Chapter 1: Pilot

As he did everyday, Atlas walked down from the podium. Usually he came here to vent his ever increasing stress from college, or to take a quick swig of the good stuff before going back to his dorm, where he'd wish he drank some more.

This time was a bit different though. And that was because he was graduating. That's right, he no longer had to drown out his sorrows in unhealthy amounts of alcohol, and his assholes of professors plastered on the fakest smiles he had ever seen as they handed out the other students' diplomas and shook their hands as if their paychecks depended on it.

'Mary Watson!.... Karl Jacobs!.... Marina Sky!....'

Finally came his name.

"Atlas."

Unlike the others, there was barely any volume put into his callout, as if they were hoping he wouldn't hear them and not get his diploma.

"Atlas? Just Atlas?"

"Where's his last name?"

"Did they forget to say it?"

But those who knew him- or rather knew OF him- knew, they didn't forget. It was just that. He didn't have a last name, and the weird shit the other students did resulting from that was the main reason for his alcoholism. He slowly walked up to the podium, drowning out the whispers of his classmates in his idle fantasies of his newfound freedom. When he finally made it to the top of the podium, the woman announcing the names handed him his diploma rather hastily, and as he walked off, not a single professor outstretched their hand to shake his. The pieces of shit who were so excited for the other students stood there like statues, and most of them didn't even dare to make eye contact. Fucking pussies. Not like he wanted to shake their filthy hands anyway. He walked off and instead of sitting back down to watch the rest of the ceremony, or leaving with his parents, he just walked straight out of the school alone.

As he reached the front gate, he took off his cap and gown and threw them in the garbage. 'Biggest waste of $50 ever. I could have shown up in a hoodie and basketball shorts and still be treated the same', He thought.

He walked up to his run down car, parked behind the school dumpster since he couldn't afford to pay for the campus parking. He found it mildly amusing that it hadn't been vandalized or broken into, but it was rather normal as the last person who did that almost drowned in the toilet. Yeah, he didn't know how that happened either, but that was the story being circulated. He got it and just sat still for the duration of the ceremony, as people leaving during college hours were asked to show their parking pass, something he obviously didn't have parking behind the dumpster every day. Luckily for him, the graduation ceremony made that day a half day, and he just got his 'paycheck'. Well, paycheck in a way that it was regular, because it certainly wasn't deserved.

Recalling when his name was called up to the podium, he giggled a bit when he remembered taking the female professor's wallet as she was giving him his diploma. Opening his glove compartment, he removed the $25 inside before adding it to his collection. He had made it a sort of collection, to take the wallet of every faculty member before graduation, and this last one made it whole. Of course there were exceptions, like the janitor who didn't report him for skipping class. Atlas didn't forget favors so easily. As he tossed the empty wallet into the glove compartment, he heard a loud DING sound, and-looking up- there was a fluorescent panel floating in the air in front of him.

[ Hidden Quest: Thieving Collector COMPLETED ]

[ Quest Contents: The One Who Rules Over Thieves wants to see your potential. Steal one object of moderate difficulty from 50 people. Current status: 50/50. ]

[ Bonus Conditions: Rewards will increase by 1.5x if items are stolen from 50 different people. Bonus Condition COMPLETED. ]

[ Rewards will now be distributed ]

"What rewards? And what the fuck is this shit?" Atlas exclaimed as he waved his hand through the floating panel, discovering it was intangible. "Is there some fuck with a projector nearby?" he asked himself as he looked around frantically to no avail. He suddenly heard yet another sound to add to the several his brain was racked with.

[Accept Rewards? (Yes)/(No) ]

'Rewards? I mean, it can't be that bad, right? I mean its called a reward for a reason, surely.'

[(Yes)]

[ Skill Acquired: Sky Walk LVL. 1 ]

[ Due to the bonus condition, the skill level is increased to LVL. 2 ]

'A skill? The fuck is this, a video game?' Still in shock at the rapid messages being sent on this weird panel, he mindlessly clicked the skill he received, deciding to play along and beat the shit out of the person responsible for this prank later.

[ Skill: Sky Walk LVL. 2 ]

[ Effects: For a total of 30(+3) minutes per 24-hour cycle, the user can walk in the air as if they were on land. This skill can be deactivated and reactivated until the duration has expired. ]

'Wait if this is real, this is kinda cool.' He thought to himself. Once again, he checked around his car to see if this really was a prank, or if it was like those fantasy novels he loved to read. Wanting to test it, he mumbled to himself: "Status Window". To his surprise, the old panel disappeared and a new one appeared, one with his personal information.

[ Status Window ]

[ Name: Atlas ???? ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Skills: Sky Walk LVL. 2, Petty Pickpocketing LVL. 3 ]

So far, he had relatively expected this, but he was surprised to see he already had a so-called skill in this game, called Petty Pickpocketing. Curiosity got the better of him, and he clicked this new skill.

[ Skill: Petty Pickpocketing LVL. 3 ]

[ Effects: The user can summon one object equal to or less than 1kg(+2kg) from any distance in 5 meters. The object cannot be previously owned by the user. ]

[ DP Cost: 5 ]

'Wait, there's a cost for this skill? Is DP like MP in League?' He asked himself. "Well, might as well try the skills out" He told himself as he got out of the car. By now, all the students and faculty had left, so normally there would be no way to enter the building. However, he had his new skill Sky Walk.

Not checking the rest of his Status Window, he neglected to learn that he only had 5 DP in the first place, and that in this so-called game, there was fall damage, and he only had 10HP.

"Wait, how the fuck do I activate it? Do I just say it out loud? Activate Sky Walk?" He questioned this supposed new system. To his surprise, he felt his feet leave the floor, now hovering about 1 foot off the ground. To test things out, he lifted his foot up and forward, as if he was climbing up stairs. To his pleasant surprise, he actually found the sensation of a foothold under his foot and shifted his foot forwards. He was now higher off the floor than before. Repeating this with some trial error, he made his way to the roof of his college.

'Well, I guess it's not my college anymore is it?' He chuckled as he realized he was technically trespassing now.

"If anyone saw me doing this, I'd die of embarrassment." He told himself, as he resolved himself to imitate the web novels he read in his free time. "Activate Petty Pickpocketing" he spoke, in a similar fashion to when he activated Sky Walk, but without the questioning tone. When he said these words, a brand new panel popped up, with a list of items he could choose from.

[ Items Available for Skill Targeting ]

[ Master Key, Mrs. Rudolph's House Key…. ]

'Mrs. Rudolph's house key? Is that literally the key to her house? Well she's fucked, isn't she?' he thought as he giggled at the thought of the professor who constantly embarrassed him in class not being able to go home after her job had ended for the year.

DING!

He once again heard the notification sound. Treating this as a new game he could play, he hastily opened his System Panel quite easily, forgetting that mere hours ago he didn't know what he was doing. And he would soon find out, he still didn't.

[ New Quest Assigned! (Accept)/(Decline) ]

'A new quest? Aren't quests only supposed to be assigned when you progress in the main story? Was coming to the roof part of the plotline?' he recalled previous games and novels as he thought this.

[ (Accept) ]

[ Main Quest: Petty Revenger ]

'Well, I already don't like this quest. Why am I always being called petty?'

[ Quest Contents: The One Who Punishes Hubris desires for you to enact revenge upon those who have wronged you. Visit the home of Mrs. Rudolph and take her life as retribution. ]

[ Quest Rewards: The favor of the One Who Punishes Hubris, One Black Skill Ticket.]

As he read the last line of the Quest Contents, his eyes widened in shock over the fact that the system wanted him to kill someone.