Jett started the day by being reborn.
Which was how he usually started the day. Or rather, this specific day.
Lying on his back, he opened his eyes to gaze at the clear sky above.
“Greetings citizens of Earth!”
A voice boomed from somewhere, startling the birds in a tree crown nearby, prompting them to fly off.
He observed their paths, their flying patterns the exact same as last time. As every single time.
“And welcome to the Tutorial!”, the voice droned on.
Various different sounds filled the air, ranging from excited chattering to despairing cries to confused mumbling.
Jett kept his eyes glued to the sky, while the voice, which seemed to come from everywhere at once, started introducing them to the Tutorial.
By now he knew the whole introduction by heart.
It would continue telling them about the upcoming challenges, how the Tutorial would introduce them to the System and the workings of the new world. How it would help them get stronger. How they could gain fantastical power and usher in a new, glorious age for humanity in Alyrra.
Surprisingly, most of that was true.
But also terribly misleading.
He still remembered his first day, how excited he had been while listening to the introduction, and how eager he was to explore this new world.
Now, he just kept laying on the ground, while the thousands of people around him, who moments ago had just been clamoring around from suddenly being ripped from their old reality, had started to listen attentively to the introduction.
He was… tired.
Soon the trials would start, which were supposed to teach humanity how to survive and fight against Alyrra’s inhabitants. There would be all kinds of challenges and objectives with (seemingly) amazing rewards, but at the end, only a fraction would make it through to the other world. Of course the remaining humans would all have a high grade, some nice skills, items and mild trauma under their belt. But even then, they were still not prepared for what was to come in Alyrra… the torment that awaited them.
Honestly, he sometimes felt like simply elevating their grade right away and throwing them into Alyrra was a better “Tutorial” then whatever the hell this shit was. The Tutorial just gave them the false impression that they actually had a fighting chance.
Choose a starting weapon.
While he was cursing the Tutorial in his mind, a blue, transparent window suddenly appeared before his eyes.
He looked at it.
He knew if he willed it, it would open a list of weapons he could choose from.
A list he also knew by heart, as he had wielded every single weapon on it already.
Usually he would pick something straight away, but this time he just kept staring at it.
He didn’t even remember what he wanted to choose this round.
… I don’t want to.
Not anymore.
He dismissed the prompt, which turned into a small speck of light and flew to the edge of his vision. Not cluttering his sight anymore, but continuously reminding him that it was there.
One of the annoying things about System prompts. They always made sure you never forgot them.
He let out a sigh and kept staring at the beautiful blue sky, which looked the same as his home planet's sky. In fact, he was pretty sure they were on Earth, or at least something resembling it, as much of the vegetation and fauna was identical.
This was pretty much the only thing he liked about the Tutorial. A way to remember what his home planet looked like, before he once again had to go to that cursed world with its dirty orange sky.
Around him he could hear the whoosh of rapidly displaced air, as weapons started to get summoned into the Tutorial participants’ hands.
The tiny speck of light suddenly flew from the edge of his vision back to the center again.
Choose a starting weapon.
What?
He stared at the prompt.
It wasn’t normal for a System prompt to come back to attention on its own.
Is this some Tutorial bullshit? Making sure I choose something? Can’t even relax for a minute here…
He dismissed it again.
It came back.
Choose a starting weapon.
“No, fuck you.”
He resolved to just staring at the sky again, blatantly ignoring the text floating in front of his eyes.
Could he have just chosen a weapon and continued relaxing for the rest of the initialization period?
Sure.
But honestly… he was just done with all of this. He had lost count of how many battles he fought, how many people he had seen dying, how often he himself died gruesome and painful deaths. How often he had to repeat everything, running headfirst into the things that killed him in the last regression.
Some might think you would get used to pain and death after having experienced it so many times… but those people were just delusional. As if you could ever get used to getting burned alive by a Pyreworm or ripped to pieces by a Glitterswarm.
Which were both things that happened quite frequently in Alyrra. Or maybe just to him? He was the only one he knew who died to the same thing more than once, after all.
No… no, he was done. No more. No more splitting his head trying to think of the thousand different ways this world can develop, trying to figure out the optimal path to prevent humanity's destruction. No more suffering endless repetitions, finding companions and friends over and over again only to once more lead them into another hopeless fight.
I never asked for this stupid power.
Whoever gave me this, take it and give it to someone else. I don’t want it.
I can’t do this anymore.
His eyes wandered around, past the people swinging their new weapons around like children, and up to the mountains in the north.
I could just stay here for a few regressions. Maybe a few hundred.
