The Place Where Everything Begins

Before long, the cupid spoke once again.

"Ahemm.. Ahemm.. Listen here, everyone."

"..."

"..."

"!!!"

After hearing that sentence once again, everyone's body trembled instinctively; they then thought to themselves, 'It is the f*cking same speech! That cupid, he is acting like nothing has happened at all'.

Consequently, everyone felt more and more fearful towards the cupid.

As a result, he did not look like a four-year-old cute little cupid anymore. Right now, he was more of a devil who had disguised himself as a cupid instead.

After realizing that everyone was finally quiet and everything was in order as he wished, the cupid then continued his speech, not caring for what other people below were thinking within their minds.

"I will say it only this once. So, listen carefully..."

"Now, all of you, a total of 10,000 people.. err.. no, I mean a total of 9,914 people were standing in a place called Tutorial. This place will help you adapt and make you qualified enough to live in your new home, Ortus. Well... only if you 'survive' the Tutorial, that is..."

"You might be curious about why all of you have to pass the Tutorial before you can live on Ortus, right? The answer is simple... it's because the resources on Ortus is very limited. If your entire human race goes and lives there, most of you will die or become slaves instead."

"So, here we come!! The Tutorial to make you get stronger and be qualified to live on Ortus without having to face 'too many' problems."

When the cupid had finished its speech with a cold light radiating from his two narrowed green eyes, he asked further, "Am I clear?".

"..."

"..."

"..."

After not seeing any negative response from the 'clowns', it felt satisfied inside, and then it continued its speech.

"Then I'll introduce you to some basic pieces of information that all of you should know beforehand. First of all, every living and non-living thing on Ortus and within this place will have its own status window showing them their name, race, class, title, affinity, talents, traits, and achievement. Furthermore, those things can only be viewed by the owner; unless you want to share them with others, nobody can see them."

"Now, you can call for the status window by saying the word 'Status' or 'Status Window' within your mind, or you can say it out loud. It's up to you."

Not long after, the room was filled with noise and murmuring again. It was a result of those people experiencing something very extraordinary.

Most people now had an almost transparent status window at nearly 1 meter in front of them.

As for Jeremy, he was also looking at his own status window that was showing...

...

Name: Jeremy Caesar Lakota

Race: Human (Le'Liac - Low-Rank Organism)

Class: Journeyman Mage (Peak - Substage 4 of Class 1 Mage)

Title: Mage of Origin (Rank 10 - Inactive), Prodigy Mage (Rank 8 - Inactive), First Mage (Rank 5 - Inactive), NEET (Rank 0 - Inactive)

Affinity:

- Fire (Common): 45.2%

- Darkness (Uncommon): 34.8%

- Space (Rare): 89.9%

- Divinity (Unique): 0.1%

Talent: Prodigy of Magic

Trait: Objective

Achievement:

1. For you, who is the fastest of your own kind to shed a mortal skin and become the first person to tread in a long and arduous path of truth-seeking. The system shall grant you the title of 'First Mage'.

2. For you, who was born a Prodigy. For you, who is destined to be standing at the very top of the universe's food chain. The system shall grant you the title of 'Prodigy Mage'.

3. For you, who achieves the impossible. For you, who defies the universe's rules. For you, who had reached the first substage of a Class 1 Mage within a mana-less world. For eternity, this attainment can never be duplicated by anyone; even the Gods feel helpless with its plausibility. It is thus considered an achievement that shall be chronicled at the highest level of Akashic Records forevermore. The universe itself shall grant you the title of 'Mage of Origin'.

...

"!!!"

"What... the... actual... f*ck?"

Jeremy mumbled dumbfoundedly after seeing his own status window. He had never seen something like that before. Even the demigods, dragons, and other exotic races shouldn't be able to possess something like that, a rank 10 title...

'Is that a rank 10 title, furthermore, granted by the universe itself? My traits and talents, aren't they looking too godly for a starter? After all, they are my traits and talents from when I was the former sage. And... is that a f*cking Divinity? Am I a god or something now? Are my eyes pulling a prank on me? Holy... shit...'

As far as Jeremy knew, only those self-proclaimed gods had the 9th rank titles, and also those same gods had Divinity powers when they wielded their power. But it was only a rumor after all... No sane god would expose their secret to mortals.

When Jeremy saw the information inside his status window, he was very startled that he had actually received a rank 10 title, which was unheard of before in his entire life... no... it was unheard of earlier in the whole Ortus history.

Meanwhile, he was in doubt and suspicious about that tad bit 0.1% of divinity affinity.

'Something is fishy here... really... really fishy...' Jeremy thought to himself frowningly.

He then thought and thought about many possibilities, began with the time before his demise, then when he suddenly 'feel' the purest mana particle on Earth, until today, when he actually saw his own status window.

Suddenly...

*Click*

Jeremy felt like something clicked inside his mind. It was like someone had just unlocked the door to the enlightened road for him.

"!!!"

