With a labored squeaking, the old window slid open on the eighth floor office. Slowly, gently, the stuffy heated air from within the room began to filter out in a light breeze. The office, so used to being shut up tight, let out a small sigh of relief.

Sighing along with it, Anthony wiped his forehead with a sodden towel. He had fond memories of when it was simply moist, several hours ago.

It was still hot as hell, though. Just didn’t feel as stuffy in here yet.

On reflection, the memories were only fond in comparison.

He tossed the wet towel over a spare chair in the room, where it would hang to dry. With slight remorse, he stepped away from the window and its gentle breeze, and moved back to his desk. He sank into his chair and groaned in discomfort. The towel wasn’t the only thing that was wet.

A sudden clunky whooshing from the ceiling startled him out of his musings on the discomforts of the day, and a blissfully chill breeze filled the room. He leaned forward in the chair with bated breath, barely daring to hope.

After a few seconds, the air conditioning sputtered back into lifelessness.

He sighed, turning toward the open door. “Jansen! Are you there?”

There was the sound of a chair scraping in the hall before a disheveled man peered into the office, with a stack of files in hand. “What’s up, boss?”

Anthony gestured up at the ceiling in frustration. “Do we have any updates about the AC?”

Jansen shook his head, which was a risky proposition with how sweaty the man was. “No sir. They aren’t sure yet if it’s just a power issue, or if there is something with the AC that needs fixing. It isn’t everywhere, thankfully, so we should be able to get through the heatwave fine, but last I heard there were some enchanters working on solutions.”

Anthony grunted. “They got anything that can replace our need for the power grid to keep working?”

His assistant shook his head. “They’ve mostly got band-aid fixes for the bigger issues. On that note,” he said, offering up the files in his hand. “I have the results from the Volunteer exams, as well as the rest of the Vanguard reports for the day.”

“Hopefully there’s some good news.” Anthony reached out, grabbing the small stack of papers. He sighed as he turned them so he could read them. I’m already sick of reading reports all the time.

Jansen nodded. “Two passes and a fail. You’ll find detailed notes on the groups that made it through, but they should both be able to handle themselves out in the wild.”

“Hmph.” Anthony started skimming through the reports, distracting himself from the discomfort of the day. That’s one thing, at least. If we keep making progress like this outside, we might be able to tackle the power issue sooner rather than later.

He flipped to the next page, and a frown crossed his brows. Well. Hopefully.

Volunteer Exam, 1st Sitting

Number of groups participating: 3

Detailed descriptions and thoughts on all individuals and their abilities can be found on page 3

Overall results: 2 passed, 1 failed

In the course of the exam the examinees successfully reclaimed Little Oak park.

The attempts by groups 2 and 3 to reclaim Vandenilis Station and an abandoned bus near the community have ended in failure. However, valuable intel was gained in the attempts.

No casualties occurred, though a few members of group 3 came close, and group 2 encountered a beast far more capable than their group.

Group 1 is small, and well aligned for combat. Group 2 is larger, and it is the opinion of the examiners that they will be able to adapt to a variety of situations and tasks in the future. Group 3 is largely caught up in the ‘grinding fever’ that has been going around in the combat divisions of the Vanguard. We would advise not allowing them to retake the exam until safety procedures are more developed.

He grimaced at that. ‘Grinding fever’ was, unfortunately, a phrase that was going around a little too often for his tastes. This ‘System’ they were working with now was, he’d been told, very reminiscent of how progression in video games worked. Modern video games were well tuned to take advantage of humans' natural drive for rewards, especially the predatory ones. Toss in tangible, real world gains in strength and powers, and even the most maliciously built game would pale in comparison.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Often, Anthony wondered if whatever alien races had designed the System suffered from the same biologically driven tendencies. If it was built solely to drive those within it to push, as hard as they could, against the world around them in a pursuit of power. Or, perhaps, it was built by a race that didn’t feel the same ambitions that humanity tended toward.

If the world hadn’t ended in quite the same way, if there were no monsters and everyone was still here… I think we’d be the monsters. Any schmuck could get power if they were just willing to be a little evil. I mean, forget individuals, no way governments would turn that down.

He groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Jesus, it’s too hot to be thinking about this kind of shit.”

