The window hovered in his line of sight, it was incredible, felt like a dream, almost too good to be true. He wanted to question it if it was true.

[ Are you ready to become a Player? ]

There were two choices; Yes or No.

A tiny line underneath almost as a fine print, explained that he only needed to mentally confirm the answer and the System would understand.

He didn’t want to risk anything, parts of him thought this could be a prank but he didn’t care. Mentally he chose the Yes option and almost as if it was clicked on a computer a small box surrounded the word before it blinked before the whole window closed itself by the top and bottom part of it collapsing before it disappeared into a fading line.

Sitting up, he looked around. Nothing felt different, it was all the same. Shouldn’t there be any sounds, anything? He had read from testimonials that it’s a bit different for everyone, but everyone said that the change was immediate, that they felt different, there should be menus and everything explaining things.

A few seconds later a similar window opened, it didn’t have the same filigree around it, but the same window except that it was red-hued instead of white.

Then everything hit at once. Several windows opened but the first thing he properly noticed was the feeling in his body. All damage to him was healed, his scars remained but the wounds he had closed properly, the dirt on his body faded, and all pain subsided.

He felt great!

This was amazing, it was like he was in his best shape ever, no. More than that. He felt stronger, better. Taking a look at his arms there were some slightly defined muscles there, more than he had earlier today. Well, not a substantial increase but it was enough that he noticed it.

Finally focusing on the various windows in his vision they explained the simple things, but one thing was placed before everything else.

[ Welcome, Player Sam Carter. ]

The other windows were behind this massive title, almost like a welcoming screen this had the filigree on the sides, but the others did not.

As he looked at the others properly the welcoming one closed as soon as he stopped focusing on it. His eyes snapped back to where it was but there was nothing, as he thought that he wanted a second look at it, it came back!

Just as the fine-print-like text on the first window asking him if he wanted to be a Player, it was indeed linked to his mind.

He went through the other ones one by one.

First, there were some explanations, listing how this worked in more detail. He could just think of the different windows and they would pop up where he wanted them in his field of vision. The order of things is that he’ll be given a class, followed by at least one appropriate skill, and at the end, he’ll be given the option to allocate bonus Attribute points.

Everything was so exciting, he was practically vibrating where he sat in his bed. Luckily he was the only one awake in the room at the moment.

Mentally accepting the explanation brought up the first thing it said would happen, a class screen. He had read a lot about this and he knew that this was either pre-determined and just displayed neatly, or an actual roulette-like thing where you just had to accept whatever was given to you.

The window that took his focus was titled Class, with a single dash in the middle. As soon as he focused on the dash it changed and started flipping through various titles. He couldn’t read them all but he saw a few common ones flip by; Warrior, Mage, Healer, Rogue, they came up more than once but it listed some other and more exotic ones as well, like Spellblade and Artificer.

He knew that he would just have to accept whatever came, but in the deepest part of his mind he wanted a cool and powerful one, he wanted to become amazing, to have the power needed to never get shat on again.

The rotation of words was slowing down, bit by bit, almost as if a digital roulette was losing its momentum before it was just a few ones a second, then to one a second before it stopped.

[ Telekineticist - X ]

Sam was a bit confused, he knew he didn’t know about all the classes but this one sounded new to him, but he knew rough ideas about the ranking system, a simple letter grading from S through E. But in this case rather than a proper grade, it just had an X.

As he focused on it with a questioning mind a side window opened.

[ A Telekineticist excels at using force with their mind, like having invisible hands they can manipulate things or fields from afar. ]

This didn’t feel satisfactory as an answer, but it would probably explain itself later, if not he could always research it at that point. The same with the letter grade, not like he could change his mind about this so he could look into it later.

The Class window moved to the side, giving way for the next. The one titled Skills took focus and listed a few skills with some information.

[ Telekineticist attribute bonus: +5 Spirit ]

[ Telekineticist’s attributes: The Telekineticist’s interaction with attributes is different than others. ]

[ Energy Pool: 2 ]

[ Area of Influence: 10m/30ft (expandable) ]

[ Force Launch: Launch things with telekinetic force ]

[ Psyhands: Manifest telekinetic hand-like forces ]

Each of the entries was listed in its own tiny window that was stacked on top of the next, almost like they snapped together neatly. To the right another window opened, listing his Attributes.

