“So what else do you want to know?” Taylor asks me.

I say the first thing that comes to my mind “Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?”

She coughs and blushes at my question.

I continue “Because if you do, you can just tell the other Beta Testers that you have a really powerful boyfriend, and if they disrespect you again, you will tell your boyfriend and have them kicked out of the world.” I shrug my shoulders. “They won’t know if he can actually do it or not.”

Taylor starts laughing. “Oh. My. God. I can imagine the looks on their faces now.” After a few seconds, her laughter dies down. “But seriously, what other questions do you have?” She asks, her business smile replaced with a genuine one.

This time I stop to think about her question, “When will other people start opening up business in this shop?”

“I’m afraid I can’t give a concrete answer to that. Starting a business in a new world’s shop is always a crapshoot, especially during the Beta phase. Sometimes, you can start an enterprise in the new world because of the lack of competition. But most of the time, the Beta players either die off, or don’t make enough money to sustain your shop. There are even some cases, -admittedly, these are rare- where all of the Beta players die before they can unlock the shop, in which case you are screwed for however many years it takes for the Beta to end.” She seems to realize that she is talking to one of those beta players and blushes a little. “Even I wouldn’t be here if I had any other choice. If it weren’t for-” She cuts herself off. “Sorry. I’m not supposed to give that information away, unless you buy it. Altogether, one or two more shopkeepers should appear within the next month, but this won’t be a full-fledged shop for at least a year. And that is only if the Beta Players prove themselves worthy during that time.”

“I see.” I say.

“Do you have any other questions?” Taylor asks, running her hand through her hair.

“Yeah, just one. Do you have any time to talk later? It’s been really weird being unable to talk to anyone about what is going on.” I ask.

She startles at my question, her hand moving to the back of her neck. “Umm… I can’t leave my shop, since I don’t have the kind of money needed to hire workers. B-but if you want to come visit me sometime, it would be l-lovely to have someone to talk to.”

“Great. It’s a date.” I say as I stretch, “Also, remind me to bring a chair next time I visit you.” I say as my spine pops. Smiling, I wave goodbye to Taylor as I leave her shop.

It is a quick walk to the doorway that has a giant Exit sign over it. I glance over the empty shop, smiling to myself. I turn back to the doorway with that same smile on my face and enter it.

My room is exactly as I left it. My king size bed with its covers slightly unmade, my dresser right next to it and a little sister facing away from me, trying on one of my dresses.

An evil grin slowly plasters itself on my face. “Hello Little Sunshine. Fancy finding you in here.”

Elizabeth jumps and drops my dress to the floor. “Hey Elena! I was j-just, uh, making sure that there weren’t any rips in your beautiful dress.”

I notice Elizabeth’s eyes skip over the strange door I had just walked out of, obviously not seeing it. “Well? Did you find any, Elizabeth?” I ask as I slowly walk towards her, an innocent smile plastered onto my face.

“Any what?” She asks, before she realizes what she said and puts her hands over her mouth, “I meant no. I didn’t find any rips.”

I hold my evil smile for a second longer before I break into laughter. “Your expression. Haha. I can’t…” A sigh of relief escapes from Elizabeth’s mouth. “Little Sunshine, if you wanted to try on my dress, you should have just asked. Was there any other reason that you were up here?”

She shakes her head before remembering something, “Oh! That’s right. Mama wanted me to come up here to check on you, dinner should be done soon and she was wondering if your shoulder is okay.”

“Tell mom that I will be downstairs soon and that my shoulder is fine.” She nods and turns away to leave the room.

“Elizabeth.” I say, causing her to stop and turn around to look at me with confusion.

I point at the dress on the floor. She looks at it with a guilty face, before picking it up and hanging it up in my closet.

“Thank you Sunshine. You can go now.” As soon as I give her the go ahead, she scampers out of my room and down the stairs to our mom.

I turn my attention to a notification that had been begging for my attention since I entered my room.

*Ding*

The Humble Abode Is finished claiming your land. Your land consists of

House (upgrades available) Front yard (small structures now available) Backyard (small structures now available) Tool Shed (upgrades available)

*Ding*

I dismiss the notification and move to open the door to my room. To my surprise, a small blue window pops up, not large enough to ruin my vision, but still noticeable.

Door (upgradeable)

I ignore the screen, but notice that as I touch various structures around the house, I gain the option to upgrade them. As soon as I ignore the screens, they disappear.

In the kitchen downstairs, mom sits reading a book titled Human By Design, while Elizabeth stirs a large pot of soup.

I push mom’s feet off of my chair as I sit down.

“Your shoulder must be feeling a lot better.” Mother says, her gaze looking over her book at me.

“What do you mean?” I ask sweetly, subconsciously reaching towards my previously injured shoulder.

She points her feet at me, lightly poking my shoulder, “You just pushed my feet off of that chair with your injured arm.”

I push her feet away from me with a frown. “It’s been feeling a lot better, I guess those doctors really worked a miracle.”

Mother just looks at me with a searching expression. She makes a noncommittal sound, before turning back to her book.

Deciding that it is best to ignore her suspicion, I rest my head in my arms, entering a meditative state.

The colors of my chakras still astound me. The fact that something so insubstantial can create color is fascinating.

I follow the flow of my psi energy, watching as it circulates around each of my chakras.

My gaze eventually settles on the chakra at my third eye, I simply observe it for a while watching as the current of psi energy twists and turns around a central point. An idea comes to me, if speeding the current up allows me to open my third eye, what would slowing it down do? I gather my power in preparation.

