Ed squinted his eyes at the little blue screen in front of him.

Somewhat hesitantly, he glanced around at the rest of his bedroom. Socks in a corner, closet still open. Predictably, the little blue box stubbornly refused to budge from its spot stuck between his eyes.

He poked it a little. Then almost jumped out of his covers in surprise as it suddenly enlarged like some sort of… well… Ed rubbed his eyes. Video game message.

He frowned, looking around his room again. Or maybe hud was a better word for it. While he still wasn’t too sure if he was just imagining things or not, a little red Hp bar sat up near the left hand corner of his vision now, along with a smaller blue one with an M and a short yellow one with an S.

There was also a tiny minimap of all things on the other. Along with yet another little blue box, except this time with a small symbol he really wasn’t too sure about scribbled onto it. If he squinted, it sort of looked like a cross? Suddenly it sort of indented into itself a little as if he had somehow clicked it with a mouse and then, if rather abruptly, what he could only really describe as a, well, status screen all but manhandled it’s way into his sights.

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This time Ed actually fell out of his bed. There was a loud thump and a small yelp from below.

“Ed?!” Harriet called from below. “Are you ok sweetie?”

“Yah!” Ed somehow managed to gulp out. “Perfectly normal! Everything is fine up here!”

Everything was not fine. There was a large blue box telling him he had 10 hp, 5 mana, 3 stamina and something called ‘sight’ level 0: 1% below a large second box called skills. All under the large bold letters practically yelling at him that his name was indeed Edwin Alexander Marmet. Level 1.

Oooo-kay then.

“Edwin?” His door clicked open with a crack and Harriet poked her head in. “There was a loud thump from up here, are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah! Uh, I just fell out of bed a little.” Ed said as casually as he could muster. Trying, and somewhat failing at untangling himself from his blanket. Though, he did manage to get out a hand. “I’ll be down in a bit!” He gave a smile and a singular thumbs up. His other one just wouldn’t get out.

Harriet wrinkled her nose. “O-k.” She started to close the door. “Just... remember to air that thing out.”

Well, that probably answered that. Harriet had looked straight through the apparent status screen. So this was either some sort of delusion or well—Ed gulped again, though very quietly this time—he had a system.