Feyre

  I stood at the center of the hall and smiled at everyone who had come all this way just to support the game. I was overjoyed at this moment and as the screen behind me flickered to life I launched into my speech. "Gentleman, Gentlewomen and perhaps the not so gentle section of you..." I grinned at the crowd, "I am so, so proud to present to you... Aetherium: Successor of Order! I for one, have had an absolute blast working on this and I think I speak for the whole team when I say, Thank you for sticking with us!" I turned away from the crowd as my colleagues walk onto the stage, smiling, waving, generally being in equally high spirits as me. It wasn't often that I was the one doing the speaking part but from previous experiments with all the different developers, I was always the best received.

  None of this mattered though, as we launched into our scripted Q&A between ourselves before letting the crowd ask a few. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the very first question we got was one we were told, basically ordered, not to answer.

  "Would you say that Aetherium: Successor of Order is basically just a Eurani Reboot? I for one know that at least half of you developers were prominent players in Eurani, and wondered if perhaps you were trying to recreate that feel?" The man asking the question looked almost hopeful and if I was honest

  I turned to my colleagues and subtly shook my head at Michael, who looked almost indignant, before replying. "We in the Development team are aware of the rumours circulating about us attempting to uh, 'Reboot' Eurani, so to say. I am sorry to disappoint you man but Aetherium is going to be an MMORPG, like Eurani, but set in the future on a different planet to Earth called Arret." I paused.

  "That means no fantasy races, and Sci-Fi weapons like plasma guns, so not High Fantasy." I thought I had done a good job there, considering nothing I said was technically a lie. Obviously I didn't say the whole truth. It wouldn't do for the crowd, or anyone for that matter, to know that the development team had almost copy pasted Eurani when it was first starting and then we'd gone in and edited it so it was unrecognisable. Not even everyone on the Team knew that we had done that.

  Nothing really interesting happened after that. I got chewed out a bit for answering the question but otherwise I got off scot free. Me and Michael were standing outside the building as we talked about nonsense things, Michael mostly complained about his girlfriend and I mostly complained about our Boss. I took a long sip from my water bottle before saying my goodbyes to Michael and deciding to head home. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my headphones and activated my playlist with voice activation as I walked towards the silent street. The silence was nice, comfortable even, as it meant I wouldn't get swamped by strangers who think they know me or deserve to know me for one reason or another.

  As the first song finished and I reached the zebra crossing, I started walking across. That was until the silence was broken by a scream. I turned to see a woman, She was one of the people in the front row seats of the convention I thought before the woman wasn't the only one screaming. My body screamed with her. My body screamed in pain. It screamed in agony like no other. It took me a little while to realise what had happened and once I did I would have laughed if I could move. This was so stupid. The lorry that had rammed into me at what could have only been far above the speed limit, since this is quite a straight road and I had looked both ways before crossing, continued onward as if unimpeded.

  I felt so cold. Everything burnt, stung, cried out to be fixed and healed. Yet nothing changed. I lay in the road, as the woman screamed, and I felt the cold burn me up. I wished that my death had been painless.

  Then I faded. I hoped someone competent would take over from me.

  Faded more. I hoped someone would factory reset my PC instead of looking through it...

  Then I was gone, earthly worries gone, everything gone.

  Then I was back. There was no pain. There was no feeling at all. I tried to call out, and found that yes, no feeling did mean that I could do literally nothing. I did not see anything, but I knew I was perceiving things. It was white and only white. Nothing else surrounded me but white. Instinctualy I was aware of the fact that there was depth in this white expanse but I could not see, nor feel, anything that supported that. Until there suddenly was. One moment I was surrounded by the white expanse, the next moment I was surrounded by a thing which was surrounded by the white expanse. That thing slowly took form, until it was a cafe. It was a cafe I recognised because it was a cafe I had spent the greater part of my time working on Aetherium in. Only it was actually clean, and there was a soul in it, other than me and the cat that was sitting on top of a table and staring at me.

  I willed myself forwards and ended up right next to the table. The cat still just stared, until it moved its mouth and I heard probably the most monotone, expressionless, callous, smooth voice I probably ever heard, and would ever hear. "Yes yes, well done for having a strong willpower I guess. I'll just sit you down opposite me so you aren't just looming over me like a hungry toddler. I'll get this over with quickly as I have other business to attend to." I half wondered if I was going mad, then I remembered I was probably dead, and the thing that caused that was a speeding lorry. Basically the most Cliché thing that could have happened to me, and now I was meeting a talking cat. Oh and he's extremely monotone, a consistant E2 I decided after listening for a bit. The cat basically waffled on about my life story which was a bit disturbing as he sounded so judgy and sassy in his own monotonous way.

  "So you obviously like HEMA, having done it for the better part of your life. You have... You had a lot of charisma when speaking and were often referred to as a brilliant orator. You basically perfected acting as someone you aren't even when alone. If I wasn't omniscient even I would be fooled... well done I guess... Oh, you had a really big fear of dying young. That is slightly ironic but whatever." the cat even chuckled in monotone "So the assassin who ran you over got away with a manslaughter charge by the way." I tensed up, or would've if I could feel, at that. Assassin? Yeah that makes sense to be honest. Bet it was a competitor. The cat stared at me then, before continuing. "Anyway, rejoice or whatever you will do when you hear this, I'm sending you to a world not unlike that game you so blatantly copied... Eurani."

