Early morning in an upper middle-class home in Houston Texas an alarm went off at 5 am in the morning.
In the bed that was placed in the corner of the room came only a low grunt with no indication that the inhabitant would turn off the alarm.
Suddenly there were hurried steps approaching the room and the door was swung open and in came a fuming middle-aged lady.
"Michael Thompson, you dare have your alarm turned on so early on a weekend" was the only things the middle-aged woman said before tearing the blanket of him and turning of the alarm on the phone.
Before "Michael" could explain himself, the woman stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut.
"Michael" could only sit there in his undies and look around the room and attempt to remember why he would have the alarm on so early on a weekend.
The room had almost no personality and looked more like an office then someone's room.
It had not been painted and had no posters, the only decorations where the different items that his mother had placed there over the years to give it some warmth.
Suddenly he popped up and remembered "Ruins Of The Ancient" or "ROTA" for short. It was a new game that was advertised to be fully immersive virtual reality with an nearly infinite open world where one could do almost anything that ones imagination allowed. It had been hyped up since its sudden appearance a few weeks ago.
It was the first game to promise senses in game, they stated that one would be able to smell, feel and taste everything in the game which is miles ahead of any other game on the current market.
The game needed a unique console that he had used all his savings on. It needed a fully immersive virtual cabin which went for a whooping 9 999 dollars on the market.
Luckily, he managed to get a worn down second-hand one for 2 499 dollars. It was pretty run down with multiple parts hanging loose and the nutrient suspenser was completely bust but, luckily for him all the damage seemed to be external, and he managed to get it working again with a few small tricks.
He took a quick glance on the clock and saw that it was only 05:12 and he still had 48 minutes until the servers finally opened. Seeing that he still had some time he quickly got washed up and began preparing himself for the release.
He began checking the online sources and forums for any information that could hopefully give him an edge. Unfortunately, he could not find any hints from any alpha or beta test, only the lore.
The lore behind the game was that millions of years ago there was a battle between the mightiest races which split the world. Now millions of years later the world has finally begun regenerating and the ruins of these ancient races began to resurface.
After the search turned up empty-handed, he shoot a look towards the clock ones more and saw that the time was 05:52 and the anticipation began rising. He turned to the virtual cabin in the corner of his room and began getting ready to enter it.
One had to use a certain type of full body suit before and could enter and replace the nutrient fluid. After he got himself clothed in the full body suit and had replaced the nutrient fluid, he laid himself down in the cabin and closed the door.
As he lay there, and the cabin door closed, it became completely dark for a moment before he suddenly felt a sting in his neck. Simultaneously a screen popped up before his eyes. The weird thing was that there were lights on in the cabin and the screen did not illuminate the walls in the cabin.
On the screen there was only a percentage number that was slowly climbing, 56% 60% 62%. It climbed at a slow pace with about 2 percent each second. And when it finally reached 100%, he blacked out.
As he came to, he was floating in a large black space with a blue screen in front of him where there stood username and an empty spot next to it.
He had already chosen a username beforehand, he had chosen the Greek personification of space Astraeus which he had used as a username in former videogames.
As he put in the name and pressed enter popped up a familiar red notification saying username taken.
He found it a bit annoying that someone already took the name but, he knew many more Greek gods and personifications that he could name his character after.
Zeus taken, Poseidon taken, Hades taken, Apollo taken, Ares taken, Dionysus taken, Hermes taken, Aether taken, Aion taken, Chronos taken, Chaos taken, …
Which each notification of username taken he only become increasingly annoyed at this game.
After a while it evolved more towards him listing every single Greek god or personification that he could remember. Suddenly instead of the usual red notification he suddenly got a green window that closed the next second.
Michael just stood there stumped as he could not remember which god, he named himself after, he only hoped that it would not be one of the gods like Eros.
As he was praying to whatever god that could help him, he was suddenly teleported to another room with two large statues ahead of him.
The statue to the left was a man with a Greek god's physique with a sword pointed to the sky. To the left was a beautiful woman with a long robe and a mages staff in her hand.
While he was inspecting the two statues the notification window pooped up once more.
{Statue of the legendary *** Alexander who will show you the path of weapons.}
{Statue of the legendary *** Selene who will show you the path of magic.}
He immediately began walking towards the statue of Alexander as he had chosen beforehand that he would be playing a melee dps. As he arrived in front of the statue of Alexandre a new window popped up.
