Finding himself in a void of darkness, Keith felt a great fear for his life.
Just a moment ago, he was in his home cooking himself two packs of instant noodles, then suddenly found himself here.
What confused him more was that he was suddenly wearing new clothes; he was wearing nothing but simple pants and a black shirt.
Now, he was wearing long pants, a white shirt, covered by a brown polo, and finally set with a pair of sneakers.
"Thanks I guess?" He thanked the unknown being that changed him into the clothing he had.
Looking around, he found nothing but a complete void; but could sense other people around him and hear small voices echoing in all directions.
Then suddenly —
"[Welcome people of earth.]"
A voice called out, but he couldn't see where it was coming from. Since this was his situation, he decided to listen carefully to the clear voice.
As the voice told them that they would be sent into another world to help it win against its enemies, Keith was looking for anything on him.
From what he could tell; his phone was not on him; except for these clothes, there was nothing else.
"[With this, you will all be given a Unique Skill of your choice; depending on how much Merits you have accumulated in your world, the skill you want can be given to you.]"
The voice said, finishing the tiny history lesson to them; and as soon as the voice ended; countless voices started asking for their skill.
Many were simple, while others were weird of their own; but from what Keith was hearing; most were not granted at all.
"I want tentacle powers!" A man with heavy breathing yelled.
"Incubus power!" The voice of a teenager then followed up.
"Minecraft logic body!" Although he wasn't sure; Keith felt like this one voice was similar to a YouTuber he watches.
"Inventory space!" Another one yelled out.
"Shadow soldier ability!"
Many voices and requests were echoing within his surroundings, but he kept thinking about which one he should have.
Being one of these people who can choose their own unique skill, Keith thought hard about what he should have.
He was about to be sent into another world; where morals and the idea of norms were different from this one, if he just requested something stupid; he may not even survive a month.
So, the idea came; what is the best ability you can have in another world that you are not familiar with; with a different structure of normal you know of?
Is it the ability to cast magic without problems? The ability to control four known elements? Getting rare elements?
Maybe it's the ability to make a team and an army that doesn't betray you? Taming, Summoning, Necromancer?
These were good, especially having read works with this existing ability; that Keith thought of asking for them.
If not these; maybe weapons utilization ability? Swordsmanship, Spearman ship, Archery, or maybe even weapon master, ability?
Many came, yet none stayed. To think that thinking about which skill you want was this hard.
Having already spent ten minutes thinking about it, to the point that the other people asking for theirs were already done; Keith finally got it.
Slowly he opened his mouth and said: "The unique skill I want is—"
The moment his voice said the skill he wanted, a familiar plot appeared before him.
[ You have obtained the Unique skill: Passive income. ]
[ Unique skill: Passive income.
» Every day you will receive a set of money.
» This money can only exist one day with you, and the moment the clock hits 12, it will disappear. ]
After that, another notice came, this time showing him his attributes or stat points, and below them, there was a written note, saying:
[—Feel free to modify your stat abilities to your liking. Depending on how you change it, your body too will change.—]
Then a visual representation came, where a fat man is distributing his intelligence stat to charisma, changing his fat and bloated face into a sharp jawline and a firm handsome one.
By putting points in your strength stat and reaching 15 points above it, you can change your body physique from thin skinny bones to a ripped muscle one.
There were many other visual representations of how changing your stat points and giving them to another stat changed what you currently look like.
Hearing many people around him were satisfied with this function given to them; Keith decided not to use this at it's full potential, as he was not that much disappointed with his looks.
"Well..... It's not like I'm a saint, so I'm gonna do this." He said, pressing a few points of his stamina into charisma and getting rid of the pimples and blackheads on his face.
"And maybe this too...." He muttered again, this time sacrificing a good point of his stamina to his strength, which governs his physical body; and lowering the armpit smell he has.
"This should be good enough," he said, finally satisfied with these tiny changes he had made to himself.
Since there was still a bit of time remaining, he decided to see what else the system functions had.
Just a few seconds after he changed the strength of his body smell, he found something that made his mouth drop.
[ Changed your male genital size?
10 points = +1 inch.
20 points = +2 inches.
30 points = ]
Looking at the bizarre option the system had, a stupid thought appeared in his mind.
"If the length of men can be changed....then what about the woman? What changes in them? Their depth?"
Thinking about it more; he said. "Wait, maybe it's their upper body instead."
Saying that, he looked once more into his attributes panel, and realized how much you had to sacrifice to increase your second head; as even his highest stat was only at 20 points below.
"Good thing I'm satisfied with my length." He said, tapping himself proudly.
Before he knew it, the time limit on the body change function ended and they were now over to the information tab.
In there, it said his name, age, gender, nationality, race, which continent he was from, and even other information you can only know if you're a close family member.
Seeing all of this, he decided not to change his name at all, but took out his middle and last names; as the world he was about to go to only had them if you were nobles and the powerful.
He also took out his nationality of Filipino to nothing, to make sure he won't have to worry about this too.
Except for that, he didn't really do much more; but, questioned about the gender part.
If he were to change that into the option there, will it really happen? In the gender section, three options were available; Male, Female, and finally; Genderless.
"Let's not ask much about this....." Keith said, afraid of finding out the answer to it.
"Fuck! How do I change back! A woman's voice sounded, just behind him.
"Oh shit, that Mr messed up…..I guess it's a Ms now."
Like before, the voices around him were either celebrating, surprised, or regretful about their own choices; but none of this mattered to him.
Finally, the last option came, this time it was the simplest thing the system asked:
[—What kind of snack/food do you like to bring with you? Note, it should be something very simple.—]
Seeing this, Keith wondered and pondered for another good time thinking about what he should choose once again. Unlike before, he knew what he wanted to bring.
"Can it be those small pocket sweets?"
He said to the system, thinking of the candies and sweets he had in his country, in their tiny plastic packets.
Then, as the system disappeared, a small alligator skin wallet appeared where the system had been hovering around.
Taking it to his hand, he opened it and found the candy: Max, on it. Orange flavor — the one he likes the most. And deeper into that wallet, other candies were there too.
Much to his expectation, the other people's option was too much; some were asking for something that wasn't simple at all.
"I want steaks."
"Caviar," a noble-like voice from a woman said.
"Lobster."
"The hell are those guys asking?" Keith said. "Don't they understand what simple is?"
And by the time the ridiculous request people around him ended, Keith stayed silent already thinking about what to do in this new world he's about to live in.
Obviously, the idea of being an adventurer was already there, but seeing how the system wasn't really the RPG-style one, this option was hard to take.
"[Alright, I think that's most of it.]"
The voice Keith heard in the beginning was still nowhere to be seen or found. Yet there, like it was standing next to him.
"[For now, let's proceed with the last one.]"
"[Finally, I thought this was never gonna end!" A barbaric voice sounded.
"[Ohhh! I'll take that one!]" A majestic woman's voice yelled out.
Before Keith knew it, the once invisible figures around him were outlined, allowing him to see them and them to see him.
As he was about to say something, a few individuals among the hundreds within the void they were in, were marked by a glowing tattoo.
Each one was colored in the representative colors of the elements he knew of from the stories he read, while he and the other were just looking at the direction of those people with them.
"[So? This is it? Out of the hundreds we have here, are these the only ones blessed?]" The first voice said, followed by an agreed hum and reaction.
"[Thought for sure we would have more, since we can only do this once every half century. Sigh, oh well time to send them to our world now.]"
Just like that, the dark void they were in suddenly cracked open, allowing them all to see lights again.
But, before Keith could appreciate them, tons of information ran through his mind, making him pass out.