He blinked a few times, and yet the game-like window still floated in his view. It was a welcome message, but he doubted it would be similar to the reception of Hilton’s hotel. “Jim are you seeing this?” he asked.

“See wha…” the red-haired man fell speechless after seeing the same thing as Leo. “Hey, I think something hit my head pretty hard just now. And I don’t think I even remember it,” Jim pushed the blame to the non-existent event. It was the most natural thing to do when you started hallucinating some text window floating in your view. Yet as he came out from under the table, his eyes found the scene beyond the window walls. Jim’s mouth fell, and so did his denial.

“It’s not a hallucination, Jim. It’s the real deal, and I’m seeing the same thing as you,” the moment Leo ended his words, the floating window flickered, changing to a different text.

[Climb to the peak of Mount Akrat]

Leo narrowed his eyes. The new message was nothing short of an order that came from whoever did this to them. ‘Shit, I can’t even think anything about this,’ Leo thought. Everything that happened went beyond the scope of his logical mind. From the whole building transported to the middle of a jungle. To Leo seeing a floating window as if there was a microchip planted on the back of his brain. Neither of those came nowhere close to being normal. And his questions grew further with what came next.

[Welcome Gift will now be granted.]

[Result from the preliminary test will affect your Gift.]

‘Wait, what?’ Leo hit with a wave of confusion. ‘What test is it talking about? Did I do one?’ his mind scrambled, recalling anything that had a semblance to a test. Yet, no matter how hard he thought about it, nothing came to mind.

[Gift granted.]

[You have obtained Trait: Statistic Inheritor.]

‘I don’t know what this is, but inheritor sounds like a good thing,’ Leo thought.

“Leo, I’m not going crazy, am I? Because a spear just came out of nowhere,” Jim said. His eyes were in disbelief staring at the partisan in his hands. The intricate ocean wave details etched on the shaft drew most of Jim’s attention.

Leo scoffed at what he was seeing as nothing made sense anymore. ‘Yup, this is really happening. And you better get a grip on the situation, Leo, or else…’ his thought stopped there, not wanting to jinx himself to something bad.

“Jim, whatever that’s going on here, we need to keep calm and—” his words fell as new windows kept spamming in his sight.

[Integration to Xanadu complete.]

[Access to Menu is now available.]

[Further inquiries can refer to the Help section.]

[We wish you all the best of luck.]

‘Menu? What is this? Some kind of…’ before he could continue, a new window opened.

[Menu]

[Status]

[Skill]

[Spell]

[Trait]

[Title]

[Help]

Leo sighed, shaking his head slowly. ‘Yup, it’s a game. I’m definitely in a game,’ Leo thought. Denying it further would not help his current situation, so rather than flailing helplessly, he might as well play along with the ride. ‘Since I opened it through some mental command, I might be able to open this one,' Leo thought. Focusing on the Status section, and instantly, it opened.

[Status]

[Name][Leonardo Hart][Human]

[Level][0]

[Class][-]

[HP][50/50]

[SP][50/50]

[MP][Locked]

[Strength][4]

[Vitality][5]

[Fortitude][0]

[Dexterity][6]

[Agility][6]

[Perception][5]

[Intellect][7]

[Spirit][5]

[Charisma][6]

[Luck][0]

[Available Points][0]

‘Wow, just wow,’ his eyes couldn’t leave the sight of his Strength attribute. For a man, nothing would annoy him more than being described as weak by a game system. ‘One thing for sure, I’m definitely going to dump my points to strength first.’

The rest of his attributes were quite balanced ranging from five to seven. Yet two attributes made him wonder. ‘Why are these two attributes zero? I’m not that bad in terms of luck since I did win that big flat-screen TV back at the annual company dinner party. And what’s fortitude? Isn’t it the same as vitality?’ questions kept piling with no answer, and MP being locked added up to the problem. Then Leo turned to Jim.

“Jim, you have to see this,” Leo said.

