Chapter 1: Character Customization
Having lived his childhood on an orphanage, only accompanied by some few busy grownups that have no time for him and numerous snotty children who likes to cause troubles.
Theodore became introverted due to his lack of skills necessary for socializing, this was because of his pride that suddenly came from out of nowhere believing that he was better than them.
Adding to the fact that he only enjoys reading some old magazine and books all day long and avoids talking to bratty kids, this labeled him as a loner throughout the orphanage.
Due to his limited literally skills that is of no use, and only having some slight knowledge of the world around him due to his poor social skills. He quickly became antisocial to even the adults marking him as a lost cost, though he was still being taken care of due to his status of being a child.
Uneventful years quickly passed by except for the occasional new faces around the orphanage, his pride slowly disappeared throughout the years unknowingly. His batch mates were slowly but surely being adopted, some simply left the orphanage and fend up for themselves, some went missing and others were locked up in the juvenile detention center.
The head and the adults of the orphanage usually ignores everything around their radar as long as no troubles were present, their job was to only make sure that we were fed up and not hurt each other, as for the other needs such as education? They were simply forgotten, not like the children wanted to learn some things in the first place, playing was the only thing on their minds.
There was no kind person present in the orphanage that would help loners like some stories that Theodore would sometimes read, nor was there trouble brewing in the dark taking away their home.
His life in the orphanage was simply showing neutrality till now, fortunately or unfortunately for the orphanage, Theodore was not adopted till now making them forget about his existence due to the lack of presence that he normally showed.
And before anyone even knew it, Theodore was already at the age of 18, he was kicked out of the orphanage at the middle of the night while he was sleeping leaving him in wonder for their morality.
The only thing that the head of the orphanage said was, "Goodbye, it was nice knowing you Dave!" before closing the door as hard as he can.
Theodore thought till now, "Who the heck even was Dave?" Though he wasn't able to get an answer even in the future.
Shrugging without any care, he went towards the nearest open establishment in the area, borrowing a phone from the workers in name of calling his parents before being picked up by an old man in his late 50's driving by some sort of jeep. The old man was a rich one at that.
Theodore was able to know him after the old man did a charity event in the orphanage from the past, they were able to form some sort of friendship after talking about the contents of a magazine that he had read. Which was quite weird now that he think about it.
Blah, Blah, Blah, let's just say in one way or another he was sort of left on his own in an apartment building that the old man owned.
He was given a thousand dollars, and a room inside the apartment building, their deal was he will survive on his own till he can support himself with the money and room, while 10% of his future revenue/salary/bonus will be given towards the old man.
A year quickly passed by and he was able to get a job at a 7-eleven store on near the apartment building, everything was going okay except for his money problem, he was only able to earn 224 dollars per month in his line of work minus 22 dollars for the old man, making him proud of himself for surviving without any troubles till now.
Though his pride from childhood suddenly disappeared years ago, he was able to notice to notice that it was now slowly coming back making him a little loss at his own self. Was he even prideful, or was he just mentally ill?
Half a year passed by, everything was supposed to be normal for today. Theodore was now about to head to his new work that he had just applied into, but something changed today, not just him though, everyone around the world suddenly found a change in their monotone lives.
"What the..." Theodore, an introvert, muttered as his vision fell on the translucent screen in front of him making him halt in his tracks just as he was about to exit his apartment building.
"This is just like those interference mentioned in the novel that I have read." He wondered slightly out loud while turning his head around the place in curiosity, he noticed that a couple of people were also stopping on their tracks as they scratched their heads in puzzlement.
Though he doesn't know what's going on with them, an idea emerges on his mind as he gaze on the translucent screen in front of him.
'Is this suppose to be a prank?' opening his phone up, it ringed and vibrated crazily for half a minute or so without stopping.
"Huh?" as he opened facebook, the only newest post's that he could see were about some sort of mentioning about how people suddenly glowed blood red before completely disappearing and a translucent screen that seems to contain an invitation letter if you would 'will' it to open.
