Matt stood alone in an open wild-grass field. Wind hushed towards him, grasses rolling in soft waves. It took a moment for his mind to catch up. He remembered white, and a menu, and then numbers ticking down…

Matt spread his hands above the grass ocean’s surface, feeling the blade tips dance beneath his palms. There were mountains in the distance. Where am I? Matt thought. Then Fallyn, Sharkie, Kurtis, Anika, Karen—they were all standing there too. Or did I just not notice?

Their bright green names were now underlined with a thin bar, the same color. The names were left justified with the line extending to the right and capped off with a small number zero above the end. After a moment, the whole thing faded and disappeared. The wind gushed as if nudging their group together, and then the crowd was there too, radiating out in all directions.

“Is it finally gone?” Manuele waved a hand above his head.

Sharkie nodded and Anika squeezed Manuele’s arm with a smile.

The crowd sounded like a real crowd in this place; the volume rose with questions, shock, panic. It was perhaps a bit quieter than Matt thought it should have been—like someone turned down a cosmic dial a few notches—but he could hear beyond his group.

Matt could also see the extent of the crowd more clearly in this field. There were so many people. He guessed they spanned a kilometer. With spacing… about a million, he estimated. Feeling warm, Matt rolled up his sleeves.

“It’s beautiful,” said Anika quietly.

Fallyn gazed off at the mountains and tucked her hair behind one ear.

“Where are we?” Manuele asked.

Matt was just trying to take it all in: the crowd, the mountains, the field. It felt as surreal as the white room—maybe more.

“Did they just drop us in Washington State?” Sharkie half-laughed.

“It looks like The Revenant,” Manuele said. “I guess Rocky Mountains.”

“Or Twilight,” Sharkie doubled down. “Ooh, or it could be X-men, New York State!”

“Guys, think ‘Stats Menu,’” Fallyn instructed.

Stats Menu.

A black window covered one-third of Matt’s view, hovering a few feet in front of his face—just like the menu in the white room. This time, it said ‘Stats’ at the top. It listed his name below that, along with ‘Level 0 Warrior.’ Then it showed five categories of stats: Primary, Regen, Enhance, Withstand, and Journey.

“Hey Kurtis, is this normal?” Matt asked.

“Uh, sure?” Kurtis said, swishing his tail.

Who am I kidding, none of this is normal. They were in a freaking video game. Matt found himself wishing he’d spent more time gaming with his roommates back in school.

In second year undergrad, Matt had moved off campus. He’d rented a bedroom in an old house that probably had more tenants than was legal. A couple of the guys were big gamers and often tried to get him to play. He’d caved a few times when he didn’t have a big test or assignment—and if there was a free version—but he usually had some sort of schoolwork to do.

He’d busted his ass for four years and then rushed into another three for his PEP. And then he’d immediately started working. How did it all go by so fast?

Matt read through the stats in the black window in front of him. ‘Primary: health 1000, mana 1000, stamina 1000.’ Is that good? The ‘Regen’ ones all said ‘25.’ He could guess what most of the stats did but had no context for the numbers. He kept reading but felt more and more lost. ‘Enhance: weapon power 1, critical power 2, critical chance 1%. Withstand: physical resist 0, magical resist 0.’

Zero can’t be good. Shit. Not unless I’m trying to balance the books.

He scanned the final category. ‘Journey: walk speed 5, jog speed 10, sprint speed 30, vision distance 5, stealth chance 50%.’

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Video game!” Sharkie affirmed, with a big smile on her face.

“Looks like they really start us at the bottom,” Kurtis said.

“Look at the speeds,” Fallyn directed.

Matt concentrated on the first one, walk speed, and a small text window opened up. He read, ‘Walk speed: 5km/h. May be enhanced by skill points, trinkets, buffs. Maximum walk speed: 7.5km/h.’ He wished he knew what a normal walking pace was. He was just used to road speeds. The damn 30km school zones felt slow, but this was walking.

“Why the heck is it in kilometers?” Sharkie demanded.

“Because I think we’re in Vancouver,” Fallyn said.

“Well…” Kurtis pointed upward and grimaced.

High above, hung three moons, lightly visible against the blue-gray sky. One looked like the moon, one was bigger and whiter, and then the third was smaller and slightly pink.

“Well, that’s different,” Matt said.

“You got that right,” Sharkie followed.

Manuele crossed himself.

“You do that now?” Sharkie raised an eyebrow at Karen.

“So, what class did everyone choose?” Anika asked. “I chose mage.”

“Mage,” said Fallyn, flashing a quiet smile.

“Me three!” said Kurtis.

So much for coordination.

“I chose warrior,” shared Manuele.

