Chad opened his eyes with a sluggish determination and thought in his head.
"I don't care anymore. This is all an annoying dream or a prank."
He had decided it was better to just forgo his fear and let whatever happen: prank, dream, whatever.
[Screen refreshing…. What-Bag-of-Nuts…. Alive]
The system words and voice fshed through his mind. At this point, Chad was over the shock and awe of it.
"System. If you're real and can hear me. Three words, I… don't… care."
But system continued to ramble with tech jargon and dropped some stats in his mind, which was a whole lot of nothing. He blinked to clear his head, got up and pushed through an internal sliding door to enter his shower room where most of the room was a shower. His toned body felt refreshed and mind clearer as he returned to his bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. The familiar routine of getting ready kicked into pce, with the whole system and genie experience being nothing but a bad dream.
However, when he turned to enter his walk-in-wardrobe near his bed, he saw the box.
It was sitting in the middle, upright, lid closed, and gleaming.
[Open the box]
"Fuck no." He sighed and strolled past his bed to continue with this routine. When he returned he was bombarded with system voices and scrolling vision of text in his mind.
[Open the box]
[Open the box]
[Open the box]
[Open the box]
[Open the box]
[Open the box]
[Open the box]
"ALL FUCKING RIGHT! CHILL THE FUCK OUT!" He shouted and felt his energy drained out of him.
An image of a green bar fshed before him where half of it was draining out.
"I take it that's my stamina level." He spped his face. This wasn't a game? There was no stamina level.
[Correct. Stamina level dropped to 50 of 100. Eating certain items will increase Stamina, Health and Magicka bars.]
Chad paused. "I have Magicka? Is this a fucking Elder Scrolls remastered game?"
[In terms of likeness. Yes, you are participating in a Live Action RPG.]
"And the title for the LARPG?"
[Title is for the protagonist to discover. You are the protagonist at the tutorial stage. Complete the tutorial to learn of the game title and quest objectives.]
System finally went silent.
"Welp. Whatever." Chad decided to dress and look the image of celebrity wealth first before even thinking about the box.
He eventually returned his attention to the box once he was dressed in clean jeans, bck boots, simple t-shirt, chains and aviation sungsses. Naturally, he looked like a pop idol. Ashley better watch out.
As he leaned forward to open the box, his phone began bring with a ringtone from his PC desk.
"Fuck!" he scrambled to pick the thing up and see who was calling. He frowned when he saw that his phone screen looked back to normal with too many apps across many screen pages.
Jake's name and face icon covered the screen image and was pulsating for attention. If Ashley was his rival, Jake was his ckey. Although the man's background wasn't any less than his own with his parents owning grocery stores. The man had attractive but average features: the same colored hair, style and eyes as him. So much so, some people mistook him and Jake to be biological brothers.
"Dude. Still waking up? The party st night was wild. Monica Steward, the hottest girl in town, was there asking for you!"
Chad yawned, uninterested. "Jake, if I wasn't there means I don't care to know."
"Haha. That's our Sultan. You say that, but you'll be asking me for deets ter."
Chad was gd when Jake hung up the call and his mugshot was cleared from his phone screen. He returned his attention to the metal box, which he knew he had to take back to his art teacher. Yet…
"Open the box, you say." He yawned feeling his usual apathetic self kick in. Whatever, he'd open and shut the thing, then take it to school.
He casually flipped the fps of the box where the tiny hinges groaned as much as he did upon opening. He peered inside and saw one object, the bronze teapot style mp. It sparkled like it had been overly polished. Before he was able to close the box again, the wispy fat ghost flew out of the mp like clouds of smoke were swiftly escaping up the spout.
"Aah so good to be free. I need to stretch my legs once in a while." The genie sighed with relief.
"What legs. You're a fat ghost." Chad nonchantly commented.
"Oh?" The genie snapped his chunky fingers. The image of the shop girl appeared before him. She threw herself on the bed to lie next to him.
"Yeek. Get off my bed!" Chad screwed up his face with disgust.
