I woke up to a loud notification sound being played. Judging by the shouts that I heard from my brother, he got it too. My first instinct was to grab for my phone, but then I noticed that the sound didn’t seem to be played by the speaker. It sounded like it was played from my head. A button seemed to appear in the upper right-hand corner of my vision. It was a box with the word ‘tutorial’ inside. After staring at it, not knowing what to do, I tried to mentally click on the box and was met with a loud bang, and a person stood in front of me.

“Greeting human.” the person said. He looked as plain of a person as you could get, but something about him just didn’t look quite right. “I know you are probably confused right now. I am here to inform you how to play the game and what is going on.

We have been watching your world, and believe that you are ready to play the game. Soon monsters will start to spawn, so we need to do this quickly. First, think status.”

I did so and was surprised by what I saw.

Level 1

Stats

Strength:

3.8 (5 is human average)

Speed:

6.1 (5 is human average)

Endurance:

9.0 (5 is human average)

?#$#%:

0.1 (0 is human average)

I looked over my sheet and was pleased by what I saw. I wasn’t very strong, but I ran and cycled a lot. It made sense that my endurance was so high, but what was the last one? I saw that there was a 'continue tutorial' button so I decided to mentally click it. Maybe it will explain what the last one is? I thought.

The person reappeared and started speaking again. “There are three stats, Strength, Speed, and Endurance. On my world and for some have a fourth, magic, but humans do not possess the ability to do magic.”

“MAGIC?” I blurted out loud. Wait a second, I thought, He said that there were only three stats, but I have a fourth, and there is magic, it says 0 is the human average, no that’s stupid, I can’t do magic.

I was so lost in my thought that I forgot that the tutorial was still happening, I forced myself to listen to what was being said.

“Besides the obvious side effects, the stats each play a large role in the game. Strength helps you do more damage than the base stats of the weapon. Speed allows you to dodge attacks and run away. Endurance allows for you to fight longer before your other stats act as if they are lower.

To start, each of you has been given access to the shop. For simplicities sake, the currency that is used is the US dollar, but your paper money is not worth anything. To get money, you must kill monsters. If many people watch your stream you will also get some money from them, but you need to be popular for it to be a significant amount.

You are entertainment. This game weeds out weak species and if you manage to defeat all 5 major dungeons on earth, your species can join the rest of the galaxy and have a seat in the council. Only ten species have managed this out of thousands.

If you want to survive, my advice is don’t die and try to get money for the shop by killing monsters and doing quests if you get them. In this game, nations will rise and fall, but what will you do?” The man disappeared and the tutorial button was replaced by text stating that the next tutorial was complete.

I heard footsteps in the hall the room next to me. Have the monsters spawned already? I looked around the room looking for something that I could use to defend myself. I finally settled on a large wooden pole that I was going to use to build a table from IKEA. I walked as quietly as I could to the door to my room and opened it and was met by my brother.

“Could you put that down please?” He asked. I stopped holding it like a was about to smack him but I didn’t let go of it. It felt better to have something I could use. “So…” he continued, “I just went to mums room and she’s gone. I went out into the street to look but she’s not there. It's like she disappeared. The entire neighbourhood is panicking. Alex, are you listening?”

“You do realise,” I said, “That over your head, there is this big hologram thing that says, ‘Niels: Level 1’”

“Oh, Forgot to mention that. Everyone in the street has it too,” He replied. “It’s the same with you ‘Alex: Level 1’”

“Mum's probably fine," I said, trying to convince myself, "Hey, just by the way do you have a fourth stat?” I asked trying to act casual.

Niels gave me a look of confusion. “No there are only three, what you have one?”

I quickly tried to change the subject, “What stats do you have?” I asked.

“Let’s see here” Niels took a second and had a vacant look on his face as he was looking at his stats. “Pretty mediocre all around. 5.1 Strength, 5.5 Speed, 4.8 Endurance.”

“I’ve got higher speed and endurance, but lower Strength,” I said.

I gave Niels a second pole and went to the kitchen. I grabbed a backpack and filled it with some food and some water. I did the same with another and handed it to Niels.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “We need to stay inside and wait this out.”

“Look, we might think we are in a nice neighbourhood, but now we are in the wilderness. I know because it says in the upper right corner of your vision. Monsters will probably be able to spawn inside. Do you want to go outside, kill some monsters to get some money, and be able to fight, or do you want to stay inside, and get killed?”

“Well, when you put it that way…” We walked to the door ready to fight whatever we saw. We opened the door expecting to see our neighbours ready to join forces as they were there before. Instead, in the middle of the street, we saw a five foot tall level 1 spider.

Quickly I ran to it and hit it with the pole. It became a bit deformed and It tried to swipe me with one of its legs. I dodged it and Niels hit the spider and did more damage to it then I did. It tried to charge but many of its legs couldn’t move after Niels' hit. I ran at it and slammed it as hard as I could. It went berserk and swung at me with one of its last remaining working legs. I just managed to dodge it and swung at it again. The spider flattened and after a second disappeared. In its place, there was a bottle of pale blue liquid. I looked above it and saw that it was spider blood. I picked it up and had a look at it.

Level 1 Spider Blood

Spider blood is used for the potion of speed.

I noticed that in the corner notifications were there about the fight. Niels and I had both earned ten dollars.

“That was a level one? Pretty soon higher levels with probably spawn. We are lucky we didn’t get hit, but the higher-level ones will be faster.” Niels said.

“You’re right.” I said “We need to get money fast. That means killing some monsters”

“Someone help!” A voice shouted.