Aaron was peacefully pulling splinters out of his hand when he was rudely interrupted. The elevator dinged then the doors swung open. Two guards in crinkled uniforms stepped in. One of the guards turned towards him and looked at him intently. His face scrunched up in concentration. Aaron smiled back, his hand inching towards the gun on his hip. Do they know?

“You got something on your lip,” the taller of the two guards said.

Aaron slowly raised his hand and wiped it across his mouth. Dark red blood came off, Big Nose had hit him harder than he thought. “Thanks, I’m a messy eater. I must have gotten some ketchup on my lip,” he said with a smile.

The guard patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it buddy, it happens to the best of us. This idiot over here would drink ketchup if you gave him the chance. Last week he...” The guard’s radio buzzed, cutting him off. He held it up to his ear. Someone was shouting on the other side, but it was too quiet for him to make out the specifics. After a moment of silence, the guard sighed. “I don’t get paid enough for this. The damn inmates are causing trouble in the cafeteria again.”

“They’re more trouble than they’re worth. I think we should just execute them all and be done with it,” The other guard chimed in.

Aaron laughed. “That’s a great idea.” The elevator lurched to a stop, and the doors swung open. A question burned within him, demanding to be let out. He knew it may put his cover in jeopardy, but he had to ask it. “Before you go, do you also see the blue boxes?”

“Ya, didn’t you hear the Warden’s announcement on the radio? He said there was a gas leak. That’s why everyone is seeing things.”

He rubbed the back of his head. “I must have missed it. Thanks for the information.”

Aaron felt a weight lift off his shoulders. The odds of multiple people hallucinating the same exact things were astronomically low. He could safely assume that he was still sane. Though it did strike him as odd that the Warden so vehemently rejected the evidence that the world had changed. He seemed like a rational man when they spoke.

He waved goodbye to the guards as they stepped out of the elevator. Without any fanfare, he resumed his journey to the top floor. He was headed to the Warden’s office. When he had first arrived on the island a few weeks ago, he had promised the man that he would escape. What better way to send the message than to leave a scathing note in his office. Besides, he wanted to bring back a trophy to make up for all the time he had lost in here.

Once he reached the top floor, he confidently strode through the open office floor plan. The administrative staff and occasional guard on break didn’t pay any attention to him. They were too focused on the novelty of floating blue screens to bother with him. It seemed not everyone believed the Warden’s gas leak theory.

Besides, hundreds of people walked through this hallway each day. As long as he acted confident, no one would suspect him of any wrongdoing, even if they were on the lookout for suspicious activity. On the way, he grabbed a cardboard box off an unoccupied desk.

Once he reached the Warden’s office, he knocked on the door. There was no response. The Warden was out. Perfect. He reached down and twisted the door handle; it was locked. He looked around the office and found a young guard, who couldn’t have been older than 20 suspiciously staring at him. The guard took a bite out of his donut then walked towards him.

He turned to the guard and raised the box he was carrying. “Hi John, I got an urgent delivery for the Warden. Do you have a key to the room?” Thank god most of the guards had name tags on their uniforms - it made blending in so much easier.

The words died in John's throat; he wasn’t expecting this type of response. “It's against protocol. Normally, Mr. Lien doesn’t allow anyone into his office while he isn't there."

Aaron cut off the man before he could reject him. "Come on John, you know me; I'm trustworthy. I'll be in and out." He shook the box a couple times. "We're still friends, right? I know it's been a while since we've hung out, but I had fun eating donuts with you last month. Did I do something to offend you?"

John stared at him, trying to remember him. He opened his mouth then closed it, unsure what to say. The awkwardness of the situation increased as Aaron continued to stare at him expectantly. "Of course, I remember you." He glanced toward Aaron's name tag. "Since we're friends, I can make an exception if you make it fast."

