The room is completely silent as preparations for the experiment begin. An unspoken agreement to not break the peaceful quiet hung in the air as everybody double checked, then triple checked that nothing would go wrong. Our team had been under constant pressure from our sponsors to get this project done as soon as possible, and we were all feeling it in this very moment. Years of hard work to get to this point, and countless meetings where we’d had to convince investors that this would be worth the cost. If things went as planned, it certainly would be.

The silence is finally broken when the head scientist and lead of the project, Benjamin Krone speaks.

“Alright, we have all cameras ready, all devices tuned, and several thousand people watching through a live feed. We will now go through our pre-op checklist. If nothing is found wrong, we will make history together.”

I could tell through the serious demeanor that Ben was reluctant to speak with such a commanding tone. He’d only been assigned project lead due to being the most leader-like out of the group. He still saw himself as just one of the scientists. I’d always liked that about him. Given that this moment would probably be in dozens of future documentaries, he needed to show off a sense of authority and confidence regardless of personal feelings.

I didn’t blame him one bit for having to act like the most important person in the room, and I knew that none of the other 10 people present did. I certainly wouldn’t enjoy the pressure of knowing billions of people would see every movement of my hands, hear every word I spoke, and analyze the results of my work for years to come. I did kind of have to worry about that last one, but much like when Armstrong walked on the moon or Oppenheimer made the nuclear bomb, I would just be one of the scientists and not the face of the project.

Ben began calling out each of the scientists by name, asking for verbal confirmation that they saw nothing with the readings or devices. My name was last, as I was generally seen as the number two on this project.

“River Banks, please confirm that there are no issues with any instruments or the readings on your screen.”

“Confirmed.” I say, wincing a bit at the fact that my whole name had to be used. I knew that quite a few people would get a chuckle out of the name. My father had always told me it would get peoples attention, though that had always been what I disliked about it.

“All present scientists have confirmed the safety of this test.” Ben says, addressing the cameras around the room. He input a code on a number pad, which then slid away to reveal a lever within a cubby in the wall, a physical activation of the machine to both show off for the cameras and to ensure a random software error wouldn’t set it off by mistake.

“Beginning experiment in 5...4...3...2...1...”

Everyone in the room held their breath as the lever was pulled down with a unceremoniously silent motion.

The entire building began to hum as countless electronics, motors, machines, and magnets were activated all at once. The humming slowly got louder and louder as everything began powering up more and more, and soon the experiment began.

Now, the experiment itself was humanities effort to create a blackhole.

I know that sounds ridiculously dangerous and stupid, but extremely small blackholes weren’t super dangerous. Despite common belief, a blackhole doesn’t need to be super big. Actually, even if it was just the size of a baseball it would already have more mass than Earth. Our goal wasn’t to make something like that, instead it was to turn just a few kilograms of matter into a blackhole.

Even with that small amount of mass, it was an incredibly difficult task only able to be accomplished after decades of research, and fiver years of building a super massive facility to allow it to happen in the first place.

We all watched through reinforced glass at the experiment chamber, where the final result would be occurring. We didn’t actually expect for anything to be visible, but since humanity hadn’t ever messed with blackholes we couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.

“All readings remain steady.” I say aloud, the nervousness in my voice still slipping out.

“Confirmed.” Another person in the room says.

A full minute passes as the build up of the machine begins. My heart leaps into my throat as I notice a problem in the readings. It looked like we were getting an energy input far higher than expected, though I had no idea where it could be coming from. I open my mouth to tell Ben to cancel the experiment. It would be a waste of the tens of millions of dollars it cost just to do this one attempt, but it had been agreed that at the slightest sign of something going wrong, the experiment would cease immediately.

“Cancel-” I barely get out, before all at once everything goes catastrophically wrong.

One moment I’d been speaking and telling Ben to cancel it all, and the very next moment I was staring at a black void in the middle of the experiment chamber. I wanted to scream, to panic, or in general just do something.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get out a single word. I couldn’t move my eyes. Nothing in the room was moving, not even a single speck of dust. It was like a moment in time had been captured, and it was all I could see. Is this was death was like? Seeing a picture of your final moments for all of eternity. I certainly hope not, as being alone with my thoughts for an eternity didn’t sound pleasant.

Just as I was about to start spiraling into a mess of existential dread and panic, a blue screen with words appear in front of my eyes. No, in my mind. It was hard to tell which it was, as while it felt like I could see it in front of me, I could also see right past it like it wasn’t there. There is some text on the screen, which my eyes scan over and read. I don’t even bother questioning the fact that my eyes can move to look at the screen, but not physically move to look around my surroundings.

