Wide eyed, I stared at the thing. Somewhere in the auditorium a shriek erupted, soon followed by others. Like a contagious disease, panic started to spread. My knees buckled and I collapsed back onto my chair. Part of me wanted to check on Mrs Aya and her husband, but I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Too afraid it would jump on me at a moment's notice.
The thing just stared at the growing despair of the crowd. It had no human features, but somehow I could tell it was amused with a grin that was almost a self satisfying smile. In my peripheral vision, I could see that the people closer to the stage were backing away, some even climbing over rows of chairs to get away from it. When the panic was about to become out of control, it hit me. It hit all of us.
A sense of heaviness descended, like nothing I had ever felt before. My shoulders slumped and I would surely have fallen like a rag doll had I not been sitting. I held on to the edge of my chair for dear life. And it spoke again.
"He he he he."
Its laughter was awkward, as if the thing was trying to imitate us without actually knowing how.
"I feel like a fox in a hen house. You should all behave, or else it's too tempting." As it spoke, its voice eventually coalesced into a baritone. Still terrifying, but not as nightmarish as before. The pressure became weaker and I could let go of the chair. My hands felt numb. No one spoke a word. No one dared to. We all waited for it to continue speaking.
"I am the emissary of God. The new God. I was sent here by Him to welcome you all to His realm." The slit that was its mouth, or at least reminded me of one, didn't move when it spoke. Not that I found that particularly weird when considering its existence and message. It continued.
"I came to inform you of all the gifts He bestowed upon you! The blessing of the system! Unlike the other guy, He truly loves all of you. Indeed He does! And by extension He loves all that you have created. Inspired by how many of you seem to love the system, He decided to give it to you! Praised be His name!" As it spoke in increasingly higher pitches, I felt like I was back in church again. There was too much to decipher from its speech, but it wouldn't stop talking.
"The gift of the System is intended to allow you, humans, to adapt to your new reality. In His domain you are weak, far too weak. So, He decided to give you the system and remove the limits of your pitiful existence. And as if that wasn't already enough from Him, He also gave you THIS!" Its eye holes increased and its liquid body stretched wide. If it had arms they would probably be outstretched at the moment.
"In this place you will be allowed to safely explore your new self. You will be given opportunities to grow and become stronger every day. You should enjoy every moment of it. If in your old world, you were what you ate, in here, you are what you kill. Now, say 'STATUS' in your heads."
Too shocked to even question the thing, I just did as it said. As if the surprises that I had already experienced today were not enough, a hovering window appeared in front of me. It was translucent with blue and green tints. It reminded me of holographic technology, but leaps and bounds ahead in quality of whatever I had experienced before.
[Name: Leo
Level: 1
STATS
STR: 5 VIT: 6
DEX: 4 AGI: 6
WIL: 5 MAG: 0
SKILLS
Throwing (Initiate); Hand-to-Hand Combat (Beginner); Dodge (Beginner); Running (Proficient); Submission Fighting Style (Proficient);
MAGIC
Language(Passive);]
If my eyes could fall out, this would be the moment they did. Surprisingly, of all the shit that I saw today, this is what blew my mind. Maybe because of the familiarity or some deep buried childish dream, but I felt completely blown away by the experience. It felt just like how a game was supposed to be, yet, the existence on the stage and the utterly despairing couple beside me reminded me otherwise. Without giving us much time to ponder, the creature continued.
"Do well not to squander His gifts. He is sure to be watching." Its mouth opened wide and a row of jagged white teeth came into view. It cackled at us as it slowly melted into the floor of the stage. In a few moments it was gone. Not a single trace left. As if this had all been a psychotic delusion.
I turned my eyes to the hovering status page in front of me. Too weirded out to think about what just happened, I chose to focus on it. It had the basic information one would expect from a game. Nothing surprising there, if anything could be considered normal since I got here. I felt a little intrigued by the MAG status. It is probably Magic. Which would make sense for me to have zero, since I do not have any magical powers that I'm aware of. Maybe. I didn't feel particularly sure of much at the moment.
My status and skills seem to reflect my life experiences. But it's hard to judge how good they are without knowing what the average status of a human is. Am I above average? Under? I like to think of myself as above average, but don't we all? Shit. I'm going nowhere with this.
Skills seem to progress from Initiate to Beginner to Proficient. But I can't be sure if there is anything before Initiate. It makes sense to suspect there are things above Proficient. Despite my many years of training, I know there are people much better than me in submission techniques. I'm nowhere near a world champion. I doubt they would only be classified by this system as 'Proficient'. Well, no point in dawdling on what I don't know. I need more information.
"Mrs Aya? Are you ok?" I approached the couple while maintaining a respectful distance. I didn't want to startle them again. The husband stared at the air in front of him. Confusion and anger constantly fighting for dominance on his expression. He was probably trying to understand the status window.
