Chapter 2: The system

Atlas floated in a dark void, unable to see anything due to the extreme darkness of the place. There was no light in whatever this place was, that was until a window appeared out of thin air in front of Atlas.

It had words written on it that stated [Suitable host found, beginning binding process.] Atlas barely comprehended the words written when a sudden surge of pain entered his body, ran up his spine, and entered his brain.

It was as if a searing hot rod had been placed directly against his brain and it stayed there for a minute before finally moving away.

Atlas looked Forward toward a new screen that also had words on it reading [please choose a class] looking at the options Atlas noticed one thing. They were all classes from a game from the 21st century called Strike from the Abyss.

His parents had played this game that was essentially their childhood, it was a full-dive vrmmo game or it was supposed to be. The company making it went bankrupt before it finished so it was never released, the only reason they had it was a mysterious company that finished it and gave it to his grandparents before the company mysteriously disappeared.

It seems as if everyone but the family that was involved in the deal forgot their memories about the company ever existing.

However, his parents were children at the time and weren't actively involved so they only heard about it from their parents. He didn't get seriously into the game until his parents died when he was a child.

Playing this game helped him escape from the reality of being powerless, there were 5 options for classes. These being Necromancer, Paladin, Mage, Assassin, and Hunter. However just as he decided which to choose, a different window appeared.

This window was red instead of blue with a system error warning on it, it suddenly started to choose a class for him. Atlas was shocked into stunned silence as he looked towards the window spinning a wheel.

All of them, every single option on the wheel, was Necromancer. This is the very same class he had always picked in-game and the very class he was going to pick outside the game.

Once he got the class, he was told to pick 3 level 1 Spells or 1 level 2 spell. This was also the next choice in the game after the class selection. He ended up choosing 1 level 2 spell since he only had a limited number of slots before he couldn't learn any other spells.

A system interface appeared before him with a selection of spells, he scrolled through the list until he found a specific one he was looking for, that being umbra bolt. Umbra bolt was an upgraded version of the tier 1 dark bolt, it costs less Mana and does more damage. Making it an ideal damage attack for Weaker levels like where he was at currently.

After choosing his starter spell he moved to the next interface which was the race selection, normally there was the Elf, Human, Lizardman, and beast races that you could choose from. However, all of those were crossed out with a new one being unlocked.

The Undead race, Atlas looked towards the interface in confusion until a new window appeared showing Conditions for the Undead race to be unlocked and another interface for unlocking something that is all question marks for the time being with all of the conditions fulfilled except one.

This condition was to be reborn, Atlas understood somewhat. It seemed as if the in-game world of Arathia had become part of the reality he lived in. And once he selected the race he would be reborn.

If he was correct and Arathia had become part of his reality then that meant other monsters or enemies he faced in the game would be here as well. This means he will have to deal with Arathia enemies as well as deviants.

This was a game changer for humanity, on one hand was the deviants, on the other was humanity, but a new player has entered the game, Arathia's monsters. Now it was a 3 way battle between 3 powerful forces, nobody would know what to expect.

Atlas stopped his rapidly swirling thoughts and pressed the Undead option, he was then catapulted through the darkness until he opened his eyes in a brand new place.

It was still dark, but he could see because of the Undeads natural night vision. He was underground, it looks like he was buried. Liam and his gang wouldn't do that for him so who did?

He then heard the sound of someone sniffling and crying close to where he was, he started digging and pounding against the dirt. Some got in his eyes but he kept going.

He slowly crawled his way toward the top when he heard the sound of a Shovel digging above him, "brother! Are you alive down there?" The sound was muffled due to the dirt in the way but Atlas knew that was his younger sister.

It only took around 5 minutes for him to make it back onto to the top, his sister Amara, looked at him with happiness before her expression changed to horror.

"What's wrong with you?" Atlas asked with a worried expression, it was hard to know what he was thinking unless he was around his sister. She always made him smile.

Amara pointed toward where his lungs should be without any words, there was a gaping hole in the middle there. It was big enough to cover most of his chest so there was no way he was supposed to be alive.

Atlas quickly calmed her down and proving he was her brother using a special code they had made when they were younger. "Amara, I'm going to be leaving for awhile." Atlas stated while smoothing out Amara's clothes.

"You can't leave without me!" Amara replied staring defiantly into Atlas's eyes, Atlas tried to explan it was too dangerous for her to come with him but in the end she refused to go back.

"It looks like you got the stubborn genes of the family" Atlas sighed as he walked away, motioning for Amara to follow him.

Looking around the area made him realize he wasn't at his house where Amara should be, but the outskirts of the forest where F-rank, and E-rank deviants live.

Atlas whirled around ans asked "why are you in the outskirts of the forest? I told you it's dangerous here." Amara replied "some people came with you slumped on their shoulders and said you were dead, they said you wanted to be buried in the forest."

Amara stopped talking as the waterworks started flowing, Atlas consoled her holding her in his arms until she stopped crying.

He understood now, Liam and his gang came to his little sister with his corpse and had her bury it where they thought she'd definitely die while doing so.

However now was not the time to thibk about it, the noise had to have attracted deviants, and no doubt some of them could be E-rank something he couldn't hande at his current level.

Looking at his system interface he got a notification saying that the conditions for realm connectivity have been completed.

It was just as Atlas thought, the game world became a reality but in a different realm from Earth, though the two are still connected.

Atlas heard a growling noise from behind him, grabbing Amara in one hand he said "stay close to me!" And used his other hand to cast a spell, "Umbra Bolt" he chanted.

[Mana 60>45]

A dark swirling mass of energy gathered around his hand as he fired it towards the approaching deviant.

The deviant charged revealing itself to be a Fleshripper, a type of deviant known for its fast speed and high agility but also for its sharp fangs and claws that had poison in them. It just swatted away the bolt though the darkness entered its body and would start corroding it soon.

It is classified as a D-rank that shouldn't even be in this part of the forest but that doesn't matter. Atlas can't even handle an E-rank with his current level so a D-rank would kill him in one blow.

Atlas ran looking for somewhere safe to hide Amara so he could fight using full strength, he continued running until the deviant was right on top of him.

It jumped in the air and tried to pin him to the ground but Atlas rolled out of the way before he continued running. He couldn't do anything in this situation, then he spotted it.

An F-rank tusked boar, he opened his hand in the direction of the boar and chanted "umbra bolt" and another bolt of magic fired towards the boar and hit it in the neck going straight through it and killing it.

[Mana 45>30

The D-rank was right behind him once again, rolling in the direction of the boar and dodging another strike from the fleshripper he ran towards the boar.

Placing his hand directly on the dead boars forehead Atlas ordered "obey" and the corpse rose.

Quickly taking Amara he placed her on the back of the Tusked Boar and told her that he would be back soon and would distract the deviant so she could get away.

Before she could reply Atlas mentally commanded the tusked boar to run away from the fight and it obeyed, allowing for Atlas to go all out against the D-rank fleshripper.

Just as the fight was about to start the system gave him a notification stating [your F-rank Tusked Boar has died] Atlas looked at the notification in horror before rushing in the direction the boar died.