Is she OK?""

Who?" the Guide asked.

"Alakaʻi", was he dense?

"That is not relevant to you completing this Tutorial." He looked a bit peeved at me and impatient.

He continued, "It is irregular and unprofessional that she would take time off from her responsibilities mid-tutorial."

"Will she be back? Who are you?" I stuck with simple questions while I processed things.

"I am Guide, the original and best Tutorial Guide. After losing a wager, I was indebted to her. Luckily for you, she wiped a substantial amount off my debt for me to complete this. Since my last Tutorial finished much sooner than expected, I was available to help her. So here we are."

He gave me a look up and down and turned his biggest smile on, "I must tell you that you should be honoured. I have a 99.99% success rate, over 3000 five heart ratings, and a 96% satisfaction rating. I poll near the top in the most requested Tutorial Guide. You are in good hands. I am the best. Now, since you are alone, and there are some major dangers in this Tutorial for solo participation, I have decided to offer you the truncated program. It is within my jurisdiction to do so. I have learned a lot since my last Tutorial with Earth Humans. So, since we are departing from the regular free-flowing Tutorial to a more scripted one, please feel free to rate and comment on your experience at the end. I am sure you will be happy with this experience."

He looked at me. I looked at him.

"I have judged that Earth Humans are hasty and do not listen to instructions, so I will truly be your Guide here, not just in name only. Let us be off."

Tutorial Quest Received: Collect a Chaos Bounty (1)

Difficulty: Easy

Time Frame: None

The reward for success: credits, experience, and renown.

On the desert steppes around the Tutorial Oasis, there are some minor Phasewraiths.

Destroy a Minor Phasewraith and collect a Tier 1 or higher Chaos trophy.

Redeem it for a bounty reward at any System Store.

"Follow me", as he started walking out into the hot desert.

"Wait up. I need to get changed." I started, rushed to a tent and got into my black jeans and a T-shirt. I was wearing the under armour underneath. I had some boots that kept the sand out and a cap.

It was not entirely desert-appropriate, but I was hoping that I would be able to swim later in the lake.

Once I was dressed, I followed the impatient Guide. He stopped at the top of a great dune and pointed, "There, Phasewraith, go kill".

I didn't see anything.

Not only did the Phasewraith notice him, but there were also three of them, and they all started homing in on me, not Guide. I honestly would not have seen them if Guide had not pointed them out.

They were insubstantial, and they also blended well into the sandy dunes. Their shapes were vaguely human-sized, ghost-like, moving fast.

"Go. Kill them."

"Um, non-combat class, I don't have any combat skills!"

"What! Why didn't you tell me? Never mind. Stand beside me. Just attack them. I'll protect you; you should get a share of the experience if you get a hit. Hmm, this is a bit of fun and unexpected. I would be indebted to you if you did not mention this incident."

By that time, they were on us. I am not even sure what happened. I swung at them with my bare hands, embarrassingly not even having a weapon, not expecting it and forgetting that I might need one. In all my excitement and dislike for shopping, I had forgotten to get offensive skills, caught up in the strategy and planning and the fact I needed to get out of the shop as soon as possible. My hand felt resistance as it went through one of them, and they attacked. Despite being incorporeal, sharp claws manifested when they drifted near me.

They hurt. I had red flashing notifications in my HUD as I windmilled my arms through these things. It was not my proudest moment, my first combat, and I was absolutely useless. I had a bleed debuff and was losing health. Guide surprised me, though. A large burst of energy and they were gone.

DEFEATED: Minor Phasewraith (Chaos, Tier 1) x 3

Experience Awarded: 20 x less than 10% contribution bonus: 6 experience.

System Credits Awarded: 10 credits x less than 10% contribution bonus. 3 Cr.

Karma is Awarded for defeating the agent of chaos.

Do you wish to loot these defeated foes, Y/N?

'Yes'

Designated personal inventory as the default looting target.