The girl pouted and poked her tongue at him, but she obeyed and stood at the foot of the bed.
"Change back to your true self."
"As you wish, master." The girl chuckled and clicked her fingers to be the fat genie ghost again.
"Master. I am your genie. You can wish for anything. Girls..."
"Too much trouble." Chad yawned and gnced at the floating ghost of the fat man, who had invaded his bedroom.
The genie rubbed his chin with a musing thought. "Maybe boys are your thing?"
Chad frowned and screwed up his face. He tossed a pillow angrily at the man.
The genie ughed.
"If you're useless. I'll toss your mp into a burning pit and watch it melt into a puddle." Chad grumbled through another yawn.
"Fine. Fine. Then..." The genie held out a mysteriously glowing pack of cards. A magical wonder Chad had never seen before, and couldn't help but be curious.
"Let's py a game of Fate. If you win, you will be the ruler of all!!" A maniacal glow tinkled within the genie's amber eyes as he held the deck before him.
Chad eyed the pack carefully. A chime and ding went off in his head. He saw a golden sign fshing in his vision.
[Level Upgrade. Tutorial: Pussy Level completed. Main Quest: Game of Fate begins. Game of Fate is a pyed with a deck of 52 pying cards. Each represent a role in the game of Life. Py the cards as you wish to either level up for more power or be penalized with punishment.]
Quest: Gain Monica Steward's Perk
What-bag-of-nuts: Level 2
Css: Aristocrat
Soft Skills: Charisma. Physique. Apathy. Bullshit
Points awarded: 5
Atk
15
Str
20
Int
40
Agi
35
Will
15
End
20
"You have to apply the points to your combat levels," The genie casually said.
Chad groaned miserably and tossed up his hands. "So, why don't you tell me that and get rid of this system thing. And while you're at it, get rid of yourself."
He sat down on the bed with an imposing posture and one leg crossed over the knee of the other, making him look like a pretentious lord.
"Haha, you're a funny young man. But I wouldn't be able to grant your wishes if I did that."
"Don't you just grant them anyway? Why this stupid system and game?"
"If I'm granting we mind as well have fun with it." The genie hovered close to his ear as he whispered. "Don't you agree that gaining wishes with no effort is no fun? Isn't this the reason you are bored?"
Chad gulped and felt a clear truth had cut close to the bone. The floating fat man had a point.
"Fine. I'll py your game. If you bore me, I'll find an exorcist to exorcize you back to hell."
The genie bellowed with ughter. Truly the most entertaining subject he had stumbled upon in a long time. The boy definitely had the Sultan potential to a tee.
"So you agree to the game? If you win you will get all that you wish for and more."
"Yes, yes." Chad apathetically agreed with a dismissive flick of his hand.
"Great!"
The genie whirled about in such rapid motion that he become a ball of light that smmed hard into Chad's forehead to mark it with one of those alien symbols. The mark fshed white briefly then vanished to leave the skin clear.
System reappeared to his mind where he was prompted to assign the points to his combat levels. Chad didn't have much experience with RPG games. The only time he tried it was with Dark Souls, and he gave up after dying on the first boss that was five minutes into the tutorial questline. Even he knew that it was best to boost attack and speed first.
"But is this really a game where I'd fight monsters?" He paused with the thought.
After some more thinking and prompting from system with a threat of self-destruct, he decided to apply the points to Intelligence and Endurance: giving double to Endurance. Likely he'd need all these to deal with a rich girl like Monica. In his opinion, women were energy absorbers, so he would likely need as much higher value in endurance as possible.
A feeling of wonder made his excitement tingle for the moment when he felt invigorated. Maybe the game was going to be interesting after all.
He left his room and house to start his quest, forgetting the metal box on his bed.
Genie appeared as the young girl on his bed and grinned with a wicked smile as she shuffled the deck of fate cards in her hands. She pulled out the Queen of Hearts.
"Will this Sultan rule the world?" She ughed. "Oh how much fun this is going to be!"
With a wink of an eye, the genie was gone leaving the Queen of Hearts facing up on the bed.
