As soon as he pressed the button, a tablet slid out of the side of the table, with more strange writing on it.
{Please make sure that you have not placed m-
"Greetings."
Before he finish reading it, a voice appeared out of nowhere, making him snap his eyes towards the direction of the sound.
A few meters away, A black ball with a small white circle in the center was floating about three meters above ground.
'What is that?' The man had grabbed the spear, and was now in a battle ready stance, staring at the floating anomaly.
"No need for that sir." The voice sounded again. "I'm merely here to help you."
'Sounds male, middle-aged.'
Then, for the first time after arriving, the man spoke.
"What are you?"
"I am what is sent to the people who take long enough to make their choice."
"That does not answer my question." The man interrogated.
"Then I am sorry, for that is all I am for now."
A few seconds later, the man asks again.
"Why am I here? What is this place?"
"This is the starting equipment selection area, one out of millions."
'Millions?'
"Any you sir, are here because you have been chosen, alongside an approximate million others of your race, to participate in a game."
'Have they all been in a similar area like this?'
"What game?"
"A survival game, sir."
A few seconds go by, then the man lowers the spear and asks,
"You said you were here to help me, yes?"
"That is correct sir."
"How are you going to do that?"
"Due to the amount of time you have taken to finish just the first step of preparation, I am here to merge all the three steps into one, and give you some amount of detail, into what your choices offer you. May I proceed to do so?"
"What happens when you do that?"
"A full scale model of you will appear, along with a screen that will offer you choices depending upon the items placed there. However you will not be able to change the contents of the table, so please, choose carefully."
"I see..." The man deliberates for a few moments, then he speaks.
"Before that, can you tell me more about this, 'Game' you spoke about?"
"Of course sir."
...
"Thank you for your help." The man appears to be thinking about the information he has just received.
After a few moments the ball speaks. "Shall i initiate the merge now?"
"Wait a moment." He picks up the two sheathed daggers and tosses them out, then he walks over the twin pistols he found earlier on, and brings them over to the table, then does the same with the spear and the sheathed sword, swapping them out for a pair of twin sabers.
"Alright, do the merging thing you said."
"Of course sir. Please wait a moment."
'I hope it's worth it.' he thinks, gambling that the twin pistols will offer him a good 'choice' as the ball had put it.
"It's done sir." The ball states, now floating directly in front of him.
The man looks around, all the items not on the table have disappeared, along with the boxes, racks, and shelves. There is now another him, standing a few meters directly behind him, unmoving, staring directly forwards.
He inspects it, finding no difference between him and it.
"That is for if you wish to alter your appearance sir." The ball speaks. "You can change your hair color, your hair length, your eye color, your skin tone, your body hair, and change your facial structure by a small amount. You cannot change your height, weight, or muscle mass."
The man looked at his non-living copy with interest, before turning back towards the table, which now had what appeared to be a tv screen the same size as the table, displaying that strange language.
The ball floated to the side of the screen. "Would you like me to explain how this works sir?"
"Go ahead."
"The screen will offer you a variety of choices depending upon the items that have been placed onto the table, and you can pick a certain amount of them. These are known as passive traits, they will offer you a certain advantage according to the related item, these may be always active, or activate according to set certain conditions, these will be permanent, so please choose wisely." The ball pauses, allowing the man to digest what he had just heard.
"Allow me to give you an example." The twin swords start floating.
"First, select a weapon." The screen changes.
"Now the screen will display from 2 to 8 traits related to this weapon, please take a look."
{Dual-Wielder}
{Swordsman}
{Sharpened edge}
{Bloodthirst}
'Hmm...'
"Is there no additional information on these traits?" The man questions.
"The information about the trait will be obtained by the user once they have finalized their selection. However I can tell you the workings of each trait if you so wish."
"What if you're not here? Do others just have to blindly guess what the traits do?"
"I'm afraid so sir."
'So taking my time was a good thing then.' The man muses, before turning to the ball and speaking.
"Then tell me what the traits do."
"Very well. The {Dual-Wielder} trait gives makes your weapons do more damage, but only if are wielding two weapons, not more, not less."
"The {Swordsman} trait makes your swords do more damage, and increases their durability.
"The {Sharpened edge} trait makes your bladed weapons have a higher sharpness, and increases the time it takes them to dull."
"The {Bloodthirst} trait allows you to heal yourself if you cause an enemy to bleed."
"I see... Are there any traits that are not related to the items placed here?"
"There are, however, you will have to manually locate them, as I do not have to permission to display or interact with them."
'They're hidden? Why?' "Do you know where they are?" "I do."
'This thing... It only answers when it is asked of it. If I hadn't asked it would not have told me any of this.'
"Tell me how to access them."
The swords floated back onto the table.
"Please place both you hands palms down, fingers splayed out on top of the table, and hold that position for ten seconds."
After following the balls instructions, the screen changed again, as different traits appeared.
{Regeneration}
{Bind}
{High-Human}
'Only three? I expected more.'
"Tell me how these work."
"Very well sir."
"The {Regeneration} trait allow to rapidly heal from wounds."
"The {Bind} trait allow you to bind items to you."
"The {High-Human} trait grants you an overall improved physique."
The man pondered for a moment. 'Not enough information."
"How many traits can I take?"
"You can pick 8 traits sir."
The man's left eyebrow raised. 'That's quite a few. Why so many?'
"How is that determined?"
"It is determined according to the number of items selected. If you had selected less than 4 items, you would have only been allowed to pick 1 trait, If you had selected from 4 to 6 items, 2 traits, 7 to 9 items, 3 traits, and so on."
"I see. But I seem to have 28 items here, no?"
"The twin items are counted as 1 item. So you only have 22 items."
'So they were in boxes to differentiate them as pairs then?'
The man picks a dagger, and the screen changes again.
"So tell me what these traits do."