‘Well, isn’t there a different solution?’ he thought and went back indoors.

“Something wrong, sweetie?” Brenda asked, on her way to the bathroom.

“Just grabbing a little something for the ride,” he told her. That was the only explanation she needed to nod and leave the kitchen behind. Once she was out of view, he filled a glass with water and put it into his inventory. ‘Minor experiment time,’ he thought and made a half-bouncing circle around the table. When he pulled out the glass again, it was entirely unchanged. No spill, no signs of any motion whatsoever.

John smiled and poured the water into the sink. He filled it with orange juice instead and placed that in his inventory. It stood to reason that, if it wasn’t affected by him moving, that it was stowed away in a space completely isolated from this one. Perhaps it was kept in complete stasis. He would know more about this later. If the orange juice came out at fridge temperature, that would make his inventory an incredible tool.

A window popped up. He was in the middle of throwing edible things into his inventory. Peeled carrots, leftover noodles with pasta sauce, and an apple. All things he could excuse having gone missing without arousing suspicion. He heard his mom’s returning footsteps and put one of the carrots in his mouth for effect.

“You’re still here?” she asked, slightly disapproving.

“Yeah, sorry, I was still hungry,” he said, around the carrot.

“Just get that bus. We don’t want you to be late, do we?” she took the bite out of the words by smiling. She even waved him goodbye when he was out the door. His neighbourhood looked as usual: clean. He and his mom lived in a sizable house on the outskirts of one of the many Springfields the USA had to offer. The place was dominated by single family houses like their own. John didn’t mind it here. It was boring and the internet was good. A more adventurous boy would have had relatively fast access to the woods. He wouldn’t have minded joining his dad in DC either.

As he walked along, he read the window.

Achievement Unlocked: Not a bad Idea!

You used your brain to solve an easy situation. Congratulations!

+1 Wisdom

+1 Intellect

‘I feel a bit mocked by this.’ John thought and pressed away the message, just as the school bus pulled up beside him. A quick look at his MP identified that it had dropped down to 30. Constantly using Observe was taking its toll. ‘Am I going to experience mind fatigue if it reaches 0?’

John took a seat in the relative isolation of the back. He looked at his schoolmates inside the bus and checked out their levels. The lowest one he saw was a fat dumb kid he knew from high school at level 2 and the highest one was level 12, the leader of the school’s’ hockey team. With his measly level 3 he was at the bottom of mediocrity though, as most people ranged from level 3 to 5. He thought about using Observe on the people to level it further but decided that he had ample time for that later. He wanted to find out something else first.

He clicked around his Character Sheet for a bit. If anyone had watched him it would have looked very stupid. He used his backpack and the seat in front of him to conceal the movements from the few random gazes that wandered his way.

‘Is there a definition for my Stats somewhere?’ he wondered. Depending on which game one was playing Agility increased armour rating, sometimes Strength increased Health, sometimes Health Regen, a few times even both. Knowing the resources at his disposal would be very important for…. for….

For what exactly? His mind had been filled with possibilities earlier, but that had been the same as the expectations he had for No Man’s Sky after the first trailer: all ideas and no clarity. What goal would he set for himself? What, specifically, did he want if he didn’t wake up in the next 10 seconds?

‘No idea…,’ he confessed to himself. ‘Let’s find out simpler things for now.’

He finally found a little question mark at the top right corner of the Stat segment. He first touched it, then a Stat. A window popped up afterwards. One after another, he got the details on all of his Stats.

Strength: 8 (+ 0)

Strength is used to represent raw physical capabilities, such as lifting weights or punching harder. It increases the HP recovery/hour by 0,05 (STR*0,005) and gives +1 Inventory Slots for every 10 points.

Agility: 15 (+ 0)

Agility describes how nimble and quick a character is. Increases general speed, dexterity, and reflex time.

Endurance: 7 (+ 0)

Endurance shows how much punishment the Gamer can take physically. It increases his HP total by 35 (END*5). It also gives the Gamer a higher uptime during physical activities and shortens the recovery time needed for Gamer’s Body to recover stamina.

Intellect: 25 (+ 0)

Intellect shows how smart a person is. Increases logical thinking and problem-solving skills. It increases MP total by 50 (INT*2). Helps increase thought speed.

Wisdom: 10 (+ 0)

Wisdom describes how much the Gamer is able to use what he has learnt in a productive manner. Helps increase information digestion speed. It increases MP/minute by 0,075 (WIS*0,0075).

Charisma: 5 (+ 0)

Charisma is used to represent how likeable a person is when he acts and speaks. High Charisma results in easy negotiations and persuasions. Charisma also represents pleasantness of voice and attractiveness.

Libido: 19 (+ 0)

Libido represents how horny the Gamer is. While higher numbers mean that a person cums faster (Libido increases sensitivity) they also mean that the recharge time is lower and loads are larger.

That answered more questions than he had thought. It was very convenient that they also gave him the little math that was used to calculate his MP and HP. He closed all of the Stat windows and had a look at his resources.

Health Points: 45

Shows how much Health the Gamer has. Base 10 + 35 from other sources. Regenerates at the rate of 0,265 per Hour.

Mana Points: 60

Shows how much Magic the Gamer can use. Base 10 + 50 from other sources. Regenerates at the rate of 0,525 per minute.

That was slightly disappointing, the formula to show how his regeneration came together wasn’t shown. Whatever had designed this interface either didn’t want him to know or had gotten lazy. It was also interesting that the number he saw now went three digits after the comma. A bit more detail than he had previously been privy to. Was all of this in active development as he used it?

The question, like so many others, remained unanswered.

Only school was a certainty.