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  I wanted to nod, and obviously the cat who claimed omniscience knew that because I suddenly felt things again, so I nodded before he continued. "It's High Fantasy i guess, lots of different species which are bipedal, sapient, sentient and have varying levels of intelligence. Clearly there's going to be magic, so at least you'll have fun with that huh?" I used the new feeling of my body I got to smile, At least the monotone doesn't affect the cat's brain. It snorts, also monotonically, at that.

  "What you might or might not expect, is the System. It is not the be all end all, it is basically a human computer's UI or a Guidebook but for magic, with bonuses which make magic easier to control. Obviously doing the same things but without the System will be more risky... but what is risk but the road to get a lovely little reward? It utilises a stat system in order to display arbitrary units of strength, speed, intuition, so on so forth. Unfortunately for you, since you aren't quite a sanctioned Otherworlder the System will be... interesting in its approach towards you. This is actually why the Gods of the world, conveniently called Eurani, are allowing you to be sent over there. You're an experiment... yippee for you. Don't worry too much... I said the System was just a guide and I wasn't lying, I don't do that because I'm not you." I grimaced at the jab, but wouldn't argue that point. I lied to others and myself because I believed it would benefit me and mine while also knowing it wouldn't hurt anyone other than me in the long run, others lied because it would harm others and never harm them.

  The monotonous cat carried on. "This is a lot of talking and the Gods of Eurani are growing bored. Have fun or something... Also I'm not meant to have personal attachments but, good luck down there. You're the first one who actually listened to me." I wanted to laugh, of all the times for there to be an intonation in his voice, it was when he was telling me Good Luck. I couldn't speak so I just thought what I wanted to say. I hope you get more luck with people in the future then. Thanks for telling me all this, even if it's your job.

  The cat nods and winks before disappearing. It was quickly followed by the cafe. I was back in the white blankness. Then it faded to black and I fell into maybe the best sleep I've ever had. It was warm: The darkness held me in an embrace; The inky blackness calmed my overclocked mind; The enveloping warmth carried me away.

  I awoke, stretched, realised that I'm wearing a tattered dress, realised I'm in a forest and stopped to think. That whole meeting with the monotonous cat was still fresh in my mind so I attempted to look at whatever the System was for me. A dull grey screen popped up in front of me and displayed... basically what I expected but minus a few of what I thought were key details

  [System Status - Error: Incomplete]

  [Name: Feyre Agrifiti]

  [Level: 0]

  [HP: ]

  [MP: ]

  [TMCY: ]

  [Class: ]

  [Sub-Class: N/A]

  [Stats]

  [STR: ]

  [SPD: ]

  [MCL: ]

  [MCY: ]

  [INT: ]

  [CHA: ]

  [VIT: ]

  I stared for a bit, wondering whether this was normal or that whole "You're an experiment" thing coming back to bite. I was pretty sure it was the latter as usually that sort of Status has Numbers. In the end I didn't care much about that for very long, I was in a forest, so I willed for the status to disappear. Now I'd had a good education, I'd also watched a few survival programs in my spare time even though that was few and far between. Water, Shelter, Food, Fire. Probably not in that order... I looked around at my surroundings, trying to find anything that would help me in this situation.

  All I saw were trees, shrubs, bushes, grass, and fungi. None of which I recognised. I looked up at the sky and thankfully there was a Sun there. Although considering this was a different world it was entirely possible that this sun did not in fact, rise in the East and set in the West. So that didn't actually help me much in the short term. Then I heard the faint sound of flowing water. I almost jumped for joy when I realised what it was, after all how many people get stranded in a forest and end up not even that far from a river? Not many, if you were wondering. Now I just hope that there wasn't some sort of Super-Mutant Magical Bacteria that could one shot me and end my whole existence... again.

  As I tried getting up I realised that I was wearing a weird dress. It was like some sort of LARP dress for if I was playing a Noblewoman or something. The only problem with it was the occasional tear or hole that looks like it was created by a fast moving projectile. After focusing a bit I became acutely aware of my body being slightly more fit than I was in my previous life. I was not unfit by any means it's just now I feel physically stronger and healthier, as well as more flexible. I guessed that was what one of those stats that I can't see was affecting me in that way. I shook my head to clear it of these slightly unnecessary thoughts and hiked up the hem of the dress, bunching it into a ball in each hand before going through the bushes in order to get to this water.

  It didn't take long, the bushes were not very strong so a gentle push by me often cleared a path. I let go of the dress before crouching next to the water, pulling the dress back so it doesn't get too wet. I got to cup some water in my hands but freeze as I see my reflection. Now in my past life I certainly wasn't bad looking, I thought I was relatively pretty in comparison to the other women I knew. The men around us didn't disagree either if the amount of times I got asked out was anything to go by... but this girl I saw in the river put that past me to shame. Sure, her hair was all messy, but it was such a beautiful vermilion that meshed so well with her clear skin and deep green eyes that I for a moment was taken aback. Sure she had freckles and even some sort of birth mark just under her fringe but she was absolutely gorgeous.

  After that serious bout of narcissism I never actually took a drink at that location. I decided to follow the river upstream to make sure there weren't any animal corpses or whatever upstream that would infect me with magic blood disease or something. I still wasn't sure that this water was drinkable but after a little while it got too unbearable for me to not drink. So I crouched down again, cupped my hands, filled them with water, and drank as much as I could.