From what he would very much like to call ‘anticipation’, Sean had closed his eyes. If anyone asked if he was afraid, then he’d violently lash out via a barrage of bashful remarks about why exactly there was no reason for him to be afraid of such a thing, and then he would proceed to berate them for underestimating him. Alas, that was exactly what he did when he was indeed afraid and was questioned about it. And quite frankly, no one could blame him for what he did. It was the most obvious course of action. After all, he was indeed covered in light for a while, and he didn’t want to be blinded, either temporarily or permanently.
When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing. Not nothing, as in impenetrable darkness that couldn’t be seen through. Far from it. In fact, it was a white room, if it could be called that. A white ‘void’ would be more accurate, as there was simply nothing. No trees, roads, or even abstract concepts like color, smell, and movement. This wasn’t what he’d expected, or inversely, exactly what he’d expected —he was abducted by aliens.
“Greetings, Player E-3,579,450,065. Your Calibration has begun. I am your Virtual Assistant, TI-O, and will guide you through the process. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them now,” spoke a disembodied, female voice. It had the distinct feel of being an artificial one, constructed from a voicebank that contained small snippets of noises that were conjoined in a manner as to emulate speaking. Nothing complicated. He could make one, provided with enough time.
“Is this a dream?” asked Sean first. That was the only real question that mattered right now. It was an unreliable source, quite frankly. If he was dreaming, then the voice would be a fabrication of his dream and would most likely not answer truthfully. Maybe he’d just try to… enjoy this? No, that wouldn’t do. On the off chance this was reality, then he’d end up doing something that he’d regret later on, “And what exactly is happening?”
“Your planet has been chosen to become a part of the System,” said the voice, as if it was obvious. Maybe not, but mechanical voices didn’t have all that broad of an emotional spectrum they could convey with their voice. This one was like them. It didn’t have any real emphasis or anything that could imply emotion.
“Why?” said Sean, pressing further for answers, hoping that this was perhaps one of those AIs that could connect the dots from the context from the conversation they were having. If this was some sort of alien ploy, then surely, they would have advanced to that point, wouldn’t they? Or maybe he was overestimating what aliens were capable of in the AI department.
“I do not have an answer for that,” said TI-O, and after a not-so-brief pause, deemed that the questionnaire was over due to over a minute’s worth of silence as Sean pondered. It was a habit of his, getting lost in his thoughts mid-conversation, “Let us start the calibration process, Player E-3,579,450,065. Please, make your way to the door with a red sign over it and enter the room.”
“What do-” started Sean, but stopped the moment he spotted it. He could swear it wasn’t there just a moment ago. Whatever. He was in some sort of white void dimension talking to an AI. Thinking about how something appeared out of nowhere wasn’t something that he even had to bat an eye for, “So that’s how it’s gonna be.”
Thankfully, TI-O did not respond to that. He walked over to the door. It was intriguing how despite the fact that it was quite literally a void, he could make out the dimensions and the overall ‘shape’ of the void if he could call it that. The mere existence of the door made it a lot better, somehow. Maybe because that served as an anchor to reality in the middle of quite literally nowhere where nothing was visible moments prior. He didn’t sway, too, which he thought he would due to how there was no way to know whether there was ground beneath him or not or whether he was simply existing and perpetually falling before the door appeared.
When he pulled the door, though, he saw something peculiar. It was yet another white room. There was a monitor which resembled the one back at home, but it didn’t have the Sony logo in bold at the bottom bar below the screen, which was just the name of the company.
Not a moment sooner, he heard a soft buzz straight inside his skull. It caused a momentary headache, but that was gone as fast as it had appeared. It lasted maybe a second. Then TI-O spoke, clearly trying to explain the phenomena and why exactly that had happened, “Your Physical Calibration has been completed. Please say the word Status out loud and summon your Character Screen.”
Whatever this Calibration Process was, it was too streamlined —he didn’t like things like that. It felt like he was being dragged around through a single road in an open-world game. It wasn’t satisfying in the least in most scenarios, but he could live with this. He was in some sort of void.
“Status,” said Sean out loud. Was he supposed to say it out loud, even? Maybe something like thinking about it would be alright, though he supposed it would be annoying if it popped up in the middle of a conversation. A screen, much like before, appeared. But this time, though, its contents were different. Quite self-explanatory.
Character Screen
Name:
Sean Morris
Class:
Calibrating…
Health Points:
150 (+10 per minute)
Mana Points:
210 (+0.6 per minute)
Attributes
Strength: 8 (???)
Intelligence: 21
Agility: 11 (???)
Perception: 35
Durability: 15 (???)
Endurance: 24
Vitality: 100
Wisdom: 6