He sat in bed, doing nothing, he wanted to sleep, but that refused to come.

Even after hours of doom scrolling through a couple of different social media apps he just couldn't get comfortable. Something just felt off.

Sure this wasn’t uncommon, but tonight it didn’t feel like his often present anxiety or even a bout of existential dread brought on by his depression.

Sure he did feel like he would be better off, probably, he had no clue what more there was, what lay beyond if you would.

It had actually been a good day, he hadn’t had a long nap like usual, even managed to do the dishes and get some laundry done. That is to say he had filled the dishwasher but not emptied it when it was done and put some close through the washing machine and dryer but not folded or put the clothes away.

Rolling over he tried to get comfortable, he really should be tired, but he wasn’t.

Something flickered in the corner of the room. The sudden movement caused him to sit up trying to catch whatever had triggered one of the most primitive parts of his brain.

But as he moved it moved and it was gone.

Well that was weird almost as if…

And it was back again, slightly larger than before and it wasn’t something in the room with him. It floated in space before him, moving as he moved his head, fixed within a specific spot of his vision.

He blinked trying to clear the hallucination. Still there, heck it was even there in the moment he had his eyes closed.

“What the-“ That’s a loading symbol if I’ve ever seen one.

Up in the the top right corner of his vision was a little white circle that pulsed gently as it slowly filled up.

If he hadn’t played hours of VR games he might be a little disturbed by little visual disturbance. Worse if he hadn’t read hours of admittedly unrealistic LitRPGs he would probably be freaking out.

He would have to re assess the assertion that LitRPGs were unrealistic when the thing finished doing whatever it was doing, hopefully he wouldn't also be freaking out when the time came.

Although he could have finally gone mad. That was a possibility.

Getting out of bed he decided to get ready, he wasn't going to face the impending madness in a pair of boxers, no matter what flavour of madness it would turn out to be.

Dressed in a clean pair of jeans a black t-shirt and a few serviceable pairs of socks and underwear stuffed into backpack that had tucked away in his closet he made for the door of his room to go get his boots from downstairs.

But the door wouldn’t budge, he couldn’t even get the handle to turn.

“Oh come on, system fuckery already.” He glanced at the little circle, “your not even halfway done doing what ever this thing is doing to me.” Wait, is this happening to other people.

Dashing back over to his bedside he picked up his phone and “yup of course it is, system fuckery it is.” He checked everything, his phone, tablet and even the ebook he had were dead, wouldn't turn on.

This was definitely some kind of system fuckery because his lights still worked.

After trying a few different charging cables without any luck he ended up pocketing his phone anyway because who knows what could end up happening.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

No real point worry about things now. Sure he couldn't contact family, but they lived close so once this was over he should be able to get to them… if he survived, or wasn't mad.

Sitting on the end of his bed he put on his crocks as he lamented his walking boots being stuck downstairs, at least they were all terrain crocks, with the reinforced rubber covering the foam soles. More expensive then the typical crocks and even better, he had got them on sale. They were a tight fit with his socks but he would worry about fashion when he had a better idea about what was actually happening.

There was about one third of the odd little pulsing circle left when he peeked out the window, why he hadn’t looked out the window until now he didn’t know. But he also hadn’t checked his phone straight away which he assumed he would have.

Outside was a little odd, it was late, or early depending on how you looked at it. At around 2am in the morning non of the neighbours had their lights on and at first glance everything seemed normal. He had half expected to see other people peering out of their rooms, maybe trying to get someone's attention or even out right panicking. It was actually peaceful.

For a moment he wondered if he was actually in a padded cell somewhere and that was why he was stuck in his room. but surly if he could hallucinate his room he could hallucinate the rest of the house, would be nice if he could get his damn boots, that and other some other stuff, rope?, who was kidding no he had no rope in the house. would twine or sting be useful? he thought.

Try to squash the pointless thoughts his too calm mind was working through as he waited for the circle to fill he finally realised what was wrong with the street outside his window. Looking at the cat up the road as it hovered in place, mid jump from the neighbour fence. Nothing outside was actually moving, not even swaying in the breeze, it went beyond the calm stillness of a windless night.

He was thinking about revising the possibility of madness when the painfully slow loading circle did what all loading bars and there follow ups the loading icons have done since their first conception. It pulsed bright and the last quarter completed all at once.

And with that and the sudden appearance of a blue box filled with white text floating out in front of him as he ungracefully fell back trying to avoid it only for it to follow his retreat to where he now sat on the end of his bed.

Welcome to the multiverse!

Compatible Sapience found.

He sat there reading the message in front of him, fresh lines of text populating the blue window just as he finished the last line of what was displayed.

Planetary Analysis Complete.

Results below Minimum System Standards:

Planet grade: F

Well that’s harsh. But not knowing what this System actually considers standard I shouldn’t really be commenting.

Eather levels below minimum requirements for Immediate integration.

Eather investment required…

Requesting Eather…

All Requests denied.

Again that was harsh, he didn’t even know what this ‘Eather’ was, but it must be important if it was one of the first things it checked for. And apparently no one wanted to help us out with an investment.

Initialising Rift Protocols.

Assessing Sapient Life:

Sapient life below Minimum System Standards.

Assessing Dominant Civilisation:

Dominant Civilisation below Minimum System Standards.

He was beginning to sense a pattern here.

Life Expectancy of Dominant Sapient Civilisation…

1.23%

That’s- that’s bad, very bad.

Time until Life Expectancy Meets Minimum System Standards.

Extinction / Total Collapse of Civilisation Exceeds Requirements.

He Shrugged, yeah that’s seems about right for how things are going at the moment. If he wasn’t so strangly calm right now he would probable be panicking. He wondered if other people were seeing this, how were they reacting.

Re-Requesting Eather Investment…

All Requests denied.

Offering Rewards…

All Requests denied.

Stingy. But could he really whoever it was for not investing in a grade F world that was already on the edge of total collapse. Not worth the investment, or rewards apparently.

Assessment: Tutorial Required.

Finally! This is what he had been waiting for, only fair to get a tutorial, that’s how the books typically did it anyway, that and computer games. Shaking that last thought, if the books said anything, people who treat this situation as a game usually died fast, or became really really overpowered…

Standard System Integration Tutorial Survival Rate Bellow Minimum System Standards.

“Shit!” at this point it was beginning to look like system integration was going to kill all life on the planet or leave humanity to wipe itself out.

Assessment: Tutorial Calibration Required.

“Oh thank god… Wait, thank System?!?”