It was two minutes to eight and I stood in the bathroom, blinking sleepiness out of my eyes. Take a gander at this shitkid, my reflection seemed to say from the mirror. Dark inlets born of sleep deprivation laid beneath the eyes, first from computer overuse and now from a nightly round of overthinking. It matched the crumpled black shirt, one among many strewn across the floor. HUMANITY 4EVAR screamed a metallic, white logo in the center.

Acne bloomed like blobs of blood fungi around fat, lumpy cheeks. His hair was an oily tumbleweed draped across a mop. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. Better than having bloodshot eyes from dust abuse, for sure. I ducked my head beneath the tap, turned it on and applied soap. Warm water rolled down my cheeks and mouth, soaking a patch of stubble.

“Morning Kyle, are you still using—”

My sister shrieked as I spun around like a centrifuge, flinging suds all over her nice hoodie. Soapy water splashed on the tiles. I stared, teeth bared, fringe dripping and heart pounding like a war drum.

“What the heck, bro?” She cried. She grabbed the soaked edges of the hoodie, pushing them in my direction. “Mom just washed this! Be careful next time!”

“Emily.” I said.

“What?”

The drum orchestra inside me began to settle. “It’s just you.” I stated.

“Yeah, it’s me. Is there something on my face.” She said. Her indignation melted into concern. She stepped forward. Her slippers landed on a patch of loose suds. “I said to be careful. What’s wrong with that?”

I said nothing and turned away. “Nothing. Nothing is wrong. It’s all good. Sorry about that. I won’t do it again.”

My sister craned her head forward to get a closer look. Her presence and my personal space exchanged hostilities, tripping multiple inner alarms that caused the hairs on my neck to stand up like soldiers at arms. gulped, closed my eyes and tried very hard not to sidestep into the bathtub.

“Why are you holding your toothbrush, bro?” Emily said. “You trying. brush your teeth and wash your hair at the same time?”

I looked down to see I had been holding a toothbrush. It wasn’t even mine, from the girly flowery pattern crawling across the handle.

“Whoops.”

I dropped the utensil onto the sink. Right, this wasn’t the prison. The toothbrushes in this house had blunt edges.

“Was about to brush. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be done soon.”

Emily didn’t leave. She stood behind me, watching. My eyes were closed, but I could still imagine that curious disapproving frown, her hands folded. The last of the suds vanished with a wave of hot water. Our eyes met as I moved to grab a towel. Instantly, a phantom slap rang across my cheeks, followed by the echoes of a conversation long departed. I couldn’t leave that bathroom fast enough.

“Wait, you didn’t brush your teeth!”

“I’ll do it later!” I said and shut the door. I walked quickly down the hallway, only to find that I leapt out of the frying pan and into a heavy-duty industrial-grade furnace.

“Good morning, Kyle!” My mother said. She bustled around the kitchen, frying food and humming, with an energy I couldn’t remember her possessing. In the background, the morning news blared, the sound of a trumpet followed by a smooth, monotone reporter’s introduction.

“Take a seat! It’ll be done soon.”

Sausages, a cheese omelette and toast with jam. Liquid fat oozed out of every pore of the lab-grown protein. Emily sneaked a mild envious glance from the edge of her spot at the table. I gazed down at my plate as if I could dive straight into it and escape my predicament.

“What’s good, my fine Bearbrass brethren? I’ll tell you what’s good: it’s a bright summer day down in our beautiful city! The skies are clear, the walls are sturdy and the air is fresh. It’s a perfect day to spend some time in the outdoors with your mates! But first, let’s hit those sweet tunes in 1..2..3…”

“Mom, can I get some sausages too?” My sister said. The radio pumped out a pop song that began with a generic beat and proceeded to fall off hard.

“Dear, I thought you wanted to lose weight.” My mother said.

“But they smell so good…”

“Now, Emily. Don’t get greedy. Your brother has been through a lot. He deserves a treat.”

“Fine…”

“That’s right! Our lovely son deserves a treat from all that horridness from the past week, no? Especially all that awful hospital food!” She said, flashing me a wink. A jade necklace, carved in the shape of three clustered stars, hung from a silver chain around her neck.

Catherine Licht. Housemaker, banking assistant, the genetic source of my eyes. Kept her spare money in a satchel within her bedside drawer. Susceptible to loud noises and shouts. Died at age sixty-one, her ashes stored inside a cubicle within the Melbourne Fresh-Heart Civilians Cemetery.

