John was suddenly and completely awake. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, speeding his ability to shoot from the bed to a standing position fists up and at the ready. That was when the rational part of his brain and his bad back caught up and reminded him that he wasn't a young man anymore. Taking a quick glance around he found nothing in the room beyond the soft blue light of the Light String strung around the corners of his bedroom. Realizing that his fists were still raised in his best approximation of a fighting stance that he could muster, feeling slightly foolish he let them drop. John didn't know the first thing about fighting, in fact it would be fair to say that he knew less than nothing, seeing as the only training John had ever done was a single weekend at a YMCA located near his home when he was seven years old.
Casting his gaze around the room to take a second look, he again found nothing was out of place. He listened trying to detect any abnormal sounds, which he found hard to do as his heart was beating like a drum. Still after a few seconds all that met his ears was the pure stillness of the early morning. Reaching over to his desk he picked up his phone, seeing that it was barely half past three in the morning, john let out a light almost nervous chuckle at himself before trying to focus on calming his heartbeat.
It was at this time that a blue screen popped into being right in front of his eyes. Surprised by the sudden appearance, John made a not so manly scream as he jumped back in shock. After about a second he realized that the blue screen was still hovering directly in front of his vision. The blue screen sat directly in front of his sight line about a foot away from his face. Moving his head side to side and then up and down did nothing to alter the floating screens location.
Moving his hand up John tried to directly interact with the screen in front of him only for his hand to hit nothing but air. Having had zero effect, John put his hand down as the floating blue box continued to sit stubbornly in front of him as if waiting for some kind of input. The box was familiar in that it resembled the same prompts utilized in almost every fantasy game ever developed and distributed. As he took a closer look the box was filled with some kind of language, the problem was that it was completely unknown to him.
The characters he studied were simple and elegant yet they carried a weight even he could feel. John felt the whole of his being drawn to this seemingly simple text box floating in front of him. From the moment he had really started to try and read the text in front of him John was absolutely sure that these letters and words would offer him something profound if he could just understand them. Yet as he stared, the beautifully rendered characters shifted from their flowing lines to plain English and it felt lesser for its new and understandable form. The momentary enthrallment he had just felt vanished like it had never been. He found himself slightly sad that the original text had disappeared. Instead he started reading the now familiar language.
"Greetings beings of planet 3458813452-B, In accordance with the removal of the System Prevention Engine that had been attached to your sector of space; your sector can now properly integrate into the greater universe. The System will start its integration in sixty seconds. Please note that while sector integration is often a turbulent time filled with numerous opportunities, we of the Galactic Planetary Government highly recommend that any sapient beings below level 20 to please refrain from partaking of the event for your own safety.
After reading the last word on the screen, the blue box disappeared as though it had never existed.
What the fuck was that? John asked in the empty air.
looking around nothing seemed to be happening. John pinched his arm hard and the expected pain came. He swore as this more or less confirmed that this was indeed real to John.
Realizing that he was standing in his boxers and nothing else he decided that if nothing else being dressed would be a good move. John grabbed a random pair of jeans along with one of his favorite flannel shirts and quickly put them on. After getting the basics articles of clothing on he had calmed down enough that he was starting to think that perhaps he had just caught the tail end of a waking dream. That was a real thing right?
It was at this moment that another bright blue box decided to appear right in front of face once again without any warning causing him to startle and lose his balance in surprise. Hitting the ground with a not so quiet thud. John groaned with the impact. At forty years old, even these small falls had started to hurt. John wasn’t obese but he wasn’t in great shape either so getting back to his feet took no small amount of effort, his back and knees complaining all the way. Once back on his feet he glared at the bright blue box before starting to read it once again.
System warning.
Mana Density threshold failed to register.
Density threshold recalibrated. Error Detected. Increasing sensitivity.
Density threshold recalibrated. Error Detected. Increasing sensitivity.
Density threshold recalibrated. Error Detected. Increasing sensitivity.
Density threshold recalibrated. Error Detected. Increasing sensitivity.
Density threshold recalibrated. Error Detected. Increasing sensitivity.
Density threshold Found. Estimated at 0.00000000000000001 parts per million.
Error detected. Mana Density too low for Integration.
As the bright blue boxes shifted to red and yellow with large error codes, apprehension started building in John. He kept reading, not even recognizing that as soon as he read a line of text the information automatically moved down.
Requesting Corrective Action Protocols.
Correct Action Protocols received and approved. Emergency Full System Reset initialization approved.
“John’s unease rose through the roof, how the hell do you reset reality? You can’t just unplug life and plug it back in. Can you?
Corrective Mana Density threshold set to galactic Standard 500 Parts per million.
Initialization Starts in Sixty Seconds.
System Warning
All Denizens are strongly recommended to leave the sector, as Emergency System Reset Protocols have been Initiated.
Seconds 60
Seconds 59
Seconds 58
Seconds 57
Seconds 56
Seconds 55
Seconds 54
"What the bloody hell does that all mean?" John questioned out loud.
