Wyatt studied the status text floating in his vision.

Wyatt Willaby Johnson

Level: 0

Stats:

• Nervous System: 13

• Immune System: 9

• Hard Tissue: 11

• Soft Tissue: 11

• Energy: 0

Skills:

• [Debuffer]

• Empty

• Empty

Level zero, but at least I have stats. Does everyone get the same starting stats, or are they based on my body?

Nervous System was his highest, and he did have faster reflexes than most people.

Maybe ten is average?

Energy? Is that like endurance, or magic? There’s no magic stat, but that doesn’t mean anything, there might not be spells. Then again, I got the skill Debuffer, which sounds spell-like.

And I don’t feel like I’m lacking in energy, so it must be magic. Or it might represent the generator rather than the container.

He continued contemplating, only incidentally noticing the people staring at him. Some were simply in shock, others were expressing their confusion vociferously. Most were trying to make calls or texts on their phones, which were obviously not working.

Bailey—twenty-two, archaeology major, Spanish parents but doesn’t speak any Spanish, broke up with me but sometimes acts like she didn’t, stoic—was crying, staring down at a cracked phone screen.

He adjusted his assessment of her. He’d known her longer than anyone else here, and yet this was the first time he’d seen her cry.

Then again, these weren’t normal circumstances.

Jack was grinning like mad, exclaiming to his phone as he filmed himself, the group, and the nothing around them. “—like BOOM! Then we were here. I don’t know where here is.” He shook his head in amused disbelief. “It’s fucking wild, you guys. Your comments aren’t loading for some reason… Oh yeah, I’m not live.” He chuckled. “Feels weird. I have no signal.” His smile faded. “I really am just talking to myself now. I mean, I may never even get to post this… We might not…” His face went blank and he lowered his phone without seeming to notice.

The tour guide Camila was attempting to organize the group, her voice firm yet soothing.

Wyatt absently took note of that. Probably something only a woman could pull off though. Maybe an old man.

He realized he’d gotten distracted from contemplating his stats. That happened a lot to him.

I feel like some stats are missing. These only cover what seems like bones, muscles, immune system, and nervous system. What about brain? Or maybe that’s included in Nervous System. Or it’s simply not a stat. And shouldn’t there be organs?

Help, he tried thinking. Then said it aloud. Then he tried touching the stats.

The text flashed, but nothing else happened.

“Huh.”

He closed his eyes, and tried touching the text again. He couldn’t see his hand, but it was still easy to do. It flashed again.

He couldn’t quite tell if there was any physical sensation accompanying it.

He tried touching it mentally, without using his hand. Nothing happened.

He tried dismissing it. This worked.

Another thought brought it back.

It can read minds, or perhaps some other non-verbal signal. That’s not surprising if it can change us, which seems a reasonable assumption since I’ve been assigned a skill.

I need to test the skill.

When he opened his eyes he saw Jasmine—twenty-four, Australian, keeps trying to show me her OnlyFans, has a thing for younger guys—approaching him. “Nice Johnson, Johnson. But maybe put it away before you give all the men a complex.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Need toilet paper first,” he answered absently, now considering the message that had appeared before his stats.

Experimental time remaining? Is this some sort of experiment, or is that how long we have left to experiment?

He wished the message had used less ambiguous grammar. He was no Hemingway, but one thing his English teacher drilled into him was never be ambiguous. He quite liked that idea.

If only other people followed it more often.

Trial 1 has only two days remaining… What kind of trial does it mean? The trial by fire type, or the experimental trial? Or maybe both. And what happens when the time runs out?

Jasmine tsked and shook her head. “You go on and ponder what in the bloody fuck’s going on. But in the meanwhile…” She dug around in her purse.

She kept her purse and all her clothes, but I lost my shorts and shoes. My shorts I can see, but why my shoes? Did they come off without me noticing while my guts were betraying me?

Jasmine pulled out several moist towelettes from her purse and handed them to him. “You can do it yourself.”

He did, the few people who had been gawking at him looking away.

He didn’t understand why people were so weird about perfectly natural things. No one freaked out when a dog relieved itself.

And yet people loved dirty jokes. He never understood why people found sex jokes funny, but it was a useful way to make people comfortable.

Make them uncomfortable to make them comfortable. But only sometimes. And now apparently wasn’t one of those times.

People were so weird.

Maybe I should make a joke?

But he couldn’t think of one.

He’d normally have made more of an effort to not seem weird, but he was distracted. Also, the only place for some privacy was the pyramid, and that was hundreds of yards away. It’d be weirder to walk all that distance with his boxers around his ankles.

And taking them off seemed even weirder.

Freshened up, he pulled his boxers up, then moved away from the mess he’d made.

