3. Outside World

Sandria and her father, Pat, lived in a small townhouse right next to the carpark. They immediately guided Ardan toward the bathroom, where he had a long, warm shower. His clothes were heavily stained, the smell of trash flooding the room. It was so strong that he could still smell it over the immense amounts of steam coming from the shower. Turning off the water, Ardan dried his hair and changed into a new set of clothes, courtesy of Pat, before slipping the little book titled Elemental Magic: History, Information and Guide into his new jean’s back pocket. He walked outside to the living room, where Pat gestured for him to sit in an armchair beside the sofa.

Pat spoke first, smiling warmly at Ardan. “Seems like you’ve got quite the story, Ardan.”

He gave a shy smile before replying.

“That’s one way to put it.”

“So you mentioned just now you came from an orphanage? I don’t know too many orphanages around here, so I just rang them all up and asked if they had a missing person named Ardan.”

Ardan’s heart skipped a beat.

“And did any of them say they had?”

“The last one I called, ECO, said they had, but it was your time to leave.”

ECO, short for Elf Children Orphanage.

Right. Ardan was no longer a child. But hadn’t Dr Halper tried to kill him? What really happened at the orphanage? For now, he was lucky to be alive and finding out wasn’t his first priority.

“Do you want to live here for now? The house is big enough, and I could do with someone helping around when I’m out. If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to. It’ll be really hard to find somewhere else, though.”

So the people in the outside world were kind, after all.

“Thanks… I’d like that.” Ardan mumbled and looked down at his lap.

“Alright! Dinner is in an hour. You can stay in the spare room, just next to the bathroom which is down the corridor. If you need anything, just call me.”

Pat smiled warmly at Ardan, who thanked him graciously. He then went to the kitchen with Sandria, leaving Ardan alone. Ardan couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious - Pat’s ‘Good Samaritan’ demeanour was a stark contrast to how he behaved before. However, there were more pressing matters at hand.

Now, Ardan thought to himself, time to figure out what these screens are.

It was only then that he noticed two bars and some text at the top left corner of his vision.

#9249 Ardan Boone PR: Insane Offline Lvl. 1 - 324/1000EXP HP 100/100 MP 100/100 Fatigue 0 (To open menu say menu)

Apart from being just inside his peripheral vision, they were semi-translucent. Ardan could see through them if he focused hard enough. This time, he read the screen in his head before reading them aloud, ensuring he didn’t make that mistake again. That reminded him, he still had to figure out what the negatives of insane progression rate were…

Satisfied that he had examined the little screen thoroughly enough, he spoke a single word.

“Menu.”

In a flash, a grey screen appeared in front of him.

Menu - Ardan Boone

Currency: 0§ Profile Inventory Statistics

Skills Quests Shop

Settings

Ardan was notably surprised at the little window. It seemed to be a menu which would lead further into… whatever this thing was. By now, he had figured out this system operated mostly on voice commands, so he tentatively tried out the first one.

“Profile?”

Instantly, the screen changed to another form, this time transitioning with a disintegration effect.

#9249 Profile - Ardan Boone PR: Insane Lvl. 1 - 324/1000 EXP Title: The First Hybrid HP 100/100 Equipped Items Traits: Hybrid MP 100/100 Tools: None Class: Unlocked at level 15 Fatigue 0 Armour: None Sub-class: Unlocked at class level 15 Accessories: None Currency: 0§ Active Quests Daily Requirements (8:42:10)

So this is basically a more informative version of the other screen, Ardan thought as he peered over the information. So far, it was possible to trick himself into thinking he was hallucinating, but this completely denied that. A fully fledged RPG-style character profile was floating in front of him, and it was his. There was no denying that, because emblazoned boldly at the top of the screen was ‘Ardan Boone’, his full name. ‘Ardan’ could have been a coincidence, but ‘Ardan Boone’ was no common name. Somehow, this system knew his name. What else did it know?

Perhaps who his parents were?

“What’cha looking at?” Sandria’s cheery, yet curious voice floated from the doorway. Walking over to him, she jumped onto the sofa.

“So?”

Obviously, she expected an answer.

“Uh, you can’t see that?”

Ardan pointed towards the fluorescent screen floating in front of him. Sandria cocked her head sideways, staring directly at the spot.

Then she turned her attention back to Ardan. “See what?”

“You can’t- nevermind.” He had almost believed she could see it.

But of course she couldn’t. That explained why Halper didn’t see anything wrong with him. Or did he see it, but ignored it? Ardan sighed as the amount of unanswered questions piled up even further.

