The transformation didn't arrive with explosions or alien fleets. It arrived with a gentle chime, an invisible wave washing over the surface of the Earth at 03:00 hours Greenwich Mean Time. For the 8 billion people asleep or working, the only immediate evidence was the intrusive, neon-blue box that materialized two feet in front of their faces.
Elias had been troubleshooting a server array in a dusty, windowless data center miles outside of Chicago when the world fractured.
Ping.
The humming silence of the cooling fans was abruptly pierced by a sound that felt both digital and ancient, like a tuning fork struck inside a CPU. Elias stumbled back, dropping a handful of cable ties, his eyes locked on the impossible thing floating in the stale, recycled air.
It was a window, pristine and holographic, displaying bright white text against a cerulean field.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Initializing Terra-Nova Protocol]
[Compatibility Check: 100% Complete]
[Welcome, User: Elias Vance]
[You have been assigned the starting Class: Unassigned (Tier 0)]
Elias, a man whose life revolved around the cold logic of binary code and fiber optics, blinked. He rubbed his eyes, expecting the phantom image to dissipate, a byproduct of three consecutive all-nighters.
It didn't. The box remained, steady and implacable.
"What in God's name is this," he muttered, reaching out a hesitant hand. His fingers passed right through the light. The text was real, yet intangible.
A second box popped up below the first, slightly smaller, radiating urgency.
[Tutorial Prompt: A New World awaits. Learn how to survive.]
[Do you accept the Tutorial? (Y/N)]
Panic, cold and sharp, began to prickle his skin. He glanced around the empty server aisle. All the lights were green, the machines running perfectly, but the air felt heavy, charged with a potential energy that hadn't been there a moment ago. He pulled out his phone—a device that had always been his anchor to reality—but the screen was blank, unresponsive. His tablet was the same. All digital communication was dead.
The silence was the worst part. The silence of the network, the silence of the city outside, replaced by the persistent, subtle thrum of the System itself.
"No," Elias whispered, shaking his head. "No, I don't accept."
He tried to dismiss the window, waving his hands, but the UI was locked onto his perception. He tried closing his eyes, counting to ten, but the blue glow still burned through his eyelids. Desperate, he even tried yelling at it, "Get lost! I'm calling the police!"
The System responded with clinical indifference.
[ERROR: Invalid Input.]
[Tutorial requires response to proceed. Defaulting to 'Y' in 30 seconds.]
Elias felt his heart hammer against his ribs. This wasn't a prank; it was a cosmic hijacking. Given the choice between blind submission and a panic-induced mental breakdown, Elias, ever the analyst, chose the former. He had 20 seconds. He needed to find out what was happening.
With a deep, shaky breath, he focused on the 'Y' button.
Click.
The moment his intent registered, the world dissolved. The cold server room, the blinking lights, the hum of the air handlers—all vanished.
When reality reformed, Elias wasn't standing. He was sitting on rough, packed earth, the air smelling of pine needles and damp moss. Above him, a canopy of impossibly huge, glowing purple leaves filtered the sunlight into strange, shifting patterns on the forest floor.
The holographic screen was still there, but the text had changed.
[Tutorial Accepted. Initializing Environment: Training Grounds]
Elias scrambled to his feet, spinning in a circle. The server room was gone. The data center was gone. He was in a forest that belonged on the cover of a fantasy novel, not twenty miles from a major metropolitan area.
A small, furry creature, roughly the size of a raccoon but with six stubby legs and crystalline blue eyes, waddled out from behind a glowing root. It looked innocent enough until a third, smaller screen popped up, identifying the fauna.
[Creature: Juvenile Scrabbler (Tier 1)]
[Threat Level: Low (Potential for Minor Injury)]
Before Elias could process the fact that the local wildlife now had threat ratings, the Scrabbler opened its mouth and emitted a high-pitched sonic shriek that hit Elias like a physical blow. He clapped his hands over his ears, stumbling back against the huge tree trunk.
[Skill Alert: Sonic Scream (Level 1) - Damage Inflicted: 5 HP]
[HP Remaining: 95/100]
"HP?" Elias gasped, his voice raspy. He looked down at his own body. In the bottom-left corner of his vision, anchored perfectly, was a green bar with a number. HP: 95/100.
The little Scrabbler, apparently emboldened by its successful attack, rushed forward, its six legs churning. Elias reacted on instinct, years of couch-potato gaming muscle memory taking over. He sidestepped the charge and swung his arm out, connecting a clumsy blow against the creature's flank.
[Combat Alert: Physical Attack - Damage Inflicted: 1 HP]
[Juvenile Scrabbler HP: 9/10]
It was like hitting a brick wrapped in carpet. The Scrabbler barely wobbled. It retaliated, sinking its sharp teeth into his ankle.
[Skill Alert: Gnaw (Level 1) - Damage Inflicted: 8 HP]
[HP Remaining: 87/100]
A genuine, throbbing pain shot up his leg, far more real than the digital notification. Elias kicked it off with a desperate grunt. He didn't have time to be rational. This was the new reality. He had to kill the thing, or it would kill him.
He spotted a jagged, obsidian-like rock half-buried in the moss. He snatched it up, its edge surprisingly sharp, and brought it down hard on the Scrabbler just as it winded up for another sonic attack.
The rock crushed the creature's skull with a sickening crunch. The Scrabbler went limp, its crystalline eyes dimming.
[Combat Alert: Critical Hit - Damage Inflicted: 10 HP (Overskill)]
[Juvenile Scrabbler HP: 0/10]
[VICTORY! Scrabbler slain.]
[Experience Gained: 10 EXP]
Elias stood there, panting, the strange, sharp rock heavy in his hand, looking at the creature he had just killed. The neon-blue system UI overlaying the quiet, alien forest felt suddenly less like a glitch and more like a terrible, irreversible verdict.
The chime of a level-up notification was almost anticlimactic.
[Level Up! Elias Vance has reached Level 2!]
[Stat Points Available: 5]
[Class Update: New Class Options Available.]
His heart pounded. He was Level 2. He had five points to allocate, and the world had just turned into a cruel, beautiful, and deadly video game. Elias Vance, IT specialist, was officially a Tier 0 Adventurer, and he had just committed his first act of violence in a world he no longer recognized. The Tutorial was over. Survival had begun..