He scanned the surroundings again. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It looked much like other sites they’d visited over the past week, just with less signage.

I shouldn’t assume we’re still on Earth.

He looked up.

Only one sun.

That didn’t prove anything, though. An unusual number of moons or suns would have indicated not being on Earth, but having only one didn’t tell him anything for certain.

In the far distance, he noticed something in the sky, like a vague spiral, hazed by atmosphere. It seemed to go all the way up into space.

Space elevator? Maybe it wasn’t them who’d been transported, but the whole world that had changed. Maybe they’d been invaded. Or maybe it was thousands or millions of years into the future and they’d just come out of stasis. Or been flung forward into—

“What are you thinking?” Jasmine asked.

He hadn’t realized she was standing there. She must have come up beside him without him noticing.

He put on a half-smile. People seemed more at ease when he did that. “If I had to guess, we were transported somewhere or when, perhaps on Earth, perhaps not. You got the message, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “Floating text like in one of your video games.”

My video games. She’s only known me a week, yet acts overly familiar. Wait, is that why she kept urging me to drink more last night? Or is that just how all Australians act?

“A little different,” he answered. He had to make an effort to not get lost in thought and forget to respond to someone. ‘People can’t hear your thoughts, Wyatt. Remember to say the things you want them to know. They can’t understand you if you don’t talk.’ “More realistic. Except for Energy. What is yours at?”

She opened her mouth to respond but he spoke again, “Actually, what are all your stats? Do you have a skill?”

She started to reply.

“No wait, can you show me?”

She waited to make sure he was done, then said, “I have no idea.”

“Show.”

“What?”

He held up a hand. “I’m talking to the message. Show stats. Show status.”

Nothing.

“Share status. Share stats.”

Nothing.

He touched his stats. They flashed. “Can you see these?”

“All I see is you touching air, bloke.”

“Okay just tell me then.”

“Tell you what?”

“Your stats. And skills.”

“My stats? What—” She blinked. “Oh. They just appeared. That’s not disturbing. Um, it’s… level zero, five Nervous, fourteen Immune, six Hard Tissue, four Soft, and zero Energy. No skills.” She grinned. “But I have heaps it doesn’t list.”

“Interesting. Both Nervous System and Soft Tissue are about half mine, and girls are roughly half as strong as guys, overall.” He frowned. “That depends on the exercise, and whether you’re equating for—” He stopped himself. Don’t get too detailed, people will tune out, and in turn view you less favorably.

He made himself chuckle. “Anyway, the relevant part is that the stats that I think represent your strength are roughly half of mine. So I’m thinking they aren’t random, but represent our base physical nature.” He frowned. “Your Immune is higher than mine… I wonder… Was it influenced by our disposition at the moment of analysis…”

I vaguely remember something about girls having more reactive immune systems than guys. Would that increase Immune System, or decrease it?

He shook his head, catching himself getting lost in thought again.

“Either way, that’s why Energy is zero. I think it’s something like magic, and—as far as I know—no one can do magic.”

“Uh, I think I can now,” Jasmine said. “I just got a skill.”

Wyatt frowned. “Did you just get a message about acclimation?”

“Yeah, while you were talking.” She chuckled but also grimaced at the same time. Mock disgust. Whatever she said next shouldn’t be taken as an insult. “Of course you already figured it out first, nerd. I got something called…” She frowned. “Ugh, even I’m a little embarrassed to say.”

“You, embarrassed? Now I have to know.” He grinned. People liked when he did that.

She grimaced. “Waste Eater.”

“Hm.” Wyatt focused on his [Debuffer] skill, trying to get a description for it.

Jasmine waited, looking at the other members of the tour group. Now pretty much everyone was on their phones. Some were walking around, holding them high to the sky, trying to get a signal, while others were just staring blankly at the screen.

Some people just took longer to accept reality than others.

As Wyatt worked through every iteration of command—mental, verbal, and otherwise—he could come up with, he absently noted that the only other people who seemed to have kept their wits were Camila the tour guide and Akira—unknown age, Asians are hard to read, probably rich, polite yet firm, looks like a businessman but likely isn’t actually one, strange faded tattoos.

Maybe Emma as well. She was just sitting there, looking mysterious. As always.

She didn’t even have her phone out.

Weird.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Jasmine finally said. Once she had worked out what he was trying to do—which she’d done quickly—she’d joined him in trying to get information on her own skill.

However nothing either of them tried worked to get more information than what they’d already been given. Which was just the name of the skill.

Bringing up their stats was easy enough, as was dismissing them. A simple, almost unconscious, thought was all it took.

But that was all they could do.

Which left only one way of figuring out what their skills did.

He smiled, looking at Jasmine. “Well then, how about we see if we can do magic?”