A New World

The first thought that ran through Luke's eyes was just that. He had eyes. Startled, he quickly looked down at himself to find that he was standing in the centre of a small room. His body almost identical to that of his previous one. Slowly examining his body he muttered to himself, "Must've been copied over from the pod." The only noticeable difference in his body was that he looked average. He no longer had a sickly thin complexion that made others look the other way.

He took a short moment to become familiar with his room. This was most likely his starter house. It was a square wooden room that featured a side room behind him that opened up to a bathroom fully equipped with all the products needed to live. His bed lay to the right of the door, one that was much better than his old ground futon.

To his left was a small kitchen with a cupboard and fridge. Luke carefully approached the fridge, however, the instant his fingers touched the metal handle a bright screen popped into existence in front of his eyes.

"Ah..." It was at this moment that the reality of the situation had sunk into him. He had finally entered the world of Code:Genesis. His life as a poor orphan was finally over. The pop up was irrefutable proof of that, hovering in front of his eyes no matter how hard he rubbed them. It was a small 6x5 rectangular grid with the title [Fridge] at the top. At the bottom right hand corner were two lines of text:

[Space available: 0/30 items]

[Item grade: F (Can be upgraded)]

Carefully he tapped on the last line causing a side pop up to appear.

[Upgrade Item: Fridge to Grade: E?]

[Cost: 1000 Gens]

[Current Balance: 0 Gens]

Luke clicked his tongue in wonder. He couldn't yet tell how expensive 1000 Gens was in this world but it already sounded like a large amount to his broke purse. Suddenly remembering two more urgent things to check, he swiped his hands through the pop up closing everything before screaming in his head, "Status Screen!"

[Player Name: Luke Graphite]

[Titles: None]

[Class: Rogue (Starter)]

[Current Stats:

Health: 200

Agility: 30

Strength: 20

Defense: 5

Intelligence: 20

Code: 1 (Gold Ticket Bonus)]

[Effects: None]

[Gen Balance: 0]

[Skills: - Poison Coat

Luke blanched at the incredibly low hp and defense stats of his current body. Was this even possible? His other stats could be considered higher than average but he was almost certain anyone could 2HKO him at this moment, possibly even OHKO for those who have lived here for a longer time.

The only puzzling point was the [Code] status. It was clearly something that the Golden Ticket had given him and because of this Luke was hesitant to ask anyone about this. Slowly re-reading the [Status Page] he swiped his hands through it.

Having calmed down from this novel experience he thought to himself, "Inventory."

[Inventory]

[Current Number of Items: 1/20]

[Golden Ticket Bonus Chest]

Luke stared at the now familiar pop up screen. Without rush he tapped his finger on the icon of the chest that was in the top left hand corner of the grid. After confirming his choice, he closed inventory pop up to reveal a large golden chest sitting in front of him. A screen had already appeared on top of the chest.

[Open "Golden Ticket Bonus Chest"?]

[Yes] [No]

A blinding light exploded from the chest box as he confirmed his choice. "So this is how a game character feels when they open up a chest," he groaned as he tightly shut his eyes to block out the light. After a few seconds, he carefully opened his eyes to discover another notification.

[You have obtained the following items:

[5000 Gens]

[Random Skill Book]

Luke's mouth dropped open at the absurd drops he had been given. From his estimations 1000 Gens to upgrade his [Fridge] was a lot. He had received 5000 with an additional skill book. Quickly he pulled out the [Random Skill Book] and held it in his hands.

[A skill book that will grant a random uncommon, rare or legendary skill]

[Use "Random Skill Book"?]

Instead of the blinding light that the chest had given off, Luke immediately felt a sudden piercing pain in his head. He stumbled forwards, clutching his head in his arms. When the pain had subsided, Luke immediately felt as if his body was on another dose of Adrenalin.

[You have obtained Legendary Skill: Hidden Edge]

[Passive: Your attacks will ignore a certain percentage of defence]

[Current Def Ignored: 30%]

Luke frowned. Where was the OP Legendary One Hit KO ability he was supposed to get?

At this moment, he heard loud cheers and movements outside his house. He rapidly swiped the notification and ran out. A crowd had already gathered in front of his door, screaming at something he could not see. Luke carefully pushed his way through the crowd, at that moment he saw a group of five men and two women pull a huge monster down the street leaving behind a large trail of blood.

Luke nudged a man to his left, "What's the big idea with that?" His head nodded towards the passing group.

"It's the monster that's been terrorising the surrounding forest recently," the Gruff man replied. "Some sorcerer has left his experiment behind and it somehow evolved to become this monstrosity here. Some people looked together enough resources to hire that team there."

Luke stared at the monster's large body that was slowly exiting his view. "One monster from the failed experiments of a sorcerer..." he quietly murmured to himself. One had taken a village days to kill before they considered it an achievement worth bringing the entire town together.

Luke immediately turned his back to the scene and walked towards a building that had caught his eye. [Tavern]. Upon entering he was immediately aware of the large number of people that were drinking and partying within this small room.

After almost two hours of asking around and avoiding drunk men and women, he discovered all he needed to know about the town and left. His first destination was the [Marketplace]. The [Marketplace] was coincidentally situated besides the bank. It was a large clearing which would immediately prompt a screen to appear when he walked within a certain radius. Luke scrolled through the various options available to him. He had limited the options presented to him to display only knives and daggers. As he looked at the first item, Luke's eyes immediately widened:

[Knife of Twisted Destinies]

[Grade S]

[Cost: 999 999 999 Gens]

[Seller: Anonymous]

"1 Billlion?" Luke croaked as he stared at the black knife. He didn't even want to see what kind of stats the knife had. He scrolled until he saw that the price began to fluctuate between 6 000 Gens and 4 000 Gens. Slowly he began to read through the various descriptions of each weapon, this would determine his starting point. His eye finally lit up at the sight of a beautiful dark blue blade. It featured a wooden handle that was reinforced with some mineral and a blade that was slightly curved.

[Night's Blade]

[Grade: E]

[Cost:4950]

[Stats: +25 Strength, +20 Agility]

[Description: Attacks cause bleeding, this effect can stack five times]

Luke stared lovingly at the blade. If he bought this blade he would be left with an abysmal amount of 50 Gens. Without a second thought he immediately climbed led the [Buy] option and quickly left before he regretted his decision. Luke however did not know that most beginner hunters were usually forced to join other teams and work as porters or other low paying jobs before they were able to go out on their own like he can.

After depositing his remaining Gens at the bank, Luke immediately made his way to the Town Gates with [Night's Blade] hanging at his waist.