If the System creates the gates between worlds, defying our understanding of reality’s principles… then it begs the question, who made the System?

  - WSA Physicist Nalla -

  [ Rolling… ]

  My eyes are fixed on the box. What’s taking it so long, it’s been five minutes. Something is going on. Then suddenly some fanfare shows up. Not as exciting as the Legendary one I got screwed out of, but still way better than what I’m used to.

  [ Congratulations Hunter, you have rolled an Epic Class Item ]

  Epic class. Nice. Really, really nice. That’s better than the Rare I was hoping to get. Letting out a breath, I read the next box.

  [ Epic Item: Rift Storage Ring ]

  A storage ring? What? How is that an Epic item drop? You can buy storage rings. They’re expensive, and they aren’t great. They’re usually Uncommon grade, but they let you store a small amount of items. People with weird classes use them, to store equipment. Pretty sure that’s how Lieutenant Tenny stored those mana stones from the briefcase. The ones she used to power up for the Lich fight. Not that it changed anything. She probably has a ring, and I know some other people that have gotten them. But they aren’t really that useful, especially not for a Witherbrand. They are impractically expensive for how little they can store. Maybe I can sell it though and buy equipment. An Epic one would fetch a really good price probably. This is a great roll then. Seed money to buy other gear.

  The air shifts and a small portal opens in front of me. A single ring forms from it. Wow, it’s kind of beautiful. A silver band with purple weaves on the edges forming runic patterns. As I peer closer, I see that the patterns are even smaller runes. Like someone has carved a thousand words into a single symbol. I reach out to grab it and… fuck. The portal closes instantly, taking back the item. Of course. What did I expect?

  New text boxes start exploding across my vision. Red and Ulana. For fucks sake. It’s going to be like last time, isn’t it? Every time I’m about to get something good. Whatever, I can figure out the Custom RoD Menu while I wait… for eternity most likely.

  After a few choice swearwords under my breath, I move through the system interface and open the Custom RoD Menu. A series of gold boxes show up.

  [ Respec on Death Custom Menu ]

  [ RoD Skill Level: 1 ]

  [ RoD Tokens: 1 ]

  [ Legacy Skills ]

  [ Cosmic Exchange ]

  [ Unlocked at Level 25 ]

  [ Unlocked at Level 50 ]

  [ Unlocked at Level 75 ]

  [ Unlocked at Level 100 ]

  [ Unlocked at Level… Error ]

  Respec on Death level one… meaning it can be leveled up? What would that even mean? How do I do that? Moving further down, and looking at the legacy skill text box. A knot in my stomach tells me that Healing will be in there. Below that, Cosmic Exchange, what do you exchange though? Interesting. Moving downwards, my eyes linger for the longest at the last gold-lettered box. Is there something past level one hundred? Or is it just bugged? It seems like there’s more that I’ll have access to the higher level I get. So many questions. Starting from the top I click on the skill level box. A new series of boxes appears.

  [ RoD Skill Level: 1 ]

  [ Progress to Level Two: 1 / 10 ]

  Weird. I don’t know what the one of ten is. Maybe it’s the starting point. I try pressing the boxes, but nothing happens so I go back into the main RoD menu. Clicking on Legacy skills next.

  [ Legacy Skills: ]

  [ Healing ]

  There it is. My old lifeline. Clicking on it another box pops up.

  [ Healing Skill Synergy: 76% ]

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  What does that mean? It doesn’t let me click past that. I remember when I died it said something about rolling for Legacy Skill Evolution.

  It’s weird to think about that. Dying. It hasn’t even been that long since it happened. Everything’s just been moving so fast. Focus. Bottle it. Figure it out later. Moving back to the main menu again. I’m about to click Cosmic Exchange when something weird happens. My interface is glitching. Like really glitching. The corner of my vision that Ulana and Red have been fighting in is becoming bigger. Their fight is expanding into the rest of my vision, and rapidly.

  [ Petitioning to increase base reward roll… ]

  [ Denying… Success ]

  It’s not like their normal spats though, the frequency is alarmingly fast, filling up every spare spot in my vision, making me dizzy. It’s the same thing over and over hundreds of times. Until something weird happens. A set of blue boxes appears in the center.

  [ Warning… Warning… Warning… Cosmic Fluctuations Detected… ]

  [ Divine Interference Detected… Error… Error… Error… ]

  The skies above begin to darken. I can barely see it in the gaps between the text boxes. A chill sweeps through the air. It was clear skies only a few minutes ago. The wind starts to pick up and howl. Holy shit… More text boxes begin to appear. The first is gold… but she’s not petitioning this time. The boxes crackle with energy, my interface is glitching even more heavily now. There are thousands upon thousands of lines of code compounding into single lines that wrap and weave. Eroding Red’s boxes.

  [ Changing reward base roll… Success ]

  [ Denying Access… Failure... Failure… Failure ]

  [ Unlocking Divine Item Roll… Success ]

  [ Selecting Divine Item Manually… Success ]

  Red tries to fight back, but something is overpowering it. Like when I died.

  [ Denying… Failure… Warning Entity… You are not permitted to do this… ]

  [ Doing it anyway… Success ]

  [ There will be consequences… Daughter of… Error ]

  [ Summoning Divine Item… Failure ]

  A thousand more text boxes converge. Each one is the same. Until it isn’t. In glittering gold, the last one of the sequences actually succeeds.

  [ Summoning Divine Item… Success ]

  [ Rolling… Success ]

  A shockwave erupts in the air, car sirens blare in the streets until silenced by the next wave. All the electricity as far as I can see goes out suddenly. The wind is like a hurricane. Glass is shattering all around.

