Welcome to the System.

Initialisation in progress… Please wait.

Stat points available!

[Help Menu] available!

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the [Hero Project].

Special Trait Unlock: [Common Knowledge]. Download in progress…

[Main Quest] available!

As I wake up, everything is too bright. Too bright, too dry, too wrong.

And as I have these thoughts, I realise that suddenly, I have thoughts. Thoughts… What’s that even supposed to be? What’s a language and why does that word suddenly pop into my head? What’s a word, and why do I know what a word is?

In my past life, I’ve only ever thought in concepts. Or maybe not even that. I think I just did things, because I wanted to. Zero contemplation. Nothing like what I’m doing right now. Because now, there was this thing called inner monologue. Very weird. I don’t like it at all. It’s a little disorienting.

You have learned the Skill [Inner Monologue].

[Inner Monologue] advanced to Level 2!

What? What was that? I keep getting these intrusive thoughts that don’t belong to me at all. Or rather, they are presented to me. I don’t want to see this. Go away!

Wait, wait. Now that I think about it, I know what you are. You are a System! You are the one feeding me all this stuff, aren’t you?

You are what’s making me sapient. Well, take it back! I want to return to prehistory!

Because looking at this atrocious Main Quest you gave me, I really don’t want to do it at all.

No but, first of all, this all sucks. Even not thinking about the System at all, just standing here, I feel very uncomfortable. It’s not wet enough. It’s all dry. I can feel myself drying up. I don’t want to dry up! The only wet stuff about me is this nice, amazing and very cosy red liquid filling and flowing between all the cracks and crevices in my rocky self. I like it.

Wait… actually, there is this second liquid too, absorbed by my body in just the same way. It’s green and smells like grass and calm water and sunshine. What is this? Moss tea? The knowledge I now have tells me that such a thing doesn’t exist, and yet, here it is, right inside me.

And both of these fluids are so warm and good and make me feel alive, and also somehow make me feel loved. Loved by whom?! This makes no sense at all, because I don’t even know what love is.

Ah, but disregarding that, I really don’t feel comfortable. Not only is it too dry, it’s also so bright. I think I’m going to lose my eyes. Oh, god. I’m falling over. This is bad. I’m rock now. I will fall over and crack into a thousand pieces and—

Bonk.

Actually, I’m pretty sturdy rock, it seems. All good. That bonk did nothing. Okay, sure. Ah, I can still roll myself into a ball! I really love doing that.

Off I go! Somewhere where it’s wetter and darker, maybe. It’s way too bright out here. I can barely parse what my eyes are seeing, but I do see something that looks quite like water, maybe. Only one way to tell. Goodbye, scary big dryness, hello fond, all-encompassing wetness.

Splash!

Oh, god. As I enter the water, it just feels so nice. Yes, this is what makes life worth living. I absolutely adore this. All of this salty stuff floods right into me. Just like home. Just like back then.

Just like… only a moment ago?

Yes, I do have some vague memory of dying. I was still in my original body, and then I died. It was really bad. I think I must have messed up somehow.

I try not to think about it too hard, because truth be told, it doesn’t matter. I have this shiny new very hard body now that I apparently don’t even have to eat with, judging from my complete lack of hunger whatsoever. I remember hunger being a big thing for me before dying.

And, oh, this blood feels so nice. Whoever invented ‘blood’, I really owe you something. It’s like the perfect glue for me. And this tea flowing inside my rock, it fills me up to the brink with hope.

I sigh.

I continue thinking. And I keep sinking. Ah, was that a rhyme? Damn, this language stuff sure is a rather weird technology.

Anyway, I slowly sink further down the ocean, and that’s good. The further away from the big dryness I get, the better. Terrible place.

But maybe I should try to figure out my situation. So, I got adopted, apparently. Adopted by something that calls itself the System, and feeds me tons of concepts and data. Actually, let’s dump all the stats I have in MND. That’s short for Mind, it says, and I want to do a lot of thinking, so maybe that helps.

Points allocated to MND.

I somehow realise I have something like a stat sheet, so I open it to take a look.

Name: None Class: None

HP: 5/5

STR: 1 DEX: 1

MND: 6 VIT: 1

DEF: 1

I see. My stats suck! I understand at least that much. Or, maybe I understand that now, after putting all I had into Mind. Also, the concept of names is new to me, but I’ve got to say, “None” doesn’t sound too bad. I think names are something I can choose for myself eventually, but for now, I can go with that. So, apparently, I’m None. Hello, me.

Anyway, let’s try to understand this situation.

First of all, I can’t stand this System. That much hasn’t changed. I have no intention to deal with this nonsense Main Quest. But, the existence of a Main Quest implies the existence of other quests. Those? Maybe they are better. Apparently, I can get rewards when I clear a quest, and rewards are good?

