A 6 foot 2 boy with black hair, the hair messy and covering one of his blue eyes with a pointed bridged nose, small lips and a face that was clearly above average. He was dressed in a shirt and trousers with a classic shoe while folding the sleeves of his shirt. His shirt fitted him and projected a look of manliness and confidence.
' Looking good as always if I do say so myself. It's decided I will wear this to the interview and ace the job and be able to gather funds for the bills this month. Alright then since it's not yet time let me use this time to relax, 'Mike thought to himself and sighed tiredly. He removed his clothes and put on a tracksuit and a t-shirt and prepared to lie down.
[Booting]
[System Online]
[System notice ~ Earth has been selected to undergo evolution.
The Age of Balance has ended.
The Towers have risen.
The world has failed its first trial.
In mercy, the System grants a single boon:
[Grace for All Humans] – one chance to defy death through sacrifice.
Choose what you will abandon:
Flesh. Mind. Soul. Emotion. Fate. Time. Voice. Potential.
Each sacrifice reshapes your essence.
Let it be known: once the offering is made,
it shall never be reclaimed.
May your rebirth serve balance—or chaos.
> The message burned across the heavens in golden runes, every living being understanding it in their own tongue. Then came the silence.
Say Status to access your . Survive ]
And then… the screams.
What was that voice? Was it in my head? Have I finally lost it? Nah, must be a PR stunt from the government. No, the government can't speak in my mind.
Freaking bastards but what if it's true let me check the news to make sure I'm not missing out on anything relevant. He took his remote and turned on his oven like tv. This baby has lasted too long I can't even get rid of it since it has no fault. I'm not even able to get a flat screen. As he was turning on the tv a torrential energy circulated through his body while he was distracted it started from his feet and reached up to his head.
What is this cool sensation spreading through my body, what the hell is happening. Eliel speculated to himself before being rudely interrupted by his door being hammered.
Bang! bang!
"Who the hell knocks like that? I will send your ass straight to the hostel manager if any damage is incurred", Eliel muttered to himself as he walked towards the door but when he reached the living room he saw a scene that turned his expression fierce.
" Fuck you! You home wrecker, if I don't teach you a lesson today change my na... but his sentence got stuck in his mouth when he saw the none human features of what used to be an arm but replaced with long nails with flesh stuck in and was followed by an inhuman roar filled with greed and malice.
Though now inhuman the zombie was in a compression top and shorts as well as a dior sneaker. But the sneaker was a shadow of its former self, since the claws of its feet pierced straight through it.
Roar! Roar!
The zombie that was pounding on the door as a result of smelling the aura of life got its hard work rewarded when it punched a hole straight through the door. Unable to hold itself back it dove in head first.
Unfortunately the rest of it body could not enter through the hole making it look funny if not for its rotten features and saliva dripping from its broken jaw.
Fuck a zombie of all tarnation but the door won't last and this sound might attract other zombies I have to get rid of it first.
Tsk, l clicked my tongue in amusement.
As expected diving in head first is a sign of degraded intelligence. There's a rake in the store room with it length I can get rid of this creature . Lemme get that real quick
I clicked my tongue whilst rushing towards the store room to look for a suitable weapon. From the look of things this was an issue on a universal scale.
I came back with a rake in hand and lifted it to smash the zombie's head but missed on my first try and then tried again and missed. I tried two consecutive times, a fourth time and rammed it straight through it's head.
The light in the zombies eye dimmed as it returns to the netherworld and slumps to the ground .
Oh shit. This isn't a PR stunt it's clearly real. A little bit of humor to calm my nerves. Though I didn't show it, seeing a zombie in real life hit different compared to novels.
I pulled the rake from its head just for the rake to snap in two.
Damn it, discarding the half rake, I heard something like gemini-esque voice in my head.
[ Level Up ]
[ Congratulations you have reached Level 1 ]
[ Congratulations you have received a skill orb ]
[ Congratulations you have received a weapon orb ]
[ Items have been stored in your inventory ]
[Think status to access your personal data ]
I decided to ponder on how to fix the hole without making noise to attract zombies.
After a bit of thinking my best option was to fill the hole with a bundled cloth for the time being since every route I could think of led to noise and noise equaled attracting zombies.
'Status'
I thought about the word and a holograph appeared before encompassing basically everything about my physical statistics.
[ Name: Eliel Jojo Cross Rorschach ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Grace: 1 ]
[ Class: None ]
[ Affiliation: None ]
[ Strength: 10 (Average) ]
[ Agility: 10 (Average) ]
[ Intelligence: 9 ( Average) ]
[ Endurance: 10 (Average)]
[ Willpower: 10 (Average)]
[ Available Stats: 10 ]
Hmm, as a man of culture I have a basic understanding of what these statistics represent.
Commanding it telepathically I focused on strength to see more details.
[ Strength (STR) – Physical power and damage output.]
This is roughly how much of a punch I can pack it seems.
Next.
[ Agility (AGI) – Speed, reaction, and movement skill cooldown.
Endurance (END) – Health, stamina, and defense.
Intelligence (INT) – Governs mana capacity and magical learning.
Perception (PER) – Awareness, accuracy, and combat instincts.
Willpower (WIL) – Resistance to fear, pain, and system corruption. ]
Sighing softly this magical scene of tabulating my stats into numbers confirmed that this is a dawn of a new era.
Just like those cultivation books, it seems we enter into an era where might makes right.
'What does the grace in my status mean,' I projected the question to the system that just decides to Usher us into a new era.
[ Grace is both an opportunity and danger. Depending on what the user sacrifices, he or she is granted the opportunity to come back to life at a cost. Also depending on the means of death, a worthy sacrifice is needed to mitigate #%?&#%?.
The worth of the sacrifice may lead to an additional reward as well as a chance of a start over.
For instance if you sacrifice your humanity, you can be given a race depending on the worth of your humanity. A level 50 human sacrificing his humanity is worth more than a level 10 human sacrificing his humanity]
'Can I use my grace to acquire more grace or how it determined that I am about to die. What happens if I am not conscious I am about to die, does the grace become null?' I questioned the system.
[Puny human, disregard those thoughts. The system cannot be manipulated and there are messages put in place to ensure that those who succeed face CONSEQUENCE] A voice that wasn't artificial replied though the answer was reflected in my view.It sounded like that of an elderly man with a baritone voice.
Following the voice was a lethal atmosphere, as if the text that was projected carried a threatening aura in of itself.
I get the gist of things right now I guess.
My mode of death determines what I have to sacrifice alongside the grace point I have.
'Can the grace point be accumulated," I asked in order to analyse how things will proceed depending on the answer.