girls bright green eyes seemed to glare down sadly as a light pouting frown came to her face.
"Still... It's pretty boring in here..."
"And very lonely..."
A single tear fell from the girls eye, drawing a line across her face. Curled up into a ball, she started silently weeping.
"I wish I didn't have to live in this world... I wish I could just get summoned to an isekai like an anime protagonist or something..."
All of a sudden, a flash of light appeared in the girls room. She held out her hands to block the light from entering her eyes, and before she knew it, the light- and her body- was gone. Only darkness remained.
[You have been invited by Party Leader Garett to join the party]
[Please answer the following questions]
----
Samantha was the type of girl who would get the stares of all the people she passed by.
Her goal- to be viewed by other people as no less than an idol- a rolemodel woman with no flaws.
She spent hours grooming herself and making herself look as beautiful as she could, in order that when she passed by people they would say "Whoa", when she passed.
She also spent hours simulating different scenarios in her head, acting and practicing for every possible situation.
She wanted to be able to woo the people around her no matter what happened.
If someone was in need of assistance, she would kindly offer a hand. If someone was in need of emotional comforting, she would give her metaphorical shoulder for them to lean on.
Her long blonde hair fluttered as she walked flawlessly down the street. Her bright blue eyes radiated beauty as she took each step with careful confidence.
An older woman held out a cane, waiting at a crosswalk, with some groceries.
Samantha rushed over to grab the groceries from the woman.
"Please allow me to help you with these!", she exclaimed energetically.
"Ah! Thank you so much, young miss!", the woman responded.
She helped the woman carry her groceries all the way back to her apartment before waving goodbye, giving the woman a bright smile.
Anyone who she had passed thought something along the lines of "Look at that beautiful woman, and how kind she is to help a poor old lady!"
She then turned to continue walking back to her apartment, but on the way saw a group of young boys teasing a younger kid.
Many passerby's walked by, cringing, but didn't say anything. Samantha was not like them, however. She was a rolemodel that people looked up to. She couldn't afford to ignore such blatant bullying.
One of the boys held up a jeweled pendant, tauntingly. It had what looked like an emerald in the middle, and was laced with a golden chain.
"Whats a boy like you doing wearing a necklace like this, eh!? I think we had bettered pawn this off. You should thank us really, you would only get teased more if you went around wearing something like this.", one of the boys stated.
The younger boy cried, curled up in a ball.
"That was a gift left over from my mother... please give it back..."
The confident boy simply laughed and shook the pendant above the weaker boy's head before kicking him.
Samantha walked up to the boy who was teasing the child.
"You shouldn't harm other people... could you please give that child his pendant back?", she said in a cutesy, almost seductive voice before letting out a wink.
The boy who was teasing the child blushed red, and was at a loss for words. He gave the pendant back immediately and encouraged his friends with the wave of his hand to follow him.
"L-Lets go everyone. I... just remembered something I have to do."
All the boys ran off quickly, and the crowd of people surrounding all clapped as Samantha lent her hand to the younger child and helped him up.
"Thank you miss!", the child said, while wiping the snot off his nose.
"No problem!", Samantha exclaimed while grabbing his hand, and brushing the dust off him.
She gave him a warm smile, and told him "Don't let those kids bully you any more. You have to be strong and stand up to them."
The kid let out a "mhm!", before running off, wiping his tears.
And Samantha continued on her way before getting back to her apartment.
After closing the door, her eyes became red, and she began scratching the makeup off her face violently.
"AGH!!! Fuck! Stupid old lady needing help with your groceries! How dare you put me in such a position where if I don't help you ill look like a villain!? EH!!!!???? AND WHAT WAS WITH THAT KID!? So weak that he couldn't even take back a stupid pendant?!? And why were the other kids being so rowdy, like could they just shut the hell up!?!?!. I'm sick and tired of having to bust my ass just to help these people out!!! AND WHY THE HELL WAS EVERYONE ELSE JUST STANDING AROUND?!?!?!! Am I the only damn person who knows how to help someone!?!??!! Do you expect me to do everything!?!?!? I got snot on my damn hand because nobody else tried to help that little shit!!!"