John cautiously glanced, checking to see if anyone was watching him as he opened the door to the Warden's room. They both stepped inside, revealing a dusty old office. A map of the prison hung on the wall. Oddly enough, a large Christian cross was nailed onto the wall next to the map.

He closed the door behind him then covertly locked it. He took a moment to inspect the map, memorizing the details of the prison. If this was the only thing he gained from this trip it would have been worth it. Knowledge was power after all, and if he was reading the map correctly, he may have found a way off the island.

John motioned for him to hurry up. "Sorry." Aaron placed the cardboard box onto the Warden's mahogany desk. "Thank you so much for letting me in. They would have yelled at me if I didn't deliver this package quickly."

John fiddled with the key in his hand. "Don't worry about it. I personally think the Warden is too uptight about the rules. No one has even gotten close to escaping in 20 years. There's no reason to be so paranoid about security."

Aaron nodded as he scanned the room for heavy objects. Now that he was inside the office he had to figure out a way to stay in it. “I know what you mean, man. The prisoners have never even stepped foot on this floor. Why do we need so much security? It’s just tedious.” Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted an extremely thick book, perfect for his purposes.

“Don’t say that too loudly; you'd get yelled at even though you're right. Like I understand having high security on the lower floors, where the prisoners are.“ He cut himself off before he could descend into a rant. "We should go. before we get caught"

“Of course." Aaron grabbed the book as they walked to the door.

John twisted the doorknob, but it didn't open. "That's weird; I don't remember locking the door." A heavy book crashed into the back of John's head, knocking him out. The guard bonelessly flopped to the ground.

That worked better than I expected. This must be a good book for hitting people. If I ever have to whack someone on the head with a book, I'll be sure to use the same brand. He glanced down at the title of the book, revealing it to be The Bible.

General Skills Unlocked! You have unlocked Disguise (Common - Tier 1)

Accept Skill Y/N

After making sure John was out cold, he stepped behind the Warden’s desk and slumped into a chair. Might as well get comfortable; this may take a while.

Aaron mentally pushed the notification to the side till he knew more. Now that he wasn’t under a severe time crunch, he could afford to make informed decisions. Emphasis on the word severe. He was still working with limited time, but he could spare a minute to learn more about the system. He opened the [Initialization] screen, hoping to get more information.

Phase 1: -User Interface Initialized 100% | Think [Status] to continue to the Status Screen. -Creating Class System 100% | Think [Class] to continue to the Class Selection Screen. -Raising Ambient Mana Levels 17% | Time Remaining: 26:40:23 -Preparing Initial Mob Spawns 98% | Time Remaining: 0:04:31 -Merging Worlds In High Mana Zones 32% | Time Remaining: 13:49:39 -General Skill System 100% | Think [Skills] to continue.

The timers continued to count down at a consistent rate. With each passing second, the arrival of system-created monsters drew closer. Ideally, he’d like to be off the island by the time that happened, but he knew that was unlikely. He still had work to do and promises to repay. Before doing anything else, Aaron opened the [Skills] screen.

Class Skills (1/6): Mana Bolt Lvl 3 (Common - Tier 1): Skill Paths: 3 Fires a ball of mana in a straight line out of your hand. Costs 5 mana. Damage based on skill level and stats. General Skills (0/4): Pending Skills: Disguise (Common - Tier 1): Skills Paths: 2 Passively boosts the speed of disguise creation as well as the effectiveness of disguises.

Based on the fact that Disguise was the only skill he had unlocked, he assumed that skills were granted based on actions taken after the introduction of the System. A rather logical way of doing things, in his opinion. Even though it was easy to understand the basics of the System, he still had questions. For example, what exactly did a skill being Common mean? Of course, he knew it was a measure of rarity, but the specifics of the designation eluded him.

He clicked on the word - nothing happened. He ran into a similar problem with what exactly Tier 1 meant. Clicking on the word was similarly unhelpful. The only button that interacted with his touch was the [Skill Paths] screen.

