He woke up and nudged his eyes open; they felt sealed and resisted his attempts to wake. He was lying on a cold floor and slowly lifted his upper body as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. The room was enormous, roughly the size of a large football field, with pale faintly glowing white tiles covering all surfaces, leaving no visible entrances or exits. The tiles also lacked any distinctive features, causing a deep claustrophobic panic to rise inside him. He searched his mind but found no memories of his past; his mind was an empty white void except the name "Alister". He dipped his hands into the pockets of his blue trousers but found nothing. His brown tunic pockets also disappointingly contained nothing.
He decided to take the only name that he remembers as his own: Alister. He looked around and counted at least 200 others lying on the floor. Some woke up and were as disoriented as himself, while others remained unconscious.
Alister noticed the majority wore casual street clothing with a few decorated in professional or military uniforms. Alister's tunic and trousers provided no clues but perhaps other pockets contained helpful information. He debated pickpocketing the unconscious for information but decided against the idea.
The immediate area around him provided no information on how he arrived either. He assumed he was dragged but the stainless tiles lacked any footprints. The people around him instinctively checked their pockets but came up with nothing. Everyone appeared to only have the cloth on their back, causing panic to start setting into the crowd. Soon the large atrium was filled with the frantic chatter of dozens of people. From what Alister overheard, almost everyone could only remember their name.
Nobody had a watch but Alister estimates a few hours passed before panic morphed into distrust. Social groups of similar people naturally formed because prejudice amplified distrust for those that are different. Alister observed the situation deteriorate; he wanted to stop the increasingly aggressive behavior, but he instead cowardly hid with young adults his age. His morals told him to stand up and calm the raging crowd but his instincts shouted at him to keep quiet and hide.
Groups of soldiers joined together and moved towards defensive corner positions around the white room. Alister joined a group of a dozen or so young adult males around his age. The group quickly rallied and copied the same defensive strategy and rushed towards the edge of the walls while shouting at others and pushing away the weak. Alister disagreed with the methods but feared for his safety and decided to stick with the group.
Soon everyone grouped near the walls of the atrium. Alister was anxious and the aggressive behavior of others incited panic. Hot burning adrenaline flowed through his veins as he tried his best to suppress his fight or flight response. Time passed, but the group of young adults continued shouting at nearby peaceful groups, forcing Alister to distance himself. He slapped himself to calm his nerves before slowly pushing himself towards the front of the group and walking away.
Alister heard another boy shout, "Your loss", as he forced his legs to move forward. The group of young adults was too aggressive and Alister did not want to be associated with them. Secretly, he was scared their overtly violent attitude would influence him.
He reached the center of the atrium and concentrated. His anxiety was soon replaced with curiosity when he noticed the odd variation in clothing. A group of masculine men and women huddled near the edge of a wall wore tribal pelt coats and ponchos. Alister was unfamiliar with the attire, causing the group to give him a curious pause. The group behaved aggressively and violently shouted in a primitive language. The aggressive shouting kept most people away but incited more panic into the crowds.
Alister also observed a little girl near the center of the room. She was crying for her mother after a teenage boy had shoved her aside. Alister wanted to shout at the rude teenager but instead calmed his nerves and rushed over to help the little girl. He did not really know how to comfort children but he gently grabbed her arm and directed her towards an empty spot in the middle of the room, away from a nearby panicking group. He did not seem to have any experience with children and was a terrible liar because the girl did not believe any of the reassuring things he muttered while walking. He silently prayed everything will work out as he started at a few violent groups rioting near the walls.
Amid countless panic shouting, a strong resounding voice suddenly boomed from a corner, "Everyone shut up".
The voice belonged to an older man with grayed and bolding hair that betrayed his elderly age. He was tall, around 6'1'', and wore a decorated military jacket. His strong voice and apparent military status were dominating enough to stop the room.
The old man opened his mouth to speak but the sudden appearance of a large holographic face stopped him. The hologram projected the face of a 20-something young woman in the center of the room. The enormous projection, several meters wide by Alister's estimation, immediately grabbed everyone's attention. The tiles of the room started dimming to further emphasize the glowing blue hologram.
