No matter how you tried putting things together, it just didn't make sense. How did Jon know about any of this stuff, how did he use those 'skills' so effortlessly and why keep it hidden from me that he could. It's better if I interrogate that idiot once I find him again, because something tells me I'm gonna be stuck with him even in this new place.
This time when I was brought back to the same hallway and the arrows marked the way, I followed them right into the glowing rectangle and returned to a blinding, white light; I sheltered my eyes, but my ears were filled with the boisterous sounds of multiple voices.
As my sight returned, I was now in spectacle of a humongous white room filled with countless waves of people circulating around the center, it's like the grand central metro station in New York. Where you can find multiple forms of life from different places just going on with their lives, but this was much different.
My attention was brought my sides as I found myself coming from one of those bright rectangles that resembled a doorway. This is probably not a trail and where I was originally supposed to go, my curiosity got the best of me as I reached to touch it.
It sparked with an abnormal, electric shock and my hand was forced away.
[WARNING, STAY CLEAR OF TRIAL EXIT]
I was greeted with a notification window, this beckoned me to look across the walls as I saw similar doorways, and occasionally, one or two people would come out at a time.
There was this one wall on the opposite end that really stood out because it had one huge doorway.
I don't know if my friends made it here so in the meantime, I should probably sit down in this waiting room area because this was much different from the smaller rooms.
I saw these long, rectangular cubes that stretched all around the room, the majority of them were taken by those sitting down or leaning against it.
Eventually I found a spot that had space for a few more and finally sat down for once without needing to turn my head over my shoulder, but I'd do notice a lot of the people in hear had depressed looks and king stares, some even had stained blood on their clothes.
To focus on something else, I started to think about what transpired, specifically about that 'skill' Jon used and the weird panel of information that stated my name like a video game character.
[***]
As soon as I mentioned that again, a static spark happened in front of me. None of this is making sense again, is this a video game?
Taking a long shot, I concentrated on a mental image of the window and within that very second of thought, it appeared before me.
[Name: Mathew Greyley
Personal Attribute: Shut-in
Minor Attribute(s): Gamer
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (no interested candidates)
Private Skills: None
Personal Skills: None
Skills: Gaming Hud, View Character Stats: Lvl. 1
Strength: 14
Agility: 11
Reflexes: 11
Physique: 13
Intelligence: 14
Mental Prowess: 12
Luck: 0]
Holy crap! I actually did something for once, this is totally like an RPG system showing my stats and abilities. When I got to my stats however, I couldn't help but scoff. If this is based on myself as a person, then that explains my bad luck for my entire life.
With this new level of reasoning, it led me to experiment. I imagined myself activating an invisible command and sure enough I saw a new notification.
[passive skill activated: Gamer Hud]
My eyes blurred as there were multiple types of notifications coming in.
[175 minutes ago... two Readers bet against who will win the fight]
[175 minutes ago... one Reader said the help of another was not part of the deal!]
[172 minutes ago... one Reader is sad she lost an unfair bet]
[164 minutes ago... you have gained the chapter fragment 'Bystander']
[New Area Loaded]
[Chapter Fragment 'Bystander' is in effect]
[Any willful eyes are casted aside as your importance has dwindled]
[152 minutes ago... eight Readers show hostility towards your cowardness!]
[150 minutes ago... one Reader shows pity towards your situation]
[63 minutes ago... twenty Reader bet this is the end for character 'Mathew']
[59 minutes ago... three Readers question the whereabouts of character 'Jon']
[57 minutes ago... one Reader says to look carefully]
[56 minutes ago... twenty Reader have lost a bet!]
[37 minutes ago... one Reader wishes you torture character 'Tobias']
[25 minutes ago... five Readers did not like your decision]
[New Area Loaded]
These messages caused my brain to hurt as it was too much in such a short time, but this opens a whole new can of worms. Somehow my chapter thingy has some type of ability also, It's as if we are being watched from a streaming service, by what though?
I need to worry about this another time, because this skill 'gaming hud' also gives me three transparent bars with numbers beside them on the top right of my vision.
