Aaron patted his arm, checking to see if it was still there. To his relief, it was – floating through the void as a disembodied head wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat anytime soon. All around him inmates and guards alike laid on the floor, fast asleep. Tony snored loudly, his face firmly planted in his plate of scrambled eggs, and Jess had collapsed to the ground. He was unsure why he was the only one awake, but it obviously hadn’t come without a cost.

His very soul ached; its edges glowed red hot in agony. Whatever he had seen in that void, mortal minds were not supposed to comprehend. Already, he could feel his memories of his time in that unending darkness fading.

However, that didn’t matter at the moment; he planned to take advantage of the opportunity at hand. It wasn’t every day the guards slept on the job!

Ignoring the medley of blue boxes plaguing his vision, he stumbled towards a guard who had collapsed on the ground. After a moment of searching, he pocketed a key. He wished he could take more from the guard, but he was already waking up. The most important part of a heist was not getting caught. His prize hidden within his orange jumpsuit, he sat back down at the table.

Just as he returned, Jess groaned and snapped upright, her spine unnaturally stiff. All around her inmates and jailors slowly started to wake up.

Jess locked eyes with him, her foot tapping rapidly beneath the table. “I’m not crazy, right. You also see the blue screens?“ she asked.

“I see them too; you’re not crazy.” The tapping slowed, and she grinned maniacally. Her eyes darted back and forth, reading a blue screen that was invisible to Aaron.

“It’s like a game,” she muttered to herself. “What’s your magic stat?”

“Magic stat…” he trailed off. “Give me a minute.” He finally stopped ignoring the blue screen that hovered in front of him like a particularly annoying fly.

Welcome to the system! At the behest of the Shadow Sun Trading Company, your star sector has been assimilated. The first stage of system initialization has begun. Prepare yourself, monsters will spawn, and your world will experience minor weather fluctuations as it adjusts to the higher mana levels. As the initialization progresses, more system features will become available. Press [Initialization] to monitor progress.

The scale of the situation was enormous, almost too big for him to comprehend. A star sector - well he didn’t know the exact size of one, but he knew they were ridiculously big. The Earth had just gotten caught up in something it wasn’t even remotely prepared for. There was no way this would end well.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. It was a piece of advice his mother had given him, control the breath, and the body will follow. Not that they were on particularly good terms at the moment. She hadn’t spoken to him since he was arrested. He took another deep breath.

Not wanting to keep Jess waiting any longer, Aaron opened the [Initialization] screen.

Phase 1:

-User Interface Initialized 100% | Think [Status] to continue to the Status Screen. 0:00:00

-Creating Class System 99% | Time Remaining: 0:00:02

-Raising Ambient Mana Levels 16% | Time Remaining: 26:44:31

-Preparing Initial Mob Spawns 97% | Time Remaining: 0:00:04

-Merging Worlds In High Mana Zones 31% | Time Remaining: 13:52:47

Aaron watched as the numbers ticked down at a consistent rate, alleviating his growing concern that he had gone insane. He had read in a book that the human mind couldn't hallucinate numbers in a consistent pattern. In addition to the fact that Jess was also – presumably - seeing the same thing, he was fairly certain he was still sane.

One timer, in particular, stood out to him: preparing initial mob spawns. If he was reading the timer correctly, they had only minutes till dangerous monsters would appear. He couldn’t afford to be distracted; he had to prepare.

“So, what’s your magic stat,” she said, cutting off his train of thought. Aaron’s eye twitched; they were going to be attacked by monsters, and all Jess cared about was comparing stats.

“It doesn’t matter right now; we have to get ready,” Aaron said as he pulled off his shoes and emptied out the rocks he had hid in them. He let out a sigh of relief as he put on his now empty shoes. Walking on pebbles wasn’t very comfortable.

She frowned and flicked a small spoonful of scrambled eggs at Aaron. “There’s no need to get worried. The starting levels of video games are always easy.”

He wiped some egg out of his hair, then glared at Jess. “Fine, but after this, you have to help me with something.” He paused as he opened his [Status] screen. “Just because it looks like a game doesn’t mean it is. We don’t know what to expect; it’s better to be overcautious.”

She rolled her eyes. He bit his tongue to stop himself from retorting, then read over the blue screen in front of him.

Name: Aaron Green Class: Lvl n/a HP: 100/100 MP: 60/60 SP: 10/10 Strength: 5 Endurance: 6 Recovery: 5 Defense: 5 Dexterity: 7 Agility: 5 Perception: 3 Mind: 8 Magic: 6 Spirit: 1 Skill Points: 0

“My magic stat is six,” Aaron said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “What’s yours?”

