Finished the next chapter...Here you go.

"...WHAT!", I shouted in complete surprise.

['The world's are your oyster.]

Description: You are starting a massive adventure, one whose scale is nearly incomprehensible.

Objective: Open the door and step through for the first time.

Reward: A lifetime of Adventure.

Failure: none.

Accept: (Y/N)

Needless to say, my mind was running at a mile a second, just trying to comprehend what I was looking at. A blue, floating, translucent pane of glass that appeared out of nowhere, with text on it. Not only that, it was talking about objectives and rewards? Why? What purpose did it serve?

(Meanwhile, Inside Felix's head.)

'Brain?'

'Yup?'

'...the fuck am I looking at?'

'Hmm? Oh...'

'...'

'...'

'Well?

'...yeah, I got nothin'.'

'That's what I thought...'

'...'

'(Internal screaming)'

'...Try touching it.

'What?'

'Yeah, try touching it. It doesn't seem hostile, so touch it, see what happens.'

'...'

'What?'

'Brain, that is without a doubt one of the worst ideas you've ever had, second only to that time you made us play the Stephen King drinking game.'

'Hey! That was not my fault, I'm not the one who brought out the tequila halfway through "IT".

'...'

"Besides, do you have any better ideas at the moment?"

'...Touché.'

With a shaky hand, I reach out and tap one of the sides of the pane. My finger went straight through, causing it to ripple like the surface of water, cascading throughout the pane until hitting one of the other sides and bouncing back towards my finger. The effect was somewhat mesmerizing, actually.

"Okay.", I started, curiously trying to get an idea of what it can do. "It's not entirely physical, so how does it expect me to interact with it?"

Slowly moving my hand across It's surface, sending more ripples that trail behind my fingers, I hover over the yes and no options. With a quick tap, I hit the yes icon and awaited it's response. Nothing happened.

'Definitely not physical.', I thought. 'Maybe voice commands?'

With a deep breath, I focused solely on the text and said "yes", albeit with a hint of questioning in my tone. Upon verbal acknowledgement, the text on the pane shifted to now read "Quest Accepted". Then, just as quickly as it came, the pane shrunk back towards its center and vanished from sight.

"Quest?", I unwittingly uttered aloud, which caused another pane to suddenly appear in the center of my vision, nearly forcing me to jump out of my skin. Once the shock wore off and my heart stopped palpitating, I examined the new pane.

This one was different from the other, as this was more in an organized-list format. Along the left side of it were three tabs, that read "Current Quests", "Completed Tabs", and "Unaccepted Quests" respectively. Each one appeared to have a drop-down list underneath them, with the first having the name of the quest I'd just accepted emboldened with golden lettering. The center and main body of the panel was a simple rectangle, which housed the same descriptive text of the quest from before.

"So this is supposed to help me keep track of what I need to do? That's... actually rather useful." I said, generally grateful. Taking a few moments to look over the newly discovered quest log, a thought entered my mind as I was glancing over the quest's description again. Rewards.

'What did It mean by Rewards?', I thought. 'It listed "a lifetime of adventure" as the reward, but I'm not entirely sure that it's not being sarcastic. But...if it's being literal, then does that mean it can give me other things? Like money or stuff? How would that work?'.

Then, I took a moment to follow on this line of thought. The places you'd usually find things like a quest log were in games, and while I hadn't ever really played many games, I knew enough through a couple friends to get the basic idea.

'Though, from the little I've seen, they didn't usually actually hand the item to the player, they deposited it directly into-', and then it hit, a flash of inspiration. The idea, while it seemed preposterous, seemed probable given my situation, since "impossibility" got tossed out the window with extreme prejudice. But even if I understood that, my mind didn't want to fully accept the idea.

"I couldn't have...", I muttered in denial, "It's just not..." .

Taking another deep breath, this time taking a nervous gulp as well, I steeled myself. I braced myself for the probable shock I was about to receive, and whispered the word "Inventory".

My eyes went wide when, just like with the quest log, another panel appeared. This one centered around a series of boxes, several rows of five each, with a small diagram of a person just off the left side of the main box. Across the top were more tabs, but most of them were blank, except for the currently highlighted "General" tab. In the bottom right corner was dollar-sign with the number zero next to it, and lastly, there was another zero in the top right with an "lb." next to it.

Needless to say, I didn't take this realization well. Keeping yourself standing while you're hyperventilating is not an easy thing. The house and the afterlife I could have dealt with and have been relatively okay, the universe hopping door I could have taken with a bit of an adjustment period, but this? Finding out that some Multiversal cosmic being had fundamentally altered your body to give you the powers of a video game character, for what may have been shits and or giggles? There is no word in the English language to describe my mental state. I felt horrified, confused, distraught, a little violated, angry, I...still can't properly find the words to describe it. But what I can describe, is the instant and heavy feeling of weariness. At that moment, all I felt was the dire need to sleep, and sleep for a long time.