A red bar called health had the numbers 228/230
A green one called Stamina had: 110/110
And the last on named Skill Points: 97/120
This then led me to remember my minor attribute 'gamer', this must be the outcome from having that. Now, I don't know if having that is bad or a compliment, but it is useful, and that skill point stat is probably how much I can use abilities.
I slapped my face together, I need to focus, maybe I can use this to find my friends? That idea was shut down immediately as there was some missing information, I have no idea what a 'tarot' is, the word Patron doesn't ring a bell either, and my private skills? Is this something I will learn later on or maybe when I upgrade my skills.
I slapped my face once more; my small nerd brain is geeking out on all of this but it's distracting me from my last skill, I was about to use it until my ears picked up on someone yelling.
"THE MAP SAYS HE'S THIS WAY!"
I swear I heard the voice of Aideen just now.
"I see him" the bold voice of Marcus was also heard.
I stood up and looked all over, that's when I saw the towering stature of Marcus being led by Scott, they made their way over while I saved us a spot. Scott spoke first looking relieved,
"Thank goodness we found you, when we were transported here after that bright light, we looked around and couldn't see you anywhere"
"I didn't know if you guys were here either, but on another note, how did you guys find me?" As I finished that sentence, I activated my last skill.
[skill activated: View Character Stats: Lvl. 1]
[Your understanding of this character has helped deduce some abilities]
[Level of skill insufficient, personal data blocked]
[Name: Aideen "Scott" Blaire
Personal Attribute: ???
Minor Attribute(s): Taekwondo Student, Sport Buff
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (three interested candidates)
Private Skills: ???
Personal Skills: ???
Skills: Player Card: Lvl. 1, Leg Work Lvl. 1]
Scott looked at me puzzled so I asked if he could see anything in front of me, in which he said he cannot.
I wonder why nobody can see this thing? Better yet, I wonder if I can upgrade these skills so I can see his personal stuff. Not to fulfill my nosy nature or anything...
[skill activated: Player Card: Lvl. 1]
"What about this, because Clem can't see when I do this?"
When that notification came in, a similar window appeared in front of Aideen, but his made it appear as a playing card. I approached from his angle to see a picture of my face with my name in bold letters at the top, and at the bottom their laid my terrible stats.
"I can see it, alright"
Whoever did my stats I'm going to kick their butt, making me so unlucky. Scott read my frustration on my face and attempted to simmer me down.
"I wouldn't fret too much; my luck was barely a two and Clem's was 1, so I don't think luck is very high for most people"
He switched the topic quickly like he usually does.
"It' so crazy to even comprehend all of this, thank goodness we had our guide to help us understand some of this. Did they tell you to wait there for us?"
"You had a guide? Where are they at?" I asked completely puzzled.
"He disappeared" Marcus butted in.
"Yeah, but he did mention that we should find anyone else we planned on staying with, it helped that he gave us a map, its sharable so I'll add it to your menu"
"My menu?" I gave him another puzzled look like a confused dog.
"Yeah, the way you've been able to see your stuff, you can't tell you've been just doing these things without knowing?"
"My bad, I should have asked MY guide" I sigh and apologized for my sarcasm "The way I've been using my skills was just a guess I made, I've been activating my skills just instinctively as if I'm in a game"
"Well, you're not completely off, from what we understand it's sort of a subconscious thing like blinking or breathing, so thinking the action in your mind will make it happen"
He claps his hand together and this weird pane showed in front.
"This is the menu, everyone can see it, yours should only have your objective holder and info"
I concentrate and just like before I see a hud pertaining my information, I look at the top and low and behold there was a task bar with other panes with titles 'Story Objectives' and 'Character Information'
There was also a third one I didn't get to look at because Scott was already wavering an object in front of me.
"Here you go" he says as he grabbed this weird little bubble from his menu and dropped it into mine.
[Menu upgrade 'General Map' received]
A new pane is added to the hot bar, and I clicked it to see a map in the shape of a square, and in that square is a little gray arrow with the word 'You'
"To add us on the map you need our information, you can do it manually on a little search bar or we can give it to you" They both open their menus and grabbed more small bubbles and placed it in my map.
