01 – Arrival

Julian sipped his coffee on a comfortable leather chair he had dragged all the way the balcony. The city below was a messy sprawl of concrete, glass and steel skyscrapers and the occasional floating park. A few people walked on the skybridges, taking in the sights. Tourists, he knew, the only people who could afford to walk this slow around his tower. A great logo of the letter M, with that 3D style that was reminiscent of the age of the first computers, occupied the whole face of the skyscraper like it belonged there. And indeed it did. The writing below it was insignificant compared to its grandeur, and in an age of holograms and brain implants, the simple two-dimensional image demanded a strange attention to itself. Alone, more imposing than neurally induced ads.

None of it mattered, of course. Ever since his research of the M-field reached a critical point of no return, Julian knew that his days on Earth were about to come to an abrupt end. Some people would survive, most were bound to die. That was that.

However, he also knew that he was one of those bound to die. Not good. Not acceptable.

Julian got up from the chair and went to rest his arms on the railing, letting the strong wind that blew this far up lick his face with its chilly touch. Then, right on time, they came. The colossi descended from the sky, raining fire and doom upon the human cities across the world. The human leaders tried in vain to contact them, to ask the conditions of surrender, or to beg for mercy. They did not deem humanity worthy even of a simple answer. Just as they came, they went away. Four days later, when the ships took to the skies again and disappeared in the deep darkness of the universe, the face of the Earth was no longer the same.

Julian smiled before even opening his eyes, and read through the message that appeared in his vision.

>YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN<

He smiled. As expected.

>THE SYSTEM WILL BE INSTALLED – PLEASE REMAIN------------

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>WARN---

Suddenly he was elsewhere. The room, white and black with a floor made of iridescent holographic tiles, reminded him of his VR lab. Indeed it was his VR lab. He nodded to himself, satisfied that his plan had worked.

“You have 20 seconds before total failure.” A robotic voice said.

His eyes widened. This wasn’t what he predicted; in fact this was totally out of safety bounds. Something must have gone wrong, or maybe a stray missile or energy beam had damaged his machines. He felt that he was about to panic, and closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He allowed himself two seconds to calm himself down, pushing the rising panic down below in the depths of his mind for at least the time he had before this room disappeared.

A screen appeared in front of his eyes. There was a file highlighted in the middle of the translucent pane of light. It contained all the modifications he needed to upload to the system, the result of a lifetime of research, so that he could not only survive but thrive in this new world.

He dragged the file into the air.

Unpacking…

He saw the timer tick down. From 20 seconds, it was down to 10. He looked at it with unblinking eyes, beads of sweat rolling down his temples. He fought the urge to bite his nails, but could not stop his foot from nervously tapping the floor.

Five seconds.

The progress bar was not even halfway to completion. Panic surged within Julian’ body. There was nothing he could do now. He could only hope.

Four seconds. 55%

Three seconds. 62%

Two seconds. 68%

One second.

Process failed. Please retry…

Zero seconds.

He was out. He allowed himself to let go of the hold he had on his panic, and his vision began to swim and his body to sway. He collapsed to his knees, heaving. He let the wave of panic pass, letting his body take the time it needed to relax, and his labored breath slowly steadied itself. He didn’t know how much time he spent in this condition. He felt like crying, cursing his own hubris for even attempting to hack something like a multiversal system. How could he even think…

It was too late now. Panic was not going to help.

He was in another room now, completely white this time. The light was so strong it hurt his eyes, but among the tears that clouded his vision he saw the text floating in the air. It was solid black, and he could see it with a clarity that was almost unnatural.

>CHOOSE YOUR CLASS<

>…

Below the prompt that asked him to choose a class there was only one single empty button. There was no class to choose. Feeling a strange uplifting sense of hope, Julian pressed it. Perhaps, he hoped, some of the changes he wanted to upload to the system had gone through.

>SKIPPING TUTORIAL<

>SKIPPING ORIENTATION<

>SKIPPING RACIAL BONUS LOTTERY<

>CONNECTION TO LADDER SYSTEM FAILED<

>CONNECTION TO QUEST SYSTEM FAILED<

>CONNECTION TO RUNE SHOP FAILED<

>ABORTING INITIALIZATION<

>SKIPPING STARTING BONUS<

>FINALIZING SYSTEM INTEGRATION<

>…<

SUPERUSER: parsing changes… respawn system installed, level system override installed, skill hijack… failed. Retrying… skill hijack failed… retrying… switching to legacy skill assignment.

Suddenly Julian felt something. He didn’t feel like he had moved from the white room at all, but the new feeling that replaced the nothingness he was feeling before told him he did. It was a fresh, pleasant sensation of grass touching his bare feet. The grass was cool and slightly moist, but very soft to the touch, divided in countless tiny blades. The sun shone on his face, and Julian took a deep breath of fresh, fragrant air. Letting his body relax, he shook away the last vestiges of adrenaline from his body, and exhaled.

Not all hope was lost.

“Check access level.” He said, going through his planned checks.

There was no answer. Something was wrong. He should have access to the system, at least in some partial measure. But he didn’t.

Julian looked around, and saw that he was in the middle of a prairie lit by the morning sun. In the distance he could make out the faint shape of something, like huge thin pillars that kept the very sky afloat, disappearing at a great height where the haze swallowed them. He was indoors, inside a huge artificial space so big he could not see its walls.

