After a crazy few minutes, a run in with The Minotaur, and the want for fresh clothes we headed up the escalator. I couldn’t help but feel disgusted, not for what had happened but the fact I was covered in blood. The shirt that stuck to me due to sweat now clung to me uncomfortably from the liquid pressing down from the outside and slowly but surely seeping through onto my bare flesh. There wasn’t much time I needed to stall for a distraction because once we got to the top of the stairs we were greeted by a very angry Becca. She had this stern look on her face, I had only ever seen her like that when she was chewing someone out at work for a mess up. But notably different from then was the fact she had very visible tear marks on her face; the puffy red outer ring of the eye, the lines down the cheeks to the mouth.

The first thing she did was throw her arms around us. I don’t think even my own mother had ever held me that tightly before. It felt reassuring, it made real what had happened, the fact we had genuinely risked our lives and managed to save these people from death. Or at least that’s what I told myself, I thought The Minotaur could figure out the escalator but there is every chance the beast could not and what I did was not only reckless but endangered my best friend; Becca emulated this statement. “How could you guys! That was so incredibly stupid, you could have died. For what? What were trying to prove?” She let her grip go and stood in front of us, her eyes had softened somewhat from the hug. We stood there awkwardly, before Matt hit me lightly on the back, beckoning me to speak.

“I’m sorry Becca. I just thought we could help.” It was true, I genuinely did. I felt like if it were a game, I could be the hero. But I am just a person, a hero needs a divine right, a destiny. I’m just a regular working guy who happened to get lucky at every turn down there.

“You best be. I’m glad you’re both okay. Just promise us, promise yourselves, to not jump right in next time. Please.” She looked at us again, those piercing brown eyes met us head on and were like deer in headlights. Once she had made her mind up about something either go along with it or get out of her way, that’s what everyone in our department knew.

“Yes, sorry again” I said

“Will do.” Matt replied.

“Good, now get over here and help us choose our skills. We understand them but seeing as you two fought something I wanna know that we’re doing it right.” And so, we did.

Whilst helping though a little crowd gathered round, from teenagers to the elderly. Some wanted the same help we were providing our colleagues, some wanted to thank us for taking out the creature that they had seen slaughter dozens, but equally some just wanted external validation that the situation was real. It wasn’t uncommon for panic attacks to break out, even en mass, in the tube station.

We waited out the remainder of the timer. It was not counting anymore but it was the only logical conclusion we could come to, especially given the fact there was a black void that blocked the exit to the station itself. Unfortunately, the tube stations in England don’t provide that many amenities, there were no shops like some countries have or even major train stations do. We had to make do with whatever people had on them. There was enough water to go around for a day or so but with the people who were anxious or panicking we soon ran low on water and snacks. However, luckily for me and Matt there were people kind enough to let them borrow spare clothes, they were gym clothes and either a little baggy in my case or a little tight in Matt’s case it was good to be out of those clothes stained with blood. I didn’t even bother attempting to wash them in the toilet sinks. I wanted to get rid of them, rid of the horror of seeing another person eviscerated in front of me.

And then the time was up, that’s when the true horror of this new world began.

A huge projection, the same windowed style as our notifications, appeared in the sky above the biggest crowds. It showed what appeared to be a corgi in a suit. “Hello survivors of Canary Wharf Tube Station. I am here to congratulate you on all passing the first of our main quests. Now I’m sure you all have many questions as to why I am here and to what is going on. I shall explain in due course.”

“My name is Kor, I am your host for these quests. Your planet is currently the host for The System. We host games and quests for civilizations to complete and compete in. Whilst doing so you may receive money, skills, and assistance from benefactors. Benefactors are those that you see in myth and legend, those so powerful they shed their mortality and joined The System by themselves.

“Those that survive all the quests not only will allow themselves to join The System and watch other worlds compete in quests but, you will also have the options to integrate our vast network for resources and technological advancements.

“But a few rules and stipulations first.

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“First, when a quest begins no external communication device will work, be it telephone or internet. Second, interfering with or refusal to complete the quests can lead to punishment. Thirdly, your primary benefactors will have their true names hidden until the individual works out who they are and all sharing of that information is banned and failure to comply will lead to punishments.

“You have each been given 100 of our universal currency, known to you as Coins. There is a shop that you can open from your menu, which I’ll get to in a moment which has items that others sell via The System, as well as boxes of random items for those with a gambling disposition.

