01: Path of Ascension

A light purple-haired and amythest-eyed individual had been staring at the holographic and bloodstained screen for a few minutes with a vacancy in his eyes that made him look as dead as a fish. He had been sitting on the edge of his bed trying to come to terms with what he just woke up to.

[Congratulations, Faust! You have been chosen as The Gamer!]

"Yeah." He said as he chose to accept this new reality. His first response would have been to assume that this was a hallucination. Of course, he didn't want to accept that realistic answer. This was practically omnipotent power handed to him on a silver platter. If this was real? He'll be forced to make some changes to his life.

"Does this system have any AI or sentience?" He asked curiously. He needed to know what he was dealing with if he wanted to properly gain power. If this system was sentient or had some big backer behind it, he'd need to know if it would be against him or not.

Nothing.

"Well, that answers that." A mumble escaped from him as he knew the system could also potentially be hiding something by choosing not to speak or if this system was controlled by some sort of entity that was more silent. Obviously, too much paranoia was bad, and neglecting the use of this power would be detrimental to his growth. There was no point in searching for something more when he had a lack of ability to gain anything substantial at the moment.

He mentally commanded his system to open the Menu for him to see what sort of options he had. He was also testing if he could mentally use the system or not.

[Menu]

- Status

- Inventory

- Quests

- Gacha

- Abilities

- Group Chat

- Travel

Faust had mentally been pulled back by the amount of information being shown. He tilted his head as he saw the options being given to him.

He would then open up his [Status] to see the basics of what he had. There could be plenty of attributes that he wasn't aware of yet.

[Status]

- Name: Faust Eastward

- Level: 1

- Class: N/A

- Race: Human

- Titles: [Killer], [Bastard], [Ungrateful],

- Health: 100%

- Mana: 100%

SPECIAL:

- STR: 01

- PER: 01

- END: 01

- CHA: 01

- INT: 01

- AGI: 01

- LUC: 01

Status Effects:

- Depression - V

- Suicidal Urges - IV

- Curse of Hollow - X

Faust had instinctively flinched at his [Titles] with a bit of regret. He seemingly sighed as he ignored them for a bit. There was no point in dwelling on them when there was nothing that could currently be done. His status debuffs seemed a bit severe. He should probably fix that when he has time. Although, he had noticed the Fallout Statistics that he had received.

"So.. I just start at Level 1? I'm guessing that means all of my stats are the average for a human." He paused at his words. "Just a human…" He muttered silently. His mind wandered before he snapped back to reality to focus on more important matters.

"A curse, huh? It seems that was something I was unaware of." He said aloud as he laid back in bed. "Why am I even cursed? Hell, what does that even do?" He had mentally commanded for further information on [Curse of Hollow].

[Curse of Hollow - X]

- A curse that impairs the user's very soul, the essence of their individuality. They will have a singular obsession that will mess with all personality traits that the user has by perverting them to twisted heights.

- Obsession: Masks

…

"That's.. concerning." Faust seemed incredibly concerned with what this curse was doing. However, he felt something was off..

Masks? He doesn't even own any masks except for the ones he wore for Halloween! He hasn't worn any since 2016! He pondered for a moment as he wondered what this was implying. He might've taken it too literally and the obsession didn't mean ACTUAL masks. Although, he had no idea what it actually meant then.

He decided to look at the next function for inventory. The inventory didn't appear to have anything stored within, so he just ignored that for the moment.

He took a look at the quest that he currently had at the moment. It was far too intriguing at the moment. It gave him a feeling of excitement and a chance for the future.

[Quest: 01 — Introduction Pt.1]

- Description: It's time to learn the ropes! Exploring the System is required to accomplish the goals that you are seeking.

- Objective: Look at all the functions in the [Menu].

- Rewards: 1x Gacha Token

[Y/N?]

He immediately accepted the quest without a thought as he knew that it was time for him to get adjusted to this new reality. He decided to run through his other functions to complete his quest.

He then paused as he saw the next previously mentioned function..

[Gacha]

Nobody can truly ever escape from Gacha, can they? He knew that this would likely incur his gambling addiction, but it likely wouldn't be easy to get Gacha Tokens anyways..

Anyways, his ability tab was empty.. It seems he'll have to look at the remaining two functions before finishing his quest.

[Group Chat] and [Travel]. He knew that these two might possibly be his best asset for the future. [Group Chat] gave him immense opportunities if it's like the ones that he read in FanFiction. It would give him the opportunity to obtain items and abilities without having to directly travel to other worlds. Speaking of other worlds, it appears that the [Travel] function will give him the ability to move worlds like in most Gamer FanFictions.

[Quest: 01 — Introduction Pt.1]

- Status: Completed!

- User has been rewarded!

"Use the Gacha Token.. Let's see where my beginner's luck can get me." Faust had said aloud as he received something amazing.

[Gacha]

- Recieved Ability, [Devil's Deal]

[Devil's Deal]

- The ability to generate a contract that enforces all parties participating to abide by their part of the deal.

"Vague, way too vague. However, that means the limits are likely very forgiving on what counts as 'part of the deal'." Faust assumed as he knew the more vague something was, the more it can be interpreted.

[Quest: 02 — Introduction Pt.2]

- Description: Invite your new friends to the Group Chat! It'd suck to be alone, right?

- Objective: Invite members to the [Group Chat].

- Rewards: Administrator Privileges

[Y/N?]

Accepted.

Faust would then invite the members to his [Group Chat] as they all seemingly joined one by one.

[ImmortalDoctor] has joined the [GC]

[RandomExplorer] has joined the [GC]

[GenocidalHuman] has joined the [GC]

…

As that happened messages started to occur back and forth as confusion and panic set in. His reward had been obtained as he simply shrugged it off and saw his last quest.

[Quest: 02 — Introduction Pt.2]

- Status: Completed! 

- User has been rewarded!

[You now have Administrative Privileges! You can mute members and edit things related to the [Group Chat]!]

And just as that was finished a final quest had appeared..

[Quest: 03 — Introduction Pt.3]

- Description: It's time to seek excitement in your life and change things up a little! Let's travel!

- Objective: Use the [Travel] function to enter a new world!

- Rewards: 500 CP

[Y/N?]

…

Faust paused as he simply sighed. He knew that he couldn't stay here forever. It was time to leave and seek new horizons. He pressed the final function as he left for a new world.

[Traveling to… Helltaker. Enjoy your temporary stay!]