Dropping everything in my hands and listlessly stumbling towards the stairs, I hesitantly climb the creaky wooden boards toward where I knew my old bedroom would be. Each and every footfall was heavy. Not the same as a stomp is heavy, but more that I wasn't trying to soften my steps, just picking up my leg and letting it fall onto the next as I walked.

Reaching the top of the stairs brought me to a hallway that I'd seen many times before, rows of doors down every side. Off to the left were doors that belonged to my siblings. My older brother's door was covered in various biohazard stickers and "Keep out" signs, still from when he was going through his punk rock phase before he joined the army. My sister's door was stark white, only a poster stuck to the front of it, though for some reason it was blank now. At the end of the hall was the door that led to my parents bedroom, completely uninteresting and bland. And to my right was the door that lead to the bathroom, and next to that, was my room. My door had the same horrible picture of a pirate I attempted to draw when I was a kid. Even with rubbing alcohol, we never could get those crayon stains out.

Not even bothering to check if it was unlocked, I kick open the door and slam it closed behind me. It was exactly the same as it always was, right down to the Spiderman sheets on the bunk bed over my desk. A bunk bed that was probably a little small for me now, but I honestly didn't care, just wanting to sleep as long as I could. Climbing up the built-in ladder and crawling under the sheets, I was just barely able to hug my knees so that I would be completely covered by the small blanket. Laying in my childhood bed was a comforting feeling, but not the same one you'd think. Sure, there was the familiarity that came with it, but there was also a sense of... "not belonging" as well. Like when you put on a shirt that is just one size too small for you. Sure, it'll fit you, but you will never get the feeling of it being just right. That insecurity.

As I laid there, trying to drift into unconsciousness, I couldn't help but notice how eerily quiet the house became. Like, once I stopped moving, there was not a sound to be heard, no life to make that sound. Not even the sound of the waves could penetrate the walls of the room. It felt... empty.

'This is an empty house.', I thought, trying to nuzzle my head further into the pillow.

'Empty...except for me.'

Without a sound to be heard except for my shaky breathing, I closed my eyes and painfully drifted into a restless sleep.

I did not sleep well. The events of the previous day weighed heavily on my mind, not even allowing my dreams to be a reprieve from them. Groggily opening my eyes, I peered across the familiar sight of my bedroom and heaved a deep sigh. As I sit up in my bed, a panel appears before my eyes.

[You have slept in a bed you own.

HP, MP, and Stamina have been restored to 100%.

Non-lethal and Non-permanent status effects have been cured.]

"Go away.", I growled in a dark voice directed at the panel. As soon as the words left my lips, the panel was gone and I was left staring at open air. Slowly crawling off the bed and standing on the oddly cold floor, stretching my incredibly sore muscles, I glance out the window and discover that it's actually night time.

"...So, it went to the effort of putting in a day/night cycle...", I mused before trailing off.

My thoughts came back around to the "gift". With me being much calmer now, I began to think about the entity's motives for doing all this. It obviously didn't seem malicious, considering all the effort it's gone to for these "gifts". While it probably wouldn't have expected my reaction to all this, it most likely didn't know any better, or didn't understand what it was doing.

'And it said in the letter that it would be "sitting back and watching the show". Did it mean me? Is it watching me? Am I the show?'

With that thought, I cast a quick suspecting gaze at the ceiling, half expecting to see something looking back, but was only met with the sight of the glowing star stickers from my childhood.

"Hmm...", I grunted, turning to face the wardrobe that was up against the wall. Stepping up and pulling open one of my drawers, I realized that the recreation had a small oversight. It was filled with my clothes... from back when I was seven. Needless to say, I wasn't fitting in those. Hesitantly, my gaze shifted from the wardrobe towards the only place that I knew that would have clothes that fit me; my brother's room.

I always got my brother's hand-me-downs when he got new clothes. Mom used to say that we looked so much alike, despite the age difference, that we could have been twins if we were born a little closer together. This meant that most likely, when he grew out of his old clothes, I'd be just growing into them. It kinda worked out alright, actually. It was funny, actually, because we were so close in looks, that his fake IDs worked for me too. That is, until I made the mistake of going to the bar that my brother used to frequent. Had to answer a lot of questions on that one.

Anyway, I took a quick walk down the hall to my brother's room and opened it. Yeah, getting kinda tired of saying this, but, "It was exactly the same" yada yada yada, you get the idea. Honestly, aside from how messy it was, there wasn't much of note. Just picture a punk rock teenager's room, you'd get a pretty good idea. Taking a quick stroll over to the closet, I took a look at the selection and picked out an outfit.

