“John Williams was an average man. Well, average until you looked too closely. If anyone were to look in detail, they would notice he was *too* average. John spent much of his time growing up trying to figure out how to appear average to his peers. The truth is, John was always calculating. Whether it’s in work, love, or just a normal conversation, it’s all a calculation. The coming of the apocalypse only reinforced this.”

* Excerpt from an interview about John Williams, with his mother.

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John Williams woke up on the grass. This was a questionable outcome, considering he had went to bed in, well, *a bed*. John could never sleep unless in a bed or moments from losing all his energy, which made this even more confusing. The blue screen floating above him is not exactly helping the situation. Now that he realized it, John decided to read the screen, hoping it may explain his situation a bit.

Integrating System…

Error: Neural network incompatible

Error: Neural network non-standard for Race: Human

Correcting…

Error: Neural Network Incompatible

Forcibly correct?

Error: No Input, forcible correction not initiated.

Implementing Best Fit…

Best Fit Implemented, System Privileges elevated to equalize lost functionality.

Welcome to the System!

You and 814,539,762,019 other sapients from your universe have been transported to The Tutorial! As your universe was previously uninitiated in any system, The System has determined you and all other beings in your universe will take part in a tutorial before being returned to a habitable planet in your universe. As of right now, you and 99,999 other beings are in the tutorial scenario [Forest Of The Damned]. Good Luck, Earthling!

Well, that explained why he was laying in grass, as well as the splitting headache. John sat up, and this action was apparently enough for the system to realize he was now conscious.

Hello, [Human?]!

Welcome to The System! You are an anomaly among your species, it seems! When the integration occurred, we here in The System had to give you some special privileges in order to get your interface working. Don’t worry, this will only help you. We thought it’d be good to assign an agent to your case, however, and they will be watching. Good luck!

Hint: Think or say the word Status!

John was no fool. John knew what was going on here, as he’d read a number of books that seemed to prophesize this, so he steeled himself and thought ‘Status.’ 

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Nothing happened. He was therefore confused, until right when he stopped anticipating it, his status screen popped into view, startling him back into laying on the grass.

John Williams

Race: [Human?]

Traits

Skills

Class

None

Adaptability

Level

1

Human Tenacity

Free Points

0

sys err(1);

Agility

11

Constitution

8

Dexterity

7

Intelligence

16

Strength

13

Willpower

20

‘Okay, well that was rude’. John grumbles in his head. ‘I need to get these to ridiculous levels' John is a simple man, with simple desires. You give him, presumably, the ability to increase his capabilities with the simple application of numbers, he's going to try and get them as high as possible, as fast as possible. It's what anyone would do, right? 'Focus up, John. [Human?]? What’s with the question mark?’ John focused on the race section, but what he got was not incredibly helpful.

Race: [Human?]

This is your race! Humans are adept at adapting to nearly any situation, but this is at the cost of in-built specialization. An ox will always lose a speed battle to a cheetah, just as a human of equal stats would lose a strength contest to an orc when all else is equal.

'Well that’s good and all, but does not explain the question mark. It does confirm the existence of orcs though. I’ll try and get more on those later.' John sits back up and, this time, gets to his feet. Looking around, there’s really not much of note. As far as he can tell, he’s just in a regular forest. ‘Of course, your average forest doesn’t come with ominous tidings about tutorials, but I digress,’ he thinks at nobody in particular. John decides that standing in this random area is not going to get him any answers, so he starts walking in a direction he has now decided is north.