Prologue #2
I was 20 years old at that time. On that eventful day, I was working on my part-time job. I used to work at a customer service for A&T Tech Support. It was around one in the afternoon.
I had just stepped outside for a smoke. I no longer remember what I was thinking at that moment, because what happened a second after I took a puff, erased all my memory temporarily before that.
It was a cloudy day. I enjoyed this kind of weather. But that day was one I most certainly did not enjoy.
Anyway, as I took a puff, I remember letting out my breath in a whoosh. And then BOOM!!
Lightning had struck somewhere far away, but I could feel myself shaking. I could hear the chaos inside the building and hurried footsteps. I dropped my smoke and ran inside. There was a massive power cut, and all the back up systems were offline. Amidst the chaos, I heard a distinctive DING!
A message popped up in front of me in a screen. The screen was bright electric blue and had golden frames. The screen read:
[WELCOME TO THE CHALLENGE OF INVICTUS]
You Have Been Chosen As A Player In The Great Challenge Of Invictus
This Event Is Being Held Across 12 Galaxies To Choose The Best EMISSARIES For The GREAT SPIRITS Across The CLUSTER-578239
Your EMISSARY PAGE Will Be Loaded Shortly!
What the hell was this? It looked like the HUD (Heads Up Display) of some game. I had played enough games in my life to know this much. In fact playing too many games was why I was stuck at this shitty job right now.
I tried to stay calm, and think about what I could do. I was a pro-gamer after all. Then I finally came to the conclusion the system would definitely tell us what to do next. I kept myself calm, and took out another cigarette. I put it to my mouth and lit it. I took a deep puff to calm my nerves.
After waiting for a few more minutes, my hunch turned out to be true. A second message popped up:
SELECTION QUEST
Prove Your Worth By Annihilating Your Place Of Work Completely
Difficulty: E
Rewards:
Penalty For Failure: Elimination From The Challenged Planet
The system architect must be either really fucked in the head or have made a precise and accurate quest giving system.
Who in their right minds would burn down their own office? Luckily for the architect, I was one such guy who never really gave a fuck about it. And anyway the powers were down and it was pitch dark to see anything. So even if I failed it was nearly impossible for someone to know what I have been up to if I was a bit careful.
I thought for a few more minutes about my course of action and finally decided on this:
Step 1: Grab some gasoline from the storeroom
Step 2: Go to the garage and pour gasoline on the biggest vehicle I could find.
Step 3: Throw in my lighter from a distance and enjoy the fireworks as the chain reaction blew up the entire building.
Although it seemed simple, I still had to take care because if the power came back on suddenly and someone saw me pouring gasoline on a car, I would have some serious explanation to give.
I quietly rushed to the storeroom, and kicked the door open. I groped around for a while before I found two cans of gasoline. I grabbed them, in one hand each, and ran as fast as I could to the garage. Luckily I didn't encounter anyone and the garage was only a few steps away.
I could see the silhouttes of the cars parked in there. I never had a car myself so I didn't have to worry about blowing my own car up. Within a minute, I found an oil tanker. Could you believe my luck?!
I used one can that I had taken and made a trail of gas to outside. A safe distance from where I could watch. Then I ran back to the tanker, climbed up, opened the lid on the tanker and poured the other can of gasoline so that the line connected to the oil inside.
I jumped down and ran outside to my safe spot. I lit my lighter and dropped it on the trail of gasoline I had made. Just to be safe, I ran outside the office gates and across the street. I barely had to wait for five minutes when I heard the BOOM!
I had pulled off the arson without a hitch! And within seconds I could hear screams of people trapped inside the burning building and I could see the silhouttes of many running outside. Such selfish people, not helping their friends who were trapped inside.
What worried me most was that I still didn't get a Quest Complete notification. I thought it was probably because the whole office didn't burn down yet. I took out another cigarette and started smoking it as I watched the building get burnt down.
After about forty or so minutes I heard another DING!
[SELECTION QUEST COMPLETED]
Player Tyrone Lee Has Completed The Selection Quest!
The Reward Ticket To The Challenge Has Been Awarded.
You Can Access EMISSARY PAGE Now!
How could I call upon this Emissary Page? Just as I had thought about it, another screen popped up. It was longer than the previous ones. It said
[EMISSARY PAGE]
NAME: Tyrone Lee
AGE: 20
SKILL: -NONE-
LEVEL: 1
GUARDIAN: -NONE-
CLASS: [UNLOCKS AT LEVEL 10]
ABILITIES: {Pyrokinesis Lv. 1}
STR: 10 (+)
AGI: 10 (+)
VIT: 10 (+)
PSY: 10 (+)
SEN: 10 (+)
AP: 0
So this was just a Stats window! I had gotten a grasp of my situation by now. I was now a Player in someone's game and had to do their quests to survive. Simple as that. I guessed I would get the next quest soon after the system finished selecting more Players from its Selection Quest.
What intrigued me the most was {Pyrokinesis Lv. 1}. It was an Ability but I had no idea what it did or how to use it. I mean yeah I know "Pyrokinesis" meant fire power or something like that, but how the heck was I supposed to use it?
The second this thought crossed my mind, another message popped up:
Ability: Pyrokinesis
Level: 001
Summary: At present, Pyrokinesis, allows the Player to control the movement of fire to their will and increase temperature of environment to a radius of 2 metres.
I finally realized the most important thing now. I could open windows and menus by just thinking about it. The Pyrokinesis ability was useful. But I hope that it's not the only ability I get. I wished to collect as many powerful abilities as I could.
I decided to give my new power a shot. I would be well within range of the designated 2 metres if I crossed the street back to the site of my previous workplace. I used all my willpower to imagine the fire roaring up and causing another explosion somewhere in the building.
The fire did roar up a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped, and let alone the explosions. My level was too low for that.
As I was about to blend in amongst my confused ex co-workers, I heard another BOOM!
My immediate thought was I had caused the explosion, or rather triggered it, and it blew up something. Then I realized the explosion was way louder than anything I could have caused at this level.
As the explosion died down, the darkness cleared up. I was expecting a new Quest to come up. But nothing like that happened. The others were too messed up already to even worry about it any further. Their tiny brains would explode as well if they thought any more I guessed.
But not me, I was different, I started running towards the source of the explosion. It wasn't that far away. Just a couple blocks down. As I neared the epicenter I realised an entire street had been blown away somehow. I slowly walked closer to the empty crater left behind.
Wait, wasn't there a school around this place? It was sad to think so many kids were blown up. As I walked closer, I saw someone sitting in the middle of the crater. It was a kid. He was no older than 15 or 16. He just sat there with a puzzled look on his face. He looked weak and pretty beaten up.
I approached him, "Hey kid, you alright?"
He jumped at my voice and looked at me. He had a scared, pitiful expression on his face. But something about him told me that he was strong, although he looked like a dead guy at that moment.
I asked him again, "What's your name?"
He blinked twice, before gulping and then stammered in a trembling voice, "A- Alex- Alex K- Kross sir."