  “Jimmy!”

  My head turns, Cortez is rolling out of bed and stumbling against the torrents of wind while moving toward me.

  “Stay back!” I yell, holding a hand up.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she yells, ignoring me and coming closer.

  Lightning flashes and thunder roars. My eyes blink, at the epicenter of the storm, a flat disc of energy is expanding. Gold and Crimson light battling each other. An all-gold and black text box comes into view. The energy from it shatters all the red boxes in one go.

  A hundred beams of golden light scatter in the clouds, defeating the red. The wind dies down, becoming a soft breeze.

  [ Congratulations Hunter, you have rolled a Divine Item ]

  [ Divine Item Unique Name: ]

  [ Abyss ]

  Light blossoms in front of me. A small plain black ring taking shape and landing slowly on my outstretched hand. It’s cold to the touch. There’s an eerie feeling coming from it.

  “Don’t!” Cortez yells, but it’s too late.

  Suddenly it turns to liquid metal, crawling up my hand, encircling my finger, I feel a pinch, and drops of my blood squeeze into it. What the fuck? I try to shake it off, but it won’t budge as it turns solid. I try to pull it off and it tightens until I stop.

  “Jimmy… what the fuck is going on?” Cortez asks, stepping to avoid broken glass and pulling me into her grasp, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I…” I begin, peering closer at the ring. There’s an inscription on it now, written in a strange language, but I can read it after the system filters it.

  Whosoever seeks the Abyss shall hear its call... and feel its endless hunger

  The inscription fades.

  Cortez looks me up and down, moving my shirt, checking me for injuries. Car alarms start blaring again, and lights begin to flicker on.

  “I’m fine,” I say after a few seconds.

  She pulls me into a tight embrace. Then looks at my hand and the ring that’s attached itself to it.

  I’m about to speak when I get a purple interface popup… the kind that we get each year telling us if we passed or failed. The same one we initially got; telling us the Earth was selected for the Sarlenac Games. Cortez goes stiff in my arms, I think she’s getting it too. I think everyone might be getting it.

  [ Global System Notice: Attention Citizens of Earth ]

  [ Unauthorized Divine Artifact Drop Detected ]

  [ Divine Interference Confirmed ]

  [ Gate Base Difficulty Recalibrating ]

  [ Good Luck ]

  My stomach turns into a knot as the boxes disappear. What does recalibrating mean? What has Ulana done? Did she just doom Earth over a pissing contest? Is this my fault? Blinking, I think I’m going to be sick. Shit.

  “Jimmy, did you… did you see it too?” Cortez asks, she’s shaking.

  I nod, holding my stomach.

  “Did you, did you do this?” she asks me, looking me dead in the eyes for a moment, then looking down toward the ring on my hand.

  How do I answer that?

  “I didn’t ask for this,” I say, holding up the finger with the ring on it, her eyes blink at me, tracing the ring. A series of emotions processing on her face all at once.

  She puts her head on my shoulder, squeezing my shirt tightly.

  “What are we going to do?” she asks.

  My heart rises… she’s not abandoning me.

  “If you report it,” she says, shaking her head, pulling back to look at me, “They’ll kill you.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “For the item.”

  "Oh," I shake my head, “I’ll just give them the item, no sense in dying over it.”

  “You don’t get it, Jimmy. It’s already bonded to you. If it’s anything like a Legendary, the only way to break the bond is to kill the owner.”

  What… they don’t teach that in the UWO field manual. Hell, they don’t teach that anywhere.

  “How do you know that?”

  She shakes her head.

  “Just trust me, you can’t tell anyone, not Tran, not Barlow, no one,” she warns.

  She looks around, up and down the street below, then to the other balconies around us. She moves back inside, stepping over the broken glass again.

  Am I actually going to keep this to myself? Really wish that I had just gotten a rare drop right now. Looking around, the streets below are filling with people. I don’t think anyone saw that I got it thankfully. There were plenty of other distractions going on.

  “Jimmy, get dressed, we need to get to post. They’ll probably call for a formation soon,” she says, throwing on her clothes quickly, I just stare at her, kind of stunned still, “Jimmy, snap out of it.”

  “Right, sorry,” I say, jumping between shards of glass.

  By the time I finish dressing, Cortez is already waiting by the door. She stops me from opening it.

  “You still owe me an explanation. This doesn’t change that.”

  “I know.”

  She nods. Opening the door. Giving me one last tense look before she moves through it.

  This was one hell of a weekend. One step at a time. With her by my side. I can deal with anything.

  [ Petitioning for Milestone Bonus Chapters... ]

  [ Denying Milestone Bonus Chapters... Success ]

  [ Cosmic Fluctuations Detected ]

  [ Error... Error... Error... ]

  [ Overriding... Success ]

  [ Introducing Milestone Bonus Chapters... Success ]

  [ ?????? ]

  [ Milestone: 4,000 Followers... Pending ]

  [ Milestone: 1,000 Favorites... Pending ]

  [ Milestone: 500 Ratings... Pending ]

  [ Milestone: 100 Reviews... Pending ]

  [ Milestone: 25 Advanced Reviews... Pending ]

  [ Recommendations to receive bonus chapters... Follow... Favorite... Rate... Review... ]

  [ Error... Error... Error... Detecting More Fluctuations ]

  [ Unlocking Extra Bonus Sequence... Success ]

  [ Milestone: Forsaken Realm Discord - 500 members... Pending ]

  ????

  [ Thanking you for reading... Success ]