I was sitting at the dinner table with my family when it happened. We were having spaghetti and garlic bread. The kids had fruit snacks and chips on their plates too since they were picky eaters at the time. We were talking and watching different things on our electronic devices. It was a very normal evening. I had just gotten home from work and showered and when I stepped out of the bathroom I could smell the aroma of the meal permeating the house. My stomach grumbled in hunger but I knew I’d be eating well that night. I was trying to mop up all the food and sauce from my first plate before getting up for seconds. All the lights started to dim. Slowly at first. Then light winked out to complete absence. Not just inside as there was no light coming in from the windows either. The kids screamed and I heard Madison saying it’s okay and it’ll be okay. I was reaching out to two of my kids when a soft white screen popped into my view. The kids screamed again and started that “I’m about to start crying” type of breathing. We kicked into protective and consoling parent mode while we started reading the screen.
_Welcome to the New Earth_
Earth has been out of the system for 250,000 earth years. Integration of the system will commence in 15 minutes earth time. The system has consumed 70% of all biological life and used materials initiating terraformation. When this screen fades you will be prompt again in fifteen minutes with a new screen. You must choose a class and race. Failure to do so in the 20 minute duration of the race and class screen will cause the death of the individual and they also will be absorbed for terraformation. Welcome! :)
“What the actual poop stain is happening? Did you drop some acid into this spaghetti babe? What the poop does ‘choose and race and class’ mean? Kids it’s going to ok. Mommy and daddy are here, we are all safe.” I told the room. I was definitely lying because I honestly had no idea what was going on. What was that some stupid hack on reality? Drugs?
“Babe, this is like when I make a new character on the computer game I play.” Madison said in a soft comforting tone for the kids sake. “I’m guessing here but when the next screen pops up we will have a list of races and classes to choose from and by how it reads, we Need to pick something and hope that we can help the kids pick something too. Mom and dad will help you guys pick, ok kids?”
“Do we stick with human? What if we pick different races and can’t communicate with each other? What if we pick different races and people think we kidnapped three kids? Kids let’s all stick with human ok?” I ask in a rapid spit fire. The kids all mutter ok and Madison agrees with me. “We don’t even know if we will be able to help when it comes to classes. What if it’s all a list of words? Acacia and Lilith can’t read yet! What are classes? Is this like what we want to learn or a profession? My head is spinning and my heart is pounding. Let me take a moment to breathe here. I’m sorry babe!”
“Well, a class from my video game is like: Warrior, Mage, Hunter and Healer. They have different names but they all focus on their own individual path to power to fight monsters and get through quests and such. I know what I will choose. That’s if they have it of course. Everyone in the world doesn’t know what to expect and we all will have to go with it or die from stubbornness.” Madison replied. “It almost doesn’t matter in the video game what you choose it just might be harder to get used to and play that character but with time you figure it out and that’s what we will do. As a family. We will figure it out.”
“I know, thank you.” I said fate calming down a bit. “I haven’t played your video games and the only video games I played were first person shooters, like a decade ago. Kids let mom or dad know if you need help with anything. If you’re confused about anything you see just ask us and we will help you.”
We all sat in silence for the next five minutes, huddled together in a family hug. I could feel Madison rubbing our kids backs in turn as I rubbed their backs too, kissing them on their heads and enjoying the closeness.
_A time to choose_
You will know choose your race.
A list came out of nowhere on the pale white screen. It didn’t have endless choices but it did have many. Human, Elf, half Elf, Dwarf, Rock, Jadir(which looked like a panther humanoid), Kattum(looked like a house cat humanoid), Lobclaw(looked like a lobster humanoid), Doggon(looked like a canine humanoid), Monkoo(looked like a primate humanoid, maybe a gorilla?), Danjiran(looked like a regular humanoid) and there was more but I knew I was pressed on time. My eyes hovered over Danjiran and a little description box popped up.
_Danjiran(rare)_
Danjirans are ancient humans. Powerful and always mistaken for regular humans, Danjirans were, by far, MORE.
“Babe have you chose a race yet?” I asked Madison.
“No, not yet. I’m going through the list. But I will choose human before the timer runs out.”
“Do you have the option of Danjiran?”
No, I don’t see that in the D-section.” She replied.
“It’s not in the D-section on my list. It’s at the very end of the list, separated by a dash mark.”
“Oh, I see it!”
“Read it, I think that maybe we should choose this option. It says it’s rare on mine, it might give us a step ahead for whatever’s happening.”
“I agree. Kids pick the choice that says Danjiran.” Madison said quickly.
The kids said ok and we all picked that one. There was still 2 minutes left on the countdown.
“I don’t feel any different. Do any of you feel different?” I asked my family.
