A Game With God

Max Luck

"How's Aleiya, Mel?" A man asked his friend while they walk out of the school grounds. They're in a group of three who likes video games. With their bags hanging on their backs, Mel seems worried about her.

"She can't go to school yet. She still can't get over her friend's death. I'm fetching her later in this last day," Mel said.

"It must be hard for her seeing her friend in that situation, you know, brutal death," another friend said. "I wish for the better of your girlfriend bro."

"Me too. By the way, don't be late for the release later. We'll grind early and be the top as fast as possible," his friend said.

"Is that speedrun?" Mel asked humorously as they started laughing. "If I still have the energy, I'll dive through my gear later and catch up with you."

They came to the intersection where they split up. Mel's house is in a different direction from the two. The two go straight the crossing and said with long smiles, "See you later, Mel. If you don't pop, I'll smack you tomorrow."

"Fine. Watch out your way. I'll still surpass you even if you log in first," he said.

Later in the burial, the skies are gray. He came behind the compressed crowd and sees Aleiya from far. There she hugs her friend's brother as her eyes nearly fall out. A familiar face walks toward the coffin and talks with Aleiya.

*There's just a small crowd, but Mrs. Rose didn't bother to come. I thought she's the strict one of those teachers but turns out she's the kindest.* He thought.

He walks forward and sees Ruie's face before the photo closes. His eyes glimmer in wonder as he compares her face to the number of crowds which is weird because she has a face of an actress. Aleiya hugs him tight as he goes near her.  Tears flood down her. Her sobbing didn't stop as the coffin closes and goes down to the ground. The burial ended with the two remainings. Aleiya hugs him again and continued to cry but is just limited. Rain starts falling. Suddenly, Aleiya stopped realizing the strong rain that comes from their heads, but Mel pats her head and spoke.

"Don't hold back. In this rain, no one can see you cry."

Her heart beats fast as she heard his words. He convinced her that there's no point in holding back. With that said, she screams from the bottom of her heart. She mourns in sorrow, putting down all her regret behind the rainfall.

"It was me! It was all my fault! I supposed to be the one underneath, not her!"

"It's not your fault, Aleiya. Unexpected things happen to us, and sometimes, it is destined. Remember the story about the three monkeys? In a race, one monkey always looks back, but because of that, he lost his way. Another passed the finish line already, but he continues to run past it and never stopped. You already know who won that race, right?"

Suddenly, Aleiya stops with her red eyes and looks at Mel. "It's the monkey who wanders and is aware of what's around him."

"Exactly! You'll just waste time looking back regretting your actions and seeing the consequences. What you need is to look at yourself now. What you're now is what you need to be fixed," he said.

She releases her hug and steps back with a smile.

"Thank you, Mel. If it's not for you, I'll be lying to the ground now."

"I hope you move forward soon, Aleiya." After that, he fetched him and get a uber to her home. He also paid for the uber to get home. He's not a rich guy, and his priority isn't cars. He just wants an enjoyable and quiet life but still, he's greedy. He ends up getting home at 6:30 PM which is a late time to play with his friends. He expects that his friends are already grinding while he is left out. He rushes towards his bedroom without noticing his family members and quickly replaces his clothes with dry ones. He puts the NTS Gear in his head while lying on his bed and launches it in no time.

He lost his consciousness and the blank white room replaces his bed. His senses came inside the digital world. As his consciousness goes back, colorful lines passed by his side quickly. The system greets him at the end of the lines with a peaceful welcome in a dialogue box.

"Welcome to Crevole.

What is your name:"

*So the name of the place is Crevole? That's awesome! I can't wait to play.* He thought.

He inputs his username to the box. Using his real name might be problematic for him. He wants to play in an alias to hide embarrassment after a failure.

<Argos>

"Hello, Argos. Choose a class to play:" The system responded. He is given these options: warrior, thief, wizard, knight, priest, and hunter. He didn't think of other classes other than what he thinks he is comfortable with.

<Thief>

"Are you sure that this is your final class? The class can't be changed again but can be upgraded for wider varieties."

<Yes>

"Choose your race:" The system gave him these options: Human, Elf, Vampire, Werewolf, Dwarf, Conflagrant, Marnian, and Demon. Each of these races has a unique buff only a specific race can access. Some other races are archenemies like vampires and werewolves. He didn't bother looking at those. From the start, he and his friends already planned what class and race they'll be taking.