I took a stab of sausage. It tasted good. The next bite came down easier. My mother’s smile widened as she saw my enjoyment. Emily pouted and began to spoon her cornflakes.

“Sleep well, Kyle?” My father said. “How are you feeling?”

Water Licht. Immigrant from Europe, main breadwinner as a security official in a corporation, proud owner of a mean wrestling lab until you kicked him in the crotch. You wouldn’t know he was a martial arts expert from his woolly sweater, round spectacles and baggy trousers. The rest of my physique I inherited from him. Died at sixty-two, buried next to his wife.

“Been better.” I said, after a pause.

“I see.” He gave a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Well, you just take it easy, today. Relax around the house for a bit. Take a nap in the afternoon. It’s still a few months until you start uni.”

Right. My younger self was eighteen. In Australia, you graduate from high school around that age, then spend the next few in-between months either reading material from your new courses or lazing around. Guess which one I wanted to do. In the end, I hadn’t even made it that far.

“By the way, Kyle…”

I froze, halfway through slicing a piece of sausage. “Yes, Dad?”

“If you’re having any troubles about the incident, tell us. Me, Mom or Emily…we’re all willing to provide you support. Money is not an issue, nor is time. Got that, son?”

“That’s right.” My mother chimed in. “I’ve got a friend in the local hospital. If you need therapy, she can get us a good slot.”

As if therapy could solve this problem, I thought. The sausage on the end of my fork was now reminding me of a flesh wound. I chewed on it, tasteless.

“Emily! What happened to your hoodie?”

“Oh…” My sister’s gaze flickered over to my side for a second. “I spilled some shampoo on it. Sorry, I was a bit sleepy.”

“Goodness! Pay more attention next time, please.”

“Don’t worry, I can barely make out the stains. Nobody will notice.”

“That won’t do, Emily.” My father added, “You need to dress your best, even if you’re playing with your friends. Good impressions go a long way.”

“It’s not playing Dad, it’s hanging out! I told you a thousand times!”

“Your father is right, Emily. You’re getting changed before you go out.”

“Not you too, Mom!”

The scene of an ordinary Licht family breakfast continued to unfold me. My mother and my sister argued as they both ate, while my father sipped his tea and tuned in the conversation in one hair and listened to the radio with the other. While, I, the prodigal eldest son, could only stare in silence, a great sense of detachment yawning over me. The devil would break a man than kill him, a hacker colleague once said. The despair is more delicious than any fresh corpse.

Living as a mercenary teaches you to scarf chow as if your life depended on it. Learning not to choke is optional. The rest of the meat, eggs and bread flew down my throat as my jaw strained with the force of my chewing teeth.

“Woah, Kyle, slow down! You’ll choke.”

“That hospital food must’ve been bad, huh bro?”

The last of the meal was washed down with a glass of juice. Then I manhandled my plates to the sink, rinsed them off and then rushed into my room before my family could protest further.

A boy lived in this bedroom. He was dead now. A killer and a hustler was transplanted from an alternate Earth and latched onto his existence like a parasite. That man hadn’t the faintest clue of the boy’s family situation, from the atmosphere in the living room down to the decorations lining the halls. Did he score well in his exams, or bombed himself into oblivion? What gift had he gotten to his sister for Christmas three years ago? How had his mother comforted him when he tripped over kerb, scraped his knee and cried at his first sight of blood?

I slumped down on the bed and shoved my head into a fluffy orange pillow. God, how was I supposed to pretend to be this kid? All my experience—even the social cues and tricks I’d picked up from fixers and parties—was useless. Couldn’t even sneak out and arrange a memory restore from an underground doctor.

I closed my eyes. Counted to ten. Inhaled the musky, homely scent lingering in the air.

ALICE.

Ready to begin, Boss?

No time like the present.

I sat up, wiping my face. The transposition had come and gone. Whining about it wouldn’t change a damn thing. If I was to live in the kid’s stead, then I was determined to do a proper job. Call it professionalism, atonement, morals or whatever—I had desired to become a better person. Time to put money where my mouth was.

It started with figuring out the damn INTERFACE-OS inside of me.

Very well! ALICE’s icon gave a single clap. Let us begin with the second stage of the tutorial!

New Mission Acquired:

You’ve gotten a taste of INTERFACE-OS’s systems. Now, it’s time to take an even deeper plunge. Learn the five new systems to complete this tutorial.

