"Brother, dinner's ready!" a cute blonde girl who couldn't be older than 18 years old called cheerfully from the kitchen. "Better come soon before the soup gets cold!"
Enzo lay on his bed, sweat pouring down his face. His eyes, black as the darkest night, were fixated on a gem clutched in his palm. The gem was as small as his fingernail, but the value of this gem was worth more than every other precious stone on Earth put together.
Gulping down his saliva, Enzo shouted, "I'll be down in a minute!" before checking the date on his alarm clock, placing the gem on his bedside table, and walking into his shower.
As the cold water rinsed the sweat off his body, it tried to calm his mind, but Enzo was anything but calm. "I'm… back!" he shouted as he stared at his youthful hands that hadn't been stained with the blood of countless enemies yet.
Shaking his head, Enzo grinned and started laughing. His smile was more evil than the devil's, and his laugh would make the most hardened demons shiver. If any of his guildmates had seen him at this moment, they would have run in fear, for only one thing came after… death.
"I can't believe that worked!" Then, roaring with laughter, Enzo started to dance in the shower with glee, looking less like a bringer of carnage and more like a kid who opened his first birthday present.
Some might call him mad, others might call him crazy… and they'd have good reason to. What he had done would go down in the history books as possibly the most suicidal thing any human could do.
Fight a Beast at the same level.
And it wasn't just any beast either. It was a dragon.
As he was reminiscing about his old life and planning his new one, a loud scream broke his concentration.
Immediately recognizing the scream as his sister's, Enzo bolted out of the shower and ran for the door, totally forgetting about his nudity. Enzo flung the door open and stepped into his carpeted room. He looked around, seeking the source of his sister's distress.
Seeing his sister standing by his bedside table, Enzo got a bad feeling but still glanced around and remained vigilant.
"Brother, what is this shiny rock?" his sister asked as she turned around.
Opening her eyes wide in shock, his sister shrieked and flung her arms up in the air, releasing the rock accidentally.
Acting on instinct, Enzo leapt through the air and dove for the rock, reaching out his arm in hopes to catch it.
Thanks to his many years as a trained footsoldier in the guild 'Pantheons of Damora', he caught the rock and managed to remain uninjured as he sprang back to his feet in a fluid motion.
Turning toward his sister, Enzo was about to scold her for being in his room when he saw the girl's bright red blush and heard her scream, "Put some clothes on, you big pervert!" before she rushed out of his room in a hurry.
Looking down, Enzo saw his fully naked frame and cursed for two reasons. The first was he realized he was as scrawny as a twig, and the second reason was he had almost lost his gem.
He didn't even consider the fact that he had been naked in front of his sister, as a lot of things changed from the time in the future that he came from.
Besides, Ari wasn't even his real sister. Something he only learned in the last few days of his life.
Cracking his neck, Enzo got dressed and secured the gem in a necklace before swiftly leaving the house, making sure to take some soup for the road.
Arriving in front of a shopping district, Enzo got out of his car, putting some coins in the meter before stepping out onto the paved walkway.
Enzo clutched his fists as he looked around the bustling streets, crowded with shoppers eager to buy their copy of 'Beast Evolution', the newest game from BlackLobster.
He was currently here for the very same reason. Although his aim was slightly different from everyone in the shopping complex.
The game store Enzo was in front of had two distinct lines, yet one of them was deserted, only a bored cashier the only indication that the line was even open for business.
The two lines were not the store's choice but the developers, BlackLobster. They had directed every store that sold their games to create separate lines for each of the 'Races'.
The mega-giant corporation had released a statement that Beast Evolution would have two different default races a player could choose from, a Beast or a Human.
Choosing the human race was straightforward and would allow you access to game mechanics like guilds, dungeons, and human kingdoms.
Beasts, on the other hand, were known for their high stats. Although beasts had high stats, if a player chose to become a beast, they would have a chance to become anything from a wolf to a bear, or if one was lucky enough, even becoming an Epic-ranked beast like a Stone Giant was possible.
Regardless, even if one became a wolf, they would have an evolutionary path available to them that would lead them toward the path of divinity.
However, choosing to become a beast would severely limit what a person would be able to do, at least on the surface.
Game functions such as guilds, dungeons, and human kingdoms, which were the most common, were not available to beasts and starting off with negative favorability toward every civilization that is enemies with your race is a pain in the ass.
But by far, the biggest headache and reason 99% of the players chose not to play as beasts were the starting conditions.
For humans, everything was crystal clear. Human players would start in a beginner village where players would start their journey in a safe environment that they could exploit to level up with peace of mind.
On the other hand, Beast players were spawned in random locations all across the map.
Spawned in a level 80 zone? Too bad!
Spawned in an active volcano? Too bad!
Spawned on the bottom of the ocean? Too bad!
In normal games, deaths wouldn't be that big of a deal, but in Beast Evolution, they were a huge deal!
The first three deaths were free, but after, a player was charged 1 copper coin for their next death, and for every consecutive death after that, the charge would be multiplied by 10! Meaning if a player died and wanted to respawn for their 13th time, they would have to pay 1,000 Platinium!
For reference 100 Copper = 1 Silver, 100 Silver = 1 Gold, 100 Gold = 1 Platinium. Enzo knew currencies above Platinium existed but didn't know what they were called.
But what did that look like in terms of USD? Well, 1 Copper was = $1, meaning a player would have to pay $1, $10, $100, etc., for each respawn.
Of course, there were other ways to gain extra lives inside of the game, but for the most part, lives were considered the most precious things in Beast Evolution, as once you created an account, there was no restarting. No one had ever successfully created a second account.
Needless to say, the beta-testers for Beast Evolution had written article after article and appeared on various talk shows to warn people against choosing Beast as their starting race.