Kotario

Humanity is caught in a great upheaval after the Intergalactic Union of All Species coincidentally discovers their existence on what they had formerly considered to be the fringe of the universe. 

Without any say in the matter, they get indicted into the Union as a legal member. Unfortunately, this meant that they were now obligated to partake in the exploration of a new Chaotic Realm parallel to their universe containing rich energies, resources, and essence that the universe itself craved.

To that end, the universe has created its own will, which seeks to gather all races and strengthen warriors from them to explore the dangerous but lucrative Chaotic Realm, initiating the Augmented Reality simulation, Essence.

In Essence, one can experience a carefully crafted universe similar to an RPG game, either by going in through your soul or going in through VR. The former means that death is true, and the latter is similar to a normal FIVR experience.

Those who go in with their souls can freely receive feedback from their 'game characters' to obtain all stats, skills, and items they acquire in Essence, while those who go in with VR do not obtain that benefit.

However, those who pay for it in Essence can receive an awakening of genetic talent called abilities. These abilities are graded from F to EX, a total of 10 stages.

Not much is expected from the human race when the first 100 participants get chosen at random from the public - a standard protocol - only for each one of them to awaken at least an A-grade ability.

Then, there was Damon Arnan, a young Ghanaian politician, who ended up awakening, not one, not two, but three EX-Grade Talents. 

The human race, which had just entered the galactic playground, was about to experience a storm with Damon smackdab in the middle.

Damon's Ascension

Everything that occurred next all happened within that span of a single instant, a single moment.

The spectators bated their breath, the Pre-Chaos beings chose to vote, and Damon… Damon, chose to act.

All four bodies he possessed—main body, first avatar, second avatar, and third avatar—stacked their 15% modification rate on top of each other, which demanded four times the consumption at once.

If Damon failed to adjust the chances, it would be fine, the ability would not activate and he would witness himself being enslaved the next moment. However, if it did pick, all the 'costs' would be extracted at once, so fast that neither he nor the casino could react in time.

He was putting everything on the line!

One thing the Vanguard Team got wrong was assuming that he had some amazing plan for all of this, or that he foresaw things.

High Stakes Gambling - End