The Tutorial does have quite a nice view after all.
Warning!
The first trial is about to start.
Please choose a starting weapon!
The notification had morphed into a bigger one with even more annoying text, now fully obstructing his view.
I don’t care.
Jett closed his eyes and kept lying on his back, unmoving.
All around him excited and nervous voices resounded; people were gathering into groups, making plans, discussing strategies. Each of them was doing their best to prepare for the upcoming trials.
Jett fell asleep.
****
“Greetings citizens of Earth!”
With a start, Laira opened her eyes.
“And welcome to the Tutorial!” a voice hammered into her head, seemingly coming from everywhere.
“Ughh…”, she groaned and held her head.
“Turn it off Cleo!”
What responded was not the voice of her sister, but cries and yells from many other directions.
She let out another groan and tried to orient herself.
Where the hell am I? Are those… trees!?
She swept her red hair strands away and let her eyes wander around what looked like a large clearing with trees surrounding them everywhere.
Is this a festival? Did I black out? I don’t remember how I got here..
She tried going through her recent memories, attempting to figure out how she went from sitting in her room to lying in a forest.
But her memory trip was soon interrupted again by the booming voice.
“You have all been chosen to explore a new world!” it resounded, though a little less loud and painful this time.
“Soon you shall challenge yourself in multiple trials, to prepare yourself for this wondrous new world!”
What the hell is that dude talking about?
If it was a new world, wouldn’t it have different trees?
I bet we are in a stupid game-show. I’m gonna fucking sue whoever drugged me and dragged me into this!
Laira moved her attention away from the voice, instead starting to look around and trying to figure out if she recognized anyone in the crowd of people surrounding her.
She was soon rewarded when she finally spotted the telltale gray-black hair and black clothes of her little sister in the distance.
“Cleo!”, she cried out.
Obviously, her sister didn’t hear her over the large distance.
Laira stood up, wobbling and almost falling over again.
She patted down her dress, removing most of the dirt clinging to it.
"Why couldn't I have worn something more practical..." she mumbled under her breath.
Well, not like one can plan for getting kidnapped.
Laira dismissed the random thought and started walking towards where she had seen her sister.
She made it over half of the way when a blue textbox appeared.
She froze.
****
Cleo, in this moment, was the happiest she had ever been in her entire life.
Ever.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She was thrilled.
The moment she was startled awake by the voice she instantly came to a conclusion.
This is it!
The things she fantasized about from reading all those webnovels were actually happening! Other, perhaps more rational, people might first think about other possibilities, like suffering from an alcohol or drug induced blackout.
But for her everything was clear.
The world finally granted her a chance to take her life back into her own hands! She soaked in all the information the voice told them, raptly listening to every single word. With every word she turned more giddy, almost bouncing up and down on her feet.
So there is a System, huh? Nice!
But it didn't really explain much about it, just that the Tutorial should help us to get to know it.
Couldn't it be more liberal with information?
Many other questions had also appeared in her head during the introduction. How long would the trials last? What kind of world was Alyrra? Why were they chosen in particular? Was humanity the only race that was chosen? Deep in thought, Cleo almost missed the rest of the voice’s speech.
“… build a grand civilization for yourself! Fight and rise above all others, for humanity’s glory!”
Okay, why was it starting to sound like a shady salesman now?
Cleo was already sold on the prospect of this whole thing, no need to needlessly blabber on about it.
She decided that the rest of the introduction provided no more useful information and went back to thinking.
Okay, what do we know so far?
The voice told us there will be trials and challenges.
It insinuated that we'd have to fight. Well, it even said “fight and rise”, so obviously there will be fighting.
Also implied is that fighting itself will make us stronger. Meaning there must be some kind of exp system?
Would make sense.
But speaking of a system, we haven't seen anything of that yet…
Choose a starting weapon.
...well, speak of the devil.
Cleo examined the blue textbox that had popped up in front of her eyes, just as the ever-present voice had grown quiet.
When she moved her head, the box followed her movement and always stayed precisely centered in front of her eyes. At the same time, she was still aware of things behind it...
Which was weird. The box was cluttering her sight, but she knew it wouldn't prevent her from seeing anything important. She didn’t even know how she knew that, but it felt strangely right.
She tried moving it around with her mind and it immediately followed her will.
Having satisfied her curiosity after playing with it for a while, she accepted the prompt in her mind, making the textbox expand into a large list.
Damn, that's a lot of choices...
She scrolled through all the medieval looking weapons, carefully looking at each one.
