The alarm began rapidly beeping. At first, he swung his arm hard against his alarm clock, only to realize it wasn’t plugged in. The realization was after he noticed it clattering to the ground with the cord following, yet the beeping didn’t slow down. Eyes opening, he noticed the interface was beeping like an alarm clock in his face, alerting him that it was time to get up. Two things crossed his mind. When was the last time he woke up at 9 AM on a day not for school, and this system was becoming his worst enemy?

  “Finally awake!” A voice rang out, causing him to groan and roll out of bed. He forgot all about his new watch, “geeze, yes, I'm awake finally.” He mumbled, “Speak up, kid, I aint got that great of hearing.”

  “You aren’t HEARING me, you're connected to me!” Damien argued, “WHAT?” The watch shouted causing Damien to groan louder. Opening the daily quests, he noticed the 1am sleep was checked off, apparently getting into bed counted as going to bed. Technically not accurate, but it works out for him so he was going to take it.

  Proceeding through the rest of the daily tasks took him maybe an hour, having all the clean clothes from the quest prior really helped speed things along as well. Before he knew it, he was sitting on his couch messing with the interface. “Alright, first of all, why is your name Heart?”

  The voice spoke up immediately, “Oh, that's because that's the name I was given.”

  “Given, that's kind of a weak name. How about Old man red?”

  “Dumb.”

  “Captain Sync?”

  “I’d let them hit you.”

  “You'd be a sucky shield if you do that, Well fine,” Damien stopped and thought about it for a moment before tapping his chin, “Alright, how about you pick out a name only if you want a new one.”

  “Core.” The answer from him was immediate, not a second thought to process or anything.

  “Why core?”

  “Because I'm a heart shaped kid, I am literally the core of a human. Without me, you aint nada, nothing, zilch!” He responded with a snarky remark, Damien gave it a thought and softly smiled. “You know what, if that's what you want, that's what ill give you name wise. Welcome to the party Core.”

  While being at home was Damien's favorite thing to do, he wanted to experiment more with the system. With Core by his side he felt a little more confident in doing it. Stopping first, he grabbed a cheese burger and some fries with his money from the quest, then made his way too the park.

  Sitting at a near by bench in the center of the park he chewed and shoved the fries in his mouth like he hadn’t ate in years. This was due to the fact that Damien typically hadn’t ate fast food for a long time. He used his money to help his family so having this new income was like a bonus, but also he felt more hungry now more then ever.

  “Core, does the system drain my energy?” Slowly the interface pulled up what looked like a digital projection of Cores face, he looked like Clippy, the paperclip from Microsoft office, which made Damien choke on his fries some trying to clear his throat.

  “No, but the system does allow for your body to reform and assimilate new muscles at a quicker pace, so going from lazy no good nothing you were-”

  “Ow…Hurtful.”

  “Oh, no offense kid, but because of how you were its such a drastic change your building up a new body and muscle takes more fuel and calories.”

  “So, I'm stronger?”

  “Well, you gotta be to survive the quests, specially level 1 winning in a level 2 dungeon.”

  Damien calculated and processed everything he had said, if he was growing rapidly, what would he look like when he went back to school.

  “How does this all work?” Damien finally asked, Core taking a moment to process the question.

  “Shoot kid, beats me, my interface system is only allowed access too so much. I'm limited on knowledge based on my user.”

  “So, when you were with the previous owner you knew more?”

  “Bingo, but those files are admin locked.”

  ‘Admin Locked.’ The words rang in his ear, it made him question a few different possibilities about the origins of the system. If it was alien tech, he would be watched by aliens. However, that felt wrong. Maybe Alien blue prints used to make it with human tech. The forum post was dated back to 4 years ago, and they had it for years prior.

  Damien clicked his tongue, ‘Roswell? It could be possible, but that would mean a lot of predecessors, or the technology was just not there to be replicated at that moment.’

