As humankind begins to rise.
The storm is stilled, the wounds will heal,
As hope once faint grows bright and real.
The quiet hum before the leap,
When dreams awake beyond the deep.
But from beyond horizon’s reach,
A rift appears, a yawning breach…
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LOCATION: TOWN SQUARE
CITY: SYSTEM-GENERATED GRIMWATCH, ALLOVIA
GRIMWATCH INSTANCE #32607
DATE: JANUARY 1, 2027 | TIME: 2:20 AM
When Vitalyx and Rejuvenex made a splash onto the world stage in mid-2026, Diane Livingston was 56 years old.
She was in her last year teaching science at Brandywine Middle School. She had planned to retire in the summer of 2027, but with her newfound vitality, she put those plans on hold.
As had become their custom the past decade or more, Diane and her husband Gerald celebrated the new year at a friend’s house.
It was a group of friends they’d known since college, and the couple hosting changed every year. Everyone was still married and had stable jobs. They drank wine and champagne, and told stories they’d all heard a dozen times before.
But it was cozy. Cozy and predictable. Like most of Diane’s life.
Their children, a son and daughter born eighteen months apart, were both away at school in Boston, and while they always spent Christmas at home, they both chose to welcome the new year with their college friends in Boston.
It was fine. Diane and Gerald were happy, and their children were happy. In general, life was good.
Diane smiled to herself as she fell asleep after ringing in the new year. It was 2:00 AM, and she kept thinking about where she and Gerald might travel over the summer this year.
Martha’s Vineyard was nice, but Myrtle Beach might be a nice change of scenery…
Her breathing steadied, and a short while later, she felt a certain warmth and calm from within her dream that was hard to describe.
She turned to her other side and fluffed the pillow a bit.
Wait, she thought, this isn’t my pillow…
Diane woke and looked around her.
She wasn’t in her king-sized bed with Gerald, and this was not her bedroom.
She sat up, still trying to take in her surroundings. That was when she noticed that her bedclothes were different, too.
The white t-shirt with the image of a black cat holding a knife, and the boy-shorts style underwear she wore to bed a few hours ago were replaced with a plain, knitted nightgown.
More details sank in then.
A heavy wooden beam ran along the ceiling for the full length of the room. The walls were stone, but somehow didn’t emanate cold like Diane expected they would.
She swung her feet to the side of the bed and stood. The wood plank flooring was also warmer than she expected on her bare feet.
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To her right, along the wall, was a low dresser. Two wide drawers were carved with a perfectly matched, surprisingly intricate pattern, and atop the polished wood sat a stack of clothes with a neatly folded note.
Diane read the note first. The parchment rustled in her hands as she unfolded it, and her teacher’s eye immediately appreciated the beautiful penmanship with which the note was written.
---
Your rest is done, the hour has come,
What was before is now undone.
These simple clothes will serve until
You forge the armor of your will.
The fountain waits beyond your door,
Its waters hold forgotten lore.
Drink deep of purpose, find your way.
Your new existence starts today.
—The Management
---
“The Management,” she muttered. “This is all strange. I must be dreaming, but it feels so real…”
Diane shrugged and reached out for the clothes. On top was a simple linen tunic. It was forest green, and cinched around her with short strings she tied easily in place.
Under that was a pair of black breeches, made of the same soft linen. She pulled them on and tied the drawstrings snugly against her flat stomach.
Those serums were truly miracles. Staying in shape in her fifties was a challenge at which Diane had been failing, if she were honest with herself. Even back in her forties, her waistline wasn’t as firm as it used to be, her skin began showing the crepey effect men and women often got as they aged. She hadn’t let herself go completely, and always wore clothes that hid the subtle flaws so she still appeared stylish.
But when she took Rejuvenex, it was only two months before she felt her core tightening and the looseness everywhere replaced with taut skin and muscles that harkened back to her days as a cheerleader in high school.
She pulled on the leather boots and tied the laces. Her outfit now complete, she stepped in front of the full-length mirror in the corner of the sparsely adorned room.
Diane fluffed her hair a bit, and then couldn’t help but smile.
Thanks to the wonders of Rejuvenex, she appeared around thirty-five years old again, in the prime of her youth. Her hair, a deep brown, was wavy and just past her shoulders.
She turned to the side. These clothes accentuated her curves in all the right ways, without restricting movement.
She admired her figure for a moment when the scent of freshly brewed coffee struck her.
“That note mentioned a fountain. I guess I’ll go check it out,” she muttered, reaching for the latch and pulling the door open.
Diane descended the stairs and entered a large dining hall that had a sizeable open hearth at one end, and a set of double doors on the other.
A warm fire crackled in the fireplace, giving off a faint scent of woodsmoke that mixed oddly with coffee and baked bread.
In front of her, along the opposite wall, was a polished wooden bar, and several casks were stacked behind it, labeled as ale and wine.
As she was taking in the scene, a woman dressed in a similar outfit to her own, but with a gray apron tied around her waist, approached.
“Good morning,” the woman said. “I’m Liesl. Please head outside to the plaza. Coffee and breakfast await you when you return.
Diane nodded and thanked her, and saw several others heading out the double doors. She followed them.
The cobblestone streets outside the inn were swept clean, and sunlight spilled across the morning sky. People moved toward the plaza in pairs and small groups, their voices low and hushed.
When she turned the corner just beyond the inn, the street opened into a wide, circular plaza. It was a broad town square paved with pale stone.
At its center rose a fountain of breathtaking grace.
Carved from delicately shaped marble and worn smooth by what looked like centuries of water, a man and woman stood locked in an embrace.
Their serene faces rested against each other’s shoulders, and a hidden channel sent water trickling down their forms into the wide basin below.
The constant bubbling of the water had a definite calming effect that was hard for Diane to deny.
She stood for a moment admiring the artwork, when a screen appeared in her field of vision. She blinked, but it didn’t go away.
Diane looked around, and it seemed everyone else was experiencing the same thing.
The System Entity smiled. Limiting the Tutorial shards to 1,000 people so as to not overwhelm the participants meant that she had to run eight million of them at once.
Even so, the processing power required to sustain all of it was 32.68 percent lower than she had allocated for prior to her System 2.0 upgrades.