Granite City Streets

1:15 PM

Granite City

At first, many people wanted to stay inside the mall. Kyle didn't blame them. It felt safe and mostly secure. Yet, when the military decided to pull out, headed towards the Safe Zone, many quickly changed their minds.

After he had selected the inventory, Kyle didn't know how to access it, or any of his "features". Apparently, those who chose the Map feature actually had a mini map appear in their visions. Kyle would have assumed they were crazy but they all said the exact same thing. The Safe Zone was marked to the North. The people who had been to that part of Granite City before could even see that it was located at the Slatewell Casino and surrounding blocks.

Fredrick had lost his confidence in holding the mall and ordered his soldiers to get ready to go. Kyle guessed hearing over four hundred people all agree where the Safe Zone was all it took to convince the commander to act. So Kyle decided to go with them.

The population was ready to mobilize rather quickly. Elizabeth left Kyle to help as many people get ready to go as she could. Brick stayed, chatting animatedly. The barricade at the Northern most entrance of the mall was removed shortly thereafter and a line formed to exit.

Kyle was flabbergasted by how many people were actually hidden inside the mall. If he had to guess, he would say there was close to three or four thousand people and that was when he had quit his estimations. The other department stores and boutiques had to have been packed with people sitting on each other's laps.

According to Brick's Map, the distance to the casino was farther from the mall than how far Kyle had traveled to get to the mall in the first place. It was going to take a long time to get there with that many people. Even with getting extra ammunition from their vehicles, the soldiers were unlikely to be able to protect everyone from the monsters.

Kyle imagined another Minotaur and how much damage it could do if it popped up along their path. Based on how many people were carrying baseball bats and other sporting goods they picked up on their way out of the mall, everyone else was concerned about the same thing.

Kyle was surprised to find out how quiet a crowd of thousands of people could be after fending off multiple monster attacks shortly after they left the mall. Seeing dozens of people get torn to pieces seemed to have that effect though. He expected people to panic or flee when the attacks occurred, but they didn't. Instead, they fought. It had to be hope for safety that drove them to bravery.

Kyle personally killed two monsters that had gone for unarmed civilians using his bat. Brick had torn through a few a time or two with his knife as well. To neither Kyle nor Brick's surprise, Gunther and Lilly took out three monsters between them. A great number of other people also stepped up, with groups ganging up on monsters to protect the others around them.

Kyle and Brick always waited to collect the stones from the monsters they killed. Kyle guessed these were Mana Chips and if the system was giving them out as a reward, he wanted as many as he could get. He now carried twelve. Kyle did let Brick take a few extra to even up their counts.

After hours of walking, the mass had actually made good time. They wouldn't make it to the safe zone by that night, however. Not with the detours the group had to make due to destroyed buildings, massive road damage that left the sewers exposed, and huge monster herds the military scouts helped them avoid.

Kyle walked down the decimated street. He could barely recognize where they were. This had been a strip mall surrounded by lesser corporation hubs. Now, it was a crumbled mess.

Kyle laced his fingers behind his head and looked around at the devastation. Granite City had once been pretty bland to Kyle with it's uniform buildings and namesake stone accents. The only exception was Main street's sky scrapers and the few scattered casinos with their unique structures and light displays. Seeing hundreds of years of growth and development now pocked, wrecked, and smoking, it made the blandness he remembered beautiful. It left him mourning his city and realizing he had taken it for granted.

More people joined their mass group, fleeing from intact structures and pockets of debris. They were following their maps and quests, or saw the mass of people walking by with purpose and wanted the safety that numbers provided. They were all going to the same place after all.

Kyle saw squads of soldiers exploring the buildings as they passed, looking for hideaways and refugees. More often than not, they only found corpses.

"Did you figure out the inventory?" Brick asked quietly from Kyle's right.

Kyle dropped his arms and shook his head. "Not yet."

An order was swiftly passed down the mass of people. Full stop. The scouts had picked up on a herd of monsters that Fredrick wanted to let pass. It was better than a fight, so it was finally break time.