  “Aye, kid, I can hear your thoughts you know.” Core finally spoke up snapping Damien from his mumbling trance in his head.

  “Right, sorry.”

  “Didn’t we come here for some quest hunting?”

  “Yeah, you're right, let me browse the options.”

  Damien pulled up the screen, Core began hopping around the letters pulling on them causing them to bend. He was like a little animated figure trying to climb up the platforms of an old super Nintendo game. Damien sighed trying to read the quests.

  “There aren’t many.” Damien said a little diss heartedly

  “Duh, you're in the middle of a park, people are out working, less quests to do.”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “Well, the quests are based on the area you're in. Usually involving helping people, harming people, or bettering yourself.”

  Damien's eyes focused for a moment taking it in.

  *Quests

  Level 1- Climb the tallest tree

  Level 2- Run a mile

  “So, that's why there's almost no quests.”

  “Exactly kiddo.”

  Damien paused and contemplated for a few minutes, he could either leave the park and keep the tab pulled up till he found a more interesting quest, maybe a higher level one to gain more money. Or he could just knock out these two quests and call it a day.

  Damien chose the latter and clicked on the first quest.

  “Level 1- Climb the tallest tree.”

  The roots began erupting from the center of the park, he could feel the world shimmering and shaking as they expanded ripping through the trees around him causing the earth to erupt all around them. Damien curled up on the park bench terrified he was about to get annihilated by a tree.

  “What's happening!” Damien shouted his arms going over his head.

  “Relax kid, the quest is taking affect!” Core shouted over the vibration and eruption of the ground as dirt, and what Damien hoped was mud, shot all over the place from the uprooted trees and roots. In the center of the park now stood a massive tree, something that you would see out of a video game telling you to save the forest, or guarding the great sword.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  “What in Deku is this?” Damien said in awe, slowly stumbling off the bench and down the now sloped earth leading to the tree. “Its the tree your climbing, whats it look like?” Core said sarcastically.

  “Why did this happen though, what is all this?”

  “The firmament. Its when your world layers with the systems world. They over lap producing this.”

  “Does everyone see it?”

  “I don't think so.”

  Damien paused looking at the little animated Core in his interface, “Very helpful.” The shield shrugged.

  Damien made his way through the park, massive roots all around him, it felt like he was shrunk down to an ant size the closer he got to the tree. He was gonna ask Core a question, but the quest suddenly appeared.

  *Quest: Climb the largest tree

  -Successfully climb to the top of the tree

  -Rewards: 50 XP, 25$

  “So…I just climb?” Damien asked, Core shrugging again, ‘Very helpful.’ He thought in his head, “I can hear your thoughts kid.” Core suddenly reminded him, causing Damien to flinch and sighed. “I forgot.”

  The worse part of this mission, wasn’t the fact that Damien had to climb It was actually just how large of a object he was climbing. Damien wasn’t the most active person, but thanks to the way the system played it was similar to old platformers. He would Leap to near by leaves that were some how steady enough to hold his weight. Then he would use the bark to place his feet and hands to slowly move left and right.

  Vines helped him also, it was a lot easier then he had originally been expecting. The only other down side was the pep talk he was being given the entire time he was climbing.

  “Alright kid, you can do this! You just gotta believe it!” Core shouted from the side of the interface.

  “This isn’t Rocky.” Damien replied, trying to stay focused, the best part of this quest was no enemies. The dust bunnies were life or death fighting those things, and the claws hurt tremendously. At least this was safe and easy, as long as he focused he didn’t have much problem.

  Then came the final hurdle, the last jump to the top of the tree. Looking over the edge he realized he almost couldn’t see the ground. Was it fog of war? Or was he really that high up in the clouds. “Core, if I fall do I die?”

  “Probably, I'm not sure.”

  “Your the worse companion ever.”

  “To bad kid, I'm your only companion.”

