Ray was once again in the black void of nothingness. He finally remembered what had happened in his supposed dream. Realising it may not have been a dream at all, maybe it was a premonition. It haunted Ray. He had followed the scene to the exact ending and hadn’t even paused to think about it.

[System Error…. Breaking Glitch Found…. Rollback Start…. Unsuccessful]

[Error…. Error….]

[System Override Accepted….]

The system messages suddenly changed. Instead of being robotic, they began to sound more like a middle-aged man…

[The System Welcomes Ray Atton. You have died. Errors have been overridden. Please accept the system to continue. Please think the term: I accept]

Ray knew one thing. When someone wanted you to accept something blindly it was usually too good to be true. The fact that this “system” had made changes to its sound felt extremely suspicious to Ray as well.

“I Decline”

[The system wishes to rectify its errors. Please accept so we may proceed]

“Look here… I don’t know who you think this ‘we’ is, I thought you were ‘the system’. I have no intention of accepting something I don’t understand. It sounds like I’m being fucked sideways here”

Back to the robotic voice

[Explanation Granted…. The System is a collective conscious… We wish for you to join us… Dictate Universe…. Consent Required…. Please Accept…]

Ray was starting to get annoyed “Mate… If you think I’m going to become some hive robot, you got another thing coming buddy. That’s a hard decline. Either let me die or send me back to earth, this is a stupid waste of time”

[The System only wants what is best for… Individual Ray Atton…. Please confirm you have declined integration]

“I confirm that I have declined integration, now do what you have to” Whilst Ray feared death, he feared being part of a collective more. He would rather die free then be a slave to this system.

[Ray Atton… Choice Accepted… Please Wait…]

It’s not like Ray could do anything else. He didn’t even think he was alive at this point. As far as he could tell, either he’d gone mentally insane, in which case, just shoot him now, or his planet had blown up and he was somehow stuck in a void. Either way, everyone he knew and loved was gone. He’d never see his parents, brothers, or friends again. Was life even worth living?

While Ray was waiting, the thought hit him. He was alone. His family and friends, dead. It was at that moment Rays mind snapped, depression was sinking in.

“Just let me die. My life is over, why keep me here?”

[Declined… Decision Made… You will be resurrected as: Outcast… We will provide you with the system benefit of your role… You will be resurrected as follows:]

Ray could suddenly comprehend in his mind something that looked very similar to a character sheet from an RPG game.

Name:

Ray Atton

More Info +

Race:

Human-Error (F)

Level:

1 (F)

Stats

Strength

5

Dexterity

5

Agility

5

Body

5

Vitality

5

Intelligence

5

Mind

5

Luck

15

Unallocated Points

0

Titles

Outcast (Unique 1/1)

Coins

Arkus System

0

Ray noticed that there was a button in the top right corner for more information. He clicked the button to be left with some additional tabs such as alignment and class which were both empty. Two sections drew his interest however:

Detailed Titles

Outcast (Unique 1/1)

Congratulations you are unique

You have shunned the system and are shunned in return.

+10 Luck

-10,000 Relation to the System

-10,000 Relation to System Merchants

One Time Bonus – You may call the system to you. It will send you to the void. You must make a final decision at this time.

This title can evolve.

Relations

Value

Status

Description

System

-10,000

Hated

You will receive no further help from the system.

System Merchants

-10,000

Hated

You can not trade with System Designated Merchants.

Well that wasn’t ominous. The System clearly wanted him to have a hard time. He supposed that his luck had increased due to surviving an encounter like this one with the system, otherwise, everything was a disadvantage. Could he trade with anyone? This sucked.

Further, Ray was a Human-Error… What did that mean? How did it effect things? There was no explanation of this anywhere. Before he could ask, the System began to speak in the male voice again.

[We have denied your request at death. You will live but will be punished by the system. You will resurrect in the same place that you died. You will not be provided with any further items or help and will be unable to trade with System entities. You may contact us directly once. At this point, you may wish to change your decision. We wish you luck.]

[Now Respawning in Arkus.]

Ray opened his eyes. His head was splitting, he was laying face down in the dirt, throat still burning from the liquid he had ingested. He took about 5 minutes to sit up and when he finally did, he wished he hadn’t. He was clearly not in full condition.

Once he managed to take stock of his situation, he had noticed that there weren’t one but two flashing lights in his peripheral vision. Based on the fact that the System had shown him something that looked similar to a character sheet, he assumed there might be a way to interact with these items.

Ray stuck his hand out and spoke “Menu”. Nothing happened. “Info” …. “Character”. When he opened the menu, energy flooded into him. He felt invigorated, though he still had the splitting headache and felt sluggish. He also noticed a change.

Level

2

Unallocated Points

5

Well, that was handy. He must have levelled up when he killed the spider. Wait… He could level? Was he part of some game? It felt wrong, like all the hard work people did back on earth could just be accomplished by doing a few things to get experience.

With one icon still sitting in his peripheral vision, he decided to keep exploring potential commands. He eventually realised the following commands would work:

Character

Brings forth the character sheet

Status

Shows character status including Health, Mana, Buffs and Debuffs

Inventory

Brings up some inventory slots that could be used, though limited

Skills

Brings up a list of skills – currently empty

Equipment

Shows currently equipped items and their stats

Aside from the above commands, he was tempted to shout ‘System’ but was afraid of his Titles effect if he did, so didn’t risk it.

The other flashing icon was clearly a debuff, so he brought up the status screen again:

Health

20/20 (-80)

Mana

10/10 (-40)

Buffs

None

Debuffs

Death – You have recently died (-80% Maximum Health, -80% Maximum Mana), Cooldown Remaining: 5h:58m

“Well Fuck” Ray said out loud. He was weakened by 80% for 6 hours in total.

No sooner had Ray swore when he noticed movement all around him. Ray grabbed the pistol that lay next to him but before he could even lift it, an arrow knocked the weapon into the stream.

“Krij Kol Ardot!” A purple woman screamed as she jumped down from a nearby tree, bow drawn.

Ray slowly put his hands behind his head in surrender, he clearly wasn’t getting out of this any other way.

“Ardot! Ardot!” the woman screamed.

“Lady, I don’t understand a single word you’re saying. Speak up” Ray replied.

The woman let out a sigh of frustration, pulled out a blue spherical ball, walked up to Ray and proceeded to shove it down his throat.

“nghgf… nfgnnh… What the fuck!” Ray screamed.

[New Skill Unlocked: Dark Elf Communication (Common - Passive) – Speak and Read the language of the Dark Elves]

[New Skill Unlocked: Identify (Common – Active, Level 1) – Use to see basic information about the target]

“There, now do you understand me?” The woman responded.