Is this really a Game?!
Chapter 4 Start Of The Game

"Wait for a second, let's see if there are any more pioneers among us here". Wolf stopped Reign as he said.

"Alright, but, how many of us are there in the world anyway?" Reign nodded before asking with a confused expression on his face.

[There are 12 438 pioneers on Earth right now, pioneers are the hope of you earthlings, you are the people that managed to awaken your innate abilities without any hardships, some even getting stronger versions of them.]

"Wait a second, didn't we do the lottery for our abilities?" Shadow asked with confusion on his face.

[The lottery was simply a chance for you to gain a stronger version of your abilities.]

"So, you're saying all of us already had our abilities even without becoming pioneers?" Reign surprisedly said.

[Yes, they will naturally unlock themselves after you face many hardships, training or being in a near-death state.]

"I see, unlike other people who have to face danger to unlock them, we just need to level them up." Shadow looked like he had an epiphany of sorts as he exclaimed.

"So we have a head-start, huh?" Reign put his hand on his chin as he was thinking.

"Wait, what are you guys talking about, what are pioneers, and even though it's only 3 of you, you're talking like there's 4." A female student was looking at the three young men with a confused face.

"Yeah, have you boys lost your mind?!" The principal shouted as his face was getting red.

"I guess I'll explain it to you guys, I'll only do it once so listen up!" Wolf sighed with annoyance as he starts explaining to everyone.

It took Wolf about 30 minutes to explain everything about pioneers and some of the benefits that come with being one.

"W-wow, th-that's amazing, so you guys have powers?!" A male student was looking at the three with a bright light in his eyes.

"Yeah, but to be honest I don't even know how they work." Reign awkwardly says as he shrugged his shoulders.

[To use your innate ability you simply need to think of it and how it should manifest itself like, note, since the abilities you earthlings have are all newly awakened they won't be powerful from the start.]

"Because they're just lvl1?" Shadow says as his face showed a sign of disappointment.

[The strength of an innate ability depends on its level and on the level of its user]

"I-level?" Said Reign in a confused manner.

[Simply think of the word status in your mind and the status screen will show itself to you, it's the same for skills, abilities, class, and race.]

"Ok, but isn't a race status kind of stupid, I mean we are all human."

[That is the truth, for now.]

"What do you mean by 'for now?"

[I am not allowed to tell you that information right now, when you become stronger you will be eligible to find out more information.]

"Alright, well, let's try the stats screen now." Reign did as the voice told him, he said status in his thoughts and in front of him, a blue hologram appeared.

Name : Reign

Level : 5

Class : None (more info in the class menu)

Race : Human (more info in the race menu)

Attribute points : 4

Strength : 13 (14) (+1 from ability)

Agility : 13 (14) (+1 from ability)

Endurance : 12

Vitality : 12

Willpower : 10

Spirit : 10

Strength - Improves the body strength of the person, allowing for stronger attacks, lifting strength, and carry strength.

Agility - Improves the speed and reflexes of a person, allowing for faster movement, attacks, and coordination of the body.

Endurance - Improves the toughness, natural defense, and resilience of the body.

Vitality - Improves the natural regeneration of the body.

Willpower - Improves the person's speed of thoughts and resilience against soul attacks.

Spirit - Improves the person's capacity of mana gather and the strength of the soul.

"It really looks like a game menu." (Reign)

"Yeah, it's so weird." (Shadow)

"Well, let me try out my ability." (Reign)

Reign lifted his right hand in front of him and thought of lightning dancing between his fingers, at first nothing happened, but after 5 seconds sparks showed on his hand.

"W-what's happening to his hand?!" A female student screams out as she points towards Reign.

Right after the girl screamed lightning suddenly appeared on Reign's hand, the same as in many magic movies and anime, only that the lightning was blue.

"Blue lightning, what's going on?" (Reign)

[The color of some innate abilities change with the rank, for example, your lightning ability, from rank F to D it's yellow, from C to B it's orange, A is red, S is blue, SS is violet, SSS is black and the final rank, Z is white lightning.]

"Awesome, so it's not only the strength but the color that changes as well." Said Reign, but in just a matter of seconds he saw light on his right and when he looked he saw Wolf's arm becoming green and green flames forming over it.

"My ability is 'Fire Manipulation', and A rank ability seems like the color of the flame I produce change with rank, same as your thunder Reign." Wolf looks towards Reign as he plays with the fire in his hands.

"A+ rank ability, shadow manipulation." (Shadow)

Reign followed the voice and saw Shadow standing next to the wall, his figure slowly becoming darker and less visible.

"The description says that when it gets stronger I'll be able to control shadows like solid objects and that the reason it's an A+ ability is that it will become much stronger if I evolve it to rank S, seems like I'll become like that anime character."

"Mine's lightning manipulation, S rank," Reign says with a smug face.

"It's actually an S rank?!"

