Observation of the System reveals certain telling things. Values are always based off base 3, base 4, or base 12, instead of base 7 like a sensible race. They make note of a 'Cycle' which my measurements state come to 8.549 seconds, a truly bizarre measure of time. Of particular note are the twelve attributes.

Three that relate to the body – how strong you are, how lithe and dextrous, and one that seems to measure your endurance and general ability to perform under stress.

Next are the three intellectual traits, that track your raw intellect, your awareness of your surroundings, and the speed at which you think and react. It has been observed that these traits do get reflected in standard measurements of the mind – an advanced adventurer's reflexes can be such that they cannot be measured without specialist equipment, even before perks and traits come into play.

Then, we move into more intangible traits. The next three are what the creators considered their 'social' traits, inasmuch that their increase seems largely tied to the use of social abilities. The raw personal magnetism, and the degree to which the System affects listener's perception of you: The symmetry and perfection of your form, with regards to your species sexual ideal: and your fortune and good luck. This is extremely hard to measure, largely manifesting in the form of improved loot and a statistically significant increase in positive opportunities and accidents.

Lastly, three traits that relate to their mysticism: One, that marks the power of the divine field the game uses to permit the 'gods' to influence your world. The next, your connection to the 'mana field' the System introduces, and lastly, one that my team feels should be relegated into the intellectual attributes, as changes to it directly manifest in the brain – but are also an interaction with the creation field the System introduces: The literal effect is to give you a connection to the “%@:P{}%￡, field, through which the System monitors your world. It seems to manifest as your probability of drawing something favourable from all the possible options at your disposal.

・ What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, By &*%:・%^%

Jonathan was up bright and early Monday morning, marvelling once more at needing only six hours sleep, and after a light breakfast – more out of habit than anything else – of toast and honey, set out for work. It was a nice day, so, purely to test his new capabilities, he decided to walk to work: from his perspective, he was nearly fifty percent fitter than he'd been on Friday, and frankly, he was enjoying his new physique. He jogged to work in twenty minutes, and a quick cast of 'Hygiene' upon his arrival left him sweat and grime free, as if he was fresh out the shower.

The road was strangely quiet, though: He found himself wondering if a lot of people were calling in sick, or were hiding in confusion: He'd been tempted to himself, but... he wanted to compare notes, or at least that was the excuse his work ethic had come up with.

Moving inside, he was one of the first at his desk – which was a little odd, Shawn was one of those morning people, and usually liked to be in to welcome everyone with some form of pastry – but he figured the boss was just distracted, and proceeded on with his usual start. Loading his system up, doing the routine admin, and opening up the latest build – grabbing a coffee while the build environment loaded. They were working on a mobile game, just a small start-up team hoping to make it big in the industry, so everyone had to pitch in to do their bit: As the guy who fine-tuned the interfaces, he was a core member of the coding team.

Returning to his desk, he glanced at the time – Five past nine – in confusion: It was one thing for him to be first in the office, but another for everyone else to be late: As far as he knew, they weren't taking a day off because of magic. But then, everyone else might still be caught up in the events: He'd give them another fifteen minutes before he started making calls. The weekend had been rather momentous, and the sleep adjustments from Balanced Biorhythms did give him something of an advantage.

Sitting down and looking at the code repository, he received his second shock of the day: He couldn't understand a lick of it. Which – given he had been a coder for over a decade at this point – was more than a little disconcerting: He was still staring at it blankly, trying to figure it out, when Dave arrived.

The manner of his arrival was unusual, to say the least: his rather rotund form blurred into the room, as if – this was the only thing Jonathan could think of – he was slightly out of phase: It was like every step he took covered the distance of three, until he came to a stop at Jonathan's desk.

“I can't remember how to drive.” Dave stated, flatly. “I'm just lucky I picked up that triple-step spell, or I'd never have made it here.” Jonathan gave a slow nod, and wordlessly pointed at his screen, and the incomprehensible code displayed there: Dave looked at it too, just a glance, then a double take. “What's that?” he said, slowly.

“It's the code. I can't read it.” Jonathan replied.

“Fuck.” is all Dave had to say in reply, as what this meant sunk in – a stare of mutual horror and melancholy hit, as they realised the cost of their new skills.

Calls were made, and by noon, about half the team made it in, mostly just to talk about what had happened: And so, they were gathered in Shawn's office trading looks, as the conference call was started up – to connect with everyone stuck at home – to discuss what the hell was going on.

In the room – other than Jonathan and David – there was Francine: She was one of the animators, and had appeared about a minute after Dave, apologising for being late and stammering to a stop when she saw the empty office: It transpired, interestingly, that she did remember how to drive, and had gotten distracted playing with her perks on her motorbike. Apparently, the open roads had been irresistible. A bit of discussion revealed she had selected a Rote ability called 'Wheeled Vehicle Piloting', and she had two perks: Divine Speed that made her 27% faster, and Lightning Responses, that boosted her reflexes by 64% - apparently the combination made her Hyabusa terrifyingly fun.

