The ground exploded less than two-hundred feet ahead of Alex. The road looked like a bomb had gone off inside the ground and clouds of dirt were being kicked up. Alex was on the interstate, so he was going a little over seventy but managed to skid to a stop just before his truck would have slid into the dirt clouds. He imagined a wall of debris had to be hiding just beyond what could be seen through the wall of dust. There had been a car ahead of him just beyond where the explosion happened so he hoped they weren’t caught in the upheaval. It was almost two in the morning so other than that one car ahead of him, he hadn’t seen another vehicle in almost an hour of driving.
After flicking his brights on, Alex put his truck in park and jumped out to get a better look at what he assumed must now be a huge hole in the ground. He walked closer to the edge of the flowing wall of dirt but it was so dark and the wall so thick that he wasn’t able to make anything out. He turned around and headed back to his truck to call the police station to report what had happened. He was hesitant to call 911 because, was this really an emergency? Sure, the road had exploded but he wasn’t hurt or in any danger. Then again, that other car could have been caught up in it for all he knew. After a bit more warring between his insane social anxiety and the potential wreck just beyond the dirt cloud; Alex picked up his phone only to find that it was completely dead.
There were things that Alex often forgot to do but charging his lifeblood, his smart phone, was not one of them. After several attempts to turn the phone on, he decided to plug it into the truck to see if that would give it enough charge to come back to life. Just as he went to plug the phone into the truck, a sputtering noise could be heard coming from the engine, the headlights flickered and then all at once, the truck died as well.
“Holy shit… there must have been something like an electromagnetic pulse or something. Weird that it got my phone before my truck though.” Alex mused aloud.
The shock of his truck suddenly dying kept him from the realization that he was now in total darkness. The dirt clouds had floated up enough to drape over the sky above him. Even the stars, dim as they may have been in the area he lived, were unable to light his surroundings. Looking up, Alex turned this way and that to see if he could at least spot the moon, but even it was obscured by the sheet of dirt that floated all around him.
“Well, this isn’t good at all.” Alex said out loud.
Panic was something Alex was intimately familiar with and as he had had many panic attacks over the course of his life, he knew one was just around the corner. Holding onto the trucks door, Alex squatted to the ground and tried to keep his breathing in check. He was alone in the middle of an interstate and at least thirty minutes away from any exit forward or back. Without a light, he could only stay put and hope someone whose vehicle wasn’t affected by the EMP would show up soon.
Just as Alex was getting his breathing under control and somehow looking to avoid falling into complete panic mode, the world decided to shake. The ground rumbled as an earthquake shot up under Alex’s feet. He immediately jumped into the truck, then slammed and locked the doors for good measure. Sure, the truck may not offer perfect protection from an earthquake but it had to be better than standing out in the open. The world around him continued to shake violently for several minutes before abruptly ending as if it had never happened to begin with.
Once the ground settled, Alex started to relax somewhat and began to let go of the steering wheel that he hadn’t noticed he was performing a death grip on. Unclenching the wheel, he ran his hands through his hair and noticed he was sweating quite profusely. He wasn’t a heavy sweater normally but under the circumstances, he’d forgive his sweat glands. The whole ordeal was starting to weigh on Alex and he was becoming increasingly tired. He couldn’t imagine falling asleep in the middle of nowhere but he was starting to drift off more and more.
A loud DING! woke Alex abruptly and as his eyes snapped open, he immediately had to shut them tight as he was being blinded by a bright blue light just in front of him. Opening his eyes gingerly, Alex could start to see a flat rectangular box hanging between him and the trucks steering wheel. A few blinks of his blurry eyes later and he could see words written in this all too bright box.
Attention sentients. Your world has successfully been integrated into the wider cosmos. Congratulations on this momentous occasion. Mana has risen to acceptable levels and the System will now be reintegrated into your world. You may experience slight changes in terrain over the next several days. There may also be changes in non-sentients to certain degrees as well. The System is here to help you transition more smoothly into the new normal for your world and yourselves.
