Chapter 2
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Under the comfortably warm covers, Erik slowly woke up from his deep slumber. He felt full of energy and oddly satisfied after his rest. Shortly after opening his eyes though, he frowned at the unfamiliar sight.

A circular wall made of timber covered in hides, pelts and felt with a wattle and straw roof and a floor of stamped earth covered in some places with more pelts. There was also a small fire place in the middle, where the roof was slightly opened up to allow the smoke to escape.

Now sitting upright and taking in the surroundings, Erik tried to recall how he got from his concrete wall and laminate floored apartment to this Nordic traditional looking place.

He remembered logging in to one of his old characters in his favourite game. A character that had made use of a Day 1 bug to become completely broken by abusing certain systems within the game. The bug allowed a new Norscan player-character to choose not just one of the four Chaos Gods, but to take all four at the same time. And with the game’s Favour system, this meant that those player-characters gained far more Favour and with their multiple allegiances gain far more stat-points as well.

Luckily, a lot of the game’s content was Single-player based so the developers chose to patch the bug and ban the bugged-characters from participating in most of the Multiplayer content. But they did not remove the quadruple allegiance from already existing characters.

Erik remembered receiving a message, but couldn’t quite remember if it was in-game or not. He chose to accept whatever the message had said, started playing and then blacked-out. Only to wake up here.

From his upright position on the bed, Erik threw back the fur covers to sit on the bed’s edge. Now he noticed even more oddities.

First of all, he was naked. This wasn’t that odd, but while Erik usually slept in just his briefs he never slept completely naked as he had now.

Second, he didn’t recall having a well-defined six-pack or being as well-endowed as he was now.

Startled, Erik saw a basin of water on a table further in the cabin and ran over, noticing that he had also grown slightly taller from around 183cm to 195cm or from 6’ to 6’4. And when he saw the reflection in the water, he was stunned even more.

Actually, the face reflected in the water didn’t so much stun him as it surprised and scared him. It was still his face, the same blond hair and the same face he was familiar with, but it had somehow become better defined. The jawline was more pronounced, his eyes were slightly larger and a deeper blue colour and the overall symmetry of his face had also greatly improved while the small scars gathered from shaving, small cuts and the like had completely vanished and his hair had become a lustrous, almost shiny dark gold. In short, it was his own face, but one hundred times more handsome.

And when Erik came to that conclusion himself, oddly, the fear he initially felt from these changes disappeared and was replaced with a feeling of satisfaction. He felt like this was what he should look like and a slight loathing for his previous appearance unwittingly sprung up.

After being slightly lost in his new looks, Erik then took a good look at his body and, as he had expected, there were evident changes there as well. Apart from the mentioned six-pack and endowment, the muscles on his arms and legs had also increased and become well-defined. He didn’t look like a bodybuilder with mountains of muscle, but he looked like a well-trained body built for endurance and combat while simultaneously releasing an air of silent danger and seduction.

While silently admiring his body, Erik sunk into thought. What had he agreed to? Was it an in-game message? From his phone? Try as he might, he couldn’t recall. But he did connect the dots that what he had agreed to must have a lot to do with his current situation.

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As he was deep in thought, mulling over what little he had pieced together, the door into the cabin opened. His moving around the cabin must have alerted someone outside that he had woken up and so, someone came to check up on him.

A young woman walked in and closed the door before turning towards Erik. The first thing he noticed was her long, fire red hair loosely hanging down her back and over her shoulders. Sharp, emerald green eyes moved around the room and stopped when she found Erik standing at the table.

For some reason, Erik did not feel embarrassed to be seen naked. Instead he felt rather proud to show off his perfect form, especially to a young woman like the one before him.

And the woman in turn did not turn red from seeing a naked man but instead brazenly looked Erik in the eye after giving him a good look up and down.

Her gaze did not go unnoticed by Erik who, in his new found vanity, felt his newfound vanity fulfilled by her attention. And under her continued attention, a certain part became more lively as well.

Finally a bit of rationale and sense returned to Erik after he felt little Erik standing to attention and with a slight cough to break the standoff, he talked to her.

“Ehum, hello. Sorry to bother you but, do you happen to have some clothes I could wear? I would like to get dressed and then ask you a few questions, if that is alright with you?”

The woman smiled and without saying anything walked over and handed Erik a bundle of clothes. When she came closer, Erik noticed that not only did she have the very striking red hair and green eyes, but her looks and overall appearance were all first class.

‘I want her’ –A sudden thought flashed through his head. He wanted her? He had barely met the girl, and in very unusual circumstances at that, and the first head he thought with was not the top one?

Erik accepted the offered clothes and found underwear, pants, socks and a shirt all made of a tightly woven fabric as well as a fur jacket and heavy leather boots.