Mrs Aya had a blank gaze. Immersed in thought, too quiet for her own good. I stood a few moments waiting for her to acknowledge me, but she just kept quietly looking at her hands. When I was about to speak again, she finally turned to look at me. She smiled, again. But this time it was different. It was fake. Her eyes betrayed the feelings lurking beneath the surface.
"Yes? How can I help you Young Leo?" She said in a sweet matronly voice.
"How are you holding up? I'm sure this is a lot to take in. If there is something I can help you with-" She interrupted me, placing one hand gently on my arm.
"Oh, don't worry dear. I am sure the authorities will soon find us, and apprehend the criminal responsible for this prank. There is nothing for us, normal citizens, to do or worry about."
"Mrs Aya, I- I'm not sure this is a prank. Didn't you feel the-" She interrupted me again. Waving one of her hands in front of us.
"You are too young to be worrying about such things, Young Leo. Trust your elders, ok? The authorities will surely take us out of this situation. We have been in worse situations. Me and Kando. Right, dear?" Mr Kando had his arms crossed on his chest and his eyes closed. Apparently after giving up on trying to understand the status window, he had been listening to my conversation with his wife.
"Yes, yes. This is nothing compared to what we have been through. Don't worry young man. The police will surely be here to rescue us very soon." It was somewhat hard to believe in his words when I could see how hard he was gripping his arms. With a completely different posture from earlier, all his confidence seemed to have vanished together with his authoritative air. What could I do besides let them go on with their denial?
"Right. You two are probably right. But still, I'm curious. Would you mind telling me what it says in your status window?" Regardless of how they felt, I still needed to gather enough information for a benchmark.
"This? I don't really understand any of it." Mrs Aya pointed a finger in the air where the window likely was. I couldn't see it.
"I'm afraid only you can see yours, Mrs Aya. Can you tell me the numbers and what is written in it? I'm curious on how they did all this." She looked happy to help. Being of use and doing something was probably better than drowning in whatever was going on in her head.
She told me her sheet and convinced a reluctant Mr Kando to do the same. Her stats were pretty meager, one's and two's in pretty much everything with the exception of DEX, in which she had a three. Mr Kando wasn't much different, one's and two's in everything but WIL, which was a four.
Mrs Aya had no skills, which was hard to believe. How can someone live half a century without picking up a single skill in life? Mr Kando had only one skill, Hand to Hand Combat (Initiate). But both of them also had the Language Magic, likely the reason why we could communicate even though we were speaking different languages.
Asking them about their sheet proved to be very useful. Even if you consider the two of them under the average, it would still put me slightly above the average. I couldn't be sure of it, but the signs were in my favor. One thing I managed to know for sure is that the system considered only combat related skills when it comes to the status window. That would justify why my academic skills were not listed.
As if struck by lightning, I suddenly remembered a very important gadget that I somehow had been neglecting until now. I patted my pocket and found my phone. When I pulled it out and tried to turn on the screen it wouldn't work. I had just charged it last night, yet it was already out of battery.
"Oh, all our phones are like this dear. Mine and Kando's as well. Also everyone else we had the chance to ask. This place also doesn't seem to have power in the outlets. Even though the lights work inside the auditorium, none of the plugs do. We have seen many people trying."
Weird. Did we somehow suffer under some kind of EMP? That would be too sophisticated, wouldn't it? I thanked Mrs Aya, but before we could talk about anything else a loud clap coming from the stage caught our attention. The three of us looked to the lectern to find a man standing on it. He was tall and had an imposing figure. He wore a white sleeveless shirt and overalls loose on the upper body. He was blond and reminded me of a Scandinavian friend I had in college.
"Everyone, may I have your attention please? My name is Johann. I'm a firefighter. I would like to ask you to join us in the right corner. Me and a few others are trying to organize and make sense of the situation so we can expedite our rescue. If you need any special assistance, please let us know." He spoke in a calm and charismatic voice. A pregnant woman and a man with some sort of physical disability in his legs asked for help. Johann was quick on the uptake. He sent someone to help the man and went to the pregnant woman himself. I watched the scene unfold as people started to move towards a group of a dozen people on the spot Johann had pointed.
"Young Leo, let's go. We need to provide our assistance to the authorities." Mrs Aya and Mr Kando were already a few steps away when she called out to me.
"I'll be there in a minute Mrs Aya. Don't worry." I smiled. She didn't seem convinced, but Mr Kando gently pulled her arm while muttering something I couldn't hear. She turned away and they both made their way through the rows of chairs toward the congregation of people.
I wasn't sure of what was happening anymore than that Johann guy, but whatever they were planning with such a large group of people, it wasn't likely to be anything efficient. Such a large group of different ages and cultural backgrounds would certainly be stuck in discussion for a long time. I had already caught glimpses of some people exiting the auditorium through some back doors. If I wanted to understand what was happening, I couldn't stay in here forever. I stood up and made my way to the closest door.