I stumbled around without any direction for some time, trying to make sense of the street signs, which were obviously written mostly in Japanese, before I got so frustrated I just entered a random convenience store. It had been looted a long time ago, since most of the stuff inside was either gone or well beyond its expiry date, but as I rifled through the magazines I found something interesting. For your information, I’m not referring to the gravure photo books, thank you. I saved those for later. No, apparently, the latest newspapers that this store ever got delivered were dated October 26th 2041, almost twenty-two years since the night I received my terminal node.

I should have panicked more than I actually did, everything considered, but the idea of seeing both Japan and the future didn’t seem so bad to me, especially since I was a (mostly) new person. What concerned me was the apparently post-apocalyptic scenario that had occurred here. It probably had something to do with the Imago System linking Earth to the Coil, because even though I could barely read anything of the language, the picture of the huge glowing portal and monsters in the middle of a busy street easily gave it away. I really hoped I didn’t meet any of those beasts, at least not before I managed to understand how to get my supposed “assets” from the system.

After that quick stop, I resumed my search for civilization, a few of the more “interesting” magazines safely stored in a bag I luckily “found” in a clothing store. The darkness of night didn’t do much to impede my sight, though I wasn’t sure if that was considered a talent in System terms, since nothing in my DIP seemed to point it out as such. I didn’t even manage to leave the street before a disgusting wet sound echoed somewhere behind me.

The creature in front of me looked like a bizarre cross between a grasshopper and a squid, with an insectoid body resting on two powerful looking legs, a slimy carapace, and a set of truly nasty tendrils in place of a mouth or mandibles. It was moving carefully, almost stalking, I guessed it noticed me turning to face it, because it covered the almost fifteen meters between us in a single leap.

I was barely able to dodge, the world around me slowing down for the smallest fraction of a second from the surge of adrenaline shooting into my brain. Face to face with the thing, I was tempted to turn tail and run as fast as I could, but I knew it would’ve caught up immediately with another jump, and I really couldn’t bring myself to show my back to it, so I jumped backwards and chucked the large bag I was carrying with every ounce of strength I could muster.

I was surprised at the force with which it impacted, probably because in my old body I would have found it difficult to just lug the thing around. The bizarre insect caught the blow right in its disgusting “face”, jumping backwards and sticking to a wall a few meters behind. Apart from making it retreat slightly, my “preemptive strike” didn’t seem to have much effect.

”Fuck, why don’t I get the cool stuff right away!?” I yelled as I stepped back, the monster watching me curiously with its compound eyes.

I saw its hind legs contract the moment before it lept again, managing to avoid being tackled by a few centimeters once more. This time, having exhausted any faith in my strength, I ran like hell, hoping my legs would at least fare a little better than my improvised attacks. I really should have armed myself with something, instead of loading up on soft-porn!

The moment the squid-hopper jumped again, I felt it in my bones, despite facing away, and rolled to the side to avoid it. At that, a weird noise echoed in my skull, like some sort of video-game sound effect, and the diamond symbol on my hand lit up with a magenta glow before projecting a message in front of me.

---COMBAT CALIBRATION INITIATED---

---PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT---

”Damned system, I waited long enough for my taste already!” I shouted as I dove inside a random store, hoping to break the monster’s advantage in mobility by forcing it in an enclosed space. In front of my eyes, the loading screen showed a percentage rising all too slowly.

[8%]

I took a broom handle and prepped it like an improvised spear.

[19%]

The beast skidded on the street, stopping in front of the building.

[34%]

My heartbeat rose, blood rushing to my head to roar against my eardrums.

[71%]

My foe lashed out, skittering quickly on the cluttered floor.

[94%]

More quickly than I hoped, I thrust the puny stick in my hands into the disgusting mouth of the creature.

---COMBAT CALIBRATION COMPLETE---

---PERSONAL TALENT UNLOCKED---

---HAND OF THE MAKER---

With a loud bang, the broom’s tip burst into a thin, needle-like spike the moment it connected with the monster, shattering with deliberate force in a mass of shrapnel after having pierced it.

”Well, this is cool...” I gasped between heavy breaths, trying to clean away the gooey remains from my forehead.

Throwing away the blown apart stick, I got out of the cramped hall to breathe in the night air, cooling down my thoughts. I wondered what sort of ability “Hand of the Maker” was and tried to look its entry in my status screen, finding nothing but strings of gibberish. Whatever, I’d have time to learn how it worked through some trial and error.

My stomach grumbled, and even though the hunger was bearable at the time, I couldn’t help but ask myself were I could find some decent food, since most stuff was expired or gone, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to try and eat the alien monstrosity that had tried to kill me.

Before I had time to ponder seriously on any of those doubts, I heard what sounded like car noises in the distance, rapidly growing louder. Civilization was coming, and I hoped my bad luck had run its course for the day.

In less than five minutes, I found myself staring at no less than six gun barrels pointed straight at me, the armored soldiers barking something in Japanese at me. Hesitating for only a moment, I put my hands behind my head, trying to look as unthreatening as possible.

I knew full well the men didn’t understand my words, but they did get the meaning of my gesture, lowering their weapons as the last of them finished muttering something over the radio and jumped nimbly out of the armored jeep. His gaze passed over me, almost tangible, before turning to his fellows and barking something at them. Uncerimoniously, two of the soldiers slapped handcuffs on me and made me board their vehicle.

With my future destination uncertain, I couldn’t help but wish I had taken that online course in Japanese.

The trip was relatively quiet, with me opting to stay silent, watching the futuristic interior of the vehicle and keeping my head low, and the soldiers focusing on keeping up their guard to avoid unwanted encounters with more of the bloodthirsty fauna. We passed a checkpoint after a few short minutes, and soon after I was ordered to get off, finding myself in what looked like some sort of bunker.

After a lot more mumbling and whispering in Japanese, my handcuffs were removed, in favor of some sort of glowing bracelet, and again the soldiers almost shot me when they saw the diamond symbol on my hand light up, even though they didn’t seem to notice the holographic screen that popped out in front of my eyes.

---GRID ITEM RECOGNIZED---

---GRID INTEGRATION COMPLETE, WELCOME TO REALITY#9977---

---DOWNLOADING FREE TRANSLATION PACKAGE---

Now with a rifle firmly stuck to my back, I was made to ride an elevator to the uppermost floor of the building, and by the time the doors opened, I was surprisingly able to understand a couple of sentences uttered by my captors: “The general said he wants to see him personally, he might be a foreign spy,” and “Have you seen the way the brace lit up? Is he a new kind of mutant?”.

I tried to ignore the fact that they had just compared me to the monsters roaming in the ruins, and instead just focused on the marvelous view that greeted me when I stepped out of the elevator. Was that the general’s office? If so, it was good to be king indeed, even if most of the city was probably abandoned.

A large desk, seemingly carved out of some sort of crystal, stood near the back of the room, but apart from a couple of ornamental pillars, there didn’t seem to be much in the way of furnishing. When the large man behind the desk raised his gaze to meet us, the soldiers immediately sprung into a salute without missing a beat.

”Leave us,” the general ordered, prompting what looked like the youngest member of my escort to mumble something half halfheartedly.

”You know full well I can handle myself, recruit. I have reason to think this young man might know classified information way above your rank’s clearance. Did I make myself clear?”

A wave of tangible pressure burst forth from his figure, passing me by like a very slight breeze though I feared that it was simply because I wasn’t its intended target. Again, a small translucent box appeared in front of my eyes.

---TERRITOTY HOLDER DETECTED---

---ESTIMATED THREAT LEVEL: ☆☆☆---

---SUGGESTED COURSE OF ACTION: FLIGHT---