[Map updated - characters 'Aideen Blaire' and 'Marcus Clementine' have been added]
Two more arrows appeared on the map, Aideen's was forest green, and Marcus's was some kind of crimson color.
In the meantime. Marcus sat down and just monitored the area while Scott explained how the figure told them that time moved slower in this place, so it would be some time for all trials to conclude. He then left to dose off near Marcus after he finished talking about all he knew.
I noticed they were still bruised up from that confrontation in their trail which only made me feel worse. How could I just leave them like that? Sometimes I make myself feel sick to my stomach because of how little I do to help them out. Even back in our daily lives I did nothing but slack around all day with these people I call my friends, but I never did anything to support them the way they did to me.
I don't deserve these people. Those were my last thoughts as my eyes grew tired and I fell asleep.
I opened my eyes to still feel the same tiredness I feel every other time that I awake from a nap.
I looked over to see Scott's head laying on Marcus's shoulder as he also fell asleep, speaking of which, the room now looked more civilized than before. Most people were either laying down on the same long boxes as us or just on the ground, I wonder if they are waiting for something.
In the middle of thought, I heard a large snore right from under me. I looked down to see the ugly, resting face of Jon on my lap. How the hell did this bastard get here??
I pushed him off to let him roll to the floor. He awoke mid fall and attempted catch himself but failed miserably, as now his face laid flat on the white surface.
"mhmm mhm mhmmhm"
The sound of his muffled voice now perturbed my eardrums as he was trying to talk with his face still implanted on the floor . This lazy bastard, I got up and pulled him to his feet which wasn't any trouble at all due to how light he is.
"I said, good morning to you too!" he said rubbing his forehead.
The noise woke up Scott, and Marcus rose up absolutely.
"Where were you?" I practically yelled in his ear.
"I literally just got back; can't a guy get a bit of shuteye?" He looked at me while picking his ear I screamed in.
This little scene got the attention of the other two and Scott opened his mouth first.
"Hey Jon, glad to see you here, we couldn't find you after we left our trial exit, we even tried looking for you on the map of ours, but an error screen showed up every time" he said half drowsily with a yawn.
"Oh that, my bad, I tried looking for a restroom and slipped into another portal door, I had to do ANOTHER trial but at least I got some goodies while I was at it"
That doesn't even make sense? I tried going through and it gave me an error screen. Yet again, he never makes sense.
I'll worry about that later, because he reminded me about something else. I open up the menu and go to the 'Story Objectives' tab, it was separated by ones completed and ones that are still going, acting as some type of quest folder. My completed ones said as followed:
[Hidden Side Story completed: beasts slain 4/4 - 500 Karma Kredits earned]
[Hidden Side Story completed: complete a trail not of your own - 3000 Karma Kredits earned]
"I got one of those quests things completed too, we should probably look for a clerk or something" I stated.
Again, I looked at my third tab called 'Chapter Fragment' and was about to open it, until we turned our heads to a recognizable voice of a girl behind us.
"I don't believe it, look Petey! it's the others"
The girl was pointing towards us while holding the hand of a boy with round glasses, who was almost a head shorter than her, it was none other than Bridgette and Peter.
We all greeted each other halfway with smiles, but I couldn't help but notice that their clothes were messy and slightly torn, even Peter's neat appearance was muddled.
"You guys are here too, how?" I asked.
Peter was going to speak but Bridgette spoke first.
"We were still in our class as we heard the sirens, when everyone left, we huddled together. Then we lost consciousness and got sent into this strange place and-"
"Listen, can we please have a short time to repose. I apologize but that place put a lot of strain and tear on us, we need some time to regain energy" Peter cut her off.
"Right, sorry Petey" She responded back and plumped down, allowing Peter to rest on her lap like a pillow; it amazes me that she doesn't get agitated when he cuts her off like that because if it were anyone else, they would surely be beaten to a pulp or given a death stare.
"Aaaw, does little 'Petey' need a nap?" Jon started to laugh to himself, but Bridgette reached into her overall pocket and sent a loose screw to his forehead, shutting him up.