Ultimately, I decided on a white t-shirt with one of the only pair of pants that wasn't leather; a pair of tan cargo pants, a black and white checkered vest with a large wolf imprinted on the back, with bold lettering that read "Wolfgang" underneath, and a pair of leather boots.

Just as I was going to walk out the door, something catches my attention in the corner of my eye. Right next to the bed, leaning upright in it's stand just off to the side of an amplifier, was my brother's guitar. In pristine condition. The second I saw it, I felt a pang in my chest, a little knot wiling up. I sit down on the edge of the bed, reach over, grab it and just hold it in my hands for a moment. Shifting into position, I strum a few strings and find that it's horribly out of tune.

Taking the time carefully, and I mean very carefully, tighten the strings until every one was properly in tune. With a bit of a nostalgic twinge, I lightly pluck at the strings for a while, until a melody finally comes to mind. To be honest, I haven't touched a guitar in years, but I think my skills hadn't gotten all that rusty, even if I made a few mistakes here and there.

I eventually finish playing the song, wiping a small tear from my cheek, and place the guitar back on the stand. I rise to my feet and take a few steps toward the door, before I take a glance back at the instrument. Under my breath, I muttered a single sentence with a pained inflection in my voice.

"I miss you, Frederick... I'll always miss you."

I close the door behind me and head downstairs. As I'm passing through the living room towards the kitchen, I notice the door to the study still open. A few flashes go through my mind of the door and the key, but I ignore them and continue on my way.

Stepped into the kitchen and taking a look around, I spy a television hanging in one of the upper corners of the room, one that used to be on perpetually with cooking shows, news stories, sports games, now hung there silent and still. I grab the remote off the nearby countertop and turn it on, only for black-and-white static to fade in.

'Hmm, no cable. That's disappointing.', I thought.

Placing the remote back on the counter, I stroll over to one of the lower cabinets where we stored the cereal. I swing open the cabinet door and find that it's completely empty. With a quick, and slightly panicked check, the rest of the cabinets and the fridge showed that they were all empty as well, not a scrap of food to be found.

"Gggreat...", I growled out, somewhat mimicking my stomach. "Remade the entire house, forgot to add the food."

With an exasperated sigh, my gaze turns back toward the living room, thoughts swarming in my head. "A choice of whether or not to use it...", I started, "kinda don't have a choice now, do I? You forgot to give me food, asshole.", I said with a glare towards the ceiling.

I lifted my hand up to my face, slowly examining it carefully as my fingers weaved back and forth. With a quick snap, my hand flexed into a tight fisted grasp, the muscles and ligaments creaking ever so slightly.

"Well...since I'm stuck with it...might as well figure out how to use it. Don't wanna get squashed the second I get out of the door.", I said with despondent resignation.

I was back in my father's study standing in front of the spade door, key in hand, and deep in thought.

'Okay...this works like a video game right? If I remember correctly, you're supposed to press the start button to open a menu of some kind, and that's where you can access all the important shit. Since I don't have a controller, they've supplemented that with voice commands, though it seems that the actual volume doesn't matter. If that's the case, then since I've accessed two menus already, that must mean I don't have to go solely through the main menu to use them. Kinda like a shortcut, I guess. But, what specific words am I supposed to use? So far, it's been simple, single words like "Inventory" and "Quest". Would this be the same? ...Well, here goes nothing.'

"Okay...Start." I said.

...nothing happens.

"Uh...Pause?", I said again, this time with a bit of worry.

...still nothing happens.

"Hmm...Menu?", I said, and thankfully, this time a panel popped up. "Jackpot."

This panel was much smaller than the other ones, only hosting a list of text.

[Status]
[Skills]
[Perks]
[Inventory]
[Quest Log]
[Beastiary]
[Options]

'...Five new ones. I was actually expecting more. But, at least this makes it somewhat simpler.', I thought, turning my attention to the option that first caught my attention.

"Options", I said. And with that, the small panel was swapped for a slightly larger one, but with much more text.

[Auto-loot: (On/Off)]
[Interaction methods: Thought: (On/Off) Vocal: (On/Off) Gesture: (On/Off).]
[Window Physicality: (Non/Full)]
[Window Size Toggle: (On/Off)]
[Window color]
[Window Transparency]
[Notification frequency: (Always) (Sometimes) (Only in emergencies) (Never) (Custom)]

I don't know what I was expecting when I saw "Options" in the menu, but this was rather mundane, actually. A few customization options for the menu, a notification frequency slider, a method for changing how to use the menus, and something called "Auto-loot".

