[Welcome to Castle Defense, challenger!]

“What the hell!”

Sean had seen a lot of unusual things working the overnight shift at Mcdavids, from homeless people pissing in the floors to furries from the shop next door fighting in the store, but he’d never seen something as strange as a floating blue screen.  

He was hallucinating, he had to be. The 10pm-6am shift had fried his brain to the point he was seeing things.

Sean stepped back from his work station—leaving the customers hamburger half made—and started to swipe at the screen in front of him. Every time he swiped, his hand went right through the screen like it was a hologram. 

“What the hell man! Jason you see this,” he called out to the front of the store. He, Jason, and Ms. Jasmine were the only three in the store. Jason was working the drive thru. 

“Huh,”Jason yelled back. “Do I see what?”

Sean walked to the drive thru window. Jason was there, handing a large drink to the customer.

“This!” 

Sean pointed at the blue screen floating in front of his face but Jason and the customer were looking at him strangely. 

“Erm, no dude. You're pointing at the air.”

“So you don’t see the blue screen that says, ‘welcome to Castle Defense, challenger?”

“Erm…no. You mind finishing the order.”

Startled at Jason’s reply, Sean walked back to his station and finished the order and then the next and then another until it reached the point in the early morning where no one was stopping at the store. But still, after all that time, the blue screen was there. 

Sean left his station and walked to the bathroom. He didn’t actually need to go to the bathroom, he wanted to clear his head.

He splashed some water on his face, and then sat on the toilet, staring at the blue screen.

“What are you?”

“No answer huh?”

Sean didn’t know what to do. On one hand the screen wasn’t hurting him, but who's to say that would remain the case.

“Leave! ¡Vamanos! Disappear! I quit! Next!”

[Start character creation?]

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The screen's sudden change caught Sean off guard. He fell off the toilet seat, and onto the bathroom floor, which unfortunately wasn’t as clean as he would want. 

“Aww hell man.”

He rushed to the bathroom sink and washed himself off—soap was used generously. When he was done he went back to the screen.

“Yes I think,” he said while looking at the screen and a new screen popped up.

The screen had three different versions of him, all in different outfits. One had him dressed up in fancy robes, the next looked dressed for hiking, and the last was wearing a full set of leather armor.

[choose your starter class.]

[Mage: gives access to mana and the starter spells magic missile and shield.

Ranger: gives an increase to all five senses and a mystical sixth sense.

Warrior: gives an increase to physical attributes: strength, speed, agility, health.]

The classes on the screen matched up with the images. Mages had the robes. Rangers had hiking attire. Warriors had armor.

“It’s like a game.”

Sean hadn’t played many games growing up besides basic games like Pokémon or racing games, but starter classes were common knowledge. 

He read through the descriptions a couple times and settled on Ranger as his class. Though the other classes sounded good, he chose ranger because he liked using a bow and arrow. His father had taught him to use a bow way back when to hunt small animals—his dad thought guns took the fun out of hunting.

“Ranger.”

[Class confirmed.]

[Choose primary trait.]

[Strategist: Mental map of surrounding terrain and hazards regardless of location.

Cult of personality: Troops and subjects have a far more loyalty toward you, and are more likely to follow commands.  

Immovable object: Troops and subjects get strength and morale boost when defending fortifications.

Unstoppable force: Troops and subjects get strength and morale boost when attacking with less troops.

Mighty ruler : increase the chance of evolution amongst troops 

Superior culture: Boost to craftsman in all trades

Robber Baron: Easier finding and extracting natural resources within the land.]

The list of traits was far less straightforward than the class selection. They all sounded useful. And since Sean didn’t know what to expect, he didn’t know what to choose. 

After some consideration, he ended up going with strategist as his trait for two reasons. One, hunting is much easier when you know the terrain and hazards. And two, if he knew where everything was, knowing when to attack, defend, and look for resources would be easier to figure out.

[primary trait confirmed. Prepare for transport.]

Sean started to glow. The glow was a faint blue color, like a Christmas light.

He rushed out of the bathroom and into the restaurant's dining area—they’d already closed the indoor dining area so all the chairs were up and the floors were cleaned.

“Jason! Ms.Jasmine! I’m glowing! Look, I’m glowing! Call 911!”

“Dude what the hell has been up with you tonight,” Jason said. He walked to the main cash register and stared at Sean with a look of concern.

“I’m not crazy,” he replied as he frantically spun in circles trying to rub off the glow from his skin. 

“Ms.Jasmine! I think you need to come here, Sean’s having some type of…episode. We might need to call an ambulance,” Jason said.

“I’m on break,” a screeching voice replied.

Sean stopped spinning. The glow was getting brighter, so bright it was almost blinding.

“I’m too young to die,” he whispered. 

A bright light flashed in front of his eyes and one second later he was no longer in the Mcdavids, he was on a small hill in the middle of clearing in the forest. The night sky and glowing led lights were replaced with the sun.

“Oh my God!”

[welcome challenger to Castle Defense! Start tutorial?]