Chương 1: Wish

CH 1 - Wish The pounding in Grey's head accompanied the swaying of the thug before him in a rhythm. A black ski-mask covered the stranger's face, and one arm held itself threateningly inside his coat. Two more men stood near a motorcycle, not far off. Something along the lines of "rob him" was shouted by one of the men surrounding Grey, but suddenly a new voice silenced the headache overwhelming his senses.

"Hello, I am Wish. I am a sentient construct of all universal desire. A system created to grant wishes and test desires. Planet Earth is within the 75th integrated universe of the Wishing System Multiverse. Cumulative desire for change across the 75th universe has triggered the integration. All life forms have been granted one (F) Wish. Please select a wish."

"What the hell?" A thug called out.

"Did you hear that?" Grey ignored the goon's surprise and thought about what he had just heard. I feel like I can't trust my own thoughts. Echoed in the back of his head. Grey's eyes scanned over the couple of robbers that caught him outside the bar. They were both much bigger than him, and he was piss-drunk. I don't have much to lose. Grey thought about how he found himself here. He owed a lot of money to the wrong kind of people. His mental health issues didn't help his drug and gambling addictions.

Almost ready to surrender to the thugs, Grey thought about what the voice offered. After only a moment of hesitation, his voice pierced the silent confusion into the still air,"I wish I could change…" Grey spoke before he could consider his situation fully. Almost instinctively, he wished for what he always wanted. Grey hated himself and always wished he could become someone new. A sharp jolt spiked through Grey's body; a mysterious energy pulsed in a wave, fusing with each of his cells.

Instantly, Grey noticed a difference. This feels like a sixth sense. His shaking world quickly returned to sobriety as he used his new ability to detox himself of whatever drug the gangsters had slipped into his drink. How did I do that? His head turned back at the three thugs that had ganged up to rob him of what little he had. [Quest: Defeat Thugs (E)] [Defeat Thugs] [Reward:???] A notification appeared in his vision, accompanied by the soothing voice in his head. What is this, a video game now?

And why are the quest name and description exactly the same… Trusting himself with this new power, and fed up with being walked over by thugs like these, Grey dashed towards the first man in the black coat. An arm had barely risen in defense as Grey struck the thug in the face, knocking him onto his back with impressive strength. Woah… I'm faster; and I've never been this strong before! Grey turned to look at where he had just been standing. I cleared that distance way faster than I should be able to.

Grey looked down at himself, noticing that he was considerably leaner than before, and his muscles were poking through his skin. One of the two remaining men shouted something, interrupting his concentration. Grey looked over to find a thug doubling in size, growing grotesquely as he shrieked in pain. The inflating horror's friend stepped back. His eyes widened. Faster than he arrived, he left, taking the motorcycle back down the alley at full throttle.

When the man in front of Grey finished growing, he reached a height of at least ten feet. His muscles tripled in size, resembling a giant. At this time, something appeared in Grey's vision. A stat window. Name: Grey Falsen Level: 1 [0/10] Race: Human (F) Class: n/a Ability: Shapeshifting (F) STR: 4 DEX: 3 END: 5 WIS: 5 INT: 6 LUCK: 8 Free stat points: 6 Grey first stared at his new (shapeshifting) ability, and wondered what he looked like.

He was sure he had activated it somehow to attack the first thug, as well as to detox from whatever was drugging him. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. His eyes hovered over the free stat points and tried leveling up LUCK. Unfortunately, he learned quickly that luck is the only stat he couldn't allocate free points to. He put a point in every stat, and an extra point in STR. This way I can track any differences to see what each stat does better.

Immediately, he felt closer to his new shapeshifting ability. The sixth sense felt sharper. Likely, WIS or INT. STR, DEX, and END directly affected his body, as he had gotten even leaner. Grey realized he was spending too much time admiring his new washboard abs and refocused on the giant in front of him. The transformed man seemed to regain most of his senses and focused his attention on Grey, opting to drop the remains of his clothes into a pile to fight easier.

The naked giant's first step put a crack in the weak asphalt alley they fought in. A brutal crunch sounded as the pavement cracked, echoing off the walls, signaling the start of the fight. Grey ducked, rolling sideways out of the giant's path. He followed up by changing direction, jumping forward into a punch at the giant's side. Grey's strike landed, but to little effect. The hit made Grey's hand hurt, but not much else. The giant robber twisted and slapped his arm into Grey's neck, knocking him to the floor.

As he fell, Grey wondered what he could do. The giant man's wish must have made him stronger. What had it done for me? Made me fit? Grey thought about the ability Shapeshifting (F) and focused on its title. Shapeshifting. Like turn into animals? Or grow extra arms? Grey concentrated on growing a weapon from his fist, something to pierce his foe's tough skin. While he concentrated, the giant turned to face him once again.

