Dreams of a new world

"Welcome Jee Yon. Do you want to start a new world, or work on a saved one?"

That was the message I got every time I went to sleep, for as long as I can remember. It was fun at first, the dream would give me some instructions on how to shape a lava filled world, cool it down, and create the laws that would hold that world together.

The first few worlds couldn't even hold life, since I had no idea on how to make a atmosphere, or how gravity works. 

As I grow up, and learned more about how our own world works, my dreams got better. I managed to recreate most of the stuff I learned at school, the first time I managed to create a world with life was when I was 13. I remember I was so happy about, that I woke up before saving the file, and had to begin anew the next day. 

We live in a world where everyone has one or two skills given to them at birth. No one knows what those skills are, or who gives them, but most of them are quite useless. I have a friend who has the "Flower scented fart" skill... and he uses that... a lot...

My dad had the "Fire Proof" skill, and as such was a well respected firefighter, and I, was really proud of him. He used to come home and hold me, everytime he got back from work. And then he would tell me all about his day, and how he was able to save people.

My mom, she was not so luck, her skill was "Fleeting Life"... a skill that caused her to live a much shorter life than most. She died when I was 8... I don't have that much memories of her.

Me...I had this one skill. "World Creation System", and even if it does sound really cool and MC like, this actually only allowed me to create those worlds in my dreams. Every time I went to sleep, time would start on the world creation system. Every minute of sleep, was a hour I could use creating the world, and the time for those worlds were even faster. So fast that the stars around my worlds seemed like rings of light that surround me. What really kept me using the skill was how creating those worlds felt. Every time I managed to create something new, I felt this rush, this sense of accomplishment. But on the awaken world, my skill was pretty much less useful than the "Flower Scented Fart"... he actually managed to make money out of it. Just for the record, never buy a perfume called Flower Jiu, seriously, don't buy it...

So, without any help from my skill, all I could do is try my best at school, learn as much as I could, and try and find a good enough job, to help my father once he got older.

At least...that was my plan.

Things never go the way we plan...

My dad died when I was 15, shot down during a robbery attempt. Something so stupid, he was a hero, someone who had spent his entire life getting people out of fires, saving lifes, and he died, because of a drunk who had the "Marksman" skill, a single shot, killed him, and that was it. No secret plot, no dark history, he simply died because of a drunk. I mean, the man did get arrested, but, since his skill was useful, he was discharged, and forcibly enlisted in the army. I think he died in some far off land, but I don't know for sure.

Since I had no one else to take care of me, my maternal grandfather took me in. He was cold and distant, he said I reminded him to much of my mother.

He was one of the few people in the world to have 3 skills. The first one was "Long Lived Sage", it was a skill that allowed him to get more knowledge the longer he lived. The second one was "Slow aging" which slowed down his aging process, making him look like he was not a day older than 20, even having almost 200 years. And the third one, "Everlasting Memory", a skill that cursed him with a perfect memory. That's why I think he was so cold, the less time he spent with others, the less memories he would have when they were gone. 

Everyone called him "Kai, the sage of 3" all I knew, is that he was the only one who wanted to take care of a 15 years old kid, with no good skills. I always saw in his eyes, the cold gaze he gave me, was not out of spite, but it was out of concern. My mother, his last child, died at a very young age. Having the polar opposite of his skills, the cold gaze was out of fear of losing the last piece of his daughter, the last of his family. 

My grandfather had 25 children, and 3 wives, over the course of his life. But all of his children died before having any children of their one, except my mother. People start saying that he was cursed. That having such a long life, was a affront to the gods, and that's the reason all his children perished. When my mother was born with the "Fleeting Life" skill, he decided not to have any more children, and once my grandmother died, he decided to never marry anyone else.

And then. I was born, when my mother was still alive, I remember waking up every day to a new gift from my grandfather. My mother used to tell me that he was my personal Santa Claus. But, he never did came to visit, or spend time with me, or my mother. He would only send me gifts. 

When my mother died, the gifts stopped coming. I only found out later that my dad would hide the gifts, and that my grandfather wanted us to come live with him, but my dad wouldn't have it. He blamed my grandfather for my mother's death, saying that she only lived such a short life, because he dared live that long. I never once agreed to that. We can't choose our skills, we can just live our lives with them. 

But my life was not focused on my skill, after all, I always thought it was a useless skill, that only served to make me dream longer than usual.

Because my skill slowed down time every time I slept, I spent weeks, months playing with the system. That's the reason I never slept more than two or three hours at a time. And I felt very energized everytime I woke up. From what I could see, about a week of using the system was near 3 hours of sleep. That's quite a lot, if you think about it. On the rare occasions that I would oversleep, months had passed using the system. And then I couldn't sleep for a few days, with the amount of energy I saved up.

I honestly, never understood much of that. Thinking back, that was a great effect on it's own. It meant that if I only slept for 8 minutes, I would have the same energy as someone who had a full 8 hours of sleep. But this was only the beginning of my skill. I would only understand the full aspect of my skill on my 17th birthday. 

