Todd’s first experience being punched in the face is more of a harmless, knuckley shove in the mouth and nose which splays his lip out of the way and jogs against his teeth.

“What the hell, man?” He sputters, pulling his head back and away. But being slammed in a sudden mess of human bodies makes it difficult to maneuver free. Todd crimps at his shoulder and pulls his right arm up and loose of the people pressed against him and shoves back at the angry jerk who hit him.

“Chill out!” Todd cries out. Then he notices the older Spanish speaking woman from before, gasping in pain, so he reaches out for a second gentler shove to give her some room.

“You chill out, asshole!” The man apologizes. Sort of. He does stop shouting and hitting though.

In a way, the tiny twenty person mob had been an exercise in statistics in action. There’s the better part of a thousand humans plus aliens, here in the square. But they had been spread out, mixed at random with each other. So when the panic hit, no one really knew which direction to run. The only governing rules seemed to be, get closer to other humans, get away from the aliens, and it had resulted in these inevitable bubbles of tiny riot. The funny thing is that most of the square is now even emptier than it was before, as the aliens seem to have had the same impulse towards safety.

Todd is a little bruised, but otherwise fine. And overall as well as he can see, nothing has devolved past a few thrown punches. It feels like a miracle that no one has been shot or stabbed. His little riot lets up, with no small amount of embarrassment. Todd checks to see if the old woman is okay, but aside from being winded doesn’t seem obviously hurt. The rude man who punched him turns out to speak Spanish and addresses the woman with polite respect, in a sideways admission of guilt that lets him avoid apologizing to Todd. Todd returns the sentiment with a kind of ‘thank you’ that looks a lot like turning and walking away.

After a few more hurried words of reassurance, a few quick questions from strangers and not a single helpful answer, Todd puts himself at the vanguard of their little circle of humanity. He nods to the man standing next to him, a tall weedy looking gentleman who’s dressed in a bus driver’s uniform and a fragile brave expression.

The aliens have had a little more trouble finding each other, but less in getting crushed. A small group of them stand huddled together, with the same kind of resolution as the humans. A relatively taller creature holds one arm out to protect the others huddled behind him. It wears a warriors garb, leather armor protecting his vitals, wrists and shins, as well as a durable simple fibrous tunic underneath. With his other hand, it pats its sides and thigh as if searching for something.

“Fuck,” the rude man says from behind Todd. “Where’s my gun?”

Todd doesn’t look back, but files this under a latest piece of evidence to suggest that the people transported here were not allowed to bring weapons with them. He hopes to his lucky stars it’s true, because while he’s pleased how calmly (relatively) people are reacting so far, it could go so much worse in an instant.

Before he has a chance to think further, a soft chime rings out and a blue glow draws Todd’s eyes upwards.

! Welcome to the Tutorial ! !Congratulations {Sp: F-Human.NonAberrant} resident of planet {Plnt: F-Terrestrial.GeoSilicate.BioCarbon.SpiNA { idCode: EARTH }}!

😀 You have been selected for the opportunity of a celestial lifetime 😃* Brought to you by Limitless. Limitless Mandate and Productions. Subject to terms and considerations. “Do the impossible, today!” *

The giant prompt hangs in the air, above the center of the courtyard. Unlike previous windows, this one does not follow where Todd is looking. It’s more like an Augmented Reality kind of thing where it’s virtually superimposed over a position in space. But he notes that it does turn to him perfectly if he moves left or right. The prompt hangs in the air for a long moment, and the exclamation points and smiley faces almost look like they are animated, moving with a subtle festive energy.

Then in a smaller font, Todd sees another informational prompt appear. But this one appears to be the personal kind, only visible to him. It almost looks like a fun facts blurb he might expect from a video game loading screen.

ℹ︎ Did you know that introducing exclamation points into Tutorial prompts can reduce initial mob related deaths by over 80%?

The casual tone of the information text hits Todd like the floor dropping three inches out from under him. He blanches, wanting to say something but unable to.

After a moment, both prompts shrink and vanish. Hushed whispers ripple through the crowd. Then an imperceptible churning begins gnawing at the laws of reality. Kind of like the chugging noise a computer makes when it’s thinking, but not a noise at all. Then after a moment a featureless voice rises in the back recess of Todd’s mind.

[System Selecting Default Tutorial Template CFE-8A42FBC]

“What is that?” Todd asks aloud.

[System Customizing Locally Tailored Program]

“It was like a big greeting card-” a woman near him replies.

[Custom Program Rated At Generalized Utility 62%]

“No not that, the – well, not a voice, but the – like a thought in your head that’s not yours. The brain radio.” Todd looks for around to the others for confirmation.

[Custom Program Rated At Uniqueness 0.00318]

Those who speak English shake their heads, he might have worried they thought he was being crazy, but... things had had gone a bit tits up hadn’t it? Under current circumstance, folks were ready to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Declining To Save Program to Template Presets]

Taking this opportunity, the weird aliens have started to edge, in a circular motion around the human group, in an effort to pick up stragglers and merge into a larger defensive force. Todd’s group shuffles as a collective group to make room, coming to an unspoken agreement not to take any rash action yet.

!Preparing Guides For your Tutorial Experience Now!