There were all kinds of melee weapons like swords, daggers, spears, halberds, morning stars and so on.
Ranged weapons were included as well, mostly different types of bows and crossbows. But she even saw more unique ones, like a sling or even a blowpipe.
Hmmm....
I kind of already know what I'm gonna pick.
In a way, she had already prepared for something like that.
Which might sound silly to some people.
But daydreaming about different worlds and planning what she would do, should she ever end up in one, was one of her favorite pastimes.
You chose Spear as a starting weapon!
Let’s go!
Do you want to confirm Spear as your alignment?
Warning! This action cannot be undone.
Huh, what?
Alignment? What’s that?
The textbox hang quietly in front of her without answering her question.
Umm…
She didn’t know what it meant, but in the end it wasn’t like there was anything she could do about it. She would have to choose something in the end, right?
Okay yeah, whatever.
Confirming alignment with Spear...
With a woosh a spear manifested at her hand. She instinctively grabbed it.
“Hell yeah!”
It felt amazing in her hands! The wood of the shaft was smooth but not slippery, the weight seemed just right.
She did a few test stabs with it.
Uff, that must look awkward.
I have no idea how to actually wield this.
Alignment confirmed!
Cleo felt something happening with her body.
It was hard to describe. She only noticed that for a moment her body felt different, and then the feeling disappeared again like it never happened.
Okay, that was weird.
Following a sudden inkling of inspiration, she did a stabbing motion with her spear again.
Oh. That’s better!
The spear felt much more natural to wield all of a sudden. Not like an “extension of one’s arm” kind, but more like a “it might not be her first time holding a spear” kind of natural.
She continued practicing her stabbing movement when she noticed a person approaching her.
“Cleoo!”
A woman with deep red hair trailing behind her was running in her direction with open arms.
Ahh…
Cleo stood there, sheepishly scratching her cheek.
Of course my sister would also be here…
****
Laira looked at the floating text box in shock.
What the actual hell?
Are we in some kind of VR game?
Did we get dragged into some kind of fucked up science experiment with cutting edge brain-computer interfaces?
She kept staring at the floating textbox in front of her, examining it from top to bottom.
It looked realer than any VR or AR headset she had ever tried.
She looked around her, at all the other people who also seemed to have gotten the message, all of them looking into the air.
She pinched her arm.
Reality slowly started to sink in.
Fuck, is this for real?
She observed the textbox a little longer, before shaking her head.
Whatever.
She started walking again.
I’m gonna join Cleo first.
She made good progress, already close enough to see her sister dance around with some kind of pole weapon.
Laira basically sprinted the last steps, running arms first towards her sister.
“Cleoo!”
Cleo was quick minded enough to get her spear out of the way, just moments before Laira crushed into her with a hug.
“Ufff…. Laira, take it easy.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.” said Laira, letting Cleo entangle herself from the forceful show of love.
“I just… anyways, do you know where we are? Did you listen to that strange voice? I have no idea how we got here, I can’t remember anything. Do you think it will be dangerous? Why did you…”
A stream of words shot out of Laira’s mouth like some kind of valve had just been opened.
“Laira… Laira!”
“... weapon and… what?”
Cleo put a finger to her mouth.
“Be quiet for a second and focus, okay?”
“Where is your weapon?”
Laira looked down at her little sister.
“I… didn’t choose one yet. Also, I feel like that’s not that important right now.”
She pointed a finger at Cleo.
“Much more important is that we figure out what’s going on here and if it’s gonna be dangerous. You shouldn’t play with weapons!”
Cleo’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Are you for real, sis? Did you not listen to a single thing? Of course it’s gonna be dangerous! We all have weapons! What do you think is gonna happen, we are gonna have a costume party!?”
“No, I…” Laira tried to defend herself when the floating textbox suddenly became larger.
Warning!
The first trial is about to start.
Please choose a starting weapon!
Cleo waited for a moment when Laira suddenly turned quiet.
“What? What now? Does it say something new for you?”
“Well,” said Laira, peeling her eyes off the warning, “it just warned me that I should choose a weapon since the first trial is gonna start soon.”
She scratched her head.
“Okay, let me just choose something real quick and then we can continue our talk.” she said, realizing that it was probably not that good of an idea to not choose anything, should the whole affair turn out to be dangerous after all.
“Ah, wait!”, said Cleo, putting her hand up to stop Laira.
“We should talk about what would fit our party best.”
“Our… party? Oh wait, does my little sister suddenly want to spend some time with me? Oh my, it only takes getting kidnapped, good to know”, Laira snickered.
Cleo rolled her eyes at her.