As Grey raised his arms to defend himself from the giant's incoming hail of punches, Grey's wishes came true. Heavy hits connected with Grey's arms as a compact horn of cartilage grew from his fist. Grey rolled his head under a hook and followed up with a brutal uppercut, stabbing the spike into thug's side. He swept his leg out; catching his foe off balance, and the giant fell to the floor, spilling blood from the wound in his side.

Grey considered making a run for it, but the giant's eyes grew red, and he fought harder as he fell. Grey decided he couldn't take any chances in this madness. His arm swung down decisively, piercing the horn into the murderous thug's forehead. [Quest: Defeat Thugs Complete] [Reward: 50 Wishing Coins, Human Anatomy Manual (F)] What the hell are Wishing Coins? A ripped, yet somehow mesmerizing textbook materialized in the air beside him. The book was small and tattered.

A weathered leather cover held together yellow slips of parchment. The surface bore only the title, "Human Anatomy". Grey stood over the body; the bloody horn on his fist attached to his body gruesomely at the base. He slowly retracted it, noticing the refreshing feeling of doing so. As if he was eating an enormous meal, the reabsorbed cartilage was refueling his energy stores. A shiver ran down Grey's spine as he realized he had just taken someone's life, but he had more important things to focus on at the moment.

Grey opened his new book, surprised at the quality of its contents. He was expecting a few hundred pages of half-decent material. Some sort of magic was causing the book to contain many more pages than it should. Once opened, the small manual easily contained thousands of detailed and illustrated pages. Behind Grey, the first thug lay still. Grey focused his eyes to check if was breathing. He wasn't… Grey looked back at his level and his quest clear, assuming he had killed the first thug as well. Double homicide?

Great. Grey tucked the anatomy manual into his waistband and ran. He didn't want to take any chances running into more thugs, or the police. His legs carried him so swiftly, he felt as though he were a marathon runner. They lifted him over and passed obstacles as he navigated the busy and chaotic streets of downtown Minneapolis. All around him, people were changing. Strange wishes took over some people's bodies, and others looked around for help.

Not only that, Grey noticed a man battling what looked like a mutated squirrel, while another looted a gun store. The world had gone crazy, and nobody was coming to save them from their own wishes. Throwing honor to the wind, Grey kept on, finally finding himself at his apartment building. He left himself in, and the eerie silence instantly put him on guard. Something about the air around him felt thick, as if full of intention. Dropping into a crouch, Grey snuck towards his room and unlocked the door.

As he stepped inside, his arm exploded. What felt like a shotgun blast ripped open his arm. Bits of flesh and blood splattered the door, and Grey jumped back into a defensive position. Grey looked down at the monsters attacking him, which surprised him. Muscular, golf-ball shaped ants with long, pointed legs launched towards him with unnatural speed. Holy shit! Did the animals get a wish too!? Grey dove to the side to avoid the incoming ant while growing back his cartilage horn on his fist.

Another ant leapt, and Grey narrowly avoided it. From his fresh wound, a small buckler of bone grew, stopping the bleeding and providing meager protection from the ants. It was messy. Grey had used his shapeshifting ability instinctively to stop his bleeding mid-fight. Grey didn't know it yet, but powerful beings watched him from afar, noticing his quick adaptation.. [New Ability: Bone Manipulation (F)] [Bone Manipulation (F): Increase affinity to bone-aspected skills and abilities, lowering energy cost.] My Bone Manipulation ability seems to make it more efficient to create bone shields. Maybe I can make a sword? For now, he didn't have time to experiment. Grey raised the bone buckler into the air to parry another incoming ant. He jumped behind it and stabbed, killing his first of many. On to the next few ants, Grey carefully outmaneuvered them, killing them quickly. The swarm of ants increased in density and intensity. Grey struggled to keep up, finding a moment to slip back out the door and run.

For now, I just need to get out of here. As Grey ran, a door flung open, and a hand yanked him inside. His eyes widened in surprise. Both his arms rose into a defensive position, only stopping when he recognized the person in front of him.

"Jim!?" Grey asked. A hand covered his mouth, and Grey stepped carefully into the apartment. They entered the bedroom, one that Grey didn't recognize. Blood splatters on the living room rug frightened him, but there wasn't any sense of danger nearby.

"This is Mrs. Jensen's apartment." Jim whispered. Mrs. Jensen. She was the old lady with the fat cat.

"Her cat is fucking psycho. His wish turned him into jaguar-size and he's been killing everyone in the building." Grey scanned his eyes around the apartment. Before he could open his mouth, Jim answered him.

"She's dead." Jim said, crouching beside him silently. After a moment, Jim looked at Grey's wound.

"That's gnarly dude. What are you gonna do about it?" Grey's shredded arm was patched up by shards of bone, grown randomly and instinctively with his mysterious shapeshifting ability. In his waistband, his quest reward, Human Anatomy Manual (F) hugged him.

"I think I have to study…"