“Survivalist!” exclaimed Sharkie.

“Warrior,” said Matt, pointing two thumbs at his chest.

Manuele gasped, “We are the same! Warrior buddies!”

Matt responded with a shrug and a smile as a line of yellow text appeared, scrolling across the bottom of his field of view. It vaguely reminded him of a news ticker.

Dad liked the news; he often left it running on mute. Matt hoped his parents were okay. They were definitely older than the demographics of this place. They were somewhere else, or maybe even at home wondering why he was late for dinner.

How long has it been since the office? The sky looked like afternoon. If this is Vancouver-ish, he reminded himself, they’re three hours behind. I’ll go along with this for now, Subconscious, but you’d better make it good.

The ticker continued to cycle, and Matt picked it up mid-sentence: ‘Menu, Quest Log, Map. Quests are designed to help you acclimate.’ It started again: ‘ANNOUNCEMENT. Welcome to Human Preserve 1. Familiarize yourself with Skills Menu, Stats Menu, Aspect Menu, Quest Log, Map. Quests are designed to help you acclimate.’

Matt glanced off at the mountains, then thought, Why not? Skills Menu. The black window opened. My awesome mind powers continue! Matt resisted the urge to raise his fists in a super-villain pose.

The window said ‘Skills’ at the top, as expected. But this time there were three tabs, one for each of his aspect gems: school bus yellow, red, and blue. The first tab was open. There was a column of five squares.

The first one held an icon, the rest were blank. The image was a sideways hand on a yellow background, similar to the gem color. Matt read the text beside it: ‘Slapchop 1 (0/100). Slap your troubles away. Single-target unarmed skill. Weak damage, low stamina cost.’

The four blank skills just had one line beside them. Matt read: ‘Unlocks at level 5. Unlocks at level 10. Unlocks and level 15. Unlocks at level 15.’

Matt pushed back his curls. “Hey guys, do you have this Slapchop thing?”

“Yeah and other stuff,” Sharkie said, “but not active yet.”

Matt thought Blood and opened the next tab. There were three skills listed, but they were grayed out. It wasn’t like the other tab where there were messages about unlocking at a later level. They had icons, names, and full descriptions.

Matt read the first one: ‘Blood Slash (spend Skill Point to activate). A moderate horizontal weapon attack hitting 1-3 targets in front of you. Low stamina cost.’

Wish I knew what ‘moderate’ and ‘low’ meant. He waited for another window to pop up, but got nothing. Playing hard to get?

Matt gave up and continued reading, ‘Adrenaline (spend Skill Point to activate). Increases stamina +500 and stamina regen +500.’ ‘Conk (spend Skill Point to activate). Hit ‘em real hard on the head. Stun one enemy for 3 seconds. Medium stamina cost.’

With one more tab to check out, Matt thought, Protection. No wait, Blood. The tab toggled forward then back. I wonder… Blue Stone. The tab changed again. Interesting. Then Matt tapped his fingers together in a different super-villain pose.

The Protection tab only had two skills, both with the ‘spend Skill Point to activate’ note in brackets. So, that meant Matt had six skills unlocked, one active, and four more to unlock at levels 5, 10, and 15.

The first skill in Protection was called ‘Bulwark.’ Its description said, ‘Hold a shielding position. Physical resistance increased by 50% while held. Cannot move or cast while holding. Low stamina cost every second. 3-minute cooldown.’ Matt could see why that fit with Protection.

The final skill was called ‘Rapid Regeneration’—a heal. Matt read the details: ‘Heal yourself for 1000 x weapon power health over 15 seconds. Low mana cost.’

Close menu? Does—yep that works.

“So, we need to find squirrels?” Fallyn said skeptically.

“The poor little squirrels. They didn’t do anything to you,” Manuel protested.

“You’re not one of those people who keep squirrels for pets are you?” Sharkie grumbled.

“No, my nonna has a cat though.”

Matt liked cats; they just never liked him. His neighbor’s cat was a terror.

Fallyn smiled. “The Quest Log. It says we need to kill 10 squirrels. I would feel guilty, but there’s no way this is real.”

Matt hadn’t made it to the Quest Log yet. He opened it now.

There was a quest titled ‘Those Darn Squirrels.’ Then below it, the description read: ‘Dear traveler, I am desperate. The squirrels steal my belongings and then cackle at me. They hurl acorns at me and my camp. Every. Single. Day. Go show the squirrels who’s boss. I’ll have a reward for you. Sincerely, Septimus Flower. Kill squirrels: 0/10.’

“Classic kill quest. Neat.” Kurtis said.

“Let’s go get some squirrels!” Sharkie rallied.