'I died...'

  At least, Victor thought that was the case anyway.

  He'd just been walking down the street one day, the sun shining high in the sky as he minded his own business, when, from out of nowhere, a group of hooligans appeared.

  You know, the usual type that wields knives and stinks of drugs. But even after Victor gave them every bit of money he had, it didn't satisfy these bastards.

  Oh no, the hooligans wanted more. Much more. So they took his watch, his phone, and lastly, even his shoes! Hitting him repeatedly in the process as he lay defencelessly on the floor.

  'And that's when my vision faded, and I ended up... here.'

  Wherever 'here' even was, anyway.

  The place was so damn dark that Victor couldn't see a thing. Nor could he move. Every bodily sensation just seemed to be stripped away... leaving him trapped in some bizarre space of nothingness.

  A never-ending limbo.

  How long had it been since then? Would he ever get out?

  These questions lingered in his mind, unanswerable.

  You see, Victor was a good person in life, or at least he tried to be. Making friends rather than enemies, following all the rules, and yet, this was his reward.

  Murdered by a bunch of greedy hoodlums in a shady back alley. Doomed to an eternity of silence and isolation. An unwilling victim of a strange stasis field akin to something from a cheap sci-fi horror flick.

  It all felt totally unreasonable—an injustice that filled him with a deep sense of rage and hatred. Slowly fermenting as hours turned into days, and days bled further into weeks…

  An endless cycle that repeated an uncountable number of times.

  Victor's mind—left to wander, staggering on the edges of insanity.

  However, just when he began to truly lose it, a strange ding sounded. And a little text box popped up in front of his consciousness.

  [Would you like a second chance at life?]

  [Yes] [No]

  He blinked at this strange new intruder as his thoughts stirred.

  'A... text box? In this place?'

  It felt like something from out of a game.

  Yet, as Victor read the message... he began to doubt his own eyes, re-reading the entire thing again and again just to confirm that nothing was wrong.

  Only after the fifth time did he finally dare to believe it.

  'A second chance at life...'

  Wasn't this exactly what he needed? A second chance. A do-over. Some way to escape this shithole before catching a severe case of insanity.

  He didn't hesitate at all when selecting yes.

  The contents of the text box changed.

  [Are you sure of your choice? This new life will be completely different from that of before. This is your final warning.]

  [Yes] [No]

  This time, the words, especially the part emphasising 'completely different', made Victor pause.

  'How different is this thing talking exactly?' He thought of some possibilities. 'A different world similar to an isekai? A completely different race? The dreaded gender swap? Or maybe a different political climate?'

  The list just seemed to go on and on.

  'But... I guess it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. At least if I consider the scary alternative.' The dreaded no button. 'That things basically suicide.' Being trapped in this place with no goals, no future, only a slow and painful existence on the horizon, it was a one-way ticket to Crazyville.

  Only a true masochist would make such a choice.

  Therefore, Victor picked yes once again to a final ding.

  However, as the sound ended, something appeared to change. The darkness that had been so deep all this time began to fade ever so slightly, taking on an almost grey tinge.

  A few specks of light appeared before his eyes. Swirling around as if they were being carried forward by some invisible force, their speed picking up over time.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Gradually taking on a familiar appearance.

  'Wait. Is that... a portal?!'

  Victor watched the entire thing in shock. A glowing blue sea finished taking shape before his very eyes, its position upright, pulsating with mystical energy that filled him with wonder.

  Then, an intense suction force began to act upon his still motionless body, pulling him forward.

  Closer and closer to the portal. His thoughts filled with both excitement and fear.

  Before finally, he entered it with a plop.

  ........................

  When Victor finally regained consciousness, everything appeared to be exactly the same—only darkness in sight. However, at the same time, something fundamental had changed.

  It felt almost as if... he could perceive his surroundings. Much like another limb, it was instinctive. Natural.

  'I can sense... a hard, rocky floor, patches of grass. Huh... a tree? And... wait, that's it? It only works up to a few meters away?'

  Victor couldn't help but feel incredibly restricted. Especially since he didn't even have the ability to go over to investigate anything himself. He'd already tried to do that several times already, only to realise that his body couldn't move.

  Not by a single inch.

  'What the hell is going on? Am I crippled or what?' He tried to use his new sense on himself to get an answer.