He flipped to the individual reports on the exam and gave them a quick look over. It was about what he expected, though he made sure to read through it anyway. He regretted missing out on some of the more combat oriented individuals for the Vanguard, but he knew that this way was better. Even in the Volunteers, he could still get some work out of them.

The air conditioning started up again, blowing cool air into the room before sputtering fitfully off.

“Jansen! Get the city maps and the squad leaders. If the rank and file are getting antsy out in the field, we’ll give ‘em something useful to work toward. Maybe they’ll be extra motivated to grind if it can keep the lights on.”

The dark of the pathways whispered as she walked. It had been long since she’d needed to be in this place, and it was always an adjustment after being in proper space. Here, the world had a will, and she wasn’t welcome.

Fortunately, that will was bound so tightly it could barely have thoughts of its own.

Even then, it had still managed to worm its destructive way through the barrier between worlds. In this dark corner of the Aetheric Plane, it could still see through the little holes that intelligent life always managed to poke in the membrane of their world.

Even imprisoned in this way, this will, this thought made manifest had wreaked havoc on people, and planets.

Entire worlds, laid to waste.

She didn’t like to walk these pathways, into this prison. With each step it whispered to her. It knew her, as it knew all Administrators. It knew what she loved, and what she feared. It knew her past, and it taunted her with what it wanted for her future.

At this point, it was easy for her to ignore. After all, it was losing. Slowly but surely, the lost worlds were being cleared. With careful administration, fewer worlds were being lost than those being found.

Tutorial worlds were still at a premium, especially with the recent influx from Earth, but things were steadily getting better.

As she walked the dark, narrow path, she stuck her hand into the inky black beside it. She trailed her hand gently through the numerous chains that spanned the space outside, surrounding the entirety of the Aetheric structure she was in. They gave form to the metaphysical, allowing for the existence of a bounded reality within the boundless plane that this prison existed in.

The chains gave off a light tinkling noise as she walked, a welcome counterbalance to the ambience of the path.

Soon, she found herself at an intersection. The only intersection she would need to take, this new section was more solid than her path, more real. As she stepped off her walkway, the narrow tunnel that she’d opened collapsed in on itself. Not with a resounding crash, but with the smooth, sibilant whisper of chains moving against each other, coiling in tighter.

She was left in silence, standing in the middle of a hallway. Down the path to her left, the shackled remains of a constructed being so powerful it’s existence still poisoned every layer of reality it came into contact with. To the right, the door it had opened near Earth, along with all the filters and levers that an Administrator could pull to manage its existence in that world.

She turned right, and walked confidently down the path. It didn’t take her long; this space bent to the Administrators’ needs.

This door she was headed toward, the System Gateway for Earth, was structured like any other Gateway that the System tried to open to a new world. Most of it was contained to the Aetheric Plane, the infinite void of Aether between worlds. Here, the Wardens and Jailers of generations past had ensured that each Gateway would adhere to the same simple, functional design. It was a spherical living quarter, simply furnished, with a console set in front of the Gateway.

Through the Gateway, an Administrator could see a glimpse of the world they were working with. Thanks to strong wards, it could not be seen from the other side. At the console, Administrators could manage the System in this world. In ages past, when the System was new, often Administrators had to spend extensive amounts of time fine tuning their worlds. Some worlds had been corrupted enough to warrant full time Wardens.

This Administrator stepped into the space, and gazed out at the world before her. It was a pleasant blue orb in the distance, with a bright sun picked out against the starry backdrop. It was beautiful.

She mourned for them, that they had been spotted by the System.

With a sigh, she sat at the console.

And blinked, confused.

“‘[Log][Chen Xiao Dong] Error! Teleportation capacity exceeded.’, ‘[Log][Prakash Patel] Error! Teleportation capacity exceeded.’, ‘[Log][Skill Conversion] Unknown magic: Nuclear Fission.’” She scrolled, bewildered. “What is all this? How many planets in this world were Integrated?”

Clicking through a few menus, she looked for an overview of the notices she had to deal with. “It’s all from Earth? And there are…” She froze, staring at the display.

Over a billion logs on specific individuals that the System had deemed relevant enough to mark for Administrator oversight. Millions and millions of errors with Integrating existing knowledge and items. Read outs on the state of the world that shouldn’t be possible for a world that the System found.

Sinking into the chair, she stared wordlessly out at the little blue orb in the distance.

She was glad for the Jailers insight in designing this space. She would be here for a while.