The night was actually pretty quiet for once, a slight breeze chilled the air, and Selene pulled her hoodie closer instinctively. This past week had been hell, but then again, for someone like her, it was expected.
Her job required her to bend over backwards to make sure her "betters" were taken care of. Her boss constantly took her ideas and passed them off as his own, not only that but the sleezy bastard also liked to make extremely inappropriate comments about her. You know what one day ill make him kiss my ass since he talks about it so much, but then again that was just her boss Mike.
It was basically servitude because you can't win in todays economy. I have three jobs just to be able to say I'm broke. My only solace is my games and my imagination. Every day I can be in whatever world I want.
Suddenly, Selene started to feel weird, almost like something was off. As she looked around she started to panic. What's wrong, she thought, as she looked around frantically. She noticed that others were looking around confused just like her. Then the screams started. Then all she remembered is pain and darkness.
The entire world seemed to have froze out of the blue, not even the wind was blowing.
"Congratulations, citizens of this planet, I am told it's Earth, on your acceptance into the galactic imperial system.
"Every one of you will have 180 standard earth days until the training period ends, at which point you will all be shifted to the galactic standard."
I have a million questions, but was unable to even hint at it due to the paralysis.
"The trial period is to get you all used to the galactic system; you will be unable to be dealt fatal damage from encounters; however, if the cause of your deaths is your own, then you will remain dead."
"There are also only a limited number of spots due to the massive amount of energy required to integrate into the system thoroughly. This will be on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of their current social status. Any attempt to circumvent this will result in an immediate death sentence for those guilty of the transgression. The last thing I will leave you all with is this: The benefits of taking risks in the system are tremendous; this means that the bigger the risk, the greater the potential reward."
After the movement returned to her world, Selene threw up because so much information was being funneled directly into her brain. It was dizzying and horrifying. So many questions, the few acquaintances that she had, gone as far as I could tell. Granted she hadn't been very close with anyone really. Lightning streaked across the sky angrily, gusts of wind that made it almost impossible to hear anything going on around you, while trying to blow you away as well. A blackout occurred as all the lights around started to blink out one by one, until it was only the stars and moon providing any light to see by.
Selene pulled out her cell phone, and it was dead, she literally just had a full charge, what the hell universe, this is some serious bullshit that's going on and now my phone is dead.
But as she pondered this, she noticed a lot of lights going out, and there wasn't any traffic. Did this system somehow affect electronics, or am I still just imagining this, its got to be a dream. She thought.
There is no way that this is happening, yea some of the books and games she had played over the years had some of this in it, but that was just fiction, telling a story, made up stuff, not real fucking life!
Selene's thoughts started to go haywire at the implications of all this that's going on. Everytime she thought on it, seemingly more and more unrealistic. Then out of the blue, a ding went off in her head…
Welcome to your user interface, this is where you will access your system as well as the galactic shop, please hurry in deciding your path as it will change how you interact with the system. Remember there are only so many system slots for everyone, don't be left on the outside. There was a percentage counter on the bottom left of my, what to call it, home screen for lack of better terminology. It read 56% and was ticking down about 1% every minute. I wonder what the hell that counter is for.
Suddenly, a voice in my head responded, "The percentage displayed is the number of systems still available." "Failure to pick a system will result in death or enslavement to be turned into starting zone monsters."
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I am your system guide," the voice replied.
"Ok, I can kind of figure that much out", Selene sarcastically quipped.
Ahh, the voice said, I didn't think that my name would be relevant, so if you must know, it was, I mean is, Tobez.
Tobez, huh, well, can you help me out with this? I am unsure of what any of this means or does. I just know my head hurts something fierce," Selene pondered. Tobez responded with, "time is of the essence. What is your percentage at now?" he asked.
"Do you mean that you can't see my status screen, etc?" Selene inquired. I started asking to figure out what was happening. "Yes, you crazy girl, what is the percentage?" He demanded.
"Geeze, it's forty-four percent, why?"she asked. "That's what I was worried about;"
"it's speeding up as people see that number decreasing due to concern about the threat. It's a double-edged sword, though." He stated with zero hesitation."Why is that?" I asked. "The longer you wait to get your system, the rarer a system that you will get, which can mean a massive reward vs. risk. My survival instinct tells me to tell you to hurry up and pick so we don't die or worse, but my curiosity is peaked. What percent is it on now?" Tobez Asked. "Thirty percent," I said. "The numbers are weird, though."
"What do you mean, Selene?" "The numbers are green now instead of the white and grey that they were." I stated. Interesting, said Tobez.
Every three percent, let me know, and any color change as well, and I will try my best to help.
"Will you ever be able to read my status screen?"
"I could be now, but you have not unlocked it nor permitted me to do so."
"20 percent purple color, I stated. Very nice and also very rare are the epic classes.
"15 percent gold and purple still. You should really think of taking a skill now, though.
10 percent gold only with streaking red.
8 half gold and half red. 5 percent red with light blue streaks.
At that point, Selene passed out and fell forward. Shivers and convulsions racked her body with extreme pain.
This is ridiculous, all she could think about was the pain that she was going through. Pain meant that she was alive at least. As she tried to catch her breath the pain finally started to wane.
The most important thing, however, is that she was still aware of herself as a ding went through her head.