"Fake?" Ellis had never heard of any G.o.d with the name or alias of Fake."Yes, but my name is not the important thing here. What I am here is to help you understand your situation." Stated Fake.
Ellis suddenly remembered his experience with the butcher, which led him to remember the whispers and how he got here.
"Am I dead?" Asked a confused Ellis. He remembered that he jumped from the cliff only to be falling in the endless darkness accompanied by the whispers.
"No, I brought you here as soon as you closed your eyes to jump of the cliff." Said Fake.
"Then where are we right now Lord Fake?" Asked a bewildered Ellis.
Suddenly Fake snapped his fingers and a wisp of darkness tore away from the surrounding and entered the 1 meter of light surrounding Ellis. It then proceeded to fly towards Ellis" face as he retreated back in fear. As soon as it touched his face it enveloped him, and soon went in through his orifices and mouth.
Ellis went down on his knees panting as he took in the information going through his head. He was on the floor for 10 minutes before he opened his eyes in fear and awe.
This was a separate realm created by Lord Fake for people the lord chose, to complete his test. Those the lord chose were called players. And this realm was called the Game.
Here one can acquire anything, be it wealth, power, love, immortality, information etc, as long as they complete the tests given by the lord and earn enough points to buy anything one want with it.
However, it comes with a price. If he was to die whether in a test or real life, then every single fibre of him will be under the control of Lord Fake, for him to toy with, including his soul.
As long as he survived the tests and collected enough points, then he can even buy his freedom from the tests while keeping all his power from the tests.
There were also a few rules attached to being a player. One of them was, any information about this realm or the lord could not be pa.s.sed to a non-player aka NPC, via any form or method. Doing so or attempting to so, means punishment which equals to death.
There were plenty of rules and limitations, similar to that. Ellis took his time to understand each of the information processing through him.
But suddenly something caught his attention. Among a small example given by what a player could buy with points, there was one thing that caught his attention. Resurrection.
Suddenly Ellis got up and asked Lord Fake "Can I resurrect anyone I want with enough points?"
"Like it was said with enough points only your imagination and the rules are the only limiting factor of what you can"t buy."
"But I just want to know can I bring my mum back to life, if I have enough points?" asked an excited Ellis as he expectantly asked Lord Fake. His heart kept beating as he prayed for Lord Fake to say that single word.
"Yes" Suddenly Ellis" mind went blank. His heart was beating so violently under his excitement and happiness.
"How much do I need for resurrection?" Ellis asked while controlling his excitement
"250,000 points" Replied Fake without any emotions.
Ellis" heart dropped hearing the point requirement, he remembered that he only had 2 points. 1 from completing the main mission of surviving for 10 minutes and 1 from completing an "Easy" difficulty scenario.
Lord Fake set his test/ mission or challenges apart for players in 3 settings: Easy, Medium and Hard. Each setting the reward scaled by 10. Completing an easy scenario will only reward 1 point, while medium gave 10 and hard gave 100.
Then there was the Missions rewards for each scenario setting.
An easy scenario mission can only give maximum of 10 points.
A medium scenario mission likewise can give a maximum of 100 points.
While a hard scenario mission can give up to 1000 points.
This was not the sum of all mission reward, but each individual mission reward. So a hard scenario mission can contain 3 mission worth 1000 point each.
The reason why missions were worth more than scenario was simple. Someone can usually complete a scenario, without doing any of the missions. So therefore, the reward for surviving a scenario being less than the mission rewards.
This meant if he need to bring his mother back to life he had to complete at least 250,000 easy scenario or 25,000 medium scenarios or 2,500 hard scenarios. He excluded the rewards from the missions in his calculations because he would need that to buy powers to last in each scenario.
"Oh, so you are planning to take hard or medium scenarios from now on?" Suddenly the teasing voice of Lord Fake interrupted Ellis" thoughts.
"Remember your previous test, that was just an easy scenario. Since you seem to be smart, now think why each scenario setting rewards is scaled by 10?"
Ellis who was planning to take hard scenario suddenly understood the Lord Fake. If each scenario reward was scaled by 10 that means its difficulty was scaled by 10. Surviving the butcher took all of his will and wits, now imagining someone who was 10 or 100 times stronger and faster than that was just impossible.
Ellis felt although he could just take the easy scenarios for a while that would take too long. But that was the only way he could survive and bring his mum back.
He thought maybe once he had enough power from completing set amount of easy scenarios then he could challenge different scenario.
"Not possible kid. Each scenario difficulty scales according to your overall strength." Replied Lord Fake as if answering to his thoughts.
Although Ellis was saddened by the news he realised something just now, Lord Fake was able to read his mind.
"You just figured that out. You think a being who is more powerful than all the deities reading your mind is that hard?" Said Fake.
