Attention all players! The update will now commence!

The world around Markus faded away into darkness. Seconds later, he found himself in a brightly lit and white-tiled room. In the middle of the room is a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall, along with a comfy armchair. A round speaker can be seen underneath the TV.

"Please sit." A young man's voice came from the speaker on the wall. Markus found himself, like a puppet on a string, walking over and sitting in the chair.

Is this Charmspeak or something? Weird, it should be-

The TV flickered on, interrupting his thoughts.

On the screen, a man dressed as a newscaster sits at a wooden desk. The man wears a white mask like the one seen in The Phantom of the Opera. All the parts of his body are covered with a translucent film, such that no skin is showing. He holds a card, which he reads from.

"Hello, humans. Congratulations on surviving this far. As of right now, there are currently 876,874,562 players still alive in the game."

The number had dropped again while he had forgotten about it. It was still higher than in his past life, however.

"Due to the number of players, we are raising the difficulty of the game a little."

Did I change the future? Or is it something else? Way too many things that happened later in the game are happening now...

"However, don't worry. We won't do something as large as raising the difficulty to Medium, but there will be a few changes to accommodate for the player population."

He had guessed it long ago, but this confirmed his suspicions: the difficulty was set to Easy. The game difficulty was based on the initial number of players; for example, the orc race, with a number close to 10 billion, was set to Medium. One of the biggest differences in their game was that the combined level of skills could not be greater than a certain number. The other big rule, and the rule that killed them, was that demons were allowed to go outside cities.

The orcs were obliterated after a few weeks.

"We will begin with the NPCs. The Pixie race will be removed from the game and will be replaced by the Chimera race. To compensate for this, all current players will receive the stat Resistance, as well as the skills, Poison Resistance, Paralyze Resistance, and Petrify Resistance. If a player already has the stat or any of the skills, they will receive points in that stat or levels in that skill instead."

The Pixie race was a set of monsters that depending on your class, could be very annoying or very easy to deal with. They had high magical power and resistance but very low health and close to zero defense. In other words, warriors, rogues, and fighters could take them down with ease, while mages and supporters would struggle.

On the other hand, the Chimera race was a group of parasites that would crawl into dead body parts, bring them back to life, then search for more parts. They were a big pain in the ass for all kinds of players since you either had to burn the whole body to ash or turn it into mincemeat. Doing this would not only take lots of time but also make the corpse unharvestable for any drops.

Learned Poison Resistance Lvl 1! Learned Petrify Resistance Lvl 1! Paralyze Resistance has become Lvl 5!

"Next up is the skills. Due to the actions of some players, we are removing the Cooperation skill. In exchange, the Party system will be unlocked at Lvl 5, and the Forums at Lvl 10."

The Cooperation skill was basically a measure of how well you could get along with others. If raised to Lvl 10, the skill would unlock the Party system as well as the Forums. The Party system just gave bonuses to players in "parties", and could be upgraded the more times it was used. However, the Forums system was the big thing that everyone wanted. Essentially, it was the "internet" and allowed players to communicate with those outside the game. Players could send messages to their loved ones, and as it was upgraded, could send money, items, and other things. Likewise, people on the outside could send things to the players in a form called sponsorship.

"Then we have the quests and stats. The quest system will be more active from now on, but in exchange, the deadlines may or may not be shortened. For stats, the stat Luck will be changed to Karma and will fluctuate more often. Your Karma will not be based on your actions but rather on how the-"

A loud beep drowns out the rest of what the masked being says. He looks up and off to the side.

"Am I not allowed to say that? Okay, then... let's see. What else was there? Oh yes, the management has decided to implement another rank of monsters. They will be known as Elite monsters and will look more or less like regular monsters, but they will have stronger stats and skills overall."

"We will also be reducing the impacts of certain items. For example, armor will no longer give stats like AGI or CONS."

"And last but not least, the management will be providing compensation to all the players still active. The rewards are as follows: unlocking the bank, unlocking the lottery, 10000 Credits, a random item box, and a random skill book."