Sandria’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Anyways, I set up your bed!”

Sandria’s adorable smile lit up her face, before beckoning for him to follow her. Ardan couldn’t help but return the smile and let himself be dragged off to his new bedroom.

Pat and Sandria’s house was modern, yet cozy and comfortable. It was made up of three bedrooms, a study room and a games room. It had wooden floors in the common areas and carpet in the bedrooms. The walls were all painted white and along with the large windows, lit up the rooms in natural light. Pat had an interesting taste of furniture, the living room made up of modern objects, yet wooden-framed paintings of important looking elves donned the walls.

As Sandria opened the door to his new lodgings, Ardan’s jaw dropped. He was shocked at how different this bedroom looked compared to his previous one in the orphanage.

It was relatively small, probably about three metres wide and long. Somehow, they’d managed to fit a double bed into the room, which was next to the door. A black, sleek looking study desk lay underneath a large window that let in lots of light. Opposite the doorway was a large wooden shelf attached to the wall that acted both as a storage for clothes and other objects. It was rectangle shaped, with a space in the middle to hang clothes. Beside that was a comfortable looking green window seat, underneath a smaller window. A full body mirror next to another storage shelf completed the bedroom.

“I-is this for me?”

Sandria replied by picking up a small stuffed bunny off the bed and thrusting it into Ardan’s chest.

“Here! I let you have Ploopy, to keep you safe!”

Ardan would have raised an eyebrow if he wasn’t already so surprised. What kind of name was Ploopy? He walked further into the room, touching the shelves and bed as if it would disappear. This all seemed so… perfect. His previous room in the orphanage was cluttered and too big for a single person to fill. Ardan dug his toes into the soft grey carpet and felt a strange warmth fill his body.

“Oh yeah! The carpet’s got some special magic so your feet don’t get cold.” Sandria rambled on.

She jumped back onto the bed, snuggling the little bunny into covers. How cute.

“Dad said I should just show you the room and then leave, so I don’t annoy you. See ya!”

And off she went, bounding back out into the corridor.

Not knowing what to do, Ardan went around the room once more, touching all the surfaces like a little kid. Eventually he sat down on the bed, taking care to not damage the springs or crumple the covers. He took out the little book Summer had given him from his back pocket and placed it on his new table, examining it once more. It was old, that was for sure. The binder was fraying and the colours on the cover were faded. Now that he was looking closely at it, he could see that the front cover wasn’t just dull brown, but had tiny, intricate carvings of patterns throughout.

“Ardan, dinner is ready!” Pat’s voice boomed from the kitchen.

Stumbling in alarm, Ardan knocked over a notebook on the table.

“C-coming!” Ardan replied briskly.

The notebook lay open on the floor, exposing complicated scientific formulas that made no sense to him. Didn’t know Pat was a scientist too, he thought to himself, before closing the book and putting it back on the desk.

Suddenly, he stopped in confusion, as he read the title of the book.

A4 Notebook

This notebook belongs to: Sandria :)

Sandria? No, he must have misread it. Why would scientific equations be in an eight year old girl’s notebook?

“Ardan? Are you coming?” Pat shouted once more.

Pushing the thought aside, he left the book and hurried out of the room. He already had too many things to think about.

+ - + - + - +

Dinner was pasta, orange juice and a basket of dinner rolls. Ardan ate quietly and thanked Pat profusely for the meal. Finishing his meal, he rose, taking his dirty crockery and cutlery to the sink, only to find there was no dirty dishes bucket.

“Uh, Pat? Where do I put this?”

“Oh, that’s right. You’ve never had to wash up your own dishes before, have you?” Pat asked, for some reason amused at Ardan’s lack of knowledge on cleaning up after himself.

Pat pointed towards the kitchen sink and smiled at him.

“Just leave them in the sink for now, I’ll teach you how to wash them up some other day.” He reassured Ardan.

Ardan nodded and brought them to the sink, which had a modern-looking tap. Cool.

“You must be tired, so why don’t you go to sleep early? Sandria and I will clean up once she gets back from the bathroom,” Pat offered.

Ardan thanked him yet again before walking down the corridor to his temporary room, passing Sandria on the way.

“Goodnight Ardan!” She called, before skipping down the hallway.

“I’m not going to sleep yet-”

Ardan sighed and shook his head, a small grin on his face. As he reached his room, a shiver of tiredness washed over him. Pat was right. Today had been a long day. Yawning, he collapsed in the bed, too tired to care about how crumpled the covers would get. He sighed once, then snuggled further into the soft quilt, failing to see that Sandria’s notebook was no longer on his desk.