James got up and took a quick shower. When he got out, he saw a suit hanging in his closet that caught his attention: a bck suit with silver accents.

  His mother, Jasmine, had the suit commissioned by one of the world’s top designers, an old friend from her days as an actress.

  As the young man changed into the bck suit, he recalled his mother's lengthy conversations with her friend about ideas for the suit. The Von Berkshires' coming-of-age ceremony was one of the most critical events in the family’s traditions, and the suits the children wore had to exude greatness.

  Jasmine designed the suit's base in bck, per the family’s traditions. A silver vest and tie to match the silver hair color of the Von Berkshire family members. She had her friend iny a small snake pattern on the bottom portion of the jacket made out of diamonds. The final touch that satisfied Jasmine was the letters "J" and "A" stitched onto the inside of the jacket. This tiny detail was meant for James only; it was a way to let her youngest son know that he had his parents by his side even when they weren’t physically there.

  Once dressed, James walked down the hall towards his father’s office.

  As he made his way down the hall, he heard someone come down the staircase at the far end of the hall. It was one of his stepmothers, Heather, his father’s third official wife.

  Alexander Von Berkshire had countless concubines and a few special friends, but only four official wives.

  The family rule book states, “Only women who give birth to pure bloodline heirs are eligible to be wives.”

  The women of the Von Berkshire family didn’t have to worry about not giving birth to pure-bloodline heirs because the family bloodline was more potent with female members, which ensured that an heir would be born every time.

  Heather and James’s mother were normal humans without knowledge of the system or pyers. Both women gave birth to pure-bloodline silver-haired children, which cemented their positions as wives to Alexander Von Berkshire.

  Jasmine had four pure-blood children, while Heather had twins, both of whom were pure-blood. Because Jasmine had more children, she was granted the position of second wife.

  Cck

  Heather’s heels became louder as she quickened her pace to catch up to James. The woman wore her usual fake smile, which James had become accustomed to.

  Usually, James would give his stepmother a fake smile and an insincere greeting. But now, he wanted nothing more than to hug and treat her with the respect and love a son should give his mother.

  “Good morning, mother. How are you?”

  James waved his hand in front of his stepmother, trying to get her attention.

  “I’m doing good, James. Are you all set for the ceremony?” Heather was caught off guard by James’s greeting. Did he call me Mother?

  “I’m all good on my end, but my father wishes to see me before we set out.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to hold you up.” She hugged James. “ Good luck out there. I hope for the best.”

  James hugged her back. “Thank you. I’ll make sure to help out the twins when it's time for their ceremony.”

  Her stepson’s choice of words made her uneasy; her meeting with James was not coincidental. She had waited by the stairs all morning. Am I doing the right thing?

  Her brother-in-w had asked her to slip a small stone into James’s pockets. She had no idea what the stone did, but she was told it would help her kids in the future.

  “I’ll be on my way now.”

  “Wait—” She was cut off as she turned to stop her stepson.

  James waved as he walked away. “I’ll be ok.”

  Does he know?

  James reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small grey stone. He brought the stone to his face and examined it as he walked.

  It's funny. The source of all my problems stemmed from this damn rock.

  …

  Regardless of the SYSTEM, all humans are born with a certain number of stats. Some are naturally born athletes, and others, like Heather, seem to be born with a ridiculous amount of luck.

  Before Heather met James’s father, she was a struggling waitress trying to make ends meet paycheck to paycheck. Somehow, Heather was in the right pce at the right time. One night, her boss was about to fire her at the restaurant where she worked, but he decided to give her a light punishment instead.

  After closing, she was left alone to clean all the dishes. Once she was done, she had to wipe down all the tables.

  That night, Alexander’s car broke down in front of the restaurant. Cold and alone in the middle of the street, Alexander struggled as he tried to fix the damn car. As he kicked the tire out of frustration, he heard a woman's voice behind him.

  Heather left the restaurant to investigate the noise outside. The series of events that followed was nothing short of a miracle.

  That night, Heather found her shining knight, who would save her from her miserable life. The two of them hit it off in minutes.

  One would think Heather had exhausted all her luck that night, but her stepson knew firsthand that this was not the case.

  Somehow, she could sneak the stone into James’s back pocket without him ever finding out.

  The small stone was not ordinary; it was an extremely valuable Damping Stone. The stone had the power to weaken the system's abilities in pyers. In James’s case, it weakened the results of his awakening ceremony, causing him to awaken as a SEMI-PLAYER.

  It took him months to discover the stone's true nature, but by then, he had been exiled from the Von Berkshire family.

  Getting revenge on his stepmother was one of his top priorities for years. But that all changed when he found out how she died during the Von Berkshire massacre.

  On the day that Connor Pierce attacked the Von Berkshite’s archipego, he went on a killing spree, sparing no one. Even the non-pyers like James’s mother and stepmothers were killed in the process.

