Let's see, if there's anything I can do to develop the character sheet, thought Gerry. What's it going to do, list every single skill in every single area then I develop over the course of my life? That doesn't really seem sustainable. Or practicable. Is that really what this system does, list everything? That data overload might just be a useless amount of information, as you develop hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, no probably just thousands of skills.

Gerry saw fallen branch next at the edge of a glade he walked through. It looked perfect for a walking stick. Like a child out on a walk he swung the stick around in the air. Like he thought Donatello from the Ninja Turtles would have done. Swiping it Back and forth through the air at imaginary opponents. He swiped from high to low, then low to high, tried (and failed) to spin it back and forth between his hands. If anybody had been watching, it he would have been greatly embarrassed. After five minutes of playing around like this Gerry got the notification that he had been waiting for:

[Staff skills increased by 1 to Level 1]

Checking his character sheet showed that the skill increase had its corollary there:

Staff Skills: 1

Gerry then checked the Ownership screen, with the expectation that the staff would now show up. He was disappointed, when he only saw the same two entries for his underwear and himself.

“It’s apparently not that hard to level in skills,” Gerry said aloud “but harder to gain ownership of something” . As he walked, he had an idea and stopped to do push ups until he could not manage any more. After completing 25 he gained another skill:

[Upper body strength skill increased by 1 to Level 1].

As he got up from the grass he brushed the gathering mosquitos off of his shirtless body. Wiping the mosquitos away brought his attention the other bites that had accumulated on his body over the day of walking almost naked through the forest.

If this is a game, they could have at least left out the mosquitos. He didn’t think that they played an important role in any ecosystem, but his mysterious knowledge did not quite go into this level of detail.

As Gerry continued walking his excitement over the system interface waned and worry about his situation gradually began to take over.

When two fingers remained between the sun and the horizon he had given up hope of finding any other source of civilization or safety for the day and went about building a shelter for the evening.