A sensation like falling off his bed in the middle of the night startled Eli awake. He blinked several times, looking up at a clear blue sky with the occasional fluffy cloud.

For some reason, he was lying on his back in a field of tall grass. A gentle breeze brushed up against him and only then did he realize he was naked.

Eli sat up with a yelp and covered himself, realizing that no, he was not naked. He wore a weird kind of cloth around his hips and privates, like some medieval style of underpants, or perhaps adult cloth diapers.

"What the?" he asked no one in particular as he looked out across the field of grass. A bunch of people were waking up all around him. Most of them he recognized from Infinite Innovation Solutions.

Looking past the people, to his left, Eli saw a massive expanse of forest stretching as far as the eye could see into the distance, and to his right were more open fields, with mountains far off enough to look hazy. Straight ahead stood the corporate building of Infinite Innovation Solutions, towering over him and standing out like a sore thumb against the otherwise untouched nature.

"Am I dead?" Eli asked. "And if I am, is this heaven or hell?"

Someone groaned nearby and sat up. Eli didn't recognize her but apparently women got a second cloth, this one wrapped around their chest. People sat up all around him, and he was about to call out when something incredibly strange happened.

A pop-up appeared, kind of like an ad on a website, except he wasn't looking at a computer screen. It just appeared right in his vision, blurring everything else.

White text hovered in front of his vision:

Welcome to the world of Aryxia, adventurer!

Eli turned his head and the pop-up followed. Closing his eyes didn't change a thing

"Did someone stick a microchip in me or something?"

"How do I get this off of me?" a woman cried out.

A deep, annoyed voice answered, "Just tell it to go away by thinking it."

Think the window away. Eli attempted to do just that by waving his hands in front of him, but they clipped through the pop-up without doing a thing. Instead, he concentrated and sent a thought, that he wanted the pop-up to disappear.

"You have to close it with your mind," Eli whispered to himself. "What sort of technology is this?"

"Aliens!" a voice called out. This one, he recognized. Barbara the HR-lady.

"The Deep State!" someone else shouted.

"Pigeons aren't real. Wake up, people!" a third added.

Eli did his best to shut them out, focusing on the new pop-up in front of him.

Your main quest is to solve the riddle and find your way.

Once he clicked past the quest, a screen appeared. The top read: Character Sheet.

General

Name: Elijah "Eli" Davis

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Guild: N/A

Party: N/A

Level: 1

Status

HP: 20

MP: 10

Stamina: 10

Attributes

Strength: 4

Dexterity: 6

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 3

Constitution: 6

Charisma: 2

This was a lot to take in, to say the least, but his eyes immediately went to his attribute points. "Two in charisma and three in wisdom? That has to be some sort of mistake!"

Someone chuckled, a voice Eli thought he recognized. "Who is that?"

"It's Janus. Just think Minimize at the thing."

Eli concentrated and the window minimized. It was still there, in his periphery. Close. It went away entirely.

"That's better," he breathed. "Hey. Where did you get clothes?"

Janus wore a cloth tunic with what looked like leather belts going from his shoulder to his midsection. It held a bunch of different pockets and they all bulged, like they were full to the brim. He held a short wooden stick, almost like a cudgel, and a round wooden shield was stuck to his back. A pair of brown shorts covered his legs and his feet were clad in some sort of sandal-like leather shoe.

Janus reached out a hand and helped Eli to his feet. "Got them from choosing a class. Me and the rest of the guys from IT are heading out. You want to come?"

"Class?" Eli asked. "Wait. Out? To where?"

"I mean," Janus began, scratching at the back of his head as he turned to look in the different directions. "Either the woods or the field, I think. Office building over there," he said, pointing with his stick, "and active volcano that way," he gestured over his shoulder. "Neither feels like the best options."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Do you know what's going on?" Eli asked.

"Infinite Innovation Solutions personnel, listen up!" someone bellowed. It was Mr. Harn, Eli realized. The CEO. He wore what looked like a white toga, the kind of thing you'd see in a movie about the roman senate.

A bunch of HR ladies stood around him, cowering and hugging themselves to hide the bare skin not shielded by the two pieces of cloth.

Janus ignored the CEO. "It's obvious, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"The world ended."

Eli raised an eyebrow and gestured at everyone around them, hundreds of people that'd now gathered upon the field of grass. "Obviously it didn't."

"Because real life has pop-ups with stats and classes, and quests."

"So, what? This is the afterlife?"

Janus shrugged. "It's what's after, that's all I know, and I'm going to enjoy it. You coming or what?"

"Gather, everyone!" Mr. Harn shouted, gesturing wildly. The rest of management had already joined him and were shouting encouragement for the staff to approach. Most of them wore the togas. Mr. Thomas was still in the white cloth, his hairy stomach protruding.

"Shouldn't we stick together until we figure out more about this place?"

Janus snorted and pointed to the corporate office building. "They'll want to go in there and continue like nothing has changed. Wake up, secretary guy. Everything has changed! The afterlife is a goddamn video game!"

"A what?"

"Where else do you get stats and skills?"

Eli shrugged, considering. He wasn't much of a gamer these days but had played his fair share growing up, and the concepts weren't foreign to him. But the idea was absurd. He tried to remember what'd happened right before he woke up, and then it hit him.

