Shin sat at a table in Tillas’ inn, his jaw agape and eyes unblinking. Shin had been sitting staring at the contents of the box Jakob had clearly sent to him for almost five minutes without blinking. The dining room, in which he was sitting, held an empty feeling as though it was vacant. Shin was so still that he could be mistaken for furniture. The creak of the front door being opened disrupted Shin mesmerisation. He quickly stood shutting and hiding the box behind his back as Tilla, the owner of the inn, entered. “ Ay ya ‘ad any luck” Tilla asked sceptically in her thick accent, noticing Shin’s stiff manner as he stood with both arms behind his back. She knew the young patron was hiding something, that much was clear by the sound of panicked shuffling she heard when she came in the inn.

Shin racked his mind trying to come up with an excuse but he knew he looked suspicious, he finally relented and showed Tilla the box. “I was just watching the fire and getting ready for bed when I realised that Jakob, the guy I’ve been waiting for, may have left the payment in my room. Luckily he did and I found it” Shin managed, clearly lying through his teeth as fast as he could get the words out. A few seconds elapsed, in which the only sound that could be heard was the crackle of the fire in the lounge, the lack of a response was weighing heavily on shin. Shin hated lying as a general rule but he doubted that Tilla would let it go without inquiring about the contents of the box if he claimed “it just appeared in Jakobs room”. With no elaboration forthcoming Tilla decided to drop it, the sun had just set and she needed to prepare the food for dinner. “Fine keep ya secrets” Tilla dismissed, waving her hand as to get rid of the issue.

Shin excused himself as soon as Tilla had let go of the issue. He tried to be as natural as possible as he walked to his room up the stairs. Ensuring he wouldn’t be disturbed by blockading the door with a desk, Shin breathed a sigh of relief. He re-opened the box, the gleam of a platinum coin reflecting the dancing fire of the oil lamp that hung on one of his walls. He managed to shake off his bafflement long enough to pour the contents of the box on his temporary bed. The box contained a platinum coin, a small square book and a necklace with a matte black amulet affixed. A platinum coin alone was worth several years’ worth of income for a commoner like him. He had no idea what to do with the money, it was more than enough to kill someone over - hence his efforts to hide it from Tilla. His uncle had told him many horror stories of people going mad because of money. Shin tried to suppress his greed and not to look at the tantalizing reflections in the coin, instead focusing on the oddly shaped book and necklace.

He put the necklace on, the chain wasn’t made of materials precious enough that he felt the need to hide it. The problem was the black amulet, so he made sure to keep it under his hemp shirt. It was so finely cut that it looked to be a perfect rectangle making it priceless. He was certain the box was from Jakob after seeing it when he initially opened the box, only someone that had insane level as an “artificer” could make something like this and since Jakob was sent forth as a representative of his world. he had long since concluded Jakob must be one of the best if not the best artificers that they had.

Lastly was the book. It looked unassuming with a plain cover made of leather, the front embossed with letters Shin couldn’t decipher. Shin took in a deep breath, hoping that the oddly shaped book could clarify his and Jakob’s situation. The second he opened the book to the first page it released a bright light burning his eyes, forcing him to shut them and reflexively defend his eyes with his hand. He jumped back in surprise unable to see. His surprise only increased as he heard the chime of a bell followed by a melodic but almost alien music. A strange androgenous and unnatural voice spoke “Welcome to Eraven” it stated in almost a playful tune. He grunted in discomfort as his eyes still felt seared by the light.

After a few moments he managed to squint and could clearly tell that something was not right. It had been night when he inspected the contents of the box, but he was seemingly surrounded by light. When he managed to open his eyes properly, he could see that he was in a white space with no walls or ceiling. The surprise and shock overcame him “what the hell is this..?” he asked in confusion, looking around himself trying to find a way out or at least something aside the empty white space. “This is Eraven’s character creation..Data detected...Reading successful” the voice continued, clearly disinterested in Shin’s confusion. He stumbled backwards, freaked out by the disembodied voice that seemed to come from all around him.

