“Ethan to the cash register, please. Ethan to the cash register.”

  Ethan looked up from his phone’s screen at the dimly lit speaker and sighed. He glanced back down at his phone, and with a flick, he deleted the scholarship rejection letter and kept only those that were still pending. His finger was touching the lock-button when something else happened. Something he didn’t need.

  Oh, come on. Don’t do this to me.

  The phone screen started to flick and stutter. The image began showing weird colors, with the pixels turning off and on.

  He couldn’t afford a new phone. He could barely make rent.

  Ethan cursed under his breath as his name was called once more, so he shoved his phone back in his pocket and stepped over the cans of soup he’d been restocking, running a frustrated hand through his dark brown hair as he made his way to the front of the store.

  He’ll deal with it later. Hopefully, a quick reset would fix it.

  Ethan rounded the corner as the sound of music grew louder in his ears. A handful of people were waiting, and one of whom had portable speakers blasting some annoyingly catchy music. Ethan made his way toward the second cash register, and as he was typing the register’s password, the music-playing young man spoke.

  “Hurry up, dude.”

  One of the girls with him tittered as Ethan looked over. The man–well, he looked barely twenty, actually–smiled, basking in the girl’s laugh, then went on, complaining and making jokes about under-qualified workers and laziness and whatnot, making one of the girls laugh while the other—and a few more customers—shuffled uncomfortably.

  Ethan slowly exhaled and let the taunts roll past him as he scanned the items before bagging them, and resisted the urge to chuck them in the man’s face. The annoying prick kept smiling and jeering, blasting his shitty music, and then, thankfully enough, he took his little posse and left.

  Glancing to the side, he found his manager smiling at yet another apathetic customer as if they were some lost sibling.

  For someone who owned this damn store, the man was ready to tolerate nearly everything from his customers, and he insisted on the same from his employees.

  Ethan began scanning the next items and forced himself to relax his jaw.

  A few more months of this. Then community college. I’m going to have to figure out the move.

  Thankfully, he didn’t have many things to his name, anyway. He was excited to leave this dark, damp city.

  Ethan wondered if he could manage to snag a room somewhere close to a gym as handed a blazer-wearing woman her bag and receipt.

  Part of the challenges of finding a scholarship and better job was Ethan’s history. He had… spent a bit too much time hanging out with the wrong crowds. Without parents to look after him and with how things had gone down, it hadn’t been difficult to fall into some bad habits and, considering his smaller frame back then, Ethan had to quickly learn how to defend himself.

  He’d never felt more alive than those moments. Pitting his will and sweat against another.

  Since Luther had dragged him out of that crowd and knocked some sense into his teenage-addled mind, Ethan had joined a gym—when he could afford it—and enjoyed letting out his frustrations there.

  It was fun. And safer for everyone… but he’d be lying if he didn’t say he missed the rush of a free and unrestrained fight. The scramble for any advantage. Adapting to the environment around you as you tried to bring your opponent down and as they tried to do the same.

  It just wasn’t the same, but of course, there was no place for such in a civilized society.

  “Some people, huh?”

  Ethan glanced up and met an older man’s eye. A tired office-worker, by the looks of him. The older man gave him a small smile and nod, and Ethan reciprocated. He didn’t need to force the smile.

  “Yup.”

  The man gave him a chuckle and continued putting his articles on the counter. Ethan quickly scanned him and wished him a nice evening before he processed the rest of the customers. He considered speaking with the old man about the move. His ex-foster would most likely tell him to stop whining if Ethan uttered any word of complaint, but there’d probably be a useful nugget of wisdom in that old codger’s rants.

  With that done, Ethan trudged back to his peaceful corner. He paused for a second, looking at his own blue-eyed reflection on the refrigerator glass-door and grimaced. He was looking pale. When was the last time he spent more than a few minutes in the sun?

  Ethan sighed. He turned his attention back to the box of cans, and as he was leaning over, the ground began to shake.

  It started small, but the rumble quickly gained strength. Ethan stumbled as a sense of panic burst into his chest. The rows of products began dropping within seconds, while the lights flickered and turned off.

  Ethan rushed toward the exit, falling on the way. Screams filled his ears, coming from inside the store and outside it. Ethan pushed the door open and stepped into the cold evening. Lamp lights were flickering, but that was the least interesting thing he saw.

  The sky was full of lights, and Ethan knew for a fact those weren’t the northern lights. Usually, those were green and rippled in colors, while what Ethan was seeing was just… blue.

  Slowly, the earthquake eased down. The night was filled with shouts, car alarms, and general building alarms. Something began to warm up in his chest. In his limbs. Like a shiver, but instead of feeling cold, it burned. Before he could make sense of anything, a bunch of glowing text popped in front of him, and Ethan’s back hit the wall.