Screamed Wolf in disbelief, the system told him that only 13 people have S rank skills and that they are called seeds of hope because they are destined to carry the whole of humanity on their backs, Wolf was a noble, even though he never carried any arrogance because of it, he always outperformed others, he was always one of the best and seeing two people who abilities rank higher than his actually dealt a small blow to him.

"Hey, anyone else here a pioneer?!" Reign shouts at the crowd of students that were around them.

"I fairly doubt it, amongst the 7+ billion population, only a little over 12 000 are pioneers, just 3 of us being here is..." Shadow was shaking his head as he didn't think there was a high possibility of another pioneer being here as well.

"I-I'm a pioneer as well." Somebody from the crowd said.

"What, who?!" Wolf widens his eyes as he looks at the students.

The group of students around them started moving and a weak, frail-looking boy showed himself in front of the 3.

"Oh, it's you, Alfred." Reign smiles at the boy who was visibly nervous while being stared at by so many people.

"It's alright, my name now is Beast"

"Mines Reign, he's Shadow and Mr. Royalty is Wolf." Reign smiles gleefully as he introduces Wolf.

"Would you stop with the royalty stuff already?!" Wolf shouts at Reign with visible frustration.

"Hell no!" Shadow laughs in delight as he looks at the angry Wolf.

Beast was always the shy, quiet type, he was incredibly smart and the best student in the whole school.

"I never took you as a fighting type Beast." Reign looks up and down at Beast who was scratching his head in nervousness

"I-I was in the toilet and a huge rat showed up, I had nowhere to run to and had to defend myself, I punched it, kicked it, and when everything was finished the rat was dead and I was all bloody from the scratches, then the voice told me everything and I was teleported to that lottery room, the blood and scratches were gone."

"Damn, you had it rough, being interrupted during nature's call and having to fight a monster, huh, I feel for you man." Reign had crossed his arms in front of him as he was nodding painfully at Beast.

"Uh, t-thanks I g-guess?" Beast smiles nervously as he looks at Reign with confusion.

"But didn't the system say pioneers are really rare, how come there's 4 of us here?"

[This place was deemed as one with most talents, the most promise out of all so it was natural that there are more pioneers here]

"I see." Reign nods.

"So now that we have a total of 4 pioneers in our group, should we go outside, they did say that shops, class temples and such will spawn soon right?" Wolf says while looking at the three.

"Yeah, let's go." Shadow excitedly says.

"W-wait, it's dangerous outside, don't you see those monsters?!" The principal gets in front of them with his hands spread out.

"Principal were you even listening to me, 20 meters around the school is a safe zone, monsters can't come in." Wolf shakes his head in disappointment as he goes around the principal.

"You can't be sure of that, what if that voice is just fooling you guys?!" A female student behind them could be heard asking with a panicking voice.

"Well if that's the case, we'll just flee back to school, or kill those monsters," Reign says with a cold voice as he looks back at the students who had stopped in their tracks after hearing his words.

"H-hey guys, if I may ask, what equipment did you get from the lottery?" Beast suddenly asks from the side.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." Says Shadow as he grabs something behind him.

"I got this armor, it's a D rank." Said Wolf while lifting his shirt and showing a thin metal armor that he was wearing.

"I got a rank E knife." Said Shadow while showing a knife that was in his back pocket.

"I-I have a bow, i-it's a C rank, i-if any of you want it, I-I'll gladly-

"Beast!" Reign suddenly shouts at Beast.

"Yes sir?!" shouted Beast while doing a soldier salute.

"You're part of the team, the bow is something you won, it's yours, use it, it may save your or our life one day, not to mention, you're the ace archer of the university, you're the only one amongst us that can use it proficiently." Reign looks sternly at Beast who was nodding profusely.

"Y-yes." Beast lowered his head somewhat shamefully, but inside he was full of gratefulness towards Reign.

"Ok, let's go now." Reign nods happily at Beast as he turns around.

"Wait, you still didn't tell us what you got Reign," Shadow asks him as he narrows his eyes suspiciously at his friend.

"I-it doesn't matter." Reign quickly turned his head and started walking towards the exit, only to be stopped by Wolf.

"If we're gonna be a team everyone has to be honest to each other." Wolf looks at Reign as he says.

"I said it doesn't matter, I threw it away anyway," said Reign in an annoyed voice.

"Reign, come on, tell us what you got, c'mon man, you know I won't stop till I find out," Shadow says while poking Reign from the side.

"Oh fucking hell, I got a stick okay, a wooden fucking stick!!" Reign shouts with a dark expression on his face.

"A stick, bwahahahahahaha!!!" Shadow started rolling on the ground while laughing, wolf, and beast on the other hand were doing everything they could to stop themselves from laughing.

"Ah, screw you Shadow, get up, let's go." Reign went to the exit with hurried footsteps while Shadow tried to stop his laughter.

"W-wait, brother, I'm coming, let's first go to the kitchen and get some knives first!" Shadow sprung up from the ground and started running towards Reign, of course, he was still laughing.

