CHAPTER 7
"So what else do you guys plan to do when you get home?" one of the twins asked the other girls,
I had long decided not to involve myself with whatever they kept saying, unfortunately it didnt show any results as they would still-
"Marcel!!"
That voice breaking into my thoughts, I turn to my side to see the one that reads minds looking straight into my eyes, I made sure to block my mind. What is it this time?
"What?" I ask without a care in the world.
"what are you up to during the school break?"
"nothing." I look around me, the amount of glares I was receiving was enormous, even though they couldn't beat me, they sure wanted to kill me with those glares.
"Oh, then come hang out with us then..." it didnt sound like a request as I turn back to look at her, it doesnt also look like she's asking.
"I dont know." After saying this I just tune them out, something didnt feel right, and I let my guard down, I didnt even bring forth a flame to watch around because I thought it would be safe.
"AHHHHHHH!!!!!"
That scream came from the front, just as I was about to know what's happening, something huge, like a portal showed up, it was huge, and the energy flowing from it was enormous. When I took a closer look, I found out that it had cut into the beginning formation of the line, "cut" being literal as it had cut down the students horizontal to it in half cleanly.
I stood there dumbfounded by the sheer size of this thing, what exactly is this? This wasn't here in my previous life...no, I keep forgetting that this isn't like my past life, this life or rather, this timeline is alike but so much different from the one I originally was from.
What I didnt know was that, just like here, all over the world was experiencing the same thing, portal-like things opening up around the world.
Panic was an understatement to what I'm seeing right here, everyone ran away from it like it was a virus, even to the point of stepping over others who fell too. I turned to look at the girls and surprisingly they were still here, though they were shaking.
As I was about to say something, my window opened up, with a text in the middle
"You are among the first 10 players of this world and as such you shall receive the following benefits."
I stared at the text confused, I wasn't ever called a "player" throughout my time with the window.
"W-what is this??!" one of the twins spoke up
"Do you see what I'm seeing?" the mind reading one said next
"What do you see?" I ask
"S-something like a tab, its blue with white outlines, it says congratulations for being a player of this world." I was shocked by what she said.
"Is that the same for all of you?" I ask looking at the other girls and they nod.
First, it seems with the appearance of this portal like thing, everyone awakened a window like me.
Second, theirs is blue with white outlines while mine is red with golden outlines. There is clearly a reason for that.
And last, and the only thing I need to confirm.
I tap my window to go into the benefits and its listed as,
'Player Marcellus will be granted the following benefits:
The use of contracts.
A 10+ stat point to all stats.
choose one out of these;
Mage, tank, archer, marksman, healer 50+
And exclusive to you, you have the benefit to view statuses of those you wish to see.'
I stared blankly at these, I didnt even know which to choose because I didnt know what some of them were.
After some time, the names started disappearing as i saw some people around me, their outfits had changed, while some had alot of energy coming from them.
I didnt want to choose one out of a rush and mage, tank, and alot had gone, remaining; monarch, gunslinger, and some more...
I choose monarch because of the little time.
Then sub options came up :
'Monarch of darkness
Monarch of light
Monarch of draconis'
The others have already been picked up, as the only one that sounded like it suited me, I instinctively picked monarch of darkness.
Soon the window which showed my status came up, and I saw the monarch as my class.
I didnt bother to look at it as I turned straight to the chat room and saw two different chats.
The one with the 10 in group, and another with more than a billion in group. I tapped the one with 10 and from what they chatted, they each had received the same benefits as I.
As soon as I confirmed that I closed the window and started looking around me, this was a mess. Some had already tried to go near the portal thing, I didnt want to test my luck.
I stayed back and watched them, some had disappeared upon reaching the closest to the portal, as though it just ate them. I brought out a flame when no one was looking and sent it into the portal, there was little to no resistance on the portal part.
When it got in, the scenery had changed, since I could see what the shadow flame saw, it became easier.
The inside was of a different terrain, its walls were rocky, the ground had grassy plains and in front, there were three paths, spread out.
I thought whether to divide the flame and continue on in the paths when I saw some of the groups that entered in going into one of the paths.
As I wondered whether they were fools or simply just that brave or even worse, over confident on their newly bestowed powers, I shrug it off and continue on to divide the shadow flame into three and continue...
I knew I would have to stay focused on the real plane so I let the flames morph into their shadow familiars and left it to its work as I continued to observe what's going on outside of the portal.
I look down at my hands. I'm way too cal-, no, I'm excited but not the good kind and neither can I say it's the bad kind. What's really happening with this timeline.
"Students! Hurry and move away from that thing!!" One of the Male teachers shouted out.
It was then I even noticed the portal had color, I was too shocked by its appearance to care about its color. This was blue, circular and large, in the middle looked white-ish as it was also mixed in with the blue.
"Let's get out of here marcel" one of the girls dragged me off, looking over at her, I just noticed her outfit had changed, she had a leather jacket on, with a strap for a gun inside, and shorts with a thigh long sock with a strap and gun for her left leg.
What is ... suddenly my window came up, with an option to equip my accessories, and honestly I denied that.
Soon after denying it, I thought of viewing her status and another window came up,
Name:
Class: Gunslinger {west}
Race: Human
HP: 100/100 MP:50/50. STR:5. AGI:3.
LUCK:0. STA: 4. INT:3. DEX: 2
SKILLS (ACTIVE)
SUCCESSIVE DOUBLE SHOT
FAST RELOAD
SKILLS (PASSIVE)
LINEAR SENSE.
TALENT: ALMOST NON-EXISTENT
SPONSOR: NONE
GIFT: NONE
As I stared at this status, I looked back at her and back at it, what kind of stats are these? Mine was over times three of this and yet, I thought it was too low.
An hour had passed since this whole phenomenon began, and no one could explain any of this, not until we heard it, a voice welcoming all of us.
"Thank you for joining this game. What you see in front of you is a gate. It leads to a pocket dimension where you can obtain coins, experience points and treasures if you clear them. This was designed as how you all would play video games, the blue gate symbolises a new gate which after a month of its arrival turns grey which symbolises its opening of the pocket dimension from the inside, and after the grey turns black, the monsters and creatures inside will come out to destroy everything they see. Kill these creatures and gain power, be killed by these creatures and everything is over. Once again, we have simplified this to a game interface, you can unlock the market, and if blessed by those above, you can be granted gifts as well as sponsors who will guide you. Of course, all these are based off your performance. Those of you who choose to obtain power will rise above everyone else, your world is gone, now is the time for survival."
As it finished its speech, those around me had gone into another frenzy, why you ask? The gate that was in front of us immediately turned black, skipping the grey phase. What I didnt know was that every country experienced this, one gate in every country turned black almost immediately.
I closed my eyes to concentrate on my shadow flame only to see that those guys that went in were dead, some had been killed by each other and some had been killed by these creatures, these looked like mutated rats but they stood on two feet, had axes and sticks made of bone and had something like an armor on them.
I cleaned the sweat on my head, these things looked so ugly.i didnt know if this would work so I thought of status of it. It came up. That thing was a rat man, its stats weren't high, but when compared to the Gunslinger, it could kill 3 of her, it also didnt have mana.
Then, the unexpected happened.