Ray slumped at his window. His dull eyes with dark circles, looked Outside the streets which were too quiet, too empty.
There were fewer people than before and the atmosphere felt so lonely. He hated it. Hated the silence. Hated the dull, endless darkness of his own life.
"Goddammit,"
He hated himself more. For being stuck. For doing nothing. For being so fucking unlucky.
But then, suddenly something shifted inside him.
"No, Not anymore. " he decided to push his life for one more time. " From this day onwards, everything's going to change."
His gaze drifted to the sleek, black VR headset on his desk – his ticket out. 'Apex Survival'.
The game had exploded onto the scene to become a worldwide sensation. It wasn't just a game; it was a revolution for many lives. People were actually earning real cash by playing, enough to change their lives.
A goddamn game-changer.
No, more like life-changer.
He grabbed his phone, pulling up a web page and opens a game forum for newbies.
"Apex Survival," he read.
"The world's first true survival game. An inbuilt system that gives real-life experience, from hunger, emotions, and even pain."
He snorted. 'Pain. Just what I needed more of in my life.'
"Here, you'll Level-up with every mini-game you attempt and finish, while losing the mini-game will either cause a Level-down or death."
His eyes skimming the remaining content. "If you die, you'll restart from the end of the last completed mini-game, so make sure you survive."
He kept reading. "Level-ups add a certain amount of money to your account, and with every level-up, the amount increases. But in case of a Level-down, it will also decrease." Ray felt a jolt of nervous excitement.
This was real.
"At the moment of login, you'll be given a random skill, the only skill one can have for the whole game. It's up to you how you'll use that skill. There are no rules in the game, except the rules of the mini-game. Otherwise, it's the law of the jungle, and it's your choice which path you choose."
There was more, probably important stuff, but it started boring him. sending a quick message to his buddies, shoved his phone aside, and with a final, shaky breath, reached for the headset.
His new life was about to begin.
After relaxing on his bed, Ray wore the headset, then sensing his presence, the headset began to work and the world around him dissolved into a swirling vortex of emerald and gold, a dizzying tunnel that pulled him forward.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it solidified.
He stood on cracked asphalt, jagged, skeletal remains of skyscrapers. Around him was a virtual dome like structure with the virtual name hanging on the air, 'Spawn area'.
A chilling wind, carrying the scent of dust and decay, whistled through the ruins. This was 'Apex Survival.'
Ray stands with other arrivals, who all are waiting for their unique skill.
He wore a simple shirt and pants, which the system had copied from his real-life avatar, so he looked exactly as he did in reality.
A transparent interface flickered into existence before him, shimmering faintly.
[WELCOME TO APEX SURVIVAL!]
[Player: Ray]
[Level: 1]
[Health: 100/100]
[Mana: 0/0 (Locked)]
Other stats scrolled by, all zeroes, all meaningless to him right now. He barely registered them. His eyes were fixed on the bottom of the screen, where a single, glowing notification pulsed.
[Unique Skill Granting in progress...]
His heart hammered. This was it. The moment of truth.
He squeezed his eyes shut, a desperate, silent plea forming on his lips.
"Oh God, just this once," he mumbled, his voice hoarse.
"Please, please, just this time help me and give me something like a Superhero skill, a Supreme Magus, a Powerful Necromancer, a One-Punch skill... Ahhh, whatever! But it has to be the best out there. Something amazing."
His mumbled prayer died in his throat as the system's notification flashed, crisp and unforgiving.
[Your Unique Skill: Scavenger One]
Ray's eyes snapped open. He stared at the words, unblinking. 'Scavenger One?'
His mouth left open in shock. He blinked again, hard to digest the reality but The words didn't change.
[Scavenger One]
"What?" he choked out, with a disbelief in his eyes. "A garbage picking skill? Are you fucking serious?!"
In front of his eyes was the hope which has shattered in blink of an eye.
The 'Scavenger One', the name itself gave a heartache to Ray who was hoping to be awaken a skill like throwing Ice & fire and taming a dragon but here he was ended up with a garbage collection skill.
'What now? My worse fate won't leave me even after praying for so hard.'
He slumped to the ground as he saw others around him celebrating while only few like him with dejected face quietly moved from the area.
And just when he started overcome from his sad moment, a hand pulled him up.
"Why are you sulking like that?" The familiar voice resounded from behind, Ray looked back to see his old classmates, his group of buddies who were close to him at his college time, they were all here.
"You are late ray." The small stature girl spoke while pulling ray towards the group.
The group of four friends were already here and only ray was late. He somehow forced the smile as notification popped in their screen.
...
[First mini-game: The group survival]
[survive in a group of minimum seven for 24 hours]
[coordination: Xx44xx4]
[Reward: x amount]
...
"Now that Ray is here, let's go and complete the first mini-game," Alex spoke with excitement, and the others nodded but then Ray pointed out.
"But we're only five here?" The others just smiled, rubbing their heads.
"Well, there's someone who'll join us when we reach the location," Hana, the small-statured girl, said quietly. She pulled Ray aside from the group as they began leaving the safe zone.
"They don't want to hurt your feelings. It's Fiona and her boyfriend who are waiting for us at the location. We would have gone with them, but we insisted on waiting for you." She whispered slowly to Ray, who took a moment to digest this news.
Fiona had been his girlfriend back in college, but as days passed and Ray began wasting his life, Fiona had dumped him and ghosted him.
From that day, this was the first time he'd even heard about her. Not that he cared about her like before, nor did he blame her, but hearing about her made his mood even more bitter than before, especially when he heard about her new boyfriend.
'I don't know how much worse this is going to be?'