  According to eyewitness testimonies from servants of the family that survived the massacre, Heather was st seen alive, trying to get the scion’s attention away from the building she was standing in front of.

  The servants were dumbfounded at the sight of Heather leading the killer on a wild goose chase; she made it quite far before they heard her screaming, and then a loud explosion. There was no sound from her again.

  Why would someone deliberately direct a madman's anger towards them?

  The servants around the area headed towards the building where Heather had led the scion away from. Inside the building was Jasmine, locked in a closet. Besides a few bruises, she was okay. Heather had locked her inside the closet and told her to stay silent. The pair of women was on the scion’s list of targets due to their marriage to one of the Von Berkshire elders.

  For many years, Heather regretted following her brother-in-w's demands and ruining her stepson's coming-of-age ceremony. Finally, she had a way to make it up to him.

  Before she left Jasmine alone in the closet, she told her, “I’m going to lead the man away from this building, and hopefully, someone from the family can come save you.”

  Jasmine tried to convince Heather to reconsider. “We can hide together. You don’t have to go alone.”

  The two of them argued back and forth for a while until Heather shouted, “You need to calm down. All this fighting is not good for the baby!” Jasmine sat down to calm herself down. “Jasmine, I was never the best person to you or your kids.” She began to tear up a little,” For once in my life, I don’t want to be such a BITCH and help you.”

  That was the st conversation the two of them had.

  According to the reports James read about the Von Berkshire massacre, his mother died from shrapnel hitting her. The death was quick and painless, according to the servants who survived the attack. They said she was lucky she made it alive for so long.

  After the attack on the Von Bershire’s archipego, many allies of the fallen family came together to seal off the area from potential graverobbers. The pn worked for the most part, but some bastards snuck in occasionally.

  James was able to buy some of his family’s personal items from some of the thieves. Most of the items were family photos belonging to his mother, along with some other small mementos. One of the recovered items was a diary that belonged to his stepmother, Heather.

  In it, she noted some of the significant events in her life. One event stuck out the most to James: a detailed account of the demands his uncle Marcus gave to his stepmother during James’s coming-of-age ceremony.

  For years, James wondered why his stepmother had purposely ruined his most important day, but after reading the diary and learning how she helped his mother live for a few moments longer than she would have alone, he realized she was a victim too.

  Marcus Von Berkshire, one of Alexander’s older siblings, was a piece of shit of a human being. He could do whatever he wanted because his father was the patriarch of the Von Berkshire family.

  It was easy for him to force Heather to slip a Damping Stone into James’s pocket. When she tried to walk away, Marcus used the powers of suggestion he gained from the system to convince Heather that stopping James from successfully completing the ceremony would benefit her children.

  Heather, a regur person without knowledge of how the family truly worked, was maniputed into believing that each household of the Von Berkshire family could only have a set number of children who could hold higher positions in the family. Marcus told her that Alexander was about to reach that set number. James and his youngest sister would take the st spots unless Heather could prevent it by simply slipping a tiny rock into her stepson’s pocket.

  After taking all that information in, James knew in his heart that Heather may have hated him when he was a kid, but she was not the type of woman who would purposely ruin his life unless she was forced to. He couldn’t bme her for trying to give her kids a better life.

  …

  James put the stone back into his pocket as he was about to knock on his father’s office door.

  Now that I’m back, I will try to help Heather and the twins to the best of my ability. It's the least I could do for her after returning with the knowledge that she sacrificed her life for my mom.

  James took a mental note. Marcus, you will be one of the first to die once I get my pns in motion.

  Knock

  “Come in.”

  Once James walked into the room, he saw his father. The man risked every connection he had to find some support for his son in James’s original timeline. No amount of words could describe James’s love for his father; the man was trying to navigate the rising tensions within the family and support his son at the same time.

  As the young man entered the room, he saw some names on a board in the far corner of the office. Some of the names belonged to harmless individuals who would commit minor crimes in the future, but others James recognized as looming threats to the family that would ultimately ruin them from the inside.

  It seems like Dad was dealing with these bastards longer than I thought.

  “James, take a seat. We must go over a few things before we head out.”

  “Before we continue, did any of your siblings tell you about the coming-of-age ceremony?”

  “No, sir.”

  Alexander smiled. Punishing Antony worked.

  “It seems like your older brother learned his lesson for once.”

  Alexander poured two gsses of whiskey that he grabbed from his liquor cabinet.

  “Here, take this.” James took one of the gsses.

  “It is customary for the head of the household to share a drink with their child on the day of the ceremony.” He took a sip of the drink. “It symbolizes the child reaching the first step of their adult lives. But the drink also represents the first step of our ancestor’s journey of establishing the Von Berkshire oligarchy.”

  First step, my ass. The bastard took any excuse to drink; it wasn’t some grand event.

  James took a drink of the whiskey.

  “Have you ever wondered why our family has the power to affect the economy of countless countries? How can a family hidden in an archipego away from any major country grow to dominate the world?”

