2 02. In His Head
Arthur finally reached the end of the vacuum he was in. The place he came out of was the sky. But while he was being transported, Arthur fainted from not being able to handle the stress on his eyes and mind.
Arthur then fell to the ground, making a huge crater. With the amount of impact, Arthur woke up, like a boulder was thrown at his face.
"Shit that was-! -not painful..."
Arthur was now in the middle of the crater and had to climb up to see the place he had "spawned" on.
Not only that, he has had a change of appearance. He has turned to the opposite of what he was before, he now looks like a black mannequin with flowing vines on his body.
"Wait... I was a white mannequin before and now I'm a black one... So that means... I can be ra-". Arthur started climbing the crater to see the outside of the hole he was unfortunately made to cause.
Arthur while venting and complaining about the mission he got and the point that he had to climb a crater, painstakingly climbed up for 5 minutes.
"First I got a fucking impossible mission, now I had to do hiking. I spoke too soon thinking this game was amazing-"
Arthur stopped talking as he reached the top. The surroundings were so majestic it made him shut up.
He had appeared on a beautiful and vast plain of grass. It was truly a magnificent plane. As he looked straight around him, he could not see anything but flat ground, with flower patches at random intervals.
But the place was flat, with zero resources to even consider how he will survive, but this thought couldn't even be completed in Arthur's mind. As the sunset was too amazing.
5 minutes went by as he sat on the ground just looking at the beautiful sunset get cut off in a perfect line.
[Game Has Been Automatically Saved.]
Then a screen at his left side appeared and surprised him. With that single notification, a thousand thoughts ran through Arthur's mind and he uttered the complete assessment he has made.
"Status Window."
[Name][Arthur Pendragon]
[Race][Morph]
[Level][0]
[Exp][0/100]
[Strength][10]
[Agility][10]
[Vitality][10]
[Skills]
[Kin][Lv. 1][0/1]
"Oh shit wrong one.". An idiot he may be, but soon, hopefully, he shall spread fear to all."
The screen that showed his status was ignored and as he said "Menu!". His entire view turned gray like he was looking at a gray window.
But rather than caring much, a new screen popped up in front of Arthur, covering his entire vision.
With the word "Status" in the middle, inside a circle. Surrounding it are three other features. But as he could not care for the rest, other than the two below.
"A 'Save' and 'Open Saves' feature...". Arthur was flabbergasted, he was shocked, he was so speechless, he started to look like a real immovable mannequin.
After a few seconds, Arthur clicked the Open Save button.
[Saves]
[Auto Save 1]
A new screen appeared in front of him, removing the other options and leaving a vertical rectangular shaped screen showing the saves he has made to his left. Though right now it was only one. Arthur clicked the [Auto Save 1] to see if there was no more information. Then another screen that was connected with a line appeared on Arthur's right.
[Auto Save 1][Click To Rename]
[Year 100]
[00:00:00:10]
[Load Save][Delete Save]
[Return]
The screen entailed the time he was in and seemingly a number ten, indicating that it was saved 10 minutes of him starting.
Arthur was very excited because of this. With this feature, he never ever-
"I don't need fucking RNG, shit, I wish I had this on earth, if I did I could have rob-". -ever needed to care about bad outcomes. As he can now always go back at a time before he has made a wrong decision.
As he clicked the [Return] button, he also soon realized that the feature had no save limits, unlike some stories he has read. This has got to be his greatest power.
"Menu."
Arthur wasted no time to check any more of the features he has missed. As he started to look around and start his mission, to take over the world.
"With this, even if I fail, I can always go back two years to the past, nay! When a situation takes longer to take, I can just go back and do it faster! Efficiency! I will be the definition of 'Perfect!'". For once in his lifetime, Arthur has finally thought of a smart idea. With this, Arthur's journey starts.
"...umm... where do I go...". Well he was still an idiot.
...
20 minutes later, Arthur has decided to find a village. He has been walking in a straight line for a very long time, yet he has not found a single village, nor seen a single tree.
"It is very hard to walk like this... but I don't even feel tired after 20 minutes of walking, man I wish I had this stamina before.". Arthur just kept on talking about his past life, and wishes he had the abilities he had now.