  Greater reality found…

  Optimizing System to reality core…

  Assessing rules….

  Evaluating standard personal growth patterns…

  Calculating number of inhabited realms…

  Warning: Sub-par mana levels detected.

  Warning: Tampering detected.

  Identifying side effects of mana presence…

  Corrective measures in progress…

  Implementing standard load-out for inhabitants…

  At the same time he read that last line, the heat in his stomach and limbs turned from embers to a roaring fire. Pained screams rose from all around him, which he could barely perceive above his own. The pain built up, burning, tearing into his flesh and bones and then–darkness took him.

  ***

  Ethan’s eyes fluttered open to a repetitive beep sounding in his head. He slowly pushed himself up against the wall, limbs freezing. Bleary-eyed, he tried to look around, but a flashing prompt wouldn’t leave his sight.

  Finally, he looked at it.

  Pick a class of wand to finish the load-out process. All classes of wands are capable of casting spells, but both enhancer-wands and armament-wands require a form to do so. Each type of wand will provide special advantages. Please choose accordingly.

  Countdown until random selection: 51 seconds.

  Spellcaster: A classic and flexible wand capable of rapidly casting all manner of spells. A popular choice with combatants and noncombatants. A free General-class spell will be provided.

  Armament: A wand that morphs into an offensive or defensive armament when the Armament-spell is placed in the spell form slot. The wand is capable of casting spells and will provide a moderate boost to the user’s stats. Often popular with warriors. A free Armament-class form-spell will be provided.

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  Enhancer: A wand that morphs into a body alteration to allow for various magical effects when an Enhancement-spell is placed in the spell form slot. The wand is capable of casting spells and will provide a significant boost to the user’s stats. A versatile choice popular with many, and the default choice of monsters. A free Enhancement-class form-spell will be provided.

  Ethan’s eyes widened, and a sense of alarm began to swell as the countdown ticked lower.

  What is this? Wands? Load-out? Stats?

  Ethan had no clue what was happening, but clearly, he needed to make a choice, whatever that meant. He couldn’t get stuck with something random. And what was that about monsters?

  “What is even happening?” he breathed out, then shook his head. “Focus, dammit.”

  Okay. Let’s think this through. But quick. What are the options?

  Spellcaster. Sounds flexible. Ethan assumed the spells to be classic fantasy stuff like fireballs and magic missiles and whatnot. It seemed to be the safe choice, and it came with a general-class spell. Whatever that meant.

  Next was an Armament-class wand. What would that be like? Swords? Shields? Would guns be an option? He hoped not. Something like armor might be nice, though. The moderate stat boost seemed interesting. But if stats were important, then the next option was best.

  The Enhancer wand would provide a “significant” boost and considering Ethan was an okay hand-to-hand fighter, maybe that’ll give him an edge? It would also still be capable of casting spells, which was thankfully common across all wand classes.

  There’s also the magical effect part.

  Ethan nodded. He liked the last option. If he got an offensive or defensive body alteration, that’d be his weapon.

  Yes. Magical effect, big stat boosts, and a form. Whatever that is.

  Countdown until random selection: 11 seconds.

  “Shit. Fuck.”

  Ethan reviewed everything one more time, ready to make his choice while alarms kept going off. Quite a few of them had gone silent, which made his ears buzz for some reason.

  What was happening out there?

  Ethan focused back on the task at hand and confirmed his choice. He wanted the stats and the versatility.

  Enhancer-class wand selected.

  His heart was hammering itself out of his chest, but before Ethan could recover from the choice he had to rush, another prompt popped in front of him.

  Select a starting tier-0 Enhancement-class spell.

  Countdown until random selection: 60 seconds.

  Claws: Summon powerful claws to tear into your opponents

  Tail: Summon a flexible and powerful tail to catch your opponents unaware

  Scales: Summon protective scales to shield you

  Horns: Summon horns to empower your magic

  Eyes: Summon eyes to empower and improve your sight

  “Okay. Alright,” Ethan mumbled to himself. Hearing his own voice helped keep him on task. “Let’s see the options. One by one.”

  Claws looked interesting, but that was a large change from what Ethan was used to. He knew how to fight with his fists, not with his hands open, though something sharp would always be valuable.

  Tail… no. It might have some interesting uses, but it would be awkward for both offense and defense. Actually, now that he looked at the rest, most options were either awkward or too situational. The horns seemed interesting, and he knew a well-timed head-butt could finish fights quickly, but were they as good as Claws or Scales? He didn’t think so. Same for the Tail. Taking the legs from under someone was a nice trick, but it might only work once, thanks to the surprise effect.

  Ethan nodded to himself as he went through the list again. So far, only Claws and Scales were appealing to him for a first pick.

