Waking up with a fright Alexander sat up gasping for air. Looking around in a panic he noticed he was no longer where he was.
Gasping he touched his neck and felt the distinct indents from a rope.
'I-I swear I was just getting strangled by those loan sharks...'
While glad he wasn't in the middle of being choked to death, he was incredibly confused as to where he was, the unknown was just as scary as the known.
Standing up slowly he looked at his surroundings.
"Am I in some radioactive landfill? What is with this bright green lake..."
In some sort of radioactive swamp there were small ponds all around Alexander that glowed bright green. It reminded him of the cartoons he used to watch as a kid, which was why he assumed the water was radioactive, but he didn't know what was in the water.
'What the hell is going on though?'
As if in response to his question, a small translucent blue screen appeared before him and he read the words that were displayed on it.
[Congratulations on being one of the 1,000 people chosen to vie for the title of 'Sovereign'!]
"What is all this?"
The screen in front of Alexander was a lot like the VR games he used to play, but he was sure that right now he wasn't in a VR pod. He even made sure by pinching himself.
"Ow! At least I know it isn't a dream or a VR game. Unless they kidnapped me to try out some experimental VR that you could feel pain in... But that doesn't make sense."
Shaking off the ridiculous thought he started to scroll through the panel in front of him using his finger. He clicked on the small arrow key at the bottom right of the message and another one appeared to take it's place.
[For one week you will be under newbie protection. After which you will have to defend your territory on your own.]
[To help you accomplish that, you will be given a random Talent! From ranks as low as F-Rank all the way up to SSS-Rank!]
[Your talent will be a defining factor in the way you move forward, but it is not everything, do not underestimate someone with a solid foundation and low ranking talent.]
After a moment the screen changed to a bunch of talents that flashed by one by one. There were thousands of talents that rolled by but he couldn't even read them fast enough. It began to slowdown and the text started to become legible.
[You have awakened the SSS-Rank Talent: Overlord of Poison!]
The moment that the text appeared he felt a sharp influx of pain through his entire body.
"ERUGH!"
Collapsing back to the ground he started to violently convulse. Foam began flowing out of his mouth and he began sweating profusely. His veins bulged as his body began violently spasming and then finally his entire body began locking up.
First his jaw felt as though it were wired shut, followed by his limbs, and finally his lower body began curling itself in as tightly as it could be wound.
The pain continued to build until he couldn't handle it anymore and passed out from the pain.
****
I once again woke up with a great deal of pain still lingering in my head. I pushed myself to a seated position but I still clutched at my head.
"This hurts so much. Oh my god what the hell happened? I got my talent and all of a sudden I felt like I was getting shocked while being injected with lava."
The pain in my head subsided a little so I looked around but I saw I was in the exact same place as before I passed out.
I wanted to explore the system but I didn't see the screen from before. Worried that I wouldn't be able to summon it again, a screen appeared to answer my question.
[Welcome to the Sovereign System. Please set your name to access the chat.]
Confused I just went along with it. I thought about what I would like my name to be, but I had to make sure it wasn't a cringe name like I used to use online.
'xXDarkAssassinXx isn't going to cut it. I might prefer the loan sharks to being known as that again...'
I spent the next few minutes ruminating through my head about all the things I could name myself after, but eventually I couldn't come up with anything so I thought about my talent for inspiration.
"What did it say? Overload of Poison?"
At my remark another translucent screen appeared with a short description of my talent.
[Overlord of Poison]
[Become immune to all poisons and toxins, influencing your territory with toxic traits.]
It didn't say anything other than that, but I had inspiration for a name.
'Poison... Smoke... A cloud of smoke... A puff of smoke.'
My eyes went wide and I quickly typed in my name. I smiled proudly as I looked at the system accept my name.
[User: Puff has been registered.]
[Welcome to World Chat!]
[NicholettiConfetti: HAHAH! 'Puff'??! What kind of name is that?!]
Immediately the smile on my face disappeared as I read the influx of ridiculing messages.
My expression soured and I slowly began getting angry.
"I thought Puff sounded cool... Like a puff of smoke... God damn actually it is stupid! I'm 22 for god sake, why would I go by the name 'Puff'? That's not scary at all."
I rolled around on the ground in frustration as I struggled to accept that I had made my name as Puff for the rest of my foreseeable future. After venting my frustration I eventually rolled over and scrolled through the system messages.
[You now have access to the system. Calling out 'Menu' either aloud or in your mind will bring up the system.]
I silently thought to myself the word. Immediately a short list of options appeared before me.
[Map]
[Territory]
[Units]
[Buildings]
[Tech]
[Social]
[Chat]
[Trade]
I slowly went through each page to figure out what they all did.
Territory was any area under the influence of my control. I could expand my territory by either building further outside my territory or by conquering other territories.
The map was used in conjunction with my territory, it automatically marked everything I saw accurately on it, and could be used to see other territories as well.
Units, buildings, and tech were all similar. They all had upgrade trees and were bought with resources. Resources were collected through various ways, the simplest of them being to create a building to collect resources and waiting for them to bring them in.
Other ways included through combat or diplomatic trade avenues.
I'm not sure how these worked but I assumed the goal of each player was to grow their territories into massive empires... Perhaps even conquer the world.
However that was such a burdensome prospect that I didn't even consider it something feasible. So instead I just wanted to focus on what was in front of me for now.
The other functions were simple so I didn't spend long on them. Instead I pulled up the map and looked at my territory. It seemed that the large toxic lake was all mine to enjoy. I had a monopoly over it.