Rasing his right eyebrow in pure curiosity, he followed an example in one of the post that he had come across.
"I should just will it? What does that even mean? Should I-" Before he could continue reading the instructions, in the corner of his eyes, a blood red light suddenly shone upon half of his face making him squint his eyes.
One of the people around him suddenly disappeared, which was also the place where the red bright light suddenly appeared.
Squinting his eyes, his heartbeat was increasing in quantity while sweat poured down his head, having his guard up towards his surroundings, he quickly made a decision, he ignored the others around him and bolted towards his apartment room.
After entering the room with a number 8 in it's front, he quickly closed the door and locked it before heading towards the windows shutting the blinds down.
The room quickly turned dark making him switch the light switch on, feeling a little safe at the moment, he decided to sit at the bottom part of his bed and willed to open the translucent screen in front of him. Which was easier that he had originally thought.
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[World Info] - [Quest #0]
•Type - [Player Invitation Letter]
•Information: [You have been invited to become a player. By completing challenges and receiving higher bounties, rewards never seen before would be given to the player.]
•Rewards: [Player Title], [Affinity], [+10 coins], [Random Skill], [Random Item], [Character Customization], [Status Screen], [+1 Safe Pass]
•Note: [By accepting this invitation the title of player, rewards, opportunities and limitations will be given to the user, while a seal mark would be placed upon your chest making you connected towards the plane 'Zerna', Immediate teleportation towards the Customization Area followed by the Grand Lobby and distribution of rewards will also initiate upon accepting. By Declining this request, the chance of awakening will be removed from your being.]
•Do you wish to accept this invitation and become a player? [YES] [NO]
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Looking at the invitation, the only thing that caught his attention was the rewards, especially the [Status Screen] one which he was familiar with due to his new hobby of reading novels in the past year.
Having confirmed the truth, albeit slightly of this 'invitation' around the internet, while having nothing down to his name in the real world, added by being alone with no family members or friends, and a little bit of curiosity for being a so called player.
Theodore decided to accept it with a shrug, if it's just a figment of his imagination, then so be it. But if by any chance that it's real, then good for him I guess.
And maybe, just maybe, he could achieve the dream of his that he had kept since then. As for what it was? Well, only he knows.
"Accept"
Before he could even notice anything, a bright red light covered his vision making him close his eyes in fear of being blinded.
...
A screen emerged infront of Theodore as he noticed that he was surrounded by a black veil making his surroundings darker than black.
"Oh? So this is the so called Character Customization..." Nodding to himself for figuring his current situation at, he observed the Note that it states, "Only three changes huh, Hm? first part? Are there multiple part of this?"
[Welcome Player] - [First part]
•Character Customization - [Ongoing]
•Note: [Three Changes Only]
-Hair
-Eyes
-Nose
-Face
-Ears
-Lips
-Skin
-Heart
-Lungs
...
All the parts of the human bodies were present making it harder to choose from, though he also knew that one wrong change and his entire DNA might go haywire due to the incompatibility.
In the end, he choose this following adjustments:
•Hair
•Heart
•Face
Theodore thought that it would hurt, though his worries quickly disappeared after a hologram of his current look was shown infront of him.
[Change Acquired]
• Hair Color (Ash Grey)
• +0.2 Wisdom Stats
Theodore's current appearance can be describe as a sickly beauty with it's own unique charm. Already pale white skin due to his habit of staying indoors, pale ash grey hair adding a distant vibe into his charm, his newly enhanced face that screamed uniqueness, neither chubby nor perfect. His black eyes were lacking but still managed to look sharp, his body lacked muscles making him look quite small. The clothes that he was wearing was a plain black hoodie and some black sweat pants giving him some sort of loner look.
'I look like some sort of necromancer' he thought with a chuckle.
Before he could even think that everything was over, a new one appeared infront of him, the next customization was quite concerning if he says so himself.
