Chương 2: Initiation (2)

Rowan opened his eyes, but all he saw was an endless darkness. Finding that his body was no longer pinned, he tentatively moved his arms, which had been radiating pain just moments earlier. There was no pain. Looking around, it was as if he were floating in space. Was this the afterlife? Eternally floating in the void? Your world has been integrated into the System! You will be transported to the Tutorial.

Please select a difficulty: Easy Normal Hard Hell Apocalypse Rowan flinched and blinked in surprise as the screen appeared before him. He'd never been a religious man, but he was pretty sure none of the religions said anything about game-like windows. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his thumping heart. Maybe he wasn't dead after all? Could it be a dream? He shook his head. No, it was too real. Reading over the text on the screen before him, he tried to make sense of it all.

Earth had been integrated into something called 'the System,' and now he was to be transported, against his will, to 'the Tutorial.' Though if he was being honest, he would rather be sent to whatever this Tutorial was than be returned to his spot beneath the collapsed scaffolding. After a minute, he made his decision. It wasn't that difficult, really. He obviously wasn't going to be picking Hell or Apocalypse.

He didn't know what the Tutorial was preparing him for, but it made sense that picking a difficulty with little challenge wouldn't prepare him as well as the harder levels. Now, all that was left were Normal and Hard. Rowan was tempted to pick Hard Difficulty, he really was. Some little, adventure-seeking part of himself wanted him to, but the more cautious side of his mind won. He had no idea what any of this was. What if it were dangerous? What if he could die?

That would mean he might never see Coco again, and that was a future he just couldn't accept. Nodding to himself, he moved a finger forward to select Normal Difficulty, but his hand passed right through the screen. With a frown, he tried again, to the same effect. The third time, he tried selecting it with his mind. Error As death was imminent for the user before being integrated by the System, the user is unable to select Normal Difficulty. Please select another.

"What the fuck?" Rowan just stared at the screen for a long while. What was that supposed to mean? If he wasn't even allowed to pick the option, why give it to him in the first place? And it wasn't fair that just because he'd been near death when the System had decided to integrate Earth, he couldn't enter Normal Difficulty! If the System had come just a bit earlier, then he would've been fine. But no! It had to wait until he was half-dead. Feeling the frustration rising within him, Rowan closed his eyes.

Breathing in and out, he slowly calmed himself. It was alright. It wasn't his first choice, but he could still choose Hard Difficulty. After all, where was the fun when there was no challenge? Error As death was imminent for the user before being integrated by the System, the user is unable to select Hard Difficulty. Please select another. Rowan's breath caught as he read the message. He had never fully relaxed since he'd been teleported by the System, and now, he could feel sweat beading on his skin.

Clenching his jaw, he tried to ignore his pounding heart that seemed all too loud in the empty void. He already knew what was going to happen, but he selected Easy Difficulty anyway, just in case. He received the same message. It wasn't surprising, but it was certainly worrying. Clenching his hands, he looked at Hell Difficulty. To be honest, he still had no idea what the Tutorial was even for, but anything with 'Hell' in the name wasn't something he wanted to get involved with.

Even though the Tutorial could be anything, Rowan's experience with games told him that it would be something similar. Magic? Fighting monsters? He quite liked the idea of wielding magic powers and shooting fireballs, but he wasn't as fond of the latter. Not letting himself put it off any longer, Rowan steeled himself and focused on Hell Difficulty. Error As death was imminent for the user before being integrated by the System, the user is unable to select Hell Difficulty. Please select another.

Rowan just stared, speechless as he read over the message over and over. When he finally recovered enough to look at his final option, he felt despair creeping up on him. Apocalypse. That was what the final difficulty was called. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

A small, hopeful part of him wanted to believe that the Tutorial wasn't dangerous, but no matter what the Tutorial was supposed to be, the difficulty wouldn't be called Apocalypse if it was anything other than, well, apocalyptic. He didn't want to admit it, but Rowan was terrified. At first, he'd taken it in stride, if only because it seemed like a second chance after his accident with the scaffolding.

But now, he felt as though he'd been plucked out of the frying pan and dropped straight into the blazing flames beneath. When he'd played videogames, Rowan had never been one to choose the hardest difficulties that were meant to be nearly impossible, but he'd seen skilled players die hundreds of times as they played. He thought Apocalypse Difficulty was this strange System's equivalent of that. Except this was real life. He couldn't afford to die a hundred times. He couldn't even afford to die once.

