The scenery around him changed; the cracked walls of his apartment were no longer there, replaced by white marble walls.
The marble stretched across the room, shining with glitter; the ceiling was made of polished quartz, and a fine lining of gold traced its corners. In front, a huge sphere remained placed in the centre, and on it was written:
[Countdown: 120 seconds.]
[Wait patiently while we’re loading the graphics.]
’A game that is of this calibre has to take time to load graphics?’ Emil’s brow furrowed.
While waiting for the countdown to turn zero, he patiently stood there. But the curiosity started to produce within him: ’I don’t think this entire place is only for users to wait. Slowly, he faced the floor.
Emil’s lower lip lightened, and his mouth opened in utter confusion. There wasn’t any floor there, just a strong glass that was preventing him from falling.
Through the mirror’s transparency, the vast world of ’Elysia Online’ was visible. Forests, cliffs, mountains, and oceans stretched across the land, dotted with civilisations of every kind. It resembled Earth yet carried the quiet grace of an upgrade, familiar but more refined, more whole.
Because of the sudden reveal, he staggered a few steps backward. But even after suffering from the latest impact of his astonished steps, the glass didn’t seem to falter for even a slight second.
A sense of relief flickered past his face, and a nervous smile caught up to him. "I really thought that it was the end for me." He sighed gently.
His eyes remained planted towards the vast land, scanning the land below entirely. Air passed through his mouth in the form of a gasp, making it feel like he just saw something that felt way too alien.
A sudden DING rang through his mind, drawing his attention towards the blue panel, which was printed onto the sphere’s body.
[Countdown: 0 Seconds]
[Please follow all rules and guidelines, and enjoy your journey.]
[Teleporting user Emil to the world of Elysia Online...]
Lights flashed across him strangely, almost at the speed of a hyperbola, and in the next instant, he found himself sitting inside the same world that he had seen from above.
He didn’t have to look around him to notice where he was, but he still did to check his surroundings. The place on which he was sitting was grass, thick with long strands as its hairs.
A beautiful blue sky with birds flying above, the area was surrounded by trees that looked gigantic; next to it was a blue stream with fish swimming freely.
There wasn’t any animal, nor any other player within visible distance of his sight. Just because of that, a sense of relief flushed over him. "At least there isn’t any monster who’ll come behind me right after I log in." A dry, humourless chuckle left his mouth.
The next instant, he pushed himself back up. Gently wiping the fur off his ragged-looking shirt, which seemed as if he had worn it for the past few months. A leather pouch, which seemed like a small inventory, was tugged around his waist; pants were a plain shade of blue, though far more ragged than anything that could pass for fashion.
’This seems like an inventory; let’s see if that fellow collected something useful.’
The moment he slid the chain to open it, a blue-coloured beam erupted through its inside. It stopped when it reached a foot away from Emil’s face, taking the shape of a system’s panel.
There were a bunch of characters written onto it:
═══════════════════
[Inventory]
Owner: Emil
Slots Used: 3/20
───────────────────
ITEMS STORED
[Novice’s Wooden Sword] ×1
• Grade: Common
• Durability: 100/100
[Loaf of Bread] × 5
• Restores a small amount of Stamina.
[Small Water Flask] ×2
• Restores Hydration.
───────────────────
FUNCTIONS
[Use: Select this feature to consume, activate, or otherwise make use of the chosen item.]
[Equip: Select this feature to equip weapons, armor, accessories, artifacts, and other compatible equipment to your character.]
[Discard: Select this feature to permanently remove the chosen item from your inventory. Discarded items cannot be recovered unless stated otherwise.]
[Sort: Select this feature to automatically organize your inventory according to item type, rarity, grade, weight, value, or acquisition time.]
═══════════════════
He stood there for a while, grasping all the knowledge written in front of his eyes. "The features are pretty nice. Back on my planet, most of the games I played required us to do everything manually. And even when these features existed, they were usually a complete headache to use."
But then, he seemed to look at the items inside his inventory. His lips suddenly parted; the atrocity that was there made him sweat a little. "What the hell?!" A genuine shout left through him as he exclaimed.
"This guy didn’t do even a single thing in this game and quit just like that?!"
To compose himself from the bickering that he just saw, he gently ruffled through his hair. "Such a loser he was."
"I’d definitely want to see what level this avatar is; I’m 100% sure that it’s nothing more than 1."
He scrolled through the inventory, searching for an option that would take him back to the Home Screen. However, no blue light appeared this time, nor could he find anything remotely similar.
After trying eagerly for the next few minutes, his patience finally started to grow thinner. Out of nowhere, he muttered something random. "System screen." ’I’m just doing whatever at this point. Why will the screen pop up after I say it verbally?’
But the thing that occurred before him was out of his understanding. The blue light, which was reflecting the [inventory], had flickered once and turned itself into a different panel, which was showing the home screen.
A bunch of different options were written onto it in a systematic order; all of them were facing each other but in the shape of a huge square.
═══════════════════
[Home Screen]
═══════════════════
[Avatar]
───────────────────
[Inventory]
───────────────────
[Quests]
───────────────────
[Map]
───────────────────
[Skills]
───────────────────
[Messages]
───────────────────
[Friends]
───────────────────
[Settings]
───────────────────
[Logout]
═══════════════════
He analyzed everything written across the panel, but he didn’t care enough about any of the other options except ’Avatar.’ ’Let’s see the actual thing, the thing which made him take his own life.’
Slowly, he tapped the screen; the blue waves flickered once again as they turned into a panel with different characters.
═══════════════════
◈ "AVATAR" ◈
═══════════════════════
[Name: Emil]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Class: Summoner]
[Class Tier: Mythical]
[Title: None]
───────────────────
[Health: 100/100 HP]
[Stamina: 100/100 SP]
[Mana: 80/80 MP]
───────────────────
[ATTRIBUTES]
[Strength: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Vitality: 5]
[Endurance: 5]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Wisdom: 5]
[Perception: 5]
[Luck: 5]
───────────────────
[SUMMONS]
[Active Summons ➜ 0]
[Contracted Summons ➜ 0]
═══════════════════
When he skimmed through every entry, a strange smile filled with disappointment savored his face. "Mate... I don’t want to say this because you’re no longer here."
"But you’re somehow worse than a bot, and I’m not even exaggerating after seeing those stats."
He started caressing his temple, massaging it gently in order to let go of the frustration. But it didn’t help at all because the next thing he looked at was the ’Summons’ section. Looking at it was the worst decision he had made in his entire life. His eyes widened to their limits, and his jaw nearly hit the ground.
"What the hell is this? You didn’t even contract a single summon, and yet you dare quit the game and take your own life?!"
"What kind of insignificant brat you were, man?!" He shouted, which made his face turn red, and even his veins popped through his neck.
For the next couple of minutes, he didn’t seem to look at the panel anymore; his head was turned towards the endless blue sky as if he was hoping that its soothing colour would help him regain his composure.
After some time, he returned to normal and once again looked at the panel once more. But there was a section that he had certainly missed. "Huh? I remember that I went through it thoroughly. Where did a random section appear?!" He exclaimed.
═══════════════════
[ALERT]
[You have missed multiple opportunities to form a contract with your summon.]
[Travel to the Summoning Tower and complete the contract.]
[Failure to do so may result in a penalty.]
• Failure to comply will result in a 7-day Experience Lock.
───────────────────
[Would you like to teleport to the Summoning Tower?]
[Yes] [No]
═══════════════════
A/N
I hope you like this story. Support this by adding it to your collection and a powerstone or two. Thank you.