“Finally, your menu can be accessed by saying ‘Status’, without an invite or a skill no one can see your menu. On your menu you’ll see your character sheet that will display your stats and information. Initially you all placed on a scale with the average in a statistic being a 5 and 10 being the top 1%, you will receive skill points upon leveling up and you can surpass these limits.

“You next quest will begin at 1 p.m. British Summer Time. I wish you all luck and remember your benefactors are watching you.” With that it left. We were stood for a few seconds taking in everything that we had been told.

All it took was one; one voice to cry out. That one lead to a cacophony of voices calling out “Status”. I followed suit.

Name: Jin Han

Level: 2

Badge:

Rank: D

HP: 23/30

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Vitality: 8

Magic: 5

Constitution: 7

Luck: 3

Benefactor:

So I clearly had a badge that I could select, but I needed to do that later. I was quite impressed with my stats, except Luck. It felt cruel to see that I’m below average in terms of luckiness, but I kinda already knew that.

The biggest thing that the speech had made us realize what that we could call someone. Whilst there were a few attempts in the twenty or so minutes after we had defeated The Minotaur they had been unsuccessful. Without so much as a second thought I picked up my phone and called my parents; the phone rang for a few times, each subsequent one filled my heart with dread, and just as I feared the worst I heard the pick up sound.

“Mum, are you there?” I asked tentatively.

“Jin, your call scared me half to death. Do you want your mother to die an early death?” It was a relief to hear her voice and to hear her joke.

“Are you guys okay? How’s Dad and Mia?” Mia was my sister, who still lived my parents at the time as she had found a remote job but didn’t know where she wanted to live yet.

“Yes, we are okay. Mr. Smith next door took out that thing with his shotgun.”

“Mr. Smith has a shotgun?”

“Good thing he did too, otherwise we’d be attacked.” She said with a chuckle in her voice, but the tone switched to serious, “Jin. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am Mum. I fought The Minotaur.”

“Taejin Han! Your grandparents didn’t move to England for you to be fighting mythical creatures.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Why did I say that? I knew it would only worry her.

“Did you at least use the taekwondo your father took you to classes for?”

“No.” I said sheepishly, I felt my neck regress into my body.

“Don’t tell him that, he’ll be prouder if I tell him you helped people.”

“Thanks mum.” She always the cheekier of the two whilst Dad was a bit of a stickler and always held the pride card over me and Mia.

“I’m glad you’re okay son. I’d appreciate it if you could call after each of those quests, or whatever it is, to let us know you’re safe.”

“I will. I love you mum.”

“I love you too. Now get going, you’ve probably got bigger things to worry about than your old mum.” The phone hung up. It didn’t strike me too much at the time but in retrospect not only had mum, but based on the lack of breakdowns around me, people had acclimatised. Sure, they had worried for their lives and called their family but by no means had that dissuaded anyone nor had they questioned the talking corgi in a suit. What did this thing do to us?.

The Labyrinth’s Prisoner has followed you.

“The Labyrinth’s Prisoner? Isn’t that The Minotaur.” I thought.

The Labyrinth’s Prisoner is revealed as The Minotaur.

“So all I have to do is guess their names and they’re revealed?”

The King of Athens and The Son of Burning Wings have followed you.

The King of Crete dislikes your moment.

I was completely blindsided by these notifications. I had no idea who these three were, not at that time at least. Ignored them, telling myself I’d look it up later. I wandered back to my friends, who had finished up calling people.

“We should get out of here.” Megan said, she was nervous for some reason.

“But where? I doubt the trains or tubes are running anymore.” Matt said.

“Why don’t we go back to the office? It’s got a lot of shops and things around it. Plus it’s got air-conditioning and I am way too sweaty to walk through London.” Becca said.

“Yeah sounds good.” Matt said, not bothering to hear if anyone had another opinion and started to walk out of the station and back into the summer glow of outside.

Stepping out was blinding. My eyes had adjusted to the dim sickly lights of the station. That sanitised look government buildings give off had stained my eyes to expect darkness but I was blinded by the beauty of a summer sun in the evening.

As we left though it became apparent to Sara, who climbed the stairs behind me, that it was only my top that was baggy. The only people willing to give us clothes were a man and a woman and given Matt’s build he couldn’t fit into the right clothes of a gym bunny; I however, did. “Nice trousers. They suit you.” Sara said as we exited. Causing me to get embarrassed and everyone to laugh at me. Matt teasing me until I did standard gym girl pictures. They refused to move on until we did.

I was happy though, we just fought against our death and now we were playing around. I wasn’t sure if it was this system numbing our senses and allowing us to more readily accept it or us just coping the best we could. Either way, it was nice.