[BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP]
I was awoken by my alarm. Groaning slightly, I turned in my bed and grabbed my phone off of the nightstand, silencing the alarm, and pulling the screen up to my face. The screen read the time, 9:45 AM.
“Shit,” I said to myself as I jumped out of bed and into the shower. I finished my shower quickly and threw on some clothes, heading out the door and down the apartment stairs, and out the door into the outside.
Pulled up on the curb was a black sedan with blacked-out windows, outside of the car stood John, he held a thick packet in his hands.
“What is all of that?” I said as I walked up to John and gestured to the packet of papers in his hand.
“Employment contract,” John said. “Before you start your Boot Camp experience and are an official member of the EEB, you have to sign this,” he said as he held out the packet in one hand and a pen in the other.
I grabbed the pen quickly and signed the papers on the dotted line, not even reading the contents.
With that, John smiled. “Good,” he said, as he held his hand out and placed it against my forehead. Suddenly, I blacked out.
I woke up in the back of a car. Groggy and confused, I sat up and looked around. John was in the front seat, driving the car.
“What the hell?” I asked, rubbing my head.
“Ah, you're awake,” John called back. “We are almost at the location of Boot camp,” he informed me.
“What was that?” I asked him, slowly overcoming the feeling of tiredness.
“Oh, are you talking about earlier?” he asked me. “That was a simple sleep skill, the location of Boot camp is quite secretive, so preventative measures have to be taken.”
“Right,” I said flatly. “You could have at least warned me.”
John turned his head back and looked at me. “And where would the fun be in that?:
I opened my mouth to respond as John began talking again. “We are here,” he said. The car pulled up to a large building that looked like a college campus, a dense forest decorated the rest of the scene.
John stopped the car in front of the steps leading up to the building, hopped out of the car, walked to my side, and opened the door for me. “This is where we part ways Jared,” he said as I stepped out of the vehicle, shielding my eyes from the sun as I adjusted from the dark interior of the car.
I stood staring up the steps and at the large campus-style building. “Hey, where do I-” I said as I turned around to face John only to see that both he and the car he had driven had completely disappeared.
“The fuck?” I whispered to myself, whipping my head around to try and catch sight of him, only to see nothing.
Not knowing what to do next, I turned back and began walking up the steps leading to the building, pushed open the doors, and walked in.
“Welcome!” a woman called cheerily. I turned quickly and faced the direction I heard the voice, slightly startled by the sudden noise.
In front of me, I saw a receptionist's desk, behind which sat a pretty woman with blonde hair.
“You are a little bit late, but I am sure the instructor won't mind,” she said as she typed away on her keyboard.
A confused look fell on my face as I was at a loss for words. She looked up and saw my visible confusion, and began to speak again. “Dorm rooms are on the right side of the building,” she said as she pointed. “Lecture halls are on the left side, and out the back doors are the training grounds.”
“Oh, okay,” I said stunned.
“You are going to want to go to Room 201 on the left.” She said. “Mr. Newmier has already started his lecture.”
“Alright, thank you,” I said to her as I began to walk towards the room she mentioned. I had wanted to ask a few more questions, but I didn't want to be any later to my first lecture than I had to.
I approached a door and looked to the right of it at a placard, confirming that I was about to enter the right room, before I pushed the door open and walked in.
As I walked in, all eyes fell on me. I looked around studying my surroundings. At the front of the room stood a tall, older man with grizzled features and a scar over his left eye, he wore military-style camo clothing and had a plate carrier on. I looked to the left and saw nine other students sitting at desks.
“Mr. Wilson I presume?” The grizzled man who I assumed was the instructor said, his voice rumbling. I snapped my head back over and looked at him. “Go ahead and take a seat.” He said, gesturing in front of him.
Heeding his words, I started down the classroom and took a seat at the last open desk at the front, feeling slightly embarrassed as the entire class stared at me.
“Now that everyone is here.” The man started. “My name is Mr. Newmier, and I will be your primary instructor here at EEB Boot Camp.”
“First and foremost,” he continued. “I am sure one of the biggest questions on all of your minds is regarding The System.”
Hearing his words, I leaned inwards, listening intently. “I can't tell you much about the reason The System exists, or how long it has existed, or why you all were chosen by it.” Mr. Newmier said. “But I can tell you its basic functions.”
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“You youngin’s have played video games before right.” Mr. Newmier asked the class as we all silently nodded. “Well, the System functions similarly to something you would see in those,” he said.