Alister and the young girl were close to the center, and he moved a few meters towards the wall to view the projected woman. Nobody stopped Alister as everyone concentrated on the woman. A few dangerous young males glared at the woman with a hint of lust but dared not move in fear of their life.
The holographic woman started to speak after everyone cleared the center. The woman cleared her throat before starting her presentation with a hint of boredom, "Everyone here has been summoned by me, the Goddess of light, Theia. I have summoned everyone here to help the citizens of the worlds against the force of injustice and evil", Theia stated, "You have been summoned here and will quickly be enhanced by ...", before Theia could finish, screams of agony erupted across the room.
A few people, including the child Alister was protecting, grabbed tightly to their chest and fell over on the floor.
Alister quickly grabbed the child and hugged her as she started to scream. At first, the scream conveyed deep pain with tears slowly soaking his tunic. Around the room, the screams quickly transformed into a more animalistic and de-evolved primitive roar. Alister could see several transformed people coughing blood and vomiting on the floors. He felt the girl in his arms cough into his shirt but his heart skipped a beat when he noticed her blood was black. He soon felt a drastic shift in the girl's body temperature as it plummeted. Her muscles and bones shifted painfully before her strength increased nearly tenfold as she effortlessly pushed Alister's arms away.
Alister started at the girl. She had grown several inches taller in seconds and her irises glowed a frightful dim red. The black blood on her mouth had dried and two abnormally elongated sharp K9 teeth extended to the edge of her lower lip. The girl approached Alister and took a seat next to him, he was absolutely terrified but did not say anything.
The hologram paused to let the screams die down before continuing, "The worlds are governed by the system. Since your souls were freshly summoned into the world, the system has enhanced your body and assigned all of you skills, classes, and even races. The system assigns attributes randomly so no complaints", The goddess stated in a bored manner.
The goddess continued her explanation, "You can access the system by mentally thinking 'status or stats' for your status overview, 'inventory' for the equipment and items you have stored in your system pocket dimension, and many other features".
Alister thought the system must present itself to the user through a game-like interface. The young woman confirmed his theory shortly, "The system is very similar to a computer interface except all living beings have access and utilize the system to grow stronger".
The goddess continued her explanation in detail, but Alister was half-listening as he tried out the system's features. The goddess noticed everyone was shocked about the system, so she paused her explanation and encouraged everyone to try exploring the features. She was clearly bored explaining anyways and encouraged the group to discuss with each other.
Several people in the group started eagerly shouting their races and classes. Alister heard a young man dressed in military gear cry out he was a sniper class while another soldier yelled out he was a knight. Both the soldiers also pulled out equipment from thin air. The sniper materialized a black intimidating bolt action rifle while the other soldier materialized a green sword decorated with gold. Soon others started enthusiastically announcing their class and pulling out weapons ranging from magical crossbows to battle rifles. A booming voice shook the room as the old soldier roared, "I am a wolfman!". He was one of the selective few that underwent a transformation and was now physically dominating at nearly 7 feet tall. His hands had painfully transformed into claws and his muscles monstrously enhanced. Several in the group of soldiers started laughing playfully and teased the old soldier for his lack of class despite his beast race transformation. The room was filled with excitement as people discovered their gifts from the system. Quickly, eager discussions of system classes and weapons overtook the distrust people felt.
Alister opened his status window by mentally visualizing status and a transparent screen with blue outlines appeared in front of him. The goddess explained that the status contains a numeric description of a creature's physical and magical abilities. Theia stated charisma was a special stat and playfully winked when someone claimed they had 40 points in charisma.
Alister's eyes squinted when he saw his race and curse. Unlike everyone else, Alister did not gain any mouth-watering equipment, capable class, or dominating race; instead, Alister had received a curse. The system had assigned him a curse that even the gods have long forgotten about.
Name: Alister
Race: Immortal
Level: 0
Class: None
Health: 0/0
Mana: 150/150
Strength: 8
Constitution: 5
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 15
Charisma: 3
Curse: The Curse of Immortality