“If you’re asking about the status, I’m way ahead of you,” Jim glanced back at his own screen while in Leo’s eyes he was gazing at empty air. “You’re not going to believe this, but this fucking thing evaluates my strength as fucking three. Do you know how low that is?” Jim said, anger welling behind those green eyes of his.

Leo grinned. “Too bad, mine is at four. At least the system got that right,” Leo said. Comparing him and Jim, his body was a bit more tone than the pretty boy as Jim was on the skinny side.

“Fuck off,” Jim said. “Let’s see the rest, perhaps I’ve got a bigger brain than yours.”

The two officemates compared their stats with one another, and Leo found some similarities. ‘So I’m not the only one. Jim’s fortitude and luck are also zero, and his MP is also locked. Perhaps it’s the default state for everyone in regards to these three things.’

While Leo pondered about the mysteries behind the stats, Jim, on the other hand, was on all four, crestfallen over his underwhelming stats when compared to Leo. “It can’t be…” the scarlet-haired man shook his head in denial, “…I’m even dumber than Leo,” Jim was close to tearing up. Yet within the darkness, there was light, “no, at least there’s one thing I’m better than him,” Jim smiled, staring at his charisma stats. It was his highest, numbering at eight, courtesy of his good looks and likability with most people.

‘There’s too little information about what these stats do, and I can’t just dump it all on those familiar stats without knowing the mechanic behind them,’ Leo thought. ‘But there’s one thing I’m sure about these things, I can’t mess up my point distribution. If I did, I’m pretty much screwing myself over.’

Even a casual gamer like Leo knew the importance of point distribution. Min-maxing was probably his best bet to ensure himself living longer by being an OP combat-based individual. But the question was, would it be the same like in the game?

“Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong.” The familiar tune rang from the wall speaker. Leo and Jim glanced at the mounted speaker and waited for the announcement.

“On behalf of the Vice President, I will deliver her message. Dear members of Pinetech Security, it saddened me how a terrible thing had befallen us. But let’s not lose hope. We need to stay calm and stay strong. Fortunately, we still have connections to the Internet and the telephone line. I have notified the authorities and help is on its way. In the meantime, keep yourself comfortable and relaxed. And a word of caution, do not, I repeat, do not venture out of the building no matter what,” the announcement ended and Leo was quick to pull out his phone.

‘She’s right,’ the cell phone bars were still there and it was full much to Leo’s surprise. He searched through his contact and found the one. Yet his finger stopped at the last moment. It hit him. ‘How can we still have a line?’ He checked his phone whether he had activated his roaming or not and it wasn’t. Even his phone internet was still connected to the office’s wifi. ‘This doesn’t make any sense,’ then his eyes were drawn to the lights and the AC that was still on. Realistically speaking, the electricity should have been cut off by now, seeing how a whole building got transported, but fortunately, it didn’t. Through some unknown illogical way, the whole building still had electricity.

Leo rushed to the nearest sink and turned the faucet on. Water gushed from the tap, and Leo stared in amazement. It was hard to believe, but the truth was in front of him. ‘We’re still connected to Silicon Valley.’

He turned to Jim and grabbed him by the arm. “Come on, we need to get to the main entrance,” Leo dragged Jim away before the scarlet-haired man could even put a word out.

They passed through their confuse-laden office as some were breaking down while some were laughing it off. A few of Leo’s colleagues asked where he was rushing to, and Leo could only shout, “ground floor…”

By chance, the elevator door was opened, and someone else was already inside. A man with black hair and black eyes was leaning against the wall. “Sup,” the man said nonchalantly.

“Ken,” Leo replied.

The silence went on for a few seconds. Leo kept glancing at Ken, who looked pretty relaxed, despite the situation they were in.

“You’re going to the main entrance?” Leo asked. To him, Ken was a brilliant guy, top-notch in his coding ability as well as his thought process. So Leo thought Ken might have the same idea as him.

“Nah…I’m heading to the cafe. I need some drinks for all of this larping,” Ken said.