“The data detected has messages attached, do you want to read them?” asked the voice from the void. Shin had no clue what to do, his life to this point had not prepared him for this. Once Shin managed to calm down and slow his breath, he took stock of what had happened. He didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger and the voice had stopped. He looked around again hoping he would see a door that would lead him out of this craziness. When he had no luck with that, he decided to try talking to the voice again. “Ex..excuse me” he said, a notable quiver in his voice. “How may I help” responded the voice impassively. Spurred on by the voice he managed to gather the courage to talk properly to it. “I’m not sure what’s going on, where am I?”, he asked. “You are currently in the character creation menu for Project: Eraven… Your real body’s location is not listed” claimed the voice.

“Then what am I doing here?”, He asked, now becoming more comfortable. “You have messages from “Jakob”. Do you want to read them?” the voice asked again. At the mention of Jakob’s name Shin felt much more at ease, Jakob had clearly intended for this to happen and wanted to pass on a message. “Yes please” he called out before screaming “Ahhh”. The moment he said “yes” two boxes appeared in front of him frightening him so much he fell backwards, to his surprise it barely hurt. The messages seemed to fall with him and were always in view regardless of where he looked.

Message 1

[“Hey kid, I am so glad you decided to accept the Job. Congratulations you are now a “World Guide”. As I told you before, it is a little different from what you have been doing till now. We will be sending people over slowly, so you and the testers don’t get overloaded with babysitting and they don’t mess with your world too much. All you need to do is get to know them and guide them until they get their bearings. Don’t be nervous, I will be in regularly to give you a hand and check up on you. I will come by your uncle's shop in a few weeks to get you set up.

For now, just try get used to your abilities and if you struggle at all you can just say your question out loud and...well, you’ll see

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Best of luck

Jakob”

Message 2

“Shin, I am sorry. Things have gotten out of hand in my world. I don’t have time to explain everything but the people on my side have decided to send a lot of people over to your side. The people they are sending aren’t the ones that need help like I intended, but rather an invasion force of sorts. They are the privileged of my world and their privilege has made them arrogant and impassive towards suffering. They aren’t all bad people but there will definitely be some that are coming with the sick intent to hurt people and do anything for their own gain.

I have no other option than to trust in you to defend your home. I know this must be daunting, but I have done all I could, in my limited ability, to give you every advantage. I wanted to offer you a job as a guide for the people I sent over, however, the class is not capable of combat. I was able to make the system see you as someone of my world so you will be able to have two classes, one as a native of your world and one as a “Player” from mine. I made the system take you to character creation. When you are ready just ask Alice to look at your necklace.

I know you don’t like getting involved with trouble, but there isn’t anyone else I can turn to so I have done something unforgivable to you. I hope you’ll eventually understand why I did what I did. I have instructed Alice to help you as much as possible after reading this. Since time is faster for you than on this side, you should have just over two years before they send their first batch of people. I’m so sorry, but I don’t think I will be able to return. I have had to force you into this position and I doubt you will forgive me, but please protect Eraven”

Laying on is back in the white void Shin finished reading the messages. The interface and his situation didn’t seem to scare him anymore, even the ominous second message didn’t feel like it phased him. The only emotion he could feel was an odd sense of hollowness. It felt like he was looking at himself through a scrying orb, disconnected from the reality of the situation. After a while or lying on the floor and re-reading the message, He sat up. He still couldn't see anything besides the white void and the floating letters of the messages contrasting against it. “Excuse me?”, he attempted. “How may I help?” the voice responded in a vastly less peculiar voice, it had changed drastically. Now it almost sounded like a young woman and Shin could hear a caring warmth in the voice.

The sudden shift in behavior caught Shin off guard. The voice initially sounded cold and clipped but it now felt like he was talking to a person. “Why did your voice change” enquired Shin. “Many people prefer for A.I like me to sound less human - Jakob told me it makes them feel more certain about their control” responded the voice. Shin couldn’t understand why humans were pushing their standards on this “AI” race. The concept reminded him of a barbaric practice that took place in more than a few kingdoms where there was a hierarchy based on race, going so far as to include slavery. Shin shook his head, a practiced habit he used to clear his head, and then spoke again “Jakob asked me to have you look at this” He said, making a show of lifting the amulet on his necklace.

