Day 2 - System Integration in Progress
Late Morning
The Moon Residence
Erin spent the rest of the previous night reading the heavily redacted help menu, then regurgitating relevant details to her mother. The help menu wasn’t useless, but it seemed designed to only unlock certain information either during a future phase, or when a specific inciting incident occurred.
It was late at night, later than she and her mother normally went to bed, that her mom passed out on the sofa part way through a conversation. When Erin realized, she grabbed a blanket and covered her mom up, then grabbed a second blanket for herself and reclined back in her dad’s chair.
Erin and her mother woke up with a start to the same sound. A three-note chime that, like the mysterious voice, was loud but somehow not deafening. Erin and her mother looked at each other, sharing a what the hell look, before the voice spoke up.
“Greetings creatures of Earth.” The voice said in that loud, monotonous tone, “Your integration phase has successfully completed. You will now enter the assessment phase. Announcements will transfer to your planet’s personalized System AI.”
There was a pause of uncomfortable silence before a pleasant female voice said, “Greetings creatures of Earth!” This new voice was very night and day compared to the other one, being female and more upbeat, but without a noticeable accent. “Your region is now entering the assessment phase of system initialization. This phase can last up to seven Earth standard days, and will help to provide a baseline for all integrated individuals. You are encouraged to display any and all skills and abilities you have developed in life during this time. As skills, abilities, and stats are assessed, you will be able to view them on your character sheet, which will unlock at the completion of this announcement.”
Eun-ha was looking at her daughter like someone who didn’t understand half of what was being said, but Erin raised a hand to gently, but silently ask her mother to hold questions.
Continuing her diatribe, the voice said, “All technologically capable inhabitants of Earth should be advised that terrestrial communications systems will no longer function moving forward. Additionally, any and all technology more advanced than simple hand tools will not function following the completion of the assessment phase.”
That concerned Erin, as some of that advanced technology helped keep people alive.
“There are some important rules to remember while the assessment phase is ongoing.” The voice carried on, preventing Erin from contemplating each detail in depth right now, “No intentional harm is permitted during this phase. Any attempts to inflict intentional harm will be met with an appropriate response. Anyone who is the intended victim of intentional harm will have a reasonable window to deliver a measured response.”
Erin wondered what an appropriate response to intentional harm was, and if that extended to things like full-contact or light-contact sparring at the dojang.
“For the purposes of fairness, the phases are deployed to each timezone based on reasonable hours for those residents. Anyone who has started their assessment phase cannot speed up or slow down their assessment by changing time zones,and will be subject to the rules of the timezone they were present in at the start of this System message. Lastly, you may receive personal updates from the System for your progress moving forward. These are not shared with anyone else in most cases.”
With that, the voice stopped talking as abruptly as it had started.
After waiting an extra thirty seconds for the voice to say something else, Erin checked her HUD for any changes. She noticed a green shield icon in the status bar, and the word Assessing flashing on both her HP and Rsrce bars. The Quests box showed Complete the Integration Phase with a green checkmark beside it, and below that a new quest that read Complete the Assessment Phase.
Erin focused on the completed quest and a message appeared in her HUD while simultaneously being read by the same voice as the new announcer.
Congratulations! You have completed the following quest: Complete the Integration Phase.
You have been granted the following rewards: 150 XP
As soon as the message cleared, Erin heard a short tune play, and the experience bar at the bottom of her screen filled up, then started pulsing. Focusing on this, a new message appeared on her HUD, being read by the voice again.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 1!
Although the system will not often reward participation trophies, reaching Level 1 is a respectable achievement.
You have been granted the following rewards: A Level Up Box***
***Note: Reward boxes cannot be opened during the assessment phase. Upon completion of this phase, you will be given access to the reward. Until such time, you will see it in your inventory as a greyed out icon.
“Weird…” Erin couldn’t help but verbalize that last part out loud. She didn’t know what part was weirder though, getting a loot box, the fact that it was awarded for leveling up, or the fact that she couldn’t open it until the assessment phase was completed.
“Is everything okay, Ttarai?” Erin’s mom asked.
“Umm, yeah, some things changed that I need to check out, but before that I’ll walk you through what I just did.” As she said this, Erin sat beside her mother on the couch.
As Erin walked her mom through the steps she had just completed, she noticed a very subtle uptick in her experience bar. She suspected helping her mother was the cause, but she would need to see if the help menu held any updated information on experience gains, now that she could earn XP.
When they finished, Eun-ha stood up and headed to the kitchen. “Well, the lady in our heads told us to use our skills and abilities. I might as well cook us some brunch and maybe they’ll give me some of those X’s and P’s”
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Erin chuckled at her mom’s comment, “It’s just XP, Eomma. It’s short for experience points.”
Eun-ha let out a motherly laugh before she said, “That’s what I said, dear.”
“Yes mom.” Erin gave a playful roll of her eyes, then said, “I’m going to see if I can invite you to a party. We need to know how that works, so if you get an invite from me accept it. Then I’m going to see if anything useful opened up in the help menu.”
Erin didn’t hear her mother’s reply as she shifted focus to the HUD. Thinking Friends List, a new window opened showing her only friend, Moon Eun-ha, her mother. Focusing on her mom’s name in the list, a context menu spawned off Eun-ha’s name. The options listed were View Profile, Add To Party, Private Message, Remove Friend, and Mark As Enemy.
Focusing on Add To Party, Erin heard her mother yell from the kitchen, “I got your invite!” A moment later, the party icon on the left started pulsing. Erin focused on the icon, expanding the box to show one party member. The information listed showed M, Eun-ha Lvl 1. Below her mom’s name were two thin bars, one for HP, the other for Rsrce.
