1 Intro
'I need to find a better job. Today was just pure torture.' I complained while walking down the dark street, on my way home. 'Getting home every night after seven and waking up at six to go back to work is going to kill me in the long run. But I still need the money...' I sigh as I kick a small pebble on the road.
"Click, click, click, Bonk" Grimacing at the sound I look up and notice that the rock has managed to hit a parked car. Looking around checking if someone is nearby, I let out a sigh of relief when I see no one else on the road, then I thank god the alarm didn't go off.
'Why didn't they already fix these street lamps? It's been two months and only two of them work on the whole street.' I take out my phone from my back pocket and turn on the flashlight. 'Thankfully, today is Friday, and the new episode of Bleach is coming out. Can't wait to see it! Was worth the wait of ten years, the animation is so epic.' As I'm wondering about the anime's next episode, a truck with bright lights enters the road. 'Isekai here I come!!' I burst out laughing but then speedily move out of the way as the stupid truck nearly hits me.
"Asshole! Watch where you're going!" I shout after him. Even if sometimes my life feels pathetic, it's still not worth dying to check if there are wish-granting gods. Shaking my head, I check on my phone and notice that it's almost out of battery.
'Fuck. Can this day get any shittier?' The answer to that was, yes it can, as in the next second, a man with a bloody knife walks out of the side street. Firstly, he doesn't notice me but me being brain-dead and tripping on air, aids him in discovering me. His eyes go wide and he bolts towards me. Picking myself up I start shouting for help and running as fast as I can in the opposite direction, while stupidly still looking back at my attacker. Yes, you guessed it right not even ten meters from where I started, I ran into a lamp post. Not sure if it's because of the collision or if someone was playing a prank on me, but after the impact, the lights turned on. I only had a moment to turn around and notice my attacker a few steps away from me. A wicked smile plastered his face. I was expecting a villain's monologue from him, but this is reality, so instead of saying anything, he jumped at me while holding the knife in both hands. They say that the world slows down just before you meet your end. Now I know that that saying is true, I was watching as the knife slowly crept toward my eye in slow motion. I close my eyes waiting for the end. But even after a few seconds, the pain never came, I open my eyes and see the knife barely a few centimeters away from my right eye. Slowly, I move away, my heart pounding like crazy, the next moment felt like magic. My attacker was floating in the air almost a meter off the ground.
'Did I finally unlock my superpowers?' I think and look at my shaking hands. Extending my hand and grab my attacker's knife and yank it out of his hand. 'I think I heard a crack.' As I look around I notice a few odd things. I couldn't hear any sound around me. This street was empty, but the main road is at the end of the street. To my left, I notice an air conditioning unit, its rotor standing still, while a few seconds ago it was humming along. The condensed water, which already left its plastic pipe as a droplet, now levitating in the air. The other strange thing is that even after a life-or-death situation, I'm oddly calm.
"Has time stopped?" I say aloud. 'How can I still see? Light still needs to be moving for me to see. Maybe it's something local or I'm speed up? No, the same issue would happen if I'm speed up...' My musing is interrupted by a loud chime. The next moment electricity, or should I call it lightning, starts shooting out of a black sphere that appeared in the middle of the road, and everything around it is vaporized in seconds. When the lightning stopped another chime could be heard and a glowing door appeared in the sphere's place. As I back away from the door I somehow hit a... wall? Turning around quickly I notice an almost translucent bubble encompassing me and the door. After hitting it a few times, I sigh and accept the obvious, someone or something wants me to go through that door.
"I hope you're not aliens with anal probes." I shakily reach towards the handle and turn it. The next moment I find myself in a white room with about a thousand other people.
'It seemed like our kidnappers want to start a collection.' I think as I notice that all the races and ethnicities can be found all around the room, seemingly half of them are male. Noticing that I'm still holding the bloody knife, I quickly hide it under my shirt, between my belt and pants.
Everyone was panicking and multiple conspiracy theories were flying around, someone started blaming the Russians, others the North Koreans, and the wacky ones the aliens. The end to all the panic and conspiracy theories was brought by a loud clearing of a throat. Somehow that simple gesture silenced the whole room.
