The young man had been scared of what he would find in the darkness, but when he opened his tightly shut eyes, he was instead confounded by what he saw. There were no flashy lights or winged angels welcoming him, but there were no horned demons or fiery pits either, for which he was grateful. Instead, he was standing in a well lit, office waiting room. There were four, light blue walls enclosing the waiting room with a dozen or so chairs lined up against the walls. Other than that, directly ahead of the young man, there was cheap looking metal desk with a green colored, flower vase sitting on top of it. Even the man sitting behind the desk looked like a stereotypical office worker with his slightly disheveled hair, thick rimmed glasses, and a deep frown on his puffy, pale face.

The young man stared at the office worker for a while before the office worker loudly said, “Come on now, get moving. I don’t have all day, you know,” without even looking up from some papers he was flipping through. A bit nervous, the young man hesitantly walked forward until he was standing right in front of the desk.

The office worker finally looked up, scratching his neck and pulling on the collar of his white shirt to loosen it up a bit. For a few seconds, the two men looked at each other. Eventually, the young man cleared his throat and asked, “Umm… where am I?”

For a few seconds more, the question just hung in the air. Eventually, the officer worker frowned while pushing his glasses slightly up using his index finger. “That’s all you’ve got to ask? No freaking out or threats? Maybe even some self important comments about how important you were or how it’s very important that you get back to where you were?”

The young man had no clue what the office worker was talking about. “Ahh… I’m dead or something right? The box thingy said this was some kind of new world or something.”

That produced another round of silence, before the office worker muttered, “Weird… your kind is always a bit excitable about all this. Hmm… well… whatever. It just makes it a bit easy for me.” Then, clearing his throat, the office worker said, “Alright Mr. ?

“Richard… Richard Jaegar.”

Without missing a beat, the officer worker continued, “Alright, Mr. Richard Jaeger, we’re going to need some paperwork filled out. Mind you, you already agreed to the terms and conditions the moment you selected ‘yes’ at our ‘Before Death Rest Point.’ But I still need to data tap your background history to see what your placement options will be and what starting skill to give you.”

“Huh?” To say Richard was a bit lost was a bit of an understatement. The only part he had comprehended was the part about him selecting ‘yes.’ Other than that, the rest seemed like gibberish. “So… skill… data tap? What does that mean?”

The office worker sighed and rubbed his face, muttering, “I don’t get paid enough for this shit. Ughh…” Looking up at Richard with what was definitely a fake smile, the office worker said, “All you have to do is put your little hand on this nice, safe pad over here and wait till I say you’re done.” With that, the annoying man pointed at a black pad sitting on the right side of the table. The pad was nothing weird; it looked like a black piece of metal that had been polished to a shine.

Richard hesitantly put his hand on it and nervously waited as the officer worker fiddled with something below the desk. For a few seconds, Richard felt the black slate slightly warm up, but nothing else happened. The officer worker, who was looking down at whatever was behind his desk, nodded and said, “That’s good enough. You can move your hand.”

Even as confused as he was, Richard obeyed, not wanting to question the annoying man behind the desk. Truthfully, Richard had dealt with more than a few similar people before, and he knew that the chance of getting a straight answer from the fellow was about the same as an insurance agent dealing fairly with someone. Pissing them off was also a bad idea since they could find ways to make your life miserable like accidentally losing your application for a driver’s license or giving you a bad employee evaluation.

Suddenly, a chirping sound came from behind the desk, reminding Richard of an old style printer or fax machine. The office worker pulled a long sheet of paper up from under the desk and folded it in half before glancing through it. Muttering, the man said, “Richard Jaeger… 20 years old… no living family… cashier… no hobbies… few friends… no enemies… hmm… no girlfriend… go figure… Shot while cleaning up a broken bottle of mayonnaise off a counter. Really? Killed when cleaning up some mayonnaise… talk about shitty luck… hmm… no skills… physical characteristics… triangular face… black hair… black eyes… average nose… average weight…average physical strength… average speed… average intelligence… average reflexes… average, average, average… Sheesh, should have named you Average Joe.”