They all said no that they all felt the same. I was really wishing we could see anything. Everything but the screen was still pitch black.
3…2…1
_You will now choose a class_
…or choose to be recycled…
The screen dimmed then brightened with a new list and I really had to concentrate now. What did I want to choose as a class? What would help my family? What would help me so that I could help my family? I just want to keep them healthy and safe! Ah! That’s it! I wonder if they have a class with healing and fighting capabilities?
As soon as I thought this the list changed. The letters went blurry then refocused with a different list. From the look of the side bar it was a much shorter list.
-heal sword? No! I don’t know how to use a sword and what a learning curve that would be wouldn’t it?
-Medic? This one just said I’d be good at using magical bandages and the like so that was out. I don’t want to carry around a huge bag full of medical supplies to get all bloody and watch people die because I’m not a doctor. Would there even be doctors anymore?
I went through a few more, passing on them just as quickly as the previous ones. Then I saw this one…
Healshot- duel wield pistols that can heal or damage with the pull of a trigger. Do you feel that itch?
Well now, this one looks interesting. I’ve been shooting before and I do own a few guns. I ended up choosing Healshot.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
There was still 4 minutes left on the countdown. I asked if any of the kids needed help but apparently Madison had already answered some questions and the kids had picked their classes. I was the last one to choose.
Silas blurted out that his screen had words and moving pictures. Acacia and Lilith said they had only pictures on their “tv’s.” I asked if they liked what they chose and they said that they were happy with it.
“I love you guys so much! I can’t wait to actually be able to see you all again. Everything’s just black besides this screen.” I said. They all confirmed that they had the same thing going on.
_Tutorial Time_
You will all be sent to individual or family tutorials for the duration of New Earths terraformation. Sending in 3…2…1
Pop! My ears popped and our apartment came back into reality for me. I looked around and saw my family still huddled around our same table. I didn’t see any physical changes to their appearances or anything out of the normal for the kitchen. It was still a mess from cooking dinner and not having done the dishes for a whole day. The living rooms looked the exact same too.
“Was this all a mass hallucination? Nothings different? What tutorial?” I asked looking puzzled at Madison.
She just shrugged and held the kids close.
_welcome to the tutorial_
You will now need to allocate your points. Think Stats then allocate your points.
I thought stats and the screen changed to a new menu.
Name- Louis
Race- Danjiran(rare)
Class- Healshot
Level- 1
Health Points- 50/50
Mana Points 50/50
Strength- 5
Intelligence- 5
Wisdom- 5
Constitution- 5
Dexterity- 5
Luck- 5
You have 10 points to distribute. -error- class -error- rare class chosen. -recalibrating-
You have 20 points to distribute.
“Define stats system.” I thought in frustrated confusion.
_Strength- how physically strong you are and your defense against physical attacks.
Intelligence- impacts mana pool and how quickly you learn new skills.
Wisdom- how powerful your spells are when used and your defense against magical attacks.
Constitution- impacts your health points and how you hold up to attacks.
Dexterity- need to do a tricky maneuver or manipulate something just so? This is what you need.
Luck- it makes you lucky. Want good gear, good drops and to be in good graces? Put some points in this.
This system seems very deadpan for not having a voice, I thought. After allocating my points my new stats came out as this.
Name- Louis
Race- Danjiran(rare)
Class- Healshot
Level- 1
Health Points- 100/100
Mana Points 100/100
Strength- 7
Intelligence- 10
Wisdom- 10
Constitution- 10
Dexterity- 7
Luck- 6
_Inventory Management_
This is your inventory tab. Think about it.
I thought about inventory and the screen blurred out again then focused in on a screen with squares in a grid pattern.
Inventory-
2 tan pistols
-Pistol(healing)
-Pistol(concussive damage)
Leather armor
Leather bracers
Leather pants
Leather boots
Leather pistol gloves
Health draft X5
Mana draft X5
Door-error-
_think about equipping wearable items_
Do it.
Okay, I thought. I tried thinking about equipping the armor set and the pistols. I looked down and saw that I was now wearing the full leather set of armor and in my hands were the two pistols. The pistols were coyote tan, which was always my favorite color for pistols. Although, they looked more science fiction-y than any gun I’ve seen besides on movies. They also had a shiny coating to them like a holographic trading card. I lifted them up to look closer at the detailing and a message popped up.
_ Right pistol heal/left pistol damage_
Need mana for bang bang.
Oh, so easy a caveman can do it huh? Geez, I wonder if my families messages are like this for them. It’s going to scare people, especially injured people, when I’m aiming a gun at them to heal them. Eh, they’ll get over it once they get healed up. It will be good to learn how to use these pistols. I don’t see any magazine ejector or safety buttons it’s just the pistol and the trigger. There wasn’t any sights on the top on the pistol frame.