  James took another sip of his drink and looked at his father. I forgot how intense he was during this moment.

  “James, what I’m about to tell you will seem impossible, but it's the truth and nothing but the truth.”

  “The founder of the Von Berkshire family was a simple farmer named Robert who lived a humble life, but that all changed one winter when he saw a ball of fire fall from the night sky. The young man heard the ball of fire crash down not far from his farm. Not sure if the fire from the strange object would spread and burn down his farm, he decided to head out and investigate.”

  “Cold and alone during one of the worst winter nights he had ever experienced, he set out on a journey that would change his life forever. To distract himself from the harsh weather, he took a sip from a bottle of beer his father left him before his death a few months prior.” Alexander took another sip of his whiskey before continuing.

  “Robert traversed the forest by following the bright light of the fmes. The light dimmed fast, and Robert wondered if continuing was worth the effort. The threat of the fire spreading seemed to vanish as the fme’s light died down. But for some reason, he decided to march forward. He couldn’t expin why, but it was like a primal part deep inside of him that fueled his determination to discover the unknown.”

  “In the forest's center, he saw a rge stone pilr that split a tree in half. The ball of fire must have been this strange pilr. Robert came to this conclusion from all the chunks of debris surrounding the split tree. The st clue was the intense heat from the stone; it melted the snow around the tree.”

  “He moved as if in a trance and touched the stone.” Alexander paused and took a sip of his drink, then looked James directly in the eye.

  I forgot my Dad had a fir for the dramatics. It's a shame he never became an actor. His love for acting was one of the reasons he fell in love with my mother, a rising actress.

  “A ball of fire shot out of the stone, causing Robert to step back. The ball of fire began to twist and turn before exploding, leaving behind a shining screen with alien symbols. The strange letters were unlike any Robert had ever seen, but for some reason, he could read the phrase NEW PLAYER REGISTERED.”

  “The message on the screen was complex for the first few generations of our family, but with the creation of video games your generation is so fond of, the concept of PLAYERS became easier to understand.”

  “But before our young ancestor could wrap his head with the message on the screen, a second message appeared. BOSS MONSTER IS AWAKENING.”

  “When the stone pilr split apart the tree, it also disturbed a nest of snakes that called the tree home. The heat radiating from the stone caused the snakes to panic from the sudden change and rush outside of the hollow tree trunk. Hundreds of snakes jammed themselves out of the tree, tearing each other apart, causing many to die.”

  “The blood from the dead snakes blocking the exit helped one lucky snake to squeeze out of the nest and reach the stone. The stone pilr sent a message into the snake’s mind: CREATURE WORTHY OF EVOLUTION.”

  “The tree exploded, sending Robert and the stone pilr flying. Our ancestor had the wind knocked out of him when he hit the cold, hard ground. As Robert got back up, he saw two things that would become second nature to him in the years to come. The first was a glowing screen floating in front of his head, dispying the message "BOSS MONSTER NEAR." The second thing was a beast so disturbing and dangerous that Robert knew the only way he could walk away was to kill the beast.”

  “The power of the pilr changed the bloodied snake into a massive snake whose bones grew jagged and pierced through the snake’s body, creating bony spikes. The snake’s flesh ripped apart as the beast moved.”

  “The battle between the two sted for hours, destroying the forest. The death of the BOSS MONSTER caused Robert to level up and alter his body forever. The young man returned to his farm to get some rope, which he used to haul the stone pilr and the snake's remains back home. With his new strength, he used the sharp bones of the snake to carve the stone pilr into a gigantic snake in honor of his first battle as a PLAYER.”

  “After many years, Robert discovered that the stone pilr was an artifact that could alter others into pyers as well, but it had a 10% success rate. The artifact became the foundation of his growing family. Robert learned that his family was not the only force with an artifact.”

  “The other oligarchs?” James asked.

  Alexander smiled.

  “The artifacts id out the foundations that the oligarchs used to dominate the world. Each artifact has its own set of rules for granting pyer status. The artifact our ancestors discovered had its set rules altered due to the rare event of awakening a PLAYER and creating a BOSS MONSTER at the same time. The blood of the snake and Robert’s smeared across the stone pilr from the intense battle caused the pilr to bond to Robert’s and the snake’s DNA, giving PLAYERS who came from the Von Berkshire family snake-reted powers and enhanced bloodlines with connections to a wide variety of snakes, upon a successful awaking.”

  James grabbed the bottle of whiskey from Alexander’s desk and poured himself another gss.

  Alexander patted his son on the shoulder. “It's okay, son. I was just as surprised as you were.”

  James smiled. Acting is in my genes.

  “As customary, I will be the one to bring you to the family ritual site. The two of us can get together after your ritual and discuss your future pns.”

  Alexander got up from his seat and pulled his son in for a hug.

  “Don’t worry, son. I’ll be with you no matter the results.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Enough with talking. Your mother is waiting for us in the kitchen for breakfast. And we don’t want to keep her any longer.”