Chapter 2: The Hall of Gods

[Welcome to the game Shadow]

Immediately after Shadow read these words he was struck with a terrible headache and was forced to his knees. As he was forced to the ground, he began to start slipping out of consciousness.

Right before Shadow felt that his consciousness was about to drop, he struggled to reach towards the picture of the young girl with a pained expression on his face.

"Did I really fail?"

He finally reaches the paper with his hand as his eyes start to slowly close and a single tear rolls down his cheek and he completely loses consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Shadow eyes suddenly started to flicker open. As he slowly raised his head, his eyes were met with hundreds of other people gaining consciousness around him. He continued to look around the room, or more correctly, the massive hall. It was a magnificent hall that was fit for a king. A spacious room adorned with crystal chandeliers and gold and ivory decorations at every end of the hall. Arches ran down the walls on both sides of the rooms with golden adornments at the top. Around the room, there were 6 arches that stood out from the rest. They were giant in size and had statues of men and women atop them. Each one had a different number of people but all of them had one thing in common. They seemed to exhibit unimaginable power and demanded reverence from all who laid eyes upon them.

Shadow's eyes seemed to catch on a certain statue atop one of the arches and his eyes widened in an instant. For some reason, Shadow felt a strange sense of familiarity with the statue. As he was trying to discern why the statue seemed so familiar to him, he was forced away from his train of thought as a blinding white light suddenly appeared from the head of the room. Shadow quickly covered his eyes with his arms and, a couple of seconds later, the light dispersed. Slowly removing his arms, Shadow turned his eyes to where the light originated from.

Sitting on top of an extravagant throne was a pure white silhouette. It seemed to be the silhouette of a man, but there were no other discernible features on it. The people in the room that were beginning to panic and discuss with each other suddenly silenced. Everyone silently turned to look at the silhouette that seemed to release an extravagant amount of pressure. A loud and elegant voice resounded seemingly from every direction.

"Welcome to the Hall of the Gods. Count your lucky stars because all of you Earthlings in this room have been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Starting today, you Earthlings will be given the chance to become powerful and have all your wildest wishes come true. Whether it be fame, fortune, women, or anything you have ever wanted or will want in the future, it can all be yours. You will have a week to show your worth to the gods that reside in this hall and if you prove yourself enough, you will have the gracious opportunity to follow that god in return for power beyond your imagination. After a certain amount of time, only the Earthlings that have shown the most promise from each of the gods will be given the chance to get any wish imaginable granted."

Right as the silhouette stopped talking, a middle-aged man suddenly stood up.

"What about my family? I can't stay away from them for too long, they need me to survive. I don't about a stupid wish, I just need to get back to my family!"

The silhouette was silent after the man finished talking, but the pressure that he seemed to exude seemed to be growing stronger and more chaotic by the second.

"You insolent Earthling! How dare you call a wish granted by the mighty me 'stupid!' Do you know how many higher beings would salivate over the chance to get me to grant their wish? Who cares about your family when I am offering you such a generous deal. If you prove yourself and are able to get your wish granted you could wish for over a billion families, let alone just your one measly Earthling family!"

As the silhouette continued to rage at this middle-aged man, his pressure seemed to materialize around him and seemed to coalesce around the man. As it did, the man's legs started to tremble and he was pushed down by the pressure as if a 1-ton boulder was strapped to his back. By the time the silhouette was done raging, the man was laid out on the ground like a pancake with blood coming out of all of his orifices.

The silhouette started to speak again,

"You are lucky today Earthling, I happen to be in a good mood today, so I will let you live just this once."

Suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, his voice seemed to cheer up as he continued to talk.

"Well with that out of the way, you will have one week to complete missions and to show us your worth. Good luck, you will need it, and remember, we are always watching."

Right after finishing his speech, the blinding light reappeared, but instead of vanishing, this time it split into hundreds of smaller lights that flew towards each individual person, flying straight into their heads. One of these lights went straight to Shadow, and the instant it entered his head, a sudden, powerful headache erupted from his mind. Feeling the mind-numbing pain revolving around his head, Shadow began to hold his head and scream in agony. It was the worst pain that he had ever felt in his life.

After a few minutes, that felt like hours for Shadow, the pain started to subside and as Shadow opened his eyes once more, he was met with a screen in front of him.

[Status]

[Shop] {Locked until Blessing is received}

[Missions]

[More features can be gained by leveling up or by receiving a certain Blessings]

Shadow stands in place looking at the screen for a minute before he finally breaks out of his stupor. "It's like the games I have seen before." He exclaims. Shadow the whispers "Status," and the window suddenly changes.

[Status]

Name: Shadow

Age: 24

Title(s): Shadow

Class: Assassin

Level: 5 {27%}

Blessing: None

Blessed Points: 0

Skills: Bow Mastery {Experienced}

Abilities: Analyze- Lvl 1 {0%}; Sneak- Lvl 9 {57%}; Critical Chance- Lvl 3 {13%}