1 Rebirth

Tap

Tap

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Michael's mind drifted in a blanket of warmth. The faint tapping sound around him did little to wake him up from his slumber.

'Wake up...' A soothing whisper drifted through his mind.

'Wake up, Michael. Wake up...'

Michael tried and failed to open his eyes, finding the warmth enveloping his mind too comfortable to give up.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap...

A wave of memories flooded into his relaxed mind at once, washing away all the warmth with it. The calm that had once enveloped his mind was turned upside down as he tried to comprehend what was happening.

Last he remembered, he was at him home playing a game. A virtual reality game that was trending at the time. In the middle of the game, he felt a searing heat around him and was forcefully disconnected from the game. Aside that, he wasn't able to remember anything else.

A sudden spike of emotion rushed through him as a thought flitted past him brain.

"Did I... die? Am I dead?" He mumbled, or at least tried to. All he could do was think. He couldn't feel his body or even see anything.

[Diagnostics check complete. Construction of Virtual Soul complete. Integrating standard functional protocol.]

A cool, slightly feminine voice resounded throughout his mental space. Michael could vaguely feel that this voice meant him no harm.

[Welcome to the Evolution Chronicles, Player.]

With that last sentence, Michael's mind fizzed, making him loose total control over his thought process. It was as though he was extremely dizzy for a short moment, and then in the next moment, everything was back to normal. At least, as normal as this could get.

This time, when Michael extended his senses outside of his mind, he noticed that he could vaguely feel, and see, although everything was blurry to him. The blurry sight that greeted him was one of a moss covered interior of a cave. Tall grass grew in corners and moss covered the walls. Deeper into the cave, he could hear the sound of water dripping.

'This is- No way... This is The Evolution Chronicles!'

The Evolution Chronicles, a new age highly advanced virtual reality game. This game single handedly redefined the meaning of an immersive virtual reality massive multiplayer online game. After developing a massive fan base through constant release of teasers and trailers, when the first ten thousand copies of the game was release, it was sold out within five minutes worldwide!

Run by a supplementary health monitoring gaming capsule, the VRMMO was a wonder. It was a breath of fresh air in the vast world of gaming. Able to give its players a completely realistic sensation thanks to the Deep Dive Drive, The Evolution Chronicles became a mainstay in the gaming world.

Within the first month of its release, it had already been nominated for one of the most innovative creations of the year! Thanks to the realistic sensations supported by the Deep Dive Drive, many different activities that were exclusive to reality could be carried out in the game, granting the gaming community a whole new facet to express themselves.

One could Dive for up to three days with the use of the supplementary capsule at a time! 'Diving', as it was referred to, was the term given to the process of linking up the neural network of the body to the supplementary capsule. When this was done, whatever the player did in the game would not affect the boy outside of the game.

Michael was a hardcore veteran of the VRMMO, having played for almost a decade, starting from when he was in his mid-teens. He had explored the many facets of the game, coming to know every exploit and whatnot like the back of his hand.

How could he not recognize one of the more obscure spawn zones for low level creatures? He had personally level grinded in this location several times when he created smurf accounts.

Although he was familiar with this location, there was one thing that was constantly gnawing on the back of his mind. Where was his body?!

His senses spread out as he tried to focus his vision.

[Action detected. Ability derivation activated. New Ability acquired- Innate Magic Sense.]

Light bloomed and Michael's vision cleared out. When he took a look around him, he was stumped to realize he was as close to the ground as he could be. And when he finally looked down to observe his body, he received the shock of his life, well, if you put aside his supposed death.

He was a slime!

Michael observed his body from an odd perspective. A silvery mass of blob greeted his sight. He tried to move forward and the mass of silvery blob rolled in the direction he willed it to. He tried to talk, but all that happened was a few bubbles of an unknown substance bubbling up in his body before rising up to the surface and popping as soon as they made contact with the air.

[Action detected. Ability derivation activated. New ability acquired- Interracial Communication Channel.]

The same smooth voice Michael heard earlier rings out in his mind. As he recalled, following the pattern where the voice derived an ability, he gained the said ability. He tried to speak again and lo' an behold, a squeaky voice rang out in the cave.

"Hellooo!" The voice echoed down the deep, dark cave. "Oops. Hehe." The vague outline of a face grinned as Michael willed it. Truth be told, his form as a slime was incredible odd looking. An ordinary smile could give a little child a run for their money. With squinted eyes and no other facial features, Michael was sure to stand out among his peers.

He willed his boy to move, wanting to explore the inside of the cave to find out if it was as he remembered before the cool voice rang out in his mind again.

[Grade F life form detected nearby. Scanning complete.]

An almost transparent screen of information blinked into existence before Michael. On the screen, the model of a tiny lizard, along with the information regarding it was listed out. Compared to his memories, Michael found out that every single bit of information that was displayed before him was incredible detailed, down to the last bit. It even included the life expectancy of the lizard!

[Basic Ability derived - Consume.]

The screen containing the information of the lizard blinked out and another one appeared in its place. This one contained the information of his Basic Ability. The Ability name 'Consume' was an ability that granted the user the capability to consume a prey, turning the prey's energy into the predator's. Although when it came to Michael, there were some deviations.

His version of 'Consume' allowed him to not only process his prey's energy, but also allowed him to absorb his prey's bloodline and abilities. He decided to test out the ability on the lizard.

As soon as the lizard came within effective range of the ability, which was just a meager five meters, Michael willed for the ability to activate.

A cluster of light built up within his body in a split second, before shooting off and latching onto the body of the lizard in another split second. This all happened too fast for the lizard to react, and it soon found itself unable to move. Within a few scant moments, all that remained of the lizard was a dried up husk that was a shadow of its former self.

The string of light pulled the body of the lizard back toward Michael. Before he could react, it pulled it straight inside his body. It was quite odd, watching a dead animal floating inside his body made him feel strange. The lizard's body quickly turned into particles before completely disintegrating within him.

[Bloodline acquired - Yellow Scaled Lizard.]

This lizard was one of the F ranked creatures of this vast world. It had basically zero notable abilities and was unremarkable in every way. Maybe the only redeemable aspect about this lizard was its extremely potent poison. With its poison, if it was given enough leeway, it could even down a creature at the E rank.

Concerning the ranks of creatures, in this world, everything, including creatures, plants and whatnot were graded on a lettered scale. This scale ran from the F rank, which was at the bottom, to the A rank, which was at the top; though there were a few rare cases of the A rank limit being surpassed. Michael would know, as he had once surpassed this limit.

[New Ability Acquired - Gene Liberation.]

As usual, information concerning the new ability appeared before him. He was able to quickly understand the basics of how this 'Gene Liberation' worked. It worked in tandem with his 'Consume' ability. After Consuming his prey, he could then use 'Gene Liberation' to transform into the creature he had consumed. It was a very handy ability, all in all.

When Michael willed for his transformation ability to work, he felt an oddly warm sensation fill him. All of a sudden, his body collapsed on itself as it began to shrink and solidify. Soon enough, in place of a silvery slime, a mid-sized Yellow Scaled Lizard was left.

Michael raised his clawed feet and swung his tail, trying to get a feel for his new body. After a few minutes of getting used to his new sense of balance, he finally set off to explore the depths of the cave he spawned in.