“Yeah, I can hardly leave my helpless older sister alone here. You’d probably die on the first day. No, as much as I dislike it, we are stuck together now.”
Laira’s grin froze again at the mention of death.
“... let’s just talk about what I should choose, I guess. Maybe I’ll just take the same as you?”
Cleo scrunched her brows and started tapping her finger against her lips in thought.
“Yeah, maybe. I chose a spear because I think it’s both easy to use and effective as well. Anyone can poke something with a spear, it’s very dangerous for how easy it is to use. I’d be very confident against other people wielding shorter weapons.”
She shrugged.
“Assuming most people don’t know how to fight.”
“Wait, are you saying you want to fight other people?”, Laira said in shock.
“Just being practical”, Cleo continued without batting an eye.
“I just wanted to point out that many listed weapons are specifically designed for human opponents. But anyways, a spear is also the perfect melee weapon for animals, in my opinion. It has a good range and a charging beast can impale itself on it.”
Meanwhile Laira, who still seemed nervous about the prospect of fighting other people, had finally acknowledged her System prompt and was scrolling through the available list of weapons.
“Okay okay, I get it… so, spear it is?”
“Ah, wait!”
Laira looked back at Cleo through her System screen.
“Maybe… maybe you should choose a long range weapon? Like a bow. Then we would have one person fighting in the front and one supporting from afar? If you feel confident enough to learn how to use a bow, that is… otherwise choose a spear, yeah.”
Laira didn’t have time to pout at her sister, as she suddenly felt that the list of weapons would disappear soon, so she hurriedly swiped through it in search of a bow.
“I’m still your older sister, I’ll let you know. Of course I’m gonna be able to learn how to handle a bow! Where is it… ah, here! Okay…”
The System promptly reacted to her choice.
You chose Bow as a starting weapon!
The confirmation was immediately followed by another box.
Do you want to confirm Bô̵͍w as your alignment?
Warning! This action cannot be undone.
“Uhh… what?”
Cleo waved her hand dismissively, thinking she was also confused about the “alignment” part.
“Just confirm it, you’ll get your weapon then.”
“Hmm… okay…”
Confirming alignment with B̵̛̯͍̫̯̫̓̇̓͒o̶̝͕̎̍̓ͅw ...
Warning! B̶̧̧̹͎̯̦̞̹͓̳̩̬͔̥̗̄̋̾͊̀̚̕͜͝i̴̛̲̲͙̗̜̫̩͎̘̩̲̼̤͙̣̘͈̤̘͔͉̯̝͓͉̟̮̼̜͋̀͂͗̂̈̌̽͗̏͐́̚͠w̸̢̛̥̻̥̩̟̮̳̥̥̟͖̲͔̥͇̘̥̩͇̳͈̖͑̄̍́̋̈́̄́̌͊́̄̈̍͒͂̀̍̈̃͌̈̏͌̍́͂̾͜ is not a valid alignment!
“...what the hell?”
The textbox with the strange warning seemed to flicker and then disappeared.
Shortly after, a new textbox appeared.
Choose a starting weapon.
“Uhm… it didn’t work”
Cleo looked at her as if she was looking at a little child who didn’t know it had to put the square shape into the square hole.
“What do you mean it didn’t work? Did you accept the alignment?”
“Yes… but the text got all weird and it said it’s not a valid alignment” .
Cleo gave her a blank stare and then burst into laughter.
“Ahahaha, your first day in a new world and you already broke the System! As expected of my sister!”
“It’s not my fault!” Laira complained indignantly.
Cleo sighed and quickly got serious again.
“Yeah, I guess even my sister shouldn’t be able to be that much of a klutz. Try it again maybe?”
Laira did as told, but the exact same thing happened as before.
The feeling of urgently choosing something got much stronger now as well, making her anxious.
She hurriedly picked something again and again, not even caring what she was picking.
Finally, just before she knew the selection would end, it finally seemed to work.
Choose a starting weapon.
--
You chose Mace̷͓͓̐ as a starting weapon!
--
Do you want to confirm M̷̻̹̰̙͈̃̃̀͒͒̅̂̓̇i̵̡̡̫̯̺͈̙̥͖͛̂͂́̚ͅň̶͎͙̙̯͌͛̒̑̎ȩ̶̱͈̺͒̋͝͝ as your alignment?
Warning! This action cannot be undone.
--
Confirming alignment with Ḿ̴̗̳͖̓i̶̥̚n̸̡͈͇̔̃̾ď̶̜̭͔...
--
You have been successfully aligned with Mind!