The New World: A System Story

Ken Takemoto is like any normal young adult, but with a lot of unusual quirks. He likes anime, has a strange fetish for magic, and is a bit of a loner. Not much could be said about the world around him, except that this world relies on people who have special abilities to keep society going. These people are known as the marked. Now the marked get their abilities based on 3 factors. 1. A bloodline, it's possible to inherit your abilities from previous family members. Inheritance of an ability makes the ability stronger depending on how far down your bloodline it has originated. 2. You could learn an ability from what's known as a tome. Tomes are abilities that have been stolen from criminal marked one's, and given to society to be used positively. 3. And finally, you could have one bestowed upon you by the gods themselves, although in this world it hasn't happened yet. It is said that when the time is right, the gods will give over an ability to a worthy individual. Said ability will put them leagues above the rest, and make them heroes. 

Our little story is about to take such a turn, and be completely unprecedented, because as Ken has yet to learn, he's about to have the Gods give him an ability. 

Ken begins his unusual day, living alone in a poor neighborhood where those without abilities usually live. He goes to work, he comes home, reads his manga, watches some anime, and occasionally watches the news about ability wars between the heroes and villains. Since he lives a meager life, he hasn't the funds to acquire an ability from tomes as the current cost is way more than his current salary. It doesn't stop him from wishing he had powers. Now let's take a look at the world today. Currently, the world is divided into 4 factions of society; the hero faction who fights the villain faction, the government faction who controls day to day society, and the wealthy faction who controls the government and hero factions. The entire world has a money system put into place that the wealthy control. This is comprehensive, and it is a system that, so far, has worked. Comprising of lead pieces, called garms, copper pieces, called gimes, silver pieces, called sparlings, gold pieces, called trusts, and platinum pieces called Stirling's. 1000 garms are equal to 1 gime, 1000 gimes equal to 1 sparling, so on and ect.

"Hey Ken, wait up!" says his co-worker Akira. "Heading home again?" Akira is a female co-worker with long black flowing hair, green eyes, and wears bright clothes. But currently in her work uniform. "Huh?" Says Ken. 

"Hey, I wanted to ask if you would want to grab coffee sometime?" 

" Nah, that's okay, I don't have any money for that."

" Awe come on, my treat!"

" Well, I mean if you're going to pay, then sure."

" Sweet, this Friday, after work, okay?!"

" Sounds good, I'll look forward to it"

As Ken walks away, Akira is overjoyed. Ken heads home to begin his daily ritual of being a basic shut-in. Meanwhile, a strange aura of light envelopes the sky. And just as Ken is about to sit on his bed, a light glows from beneath him, and he blacks out. Moments later, he awakens with a strange feeling, and he can't help but notice a video game-like message screen floating just in front of him. 

" Notice, this is your new player console. We will begin the tutorial momentarily." A female computer voice rings out in his mind. Suddenly, another light circle from beneath him forms, and he begins to slowly sink into it. And suddenly he is in a pure white void, nothing for miles all around him. Another voice rings out, and it says, "welcome to the new player tutorial, for now, get comfortable." 

" Get comfortable?" Ken thought to himself.

" How am I supposed to do that, and where the heck am I?" 

" This all seems so surreal, but we're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. Might as well see where this is going."

Just then, the screen pops up, and shows a status screen.

"Here we have your stats, you can open this screen by thinking stats." A new friendlier female voice says.

" As you can see, you are at level 1. Your current stats are 5 across the board, and your health is 20. Also, you will notice that your MP is also 20. This is your current magic point system. Your current XP is 0 out of 100, to level up you need to either defeat enemies, or complete daily quests. You will get your 1st daily quests shortly. Let's move on." 

" Hold on, what the heck is going on and what's all this about?" Ken says out loud. 

" Please hold all questions until the tutorial has been completed."

" Next we will explain your storage system. You will see from the main screen that you have a storage icon that looks like a chest. Think storage and it'll open. You can store your weapons, gear, money, loot, food, and just about anything is this handy pocket dimension. Currently, your storage has only 3 items in it; 1 training weapon voucher, 1 food voucher, and 1 gear voucher. You may use these vouchers to materialize the desired items the vouchers are for. Back to the main screen, you will notice a job tab as well. Currently you do not have a job, you may choose one when you reach level 10. You also have a shop tab, currently the shop tab is closed during tutorial. You have an equipment tab, this shows the current equipment, and the stats of the equipment you have equipped. Currently you have no equipment. You also have a good tab, this shows the food you have eaten, it's effects, and the duration of those effects. Lastly, you have a companion tab, this shows the companions traveling with you during your quests, their stats, and their current loyalty level towards you. Ranging from 1 at barely loyal, to 5 being loyal till death. This concludes the screen tutorial, let's move on to basic combat."

" Wait what, I'm going to be fighting?!?"

" Correct."

Just then, 3 skeleton swordsmen appear and start slowly making their way towards Ken.

"Go to your storage and use your weapon voucher!" 

" Okay, okay! I'm on it"

Ken rushes to his storage tab and sees his voucher.

"To use the voucher, just think about using it and....." 

