Richard Williams is a young American man living the dream in New York city.

He’s the youngest of 3 brothers to a wealthy family. He was deemed as incompitent by his father so wasn't allowed to participate in the running of the family company and was told to find something else to work on.

 

His family operates a power company that owns many of America’s power plants. Although many had closed when the uranium shortage happened, his family still had considerable wealth and social power.

 

Richard has a bad personality and short temper so was disliked by others. He didn't have many friends since many couldn't handle his attitude or were simply after his money. Richard is a tall and slightly muscular man, he had long straight brown hair that flowed over his shoulders and down his back.

 

Richard was scrolling through twitter on his computer and keeping up to date with global business news. He had a lot of free time so he did this every morning. While scrolling a certain article peaks his interest.

 

Korean billionaire Sung Jung has founded a new company today called Eden. The company is apparently going to be owned by her little brother Eon and her little sister who hasn't been named yet.

 

The news was blowing up not just in Korea but even globally over this. Since when did Sung Jung have two siblings? Why would she make a new company? Does it have something to do with the portal that was discovered in Korean a week ago?

 

Then something crazy happened.

 

--Richards Perspective--

 

In front of my eyes a blue screen appeared as if I was in a VR game. I flung myself back in shock and fell to the floor. A loud crash could be heard as my chair and desk fell over to the ground.

 

While rubbing my head I heard a voice inside my ear.

 

[You have been selected to be a participant for the Eden system]

[Commencing Information Download]

[Genetic Evolution in progress]

 

[Human race confirmed]

[Job and skills being calculated…]

[Titles being generated…]

[Generating Status...]

 

I screamed and squirmed around on the floor as information poured into my head. Not able to bear the pain I passed out. When I wake up it's already dark outside. I try to get up off the floor but my body feels heavy. I have a splitting headache so I go towards the kitchen sink to get a glass of water.

 

Then I remembered. It all came flooding back. Eden? System? Evolution? Skills? What does all of that mean? I can tell I have become a bit taller somehow and my muscles are more defined than before. How is that possible?

 

I mutter to myself [Status] and sure enough the blue screen pops up before me:

 

[Richard Williams]

[Human]

[Level 1]

[Job: Dragon Knight]

[Titles: None]

[Skills: Dragons Strength 1]

[Health: 100/100 Strength: 4, Magic: 2, Mana: 20]

 

I think to myself what does Dragons Strength mean and as if the system can read my mind the information is displayed.

[Dragons Strength (50% increase in base stats for 5 minutes) D ranked skill]

 

I can't tell if this is a good or bad thing as I have nothing to reference. Thinking upon this issue I head over to find my computer on the floor. I turn it on and go to check the news.

 

This can’t have only happened to me right?

 

The world is in chaos. New articles are being made by the second. Rumors and accusations are being thrown around. I shift through many articles and after a few hours I have concluded the following points.

 

Around 10% of the human population is estimated to have been given access to this Eden system.

 

Portals similar to the one in Korea have opened in all major cities across the world.

 

All countries are demanding Korea for a statement from Sung Jung and the siblings said to be the owners of Eden. The reason she is suspected as being involved in this is because the system's name is the same as her company, Eden.

The US military has been deployed to guard the entrances to the portals.

 

The stock price of Eden was originally low since the company didn't seem to have any products or services but within a day of the company being on the stock market it was already ranked number 38 in terms of value.

 

The company had gone from being worth nothing to being valued at 600 billion dollars in 12 hours. Sung Jung's company had also increased in value by 20% making it the most valuable company in Korea at 1 trillion dollars.

 

I turned my head to my television and switched it on. A small local news station was holding an interview with a middle aged man, he was a little taller and muscular than the average american. He said he had been at work at his local fast food restaurant when the Eden system went online. He was taken to hospital like many others when he passed out. He said he had the ranger class and had gone through some kind of evolution. He mentioned how he had gained a few inches of height and a lot of muscle mass compared to before.

 

I switched to the world wide news channel and was shocked at the sight in front of me. There was an American woman who seemed to be the news channel's Korean correspondent. She was explaining that she was in front of Sung Jung’s home in seoul.

 

What was displayed on screen was no home. A huge white stone building of at least a thousand meters pierced the clouds. Had such a tall building been built? I hadn't heard anything about a project this big on the news before?

 

What was almost as surprising as the sheer size of this majesting building is what its doing. Huge volumes of pollution seemed to be being sucked into the top of the building. How mysterious, what could they need that pollution for to build such a massive building.

 

According to the Korean government the building hadn't been there this morning and had no idea where it had come from. An obvious lie, A building of that size would take 10 years or more to build. How did they do it without anyone noticing is beyond me.

 

The next morning the announcement the world had been waiting for.

 

Sung Jung stood at the front gates to the huge fortress, there was a huge roar from the reporters but she raised her hand and demanded silence. Broadcasted to the entire world and watched by every human on earth, Sung Jung begins the speech.