3 Tier 1 Chaos Trophy added to your inventory.

3 Common Minor Phasewraith claws have been added to your inventory.

Quest Updated: Tutorial Quest:

Collect a Chaos Bounty (1) Return Chaos Trophy to the system store.

Do you wish to save a recording of the battle in your personal storage Y/N?

No, god, no!

Guide looked at me.

I was still bleeding and feeling weaker and covered in Phasewraith goo or ectoplasm. Yuck.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Heal up" Guide looked put out.

I almost slapped my forehead, which would probably have killed me in my weakened state. Still, I fumbled a healing injector from my inventory and applied it. The incredible feeling of whatever the magic was soon stopped the bleeding debuffs and then started healing me. I used another one. Damn, they felt good. I used another one just to be safe.

Soon, my health was back to nearly full.

Guild looked at me, looked back to the oasis, and he sighed, "Well, this is going to suck."

I just nodded. We headed back to the oasis. He was doing a fantastic job of displaying human traits for an AI.

"Where is the store stone?" Guide asked once we got back.

"Alakaʻi just sent me there."

"What? What was Alakaʻi thinking? This is worse than I thought! So, to redeem those tokens, you need to go to the store, but there is no store. Alakaʻi spent her personal energy to get you there. Instead of manifesting a store from the stone like she should have. I hope you give her negative ratings and reviews because of that!"

"So just send me there, and I can finish the quest, maybe get some combat skills, although I have no credits, and we can carry on."

Guide glared at me, "I am not spending personal energy on you, no offence. Ugg"

These AIs were so lifelike, and just like real life, I had the beautiful and unique Alaka'i replaced with douche and complaining Guide.

"There are not enough spawns in here for me to get you around to them all to get you enough experience to even get to level 3! You only just survived 3 of them. How would you cope with 5? Or the Tier 2? No hope for the Tier 3 one needed to complete the Tutorial?" he was almost hysterical, "What is this going to do to my ratings, two in a row? No! No! I will not fail this one."

He looked at me with a mix of anger and despair.

I shrugged at him, and I could feel some of my skills kicking in, which could work to my advantage. I was in a position of weakness, but obviously, Guide felt strongly about me succeeding.

I asked him, "What are the conditions for me to complete the Tutorial?"

"It's fluid and depends on the participant."

I just looked at him.

He started looking at me with a gleam in his artificial eyes. "Fine. You must at least level up, use different skills and engage in combat. After that, it is discretionary. Traditionally, we have set level 5 as a bare minimum pass. To maintain standards and all that. Being above Tier 1, making Level 5 should not be an issue."

"OK," I activated the Silver Tongue of Zinhle Ndabezitha.

"So, Guide, something is happening here, and you obviously don't like me for some reason. I am having difficulty liking you after Alakaʻi, who was so wonderful. Is there any way we can get me some experience from the tokens or otherwise without danger and the store? Since I have engaged in combat, and now I have used a skill, I need to level up."

Wow, I would not have been so open or brave without the skill, something to consider in future.

I felt the tug on my energy levels and hoped I had enough energy to see this through. Once I got an AI, I could configure my HUD to display stuff like that. I used another Healing injector to see if it affected my energy levels. Nope. But it was soothing.

Guide looked startled and angry all at once. "Your skills, damnit, your skill may have some influence on me. It's not that I don't like you; my previous experience with an Earth Human was traumatic. You are all so erratic. I cannot just send you to the store for reasons I would rather not discuss and are quite personal at the moment. Regarding your request, I can use my discretion as a Tutorial Guide to modify the quest. I do have considerable amounts of energy and credits to redirect. Please note that I am trying to do my best in a difficult situation when you rate or review my performance. I noted that you spoke fondly of Alakaʻi even after she abandoned you, and I am perplexed. I would happily offer a small token of gratitude if you would clarify that, as it will aid me in future dealings with Earth Humans." He smiled at me.