The screen flickers and shuts off. Markus tries to get up, but then feels a sharp pain in the back of his head and it all goes black.

"Hey, I did what you asked me to do, okay? Can I go home now?"

The man attempts to remove the white mask on his face, getting it off after a couple of tries. When removed, it reveals a young face, that of a man close to the age of 20 or 30. He sits in a chair inside a room practically identical to that of Markus's, but with a camera instead of a TV and a newscaster setting.

The voice that comes out of the speaker is monotone, and more closely resembles something alien than something human. "Of course you can, Mr. Parkinson. And as promised, you may have one wish."

"T-Then can you-"

"I'm afraid we can't give you back your brother, Mr. Parkinson. After all, that would be against the rules."

"How did you-"

"We aren't allowed to make exceptions here, John. Please state another wish." John Parkinson started to feel pressure coming out of the speaker even though the voice stayed monotone. He licked his lips and spoke.

"The reward will be sent to your home shortly. Please enjoy."

The wall opened up, revealing the exit. John walked down those steps slowly, thinking about his reward. Was it really worth going into that crazy game just to save his brother? He shook his head. Of course! Family always protects family. Rule Number 1, John.

Deep in the middle of a fucking desert stands a man on top of a few dozen corpses. He looks up into the sky as to wonder why the author made him sound like a dramatic cliche character, before turning his attention back to the blue screen in front of him.

Unlocked Gacha! Unlocked Interest!

His stomach growled loudly. The man sighed before bringing up the leaderboards, where he now noticed Markus's name.

The other day he had a very weird dream. He was standing in Sao Paulo, along with a group of 5 others. He didn't know how he knew it was Sao Paulo, just that it was Sao Paulo. One of them carried what looked like an SMG, while the other had a sniper rifle. Another person had a pair of oversized gauntlets, another a ridiculously large hammer, and the remaining one had a shield bigger than themselves.

He didn't remember the specifics of why they were there. He just remembered that they were there to kill someone or something. Either way, they ended up massacring a lot of humans- no, demons. They were demons for sure.

And then there was this machine. The machine that obliterated two of the people next to him in a single hit. Their blood and guts were everywhere.

He couldn't remember their faces or names, but he knew that he was friends with them. They had been such good friends. One second they were just chatting away with him, and then they were gone, reduced to a puddle of meat and blood.

The machine turned on him next. He felt a sharp pain in his legs. He fell to the ground, realizing that they weren't there anymore either. He crawled on the ground, shouting for someone to help him. But they left him and ran.

Then he woke up.

Suddenly he had all these memories. Memories of the blue screens, and the features that he later knew to be vital to his survival.

Instead of running from a monster, he managed to kill one, with just a stick. It felt so damn good.

And now he was in the desert, sweating his damn ass off. From his past memories, he remembered that there was something here. Something hidden, deep in the desert. And yet, wherever he looked, there was just sand. Sand and just one lone cactus...Oh yeah, and the monsters.

He walked over to the cactus and inspected it. There was an oddly shaped bump at the bottom of it, one that didn't look real. His hand passed through the bump and then hit something solid, some kind of indentation.

The ground rumbled as a hidden set of stairs opened up right next to the cactus.

The man checked himself over. He opened up the shop and bought a few things. As he opened up the firestarter kit, he lugged over the gnoll corpses and began dismantling them. His metal rod, newly formed after killing all those monsters, greedily awaited beside the cactus.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming... sorry I just wanted to say that at least once

Markus opened his eyes. He was in his hotel room, with his items right next to him. Stacked on the floor were a few boxes, a thick looking book, and a pile of credits.

Unlocked Lottery! Unlocked Bank Loan!

He got up and swept the credits into the bank. He set aside the boxes for now, before taking out the skill tome that he had kept from before, and compared it with the new book.