Barrage 1 (0/5): Two is better than one. For a slightly increased mana cost, send out two mana bolts at once. Resistance 1 (0/5): A strong defense is the best offense. Slightly increased resistance against foreign mana. Moderately increase resistance against your own mana bolts.

Minor Metamagic 1 (0/10): Even the biggest of changes start small. Allows the user to change the color, brightness and make other minor alterations to Mana Bolt for a slight mana cost.

Skill paths also seemed to unlock based on what actions he took. Barrage was likely unlocked by rapidly firing mana bolts into the chair. Similarly, he guessed he gained the Resistance path by hitting himself in the hand with a mana bolt. The only path he didn’t understand why he had was the Minor Metamagic 1 path. For that reason, it interested him the most.

He tapped on Minor Metamagic 1 with his finger. To his surprise, the counter ticked up by one, and he gained a point in his Magic stat, whatever that was.

He thought for a moment, then realized the answers he was looking for were probably on the only screen he had neglected to look at. He opened his [Status].

Name: Aaron Green Class: Mage lvl 1 (50/100) HP: 100/100 MP: 70/70 SP: 10/10 Strength: 5 Endurance: 6 Recovery: 5 Defense: 5 Dexterity: 7 Agility: 5 Perception: 4 Mind: 8 Magic: 7 Spirit: 1 Skill Points: 2

He raised an eyebrow at the detailed list of information. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought it would be possible to numerically represent all of someone's abilities. He took a moment to analyze the numbers, searching for any useful connections. A few were apparent, such as the calculations of MP and SP: a flat ten points for every point in his Magic and Spirit path, respectively. He quickly found his eye dragged to the bottom of the screen. He was missing a skill point.

He went back to the [Skill Paths] screen and added another point to Minor Metamagic 1; his skill point total decreased by one. He hummed. Completing skill paths cost skill points. From the similarity in their names, it should have been rather obvious.

Since he had already started the path, he put his final skill point into the Minor Metamagic path, gaining one more point in his Magic stat. Even if the path ended up useless, the extra mana his increased Magic stat provided would be useful. For a fraction of a second, his chest tingled. Emanating from his heart, an ice-like sensation flowed through his veins, causing him to shiver. As soon as the sensation came, it disappeared.

Weird. He studied his body for a moment but was unable to find any obvious changes. Slightly put off by the experience, he closed the blue screens. It would be awkward if someone came into the room now. Especially with John passed out on the floor. He craned his neck to make sure he was still knocked out. His father’s words rang through his head: don’t stick around the scene of a crime. A slight frown formed on his face.

He scoured the Warden’s office for anything of value. Packed deep within a drawer in the desk, he found an old safe. A casual thirty seconds of spinning the dial was all it took to unlock it. If the man had invested in a safe that didn't look like it was made in the stone age it may have provided him with a challenge. He dismissed a notification, alerting him that he unlocked the safe cracking skill. He would decide whether to get the skill later.

Inside the safe was a large golden key on a chain. Shiny. His mouth watered; it was exactly what he was looking for. Aaron greedily stuffed the necklace into his pocket. He took a quick glance at the [Initialization] screen to see how much time was left before monsters appeared.

Confident he had time to spare, he wrote a short message for the Warden on a sticky note, unlocking the writing skill in the process. The message read: Dear Warden, I took the golden key you had hidden in your safe as compensation for the crappy food you serve in the cafeteria. You’re the real criminal here for serving watery eggs. Maybe there would be fewer riots if you invested in real kitchen equipment instead of embezzling all the money. P.S. I win; you lose. Stay mad.

Aaron stood up from his chair, happy with the work of literary excellence he had just written. He stifled a yawn. Despite the fact he had been through multiple high-stress situations in the last ten minutes, he was still tired. He simply wasn’t a morning person. It wasn’t in his D.N.A. He stepped over John as he began to wake up and made his way to the breakroom. He probably had time to grab a cup of coffee before shit hit the fan.