  Yet... the feedback was a shock, to say the least. There weren't any hands or feet, skin or sense of hot and cold. No, just a hard, rocky exterior...

  A soft ding echoed in his mind followed by a small notification text box that jumped up.

  [Gamer System initialising... Complete. Initiating status page.]

  Name: Victor

  Race: Sentient Rock

  Rank: G-

  Level: 0 / 3

  Experience: 0/10

  Health: 10/10

  Stamina: NA

  Mana: 0/0

  Animus: 0

  Strength (STR): 0 (G-)

  Dexterity (DEX): 0 (G-)

  Constitution (CON): 4 (G-)

  Intelligence (INT): 5 (G)

  Wisdom (WIS): 3 (G-)

  Charisma (CHA): 0 (G-)

  Skills

  Roll: (G-) Level 1

  Passives

  Gamer: (SSS) Level 1

  Dim sense: (G-) Level 1

  It was a literal wall of text showcasing all kinds of different pieces of information, from menus to stats and even skills. Yet, what attracted Victor's attention the most was his current displayed race.

  'I'm... a rock? A... a literal, sentient fucking rock?!'

  You're kidding, right?

  He had suspected and prepared himself to accept anything for this second chance at life, but... as a rock? How the hell was he going to live from now on?

  Victor let out a long, mental sigh as he tried to come to grips with it.

  'Alright. Let's stay calm here, shall we? Maybe being a rock isn't all bad. At least it's an upgrade on being dead, right? Uh... kinda, anyway.' If rocks could be counted as alive, that is.

  'Besides, there's also this strange new system...'

  His attention went to it almost instinctively. Starting from the top of the status page, he skipped over the race and noticed the next one.

  Rank.

  Which was displayed as G-... In games, this would be worse than garbage. A creature so weak that it could be killed with little to no effort. Forget about the bottom of the food chain; these guys were below even that!

  And the minus symbol next to it told Victor all he needed to know. Right now, his strength was non-existent.

  'A literal trash amongst trash.'

  He sighed again in frustration, moving on to his level and experience. 'My max level is... three. That's pretty low... I think. But let's face it. I have absolutely no idea how I'll get experience from here on out. Roll off a mountain and kill a monster? Launch myself using some mystical magic attack?'

  Both ideas seemed just as far-fetched as they were ridiculous.

  Leaving Victor with little choice but to drop it for now.

  Instead, his focus shifted downwards. 'Health, mana and stamina... These are pretty much the standard resources in most games. The bread and butter, you could say. Except. I don't have a speck of mana, and my staminas NA. What the hell is NA, anyway? Not available?'

  Did that mean it was unlimited, or was it just a useless resource to him?

  'I'm willing to bet it's the latter... Honestly, I'm a rock! Why would rocks use stamina? I mean, it'd be cool to spam some skill over and over like some bugged game character in an actual game, but... again, I'm a rock?'

  Victor had little to no hope. So, he could only carry on.

  Scrolling down to something called Animus instead. This one didn't ring any bells, even for an avid gamer like himself.

  A little tooltip popped up.

  [Animus: A currency and resource earned through various actions.]

  'So it's basically money... with additional uses?' He assumed, feeling a bit confused but still trying to read between the lines. Animus... Yeah, it struck him as something important, alright. But unfortunately, the tooltip description was as vague as an RPG protagonist's tragic backstory. Not mentioning how you'd earn or even spend it. Only a basic outline or teaser of sorts.

  It was more than a little frustrating. Yet Victor took a mental note for later.

  Pushing the matter to the side, he moved on to a stat spread.

  There was strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. Each one of these attributes was already ingrained within his very soul from countless hours of gaming.

  Unfortunately... that also meant that he understood how shit his current stats were. 'Three of them are actually 0's! I mean, what else can I even say at this point?'

  Victor didn't even have the energy to complain anymore. Therefore. He endured the bitterness and escaped towards the next entry.

  Skills.

  This was another well-known section that most gamers could easily recognise. Although... he seemed to have only one. It was a simple skill with the lowest trash grade of G- called roll.

  'Apparently, this thing can be used every five minutes and costs nothing. Just a simple cooldown.'

  So, with incredibly low expectations, he wasted no time and decided to use it for a test. Almost instantly activating it.

  His stone-like body rolled forward about... one meter.

  '...'