Congratulations to the citizens of the Sol star system for being deemed worthy of entering the true universe. Evaluating overall star system rank...

Congratulations! For creating a gateway to the true universe with no outside assistance, your star system has earned the rank of S! Every member of the star system has been awarded with the S tier populous title. You will now be placed into a tutorial where you will learn about the true universe and in which ways it differs from your own. Time spent in the tutorial and information provided will both be determined by personal rank. Good luck within the tutorial, and welcome to the true universe!

The terrifying snapshot of my final moments disappears instantly to black, and the blackness quickly fades to the vision of a featureless room. It’s about 5 meters tall, long, and wide, and has grey walls made of... something. It wasn’t shiny, so I couldn’t say it was metal, but it also didn’t have the roughness of stone. Reaching down and feeling the floor, it felt perfectly smooth, yet like it still had some grip, like rubber.

I looked at my hand for a moment, realizing I could move again. I feel my chest, then my face. I was alive! Another screen appears in front of me, and I read that one too. It felt like a bad idea to ignore the mysterious blue screen that had saved my life. Maybe this was all just a dream, but if it was I might as well just go with it.

Welcome to the tutorial! Evaluating planetary history and overall personal rank...

Congratulations! For having not just a significant effect on the history of your star system, but creating the gateway to the true universe, you have been awarded the rank of S+. For achieving the highest possible rank and achieving a rank higher than the average of your populous, you have earned the title S+ tier pioneer.

Further information will be provided upon opening the status screen.

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“Status screen?” I mutter, having silently read the entire thing aloud. I had a bit of a bad habit of readings things aloud to myself, which had been endlessly annoying to my coworkers. As soon as the words leave my mouth, a new blue screen appears in front of me.

Name: River Banks

Race: Human

Level: 1

Class: N/A

Trait: N/A

Displayed title: S+ tier pioneer

Statistics:

Body: 21 (No focus set)

Mind: 21 (No focus set)

Spirit: 21 (No focus set)

Class skills: N/A

Class spells: N/A

Personal Skills: N/A

Titles: S+ tier pioneer, S tier populous

Once I finished reading all of that, another much larger screen appeared to the side of the status screen. It was long, had a lot of information, and generally just made my head hurt to read. I still read it and absorbed every word of course. I’d gotten plenty of practice with doing that when I was still working on my PHD thesis.

As you have achieved the personal rank of S+, you have access to all the information about your status screen. Below is the full explanation of each element of your status screen as well as recommendations for making the most of each element.

Your name is the identity you believe you fully fit. It changes automatically if your perception of your own identity changes.

Your race shows the species you belong to. As a human, you gain +1 to each stat each level.

Your trait represents an innate ability you possess, and is something many chose to build their power around once unlocked. While a trait can be awakened at any point, it is forcibly awakened upon reaching your 3rd evolution.

Your level shows the progress you have made in gaining strength and improving yourself. Each level grants stats dependent upon your race, class, any subclasses, some skills, some titles, and other rare and unique factors. At certain level milestones, you will evolve to be overall more potent, and your stats will all have a greater effect. Evolving grants the opportunity to change race, and stat focus, but it is not recommended to stray to far from your standard race.

Your displayed title is automatically set to your rarest title, though it can be changed at any time. When being scanned by high level identification spells and skills, your displayed title will be shown. You cannot have no displayed title.

Your class shows your primary focus, and determines the method in which you gain levels. The focus of your class determines the distribution of stats you receive each level. Higher rarity classes and subclasses award more stats. Upon reaching certain milestones in a class or subclass, you will be prompted to select a skill related to the class. Note that you can have as many subclasses as you desire, but each subclass makes your primary and other sub classes less potent as well as increasing the difficulty of gaining levels. You will also not receive additional skill selection prompts beyond your first subclass. It is not recommended to take on more than one subclass.

Your statistics each represent an aspect of your being. Your body stat represents your strength, agility and constitution. Your Mind stat represents your capacity to hold mana, the potency of your mana, and the rate at which you recover your mana. Your spirit stat represents the strength of your soul, the strength of your aura, and you perception of all that is around you. Upon selecting your first class, you will be prompted to select a focus for each of these stats.

Your skills and spells are the core of your power, and being proficient enough at any task can grant you a skill, and becoming proficient enough with any mana technique can grant a spell. The rarity of skills and spells is dependent on how potent of an effect they have as well as how proficient you are with them for your level. Each skill grants a bonus to the relevant stats when being used.