"What do you mean, leave the sector? How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Looking back at the clock it had continued to tick down unconcerned with John's questions.
Seconds 30
Seconds 29
Seconds 28
Feeling a bit panicked, John started looking around for his shoes and raced over to pull them on. After slipping his shoes on which had turned into a bit of a challenge when he could only view his shoes from the corner of his eye, he glanced at the ever present floating screen. The seconds were still counting down.
Seconds 10
Seconds 9
Seconds 8
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John, who had just taken a few steps toward the door to his room, stopped moving. Where in the hell could he go in seven seconds? As he watched the clock continue to tick down to zero he braced himself. He wasn't sure what was about to happen but the system message had recommended being out of the sector; so it couldn't be good. Then the clock hit 1 second and then another message replaced it. John let out a breath of air as he relaxed for a moment and read the new system message.
System Error Detected
Eleven billion sapient beings detected on Planet 3458813452-B.
Corrective action required. Quarry Sent.
Quarry Response. Failed.
Quarry Response. Failed.
Quarry Response. Failed.
Quarry Response. Failed.
Quarry Response. Failed.
Quarry Response. Failed.
Error Basic Quarry failed. Upgrading Quarry threshold.
Quarry Sent.
Quarry Response received.
Emergency Safe Zone Protocols Enacted.
A small wave of relief flooded John at the thought of a safe zone being available.
Safe Zone Created. Teleportation initiated.
Error detected. Mana density is too low. Teleportation failed.
"God Damnit" John shouted as the system seemed determined to give him a heart attack. John wasn’t sure what was worse; being happy that a “Safe Zone and teleportation was being orchestrated somehow, or the fact that he was rooting for what would amount to an alien abduction being his best choice.
Sapient beings detected. Under Galactic Standard Law Chapter 6051 subsection of "Integration of new worlds" Chapter three, paragraph 6, subsection D-12. Emergency mana generation protocols have been activated.
Siphoning mana from surrounding sectors to compensate for mana deficiency initiated.
Teleport Protocols re-initiated.
Error. Teleport failed. Mana accumulators unable to retrieve necessary mana for full sapient
teleport.
Lottery Teleport Protocols initiated.
John couldn't believe his eyes. What the fuck are lottery protocols? How did that work? Was he suddenly about to play the largest game of drawing lots?
Lottery Teleport preliminary sequence completed.
Lottery Teleport activating.
John closed his eyes waiting for something to happen. When he felt nothing, he waited a couple more seconds before opening his eyes. He was still in his room and a blue box continued to float in front of his face.
Lottery Teleport Completed. Ninety Seven percent of sapients have been teleported to the temporary safe zone.
Under Galactic Standard Law Chapter 6051 subsection of "Integration of new worlds" Chapter three, paragraph 8 Emergency procedures. With more than ninety percent of sapient beings removed, full reset is now acceptable.
After reading the last line and the fact that nothing had changed from John’s perspective. The reality of his situation slammed into him.
“Fucking figures” he muttered. Now what? Then as if in answer to his question another blue box appeared in his vision.
Full System Integration Resumed.
He had barely even finished reading the line when his world went white. The light was so bright that he immediately closed his eyes and threw up his hands to try and shield himself from the intensity. Before he could even try to get his bearings, pain like he had never felt before exploded through him. It was like every cell in his body was suddenly lit on fire.
The sensation of burning permeated over his entire body. It was all encompassing. John couldn’t scream even if he wanted to. His entire being was nothing but burning pain. The normal human reaction to this level of pain was to pass out, yet the universe decided to laugh at him as he didn’t pass out. It just continued endlessly. As eternity stretched John could tell that his soul was starting to crack, yet there was nothing he could do about it. His mind was unable to process anything besides the searing pain. When the encroaching darkness of death descended John welcomed and embraced it. Finally the burning had stopped.
When awareness returned to John, the first thing that he noticed was that he felt calm, warm and safe. He felt sleepy like he had just awoken from the world's best nap and he just needed five more minutes. Everything felt right. He just needed to go back to the soothing darkness and everything would be fine. He was just about to let himself sink back into the darkness when his memories caught up and he remembered the white light and the pain. John opened his eyes and quickly tried to get the lay of the land. The absence of pain was the first real thing that he processed. The memory of the pain faded into obscurity almost as if it hadn’t happened. The calm returned. The Warmth and comfort gently washed over him, coaxing him to just close his eyes and enjoy the darkness.
As John started to surrender to warmth, something deep inside also stirred. It rose up and demanded that he stay awake. It roared and thrashed at the very idea of going back to the darkness and in no uncertain terms it demanded that he stay awake and fight off the lie that was giving into the darkness. John wasn’t sure what it was that he was reacting to so strongly but every instinct he possessed urged him to listen. At the urge to fight back he made his choice and decided to listen to his instincts even if he didn’t understand the how and the why of it. He started fighting the pull of sleep and in response the pull seemed to redouble its effort. He found himself starting to sink back into the darkness. When he heard another roar of defiance from deep inside. With a start John snapped awake fully alert. The overwhelming sense of calm, comfort and safety also vanished as if the force that was controlling it conceded defeat to that inner roar.