<Demon selected: The player has his stats doubled when HP fell below 60% (Equipment stats will not be applied).>

<The player is now given 7 points to allocate in stats.

Strength: 0

Agility: 0

Dexterity: 0

Defense: 0

Intelligence: 0

Luck: 0

Note: The thief class depends on Agility and Dexterity in battle.>

"Why is luck a stat? Is this a gatcha game?" He notices the stat that caught his attention and raises his right brow. After picking his stats, he is summoned to the new world of fantastical reality. He stands on the central tree of the starting town where new players are sent. Players with various races roam around and some talk in peace. Hostility in spawn point is not allowed and it will never happen if one tried to.

The giant tree of Eden sways in the thin air of cleanliness away from urbanization. The town is very simple even that the town shops are made with simple materials like wood and steel. Wherever he looks, he can't see a pinch of glass and plastics. He tried to test his senses and smells the aroma of grilled meat from a shop while hearing the murmurs of players around him. With a swipe up from his front, his interface came out.

<PLAYER: Argos

:STATS:

STR: 0

AGI: 0

DEX: 0

DEF: 0

INT: 0

LUC: 7

:ABILITIES:

None>

*The stats aren't the part planned from before, but I planned to be a meta-gamer.*

From his get-to, he wears usual light leather clothing on both of his top and bottom. His two horns stand out in the crowd. He opens his inventory and sees the only item he has a dagger. He goes to the community screen in his interface and searches for the game names of his friends. He already has the cheatsheet of their names before he goes home from school. He already sees both of them in Level 5 while he is still in Level 1. His friends notice his request, and in quick response, they chatted him about their location. He reads the message from the mailbox.

"You're too slow! Come here in the Planetary Ruins just pass the spawn. There are less players here but the EXP is quickly farmable. Also, tell us about Aleiya."

*Such a greedy move. By the way, I'm the greedy one here!*

In no time, he goes to the planetary ruins. Luckily, he didn't encounter monsters with higher levels, but he didn't bother attacking the lower ones because he is in a hurry. He reached the place and sees the outside as an ancient ruined planetarium. He goes to its first level and already sees his friends fighting giant bats. They already have their skills and abilities but they stopped after seeing him. Mel approached them.

"Hey Me... Argos. Why are you in a shit suit?" The one in the thick chain armor and a long sword said.

"I've already discriminated Le... Zeus Harbinger. Why such a long name?"

"My name's just right. Yours are just short," Zeus said.

"You gave me an idea. From now on, let's start calling each other our game names. Deal? Zeus? Argos?" The boy in the white robe said.

"It's cringe coming from you Walter. You didn't even change your game name. I said earlier if you didn't change that name, you'll treat us, right?" Argos said.

"You're right. I wanted to treat you then change my name. With that, I've never felt so lonely," Walter said with a smile.

"You're being dramatic, Walter. Come on. Let's enjoy this."

"You're the one late M... Argos. We reserved some mob just for you so you can level up quickly," Zeus said as he points to the mob they're trying to kill, giant bats, and they seem to be Level 4 already. "Killing that was easy for a level 1," he continued.

"Alright! Let's get it on!" Argos draws his dagger and his friends laughed. They seem to have the fun of his weapon. As Argos notices it, he narrows his eyes towards them. "What's funny?" He looks back at the monster and became serious. He charges with a scream and a ninja runs to mock an assassin. He stabs it with his dagger, but it dealt just one damage. His friends' eyes see the big red text of the negative one floating beyond the mob's head. With that, they have their laughter again.

"What?" Argos's eyes wrap in the confusion of analyzing the situation, but before he has the solution, the bat sent him flying to the front of his friends. After a realization, he lies on the ground looking at his two friends upside down and made a confession.

"Guys... I maxed Luck."

—

On a distant cave entrance where the outside view is clear, a masked woman with white hair leans to the cave wall while wandering her fresh view of the mountains. Her interface pops up and gives her a message in a dialogue.

'Quest: Protect the Dragon's Egg in seven days.

Reward: Clairvoyance Spell

Punishment: Restriction of access in the peculiar judgment.'