Alex read the words, not fully grasping the severity in that moment; instead choosing to reach out and touch the floating box. His hand moved through the blue lights effortlessly as the words and lines of the box moved around him like liquid clouds. The lines and words reformed perfectly after a moment and Alex just watched on, his mouth hanging open just ever so slightly.
After staring at the displayed image a bit longer, Alex noticed a small arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Reaching out, he touched the arrow but nothing happened. He scrunched his brow and tried to touch it again but more precisely. Again, nothing happened when he touched it but in a moment of frustration, he said aloud, “Next page, dammit.” and the screen began to morph and shift into a new set of words.
System has acknowledged new user.
System zone verification in progress.
System zone verified.
System zone is outside acceptable user parameters.
System assistance calculation in progress.
System assistance verified.
Danger levels untenable.
User life expectancy 0.001% calculated.
System tokens have been added.
10,000 credits have been added.
Temporary System Store access granted.
The wall of text that sprung up was surprising but reading the ‘User life expectancy’ part freaked him right back into a panicked state.
“Oh fuck, I’m fucked. Super fucked. I’ve gone insane. Damn, this sucks. Did I crash and I’m bleeding out and my brain is firing off crazy scenarios. This sucks, oh this sucks.” Alex blabbered to himself.
The idea that a ‘system’ had come to Earth and that he was actually interacting with it was not very high on his believability scale. He fought the urge to start hyperventilating and dug his fingers into his legs in an attempt to steady himself. As the minutes ticked by and nothing seemed to be changing, Alex began to come back down to a more calm state. Once he was breathing relatively steady again, he decided all he could really do in this moment was to see where this was going and ride it out. He clicked the next arrow again with his finger before his foggy brain remembered to say, “Next.”
User verified to be outside acceptable introductory zones.
User will receive one time System assistance.
Mana levels in current zone are outside acceptable levels.
System forced changes to User will be made.
Enforcing User changes…
As Alex read the last line his head began to swim and his vision blurred to the point that there was again, nothing but darkness. Alex came too with his head pounding and once more his vision blurry. Not too much time could have passed since his brain had shut off, as the darkness still enveloped his surroundings and the dirt clouds were still obscuring the sky from him. Looking ahead again, the display screen in front of him now read something new.
User changes have been verified.
Just the one line now floated in a much more condensed box. The now familiar Next arrow was present but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to see what was on the next screen. The last time had knocked him out, so would the next screen do something even worse? He leaned his head back against his seat and tried to relax. Relaxing was never really at the high end of things Alex was too terribly good at, but he tried anyway.
“Deep breaths man. This is fine. Everything's fine. Crazy shit's happening but it’s fine. Deep, calming breaths.” Alex's lies to himself slowly helped him regain composure.
After steadying himself a bit, he stared at the arrow and said “Next.”
User: Alexander Ingram
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Race: Human (Other)
Age/Sex: 19 / Male
Class: None
Profession: None
System Credits: 10,000
System Tokens*: 1 Y-Grade Token, 3 X-Grade Tokens, 5 A-Grade Tokens
Skills: Mana Tolerance (1), Mana Absorption (1)
Attributes:
Strength: 9
Constitution: 11
Vitality: 10
Resistance: 8
Endurance: 8
Dexterity: 9
Agility: 8
Perception: 11
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 9
Willpower: 11
Charisma: 8
“I have.. skills and stats? What the hell is Other?” Alex whispered to no one in particular. There was so much information bombarding him that he his already easily distracted mind was having trouble picking out what the most important pieces of information were.
The new screen seemed to display Alex’s personal information, down to how much strength he possessed and supposedly how much charisma he was sporting. While most of the stats were things Alex had experienced in video games in the past, he wasn’t sure that they were utilized the same way in reality as in the games he had played. He scoffed at the thought of “reality.” He was still quite firmly on the ‘I’m bleeding out after a horrific car crash’ side of the fence. Regardless of his possible impending death from blood loss, Alex soldiered on.
