The apocalypse was unlike what some thought and exactly like other thought. The apocalypse wasn't global warming or nuclear weapons or horde of zombies. Instead, it was game mechanics and dangerous monsters, powers and players. And, watching above it all, perched on a metaphorical - or maybe literal, who knows - cloud, where the gods, watching their demise.
They put in place the System, something all humans could use to get stronger.
But just because the gods were okay with murder didn't mean they were okay with underage gambling or child labor !
Nooooo. Gabriel had to wait until he was sixteen - sixteen - to use two of the most useful functions of the System, because some fucker out there thought children gambling was more immoral than children starving to death.
Gabriel, as a starving child and soon-to-be starving adult, disagreed. But whatever, gods will be gods.
In this dog-eat-dog world, the Lucky Wheel, traits and career mechanic of the System was the best way to get stronger, get richer and survive.
Unfortunately, the System clearly had a thing against children.
But no more ! Soon, in just thirty minutes, Gabriel would be sixteen !
He would go from a homeless, weak and broke kid to a homeless, weak and broke… adult. Didn't seem that great in retrospect.
But at least he'd get more powerful. Hopefully.
Although in all his life he had only ever acquired two Lucky Tickets, and not much information on either careers or traits.
The lack of information about traits didn't bother him much since his first trait would be random, he just knew it as kind of like skills, but they were more valuable and couldn't be learned.
He could still get traits later on through… circumstances. Gabriel didn't know much about those. Gabriel didn't know much about much to be honest.
People said careers could be chosen, but everyone had different options that depended on parameters nobody really knew about.
He swung his legs from where he sat on the bench, hands clenching the wood. His eyes stayed fixated on his phone. Just thirty two seconds more. Breathe in, breathe out.
[ Quest Finished !
You have survived until your 16 birthday ]
He squealed, very unmanly and even more embarrassing noise.
[ + Lucky Wheel ( Functionality )
+ Lucky ( Trait ) ]
He tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed. Luck. That was… nice ? He supposed ? In truth, it depended on how much luck the trait would give him. He hoped it would apply to the Lucky Wheel more than anything else.
[ Please choose a path !
Magic, Fists or Weapons ]
A look of recognition took over his face. It would orient the kind of careers he would choose from.
Call him unoriginal, but he liked the idea of magic. Besides, with his body, he could hardly be a close range fighter.
[ Magic selected ]
[ Choose your career ]
[ Alchemist
Brewer
Witch
Botanist
Cook
Spell crafter ]
Oh. Well, the choice was easy.
Alchemists needed ingredients, which meant it needed money. Same for Brewer and Cooks. Botanist wasn't offensive, and Gabriel was nothing if not a fighter, even if a scrappy one.
Spell Crafter was a career he had heard about before. It was one that relied on countless learned theories and years of studies.
Gabriel had never finished high school. Or started high school.
Witch it was. Every time he heard about it, it was mainly bad things, but he could say the same about homeless people, broke people and jobless people. And he was all three of that. Gabriel was a professional failure indeed.
Besides, witch sounded well rounded, and it's not like he had a choice. He shrugged. Meh.
[ Quest Finished
You became a witch ]
[ + Potion brewing ( Skill )
+ Curse ( Skill ) ]
Hell yeah.
He gave a mental command for the Lucky Wheel.
Gods, let his trait do his work !
If he got a good enough prize, he could either sell it or use it on himself to grow stronger.
He spent the first of his two tickets. His eyes never left the wheel as it spin, its little red arrow possibly deciding Gabriel's future.
[ + 100 stat points ]
Oh.
Oh ?
Oh !
His face broke into a wide grin. His mouth opened, and a maniacal laughter fell from his lips.
A stray cat looked at him weirdly. Gabriel remembered he was in a public space, and the next witness could be another person.
He hide his wide grin behind his hands to not appear like a complete psychopath.
This luck thing was no joke.
His heartbeat sped up, looking at the last Lucky Ticket in his inventory. It felt almost like a high.
He spent his last ticket.
The wheel spun again. It turned hypnotically, taking all of his attention. He held his breath in anticipation.
[ + Post its of Daily Curses ]
That name is too long. He didn't know exactly what this was, but he already knew it was great. Besides, there was curses in the name and he had a curse skill, his trait clearly knew what's best for Gabriel. The item looked like an ordinary pack of post it.
[ Post its of Daily Curses
Stick one of these post it, a curse you can learn will appear on it. Can be used once every 24 h
Contains 10 post its ]
Yes. He smirked, all smug. He put it in his inventory for now.
He opened his status, ready to spend his very-easily-earned stat points.
[ Gabriel
Witch
Level 2
Strength 12
Agility 15
Endurance 8
Arcane 2
Potion brewing ( lvl 1 ), Curse ( lvl 1 ), Steal ( lvl 5 ), Sneak ( lvl 6 ), Persuade ( lvl 2 ), Ice Resistance ( lvl 2 ) ]
Don't judge his skills. Please. He swears he's not a conman or a thief. Except for the fact that he definitely is.
He hummed, thinking. He needed to up his Arcane, obviously. He smirked, just thinking about the one hundred stat points he had.
He put half of it in Arcane, because he was a magic user now, then twenty in Endurance and twenty in Strength.
Most of the Agility he's accumulated over the years was not out of his own free will, but out of his constant need to run away in order to survive, something he hoped to change.
He wanted to go to a dungeon right now, wanted to fight something. But, well it was midnight. Not the greatest time to fight.
He sighed, in his excitement for his birthday, he had kind of forgotten to get a shelter for the night. Which wasn't really a problem, they were in summer and he knew enough spots.
He went in a familiar, empty appartement he had once managed to stole the keys of. A few years earlier, he still had to worry about the owner and occasional tenants. But now, the building was kind of falling apart, and the only danger had became the construction integrity of this place and few squatters.
He stuck a post it for tomorrow, and went to sleep, curled up on a with a blanket separating from the rotting couch. He slept, dreaming of power and money, of an actual house with maybe a garden and a dog.