We decide to each go take a shower before eating. My clothes are covered in dirt and grime, there’s dried blood on my arms and legs, and I think there’s still some traces of that venomous tooth mixed in. Sweat mixes with the oil in my hair, creating an unpleasant mop on my head. And perhaps worst of all, I still feel unclean after dealing with that creep back in the cave.
I lean back and lather heartily as warm water flows into my hair and then down my skin. I get the feeling this might be the last time I get to enjoy the comforts of modern life for quite some time. Yes, these last few days have been different, and some of those differences have been incredible. I’m stronger than I could have imagined. I just stared down some creep, and then smacked him down without even breaking a sweat. That part still feels incredible.
I have access to wondrous technology that is so far beyond what science thought possible not even a week ago. And I know deep down that what I’ve discovered so far is only the tiniest sliver of what’s now possible. Flying around in a mech suit, altering my body with cybernetic enhancements, even rebuilding myself in the body of an android. My class gives me small hints at different paths I can go down as I advance further, and I love each one more than the last.
After I finish getting dressed, I head downstairs, where Chloe’s repurposed our remaining snacks into a hearty lunch.
“Oh, wow, this all looks delicious!” I say. “Did you not shower?”
“You spaced out a bit and were in there for almost twenty minutes!”
I grimace. “Oops, sorry about that!”
Chloe just giggles. “It’s okay, Sera! You’ve been pushing yourself so hard every day. Even when we were playing board games, you were working on new abilities and projects. If you need a little break to just reflect on everything, I totally understand. Besides, you were so amazing the way you stood up to that bully earlier. I– All I could do was shrink away behind you. This is the least I can do to help.”
I shake my head and pull Chloe into a hug. “You’re stronger than you realize. You faced your fears and went into the dungeon alongside me. You even stood up to your own mother to do it. And you’re just as brave as you are strong.”
“But I–”
“And you did it all without having the experience and mindset of another life in the System guiding you. It’s okay if you were scared. I think our English teacher said it best last year. Courage isn’t about not being afraid. Courage is accepting you’re afraid, and then venturing forth anyway.”
“But you don’t show any signs of being scared at all, Sera.”
“Maybe I just do a better job of hiding it. Because I’m terrified, Chloe. Terrified of losing you and this friendship we have. Terrified of what comes next, and not at all sure how we can protect ourselves from whatever the System plans next. And terrified that there’s some intelligence even greater than the System, manipulating events toward designs I can’t even begin to fathom.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Keep getting stronger. Stay alive. Protect you. For now, we play our parts.”
We sit down and I eat a meal that I can’t help but feel is my last supper. “Any news on social media about stuff going on around the world?”
“Oh, you know, there’s that meme going around about the one guy who’s all ‘I’m not saying it’s aliens, except I’m totally going to do everything to imply that it is without outright stating it’. Lots of talk about the ‘world modifications’ being interplanetary highways and interstellar travel. We’ll be able to travel across the galaxy and see brand new sights.”
“I don’t think we’re ready for that just yet.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just a hunch.”
“Seraphina!” She gives me the stink eye. “Just a hunch?” She sighs. “Well, your hunches have been pretty spot-on so far, and I’m not going to doubt the speculation of someone who’s lived under the System before in a past life. What do you think will happen next?”
“The world gets harsher. More monsters. More dangerous dungeons. The monsters have danced around the outskirts of civilization, but they’ve been weak. They’ll get stronger, and their attacks will be more vicious. There will be new challenges that are designed to either break us or allow us to reach new heights.
“So far this has been pretty straightforward. We’ve been given time to adjust and adapt with the comforts of our old society. We’ve had the tutorial dungeon in the basement. The handful of encounters outside the dungeon have all been against low-level riffraff. The System has eased us into the integration. It wants as many people as possible to survive to the next stage of its plans. It wants us to get stronger. For what purpose, I don’t know.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I’ve got you, Sera, and I know that together we can make it through whatever happens next.”
“Circling back around to before. In a sense, I guess I’m an alien too.”
“Well, you’re a great friend, and that’s all that matters. I don’t care if you were once from another world. Honestly, it’s kinda cool!”
I smile. It’s nice, being able to be open with her and know that she’ll accept me just as I am.
“So, have you heard of any ideas other than aliens? Or any other news from your online followers?”
“There’s a lot of talk about what to do with kids and the System. Apparently, no one under the age of ten has been integrated, and they don’t have the opportunity to awaken to their class and abilities until they turn ten years old. Right down to the minute of their birth. Even accounts for leap years and seconds too!”
“That makes sense,” I say. “At some point, giving superpowers to kids is just asking them to misuse them. It’s why I don’t think the world is going to go completely down the gutter. If the System wants us to survive and level up as I think it does, then it will want us to continue to survive as a species. For that reason, I don’t think we’re going to see the most dire and apocalyptic scenarios as depicted in plenty of our media.”
