There was no shaking of hands, no agitated heart palpitations, and no quickening of breath in abject terror. He just killed a man and all he had to show for it was a calmness at odds with the battle he was having in his head. Intellectually, he knew he did something bad. Though it was an accident, it didn't change the fact that a man died because of him. Yet, there was no panic.
Was it because of this?
Passive Skill: Poker Face
Keeps the player cool-headed and clear-minded at all times.
This was ludicrous. It couldn't be real but the status windows in front of him suggested otherwise. This was too much information too soon after the accident. He may have been clear-headed but, intellectually, he knew that running away from the unintended crime was bad. Still, something pushed him to leave as soon as possible and that something wasn't guilt. It was the cold reasoning that he had to hide away and sort things out after seeing that status screen pop out. An uncharacteristic act that made him question his behavior but his body moved before his mind could catch up.
Now, a good few hours later, he was still staring at his status windows. One had his skill set, the other had his profile, and the last was an item box. It was the first window that his eyes were stuck on. The first time he read the skills written on it, he couldn't help but frown in disbelief. Was this a cosmic joke?
Written in grayed out letters were skills titled as Black Jack, Russian Roulette, Burn Card, Hit, Fixed Card, Slot Machine, and a few more - all related to gambling.
He cursed. His father damned his family with his gambling debts and now he had skills centered around it?
What the f-!
Besides, was it normal to have all future skills appear at the start of a game? Being that they were grayed out must have meant that he couldn't use them yet. That belief was solidified when one of the many skills written there was glowing in a gaudy gold.
Die of Good Fortune
A life preserving skill. The higher the number rolled, the better one's chances of survival will be. Effects vary according to Lady Luck's will.
Cooldown: 168 hours
What BS was this? So, even if he rolled high, the outcome was unpredictable and could be anything as long as it preserved his life?
What the flying f-!
And how long was 168 hours? He had to carefully count it out and finally realized it was 7 days. Damn it! Gambling skills and he was bad at math. Might as well just drop dead now!
Again, his eyes went back to his skill set window and belatedly realized there were no mana points as was normal in a game. Instead, all his skills had cooldowns ranging from hours to months. Was this normal?
Curious about the only skill he had active, he pressed on it in the skill window wanting to see if anything would happen. Nothing did which irritated him. No way in hell was he shouting out Die of Good Fortune like some kid high on sugar.
He thought of other ways to activate said skill but nothing worked. Think of it inside his head, nothing. Whisper the name of the skill. Nothing happened.
It took him a few other tries until he suddenly remembered a gambling gesture. Dubious about it, he looked around for a flat surface. The closest from him, besides the floor, was a tree. Approaching it with slight trepidation, he then tapped it once like how a gambler would on a poker table for a check on the money pot. Of course, he did so while thinking of the specific skill in question.
Finally, success. A die appeared out of thin air where his hand tapped on the wood. It happened so suddenly that he almost failed in catching the small cube. Thankfully, he caught it just in time and carefully studied it.
It was a plain black die with the embossed dots in stark white. Well, except for the side where the singular dot for 1 was in red. An inch on all sides and smooth like glass.
Before he could study it more, he heard a noise not too far from where he was. It was nearing 3 in the morning and he was in a quiet part downtown. He had been jumpy since the accidental killing he did earlier and coming across a stranger was the last thing he wanted right now.
It didn't take him long to find what made the noise. In fact, it was a who. The man made no attempt to hide the fact that he was heading towards his direction. What alarmed him was the fact that this stranger had words hovering over his head.
Level 5 <Glutton>
The moniker made no sense since the stranger looked gaunt and borderline emaciated. But, that wasn't important. What was important was the Level 5. His own status window said he was only Level 2 and that only happened after he accidentally killed someone. Did that mean this man killed someone too?
"Gambler, is it?"
He was confused at the question posed by Glutton. His confusion must have shown since the man grinned at him and pointed up on his head. "Level 2 Gambler, it says. Gotta say, kid. You're outta luck."
