Roy Helmondt was not having a good day. Here he was – just clocked out of work after an eleven-hour shift at the local gas station at the edge of town, topped up on 13 cups of coffee and cheap protein bars – when he was caught in the light of two bright bulbs screaming down the highway. Roy never had very good reflexes, so it wasn't a surprise that whatever it was, those two gigantic eyes through which boundless brightness seemed to gush out, reached him before he could get off the road.
Just before the impact, Roy realized, to his utter horror and annoyance, that what he had assumed to be some demon crawled out of hell, was in fact a metallic creature.
It was a truck.
The darkness came too abruptly. With a final screech of the tires, Roy Helmondt was met with a cold slap to his face.
Under the dense moonlight, Roy Helmondt died.
"At least that's what supposedly happened." Roy said dryly. "But what the hell is this?"
Right now, the gas station employee with a caffeine addiction was sitting on the ground surrounded by the thick scent of wood and the petrichor of dirt. Trees pressed close on all sides and the sky above was a deep shade of blue. A cool breeze blew around the tree trunks, making the leaves flutter about with a rustle that sounded as if the entire forest was singing a song.
"Maybe I had too much coffee..."
Roy was pretty sure coffee didn't have hallucinogenic effects, but then again, he wasn't a doctor and had perhaps taken a bit too much.
He brought his hand to his cheek and gave a hard pinch.
Instantly, the stinging pain at his skin made him blink and stand up. He looked around. Every direction looked the same, the same trees, the same leaves and grass and bushes. There was nothing he could go off of to figure out a way to get out of here.
At this point, Roy had already been overtaken by what could only be described as subdued panic. He knew he had to move, but to where remained to be seen. If he randomly chose a direction to go in, it was highly probable that he'd only be heading further away from civilization.
Just then, before he could make any rash decisions in his newly found panic, something appeared before him in a flash of neon blue light.
The light was something he had read and fantasied about a lot in his free time, a couple of years back.
It was a transparent, blue, rectangular box with a white boundary and a string of words plastered on it. The box moved alongside his vision, in a way that even if he forced his eyes to look to the side without moving his head, he could still see the box right in front of him.
The words on it were simple.
[Gacha System is Online!]
[Congratulations, user!]
[Gacha System allows you to make a pull every single day! Each pull can grant items and powers from around the multiverse!]
[Stacking multiple pulls can earn higher grade rewards!]
[Making a set amount of pulls will trigger milestones to be unlocked that can issue special rewards!]
[Report!!! Gacha Tickets cannot be stacked indefinitely! The stack limit is 100!]
Roy stared at the rectangular box, absolutely flabbergasted.
I used to pray for times like these... he brought his hand to his cheek again and gave another hard pinch. Feeling another bout of fresh stinging pain, Roy realized that he was, in fact, not dreaming.
This was real. This was very very real.
He had transmigrated.
If I was a Cultivation Protagonist, I'd have 'Time Travelled.'
[Report! You have a starter gift pack!]
"Oh." He muttered.
"Open the gift pack."
[Report!]
[You have gained 1 Guaranteed Epic Rank Gacha Ticket!]
[You have gained 10 Gacha Tickets!]
Roy's eyes instantly lit up with intensity. As he stared at the deep recesses of the forest and thought about his predicament, he put his hands together and prayed.
God, Buddha, Zeus, Ra, Great Sage, Amaterasu, Shiva, Vishnu, Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan, Horus, please bless me! He prayed to the list of gods he could remember right now and stared at the rectangular blue box again.
With a shallow gulp, he watched the system screen change at a mental command, showcasing a wheel with question marks filled at every compartment.
To the left was a chart, showcasing the different ranks of the Gacha.
Increasing in rarity, they were the generic Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary and finally Mythic.
The Gacha Tickets he had gained from the Beginner's Gift box gave him 10 normal Tickets and 1 ticket which had the chance for at least an Epic tier draw.
Furthermore, using the ten tickets simultaneously had the added effect of increasing the draw chances, with a Guaranteed Uncommon draw.
He was feeling very hopeful about it. Licking his dry lips, Roy Helmondt, with his hands shaking from excitement, used the ten normal tickets.
Whirrrrrr~
The wheel began to spin. The question marks merged into a blur of black and the singular pointer at the top stayed eerily still. After a couple of seconds which may well have been equivalent to hours, the wheel came to a stand still.
As it did, another message flashed before his face.
[You have drawn a Common Grade Item: Green Hoodie!]
[You have drawn a Common Grade Item: Used Sock!]
[You have drawn Common Grade Item: Steering Wheel!]
[You have drawn Common Grade Skill: Cooking!]
[You have drawn Common Grade Item: Water Bottle!]
[You have drawn Common Grade Item: Bag of Chips!]
[You have drawn Uncommon Grade Skill: Sleepless Body!]
[You have drawn Common Grade Item: Military Knife!]
[You have drawn Common Grade Item: Pack of Cigarettes!]
[You have gained Uncommon Grade Item: Magical Tinderbox!]
[Report! You have used the gacha 10 times! Minor milestone achieved!]
[System Inventory has been unlocked!]
[The rewards have automatically been stored in the inventory!]
Looking at the plethora of rewards, Roy felt his excitement die down and a wave of energy snap him wide awake. His body which had not slept in 3 days and had been running purely on coffee jolted up, as if endless energy was coursing through him.
Roy didn't get too excited, instead opting to analyze the system rewards properly.
Most of it was junk. Except for the cooking skill, water, the knife and the Uncommon rewards, everything else was useless.