“Oh,” Leo fell speechless a bit. “I thought you want to find out whether any of the entrances could lead back to home.”

“It’s possible. But do you really think that whoever that sent us here will make things that easy?” said the man who was one head shorter than Leo. Ding. The chime of the elevator signaled they had reached the ground floor.

“Ciao, guys. I’ll be at the cafe if you need me,” Ken left them with a laid-back attitude as if this whole emergency didn’t even bother him.

“He seems fine,” said Jim.

“Yea,” Leo nodded, but he doubted anyone would be fine over what was going on. ‘He’s probably coping in his own way,’ Leo thought as the same could be said on what he was doing.

The duo reached the lobby entrance, and much to Leo’s surprise, there was already a group of people at the main entrance. They were screaming and knocking at the main glass door with the hope of breaking it down. And surprisingly, they left the two manual doors to the side alone.

Leo got closer and wormed his way into the crowd. Soon, he reached the main door and what he saw on the other side of the transparent sliding door was the familiar view of the paved walkway and the parking lots. ‘I’m right,’ Leo thought.

“Make a path!” someone shouted. The crowd split apart, and a man came charging with a fire extinguisher in his hand. He slammed it at the glass door in a maddening rage, but no matter how hard he tried, the door just wouldn’t break.

Leo stood at the side, close to the side doors. ‘Like Ken said, it won't be that simple,’ he glanced at the side door and saw what was outside. Different from the front yard of the company, it was the lush tropic jungle that greeted his sight. He grew closer, staring at the foliage outside. Then he chuckled, ‘this is fucking ridiculous. How the hell am I going to go out there?’

He turned and went back to Jim

“Come on, Jim, we’re going to see Ken,” Leo said.

The duo headed to the cafe, and as they entered, they spotted Ken Chang inside the desolate cafe as he was drowning himself with the drink in his hand.

“Sup,” Ken greeted with his drink.

“We could use your help,” Leo said. Hoping the nonchalant man to lend a hand. To his request, Ken gestured to have a seat.

Three people sat down and started exchanging information as they discussed with one another in regard to the stats and everything that had happened. Taking both Leo and Jim by surprise, Ken started elaborating on how stats worked. He spitted his words like he knew it from the back of his head. Some may ask how he knew it? And the answer was simple. He read. One of the windows did inform them to rely on the Help section, and Ken wasn’t the type to miss that kind of thing.

‘The normal ones are more or less similar to what I knew already, but this one is definitely something new. Fortitude influences a person’s body to block against any attack. It also has similar effects like vitality, but it has a catch. Further improving it will have a minor side-effect on one’s agility. I don’t know the severity of it, but I better make a mental note not to forget,’ Leo thought.

‘And luck is vague as it can get even the help section didn’t help much,’ he wondered whether putting points in luck would be helpful or not. Perhaps in this sort of situation, luck might be his biggest ally.

“Now comes the fun part. The Help section doesn’t say anything about unlocking MP. But it did mention about growing stronger to unlock new features,” Ken said. He wasn’t just drinking as his eyes had been busied searching through the long-winded help section. “So my best bet in unlocking it is pretty much simple. We just need to fucking level up.”

Ken got up and slammed the empty can to the floor. “So who’s ready for some permadeath larping?”

Leo and Jim could only stare at the small man who had the courageous heart of a lion. Ken was getting pumped up, and that blazing fire of his latched a little on Leo. Waiting for help was the most rational thing to do, considering the main entrance was still connected to Silicon Valley. But with the door wouldn’t even break from force, Leo doubted they could go through it without any sort of specific method.

“I’m in,” Leo said.

“Good, at least you guys are not pussies like from my office,” Ken said. “Come on. We need provision before we go out there.”

Leo followed Ken. But a quick glance behind and he saw Jim was still on his seat with his head down. “Jim, you’re coming?” he asked.

“I can’t,” Jim said.

“Wait, what do you mean?” Leo asked.

