There was no sense of movement, but his surroundings instantly changed. One moment Max was running from that goon in the clearing, the next moment he was in a large room. There were a dozen people standing around, with more appearing every few seconds. They appeared one by one, a pop in reality and they were suddenly there, standing as if they had always been there.

Max looked around the room. This was it. This was the new world. An exciting feeling washed over him, like pin pricks all across his skin. The walls were stone, large rocks mortared into place. The floor and ceiling were wood, wide slabs that looked like they came from redwoods. There were thin arrow slits all around, providing plenty of white light. There were marks on the floor where furniture once stood, but it was gone now. The room was empty except for the people milling about.

It wasn’t long before people stopped popping in. Max did a quick count and saw about twenty four people here. It seemed like several portal jumpers had chickened out. Either that or they had been teleported to a different location. The majority of the room were saying variations of the word “status”. It looked like no one was having luck yet. Max turned to talk to James, only to realize he wasn’t there. They hadn’t been brought in next to each other.

James was on the other side of the room, walking towards Lily. Max took a moment to survey the portal jumpers that hadn’t chickened out. Off to his right were five people standing together, excitedly talking. One of them held a bow and another a tower shield. There were a few pairs standing on their own, whispering to each other. Near the center of the room were four Chinese men, loudly talking to each other in mandarin. The weapons enthusiasts had made it through the portal, each of them checking over their guns. The rest of the jumpers were solos, awkwardly standing alone. Some of them were better prepared than others. One particularly obese man didn’t even have a backpack with him.

By the time Max got there, James was standing between Lily and the Filipino woman in the suit. His hands were up like they had been fighting. The women were shorter than James' 5’6”, but he looked scared of them both. Max walked over to them. He didn’t understand a word. They were arguing in Tagalog.

Lily took pity on James and switched to English. “Look around. Do you see an exit portal?”

The suit looked around, seeing the empty room for the first time. Doubt crept into her features. She had long black hair in a tight ponytail and a line of tattoos across the side of her face. She was older than most people in the room. Max guessed she was in her thirties. Her hands clenched and unclenched over and over again.

“Why did you jump through? Didn’t they tell you there was no way back? All of us here knew this was a one way trip,” Lily said, compassion leaking into her voice.

“No,” she said through clenched teeth. “They say it safe. Why send me if no one return?”

Lily shook her head, “No one has ever come back to Earth in the twenty-five years since the portals started appearing.”

The suit looked like she was stuck between being angry and scared. Max put a gentle hand on her shoulder. She jerked back, flinging his hand off and put a hand behind her back like she was going for a gun.

Max put his hands up, “Hey, hey. I was just going to say, she’s right that no one has come back yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Most people left Earth on purpose and don’t want to go home. Maybe there’s a way home and no one found it because no one was looking.”

She frowned at him, but nodded. Her posture relaxed a bit. She pointed at Lily and said something else in Tagalog.

Lily looked like she was going to argue again, but then sighed and said, “Sure. If there’s a way back, I’ll come with you. I can always sneak off next year. I don’t want you to get in trouble for returning without me.”

James put his hands down and said, “Oh good. Glad that is handled now. Um... What was your name?”

She squinted at him and said, “I’m Yang Bao Bei. What is your name? Are you boyfriend?”

“Ah, no, no. I’m just a friend,” he said, then added, “I’m James Delaporte.”

“And I’m Max Kraft.”

Yang straightened her suit sleeves and said, “Ok. We go now. Look for way home.”

She pointed to a group of five people to their left. The floor hid a trap door and they had prized it open. There were stairs leading down. The five people walked down and their group of four followed them.

The room below this one was almost identical to the first, only the stairs differentiated it from the one above. There were the same scratches on the floor and the same hooks on the ceiling that indicated it had once been furnished. Despite looking very similar, it felt very different.

It took Max a few moments to realize why. There was something in the air, pressing in on him. It was a prickly feeling, like thousands of needles pressing into his every pore. It didn’t hurt, but the sensation was unsettling.

“Do you guys feel that too?” Max said as he ran his hands over his forearms.

James and Lily nodded.

“It feel bad,” Yang said. “Can you fix it?”

“I don’t know what it is, let alone how to stop it,” Max said.

Most of the portal jumpers followed them down to this new room. The five that had found the hatch leading down had found another. They opened it up, and then collapsed to the ground, convulsing. Max jumped back.

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It was too late. Moments later Max felt a shock wash across his brain. It was like a migraine came to visit and brought all of his family. He collapsed to the ground, twitching like the rest. He had his eyes screwed shut, but flashes of light and ovals of pain spread across his vision. Agony spread through his existence, but oblivion never found him.

Thirty seconds or an eternity later, it passed. He groaned and hesitantly opened his eyes, wary of it happening again. He felt fine. The pins and needles feeling was gone. He slowly stood up, his exo-legs helping him for once. The others warily rose with him.

Writing slowly spread across his vision, moving with his eyes. It was a strange script, curved and jagged, unlike any he had seen before. Once the writing finished, he understood what it meant.