I noticed my family was still looking with a thousand yard stare so I got up from the table to check out my house. Everything was still looking the same. Same beds, same couches and same bathrooms and toilets. I went to check my gun safe and when I opened it I was really disappointed. There wasn’t any of the guns or ammo in there, not even any of the money or odd coins I’d collected. I was happy that my comic books were sparred, not that I had that many of them. As I was walking back I remembered the door error item in my inventory screen. I walked to the living room and thought about my inventory and it opened again. Since I was wearing my armor and pistols the only things in my inventory was a pair of clothes and Door-error-. I focused on the Door.
_Door -error-_
Recalibrating… Recalibrating…
Recalibrating… Recalibrating…
Calibration Complete
Door(Legendary)- A spatial domicile outside of time. Offered to the only reincarnates of the Danjirans.
A plain red door stood in the center of my living room. I walked around it to check it out. Nothing was holding it up. There wasn’t even doorknobs on either side of it. You could say it’s a plain red piece of wood that’s just door shaped. I knocked on it, and surprisingly, nothing happened. Well that’s confusing I thought to myself. I put my hand out to it and tried pushing it open. Nothing happened besides me looking like I couldn’t knock over a piece of wood with nothing holding it on and that felt par for the coarse. I finally just sighed and said “open” and the door swung backward. As the door swung backwards a feint red glow emanated from the opening. I stepped through and looked around. Well, my family is going to love this place. First of all, it’s huge. It’s not a mansion really but definitely twice as big as our current house. Its furnishings from what I could see from the entrance weren’t lavish by any means but hey, as a dad with 3 kids furniture that didn’t have any stains on it was pretty sweet in my book. I stepped back through the door and the red door closed and vanished. Panicked, I opened up my inventory. I was immediately relieved when I saw that it had just gone back into my inventory.
“Babe, are you ok?” Asked Madison seeing my look of panic.
“Yeah. I’ll have to show you guys something later on!” I said finally breaking out of it and smiling back at her. “I can’t help but to wonder what’s coming next. I noticed the windows are still blacked out. Are we supposed to leave the house? Will this System thing tell us what to do or how to do anything?”
Madison just sighed heavily, “ I don’t know babe. I do know that I like your armor and are those guns? What class did you pick? We will need to ask Silas too. I got maternal access to the girls…” she trailed off thinking. “I don’t know what the system calls it so I’m just going to call it personal sheets. I have access to those for the girls and saw what they picked. Acacia chose Elementalist, it’s like a mage or magical user and it involves the basic four elements like Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Lilith chose Pack Master. It gives her the abilities to summon animals and her weapon is a bow and arrow. The quiver has some good features to it. I lose access to their character sheets when they turn 10 unless they give me permission to see it.”
The girls were sitting next to Madison on the couch when Silas came to and blinked his eyes rapidly a few times.
“Hey buddy, everything work out ok with your choices?” I asked Silas
“Yeah, the system is really nice and helpful. I have a rare race and a rare class. The system said error a lot but then let me choose it.” Silas replied.
“What class did you choose buddy?”
“I chose the class Necromancer.” He said smiling like he was up to something devious. “It’s not evil. I just summon undead minions and I can raise some things when they die. The system made sure I knew it didn’t really bring anything back from the dead so they are themselves again. I can’t raise humans from the dead either. It gives me minions and some spells that will help me not get hurt. Although, the system said “hopefully.””
“Will you be willing to give mom or me access to your character sheet? We will be able to help you if you have any questions or concerns.” I asked Silas.
“Yeah but I want to share it with mom!” He said. He’s always been a huge mommy’s boy.
Silas and the girls were talking with each other about their new classes and all the novelty that came with it. I walked closer to Madison and pulled her into a hug. She told me about her class, Naturomancer. She said it’s pretty similar to the character she liked to play and a choice she was comfortable with having for her future, a Druid. She said she can transform into different animals and has some nature based spells that aren’t like Acacia’s elemental spells. She seemed really excited about her choice but she still had her nervous or anxious chuckle going on. I told her I was happy she got to choose something she liked and then I told her about my class and the name of the class. She made some “typical man” joke about it but didn’t berate me or anything about it.
“What do you guys think we should do now? Should we go outside? I’m curious as to what’s out there. I mean, we can’t see out the windows right now for some reason and with how things are going I’m wondering if we walk outside and still see our neighborhood or something else. With how weird this has been so far it’s hard to imagine what we will walk out into right now,” I said to my family.
They said that they all agreed and that we should go outside to just look around. I went to the front door and grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it. It didn’t budge. “Well, shoot. It’s not budging. What now?” I said, frustrated.
-Transporting to tutorial-
Learn your classes, Learn to survive.
3.. 2.. 1
