Her first thought was that she’d just died in a nuclear blast. After several seconds, or maybe minutes—it was hard to tell with no sensory input to judge by—there was no change, no fade to black or guide to whatever afterlife. Char tried to look around, but she couldn’t even be certain she was moving her head, it felt like her body had gone with the rest of the world. She was just floating there, a disembodied consciousness. She grew more and more frantic, her thoughts turning in circles. She had no idea if it was seconds, minutes, or hours before the first box of text appeared before her, and the voice began speaking.
The text box hovered in her vision like something from a video game. White text on a blue background read:
Scan in progress.
Please remain calm.
Char felt… something… it was odd, like a wave passing over her. It was hard to describe, she didn’t have the words for the sensation, but it felt invasive. It felt like every cell of her body had just been viewed and judged. It made her feel vulnerable in a way she’d never experienced before.
Then someone spoke. The voice was feminine, calm and authoritative. It said, “Congratulations, People of Earth. Your world has been chosen as a candidate for inclusion in the Aldevari Dominion. The Aldevari Dominion is one of the Great Hegemonies of the Multiverse, and only those with the most potential are selected for this honor. In order to claim your place among the rulers of the Multiverse, you must prove that you are worthy. Each of you will be scanned and assessed. The Dominion accepts only the strongest warriors and most brilliant minds. You will be given the opportunity to learn and grow in power. Each of you will be provided with a training interface to assist you in navigating your new reality, but what you do with it is your choice. It will be a great challenge to reach the heights necessary to join the Aldevari Dominion. Grow, learn, gain power, and prove your worth.
“Your world is being randomized. Its ambient mana is being increased. Its native wildlife is being enhanced and new creatures are being introduced to provide you with the challenging training ground that you will need to reach the heights of power. Climb to the pinnacle, Humanity. The Multiverse is waiting.”
Not long after the voice finished its speech, the text box changed. The new one read:
Physical scan complete.
Stats calculated.
Dormant Bloodlines discovered.
Beginning skill assessment.
Char felt a buzz, almost like an electrical charge go through her mind, and she was suddenly reliving her memories. Bits and pieces of her past replayed in her mind’s eye. She was seven years old again, taking ballet and tap dancing class, then she was eight and in gymnastics and tumbling, then at swimming lessons at the city pool, then Girl Scouts, then she was thirteen and winning second place in the County Tae Kwon Do tournament. She was with her father learning to fish, with her grandfather learning to ride a horse, to round up cattle, with her grandmother learning to feed the chickens and gather eggs and how to tend a garden. She learned to knit and crochet and sew and can preserves and help birth a breech calf, how to mow hay, how to use a bow, how to sit still in a deer stand, how to know where to find the deer, how to shoot a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun. She saw herself in school, learning algebra, geometry, science, and history. In JROTC and band learning to wear a uniform and salute and march in time and play music. She was back in the Civil Air Patrol, learning about search and rescue, studying for her flight test, learning to fly a single engine Cesna. She was with her adrenaline junkie cousin learning to skydive, to rappel, to SCUBA dive, to ride a motorcycle. She was out on the lake with her father learning to sail. She was bruising her fingertips learning chords on her guitar. She was in her dorm writing a research paper for her Intro to Anthropology course.
On and on it went, a life full of curiosity, of trying new things. A summer spent working with a construction crew. Two years of college before she dropped out. Joining the SCA and learning to fight with a sword and to make chain-mail. Clubs and activities and DIY projects. She’d never realized how many different things she’d learned in her first twenty-four years of living. And then she learned to drive a truck. And the memories slowed and ended as her new husband and the truck took all of her time and energy, and there was no more time for exploration or new hobbies.
A new text box appeared in the whiteness:
Skills assessed.
New title earned:
Jack-of-All-Trades (Gold)
Possess a Beginner rank in at least 50 different skills.
+10 Intelligence
+5 Dexterity
+10% effectiveness of Intelligence and Dexterity
There was another box behind the one she was looking at, slightly offset like a stack of open windows on a PC. As soon as she focused on it, it moved to the top. It read:
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Attributes assessed.
New title earned:
Potential (Platinum)
Start with one attribute at or above 30.
+5 Strength
+5 Speed
+5 Endurance
+5 Recovery
+15% effectiveness of Strength, Speed, Endurance, and Recovery
Attributes? She wondered how to see what those were, and as soon as she thought about it a new, larger info box appeared. It looked like a character sheet from a role playing game.
Char studied the table, trying to understand the numbers and what they meant. She couldn’t focus on it. How could those numbers be her? This whole experience was surreal, and she wasn’t sure what to believe. Was it real? Was she stuck in some sort of delusion? She had no way of finding out, and she felt strangely calm about the whole thing. Unrealistically calm. She suspected that she was being kept calm artificially, somehow. After a few minutes of rehashing the situation and turning it over in her mind, she decided to just roll with it. Sometimes, the only way out is through.
She had no scale to compare to, but she was willing to bet her starting attributes were pretty crappy. Living in a truck for the last ten years hadn’t given her much time or space for regular exercise. If she was reading it right, then the titles had given her a huge boost. If this was real, if what the voice said about fighting and creatures and training was true, then she would need more of those. Video game rules. She was already getting the reward rush, and she was still only in the character creation stage. Whoever these Aldevari guys are, they’re smart. They’re using game theory and our own dopamine to motivate us.
Video games were one of her escapes after Ty’s death. Mindlessly chasing the next quest reward, the next level up, the next dopamine hit had kept her mind off of her pain. Her burgeoning addiction to online MMORPGs had been one of the reasons she’d gone back to driving after his death. She had to be more disciplined on the truck, and it was easier for her to turn off the computer or console so she could sleep. It had driven her to read up on game addiction. Knowing the reason it was so hard to put down her controller helped her resist the urge to play all night. She knew she was going to have to watch herself in this new world. She couldn’t let herself get caught up in chasing the next reward and forget that this Dominion, whatever that was, had just stolen Humanity’s self-determination. But, if she was going to survive, she needed to know the rules.
“Alright, show me my skills,” she said. Or tried to say. She had no mouth, made no sound, but the desire was enough to trigger a new screen. A long list of skills began to scroll past, but before she could get a good look at it, it was superseded by another text box that read:
World reconfiguration complete.
Initializing mana compatibility.
You will be returned to the training area
in 10 seconds.
Another strange feeling flooded through Char. It started like a strong frisson, strengthened to pins-and-needles, and then intensified into a rush of fire and ice and electricity coursing through her, and the realization that she could feel her body again was overwhelmed by the pain of it. The energy flushing through her built until the intense pain turned into an inferno of agony in every cell. It felt like it went on for an eternity. Then, as suddenly as it began, it ended. A surge of comfortable warmth followed, washing away the lingering jolts and muting the memory of the agony. It left her feeling energized and renewed. And the real world slowly began to come back.