“Five, how much mana do you have?”

With half an eye, he watched the timers slowly count down on the [Initialization] screen. We’re about to be attacked, is now really the time to have this discussion? “Sixty.”

She stared off into space for a moment. “So, MP scales linearly with Magic.” She readjusted her glasses. “That means the other resource stats also follow the same linear progression.”

“Great, that is literally irrelevant at the moment. Now, help me flip over this table, so we can make a barricade.” He walked over to an empty table next to theirs and then waited for Jessica to come. She stood to the side with her arms crossed, refusing to help him flip over tables. A slight rumble of shocked voices grew in volume as more people woke up.

“No, it isn’t irrelevant. Understanding the underlying systems behind games is super important.” Aaron took a deep breath, then looked around the room. He would give a leg to get away from her – not literally, of course, losing a limb sounded painful. Unfortunately, by now most of the guards had woken up. Running away was no longer an option, so he was stuck with Jess.

Tony jerked awake, shaking the table. “Where’s that damn snake? I ain’t gonna let it get away with biting me!” Tony said. He glanced down at his arm, and his eyes widened in shock. Whatever wound he was looking for wasn’t there. The old man glanced between the two, taking in the tense atmosphere. ”Am I interrupting something?”

“No. There’s not much time to explain; monsters are spawning in a couple minutes. We have to prepare,” Aaron said. She glared at him and opened her mouth, ready to renew their argument. Aaron spoke before she could. “Look, Jessica, I’m sorry for snapping at you. I shouldn’t have called your work irrelevant. That being said, I’d really appreciate some help preparing for the monsters.”

She grumbled, but in the end, gave in and helped him move the tables to form a barricade around their corner of the cafeteria. Surprisingly, no one moved to stop them as they worked. Just as they finished moving the last table, a bell chimed, and a blue box appeared, causing him to flinch.

Class System unlocked, please make a selection:

Warrior: The first swing of a blade, not yet dulled by the weight of the world.

Free Skill Slots: 5

Stats Per Level: 3 Strength, 2 Endurance, 2 Recovery, 3 Defense, 2 Dexterity, 2 Agility, 1 Perception, 1 Mind, 1 Magic, 2 Spirit.

Rogue: Hidden in the leaves; the future waits.

Free Skill Slots: 6

Stats Per Level: 1 Strength, 2 Endurance, 2 Recover, 1 Defense, 3 Dexterity, 2 Agility, 2 Perception, 1 Mind, 1 Magic, 2 Spirit.

Mage: A brush undyed by paint.

Free Skill Slots: 4

Stats Per Level: 1 Strength, 1 Endurance, 1 Recovery, 1 Defense, 2 Dexterity, 1 Agility, 2 Perception, 3 Mind, 3 Magic, 1 Spirit.

Healer: A band-aid for the needy.

Free Skill Slots: 5

Stats Per Level: 1 Strength, 2 Endurance, 2 Recovery, 2 Defense, 2 Dexterity, 1 Agility, 1 Perception, 2 Mind, 3 Magic, 2 Spirit.

Crafter: A hammer for want of a nail.

Free Skill Slots: 7

Stats Per Level: 2 Strength, 2 Endurance, 2 Recovery, 1 Defense, 2 Dexterity, 1 Agility, 1 Perception, 1 Mind, 1 Magic, 1 Spirit.

The system’s description of the classes was profoundly unhelpful; they told him almost nothing of use. The only useful bit of information the system provided was the stats gained per level. From looking at that, he noticed that the warrior gained the most per level - 19. While the crafter gained the least, clocking in at an unimpressive 14.

He didn’t know what exactly the stats represented, but he felt it was safe to assume that a higher number was better. Of course, he had an idea of what some of the stats governed. Strength and agility weren’t very hard to figure out. However, more obscure stats like spirit left him puzzled. What was that even supposed to mean?

To make the decision more complicated, stat points per level weren’t the only relevant factor. The system also made a point of pointing out the number of free skill slots a class would have. Once again, this information wasn’t very useful; he didn’t even know what the system considered a skill or what one could do. So, he was left to make a decision only based on vague impressions.

There were a couple classes that he could instantly rule out. First, he had no desire to select the crafter class. While it may boast the highest amount of free skill slots, this new reality was shaping up to be quite violent. He feared he wouldn’t be able to defend himself properly if he took a class that wasn’t combat-oriented.