Experiencing Longer than Usual Delays Due to Unexpected System Load

!Thank you for your patience!

The huge floating prompt appears above the square again. As Todd looks around, he notices other, distant prompts in the sky around him. It seems like there are roughly a dozen of them, spaced far apart but at identical heights. Looking at the buildings at the edge of the plaza, he wonders if there are similar areas to the one he’s in now. Once he is aware of it, he notices eight very narrow corridors, two from each side of the plaza, which appear to lead through and past the wall of looming, light-colored stone structures. Suddenly a loud voice rings out clear through the square, reassuringly human.

“Everybody this way!” He says. “Human beings this way! Los humanos aqui! Freaky deer people, over that way!” He cries out again, though this time the crowds have quieted down enough to listen.

Then another voice shouts out, “Head towards that dude! 大家去哪里!” The new voice is a bit reedy, like a teenager who smokes too much, but his helpful translation gets more than a few people to start moving.

“¡Todos hacia ese tipo!” Shouts angry red faced guy, far too loudly. Todd and his neighbors flinch, being too close. But they don’t complain, sanity is starting to reassert itself, and the guidance of a leader - even a douchey one - is sorely appreciated. Hoping to help, Todd gathers himself and leaps as high as he can, pointing in the direction of the first voice, “This way!” he says at a bold but considerate volume.

Then, picking up on the general idea, the first alien voice rings out. A few of their heads and hands pop up visibly over the crowd, adopting the same hopping trick, and they seem to, by trial and error choose a direction opposite the Humans.

Soon, like a game of hopping Marco Polo, the two groups gingerly negotiate around one another. They split apart like oil and water with a sense of propriety and Todd finds himself in a crowd of six hundred human beings of every shape, color, age, sex and creed. As they gather, nerves calm and the group condense to a comfortable distance, leaving the huge center of the plaza completely empty and the aliens clustered in a far corner and out of earshot.

With palpable relief, the humans begin to show the first signs of real camaraderie. Douchey guy raises his palm towards Todd in an invitation for a high five, and Todd is in high enough spirits to deliver it. The shoe chucking business woman from earlier has had her immaculate hairdo come completely loose, and now she’s laughing and joking with the bus driver. Someone finally asks Todd if he’s alright, which is enough to make it true, so he says yes.

But mostly, Todd tries to push forward into the crowd. Acting on a gut instinct, he extracts himself from his ‘riot bubble buddies’ seeking out the first voice from before.

“Joe?” Todd asks, pleased to peaches to finally find a familiar face. The enemy captain stands at the center of the crowd, still in his soccer clothes, though his yellow jersey has come off and become a makeshift flag to signal the crowd. Joe is talking animatedly with a woman dressed as a police officer, and a bearded man who practically glows with a general vibe of professional martial violence. At six foot tall and change and an air of easy confidence, Joe has temporarily but easily usurped the usual chain of command. Now he seems to be working on ceding it back to the actual authority figures.

“Drips?” Joe says with surprise, then breaks into a grin of his own. He shakes the cop’s hand and claps the scary beard man on the shoulder and then jogs forward to grab hold of Todd’s shoulders.

“Holy shit,” he says, and Todd sees that under the hero act Joe is as grateful to find Todd as vice versa. “Does that mean the others are here too?” He asks.

“I don’t know, I didn’t see anybody from the game so far but -”

“I knew it!” Randall’s familiar voice cries out. Todd sees his friend squeeze through the crowd and join them, and it’s like a great weight lifted from his worries. The rest of the team should be here as well, right? Randall looks just as out of place as usual, his pudgy gut fitting poorly into a sport jersey.

“Thank shit you’re here. I can’t process another minute of this insanity without another nerd. You okay?” Todd asks.

“I’m okay, you okay?”

“I’m okay. You know Joe right?”

“Hey Joe. Randall.”

“Randall? Nice to meet you,” Joe greets him, responding to a hand motion from the police officer with a placating gesture that requests more time.

“- Yea, likewise. So – let’s agree that small talk can go choke itself dead in a ditch, yea?” Randall gleefully begins without candor. “You guys know we are in a video game right now, right?”

Randall’s eyes glitter with a greedy expression, which Joe doesn’t seem to understand, and Todd doesn’t quite appreciate.

“We’re not in a game, Randall,” Todd replies, relying on the brewing dread in his gut to tell him that more is at stake here than appears. “Not that kind of game anyway,” he mutters.

“There’s no such thing as video games,” Joe frowns, but then corrects himself. “What I mean is, that’s dumb and there’s gotta be a more reasonable explanation. Did you see the others?”

Randall shrugs, willing to let it go for now. “I think I saw the referee?”

“Candra?”

“I’m assuming that’s a proper noun?” Randall ventures uncertainly, but the three are saved from further explanation when an empty beer can arcs through the air and bounces with a cheerful ping off of Joe’s sandy hair.

“Ow.” He says in hello, as Candra appears in her black and white striped shirt, bridges the distance to their circle in a flash, and shakes her long auburn ponytail like a bludgeoning flail. With her height, its enough to whap Randall in the face, and he steps back with a puckered expression of surprise.

“Thank shit you’re here. I can’t process another minute of this insanity without another alcoholic. You okay?”