  Scales look like the defensive option, which would be valuable if there were unknown dangers around. Assuming he wasn’t the only one going through this selection process, there would be a lot of offensive spells in the hands of all sorts of folks. Would the scales work against that?

  Defense would only work if I don’t get bogged down, though, Ethan thought. When ganged up on, you can’t just brace. You either run or drop as many enemies as you can.

  Ethan exhaled and nodded to himself. He picked the enhancement-wand for its stats and to fight. He had to commit, and something sharp could always be useful. Next time, he’ll try to get something defensive.

  The Enhancement-class spell [Claws] was selected.

  Enhancement-class spell [Claws] successfully set as form of wand #1.

  A hot sensation sunk into Ethan and spread down to his arms. His fingers tingled for a few seconds, and then the sensation stopped. No new prompt appeared.

  Ethan looked around. Here and there, some people were getting up from the ground. He hadn’t been the only one who’d passed out. Carefully, he pulled out his phone and, looking down at it, he found it turned off. He tried to turn it on, over and over, but nothing worked.

  He knew it had been fully charged. No mistake there. Whatever was happening seemed to have knocked it out, along with most of the electric grid. It was still night, but the only light Ethan could see was the blue lights and the stars beyond them.

  Some people began calling out for others. Some began to shout and scream and it sounded like some fighting was happening, so Ethan kept his distance, which was when a new prompt showed up.

  Mana-less protocol activating…

  Integration tutorials will be made available shortly…

  Participation is not optional. Please find and enter the closest portal to your location.

  Early participants will be rewarded.

  Countdown until forceful integration in the tutorial: 5 minutes.

  First portal instance in 3…2…1

  The prompt reduced itself, and instantly the sky was filled with green pillars of light, with the closest being almost directly above Ethan.

  He looked up, mouth open, then back down in the direction of the green light. A couple hundred yards ahead, a green-hued gateway shone into the night.

  What did this mean? Was this some sort of nightmare, or was it going to be a new start? An opportunity?

  Ethan couldn’t help his nervous grin. He had no idea what was happening. He didn't know if this was some sort of apocalypse, if these were aliens, or if this was all a dream, but it certainly was more exciting than heading out to community college in a couple of months. And he definitely wanted that early-bird reward. So he started discreetly making his way toward the portal.

  People kept shouting, some began to group up, and to Ethan’s alarm he began seeing flashes of light into the night, which he had no intent of approaching.

  Chaos, wands, and no electricity? Dead phones?

  Ethan grimly shook his head. Being in the tutorial might be safer than staying out here. Thankfully, everyone was going to be enrolled in 5 minutes. Plus, it was a tutorial. What better place was there to make sense of all of this?

  A couple of people were already walking into the portal. They stepped into the green light and disappeared.

  That’s not a vaporizing light, I hope.

  Ethan considered for a moment, then shook his head.

  Nah. If anything could do all of this, why would it—or they—need to trick people to vaporize them? That’d make no sense. Still, I gotta hurry up or I’ll miss out on the bonus.

  As he continued making his way toward it, he remembered the old bastard and hoped he was safe. Then Ethan shook his head and smiled. Who was he kidding? That relic was probably already inside.

  Luther would never miss an early-bird bonus.

  The green doorway was only twenty feet away when someone called out to him. A familiar voice.

  “Help!”

  Ethan looked to his right, and in the half-darkness, he saw a black sports car. An upside-down sports car. Approaching it, he recognized the young man who’d been taunting him only a short while ago. Beyond the man, the car was empty.

  It seemed like his company had abandoned him when he got into this accident. Though, thankfully for the man, he didn’t seem injured at all. Only a little stuck. Just needed a couple more minutes, and he’d be out.

  “Help me, please. I’m stuck. Please!”

  Ethan looked up at the doorway. More people were approaching it. He gazed back down at the young man who’d spent a good while mocking him barely minutes ago, gave him a nod and a smile, then turned and continued toward the portal.

  He wasn’t missing out on his bonus for that rude little shit.

  He’ll be fine. He’ll be “forcefully integrated” in like four minutes. I’m assuming that’s being teleported… Which is a crazy thought.

  “I’ll find you, asshole. I’ll fucking kill you! I’ll kill you!”

  Ethan shrugged and kept walking. Soon enough, he found himself standing in front of the green gateway. It was like a green shimmer in the air, bright and rippling in front of him. Ethan removed his red uniform vest, leaving him in a simple white t-shirt that matched his khaki pants. He shared a look with a young woman wearing a gray pants-suit, holding a familiar bag in her hand.

  She was just at the store.

  Ethan recognized the gleam of excitement in her eyes and he was sure he had the same look in his own. Then both of them looked ahead and stepped into the light.