Exploring the Gateway

Something had stopped John from thinking it through up to now. Maybe it was the rush of initial adrenaline, or his own desire to deny all this was real. Either way, he now paused, for just enough time to stop denying it. A remarkably different event had transpired, for the first time in a long time, one that could change his whole life. Its possible origin, although something John was curious about, was irrelevant.

Maybe his mind had finally broken, or something genuinely magical had happened. John wasn’t quite sure which was less likely. But it didn’t matter, it was obviously noteworthy. He could already tell It would affect his life forever. There was no way to know how yet, but If magic existed, like this all seemed to indicate, then just the possibility of what he could do excited him. Still, he worried this was all just high hopes, and all this meant was that he finally snapped. Because he knew that was a possibility, his mind insisted on continuing to try to understand the origin of that dream and what happened since.

`Fuck… I must be hallucinating or something, there’s no way this is real. Any of it!’ he doubted himself, but at the same time, a second voice appeared, as if it was a demon whispering in his ear. But what if it is?

After all, there were so many times over the last few years where he imagined himself escaping from his own miserable life. In much the same way as presented by many recent anime, movies, books and other media, ’isn’t that exactly what I want? What I’ve always wanted? To escape from all this?’ John thought to himself, unsure why he wanted all this to be real. And yet, a creeping doubt came at him from all sides, ’let’s say it is real, how the hell did I get magic? From some kind of sadistic god looking for entertainment? Or maybe it just happened? No, something like that wouldn’t just happen, especially not to me. Perhaps I was given this for some higher purpose?’ he pinched his hand, wincing as he tried to get himself to stop. There was nothing to be gained by simply thinking about it. No new information could be gleaned. Hell, he still didn’t even know if any of this was real, and running it over and over again in his mind wouldn’t change that. So he did the only thing he could think of, he went about his normal routine, hoping the answer would just appear.

He entered his bathroom, which was much cleaner than his own room, mainly because he spent less time holed up there. Briefly afterwards, he went into the small glass shower standing in the corner of the room and turned the water on. The constant stream of hot water soothing his mind, and distracting him. Unfortunately, that relaxation made him think of the past, and what he had regretted.

Looking back, it was easy to say that he had seen his life as meaningless for some time. John’s social life had always been terrible, and the few friends he used to have had been lost to time or conflict. One of them, the only girl whose relationship he ever wanted to go beyond friends, grew estranged from him a few years ago. Any dreams he wished to follow had been shattered and he didn’t have any real plans for the future. Most of his time was spent simply going about his routine, believing that he might one day stumble onto some greater purpose. A good job, a way to help people, or something that would give him any sense of direction. The young man’s mind drifted back to his apparent insanity or discovery, hoping that it could somehow bring about that exact wish.

Eventually, he left the shower and the bathroom along with it, the various concepts he had thought of, taking a backseat. Even as unusual as the day already was, he still decided to act the same way as every morning and went down to have breakfast with his parents after dressing up. Walking steadily down the small stairway into a large room crowded with various sections inside it. He quickly approached the semi-open kitchen that was cut off by a countertop table where they ate. His mother, Brooke Miller, a woman with flowing brown hair and quite stunning beauty, was standing in the kitchen. John assumed she was finishing the meal she had whipped up this morning. His father, Benjamin Miller, was a more average looking man that was just as lanky as his son. John saw him sitting near the countertop table, eating a normal breakfast in the house. Some sunny side up eggs, bacon, and a side of toast with jam.

Unsure of what to do besides stand there, John decided to use Observe on his parents, given that it said it could give him information on people as well. He looked at his mother intensely first, trying to activate it, and a few moments later it worked. Before the sheet he had seen before appeared, however, a small settings menu popped up instead. It didn’t do much besides letting him set a color scheme out of a list of choices. The only one which grabbed his attention was named “Psychic”, so he didn’t hesitate to pick it. The Observe popup then slid into view, as the other minimized out of his sight. It was much nicer than the simple text before, now having a background of stars with a Sci-Fi looking font, which John found strange.

A sheet with his mother’s name at the top of it appeared in his field of view, one which seemed to contain far more detail than he expected. If his mind was capable of fabricating it he was worried and impressed at the same time. After all, he had never asked his mother about her youth, and her being worried at the small changes in his own behavior wasn’t something he would guess. What John focused on, however, was that she was disappointed in him and that it was hard for her to watch him go about his life in this way. It seemed exactly like her to feel that way, but at the same time, it was surprising to John that she did. He didn’t expect her to truly think about that kind of thing, even if he probably should have. Even more strangely, there were a lot of details that were noted as unavailable. John wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but the first thing that came to mind was that if this given the skills had levels, that might have something to do with them, and he soon wondered how he could even level up.

A moment later, another popup came into view.

Observe levelled up. Level task system unlocked.

Then another one, this time containing the answer to his question.

Skills leveling up by doing tasks wasn’t something John thought would appear, it was a weird mechanic for a game styled as an MMORPG. It was quite an interesting mechanic, however. Which made him further question whether his mind was capable of making all this up. Not likely to get any more information from thinking it over, John thought to use Observe on his father as well, but he was interrupted before he could decide.

“What are you standing there for?” his father asked him in a light tone, “come have breakfast with us! You need to get to school, don’t you?” He was snapped out of his thoughts by his father waving him over, attempting to get his attention.

“Sorry, I spaced out for a bit,” John lied, not wanting to worry his father. For a moment he almost wanted to reveal that he had the dream he had, or that he had some sort of skills, but he figured that both his father and mother would just think he’d gone crazy. After all, he wasn’t so sure he wasn’t crazy himself.

He sat down almost immediately and began to eat some of the food that was already placed on the table. A couple of strips of bacon, a single egg, and some toast.

“You alright John?” his mother asked gently, “you aren’t eating as much as usual,” her face took on a bit of a worried expression.

“I’m just a little distracted, sorry mom,” he responded, a bit concerned himself. This whole confusing situation left him less hungry than usual, he figured.

Hunger satisfied. Satiated status condition added: HP regeneration increased to X4, MP regeneration increased to X2, for one hour.

The next popup came to him as a surprise, it was strange to see him actually benefit from eating, but whether this was real or not, it made sense. It also made him wonder if his Gamer’s Body skill actually changed anything about his body function. That was, however, a question for another time, as his mother joined them at the table a moment later, bringing with her more food. Which reminded him of a problem he had caused himself and was now forced to solve. The Gamer, following his title, had bought a videogame with the lunch money he was given, having run out of his allowance. Given those supposed buffs he gained from eating, and his small appetite in the morning, he didn’t particularly feel like giving up lunch. So, with a heavy heart, he decided to attempt the ancient art of bargaining.

"Hey Mom, any chance I could get a small advance on my allowance?” John began, preferring to sacrifice his gaming allowance in favor of eating that day. An empty stomach would hurt him more than losing some money, though he really should have thought about that yesterday.

“What happened this time?” It wasn’t exactly a regular occurrence, but the young man couldn’t deny that similar events had taken place before. With some hesitation, he nonetheless explained the situation.

“I sorta bought a game with the lunch money you gave me yesterday...” Both his parents gave him a look of disappointment, even though it was not one of surprise.

"What do you have to say for yourself then?” his mother said, obviously already tired of this turn of events.

“I didn’t think about it before I did it and that was a mistake. I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again.” Usually, this would have led to a longer discussion with his mother after a brief dressing down, but today he was only met with a popup.

New skill: Charm

He winced. That popup and her actions following it indicated this was something more than him suddenly growing insane. As she sighed, but still went to her wallet and pulled out a few bills.

John stood up, distractedly, as he wondered what strange thing would happen next.