Brandon:

Brandon took his time reading and re-reading what seemed to be the most absurd event that he could even think of in all of humanity. Even Jesus didn’t seem so absurd now. How could something or someone stop time and wipe all constructions and all humans made stuff ever created, it was mind blowing. It was just ridiculous. At the same time, it was clear to him that this was not a joke nor a prank, this would indeed happen, the screens also came with a feeling of certainty, a sensation, much like a gut instinct that everything was meant to be, and it would be, or maybe that was essence? Either way it wouldn’t matter…

The world seemed to have hit a milestone, something grand, it was about to change in a way that it was hard to even grasp, the thought made him feel sick of his stomach, thinking about all the fantasy novels and movies, they didn’t seem so fantastic now, not when it was happening right in front of his eyes, the worst of it all was that, changes seemed great while you were on the outside, as soon as you were part of the change things looked a lot more scary.

He was asleep when the screens woke him up, at first, he thought he was lucid dreaming, he lied there unmoveable, now he was sure he was not.

Gathering his thoughts after thinking about the information he decided to wait for the next messages, after all, there was nothing he could do but wait.

The next screen presented to himself was a bit unexpected.

Congratulations

You’ve been Selected on a 20% chance of all humanity to be part of the Tutorial. Would you like to proceed?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Yes/ No?

At this moment his heart skipped a beat, 20% was a 2 in 10 change of being selected, the odds weren’t so bad but he still felt blessed for being selected, this seemed like a life changer. He wondered if people he knew, his family, his wife, would also be selected… Chances were slim.

He wished he could communicate with her, she was lying by his side, he could feel her there by his side but he couldn’t move nor speak, he wanted to ask her if she got selected or if she would rather stay so he would too.

He remembered that if he decided to go to the tutorial, he would have to stay away from Earth for 6 months, the idea seemed alien to him but also saying no didn’t seem like an option really. He tried to prob the System mentally for more messages, more information… The messages so far had been a bit broad, there were a lot to read in between the lines, and also if you knew human behaviour, you’d know that people would only think about themselves and definitely not about the betterment of the race, we were doomed. Staying behind would be madness, it would be utterly chaos as there would be no shelter nor food… He would have to band with people, it would be madness, he could imagine the people that stayed behind struggling, he knew fully well how people threatened would react, Earth had had a few pandemics and harsh weather conditions of late that people’s behaviours were clear to him. It would be the survival of the fittest.

Brandon was torn between accepting or not, the fact that the difficulty would be chose at random didn’t appeal to him, he was aware he would have to from what he had read before, but he didn’t know how hard it would be for him to make a choice, deep inside of him he wanted to impress, he was never one to not take risks, he was always too intense and straight forward with what he wanted. He had done well in life; he was on his early thirties and had been working with the trading market for a few years. So, he knew he had to take risks to be successful but also, he was fully aware that in order to be someone in this new world he would need personal strength or essence?

No extra information was given about how difficulties would change your tutorial, if there would be other people, food, training, it was all about essence but even that wasn’t clear. How would one cultivate their connection with essence? Would we become cultivators, like monks, sat down cross legged all day? There were a lot of questions and not enough answers.

“Decisions, Decisions…”. Brandon pondered. His mind was working extra time as he tried to figure out what to do, so far in life he had done well, he had a few good friends, a wife on which he loved, great life experiences, different places he had visited and a couple different places he lived. He didn’t want to be a nobody.

He mentally accepted.