[ Attributes:

STR: 4

DEX: 4

VIT: 3

SPT: 5 (+) ]

It was listed in a little window, the SPT one had a green plus that blinked for a few seconds before fading, it felt logical that this was the way the system displayed that it was a change to this stat.

Though most of this made sense on its own, Sam was somewhat confused and needed more information, he had skills now. He knew the Players worked on stats which could be augmented by items or abilities, but he didn’t know much else.

He checked each one of them individually for more explanation before moving on.

The Attribute bonus was explained as a bonus backed into a class package, all classes got their own that fit their class and was locked down to give the Player a starting boost. The Telekineticist’s Attributes were a bit harder to understand. When the System explained it in more detail, it first gave the simplest of explanations of all the skills, like how DEX aided ranged attacks, both the chance to hit and also the potential damage. The Telekineticist, when using the Telekineticist’s abilities, would rely only on Spirit, even for ranged attacks. Objects thrown, shot, fired or otherwise with his normal hands still needed the appropriate STR or DEX.

The Energy pool was simple and not that detailed, it was a constantly refreshing pool of energy that his abilities would consume, but this was a hard pool. The skills didn’t consume it for later recharge as he had read about mana, instead, an ability locked down a certain point cost when in use, and when that ability was stopped the point instantly returned to the pool.

The Area of Influence was the range everything worked in, his Psyhands for example would stop working outside of this area, he also couldn’t affect items or anything outside of it, but by dedicating Energy to it he could expand it by a few steps per point, it was static if not boosted by Energy.

The Force launch was tied into the Psyhands, rather than throwing things he could launch them with telekinetic energy, and this launch happened from the force holding the item. The Psyhands were somewhat simple to understand, they were basically telekinetic forces, but it was easier to imagine them as invisible hands, he could manifest more Psyhands at the cost of more energy.

He was getting eager, very, very eager. As he accepted the information he read the windows collapsed into the list to the left in his vision, alongside the Class. The attributes were still on the right alone. In the middle of his view another window opened, it was a clone of the Attribute window but had an arrow pointing up, and down, next to each number with a plus and minus inside.

A little side window explained each Attribute and what they did, but the explanation for Spirit had everything greyed out with an updated description added which was notified as altered by [ Telekineticist’s Attributes ].

All the Attributes’ explanations made sense. STR made you carry more, hit harder and so on with melee, DEX made it easier to hit and hit harder with ranged, VIT determined health, stamina and resilience to damage, and the original, greyed explanation for SPT was that it represented magical strength, influencing mana and magical attack damage. The updated explanation stated that it affected the Telekineticist’s Energy, Telekinetic Carry Capacity and Damage caused when throwing things.

All of the explanations also listed the math behind how the Attributes worked.

He was getting even more ecstatic, this looked fun and interesting, and he would be able to remote-manipulate things, throw things and whatnot. Having multiple hands, metaphorically, at range that he could do things with was nothing short of amazing!

Immediately wanting to test it, he looked at his phone in the bed, mentally thinking of using the Psyhands to make one hand. The system’s interface listed two small windows in the corner of his eye.

[ Psyhands: 1 ]

[ Energy: 1 (2) ]

He couldn’t see the hand, not at all. But he knew exactly where it was, like having a blindfold and moving your hand around, you know where it is related to yourself.

Extending it he grabbed the phone and lifted it!

Except, that it didn’t move. He could see the cloth under it moved as if he was lifting it just a little bit, but not enough to lift it. Considering how you use more than one hand to lift heavier objects, he activated the Psyhands again and manifested a second hand, grabbing the phone and lifting it!

The windows updated.

[ Psyhands: 2 ]

[ Energy: 0 (2) ]

The phone moved some more, lifting a little bit due to the support of the blanket under it, but not enough to lift it off the bed.

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He was getting miffed and looked up the math for the stats again. The carry capacity weight was listed as SPT x 10 grams/0.35 ounces. This meant that using two hands he could just lift double that... This felt... lacklustre. With all his Player power he could not even lift a 10-year-old phone... He took the phone with his normal hands and did a quick search to find the weight of the phone, it was listed as ~135 grams/4.8 ounces, well outside his two-hand lifting capacity.

