A Shut in for a Reason

Hello there! I'm Zarius D. Ignus. Cool name I know, my mum actually misheard the name that my father suggested, which is Darius. But still, it turned out fine so they keep it.

Although, even if I have a cool sounding name my life didn't go smoothly as it did. The moment I got born I've been diagnosed with a severe allergies to many things, I even almost died from shock because the cloth they use to wrapped me up was made from one of the things I'm allergic to. Fortunately I survived haha.

Anyway, since then I've been living quite a problematic and boring, yet quite a peaceful life. Though I never experienced things a normal kid would. Like going to school, hanging out with your friends and playing around. Because pretty much everything outside my room have the potential to unsubscribe me from life.

So, since I was a kid I've been homeschooled, which was hella boring and also hella hard. And currently I'm at highschool level and it have been a long process but I made it.

And although my life is nothing but pure madness and boredom one thing have allowed me to keep moving forward and that's playing video games!

Though there were times when video game made me so stressed out I wanted to end it all. But I'm a huge pussy so I didn't, and although I might be suicidal I still have plan for my life, and mostly cuz I'm scared if dying. So suicidal thoughts only started as a thought and nothing more.

So yeah, thats been my life for quite a while now.. Though everything changed one day.

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"Uughhh everything's so boring these days!" Zarius groaned as he begrudgingly leaned back on his comfy gaming chair.

'Almost every game's the same! Its all just copy paste with no depths in them! Its shit!' he sighed as he glance back on his computer screen.

'maybe i should try a different platform? Maybe even different genres' he thought before sitting up straight and placing his hand over his keyboard and mouse.

Surfing across the internet he checked multiple website and official platform like Esteem, ichy, Playtimestore and also some unofficial ones live RobersBay, FitDude. He even went as far as checking suspicious website that made his computer warm him three times.

And he did found some game previews that piqued his interest in the game. Though when he went and played them they were either absolute trash or 150 terabytes of chaos that forced him to reformat his pc.

'phew.. good thing I made a backup of everything before doing all this shit' he sighed as he opened another tab just after another formating.

And while browsing for another game lazily, an add popped up in his screen that cought his interest.

A golden title that reads: [Myriad RPG] and a poster of a pixel knight fighting a demon.

'hmm.. welp I can just reformat it again if shit hits the fan' he shrugs before clicking on the add.

Reading the preview of the game his eyes slowly lit up in hope once again.

'Fuck! It has all the shit I love in a game!' he screamed internally.

[open-world/rpg/character customization/mystery/dark/fantasy/turn based/18+/survival/horror/action/magic/monsters/dungeons.....]

[Survive in the world of Filius with varieties of classes, destroy evil or be the cause of destruction. Fight and clear dungeons to get mysterious and magical artifacts! Build your own empire or conquer another, do anything you want with full freedom! But always be wary from the danger that lurks everywhere]

And once again without anymore hesitation he pressed install and waited. Surprisingly the game only required a 259 mb. Which of course decreased his hope for a legit game.

'no way all of those promised feature can fit in that if it's that small' he thought as he sigh. Getting ready to shut the entire thing down if it's another virus or a troll.

But when he click it, it quickly loaded in.

[New game]

[Continue]

[Quit]

A simple pixel animation of a dark entrance greeted him in the game's starting menu.

Its a tunnel entrance that have a pair of torches hanging from both side as its fire flickers and illuminates the blocks and bricks on the wall and the floor other than the dark passage halls while a somber song plays out.

'nice animation, and music.. but I haven't seen anything worthy yet...' he nodded before pressing the [New Game] button.

[Loading]

Suddenly the screen shifted as if the camera entered the dark entrance.

[Character Creation]

And in front of his eye was a vast selection of customization. From the skin tone, to each finger nails. Clothes, eyes, face, hairs from the head-face-privates, dick sizes, boob sizes, genders, shoes underwears, tattoos, height, weight, animation set or what the game calls 'attitude', voice, and everything that he always wanted to customize when he was playing other games from before.

'Holy shit' he gasped as he scrolls and checked some of the options which promptly been applied on the character at the very top. 'HOLIER SHIT!' he started giggling as he began making his dream character.

And after almost 2 hours of character customization, he tiredly leaned back and stretch from his gaming chair.

'perfect...focking gorgeous!' he sighed, satisfied.

In the screen a slim man stands. He have a raven black hair so black you can see it in the dark as if it's almost darker than the shadow.. at least thats what it look like. While he possess a sharp pair of eyes with a golden iris, and together with his pale and almost white skin it's almost as if his iris is glowing, but its not.. Its just a simple color emphasis.

His face was also sharp, yet also kind?

And if one could see this, it's almost similar to Zarius, although this character is like the lvl:9999 Zarius because of how large the gap is between their appearance. Almost like Zarius used his face as a base and improved it in the way's he find better. Pretty much he removed all the things he's insecure about and made them better.

As for his clothes he was wearing a black leather trench coat, a black baggy pants, a black leather boots that reached just below his knees, and a white t-shirt. And the game indicates he's 5.9ft tall he also have a long but not natural limbs. Meaning it's long but not to the point of looking unnatural.. though he could do that in this customization but chose not to. He have a fine long natural fingers and

His 'attitude' on the other hand is indicated as 'suspicious' and he have an idle animation of warily looking around while looking hella tense and on guard. Though because of his look its more like he's looking around for something to kill.

'suspicious' is a bit too much' Zarius thought as he didn't like his character being sus.. 'but thats it or the 'numb' one which is quite boring for me' he thought as he looks back at the numb attitude which make his character lifeless and frozen.