Your titles represent your feats and accomplishments. Each one grants a bonus to your stats, and some may come with additional effects.

That was... a lot to take in. Even after reading over twice I was still trying to comprehend what it was saying. First of all, apparently magic was real. It even had mana as the standard for magic, which thinking about it might just be this screens way of translating it to me. If it was all in English it made sense that it would translate its term for magic into whatever I could understand.

The second thing that really caught my attention was that it seemed to pretty much just boil down exactly what I was down to a single screen. Some might get uncomfortable about that, but I actually found it oddly comforting that I could now see exactly what I was worth. Well, kind of. I didn’t know if 21 in each stat was good, but it seemed pretty decent. Looking at the bonuses granted by each of my titles, I saw that my pioneer title gained my +10 points to each stat as well as a 25% bonus to each. My populous title only gave me +5 to each stat and a 5% bonus. Actually, now that I am looking at that, if I didn’t have either of these titles, I would have just a single point in each stat. Thank god for these titles then.

I’d played plenty of dungeons and dragons back in college. Who’d of thought that a physicist could be such a nerd, am I right. Anyways, if I had 21 in every stat back then, I would have been god of the dungeons and dragons table. Instead I’d played a sorcerer who constantly got bullied whenever an enemy got within one tile of me.

After another reread and once I truly grasped what the screen was trying to tell me, another one popped up, this time asking me to select a class from a short list. It gave the name of each, the stats they gave, and a basic rundown.

Fighter (Common)

Fighters have a proficiency with close range weapons and a variety of armor types. +4 to body per level, +2 to mind and spirit per level. Grants the Basic Melee Proficiency skill.

Ranger (Common)

Rangers have a proficiency with long ranged weapons and light sets of armor. +3 to body and spirit per level, +2 to mind per level. Grants the Basic Ranged Proficiency skill.

Mage (Common)

Mages have a proficiency wielding mana and casting spells, often wearing light armor. +4 to mind per level, +2 to body and spirit per level. Grants the Basic Mana Bolt skill.

Healer (Common)

Healers have a proficiency with supportive spells to improve the strength of allies. +3 to mind and spirit per level, +2 to body per level. Grants the Basic Heal spell.

I didn’t even really have to think about it. I wasn’t exactly a super strong guy, so fighter was out. I probably couldn’t aim an arrow properly to save my life, so out goes ranger. I wouldn’t want to be reliant on others, so healer was also crossed off my list. That just left mage, the coolest and most awesome choice on the list. I definitely didn’t have a bias that stemmed from the idea of throwing around fireballs and blades of air.

After selecting that, yet another screen appeared. I was starting to get tired of all this reading, but it really couldn’t be helped.

Select a focus for your stats. Each stat has three possible focuses. Your primary focus for a stat will receive a 1.5 times boost in effectiveness, your secondary focus will receive a 1.25 times boost, and your tertiary focus will receive no boost in effectiveness. Your recommended focuses for your class have been automatically selected, but keep in mind that they may not be the best for what you plan to do.

Body:

Primary Focus: Agility

Secondary Focus: Strength

Tertiary focus: Constitution

Mind:

Primary Focus: Potency

Secondary Focus: Capacity

Tertiary focus: Recovery

Soul:

Primary Focus: Perception

Secondary Focus: Aura

Tertiary focus: Soul

I saw absolutely no reason to doubt that this screen knew what was best for me, so I decided not to change any of the focuses for now. It had told me earlier that I could eventually change it, even if I didn’t know exactly how long that would take. Once I locked in the selections, one last screen popped up.

You will now be teleported to the tutorial. You have 30 seconds remaining before teleportation occurs. Please take this time to look through your stat sheet.

I did as I was told, looking through it and only really paying attention to the changes. I made sure to read through the description of my brand new skill as well.

Stats:

Body: 24 (Agility-Strength-Constitution)

Mind: 26 (Potency-Capacity-Recovery)

Spirit: 24 (Perception-Aura-Soul)

Class spells:

Mana Bolt (Common)

Fire a small bolt of mana to damage a target.

30 seconds later, everything went black again as I once once more teleported to a new location. This time, I wasn’t as concerned that I had just died as last time. As the blackness fades and I look around, I realize that I am in the middle of a forest, surrounded by several of my coworkers, those who had been in the room with me when everything went to hell. I don’t know exactly where we are or fully what is going on, but what I do know is that I am not a fan of what I read next.

Welcome to the tutorial.

Tutorial tier: S

Tutorial designation: Tower of Nixtias

Floor 1: Forest of Ancient Oaks

Time remaining in tutorial: 180 days