There were few things as disorienting as being torn from one scene to another. It was one thing to stare at a screen go blank and then be replaced in movies, but it was another deal when everything that you could see was replaced outright. The first time, it wasn’t too noticeable thanks to a blink but this time, the pop that signified teleportation happened while her eyes were open.

The transition was abrupt and that left her reeling as her mind tried to process the new scenario. For a moment, it felt like she was in two places at once. She’d never keep her eyes open during teleportation, that was for sure.

She was in a wide corridor that looked similar to the previous area but this time, there were obstacles scattered around. There were mounds, walls, and protrusions from the wall that looked perfect to grab a hold of if she was more athletic.

There, at the center of the corridor, several meters away from her stood a unisex mannequin. It was in the shape of a human but it didn’t have any defining feature of either gender but it would be widely accepted as fit.

The System provides you and your opponent with a [Duel Zone], a pocket dimension in which you can fight your opponent without interference when you challenge them to a Duel. If you die during this period, you will Respawn at your starting position.

Please make your way to the [Training Dummy] and challenge it to a duel. To do so, you must audibly declare the challenge in any manner and it must be accepted.

She was supposed to fight a dummy.

That was excellent!

With a wide grin, Blair walked up to the dummy and when she was a step away from it, quite loudly, she spoke, “I challenge you to a duel.”

This was the first time she was in an environment that resembled a gym in any capacity. Learning to defend herself was deemed unnecessary compared to everything else she had to do. Between the guitar lessons, cram school, chess club, and keeping straight As, it was impossible to fit that into her schedule.

If anything, she wanted to drop both the guitar lessons and chess club but that wasn’t an option.

So here she stood, lacking even the tiniest bit of knowledge of how to fight if you excluded the advice she’d heard a thousand times: go for the groin.

The mannequin surged to life and two eyes appeared on its face. It resembled blue electric lights that made their way through the material of the face. By the time it was ready, two blue dots had appeared on its face where the eyes should be.

It eagerly nodded and from nowhere, it produced a gray card.

When challenging an opponent to a Duel, you must use a card as an [Ante]. Upon the conclusion of the Duel, the winner seizes both cards used as [Ante].

The challenger is the one to declare the [Ante Card] and the opponent’s [Ante Card] must be of the same Rarity. If there are no matches, the Duel cannot commence.

For the purpose of the Tutorial, you will be provided a [Blank Card].

If anything, the rules seemed fair. Others couldn’t be forced into a Duel and they couldn’t trade cards of different Rarities. It was a fancier Card Trade, but by fighting the opponent rather than normally trading. The fact that you could Respawn if you died during a Duel was the cherry on the top.

She’d assumed there’d be no Respawns of any kind.

A trapdoor opened and a card floated up. This was the umpteenth time this was happening so she grabbed it without a moment’s hesitation. After making contact with her, the card shattered into a blanket of light that enveloped everything.

The world turned gray. The walls and the sky became of a darker shade of light gray but the mannequin remained pure white. Her clothes and body were still the same color so it seemed that the participants in the Duel weren’t affected.

When a Duel is accepted, you and your opponent will be transported to a pocket dimension. It will be an exact replica of your current location but will appear to have lost its color. Any observer that was in your presence will not be present within the pocket dimension.

Once the Duel ends, you will appear at your current location in the real world.

The mannequin raised its right hand and swung it down. On the way down, its arm contorted to grow a blade from its forearm. It was the size of a dagger, that being around twelve inches long. The sight of a cold weapon in someone else’s hand was intimidating, especially if it was someone she had to fight.

“Steel Spear, appear!” she shouted and the spear materialized itself out of light in front of her. She grabbed it and like before, she felt its weight for a few moments before the refreshing sensation of enhanced Strength flooded her.

Imitating what she’d seen cavemen do in movies, Blair slightly leaned down. One of her hands gripped the spear close to the blade while the other hand was half an arm span away from the first one. That left a large length hanging while she had greater control over the closer side —it was as comfortable as she could hold it.

Sluggishly, the mannequin walked over to her and swung its bladed arm. Its swing was slow as if she was watching a slowed-down version of a video. That made it easy to hold up her spear to block the blow.

The sound of metal scraping against metal made her wince but the blow was surprisingly light, making it apparent that the mannequin was only there to guide her through the process of acquainting with the System rather than challenging her.

Intently, Blair stepped forward and thrust the sharp tip of the spear into the gut of the mannequin. The fact that it was a lifeless object helped in the decisiveness and the fact that even if it was someone else, they’d Respawn after the Duel concluded.

The material of the mannequin was soft and the spear slid into its stomach and came out the other side, which was when it scattered into shards of light and disappeared. Color returned to the world and two gray cards materialized before her.

Congratulations! You’ve won the Duel and have gained the [2 x Blank Cards] placed in [Ante].

