"Well fuck..." Ice said softly.  " How long until the system is initialized?" He asked the air around him.

"System will complete initialization in 26 hours and 10 minutes." As the System said this a small timer appeared on the bottom left of his vision.

Doing the math in his head quickly, Ice groaned. "You slow piece of shit.  That's only 1 minute before I fail the mission... Isn't there anything else you can do?"

"No." said the System, sounding almost smug in a slow monotonous way.

"Well what help are you then!" Ice shouted in exasperation. 

"System codeword HELP initializing, please wait." 

.....

"Now starting Tutorial Mode."

Another screen appeared in front of Ice this time asking him if he would like to take part in the Empire Builder System Tutorial.

Tutorial Mode Task: Complete System Tutorial

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????????(Optional)

time limit: 4 hours

Rewards for completion: Time Dilation Unlock,  (Optional Reward Unknown)

Penalty for Failure or Refusal: Loss of body control X 26 hours.

Once again Ice chose to accept this task since once again it felt like there wasn't a choice.

The world seemed to go black around him and suddenly he was sitting in what looked like his high school Biology classroom.

Ice looked around confused."What the....."

Ice jumped up and ran to the doorway but there was nothing on the other side. He couldn't even push his hand through the doorway no matter how hard he tried.

As he turned he saw a woman around his age in a rather loose fitting suit. The only way he could think to describe this woman was rather cute in a frumpy way.

"Hello. Please be seated, Ice." The woman said in a voice that sounded suspiciously like that of the ever frustrating System.

Ice slowly sat down.

The woman places a blue book with numbers on it, in front of him. The cover read 2:34 75 points.

Ice stared at it for a second before gesturing to it. "What am I supposed to do with this?  What even is it?" He touched the book and it suddenly disappeared and a screen appeared in the center of his vision.

Would you like to learn about the Owlette Class Corvette?

Yes.           No.

He stared at the screen for a second before touching the yes with one slightly hesitant finger.  Suddenly, he felt a pain in the back of his skull like a small headache.  He looked at the woman as knowledge slowly filled his head. He saw the image of the same stubby winged bird shape he remembered from before.

"The system will allow you to learn skills in tiers.  This is the first Tier of the skill required to pilot the Owlette Class Corvette that you are currently piloting."  The woman droned on in the same monotonous voice that the system had.

"And... what does that mean?"  Ice asked as the pain in his head slowly subsided.

"It means you have the ability to learn skills at an unprecedented rate by acquiring these skill books from the store."  The woman supplied.

Ice just stared at her before realizing she had said something helpful.  "Tell me more about this store!"

The woman went on, completely ignoring him.  "You are a specialized being who can fly modified ships alone without a crew.  Specifically a type D.  Empire Builder. Very rare."

She placed a small chip on the table in front of him.  It was a clear silicone like substance. When he touched it it absorbed into his skin and a counter appeared in the upper right side of his vision with a 1.

"This is an Point, the currency used by the system. You can gain it from many actions you will take in this universe." The woman said as the Point disappeared.

"You mean currency for the Store?" Ice asked, adding,"That doesn't work." Under his breath.

"Yes.  You may rapidly initialize the store now for the cost of one Point." The woman stated.

Once again a screen appeared in front of Ice asking if he would like to initialize the store for immediate access.  He quickly tapped the accept underneath.

A menu appeared with a 0 and a picture of the Point.

Ice rapidly scrolled through the new menu looking for the Repair Kit.

Repair kit X1 (100) current price 1 (Temporary)

Ice heard a sound and the Woman stopped moving for a second.

"Optional objective cleared."

The woman started moving again and walked him through using the menu in the store.  The second she finished he was back in his ship and his eyes were dry like he hadn't blinked for 3 or so hours.  

A window appeared Time Dilation now available.

Below that a second smaller window read Optional reward: Small Repair Kit X 1 now available.  Do you accept it?

Ice rapidly hit the yes button and caught the Small repair kit as it appeared.  He held it and stared at the symbol on it for a second until the Tooltip the System had told him about appeared.

Small Repair Kit

Able to slightly repair one system back to functionality.  Does not fully repair.

Ice looked at it realizing that this should be enough to fix the life support system and save his life.  Ice held it out and said,"Use."  A diagram of the ship appeared in front of him.  Some parts of the diagram were outlined in red, some in blue, and others in green.  He pressed on various areas of the diagram until the life support came up.

"Would you like to use Small Repair Kit on the life support system?" Came from the air around him.  

"Yes you damn hunk of junk!"  Ice almost shouted.

"Life support functions. Task completed.  Rewards will be available on planetfall."

Ice sighed relieved that he wasn't immediately going to die.

Ice sighed. 

"Well, I suppose I should go to a planet and try to figure out what on earth is going on.  This is nothing like the website said the game would be." He said aloud to no one in particular.

Of course as he said this another screen popped up.

Exploration Task: Make Planetfall.

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Time Limit: 3 days

Reward for completion:  Industrial system unlock, Mystery reward box

Penalty for Failure : None

Once again Ice felt like this was a no brainerd and tapped Accept.

He activated the flight mode like he was shown in the Tutorial and looked towards a planet starting the long slow flight.  

Ice then activated the store.  It still said he had 0 I-chips but he had been gaming long enough to know that all currency comes with time.  He wasn't worried about buying anything immediately anyway, merely about seeing what was available to him given time.   

He saw several options to filter the store and he tapped the one that seemed most interesting.  

Ships:  Skill locked to availability

Owlette class Corvette    500 I-chips

"Well that's rather pointless." He muttered to himself.  

His next thought was that he was hungry.

He looked in the store for food and drink.  "Ah! There it is."  He quickly tapped the filter option.

Food and Drink Locked to current Point Balance

Black Bread: Benefits: Filling Cost: Free

Globe of water: Benefits: Thirst Quenching Cost Free

Well that's convenient.  Ice thought as he bought one of each.

He quickly devoured his meager meal feeling much better as he did so.

"Time Dilation Available." The System started out of nowhere.

Ice looked up from the last crumbs of his bread.  "What is Time Dilation?" He felt silly asking the air around him questions but he didn't really have a choice.

"Time Dilation allows the user to speed his journey to a predetermined location using the System. Current Dilation level 5%.  Would you like to use Time Dilation?"

Ice yawned suddenly tired after his meal.  "Yes." He said as he looked for a place to lie down.