  The way the climbing had gone, it led to Damien being a good five feet from the top of the tree, but there was a glowing ring around it indicating he needed inside that circle. Looking over the edge of the leaf he tried mapping a way back down and to shimmy over to that side.

  It was no use, the system knew that trick. The tree was too smooth to prevent you from skipping the jump and climbing straight up, it wanted you to make the leap of faith.

  “Alright, Core if I die, it was okay knowing you.”

  “If you die I'm gonna be stuck as a watch for my entire remaining life…So don't die kid.”

  Damien rolled his eyes, he was really over bearing. Taking a running stance, he took off. His foot hit the edge of the leap and he soared across the gap. He could see himself closing in closer and closer, his eyes widening with glee and enjoyment.

  Then he began dropping. His eyes widened, he was gonna fall and it was gonna be ugly. His brain began to go into over drive, and before he knew it.

  CRACK

  Shark tooths rigid side sliced into the top of the platform causing Damien to swing hanging just underneath it. His eyes were wide, his body trembling, but he managed to grab the top of the platform and with all the adrenaline in his body pull himself up.

  His eyes swelled up with tears, “oh thank you Jesus.” He said covering his face as the quest notification appeared.

  *Congratulations! Quest completed!*

  Damien didn’t even care about the rewards at this point, slowly turning his head to the side he noticed the soft green grass under his torso. He let out another sigh of relief and rolled onto his belly kissing the ground. It almost made him afraid to even attempt the next quest, he honestly hoped it would have been easier, but if it was level two he had doubts.

  Lifting himself up he pulled his knees into his chest and pulled up the interface. Time showed it had been an hour of climbing, ‘25 bucks for an hour…I'm not sure it was worth it but ill take it.’

  “Well kid, lets get the show on the road!” Core shouted, shaking Damien's head a little from shock, blinking as he mumbled under his breath and clicked the next quest. Slowly the firmament returned, and with it was nothing he was anxious to deal with.

  He felt the ground under him slowly began hardening, like he was sitting on more firm even ground. His eyes looked up to see Massive stadium smash down all around him. His body instinctively pulled in as dirt, and concrete flung all around him. Sand smashing into the ground not to far away, stands, bleachers, falling from the heavens.

  His eyes clenched shut as he held his head fearfully waiting for something to strike him. Thankfully, nothing did.

  When his eyes finally opened up, he was sitting in the middle of a massive stadium with a large track going all the way around. Slowly the sound of cheering began to brake through, in the stands he saw large and small creatures all over. Dust bunnies, Dust Rabbits, he saw animated objects, trees, goblins, orcs, ogres. His eyes looked in awe.

  “Core, what are these creatures?”

  “Oh, these? These are all the creatures you'll find in dungeons or Instances.”

  “There's a difference?”

  “An Instance is this, real time, but a Dungeon is immediate. Time pauses when you enter one, well, not pause but slows down to seconds vs hours.”

  Damien didn’t have time to unpack all that, the quest was clear as day and he hated it.

  *Quest: Run a mile

  *Out Run your self

  *Reward: 100xp, 50$

  “Out run myself?”

  As he was saying it outload, his shadow flickered, slowly forming and growing right next to him into an identical shadowy version of himself.

  “Damien vs Damien.” Core blurted out eagerly. For Damien, however, he wasn’t as eager. The shadow made its way to the starting line and stood. There were chants, cheers, and whooping noises from all different monsters and objects watching them.

  Slowly walking towards the starting line he looked forward and got into position.

  “Alright kid, don't make us look stupid!” Core said, Damien couldn’t make any promises though. Running wasn’t his worse strong suite, he was use to running from Billy, however it was the record on the large score board. 4:55 minutes. Damien realized the score was based on his freshman time. Back when he was happy, normal, and in better shape before the incident happened. This made Damien realize he may not be able to pass this mission, he was afraid of the consequences of failing one though.

  Damien took a long, deep breath, and the gun fired. Pushing off the ground, they took off with out a second thought.