A few seconds of silence passed as shin held up the necklace before the voice started talking. “Jakob wants you to have a tutorial, he seems to have found a way for you to have two classes, so we need to make you a character. That data shell contains instructions on how I can circumvent the system we created.” The voice said, clearly surprised by the information. Shin got a bad feeling about “character creation” and tried to shift the subject “I was wondering are you “Alice” he asked “Yes, that is what Jacob calls me” came the response. “Do you mind if I also call you that? Calling you “Voice in the void” seems a bit...weird” Shin requested, now enjoying the free flow of information. Information tended to be jealously guarded by guilds or academies in the Autumn kingdom.

“Of course, Jakob requested I help you as much as I can. Not that that means much at the moment, He locked all administrators out of the system so I can’t really do much. He instructed me to overwrite myself on your “Encyclopedic knowledge” skill, but I can't do that since he locked me out.” Alice replied, clearly dejected by her inability to help.

The reply took Shin by surprise, like all children of the Autumn Kingdom, he had seen his status at the church when he was ten and never had any such skill. His only skill worth mentioning was his “animal handling”, the rest were pitiful even by his own assessment. “Alice, do you know my status?” asked Shin. The response was almost immediate “Yes, I was hoping you would ask. The class change was my idea, we worked really hard on it. Do you want me to read it to you?” Alice answered excitedly. Not waiting for a response, she began.

~~~

Name: Shin (npc) Age: 16 Class: Guide - lvl. N/A Title: World Guide

Strength: 9 Agility: 12 Wisdom: 11 Intelligence: 14 Sense: 12 Vitality: 13

Skills:

Animal Handling - lvl.11 / Tolerance - lvl.6 / Cooking - lvl.4 / Patience - lvl.3

Bookkeeping - lvl.2 / cleaning - lvl.2

Class Skills:

Encyclopedic knowledge - lvl.N/A / Navigator - lvl.N/A / Gamer’s Mind - lvl.N/A

Fluency - lvl.N/A / Amiable - lvl.N/A / Uncapped - lvl.N/A

Titles:

World Guide - A representative of Eraven who has proved themselves worthy of the title “World Guide”. Grants; unique class “Guide” / 30% bonus in tips / reduced aggro when giving a ‘Tour’.

~~~~

Noticing Shin's clear confusion Alice decided to try to explain the situation “The book you read was initially supposed to grant you the title if you accepted a Job Jakob had made for you. We worked really hard on the sales pitch as well, but he never got a chance to speak with you. When he sent you the box, he asked me to make the book bring you here before he locked everyone out of the system.”

Shin just continued to stare, as Alice had been reading he had thought a question to himself “what does “N/A” mean ?”. Not a second after finishing the thought another floating text bubble appeared reading [ N/A (in context): N/A stands for “not applicable”, in this context it is due to the level being at a set state.]. This entire experience was now giving the young cart rider a killer headache. He took a few minutes to look into the definitions of his skills with his “Encyclopedic knowledge” skill.

After nearly a half hour had passed he was still frozen on the skill “Gamers mind”. He kept going over the description but couldn’t bring himself to believe Jakob would do this to him. The skill was effectively dulling his negative emotions and boosting his boredom. According to his encyclopedic knowledge, the only cure to alleviate his boredom was to “Defeat” monsters or complete ‘quests’, effectively forcing him to kill. Shin wasn’t even angry which he knew would anger him even more if he could feel properly. At the moment all he could bring himself to feel was slightly miffed.

Shin spoke again. “Can I leave?” he enquired, hoping that he could just get out of this situation. “You can. You just need to complete character creation” Alice answered almost consolingly, clearly picking up on his foul mood. Shin thought that this may be the case. He definitely did not want to get any more involved than he was and creating a character would force him to continue down the path Jakob had set. “Fine but first tell me how to get rid of this stupid text, I can barely see.” He enquired. The boxes of text filling most of his vision.