I watched the brothers vanish through the door as I stared at it, debating if I should actually go through or not. The last hours of my life played through my head again as my mouth went dry. The anxiety was there, constantly threatening my thoughts. What other choice did I really have besides the door? I steeled myself against the other thoughts and forced myself through.

  “Dave Imogen. Registered, starting level–error, please wait. Starting level, negative ten, standard six orbs have been deposited on your person.” A voice chimed in my ear from seemingly nowhere. I felt a new weight in my pocket as the room around me came into view. I was standing behind the brothers in front of a large wooden reference desk. Behind it sat what I assumed were the librarians.

  At first glance, I thought they were both humans, but then I spotted the extra set of eyes on the sides of their heads. My brain snapped me back to the message I had heard: levels? Like in a game? And why, or for that matter, how was I at a negative number? Usually, that only happens in poorly programmed games with overflow issues. It wasn’t really my expertise, but I had played enough early games as a kid to see many a programming mistake, not that I understood what was going on until I was older.

  “Welcome to the Archives of Gortrin. Will you be staying with us long?” one of the librarians behind the desk asked the brothers, pulling me out of my thoughts and back to reality.

  “Likely a few years. We’re newly registered with the Arena. Thanks to Dave behind us, we got access to this place as a training world,” Elicec answered.

  “Oh, that’s so interesting. We rarely get anyone coming to us as a training world anymore; mostly, they prefer the ones full of monsters, but we are fully equipped as one. There’s a terminal in your bedroom that’ll give you your full system access, and of course, the archive is available at all hours for your convenience. If you have any questions, the reference desk is always available to help. Here are your library cards. I hope you both enjoy your time with us,” she said as she pushed two laminated cards across the desk to the brothers. One of them grabbed them both and stuffed them into their pockets.

  I stepped up to the desk as they moved to the side. “Hi, I’m the Dave they mentioned. It's the same story as those two for the most part,” I said nervously, trying to speed this along. I wanted that bedroom they had been promised. I needed time to sit and process everything that happened.

  “Oh, good. Assuming you heard everything, I’ll just give you your card and let you head off with your friends. It was nice meeting you all,” she said as she passed another laminated card to me with a large smile across her face.

  “So, gentlemen, what’s next?” I asked, still not really sure what I was supposed to be doing here besides seeing how much of the archive I could read per year. I hoped I didn’t need to start that today, though.

  “Use your library card at the elevator over there. It’ll take you to your room. Then, you can look at the terminal and see if there are any System quests available for you. We’re going to do the same. We will probably call it an early night after that. But hey, you should join us for breakfast tomorrow, I bet you will have all kinds of questions,” Cecile said. He was right, the questions were already starting to form in my mind. I had no idea what a System quest was, or the terminal for that matter. But now wasn’t the moment for even more information. I’d do that tomorrow over a meal.

  “That sounds good. I’ll give that a try and then see if I can find the dining hall,” I said, stuttering slightly, my nerves flaring worse than ever. My stomach also decided that was the perfect moment to rumble loudly. I gave them an awkward half-smile and walked over to the elevator and inserted my library card into the slot marked for it. It beeped, and the words changed from insert library card here, to please remove the card. There was no screen, as far as I could tell. The words looked painted on. There was going to be so much I needed to learn.

  The sound of doors opening in front of me hid my worried. They immediately closed again behind me once I stepped inside. I felt a small moment of acceleration, then stopping, and the doors opened again, revealing a completely different room. I had only been inside for a few seconds. The speed at which it must have moved was impressive. I stepped off and surveyed my new room. There was a bed, a desk, and what looked like some sort of computer sitting on the desk. Was that the terminal?

  There were two other doors at the back of the room. The leftmost one was a small closet, surprising me with several articles of clothing resembling the usual t-shirts and jeans I tended to wear. The other door led to a small bathroom, complete with a shower. I turned on the sink and splashed cold water on my face, both to help my anxiety but also to see if it would wake me up. It did nothing for either thing.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Walking back to bed, I felt myself collapse forward onto it before I could even make the decision if I wanted to rest just yet or not. The room spun around me as my brain worked to again catch up to everything I had experienced so quickly. I managed to pull myself further onto the bed, letting myself drift into a state of half-sleep, half panic. I had no energy left for anything else at the moment.