Out of nowhere a tall guy with pale white skin, pointy ears, and green hair and eyes, carrying a stack of papers, appears before our group. A white tunic dons his body, while his feet are covered by brown wooden sandals. In all my twenty-eight years of life, I've never seen a more handsome man before. Don't get me wrong, I'm straight as an arrow, but seeing this dude makes me question my sexuality. As he clears his throat again, all eyes focus on him as an intangible heaviness descends on the room.
"Welcome to the Multiversal Library." Said the strange being.
"This doesn't look like a library." Said someone from the back.
"True, this is just the summoning hall." He said with a smile. "But first let me introduce myself and explain why everyone was summoned here. Please keep the questions till the end of the explanation." He continued. "As a Tier 0 beings, you can't pronounce my name without suffering any soul damage, so all of you can refer to me as Rob and I'm a Librarian, more specifically I am your Librarian. Your planet..." Rob fixes his glasses and checks his papers. "... Earth, is going through a change and is advancing to Tier 1. What that means is, that mana will be available to anyone." A murmur starts all around us. "All lifeform on the planet will go through a rapid evolution. Humans will evolve to High-Humans, allowing them to wield mana, their strength will increase exponentially as will their intelligence." He sighed. "But while that one point is good, the planet, at the same time will experience natural disasters, the size of which you've never seen before. Plants and animals will evolve into monsters and start roaming the countryside. A Basic system will be introduced into the world which would help humans stabilize, but that won't be enough. Natural dungeons will be created by Alpha monsters, which would then lead to dungeon breaks and monster waves. Humanity, currently, is not ready for mana-infused monsters." A few gasps were heard all around me, but otherwise, everyone stayed quiet and focused.
"There are a few worlds that can be considered singularities and yours is one of them. That means there is only one of it and every soul in it is unique. These worlds are the creators of stories, the ones that give birth to other worlds. The main job of a Librarian is to protect these worlds, not directly, as we are bound by multiversal laws, but by giving you a fighting chance. Now, all of you have been given a base of a system. Thinking or saying 'System' will display you a mental screen that only you can see. Go on and try it."
A chorus of "System" is heard around me and I follow. What shows up before me is the most minimal system screen I've heard about.
System Info
Name: Andrew Thompson
Tier: 0
WP: 1000
"To turn off the screen just think about hiding it or say 'Dismiss'." Rob comments and then follows up with. "How you build upon it, is all up to you. By saying 'System Upgrade Store' or 'SU Store', you will be presented with a list of available system upgrades, but keep in mind this only works in the library. All of you have been given 1000 WP, short for 'World Points', as a welcome bonus so spend it intelligently. Please check it out, but don't buy anything right now."
'SU Store.' I mentally say. A massive list with multiple tabs forms right before me with, thousands of types of additional options for the system listed within. I already noticed a few I will 100% get. Who the hell wouldn't want a stat and a leveling system?
Robs next words interrupt my exploration. "You can dismiss the screen the same way you did with the system screen. Now, please follow me to the main hall." He said and left the room through a small door, that a few seconds ago wasn't there.
As the thought 'How will a thousand people enter through a small door without causing any issues', the door widens, allowing hundreds through at a time. In a few seconds, all of us go through and are now standing in the middle of a vast library. I try to focus on one row, but I cannot see the end of it. When I look up I notice there is no roof over our heads, only the bright blue sky is visible with an occasional white cloud zipping along. Every few rows staircases are leading up, but they mysteriously vanish after a few steps. Each intersection houses a pedestal with an open book and every shelf is marked with a strange symbol.