Kyle and Brick found a place to sit next to a fairly intact building. They had stopped at a three-way intersection, limiting the directions the monsters could come from. It helped that the buildings were built so closely together that the alleyways were limited or impassable.

As Kyle shifted to get comfortable, a new pop up window appeared in his vision. It was not as basic as the regular ones he was getting used to. This one had a fancy silver border around a white text field. The text flowed and was slightly bold.

To use your inventory, open your personal information window by concentrating on the gear symbol.

The gear pulsed with a yellow light in his vision. Kyle scowled but did as the window directed. A different window opened. This one was Kyle's favorite shade of green with complimentary text that was easy to read. The words looked like buttons to him.

Character

Lore Book

New text appeared in the more elegant window under the words telling him to concentrate on the gear symbol. The window had moved to the front of the stack, much like a chat box with an incoming message.

Now concentrate on... Really dude? Character, like a Character Sheet?

Kyle scowled harder. He was so annoyed by the words that he forgot his skepticism and responded out loud.

"I didn't choose the name. The system did."

Brick looked at Kyle oddly. "Huh?"

"I got a weird message. Did you?" Kyle asked quickly, feeling embarrassed.

Brick shrugged. "That must be your guide. How did you get it to message you?"

Kyle shook his head. "No clue. I'll look into it while we are stopped."

"Good idea." Brick agreed happily.

Kyle was starting to realize he had a joviality limit and looked to his open windows. When his HUD reappeared, the fancy text box had a lot more words that had been added when he was focusing on Brick.

The System labeled your Menu based on your own perceptions. You consider the information in that field to best be described as a "Character Sheet", so it is named that. If the description "Bio" or "Status" was a better fit for you, it would have used those terms instead.

It's not polite to ignore people.

Hey!

As he read, more letters appeared.

Just concentrate on Character.....

Kyle frowned but did as he was told. Was his Guide...upset? Maybe he was imagining it. It was hard to discern emotion through a text message.

"Thanks for the information." Kyle added quietly as his menu window changed.

A response appeared in the guide's chat box as it moved forward once more.

Your welcome. You do not have to speak out loud. I can hear your surface thoughts. I am attached to you, after all.

Kyle nodded and thought Okay, what's next? instead of focusing on how skeptical he was. Despite being told, he was still shocked and a little nervous when new text appeared in response to his thoughts.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Look over your "sheet" and then concentrate on the small sack shape at the bottom when you're ready. I'm going back to comprehending your Lore.

Before he allowed himself to ask what his "Lore" was and how they were "comprehending it", Kyle looked over his character sheet. He would test if he could change the name to something else later.

The Character Sheet window had a picture of Kyle in the left top corner. It looked exactly like he did at that moment. The small Kyle wore the same clothes and everything. He even had Kyle's same wounds and it made him flinch. He looked worse than he felt, but he still had multiple long gashes and cuts that poked out in places and his face was black and blue in spots. His hair and clothing were disheveled and he felt dirtier then he ever had before.

Next to his picture was a list of information.

Name None True Name Kyle Jaxon Race Human Sub Race None Rank Normal Guide Artificial Guide's Name None Equipped Skill 0/1 General Skill Pool 0/XXX

Kyle was disappointed there were no stats. If he was getting the Light Novel treatment and was expected to fight monsters, he expected to at least see his strength, vitality, or level. Something.

At the bottom of the page was the small sack icon Kyle's guide had mentioned. He concentrated on it next. Another widow opened, but he was startled because Brick jumped up and shouted.

"What the hell is that, Man?" Brick asked, pointing at the new window before him. Brick moved around to Kyle's side and his eyes opened wide. "Did you figure it out?

Kyle nodded and concentrated on Brick, but the window didn't move. "Ask your Guide by thinking your questions. It should respond."

The chat box flickered into Kyle's vision again.

While correct, his Guide may still be waking up. It depends on which kind he has.

Kinds? What kind are you? Kyle asked in his mind. More text appeared in response.

I am an Artificial Spirit Guide. I was derived from your AI Assistant...that you hardly used.

In response to Kyle wondering what other kinds of Guides existed, the text continued with the answer.