'welp everything's done in here' he thought.. although he could probably go even crazyier with the customization he was quite content with it and some might say his character looks like the usual overated edgy characters for him this is the character he have always wanted he does not care about what they say.

[Grading character.....]

Suddenly the expected loading screen didn't show up. But a different one.

'grading? What does it mean?' he wonders. But it was quickly answered right after as another window popped up on his screen.

[Stats]===|

Str = 6

Spd = 7

Agi = 4

Per = 5

Con = 4

Dex = 6

Cha = 8

========|

[Next]

'what? Was the stats based of on the characters body?? That's insane mechanics!' he guess.

'then does that mean, my constitution is low because I made his body structure thin?.. then I should probably go ba-' his inner thought was quickly cut off when he realized he can't go back to the character customization.

He even went as far as quiting the game and running it again.. only for the game to skip the customization entirely.

'huh.. does that mean you could only customize character once??' he thought then he suddenly got chills.

"Damm.. good thing I didn't make a joke character" he was so relieved he said it out loud. He was actually planning on making a character with absurd body proportions just to test the limit of the game and how it affects gameplay.. but decided against it.

After sighing once again he click next.

[Loading]

....

[Please select a race]

[Warning! Some race might affect the characters overall look, biology as well as stats. It also affects the starting spawn location and difficulty of the game]

'HOLIEST SHIT!!' he cursed in awe as he saw dozen option. That ranges to human to barely humanoid.

[Human],[Half-ling(expand)],[Beastman],[Merman],[Woodelf],[Darkelf],[HighElf],[Dwarf],[Gnome]...[Ghoul],[Skeleton],[Harpy],[Werewolf],[Vampire],[Draconic],[Demonic]

There's almost 30+ choices to choose from. And he almost peed himself from excitement

'So much to explore!!' he screamed internally. 'but will it be the same as the customization? And I can only choose once?' he asked himself.. so as to not risked it he chose the most standard which is human and a new window appeared.

[You have chosen the race 'Human']

(Bonus: 1.5 more exp)

(Trait: adaptive)

[Note: all class have hidden skill that you can only find out when playing as them]

'hmm? There's bonuses? Interesting.. whats this adaptive thingy?' he thought as he hovers his mouse over it.

(Adaptive)==|

- you are more likely to develop resistances, characteristics, skills, passives, etc depending on the environment and experiences that you go through.

===========|

'ooh, its a growth type passive, then?' he nodded. And pressed space.

And soon the screen changes into a 2d view of the game.. it was a bit detailed despite being pixelated. And as expected his character is already looking around in suspicion which made him chuckled a bit..

'wait.. where am I anyway?' he wonders as he used the usual movement buttons to walk around.

His character was in a small room like cave. There's a small chest too. And he press E to interact with it and got two bottles of potion and an unlight torch.

'wait... Isn't this?-'

He suddenly realized the place looked the same as the one on the game menu.

'oohh.. so this means the next room should be the tutorial right?' he thought before walking near the entrance. Then he saw that he could interact with the torch on the wall. And soon found himself holding it.

'cool.. i can grab, place, throw and drop it!' he nodded in awe. 'wait lemme try something.' he then made his character approach the chest and soon he realized he could do the same to the chest.

'nice. I can hoard loot with this.. im such a genius' he giggled and soon he started exploring the features the game have.. he also figured out how to open the menu which is the button [ctrl]

There he also found out that you could rip and destroy your own stuff to get some smaller material.

Like how he rip his shirt to get a fabric. And soon found that he could craft it with the torch. 'Damm! This shit is completely different!' he thought and continue exploring.. until he have already been playing for hours and he still haven't even left the cave.

His character was now wearing a torch on his head. Carrying a small wooden chest in a makeshift cloth carrier.. he managed to craft a a make shift bag by tying the cloth around the chesh and equipping it in his characters back.

'we should stop for now and let the tutorial gradually guide us in the game' he sighed as he realized he haven't done anything but explore the ingame menu.

He have realized a lot too. One is, his character have a hunger, thirst, and temp level, exhaustion, stress which depressed him because this could surely make the game much much harder than he have expected.

He have also found that he could perform a bunch of actions like shouting, laying down, rolling and many more in the [actions] menu

Checking that everything ready he finally stepped into the dark entrance of the hallway.

Since this was a turn base he got to click the movement buttons once everytime to move a tile. While shifting into a run could make him move two tiles per one click. And sprint for four tiles.. although he guess that it probably depends on your stats.

Currently he's sprinting down the hall. Although the dark is affecting him which only allowed him to see 2 tiles ahead while each of his move are four which means he's not seeing the other 2 tiles..'it'll probably be fine.. I mean we're still at the beginning right? And where the fuck is the tutorial zone anyway?'

'will I'll be fighting a monster for the starting tutorial quest or wh-' he suddenly choked on his own words as he watched his character plummet into the void from an unsuspecting cliff.

*CRUSH!* *CRASH* *BAM!* *CRASH!*

He watched as the body of the pixel character hit multiple boulder before continuing to roll down the cliff and meeting even more boulder along the way.

[You have sustained blunt damage]

[You are suffering from concussion]

[You're left leg is broken]

[Your right shoulder is broken]

[Your skull have cracked]

[Your ribs are broken]

[Your lungs are punctured]

[You have sustained multiple severe damage]

[You have died]

>Quit

-Return to menu

-restart

'....what... the... fuck??' he couldn't believe his eye as he kept staring at the unrecognizable state of his avatar.

'welp.. lets restart'

[You have died]

-Quit

-Return to menu

>restart

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[Restarting]