“I know this game-like stats is fun and all, but we can’t go out there. It’s a fucking jungle, Leo, and do you know what lives in a jungle? Fucking predators. Meat eaters. Snakes and fucking poisonous shit. And didn’t you hear the message from the Vice-President? She told us to stay inside until help comes,” Jim was getting cold feet. For an avid watcher of Discovery Channel, he knew what dangerous things awaited them.

“But Jim, this…” Leo didn’t have the right word. Whatever Jim just said was well within a logical standpoint.

“Leave him, we’ve got better things to do,” Ken said coldly. “The faster we gain levels the better our chances of living through this.”

Leo and Ken split up for a while. The man with dark brown hair returned to his office and picked up his bag pack that he usually brought to work. He emptied it out and rushed over to the pantry. Packing a few small bottles of water and snack bars for a good boost of calories. He kept it light as too much would weigh him down.

“Leo, what are you trying to do?” a voice came from the pantry’s door. Leo turned and saw who it was. A woman with wavy onyx hair and mesmerizing dark brown eyes. Her tawny brown complexion was the chef’s kiss in perfecting her beauty.

“It’s nothing, Kareena,” Leo said, slinging his bag over his shoulders.

“Nothing it’s not the answer. And people are starting to get worried of you,” Kareena came blocking his path, staring Leo straight in the eye.

“Appreciate the concern, but I’m fine,” Leo flashed a forced smile. But Kareena still kept blocking his path.

“You’re not thinking straight, Leo, and Jim told me,” Kareena said, blurting out the real reason why she was here.

Leo frowned. He understood why Jim snitched on him, but the feeling wasn’t so good.

“Stop this crazy shit, Leo, and let’s wait for help,” Kareena tried to persuade him. Earnestly looking at him in the eye.

“I will. If you kiss me on the lips,” Leo grinned. “And a French one at that.”

Kareena narrowed her eyes with her hands hanging on her hips. Out of nowhere, she came slapping Leo on the shoulder.

“Ow, what’s that for?” for someone who was complaining, Leo had a smirk.

“This isn’t the time for joking around. We need to stick together, and . . . hey, where are you going?” Kareena chased Leo from behind as the man took a hike.

She tried to stop him a few times, but Leo wouldn’t give in that easily. By the time he reached the staircase, he found what he was looking for. He needed a weapon, and nothing came to mind except the fire axe in the emergency box. He unslung his bag and winded it up.

“Leo, what are you—” Kareena was too late. The sound of glass broke the silence of the staircase.

Leo grabbed the fire axe and felt the grip in his hand. ‘Never knew it would be this heavy,’ Leo thought. He climbed down the stairs. But at the second step, he felt a tug on his shirt. Looking back, he saw Kareena’s desperate face.

“Don’t go, Leo,” she said.

“Thanks,” he loosened the grip over his shirt. “But I need to do this.”

He left Kareena and rendezvoused with Ken at the cafe. The bold man was armed from top to bottom with a makeshift bandolier for knives slung across his shoulder.

“Are those kitchen knives?” Leo asked.

“Use everything that can be useful, and I like what you found,” Ken grinned. “So chop-chop, we’re going through the kitchen’s back door.”

“And why exactly?” Leo asked.

“Vice-prez caught wind about the main entrance, so she’s there guarding it with her squad of security guards,” Ken explained. “I bet she’s pretty pissed off considering she’s the only executive that got caught in this whole shit storm.” Ken chuckled at the end.

Leo heard the rumors too. Out of all day, the executives of this company got pretty lucky in having their over-the-top business trip, which was a facade for a golf trip. And vice-prez being the usual bore, she was once again left to manage the company on her own.

Following Ken’s lead, the duo finally reached the door.

“You ready for this?” Leo asked.

“Of course I’m not, I’m still sober,” Ken opened a new can and gulped it all down in one sitting. “Now, let’s do this.”

The door opened, and Leo faced the green jungle.