"Menu"

Menu:

[Status]
[Shop]
[Quests]

"...Did cancer reach my brain?" That was Eli's real first reaction to this absurd scene before his eyes. It was just that absurd. A menu popped up in front of his face, Like some sort of Bios screen. The options looked like fucking RPG shit too. If he told this to anyone else, They would ask what shit was he smoking, Since it was too strong.

Well, Nothing he can do about it, Might as well go with the flow. "Status."

Status:

[Overall Evolution Rank: lvl 0]

[Strength lvl 0]
[Vitality lvl 0]
[Toughness lvl 0]
[Agility lvl 0]
[Dexterity lvl 0]
[Cognition lvl 0]
[Nerves lvl 0]
[Senses lvl 0]
[Instinct lvl 0]
[Immunity lvl 0]
[Mana Conductivity lvl -]
[Mana Core lvl -]
[Mana Sense lvl -]

Skills:

Unique Skills:
[Time Stipend lvl 0, Time saved: 1 minute]

"Ok, what the hell is this? Game statistic? Why are all of them lvl 0? WTF is mana? And the hell is a Time stipend?"

Eli had so many questions, but no one to answer them. He tried to focus on [Overall Evolution Rank] and it suddenly showed:

Overall Evolution Rank: The rank of your evolution. Signifies how strong you are. Can generate an aura that deters weaker opponents.

"That was seriously not useful at all. I can't make left or right out of this. I'll just try the [Strength]."

Strength: Affects Muscular strength capacity, Explosive Strength, Lifting capacity.

"Ok... it doesn't explain much, but at least better than nothing... Let's try the others..."

Vitality: Affects Organ function, Nutrient capacity, Fatal blow survivability, Natural regeneration, Stamina, lifespan.

"That looks useful... But can it help cancer, though? Won't it just accelerate it?"

Toughness: Affects Skin toughness, Bone density, Organ durability, Muscle toughness. Tendon toughness

"Sounds great and all, but frankly speaking, It will probably increase body weight. That means that you will need to get Strength, first."

Agility: Affects Maximum speed, Acrobatics, Dynamic movement, and general Flexibility.

"Basically, it increases speed. But won't that mean that the brain will have a much harder time keeping up? Won't you just end up crashing into a wall at a high speed?"

Dexterity: Affects Arm and leg movement, Finger finesse, Small movement capability

"Finally, something that seems more independent. It might sound useless, but in a knife fight, it can change the outcome drastically."

Cognition: Effects Cognition of the brain. Dampens effects of senses on judgment capacity.

"Basically, it improves the brain? Not bad. But will the nerves keep up with it without burning? Dampening the effect of senses though seems Really useful though."

Nerves: Affects nerve capacity, nerve flexibility, nerve toughness.

"And that solved the cognition issue. Can also help prevent from the nerves being shredded."

Senses: Affects the 5 senses.

"Sounds legit. Though without Cognition and Nerves, it is totally useless."

Instinct: Affects the sixth sense.

"Not very informative, but for some reason, it sounds even better than cognition in a gunfight. Gut feeling helped me many times to escape death. Best of all, it is not reliant on anything else."

Immunity: Affects the immune system, infection immunity, disease immunity, Immunity to cancer cells, toxin and poison resistance, zombie infection Immunity.

"Finally something that can solve my cancer problem, assuming I am not hallucinating all of this... And wtf... Zombie infection???"

He tried focusing on it and... Nothing. It didn't do anything. Guess you can't open a description to a description.

Since he already started, Might as well finish. He tried selecting the mana things, but they were greyed out. He then tried selecting that weird Time stipend thing, and it worked!

Time Stipend: Each day, gain a certain amount of time to do whatever you want with it. You can go turn back time by thinking Back and specifying the amount of time, if you don't think anything besides Back then it is a default of 1 minute. You can accelerate yourself and the objects you hold by thinking Accelerate and how faster you want it. Defaulted at 2 times speed, and can end it by thinking Accelerate again. You can stop time by thinking Stop, air, and water particles near you will function normally, can displace solid objects or living objects, but cannot change their base structure or current movement vector. Objects leaving your body by a distance of 1 meter will stop in the air. Can resume time by thinking Stop. At lvl 0: Gains 1 minute per day, the Acceleration time conversion base is 1:1. All abilities will cease the moment you have no more time.

"... Ok, let's test this shit. If this is real, I'll believe it."

He took a vase and dropped it to the ground, shattering it. He then thought Back 5 seconds, and he was now holding the vase again, Unshattered.

"Holy... Wow... Ok, I believe it." Eli was truly flabbergasted about this trippy experience. And he now believed the shit he was seeing was real, at least mostly.

He checked the time remaining and sure enough, it showed he had 55 seconds remaining.

"Hmm... Let's check the shop now..."

Shop:

[Evolution Upgrades]
[Skills]
[Items]
[Points: 107]

"... Please let it be there...", Eli immediately checked the Evolution Upgrades, and sure enough...