Interesting. Time to set the hook. "Redirect? You set the rewards?"

"Not as such. I set the parameters, the System sets them to randomise and sometimes give what is needed. It creates a layer of fun and fairness."

I nodded, "So what small token of gratitude? For explaining why I will give Alakaʻi a 5-heart rating and a glowing positive review. I must be like the second or third Earth Human, so that will jump her right near the top, if not at the top, for all the future Earth Humans to see! And you, you have been abrasive, a bit rude, and condescending towards our entire species. I guess other Earth humans need to know that, and I could just give you a negative review. Sure, I can explain that."

I smiled back at him. Skill to help negotiate and etiquette were nice.

As an AI, he was near-perfect in his reactions. He paled, "Mike, Mike, I am contractually obligated to get you through this to the best of my ability. That is impossible unless you are totally incompetent, which is impossible for someone at your Tier. Imagine the shame of failing to guide a Noble Administrator in a basic Tutorial. If you fail, it reflects very poorly on me. You would be my second-ever failure! I can't have that. The shame. The other Tutorial Guides would…"

He stopped, "Look, Give me the tokens, and name your price to not rate or review me! I don't care about Alakaʻi or why you find her so nice! I do, really, but you can't fail! I must not have your negative reviews."

I loved these skills. It was doing good things!

"What can you give me? I mean the good stuff, none of this Tier 1 or 2 junk. I want good stuff! Things I can use! Remember, this entire Tutorial for loads of people is just about me now." Wow, I didn't realise I could push this hard; I was saying these things! No wonder people got worked up about classes and skills. The old Mike would have been too scared.

Guide looked uncomfortable and sighed, "If you give me the Chaos Tokens, one to complete the new quest, I can give you a bonus credit reward for the others. I can make it to a Tier 3 bonus for one and a Tier 4 bonus for the other. For your situation, that is the best I can do. I can only go this high because you are the only one here, and I don't have to split the reward pool amongst 90 people. I could give you some skills and maybe some settlement stuff, but from the chatter I have heard, you will need the credits soon. Tier 4 is a huge boost for you, and I can max it out. That's it. I would say you owe me a good review, but a review under duress means nothing!"

His voice took on a hint of pride at the end, and he sniffed the last nothing at me.

"OK, thanks, Guide. I'll take into account the difficult situation, and I'll probably forget to rate or review you. If I remember, I'll ensure it is good."

"That's the most I can ask for." he looked glum, "Hand them over, please."

Quest Complete Tutorial Quest: Hand in a Chaos Bounty (Unique Quest)

Difficulty: Easy

LEVEL UP.

You are now Level 2.

The experience required for level 3 is 200.

Your stat points are automatically allocated to meet classpath requirements.

You receive a credit bonus (Tier 3) of 999999 CRs.

You receive a credit bonus (Tier 4) of 9999999 CRs.

He wasn't kidding! I owed him big time, I think. That was a lot of credit. I smiled.

While exiting the Tutorial, you have 5 minutes to collect all your belongings.

Was five minutes long enough to clean up and get out of there? I looked like crap, had blood, well, Phasewraith guts all over me, and was hot. The oasis seemed so inviting and calm. It would take a minute, top.

I quickly undressed and put my clothes in my inventory. I could swim in my boxers.

Guide looked at me, "What are you doing?"

"Having a quick swim to clean up and cool off", I said as I ran towards the oasis pond. I ignored him as I ran.

I was knee-deep in the oasis and leaping to the deeper water as Guide yelled, "No, there is a Tier 3 Raid Boss..."

My head went under, and I saw the massive row of teeth.

Guide appeared in front of me and, with inhuman strength, threw me back onto the sand as the teeth collapsed around where I had just been.

I landed roughly on the sand, taking some damage and had some flashing notifications.

Tutorial Avatar damaged.

Negative Karmic Penalty (Pending Investigation)

Severe consequences will apply.

Tutorial Closing.