*Ding*

Barely a second had passed in Omar's mind before he heard the very familiar sound of his microwave oven. When he went to remove the rice, however, he was surprised to find that the microwave was empty. Still, it was a short-lived surprise because he quickly realized that the sound had actually come from his toaster oven. Both kitchen appliances used the exact same “ding” sound, which is why it sounded so familiar. Omar remembered this, again, but then immediately forgot it, again, as he so often does.

Omar had awoken from one of his fugue states. Upon noticing the glaring lapse in continuity, as in the complete lack of memories for the last few minutes, Omar shrugged noncommittally, but then smiled broadly when he saw his monstrous creation.

Omar's fugue states were dissociative episodes, as in periods of complex behavior that occur without any conscious volition or memory of having done so. Fugue states like this bear similarities with “highway hypnosis,” in that complex tasks are completed in a safe and effective way while the conscious mind can be completely subsumed by thoughts or some other cognitive task. However, unlike highway hypnosis, a fugue state is typically much longer and the range of tasks are far broader. In Omar's case, his mind either wanders during these fugue state episodes, or becomes completely blank and absent of any conscious thoughts.

Had there been someone present to observe Omar working on his sandwich, they would have seen an apparently competent person quietly focused on his task, but with a slightly unsettling vacant-eyed stare. Any attempt to engage the seemingly busy man would elicit an automatic response or reaction that could range from being mildly strange, to excessively so.

By analogy, if there was an equivalent of the Uncanny Valley effect, but strictly for human behavior instead of physical resemblance, then Omar's reaction would appear anywhere along the side with the steeper slope that stretched between “too normal to be normal,” and “a grotesque caricature of normal human behavior.”

After that interaction, Omar would return to his task with the exact same mechanical demeanor he had before, with the exact same slightly unsettling vacant-eyed stare, as though the interaction had never happened. Technically, he would once again seem like an apparently competent person quietly focused on his task, if not for the recent unnatural interaction. Instead of it being a scene of diligence and focused competence, it was now just an obvious illusion recently reassembled from its own shattered remains. Once the truth had been revealed, it would be impossible to see Omar in his fugue state as being anything other than a zombie who'd just clawed its way out of the Uncanny Valley.

Ever since he was a child, Omar has had these fugue state episodes wherein he performs some complicated task without retaining any memory of doing so. These episodes occurred with such frequency that even Omar was aware them. Despite knowing that he regularly did things he doesn't remember doing, Omar was not concerned about this in the slightest. In fact, because the overall effect was so often useful, Omar affectionately referred to these episodes as being “convenient lapses of attention,” rather than the “bizarrely abnormal psychological condition” that it actually was.

As for those episodes that weren't actually useful, or of the many times that Omar “awoke” to find himself in strange situations; he apathetically tossed those details into the trash bin of “unimportant and uninteresting.”

⁂

Omar opened his countertop toaster oven to reveal a loaf of unsliced bread inside, browned and blackened in spots, and visibly stuffed with rice and vegetables that were now singed around the edges. A modest mix of steam and smoke slowly rose from the hot dish, billowing gently as it escaped from the toaster oven's now opened door.

Since he was basically seeing it for the first time, Omar carefully examined his monstrously oversized sandwich. He nodding approvingly, each time, when he spotted some lettuce, some tomato slices, some sort of unidentified sauce, and of course, the rice! Using a butter knife, he pulled out the wire mesh tray to get at the unwieldy thing, which he, naturally, transfered onto a flimsy paper plate.

Still, at least this time he didn't use the paper plate inside the toaster oven before he turned it on. That isn't to say he makes this mistake often; at least, he hasn't done so since the hamburger incident. Even then, rather than being horrified by the outcome of that incident, Omar was actually surprisingly pleased with the charcoal-grilled taste of the hamburger meat. He'd always meant to try that again—as in deliberately—but he doubted that his charred and blackened kitchen cabinet would survive another fire.

This was quite true because, instead of repairing the damaged cabinet, Omar had simply painted his remaining, undamaged cabinets black, so that it would match. The only thing suspicious about it all was that he'd actually done a good job at painting it.

In any case, this was a rice sandwich and not a hamburger, but at that thought, Omar double-checked by peaking inside the sandwich to confirm this. He nodded once, sagely, because he knew well-enough to only do one experiment at a time.

After carefully opening his refrigerator, Omar clumsily grabbed a bottle of iced coffee and then skillfully closed the door again by bumping it with his ass. “Lunch is ready!” he proudly proclaimed, and then awkwardly carried everything back to his desk, as that was where he normally ate his meals.

The toasted bread crunched as he tightly held the paper plate that surrounded the sandwich like a soft-shelled tortilla. Mind you, Omar wasn't actually eating the paper plate, though admittedly, it was an odd way to hold a sandwich. It was also true that when seen from less flattering angles, which weren't in short supply, it appeared as though he was eating a gigantic paper-wrapped burrito. This mistaken impression was made all the more understandable by the deformed and moistened edge of the paper plate.