[Strength Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Vitality Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Toughness Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Agility Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Dexterity Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Flexibility Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Cognition Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Nerves Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Senses Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Instinct Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Immunity Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Mana Conductivity Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Mana Core Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]
[Mana Sense Upgrade lvl 1 price: 10]

He immediately checked the Immunity Upgrade:

Immunity lvl 1: Now immune to normal diseases, infections, viruses, and cancer. Immune to lvl 0 poisons and more resistant to lvl 1 poisons, and tolerance to toxic substances increased. Now immune to lvl 0 zombie virus, resistant to lvl 1 zombie virus.

Ignoring the zombie parts, Eli Immediately bought it. Following that, he felt pain all over his body, as if ants were crawling under his skin. The white cell activity in the bloodstream was increasing, they were mutating, evolving, and multiplying, Replacing the older, weaker ones. The cancer cells in his blood were quickly being annihilated. Cancer that permeated to other areas was slowly dissolved and eaten away.

He gritted his teeth and endured it, The pain wasn't worse than a gun wound. After 2 minutes, it subsided. He was completely soaked in sweat, panting, leaning on a dirty wall. He sat on the old couch and rested for 10 minutes.

After resting, Eli checked himself and saw that he was actually fine. He felt... Better... Like he was half a year younger when he was still healthy. Ever since half a year ago, he started to feel a bit off, but he did not pay it much heed, He was young after all. Who knew he actually had cancer. It only showed a few weeks ago, when the shaking started. He tried to hide it first, convincing himself he was fine, But the shaking continued and got worse, and he started spitting pink phlegm. His colleagues soon noticed his shaking, and when he went to the psychologist, he suddenly coughed and blood came out. From there, a few simple tests confirmed blood cancer a week later.

But now... Now he felt fine, Still not healthy, but felt the relaxing feel like after popping a really painful zit, and now it was healing. He knew... He knew he just got a new lease on life. He cheated death.

"Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA....!!!! Eli laughed uncontrollably, tears flowing out of his eyes. He accepted death. He knew it was inevitable. His entire line of work risked the life of the soldiers in it daily. But he was young, he still wanted to live, And not die like some dog.

"SHUT UP!!!!" A voice shouted in Spanish from the floor above. He disturbed the neighbors. "Sorry!" He replied apologetically.

Now, Eli got his shit together and continued exploring the shop.

Shop:

[Evolution Upgrades]
[Skills]
[Items]
[Points: 97]

"It's now greyed out... Is there some sort of cooldown on it? That would make sense, After all, It is really stressful on the body."

Eli then looked at the points, and commented, "I remember it was 107 points, So it deducted 10 points, just as the price stated... I wonder if I can get any specifics on why I got so many points though... could it be?"

Points: Can be obtained by killing humans, zombies, and mutated animals. Points gained are 10^(lvl of kill). Also possible to obtain through quests.

"Hmm... As expected... The bully from back then also got counted I see, and I think I got an initial 10 points too. Not bad..."

"That said... Normal animals don't count I guess, I remember killing quite a few goats and donkeys in the shootings... More than 10 at least, counting the grenade incident 3 years ago... And there is that zombie shit again, I don't like this..."

Skills:

[Firearm Mastery lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Cold Weapon Mastery lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Hand to Hand Combat lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Acrobatics lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Survival skills lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Driving lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Medical skills lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Animal training lvl 0 Price: 2]
...
[Mana Manipulation lvl 0 Price: 5]
[Fire Magic lvl 0 Price: 2]
[Earth Magic lvl 0 Price: 2]
...
[Time Stipend lvl 1 Price: 100]

"So I can buy and upgrade skills? Why would I buy firearm mastery though? Seems kinda wasted on me..."

He checked the Firearm Mastery, just in case, and it got him...

Firearm Mastery lvl 0: Obtain increased proficiency in all types of firearms, As if trained for 3 months as a soldier. If already proficient, it Will increase proficiency further.

"Ok, not as useless as I thought. I can get in a 100-yard range 3 10-pointers, and 7 9-pointers easily. If I get this skill, I can probably be even better."

Eli did not check the others but checked the Time Stipend upgrade.

Time Stipend lvl 1: Increases time generation to 3 minutes. The Acceleration time conversion base is now 1:3.

"Sounds fair, though the price is a bit steep. I cant buy it now. I will need to kill 3 people to get this upgrade... But even if I go on a killing spree, the cops will be on my tail before I know it. And that's assuming I want to go on a killing spree. Unless I killed some people who would not be missed, that usually kill each other daily... Like... Gangsters...Purple skill gang? Nah they didn't provoke me... Yet... I also don't know if they have any backing from the police. Maybe accept mercenary work? We had some backdoor dealing when I was still in the squad, Assassinating some drug dealers on the side. Maybe I can get more points while getting a quick buck. I already have about 700k safely tucked in my bank account, but more money never hurts. Let's check the items..."