“I want you to do something for me, Sera,” Chloe says. “I want you to take the rest of the afternoon to rest. I know you’re worried, but you said it yourself, right now, all we can do is go along with whatever the System has planned for us, and let the pieces fall where they may. And right now, the world is about to change, and we’ll have a better understanding of how best to move forward after the modifications happen.”
I roll my eyes. “You just want to beat me in every board game you have.”
Chloe grins. “Yeah, I might not get another opportunity once these last four hours pass. For old time’s sake? For my sake?”
I acquiesce. Damn it all, I can stare down a bully and curse a man out without any issue, but Chloe asks me for something nicely and I just melt like a stick of butter dropped into a frying pan. Guess we’ll just continue relying on one another through thick and thin like we always have.
Predictably, the gauntlet of board games proceeds in a manner not to my advantage. In the fourth round, I feel like I have an insurmountable lead. And then, true to form, just as victory is within my grasp, Chloe draws the exact cards she needs three turns in a row while I snatch defeat from victory’s jaws. She’s thankfully not a sore winner about it, and I take the loss in as good of cheer as I can muster.
The fifth game we play results in a total and complete skunking in Chloe’s favor. As in, epic yarns could be spun decades from now about how overwhelming my best friend’s victory was, and how equally calamitous was my defeat. Honestly, that game didn’t hurt as badly as the previous one did. Chloe wants to play one more, but after four crushing defeats and one near victory that stings more still, I request an end to the afternoon’s torture. Okay, it was still mostly fun. Still would have liked to have that victory for a change. I grumble a bit.
Afternoon comes and goes and the two of us enjoy this last respite of calm before the storm. Chloe posts some stories on one of her walls about how the two of us went into the local dungeon and did battle with giant boars. I don’t mind it myself, as long as she remains vague about exactly what she can do. I doubt there are too many other people who took a [Healer] type class, and I already know exactly how they can save your life when you’re in a rough spot.
Soon enough, the five o’clock hour arrives. I bring up the countdown, currently sitting at about thirteen minutes until modification. Chloe heads to her bathtub and we quickly clean the entire tub, then fill it up with cold water. Best case scenario, we waste a few pennies on the next month’s water bill. Worst case scenario, we save our lives.
We turn on the news. Plenty of talk about ongoing civil unrest and people whining about people ‘looting’ for food and other essentials, and no discussion about what’s due to happen any minute. The weather forecast is predicting more clear skies for the next several days, which is pretty surprising. This is usually the start of the rainy season.
Three minutes before the modifications begin, the screen goes black. Chloe tries to change the station. Nothing but black and static and messages about no signal available. We’re both unable to connect to the internet on our phones anymore. Chloe is understandably pissed; I’m relatively unperturbed. She panics, and I pull her into a hug and let her express her worry without judgement.
The ground shakes, not unlike how it did during the initial world modification. The paintings and pictures on the wall don’t shake or fall down, suggesting this is no natural phenomenon to be explained with conventional science and physics. The sky outside dims, as though covered with tinted glass, though the sun remains where it is relative to the horizon.
The timer hits zero. New notifications pop up in the side of my eye.
[Planet E3-971, local name ‘Earth’, Initialization countdown concluded. Checking ambient Ether levels… Stand by.]
[Ether levels judged to be within acceptable parameters. Current population of Humans is estimated at 8.01 billion. Scanning known myths, legends, and other historical records… Scanning complete.]
[Warning: Surface of Planet E3-971 is predominantly coated in water (Surface analysis complete: 71.22% water, 7.42% inhospitable land or glacier. 21.36% habitable landscape. Analyzing potential solutions, searching for alternative most consistent with System Directive AT-4416-ZXQB… Standing by.)]
[Analysis complete. Circumference of planet E3-971 insufficient to implement optimized design. Begin terraforming process. Circumference of the planet will be increased from 24,901 miles (equatorial measurement) to roughly 36,000 miles to compensate. Local gravitational constants will be modified accordingly to ensure continued habitability of the planet for native lifeforms. Pumping additional Ether into planet to maintain current density. Scanning distribution of human infrastructure to determine optimal overlay positioning. Analyzing plot… Analyzing… Analysis completed. Beginning terraforming.]
A general sense of weightlessness comes over me. Not enough to allow me to float in the air, but I feel light enough to jump Chloe’s house in a single bound. That feeling gradually subsides as the ground shakes, this time even more heavily than before.
The rumbling continues for the next five minutes, oscillating between periods of intense quakes and distant rumbles. We huddle together under the table for the next ten until we are certain that the quakes have stopped.
“Time to look around?” I ask.
Chloe still looks shaken, but she forces out a nod.