Chapter 3

System Uploading…

System Uploading…

System installing..

Installation Complete.

Waking up I find that my head is aching and I’ve got a crick in my neck. I find myself on the floor with my head tilted at an angle because of a bench leg. Starting to hear people moving around me I begin to sit up and see what happened. I know we just finished breakfast and was beginning to get up and get a move on when it just goes black and I don’t remember what happened. Finally sitting up with my back against the bench behind me, a message imposes itself on my vision.

“Welcome to the system.”

“Congratulations, your area of space has been added to the system. The system is ever expanding and adding more of the Galaxies to its influence. Things are changing and the system will help you survive. Warning provided by The Galactic Council. Law 187.45 section B”

What the hell. I think to myself. I see an X in the top right of the message and focus on closing it. It closes just like Any other app in my link. By now it looks like everyone is moving and some are starting to talk over each other. It all kind of meshes together into an unrecognizable mess of words. Just as everyone begins to quiet down another message begins to type itself in my vision.

Stolen story; please report.

System Interface Initializing… New System User Detected… Analyzing host… Determining Base Statistics.. Analyzing Hosts Skills.. Analysis Complete.

Name: Declan Kincaid

Age: 24 years old

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Level: 0

Health: 100/100

Mana: 80/80

Statistics

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution : 5

Intelligence: 4

Wisdom: 5

Charisma: 5

Skills: Cooking, Carpentry, Masonry, Intermediate Construction… See full Skill list? Y/N

As I read over the message being generated in my vision I can’t help but to think that this looks like an old RPG interface. I was a gamer when I was younger. I played D&D on the tabletop and later some MMORPG's “massively multiplayer online role playing games" when I was around fourteen. But this couldn’t be real. Could it?

I shake my head and blink my eyes a few dozen times, before pinching myself. Ok the message is still there. I see another X in the top corner of the message and I think about closing the message. It appears to roll up from the bottom and shrink to a little box in the top of my vision that says Status. After I see that I notice other new options at the top of my vision where my link options used to be. From left to right I see Status, Inventory, Skills. Well it’s official, I think to myself. I have either gone crazy or whoever programmed the ARK to help us is messing with everyone here.