[System Initializing]

Max threw a fist in the air and shouted for joy. He had a system now, just like in the novels he read. Hopefully this system would be more helpful than snarky. And god forbid it was anything like Dungeon Crawler Carl. He didn’t think he could handle a system with a foot fetish.

James came over and they gave each other fist bumps. Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. Yang was staring into space, clearly not expecting the writing. Max turned to her.

“Don’t worry. This is what we were expecting. The system is the AI that will grant us magic powers and help us get incrementally more powerful,” he said.

Yang focused on him and spat, “I don’t want a spirit in my head.”

Max chuckled. “I don’t think we have much choice. But trust me. You will be glad you have it soon.”

There were twenty people on the lower floor, four were still standing on the floor above, horror writ on their faces. It must have been scary to see everyone collapse like that. Max walked over to the stairs.

He waved them down. “Come on. It’s safe. It hurts, but it’s the process for gaining the system.”

That didn’t seem to help. One of them took a step back. One of the braver ones yelled back down. It was some language Max didn’t understand. It sounded very familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

“Sorry, I don’t speak that language, do you know English?” Max calmly called back. He gently motioned them down.

That only made them more agitated.

One of the Chinese guys joined him at the bottom of the stairs.

He turned to Max and said, “Your Mandarin is impressive, but why aren’t you speaking English? They are clearly American.”

Max narrowed his eyes. “I am speaking English. Are you hearing Mandarin?”

The guy took a step back. “Yes.” His eyes lit up and he smiled wide. “It must be translation magic. This is just like Journey of the Magic Archer. Everyone can understand each other, no matter if they are elves or orcs.”

“Excellent. That will make things so much easier. I would hate to have to learn a new language. Even with an enhanced mind like in Delve, it sounds like a real hassle,” Max said.

“English is a real hassle. Every rule of language is broken, all of them. There is no logic, only memorization. I am sure the language of the natives here is much better than English. It can’t be worse.”

Max chuckled. “Yeah, English is a bit ridiculous.”

He was about to say more, but the trap door above slammed shut. They must have been scared since they didn’t have the translation magic. The Chinese guy ran to his friends to get them to help him. Max shrugged. He didn’t know those four, he was just trying to be nice. If they wanted to hide in the teleportation room, it wouldn’t harm anyone. He turned back to his friends.

Lily was talking to Yang, explaining the basics of the system. The previous whispers from the portal had been varied and sometimes detailed. They had been able to put together a framework of educated guesses on how things worked. While they talked, James was muttering random words, trying to get the system to work.

“Hey guys, guess what?” Max said with a grin.

Yang and Lily looked up at him.

“Translation magic. Everyone hears in their native language,” he answered their unspoken question.

Yang tilted her head. “I’m speaking Tagalog, but you can understand me?”

“Yep.”

She scowled. “That’s why we got the blinding migraine. This pig magic is rooting around in my brain, stealing my mother’s words. I never agreed to let those dogs touch my mind.”

Yang looked around like she was trying to find someone to punch. Max took a step back and looked around the room for a distraction. The group of five had found another trap door and opened it up. More stairs. He wondered how many stories this tower had. Looking out the windows just showed an expanse of white with tinges of occasional green.

“Should we head down another flight?” Max asked.

James nodded. “Yes. I’m thinking that more of the system is unlocked the lower we go.”

“Well let’s hope it’s not too many more floors. I want to get to the good stuff,” Lily said.

Yang didn’t say anything, but she nodded her assent. They headed down another set of stairs. The new room seemed to be on the ground level. The floor was made of stone and there was an exit off to their left. It looked like a door had stood there once, but it had been knocked out. There was a large hole in the wall now, jagged edges of stone around the edges.

They had their first glimpse of the new world. Just outside were thousands of strange plants crowded together. It was a riot of green and blues with pops of red. It looked like someone had taken a jungle scene and added strange plants to make it more interesting. Ferns and bushes stood next to tree trunks that stretched up out of sight. Interspaced with them were plants that Max couldn’t categorize. Bulbous blue things looked like a pile of bath bubbles. Orange tendrils stretched up from the ground like seaweed and moved with a current only they could feel. Red flowers sprouted out of fractal plants that were hard to look at because the edges blurred.

James sat down and stared out the hole in the wall. He motioned for the others to join him. Max nodded and sat down too. If there was going to be another migraine storm, he might as well be sitting down for it.

Instead of pain, there was only wonder. Max wasn’t a botanist, but he found the new plants endlessly fascinating. They were proof that he was really here. There was nothing on Earth like it. They might even be magic plants.

[System Initialized]

[Beginning Card Assignment]

Max perked up. The general consensus was that cards were shorthand for the magic powers they were going to be given. He hoped he would get lightning powers. He would still be ecstatic with the basic magic missile, but it would be cool to get an overpowered magic talent right away.

The group of five that were always rushing ahead chose that moment to head outside. Max was glad for it. Let them get eaten by monsters while he stayed here safe. He was going to go the slow and steady route. He had no plans on getting himself in over his head in a strange new world.

Before they got far, something appeared out of the bushes.