My grandfather had arranged a car to pick me up from my part time job, not that I needed to work, I just wanted to do something else than sleep and eat at his expenses. He meant to bring me to one of his research facilities, saying he had just found out a way to grant a second skill to someone, using artificial means. This was all he could focus on after my mother died. He spent all his fortune, and hired many brilliant skill holders, from all over the world. His "Long Lived Sage" skill allowed him to make a fortune, since he got smarter each day, and since he also had "Everlasting Memory", he spent almost all of his time studying. He had made a fortune for himself when he was only 60 years old, now, he was almost 200, so I couldn't even understand how smart he was.

I was on my way to the research facility, but... The car I was on, a activist group believed my grandfather would be on it. And set a bomb on it, they were against experimenting on skills, saying it was God's domain, and that no man should touch it. They wanted to kill him, but I was caught on the crossfire.

I didn't die, since the driver had a barrier skill, and managed to save us both from most of the damage. But I was send flying out of the car during the explosion, and, out of the driver's sight, he could not keep the barrier around me going, once the barrier was lifted, I hit my head in a wall. It must have been a real mess, I fainted immediately, and the first thing I remember after the explosion, was hearing the system voice once again, as if I was just sleeping.

"Welcome Jee Yon! Do you want to start a new world, or work on a saved one?"

I was still in shock, and it took a few hours for me to understand, I was unconscious, the accident made me lose conscious, and my skill started working. This was of course a good thing, it meant I was alive, after the shock, I started using the system on a new world, thinking it would only last until I was treated, and brought back to my senses at the hospital.

But, after a few weeks, I was still using the system. "It's okay...It's only been a few hours, maybe I'm still under the effect of some medicine" I keep thinking to myself. But once a few years had gone by, I realized something must have gone wrong. 

It was nothing I could change however, the system didn't give me the "Shut Down and Wake up" option, so all I could do was keep on creating my world, changing it's landscapes, creating physics laws to hold it together, adding a bit of life here, creating a few disasters here and there, and basically just watching the world unfold.

A few years after managing the world, a new alert popped up.

"Congratulations on creating sentient life. You have unlocked the Achievement Screen"

This was the very first time life had evolved to the point of knowing it exists, I had created a life that pondered upon its own existence. I was excited for the first time in a while. And decided to check the new screen, after all, it was the only new thing on almost a decade... To be honest, I had even forgot what the real world was like at that point.

The new screen showed a list of possible achievements, all marked with "????" and the only was that had any info, was the first one - "Sentient Life creator - I think, therefore I am - Grants the Achievement Screen and +1 Intelligence to the user"

That part, the one that said "+1 Intelligence", made me curious about what it meant. I did felt like this had made me smarter, but couldn't quite get why. And, +1... at the time, I had no idea on what that number could mean. But, at least I had a new reason to use the system, a way to pass the time with a focus now, instead of just waiting for a miracle.

I was sure that I was either dead, or in a coma, otherwise, it wouldn't take that long for me to wake up. The system also didn't have the option to allow me to wake up. But this new system, the achievement screen, maybe one of those bonus could allow me to wake up in the real world.

So I focused all I had in the system, I created more worlds to surround the one I started with, creating a full solar system, I tried to model it after our own solar system, just made a few adjustments so that Mars was a bit closer to the sun, and with a stronger magnetic field protection. And in a few more years, life was flourishing on Mars. And the second achievement popped up.

"Two worlds, one sun - It comes in pairs - grants the user the dual thought process skill and + 2 intelligence."

The "Dual Thought process" skill allowed me to create a second ego, and think at two different things at the same time. This made me less lonely, since I could literally talk to myself. I made my second version take care of Mars, while I watched over the earth, and before I knew it, a third achievement appeared, just as the people on Earth were experimenting with rockets.

"Into the stars -To boldly go where no man has gone before - It grants the user the Materialization skill"

That's when I realized those skills were not only on the "World Creation System", since Materialization was always a skill I could use in this system. If I've just gained it, It meant that those could be used in the waking world as well... It was the first time in decades I've thought of the waking world. I was getting used to the system, and to talking to myself, but now... If I could use the things I've gained here, in the waking world, I could finally live of my skill. But, I was still stuck, from what I could see, it looked like I was using the system for about 30 years, roughly half a year on the real world. So, if I was still alive, it meant I was in a comma. And if more than a couple of months passed, without me waking up, it was up to me to find a way to wake up. I had to get enough achievements to allow my body to heal up, or to have a skill that allows me to leave the System management mode.

From that on, that was my focus...and this took 63.115.200 minutes, or 1.051.920 hours, what leads to 43.830 days, roughly 120 years.

I had spent almost 2 and a half years in a comma, but the last Achievement I got finally allowed me to leave the system and wake up.

"The first transmigrator - When I opened my eyes, I was not in my world - Grants the user the Transmigrator radar skill, the Capture and contain skill, and the Force Wake up skill"

At first, I wondered why so many skills for a single achievement, but I was too excited to think about that. I used the "Force Wake up" skill, and in a second, I was in a hospital bed, with tubes in my mouth and nose, several devices linked to me, and I could not move, since I was tied down. A nurse that was nearby saw my eyes open, and started running towards a phone on the wall.

-Doctor, hurry! The director's grandson has opened his eyes. Hurry!