Terry put down her phone in disgust. A few seconds later, she picked it up again.

“What are these idiots doing?” She complained out loud. “I can’t believe they’re talking complete nonsense in an alien invasion situation!”

“What did you expect?” Alicia said flatly. “It’s Reddit.”

“I expected something more,” Terry countered. She wasn’t backing down, not to that kind of sass. “They’re completely useless!”

This time Alicia didn't respond.

Terry rolled her eyes, her twin sister was always absorbed in her Instagram. She was never interested in Terry’s hobbies, especially when it came to browsing the internet. Terry leaned over to see what Alicia was looking at.

Another picture of BTS on her Instagram feed?

Aliens have invaded us, but all she’s doing is looking at K-pop idols?

Terry turned her back away from her sister as she refreshed the ‘New’ tab on r/all. More threads popped up. She scrolled down to find a few topics of interest.

NSFW: Rare footage found of a new species discovered in the Amazon.

Terry couldn’t help but tap the NSFW thread. Perhaps it was related to the alien structures hovering over the cities.

She saw an image of a blue puddle engrossing a lizard. The slime-like animal seemed to be slowly consuming the lizard. Terry was unsure if the lizard was still alive. It was semi-interesting but unrelated to aliens. Wasn’t there like a hundred different species discovered per month in the Amazon?

Terry scanned the comments. She couldn’t understand why some people were calling the new species a ‘slime’? Was that its scientific name?

It’s an alien invasion and all these guys are thinking about are video games. Also, how is this NSFW? It’s just the death of a random lizard.

Terry wasn’t squeamish. She felt nothing when animals were killed, unlike some other girls she knew. Like her sister, Alicia, for example.

Alicia would probably die in a week without her makeup brushes and name-brand clothing. Terry’s twin was nothing like her.

She continued scrolling down Reddit, finding nothing useful. People kept on repeating the same things over and over, like how they were in a game world or how interesting the new system was. It just made no sense, there were more practical things to be doing such as acquiring more information about the structures above San Francisco.

Terry saw yet another upvoted post about what stat a person should choose: STR? DEX? INT? A careful meta-analysis of your options!

Oh well, guess gamers will be gamers, Terry thought, giving up on the idea of finding meaningful news on Reddit. Her hand clicked the Home button on her phone and flew over another social media icon to open it, losing interest in the topic of aliens.

Besides, video games were boring.

Suddenly, an AMBER alert sounded from her phone. Terry swiped to enlarge the news. A kid had gotten lost near their location?

Pleasanton... Terry read off the screen. Asian features, seventeen years old, goes by the name of Luoying Xue? Isn’t that someone from my high school?

There was a picture of an attractive Asian girl on the screen along with the alert.

She was last seen near Dublin Boulevard?

That was close to work. Terry thought about texting her friend Ray to see if he was close to the alert. She shrugged. It was a good enough excuse to talk to him.

“Ray, do you know anything about that AMBER alert?” Terry phrased her question perfectly in the text. “Didn’t she go to Dublin High?”

Terry put down her phone and went on her laptop. She pulled up a TV show and started watching to distract herself until Ray replied. While watching, she pulled out her phone and started texting another friend.

[Hayyy girl] Terry sent. [I’m chilling at home hbu?]

Isabel was online. Three pending dots told her that her friend was responding to her.

[Omg did you see like the alien thing???]

[Yea what about it?] Terry was interested. Maybe Isabel knew more?

[Well like my brother was talking about how you could now see your stats if you say status out loud] Isabel texted back to her instantly.

[Don’t tell me you believe that too?] Terry was a little confused. Wasn’t that the gamer joke on Reddit from earlier? Why would Isabel be talking about it?

[Omg just try its soooo cool] Came the reply.

Well, here goes nothing, Terry thought. She fully expected Isabel to make fun of her afterward.

“Status,” Terry spoke out loud to herself. To her surprise, it worked.

Name: Terry Harper

Stats

Value

Level: 1

STR

10

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

AGI

10

Total EXP/Percentage to Next Level: 0 / [0%]

INT

10

A status screen showed in front of her vision.

She immediately became suspicious. Was this some kind of practical joke? Was she being set up?

Terry had never, not even once, played a video game. She’d always been adamant about it. Games wasted people’s time, didn’t produce anything useful, and also caused violence. There was no upside that she could see.

However, this didn’t stop her from learning about it. Terry quickly learned that she could maximize and minimize the screen as she wished. It was easy, just like a touch-screen holographic interface.

It was exactly like that. Following this discovery, Terry started to search online for video game knowledge to find out more about this status screen. She was curious as to how this system came into place and how to proceed moving forward.

Perhaps her life was a video game now. Terry would have to make the most of it. The situation was uncalled for, random, and frankly not even within her wildest imaginings. But, like most unforeseen situations, she would have to adapt.

Terry got to work.