“As you can see if you say the word ‘profile’ aloud, you have a profile with a few key details. Your level, your title, your stats, and your skills.” he explained. “Firstly, about levels. Every human has a level which increases based on what they do during their lives. The average human is placed around level five, but those who have access to the system are able to increase their level with combat experience.”
“Combat experience?” I thought to myself silently.
“Next is your title. Titles are things that are granted to you automatically upon completing certain conditions. They usually offer stat benefits. If you unlock multiple titles, you can select which one you want to be active in the profile menu.” Mr. Newmier continued.
Stat benefits? “Profile,” I whispered, the same screen I had seen earlier popping up in front of me. This time, I focused on the title. After focusing on the title, another screen appeared.
Titles:
The Broke Paramedic (Active) | -1 LUK
Are you fucking kidding me? Does this stupid system have a vendetta against me?
“Mr. Wilson, are you still here with us?” Mr. Newmier boomed, his face hovering just a few inches in front of my own.
“Yes!” I yelped, flinching backward in surprise.
“Good,” Mr. Newmier said before continuing. “Next is your stats. You will notice seven different categories, those being Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Charisma, Resistance, Evasion, and finally, Luck.”
“Strength, Agility, and Intelligence are pretty self-explanatory, those stats put a numerical value on how strong, smart, or agile you are. Charisma is the measure of your social skills and Resistance is the measure of how resistant you are to injuries.” Mr. Newmier explained.
“Evasion is the measure of how well you are able to react to oncoming attacks,” Mr. Newmier continued. “And finally, Luck is the measure of how lucky you are, arguably one of the most important stats to have. If you are unlucky, you could easily find yourself in dangerous situations that you can not deal with yourself.”
Hearing this, I quietly raised my hand. “Mr. Wilson.” Mr, Newmier said, allowing me to speak.
“So uh, is it bad if your Luck is only one?” I asked worried.
“Hmm.” Mr.Wilson said as he took a moment to think. “It's not good I'll tell you that much, but it's not that uncommon of a value, it just means you are less lucky than the average person.”
“Now if you had zero luck, oh boy are you in for a rough life.” Mr. Newmier chuckled.
“And let's just say, hypothetically, of course, someone with one luck had a title that gave them minus one luck, would that be bad?” I asked the man.
Mr. Newmier walked back up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be sure to show up to your funeral when you die,” he said as he wiped his other hand across his eyes, feining the action of wiping tears away.
“What?!” I asked quickly as Mr.Newmier took his hand off my shoulder, walked back to the front of the class, and continued to speak.
“Finally, there are skills. Skills will be the most vital aspect of the System in our line of work.” He said, completely ignoring me. “There are two main ways to gain skills, either through training or as you level up depending on your Class.”
Another student raised his hand. “Mr. Aguilar.” Mr. Newmier said.
The student who raised his hand began to speak. “Sir, what are Classes?” he asked.
“Ah, how could I forget such an important topic? Classes are a specialization assigned to humans at birth. It dictates what stat bonuses you have as well as the skills you gain as you level up.”
“Thank you, Sir!” the student replied.
“With the basics of the system out of the way, the next topic we will cover is the organization.” Mr. Newmier addressed the class. “The Entity Engagement Bureau, otherwise known as the EEB, is a secretive federal agency that focuses on the study, containment, and elimination of entities that can't be seen by the public eye.”
“Entities? What, like fucking big foot?” I said aloud, sounding way more sarcastic than I truly meant.
At my outburst, Mr. Newmier glared at me. I shrunk back into my seat and looked down at the ground, offering a small apology.
“It is our duty as agents of EEB to keep the citizens of America safe from such entities. Our organization has a lot of jobs that range from two categories, field and desk.” Mr. Newmier continued, thankfully moving on from my outburst. “As a Field agent, you could work in the attack or defense force through a variety of positions. Other specializations exist in the field as well, such as medics, engineers, and many more. As a desk agent, you could work as a researcher, a translator, or a mission coordinator.”
I was barely able to contain all of the information that was being given to me. Yeah, a few of the questions I originally had had been answered, but in their place lay only more questions.
Mr. Newmier clapped his hands together loudly, shocking all of the students including myself. I think one of the girls in the back even yelped. “Now, your first lecture is over.” Mr. Newmier said. “Next on the agenda, is your first training session,” he said as he smiled at us.