Without even a warning, the stranger lunged at him and, being that he was still quite jumpy and all, he was able to dodge. Albeit, quite clumsily. A sting on his right side caused him to look down and he grew even more alarmed at the clean slice through his shirt showing bloodied skin. Looking up at Glutton, he saw that the man had a shoddy chef's knife on his grasp.
"What are you doing!? I don't even know you!"
As a reply to that, the stranger just laughed and lunged at him again. At this point, he would have been a complete idiot if he wasn't able to conclude the connection he had with this psycho. They both had levels on their names. Then, that must have meant they were both participants to this insane game.
There was no room to think beyond that point. It took everything he had to run away from this man called Glutton. The psycho seemed to relish the chase. Too bad for him that his mindless running lead them to go even further to an isolated location where an abandoned warehouse was found. Surely, in this place, he could find a place he could hide in.
But, alas, before he could even get far, Glutton caught up to him and managed to give him a shallow stab to the back of his shoulder. The pain was excruciating but Glutton's laughter caused goosebumps to rise on his skin.
"Guess why I'm called Glutton?" Not even waiting for a reply from him, he continued, "It's because I'll eat whatever my knife touches."
Nope. I didn't need to know that.
Pushing his mind to ignore the pain, he managed to nudge Glutton aside and tried to escape but failed when Glutton caught on to the scruff of his shirt and pulled at him roughly causing him to choke in surprise.
It was at that moment that he felt himself drop something. All this time his hands were clenched as he tried his best to run away and he had forgotten about the die in his grasp. As he fought to get free from Glutton, a notification suddenly popped out of nowhere.
There, in golden letters, were the words:
You just rolled a 6. Congratulations!
Without warning, the wall of a decrepit building beside them collapsed and fell on the unsuspecting Glutton. The man didn't even have time to cry out in surprise. Smoke and debris scattered but not one bit of it touched him during the whole thing. Immediately, he thought of his skill set window and it popped up as if summoned. He looked for the skill he just used and sure enough, there was a change.
Die of Good Fortune
A life preserving skill. The higher the number rolled, the better one's chances of survival will be. Effects vary according to Lady Luck's will.
Cooldown: 167:59:51:61
Before he could study it more, his legs collapsed and he fell to his knees. Looking at the rubble before him, he could see no sign of Glutton as the man was buried under all that debris. His hands shook, his heart was beating fast, and he was gasping for breath. However, it was not due to having killed another person in the span of a few hours. It was due to exhaustion from running away from the psychotic Glutton.
Taking a deep breath, he finally regained his composure somewhat and realized he overlooked something. It seemed as if he leveled up twice from what just happened. Popping open his status window, he quickly put all his stat points on Luck before he could even plan out a proper balance for himself. Well, if he really had Gambler as a moniker, then that meant luck was important, wasn't it? That didn't mean he'd play the game though. Twice, he was led to participate out of his control. Where was the fairness in that? Besides, he didn't have it in him to kill people willy nilly.
As he was thinking that, there was a greyed out skill at the bottom of his skill set window that he just noticed. It had a Cooldown of 8760 hours and it was called Jackpot.
Goddess Fortuna smiles down on you. Activate this skill set to acquire luck, abundance, or a change of fate. Rewards vary. Transferrable.
His skills proved unreliable but could hold an extreme of both luck or misfortune. It was a skill set that was dictated by certain randomness that one needed to have faith to rely on. Still, there was an advantage because of its great rewards.
A change of fate. Transferrable.
Did that mean he could change the fate of his brother?
Dry laughter escaped his throat. Now he knew why all of his skills were shown so early on in his unwilling participation in this twisted game. It was bait. If there was a chance he could save his brother, then he had no choice but to step into this with gusto.
Lady Luck, you sure have some twisted sense of humor.
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A/N: Undedited! His skills seem OP. -_- Not very good with gaming stories. Still, this one-shot was fun.