Chapter 1: Element of Skills

　When I woke up, I was in a pure white space.

　There were many people around.

　Not only Japanese but also many foreigners, although I don’t know what country they are from.

　I heard a low earthy voice, directly transmitted to my brain.

“The time limit is 10 minutes. Choose 3 elements of skill. However, you cannot choose the same thing as others”.

　I felt an unbearable, gloomy oppressive feeling with no outlet.

　It was a voice that was clearly inhuman and did not allow resistance.

“Those who have finished should say ‘transition’. If you want to act with others, take them by the hand and say it together”.

    After a moment of silence, he said, ” Well then, let’s begin. Don’t let me down”

　The oppressive feeling I had felt throughout my body melted away. Various voices and echoes crossed from far and near.

“status”

“Status open!”

“Oh, my god! So, it’s out.”

“Yay, I can go to another world too.”

　I could hear voices that could be described as either joy or insanity.

　No way… is that what this is?

  　I was a little embarrassed, so I mumbled at a volume no one could hear.

“s…Status”

　A familiar status screen from science fiction and video games appeared before my eyes.

　Oooooh, that was a common sight in light novels. I like light novels.

　I have read various genres of them.

　　I guess those who suddenly found the status screen with no hints are in the same boat.

　I looked around joyfully and saw many people sliding and tapping their fingers into the air.

　Apparently, the status screen was invisible to others.

　When I looked at my status screen, “9:01 remaining” was displayed in the upper right corner and counting down.

　This must be the time limit mentioned in the previous explanation.

　In the center of the screen, there was a list of “Elements of Skills” with a series of bullet points:　

•  Fire (under consideration)
• Spear
• Fusion
• Binding
• Earth (under consideration)
• Appraisal (under consideration), etc

　When I scrolled lightly, I found a tremendous number of skill elements lined up, likely more than 1,000 of them.

　It was very hard to choose because they weren’t categorized by genre.

Some of the skills had (under consideration) written next to them, but just when I started having a bad feeling about them, the words “(under consideration)” changed to “(done)”.

“Alright! I’ve got a cheat skill appraisal!”, I heard a voice say.

　It seems that when someone selects a skill, it becomes “(under consideration)”, and when it’s confirmed, it becomes “(done)”.

　In other words, the early bird gets the worm.

　If you don’t hurry, you could lose all the cheat elements.

　I look for a good “element of skill”, but the ones that already smell like cheats are either (under consideration) or (done).

　I’m in such a hurry, like when I can’t find the parking ticket even though there’s a car coming from behind in the parking lot.

　

“I know this is out of the blue, but would you like to form a party with us? I’m sorry, we’re running out of time.”, a tall, kind-looking man beside me said.

　There were about eight men and women gathered around him.

“We’ve decided to form a party with the people here,” he said. “We are all sharing and gathering the skill elements that seem to be good. It’s hard to choose just three when there are so many to choose from.”

　I see. If there are 8 people, a total of 24 skill elements can be selected.

　It seems that the strategy is to choose the ones that look good for now (under consideration), and later adjust who has which skill elements.

“As you can see, the earlier the better. The more people you have, the more effective skills you can have. I don’t know what will happen after the transfer, but it’s definitely less dangerous to be with a strong group of people from the beginning than to be alone. So what do you think, will you join us?”

　That is certainly true.　

　I think it’s a good strategy.

　So I replied.

　

“sorry”

　Because I’m not good with positive people.

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