Rob stops and rises his hands. "As you can see, this is the ground floor of the Multiversal Library. This is where your journey of self-improvement will start and end. All the books on the bookshelves are doomed worlds, you can go crazy in them, and your actions in them are inconsequential in the grand scheme. As the multiverse is infinite, there are infinite worlds out there doomed to die or disappear. Their story never gets a happy ending." He says with a sad smile. "On the first page of each book you will find optional quests, they will grant you WP on completion, but as you know optional means they don't need to be completed. You can enter a world by pressing your hand against the said book and thinking or saying "Enter". You can restart a world multiple times and exit at any time, but the quests for each world group can be completed only once. Oh and don't be surprised when you try to exit them, you'll need to be out of combat and stay in one place for five minutes, any sufficiently large movement or reentering combat will cancel the ejection. You'll just have to focus on the system and say 'Eject', and after five minutes you'll be transported back to the Library. This is to prevent you from using it as an escape mechanism. You can use the points from the quests in the 'SU Store' or for other benefits. Users can exchange WP for items, by getting the System Store upgrade, or they can trade using them in person. Please keep in mind, no aggression is allowed in the library, anyone trying to attack or force anyone into doing something they don't want, will be heavily punished. The first punishment depends on the attempted crime, but the second one is complete erasure. There are no third chances." He says while squinting at the back row.
"You will sometimes come across other beings wandering around the library, if they are wearing similar robes as I am, they are librarians, you can ask them for any information, we are here to help. Now if you come across others, be polite, their worlds are in the same situation as yours. Currently, there are about half a billion beings on this floor alone, but as the library is infinite in size, you will rarely interact with them. Speaking about floors, the second one is a private area, it doesn't matter which staircase you take, it will always lead you to your designated area. In that area, you can find my office, your housing, and multiple other workshops that can be used freely. Although you will need your own resources, you can procure them from the system shop, trading or bringing them out from a world you were in, but for most of these options, you will need system upgrades. In the middle of each intersection, you'll find a pedestal with the book called Index. Using Index, you can search for any type of world you want to visit and it will teleport the correct books to you. It is intuitive and easy to use, so I won't be showing you how to use them."
"All of you need to keep in mind that death in another world, means true death. So before I let you explore the library and the multiverse, I need to tell you that, time outside is frozen, and will continue to be frozen for the next ten years spent in other worlds or inside of the library. You can exit the library to Earth any time you want, but you won't be able to reenter it. You can extend your stay by spending WP. After the ten years are up, you will be ejected from your current world and if you can't pay the rent, you will be asked to leave the library. The price of an additional month is 10.000 WP. All of this is not our choice but part of a Multiversal Law of Equivalent Exchange." He looks around and smiles. "Now, you might be asking, with the Equivalent Exchange Law, what did we take from you all so that you are allowed here in the first place?" His smile widens. "Nothing, it's just a small lapse in the Multiversal rules. When a Higher entity interferes with the lives of mundane people, we are required to grant them some perks and all of these are your perks. That's why I'm suggesting you first go into worlds that are similar to your own and collect some WP. Take care to not waste too much time in each world. As of now, you don't have any special abilities so worlds with magic and battles might be too much for you. Please choose your first worlds carefully. Any questions?" As he said the last thing almost 900 hands shoot up. He sighs and points toward a black guy in the front.
"So this might be a bit insensitive. But what are you?"
"If you're asking about my race, I am an ascended Light Elf. If you're referring to my tier, after my ascension, I'm something you would refer to as a god, that's with a small g."
"You mentioned tiers when referring to yourself and our planets. So what are tiers and how many of them are there?" ask a woman in the back.
"Tiers describe the current ascension level of a being or world, take it as "strength", there are ten tiers but each has three sub tiers, low, mid, and high. The difference in power between each tier is huge. I am at tier 6, while my boss, the head librarian, is tier 8. I could erase your galaxy with a snap of my fingers, while my boss could erase multiple realities with the same gesture. All of you are currently Tier 0 and will be staying in that tier till you acquire chi, mana, chakra, or any other universal power system. Those cannot be bought through the system, so you'll have to acquire them on your own. Anything else?" While people were looking at Rob with fear in their eyes and processing what he just told them, a brave guy asked.
"So how were we chosen? Are we special in some kind of a way?"
"This might dampen your moods but the thousands of you were randomly chosen by an automatic system." Rob replies bursting the dreams of many.
"What can we eat here?!" A random fat Asian guy comments from the middle of the group.
"On top of any of the stairs, you'll find a restaurant, by spending WP you can have a nice meal." Rob answers.
After a few more questions the group quiets down. Rob looks around waiting for anyone else to speak, but when no one asks anything else he says. "Good, now if anything else comes to mind, you can find me in my office on top of any of those stairs. Have a nice day and before entering a world, spend your WP wisely." He turns around and just disappears.