"W-we better go after them, right Wolf?"

"Yeah, let's go Beastie."

"T-that's not my name."

"Of course it is, Beastie."

"Uh, o-okay." Beast lowered his head in defeat and followed Wolf.

After a couple of minutes, the group came out of the school only to be greeted by a blinding light.

"Argh, what the fuck is this?!" Reign shields his eyes from the blinding light as he exclaims.

"Perhaps this is the spawning of the shops?" Wolf says while doing the same as Reign.

After 5 minutes the light disappeared and when the gang opened their eyes a stunning sight was in front of them, there were stalls, shops, and even some buildings around, but, the thing that drew the most attention was a hulking beast sitting at the edge of the safe zone, it was a giant made entirely of stone, on his shoulder, he was carrying a huge pillar and looked incredibly imposing, and the other thing that drew the groups attention was a huge altar with a portal on top of it, on their heads they could respectively read:

"Zone Guardian"

"Class temple"

"I think we should go and get a class first," Wolf says as he goes towards the class temple

"Yeah, they said the world has turned into a huge MMO so a class is definitely a must." Shadow follows after him as he curiously looks at the buildings that have suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Yeah, let's go." Reign simply follows the rest while inspecting the giant guardian.

The group slowly approached the altar but just 2 meters from it an invisible barrier stopped them, a notification appeared right away.

[The minimum level requirement for a class is level 10, players please level up first.]

"Fuck, seems like we'll have to kill some monsters first and then get a class." Reign curses as he looks at the class temple.

"We should first use our attribute points and speak to the people here, they might give us a quest of some sort." Shadow puts his hand on his chin as he calmly speaks.

"Let's split up then, when one of us finds a quest just call the others." Wolf nods before going in a random direction.

"A-alright, I-I'll go on the left." Beast says as he nervously turns around

"See ya in a bit." Reign waves at them as he also goes to search for a quest or anything noteworthy.

Everyone split up to find a quest and added their attributes, Reign decided not to use his points right now since his "Thunder Manipulation" gave him a point in both strength and agility, he first wanted to see what would happen after he leveled up before choosing where to add them, Shadow put all his points in Agility, Beast put his points in strength and agility since his bow needs a certain amount of strength to be pulled and agility will also help with his aim while Wolf decided to split his points in Endurance and Vitality.

After about 30 minutes everyone could hear Beast yelling.

"Guys, I found a quest, quickly come here!!"

Everyone gathered to Beast in just 2 minutes.

"Beastie, what's the quest?" Wolf asks Beast who was smiling at them.

"Beastie, oh, I think that name is quite fitting for him." Shadow giggles while looking at the nervous Beast.

"Please stop with that nickname!!" Beast pleads with them, but to no avail.

"No!" Wolf and Shadow shout out at the same time before breaking into a laugh.

"Beast, what's the quest?" Reign asks him while looking at the two with a sigh.

"Wait, let's form a party and I'll share it with you guys."

"We can actually do that?" Shadow asks Beast with surprise.

"Yeah, I just got a notification for it." Beast nods to him.

"Ok, how do we do it?"

"It says I just need to think of it and you'll get an invite right away, let me try it." Right after Beast said that the three immediately got a notification.

[Beast wants to form a party with you, do you accept YES / NO]

Everyone immediately pressed Yes and they could see a floating text above each other

<Wolf, level 5, healthy>

"Okay, it worked, now let me share the quest." (Beast)

[Player Beast wants to share a quest with you]

[Blacksmith Adrian needs you to kill 5 goblins and bring him their fangs, do you accept YES / NO]

Everyone pressed yes.

[The quest has been changed to a party quest, kill 20 goblins and take their fangs back to Adrian, progression 0/20]

The party read the description and turned around to look at the forest.

"They're not here anymore." Reign looks around to find the goblins who were present previously but shakes his head as there were no goblins around now.

"The guardian probably scared them off, let's go in the forest and find them," Shadow says as he looks at the giant guardian.

"Hey beastie, do you have any arrows for that bow of yours?" Wolf asks him as he looks at the bow in Beast's hand.

"Yes, the bow came with a quiver, it replenishes arrow by itself." Beast turns around and takes off his jacket, everyone could see a quiver on his back, full of arrows.

"That's awesome, and here I got a trashy F rank stick..." Reign kicks a nearby rock in frustration.

"Don't worry about it bro, I'm sure your stick is the stick that will drill through the heavens!!" Shadow says before twisting on the ground from laughter.

"Can you stop it with the anime lines already?!" Reign looks at Shadow with a dark expression as he slowly moves towards him.

"Alright, alright, let's go, we have some goblins to kill." Wolf calms the two down before turning around.

Reign and the others walked towards the forest, the second they set foot into it a notification suddenly appeared

[Entering the Newbie Forest, happy hunting]

"N-Newbie Forest, this just feels so dumb." Reign sighs as they start their adventure.

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