After Erik quickly got dressed, still in full view of the red haired beauty, they both sat down at the table to talk. Erik asked her questions and quickly got some more information that shocked him inside, but he didn’t let it show.

The woman’s name was Sigrun and she was a member of the Frost Wolf Tribe as well as Jarl Ingolf’s, the tribe chieftain, daughter. The Frost Wolf Tribe was part of the Skaeling Tribal Confederacy living on the south side of the Norscan peninsula separated from the rest of the Old World by the Sea of Claws. Sigrun also talked about how Erik had appeared at their tribe, not hiding anything about the disintegrated Chaos Spawn or the words spoken directly by their Dark Gods. Sigrun also extended an invitation from the Jarl to come and talk in the Great Hall during the next meal.

This revelation immediately sent Erik’s thoughts into overdrive, making conjectures and connecting dots. He still couldn’t remember a lot of things, but a lot of memories were coming back to him and he finally arrived at what was probably the close to the truth.

Regardless of how he got the message, he had agreed to it in some way or form which allowed the four Chaos Gods, Khorne, Slaanesh, Tzeentch and Nurgle, to pluck his soul from his world and plant it down in this world. The only thing he could not explain is how the world he only knew as a grimdark fantasy world from PC and tabletop games became an existing reality.

~Bleep! – Player Erik fulfilled the conditions to access the Gamification Assistance Overlay. The GAO does NOT turn Player Erik into a game character due to the reality of the World. The GAO simply assists Player Erik with quantifying and record keeping of Player statistics, earned Favour, gathered information and management purposes.~

When Erik arrived at the conclusion of having been transmigrated, a glaring blue screen popped up in front of him and while Erik was utterly lost for words from this development, he also couldn’t help but inaudibly mutter:  “Of course something like this pops up too. Staple transmigration gimmick…”

And while Erik was dazedly staring at the blue screen and Sigrun patiently waited for Erik to ask more questions, the cabin door opened once more. This time, a scrawny man with unkempt facial hair and sticks for limbs wearing rags for clothes stumbled inside, breaking Erik’s concentration. And seeing the less than savoury appearance of the new arrival, a red haze swiftly flashed past Erik’s vision.

‘How dare he disturb my thoughts and my talk with my Sigrun!’ –Another unbidden thought entered his head. This time however, Erik was somewhat aware of what was going on. Most likely it was the manifestation of the Chaos Gods’ influence on him. This time, as well as the previous time, it was probably related to Slaanesh, Chaos God of Pleasure, Excess and Perfection. And with this realisation, Erik quickly controlled the sudden desire to attack the haggard figure. At least, until the man opened his mouth.

“Miss Sigrun, your father the Jarl invites you and the Champion to join him for the meal and… ah, aaah!! Mercy! No, mercy…!!

‘He ignored ME! He talked to Sigrun! He pollutes MY and her ears with his filth, guttural sound like a rusty rasp rasping on granite! How dare he! I’ll kill him!’ –Before Erik was aware of what he had done, the Chaotic thoughts went from internal thoughts to physical actions. He sprung up from his seat, grabbed the chair and smashed it on top of the already shivering figure.

Not satisfied, he took hold of a loose chair leg and continued the beating, not noticing that the man had long since stopped screaming after the first initial hits.

Finally, after the red haze subsided, Erik regained his composure and noticed a new blue screen flashing.

~Bleep! – Player Erik made his first kill!
~Bleep! – Player Erik earned Proficiency in One-handed weapons!
Player Erik earned Favour! Khorne, God of Blood and Hate, approves your killing of Thrall Old Ed!
Player Erik earned Favour! Slaanesh, God of Pleasure and Perfection, approves your display of infatuation and rectification of imperfection!

Please check Player statistics for details!~

Reading through the messages Erik was, for the umpteenth time today, lost for words. Just for being unsightly, just for ignoring him and just for talking to his conversation partner, Erik had just beaten an old man to death.

But this wasn’t what stumped and surprised him. Oh, no! What truly left Erik speechless was that he didn’t feel disgusted at the act. He didn’t even feel ‘nothing’ from taking another human life.

Instead… he had acted on an impulse, was rewarded for it and he felt pleased.

Okay, so slight detail on Favour & Stats. In Warhammer, the Chaos Gods are quite generous in gifting individuals more power. Like greater strength, stronger abilities etc. But a Chaos God is INCREDIBLY powerful so them giving a mortal those powers is like us humans giving steroids to ants. It can go very well, or utterly destroy/deform the subject.

The 'system' is a way for Erik to use this Favour from the Gods to, among other things, 'safely' increase his physical strength (Khorne), agility and dexterity (Slaanesh), endurance and vitality (Nurgle) and his magical abilities and memory (Tzeentch). There's more details to this, but we'll get to that later. 

Thanks for reading!

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