What was he supposed to do with a single uses sock? Or a steering wheel?
Without too much haste, Roy checked the status page.
[Roy Helmondt
– Innate Traits –
None
– Skills –
Cooking (Common) - Level 1
Sleepless Body (Uncommon) - Level 1
– Gacha Tickets –
Special Gacha Ticket (Guaranteed Epic or Higher)]
The status window was painfully plain. It offered no benefits like the systems seen in common novels or Mangas. There were no stats into which he could dump points, no real sense of a game like progression.
But what was present wasn't inherently worse off.
Roy stared at the description of the skills.
Cooking was pretty self explanatory, however, it was the Uncommon Skill that made him a bit speechless.
[Sleepless Body
Grade: Uncommon
Body is more capable of spending long night hours without feeling sleepy.]
Not very useful in the current situation but its good I guess.
Next, he stared at the only Uncommon Item he had received.
The magical Tinderbox.
[Magical Tinderbox
Grade: Uncommon
A Tinderbox with magical effects, waiting for someone to use it.]
"That doesn't tell me a whole lot." Roy scratched his chin before deciding to use the remaining tickets and then trying it out.
Once again, he opened the gacha wheel, and with another prayer, he spun the wheel.
Whirrrrrr~
The wheel turned, the question marks turning into a blur once again. Roy's heart felt like it might leap right out of his chest as the wheel came to a stand still.
And then, a string bright red text appeared before his eyes.
[You have drawn a Legendary Grade Item: Fallen Heart Flame!]
As his eyes scanned the text, a strange wind brushed past him. It made the hackles on the back of his stand straight. As if on queue, a blob of heat began to bloom within his upper abdomen, right atop his solar plexus.
Crackle~
A spark. And then a blaze.
Roy stood rooted to the ground as the heat spread itself through his body. It was a pleasant sensation. The heat grew more and more, until it was no longer as comfortable. It felt as if he was running a high fever. Roy kept his eyes closed, feeling a strange fear beginning to gnaw at the back of his head.
He had drawn a Heavenly Flame. A Flame that could burn forever, and all of them were invariably volatile.
Was he going to die here because he pulled the wrong thing in the gacha?
But just as quickly as that doubt arose in his mind, it was squashed. The heat receded, and a nexus appeared within his... 'dantian,' for the lack of a better word.
His eyes shot open and a slow exhaled escaped his lips.
"Damn..." He huffed.
He opened his status panel again, checking the Legendary Grade Item he had received.
[Roy Helmondt
– Innate Traits –
Fallen Heart Flame (Legendary)
– Skills –
Cooking (Common) - Level 1
Sleepless Body (Uncommon) - Level 1
– Gacha Tickets –
None]
"Its in Innate Traits?" He scratched his chin.
Fallen Heart Flame. It was special type of fire originating from the Universe of Battle Through The Heavens, referred quite fittingly as Heavenly Flames.
Flames born out of primal energies of Heaven and Earth, forged in energy rich areas of the continent and each type possessing a retinue of strange abilities. Heavenly Flames were the epitome of power and alchemical might in BTTH verse, being one of the most crucial aspects of the protagonist's power.
And even within them the Fallen Heart Flame was quite special.
Without getting into the technicalities, this Flame was basically a cheat code for Cultivation.
The Fallen Heart Flame is famous for its "Internal Burning" properties. Refines soul and accelerating energy training. The flame can produce a "Heart Fire" inside the body of its owner. This fire continuously burns and refines the user's energy (Dou Qi) 24/7, even while they are sleeping or eating. This allowed anyone in closed vicinity to cultivate at several times the speed of a normal person.
Fallen Heart Flame. A Flame formed in the heart.
A very fitting name.
Did the system listen to my time travel comment and gave me a Cultivation ability? Roy wondered for a moment. But then again, he was very happy.
"Hehe." So happy in fact, that he could not help but giggle. Anything from a Cultivation World was bound to be strong. That was just how it worked.
And considering the nature of Heavenly Flames, it was also quite fitting that while they were inherently classified as 'items' by the gacha, they functioned instead as a form of divine organs. One that he could command at will.
Evening now, Roy felt like he could command the Flame in any way he wanted and it would follow.
No, command was a wrong way to put it. It was just like how you don't command your arm to do something. You just do it.
The Heavenly Flame was the same.
"The system must've enhanced my control over it." Roy held out his hand, and instantly, a faint shimmer above his hand made the air ripple out in waves, like the heat haze on a road. If one looked very closely, they would see a faint white fire, flickering in the air.
But as much as it was invisible, Roy clearly felt the heat.
"Damn." Roy quickly put the fire out. As much as he wanted to experiment - being the simple man that he was that enjoyed the concept of having superpowers quite a lot - he was also apprehensive about accidentally burning the forest down... with him in it.
And so, he refrained from doing anything stupid... for now.
Deciding to test the fire out when he got to an open area, he took out the magical Tinderbox out of his inventory and looked over the description once again.
Without wait, he struck the flint and steel together.
Ting!
A spark flew out.
And not just a spark too.
In front of Roy's incredulous gaze, the dogs the size of Tibetian Mastiff's leapt out of the small spark and stood tall before him.
The first dog had eyes as large as teacups. The second's as enormous as water wheels. And the third's were larger still.
All three of those dogs, their fur a striking brown that glimmered with lingering magic barked once, each in order with the size of their eyes and sat down on the ground, awaiting orders.
Roy blinked once.
The dogs blinked in response.
"What the hell?"
...
...
A/N: My first fanfiction. Please be nice, dear readers.