In truth, Omar simply needed the plate to keep his abomination of a sandwich from falling apart.

Now that he was eating, Omar did not expect for there to be another convenient lapse of attention since by definition, such a lapse would not be particularly convenient. However, what was convenient was that he already had some lunchtime entertainment playing in his head.

It is worth noting that despite what Omar thinks, the cybernetic interface was not simply within his brain, or even limited to his central nervous system. That original message about his nervous system being reconfigured was entirely inclusive. Even then, that message had been incomplete because the implantation wasn't limited to his nervous system alone.

Nonetheless, to Omar, his interface was just the “thing in his head.”

Omar looked at the transparent tutorial window in his HUD as if it had not literally been in front of his face this entire time. Based on the seven topic list alone, he reasoned that his interface was halfway through the third topic. He, of course, had absolutely no reason to conclude that.

While he half-listened and chewed, Omar read what he missed and thought, “Wow! This is awesome! I'm glad I decided to read that, otherwise I might not have noticed this new feature.”

In this, he wasn't wrong.

Welcome!

An Introduction to Reality Break

1. Warnings and Disclaimers

• This is still your life

• Sole Liability

• No Guarantees

• No Special Status

• Dangers!

• Player versus Player Conflicts → Piss people off at your own risk

• Space Travel

• Chronoactivity Limits on Populations

• The Newbie Aegis

• Tutorial Instructor

• Punitive Action & Restitution

2. Wait. Did you say that time was two-dimensional?

• Yes.

3. What is Reality Break?

• Coping Mechanism

• Progression System

“The way the words follow my eyes wherever I look, makes it super easy to read stuff. This is really cool, but it's also kinda weird. How does it know to stay still whenever I want to scan a line or look at a specific word—thing—stuff—in my HUD? And then the rest of the time it always knows to move the whole thing while following my eyes. It's sort of amazing, like it can read my mind or something.”

“ … from the lowest to highest Rank, they are: G, F, E, D, C, B, A, X, S, SS (aka double-S), SSS (aka triple-S), and then finally, Reality Breaker.”

“All but the final Rank, Reality Breaker, are further subdivided into Levels. Ranks G to A have five Levels each, numbered zero through four. Levels one, two, and three correspond with the lower, ’middle, and higher portions of that Rank. Zero is weaker than ‘low’ as it refers to those who only recently achieved that Rank. Four is stronger than ‘high’ as it refers to those who are on the verge of increasing their Rank. As such, Level four is sometimes referred to as the ‘peak level.’ Depending on your location and your interface synchronization quality, more precise measurements are possible.” “This interface thing is pretty awesome. I wonder what else I could do with it?” he thought, while struggling to hold his massive sandwich with both hands. “Oh, I know! Netflix. I should figure out how to get Netflix on this thing.”

Just then, the fourth topic was highlighted so that it was no longer grayed-out. Helpfully, Omar's interface read it for him again, saying, “Topic number four. Okay … so what do I need to do?”

“Whoops! I guess it was more than halfway done,” he thought, in reference to the now concluded third topic. “Hopefully I didn't miss anything important.”

“You are not required to do anything. Quests and other assignments are typically optional, and players are free to act as they wish throughout the objective timeline and within the chronopause. Of course, anyone else, from other players to non-players, are also free to stop you or help you. And, as is always the case, players are subject to local laws to the extent that they are enforced. However, the game itself is not a signatory of any extradition treaties, nor does it facilitate any such treaties on behalf of any third-parties.” Omar knew what that meant; it was the oldest law known to man. Murder, and any other illegal activity for that matter, were allowed, so long as you didn't get caught.

“Beyond completing Quests, most players spend their time exploring Outworld and ‘Inworld,’ with many doing so while also working towards their own self-improvement, furthering their own self-interest, or dealing with personal matters. Other common activities include working towards the betterment or domination of humanity.”

Omar nearly choked at the rather casual mention of people trying to take over the world. “Then again,” he thought, “isn't that the way the world works? With over seven billion people in the world, less than one percent of one percent hold most of the wealth and power. And what do they do with all that wealth and power? They use it to fight and maneuver around each other in an effort to accumulate even more wealth and power. That's just the ‘big game’ of global politics, with captains of industry, land barons, and political leaders as its players, each of whom are vying for absolute supremacy, but then ultimately settle for dominating a small region or economic niche.”

“If Reality Break really is like a massively multiplayer game, then does that mean that time-travel is already a part of global politics?”

