Chapter 1

Waking up, my dreams are already escaping my mind's grasp. I keep my eyes shut in hopes of holding onto them a moment longer. Feeling warmth nestled against my side, I roll to my left trying to keep my arm relaxed. “Good morning, Mia,” I say, as I feel her head stir against my left arm. Having obviously woken her up I wrap my other arm around her letting my hand rest on her chest and my other nestles between her legs pulling her closer against me. She lets out a soft breath as I give her a gentle squeeze. I rub my hand across her chest and abdomen occasionally feeling one of her small nipples glance against the palm of my hand. I lean forward and give her a kiss on the back of her head before opening my eyes.

“What the fuck!” I snap my head back jolting Mia fully awake, I feel her lick my arm a couple of times and then her cold nose as she buries her face in the crook of my elbow. I see her brown and white fur in my peripheral vision as she disappears under the covers. All the while this... thing, is right in my face no matter where I look.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been chosen!

Once every fifty years, five mortals are chosen to receive a gift.

This gift is unique to each individual.

The purpose of these gifts is to, shakeup, the status quo within both magical and non-magical society as a whole.

Those chosen are picked at random, the only prerequisite is that they be, for lack of a better word, loners so as to keep them from being introduced to society at to early a stage in their development.

After several seconds of confusion, I start to actually read it, which only results in even more confusion. As if it can tell I’d finished reading, another pops up.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been gifted the “Game Character” subspecies.

This allows you to access game style menus including, but not limited to, a personalized status menu.

This menu provides a numerical overview of your physical and mental profile.

Being a Game Character gives you the ability to grow beyond the limitations of a normal human being.

As the first of your kind, you gain the Limitless Perk

Limitless Perk

Your potential is without limit

Most people have a certain potential or affinity for certain skills and as their skills level it becomes progressively harder to increase them until they reach the limits of their potential

You are no longer constrained by affinity

At lower levels, skills will come to you with ease

As you progress they will still become more difficult to level

However, your skill caps will no longer be controlled by your potential but by the work you are willing to put into them

Some unique skills may still take more work to level than others

My heart and mind, both, race as I fight between confusion and excitement trying to figure out what this means. What it is saying is fairly obvious, but wrapping my head around it is proving difficult. “So. What... I’m in some sort of game world? Or the world has always been some sort of game and I’m just now finding out about it?

Mmm, sort of? I mean in a way yeah you could look at it like that. The universe is an incredibly complex and supremely advanced game and up until now everyone in it, aside from the creators, of course, were NPCs. And you, you have become the first real “Player” in this game called life. Of course, there were others before you that realized this was all a game and like many “gamers” they decided to be douchebags and ruin the game for everyone else. Throw everything into chaos for their own personal gain or simply because they like to watch things burn. It is a nice narrative, although not wholly accurate, It is, however, a good analogy, I think, in your situation. I suppose now you simply need to decide, what kind of “gamer” will you be?

“Uhh, who exactly am I talking to and how the hell are you talking to me through these… game messages? Yeah, game messages. How are you talking to me through these?”

Huh? Oh, right. Here this should make things easier.

Friend Request Received!

Bob has sent you a Friend Request!

Accept

Decline

“Hmm, not sure how that is gonna make things easier. Plus, I don’t know if I’ll be receiving any more friend requests, but it could get pretty annoying pretty fast if they just pop up like that all the time. And what the hell is up with his name, Bob? Really?” After a moment's contemplation, I try to click “Accept” but it disappears before my hand even gets half way and another message box pops up. It seems to have registered my intent, so I don’t actually have to touch it.

Friend Request Accepted!

Incoming PM from Bob!

. . .

Bob: There now we can chat directly :D

Bob: As for the whole friend request thing, think “Main Menu” then go to HUD and you can make all your “Game Messages” appear in different little notification icons on your HUD. Important messages will be highlighted and have an exclamation mark appear, as is usual regular ones will just have a number indicating how many messages you have

Jared: uh okay I’ll do that now

Jared: I’ve got a little planet icon showing that I have several notifications

Bob: Oh, right, you seemed like you needed a minute to process so I held back your incoming notifications...

Jared: And your solution was to start talking to me through said notification box’s?

Bob: Well yeah, when someone starts talking to themselves you generally walk away quietly or start a conversation, right? You seemed to be having your own little philosophical debate so I figured I’d make it a little less sad and join you.

Jared: . . . Thanks, I guess?

Bob: np, np, so are you gonna check out your status menu?

Jared: uhh yeah.

I quickly thought Status and received another popup.