You may use [Blank Cards] as [Ante] material to challenge another Player that has a [Blank Card] or to match the Rarity of any other Card placed in [Ante]. They will be stored in your Inventory alongside your Equipment Cards.

Just when she was thinking that the System was fair, it ended up introducing Blank Cards. However, if she understood it correctly, the Blank Cards were immensely useful as she wouldn’t have to spend her actual Skills or Equipment to use as Ante.

“So they’re more useful later on, huh?” she said to herself and let the duo of cards fade into a light show after doing so with the spear, now completely dull to the spectacle.

It felt mundane now.

“Well, what now? I’m done,” she shouted and looked around, waiting for an answer but nothing came for a few seconds but finally, a screen popped up.

Please proceed to the highlighted area at your leisure. You will be transported to the Second Level to introduce you to your first Raid.

Raid?

“Oh, come on,” grumbled Blair and rubbed her forehead. Even if she didn’t play games, not knowing what it meant would imply she was living under a rock. Raids meant teamwork and she was abysmal at that. She’d fully expected to be forced to learn to work in a team but this was a wholly different scenario.

There was no escaping it.

She had to learn about the System and she doubted that she’d be let go without going through all the tutorials. If she was indeed let go and didn’t know as much about the Systems as possible, then she’d fall behind others and that wasn’t permissible.

Blair walked up to the circle but this time, she closed her eyes before she took a step in. Only after the pop did she open her eyes.

…

There was chatter. She could hear it even before she opened her eyes, but they were incoherent. It felt like she walked into a busy office while everyone was on the phone, but there were significantly fewer people in there.

“Oh, she’s the interviewee,” said the interviewer from before when he turned around to her. He was holding his jacket and only wore a white shirt. The tie had been abandoned somewhere and the button at the top of his shirt was left loose. The interviewer was a finger or two taller than her, which she hadn’t realized before as he’d been sitting.

“Hi,” she said awkwardly and half-heartedly waved her hand.

Her hair was messed up and her clothes weren’t groomed now. Her first impression was all messed up. Technically, it was her second impression but for the others, it was her first. That made her grit her teeth and walk into their midst.

There were three of them: the interviewer, the receptionist, and someone she didn’t know.

The receptionist was a fake blonde with too much make-up. Her height was 5’5’’, give or take, and her features were soft but not too much, one of her parents probably Asian.

“So you’re the newbie,” said the last one —a burly, middle-aged Indian man that had a bushy mustache that would make most men jealous. There was some muscle definition, clearly visible thanks to wearing a simple T-shirt. He extended a hand and added, “Just call me Anna. I’m more used to that.”

In her university days, she’d seen enough foreign students that didn’t even bother having others say their actual names due to how difficult it was to pronounce so this wasn’t new.

“Blair,” she said and accepted the handshake, noticing that he was two heads shorter than her. Then she turned to the interviewer after she was done with that, “Just to be sure, I didn’t actually get hired, did I?”

The interviewer snorted before answering, “We’ll reschedule it.”

“Okay. I just got confused, with Anna calling me a newbie and all,” said Blair with a wry smile in her best attempt to socialize and break the tension.

“Hey, hey, optimism never hurts,” said Anna with raised hands as if to defend himself. He had no accent at all, which was quite common.

“Well, I’m Joshua, from HR. Anna’s one of our Senior Devs and he’s the one who’d be interviewing you for the second part if you pass the first one,” said the interviewer and gestured at Anna. He certainly looked the part of a programmer. Then he proceeded to gesture at the receptionist, “You must’ve met Paula on the way in, as you can see from this fancy name tag on her shirt.”

She wore a blue blouse without buttons and a medium-length, black skirt that reached her knees over nylon stockings. On the shirt, as Joshua pointed out, was a bronze-looking name tag. It had the same material as the labels with numbers that were on the doors.

Paula was a name that sounded distinctly Western, meaning it was probable one of her parents wasn't Asian. Then again, she knew several Japanese people with deceptively Western names. In the end, names could be misleading if the parents were open-minded enough.

Unlike before, they were in a room that was lit up through unknown means rather than a corridor without a roof. There was nothing to do but to loiter around.

“So, about all this Card and System nonsense. What the hell’s going on?” asked Blair with furrowed brows.

“Alien abduction for a social experiment, most likely,” said Anna helpfully.

“Same, or God got bored or something,” added Paula.

Joshua remained silent, a smile stuck on his face.

All participants for Raid Difficulty [Easy] have been gathered. Please proceed to the highlighted area to initiate the Raid.

“Here it comes,” said Paula and with big strides, she dashed into the next circle. Joshua moved slower, his mind clearly elsewhere. Anna was neither in a hurry nor was he slow, walking at a casual pace, which was close to Blair’s gait.

The moment she stepped into the circle, Blair closed her eyes. If she was going to be in another fight, she didn’t want a headache to slow her down.

Then came the pop.