They are supposed to be good — I mean, in my previous life, there was no such thing as ‘progression’, so perhaps I shouldn’t get myself lulled into that concept so quickly, because my previous life was nice, and just continuing as I had back then doesn’t sound all that bad to me.

Still, at the very least, I want to find out more about this thing that has invaded my mind. So, playing along for a while might be worth it, if only to get the gist of it. Maybe I can learn how to expel it, too.

Finally, I hit rock bottom.

Ocean floor. I can roll around, but I think I’ve done enough of that for now, so I uncurl and stand up.

Oh, that’s so much better. I can actually see what’s around me now, compared to when it was dry and bright. That’s a big upgrade.

The first thing I do is gaze around to try and find anything that might look familiar.

It’s all very blue, and kind of dark, but I do like it that way. I can’t see too far, but I get to see a decent chunk of my surroundings.

This is a bit of a rocky landscape. A few bigger rocks in the distance, and many small ones on the ground. Thus, what I do first is pick up a rock. And I look at it rather closely, because why not? It’s the first rock I see in this ‘new world’ and it’s the closest thing around. It’s not that much different from the rocks that make up my body, except this one doesn’t contain any blood or tea. Black, flat, a few cracks.

In the end, it’s really just a rock, though. I want to throw it away, but I hesitate. I’m made of rock too! So, maybe I should appreciate rocks. And so, I just gently lay it back on the ground. There you go, little rock. I hope you’re having fun sitting around on the ocean floor all day.

I sure would have.

But for now, I want to do a little exploring. Just a bit. If I’m lucky, I might end up understanding what’s happening to me.

As I walk over the ocean floor, I recognise some rather peculiar things. First of all, I can see fish. No clue why I know what they are called, but in the distance, they float around. I vaguely remember them, I think? But not really looking like this.

Damn, some fish can be really pretty. There’s one with long colourful fins, another one that’s a bit transparent, and some more that are even larger than I am. Ah, I do like them. Maybe I can befriend a fish one day. For now, they just dart away when I get close.

But then, as I jump down a cliff and descend into another even deeper valley, I find something else. Something big. Really big. It seems like the dead body of a very huge fish, just lying down there. Larger than any creature I have ever seen.

And many other animals are around that big body, feeding off of it. I’m not hungry, so I pass. But I do look very closely at that body. I walk around it, and some of the creatures halt their meal to scutter off as I arrive, while many of the larger ones just don’t care. There’s an isopod that looks a bit like me, but smaller. I gently stroke its back, and it doesn’t seem to mind.

When I turn away from that dinner spectacle and walk along the valley, I find more and more bones on the ground. It seems like whenever something dies, it floats down here into this place.

I’m going to call it the Valley of the End. Even though it’s essentially my place of rebirth. Or maybe, it’s the place where I once died. However, I do cherish this location now, it has found its place in my mind.

As I pick up a skull from amidst the boneyard, and stare at it intently, suddenly, something changes. I now seem to understand what it is.

You have learned the Skill [Identify].

[Identify] advanced to Level 2!

It’s the skull of a shark. The sharp teeth of a predator, it’s very white and scary, and it’s familiar, because I’ve seen such sharks before. But not these other types of fish.

I guess sharks are as old as me, then.

I think I must be pretty old.

[Identify] is good, though. I look around, identifying all kinds of things, and as I do, I slowly realise that [Identify] is used on things that aren’t alive. The fish swimming around, I can’t [Identify] them. Huh. Okay, that’s a limitation that I can deal with.

Eventually, I sit down, and finally go through the System’s [Help Menu]. It’s pretty big, but I have time. It’s not like I’m in a desperate situation where I need to hurry to survive. All I’ve got to do is… Nothing, really. This seems cosy. I’m made of rock, after all. These fish can’t even bite me. And the crabs won’t be able to pinch me, either.

But, then, after a while, I read about Afterthoughts in the [Help Menu]. Apparently, they are stray pieces of data that broke off from the System, and when you absorb that data, you gain experience as a reward to level up your Class. That way, the System keeps itself clean and rewards people who aid in that process.

It sure sucks that I don’t have a Class then, because if I had one, I could try it out. Maybe I should get a Class.

There are a few standard Classes to choose from, and apparently, even more can be unlocked in special circumstances. Since I’ve already put points into MND, I start looking for one that might scale well with that.

One after another, I open the little help prompts denoted with small question marks. I read through the data, the descriptions, then dive into all the details. Try pressing all the buttons, and absorb whatever this little System is willing to give me.

It must think it’s clever, worming its way into my head like that. Messing with something much older than itself. Bit of a miscalculation, I dare to hope.

Because I’m still a little angry about all this.

You thought you could give me this [Common Knowledge], and that I would be grateful and do your bidding. But I’m not grateful at all. You made a mistake. You should have given me a better Main Quest! This won’t fly with me. Oh, it really won’t.

I smile gently. Dear System, I’m going to figure you all out.

I hope you’re scared.