"Finally, peace," Gulgi exhaled, twirling his paw idly.
Jude watched in silence, his heart beating slowly.
He hadn't moved an inch since the first man died.
Gulgi spread his arms like a magician about to unveil his next trick, then said brightly, "Now that I have your attention… let me explain what is happening."
"Your lives, as you knew them, are over. This world no longer belongs to you. The Demon Alliance has claimed your realm. Your rulers have fallen. Your cities have burned. Millions are already dead. But you…" He pointed around the room. "You're the lucky ones."
He let the words settle.
"You've been chosen. Not to die. But to be tested. To gain the power to reclaim your world."
Jude's eyes darted between the corpses and the creature, and the meaning wasn't lost on him.
"You'll be given the chance to enter Nirvana. A realm where power is limitless. Where reality obeys your will."
"But paradise must be earned," Gulgi went on, his eyes twinkling. "You'll face a simple trial to prove yourselves worthy. Pass them… and the Tower opens."
"To aid you," Gulgi said, holding up a paw, "you'll be granted access to a System. A universal interface tailored to your fragile little species."
Then he paused.
"Now," he said, "summon your status screen."
Nobody moved. How could they? The pressure radiating from the small creature made them sweat buckets.
"Summon your status?" No one knew how to do that, and they felt too pressured to even ask.
But surprisingly, a voice suddenly rang out, asking the question everyone wanted to ask.
"How do we do that?"
Heads turned toward the young man who spoke. He had a focused, almost fearless look about him. His voice sounded less afraid and more curious.
Gulgi's head tilted, clearly pleased by the display of bravery.
"Good question," he said. " The System is voice-activated. All you have to do is utter the word 'stat' or simply think of it, and it will appear."
Jude, upon hearing the answer to his question, exhaled and muttered, "Stat."
A soft chime echoed in his ears, like a tiny bell ringing. A translucent window shimmered into view before him, floating in the air.
[Character Information]
Name: Jude Ashen
Race: Human
Level: 1
Class: None
Health Point: 85/85
Mana Point: 60/60
Stamina Point: 60/60
EXP: (0/100)
Stats:
Strength: 7
Agility: 7
Endurance: 8
Intelligence: 6
Perception: 8
Willpower: 5
Toughness: 7
Skills: None
Allocatable Stat Points: 0
Shard Stones: 0
Jude stared at the floating screen.
It looked exactly like the HUDs from video games, only this wasn't a game. This was real
Around the room, others began whispering the word "Stats," and more screens lit up the store in flickering blue hues.
Gulgi, seeing this, began to pace along the counter like a teacher preparing a lecture.
"A ten in any stat means you've reached the human peak. Anything higher? That's when the fun begins."
"Strength governs your power. Agility is speed. Intelligence affects perception, skills, and the rest is self-explanatory?"
No its not. He'd only explained the self-explanatory and left out the confusing ones.
Like wisdom would increasing it make me wise? Or willpower, did my low willpower indicate I have a weak will? Jude didn't understand, but he, along with the rest, didn't dare to voice their confusion out of fear of having their heads blown apart.
Gulgi continued with his wishy-washy explanation:
"You'll gain experience by killing monsters, and you'll also unlock skills and gain stat points. Oh, and Shard Stones, like this."
He raised a glowing crystal.
"A hundred stones can be exchanged for two free stat points. A thousand for a random but useful skill. So...Kill. Loot. Grow. Build yourselves into the monsters you need to be to survive."
The crystal vanished.
"Oh, and classes? The option to choose will come after you enter the tutorial. That's all."
Jude felt dissapointed by the vague explanation, but from what he had gotten from every word that came out of the rabbit's mouth, he came to a rather simple conclusion.
To survive, he had to level up, and the only way to do that was to hunt down monsters.
DING!
Right then, a bell tolled in his mind as he asked these questions, another screen appearing in front of him.
[Test: Prove Your Worth]
Requirement To Pass:
- Kill one or more goblins
- Survive the Goblin Horde
Time Limit: 15 Minutes
Reward:
- Entry to Tutorial
- 50 Shard Stones
Penalty for Failure: Death
Death? Jude gulped on reading it.
The others in the room also feeling dread as they read the final line of the notice.
"Now then!" Gulgi chirped. "Let's begin the first trial."
[First Trial: Prove Your Worth]
Quest: Survive the Horde of Goblins and Escape Alive
Reward: 50 Gold Shard Stones
The moment the notification flashed before everyone, the front doors, which had refused to budge moments earlier, blasted open with a thunderous bang, as if they had been yanked apart by something monstrous.
No wind rushed in, and there was no light beyond the threshold, only darkness. But in that moment, seeing the door finally open, most people in the store saw an outlet to escape this horror show, and they bolted toward the exit.
One of the escapees, ahead of the others, dashed forward the instant the doors swung open, with only one thought in his head:
Escape.
But halfway across the threshold, he screeched to a halt, frozen in fear as he saw small crooked silhouettes looming just beyond the doorway.
Their greenish skin glistened as they stepped into the dim emergency light, revealing their warped bodies.
They had hunched shoulders, their spines jutting out like jagged bones beneath paper-thin skin. Their teeth gnashed like broken saws, and rusted blades were clutched in their hands as they shuffled forward, growling.
"Goblins!"