Setting: Mass Effect
Li Chen is a struggling senior at an Alliance colony school. His proudest achievement in life is ranking 97th worldwide on the sniping leaderboard in Halo: Reach Online. That is, until the day his school organizes a field trip to a Element Zero refinery
The containment shield explodes, and a rift in the void swallows the dome like a black vein.
A cold mechanical voice drills into his mind:
[Protocol “Student ID 114514” activated... Mission: Kill a Goblin (0/1)]
[Failure penalty: Permanent confinement]
He crashes into a foul swamp, his school uniform soaked in grave mud.
Before him stands a goblin wielding a rusty steel pipe, with his alma mater’s “graduation commemorative power bank” tucked at its waist.
His only weapon is half a rotten stick.
“Damn! This is worse than Hell difficulty!”
Li Chen roars as he stabs through the monster’s throat. Dark golden blood splatters across his omni-tool.
[Kill confirmed! Armor energy +5%!]
The nanofibers in his school uniform’s right sleeve suddenly writhe, surging with streams of blue light
Cold metal plates cover his flesh, and blades spring from his knuckles!
The filthy gold earring clenched in his palm suddenly burns into his nerves:
Glaciers collapse. The cries of a civilization flood his ears!
The omni-tool flashes red:
[Warning! High-entropy contamination! Return countdown: 71:59:59]
[New mission: Rotroot Cavern (0/5)]
[Failure = Erasure]
At a pawnshop in the black market, he has just tossed down the bloodstained earring.
The owner’s mechanical eye flares. “Moonscorched gold? You’re the third...”
The gold ornaments in the display window float into a star chart, while news of the Antarctic cube flickers across the street.
Li Chen wipes the dark golden blood from his face and clenches his credit points in his nanite-covered right fist.
His classroom desk is carved with “I was here,” but his assignment is
To fight for a way to survive in Cthulhu’s examination hall, armed with nothing but a school-uniform battle suit.
