1 New Beginnings
Hello readers, I'm the author, YesorNo.
Something amazing happened to me today.
I got my very own system.
Yeah… just like the ones you are probably bored to death reading about.
It's called the Webnovel System.
But, before I get into the details about the system, something about me…
So, I'm an undergraduate in the electrical engineering course at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
India is a very skewed country.
It has 18% of the world's population and only 2.4% of the world's area.
That means, the population of one of our cities exceeds the population of some country like Sweden.
As you would expect, the competition to get into the top universities is horrifying…
And my institute is the best in the country for engineering.
I'm smart, people.
Enough to rank in the 900s out of 1.3 million people who gave the entrance examination for the institute.
And even though I love and write fantasy fiction, I personally am a man of science… totally sceptical about the existence of any sort of mysticism in the real world.
So, imagine my surprise when I tried to access the webnovel.com site on my mobile only for a weird message to pop up.
[User, you have been selected for the Webnovel System.]
[Accept?]
[Yes] [No]
My first reaction was: This is a hoax.
At that time, I was in class, being bored out of my mind by the droning of the Professor.
How anyone can make a subject like Control Systems boring is beyond me…
Anyway, so I impatiently fidgeted in my seat until class gave out and I returned to my Hall.
I had a single room and the second half off…
So, I did what any technically competent person would do if they received a hoax popup.
I tried to trace the IP.
I couldn't.
Every data access log and cookie told me I was on the Webnovel.com site while my phone screen clearly told a different story.
When I accessed the webnovel site on my laptop, it was fine…
Just my phone was showing wonky stuff.
Of course, in the back of my mind a small voice was yelling: It's a system! A real goddamned system!
The bigger voice of reason was increasingly finding it hard to suppress that voice and I was sorely tempted to press [yes].
But, of course, I didn't.
What if it gave consent to install some malware on the phone?
Or, on the miniscule chance that it was true…
What if it transported me to another world?
Why wouldn't I want that, you ask?
Because I'm sane, well adjusted and happy with my life.
I worked hard to get into this course and I have a happy family.
Why the flying fuck would I want to leave all that behind and go to another world with, if the novels were anything to go by, monsters and slavery.
So, I did the only sensible thing… I connected my phone to my laptop and sent a ping through it to the IP address from which the message was likely coming.
When I got a response, I sent a message in binary (just for the lols):
"Will I be transported to another world if I accept?"
[No.]
Short and succinct.
"What if I say no?"
[User will be eliminated.]
"What!?"
[User will be eliminated. More specifically, decomposed into constituent elements and scattered over the world.]
"WTF!"
This was interesting… I thought that the perpetrator was trying to fit into the image of a snarky system as seen in many novels.
"What if I tell someone?"
[User will be eliminated.]
After a long string of [User will be eliminated] as answers to my questions, I came to the conclusion that I had no choice but to accept if there was even a tiny chance that the part about it being an actual system was true.
So I clicked [yes].
[Congratulations. You have been registered under the Webnovel system.]
[Quest 1: Make a cover for a novel with the title: "The Webnovel System."]
[Reward: 1 spirit stone.]
Finally, we were at the quest and reward part.
It would allow me to test the authenticity of the system.
So, I quickly whipped up a cover with the site logo as the base.
The ringtone on my phone played and a sparkling transparent gem popped out of it.
I was stunned…
It was true.
The system had somehow realized I had finished with my cover even without my telling it.
I grabbed the gem… it felt real, like a diamond coated with talcum powder.
Suddenly, the gem exploded, turning into energy that rushed into my hand and through my body to my brain.
I suddenly felt extremely awake, even though I was sleepy just a moment ago due to my all-nighter yesterday.
It was like I had been deeply sleeping for hours.
[User, you have used your first ever spirit stone. They alleviate mental fatigue and prolonged use can improve brain function.]
[Quest 2: Write the first chapter and upload it to webnovel.com]
[Reward: 1 energy stone]
I thought for a long time what to write, fanfiction, some reincarnation story, those female-centric novels about demonic husbands… but in the end, I just decided to share the experience of having an actual system with you readers…
Even though most of you won't believe me.
…
Hi, readers, it's me again, YesorNo.
I just uploaded the chapter and got my reward, so this is me editing the chapter to tell you guys about it.
So, the energy stone is a yellow gem with sparks of electricity flowing all over it.
When I touched it, it exploded and a strong current of energy suffused me with a sharp jolt.
All the accumulated back pain I always had due to my poor posture and long hours at the laptop screen, vanished as the energy rushed through me, leaving me feeling in top physical shape.
[User, you have used your first ever energy stone. They alleviate physical fatigue and over long-term usage, permanently improve your physique.]
"Hell yeah!"
I am so looking forward to buff me. Right now, I am unnecessarily skinny.
[Quest 3: Get 10 power stones.]
[Reward: Open system shop and initialize the interface.]
So, readers… I need 10 of your stones for me to open the shop and find out what's there for me to buy.
Also, the system is telling me that your comments might affect what might be there in the shop when it opens.
So, please put your ideas in the comments and reviews so I can get the best stuff in the shop.
And you get to read about me using the system.
YesorNo signing out.
