Dao Curse

Dalvin couldn't help but smirk. If you wanted people to make only one choice, then why the hell did you add more? Of course, Dalvin knew why. The cheap game studio wanted to add it as a selling point of their game, that a player could choose from a diverse cast of characters.

After all, while Dalvin himself disdained it, for some, it was a matter of near life and death for them to be anything but a normal human when they played certain types of games.

After choosing the human race, his avatar seemed to solidify somehow, and it wasn't just in terms of pixels. This intrigued Dalvin, but his attention was stolen away by the next prompt.

[In Path of Heaven, every player is unique and possesses enduring traits that stem from their own existence! The game studio has partnered with the Health Ministry to allow players to upload detailed health reports to the server, in which our advanced AI will generate a physique within the game for your character based on your own data!]

[Note that this choice is optional, and players can randomly generate a physique, but for a more interesting playthrough, it is advised to personalize the experience!]

Dalvin's forehead creased slightly. He was surprised that a mere mobile game would go so far as to want players' health data to generate these physiques, and he tried to recall what he knew about such things.

If he remembered correctly, these physique things were very important in the long run, right?

Dalvin shrugged and accepted. To him, he already had all his data stored in his Apple health app, so it was just giving his personal information that had likely been sold a hundred times to and by the government.

[Health data uploaded, processing…]

There was a loading bar on the screen that was slowly filling up, so Dalvin put the phone down and walked to the kitchen of his studio apartment to prepare some breakfast as his stomach was rumbling.

In the end, he settled for some cereal for now since he would likely be going to the gym later today and had to watch his calorie intake. He wouldn't have made the progress he did if he continued to eat wantonly like he did previously.

When he came back to the room, the loading bar had only gone halfway, so he sat down behind his computer and casually played some solo queue matches. After just two of them, he angrily quit the game and swore at the developers for the shitty matchmaking system.

In the end, he sighed and checked his phone to see that it had long been done and was waiting for the next input from him. Curious as to what he had been awarded, Dalvin picked up the phone and continued.

[After scanning your health data, it has been detected that you possess the dormant Spacetime Immortal Physique. This physique is rare and leads directly to the Immortal Dao, bearing the aura of an Immortal Emperor!]

Reading up to here, Dalvin was surprised because it seemed he had rolled a good physique the first time. He truly thought with his terrible health that was only getting slightly better, he would be lucky to get the most basic physique, not an immortal one.

[This physique is powerful and requires a lot of resources to awaken. As it is the launch of the game, all players during this period are given free physique awakening stones to awaken the first stage of their physiques.]

[Would you like to consume yours now?]

"Eh, sure." Dalvin shrugged.

Like really, why not have an advantage at the very beginning? What was he going to delay the awakening for, the second coming of Christ?

[Awakening the Spacetime Immortal Physique, please wait…]

'Great, another waiting period.' Dalvin thought to himself as he placed the phone down and prepared to play a few more matches.

However, he was puzzled when he tapped the keys of his computer only to be met with a completely unresponsive machine. Like any person who was met with a freezing computer, he tapped the keys more furiously with each press as if his anger would wake the machine up and make it feel fear.

Exasperated, he reached to the back and pressed the off switch on the power supply unit. However, what startled Dalvin was the fact that the computer still did not go off and displayed the same screen to him.

Even the RGB lights were not cycling and the fans were not spinning at all. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly, Dalvin noticed that his table was vibrating and turned his eye to the cause, which was his phone. However, the current state of his phone caused him to recoil with shock.

"Holy shit!"

The thing was shaking so fiercely and intensely that it was a miracle it did not dismantle itself, but what was even more horrifying was the fact Dalvin could literally see that it was floating in the air while facing him.

He could read the text that passed across the screen rapidly, repeating the same error line over and over again.

[Failed to awaken physique, not enough resources… pulling from source…]

[Failed to awaken physique, not enough resources… pulling from source…]

[Failed to awaken physique, not enough resources… pulling from source…]

What were just words soon seemed to manifest itself into the world as a loud roar that shattered Dalvin's hearing and caused his mind to virtually go blank. A surge of heat coursed through his body that would have made him scream if he were aware of himself, but his eyes were currently dull due to the mental shockwave from his phone.

A black void manifested above the quaking phone and a surge of multicolored lights was dragged into it from the portal-like existence, continually surging into the phone and then from the phone into Dalvin.

A strange connection was established between the man and the device, causing the device to surge into his body, striking into his lower abdomen and tunneling into his body without causing any blood to spill, as if his flesh was made of wool.

But this was not the end of this bizarre and isolated phenomenon, as the void-like portal stretched wide until it vaguely displayed the scene of a meeting room on the other side. It was difficult to make out what was there, but a pair of bloodshot eyes manifested in the focus, blocking the view of the rest.

The eyes roved the room and focused on Dalvin who was still stunned, widening with emotion.

"It's you!"

"It's all your… fault…!"

"I… hate… you!"

"I…curse…"

"Curse…"

The voice weakened with each sentence, and the light in the eyes of the being disappeared as the last of the multicolored light surged into Dalvin, causing his body to lift into the air like a marionette.

A light surged from his lower abdomen where his phone had gone and covered his body, causing him to shrink significantly as he shot forth into the floating portal opposite him, disappearing into its depths.

The void portal slowly closed itself, leaving not a trace of damage within the room and completely hiding all traces of its appearance and purpose.