The longer the annoying man talked, the more frustrated Richard became. Slamming his hand down on the table, he yelled, “Excuse me!”

The office worker lazily looked up at Richard with raised eyebrows. “Yes…?”

Richard felt like yelling at the man, but seeing the almost dismissive attitude the man had, Richard just clenched his teeth in frustration and replied, “Nothing… never mind.” Straightening up, he stared off to the side, ignoring the officer worker, who continued reading down the paper as though nothing had interrupted him. Most of the information was mundane, with the word “average” popping up often.

Eventually, the office worker stopped speaking and cleared his throat. “Well, that was a waste of time. Anyway, it seems as though you really don’t have a specific skill that we can we can optimize. A bit difficult to give you your choices when you’ve got none… maybe… well, something useful like ‘Elemental Fire’ or something. That’s a pretty useful one, even if it’s a bit overdone.” The office worker smiled at Richard with one of those slimy car salesman smiles.

Richard frowned and asked, “What are ‘skills’ in the first place?”

The officer worker sighed. “Easiest way to explain them is to call them special abilities that you can use, you know… like… hmm… what were they called again where you’re from… oh yeah… X-men superpowers and all that. There’s thousands of skills out there in the World Labyrinth that you can learn, but we usually start you off with one to help you survive in the beginning.

So, how’s ‘Elemental Fire' sound? Useful right?”

Of course, Richard wasn’t willing to let things slide that easily. “What’s the World Labyrinth?”

The officer worker rolled his eyes and replied, “It’s the new world that you chose to go to. What else do you think it is? Anyway, like I said, ‘Elemental Fire’ is a pretty good choice. So, just agree, and we’ll get things moving.”

Once again, Richard refused to budge. He realized this ‘skill’ thing was more important than the moronic office worker was making it out to be. If having the right skill was important to surviving in the World Labyrinth or whatever, Richard came to the conclusion that he couldn’t just cave in to whatever the idiot on the other side of the desk was pushing for. “Are there other skills I can pick from? Like a list or something?”

The office worker frowned and muttered, “Seriously... There goes my lunch break.” Looking Richard in the eyes, the office worker said in an annoyed tone, “You realize I’m giving you a good deal with ‘Elemental Fire’ right, especially since you have shit for your current skills. What do you want instead, ‘Fishing’ or maybe ‘Cleaning?’ Because, I can make that happen too.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Richard felt his anger building but kept it clamped down while muttering in his mind. “No, I can’t get angry at him… I don’t want to be screwed over. Stay calm… Stay calm.” Just as he was about to give into the stupid office worker, a ringing noise filled the office.

The office worker’s smug face suddenly turned pale and he glanced under his desk again. Looking nervous, he reached down and pulled up an old school telephone handset with its wire dangling from one end. Putting the handset up to his head, the officer worker respectfully said, “Hello sir. This is Interviewer 3948.” Richard couldn’t make out what was being said on the phone, but he did hear the interviewer’s answers. “Yes sir… no sir… yes… that’s possible… Yes, I understand… Of course… Thank you… I understand, sir.”

Almost mechanically, the interviewer returned the handset to back underneath the desk, no doubt hanging it up. When he looked back up at Richard, there was a slightly apprehensive look on the man’s face. “Alright, Mr. Jaeger… It seems as though we have a once in a million years offer that is available. I have just been told to offer you something interesting: a skill classified as as ‘Legendary.’ Just to let you know, the highest class, ‘Unique’ is right above ‘Legendary.’ So you see, this is a very amazing offer.”

Richard stared at the officer worker with suspicious eyes. “What’s the catch? If the skill or whatever is as special as you it is, there’s got to be a catch to it. Also, you haven’t told me what the skill is.”