Rewards: 400 $NF, 500 Alexandrite, 4x SR Item Caches

Systems? Oh, those locked parts of the menu.

Correct. Over the following few days, all those sections will be unlocked. Their functions are deeper than what this tutorial mission offers, so this mission will only include a first taste.

Is there a reason you can’t show me all of this directly?

That would ruin the surprise of the game!

I’m questioning why this needs to be a game in the first place. Wouldn’t it help me suppress Impurities if I got a full briefing from the start. Same for the whole randomness nature of the item acquisition. Give me a rifle and ammunition without locking it behind this ‘gacha’ system.

Boss.

What?

I’m just a humble Assistant. In your field, I’m just a temp worker! An ordinary Beneficial Anomaly, if you will. As such, I do not know the ‘whys’ or ‘whats’ of the design decisions of INTERFACE-OS. Please raise these issues with the IEHAR development team. Anyway, demonstrating the first system of the mission: the Freebies system!

A colorful splash-screen appeared in my vision. It was divided into four portions, each row containing three small icons. I recognised the Alexandrite among a couple of them. Notably, ALICE was standing there in full, waving and prancing like those virtual signers on a public stage. She snapped her fingers and the first row flowered into a wave of sparkles.

Thanks for logging in this week, Boss! Here’s your freebies!

A roulette wheel began to spin, eventually landing on an icon of a wad of old-timey green bills.

Acquired 500 $NF! Acquired 200 Alexandrite! They have been deposited into your Mailbox.

Before I could object, a a second splash-screen then appeared. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING! FIRST-TIME USER’S CELEBRATION! FREE ITEMS EVERY DAY! Unlike the first screen, this one was divided into seven squares. Again, ALICE was there too. She gave me a thumbs up with a little twirl of her artificial skirt.

It’ll be a long journey, but I’m excited to walk down this path with you. Those Impurities won’t know what’ll hit them. Let’s do our utmost for the sake of humanity, Boss!

Acquired 1500 Alexandrite! Congratulations!

The Freebies system was designed to give Users a continuous reason to keep engaging with the game. You will receive weekly rewards, alongside special bonuses every now and then. Please look forward to it, Boss.

I waited for the pin to drop.

That’s it for the first system.

Wait, what? Is that it?

Is there a problem?

That was short. What about the rest of the systems?

I’m obviously not going to dump them on you all at once. There would be no suspense in that. It’s still early in the morning. You have other plans, don’t you, Boss?

I couldn’t deny that.

We’ll continue in the afternoon. Do what you wish. I’m here if you need anything.

The freebie screens disappear.

The first thing I did was to take out my rolled items from the Mailbox. They dumped on the floor at once, their information popups flooding my face. It brought back unpleasant memories of hacker raids on protection missions.

Silver Ingot (R): A solid 200g lump of silver, molded in a traditional Chinese style. Has uses in finances, antibacterial objects, photography and technology. Can be sold for NF$ or traded in the Shop.

Instant Noodles (N): Aussie Foods. Pre-packaged and freeze-dried noodles, accompanied by pork flavoring. Just sink in hot water for a quick, fast and heavenly meal...if you've only been eating prison food, like you.

Rain Jacket (N): A plastic rain-jacket from ThreadFair. Great for warding off rain (including acidic type), but useless against most Impurities.

EMP Grenade (SR): A grenade that triggers an wide-area, electromagnetic pulse upon detonating. Can disable electronics. Useless against organics.

Paper Cutter (R): A knife used to cut paper. Too bad paper is mostly outdated in the current year.

Portable Torch (R): A modern torch that can shine brightly in darkness. Good for exploration.

Basic Medical Kit (R): A package of basic medical tools such as bandages, alcohol wipes, gloves, torniquets and more.

Weapon Repair Kit (SR): A kit of tools used in weapon maintenance.

Half these things were not feasible to live inside a kid’s room. The EMP Grenade fell straight inside my inventory along with my partially-damaged combat knife and handgun. The Weapon Repair Kit and Basic Medical Kit were more troublesome, but if I shoved them in the deepest part of the closet, my mother wouldn’t be able to find them. Hopefully.

I turned to the computer and pressed my fingers against the power button. The system recognised my fingerprint and let me in within seconds. My nose wrinkled at the software displayed on the home screen. Look at all those trackers. This rig was in serious need of house cleaning.

