" Welcome to the Elysium Games."
Was the first thing Jason heard, words that he remembered from a life that he shouldn't have possessed anymore.
The moment he focused on his surroundings he paused, fighting the urge to make a scene or look out of the norm when thousands of others stood besides him.
But just because he was among thousands didn't mean that the ones he suspected the entirety of this mess wouldn't notice.
His eyes took him to the only abnormality in their stage, aside from the fact that they were floating in a platform in what seemed to be space.
Jason stared at the being, who floated just high enough for everyone to see her in her splendor in all gold that just screamed vanity.
' Did I regress?'
After all, that was the only plausible explanation for this entire event aside from him being in an illusion or someplace similar.
But he was immune to mind manipulation and the likes, so that was unlikely.
So as he stared at the woman and then himself, his heart slowly came to a rapid beat as adrenaline that he shouldn't have had in his soul form rushed to his head.
' I have a second chance.' He thought, squeezing his fists as his eyes roamed around the dozens of others like him but to no avail in finding anyone familiar.
' It doesn't matter, I'll find them somehow...' He thought, his mind racing back to his past, to a group of people that he had thought to his friends but we're simply conman and backstabbers.
And right then and there he made a promise to ruin them in the most horrible way imaginable.
".....Now you will be granted 10,000 OP or Over-Points, you will have 30 minutes to finalize your purchases in the Over-Store."
At those words his perked up again, remembering this moment very clearly.
After all, this was the point where their entire lives would be dictated.
The Over-Store afterall was a Market place, where everything imaginable could be bought.
There they would bid, sell or buy an almost infinite catalogue of things sold or bidded by previous Players of the sick game he was inducted in.
The Store had a great catalogue.
Ranging from power systems like magic, psionics, Qi based and more for them to chose from.
But one of the purchases one could obtain in the store were Systems.
Yes, those kind of Systems that would grant its users unimaginable power in less time than any of the others could grant.
But like things that seem too good to be true, Systems were just that, too good to be true.
After all, most Systems in the Over-Store Catalogue were created by other beings such as God's, Demon's or players that achieved a state of power that they were indistinguishable from the other powerhouses in their little game.
These systems having been designed to control the fates of the lower ranked players and enslave them.
And as for why he remembered so much about this entities even when he knew they were a scam?
Well, simply because not all systems were created by these beings.
Not all of them were made to take advantage of you.
Some systems were simply captured and sold for a quick buck and were powerless to do anything about it, some other systems were just mindless working on instincts before they achieved sentience.
And as someone that came from the future, Jason knew of one such System that he had to obtain that would be the closest thing to safe for his wellbeing while granting him enough of an advantage to survive in this place.
" You may begin your purchases."
And just like that, a screen appeared right in his eyes.
And just as he remembered it, it had things that he recognised and the few that he didn't, mostly because they had probably been bought before he could look through them.
But he didn't care for that.
Instead he clicked on the search button, slowly typing out the item in question that he wanted and knew to be available at this time.
And immediately after pressing search, he found it— because it was the only item shown as a result of his search.
[—Item - Shattered Primordial Core.
—Grade - ???
—Description - ???
—Price - 1,000 OP
—[-]—
And there it was, right infront of him, ready to be picked.
He didn't waste any time and quickly bought it, not wanting for it to disappear right infront of his eyes.
The purchase took 10% of his currency, leaving him with 9,000 OP.
The core he had just bought was the answer to all his problems for power.
While most would skip it because it had no grade nor a description, he instead bought it knowing fully well of what it was.
This was a nucleus for an unborn system core, having been plucked just before it could ascend into a full system.
And the reason he wanted it was simple.
He knew of someone that had obtained this thing.
The person in question at the time didn't know of its uses and had mistakenly activated a function it had— Fusion.
Fusing the core with an outside catalyst which in turn birthed a full system.
The person who had done this had immediately gone into a rampage though, being filled with anger at the wasted opportunity.
Why?
Because he had fused the core with a weak bloodline serum, turning what could have been an incredible book into something as mundane as the Werewolf System.
Though even with that, the system allowed him to become one of the stronger ones of our generation of players.
Someone that could contend even with the previous generation of players to a standstill.
Now just imagine what he could do with that knowledge, knowing fully well how the core was supposed to be used?
Well, he was gonna find out but for now he still had things to buy.
So that's what he did, his fingers typing rapidly at the screen infront of him and buying exactly what he wanted in rapid speed.
And after he was done, his list of things bought was so.
[—Item - Mana Seed.
—Grade - Sky
—Description - A seed of which when consumed, will allow it's consumer a seed inside their soul. The seed may be nurtured with Artifacts holding said mana energy to grow in its stages until it may reach the heights of ancient trees and in doing so, increase the amount of mana the user has and may contain.
—Price - 2,000 OP.
—[-]—
[—Talent - Avarices Grasp.
—Grade - Ascension
—Description - An ability type talent, allowing the user to be able to strip others of their talents and add it into theirs with a limit of 10 talent slots.
—Price - 3,000 OP
—[-]—
[—Item - Basic Conditioning Potion.
—Grade - Earth
—Description - A basic conditioning potion, able to grant a normal person a flat +10 increase in all their physical stats after full digestion.
—Price - 1,000 OP
—[-]—
[—Familiar - Devouring Soul Worm.
—Grade - Sky
—Description - A Gu worm born from a Qi Rich environment. This Guy worm has the ability to devour any living thing it is in contact with, doing will allow the worm to grow stronger while showing properties from the things it has consumed.
—Price - 3,000 OP
—[-]—
These were all the items he had taken, more so to prepare his foundation for growth than anything.
Each item he had bought is originally more expensive than the price each of them had to pay, this being the only benefit that the games would grant the newbies.
But luckily for me I knew of what was important in the early phases, which led me to buying these five things.
Now all that was left was to wait, wait to be transferred to a trial world.