John, now wide awake, tried to take a look around to see where he was. What met his gaze was not something he ever thought he would see. His immediate surroundings were in a varying degree of gray scale like some kind of weird filter had been placed over his eyes. As awareness of his surroundings and his sense of self returned he found that he was surrounded by what appeared to be hundreds of gray spherical orbs, mostly transparent but still seemingly solid. They were each about the size of a basketball, and each of them contained a dim light that came from within the center of their transparent bodies.
John also realized that he shared the same qualities as these floating basketballs.The fact that this did not send him into an existential panic immediately was curious but he felt perhaps with everything that had happened he had lost the ability to freak out. The next thing he realized was that they were all moving toward something unseen. John could feel the pull of an unknown force upon his new body. If anything it felt akin to being pulled down river by a strong current.
Again a sense of correctness started to wash over him trying to lure him back to the darkness yet this time it was weak and easily ignored, not the overwhelming sense he had experienced before. Shoving that feeling to the back of his mind he started to try and figure out what was going on.
Turns out being a basketball shaped globe was incredibly boring. He had no active control over his movement nor could he communicate vocally, which made sense as he didn’t seem to have a mouth or vocal cords. At first he had attempted to try and communicate with the other basketball sized globes floating around him by trying to think loudly at them, but nothing happened. They either couldn’t hear him or refused to speak with him. John reasoned that perhaps they were all asleep like he had been and it was frustrating. Having no ability to move, and no way to communicate was probably the second worst experience he had ever had. Add to the fact that while he did appear to be moving nothing really changed in his immediate surroundings. It was like he was floating through some kind of gargantuan pipe. No new details were added to his surroundings. It was almost like fog. He could see the immediate area around him for what he guessed was maybe a couple hundred feet and then it was just a gray haze beyond that point.
As he floated ever onward, John continued to try and move. Each attempt resulted in failure; his new body simply didn’t seem to have a way to propagate movement. As he sat there in the silence of his own mind a strange thought occurred to him. What if he attempted to will himself forward? After all, isn't that how magic was supposed to work in all of the fiction he had ever read? Considering that he had already spent who knows how long attempting conventional movement he figured what the hell. He stopped attempting to move and calmed his mind. When he felt calm he imagined himself moving forward through the gray nothing that existed all around him. He pictured himself floating forward and then it happened. He moved.
“Hell yes!” he shouted, breaking his concentration, and he immediately stopped moving.
Focusing again he brought back the image of himself moving towards the closest basketball shaped globe. Again he started moving toward it. After a few seconds the mental strain of keeping the image in his mind started to become too much and soon the image broke apart. His whole being felt sore, like had just ran a marathon. Opening himself up to the area around him he noticed that the distance between himself and his target had barely changed.
The next thing that made him pause was the exhaustion he now felt. Considering he was more or less an amorphous blob that was actually kind of interesting. How could he feel sore and tired? He had spent countless hours, possibly even days, doing absolutely nothing while stuck in this odd location and hadn’t felt a touch of fatigue… He wasn’t really sure how long he had been awake, as there was no real way to judge the passage of time, yet the fact remained that he felt completely spent. Looking at his target destination he realized that he only really moved a few centimeters before he had been forced to stop.
“Oh come on, how can that much effort only be worth a few measly centimeters?” he asked himself as he continued to float along the current. Time passed, and the feeling of exhaustion slowly dissipated to the point that John felt ready to make another attempt. Again focusing inward, he brought up the mental image of his body moving toward his target basketball and willed himself forward. Again, his mental image strained after a few seconds and then completely broke apart. The same feeling of exhaustion permeated through him once more. After recovering, John decided to check his progress and found that he had indeed moved a few centimeters closer than his first attempt. So, his ability to move was increasing? This was the push he needed. He knew that his current abilities to move were laughable, but the fact that it could be improved was all that mattered. On top of that, it seemed that he had nothing but time. With this new goal John started a cycle. Move, recover, then move again. Cycle after cycle took place and John slowly started moving towards his destination.
Time passed slowly as John repeated the cycle over and over again. He didn’t care how many times he had to build up the image in his mind and willed himself forward only for it to shatter time after time. John kept at it, reconstructing his mental image again and again. Each cycle lasted longer than the last as the mental effort of maintaining his mental image gradually lessened. John was lost to the endless repetition, one could even consider it a form of meditation as he lost himself in his singular focus to move forward. It wasn’t until he felt himself come to a halt as his new body rammed into his target. This instantly broke him out of the fuge like state he was in and the of with the thrill of success surging through him. He had done it. He had finally made contact with one of his fellows.
Just as he was in the middle of congratulating himself his mind was inundated with the images and memories that were not his own.