If nothing else was positive at least no one would covet my territory. There was simply nothing of value here. Which made me confused how I should collect materials to begin with.
That led me to look at the Tech tree. What was unlocked there was a selection of primitive tools. I looked at the options and decided to craft a [Basic Fishing Pole].
The requirements were simply a few twigs and some string. Now I didn't have string but I saw there was a [Dismantle] feature in the Tech page. This meant I could take my shirt and dismantle it for string, which is exactly what I did.
I know not having a shirt was shitty, but I believed in the power of fishing. Using the fishing pole you could catch anything from a source of water, and I mean ANYTHING.
I would usually avoid eating or drinking from a toxic body of water, but I had an immunity to those. Of course that didn't make me believe I could just drink straight from it, or eat raw meat, but I could at least eat anything that came out of this body of water without too much worry.
I hope.
After tossing my shirt into the system screen for dismantling I ended up with a bundle of cloth string. I selected the [Basic Fishing Pole] and queued up one for production. It only took a second and I found myself holding a small branch with a piece of string tied to the end.
"I could have made this myself... The hell is this supposed to catch if there is no bait?"
Realizing I didn't even have bait I set the stick down and began digging a hole in the ground. I know I seemed frantic and...
I was. My stomach had began rumbling and I realized I had to secure my own food. For now I wanted to just catch something to eat, and then I would worry about how to cook it.
It took a while but eventually I unearthed a small green worm.
Yes, it was green, probably because it drank the same water as the lakes.
A little panel appeared next to the worm giving me a simple description.
[Toxic Worm][Normal]
[Can be used as bait to catch normal grade items.]
I tied it to the end of my stick and found a good place to fish. I walked around the lake for a while before I discovered a small piece of land that extended out like a little pier for me. I walked to the edge and sat down.
I wanted to dangle my feet in the water but I didn't know if something in the lake would bite my feet so I didn't risk it.
I sat quietly, not wanting to make a noise in case fish could hear me, but after a few minutes I felt a slight tug on the string. Excited I pulled on the string lightly, to make sure whatever was on the other end was secure enough, and pulled roughly when I judged that it must have at least swallowed the worm.
The fishing pole was taut with tension as I pulled on it hard, but it miraculously didn't break, when it finally broke through to the surface I was able to see what I had caught.
Hanging in front of me, on the end of the string with a little wriggling worm, was a piece of paper.
[Blueprint: Crude Wooden Chair][Normal]
[Tear to use.]
With a frown I took the paper and tore it roughly. A moment later an icon of a crappy wooden chair appeared in my tech tree. From that however I could research better chairs, but I would need a research table for that. Which was subsequently locked behind other tech paths.
With a sigh I threw my line out again.
'I hate fishing...'
This was the thought that occupied my mind for the next for hours as I tried to catch anything decent. The time it took for me to catch something was anywhere between a minute and 10 minutes, but not every catch was something useful.
I ended up getting a lot of literal trash along with it. Most of these things I threw into the dismantler, but I did end up getting a soggy shirt.
So I sat there with a now slightly damp shirt, and a new tin can next to me. I used the tin can to hold my worms in.
I found a few catches in that my worm had a chance of breaking at any point. It was random, from what I could tell, but it was a bit of a pain to have to deal with. Nevertheless, I was still fishing since I had yet to get anything I could eat, and I wasn't going to stop until I did.
There was also another fact that I realized:
There was no sun. I noticed it while I was fishing, but the sky was just dark clouds. Thankfully they weren't rain clouds but I didn't like that I couldn't see the sun. It made judging the time of day impossible, so I was just staying active until I got tired.
"Oh? Another bite. I just hope it's not another soggy piece of clothing..."
As I raised my fishing pole my eyes went wide at what I saw.
A fish!
Except the fish had three eyes... I looked into it's three dead eyes and had to ask myself a question.
'Am I really that hungry?'
However after my stomach grumbled loudly I had my answer.
'Yeah... I am.'
Quickly stepping away from the lake for a moment I walked to one of the dead trees around my lake and started kicking off the branches. When I finally managed to break off a branch, I got a little notification.
[+5 Wood]
There was a [Basic Campfire] I could make with 10 wood, so I quickly kicked another branch off and collected enough wood to make the fire. I set it up by my fishing spot.
When I selected to make it this time I saw a small outline of the campfire appear before me. I could move it with my mind and place it how I wanted to. When it was green I could place it, and when it turned red that must have meant I couldn't place it there.
Since it was just a campfire it didn't matter much but I figured it would be really helpful to know how it worked when it came to things like buildings.
Once the campfire was created I held my fish and walked up to it. Another new screen popped up that apparently helped me with cooking. I had to collect 1 wood to combine with the fish to make [Grilled Fish on A Stick].
It was a normal grade food so it didn't have any special effects, but that made me realize that food could have special effects under the right circumstances. Intrigued I queued up the fish to cook, and after roughly five minutes the fish was fully cooked.
A small text box telling me it was done cooking prompted me to pull it off the fire and ravenously bite down on it. There were no fine dining skills on display here. I just took large bites and spit out several pieces of bone.
While eating I received a series of notifications.
[Toxic Fish consumed!]
[Immune to poison.]
[Increased satiety from consuming poison.]
"Looks like I was right. If I didn't have this talent I would have a really hard time living here... This tastes terrible though. It's all salty... I wish I had at least some pepper to put on this."
I grumbled a little as I ate, but truth be told I was grateful to have food. The only problem I faced now was that I was incredibly thirsty after my salty meal.
With a full stomach I decided to go back to my fishing spot and continue what I was doing.
"Maybe I'll get something to drink."