For the same reason, he disregarded the healer class. He could see its usefulness, healing injuries would no doubt be a useful skill, but its usefulness was contingent upon being in a group. Something he was strongly opposed to tying himself to. On its own, the healer class would struggle to perform.

That left three classes for him to choose from: mage, warrior, and rogue. They were all good classes, but it wasn’t even a question of what class he would pick. The prospect of using magic was too good to pass up.

Tony sat crisscross applesauce on the ground, a cigarette and a lighter on the floor in front of him. He took the filter off of the white stick and then held it under the flame. Once the cigarette became hot enough. he pressed his fingers into it, turning its end into a sharp edge. Aaron blinked; he hadn’t known it was possible to do that.

“What class is the best? We didn’t have anything like this back in my day.”

Aaron honestly didn’t know, there was too much he didn’t know to make an accurate assessment of the classes. However, there was one class he was naturally drawn to. Its fantastical nature appealed to him greatly.

“Mage,” Jess said without hesitation.

“Mage,” Aaron said at the same time.

She glanced at him and smiled. “Maybe you aren’t so bad – apology accepted. Just don’t yell at me next time, or I’ll break your hand.”

“Great, I’ll keep that in mind,” Aaron said, choosing his words carefully. He normally wouldn’t go so far to accommodate a person he had just met, but with the apocalypse presumably impending, he figured it would be a good idea to gain some allies to look after his back. Besides, she was on his list of people to recruit; her help would be valuable so long as he managed to keep her in line.

“Well, if you both think it’s the best class, it probably is.” The blue letters above Tony’s head changed as he selected his class.

Healer Lvl 1

Aaron laughed; he should have known the old man would ignore their advice. Tony said something, but his voice was drowned out by a loud crash. In the center of a room, two men faced off, a flipped-over table laid on the floor next to them. They screamed something at each other - he didn’t hear the specifics, but it must have been obscene because they both immediately lunged at each other.

A bowl of cereal soared over Aaron’s head as the cafeteria descended into chaos. The center of the room turned into a giant brawl. However, he didn’t care; his corner of the room was completely unaffected. He dodged out of the way as a plate of eggs flew over his head. Well, mostly unaffected.

He checked how much time was left before the monsters spawned then selected his class.

Mage Selected… No hidden talents or achievements detected, presenting default starting mage skills. Please make a selection.

Mana Bolt (Common - Tier 1): Fires a ball of mana in a straight line out of your hand. Costs 5 mana. Damage based on skill level and stats. Mana Shield (Common – Tier 1): Creates a small shield of mana attached to your hand. Costs 10 mana on creation; additional mana is required to sustain the shield. Damage blocked is based on skill level and stats.

Aaron immediately selected Mana Bolt; it wasn’t even a competition. In his mind offense was always better than defense. Eager to try out the skill, he pointed his hand towards the white ceiling and muttered the skill's name. Immediately, a small, golf ball sized ball of energy shot out of his hand. Its edges flickered bright neon blue as it soared through the sky at a decent clip – the mana bolt wasn’t fast, but he doubted anyone would be able to outrun it. The only problem was that the attack didn’t go where he aimed it. Instead of impacting the ceiling, the ball of mana flew into the brawling crowd and hit a man, knocking him to the ground.

“Nice shot,” Jess yelled into his ear to be heard over the chaos. He shrugged; the man he had hit was a famous serial killer, he didn’t feel bad about hurting him.

The serial killer picked himself up off the ground and dusted off his back. Mana bolt didn’t do much damage to the man; if he had to guess, its impact was equivalent to a strong punch. Which wasn’t bad considering he could launch a total of twelve of them before running out of mana.

Jess pointed her arm out and cast Mana Bolt. The neon blue ball of mana soared through the air and crashed into the serial killer’s head, knocking him to the ground once again.

“Was that on purpose?” She shrugged.

Aaron cast the spell once more. This time he only missed his target by five feet.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached level 2. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

He smiled; magic was even more fun than he thought it would be. If he could, he’d shoot mana bolts at the wall all day. Unfortunately, he had a limited supply of mana, and he couldn’t afford to waste anymore.

He turned back and climbed over the barricade of tables, rejoining Tony. “Are you ready?” Aaron asked while tightening his shoelaces; it would be embarrassing if he tripped and died.

“Hopefully, I haven't had a good fight in a long time,” Tony said. Aaron nodded, then picked up a plastic plate off the ground. It wasn’t a very good weapon, but it was better than nothing. Jess hopped over the barrier and joined them in their protected corner of the room.

With thirty seconds left before the monsters spawned, Aaron stood tall, as ready as he would ever be for the coming trials.