Asher slowly came to, not daring to open his eyes, warm rays of sunshine creeping past his eyelids. His head was pounding, which was weird as he didn’t remember getting plastered the night before nor had he been sick recently. If this was him coming down with some cold or other sickness then he would just call into work, it wasn’t like he actually cared about going. Asher was a 24-year-old legal assistant for one of the biggest firms in Kansas City Missouri, but he didn’t actually like his job, hated it even. He only went every day so he could afford to live. He had once tried multiple times to start different businesses and or make money while working for himself, but none of those attempts made it to the actual money-making part. So instead, he worked a dead-end job helping someone else make lots of money.

After some reluctance, Asher decided that if he was going to call in, he had best do it now, no point in getting a phone call from his boss yelling at him about being late. So, he reached his hand up and started trying to feel around for his phone, which was normally just plugged in right next to his head. Instead of finding his phone though all he could feel between his fingers was the cool feeling of grass. 

His eyes shot open upon feeling this, instead of finding the white crack-littered ceiling of his apartment a huge blue sky with trees littering his peripheral vision lay in front of him. But that isn’t what caught Asher’s attention, instead what held his focus was a blue-colored box that hovered in front of him, like something someone might see inside a video game or some anime. Upon further inspection, it seemed there was something written in the middle of it, and as Asher read it all he could do was open his mouth and leave his jaw slack in utter disbelief.

[New Quest: Welcome to the Multiverse]

“Fuck” Asher said aloud to no one after reading what the blue screen had written, and upon doing so the blue screen vanished leaving Asher in its wake, staring into the blue sky alone. After a brief pause, Asher pushed himself up into a sitting position noticing the lack of the clothes he had worn to bed the night before. After some time of closing his eyes tightly and then reopening them again and again hoping to find himself back in his apartment, he shakily forced himself up onto his feet. 

After stabilizing himself on his shaking knees trying his best not to break down and cry, he began looking around. Asher stood in what seemed to be a lush open forest with trees all around him, grass and other plants dotted the forest floor but not to the point that it impeded walking around. If it wasn’t for the screen, he had seen upon waking up Asher would have just thought that someone had kidnapped him, stripped him naked, and left him in the woods like in one of those movies where the rich hunt the poor, hell that might still be the case and he wouldn’t know it. But something deep down told him that wasn't the case.

As he went along with this train of thought he noticed a blue light shining off in the distance, and with a quick jog found himself in front of a massive lake. The water was clearer than anything he had ever seen before, his reflection stood back in pristine detail, his dirty blond hair, decently cut chin, and oddly enough blue eyes. But Asher ignored that, assuming it was due to some weird effect the water had, instead quickly dropping to his knees suddenly feeling like the most dehydrated man in the world, he scooped up handful after handful of water drinking it without any worry about what bacteria it might contain.

After a while Asher fell back against the slightly wet grass, feeling like a new man. The water managed to quench his thirst, but he could still actively feel his gut growling, begging for substance. Eventually pushing himself up he began trying to figure out what was going on.

“Ok, I'm not dreaming this, or at least I don’t think I am. But how is all of this real? And where am I? And why the hell was there a quest? That screen looked like it came straight out of an RPG.” Asher thought to himself before concentrating on the center of his vision, ignoring and blurring out the lake in front of him.

“Quests,” Asher said out loud, and almost instantly the same blue box he had seen when he awoke appeared before him again. Once again it read [Quest: Welcome to the Multiverse], but this time instead of instantly disappearing it hovered right in the middle of his vision making everything else harder to see.

“Open Quest,” Asher said, feeling stupid saying the commands out loud, glad for the first time that no one was around to hear him. This time the blue box disappeared, but before Asher could do or say anything another blue box appeared replacing the last. This time though it had considerably more information.

[Quest: Welcome to the Multiverse]

[Objective: Reach Level 5 Inside Safe Zone]

[Reward: 10 Gold, Title: Beginner, Teleportation to Ragatha]

Once Asher had managed to read through everything he sighed and stopped focusing on the window, causing it to close. Asher fell back, the grass-catching him and embracing him in a warm hug. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Asher thought to himself, still trying to decide if all of this was still a dream, or if he had somehow gone insane. But after a while, he finally got to his feet accepting his fate, and upon striking a gallant pose in front of the lake, felt better off than he had before. Aside from not having pants that is.

After leaving the lakefront Asher began searching the woods for anything he could fashion into clothing. After a while of searching, he had collected enough vines and small branches from various bushes to create something that looked like a toga from the ancient Roman times. Satisfied with his work Asher began searching through the forest for ways to level up, he knew the system had tasked him with the goal of reaching level five, but he didn't quite know how to do that. That's when a thought entered Asher's mind.

“Status,” Asher said aloud in a somewhat quiet voice, still feeling incredibly stupid and embarrassed saying commands out loud like that. But through his embarrassment results were born, a new window appearing before him.

[Name: Asher Gentry]

[Level: 1]

[Race: Human, Rank: F]

[Titles: None]

[Core 1: None]

[Core 2: None]

[Core 3: None]

[Core 4: None]

[Core 5: None]

[Core 6: None]

[Abilities: None]

[Overall Rank: F]

Asher couldn't help but stare in wonder at the screen in front of him, he had expected something like this but not to the extent that lay before him. And what were all these cores in front of him? Questions raced through his mind, trying to figure everything out all at once.

One thing that perplexed Asher was that he didn't have stats, or at least none were displayed in a way that he could see. Most of the games he had played always had a way for him to increase one specific stat or at least a way to know how strong his character was. But here he couldn't, after much deliberation Asher began searching for a way to increase his level again.

Finally, after a little over twenty minutes of searching, he found what looked like a rabbit. If that said rabbit was the size of a horse and could eat an entire tree for lunch. That's when he heard a ding and the increasingly familiar system box appeared before him.

[New Quest: Kill the Rabbit of Deforestation]

[Reward: +2 Levels, Title: Rabbit Slayer]

“How the fuck am I supposed to kill that thing?” Asher exclaimed while hiding in a bush, the monstrous rabbit either didn't hear him or didn't care about his presence, happily eating a tree from the roots up. Asher slowly backed away not wanting to get eaten along with the tree. That's when he had an amazing idea, a smile creeping across his face.

“How could I be so stupid!” He said loud enough that someone a block over would have been able to hear him, a triumphant grin across his face.

“Inventory!” He practically yelled once he was far enough away from the monster rabbit. For a second nothing happened, causing his grin to disappear. Until the system box, he was slowly getting accustomed to appearing suddenly.

“Hell yes! I knew it.” Asher said aloud looking at the five rows of four boxes in front of him. All of them except one were empty, inside the first box was a simple-looking brown box.

“How do I take it out?” Asher thought aloud, then suddenly the box was in his hands. It was fairly big, bigger than he thought it was going to be from the picture. It was about the same size as a large Amazon box. Quickly he sat it down and opened it, the box having a simple lid made it quite easy.

Inside though was not what Asher was expecting. What lay inside was what looked like a T-shirt and a small dagger. He lifted the dagger out and inspected it closely, but as far as he could tell there was nothing special about it. Next, he pulled out the shirt letting it fall into full view, it read 

“Transported across the multiverse and all I got was this shirt.”

“Fuck you!” Was all Asher said while raising both his middle fingers into the air, letting the shirt fall back into the box.