I was beyond exhausted. This whole hiking trip had been a disaster from the beginning. It wasn’t my kind of trip anyways. The fact that I had been coerced to come on this excursion still made me froth in rage.

“It will be fun!”, they said. It totally wasn’t. I had never been involved in such a tedious undertaking in my life.

“The place we are going to is beautiful!”, they exclaimed. I still failed to grasp the idyllic charm of this sandy hill that just blew up dust when a breeze passed through.

“It will help you become more social. You always say how you feel you don’t belong in a group with your classmates. This will help you make friends.” I totally felt unwanted in this setting, as the various cliques had totally excluded me from their groups. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the only reason I was there in the first was to make up some sort of cost difference that might have been holding up this trip. After all, these so-called ‘friends’ had gone and convinced my father to part with some extravagant amount of money for me to go along with them on this stupid trip. Curse of having rich parents, it seemed to me right now.

I trailed behind the group of twenty-seven other people while they were busy making plans about what they were going to do when they reached the summit. One of the boy’s uncles had a cabin that had been granted to him for use and he was busy describing the cabin’s beauties to some girls who were hanging on to his every word. I could barely contain my self from rolling my eyes when I heard about the ‘jacuzzi that had been installed just this summer so we didn’t have to bathe like savages’.

We had been walking for more than two hours and the cabin was nowhere in sight. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the cabin was just a figment of imagination that was being used to get into the girls’ pants. We stopped for a break near a large oak tree and the group set up blankets and chairs to have some sort of a makeshift picnic.

I noticed a weird pattern while the food was being distributed. I was the last one to be given any food item. It wasn’t because I sat at the end of an imaginary line or arrangement or anything but I was given whatever was leftover, the bad apples of the lot if you will. And some items, I wasn’t getting at all. It seemed as if they had prepared food only for twenty-seven people. I just hoped that the items I didn’t get to sample gave them food poisoning.

After what seemed to be like an eternity, the picnic was done and everyone gathered all their belongings quickly, excited at the prospect of finally reaching the cabin. Although I didn’t share their enthusiasm, I also couldn’t wait to finally have a roof over my head and probably lie down somewhere. Needless to say, ‘connecting with nature’ wasn’t something I was going to be able to do that day.

It was just after dusk that we finally got a glimpse of the mythic cabin. I had to grudgingly admit that the place was beautiful. One by one, people began to filter into the cabin. Only when about a few boys were left did the host for the evening announce that the cabin would be out of space and some of us might have to spend their nights outside in tents and sleeping bags.

And wouldn’t you know it? Only I was the one deemed ‘unlucky’ enough to have to sleep outside due to lack of space. I could tell that he was lying through his teeth because it was apparent that the cabin could house many more people. He just threw the supplies for the tent at me and with a cocky smirk on his face proceeded to close the door in my face.

I felt myself burning with indignant rage and humiliation as I stared at the door that had just been slammed. The cacophony of noises that I could hear from within the cabin made it even worse as I could only imagine them ridiculing me. Any laughter I heard seemed to be aimed directly at me, at least in my head. I wanted to smash open the door and kick the guy’s ass. But I knew any such effort would be futile.

I proceeded to set up the tent based on what I had seen in the movies and other media. As expected, I ended up doing a terrible job of it. It was only when I entered the tent did I realise that they hadn’t left me any supplies for the night, no food or amenities at all. The rage I felt bubbling at my chest seemed to be clawing out, desperate for release.

Like always, I tried to bottle it down. Any outward display of emotion would only provide more ammunition to the group to continue my humiliation. I was beginning to regret every moment of this trip.

The worst of the night wasn’t yet over though. Oh no, there was much more to come because of course, there was. I hadn’t been in my tent for more than fifteen minutes before lightning started to crackle in the sky. The first sound of thunder startled me to my soul. Before I could begin to comprehend what was happening, rain began to pour heavily and strong winds began to blow, taking whatever was left of my poor excuse of a tent with it.

There I was, wet and shivering all over from the heavy downpour all around, cursing whatever deity was responsible for my fate. That was when a red lightning bolt streaked through the sky, colouring the mountain red. I almost pissed my pants due to the proximity of the thunder, remembering something about lightning striking high places. ‘Nothing higher than a hill’, I thought.

Another streak of red lightning adorned the sky as I ran to the cabin, too distraught to ponder the absurd phenomena. I struck the door with all my might, begging them to let me in. All I got in response was some snickering from the other end of the door. I would have continued knocking nonetheless if a series of characters hadn’t appeared before my eyes.

“Tutorial Complete! Humanity has gained the right to enter the GRAND ORDER!”

That was when the door to the cabin finally opened. It was the host himself, looking at me with the same cocky smirk on his face before his face gained a puzzled look. Before I could enter the cabin though, a bestial roar tore through the air and the cocky smirk I had just been witnessing morphed into a terrified gasp.

I turned around to look at the cause of such a reaction and I felt my heart give way when I saw a creature that could only be likened to a hairy minotaur, a creature from Greek mythology. I rushed to enter the cabin but found myself reeling when I hit solid wood. The bastard had closed the door on me. Before I could recover from my dazed state, the minotaur was rushing towards me.

I tried to get up but it only served to serve up my entrails as targets for its horn. Before I could so much as react, I was impaled by the horn of the minotaur. That wasn’t the end of my predicament, however.

I hadn’t come unstuck from the horn and the minotaur just turned around and ran at a breakneck pace, not paying me any mind. I was only mildly aware of the pain I was feeling in my abdomen as my brain was completely overtaken by shock and pain. The minotaur just ran through a boulder but I was too overwhelmed to notice the pain when my vertebrae pretty much turned to dust.