"Now since you understood the situation you are in I will sit back and watch your choices. If you have any more enquiries about your situation ask the whispers. They are the voices of people who have failed before you, try not to be like them." Said Fake as the smoke covering him suddenly started spreading to the darkness and gradually blended with the darkness and disappeared.
Soon the whispers came back saying "You shall get as much as you give." Ellis now understood what the whispers meant. The amount of effort he puts in each scenario to complete the missions will reward him with point to give him whatever he wants.
Along with the whispers a screen came up showing shop, missions and miscellaneous. Ellis understood that if he failed he will become like them so he decided to get strong enough to complete each scenario so that he can complete his revenge and bring his mum back.
"Shop" Ellis said as the shop icon was expanded. Among the shop list there were many tabs such as Skills, Weapons, Power, Knowledge and Information (K.I.), Consumables, Upgrade etc.
What Ellis needed right now was an ability to defend himself, so he clicked power. What came up was a screen with 3 lines.
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Magi
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Locked (Level 1 of K.I. about this power required to unlock)
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Locked (Level 3 of K.I. about this power required to unlock)
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Ellis was excited seeing the magi tab by seeing 2 other tabs being locked he was curious. But he ignored it as he opened the Magi tab.
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Talent
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Capacity
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Acc.u.mulation
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Spell Training
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Seeing the options, Ellis chose talent and it showed something which greatly shocked Ellis.
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Upgrade Talent from Low talent to Medium talent- Cost 100 points
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"Does it mean what it says?" Ellis asked the whispers.
"Yes" Ellis suddenly understood that although this realm of Lord Fake was dangerous it was a realm filled with opportunity.
However, he only had 2 points. The lack of points greatly annoyed Ellis.
Ellis went back to pick capacity. He already knew what kind of options would come up before the screen even changed.
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Average Capacity-10 points (Note- You already have this)
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Low Capacity-100 points
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High Capacity-100 points
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Sighing he went back and chose acc.u.mulation. He was now excited if that line meant what it means, then he could regain what he lost.
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1 Point equals 1 year of low talent acc.u.mulation.
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Trade your points for acc.u.mulation?
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This meant with 7 points he could get back to being rank 1 magi, as it would take 7 years of acc.u.mulation for him to Rank up.
Right now, he had 2 points with which he could earn 2 years" worth of acc.u.mulation. He really wanted to spend all his point for acc.u.mulation, but he restrained himself.
He wanted to get some form of power that would help him in his next scenario but having 2 years of acc.u.mulations wasn"t going to help him that much against someone on the level of butcher.
He went back and chose spells to see that it offered a.s.sistance to help you master certain spells when you spend required amount of points. This would greatly help him later on. As each new rank meant new spells. But learning how to cast each spells and controlling them takes time.
So far there was nothing he could buy from here other than acc.u.mulation.
He then remembered the locked power he saw earlier under Magi.
"How much points for K.I. do I need to unlock each power?" He asked the whispers.
Suddenly his screen was filled with a few lines.
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1st locked power- Requires total of 50 points for Level 1 K.I.
2nd locked power- Requires total of 1750 points for Level 1, 2 and 3 K.I.
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Seeing the price nearly made Ellis faint, that equalled roughly to 1800 easy scenarios to unlock and see what was available for both powers. And that is not even including the cost of the powers behind each of the price tags.
"Why is it so expensive?" He asked the whispers seeing the price.
"More expensive the power, the stronger its worth." Said the whispers as they started laughing.
After a while it quieted down.
Ellis quieted down as he thought what he could buy to help him with future scenarios as well as extracting his revenge.
Suddenly he remembered the upgrade option, among other things in the shop tab. He went back and opened it.
A screen cropped up showing 3 lines.
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Current Physical Capability- 1.0 capability
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Current Mental Capability- 1.0 capability
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1 point required for 0.1 capability upgrade. Do you want to upgrade?
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If he understood this right then this meant his overall physical and mental capability if shown as numbers will only be up to 1. And if I use 1 point to upgrade physical capability then that means I will have roughly another 1/10 of my current strength added to my total strength.
Remembering the butcher and how I barely outran him and felt tired after the mission, I knew that having stronger physique was the only way currently to survive any missions.
I used 1 point to upgrade my physical capability to see what would happen. Suddenly I felt cold and warm at the same time before the feeling disappeared. I could feel some sort of power crawling out from my body in order to erupt. I didn"t know what happened but the feeling I have now is euphoric.
I looked at the screen to see that 1.0 changed to 1.1. I used the last remaining point to upgrade again and the same feeling came up, as my stats changed to 1.2.
I went back to the main screen which showed shop, mission etc. Suddenly the whispers started divulging "Would you like to carry on or leave?"