After musing on the idea of death for a few moments too long, Alex looked back at the stats that were displayed before him. Tokens, Credits, Skills, Attributes. Overwhelmed would be an understatement for what Alex was feeling. Deciding he had to start somewhere, he focused on the Attributes portion of the window and said out loud “Information.”
Nothing happened.
“Well now I just feel stupid…” Alex grimaced.
“Instructions?” Nothing.
“Facts?” Nothing again.
“Knowledge?” Yet again, nothing.
“Oh for fucks sake, Details!?” Alex nearly yelled in frustration, only to be pleasantly surprised.
Attribute details.
Strength judges how physically powerful an individual is. It modifies how much one can carry, push or pull; as well as determining the amount of force behind physical hits. To a small degree, strength also determines the total amount of health that the Users body possesses.
Constitution is ones overall health. This is the most critical stat in determining the Users overall health points. To a small degree constitution also has an effect on the Users resistances.
Vitality is how much health a person will regenerate over a period of time. Vitality does not affect the maximum health of the individual.
Resistance is a measure of how much the User can ignore effects such as; poison, cold, heat, electricity, diseases, etc.
Endurance is the maximum amount of Stamina one possesses. This determines how much a User can move without entering a state of exhaustion. Endurance is also the primary stat involved in determining Stamina regeneration.
Dexterity determines how well one can land an effective attack. Throwing skills benefit greatly from more dexterity as wall as blocking incoming attacks. Dexterity increases stamina regeneration by a small amount.
Agility governs overall speed of a User, the ability to evade attacks or dangerous obstacles, as well as stealth and acrobatics. Agility increases stamina regeneration by a small amount.
Perception determines how well an individual can perceive the world around them. What goes unnoticed by most will be seen by someone with high enough perception. Critical strikes are heavily governed by perception.
Intelligence regulates the maximum capacity for Mana a user can contain. The higher the Users intelligence, the more potent their magical ability will be. Intelligence also governs the ability to learn and retain more information.
Wisdom determines how much Mana one will restore over a period of time. Wisdom can determine the use of certain spells or abilities and assists the User in utilizing knowledge efficiently.
Willpower is the ability to resist or endure psychological attacks, situations and mental fatigue. Willpower also governs the use and resistance of certain skills and abilities.
Charisma is a measure of how well an individual is at influencing others around them. This stat will also modify the Users body to what they feel is the most appealing version of themselves over time. High charisma can have both positive or negative effects on certain beings. Charisma determines the ability to resist or utilize certain spells, skills and abilities.
“Woah, that’s a lot of information. You’d think they could condense that somewhat…” Alex said.
Alex read over the attributes several times and decided he was annoyed by the System. If the average human levels on each stat were around 10, then the System was royally screwing him over in a few areas. He was surely at least of average strength for an adult male. What bullshit was the System playing at to say he was below the average in wisdom as well. There was some serious System fuckery at play and he wasn’t having it. Just look at charisma at an 8 of all things… Well maybe that one wasn’t too far off, but come on!
Letting the descriptions of each attribute settle in his mind, eventually he decided it was time to select a different category. The problem that was now presenting itself to him was that he had closed the stat page by bringing up the attribute page.
“Stupid voice commands.. Status!” Alex said, slightly louder than strictly necessary.
To both his shock and pleasure, the status screen flowed back into existence. He looked over the listing again and decided Skills were his next target. While focusing on the word, he said “Details” once more and a new window formed before him.
Skill details.
Mana Tolerance (1): This is the ability to resist excess levels of Mana. Higher levels of this skill will increase the amounts of Mana that the user can be exposed to.
Mana Absorption (1): This is the ability to absorb ambient Mana around the user to both regenerate lost Mana and expand the potential capacity of the users Mana pool. Higher levels of this skill will increase the amounts of Mana that can be absorbed.