The skill tome was a lot thinner, like a chapter book, while the skill book was about as thick as a binder. Skill tomes were pretty rare in his past life but sometimes gave disappointing skills, while skill books could be bought from many different areas. Skill tomes would just give you a skill and teach you almost nothing about it, while skill books you had to read and learn the skill over time.

The second he opened the skill tome, it faded away in a flash of light.

Learned Disarm Trap Lvl 1!

He then opened the skill book and sighed. It was just as he expected. His Communication and Reading skills weren't high enough to decipher the text.

Luckily the city had a library. He had been planning to go there at some point, so he'd head there tomorrow. Markus couldn't do anything at the moment because while he had been in the white room, the day had flown by, bringing it close to 10 pm.

Now he turned his attention towards the boxes. If he recalled correctly, there should be a weapon box, an armor box, a tool box, and two item boxes. However, there were only four boxes in front of him. One of them was larger than the others...

Could it be... he thought, as he grabbed the larger box and examined it.

Item Box II: Contains a storage card that contains a Tier 2 item.

"YES!" he shouted.

Most of the players in the game would only see 1 to 5 kinds of special boxes during their time alive. However, the pioneers of the game managed to get several of them, thanks to what Markus now knew as the Achievements. And according to a few of them, they managed to get the skill Resonance, even though they hadn't evolved any skills. Which meant that they managed to fuse something else. And so they looked through their items and realized that it was the boxes that fused together, since some players hadn't opened their boxes but just left them alone since Tier I boxes were more or less useless at Lvl 20 and up.

He quickly opened the box and took out the item from the storage card. It was a glass bottle filled with a clear liquid.

Evolution Potion I: One random skill will be brought to Lvl 9.

Markus gulped the potion down right away. Seconds later, a blue screen popped up in front of him.

Uppercut has become Lvl 9!

"This fucking- Holy Shit!"

Uppercut Skill Evolution:

Max out your Uppercut skill and evolve it with the following requirements:

1. Kill 100 enemies using only the skill.

2. Kill 1000 enemies using the skill.

3. Kill 100 enemies with one blow.

4. Stun 100 enemies.

5. Evolve the Unarmed Mastery Skill

6. Reach 50 STR.

Rewards: + 500 EXP, Stunning Punch Lvl 1, Execute Lvl 1

His feelings about the skill upgrade changed in an instant. This was because the quest rewards included the Execute skill, which was a highly sought after skill and became very useful later on when monsters got tougher and tougher.

He waved it away for now and opened the remaining boxes.

Iron Tonfas: +5 STR, +7 DEX. Metal dildos that you stick inside your enemies. Fighter's Helm: +5 STR, +10 DEF, +5 RES. A pointy metal hat with holes in it so you can see and spit on your enemies. Better hope your enemies aren't smart enough to aim there. Iron Pan: +5 STR, +10 DEX, +2 DEF. Somehow has better stats than your metal dildos.

The tonfas were a little disappointing, but the stats were probably "each" and not "both". The helm would be pretty useful, and at least he didn't have to go buy a pan later. The only problem was storage.

He had the rock from before, the hoe, the cleaver, the speed potion, the rope, and now the pan and the tonfas. He could keep the tonfas on him, but he'd need to buy a belt since it would be nice to have at least 1 hand free.

Markus opened up the shop, went to settings, and bought the Categorize feature for 1000 Credits.

Unlocked Categorize!

Now when he used the shop, it would have different categories. At the moment, he had unlocked one category: the general category. He bought the armor, weapon, and tool categories, each for 3000 Credits.

In the armor section, he went and bought a belt with 5 slots for 1500 Credits, bringing him down to 7340 Credits, thanks to the 5000 from the Leaderboard achievement and the 10000 from the update.

Markus stuck the tonfas onto the belt, along with the rope and hoe. He kept the cleaver, pan, rock, and potion in the bag.

He then went back to the general section and bought an apple along with his bread and water. As he munched on the food, he took each piece of equipment before curling up in the sheets and going to sleep. He was going to try to complete the plan as fast as he could, so he'd need to get some sleep for tomorrow.

Day 3 END