Things such as stats information, skill trees, equipment tab, inventories and even the term, “Hotkey”, were all commonly found in computer games. After going through a short explanation stage, or sometimes being forced to obey the instructions to learn, the users would pick up on that sort of information without much difficulty.

‘I used to play AppleStory so I’d know about it.’

It was also usual, in online games, to allow one to know when their health was deteriorating, regardless of the reason, by showing their remaining energy in numbers, also known as HP. The other “resources” such as the exhaustion of the body, stamina, and the energy of the mind, mana, would also be available for display.

‘Maybe that’s why I didn’t freak out about this as much as I should...’

{A new notification has arrived.}

In the evening, after another day of work, he woke up from a short nap in tattered clothes with blood and mud stains all over his shirt and pants. From the holes within his clothes his arms and legs were visible, however without a single scratch to be seen.

In front of his bed, actually above it, was a sort of hologram with those words written on it.

The hologram was similar in size and shape to a computer’s monitor. The screen’s background was covered in a... hazel coloration? The corners of the screen were pitch black but they also became hazel as it neared the center, and the words written on that floating screen were white colored and in a completely digital font.

“So, it wasn’t a dream...? There is no tutorial, though?”

“No- Rather, did they expect me to know what to do without any lesson?”

He got up from his bed and approached the screen. His right hand grasped it and tried shaking it like paper. Turning it upside down, backwards or throwing it up and down, didn’t change the contents of the message in the slightest. The words remained in the same readable manner in whatever position that it was left at, as if he was holding onto a sign that repositioned itself whenever it was moved.

And when pressing, tapping or kissing it didn't result in any progress he decided to give up on the physical methods.

‘It doesn’t work like a smartphone. Then, maybe a game interface? But there aren’t any buttons to close or minimize the screen...’

“But, a notification, huh... how do I even open it?”

{Notification list has been opened. Displaying the last twenty-one unread notifications from oldest to latest.}

‘...?’

{The quest, “Grimoire of the Altar”, has been cleared.}

{The main reward of the quest, “Grimoire of the Altar”, has been received.}

{As a reward of the quest, “Grimoire of the Altar”, the user has been granted the privileges of a “Player”.}

{Congratulations on becoming a “Player”.}

{The system welcomes you as a new player.}

{The “Player” system has updated your personal information.}

{As a reward of the quest, “Grimoire of the Altar”, the user has been granted the first achievement feature.}

{For achieving the required conditions, the achievement, “The One who Plays”, has been unlocked.}

{The main reward of the achievement, “The One who Plays”, has been received.}

{As a reward of the achievement, “The One who Plays”, your personal information has been updated.}

{Notice: Five hours have gone by since the user became a player.}

{In accordance to the protocol procedure, a quest will be granted and automatically accepted by the system.}

{A new quest has arrived.}

{The quest, “Qualification of The One who Plays”, has been accepted.}

{As an acceptance reward of the quest, “Qualification of The One who Plays”, the user has been granted the first quest list feature.}

{As per one of the conditions of the quest, “Qualification of The One who Plays”, a twelve-hour timer has been activated.}

{Alert: One hour has gone by since the start of the quest. There are eleven hours remaining.}

{Alert: Two hours have gone by since the start of the quest. There are ten hours remaining.}

{Alert: Three hours have gone by since the start of the quest. There are nine hours remaining.}

“...! Crazy.”

In a matter of seconds, several screens of the same manner as that first one began to appear one after another. They just popped out of thin air like bubbles and stood still in the area in front of him as if to block his way out.

“Wait- Give me space.”

As if he was pushing leaves out of the way, the screens were thrown backwards by his arms and seemed to stop as they hit the wardrobe or his drawers. Some, however, disappeared completely after flying a certain distance away as if they were eaten, he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of them before he noticed their disappearance.

But the only reason why he noticed those missing holograms, was because their color was quite attractive to him.

“I could be wrong, but I think it was... pink? It could’ve been important too.”

Leaving the hazel colored monitor aside, there were also three other colors among the ones in front of him. Blue, green and red, were the ones remaining for him to check.

“I won’t understand it if you show everything at once, you know? Whoever made this, what’s the point of rushing.”

He scratched the back of his head and sighed, it was better to focus on what was in front of him, he thought as his hands caught two of the closest screens. One was floating in front of that first notification, it was also hazel colored by the center and dark by the corners but its contents were different.