Items:

[3-day Food rations Price: 1]
[10 liters of clean water Price: 1]
[Initial zombie virus vaccine Price: 1]
[First aid kit lvl 0 Price: 1]
...
[Evidence collecter Price: 3]
[Stealthboy lvl 0 Price: 3]
[Zombie virus cure lvl 0 Price: 3]
[Repair Kit lvl 0 Price: 3]
...
[Storage ring Price: 5 per cubic meter]
[First aid kit lvl 1 Price: 5]
[Ammunition lvl 0 Price: 1 per 200g]
[Customized Armor lvl 0 Price: 1 per 200g]
[Custumized Weapon lvl 0 Price: 5]
[Mutated animal loyalty collar lvl 0 Price: 5]
...
[Stealthboy lvl 1 Price: 10]
[Zombie virus cure lvl 1 Price: 10]
[Repair Kit lvl 1 Price: 10]
...
[Ammunition lvl 1 Price: 5 per 200g]
[Customized Armor lvl 1 Price: 5 per 200g]
[Custumized Weapon lvl 1 Price: 5 per 200g]
[Mutated animal loyalty collar lvl 1 Price: 25]
...

As Eli scanned the list, his eyes locked on 3 things. First, was the Initial zombie virus vaccine. He had a growing bad feeling about this... The second one was the Evidence collector. It sounded actually useful for his current situation. The third was the storage ring. Now that is a wet dream for just about every sane man, Imagine suddenly pulling a bazooka out of thin air and shooting it.

He concentrated on the vaccine and...

Initial zombie virus vaccine: Ensures that a person will survive the initial mana-adaptation of the world, preventing the risk of turning into a zombie or mutant, but will not prevent evolution. Won't work on direct infection.

"WTF... Apocalypse?!! Is this a joke?! I hope it is because this isn't funny!!" Eli was deeply disturbed by this.

He then decided to check the other two:

Evidence collector: Automatically collects All DNA samples dropped by the user. Does not cover fingertips samples and facial features. However, lvl 0 equipment can cover these with ease. Has a battery life of 24 hours, and can be re-charged through sunlight exposure. It is in the shape of a ring and has inner storage of 0.2 cubic meters. If over-capacity, it won't store anymore. It can be turned on and off. Can dispose of contents with a thought to designated area.

"Hmm... So it isn't an all-purpose tool, it would just collect things like body fluids, skin, and hair. Maybe also things like snot, earwax, urine, and shit? Will it also collect semen automatically? If so, along with my now immune body, I can sleep with anyone bareback! This item is nastier than I thought!"

Eli didn't immediately buy it though. He first checked the storage ring.

Storage ring: Can store firmly held non-living Items in a pocket dimension (Live Zombies are considered living). The time inside is frozen. The space is customizable and can be upgraded. Each cubic meter is 5 points. It is a bound Item, and cannot be viewed by others until unbound. Can absorb other unbounded empty storage rings, to increase its own space.

"Now THAT is what I'm talking about! But wait... Other unbounded storage rings? I'm not the only guy who has this system thing arent I..."

Eli did not find anything worth noting, for now, so he checked the final thing. Quests.

Quests: 

Main Quests:

1. Prepare for the Apocalypse

Side Quests:

1. None

"..." Eli suddenly sweated bullets, his heartbeat quickened. Half in denial, he focused on it... When he saw the text, he went pale, head buzzing, arms slumping to the sides...

Prepare for the Apocalypse: Through binding a real blessed relic of the OverGod to your mortal vassal, you have unlocked the only early access to the system on the entire planet. The system was built by the OverGod, a great being far above your conceptual imagination. The boss of the god that made your universe you could say. Every universe needs to go through a mana baptism at a certain point. The god governing your universe has deemed it as mature enough. Now... It is time for the apocalypse, the rise of a new order to the universe itself. The first stage will be a mana wave, that will shock the very DNA structure of every single living being on the planet, inducing forced evolution. While animals have more resilient vitality and structure, resulting in a positive evolution, Strengthening them, Human beings are less so. 53% of the population above the age of 13 will turn into flesh-eating zombies, 0.1% will mutate into intelligent flesh-eating mutants. From the surviving 46.9%, Some will evolve by luck a genetic ability. Below the age of 13, 87% of the children will survive and have a relatively higher chance to evolve positively. More highly fit and healthy humans have a higher chance to survive relatively than unfit unhealthy humans, although it is not a guarantee. A projected estimate amount of survivors is approximately 13% of humanity surviving by day 7.

Your task is simple. Survive. Grow stronger. Kill and evolve. Reach evolution stage 1 in all non-mana attributes, and upgrade your Time Stipend skill to lvl 1. Do this, and you will be rewarded a genetic skill that belongs to you when the apocalypse arrives. Good luck and may the OverGod be with you.

The mana wave will happen on 1/8/2023 at 20:37:11 UTC of planet earth

Eli, who was slumped on the couch, could only stare at the ceiling in a daze, and utter, "Fuck...".