4 Days until Tutorial Start
George, agile as a squirrel, scrambled up the rough bark of the tree. His hands, though scraped and raw, healed in minutes - a testament to his impressive Vitality stat. He retrieved the hatchet embedded in the trunk and tossed it down to Mitchell. Then, with a leap that would make any gymnast envious, he moved to the next tree-top. His Reflexes and Agility stats, both at a solid 10, ensured he moved with ease and precision.
Mitchell, on the ground, was a study in stillness. He was testing his Willpower, standing motionless as hatchets rained down from above. It was a strange method, but effective. On the first day, he had moved the pile of wood from one wall of the house to another… and then back. He repeated this until 3 AM when he passed out outside, but the Willpower gains had been huge, along with the Strength and Fortitude. Fortunately you couldn’t lose stat points, as he should have had his Charisma bumped to zero for his part in the argument that followed. Mitchell now had a bedtime of midnight for the rest of the week, and Miriam had more than enough Intelligence that he trusted her when she said he still needed sleep. It didn’t really feel like it when he had awakened at 6AM the next day, though, feeling fine and refreshed despite the less-than-comfortable lodgings of a concrete pad. Thus, his new, more social method.
Miriam had read through the entire DSM5, which to most would be considered the equivalent of reading the dictionary cover to cover, but her Intelligence had leapt up to 10 when she completed it and she had decided to move on to her Reflex stat, which she trained using a bowl of water with a pinprick hole in the bottom. When a drop fell, she tried to swat it out of the air before it landed on the sheet of paper below. Originally there hadn’t been a paper, but Miriam had discovered that things went faster with consequences to failure. Even if those consequences were just grabbing a new piece of paper.
The group had agreed to raise all of their stats to 5, at least. Nobody wanted to have to carry each other’s gear due to low Strength, and it had expanded from there.
George nodded as his Vitality hit 5, nimbly hopping down the branches of the tree and landing on scattered grass.
“Are we done?” Mitchell asked him, frowning.
“I mean, I can throw some more axes but I just hit my last 5. Why, are you not done?”
Mitchell paused for a moment. “I’m trying to get all of them to 10. I’ve got Will, Instinct, and Charisma left, so if you could throw some more axes and save me time that would be great. Otherwise I’m moving wood, and that was better for Strength than anything.”
It was more than that though. It almost seemed neglectful to have an opportunity to improve yourself so easily, so readily, and then just… not. Mitchell was always trying to self improve. Whether it was learning a new skill, educating himself in a field he didn’t know about, or just walking down the street to see a new shop, Mitchell wanted to learn and improve. To not get the stats to 10, despite knowing that you could, would be ridiculous.
George groaned, thoughts of starting lunch pushed back. “Fine. One more point, and only because you helped me with Charisma.”
Mitchell shrugged. That was fine. He would find something else for the next point.
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That night…
The roads were treacherous, a thought that gnawed at John’s mind as he manoeuvred the commandeered motorcycle to the edge of the desolate backroad. The blinding glare of distant headlights pierced the darkness, heralding the approach of vehicles long before they intruded on their path. Sarah had retreated into a shell of silence since the roadblock, her voice a mere whisper and her opinions a rare commodity. John harboured a gnawing fear that she was in shock, a condition he’d heard could only be alleviated by sleep - a luxury they hadn’t been able to afford in their relentless journey. He was no healer, but he kept a vigilant watch over her.
The roads were a graveyard at night. The daylight hours were a different story, teeming with activity, as evidenced by the fiery carcass of an overturned tanker truck that bathed John’s face in an eerie glow from a mile away. As dawn threatened to break, John painstakingly disassembled parts of the bike, enough to give it the guise of a wreck. Their desperate hope was to snatch a few hours of sleep and find the bike untouched upon waking. Mitchell’s place was a mere half-hour drive from here, but the military’s trigger fingers seemed to be getting itchier with each passing patrol.
The government had clamped down on travel, confining citizens to their residences. Initially, it was mere restrictions, but when defiance became the norm, they escalated the situation, declaring travel during crises a federal offence punishable by death. The aftermath was a macabre landscape of cratered and charred vehicles strewn across the roads. John was clueless about the government’s endgame, and frankly, he didn’t care. His sole objective was to regroup with his trusted allies and plan their next move. If that meant evading helicopters and roadblocks, then so be it.