Name: Jared Thorne

Species: Human (Game Character)

Occupation: None

Class: None

Level: 6

Experience: 5456/8100

Vitality: 80

Stamina: 60

Age: 22

Money: 937.24 USD (Equivalent*)

Weight: 198 Lbs

Height: 5ft 8in

Attribute Points: 55

Constitution: 8

Strength: 8

Endurance: 6

Intellect: 10

Wisdom: 11

Willpower: 8

Charisma: 8

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 7

Luck: -2

Perception: 9

That is kinda disappointing, although not entirely surprising, to be honest. I’m not exactly in the best shape, I look down and pat my belly through the covers feeling the slight jiggle. I’m assuming, of course, that the average attributes for humans would be 10 except maybe in luck. Speaking of luck why the hell is my luck in the negative. I wouldn’t normally consider myself lucky, but I wouldn’t have thought myself terribly unlucky either.

Bob: oh yeah, you should check those notifications they may affect your stats. Oh, and you can change your Private Messaging to telepathic so that we can talk continuously without having these notifications constantly popping up.

I hesitate a moment, not sure I want this guy in my head before I realize that he can probably read my mind seeing as he knew how I was “processing” all of this. Plus the notifications seem to be connected to my thoughts and he is connected to those soooo it seems like a reasonable conclusion. I think I am overthinking this, yup definitely overthinking this, now I’m overthinking about overthinking. Whatever, I decide to change it and then go to my notifications. The first one to pop up seems really good.

CONGRATULATIONS!

A Feat of Luck has been Performed!

Becoming a Chosen is one of the rarest things a mortal can achieve, as such, you have been awarded 5 Luck for your achievement. This award is doubled due to your negative Luck Status.

As I was reading I noticed I received another notification, assuming it was linked to my reward I decided to read it first.

CONGRATULATIONS!

The Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Perk has been unlocked

Having earned 5 or more points in luck you have gained the Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Perk

Luck attribute is doubled when gambling

Luck attribute gains +50% when playing games involving RNG

The hidden attribute Intuition has been upgraded to the passive skill Lady Luck’s Intuition

Lady Luck’s Intuition

To most luck is a force of nature, to you, luck is a guiding hand

You have an instinctive sense of the flow of chaos

Your Luck attribute increases the strength of the hand that guides you and your Perception attribute increases your ability to sense its touch

Luck is an ambiguous concept, most only think of it when gambling or playing games, as you level this skill and increase the relating attributes you will find it plays a role in everything you do

I’m fairly startled at all that I gained from one notification, I can’t help but wonder if many of my other notifications will give such boosts.

“Not likely, you gained so much from that because it was a ‘feat’ and because the attribute affected was in the negative making the ‘feat’ even rarer. The following notification was simply a result of said ‘feat’ the rest of your notifications are much more mundane.”

I jump as I hear a voice in my head not my own, it takes me a moment to remember the telepathic connection between me and my new friend Bob. He proves to be right as I read through the other notifications, mostly explaining what it means to be one of the “Chosen” and why I am already level 6 and what the levels mean. Apparently, being “Chosen” means very little, there is nothing required of me. It’s just as Bob said, we are meant to “stir up the pot” as it were, but how we choose to do that is up to us. We can just live our lives how we see fit. It seems merely existing can cause a bit of a stir all on its own.

“Mm that's mostly because we aren’t allowed to interfere with your free will, we can give advice or do absolutely nothing and let you figure it all out on your own if we choose. Almost all Chosen end up influencing the world in some fashion though, it's just what happens when you give someone power, they use it. Not always for the best I might add.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say that some of the Chosen are very well known even in your history books, and many of these are the most hated individuals in said history books.”

Doing some math in my head I try to think about who he might be talking about, the first thought that comes to mind is Bin Laden, after a quick search I find that he would have only been eleven when he became a “Chosen” so that seems unlikely. Plus I have no idea if he was considered a loner. At that thought, I remember someone else who was considered evil and who considered himself a loner when he was young. I look him up and find he would have been twenty-nine. “Hitler? Hitler, was a Chosen?”

“I’m afraid so, he received a gift for ritual magic, used it to make himself more… Charismatic to certain ilk and less repugnant to those who would see him as such. The Swastika was the reverse rune for good energy, he used it to absorb the energy provided by the pain, hate, and anger of the people, both his own and his enemies.” It’s scary to think I have so much in common with someone so… evil. “I wouldn’t say he was evil, though I wouldn’t say anyone is truly evil. You are, all of you, who you choose to be, given the cards that are dealt to you. He chose to wallow in the racial hatred of his time and given his influence and power, combined with the people who he let influence him, he became a monster and made monsters of many others. You’ll find that a nearly infinite number of people with the same start in life end up living completely different lives based on how they react to the choices given to them. You simply need to decide if you want to let others make those choices for you or if you want to choose for yourself.”