Having ourselves a light laugh, we all sat down and began explaining what happened in our trials, we also explained the use of the menu and skills. I used a skill in secret due to them not seeing it, but when I activated it, a new notification came in.
[View Character Stats has reached level 2, you can now see the stats of others]
[skill activated: View Character Stats: lvl. 2]
[Your understanding of this character has helped deduce some abilities]
So, they do upgrade like video games, and seeing other people's stats, this'll come in handy.
[ Name: Haleakala Bridgette Kekoa
Personal Attribute: ???
Minor Attribute(s): Grease-Monkey, All-round Athlete
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (four interested candidates)
Private Skills: ???
Personal Skills: ???
Skills: Tune-up: Lvl. 1, Light Weight: Lvl. 2, Tool Proficiency(passive), Sibling Tolerance(passive)
Strength: 15
Agility: 17
Reflexes: 14
Physique: 15
Intelligence: 13
Mental Prowess: 16
Luck: 7]
Jeez, that is a lot of skills, at least compared to some of us, I knew she was in all the possible sports and helped around her parent's auto shop but what's up with the high luck? Thinking about it now, she tends to get rather good at some things which she doesn't do very often. I cut my attention from her stats and went to Peters'
[ Name: Peter Adzumi
Personal Attribute: ???
Minor Attribute(s): Tech Wizard, Stick in the Mud
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (three interested candidates)
Private Skills: ???
Personal Skills: ???
Skills: Gadget Savant: Lvl. 1, Stubbornness: Lvl. 5, Technology adept(passive)
Strength: 8
Agility: 7
Reflexes: 13
Physique: 9
Intelligence: 19
Mental Prowess: 15
Luck: 1]
"Dang, look at those smarts! I'm pretty sure mine are higher, but there's no need for a competition"
I turn around to see Jon's face looking where my skill window is at, can he see it?
Before I could ask, the map I was keeping track of made an alert, I turned to it and saw two new arrows appear on one of the walls, one was red, and one was light blue.
The others watched as I hurried to the trial exit wall, they screamed my name but I already saw the two people who had come through; it was a depressed looking Clay holding an unresponsive Kaleb. My heart sank as my fears were acknowledged; I can't let anything happen to him.
As soon as Clay saw us, he led Kaleb and placed him down gently with Jon who tried his best to console him.
Then without a second thought, ran up to us throwing a flurry of worrying questions as the sight of our bruised and worn bodies made his helpful nature kick into gear.
[skill activated: Warming Grasp: Lvl. 3]
He laid his hands out to our huddled bodies, and something miraculous happened, this faint bluish-green glow emanated from his hands and a small feeling of warmth was felt all around, the bruises and scabs from their bodies seemed to heal in an instant like some healing spell.
We all stood there with our breaths taken away, the ones who were healed the most started stretching and feeling their limbs with new energy, the duo both thanked him, one with a wide smile and a thumbs up.
Feeling rather proud I went up to him and patted his back, he however swayed of nausea and deep huffs.
I instantly tried grabbing a hold of him, but Marcus was quicker. Clay grabbed his pounding head and merely asked a simple question.
"Does anyone have any sweets?"
Everyone gave a small laugh as well as him. He then ushered to us he was fine, just tired from his trial.
While we huddled together, Aideen asked Clay,
"Better question, how did you figure out how to use those skills so quickly?"
"We both saw those weird alerts when we gained our stats and skills, using them just came naturally" Kaleb said in a sullen voice, he had now risen, but was still shaky.
This puzzled me, as that was my reasoning as well.
[skill activated: View Character Stats: Lvl. 2]
[Your understanding of this character has helped deduce some abilities]
[ Name: Kaleb Gage
Personal Attribute: ???
Minor Attribute(s): Make Believe Soldier, Gamer
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (one interested candidates)
Private Skills: ???
Personal Skills: ???
Skills: Rally: Lvl. 0, Potential Gaze: Lvl. 0, Gaming Hud(passive)
Strength: 12
Agility: 11
Reflexes: 13
Physique: 13
Intelligence: 14
Mental Prowess: 7
Luck: 3]
[ Name: Clay Greyley
Personal Attribute: ???
