Waking up feels incredibly nice, as if coming back from a very deep and restful sleep. It's also extremely disorienting. Wasn’t I with Alexander just a second ago? We were talking about something relating to the Study… The sun feels warm on my skin, its light shining without being blinding as I open my eyes. I'm laying on a pleasantly soft mattress.

I reluctantly shake my sleepiness away to try and piece things together.

Seems that I'm below a tree, the blue light of the sun is softly shining through the ever changing gaps of its orange leaves as they gently sway in a cool breeze.

...

I sit up really quickly, which is not a good idea because the motion dazzles me. A lot. Blood rushes and I’m immediately blinded, eyes wide open but full of shining spots while my head spins wildly.

Well, good thing I’m already on the ground, can’t really fall from here.

A few seconds later, once that is gone, I take stock of my surroundings.

I woke up in a valley, on a grassy patch about halfway up the mountain flank, by the limit between the forest and smaller vegetation. I’m lost somewhere deep in a massive mountain range.

The view is beyond stunning.

But what the hell am I doing here?

As the orange trees sway with the wind, they give the illusion that the lower halves of the mountains are on fire, while high above, the blue-ish light of the sun gives the snow capped peaks a proud and ethereal crown.

Things are clear, I’m either in the Truman show or in the Study.

That’s kind of a redundant statement isn’t it?

Yeah, my bad, my bad.

Now that I’m paying attention, those orange leaves aren't all that's fishy with the trees, they also have yellow trunks and branches. And the branches are really swaying a lot considering how little wind there is.

I might be focusing a lot on the trees, but it is weird alright? Also it's helping to focus on something, why don't you try waking up in the middle of fuck-all nowhere and see how you manage? Oh, and the grass I woke up on is actually green, of course, because why would plants be fucking coherent uh?

Erm.

Sorry about that.

Come on Mark, focus. Right?

Right. Sorry again, this isn't like me at all, I'm a bit stressed out right now. It’s really unusual, I'm a rather chill guy usually. But you know, sometimes one wakes up missing time in a very far away place, and it’s a bit rough on the mind.

Oh yeah don't worry, I get it, I get it.

Ah, thank you! Nice to see someone caring and understanding for a change.

Dude, "Caring" is my middle name! I'm there for you.

No, no, nope, no and no, scratch all that, I am not going to start talking to myself, now isn’t the time for this shit, I'm lost in the middle of unknown mountains, in a world that clearly isn’t Earth with nothing but my clothes. I do NOT need to start hearing voices right now.

I'm already here though, too late buddy.

...

Just kidding. Just kidding. I did say I'd focus.

Wait, is it really just my clothes? I quickly check and yeah, empty pockets, no wallet, no phone and nothing laying around me.

For some unfathomable reason, I'm already within the Study. But people are supposed to get a choice, not just wake up randomly wherever!

Focus, maybe everything is fine and as intended.

Lets see :

* I didn't want to be on Earth. Yeah I definitely nailed it.

* I didn't want to be in a big city. Great success.

* I wanted one of those worlds with magic, oh yeah, and a game-like guiding system, of course!

- Status!

…

Now, this is why I'm very happy I'm not in a city, because I sure am glad nobody was around to see me go from lost, to confident, to pretty much tearing up as nothing happened after I spoke out loud trying to summon an hypothetical status window as if I was in a game.

I’ve been in better places mentally.

- System!

- Character sheet! Stats! Statistics! ... Abilities! Spells! Inventory!

- Uhhh... Report? Identify?

- Help?

...

Come on Marc, you're better than that, no need to cry. Take a deep breath!

I'm not going to lie, this sucks. It really does.

Lets find something positive, that's a good trick.

Well, the good piece of news is that I got here with my clothes. And let me tell you, as far as clothing goes, the stuff we've been making lately on earth is great. I'm wearing very slightly baggy black trousers with a ton of pockets, and a black T-shirt with an abstract design in red and blue. It's comfortable, crazy resilient cloth that somehow feels rather light when it's hot and kind of warm when it's cold. Pretty sure it's also somewhat waterproof and it doesn't really ever stain. Although I definitely stand out wearing all black in this colorful place.

It’s like we're mourning the system that isn't here.

What? No! Slippery slope, lets not go back there, we – I – I have been over this already, no talking to myself, no thinking too hard about what is going on.

I’m in a beautiful place very far away from home, the sun is shining, a breeze is gently blowing… No birds are chirping and neither are insects buzzing though.

Uh.

I’m sure everything is perfectly fine.

It really is silent isn’t it?

And then suddenly, a screen was in front of me.

I can't even say it appeared, it kind of feels like it was there all along.

But it wasn’t, right?

No, definitely wasn’t.

S.T.U.D.Y. System initializing, Status will be available shortly. In the meantime, you may read our

terms and conditions.

I sigh in relief.

I’ve got a lifeline, I’m really in the Study, not just abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

The stupid thing was lagging? What a joke.

To be fair, barely a couple minutes passed since I woke up in the magnificent, yet alien, landscape surrounding me. It was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, but sure, I can cut the system some slack and accept it didn't instantly work.

I have no reason to believe this should be particularly fast.

…

It would be nice if it could hurry up already though.

A few minutes pass with no change before I’ve had enough of waiting doing nothing. As much as I really want to discover my status, and maybe see cool skill trees or paths, classes, or some interesting other thing, I decide not to just sit here waiting for the system. It’s time to move a little, I decide to start climbing up the mountain to get a better look around, look for civilization or something, even though my hopes aren’t high.

This place looks as untouched as it gets, but maybe there are elves in the forest or dwarves underground.

Walking and breathing in the clean mountain air clears up my mind a little. I wonder what got into me, the system will be there when it’ll be there. I just latched on that idea for some reason. I like the idea of having a clear and complete representation of myself trough a few well designed screens. I guess I associate it with the potential of an adventure, right? I never was an hardcore gamer but I did grind some RPGs to the bone and those always had neat inventories, cool skills and powerups, and a status faithfully recording the progress of the character from a useless level 1 newbie that can barely fight rats, all the way to world savior hero killing the evil dragons.

Interestingly (well, barely but I don't have much going for me right now), the notice screen isn't really going away. But it isn't a bother either, even more so since it kind of drifted away from the middle of my field of view to the side and also somewhat shrunk in size without me noticing. Actually, it’s wrong to call it a screen, why did I do that? It's more like… Like I know the information written on it and somehow it translates into some kind of hallucination that occupies a part of my field of vision. But I can still walk around and see through just fine. It’s… Now that I’m trying to describe it, it’s slipping away.

I force it back into focus until I get something.

It’s like a small area of distortion with unclear edges, with squiggles that are too small for me to actually read. Not that I need to read, considering how the information stays in my mind by its own volition. If it didn't feel so natural, it would be weird as hell. Still is weird as hell for sure, but naturally. I guess. That makes sense right?

Right.

If you think about it, we have a lot of crazy weird stuff going on but it's natural you know? And all is fine as long as you don’t think too hard about it. I mean, eyes somehow let us see the world. Why would squishy orbs filled with various juices let our brain, a larger squishy thing with more juices, "see"?

Perception is crazy and nobody cares.

Well, some scientists do, they even figured out some of the underlying mechanisms. But you know what I mean.

Yeah, it's one of the perks of being the same person.

I feel a chill run through my spine as I realize I've been kind of involuntarily talking and answering to myself again.

Maybe… Maybe I should just stop here on that patch of grass, sit down with my back against that big smooth boulder, and read trough the damn terms and conditions. After all, they are nicely sitting right there, quietly being available.