" I gathered that much."

Ken uses the voucher and a screen with basic starter weapons shows up.

"You may choose from the list, short sword, long sword, bow, knuckles, dagger, staff, shield, wand, or mace. You may choose other weapons later. Choose carefully." 

He thinks long and hard about his weapon, while dodging attacks from the skeletons.

"I think I'll choose bow." 

Just then, a basic bow and quiver full of arrows appears on him already equipped.

"Now defeat the enemy!" 

Ken knocks an arrow, draws the bow back, aims and fires it. Killing the 1st skeleton, he quickly defeats the remaining 2.

"Congratulations, 100 XP has been rewarded for completing the combat tutorial. You now have enough XP to level up. Would you like to do that now?" 

" Uh duh"

Suddenly, a rush of blue light surrounds him, and the tutorial voice once again says.

"Congratulations, you are now level 2, you have gained 5 stat points, 15 health and 15 MP. You have also gained a new skill, 'Sniper'. This skill uses 5 MP. It allows you to shoot targets from up to 400 meters away, that's roughly a quarter mile. You can use skills by thinking about them. You will gain more skills when you level up. You can also gain skills by completing certain quests, or by meeting certain requirements. A skill tab has been added. This concludes all tutorials. Any questions?"

Looking annoyed and rather bothered by all of this, Ken says.

" Yes, what the heck is going on here, and where am I?" 

" You have been selected by the gods to be a unique hero, you will be given guidance throughout your journey, and your overall goal is to defeat the villain's faction. "

" Wait, so is this the ability the gods have granted me?"

" Yes, we have given you the 'Player' ability. This is a unique ability that only you have."

" Well, I guess that explains it all. So wait, how do I get home?"

" You will be teleported shortly. Does this conclude your questions?"

" Yes it does." Ken says, jumping with joy and prancing around overjoyed.

Suddenly, light envelops him and as his eyes adjust, he is back home, with a new twinkle in his eyes. All Ken can think about is how he won't have to be poor anymore, and how he can now, finally live the life he always wanted to.

Standing there, Ken looked at his two remaining vouchers, and quickly used them. The first one he decided, among the list, to get a nice steak dinner. As for his gear, he saw that his choices were either light leather armor, chain mail, or heavy plated armor. So, naturally, he decided to get the leather armor, and, as with the bow, a full set of leather armor quickly appeared and was then equipped, this time shortly after the armor became invisible.

Ken thought to himself that this must be because armor in this world looks tacky when worn by anyone. Now all he has to do is explore the system more to figure new things out. But it seems so far that he can use his system the way he wants to. He also noticed that the shop tab was now usable, and he definitely wanted to learn that. So just then he opened it up and a menu appeared. This menu also has tabs: armor, weapons, food and even a skills tab. As soon as he saw the skills, he quickly opened it and saw prices ranging from 300 copper to 1000 platinum pieces, and all he could think about was how he didn't have that kind of money, but surprisingly, he also saw a selling feature in the shop. This meant he could sell his inventory whenever he wanted and the shop tab would buy from him. He quickly grabbed some meager things from around his home, and tried to sell them. Unfortunately, he couldn't get it to work. Just then he had an idea, he then grabbed some things and tried to store them in his inventory, and then they disappeared and were listed on his inventory tab.

He then opened his shop tab again and tried to sell the items from his inventory, and it worked. He could hardly believe it. The shop, it seems, would buy anything from him. Just as long as he had it within his inventory. Now he had a viable way to make an income, and get rid of some useless junk he may pick up in the future. This whole day seemed to go by very quickly. As he turned and looked outside, he could see it was getting dark. Just how much time had been wasted, he had no idea of knowing. But he couldn't wait for tomorrow to come and all he wanted was to buy and sell things to live his life the way he wanted to. Just as he was getting ready to head to bed, a thought had crossed his mind.

"What if I sell the things my parents left behind?" 

He then sat straight up in bed, went to their old room and quickly gathered all the things left behind, things he thought were useless, but at that moment could give him some sort of income. As he took everything into his inventory, the old book quickly caught his attention. It had stats next to it. Reading it would give him 5 stat points and 3 new skills. How fortunate, he thought this old book was junk, so he never thought about reading it. As soon as he opened the cover, the book vanished and his mind was filled with its contents. Just then, 5 stat points were added to his bank, and 3 new skills showed in his skills tab. "Over boost", "Overvalue", and "Skill devour". " Over Boost" made all his skills work on a whole new level, "Overvalue" made him overcharge the shop for items, and "Skil Devour" meant he could take skills from others, forcibly. So he tried "Overvalue" on the remaining items and found that he could charge 3 times the value that they were worth. He now had enough to buy a new skill. He went ahead and bought "Summon Ally." He now could summon a partner to his side that would be helpful in his journey. He used his skill, which drained 5 MP and a circle of white light next to him appeared. To his surprise, a young lady, wearing a maid's outfit, was summoned. She was very beautiful, but she greeted him as though he was some sort of Noble, and she called herself Milium.  He told her where she could sleep and quickly went to bed confused, hoping his companion could shed light on some things in the morning.