It was an odd thought, Omar realized, but of a sort he believed to be different from his usual oddness. However, even he had to admit that he simply did not know enough about Reality Break, or of time-travel in general, to continue this thread of idle speculation. Rather than continuing to dwell upon these odd ideas, Omar dismissed them outright and actually tried to shift his focus back onto the tutorial.

These sorts of ideas weren't all that unusual for the strange idiot-man. Occasionally, clever bits of insight emerged from the smothering mass of his insane stupidity.

Omar listened in as his interface went on about the limits of what he could and couldn't buy at a player store. He understood this first and then heard his interface as it said, “ … while Contribution Points can be used to purchase special items and Skills, they generally cannot be used to directly advance your Skill Proficiency or your Basic Character Stats beyond temporary—” but then he suddenly remembered something important. Speaking with a full mouth, he said, “Poh yeah! Og mmm almus ffoogot,” while swallowing at parts, as bits of food landed alongside similar detritus and elongated puddle-like spots of greasy fluids. This was all atop a now wetted plain sheet of paper he'd hastily added to catch some of the mystery sauce leaking from the back of his sandwich. And then, because this truly was important, Omar took the time to finish chewing before he asked, “When do I get my cellphone pocket dimension thing?”

Instead of responding, Omar's interface moved onto the next topic.

“Topic number five. Skills and Basic Character Stats?”

“All permanently chronoactive people have an inherent ability to directly manipulate temporal fields and the quasi-matter of the chronopause. While some individuals are more talented than others, ultimately this ability can be improved through training and practical usage. Learnable Abilities are Skills that are … ” “I guess I'll just have to ask Suman about that later,” he thought. But then, just as he was about to take another obscenely large bite out of his sandwich, Omar practically yelled, “Oh! Wait—wait!” as though someone was about to leave. After a brief pause to compose himself, he asked, “I want Suman—Suman Garcia—to be my tutorial instructor.” “ … whereas Talents are natural abilities—your preference has been noted,” his interface said, suddenly, in mid-sentence. “There is a 90% chance that Suman will agree to be your tutorial instructor.”

“Hah!” he said, smugly, as though he caught someone in a lie. “So you are listening to me.”

“—that can also act like usable Skills or can otherwise potentially impact any aspect of your gameplay,” his interface said, as though it had not just interrupted itself.

“Whatever,” he thought, while attempting to gesture dismissively with a wave of his hand. Because he still held onto the unwieldy sandwich, bits of rice were tossed about, some of which flew beyond the edge of his desk to fall into his small waste basket. “This introduction is pretty useless. It's not even attempting to explain anything at all. I bet that If I want to get any real information on this stuff, I'll probably have to rely upon my tutorial instructor. Either that or it's all ‘read the f'ing manual.’ ”

Of course, because he had ignored most of the introductory lecture thus far, he did not actually know, consciously, how informative it might or might not have been.

“Given that my only options for an instructor are either some random player or an actual trained instructor that I already met, the choice is pretty obvious. Plus, Suman said something about having an in-depth multimedia presentation that he already prepared. That guy definitely looks like one of those weird always-prepared over-achiever types, so the presentation will probably be good.”

Omar was very much aware that he himself was the sort of nonachiever that underachievers look upon in either general disgust, or in reverent envy of his Zen-like nonachievement. His ability to identify overachievers was indeed well-developed, and in Suman's case, it was also quite accurate. It also helped Omar's assessment that his current impression of Suman was that the tall-man was probably not dumb. It wasn't that Omar thought so highly of himself, but rather that he thought so lowly of everyone else.

In any case, he considered it an established fact that at the very least, Suman wasn't crazy. If anything, Omar was the crazy one in this situation, which was something he could freely admit. This was, however, because of how “society” perceived his “non-standard intelligence and personality,” or so he thought.

Retroactively, the crazy man decided that his entire encounter with Suman had been rather amusing. As for why he did not think it odd for the tall-man to agree to be his tutorial instructor, Omar presumed that it was probably because of requirements related to his job. Barring that, it was also possible that in the short time since he last saw the tall-man, Suman might have well-and-truly lost his mind. Omar was quite proud of the fact that he had sent other people to mental hospitals more often than he himself had been involuntarily committed.

“… triggered by your actions. This may include additional information about the unlocked Skill and advice on how to best learn the unlocked Skill. Upon completion of the tutorial, new players will typically have most basic Skills already unlocked. Although it is possible for players to acquire a new Skill without unlocking it first, this is usually more difficult than unlocking and then learning the new Skill.”

He sighed and said to himself, “I bet Suman's part of the tutorial will be more amusing than this crap.” Then with a mischievous smile he added, “Or maybe I should say that it won't be this boring.”

In this, Omar was absolutely correct, and to a degree that far exceeded anything else he had ever been correct about before. But that was part three of the tutorial, and this was still part one, which wasn't even half done. This isn't to say anything about part two, which was a whole nother matter.

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