With the motorcycle sufficiently camouflaged and tucked under the guardrail, John took Sarah’s hand, gently lifting her from her perch. Together, they ventured into the foreboding embrace of the trees, seeking a hidden refuge where they could huddle and shiver in the biting cold until morning’s light.
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3 Days until Tutorial Start…
Bill, still fresh to the mantle of leadership, surveyed his vast family, assembled in orderly rows, heads respectfully lowered. In a matter of days, they had gathered from all corners of the globe. Some had embarked on their journeys months prior. Each one carried a message, purportedly from a distant relative named William, an enigmatic figure of wisdom that Bill had yet to encounter.
“Ascension brings safety. Ascension is a collective endeavour. United, we are secure. Join us.”
From the most tender-aged cousins to his venerable grandmother, they had rallied to his side, pledging their loyalty and seeking his guidance in navigating the impending storm. Whitney had experienced a similar call to arms, her family’s messages also traced back to the elusive William. While Bill was entrusted with a tome containing two ‘Class Progression Guides’, Whitney received a journal titled ‘Dual Class Races and their Progeny’, a complex fusion of scholarly research and personal reflections.
They were instructed to part ways until an hour before the Tutorial commenced. The uncanny accuracy of William’s predictions left Bill in a state of attentive silence. He foretold the fall of Mecca, vividly depicted the bombing of the UN summit in Warsaw, and the subsequent fate of the radioactive crater. He prophesied the flood and the unfortunate obliteration of Japan before the Tutorial’s onset. His precise information (“Your neighbour will form a convoy and depart at 3 AM in 3 days. He will not reach his destination.”) proved infallible. Bill was convinced that William was a time traveller, perhaps aided by a family member in the past, now reciprocating the favour. Or, it could all be an elaborate deception.
Regardless, armed with the knowledge contained in their books, Bill felt a surge of confidence in their ability to defend against adversaries and support their allies. He allowed himself a fleeting thought for his former tabletop group, suppressing a wave of guilt. He had promised to share any newfound knowledge with Mitchell, but this… this was too monumental. His priority was his family.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
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2 Days until Tutorial Start
Miriam was in a state of turmoil. Mitchell, having reached his 10 spread the previous day, was frantically trying to maximise each token’s potential. She had a hunch that the System wouldn’t permit him to, for instance, cram a variety of items into a tarp and attempt to systemize it as a whole. But she didn’t have the heart to dissuade him. His relentless determination was one of the things she adored about him. He was never one to shy away from a challenge.
This was his third attempt, after numerous trials with the tokens. It was a strange sensation, waking up with three days left and finding three tokens, resembling black and white casino chips, just lying on her bedside table. Activating them required touching them to an object and willing them to activate - Miriam did this by giving them a slight squeeze and mentally shouting ‘ACTIVATE!’ - which would prompt a dialogue window, just like on the first day, asking if you wanted to systemize the object.
George had ceased his experiments when his attempt to systemize the house with a token failed. He retreated outside with his cat Nimbus, persisting in his efforts to train it.
Meanwhile, Mitchell was preoccupied with tying the loops of the tarp together, the contents within stuffed into garbage bags - previous experiments had demonstrated that garbage bags could be systemized, and a bag full of a single item could be systemized. Mitchell had even received an offer for a 'Bag ‘o Clothes’, which he declined, but it served as a good proof of concept.
The tarp contained a bag of food, a bag of clothes, a bag of tools (more of a quadruple bag), and a bag full of personal effects like photos and keepsakes. After securing the tarp, Mitchell, with a hopeful expression, touched the token to the tarp. Miriam noticed that he seemed to activate it with far less effort than she did, but his dejected expression made her heart ache with empathetic disappointment.
“Mitch, that’s enough,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “You already know what you’re bringing.”
Mitchell kicked at the loose edge of the tarp. “Yea, but what about John and Sarah? They still haven’t shown up. What if they couldn’t bring anything? What if they don’t make it?” Mitch leaned over and began untying the tarp and muttering to himself. “Stupid, of course it wouldn’t let me put bags in bags…”
Miriam retreated a step, watching him. He’d been at this for hours. She knew that John’s absence was gnawing at him, and it was gnawing at her too. But she had her own problems to contend with.
Specifically, a mishap had resulted in half of her pills ending up in the toilet, leaving her with only enough for five more days. The tutorial was set to start in three days, and the thought of telling her fiancé that she might not be herself after two days in a foreign land was unbearable. She hoped he would just think it’s… Oh, who was she fooling?
She felt a sense of impending doom.