However, the Spirit attribute defined not only weight but also Energy, the Energy math was SPT / 2, rounded down. And according to the remaining window he had 5 bonus points to place in his Attributes. Without thinking he slammed them all into Spirit, the little window to the right blinked the green plus icon and the 5 changed into 10 before the plus faded.

He put the phone back in the bed and he now saw two things, first the windows listing Psyhands and Energy had changed.

[ Psyhands: 2 ]

[ Energy: 3 (5) ]

Abd second, trying again with the two hands now managed to lift the phone!

It started hovering and just as instinctual as lifting it with both his normal hands he was moving it around himself. Up, down, to the sides, behind him without watching. It was amazing, his adrenaline was pumping, he flew the phone around and as it was above his other hand he handed it to himself. It felt surprisingly natural, it just felt good!

He was a Player!

Wanting to try out the Force Throw, he didn’t want to use his phone, rather he wanted to go outside and just find something random. Getting up with sudden gusto he made for outside in a hurry. Rushing down the stairs, heading for the door. As he ran out he checked out the explanation for how Force Throw worked.

It based itself on the weight the Psyhands could lift, and in addition to using Energy to manifest the hands, he would need to use additional energy to create the force to launch them. If it was a light object, considering the weight he could carry, it cost 1 Energy to launch it. If it was at, or near, the max carry capacity of one hand, it cost 2 Energy. If he needed to use two hands to hold it, it automatically cost 3 Energy and if it was more than that, it just cost more in a scaling way.

He somewhat ignored the math, for now, he just wanted to test it. And given that he was in the more shady areas of the town, there were plenty of small alleyways only populated by rats or birds at best. The main thing they had going for them today was debris and trash!

Almost falling over as he rounded the corner of the building, he just darted for the closest alleyway he knew of, finding himself there in record time. Panting as he looked into the alleyway, it was perfect. No people around, lots of trash and objects, and nothing stopping him.

He manifested one Psyhand, the windows updating accordingly. He reached out as far as he could and picked up something within the limit over there. He had to fumble about a bit to find something light enough but in the end, he found an old empty tin can. It lifted in the air without problems, feeling like he had just stretched out an arm at the furthest he could and picked up something out there. Not a problem at all and again surprisingly natural.

He took aim at a beer bottle on the side and activated the Force Throw ability, he could feel the energy leave him as a pulse of invisible energy extended from his nonexistent hand, as if a water balloon popped in his hand. Not painful nor problematic, just a weird push. The tin can slammed into the wall next to the bottle, he missed by a bit more than a whole step. It didn’t matter at the moment, he was just excited like a kid, with parents and a family, at Christmas!

Testing a bit more he found out that if he tried to put more energy into the throw of the tin can, it didn’t throw it any harder, the Energy just wasn’t consumed. But as soon as he picked up heavier things the throwing energy changed on its own. Just as the listing explained, he quickly ran out of Energy as he had to manifest more hands and use more energy, so he never really hit the max weight he could multi-carry hand, and throw at the same time. He needed spirit, he needed more!

He kept testing a bit, getting a bit more hang on the weird angle throwing but found out that it might just as well be easier to slam things together rather than throwing it. The only thing throwing things gave as a bonus was that it kind of hit harder, and could extend his range outside of his Influence.

Using Energy to expand his Influence also worked fine, it was kind of like your arm just growing a little.

After all this he was beginning to feel a bit drained, more from the adrenaline hype he had been on so far than the energy usage. As soon as he stopped using the Psyhands the energy returned, he could never go into the minus nor did it feel weird or negative being at 0 Energy. He had heard of mages who feel like shit at, or close to, zero in Mana. So he must be lucky there.

Leaving the alleyway, heading back to his hostel bed, in the corner of his eye he saw something, a billboard with a familiar almost propaganda-like advertisement on it.

Have you recently awakened as a Player?

Why not come to The Aetheric Concord?

TAC will help get you started. Start your Player dream today!

Though it was a bit over the top in one way, he knew that TAC did what they claimed. At a modest cut of whatever you earned, you would get some simple training, explanations, and perhaps even a team if you’re lucky.