She slammed over to the kitchen, and prepared to get out a drink of beer.
'I need to just forget all those people today...'
She breathed in a sigh, before pouring herself a cold glass.
'Being a perfect rolemodel is so tough... but someone has to do it... if it were anyone but me, they would fail without even beginning, however I am different. I will do everything I can in order to get as many people to love me as possible! I will become so popular that I will be untouchable by the likes of the filthy people who roam the streets. I will become the image of kindness and mature beauty!'
However, after taking a swig of the drink, she let out another sigh.
"Sigh... I wish I could just leave this world for somewhere better..."
All of a sudden, a similar flash occurred within the apartment.
"Eh!? Whats going on!?", Samantha screamed, as the flash of white light engulfed the room.
And...
Darkness.
Samantha found herself in a bodiless state, and the only thing she could see were just a few words on a screen.
[You have been invited by Party Leader Garett to join the party]
[Please answer the following questions]
----
Ashley found herself surrounded by a pitch black darkness. She couldn't feel her body, and saw a screen in front of her.
Just a moment before she had been in her room, playing video games.
All of a sudden, she found herself in an unknown scenario.
[Character creation]
[Please answer the following questions]
Ashley began to laugh and grin in her mind.
'Is this... could it be?'
'Have I become the protagonist of a novel?'
'Am I going to receive some sort of overpowered abilities and be able to take over the world? Ah wait, isn't that what the villain is supposed to do? The protagonist is supposed to save everyone and stop something like that happening, right? Ugh.... that's boring. Well.... even so....'
She began to giggle to herself, as the question appeared on the screen.
'If I really have been reborn into a new world.... then maybe.... maybe even I can become someone important....'
Question 1. You are sitting in your home when you see a cockroach scurrying about. What do you do?
A. Do nothing. A cockroach doesn't scare you.
B. Smash it with a shoe
C. Capture and torture it by burning it to death
D. Pull off the secret Joestar family technique and run away.
After reading these options, Ashley began to wonder what she would do.
She was especially curious about the 3rd option.
"Burn it to death? That sounds like it could be interesting..."
And with that, the option was selected.
[You have been assigned the class: Mage]
[You have been assigned the subclass: Combat Mage]
[New spell: Fireball] (Lvl 1)- Costs 2 AP, 3 MP. Damage based on intelligence and skill level.
Ashley grinned after seeing all these messages on the screen.
'It really is true... I've been summoned to a new world! I can't contain my excitement to see whats going to happen from here on out!'
The next question appeared on the screen.
Question 2. You're in the supermarket and someone taller than you ends up taking the last of your favorite food on the shelf that you were trying to reach. What is your reaction?
A. Ask the person if you could have it.
B. Walk away quietly and give up on it
C. Argue with the person
D. Give the person the evil eye and walk away.
Ashley envisioned this scenario playing out.
As it played in her mind, emotions of hatred and anger filled her, but she couldn't do so much as let out a peep.
She was excessively antisocial, and even though she contained an array of emotion within herself, she was unable to say anything as she quietly slipped off.
'What an asshole... how could that person be so insensitive... they clearly noticed that I was trying to reach that item... they don't deserve to live if they could treat someone like that...'
With that, option D was automatically selected.
[You have been assigned the following skill: Evil Eye-(Lvl 1)- Costs 4 AP, 1 MP, summons a weak creature that can paralyze a single opponent for a turn. This creature can use this ability once per summon, however only has 1 HP and no defensive value. Any attacks will kill it. Ability cannot be used until turn after summoned.]
"What is this garbage skill?", Ashley thought.
It was true that paralyzing an opponent for a turn could be overwhelmingly powerful- when combined with other skills or party members- If the combo was allowed to go off.
However this skill was designed in such a way that if the enemy got a single attack on the summoned creature, it would die, meaning it would be very difficult to actually get this chain to occur. Not to mention, the chain would only work if there was 1 opponent.
