Jason woke up the next morning extremely bleary.
'Saturday? No! It's Friday! Oh crap!' Jason sat bolt upright. The vague memory of turning off his alarm at least once flashed through his mind. He grabbed his phone from the nearby table, "Dang it!"
He had woken up fifteen minutes later than usual. In a sudden flurry of slightly nausous activity, Jason dove out of bed and threw on clothes. After practically running to the bathroom for a quick shower, shave, and other "normal morning activities", he dashed into his kid's room and gave their sweetly sleeping faces a quick kiss before launching himself down the stairs and out the door to the family minivan.
He'd have driven his car, but was hesitant to drive the vehicle that currently sat in his driveway with a spare tire. That had been an unfortunate series of events in itself, but was something to think about another time.
He glanced at the clock on the stereo, '7:24am, I'm going to be a little late.'
Thoughts spun through his mind, would he get in trouble? Would anyone care that he was running behind?
Thankfully, as a salaried employee, it was likely no one except Jason would care so long as he put in his time and didn't fall behind on projects. This position was still relatively new to him. He had switched to this new position at the very beginning of the prior year. He had been an Instructional Designer/Trainer in his prior role with a different company as well, but his time had drawn to a close at his prior employer. He had essentially outgrown the company's needs.
In his prior role, he had started out as a call center agent receiving customer phone calls for a midsized internet retailer. After four years of handling customer calls, temporary positions handling technical writing, procedure development, knowledge mangement, HTML coding, and coaching roles, he was recommended for a position as the new trainer by several people within the company and moved to a new career path. It had been a wild ride, but one that he'd handled well.
Unlike many in the Instructional Design career path, he didn't have at least a Bachelor's degree in media or design. Instead, he'd learned the career field from the ground up by siezing numerous opportunities for self-education and online seminars. Since he was a child he had been fluent in computer use. One of his earliest memories was of building a computer with his father when he was five. Photo and design layouts, audio recording, animation, video recording and production, and the related software skills all came naturally throughout his life. Surprisingly, this home-brew of skills lent itself well to landing fortuitously in the role.
The lack of a degree still made him smile. It was ironic that he'd ended up employed by an agency that roled up through a state university!
He focused on the road around him as he merged onto the highway. This was his least favorite part of the job- the forty minute commute to work. At least he got some time to think to himself, he toyed with the idea of turning on a podcast of live-play-D&D, but then remembered the book he had been reading last night. He smiled as he thought of the storyline and began running through the recent events in his mind.
[Engaging augmented reality system!]
Jason's eyes opened wide, 'What the...'
Static burst across his view and everything around him suddenly vanished.
Thunk! Suddenly Jason found himself sitting inside a boat on a winding river surrounded by jungle. He froze and looked around himself. "Um, what just happened?"
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A few moments ago, he had been sitting in a minivan driving to work. It was -11°C outside, and a slight coating of snow had covered the surrounding grass. Now he was sitting in boat in an obviously tropical climate, it was around 28°C and snow? Yeah, that wasn't even a thing.
[Congratulations on activating the WebNovel Author System! This system is designed to inspire your budding profession or hobby as a WebNovel Author!]
[Your first quest begins now!]
"What the..." Jason's eyes opened wide. As a prolific reader and writer, he obviously was familiar with the concept of WebNovels. He could even name some of his favorite titles off-hand if anyone in his life had bothered to ask him for the details. That said, a system!? Seriously!? His brain hurt as it tried to reconcile the fantasy concept with his real life experience, and it wasn't going well.
[Quest: A Rondevous with Your Exploration Team
Details: You have been exploring in the Congo revier basin for weeks now. Your rations have long since run out. It has only been your knowledge of the jungle's boons that has kept you alive thus far. That said, you've finally found it. In your pack sits the charcoal rubbing of a map found on an engraved monument. It shows an ancient location filled with treasure and knowledge deep within these jungles. However, first you'll need a team to assist you. With the last of your satellite phone's charge, you managed to contact your sponsors and arrange for one. They are going to meet you at a location that is at the edges of the jungle. Survive and arrive at the rondevous within the day. Warning: You are behind schedule. If you show up late, you may not be able to escape the jungle at all.
Reward: 1 WebNovel Inspiration Pack, 200 Exp, and 600 USD.]
Jason looked around. Seriously, what the heck! He'd been stressed at work a little lately, but he didn't feel like he was anywhere close to a psychotic break?
[Helpful information: System holder, do not be confused or alarmed. To quote a famous author, "Don't Panic!"]
The cover of a certain universally-known hitchiking guide flashed through his mind.
[You're experiencing an augementation of your reality, time in the real world isn't relative to the system's augmentation. Currently, your real body is sitting in its prior location performing its prior task quite admirably.]
'Um, ok?' Jason thought to himself in reply, 'Exactly what is going on here?'
[The WebNovel Author System is a complimation of scenarios designed to augment your reality and provide inspiration for future WebNovel authorship. Simply put, just complete the quests, reap the rewards, and create new worlds in your real life! It's a simply, easy, fun, and almost not-life-threatening way to become a proficient WebNovel author!]
'Did you just say "almost not-life-threatening"?' Jason's mouth went dry.
[Well, yes. There is some risk. To quote Nora Roberts, "There's no reward without work, no victory without effort, no battle won without risk.”]
The relavent passage in the book Key of Knowledge floated through his mind.
[Should you not survive the quest here, your real body could potentially experience a brief loss of conciousness. It normally shouldn't be life-threatening.]
'But... I'm driving at 120KPH on a highway... that sounds kind of life-threatening.'
[That sounds like a "you problem".]
'Ahhh... thanks a lot.' Jason looked around. What the heck? Seriously, what the HECK!
He felt the wood seat of the boat underneath him. The chirps, squeals, splashes, and occassional roars from the surrounding flora and fauna bombarded his ears from every direction. The small outboard motor behind him rumbled and propelled him through the water. He could even smell the accumulated sweat and body order from his clothes that were quite obviously due for a good wash. It felt... real. Very real. There were even logs in the river around him.
Logs? Logs didn't move. They also didn't blink. Crocodiles!
Jason's eyes scanned the water. Nile crocodiles! They were at least two dozen of them and they were all around him.
Jason's first instinct was to run, but in a boat in the middle of the river that didn't seem like a practical option. His boat was less than 4 meters long. From what he could see, at least half of the crocs in the water around him were longer than his boat. He estimated that they were at least 4.8 meters long. Judging from the size, the probably each weighed at least 453Kg. He doubted this wooden boat would survive an attack by one or two of them, let alone a feeding frenzy if more got involved. Getting torn apart by crocs, dying, and then "maybe" surviving the ensuing car crash didn't seem like a viable option.
'Survival first,' Jason thought, and gripped the tiller a little tighter. 'Let's do this!'