  When I finally awoke from the restless attempt at sleep, I had no idea what time it was, and not sure how to even find out. At least I was now able to sit up without feeling nauseous again. I sighed into my hands and forced myself to stand up and scan the room again now that my thoughts had somewhat calmed.

  With nothing else in sight that could be the terminal, that meant the computer had to be what the librarian and the brothers had been referring to. The problem was I didn’t see anything that resembled a keyboard or a mouse, much less a power button on the tower or monitor. I pulled up the chair and sat down to take a closer look at the side; maybe I was missing something. As soon as I relaxed in the seat, an interface popped into view.

  “Welcome, Dave Imogen, to the Master Spiral Control System version two million point seven, stable version. What can I do for you today?” I heard the voice in my head, the same as when I had stepped through the door.

  “Uh, what questions can you answer?” I asked, once again, not knowing what questions I should be asking. I hated unknown unknowns.

  “I will attempt to answer anything you ask, though I may fail to do so,” the System replied.

  “Okay, then, let’s start with something simple enough. What are levels?” I had a feeling I partially knew the answer already, but I wanted to hear it from a native of whatever this was; I needed certainty.

  “Levels are a derived categorical system to help push all beings to further heights. They are defined by how much experience a person gained in a certain proximity from a mana-rich environment,” it explained. Was that why I was negative? The lack of mana in my world? But shouldn’t that just be a zero?

  “Then why am I at level negative ten?” I asked it.

  “Error, Error, Error,” It responded. Great, so that was an answer it wasn’t capable of giving me.

  “Okay, what happens when you gain a level?” I asked.

  “You gain a subset of points that you can allocate to boost certain aspects of yourself. By applying these, you are able to, through training, transcend the normal limits of your form,” it answered. Now, that was interesting. So this did work something like a video game.

  “Are you able to tell me my starting stats?” I asked, expecting more errors.

  “Base human, with the origin of U-1.9392912^10e37 Earth-107I2T112, error.” It had managed to get further this time before the error, at least.

  “Alright, how about quests? What are those and are there any of them?” I asked, annoyed that the level topic was getting me nowhere.

  “Quests are objectives given to people registered with the System. One quest is currently available. Read Karlinovo’s Guide to Core Creation. Would you like further details?” the voice asked.

  “Yes,” I answered enthusiastically. I wasn’t sure the tone of my voice matched how I felt in my chest, but getting somewhere was better than nothing.

  “Track down the works of Karlinovo, read it first, understand it, and read it again. Successful completion will unlock further quests in this chain. The reward for this quest is a better sense of inner self. Complete further quests in this chain to unlock more rewards and potential completion bonuses,” the system explained.

  That seemed incredibly strange. Not to mention that quest didn’t seem all that great. Was it just an abstract for something else? “What are the usual types of quest rewards?” I asked, trying to focus away from the confusion I felt.

  “The range of potential quest rewards is too great for an answer; beyond that, anything is possible, depending on the quest itself.” Great, it was another vague answer.

  “What about completion bonuses? What are those? How do they differ from rewards?” I imagined they had something to do with completing multiple quests as the name implied, but I couldn’t take anything for granted at the moment.

  “Completion bonuses come from completing entire quest chains. These are usually something related to the quest in some way,” it answered. At least this time, the information actually answered the question and I was relieved to see I was starting to catch on.

  “Is there anything you think I should know?” I wasn’t sure what to ask next, so I figured I’d give a generic question a shot. I wasn’t hoping for much.

  “The food in the dining hall is quite good. It is important to share meals with friends and discuss your starting quests.” That was not remotely the answer I expected. I felt like it was trying to give me a hint at what to do next, though. Okay, maybe more than a hint. That was closer to beating me over the head with an order than it was a hint.

  I opened my closet again, this time to look closer at the clothing in it. It looked to all be made for a human, and better yet, in my size. I changed out of my bloodied and torn garments, then went in search of the dining room. Who was I to question a computer telling me to discuss quests over breakfast?

  The Master Spiral Control System has existed at least as long as the Spiral has; the records from first worlds are sparse, but they do make reference to a System, and we have to assume it’s the same one, as we’ve never found records suggesting a second one. Now, the question of what came first, the Spiral or the System, is something historians have been long investigating, and due to just how little evidence exists from the first worlds makes it seem as though we will never know the answer, and as the time synchronicity bubble continues to hold I don’t expect that to ever change.

  Paulio’s Twenty Rules For a Better Tomorrow

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