It could be extremely useful against a boss in order to paralyze it and do a lot of damage for a turn, however that was assuming they had a way to distract said boss for a turn so that it didn't attack the summoned creature.
This also depended on how intelligent the AI of the enemies would be.
Would they realize the potential of the summoned creature and strike it down immediately, or would they not realize and end up paralyzed as a result?
Only time would tell, but Ashley almost felt herself drooling just thinking about defeating enemies in a game like world.
'Hehehe... this is going to be fun...'
[Alignment assigned: Chaotic Evil]
The screen then switched over to the next section.
[Skill points available: 10]
[Statistics]
[Strength: 0]
[Dexterity: 0]
[Perception: 0]
[Charisma:0]
[Intelligence:0]
Ashley knew exactly what to do here.
"My character is a mage, and so I should focus the points on intelligence..."
After some thought, she came up with this allotment.
[Statistics]
[Strength: 1]
[Dexterity: 1]
[Perception: 2]
[Charisma:1]
[Intelligence:5]
"Hehehe... If I encounter an enemy, the fireball will do much more damage based on the more intelligence I have"
And with that, the system gave a final message.
[Character creation completed]
[Waiting on 1 player]
Name: Ashley
Class: Mage
Subclass: Combat Mage
Stats:
[Statistics:]
[Strength: 1]
[Dexterity: 1]
[Perception: 2]
[Charisma: 1]
[Intelligence: 5]
Skills:
Passive:
None
Active:
[Fireball]-(Lvl 1) Costs 2 AP 3 MP, Shoot a ball of fire at the enemy. Chance to cause burning damage over time. Damage based on intelligence and skill level.]
[ Evil Eye-(Lvl 1)- Costs 4 AP, 1 MP, summons a weak creature that can paralyze a single opponent for a turn. This creature can use this ability once, however only has 1 HP and no defensive value. Any attacks will kill it. Ability cannot be used until turn after summoned.]
Possible Actions:
[Attack]-[ Staff bash] Costs 2 AP Requires staff.
[Run]- Uses all remaining Action points for the turn. Requires at least 3 remaining action points.
[Item]- Use an item. Costs 1 AP
[Equipment:]- None
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
----
"What is this?"
"What is this!?"
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!?"
Samantha broke down mentally.
She couldn't feel her own body. It was as if she had become a spirit and was merely viewing the world. However, in front of her was a questionnaire.
"Just a few seconds ago I was at my apartment... Ah! I see.. this must be a dream. Yes, there's no doubt. This has to be a dream. There's no way that this could be reality."
Samantha deluded herself.
However, somewhere deep inside herself, subconsciously, she knew that it wasn't a dream.
In a dream, often one is not extremely aware of what is going on around them. It usually doesn't even occur to the person in the dream that they are dreaming. However, there were still lucid dreams. This could very well have been one of those- but everything felt so...
Real.
Samantha once more tried to feel around, to no avail. She was able to think, but had no mouth to speak and no hands to feel.
She looked towards the screen which said [Please answer the following questions]
"What kind of prank is this... somebody say sike right now. Who is doing this!?"
Alas, no words came out. It was as if she was in the vast depths of space where sound could not propagate.
[You see Johnny on the side of the road struggling to carry 54 bottles of dish soap]
[Johnny drops 20 bottles of dish soap, and Ricardo swoops by to steal 15 of the bottles that he dropped]
[In the chaos, the neighbors come outside and begin to yell at Johnny for buying so much dish soap]
[They each slap him, before each forcibly taking 1 bottle of free dish soap each]
[If there are 23 neighbors who each stole 1 bottle of dish soap, how many liters of water will the tears that Johnny cries fill up?]
As Samantha read this, a flurry of questions arose in her head, but the predominating emotion she felt was annoyance.
"Who the hell is Johnny!?"
"Why the hell does he have so much dish soap!?"
"Why is he carrying it all in his hands!?"
"Why are the neighbors extorting him out of dish soap!?"
But most importantly...
