Ethan could do nothing but watch as the unapologetic, huffing man ruined the shelf he’d been meticulously restocking. For a moment, he wished the ground would open, swallow the rude jerk and his stupid cans of soup, swallow him so he didn’t need to deal with this job anymore, then swallow the whole store. Because why not.

Ethan gave it a second, but unfortunately nothing happened. The older man turned the corner, still grumbling because he had to maneuver his bulky frame in the aisles, then he was gone.

The young man sighed and leaned down to pick up a dropped can when he felt his phone vibrate. He put the can in place and pulled his still-vibrating phone out of his pocket.

Ethan looked down at the phone. “Shit. What now?”

He’d hoped for a call from the placement agency he was supposed to hear back from days ago. They’d said he did well in his tests and interview, and they’d be in touch in two days.

Ethan ran a frustrated hand through his dark brown hair. It’d now been a week, and instead of that call, he found his phone screen flickering, turning on and off. When it was on, the image kept twisting and corrupting. Ethan narrowed his eyes–

“Ethan to the cash register, please. Ethan to the cash register.”

Ethan looked up at the speaker, then down at the box of cans in front of him.

This isn’t working.

He took two quick breaths, then stepped over the box he’d been unloading and headed to the front of the store. When he got there, he found a handful of people waiting, one of whom had portable speakers blasting some annoyingly catchy music. Ethan made his way toward the second cash register, and as he was typing the register’s password the music-playing kid spoke.

“Hurry up, broke boy.”

One of the girls with him tittered as Ethan looked over. The man–well, he looked barely twenty, actually–smiled, basking in the girl’s laugh. The second girl, who Ethan recognized, met his eyes for a moment before looking away.

“Why you looking at my girl, broke boy?”

This is really not working.

Ethan exhaled slowly and let the taunts roll past him as he scanned the items before bagging them. The annoying prick kept smiling and jeering, blasting his shitty music, and then, thankfully enough, he took his little posse and left.

Glancing to the side, he found his manager smiling at yet another apathetic customer as if they were some lost sibling.

For someone who owned this damn store, the man was ready to tolerate nearly everything from his customers, and he insisted on the same from his employees.

The rude young man’s clique continued laughing and blasting music as they entered their car. It had been difficult to not throw the bag in their faces. If this had been three or four years ago, Ethan would have done much worse, but, unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to get into trouble. He didn’t need his name in yet another news article. Plus, he already owed rent to his roommates, and he just couldn’t afford to be out of a job right now. Not when he wasn’t able to get a better one.

He knew it was because they’d searched his name and found out about the events involving his dead parents. Somehow, his father losing his marbles made Ethan radioactive to potential employers. Same for college programs that didn’t require him to pay an arm and a leg, and the rough few years that came after probably didn’t help his case.

Maybe I should just move. Canada could work. Change my name.

The problem was, forging a new identity would bring him back out of the straight and narrow path he was trying to stay on. Not that playing by the rules was doing much for him.

“Some people, huh?”

Ethan glanced up and met a man’s eye. A tired office-worker, by the looks of him. The older man gave him a small smile and nod, and Ethan reciprocated. He didn’t need to force the smile.

“Yup.”

The man gave him a chuckle and continued putting his articles on the counter. Ethan quickly scanned him and wished him a nice evening before he processed the rest of the customers. He pushed away the crappy memories, and considered speaking with the old man about potentially moving somewhere else. His ex-foster would most likely tell him to stop whining, but there’d probably be a useful nugget of wisdom in that old codger’s rants.

With that done, Ethan trudged back to his peaceful corner. He paused for a second, looking at his own blue-eyed reflection on the refrigerator glass-door and grimaced. He was looking pale. When was the last time he spent more than a few minutes in the sun?

Ethan sighed. He turned his attention back to the box of cans, and as he was leaning over, the ground began to shake.

It started small, but the rumble quickly gained strength. Ethan stumbled as a sense of panic burst into his chest. The rows of products began dropping within seconds, while the lights flickered and turned off.

Ethan rushed toward the exit, falling on the way. Screams filled his ears, coming from inside the store and outside it. Ethan pushed the door open and stepped into the cold evening. Lamp lights were flickering, but that was the least interesting thing he saw.