“I have a few points to make and then I will take 5 questions, after that we won't be seeing each other for a while” clearing her throat she continues.

 

“My brother Eon has developed a global wide system to fix earth's current issues.”

 

“Along with humans being picked by Eden and given abilities, I'm sure some have noticed the existence of these portals.”

 

“Inside the portals are a ‘virtual space’ where monsters will indefinitely spawn.”

 

“Inside the dungeon you can find loot such as food, rare metals and other useful items”

 

“When monsters are slain they will also drop an item called a mana stone. These stones can be used as a substitute for uranium and with little modification, power plants can make use of them.”

 

“They can also be used for many magical devices and technologies but we will let you guys figure that out.”

 

“As you guys know Korea attempted to send soldiers into Korea’s portal that appeared a week ago but couldn't enter.”

 

“Those not recognised by Eden’s system cannot enter dungeons, so since the system had not been finished when that portal appeared nobody could enter. I will now take questions.”

 

The reporters all looked at each other in astonishment at what they had just heard. The reporter from America shot her hand up and started waving.

 

Sung Jung pointed at the reporter, “Where is Eon can we meet him!?” shouted the girl.

 

“Not possible, he’s currently working on an update to the system.”

 

“What’s the update going to add” shouted a rude reporter without being picked

 

“Something to do with a shop system where magic stones can be exchanged for food, weapons or new skills.” said Sung Jung

 

“Ok, one more question then i'm done here.”

 

The reporters started making a lot of noise again and were clearly agitated to get an answer to their question.

 

“What about those who were not picked by the eden’s system, will more people get chosen?” said a British reporter in broken Korean.

 

“No more will be chosen, there's a good reason for it but without knowing the workings of the system it's pointless to tell you.”

 

With that final answer to the questions Sung Jung stepped away from the front gates and retreated back towards the huge building.

 

I’m a chosen one then huh. I guess I'll head towards the dungeon and see what they are all about.

 

In central park of New York there was the infamous blue portal. Surrounded by soldiers. I apparently could see the status of others if I focused on them and thought of wanting to see it. Sure enough everyone was level 1, I could tell who had been chosen by Eden as they had skills and a job. The other normal people had just their name, race and level displayed.

 

The scene was complete chaos. The soldiers are trying to hold the people back. People were chucking rubbish and rocks at the soldiers and blue portal. Upon checking the status most of these people throwing the rubbish and shouting were not picked by Eden.

 

It seems those not picked, having heard the announcement this morning that no more would be picked, had caused civil unrest.

 

I approached what looked to be a temporary tent that had a sign saying “Eden registration”. Upon entering a soldier stood before me and seemed to be checking my status.

 

It seemed the government wanted to collect information about Eden members as my information was entered into a laptop by the soldier. I was then handed an ID card that kind of looked like a drivers license.

 

“What's this?” I asked the soldier, he showed visible irritation on his face like this is the 100th time he has heard this question today.

 

“This card shows that you are an Eden member so those who can’t check status can tell the difference”.

 

Ah so it's similar to a guild card from those manga I had read. I thanked the soldier with an awkward smile and moved on through the backdoor of the tent to an open area in front of the portal.

 

There was a gathering of around 30 people but they were split into smaller groups of 3. As I was walking forward looking at the scene before me a young couple walked towards me.

“Hey man did you come alone?” asked the man in his early twenties. He had blond hair and glasses. He was a little shorter than me but was well built and gave off a weird vibe with his teacher-like appearance but muscular build.

 

“Yes, why is that a problem?” I responded hesitantly at the sudden uncalled for human interaction.

 

The short girl was the one to reply to my question “In order to enter the dungeon you have to be in a group of three, we have been waiting here for a while to find a third party member but everyone had already come in groups of three.”

 

“How did they know to come in groups of three?” I asked. It's weird that i'm the only one who came by myself, right? “There’s a website for Eden, it explains the rules for the dungeon and other useful information”. Replied the young man as he reached for his phone.

 

Taking the phone he passed to me I scrolled down the website. It sure had a lot of useful information.

 

I saw many interesting features of the website such as information on monsters that appear in the dungeons, plans for future updates ect. But by far the part that caught my attention the most was the leaderboard.

 

The leaderboard appeared to update in real time and was somehow linked to the Eden system. I could see the name and level of players as well as a picture of their face. At the moment everyone was still level 1 so the order of the people on the leaderboard was randomized.

 

Once someone reached level 2 they would appear at the top of the leaderboard. Since the dungeons had only been opened a short time it seems reasonable that nobody has levelled up yet.

 

Filled with determination to be recognized and famous I clenched my fists in anticipation.

 

The man proposed that we form a party and since they seemed like decent people and I had nobody else to enter with it seemed like a fine idea. I accepted the man's proposal and we entered the dungeon together.