"We're in the black hole! This has to be some other dimension or something!"

"Again with the science? It doesn't matter, man. It isn't rocket surgery! All that matters is what's in front of you and right now, that's your level. IT is going out there to conquer this place. Last chance, and I'm only offering since you got me that coffee, and I might be feeling kind of bad for messing with your boss's computer. In my defense, though, I thought the world was ending, which, it turns out, I was right about! Also, he was being a dick to me on the phone."

"You two, stop talking!" Mr. Harn shouted, pointing right at Eli and Janus.

Eli shrank back, but Janus gave him the finger. "Fuck off, sir!"

"You're fired!" Mr. Harn shouted, his face red and voice booming.

"Oooh!" Janus said, waving his hands in mock-fright.

Janus nudged Eli and gestured to the clump of guys and a few girls waiting a little farther down the field, away from the corporate building.

“Last chance.”

Eli shook his head, wilting under the attention of so many people.

“Suit yourself,” Janus said. He leaned in. “A final tip for you. Use inspect to learn about stuff.”

"Inspect," Eli repeated.

“Yeah. Well, alright, see ya,” Janus said, before waving his arms in the air to get everyone's attention. “Hey everyone, go fuck yourselves!”

Then he jogged off without looking back. The group of perhaps thirty moved away. Even from a distance, Eli saw them talking and showing off their gear excitedly, and he realized they were all happy to be here, in this strange world.

The same couldn’t be said for the rest of the large contingent of Infinite Innovative Solutions. Everyone huddled together but still kept space between each other in their half-naked state. A few, wore different clothing. They must have already selected their classes. As he looked out into the crowd, Eli noticed a more people approaching from all directions.

“Now, with that unpleasantness behind us, we all need to come together and figure this out. First thing first,” the CEO said, “you will be divided into groups, with someone from management at the top of each group. We will head to our home building and use that as a base until we figure out more. I ask that none of you select a class yet. I know it must be uncomfortable without proper clothing, but HR feels strongly, as do I, that the classes you pick will be of the utmost importance. As such, corporate must have a say. We need balance, and to cover our bases if we are to create synergy and maximize our potential.”

He paused, then added, “I leave you in the hands of your managers. There is no need to be afraid. We will all get through this together.”

People started milling about, forming groups with those they had been working with before. The Dragon stood alone, without a group assigned to him yet.

Eli walked over. “Am I supposed to be with you?”

“Of course, Elijah, of course,” Mr. Thomas said, smiling. “Glad to have you here. It seems we have lost many, but we should be grateful for those who have joined us. Who was that man you spoke with?”

“Him? That’s the IT guy,” Eli said, looking back over his shoulder at the disappearing speck that was the group leaving.

When he looked back, he saw rage on his. “That was the man who defiled my office?”

“Right,” Eli replied, wincing.

Someone came up to Mr. Thomas and whispered in his ear. He nodded and said, “Come on, Elijah, we are heading over to the building. We’ll find my office and get this sorted. I’m sure there’s a way out of this strange occurrence.”

A dog came running across the field from the woods.

“Rufus!” Eli exclaimed.

Rufus beelined for Eli, stopping right before him, panting happily and wagging his tail.

“Rufus?” Eli asked. “Where’s Amy?”

He didn’t see her anywhere in the crowd.

"We are leaving, Elijah," Mr. Thomas said.

Eli gestured to Rufus, “I have to go find my friend. I’ll join you later.”

“You’re going off on your own?” Mr. Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sure it will be fine. I’ll be right back.”

The crowd of gathered people started moving slowly toward the looming corporate office building in the distance.

“Very well, Elijah,” Mr. Thomas said. “Just don’t be tardy.”

Eli knelt down to hug Rufus. Normally, you weren’t supposed to do that sort of thing with service animals, but Amy had given him the go-ahead over a year ago. “Rufus, where’s Amy? Go find Amy!”

Rufus barked happily and wagged his tail before setting off toward the forest at a blazing speed. Such happy dogs, labradors. His fur, with its mix of white and bright yellow hues, stood out against the sea of green grass.

Eli followed, though Rufus needed to double back repeatedly because Eli couldn’t keep up. As he power-walked, Eli tried Janus’s Inspect tip and found that it did indeed work. He picked up a small stick, narrowed his eyes, and thought, Inspect. A small pop-up window appeared, saying: Small stick: Item, rarity: common.

Eli willed the screen away and tried another thought: Map.

A map filled his entire field of vision. The map itself was useless. He’d played real-time strategy games before, and this map only showed places he’d already been. Fog of war, if he remembered the term correctly. It showed a small area on the field and then a thin line where he had walked.

They were nearing the forest now, and Rufus’s excitement grew. Eli hurried as best he could, but he was already getting winded, breathing hard. He opened up his inventory and found it empty. The skills tab was empty as well, but under the talent tab, he did have one single talent:

Human racial benefit: 10% extra experience gained.

That wasn't terrible. They were all humans, though, so everyone must have that. Strange.

A chime sounded, followed by another pop-up. A new quest.

Side Quest: Rescue Amy.

When he inspected the quest, he got additional info:

Your friend is in distress. Find her, then defeat the monstrous beast and bring her to safety.