The minotaur swung its head around for a little bit before I was finally thrown off him and he just ran away into the night, leaving me on the ground, resigned to my fate. I could feel my life slipping away when one after another, messages began to appear, floating in front of my eyes.

“Critical Hit! Dead in 3….2…..1…..”

“Title Unlocked! First one dead!”

“Title Unlocked! First one betrayed!”

“Title Unlocked! First one killed!”

“Congratulations! You have completed the first requirement of unlocking the unique class: “PROTEAN”. Would you like to continue?”

“Remember! Choice once taken cannot be reversed! Should you reject this opportunity, no one else on planet Earth will have access to this class!”

I could only stare at the characters dumbfounded, unsure of what to think. If the messages were to be believed, I was already dead. At the hands of a mythical creature, betrayed and left to die alone.

I wondered whether choosing ‘Yes’ would mean another chance at life and choosing ‘No’ would mean forfeiting my life. Not wanting to take any risks and not having options really, I chose yes. which led to another couple of messages to appear out of thin air.

I rose about two feet in the air before I realised I was floating in the air. My wounds sealed themselves completely and I felt rejuvenated as I had never done before. I landed on the ground with a dull thud when another couple of messages appeared out of thin air.

“Congratulations, you have chosen to undertake the final quest to gain the unique class: “PROTEAN”. “

“Final quest: Kill a single human being.”

“Rewards: 10000 XP, PROTEAN Class, Unique Title, four additional appearance slots.”

“Tools provided for special quest: One appearance slot.”

I couldn’t for the life of me fathom what any of those statements meant. Was I in some sort of game world? Did I gain some sort of power? And what are ‘appearance slots’? To my utter surprise, the system or AI or whatever was at play here answered my questions.

“Humanity has progressed enough in its evolution that the current resources on planet Earth will fail to sustain the existence of humanity. To compensate for this, the entire system on Earth was replaced by an upgraded system, the next level, if you will.”

“Through our observation of the various spheres of your society, we found that video games were the popular and universal means of entertainment while also providing a way to quantify strength within some parameters. So, the current system aims to mirror those game type dynamics.”

“Class: PROTEAN is a unique class that allows the user to change his or her appearance on will while also providing numerous other benefits, which will be illustrated once you completely unlock the class. But there are limits on the number of forms the user can change into. These forms are held in virtual slots which only the user will be able to access. Information on methods to acquire more slots will be available once you completely unlock the class.”

While the answers had certainly been illuminating in its own twisted way, it left me with more questions than answers, questions I couldn’t even begin to frame in my current state of mind.

I looked at the quest in question. “Kill a single human being.” To my utter surprise and a little self-disgust, I realised that I didn’t have any major problems ending a person’s life. It seemed as if my conscience was still lodged on the horns of the minotaur because I couldn’t find any trace of it within myself.

I found myself a little disturbed that I was looking forward to the deed quite a bit. To little surprise though, I already had the ideal candidate in mind. The douche who had denied me entry into the cabin. For two consecutive times. Once when I was in mortal danger. The gracious host of today’s trip.

If what the system said was true, I could take on the appearance of any one person, for now. I pondered on this dilemma for a moment before choosing to take on the appearance of a beautiful girl I had met on a vacation a while back.

To my utter amazement, I felt myself going through the change for a little while before my body fixed itself to a form. I didn’t have to think long to realise that my power had worked. The floating words hadn’t just been a delusion of a dying mind.

I slowly walked upto the cabin once more before shouting in a completely different voice from my original one, which I had already instinctilvely felt would be the case.

“Excuse me, please help. I don’t know what's going on and I would like a place to stay. Please help.” My voice was honey, if I may say so myself, conveying the right amounts of anxiety and fear.

The door opened almost instantly after I finished my plea for help and lo and behold, it was the aforementioned douche who opened the door, his face adorned by an assured grin.

I started rambling, not giving him a chance to speak, “Can you please let me stay? I don’t know what’s going on and all I hear are roars and shrieks from all around. My cabin is west from here but I seem to have misplaced my keys. Please let me stay while I figure out what is going on!”

I was met with an innocent smile and an assuring pat on my shoulder before he said, “Don’t worry. You can stay here. There’s plenty of room available.”

I released a visible sigh of relief before saying, “Can you please help me carry my belongings inside? I left it there at the edge of the cliff so I don’t forget where it was kept.”

It was a lame excuse, I knew but the douche didn’t think on it before replying, “Rest assured. I will bring it. Just tell me where it is!”

I put on a grateful smile on my face before saying, “Let me show you,” before leading him towards the edge of the cliff. “I kept it somewhere around here.”

We began looking for the imaginary luggage, searching in all directions. Only when was he close to the edge did I move up to him and changed my appearance back to my normal self and asked in my usual voice, “Did you find it?”

He turned around to look at me, saying, “What happened to your voi…..”

His face was covered by a mask of sheer terror as he looked at me. He seemed to be frozen in his place, unable to say anything before I remarked, “You know what, maybe I left my belongings at the bottom of the cliff.”

As soon as I said that,I kicked him with all the force I could muster and sent him flying over the edge, dooming him to his demise. I watched as he fell, his face overtaken by a myriad of emotions: rage, shock, confusion and hatred before finally all that was left was resignation and fear as he closed his eyes, preparing for the inevitable.

“Congratulations! Quest completed: Kill a single human being!”

“Congratulations! You have completely unlocked class: PROTEAN!”