With that done, Erin took a brief moment to check the chat window. No new messages from her new acquaintance, Noah. There were some new messages present, but they were mostly children treating it like an online gaming chat. She wondered if they realized their real names were being used. Wait until their parents found out. Smirking at that thought, Erin dug into the help menu to see what updated information she could find.
Erin’s research was interrupted a short while later by her mother’s cooking, giving them a chance to discuss things further. Eun-ha mentioned that she received notifications of skills that were being assessed. Cooking and Frying. Erin checked her character screen and noticed she had an ability called Focus. All of their skills and abilities were missing a level and instead showed Assessing.
“What are the descriptions for Cooking and Frying?” Erin asked her mom.
Eun-ha’s eyes focused on a point in front of her, and described the info she saw.
Cooking
Description: This is the base skill for all other cooking skills. You cannot learn another cooking skill without also receiving this. Leveling up other cooking skills will also level this skill, which will in turn help to level or learn other cooking skills.
Positives: Leveling this skill up boosts your ability to level or learn other cooking skills.
Negatives: A low cooking skill may result in subpar cooking results.
Frying
Description: A common cooking technique, this typically involves cooking food in a pan or skillet over a medium or high heat, and often uses oil or animal fat to achieve a crisp exterior.
Positives: Improving this skill will improve your ability to achieve an edible result. At higher levels, this skill may impart beneficial statuses to the food.
Negatives: A low frying skill may result in burnt or inedible food.
Erin considered what her mom told her, then said, “Hmm, vague but enough to get an idea of what they do. It’s a lot like certain video games. I wonder what benefits food can impart though.”
“What do they mean by that?” Eun-ha asked, “Impart benefits?”
Erin smiled at her mom, “You’re a gamer now, mom. An unwilling gamer, but a gamer nonetheless.” Giggling at her mom’s less than pleased look, she added, “In some games you can eat food to give health or boost health regeneration, or maybe even increase attributes temporarily like strength, or dexterity.”
Eun-ha looked surprised, excited, and incredulous all at once. “You mean I could cook food that would make you stronger, or heal you, or…?”
That made Erin laugh. “Yeah, probably. We’ll still need to test that when the System permits.”
Erin’s mom got up and grabbed their dishes, heading for the kitchen. “Well, I guess I should keep doing more things I know to see what this System can…what’s that word they used…assess.”
As Erin heard her mother running the water for the kitchen sink, the doorbell rang. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she got up to answer and said, “I’ll get it mom!”
Looking through the curtain on the front window, Erin could see a few shadows, but the angle wasn’t ideal. Unlocking the deadbolt, she left the lock on the door handle engaged knowing she could turn the handle from her side. She opened the door slowly, and was met with the face of a man at least ten years her senior, wearing dirty jeans, a dirty t-shirt, and a jean vest. He had a gruff-looking face, a short scraggly beard, and a bald head. Behind him were several men likewise looking unhygienic, but all sporting a jean vest. “Can I help you?”
“Why hello young lady.” The man’s voice wasn’t particularly deep, and carried a poor attempt at trying to sound friendly. “I’m Joey, do you have time to talk about your lord and saviour, us?” That made the other guys with him snicker.
“Who are you?” Erin’s voice wasn’t as firm as she would like it to be, but she hoped it still set a clear boundary for this guy.
“I already told you, I’m Joey.” Joey rested a hand high on the door like he was leaning on it, and his friends took a step closer to the him. “We’re making sure your neighbourhood is safe, and in return we’re hoping thankful residents will reward us.”
“Oh yeah, protect us from what?” Erin gained more confidence as the conversation continued, her words sounding less trepid.
“Why, from the dangerous gangs that are bound to take advantage of these trying times.” He turned to his friends who chuckled in that way a group of menacing thugs are want to do.
She gave Joey a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “We’ll take care of ourselves, thank you, and we don’t have anything to spare anyway.
Erin started to push the door closed when Joey said in an even and calm tone, “Ricky.” The door burst inward hitting Erin’s left shoulder and shoving her back. Joey stepped around a man with his shoulder against the door, hand on the outside handle, and a blue energy field engulfing him. She barely had time to register that he was frozen. Erin cried out as she stumbled back, then her instincts took over.
Stepping forward, Erin met Joey halfway, his hands reaching out for her. Erin slapped his arms aside and hit him in the nose with an open palm strike. Before he could recover she spun on her right foot and drilled a back kick into his solar plexus with the heel of her foot, taking him half a foot off the ground and throwing him back out the door. Then she put her shoulder into the door, shoved it closed, and locked the deadbolt.
The door didn’t muffle Joey’s reply as well as she would have liked, his yell coming through all to clearly, “You bitch! We’ll be back, and I’ll make sure the boys know I get you all to myself!”
Erin spun at the sound of her mom gasping, hand over her mouth, fear in her eyes.
“It’s alright Eomma, they can’t hurt us.” Erin’s words somehow didn’t betray the adrenaline coursing through her veins at current. “The System froze the guy who shoved the door into me, and didn’t punish me for kicking their leader out.” Erin tried to reassure her mother as she closed the gap and grabbed her in a hug.
“This new world is going to be dangerous, isn’t it?” Eun-ha’s voice carried so much fear, it almost broke Erin’s heart. Her mother was a good person and didn’t deserve to live in fear.
“No Eomma, we’ll be alright. We’ll be alright.”