The sky was full of lights, and Ethan knew for a fact those weren’t the northern lights. Usually those were green and rippled in colors, while what Ethan was seeing was just… blue.

Slowly, the earthquake eased down. The night was filled with shouts, car alarms, and general building alarms. Something began to warm up in his chest. In his limbs. Like a shiver, but instead of feeling cold, it burned. Before he could make sense of anything, a bunch of glowing text popped in front of him, and Ethan’s back hit the wall.

Greater reality found…

Sub-par mana levels detected. Tampering detected. Corrective measures in progress…

Optimizing System to reality core…

Number of inhabited realms: Calculating…

Implementing standard load-out for inhabitants…

At the same time he read that last line, the heat in his stomach and limbs turned from embers to a roaring fire. Pained screams rose from all around him, which he could barely perceive above his own. The pain built up, burning, tearing into his flesh and bones and then–darkness took him.

***

Ethan’s eyes fluttered open to a repetitive beep sounding in his head. He slowly pushed himself up, against the wall, limbs freezing. Bleary-eyed, he tried to look around, but a flashing prompt wouldn’t leave his sight.

Finally, he looked at it.

Pick a class of wand to finish the load-out process. Countdown until random selection: 43 seconds.

Spellcaster: A classic and flexible wand capable of rapidly casting all manner of spells. A popular choice with combatants and noncombatants. Free Modifier-class spell and free General-class spell will be provided.

Armament: A wand that morphs into an offensive or defensive armament when the Armament-spell is placed in the Form slot, cast spells, and moderately boosts the user’s stats. Often popular with warriors. Free Armament-class spell will be provided.

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Enhancer: A wand that morphs into a body alteration to allow for various magical effects when the Enhancer-spell is placed in the Form slot, cast spells, and greatly boosts the user’s stats. Often popular with hand-to-hand fighters, and the default choice of monsters. Free Enhancer-class spell will be provided.

Ethan’s eyes widened, and a sense of alarm began to swell as the countdown ticked lower.

What is this? Wands? Load-out? Stats?

Ethan had no clue what was happening, but clearly, he needed to make a choice, whatever that meant. He couldn’t get stuck with something random. And what was that about monsters?

“What is even happening?” he breathed out, then shook his head. “Focus, dammit.”

Okay. Let’s think this through. But quick. What are the options?

Spellcaster. Sounds flexible. Ethan assumed the spells to be classic fantasy stuff like fireballs and magic missiles and whatnot. It seemed to be the safe choice, and it came with a modifier–whatever that is–and an general-class spell.

Next was an Armament-class wand. What would that be like? Swords? Shields? Would guns be an option? He wasn’t good with any of those, so that didn’t sound too good. Moderate stats as well, whatever that meant. It also came with only a modifier.

Lastly, the Enhancer wand. The part where it greatly boosted stats was attractive. Ethan had some experience with hand-to-hand fighting–and an unfortunate amount of street fighting–so this could be a valid option. But what did it imply? What kind of magical effects would it create? This one didn’t come with a modifier. Only the Enhancer-spell.

Countdown until random selection: 11 seconds.

“Shit. Fuck.”

Spellcaster wands could give him something disappointing, but he could handle himself in a fight, so he could always leverage a physical boost—if that was what stat-boost meant. Maybe later he could explore other options, if changing was possible, but right now, the choice was clear.

Enhancement-class wand selected.

“Okay. Good.”

His heart was hammering itself out of his chest, but before Ethan could recover from the choice he’d had to rush and try making sense of what was happening, another prompt popped in front of him.

Select a starting tier-0 Enhancement-class spell. Countdown until random selection: 60 seconds.

Claws: Summon powerful claws to tear into your opponents

Tail: Summon a flexible and powerful tail to catch your opponents unaware

Scales: Summon protective scales to shield you

Horns: Summon horns to empower your magic

Eyes: Summon eyes to empower and improve your sight

“Okay. Alright, ” Ethan mumbled to himself. Hearing his own voice helped keep him on task. “Let’s see the options. One by one.”

Claws looked interesting, but that was a large change from what Ethan was used to. He knew how to fight with his fists, not with his hands open, though something sharp would always be valuable.