Something clicked in the back of his mind, he wanted this now, the Player dream he considered just yesterday was now possible. He started running, he knew where the TAC building was, it was not far from the Tower as it made the most sense to be there. He ran, faster than he had ever done before. He was feeling drained as he ran, but nowhere near as much as he used to, considering that this might be Adrenaline that seemed to trigger The System. A System window opened, displaying that his VIT was 3, and a shrinking bar listed as his remaining Stamina.

This felt amazing, knowing roughly how much stamina you had left was just out of this world. He stopped running and started walking instead, the Stamina bar slowly filled up, and as he started running again it started decreasing. He was giddy, he had played some games in his younger years before the monster in his neighbourhood fucked things up, and this felt somewhat like those games. It gave him a strange calming nostalgic feeling.

Though boosted by the System, he was still not a skilled sprinter, he had to stop and walk several times, even taking a full-on break when he let the stamina meter run out. Even so, he made it there in record time compared to himself just yesterday. The starting boost of becoming a Player is cheating Human evolution quite a lot.

But, that was a thought for another day, right now he looked at the impressive and massive building in front of him. The Tower was to the side, still in the distance but towering and looming over the whole city, but the TAC building looked much more governmental. Almost like a massive concrete slab that was just planted there, it had minimal decorations and was made for practicality more than anything. Several patch jobs here and seemingly being built in segments gave it an almost patchwork-like appearance, just in concrete.

There was no line, but there were a lot of people mingling and loitering about. Some were obviously other Players, carrying massive weapons, wearing gilded and almost otherwordly clothing and armour, and some were even testing things and throwing fire magic in the rough distance of the Tower.

Sam entered the building, up the long stairs into a lobby that looked almost like a government waiting room. He knew they were heavily sponsored by the government but this just felt... weird...

That said, it was well lit up and everything had small signs, arrows or coloured lines along the floor connected to words saying where ‘this place’ is.

Sam found the sign for ‘Registration’, and followed the coloured line along the floor to a young woman sitting behind a desk in a booth, there weren’t many people there, as well as several booths, so there was no wait for him to walk up.

He stopped behind a line on the floor with the message to ‘wait here until called’, though he only had to wait for a few seconds before the young woman, seemingly in her late 20s, called him forward.

“Welcome to The Aetheric Concord, New York office. How may I help you today?” It was a well-practised sentence, probably said it many times just today.

Sam looked at her more than her words, she was surprisingly attractive for a job like this, with smooth skin, good makeup, well-maintained hair and all around looked healthy. A glance at the other booths showed that the other men and women here were somewhat similar, perhaps it was a recruitment requirement?

It didn’t matter now, he was here for a reason.

“Yes, well... I recently became a Player, earlier today. And I... well... I need help.” He honestly smiled, feeling good about this smile, for the first time in quite a time.

“Sure thing, if I can just have your ID we can start the process. I will need to know your class, base skills and stats. This is not information that will be shared but we need it to measure your progression.” She motioned to a device which had an oversized handprint on it.

The device was listed as a ‘Player Appraisal’, and a small info in the middle of the hand explained to ‘Place hand here’.

Sam produced his ID, handed it to her and placed his hand on the device.

She did something on her computer, which woke the device up and started scanning him. It felt surprisingly weird, like warm air wafting out of the device and covering him. It wasn’t negative, just weird.

At the same time, she explained the rough details of things. TAC would take a 20% cut of everything he found, earned or obtainedas long as he worked for them. If he wanted to keep something he found that was too valuable for this agreement, he would have to work or pay with something else to make up the difference. If he wanted to terminate the contract with them, this could happen at any time, but all monetary obligations needed to be handled before that went through.

All in all a surprisingly simple thing, though in their favour they would balance it out by giving him a starter package with some armour, a few simple potions and some gear, as well as helping him with the simplest of introductory courses of things.

He could sell anything extra he wanted to them, and they would calculate his cut based on the market price, and as a member of TAC, he would get access to their auctions and stores to buy better gear, skill crystals and so on.

He didn’t see anything too negative here, the 20% cut was less than taxes in most cases so all in all it felt pretty good.

“Hmm... This is strange.” She let out, snapping Sam out of his train of thought with zero subtlety.

“Wh.. what's the problem?” Sam let out before he realised it, feeling a bit nervous.