Minor Attribute(s): Gamer, Kind-Hearted Soul
Tarot: ???
Patron: Not chosen (two interested candidates)
Private Skills: ???
Personal Skills: ???
Skills: Warming Grasp: Lvl. 3, Gaming Hud(passive), Generous(passive)
Strength: 9
Agility: 8
Reflexes: 9
Physique: 8
Intelligence: 15
Mental Prowess: 14
Luck: 5]
Kaleb and Clay, both gave me weird stares as I was looking at their private area.
"What are you doing?" they both said in unison.
I guess they can see this, so I came out clean.
"I was looking at your information, but how can you see the window? No one else can see them"
"I think it has to do with all three of you being nerds and having that skill 'gaming hud', it is probably helping each of you guys see any notifications of skill activations, messages, and so on"
Out of everyone here, Jon was the one that informed us.
We three stared at him with questioning looks. I cleaned out my ears just to make sure it wasn't Jon who spoke.
"What? I can see your guy's passives at work, I have a similar one that lets me see those hidden things" He gave out a shrug like we didn't believe him, which was true.
This led me to ask,
"What are your skills Jon?"
[skill activated: View Character Stats: Lvl. 2]
[ERROR! ERROR! Must use on a character]
Seeing that reminded me of the weird title when he got elected as king, what exactly is wrong with Jon?
"Good luck with that, even I can't look at my stuff" he remarked grudgingly.
"Hold on just a minute, if you don't know your skills, how did you use one when you were in our trial?" I added
"Because I got the notification of having the skill, so I can still use them, I just don't know the other ones I might have. As of right now I only know this one"
[[ERROR] skill activated: Illusionary Act: Lvl. ???]
The same fog-like substance from before surrounded him and just like that, he vanished. We all looked around until we saw him appear behind Peter, then behind Aideen until there were multiple Jons encircling us, he then spoke but not from his original location.
"This skill has two intended purposes, getting out of dodge and making other people look stupid"
[[ERROR] skill 'Illusionary Act' has ended]
The clones faded away and he suddenly appeared behind me trying to take my wallet.
"Shoot, ran out of juice" he then pretended like he was up to nothing "The drawback of this skill is it takes so many skill points just to use it for a couple of seconds"
"I think that you are most likely a mistake in this system we are in, because even in a computer there are bound to be margins of errors. From my understanding, this is all following some form of code to produce these outcomes, it still leaves me to question how this is even possible but I'm sure we ALL have questions." Peter said while cleaning his glasses.
Everyone looked at each other perplexed from all that info he spat out. I guess we all have our ways of reasoning what's happening right now, though that is something better found with whatever answers we can find.
*HHMMM*
This faint humming sound echoed throughout the walls. Everyone looked around and panicked, because a mysterious noise has always done something strange.
The outer wall with the extremely large doorway started to shrink until the heads of peoples covered it up. Where the top of the doorway was, these weird panels that rotated and connected to each other formed a large gray screen, it almost looks like a jumbotron at a baseball stadium.
On the sides of that screen, were these large speaker looking things. The screen turned on and there was a single round object, it was prominently blue but had large masses of greens and browns with white cloudy areas, in its background was the dark vacuum of space with countless stars.
It was Earth, but the eye catcher of this view was the large monstrosity of a creature that nearly surrounded half the planet with its bulging mass of palsy-pink flesh and large tentacles coming from its sides wrapped around it, the tentacles had different parts of animals, like paws, claws, and hands, but worst of all, the thing that brought shivers to my spine was the gigantic mouth this creature had. It was filled with long, and jagged teeth that looked like it could tear through the earth's crust in just a matter of minutes.
I gazed beside me to see everyone reacting with disbelief, some were even crying.
*Tsst*
"Testing, testing. One-two-three" An anonymous voice spoke from the speakers.
"Welcome *** **, those that have completed their trials were evaluated and rewarded subsequently. I'm sure you have plenty of questions but fear not, for this story and your place in it has just begun"