Other than Francine, about an hour later, Frank (Another coder) appeared, having apparently gotten one of the few buses that were still running. He, it transpired, still remembered how to code – He'd found It in the creative skills (He had a strong desire to be an author, and had hoped to find skills in there that would help) and - since his wish had been denied – had decided to double-down on his coding skills: and what he was reporting.... well. Apparently, he was a Beginner 6 coder, having dumped half his points in there, and had picked up some fun perks. 'Sense of the Spin' apparently let him see and understand code as it ran on the computers: Recall the Code – any program he had ever seen, or that he heard with Sense of the Spin, was now stored perfectly in his memory for replication : Code Optimization, which had resulted in a fifteen minute rant on all the ways he could see to optimize the windows 10 code, before he dropped the final two bombshells. First, He seemed to be able to read and understand all the programs – even those coded in languages he didn't know, right down to raw machine code, which he was rather pleased with. The second one, however, had him rather pissed: He could copy any program. Optimize any program. But when he'd tried to apply his new skills to create some new code, He'd gotten a little alert that a Journeyman level skill was required to create anything new.

Connecting over the conference call system, they spoke to their boss – Shawn – whom was not pleased at their news, linking in Michelle and Larry, the other members of the team. Shawn did not sound happy.

“So let me get this straight. Out of all of us, only Frank still knows how to code?” he asked, sighing. “I can't exactly complain – It didn't occur to me either.”

“It wouldn't have helped – unless we'd dumped nearly all our points into programming, we'd not be able to actually write anything new.” David pointed out, resignedly. “So what're we gonna do, boss?” Shawn thought for a moment. “Well, let’s review. Unless you poured your points into programming with the damn System, you can't even read code. Unless you found the right driving skill, you can't drive. We can probably assume this applies to every skill beyond – well, I guess we know what the Basic Life Skills thing was about. Given we can still use our E-mail and make calls!” he chuckled. “Well, let’s see what we got. I'm guessing most of us grabbed magic – What'd everyone pick? I'm a Beginner Destiny mage, initiate Creation mage, Initiate Solid mage, and I found some fun 'Social' skills I thought would help with the business. What about you, Michelle?”

“I only grabbed Creation magic – Beginner one,” she replied, with a laugh. “I didn't see the Programmer skill in the Creative section – Probably because I was too focused on the storyteller skill section. There's an awesome synergy – I can draw pictures that move, and with a perk I grabbed, bring them to life for... Well, I timed it, and it seems to be just over five minutes.” her voice resonated with joy, giving a sense she'd been having the time of her life. “I have a spell for creating food, and a perk that lets me see magic. Which is slightly trippy.”

“I appear to be the most powerful mage in the world at the moment.” Jonathan chimed in. “I'm a Journeyman Life mage, an Initiate Plasma mage, and I grabbed some martial art skills – I've got perks that mean I don't need to eat, my body is fitter, my spells are cheaper, and I got a boosted awareness thing that should help with fighting.” he added, a little sheepishly. “I was expecting monsters to spawn.”

“Not until tomorrow.” Larry chimed in, glumly. “Or at least, that's what the manual says. I've got..”

“MANUAL?” chimed damn near everyone on the call. “What Manual?” added Shawn, after a moment – his tone that of everyone who realised they'd missed something important.

“Think 'Help' ...” Larry explained, slowly. “It works like everything else, and apparently there are a bunch of commands to play with – But going by the timeline, we should have gotten some warning... Take a look for yourself. There was meant to be a first contact team!”

As they were talking, Jonathan followed Larry's instructions, and was glumly unsurprised by what he saw.

Welcome to the Help Menu!

Commands...

・ Attributes...

Abilities... Perks... Options... Timeline...

Focusing on the Timeline, Jonathan read what he saw – and realised what Larry was so upset about. They were not only supposed to have had a first contact team, but the option to opt out....

・ Briefing Team (Instantiation - 874800 seconds)

Our Preparation team will arrive on your World to distribute instructions on Profile Generation, brief you on how to organise and select your Abilities and Perks in a prompt manner, load your linguistics paradigm into the Universal System, and discuss the placement of Adventure Zones and Dungeons with your leaders. You will also have the option of opting out of the System at this time, and configuring Conversion methodology.

・ Profile Generation (Instantiation - 1160 seconds)

Under the guidance of the Preparation team, you will be able to configure your Profile to meet your desired goals,

・ System Instantiation (Instantiation)

The System Rules take effect. Your Mind and Body are refreshed and updated with the selected skills, and the Universal System Fields expand across your stellar district, enabling System functionality.

・ Initial Equipment Issued (Instantiation + 1 Local Rotational Period (LRP))

Now you've had a chance to recover from the impact of the System taking affect, any equipment necessary for the newly seeded skills that you do not already possess will be made available, free of charge, through the Store.

