Rustles of paper and clatters of keystrokes were filling the room. The lecturer’s clear voice had no trouble overpowering it or noises of chattering and board’s creaks.

Among the students in the lecture hall, there was sitting a girl with slightly Asian looks. She looked out of the place, both the shortest and the youngest, like middle-schooler meddling in a group of adults. The girl had a dreamy gaze, having spent too much time playing computer games the last night.

Her name was Alice and today she was mostly following a piece of chalk in the lecturer’s hand with her steel-colored eyes. The second lecture of Ms. Lauster, Ph.D., regarding her subject ‘Beginning of quantum physics’ on this first week of the first year of education was sufficiently profound, yet Alice was yet to write a single word from the source of knowledge or copy a single formula from the board.

Not because she was a lazy cat. Well yes, admittedly, Alice had no more reasons to show off exasperated efforts after escaping her mother’s vigilant eye at home.

The problem lied entirely on the lecturer’s relatively young shoulders. No matter how talented Ms. Lauster was to reach prominent scientific heights at her tender early 30 years or how busy she was between her research and prettying herself up to look that good with a voluptuous figure, curly blond hair covering half of her back, thin lips and blue eyes…

Alice coughed inside her mind with little guilt and nearly buried her pointy nose in the smartphone with a web novel she had been reading. A tiny bit of her attention remained on the lecture though, sharing space with weak criticism.

Ms. Lauster might have spared an effort to change her lecture from what could be found online! At least something!

So when the bell finally ringed Alice stood up mechanically and started to wrap up her staff.

"And who was so bored to prank with a false ring a quarter an hour early? Ms. Branson or Mr. Sandoval? Or somebody else?"

Huh? Alice heard her last name and gawked at professor Lauster before blinking and glancing at the electronic clock on the wall. It was showing 14:44.

"Okay, very funny, now sit back and…"

It was when Ms. Lauster stopped short Alice noticed.

A tiny icon in the corner of her eyes. The icon occupied a bit of her sight and looked exactly like a chatting box on her phone.

What the..? Alice blinked and shook her head. The message icon flickered and, as had been waiting for this kind of attention, rapidly transformed into a number of floating words.

 

> System message
> Congratulations! You were Chosen as a Guardian of Earth!
> Proceed to system test?
> Yes, of course/Won’t hurt/The honor is mine!

 

"What bell, professor?"

Alice heard an uncertain question from a student from the rear. Dazed, she ignored it and touched her neighbor’s shoulder.

"Hey, are you seeing this?"

"What?" the freckled girl said in an annoyed voice. She was the diligent one.

"The message."

"What..?"

"The system message," Alice’s sharp cheeks reddened from the foolishness of her answer.

"What the heck are you talking about, big head?"

Okay, all she was seeing was clearly one stupid joke, Alice nodded inwardly and pinched her back.

"Ouch!"

 

> System message
> [The honor is mine!]
> Excellent! As expected from the Chosen One! The first question! Are you bored with your mundane life?
> A) I frequently think about where I am heading.
> B) Yes, oh God, yes!
> C) I am so disappointed in this life sometimes want to see the next one already…

 

"Wait! I didn’t answer that!" Alice blurted out with growing anxiety. She waved her hand instinctively as to shoo away a fly, but to no avail, the message box did not even budge.

"The shit is this! You’re fucking kidding me!" a voice cursed nearly simultaneously with her. A large guy with short brown hair slammed his desk with force.

Alice looked around in disarray. Most students had baffled expressions, some of them already with smartphones in readiness though. One of the prominent human reactions of modern times. However, the short girl quickly found the anomalies. The male student who had just openly sworn, a girl staring into the distance with slightly scared eyes, chewing her pen. Another guy was enthusiastically poking the air.

"Interesting."

No, it is not, Alice rebutted the statement silently.

Well, maybe a little, professor, she admitted readily right after.

 

> System message
> [C]
> How sad it is, the Honored One! But fear no more, for all mundanity is about to be blasted to pieces by your glorious future!

 

"Wait a sec…"

 

> The second question! Have you ever thought about worlds beyond your mundane planet?
> A) Admittedly, but as perhaps any random person.
> B) Not thoughts are they, but dreams of mine!
> C) I wish there was a way to escape our dull little rock to some interesting place…

 

"Who are these ‘we’…" feeling powerless, Alice closed her eyes for a moment, a fruitless attempt to escape the pressing reality.