“Elena. Food is ready.”

I am shocked out of my meditative state as my consciousness returns to my body. I open my eyes and lift my head up. My mother stands over me with a bowl of soup in her hand.

“Thank you mom.” I say with a distracted smile. Gently I grab the bowl of soup out of her hand and start eating my dinner.

After I finish dinner, I head up to my room. It is easy to tell that my mother and sister are worried about me, after all, I just got shot in the shoulder with a sniper rifle. It is normal for them to be worried.

Once I am in my room, I continue with the experiment I had started earlier. It is surprisingly easy to enter my meditative frame of mind.

I study the chakras for a moment, before I gather my power and effect the chakra of my third eye, slowing the whirlpool of psi down, I can feel the mental pressure build up as my psi pushes to resume it’s normal pace. It takes me a few seconds, but I manage to hold the psi at that speed.

Slowly, I open my eyes. Huh. Nothing looks different. I try to turn my head towards the mirror. My head doesn’t turn, until a couple of seconds later, I realize that my head is turning, incredibly slowly.

I take a closer look at my surroundings, my head currently facing the doorway to the shop.

In front of the doorway, a spider is stuck mid-air. It only takes a second for me to guess what is going on. Time is slowing down. Then I realize the implications. I have a lot more time to think during my school tests.

I like the effects of time slowing down. But being unable to move like this is irritating. I cancel the spell.

You have learned to manipulate your perception of time. You have unlocked the skill [Take Your Time] at Beginner level 1

“Please [Define Take Your Time]” I say.

[Take Your Time] allows you to perceive time at a significantly reduced rate.

“No shit sherlock.” I mutter, irritated by the lack of information it gave me.

After that, I decide to call it a day.

“It’s a day.” I say.

Then I go to bed.

******

The next morning I am up at the crack of dawn in preparation for school. I meet my father downstairs who is reading a news article on his laptop.

I quietly hum to myself as I make some pancakes for breakfast.

“You seem to be in a good mood.” My father says, looking up at me as I place a plate of pancakes in front of him.

“I am always in a good mood” I respond cheerily as I pour a generous helping of maple syrup on top of my pancakes.

He takes a bite of his pancakes, responding with a mouth half full. “The humming is new.” He swallows, pointing at the arm that I was using to eat with, “I see your arm is feeling much better. Are you taking those pain meds the doctor prescribed?”

My mind goes back to the closed bottle up in my room. It hadn’t been opened yet. “Mhm.” I make an agreeable sound, not wanting to actually lie to him.

He smiles at me, slight concern in his eyes. “Even though you can’t feel it, I’d be careful about moving that arm too much, you can still injure it further.”

I finish my food and stand up to kiss my father on the forehead. “I’ll be careful, dad.” I say as I pick up my backpack and start my run to school. This time, I hadn’t forgotten to put my gloves in my inventory, I don’t want any more surprise attacks.

I reach the school out of breath. Taking a deep gulp out of my water bottle, I rest my hands on my knees.

“Are you alright?” A voice I recognize speaks up from behind me.

I smile and turn around to face Rose. Sky blue seems to be her color of choice today, as her sweater and skirt show.

“I’m fine. This is just my way of keeping in shape.” I respond, my hand unconsciously going to the ponytail that I’d used to keep my hair out of my face as I was running.

“Really?” She says, a hesitant smile forming on her face.

“Of course.”

“Are you sure you should be running after… you know, your injury?” She asks, a hint of worry in her voice.

I grin at her. “I was shot in the arm, not the leg.” She flinches as I mention getting shot. I continue in a calming tone, “I am sure running is fine.”

A look of guilt covers her face, which causes me to walk up to her and hook her arm in mine. I say with cheerfulness, “We have our first class together, right? Personally, my favorite seats are by the window, but I remember that you liked to sit in the back. Either one works for me. You decide.”

Rose looks at me in confusion, until she realizes what I am doing. Her smile returns along with some water in her eyes. “Um, if you want to sit by the window. That sounds nice.”

“Let’s go then.” I say, gently pulling her towards the classrooms.

****

???

I watch as the light-filled girl drags her sad friend away. So she is one of the other chosen ones? A Beta Tester. Chosen By The Gods. A Rival. An Enemy. I turn away from them, walking towards this school’s office.

It had been surprisingly easy to get into this school as a teacher. Just a little bit of magic here, a little bit of compulsion there. I was rather disappointed in the mental defences of these humans. They were nothing like the defences of those beasts in the tutorial.

Now those creatures, they had been a challenge. Twenty eight deaths, I remember each and every one of them clearly, It had taken me so long to breach their defences. The mental barriers they’d had were scary, to say the least.

I turn my attention to the woman that was following me, she was dressed in nondescript clothing. It hid well the toned muscles of her body that came from years of experience in defending her clients. She had been easier than most humans to control. All brawns and no brains as they say.

I motion her over, “You will become the new PE teacher here. Do you understand? The old teacher will have an unfortunate accident. Please get on it.”

She nods once, before turning around and leaving to accomplish the job I had given her.

Smiling, I stroll into the school’s office. “Good morning.”

Scott Monroe Age:29 Lvl: 2 Class: Manipulator Mana: 0 Health: 220 Psi:400

Sponsor: Set

Titles: Con Artist, Murderer, Control Freak, Watched By The Gods

Special conditions: Sociopathic

Physical Condition: Healthy

Physicality: Normal 45%

Brilliance: Doctorate 84%

Equipment: .44 magnum Revolver(unique)