Chapter 1: Ch.0001 – A White Plane

“Happy birthday, Miss Watkins.” he said as he wove a false smile across his lips and handed her the brightly coloured present – the wrapping paper streaked with red and orange. They were her favourite colours if his study proved accurate. 

The middle-aged woman’s bespectacled gaze shifted from the gift to him and then back again before she finally took it in hand, a flurry of emotions evident on her face. All of it good, he thought. 

“Oh, my Lord, this is unexpected. Thank you so very much, darling.” she said with abundant gratitude. “How did you even know that today was my birthday?” 

“You mentioned it in passing a few days ago.” he replied smoothly. She hadn’t. He’d dug it up from her Facebook profile, but there was no need for her to know that. 

“Did I? Well thank you so much for remembering. Honestly, I don’t even know what to say. This is so unexpected.” 

“Aren’t those the best kind of gifts?” 

She laughed at that; the sound throaty in a way that gnawed at his ears. “I suppose that they are! My, you sure are making it hard for me to pay you back. You’ve been doing far too much for me as of late. That alarm clock you fixed has been working wonderfully by the way.” 

“It’s the least I can do for you considering how hard you work to keep the building in such good condition.” 

The woman blushed at that; her expression bashful and girlish in a way that he found odd in her face. 

“Oh, that’s nothing worth your consideration, darling. It’s the least of what a landlady should do.” she said sheepishly. “I don’t think I can in good faith let you leave without a reward after such a wonderful gesture. Would you like to come in for some coffee or tea?” she asked as she stepped aside and gestured towards her living room. He saw an approximation of what he supposed a nineteenth century noble-lady's home must’ve looked like, complete with antiquated furniture, baroque wallpaper and more frills than taste. 

“I would love to Miss Watkins but I have urgent plans to catch up on. I just wanted to make sure that I’d handed this to you before anything else came up.” He lied smoothly, and her smile fell, though not completely. 

The stink of loneliness and desperation at the sight of a friendly face was thick on the woman, but he saw other more ravenous things in those eyes that he had no intention of indulging. Not for such poor returns. 

She nodded understandingly, if not with mild disappointment, and a few more pleasantries were shared before he bid her goodbye and went on his way. He made his way down the hall and into the elevator and in the privacy of the enclosed space, he allowed his amiable countenance to melt away. 

A steely look of impassiveness wrought his expression, and Jimmy carried it with him as the doors opened to the fourth floor and he made his way towards the stairwell that led further up, towards the roof. The door was often locked, but he’d wrangled a spare key from Mrs. Watkins precisely so that he could access it as he pleased. 

He'd spoken of his shared love of plants and willingness to water the small garden that she maintained and the woman had all but pressed the key into his pocket. 

Another lie amongst many. 

A soft breeze caressed his mid-length raven black hair as he emerged into blue skies and the muted cacophony of the surrounding city. A small array of planter boxes hosted a variety of fruit and vegetable crops, along with others grown simply for their aesthetic beauty. They’d been watered recently so he saw no need to waste his time. 

Jimmy simply strode over towards the very edge of the small roof and leaned comfortably against the railing. He spared a moment to quietly luxuriate in the pleasant coolness that kissed his skin before he finally turned his icy blue gaze downwards. There, nearly four storeys below, abounded a throng of people and cars all engrossed in their own little worlds. 

He studied them as they went. 

An old man stumbled about with an open bottle of what he presumed was alcohol clutched in one hand and an irate look plastered upon his face. His body language spoke of unconcealed hostility, but a closer look revealed his hesitation whenever another bothered to challenge his gaze. 

‘All bark and no bite.’ thought Jimmy. 

He turned towards the couple that walked down the other side of the street with their hands intertwined. They looked like the picture of youthful, boundless love at first glance, but then he took note of how the woman's smile didn’t quite reach her eyes or how the man would furtively steal glances at passing women. 

One such lady was bound in a well-fitted black blazer and skirt. Her expression spoke of cold dispassion and business interests, but he noted the small smile on her lips as she noticed the lingering gaze of the passing young man. That smile told him a tale all its own. 