The first thing I did was turn on the gesture and Physicality settings. Voice commands may be more convenient, but I prefer the sensation of actually touching the menu to use it, rather than just saying what I want. It's weird, I know, but that's just what I prefer.

Not even bothering with the rest of the customization settings, I move on to trying to figure out what the hell "Auto-loot" was. There wasn't anything in the menu as far as a description, so I had to guess as to what it did. Thinking back to my earlier train of thought regarding the quest rewards, I postulated that maybe this was an extension or offshoot of that system, but instead of quests, this was focused on the aftermath of fights. Instead of manually picking up every piece of loot or dropped item one-by-one, this would do it for me and deposit them directly into my inventory, or so I hypothesized.

Granted, while this sounded rather convenient, there was something nagging at the back of my mind that told me this seemed like it could have a potential downside. Something that may have been overlooked.

Opening my inventory and scanning the screen, I quickly arrive at said overlooked detail, confirming my worries. In the top right of the panel, there was an indicator of my carry weight, currently resting at 25lb max. This signaled to me that while my inventory could potentially hold a lot, it wasn't unlimited. I could run out of space eventually, if I wasn't careful. I didn't know what the potential consequences for having a full inventory were, and I wasn't all that interested in finding out. After making a mental note to watch my inventory carefully, I closed the panel and returned to the main menu.

Closely observing the options in front of me, slightly hesitant to open any of them, especially the big one at the top, I heaved out a sigh and just went for it.

"Status"

[Name: Felix Wulfgang]
[Race: Altered Human]
[Level: 1]
[Exp: 0/1000]

[HP: 100/100]
[MP: 100/100]
[Stamina: 100%]
[Nutrition: 40%]
[Hydration: 57%]

[Stats]
[Strength: 1]
[Vitality: 1]
[Intelligence: 1]
[Wisdom: 1]
[Dexterity: 1]
[Charisma: 1]
[Luck: 1]

[Points to spend: 0]
[Skills: none]
[Perks: none]

Even though I braced myself for it, I still felt rather uncomfortable seeing this panel. Just the text under my name confirmed the sinking feeling I had the day before. I was no longer human, not completely, anyway. I was something else, something different, something...Altered.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I focused on my stats, or rather, lack of stats. They were all curiously at one, even the ones that I would have thought to have been at least higher than the others. While I may have not found a subject to focus on in college, I did at least do well enough grades-wise to get in on a scholarship, so why isn't my intelligence higher? And why did I have no skills? There were many things that I was good at before, so why would none of them be here? Granted, I didn't exactly know what constituted a skill, but the point still stands. I should have had something.

For a moment, I stared at the screen, just trying to understand why these were the way they were. Then, I tried to recall some of the skills that I'd personally accrued over the years. While I could think of and understand the topics in broad terms, the second I tried to go into specifics, everything became...muddled, fuzzy. Like I was looking at a painting through a thick, foggy haze, only just barely able to make out the outlines of the picture.

Needless to say, this frustrated me to no end. I knew them, I knew that I knew them, but it wouldn't let me use them. On top of the confusing nature of my stats, it all left me with a sense of unease and a massive headache.

"Why couldn't you have just explained this all in the letter?", I found myself pondering. "Nothing like throwing me into the deep end and telling me to swim."

Rubbing my temples for a moment in silence to quell my headache, I spy my nutrition and hunger bars on the screen, now reading 39% and 55% respectively, and let out a small sigh. I didn't have time for this. I needed to find some food fast.

With a gaze of resolution and intent, I close the menu and stare at the bronze key in my hand, twisting and turning it between my fingers for a moment before my gaze fell back to the door. I stared at its seemingly innocent and innocuous visage that did no favors in hiding its eerie and otherworldly aura. I knew that it wasn't supposed to be here, and yet here it was, practically beckoning me to open it out of a sense of desperation and need. And whether or not I may have wanted to, I had to now. And what laid in wait for me on the other side, I couldn't possibly even begin to get an idea.

Carefully placing the bronze key into the lock, I quickly turn it, with what sounded like hundreds and hundreds of tumbler locks on the other side activating in response. When the sound finally ceased, I pull the key back out of the lock and safely store it in my inventory. With a steady hand and a firm grip, I grab the knob and open the door. There was nothing on the other side of it, just a wall of white that stopped at the confines of the doorframe.

"Okay then...Let's see where this takes us.", I said quietly under my breath.

Without another word, I took a single step forward, letting the wall of white envelope me and I felt a sudden pull, shunting me off into the great unknown.

You know the drill, Reviews, favorites, follows, all that jazz. Also, Some personal thanks to a certain coffee drinker for acting as my beta reader.

Until next time.