'Damn he has some kind of teleportation or invisibility. I need those kinds of powers.' Leaving the group of humans, I turn around and start roaming the library. After walking for 15 minutes I stop at a pedestal. Thinking how it would be great to sit down, a comfy chair materializes right next to me.
'Ok, the library can read your mind.' I sigh 'So first of all I need a plan. First, let's check out the system upgrades. 'SU Shop' I think and a list with multiple tabs opens up. I focus on each tab to get their information.
[Title System | Requirements: [Stat System], [Spell System], [Skill System] | Description: User can gain titles by performing certain tasks. These titles can be equipped and provide bonuses, spells or abilities.]
[Race System | Requirements: [Stat System], [Spell System], [Skill System] | Description: Grants the user the ability to create 'Race Cards' out of a sample of any creature. These cards can be equipped and grant different skills, spells, and/or bonuses.]
[Leveling System | Requirements: None | Description: Grants the user the ability to absorb experience and boost his overall strength.]
[Stat System | Requirements: None | Description: Quantifies user's attributes. Combined with the Leveling or Class System allows the user limitless growth.]
[Spell System | Requirements: None | Saves, tracks, and assists user with spells related issues.]
[Skill System | Requirements: None | Description: Saves and tracks abilities gained by the user. Abilities can be mundane, for example reading, specific like Chemistry Knowledge, or supernatural like Spatial Manipulation.]
[Class System | Requirements: [Leveling System], [Stat System] | Description: Grants the ability to choose a Class and level it up. The user is still required to unlock them by performing certain tasks. After maxing out a class, the class can then be switched out to another one. Classes give different bonuses to attributes or spell types. Non-percentile-based attribute bonuses, earned by leveling, are permanent. Re-equipping a max rank class will allow the user to regain all percentile-based benefits.]
[Map System | Requirements: None | Description: Keeps track of the user's position on a virtual map. The map gets revealed when the user perceives the surroundings.]
[Management System | Requirements: [Map System] | Description: Displays User-ruled regions stats.]
[System Store | Requirements: [Inventory System] | Description: Allows the user to access the system store.]
[Inventory System | Requirements: [Stat System] | Description: Creates a pocket dimension for the user that allows insertion and extraction of items from it. The user needs to be in contact with the item to be able to place it in.]
[Relationship System | Requirements: [Stat System] | Description: List all people the user interacted with and allows the user to view relationship status.]
[Background System | Requirements: [Stat System] | Description: Upon selecting a world user can edit world settings.]
[Quest System | Requirements: None | Description: Display, track and generate quests.]
[System AI | Requirements: None | Description: Upon purchase the user sets multiple personality parameters and creates an AI assistant.]
[System Tools | Requirements: None | Description: A collection of different useful system tools]
[Party System | Requirements: [Relationship System] | Description: Upon purchase the user can create a party and share experience and loot with other people.]
Ignoring the other tabs, I create a small list of currently useful and affordable, system upgrades.
[Title System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: Allows the user to activate a single title with all of its benefits. | Price: 50 WP]
[Race System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: Allows the user to activate a race with all of its benefits. | Price: 100 WP]
[Leveling System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: Grants the user the ability to accumulate XP and to gain global and class levels | Price: 100 WP]
[Stat System | Upgrade Name: Base Stats | Description: Upon purchase unlocks the base attributes. Them being strength, dexterity, agility, intelligence, and wisdom. These attributes can be altered by titles, races, classes, or by adding free attribute points into them. | Price: 100 WP]
[Spell System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: Displays the user's spells and base information about them. | Price: 125 WP]
[Skill System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: Displays the user's abilities and base information about them. | Price: 125 WP]
[Class System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: One class can be leveled up at a time. The user still needs to unlock them. | Price: 250 WP]
[Map System | Upgrade Name: Base | Description: A World map of explored regions. Fog of war is displayed everywhere the user didn't go. | Price: 150 WP]
"Yea some of these upgrades won't come any time soon. They are currently way over my price range. Like a basic inventory, the cost is a thousand WP." So with nothing else to do, I buy the Base Upgrades for the [Title System], [Race System], [Leveling System], [Stat System], [Spell System], [Skill System], [Class System], [Map System] and my WP goes down to zero. Now quest system seems interesting, but I don't feel like I need it right now. With all that done I say "System" and I'm greeted with an updated system screen.