Dozens of others strode along the street, each the main character of their own story. He watched them all as best he could, studying them with a clinical intensity until the pleasant coolness grew a tinge too cool, and he was forced to turn away. 

His watch told him that twenty minutes remained until noon. An entire day remained for him to do with as he pleased. He could choose to idle it away, he supposed. He rarely took days off work, and he wasn’t entirely sure what had compelled him to do so for once, but the whim had struck, and he’d chosen to indulge it. 

Perhaps he would spend some time reading. A book was always a treat. A good DIY project was also a possibility. He had seen some interesting projects on YouTube and it had been a while since he’d had the free time to tinker, though the drive through the weekday rush to his isolated little workshop would be a pain. 

Jimmy strode towards the door lost in thought and considerations as he grasped the handle. 

He turned it and then, he was elsewhere. 

Not on the roof. Not in the building. But elsewhere. 

Jimmy froze for a scant second. Genuine if not muted surprise coloured his features as he surveyed his surroundings: an enormous plane of pure, featureless white that spread towards the horizon in every direction. Practice that had long since become instinct wove a mask of exaggerated fear and bafflement over his face even as he continued to study and analyse. 

He knew that what he was looking at was an impossibility, but that understanding made it no less real to his senses. He bent low and pressed his hand over the ground. It was flawless without a single speck of dirt to mar its perfect purity. It was also strangely warm, like sun-baked stone, and yet he felt no heat upon his skin from the sunless whiteness above. 

“Welcome, chosen.” 

Jimmy twisted on his heels with a cat-like grace.  An elderly man sat a short distance away on a plush, rustic armchair with a warm smile spread across his lips. 

The man wore his white hair stylishly tussled along with a casually untucked shirt and blue jeans that lent him a calm, affable vibe. His face was aged with wrinkles, though in a graceful fashion, and otherwise unremarkable. He reminded Jimmy of some of the older folk that he had met in the past, and the moments of acceptance that he had enjoyed in their company. 

The man was not one among them, but neither did he seem like a threat. Nothing about the fellow struck Jimmy as odd or worth a second look in isolation, and if perhaps he hadn’t been seated in the middle of a barren void, Jimmy wouldn’t have bothered to spare the man an iota of his interest at all. 

But he was. 

“Who are you?” he asked with a thread of fear and alarm woven into his voice. 

“A guide, of sorts.” answered the man in a rumbling baritone. 

“To what?” 

“The new world.” 

Jimmy glanced at the surrounding scenery, or lack thereof as was the case. The man chuckled. 

“Not this. This is merely a peaceful place where I can meet with those of interest. Like you.” 

“How did you bring me here?” 

The man smile grew wider. “Magic.” 

Jimmy would have thought him facetious under any other circumstance, but the situation was far beyond the norm and if nothing else, called for an open frame of mind. Jimmy said nothing in response and said nothing again when a chair came into being from thin air right across from the man. 

An open mind, he told himself again. 

“Take a seat.” said the man warmly. “It won’t bite.” After everything else, Jimmy wouldn’t be surprised if it did. Still, he warily took the offered seat, nonetheless. 

“What do you want?” 

“To do what a guide does my boy: offer guidance. But before that, let us dispense with the needless theatrics.” 

Jimmy cast him a look of perfectly blended fear and doubt. “What?” 

“The masks you wear. It is not needed in this place. You can be yourself here. Is that not what you want most of all?” 

Another pang of genuine shock bloomed in his gut, though it died as quickly as it had come. He stared at the old man for a moment, his eyes clearer than they had been a moment ago. The fellow maintained his warm smile and calm demeanour. 

He looked so perfectly average. So very forgettable. Unassuming. He felt a fool for even treating him with such wariness, and in that thought, he found something off. The man was... perhaps too average. Too mundane. Too well-crafted into a likeness that he specifically would find easier to converse with. 

Jimmy narrowed his eyes for a moment before he sighed and slackened into the chair’s welcoming embrace. All signs of emotion bled away from his face. 

“Fine then. I’ll ask you to do me the same favour.” 

“What?” the man asked, his smile unwavering. 