“Displaying the last twenty one unread notifications... That’s a specific number, I don’t even need to count them then. It’s handy.”

And the other was a bit wider in width and instead of hazel it was blue, but a kind of dark blue that reminded him of the night sky because of the small and white dots spread around the screen. And the message in it was written in a single line unlike the other two that had multiple lines for a small typing.

“What’s a player, though? It sounds like a privilege, so I am kinda unique now?”

“Hmm... but even if I get congratulated for it, I can’t really feel happy.”

After reading those two he pushed them to his back, facing the wall, and pulled another two from the dozen scattered around him. One was red colored, and the other green.

“A notice... wait, how long has it been since this started? And what time is it now... nine o’clock?”

“... So, it’s been around four hours since I came home. Better keep the time in mind.”

He turned to face the other monitor, it had some sparkles around it like a rare item in a game would. It was green on the insides, the borders weren’t black but a tone of silver that mixed well with the sparkles. The floating square was like a graduation plaque because of the adornments in the corners that resembled starfishes.

“It’s written in... english?”

But the most distinctive trait of that message was actually its contents. All the messages were written in portuguese, as if it was set up specifically for brazilians, but, unexpectedly, one part of this message was written in another language.

“Grimoare ofi de altar. Is that how it’s read? Let me check on Soogle real quick.”

He typed the name of the quest down on the translator and pressed the listen button, the pronunciation was quite aligned with what he had expected.

“Okay, I almost got it right. But why is it in english? Is it a quest from overseas? I didn’t even go that far from home yet...”

‘Well, I know I’m not getting any explanation just for asking...’

“Let’s keep going, next is...”

After going through each notification message that was floating around he organized them by color in front of him to find out the pattern of each one. Tested how far they must go away from him to disappear and then tried to break one in the middle...

“Nope, it simply passes through my leg if I try to hold and hit. Bending it with both hands also does nothing. Even the ones that are thin like paper don’t break, that’s some nice mechanics.”

“Well, at least I can make them disappear from walking around six or seven steps of distance. And it doesn’t even follow me around, but I don’t know if that part is good or bad.”

“Note to self, keep the important notifications close. Let’s see...”

Rewards, that was the content of the messages with green background. In the end, not all of them had the adorned borders, with an exception of the first one that he checked, they were all outlined by black borders. As he figured out their patterns, he also started to line them up like the archives of a computer.

“Why do not one of you mention the actual reward? That’s as if I’d know what they are by myself. If it’s meant to resemble a game, then at least go all out with it.”

“This yellowish one- no, it’s hazel, like the eye color. It seems rather general oriented, and sounds a bit humane.”

The ones in the same color as it were all filled with either quest-related stuff or common messages without a proper aim.

“And even though the green, hazel and blue ones were easy to classify. The red messages, wait, I should stick to a single way to call these things...”

“... Screens? No, too boorish.”

“Hmm. no matter how much I think about it, notification is the only one that fits right? The first message, ah it’s gone now, but it had mentioned it too. But if I said it out loud wouldn’t people find me weird?”

“.....Aha! Got it. This is a good way to go about it.”

“Mails. That’s how I will call them from now on.”

The last row of mails was the red colored ones with dark borders.

“These alerts are all red, so it’s obvious what red means.”

“...And that’s all seventeen mails lined up by color... three mails disappeared when I pushed them by accident, and one went away while I was testing the distance.”

He set down the several mail in different piles on top of his bed, the backside of the mails was also displaying the same message as the frontside so there was no need to care about proper positioning for each one.

“It’s good that they have no weight so I can carry them around, but it’d look weird if I had to carry more than three with how thick they are.”

“Now... what should I do? I’m curious about the quests, and also about the mentioned personal information too. Maybe they will help me figure out what the rewards were or even what this system is about.”

“Speaking of the system... earlier, what I used was a voice command? I didn’t notice it until now, but did I say something to open the mail list...?”

“Something like, open list. Notification list. Notification open. Nope, I didn’t say any of that. What about the opposite, hide list?”

{Notification list will be hidden.}

.....

And with that, two simple words, all mails disappeared from his sight as if they were a complete lie, including that last one.

“...”

He stared at the air for some time before coming back to his senses. The silent room was dark as if all the lights were cut off, as if all colors were taken away.

“Haa...”

‘Was it always this silent in here...? Well, of course, this is just the bedroom after all.’

Growl~

“Guess I will have to get up...”

Chapter 1: Notification? Message? No...