Lore Found: Spirit Guides.

Spirit Guides are granted to newly Ascended Beings to help them better understand the Manaverse. They are usually deceased family members that were offered the position and their Personal Lore would be useful to their Host. If none of your family members died during the Initialization process, you were assigned a random Guide from the waiting list. If you had an Artificial Intelligence Program, it was consumed in the creation of a Guide to reduce the number of foreign souls coming to Earth.

So... You were just made? Brought into existence because I had an AI program?

Yes... Because you needed a Guide. I do remember everything I learned from our interactions before I woke up though... Should we discuss some of the sites you had me look up?

Kyle felt his ears warm up at the implication, frantically thinking no repeatedly. No new text appeared for a long moment.

Then, you may place items into the inventory. Don't forget to select an Easy Access Location.

Finally focusing on the new window that was apparently visible to those around him, Kyle looked it over. There was a grid of twenty, empty squares. Off to the right of the squares was a currency list.

Copper Coins 0 Silver Coins 0 Gold Coins 0 Mana Chips 0 Mana Fragments 0 Mana Shards 0 Mana Stones 0 Mana Gems 0

Under the list was another gear icon. The words "Inventory Settings" appeared briefly when he looked at it.

Kyle hesitated for a long moment before pulling the colorful stones out of his pocket and he carefully set one of them on the grid. When he let go, he expected the stone to fall through the window and land in his lap. It did not. It disappeared with a slight visual distortion and the zero next to "Mana Chip" increased to one.

Brick whistled in appreciation. "That's so cool. My guide is sending me messages now but I've not gotten to the inventory yet."

Kyle didn't hear him. He was too busy stuffing everything he could into the grid. First went all of his Mana Chips. The twenty sided di turned out to be the "Mana Stone" referred to in the quest text. The smooth orb appeared in the first grid slot instead, made it the "Skill Orb".

Before he knew it, Kyle had nearly every square full. He experimented where he could and it led him to a few discoveries. Like the fact that living things could not be stored. He considered trying and looking for a bug or something but his Guide told him doing so would kill the creature.

To take an item out, Kyle had to concentrate on the item and simply desire taking it out. An edge of the item would appear in the window along with the same visual distortion and he would have to pull the item free. He first tried with a Mana Chip. It turned out, if he didn't think of a specific Chip the result would be a random color.

Certain items in the grid stacked together, making a small number appear in the corresponding box, such as the cans of cat and dog food. Each read five and six respectively, despite their flavors being different. So did his t-shirts. Yet, the one long sleeve shirt he had took up its own slot.

Surprisingly, the tent he snagged leaving the Mall was a set that took up only one slot. The stakes, the extra flaps, everything went into the same one. However, the two extra stakes he picked up from the display went into their own slot. Kyle immediately removed them and tossed them away.

As Kyle was about to close the inventory with a thought, he remembered the instruction he got from his guide. He opened the settings at the bottom. He could change only one thing. There was a bubble list with none selected.

Easy Access Location:

Pocket

Sack

Pouch

Choosing then testing each option in turn showed that it was pretty self explanatory. If he selected pocket and stuck his hand into his pocket with the intention to open his inventory window, it would open. The same was true for deposits and withdrawals. If he wanted an item from his inventory and thought about pulling it out, he could pull it from his pocket. Placing an item into his pocket made it disappear.

Sack and pouch each made a physical replica of themselves appear at Kyle's waist. He could dismiss the sack or pouch from sight with a thought. They reappeared with his will and were visible to others when he did. Putting an item into them made the item disappear with that same eerie distortion. It was odd watching his bat feed into the tiny, leather pouch. He rather enjoyed it.

Kyle chose to stick with the pouch option. He really liked the flap it came with as it would stop him from accidentally putting anything into his inventory. He was about to close his inventory when his guide interrupted him by making the chat window appear again. It was blank except new words. Kyle figured that after some time the window would refresh itself. He was curious if there was a log somewhere where he could go over the text again. With the new words, a corresponding square in his inventory flashed yellow briefly.

Now, you should use this.