Eventually, he pulled himself out of the downward spiral. Looking at the screen, Rowan knew he couldn't delay any longer; he had no idea what was going on, and it was only a matter of time before he began panicking once more. You have chosen Apocalypse Difficulty. Please prepare to be transported. Before he could even react to the message, Rowan blacked out as the System pulled him to who-knows-where. — Rowan opened his eyes, looking around in alarm. Realizing he was lying flat on his back, he leaped to his feet.

For a moment, he stood there, utterly bewildered. Everything looked so… normal. Sure, some things seemed slightly off, but it still looked like he was on Earth. The grass beneath his feet seemed no different than what he might find back home. Even the trees that made up the forest that bordered the cliff looked mostly normal, the only differences being strangely colored leaves. He was standing at the edge of a cliff, and below him was a dark, shimmering lake. But Rowan barely registered any of this.

There, just a dozen feet from him, was a group of people. He started to shout a greeting, but was interrupted by a notification from the System. Welcome to the Tutorial. The Tutorial exists to prepare newly integrated users to enter Integrated Expanse. The Tutorial consists of three layers. They must be completed within two years. To access your Status Screen, focus on its concept. Do the same to access the remaining number of users in each difficulty.

System Credits may be earned by completing quests and selling items. System Credits may be spent between layers or at designated locations. Selected Difficulty: Apocalypse Rowan scoffed as he read the last line of the message. It made it seem like he'd actually had a choice when he selected Apocalypse. Surprisingly, while some parts were a bit confusing, most of it made sense. It reminded him a lot of the games he used to play. Except, he reminded himself, here, he could die. This was no videogame.

The instructions on how to access his Status Screen were odd. He just had to focus on the concept of it? What was that supposed to mean? With a grunt of annoyance, he tried to bring it up, but it was to no avail. Finally, he gave up on the fancy 'conceptualizing' stuff and just focused on the words. To his surprise, it actually worked.

Name: Rowan Crowe Race: Human Class: None Level: 1 Stats: Strength: 3 Dexterity: 4 Toughness: 3 Vitality: 4 Mana: 2 Free Points: 0 Active Skills(0/10): Passive Skills(0/10): Quests: System Credits: 0 Rowan looked over his Status Screen in wonder. It had stats and levels and even skills! He had no idea what anything other than the stats really meant or did, but his imagination conjured up images of him wielding a thousand-pound hammer or shooting beams of lightning from the tips of his fingers.

He reached out a hand and tried to touch it, but just like before, his fingers passed right through. Still, he was happy with his stats, assuming that their starting values ranged from one to five. If they went from one to ten, then that was… less ideal. He also had a section dedicated to quests the System had mentioned in its welcoming message, but it was currently empty. Before moving towards the group of people who were still talking just out of earshot, he had one more thing to check.

Users Remaining: Easy Difficulty: 1. 36b Normal Difficulty: 2. 32b Hard Difficulty: 752. 04m Hell Difficulty: 167. 90m Apocalypse Difficulty: 20. 46m With a breath, he looked over the numbers. It really seemed like not everybody in the world had been brought into the Tutorial. Or maybe they had, but not all of them had finished picking their difficulty. With a frown, he wondered what would happen to all the animals.

At the thought, he remembered Coco and quickly looked back at the screen, trying to distract himself. It was surprising, but he supposed it made sense that more people had chosen Normal Difficulty than Easy. Rowan remembered reading somewhere that most people considered themselves at or above average. Though given the numbers of Hard, Hell, and Apocalypse, it seemed that with something like this, most people considered themselves perfectly average and chose Normal.

After a moment of looking over the other Difficulties, Rowan focused on Apocalypse. There were 20 million people. 20 Million. For a second, he thought all of them had been near death when they were integrated, but with a few moments of thought, he realized that made no sense; the number of people about to die varied depending on someone's definition of 'about', but there was no way there were so many people simultaneously nearing their end.

That would mean that most of them hadn't been forced into Apocalypse Difficulty. They'd chosen it. Closing the window, Rowan looked up at the group of men and women standing around in front of him, this time more cautious rather than optimistic like before. Millions of people had chosen Apocalypse difficulty. He was stuck with millions of people who could very well be complete idiots or psychopaths.