The office worker tried to smile his slimy smile again but gave up quickly. Sighing, he said, “Look, my friend, this is a crazy offer. I’m gonna be up front with you. I’m not allowed to tell you what the skill is. That’s part of the surprise, you see. Also, if you pick this skill, you won’t get a choice of where you’ll start off in the Labyrinth. You’ll start at a random location. It doesn’t sound too bad just at face value, but considering something like 90% of the World Labyrinth is considered hostile territory, you can see how that’s a bad thing. What I can tell you is that the skill won’t be much good to you to start off with, but it will be useful if you can keep your ass from getting scragged quickly. So, like I said, it’s a gamble taking the surprise offer. Me… well, let’s just say, I would play it safe and refuse it.”

Richard wasn’t exactly a genius, but he understood most of what the interviewer was saying and implying. Basically, the skill could end up being powerful or very useful, but living until then was going to be a nightmare, especially with the ‘random start location’ requirement. However, Richard thought it over seriously. He knew he could choose ‘Elemental Fire,’ which seemed to be a common skill from what the officer worker had implied. However, for some reason, Richard didn’t feel drawn to it. Maybe it was his frustration with the interviewer or maybe it was his sudden disdain for his past ‘average’ life, but he felt like ‘common’ and ‘average’ were too similar to accept a second time around. “I’ll take the legendary skill.”

There was silence in the office for at least half a minute. When the interviewer spoke, it was with some respect. “Didn’t think you would actually choose that one, especially with the special requirement, but I have to say, it takes some guts to do that.” The interviewer leaned back in his chair and said, “Well… it’s your choice… let’s get this over with. Put your hand back on the black panel, and we’ll get you set up with your skill and core.”

Richard quietly obeyed, tired of trying to figure out all the new terms. He just tried to remember the words and hoped he would get answers sometime soon. As soon as he touched the panel, the warm feeling from earlier returned, but this time, it enveloped him completely. He felt a second of panic, but that quickly faded as his body relaxed and his attention wavered.

When he suddenly jolted to awareness, he found himself standing in the same spot, but the interviewer was now looking up at him with some concern. The man said, “I’ve never tried setting up a core with with such a high ranked skill before. It’s good to see that you’re okay.” Richard felt like asking what would have happened if he was not ‘okay’ but quickly decided he did not want to know.

The interviewer smiled normally before saying, “Alright… Let’s test things out. I want you to say or think ‘Show core.’ Something should pop up.”

As weird as that sounded, Richard went ahead and said, “Show Core.” Almost immediately, a transparent panel showed up right in front of him. It had half a dozen tabs, some of which said things like Statistics, Items, and Skills. Looking at everything, he felt almost overwhelmed. It was like he was looking at some kind of weird video game menu or something.

The interviewer interrupted at this point. “Consider this your interface for monitoring how your body improves and develops in the World Labyrinth. It’s installed in your core, and just like your core, it can never be removed or altered against your wishes. You can use it to check your increase in abilities and skills as well as for checking on certain things like your current condition and what items you have stored in your core. There’s also a basic guide in there that will help you figure some of it out, but let’s just say that you’ll have to figure the rest out yourself. As of now, your skill has been added to your core and should be available for use as soon as you enter the World Labyrinth.” Pausing for a second, the interviewer looked around nervously before whispering, “I also left you a little good luck gift in your Inventory. Open it up later. Depending on what you get, it may help you.”

Richard didn’t know what to say or where to start. He just held on to the words ‘guide’ and ‘gift,’ since they seemed to be the most important ones. He mumbled, “How do I make this menu thing disappear?” Almost immediately, the transparent panel disappeared, leaving his line of sight uncluttered.

The interviewer grinned and said, “Looks like you’ve got the hang of it. Anyway… take a step back, and we can finalize things.”

Almost automatically, Richard stepped back, but realizing he still had questions, he said, “Wait, there’s still a few things I need…” Of course, like some kind of crazy cartoon, the floor opened up, and he dropped like a rock. His last sight of the office was the interviewer giving him a thumbs-up with one hand while waving goodbye with the other.

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