System Info:
Name: Andrew Thompson | Titles: None | Race: Human | Tier: 0
[Global LVL: 0 XP: 0/100]
[Class: None LVL: 0/0 XP: 0/0]
Stats:
STR: 4
DEX: 8
AGI: 4
INT: 7
WIS: 9
Other:
Spells: [None]
Skills: [None]
[WP: 0]
I focus on my race and I'm greeted with all of its information.
[Human]
20% increase in the learning speed of non-metaphysical skills.
"Looking good, but my stats look horrible." Checking out the map I find it mostly black, I look around and focus on one of the rows. The map updates in real-time and displays everything I see. "Nice this will be useful. I should select a class right now"
[Selectable classes: None]
'Hmm...' I stand up and start punching the air, jumping around, and trying to imitate a martial artist, then it comes to me. 'I still have the knife!' I pull it out and start stabbing the air and playing with the knife. After a few minutes of playing I refocus on the Class selection screen.
[Selectable classes: [Warrior] [Rogue]]
As I focus on the classes I'm greeted with information about them.
Warrior 0/25
+1 STR, +1 VIT (Not Unlocked), +1 P. Res (Not Unlocked) per level
10% increase in damage dealt with swords, axes, and hammers.
10% reduced damage received.
20% increase in the learning speed of heavy weapon skills.
30% increase in the learning speed of defense-related skills.
Rogue 0/25
+1 DEX, +1 AGI, +1 PER (Not Unlocked) per level
10% increase in damage dealt with daggers, knives, and short swords.
30% increase in the learning speed of daggers, knives, and short sword skills.
40% increase in the learning speed of stealth-related skills.
The warrior class seems stronger, but I would waste most of its bonuses right now, so I select the rogue class. 'My first worlds should be some kind of children's fairy tale, is that even an option?' As I think about it the Index's pages start flipping. On top of the page with golden letters is written "Earth Prime - Fairy Tales" thousands of thousands of fairy tales were listed, most of them I didn't even know existed. With too much to choose from, I try to focus on one of the tales from my childhood. "Little Red Riding Hood." I say out loud, the book flips a few pages, zooms in, and displays the world.
Little Red Riding Hood
World Tier: 1 (Low)
World Language: German
World Systems: None
Doomed: The lumberjack that was supposed to save the day, died years before the story started.
{Deliver book?}
"Yes." I say and a book materializes in my hand. 'Nifty.' Opening I notice the quests on the first page.
Optional Quests:
[Escort Red | Description: Get Little Red to her grandma's house alive. | Reward: 450 WP]
[Get the granny through winter | Description: The grandma doesn't have enough firewood to last through winter. Chop down a few trees and prepare some firewood. | Reward: 150 WP]
[Get rid of the wolf | Description: The wolf portrayed in the fairy tale is special, so special that he alone is rising the world Tier to 1. Kill or persuade the monster to leave the little girl and her grandma alone. | Reward: 750 WP]
And that's when things get a bit dark.
[Be the wolf | Description: Kidnap Little Red. What you do with her in the end, is all up to you. | Reward: 500 WP]
[No witnesses | Description: Little Reds town over there, doesn't look esthetically pleasing, remove it from the map | Reward: 700 WP]
Many more quests are displayed and some of them almost made me puke. "Yeah... If other, darker stories, have similar quests, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay on the 'good' side. The rewards are too alluring. Maybe I can play the system. Wonder if taking her on a walk in the forest would count as kidnapping. Thankfully I studied German in High School. I haven't used it in ages but I hope it's good enough." After re-reading the quests a few times and memorizing them, I'm ready to head into this world.
I focus on the book wanting to enter its world and another screen pops up.
{World "Little Red Riding Hood" selected.}
{No edits allowed without the [Background System]}
{Placing spatial and temporal coordinates near the start of the story.}
{Transporting user in. 3...2...1...}
{Good Luck!}
