"BOOOOOOOOOOOOM"
"HAHAHA!!! Hello, hello, can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me? Well, well, well welcome... In this magnificent survival game in which you will all participate, a last chance for survival to accompany us GODS into the next universe after the destruction of this one, which was so boring that some of us committed suicide in the face of the despair of an eternity of empty existence, sniff sniff, I will never forget you, my brothers and sisters."
As an explosion followed by a fabulous voice echoed through his mind, Adam woke up from his nap in the grass. He contemplated the unfamiliar surroundings, blue sky, white clouds, giant in the sky, scent of grass and earth, all exuding an aura of infinite life.
Adam looked at the giant wearing a mask with a big smile, dressed in a joker's outfit, a harlequin? About twenty masks hung from his costume and floated around him. He was half transparent like a hologram, giving a speech for an announcement that seemed rather important, the end of the universe, the existence of gods, the kind of news that one cannot really forget. Interestingly, the mask on his face seemed to change depending on his mood.
He felt like a truck had run over his body and found this dream a little too realistic for his liking, but as a good student, he intended to listen to the entire speech of the gods in the sky, before complaining about the pain.
"Phew! Listen up, inferiors, the rules are simple: survive, survive, survive, so that in the end, 10 winners will earn the magnificent right to become gods. And so that it doesn't last forever, because otherwise we'll get bored, there will be little events from time to time to speed things up a bit."
"Okay, Adam, as the big man says, the rules are simple, you just have to survive. It's just a huge battle royale with lots of participants. Don't panic... Well, okay, you're allowed to panic a little."
"In our immense generosity to help you, here are two gifts: a book with your important information in it—a little advice, don't lose it, you only have one—and a unique talent for each of you."
As soon as he finished the sentence, an old open grimoire appeared in Adam's hand. Glancing at the first two pages, he saw the information the god was talking about.
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Name: [Adam]
Race: [Human-Earth]
Title:
Achievement:
Affinity: [Life], [Earth], [Nature], [Soul]
Talent: [Composer of Life]
---
Guild:
Faction: [Human]
Region: [The Eternal Plains]
Event:
Survivors: [35,897,546,263,174,590]
Winners: [0/10]
---
Speechless, Adam stared at the number of survivors, trying to comprehend such a value, wanting to restart his brain to process the information. The next line completely shut down his mind.
"10 winners, my ass! We're... Damn, this is way too serious. What kind of difficulty level is this?"
Before he even had a chance to shout out all the insults that came to mind, Adam heard the god continue his speech, which so far seemed to be giving relatively important information, so he chose to listen wisely. Insulting a god of unknown power didn't seem like a smart idea.
"So... For the first event, let's start with something simple: a new hope. Serious effect, cool for everyone... Excuse me, could you please stop talking at the same time as me? It's really annoying. Just wait two minutes until I finish my explanation, thank you!"
"Who the hell is he talking to? Damn it, do thoughts count? Shut up, Adam, damn it!"
"Let's start again with this little event... OK, YOU DON'T WANT TO SHUT UP? NO PROBLEM, I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT."
Adam saw the god's mask change from joy to anger, then he snapped his fingers, but nothing seemed to have changed.
'I survived? I wasn't concerned? The book!'
---
Guild:
Faction: [Human]
Region: [The Eternal Plains]
Event:
Survivors: [35,897,545,439,271,753]
Winners: [0/10]
---
"The number of survivors has almost certainly decreased, but damn it, there are still too many! Come on, Adam, listen to the great man in the sky who has the power to destroy millions, billions of people with a snap of his fingers."
Adam dared not breathe and stared at the sky without blinking, afraid of provoking the already irritated god.
"As I was saying before I was interrupted, this first event will remove all your illnesses or other problems that prevent you from participating in this survival game. What's more, since we're being really nice to you for the duration of the event, you'll heal faster and be more resistant to poison and disease. Well, that concludes all the explanations. On that note, good luck to everyone, may fortune favor you. Bye for now, EMOS out!"
Adam saw the god, or rather Emos, disappear from the sky, leaving behind a blue sky. He was finally able to breathe again and relax a little. He lay down in the grass and gazed up at the sky.
"Let's assume that everything is true and that I'm not dreaming. In that case, the rest of the plan is pretty simple: we survive by taking into account the very clear value that there are 10 final winners, so no alliances, we play solo, at most one or two more people, and we create a mega survival base, a fucking fortress. We find a way to get unlimited food and water, and that's it, we camp out in our corner until everyone dies."
Turning his head, Adam saw the book lying on the ground and rushed to pick it up.
"Damn, it's not disappearing, it's a real book, and there's a lot of important information in it. Okay, it's important not to lose the book. So what else is in there?"
After a few seconds of trying to turn the pages and open and close the book, it was clear.
"Great, a book with only two pages, the rest is just decoration to make it look good. That's it? No great system with stat points, a skill tree, an explanation of affinities, talents, and other things? Do I have to guess? Well, the name is obvious, Adam, no last name, I've never had one, then human race, we agree, even if I wouldn't have been against something a little more stylish, like: Holy flame drago boom, that sounds good! Title, none, uh, yeah, how does he decide if I have a title or not?"
As soon as the question was asked, the pages of the book began to turn until they stopped on a page with the title: Titles. This was followed by an explanatory paragraph.
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Titles
Titles are additional pieces of information about a person that can give them a bonus or penalty. They can be acquired in various ways, such as by accomplishing a feat, being cursed or blessed by some entity, having a certain status recognized by a large number of people, and a few other rarer ways.
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"Thanks, that's very clear, but why the explanation page? Because I asked the question? But now how do we get back to the basic double page, close it and reopen it? Okay, yes, that's it, so test, what are names?"
Once again, the pages began to move and stopped on a new page.
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Names
Names define a large part of a living being's identity. They can change several times during a lifetime, initially without much significance, but beyond a certain level of existence, they can take on much greater importance.
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Sighing, Adam set himself the unenviable task of reading all the explanations in the book in detail.
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Races
A group of living beings of the same kind that share distinctive characteristics; several races may be related to the same species. (E.g., race: red dragon, black dragon. Both belong to the dragon species.)
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Exploits
A record of an individual's deeds that are so remarkable that even the gods themselves find them interesting. Each exploit is associated with a reward depending on the god or gods who noted your deed.
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Affinities
Every living being has one or more affinities with the different elements that make up the universe. The greater the affinity, the more sensitive one is to it. Some can directly manipulate these elemental forces to do what they want.
Life: The elemental energy that is present in most existing life forms. The higher the life form, the more saturated it is with this energy.
Earth: Elemental energy, as its name suggests, is present in the earth and is rarer in metals and other elements.
Nature: Elemental energy is present in all plants as the element of life, and higher-level plants possess a large amount of it.
Soul: Elemental energy composes the soul of all life forms. A rare and complex affinity few have managed to manipulate it.
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"Great, one rare affinity, one that seems a little essential to life, literally, and two others that allow me to conclude that either I'm a druid, which is cool, or I'm a farmer, which is less cool to survive a deadly game. Now, the most important thing: my talent!"