Tail… no. It might have some interesting uses, but it would awkward for both offense and defense. Actually, now that he looked at the rest, most options were either awkward or too situational. The horns seemed interesting, and he knew a well-timed head-butt could finish up fights quickly, but were they as good as Claws or Scales? He didn’t think so. Same for the Tail. Taking the legs from under someone was a nice trick, but it might only work once thanks to the surprise effect.

Ethan nodded to himself as he went through the list again. So far, only Claws and Scales were appealing to him for a first pick.

Scales look like the defensive option, which would be valuable if there were unknown dangers around. Assuming he wasn’t the only one going through this selection process, there would be alot of offensive spells in the hands of all sorts of folks. Would scales work against that?

Defense would only work if I don’t get bogged down, though, Ethan thought. When ganged up on, you can’t just brace. You either run or drop as many enemies as you can.

Ethan exhaled and hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.

The Enhancement-class spell [Claws] was selected.

Enhancement-class spell [Claws] successfully set as default spell of wand #1.

A hot sensation sunk into Ethan and spread down to his arms. His fingers tingled for a few seconds, and then the sensation stopped. No new prompt appeared.

Ethan looked around. Here and there, some people were getting up from the ground. He hadn’t been the only one who’d passed out. Carefully, he pulled out his phone and looking down at it, he found it turned off. He tried to turn it on, over and over, but nothing worked.

He knew it had been fully charged. No mistake there. Whatever was happening seemed to have knocked it out, along with most of the electric grid. It was still night, but the only light Ethan could see was the blue lights and the stars beyond them.

Some people began calling out for others. Some began to shout and scream, so Ethan kept his distance, which was when a new prompt showed up.

Mana-less protocol activating…

Integration tutorials will be made available shortly…

Participation is not optional. Please find and enter the closest portal to your location.

Early participants will be rewarded.

Countdown until forceful integration in the tutorial: 60 minutes.

First portal instance in 3…2…1

The prompt reduced itself, and instantly the sky was filled with green globes of light, with the closest being almost directly above Ethan.

He looked up, mouth open, then back down in the direction of the green light. A couple hundred yards ahead, a green-hued gateway shone into the night.

A new start.

An opportunity.

Ethan couldn’t help his nervous grin. He had no idea what was happening. He didn't know if this was some sort of apocalypse, if these were aliens, or if this was all a dream, but he didn’t hate any of it.

Actually, he fucking loved it. And he definitely wanted that early-bird reward. So he started discreetly making his way toward the portal.

People kept shouting, some began to group up, and to Ethan’s alarm he began seeing flashes of light into the night, which he had no intent of approaching.

Chaos, wands, and no electricity? Dead phones?

Ethan grimly shook his head. That tutorial might be safer than being out here. Plus, it’s a tutorial. What better place was there to make sense of all of this?

A couple of people were already walking into the portal. They stepped into the green light and disappeared.

That’s not a vaporizing light, I hope.

Ethan considered for a moment, then shook his head.

Nah. If anything could do all of this, why would it—or they—need to trick people to vaporize them? That’d make no sense. Still, I gotta hurry up or I’ll miss out on the bonus.

As he continued making his way toward it, he remembered the old bastard and hoped he was safe. Then Ethan shook his head and smiled. Who was he kidding? That relic was probably already inside.

The green doorway was only twenty feet away when someone called out to him. A familiar voice.

“Help!”

Ethan looked to his right, and in the half-darkness he saw a black sports car. An upside-down sports car. Approaching it, he recognized the young man who’d been taunting him only a short while ago. Beyond the man, the car was empty.

It seemed like his company had abandoned him when he got into this accident. Though thankfully for the man, he didn’t seem injured at all. Only a little stuck. Just needed a couple more minutes and he’d be out.

“Help me, please. I’m stuck. Please!”

Ethan looked up at the doorway. More people were approaching it. He gazed back down at the young man who’d spent a good while mocking him barely minutes ago, gave him a nod and a smile, then turned and continued toward the portal.

“I’ll find you, asshole. I’ll fucking kill you! I’ll kill you!”

Ethan turned, raised an eyebrow at the trapped young man, then chuckled and walked away. “Sure. I’ll be waiting.”

And with that, he stepped toward the green light and removed his red uniform vest, leaving him in a simple white t-shirt that matched his khaki pants. He shared a look with a young woman wearing a gray pants-suit whom he’d never seen before, though he recognized that gleam of excitement in her eyes, and they both stepped into the rippling green light.