・ Monster and Dungeon Activation (Instantiation + 2 LRP)

After two LRP's of acclimatization to your new skills, and opportunity to peruse the Store, Monsters and Beasts will spawn - But do not worry, the Adventure Zone restrictions will inhibit where they can be generated, to ensure an enjoyable experience! Dungeons will also be Instantiated at this time, within the designated regions.

・ Portal Instantiation (Instantiation + 1 Local Orbital Period (LOP))

Portal travel will become available, once you are a seasoned adventurer. Travel to other exciting adventures, and let other adventurers try the unique content your world now possesses! Look forward to your welcome to the Galaxy System!

Further updates to your world's participation in the System will be posted here as they are scheduled!

Jonathan felt like swearing: David did not resist. “Jesus Fuck.” the sentiment was largely echoed by the team, and once it died down, Shawn asked Larry to continue, his tone grim.

“As I was saying, I grabbed Explosive Projectile Weapons up to Beginner 4, Stealth up to Initiate 8 – did you notice everything runs on some multiple of four or three? - Puzzles at Initiate 4, and Death magic at beginner 2. I've got a spell for detecting Undead, and another for raising undead, and a few perks that make my attacks a lot more deadly – I also have unlimited ammo as a weapon perk, which goes nicely with my collection.” Larry was known as something of a gun nut around the office, but at this point, nobody was going to complain.

David chimed in next. “I grabbed Beginner 1 Time magic, Beginner 1 Space magic, Creation magic at Initiate 5, and some combat command skills – Small Group Command is at Initiate 6, and I grabbed Light Fabric Armour at Initiate 2. I've got Danger sense, a spell that can make me move three times faster, and a bunch of perks to optimise my spells.” there was a slight note of hesitance there, Jonathan noted: knowing David well, he thought he might want to pin him down later.

Frank spoke up next. “Beginner 6 in Programming, Initiate 5 in Prayer, and Beginner three in Miracles.” he was the most devout Christian of the team, so this wasn't surprising: The others did give him an odd look at his aggrieved tone. “Ever since then, I've been getting messages from so-called gods asking if I want to worship them. Now I know how to reply – Thanks, Larry! There was a certain note of righteous indignation there – you could almost hear the fulminous rejections being crafted in his mind – and David spoke up, before he made any rash actions.

“According to the help system, Frank, the 'Gods' are game AI's – If I'm reading this correctly – who can grant powers – But you need to pick one for your character to 'follow'. It's not real religion, man..” his tone placating, earning a grumpy look from Frank – followed immediately by a thoughtful one.

Francine was last to speak. “I did grab Space magic, up to Initiate 6 – and I'm at Beginner 5 on wheeled ground vehicles. I also found Cooking in the creative skills, and grabbed that at initiate 9. Much like Frank – when I tried to make a new dish, it said I needed a Journeyman level ability to do that – but every recipe I've tried so far has come out perfect. I have one spell that gives me an awareness of my surroundings – out to about thirty feet if I cast it? And I've got a perk that boosts my reflexes while driving, another that makes my vehicles faster, one that means my food doesn't spoil, and another that lets me tell if something is safe to eat.”

While this discussion had been going on, Jonathan had continued to peruse the help menu, looking at Commands next – which finally answered a question that had been bugging him.

Command List

Please note!

As you will have been informed by the First Contact team, reading this list informs the System on how you perceive these concepts, so it is important to take your time reading and thinking about each of these.

・ Profile - Confirmed. Displays your Profile Sheet.

・ Help! - Access the Menu System.

・ Configuration - Adjust how System information is relayed to you.

・ Store - Access the store, to spend your hard earned SMU's!

・ Mail - Access the System mail system.

・ Contest - Review the competition boards you are a member of!

“So that's how you access the store!” he exclaimed, which got a chuckle from Larry. “There's some nice stuff on there, once we have some SMU's.” The budding Necromancer replied.

“I've got..” Jonathan pulled up his profile to check, “forty-one thousand?” the announcement led to a moment of silence. “How?” Shawn asked, when it was clear nobody else had. “Rewards for having the highest Magic skill, and highest Life Magic skill, apparently.” Jonathan replied, whimsically. “I bet it's got something to do with the Contest?”

Shawn considered this for a long moment. “Francine? There's something I want to test. Bike up to my place, and we'll see about getting everyone into the office – I'm betting you can drive my SUV as well. Then we can have a proper sit-down about what to do. While we're getting that sorted – Jon, Take a look through the Store, see what you can afford that might be helpful for tomorrow. David, have a look through the perks and skill commands, see if there's anything we've missed. Frank – I know it'll grate, but look at your mails from the System's gods, and be ready to brief us on what the differences are. I have a suspicion it'll make a big difference when it comes to staying alive. Larry, Take a good look at the options in the menu, and see if you can glean any other important information. Michelle? You live near a store, right? Grab some supplies so Francine can show of her cooking skills, use your company card. Once we're all together, we can brief each other on our options, and decide what we're going to do tomorrow. Something tells me we'll live a lot longer if we hang together – Because I'm wondering what the deal is with monsters when no adventuring zones have been set: somehow, I don't think they just won't appear!”