"Why the hell is he a weak little bitch who's gonna cry over some dish soap? Fight back or something! Show them who's dish soap that is! Don't force me to go and help you out! What a good for nothing loser."
[Response is longer than expected. Processing results]
[You're willingness to help others has been identified as negative]
[However, your willingness to look good in front of others exceeds the magnitude of your hatred towards helping others]
[Class assigned: Mage]
[Subclass assigned: Healer]
[Alignment assigned: Neutral Evil]
[You have been granted the skill: Heal (Lvl 1). Costs 2 AP, 5 MP. Heals 4 HP to any member of your party.]
[You have been granted the skill: Seduce (Lvl 1). Convince others of a lower charisma level to do your bidding. Costs 5 AP, 2 MP.]
[Note: The correct answer to the question posed was 380 L. This is because it would require this amount of water to clean the number of dishes that Johnny would have been able to clean, had he not had so much dish soap stolen from him]
[The reason for this is that 38 bottles were stolen. If we assume that 1 bottle can wash 100 dishes, and each dish requires 0.1 L of water to wash, we come at the conclusion of 380 L of tears produced by Johnny]
[Due to your incorrect answer, you are not allowed to put any more than 2 points into intelligence. This question should have been quite trivial, but it seems you lack critical thinking skills]
Samantha was furious as she read this message.
"What the hell!? Am I being insulted by a computer screen!? What kind of answer is that anyways!!?? That has absolutely nothing to do with anything here!!! WHERE AM I ANYWAYS!?!?! AGHHHH!!!"
Samantha released her pent up frustration, however no sound was emitted.
She had no idea what those skills or numbers meant. She was a popular girl, who had no interest in the likes of games or fantasy. She only had ever focused on improving her status in reality- among society. One which was not measured in numbers or statistics.
As a result, she somewhat ignored the skills that were given to her, until the next screen popped up.
[Please allocate your skill points]
[Skill points available: 10]
[Statistics]
[Strength: 0]
[Dexterity: 0]
[Perception: 0]
[Charisma:0]
[Intelligence:0]
Please allocate the following skill points.
Samantha had somewhat calmed down a bit, after releasing her stress. However, she looked blankly at the statistics.
She had never seen anything like this before, and she once again questioned.
"Ugh... what is this? What am I even doing? Where am I? How will I get out of here?"
With a sigh, she accepted that in order to get out she should at least follow the orders that were presented on the screen in front of her.
"Whatever this computer is, it seems to be in control of my situation. Could it be that I am inside some sort of computer simulation right now? That doesn't make sense. I was just in my apartment... how would I have gotten here?"
Either way, she took a look at the statistics and immediately thought something.
"It would be unbecoming of a beautiful girl such as myself to be extremely strong. If possible, I would like to be as charismatic and as intelligent as possible. I could also put on the airheaded personality... but to do that I would need to be relatively perceptive of the preferences of the people around me..."
And with that, the skills were automatically filled in.
[Statistics]
[Strength: 0]
[Dexterity: 0]
[Perception: 3]
[Charisma:5]
[Intelligence:2]
[You have finished character creation]
Name: Samantha
Class: Mage
Subclass: Healer
Stats:
[Statistics:]
[Strength: 0]
[Dexterity: 0]
[Perception: 3]
[Charisma: 5]
[Intelligence: 2]
Skills:
Passive:
[Stupidity: During character creation, you may not allot any more than 2 points to intelligence]
Active:
[Heal (Lvl 1). Costs 2 AP, 5 MP. Heals 4 HP to any member of your party.]
[Seduce (Lvl 1). Convince others of a lower charisma level to do your bidding. Costs 6 AP, 2 MP.]
Possible Actions:
[Attack]-[ Staff bash] Costs 2 AP Requires staff.
[Run]- Uses all remaining Action points for the turn. Requires at least 3 remaining action points.
[Item]- Use an item. Costs 1 AP
[Equipment:]- None
Alignment: Neutral Evil
[All players of the party have finished character creation]
[The world has been generated. Loading players in]
[Quest: Find the other 3 members of the party]
----