Right, let’s see…wait, Zing? What happened to Google? A quick search confirmed this somewhat minor fear of mine. It doesn’t exist anymore?

Oh well.

The next step was to research IEHAR. That once-secret organisation that failed and let Impurities loose. The dream I shared with ALICE had provided me with the basics and now I wanted to learn more. Especially considering I probably already had an anomaly stuck in my brain. Plus, the more I heard about them, the more they sounded like the Illuminati.

IEHAR (International Effort for Humanitarian Aid and Relief) is an international, non-profit anomalous containment and research organisation. The organisation formerly operated in a covert manner, using front companies and a decoy, non-anomalous iteration of itself to deflect from public suspicious. However, following the Seven Days of Terror, IEHAR’s existence and activities were made fully public. The organisation is said to have roots dated as early as the twelfth century…

…Breaking News! Lead Scientist Michael Reignald resigns from his post at the IEHAR-DE branch! Possible Sexual Misconduct Against Minors? Read More to find out [PAYWALL ACTIVATED]…

…iehar goons be like ‘we gotta contain those damn impurities’ but struggle with making coffee in the morning…

…You fucking mog. You absolute retard. If IEHAR leaves my home country, who will protect us? The government here can’t tie two cables together, never mind take care of anomalies and Impurities. God damn I fucking hate kids…

The difference between anomaly and Impurity is like comparing fruit with apples. Impurities are a subset of anomalies, characterized by common patterns of environmental reality distortion, durability and tendency to cause anomalous effects in victims. They are so widespread that IEHAR provided them with their own designation. Speaking of designation, IEHAR abolished their old classification system in favor of their ‘v2.0’ so to speak. Much debate was conducted around usage of esoteric classes…

…Career paths include research, HR, logistics, data analysis, janitorial services and more. For more information, please consult this form…

Some things never change, I mused. Half the data was useful and the other belonged in the sewer. IEHAR was public enough to own a website with billions of hits, but this only exerbated the amount of garbage I had to sift through to find anything useful. Opinions, especially those from college kids, were not solid.

New Mission Acquired:

You’ve gotten a taste of INTERFACE-OS’s systems. Now, it’s time to take an even deeper plunge. Learn the five new systems to complete this tutorial.

Rewards: ???

Wait, seriously, ALICE?

Long-term rewards are nice, aren’t they? She said. Cheeky brat. The rewards shall depend on your future performance. Don't expect to complete this one soon.

The door creaked open. I slammed the browser window, minimizing it, and spun around on the chair. It was Emily.

“Hey, Kyle.”

“Emily. What’s up?”

“Mom told me to bring you these.” She carried over . “Said you could need the nutrients.”

“Thanks.”

She didn’t leave. “Whatcha looking at?”

“Nothing.”

“I can see your browser. What is it, bro?”

I rolled my eyes. “IEHAR.” I said. “It’s for…uni?”

“I thought you never wanted anything to do with them.” She said, casually, as my mind screeched to a halt. Then, she shrugged. “Guess after what happened…makes sense.”

“I need money too. You done here?”

Emily fidgeted with the straps on her hoodie. The ends of them had been dyed hot pink. She glanced around my room and her eyebrows went up. I wasn’t surprised—the floor had been littered with stray clothes. Picking up those socks and crusty underwear was not fun.

“Hey, you wanna get ice-cream tomorrow?” Emily blurted out.

“Ice-cream?”

“Well, you’re acting all sad and stuff, so I thought maybe some sugar could help.” Emily said.

“Don’t you have friends?”

“Yeah, unlike you.” It was almost a scoff, hurriedly corrected. “But I haven’t told them. Besides, they’re not gonna make fun of you much anyway, even if we run into them.”

“Is it even safe out there?” I said, looking out the doorway.

“What? Of course it is! We’re tucked behind the walls, remember? No Impurities here. IEHAR’s everywhere.” Ah, so Emily was still in the position where she trusted authority. That sunk like a stone in the other timeline when welfare checks stopped coming in. “Come on bro, let’s go. Moping around sucks. The place we used to go all the time was renovated. It’ll be fun.”

Fun. What a strange word.

I owed her more than just a trip to eat. It’ll be a good chance to feel out Bearbrass too. “Sure. I’m ready.”

It was a nice moment to see my sister look relieved for once. Which meant that ALICE had to ruin it.

Boss! Let’s get started with the next system!