“Something is off about you.” 

“What makes you say that?” 

“Intuition.” 

The man blinked, surprised, before he chuckled and nodded. “I see that you do not lack in perception, at least.” he said, and then he was gone. 

In the man’s place sat a girthy alien figure upon a much-enlarged chair. The being was statuesque in every meaning of the world: its width as wide as his height, and its height taller than two of him put together. Its face was eerily human-like, though its white skin bore a glossy stone-like quality and its body was all curves and rounded angles, as if someone had sanded down the edges of an ancient Greek statue.  

“You are an amusing one. Others of your kind tend to be all screams and curses when I reveal myself.” 

“I'm... different.” 

“That much is very apparent. It can be a useful trait for a chosen one.” 

“Chosen for what? What do you want with me?” 

“Do you remember the computer games of your youth, Jimmy Space? The ones where you played as fantastical beings and rode to glory and fortune with magic at your fingertips?” the being asked abruptly. Jimmy shot it a queer look, both confused by the line of questioning and disturbed by the depths of what it knew about him. 

“Yes.” he answered finally. 

“Consider those games, then. The quests you pursued. The spells you cast. The System has descended upon your world, Jimmy Space, and the common sense that you have known thus far will be discarded. The games of your youth have come to life.” The being’s gaze turned away him from him then even as it continued to speak. Its glistening hand rose, and its fingers plucked at the air as if playing at a keyboard that only it could see. “The classes that you once loved will be made manifest, and magic will flow through you as surely in reality as it did in your games.” 

The words it spoke were nonsense. Impossible. But so was everything else around him, so what was one more slice of madness to compare. The being returned its eyeless gaze to him and smiled. Jimmy thought he heard the grind of stone. 

“And you, specifically, have been chosen to lead your people in this new world. You shall be made a builder of nations and forger of civilization anew.” 

A trio of screens blinked into view inches away from him. They shimmered blue and translucent and words like slivers of moonlight glowed upon their surfaces.  

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Individual Assessed 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Personal Class Assigned: Tinkerer 

Assigning Spells 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Leader Archetype Assigned: The Enlightened 

Assigning Skills 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Faction Archetype Assigned: The Circuitarchy 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Jimmy was taken aback for a moment by the oddities afloat before him, but quickly found the calm that was his nature. Carefully, he read through each screen and once he was done, shot a blank look towards the being. 

“Why?” 

“Why were you chosen?” 

“Yeah, but also, why any of this? Why games and screens and spells and skills? It doesn’t make any sense.” 

The being shrugged. Jimmy found the gesture odd on such a large, angular being. 

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“Why does the universe exist? Why does reality function as it does? Because it is, and it does. Do not ask questions beyond all our stations, Jimmy Space. I do not have the answers you seek.” 

He stared at the being for a long moment then, his expression thoughtful before he sighed and reclined again into his chair. 

"Can you at least explain what any of this means?” 

“Simply focus your intent. The System will answer you.” 

Jimmy lingered on that statement for a moment as he wondered whether the being was implying that ‘the System’, as he called it, could read his thoughts. He shut his eyes and experimentally honed his desire to have the contents of the third screen explained. 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

The Enlightened 

For the leader that seeks solace in greater powers, and purity in greater purpose 

+3 CHA 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

He did so again for all that remained. 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Tinkerer 

Born of a desire to experiment, alter and prod melded with an artist’s unbound creativity. A Tinkerer is part madman and part pioneer, testing and pushing without limit or care. 

+2 INT, +3 WIT 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

The Circuitarchy 

The love of machine exactness and cold logic. Nations built to unerring values and perfect precision dedicated to the greater whole. 

The Circuitarchy boasts of expensive yet efficient and powerful units and structures. It is not in The Circuitarchy’s nature to overwhelm its foes with legions of beasts or unreliable magical trickery, but to stomp out all resistance beneath the unyielding boots of its cold steel and machine intelligences.  

+3 INT, +2 WIT 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

The wording was vague and revealed less than what he would have preferred, but even so, the parallels were blindingly obvious. 

“This is a strategy game. Is that what The System is?” he asked. 