He decided to walk towards a small patch of trees in the distance. As he got close to the tree line he began to hear the lulling sound of rushing water, and the smell of flowers.

It felt nice.

“Check admin privileges.” He said.

No answer.

He heard something. Turning around, he fell into a fighting stance and scanned the tall grass that hid the flowing water from his view. He stood motionless, letting the implanted memories of combat training guide him. There was a faint wind that made the green carpet sway in huge waves. He frowned. There was nothing, and yet he was sure he heard something beyond the natural sound of water. Something sinister.

After a while he had to come to terms with the fact that he needed to act. He dropped the stance and furtively walked away from the noise. His heart beat hard in his chest. He would have liked some more control of the situation. Especially because he was almost naked. Save for his underwear, all his clothes were gone. As were the gadgets and glasses he used to wear back in the lab. The only thing he had was his body, and the implanted knowledge he uploaded to his brain to serve him after the inevitable apocalypse.

“Wretch class, basically.” He muttered, again looking at his naked self.

He walked some more. This time he walked carefully, eyes peeled and on the lookout for anything that moved. The tall oaks were suddenly much more dangerous, with their treacherous shadows and thick underbrush. It felt like at every step, from behind every bush, something could suddenly jump out and attack him.

There was a faint mist swirling about the dark wooden trunks. The branches above were thick, and their leaves clogged the sun and plunged the forest into darkness. The moist air was heavy with the smell of decay. Distant birds were howling calls, and taking flight from hidden nests.

Julian walked around a tree and found himself staring right in the face of a tall, armored man.

“What the fuck!?”

He looked at him, heart still beating like crazy after having jumped backwards in a self defense reflex. The man was not moving, standing like a stone statue save for the rhythmical up and down of his breathing. The chainmail and sword were dangling, moved by gravity and by his breath. A shield rested on his other hand. Julian studied him, narrowing his eyes. The forest encroached at the edges of his vision.

The man was alive, but motionless. He was staring into the distance, eyes unfocused the same way they would be if he was plugged into a VR. But there was no data cable coming out of his skull.

The forest receded. The man must be in the so-called tutorial. Analyzing the situation rationally made the irrational fears of this place dissipate. The mist danced about, and a stray ray of sunlight lit the droplets in a million different shades of white.

Julian stripped the man down, taking all his clothes, armor and weapons for himself. He dressed quickly, eyeing the unmoving statue of a man with suspicion, waiting for him to wake up. But he didn’t.

A rustle of leaves. This time Julian was sure he hadn’t imagined it, and he fell down in a battle stance. The forest seemed to breathe, and with a deep shrug it swallowed all the light. It was cold and damp. Brandishing the sword and holding the shield up high, he scanned the brushes. A terrible growl split the air, and before his brain could even process it a huge, deformed beast jumped out of the undergrowth and lunged straight at him.

Julian stared down the beast’s maw. The animal was like a deformed tiger, burnt and singed by radiation and oozing pus from still open wounds. Its teeth were yellow and foaming, and its eyes bloodshot. It approached in a slow motion, the images processed by an adrenaline addled brain at incredible speed.

The shield arm went up immediately, fake memories planted in Julian’ brain by the technology he developed right for this moment telling his body what to do, how to act. He was like a trained soldier, and absorbed the impact of the huge beast with the round shield before spinning around and letting the animal slide away and slam into the tree behind before its momentum was dissipated.

Every instinct told Julian to run away. Despite his extensive training, or perhaps thanks to his training, he knew that he had no chance of survival even with a sword and clad in armor. The weight of the metal was already straining his weak muscles, the only thing he had not prepared before the apocalypse came.

He ran away while the animal was still confused and stunned by the violent impact. He ran and ran, as fast as his legs would carry him and perhaps more, pushing his body to the very limit. He dared not look behind him. Spotting a tree he made a beeline for it and jumped up the branches, then hid behind the thick trunk.

Back at the clearing where he was attacked, Julian saw the animal walking in circles around the big tree. It was ignoring the naked man even though he was standing right next to it, and instead sniffed the air with its deformed nose. For some reason it seemed unable to find a scent to follow, perhaps the damage the radiation did to it was too great.

He shook his head. There was no time to waste.

“Show me my status.”

This time the system responded.

Julian V. Terror.
Level: 0
Class: null

VIGOR: 10
MIND: 10
ENDURANCE: 10
STRENGTH: 10
DEXTERITY: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 10
FAITH: 10
ARCANE: 10

Runes: 0
Runes needed: 100

Skills: none

“A wretch indeed. Good. Okay now activate all HUD effects.”

>>Atmos Arcadia Tower Complex - FLOOR 1 - Garden<<
>>F-rank area<<

His vision was suddenly populated with a whole number of holograms. They were crude, stylized, and simple but he knew very well what they were there for. There was a compass, three bars of the same length and different colors for his HP, SP and MP, and a rune counter at the bottom right.

He inhaled, taking in the fresh air. It felt unreal, to finally be here. And despite he was inside an artificial structure: a tower, he felt much more alive than ever before. The air was clean, so clean he felt invigorated just by breathing it, cleaner than it was even in his lab. Despite the early setbacks, some of his changes to the system had indeed gone through. Maybe he was not going to be overpowered, but at least he was not going to be a cripple.