When an hour passed by, Arthur went to his saves and pressed the first save he ever had, that he also renamed "The Start".
Arthur may not be the smartest, but he has great tenacity and true thirst for greatness.
"I want water so much... Please oh great system, just give me any living thing!".
The planes Arthur was in felt more of a dessert than a grass plane. The endlessness of this was truly not exaggerated.
After going through three directions, and now on his fourth, Arthur has finally thought of finding out more about his system rather than imagining things in his mind for entertainment. Oh the mind of an idiot, or just endless entertainment.
The menu had six options on its side and the status at the middle. There were three options that caught Arthur's eyes.
[Achievements]
[Almanac][Morph]
[Help][?]
All of the features already seem obvious just from the name. But the contents were truly interesting.
First, Arthur broke the most common trope in life. Arthur first checked the Almanac that seems to exist because of the Morph race.
"Almanac... why is there a morph word there? Is it because morphs are actually something you hunt?". Truly, the word idiot gets tiring to say. Arthur clicked on the Almanac and saw a list of races all colored black and was just outlined.
They were all labeled "???", so the entire thing was almost useless, other than keeping in check of the other races Arthur has yet to see.
Arthur then picked the Achievements and this had more content than the Almanac.
[LEVEL][Exp][Stat][Morph]
[Reach Level 5][0/5][Reward: 1% Chance To Get 1 Additional Level]
[Reach Level 10][0/10][Reward: [E][Weapon Box]
[Reach Level 25][0/25][Reward: 5% Chance To Get 1 Additional Level]
...
[Reach Level 100][0/100][Reward: Title: Max Level]
It stated 4 different sections. With the [Level] as the first to open automatically.
"Well... those rewards don't seem appetizing... i'll just check the morph then."
[Level][Exp][Stat][MORPH]
[Acquire 5 Race Traits][0/5][Reward: Race Skill]
[Acquire 10 Race Traits][0/10][Reward: Race Skill]
[Acquire 20 Race Traits][0/20][Reward: Race Skill]
"Race Traits? Oh!". Arthur came to the realization of what the almanac was, and the ability of his race finally made sense.
Arthur once checked the skill that he was "born" with.
"Wait, with those rewards... does that mean I can only get skills with the achievements! What bullshit game this is!".
Arthur just ignored the rest and finally went to the last section.
[Help][?]
[Ask Your Question]
A screen with a speaker appeared in front.
"Wait... Whoah... This is a nice one, ok, how do I delete a mission!"
[To Delete A Mission, Press The Abandon.]
"Oh wait.". The entire time, even in the menu, there was nothing that showed a way to look at the current mission one is taking.
"Where do you see the missions."
[You Can See Your Active Missions In An Adventurer Guild.]
"Oh fucking shit!". Arthur vented like a child and stomped his foot.
"Fine, fine, just tell me where I am at right now. Wait I meant, tell me about the flat lands." Without noticing it, Arthur has finally reached the end of the island. He has touched the ocean.
[If You Meant The Continent "Plateau", It Is The Continent With No Living Things As There Is A Su-]
A giant wave arose from the water at a single middle point.
[Sub Specie-]
A gigantic head exuding a fierce and horrifying stature came rising from the water.
[Species Of Dragons Known As-]
A gigantic blue Chinese dragon rose above the water and flew in the sky.
[Water Dragons.]
"What the fuck! A blue Ray*****!". The menu section, Arthur was looking, only changed the vision into a gray tinted color, but it never stopped time. Nor did it ever protect him. Which was how he was able to walk, despite playing with his system.
With only uttering a few words, Arthur was too late and-
[You Have Died]
[Saves]
[The Start]
[Auto Save 2]
[Auto Save 1]
[Auto Save 3]
Arthur clicked the save "The Start". Without even being able to react a new notification appeared. It seems even if he can revert back to a save point, it was not a perfect ability.
[Death Penalty][1 Stack][-50% All Stats][Duration: 01:00:00]
Landing in a flat land with no living things to be found. Finding hope at the sight of endless water, only to be killed by an unexpected monster.
The easy life with an overpowered ability, doesn't seem that easy anymore.