{Do you want to choose the path of the weapon?}
Under the notification there was a yes and a no option and with no hesitation Michael immediately pressed the yes option.
After he had chosen the yes option, he closed his eyes and began waiting for it to be teleported out of the room. After he had waited for a minute, he noticed he had not been teleported out of this room and saw a notification pop up.
{Alexander rejects your application to the path of the weapon based on you terrible physical talent, quote "A chicken has more talent in the sword then you"}
As he stood there shocked, another window popped up with his physical stats.
{Physical stats.
Strength: 2 (physical weapon damage)
Endurance: 3 (Stamina)
Constitution: 1 (Defense)
Agility: 2 (Attack speed and movement speed)
Vitality: 2 (hit points)
Note: 5 is human average 10 is human peak}
He only stood there completely shocked for a minute before shooting "System what the f*ck". He stood there cursing the system for a minute before he got another notification.
{It has been noted that the user has been repeatedly cursing the system a penalty has been delivered.
-1 endurance}
{It has been noted that the user has the least amount of physical talent of the entire current player base and will be rewarded the title: weakling.}
{Tile: weakling
Awarded to the person with the least amount of physical talent in the game (the physical talent must be under 8 in total).
Current total physical talent: 7
Effect: Monsters and NPC will be more friendly towards you as they won't see you as a threat.}
Michael stood there for a minute holding himself back from continuing to curse the system.
In the middle of his despair he got another notification.
{The *** Selene is pitying the weakling and helps them awaken their bloodline.}
{The user is currently awakening their bloodline, this may take a minute}
While Michael got this notification his whole body got an incredible itch, the itch continued as he visibly got a smaller and his skin got softer. He stood there as his height decreased from a former 182 to a 174.
{The celestial Selene did not have enough power left to fully awaken the user bloodline.}
{User has partially awakened the *** bloodline. The *** bloodline currently has the following effects.
-1 strength
-1 endurance
-1 constitution
-1 agility
-1 vitality
+ 5 to all magic related stats
+ *** magic sense
+ *** knowledge (partially awakened)
+ *** transformation (partial awakened)}
{Congratulations the player has gotten the tile: Absolute weakest.}
{Congratulations the player's stats cant go under 1 so the player will lose other aspects of the constitution, please explore.}
{Title: Absolute weakest
This title is awarded to the weakest of the weak, the ones that would lose to a chicken in a physical confrontation. You can gain this title by having the absolute smallest amount physical talent possible.
Effect: NPC will have an inherent goodwill towards you, and they will attempt to help you if you there is something you need}
Michael just stood there and watched as his physical talent decreased and realized that his dream of being a melee dps would not be fulfilled as he looked at his physical stats.
{Physical stats
Strength 1
Endurance 1
Constitution 1
Agility 1
Vitality 1
There may be adverse physical effects as you have decreased physical talent when you can't decrease physical talent.}
A sigh escaped from his mouth as he acknowledged the fact that he wouldn't be a melee class as he began walking slowly towards the statue of Selene while he began praying that his magical talent could at least be average.
As he reached the statue of Selene the familiar notification popped up once more.
{Do you want to choose the path of the mage?}
The familiar window popped up once more with the yes and no option under it. Michael took a deep breath as he sent one last prayer before he pressed the yes option.
There was complete silence for a minute before a notification appeared.
{The ***Selene accepts your request to tread upon the path of the mage. "Welcome to the path of magic gifted one".}
{Magical stats
Intelligence 12 (the damage of one's spells)
Wisdom 13 (Mana regeneration and magic defense)
Mana 15 (Mana capacity)
Mana sensitivity 15 (Ones sensitivity to mana)
Elemental affinity15 (The level of obedience the elements have towards you)
Note: 5 is human average 10 is human peak.}
{Title acquired the one blessed by the goddess of magic}
{Title: The one blessed by the goddess of magic
This title is given to those who has a total magical talent that breaks the limits of humans (50 and above)
Affect:
30 % increase in magic damage
50% increase in mana capacity
50% increase in mana regeneration}
He stood there shocked at his stats while blue particles climbed up him before he suddenly disappeared from the room and silence returned once more to the room.