《Mana Anxiety》9 Top Predator

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Tilting her head out the door and looking both ways, as if checking the road for cars, James could not find her apartment’s hallway. She would even be hard pressed to identify anything resembling her old sleepy college town. Her door simply exited onto a forest floor. Warily stepping out and hoping it wouldn’t disappear, she tested the ground, scrunching up old brown leaves. The second she stepped on it, a notification flashed across her eyes.

Quest: Survive the tutorial.

Time left: 72 days 9 hours 12 minutes (Earth standard time)

Well, that was unnerving. But she could think about the implications later, there were much more important things to consider now. James had enjoyed her shower; would it be her last?

Now fully in the forest, she walked around the door and saw that she could only see it in one direction only. Standing behind it, it didn’t seem to exist, the place where it should have been just looking like a continuation of the forest. She could even walk through it. Facing it again, the door had seemingly reappeared out of thin air. Scrunching her face, James wondered if learning all those previous scientific theories was at all worth it. This new System world seemed to just ignore them all when it felt like it. Shaking her head, she locked her door (making a quick trip back for her keys) and looked around for others. Quickly spotting one, she purposefully walked towards it, rehearsing in her head what she would say.

“Hello, my name is James Crossly. Do you know where we are? No, that’s too formal. Hi, my name is James, weird I know, but my parents didn’t want to change all their plans. And, you know, James Taylor, love that guy. No, that’s too much information.” She got to the door much too quickly. She preferred her last Tutorial, where distances were exceedingly vast and she would have actually been able to figure out a plan of attack. Squaring her shoulders, and unknowingly scrunching them up from nerves, she knocked on the door three times. “Three is the classical amount, right? Four is too much, five is a rhythm, and with two it’s the police.” But waiting for several minutes, there was no response.

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Really hoping there was no one in there, James knocked again. On the one hand, if someone was in there, they probably had good reason to ignore her. But she wanted answers, so she was forcing the situation. A decidedly awkward thing. Sighing, James turned around and started looking for more doors. She wished she were back in her old tutorial again, there had been signs with maps. Well, you never valued anything enough until it was taken away.

Walking through the forest, she followed the doors without knocking on any of them (she didn’t want a repeat performance of that). This forest was different than the last one. While at home, and even in the previous Tutorial space, the forest was full of coniferous trees, Redwoods and the like. These were deciduous trees, meaning they experienced the seasons and shed leaves during fall. She didn’t overly question it, though, she had already seen too many weird things that day and it wasn’t even lunch. Hearing gunshots in the distance, she veered towards them, hoping she wouldn’t get hit. But even if she was, it would be by a person, so probably not the worst outcome she could think of.

Regarding lunch, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it. She could go back to her apartment and see what she could scrounge up, an appealing prospect because it would involve avoiding people, but she was almost at a clearing. She could even hear some voices, though the occasional gunshot left her wary. She paused, even if they were humans, not all humans were friendly. Was it really the best idea to go on? But she couldn’t “survive the tutorial” over the next 72 days based only on what she had in her apartment.

For a second, she paused to consider if that was really true, she had heard about some homegrown fad recently. Somehow, she still had sunlight and water in her apartment (why hadn’t she looked outside her windows?), she could just try and plant some tomato seeds. That’s all plants needed, right? Photosynthesis? Shaking herself from that daydream, she realized she had never stopped walking. Suddenly a loud shout, some feet pounding on the ground, and five men emerged from the sunlight, bearing arms and in full armor. Pulling her hands up, James wondered how she managed to almost die twice in one day.

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