Jeremy's brain was running at light speed until it almost imploded.

'So... it is like this huh. Now that I have thought about it, then if I combine those jigsaws together...'

'The small stone that I accidentally acquired...'

'The sudden inspiration of the time reversal spell...'

'The too smooth assassination on me....'

'The process of casting the 9th circle spell that has a meager chance of success rates, but I actually succeeded...'

'The mana that has miraculously presented on Earth...'

'The scheming self-proclaimed Gods...'

'The Divinity Affinity in my status window...'

'The ignorant Akashic Records that should originally be an Omniscient existence...'

'And lastly, the universe itself... the Omnipresent one has even granted me a title personally.'

The more he thought about it, the wider his eyes became. He was currently utterly shocked to the core.

He was feeling so shocked to suddenly know about the grand scheme that might have fooled 'every single one' in the universe.

*Sigh...*

Jeremy let out a long sigh.

'Now, I see... 'They' had really played me a big time. Additionally, I didn't even realize anything back then. If it is not for my smart brain, I might still be as ignorant as 'Them'.' Jeremy thought relievedly to himself.

It was good that he actually realized about the scheme fast enough. If he had ever entered Ortus without realizing this fact, he might just be played and toyed with like his past life.

'Anyway, it is of no use to think about those things right now. Let's focus on the priorities first.'

...

'Let's see, hmm... my Prodigy Mage title and Prodigy of Magic talent still remain the same. In my past life, they actually appeared after I had meditated for the first time. But this time, I guess that because I've meditated since months ago. That's why they have already been within my status window.'

'Unfortunately, my other four talents, Unrivaled Wisdom, Imaginative Thinker, Polyglot Expert, and Seventh Sense, are nowhere to be seen. It seems like I will have to get them back by doing the same thing, or maybe I should get something better instead of those talents. Also, my rank 6 title, Mystery Decipherer, and other low ranks titles disappear...'

'And my four traits, Unfathomable, Mysterious, Leader, Greedy, also do not appear on my status window. Never mind it then; they are not that important anyway. I can get even better traits if my actions are in the right paths'

'As for my elemental affinity, except for the additional 0.1% Divinity, everything else was the same.'

Even after rechecking his status window many times, Jeremy was still skeptical about his own stats. He also believed that when he clicked activated his rank 5, 8, and 10 titles, the d*mn cupid would notice him and try its hardest to kill him.

'After all, 'They' don't want any variable to pop up and ruin their grand plan after all.' Jeremy thought to himself and then calmed his mind down in an instant to not cause any suspicion to the cupid.

Currently, Jeremy's reaction was quite regular and average compared to those around him who were wondering and being amazed by the Status Window.

Well... most people were grumbling and cursing about their trash rank 0 titles, trash talents, and trash traits.

Jeremy even saw someone activating their rank 0 titles, such as Street Thug, Bookworm, Otaku, Sleeper, and Slut.

He saw many kinds of titles displayed above those people's heads. And to not stand out or attract any attention, he decided not to show his title for now.

'A sage like me doesn't deserve that NEET title. And no way in hell or after my death that I will show it to anyone. My pride can not tolerate that shame and insult.'

After the white room was filled with noisy sounds, once again causing the cupid also to feel agitated from the current atmosphere.

Thus, the chilling sensation was descending upon the crowd one more time.

That made the people below remember that there was a terrifying cold-blooded cupid still hovering above their heads.

They had to shut up now or never...

When the quietness reigned in once again, the cupid continued its explanations about the essential information to the 9,900 or so Earthlings.

"As you can see, I'm not talking bullshit to you guys. It is up to you guys to improve those stats in your Status Window and climb the predatory ladders by yourselves. From now on, you are going to undergo a period of selection called Tutorial. As for how the tutorials are going to be like, I can only say that they are random... completely random."

After pausing for 3 seconds, waiting for the people below to digest the information, the cupid continued.

"The system will randomly generate the Tutorial for you guys to undergo together. It might be, killing one another until 100 of you remain, defending a town from the hordes of monsters, raiding a dangerous dungeon together, or being divided into groups, then competing with one another... only until one group remains. I cannot be so sure about anything regarding the Tutorial that you guys are going to face..."

"But there is one thing that I can be very sure of, that is, at least more than 90% of you will be dead, and the rest will be living on Ortus forevermore. My words are so true... So, remember it well..."

After ending its speech, the cupid grinned evilly.

Then it continued with its final sentence.

"I believe that you must have too many questions that want to be answered, but sadly, I'm not your babysitter. All of your answers will be waiting for you in the Tutorial, and lastly... Ortus. I hope that we will see each other again. Bye-bye."

Not waiting for the people below to come out from their stupors. The cupid clapped its small hands together, then the people within the white room were teleported away once again.

Before Jeremy was teleported, he thought while grinning widely, 'Same speech huh... Well, I hope that the Tutorial will also be the sam...'

*Whoosh*

Jeremy's body disappeared simultaneously with the crowd...