Kyoku woke up feeling weird. He couldn't understand why exactly he felt that way, so he did what he always did: ignore it until he had to think about it. The problem actually hit him when he opened his eyes.
'Either I'm dreaming or society finally made me go insane.' - Kyoku thought when he first saw the screen in front of his eyes. -'Well, not like I lose anything in entertaining a weird dream.'
Kyoku looked at the requirements of the 'Quest' and thought about the first one. With zero to none idea about how to see his Status board, he began to think about the topic. He almost jumped from the bed when a screen bigger than the Quest one appeared right on top of it.
"Just what the fuck is going on...?" - he said to no one in particular. It was by that point that he realized this couldn't be just a dream. After all, there was no way his thoughts could be flowing so regularly. He felt in control and, in his knowledge, dreams weren't something you were suppossed to feel in control of. - "Fuck it, I might as well just flow with it."
He was simply too tired to deal with it. Was it weird? Yes. Did he care? Not really. After all, it wasn't like this would change his life, right? He was still going to be shackled by society, he was still going to attend school regularly, he was... still going to be an average human? That was when the possibilities finally kicked in.
'Wait.. if this is real... wouldn't I be able to play life like a game?' - Kyoku thought while brushing his teeth, when his brain finally began working properly. That was when he finally paid proper attention to the Tutorial Quest and his Status Board. - 'How do I use Observe and Create ID? It just said I leveled up, right? And more importantly, what is the Abyss?'
At that point Kyoku wasn't thinking about it as a dream, but as an actual game. Kyoku wondered why he would be 'The Gamer' when he wasn't actually that much into gaming. He did enjoy some games casually, but he didn't live for gaming. Then again, he wouldn't complain. Besides, when he DID play a game, he was that guy who couldn't stop until the game was perfectly completed. He could still remember the suffering of grinding that time he wanted to 'try' World of Warcraft.
Checking the second requirement, he focused on the 'Skills Board' and, just like his Status, it opened above the Quest screen.
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'If this is like a game... then I should be able to read about the different skills' - Kyoku thought before focusing on the two passives he was the most interested in, since he didn't understand what they were about. Just like before, his deduction was correct.
Even if Kyoku wasn't an expert, he could tell just how stupid this two skill of his were. Recovering HP and MP, plus the cure of any status effects, was simply stupidly amazing. And being immune to mental disorders was just as stupid. That meant that skills that affect the mind wouldn't affect him at all!
"Wait, why would a skill that affects the mind attack me, in the first place?" - Kyoku said with a whispery, inquisitive tone as he entered the shower. He was going through his morning routine before school just following the motions, focusing more on his situation. - 'There was a requirement saying I had to survive my first day in the Abyss... I should be careful about this'
Kyoku was only now realizing exactly how dangerous this could be. A quest given in a simple world wouldn't just outright tell him to survive, so he could infer there was more to this than what he was seeing. That was when another screen popped up into existence.
He somehow felt different. It wasn't a very noticeable change, but it was there. It was as if he had somehow gotten smarter, or as if his brain worked with more ease than before. He didn't know if it was the added points to Wisdom or if it was just the ominous last requirement of his Tutorial Quest, but he was sure he had to take this entire thing seriously. Something told him that, were he to act like it was a joke, his boring life would look like paradise.
After taking his shower, Kyoku left the bathroom and went to get changed into his casual clothes. He always woke up around half an hour earlier than his mother so he could enjoy a few minutes of the morning without listening to anyone but his own thoughts, and he was grateful for it, since what was happening currently required him to think about things in a quite environment.
He had just gotten a Level Up and some stat points, but before that, he wanted to fulfill most of the requirements. As such, he focused on his other two necessary skills.
"Observe seems like the most viable option right now..." - said Kyoku as he donned a pair of pants and sport shoes. He didn't wear a shirt while at home unless it was winter, and since it was Sunday, he didn't have to worry about school. - "Now the question is... what should I use Observe in?"
As he looked around his room to find something suitable for the skill, he thought about the requirement. It didn't specify what kind of target, so he could check anything, right?
He was about to go on a spree, but he didn't want to just check anything. He knew that a lot of games had hidden achievements and, if for some reason life was to become a videogame... it would surely have the biggest amount of them. Some perhaps unknown to the designer of the game itself, whoever it was.
"Gaia? As in Mother Earth?" - Kyoku said, pondering about what it meant. The conclusion he arrived to was rather simple. Whoever this Gaia was, gave him his powers and was sending him the notifications. And that was when he had a little spark of playfulness. Something he had managed to do quite a few times while playing games. Finding loopholes in the system. - "There was no specification on the kind of target needed for Observe to work..."
And so he focused on Gaia. No the name on the notification, but the being. And while looking at the name, he used Observe. Unluckily, he got no reaction.
"Well, at least I tried... anyways, thanks for the opportunity, I suppose" - Kyoku said while lamenting the fact that he couldn't get to know more about the one that gave him this new 'powers' of his. - "Train? What train?"
Once again, Kyoku decided to not think about it. He knew that, if Gaia said it, he would probably board a train at some point of the day, but he didn't know when or why. As such, he simply decided to ignore it. After all, what good would worrying about an unknown do?
Since he didn't have anything to do currently, he decided to keep searching for things to use Observe on.
And the list went on until he had fifteen items Observed in his room. He could've completed the requirement there, but he really wanted to check if there were hidden achievement to be made that were unique to the Tutorial, which was why he decided to wait. While he thought about how or on who to use his powers, the perfect guinea pig presented itself to him.
"Kyoku! Come down already, breakfast is ready!"
What do you think will happen during breakfast?