“This is wild. Mana? Mana means magic right? I mean... I know it means magic but am I really going to be able to use magic?” Alex asked half to the System and half to himself. The longer he read over the panels, the more he felt that he was torn between believing this was really happening or just dreaming an incredibly vivid dream. Hallucinations were definitely on the table of possibilities as well.
There was no response from the System and Alex really didn’t expect much anyway. What a cruel joke it would be if Mana ended up being something completely unlike the magic that Alex was thinking of. The skills that he had acquired were clearly given by the system so he could survive the increased Mana that was supposedly in the area but Alex still wasn’t sure exactly what Mana really was. He knew Mana was what allowed for game characters to use magic, sure, but what did that mean in reality. Was Mana a gas that floated around and could be collected in a bottle?
He contemplated on the idea that in addition to breathing air, it was possible he was gulping down an invisible magic gas now as well. He shook his head to regain a shred of focus and tried to read over the two skills a few more times. After he felt he wasn't going to be able to just miraculously understand something new about his skills; he finally decided to check out what credits were. He focused on the credits portion of his status and again declared “Details.”
System Credit details.
System Credits are the primary source of currency used in the wider System Occupied Cosmos or more commonly known as SOC. Credits can be used in the System Store or with other System recognized Vendors. Credits can be traded directly to another System recognized User.
“So, it’s essentially this new realities form of money... Gotcha.”
The information given on System Credits was short but nothing too surprising to Alex. He started to think about what backed these credits but that didn’t hold his interest for long. System Tokens were another thing on the list that needed to be investigated and the System Store was also something Alex really wanted to check out. Deciding to be as thorough as he could be, he chose to go ahead and check out the token details.
System Token details.
System Tokens are used to purchase certain items from the System Store that are often outside the purview of System Credits. Many items are beyond even the wealthiest User if they only deal in credits. There are 9 ranks to System Tokens from lowest to highest: F, E, D, C, B, A, X, Y, and Z grades. Even F-Grade tokens can purchase items that credits cannot.
“Oh nice. Looks like I may be able to get some extra goodies that I won’t be able to get with cash. It’s weird how it uses an alphabet that I’m used to but really messes up the order with the last three grades. Weird...” Alex said to himself while shrugging off the oddity.
Having finally gone through all the notable items in his status, Alex felt that now was the time to open the System Shop and see what kind of things he could purchase.
“System Store.” Alex said aloud but yet again, the simple way didn’t seem to be the way things worked.
“Oh, come on, not again. Open System Store.. Commence Store.. Start System Store...! Oh, are you shitting me right now? Why can’t I just will this stuff to work. What’s with all the very specific key words?” Frustrated, Alex plopped his head against the headrest and closed his eyes.
Some time later, Alex awoke to a loud noise hitting his trucks hood. He sat bolt upright and peered into the still dark night, looking for what made the loud thud. As he slowly leaned closer to the dash he heard a scratching noise across the hood and pulled back again, instinctively hitting the already secured locks on the door, even though with the power gone, that would not have done anything.
“What the hell was that?” He continued to peer through the glass and finally caught sight of something small just dark enough to stand out even against the darkness of the night. The thing was small, maybe around the size of a small dog, or a large cat but it was most certainly alive. His hopes of it being a tree branch were whisked away as the small animal turned to look directly at him with shining yellow eyes. He stared back at it for a moment before thinking whatever it was probably wasn’t a threat to him. As the thought came to him, his hopes were dashed by the creature barreling towards the windshield and slamming into it.
The first hit didn’t do anything to the screen but the small animal backed up and slammed once more into the glass, scratching it’s clawed feet along the surface. This time, unfortunately the glass began to crack. Alex’s heart was practically outside his chest at this point and he began to look around for something to defend himself with. His backpack, with books, a laptop and a change of clothes sat in the passenger seat but it didn’t scream ‘weapon’ to him. Daring to take his eyes away from the rabid animal for a moment, Alex turned to look into the back seat in search of something to defend himself with. Crack!