“It is a facet of it, but The System itself is far, far more.” the being answered with a slow nod. 

“Does everyone get these?” 

“No. Everyone of age shall receive a Personal Class, but only the chosen few receive a Leader Archetype and the right to forge their own nation.” 

“And we don’t get to choose a class and archetype for ourselves?” 

“The System knows your nature, passions and interests as well as you do, Jimmy Pale. Perhaps better. It grants everyone just what they deserve. No more. No less.” 

“Does it? I can understand why it would grant me Tinkerer, and even The Circuitarchy, but why Enlightened? I’m not religious.” 

“One need not worship a God to have faith, Jimmy Space.” 

He gave the being a look that said more than words could but sighed and moved on. 

“If you wish to know more about yourself, simply focus your intent as you did before, but picture yourself instead.” it told him. 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Jimmy Space (Lvl. 1) 

Age: 21 – Race: Human – SC: 500 

PWR: 9 | CON: 10 | AGI: 9 | DEX: 10 

INT: 16 | WIT: 14 | CHA: 14 | PER: 10 

--- AFFINITIES --- 

- 

--- RESISTANCES --- 

- 

--- CLASS: 1 --- 

Tinkerer 

Lightning Bolt I – Create: Contraption Grenade I – Machine Analysis I 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

The Enlightened Tinkerer, Master of The Circuitarchy 

Era: I  

Population: 0 - Units: 0/50 

Controlled Sectors: 0 – Controlled Settlements: 0 

--- Resources --- 

500 SC 

--- Nation Skills --- 

Divine Weight I 

--- Leader Skills --- 

Your Faith, My Might I 

--- Unit Production Skills 1/3 --- 

Chameleon Recon Drone (I) 

--- Structures Tab --- 

Common Structures: Terminus (I), Pylon (I), Population Node (I), … 

Military Structures: Assault Assembler (I), Cover Wall (I), ... 

Industry Structures: Resource Extractor (I), Manufactorium (I), ... 

Religious Structures: Piety Terminal (I), Network Pylon (I) 

Culture Structures: Bitrecessor (I), Bitron Pylon (I), ... 

Economic Structures: Trade Hub (I), Exploratorium (I), ... 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

It had been many years since he had last felt the need to play any of the games of his youth, but time had not eroded his memory and Jimmy could still recognize a character sheet when he saw one. It was a girthy one to be sure, and with a second half that would have been more at home in an RTS. 

A moment of concentration saw tooltips for each of the screen’s little details appear for his perusing, and Jimmy spent many long minutes visually digesting everything that he possibly could, from the nature of each attribute to the purpose of each individual structure, before he turned his gaze back to the being. 

It remained calmly seated on its chair, its gaze focused onto a patch of empty space. It turned to him when it noticed that he was waiting for it. 

“Are you done?” 

“As can be, I guess.” 

“Do you have any other questions? I am a valuable resource that only leaders are allowed access to, and after we are done here, we shall likely not meet again. Make use of me as best you can.” 

“What if I ask a question ‘beyond my station’?” he asked dryly. 

“Then I will give you an answer deserving of your station.” replied the being amusedly. 

Jimmy rolled his eyes but hadn’t expected much different. He fully took it up on its offer and asked the being every question that came to mind about the new reality that it claimed would overtake Earth, and the status quo to be. It had proved an enlightening time, if not still crazed like some lucid dream. 

“Are you satisfied?” it asked him at the end of it all. 

He nodded. 

“Good. I shall return you to whence I plucked you from. I suggest that you prepare yourself for the worst. You will not be returning to the safety you once knew.” 

If any of what the being had told him so far was even half as true, then he could expect no less. He gave it his assent and prepared himself. The being nodded and raised its hand. Jimmy felt a strangeness engulf him as he’d never felt before. It was not painful, or even uncomfortable. 

Just strange. New. 

He blinked as it reached a threshold and a faint lightness washed over his skin for a second. When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the white plane. 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

Alert 

You have entered Fungal Lair: Parsnip Views Complex 

 Floor: Roof 

━━━━━━━♔━━━━━━━ 

And a monster stood before him. 

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