[Welcome Player] - [Second part]
•Character Customization - [Ongoing]
•Note: [10 points only] - [You are only required to pick exactly 3 of them]
•Morality
•Gratitude
•Slothfulness
•Indifference
•Pride
•Humbleness
•Greed
•Anxiety
•Attachment
•Forgiveness
...
"Shit... This is bad!" Theodore panicked as he knew that even one of this characteristics can deeply change his personality. He waited for ten whole minutes for a chance to decline, but it proved to be useless in the end making him have no choice but to choose exactly 3 out of the hundreds of choices.
In the end, he can only sigh and hope for the best, he was only at the character customization part of being a player, but he was still having trouble despite it being like a pick and hope for the best type of question.
Theodore choose...
•Pride
•Indifference
•Sloth
•Honorable
•Truthful
Note: [Effects will only show upon exiting Customization Area]
Choosing three of them might have been enough, but he purposely choose a couple more so that it would balance things out.
•Pride, he already have one inside him so nothing would exactly change. [Core Value]
•Indifference as he knew that he would likely go to battles in the future base on the current events. [A Good Mind]
•Sloth because he thought that although it's weakest out of the seven sins, it still held potential. [Potential]
•Honorable for the sake of having a better reputation if needed in the future of course. [Reputation]
•Truthful, well although it might prove useless, it's still necessary base on his last morality. [Validity]
Having finished the second part, he thought that it would have brought in the third customization part, though it never came good for him.
A minute of waiting passed before a screen appeared:
[Character Customization Completed] - [Status Screen has been added to your Authorization]
Having waited for a long time, he was finally able to open his status screen making him excited. "Status" he mumbled while grinning like a child.
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[Status Screen]
•Name: [Theodore Roosevelt]
•Title: [Player] •Coins: [10]
•Affinity: [Wind] •Safe Pass: [1]
[Strength - 0.7] - [Intelligence - 0.3]
[Wisdom - 0.8] - [Dexterity - 0.8]
[Agility - 0.9] - [Vitality - 1.0]
Unique Skill: [Compression Lvl 1]
Items: Royal Bow(C-)
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Theodore noticed his full name making him shake his head, "Theodore Roosevelt huh..."
Sighing, he decided to focus on important more matters, "Damn, wind affinity out of all things, and if I were to guess, 1.0 should be the average stat points per person making me somewhat lower than the others... And as for my skill and the item that I have received..
•Compression Lvl 1 - [Can be used to compress light objects 5 meters around the user]
•Royal Bow(C-) - [An item forged in the past by an unknown dwarven blacksmith. Offered towards the royalty of Vercio Kingdom of the past in order to gain their favor. By using this bow, the user would be able to deal an additional damage of 20%(users strength) towards the target. Additional Damage: +5% Bleeding effect towards non humans, can be stacked until 5 hits.
Studying his status screen for a few minutes making sure he didn't miss anything, Theodore nodded before pressing something infront of him.
Do you wish to be teleported towards the Grand Lobby? [YES] [NO]
[Teleporting...]
...
Current place: Grand Lobby
Swoosh!
"Zerna... It's really true, so now I'm a so called player huh." Theodore muttered in a fanatical tone, unbestowing to him though, as his vision fell on the so called 'Grand Lobby'.
Standing on a massive teleporter, he noticed that around him were a wave of humans with different nationalities arriving at the Great Lobby every second.
'Looks like I'm not the only one who received the invitation after all...' His pride went full ballistic though it was quickly suppressed by his slothfulness making them perfect for each other.
Indifference was also making it's move though it was only making him more handsomer than usual, though it hid a cunning side of him calculating random things that could benefit him, such a trait was the kind that he was needing the most in this unkown place.
Wearing his hood as he grinned, he was slowly standing out due to his palish loner look, or a teenage necromancer if you will.
Looking around, he noticed something unusual...