Chapter 1

  Waking up, my dreams are already escaping my mind's grasp. I keep my eyes shut in hopes of holding onto them a moment longer. Feeling warmth nestled against my side, I roll to my left trying to keep my arm relaxed. “Good morning, Mia,” I say, as I feel her head stir against my left arm. Having obviously woken her up I wrap my other arm around her letting my hand rest on her chest and my other nestles between her legs pulling her closer against me. She lets out a soft breath as I give her a gentle squeeze. I rub my hand across her chest and abdomen occasionally feeling one of her small nipples glance against the palm of my hand. I lean forward and give her a kiss on the back of her head before opening my eyes.

  “What the fuck!” I snap my head back jolting Mia fully awake, I feel her lick my arm a couple of times and then her cold nose as she buries her face in the crook of my elbow. I see her brown and white fur in my peripheral vision as she disappears under the covers. All the while this... thing, is right in my face no matter where I look.

  After several seconds of confusion, I start to actually read it, which only results in even more confusion. As if it can tell I’d finished reading, another pops up.

  My heart and mind, both, race as I fight between confusion and excitement trying to figure out what this means. What it is saying is fairly obvious, but wrapping my head around it is proving difficult. “So. What... I’m in some sort of game world? Or the world has always been some sort of game and I’m just now finding out about it?

  “Uhh, who exactly am I talking to and how the hell are you talking to me through these… game messages? Yeah, game messages. How are you talking to me through these?”

  “Hmm, not sure how that is gonna make things easier. Plus, I don’t know if I’ll be receiving any more friend requests, but it could get pretty annoying pretty fast if they just pop up like that all the time. And what the hell is up with his name, Bob? Really?” After a moment's contemplation, I try to click “Accept” but it disappears before my hand even gets half way and another message box pops up. It seems to have registered my intent, so I don’t actually have to touch it.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I quickly thought Status and received another popup.

  That is kinda disappointing, although not entirely surprising, to be honest. I’m not exactly in the best shape, I look down and pat my belly through the covers feeling the slight jiggle. I’m assuming, of course, that the average attributes for humans would be 10 except maybe in luck. Speaking of luck why the hell is my luck in the negative. I wouldn’t normally consider myself lucky, but I wouldn’t have thought myself terribly unlucky either.

  I hesitate a moment, not sure I want this guy in my head before I realize that he can probably read my mind seeing as he knew how I was “processing” all of this. Plus the notifications seem to be connected to my thoughts and he is connected to those soooo it seems like a reasonable conclusion. I think I am overthinking this, yup definitely overthinking this, now I’m overthinking about overthinking. Whatever, I decide to change it and then go to my notifications. The first one to pop up seems really good.

  As I was reading I noticed I received another notification, assuming it was linked to my reward I decided to read it first.

  I’m fairly startled at all that I gained from one notification, I can’t help but wonder if many of my other notifications will give such boosts.

  “Not likely, you gained so much from that because it was a ‘feat’ and because the attribute affected was in the negative making the ‘feat’ even rarer. The following notification was simply a result of said ‘feat’ the rest of your notifications are much more mundane.”

  I jump as I hear a voice in my head not my own, it takes me a moment to remember the telepathic connection between me and my new friend Bob. He proves to be right as I read through the other notifications, mostly explaining what it means to be one of the “Chosen” and why I am already level 6 and what the levels mean. Apparently, being “Chosen” means very little, there is nothing required of me. It’s just as Bob said, we are meant to “stir up the pot” as it were, but how we choose to do that is up to us. We can just live our lives how we see fit. It seems merely existing can cause a bit of a stir all on its own.

  “Mm that's mostly because we aren’t allowed to interfere with your free will, we can give advice or do absolutely nothing and let you figure it all out on your own if we choose. Almost all Chosen end up influencing the world in some fashion though, it's just what happens when you give someone power, they use it. Not always for the best I might add.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s just say that some of the Chosen are very well known even in your history books, and many of these are the most hated individuals in said history books.”

  Doing some math in my head I try to think about who he might be talking about, the first thought that comes to mind is Bin Laden, after a quick search I find that he would have only been eleven when he became a “Chosen” so that seems unlikely. Plus I have no idea if he was considered a loner. At that thought, I remember someone else who was considered evil and who considered himself a loner when he was young. I look him up and find he would have been twenty-nine. “Hitler? Hitler, was a Chosen?”

  “I’m afraid so, he received a gift for ritual magic, used it to make himself more… Charismatic to certain ilk and less repugnant to those who would see him as such. The Swastika was the reverse rune for good energy, he used it to absorb the energy provided by the pain, hate, and anger of the people, both his own and his enemies.” It’s scary to think I have so much in common with someone so… evil. “I wouldn’t say he was evil, though I wouldn’t say anyone is truly evil. You are, all of you, who you choose to be, given the cards that are dealt to you. He chose to wallow in the racial hatred of his time and given his influence and power, combined with the people who he let influence him, he became a monster and made monsters of many others. You’ll find that a nearly infinite number of people with the same start in life end up living completely different lives based on how they react to the choices given to them. You simply need to decide if you want to let others make those choices for you or if you want to choose for yourself.”