Cash felt like he was floating in a pitch-black void for eternity. The void felt cold and stagnant. Unable to determine how long he'd been in the void for, Cash was stuck reliving the memories of his life. Cash's life up until now hadn't been anything noteworthy. He graduated college at a local university, hadn't known what to do afterwards and decided to join the Army. Cash spent a few years in the Army as a combat engineer and got a lot of training and did some cool things like using explosives but didn't see any combat. He got out at the end of his contract and wanted to try something new. He struggled to find a job that really interested him and ended up just doing odd construction jobs to pay the bills. His life was boring.
He had always had an interest in medieval history and its weapons and had even tried blacksmithing as a hobby. None of his blacksmithing work was anything worthy of praise yet but he enjoyed getting lost in the craft. Working with his hands and seeing his hard work come together at the end was a deep dopamine rush for him. But playing around with metal all day didn't pay the bills.
Cash was the youngest of four in his family and had grown up in a separated household. He loved his parents and siblings but weren't able to connect with them at the end due to the chaos that was happening because of the end of the world. He wondered if they were experiencing the void too. Would he see them again one day? He hoped they were okay. Cash started to think about Opie too. Was Opie stuck in the void as well? Is he safe? Did this multiverse accept him too?
"If I ever get out of this damn place and Opie is not there, I swear I will burn this multiverse shit down." Cash said. As if in response to Cash's threat a screen flashed before his eyes.
SCANNING...
"AHHH! What the hell!"
ANCIENT BLOODLINE DETECTED...
CASSIAN ANDROMEDUS YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO BECOME A FORERUNNER FOR YOUR SPECIES
ACCEPT?
"Ancient bloodline? What the hell is a Forerunner? This looks like the same screen that popped up in front of me before I found myself in this place." Cash began to remember the events that led him to this moment. The world was about to end. The meteor was approaching earth and had consumed the sky when all of a sudden it just disappeared, and that screen popped up before he was sent to this place. Opie was there with him too.
ACCEPT?
The option to accept or decline repeated itself once again. The display reminded Cash of some of the video games he'd played in the past. He usually clicked accept but this wasn't a video game was it? "If I'm going to learn more I might as well accept it, maybe it'll get me out of this god-forsaken hell hole."
"Accept." Cash said.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU RECEIVE TITLE: FORERUNNER
AS A FORERUNNER OF EARTH YOU WILL BE RELEASED FROM CRYSTALLIZATION BEFORE THE REST OF YOUR SPECIES
ERROR...
SOULBOUND COMPANION DETECTED
FORERUNNER AND COMPANION WILL BE RELEASED TOGETHER
FORERUNNERS RECEIVE THE BENEFIT OF CHOOSING A STARTING CLASS
CHOOSE CLASS:
Cash was getting overloaded with information without the ability to ask questions. He tried several times to interrupt the screen and get more information but to no avail. As soon as he was given the option to choose a class the display changed to one he was familiar with. It was just like the video games he played. He was presented with a list of the standard class options he'd seen in some of the common fantasy games.
ERROR...
BLOODLINE HAS AFFECTED CLASS SELECTION AND INCLUDED A RANDOM CLASS CHOICE
CHOOSE CLASS:
"What the fuck is a bloodline and why does it keep showing up?" Cash thought. "It would appear that the standard class selection consists of only fighter, archer, mage, and rogue. What's special about my blood that I get another option? I've never been special my whole life. Why all of a sudden now?"
"Might as well embrace it I guess."
YOU'VE CHOSEN
REVEAL CLASS SELECTION?
"Yes, dammit!" Cash yelled.
YOU RECEIVE
"Huh."
"That's actually kinda sick."
CHOOSE STARTING WEAPON TYPE:
Unlike the previous options, the weapon types didn't appear to give you much information. They had no other identifiers like 'basic' which the other choices had. Magical was definitely interesting and Cash was definitely interested in choosing that but what if he got something that he wasn't able to use with his Swordsman class? "That decides it, then." Cash said before picking his weapon type.
YOU'VE SELECTED
YOU RECEIVE
"Yup. Sounds about like my usual luck. Just a swordsman with no sword. A trash wooden stick. What sort of bullshit is that?"
CHOOSE ATTRIBUTE ALLOCATION
POINTS AVAILABLE: 10
This next selection menu gave Cash a full breakdown of all his current attributes and man were some of them low. He couldn't help but wonder how he compared to everyone else.
ATTRIBUTES:
STRENGTH: 6
ENDURANCE: 5
AGILITY: 5
DEXTERITY: 7
CHARISMA: 3
WILLPOWER: 6
WISDOM: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 5
LUCK: 2
"My luck is 2! I knew I had horrible luck! Stupid club!" Cash yelled.
"My lowest stats are luck, charisma, and wisdom. I don't know about wisdom, I mean that's something that comes with experience, right? And charisma, I mean I did spend most of my time only conversing with a dog." Cash chuckled to himself.
Cash's favorite games utilized stat systems that allowed players to tailor their build towards a certain playstyle. Should he select a couple stats and put all his points into only those stats? Or should he focus on rounding himself out and being a sort of jack of all trades type?
"This is real life, at least I think it is. I should prioritize the essentials for survival for right now at least." Cash tried to focus on an attribute to see if it would reveal more information on what the stat affected but was unable to discern anything else.
"Okay, my class is Swordsman. I'm going to assume that the essentials of that class revolve around being able to deal damage. You need to be able to swing fast and hard and also be able to take a little bit of a hit yourself. At least that's what I think you need. I'm going to choose strength, endurance, and dexterity for now. Let's do three in each and one in luck cause screw you luck that's why."
Cash made the changes to his attributes and selected accept.
ATTRIBUTES:
STRENGTH: 9
ENDURANCE: 8
AGILITY: 5
DEXTERITY: 10
CHARISMA: 3
WILLPOWER: 6
INTELLIGENCE: 5
WISDOM: 3
LUCK: 3
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU WILL NOW BE RELEASED FROM YOUR CHRYSALLIS
GOOD LUCK FORERUNNER, FIGHT HARD
THE SURVIVAL OF YOUR SPECIES DEPENDS ON IT
Cash read the last pop-ups with tension building in his gut. He didn't know how long he'd been trapped in this strange place for and was nervous to find out what had happened to his home. He was worried about Opie too, he didn't take separation very well. And what was that about the survival of his species depending on him? Before Cash could think anymore he heard what sounded like a crack and looked up to see jagged lines with rays of light shining throughout the void. As he stared in awe, he watched the void shatter around him like an egg shell before he was blinded by overwhelming light.