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The day before the tutorial…
As the sun began to set, the silhouette of two weary figures emerged from the dense forest. John and Sarah, their bodies aching from the relentless journey, finally arrived at their destination. Their clothes were tattered, their faces etched with exhaustion, but their spirits remained unbroken.
John, supporting Sarah, looked at the familiar surroundings. The sight of Mitchell’s place, though it bore the eclectic scars of recent training, was a welcome one. He felt a wave of relief wash over him. They had made it.
Sarah, her voice barely above a whisper, said, “We’re here, John. We made it.” Her words, though simple, carried the weight of their arduous journey.
John squeezed her hand gently, a silent promise of safety. He knew the road ahead was fraught with uncertainty, but for now, they had a moment of respite. As they approached the entrance, John couldn’t help but think about the challenges that awaited them. But those were worries for another day.
For now, they were home. Exhausted but safe, they stepped into the welcoming embrace of the familiar and were met with tired cheers before quickly passing out on the guest bed.
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As the first rays of dawn pierced the morning sky, the group began to stir. The scent of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the air, mingling with the sweet aroma of pastries that George had managed to scrounge up. It was a comforting smell, a small piece of normalcy in a world that had become anything but.
John, his eyes still heavy with sleep, was the first to rise. He moved quietly, not wanting to disturb the others just yet. As he started pouring a cup of coffee, he couldn’t help but reflect on the journey that had brought them here. It had been a long and arduous road, filled with challenges and obstacles that they had somehow managed to overcome. He decided to share their story, and the state of the world.
Sarah was the first to wake, coming to sit beside John. With a start, he realised she had a kit. More importantly, she had a smile.
“Sarah? You alright?”
She beamed at him. “Of course I am.” She pulled open the first aid kit, withdrawing a pair of scissors she snipped at him menacingly. “I can finally clean up my gunshot wound. Thank whatever’s out there it didn’t get infected when you had us lying in the woods among the animals.”
As the others began to wake, drawn by the smell of coffee and the sound of John’s voice, they gathered around, listening as he recounted their journey. He spoke of their struggles, their victories, and the friends they had lost along the way. His words painted a vivid picture, a testament to their resilience and determination that ended with the loss of a travelling companion. A moment of silence was had for Jin, and the group moved on.
Mitchell was next to speak. He shared their levelling information, detailing each stat and the progress they had made. His voice was steady, a stark contrast to the worry that lingered in his eyes. He explained that Bill wouldn’t be joining them, a fact that cast a sombre mood over the group. But they understood. Not everyone could make it. A moment was had for Bill and Whitney, and the group moved on.
The group looked to George, who scoffed and grabbed another pastry. “No big news here, just managed to make pastries with no recipe and no internet. Where did we get the raspberry filling, George? I found some raspberries. End of story, you’re welcome.” The group moved on.
Finally, it was Miriam’s turn. She summarised the results of their Systemization experiments, her words filled with a mix of excitement and apprehension. They had made significant progress, but there was still so much they didn’t know. A moment of contemplation, and then the group moved on.
Mitchell called for everyone to gather their Systemized items and prepare to go. Out on the back patio, the group circled up.
John, who had brought his own pair of combat boots and a recreated Roman Army helmet complete with horsehair mohawk. His third item was a survival straw, for filtering water.
Sarah also had a survival straw, but had taken our first aid kit and systemized that. She also brought a heavy duty tarp.
George was ecstatic when he found he could Systemize his cat, but subsequently cursed that it would cost 2 tokens instead of just one. He took the cost, and brought out his bow. It was no choice between Nimbus and his quiver, but he would not leave the maple-fibreglass weapon behind.
Miriam had struggled long deciding on what to bring but had eventually settled. She brought a set of leather armour that she had used for Renaissance fairs, a forest green short-cloak that was for the same purpose, and finished off with a small hygiene kit.
Mitchell had his items prepared from almost the first day. A round metal shield from his HEMA days, his combat boots from military school, and finally his own long, grey cloak.
As noon approached, the group fell into a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. The impending tutorial loomed over them, a constant reminder of the challenges that lay ahead. But for now, they took comfort in the warmth of the coffee, the sweetness of the pastries, and the unity of their group.
The group stood as one when the notification popped up.
Pseudo-System protocol complete.
System initializing…
System initialized.
Tutorial Instance 1855-CA activating in 3…
2…
1…
A bright light engulfed the world, and every human on Earth vanished.
Welcome to the System!
They were in this together, and they would face whatever came next as one.