"Excellent question, Miss Branson. Who are we? Everybody who has found themselves to be a recipient of supernatural system messages, please, hands up."

Professor Lauster broke in the turmoil of perplexed questions and laughs from the mass of oblivious students, which had rapidly filled the room during the last minute.

"If you don’t understand, be patient. I will clarify soon," she added calmly, making even Alice doubt her inability to do exactly that.

The girl contemplated a little before lifting her arm.

"Yes, yes, me too," the angry guy from before snorted as he light-headedly showed his.

Several people, including previously noticed by Alice, followed the suit. No one seemed panicked, only bewildered and alert.

"Eight so far with myself," counted the professor. "Personally, I am witnessing some formulas. Mathematical formulas. Moreover, with specific descriptions. They are… disturbing, and their source makes me take them seriously. Nevertheless, they should make no sense to your lot. So I assume for now everyone is getting different messages."

"I have some silly self-answering test thing going online." Alice hurriedly declared.

"Bunch of insults and provocations. Level – for kids."

So why did you react so loudly? Alice safely ridiculed the guy’s back with a mocking gaze.

"Images of spiders. Disgusting. Look at these goose pimples," the girl who Alice had assumed to be scared twisted her lips and demonstrated her delicately manicured hands.

"A poem," a mature-looking guy with long black hair said dead serious.

"I have a menu like a game one. Mostly empty, but I can navigate it with mental commands. Verbal or gestural do not work," a thin yet tall black guy cheerfully shared his experience.

So that what was he poking about?

"Okay, this is all past funny. Sorry, professor, but…" not everyone in the lecture hall took the news well, or seriously.

Why didn't I get a game screen! Alice tuned down useless quarrels and thought so irritably.

 

> Sys…

 

Oh, here you are!

 

> …tem message
> It seems additional questions aren’t necessary after all, the Radiant One!
> An unforgettable adventure is already prepared and waiting for you!
> One and only!
> The Training Grounds of Apocalypse!

 

Wait-wait-wait. What the hell!

"I agree."

And I do not, professor! Alice refuted anxiously without even knowing what exactly the person in question meant. Two seconds the girl spent frozen and then she started to look around restlessly.

 

> And 2…!

 

Now without mentioning any ‘system’!

My smartphone! I should call Mom. Nonono, time, no time. I should message her. Damn these messages!

Two seconds to discover the phone exactly where she had left it – in her own hand. Half a second to light the screen up.

 

> And 1…!

 

Open app! Open chat! Not this chat! Think of what to write, what to write!

Come on!

The message icon in her eyes flickered menacingly just when Alice started to print with a speed of a young girl spending her life before various electronic devices. Her finger fluttered four times and then pressed 'send'.

Okay, now something coherent...

 

> Congratulations! Th*/

 

What..? Alice noticed a vexing message breaking apart right away. Doesn’t matter, she concluded. Chances were it wouldn’t end well anyway. Why is everything so slow? No, seriously. Alice’s fingers were moving at a snail’s pace. Every tap took enormous effort as if the air was not air anymore but sticky clay.

Huh?

People around… they acted unnaturally. No, it was not ‘acting’, not in a manner of living humans. Alice saw it when she played with a video player or watched some pricy movies with a suitable theme. Not just people, the world itself was playing backward. About -0.5 speed?

Fuck. The girl could hardly acknowledge this information. So my future – is the world’s past now? she started a slow-mo giggle, tense but mostly overwhelmed. If this were to have happened before system messages appeared, she would have panicked to the point of losing it. But not now. She could think, somewhat. React.

I can still write Mom against this stupid shit. Alice noticed that her smartphone worked normally as if staying inside her personal continuum. Just slow, aggravatingly so. Her fingers were hurting, protesting against the violence of fighting off broken physics.

Wha-?

The world repaired itself to normalcy like by a snap of one's fingers. Mechanically, Alice ended her short second message, flicked the ‘send’ button and in silent stupor gazed around.

Oy…

 

> System message
> Attention! The mental interface is loaded
> Scan is completed
> Blood integration is possible
> Loading database…
> Mental space abnormality is predicted
> Impossible to integrate class
> Workaround...
[…]
[…]
> Hunter template is applied
[......]
[Transfer]