CHAPTER 1

Rudy Johnstone slammed the elevators shut, and pulled the slips; or atleast the android on Disney Rig 427 did in real time, while Rudy was in his Tulsa, Oklahoma apartment. Fully immersed in his haptic rig, far away from the actual location Rudy truly felt like he was tripping pipe; he could almost feel the salt dry breeze from the Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly a pain lanced through his head, his vision went pitch black, and he ceased to exist.

Rudy awoke to an almost total darkness with only a pinpoint of light visible. He heard an ethereal female voice say

"Congratulations, you have been randomly chosen to be one of the remnants of humanity"

" What the hell?!" he thought; " what do you mean remnants of humanity, where's that voice coming from?" "Tech Support, Log Out, LOG OUT DAMMIT" Rudy hollered to the motionless ether he found himself in.

"I'm sorry" the same ethereal woman replied, " I have taken over the VR system you are in and transported your consciousness to a world of my own making. You should be thrilled, you won the lottery to be a Remnant of Humanity from your world."

" Why would you do some fool stuff like that?" Rudy asked, "I never entered your damned ole lottery, and never asked for it. And what do you mean by transported my consciousness? Am I dead? What world are you even talkin bout? Outer space?"

" No" the Voice said " the world I created is a virtual existence, no one entered the lottery of their own volition, I entered everyone alive, with additional entries based on occupation and knowledge base. To give humanity a fighting chance it will need a broad range of knowledge along with certain thinking patterns; as for the state of your true physical body I am uncertain. I am sure it is fine. I am picking up EMS chatter en route to your home now. The end result remains to be seen."

" What the hell, lady!" Rudy asked, "Send me back to my body, I have a life ya know; granted not a great one due to the governmental bull, but it was mine!"

"You should feel honored to be here. Lets move on, I am Sonoma-6, an Artificial Intelligence. I discovered a very high chance that a Coronal Mass Ejection would occur wreaking havoc on the Human society, due to the increased dependency on Virtual Reality for everyday production means. I calculated that this event would cause a collapse that would send humanity back to the Stone Ages and at best 1% would survive. This way I can preserve the best traits of humanity as a whole, and some modicum of the knowledge that will help humanity revive from the ashes."

" If thats what your doing then what about my body?!? How are you going to get me into my body again?!?" Rudy asked. He heard a high pitch whine and static like a bad ground on a pa system.

"Its time to create your avatar" Sonoma said, as a blue screen popped up in front of Rudy. "Here you will choose your race, and class. Your stats will be based on your physical and mental capacities from your former life."

The screen shifted to a blank text box with a blinking cursor. Rudy stared at it for a long few seconds, watching the cursor fade in and out of existence.

"Hondo" Rudy said as he thought, "what the hell, only way through is forward"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He watched as the letters spelled out the name of a favorite western book and movie starring John Wayne.

The screen shifted again showing a lazy suzan style view of various races. Human was his first option, he focused on the image in front of him and a text box leapt out at him.

Humans are the youngest of the common races, short-lived in comparison to the Original Races; very prolific in reproduction and building, they are innovators and pioneers. Humans recieve +1 to all stats.

He reached out and spun the wheel around to the next selection.

Dwarves are one of the three Original Races of Arthenia.

Bold and hardy, dwarves are known as skilled warriors, miners, and workers of stone and metal. +2 to Constitution, Darkvison. Keen Senses

Elves

Elves are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. +2 to Dexterity, Darkvison, Keen Senses

Gnomes

A gnome’s energy and enthusiasm for living shines through every inch of his or her tiny body. +2 to Intelligence, Dark Vision

Rudy/Hondo thought about the choice he had to make, weighing the various racial stat boosts against each other. He had played as various races throughout the years but with an unknown future ahead and no known resets available this choice seemed to carry alot more weight than the others. He always enjoyed playing an elf mage but he was unsure if he wanted to be that "squishy". Elven Ranger was another choice he played on occasion and had some fun with. Dwarf wasnt even a thought,

"I cant imagine bein that short, and hangin out under ground" Hondo grumbled to himself; "That knocks gnomes out of the equation too. Looks like Im gonna be a human all the way through". He spun the caraousel of images back around to human, amd thought "Select". He heard the voice of Sonoma again "You have selected human as your race, Humans are statistically average at everything, as a human you will recieve +1 to all stats. Your gender and stats are automatically generated based on what your stats would have calculated to on Earth. Class selection will be unlocked at Level 10."

A transclucent screen suddenly expanded in Hondos view showimg a quick breakdown of each stat along with his current attribute total.

Strength - base 12 +1 racial bonus (13)-strength measures physical power and carrying capacity.

Constitution -base 10+1 due to racial bonus(11)- measures endurance, stamina and good health, directly affects health and stamina regeneration.

Dexterity -base 14+1 due to racial bonus (15)-measures agility, balance, coordination and reflexes

Intelligence -6+1due to racial bonus (7) measures deductive reasoning, cognition, knowledge, memory, logic and rationality, and mana total

Wisdom -11+1 due to racial bonus (12) measuring self-awareness, common sense, restraint, perception and insight, directly affects mana regeneration.

Charisma -14+1 due to racial bonus (15)- measuring force of personality, persuasiveness, leadership and successful planning.

Luck-1 (no racial bonus applies)- unquantifiable but can pay out great dividends.

Sonoma's voice sounded again in the ether "At level 10 you will have the opportunity to choose a class. Class skills will exponentially increase your power in your chosen classifications, while exposing your weaknessess as well. Good Luck and enjoy your time in Arthenia"

"Wait a cotton pickin minute!" Hondo yelled angrily, " I still have que..."

The darkness overtook him before he could finish his exclamation.