Toby sighed as he mentally wrangled with the system to make the room more to his liking. He had spent a couple of hours struggling with his 'domain' as Alice called it.

Alice's lessons on how to use the System had been rather short and to the point.

It was all a mental exercise in juggling one's intent. He could only change his surroundings inside this pocket of virtual space that belonged to him though. And it had taken a lot out of him to even get this far.

She had left him to it as soon as he had started to get the hang of it. Something about preparations to do before she could continue her lessons on life in the Nexus as she called it. She gave the impression of being one of those people who would just sweep others along for the ride if they weren't careful.

The system apparently tended to model your domain according to your personality, So when he finally got the Alice in Wonderland stuff out, his room immediately turned into the one his 16-year-old self, had used almost 25 years ago from his point of view.

It was complete with the embarrassing adult magazines he had hidden from his mom, and a nonfunctioning version of the desktop computer he used to play RPG's on. Even his original copy of “Eye of the beholder” was here. The box sitting uselessly on the shelf above the desk to Toby's dismay. It was such a good game, a reminder of a time in his life where he was truly happy.

It would have been so much fun to give it a spin again, but it was impossible. the computer was nothing but a useless prop in this world.

Why wouldn't the system let him have a simple clean room to sleep in rather than fill it with all these memories?

The intent wasn't enough to make desired changes either. He had desperately tried to remove the magazines for example, but it didn't work. No matter how hard the tried, the system wouldn't remove them.

He also had a strangely persistent picture of the Cheshire cat hanging above his bed that remained as a particularly stubborn reminder of the Alice in Wonderland setting from before.

He had managed to add a trophy display however it stood along an empty stretch of wall where the sole window used to be in his original room. Alice had been particularly adamant that he add one of those, but she wouldn't tell him why.

A knock on the door pulled Toby out of his thoughts. "Come in", He called just as the door opened.

It was Alice as he expected. It wasn't like he knew anyone else that would visit in this place yet, and he was fairly certain he was still the only human to have entered the Nexus yet.

"Are you done" she called out as she sauntered in with her big almost golden braids swinging behind her.

“Yeah, I just put up a trophy case like you asked me to” he replied, “But why do I need such a thing?”.

”You will see in a second" Alice quipped while grabbing his hand.

“This will sing a bit”. She said and pricked his finger with a needle.

"Ouch, what!" Toby jerked his hand back.

"what was that for?" he asked while blood slowly seeped through the tiny puncture wound in his finger.

Gently taking hold of his hand again without saying anything, Alice pressed what looked like a small coin into the blood. Immediately the drop of blood was absorbed into the object, Causing it to change. It went from pure white to blood red over a few seconds to Toby's astonishment.

"this is a token that lets you link objects like that trophy case to your own information" She explained.

“These aren't exactly cheap, but this one is a welcoming gift from me.” she continued while putting the token into Toby's hand.

"Just push the token into the trophy case, and it should activate".

Toby pushed the token against the case as she had told him to, and to his surprise, it immediately disappeared into the wooden side of the case.

Almost immediately after, the empty case started to glow.

A golden adorned frame flowed into being on the upper left side of the display case, and a portrait of a younger version of Toby grinned back at him.

Attached to the right side of the frame, a deep blue ribbon blinked into existence, Adorned with a platinum star with the inscription 1st.

The rest of the top shelf was empty, but the bottom shelf had a purple velvet covered panel that was adorned with a single small silver badge with a picture on it.

The picture was a portrait of a creature that Toby couldn't help but notice had a rather strange visage. It looked like a creature with some rather tentacle-like appendages instead of hair. Beneath the badge was the word: Cthullean.

User:

The achievement system is now unlocked.

Retroactively awarding achievements.

Achievement get: Platinum medal of Ascension. 1st to ascend amongst your species.

Achievement get: bronze badge Chutullean: meeting a Chutullean.

Achievement get: Silver badge Chutullean: Befriended a Chutullean.

When nothing else seemed to happen, Toby drew a breath and pointed “Is that how your kind looks Alice?”.

“Errrmm.. maybe” Alice evasively answered before quickly changing the topic

“Now that you are properly installed in your domain, I think it's time for the next step”.

“So what is going to happen next?” Toby asked.

“I agreed to team up with you, and do quests, but I don't actually know how any of that is supposed to work around here”.

“First we have to register our new guild” Alice answered, “And for that, we have to go to the local town hall”.

“We have to go to an office?” Toby answered surprised.

“I thought everything could be done through the System interface”.

“Some things can be done directly, but other things are restricted to certain areas or people”. Alice was getting into instructor mode again.

“Teleportation for instance, like I did when picking you up out in the nowhere, isn't permitted except between travel nodes.

Getting someone from the nowhere is the exception. The System will always send someone to go fetch a user lost in the nowhere”

Alice opened the door and beckoned Toby to follow. They exited out into a rustic wood lined hallway with candlelit lamps along the walls. besides Toby's door, he could see another door that had the nameplate Alice on it.

“Administrative work like registering new quests, guilds, and getting permits. has to go through the offices in Town halls” Alice continued explaining while they walked towards the staircase down.

“Admins that have been given a job there are the only ones permitted to submit the entries for new guilds and stuff to the system ”

Alice had just finished talking when they reached the bottom of the wooden stairs.

Before them, a large room lit only by the light filtering through a pair of small windows opened up. It was sparsely furnaced with some tables and booths along the walls, while at one end Toby could spot what looked very much like a bar. Giving Toby a slight twinge of desire for a beer.

The back wall behind it was covered in various bottles and barrels in a wide range of sizes and colors. A door that Toby presumed went into a kitchen sat right next to it.

The bar appeared unmanned though, giving him a slight pang of disappointment as they walked across the floor towards the main door.

It wasn't that he really needed to eat or drink while in the Nexus, but the desire to do so still remained.

The only need he really had was sleep, something to do with having to simulate his neurochemistry or something. Toby had drifted off during that particular lecture, ironically mostly due to the lack of said sleep.

"Welcome to the Town of Terra Nova Toby" Alice exclaimed while pushing the double doors open wide. The light of a clear bright day washing over them as they emerged from the dim interior and into a whole new world.