“Di-rrring!”

[Error! Error fixed!]

“Di-rrring!”

[Error! Error fixed!]

Bright light fell on my face. Did I leave the lights on? Wayyy too bright. I squinted my eyes. Where was I?

“Di-rrring!”

[Error! Error fixed!]

This sound… Did I watch a movie yesterday and then fall asleep? I didn’t remember coming home yesterday, though. My sensitive eyes slowly got accustomed to the bright artificial lamp. I blinked. This wasn’t my home; this room was completely unknown to me.

Where was I? I opened my eyes completely now. White was the color of the ceiling, the bedsheets, and generally, everything here. The weirdest thing, however, was, that there was a blinking, semitransparent, green, floating window in the air in front of me. I blinked a few more times, hoping the screen would vanish, but it stubbornly stayed visible.

[Assimilation complete. Please allocate your stats.] was written in clean letters on the window closest to me. 

“Allocate stats, huh.”

Before I could do that, though, an elated voice came from the dark blue door.

“Anya! Are you awake?”

I rubbed my eyes. Ugh! My arms hurt. My torso was sore as well. Not enough with that. It was too damn bright in this room. It gave me a headache. 

George Kruger stood at the door, a relieved smile on his lips. He came closer to the white bed and sat down in the chair next to it. His expression changed to worry.

“Are you alright? You suddenly fell over… and your hair burned.”

“You look awful.” Nanuq Thiel peeked out from behind him. “You got lucky that the flame only burned your hair tips and didn’t reach your eyebrows.”

The memory came slowly back. How did I get here? In a trance, I looked down at the few hair strands on my shoulder. They were slightly torched and curled at the ends to swirls of black hair. They also smelled a little burned. When I touched one of the swirls, it crumbled, falling down on the white blanket as ash.

“What happened after the smoke got to me? And where is this?”

I had a rough idea of what happened, but that seemed to have affected my spirit only. My body didn’t change planes back then; it stayed in the underground tower.

“You first stood there for about five seconds,” Nanuq Thiel explained. “Luckily, the smoke didn’t devour you like the woman. Then your hair suddenly caught fire! We were shocked, Eonni, can you imagine? Immediately after you went down cold, the fire extinguished, too. I would’ve had no idea how to decently put out the flames on your head otherwise.” Enthusiastically, she used her whole body to explain, pointing to her black hair and the floor.

George Kruger took back the rudder. “We had to change your clothes… she did not me,” he clarified. “They stank of smoke and fire. They’re currently downstairs in the washing machine for the third time. It’s going to be done in a couple of minutes.”

I nodded.

From what I understood, after the smoke got me, it only had been a few seconds for them, whereas, for me, it was more than 15 minutes till I passed out.

“How did we get out of there, then?” I was curious.

George Kruger said, “After you lost consciousness so suddenly, we were worried, obviously, so we didn’t dare to move. But not everyone was like this. Do you remember the old couple?”

I nodded.

“The woman, her name is Ursula. She had enough after a few minutes and, just like you, went to her own figure.”

“‘Losing consciousness is better than dying from dehydration.’ She said.” Nanuq Thiel added.

George Kruger continued, “Ursula touched the figure and was eloped by the smoke, just like you before. Then she cried out loud-”

“In the end, nothing much happened. After thirty seconds, the smoke figure of Ursula vanished, and she regained consciousness.”

“And then she gave Werner a whooping, hahaha! You should have seen that!”

“That happened? Seems like I missed something good.” I smiled.

“I guess you all touched your figures after that, and they vanished?” I inquired.

“Yes, we did. All of us had to relive something from our past that ignited some trauma response. I assume Ursula was the same, that’s why she screamed.”

Nanuq Thiel had become more serious. She clenched her tiny fists. “Yeah, me too. My parents were total assholes then. I still cannot forgive them for it, but the situation… It wasn't as bad as I remember. Now that they’re gone, I can’t be too angry about it…” Her lips became a thin line. Then she shook her head. “What did you see? You were out cold! Has to be something terrible.”

“We won’t pry if you don’t want to tell.” George Kruger said as he looked at me curiously as well.

“Ah, sorry! Yes, me too!” Nanuq Thiel made a movement like a zipper closing her mouth.

I smiled. “Thank you.” But that was not the reason I didn’t tell. Why did they see something from their past? I did somehow relive the situation, starting from the teleportation, again. Like they told it, I was sure they meant to relive situations from memory. What I saw there was definitely not my memory. I was an outsider in that world!

“After all the figures vanished, we were ready for the next trial, but instead we were teleported back to Berlin.”

“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”

George Kruger shook his head. “Not completely bad, but the world is extremely chaotic right now.”

“Statistics say, the crime rate has gone up 300% in the last few days.” Nanuq Thiel said.

“300%?” George Kruger asked.

Nanuq Thiel shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, ‘Daily News Break’ said that this morning.”

“Wait, wait, in the last few days?” I asked. Lost in my internal confusion and upcoming panic, I searched for a haven. I found it in George Kruger’s surprised face. It gave me comfort. But not for long.

“You were unconscious for almost four days.”

“Four days?!” I screamed and jolted up in bed. Then instantly regretted it. My rips felt like a wooden roof in a hurricane, shattered, lifted, and definitely not in the right place. Sharply, I inhaled a huge amount of air. That also proved to be a wrong decision. The inflated lungs burned like fire. 

Fire? Right, since earlier, did they not see the transparent windows? From the corner of my eye, I still saw them floating above the bed behind Nanuq Thiel’s head, which suddenly popped into view.

“What are you looking at?” She asked.

“Are you not seeing this?” I replied while keeping my breaths low to not inflate my lungs too much.

“What?” She looked at the screen, then at me, raised her hand, and flapped it a few times in front of my face. “Is your brain damaged? Ajeossi! I think Eonni is seeing things!”

George Kruger massaged his temples. “For the last time, I’m the same age as her! Do I look that old?” He turned to me with big puppy eyes. “I don’t, do I?” The eyes looked lighter than I remembered, almost yellow. 

I looked back and forth between the two. “Ahem, no, and sorry Nanuq-ie, I had a white spot reflecting on my eye. It’s too bright in this room.” I sighed and lay down again. It wasn’t even a lie. I had a headache from the light.

“You don’t see things?”

“I see you. Does that count?” I smiled.

“… sure!” She smiled and jumped to the door. “I leave you two alone. You have to recover quickly. Before the month ends.” She walked out to another room. “Phee! Don’t you dare watch that show without me!”

Now alone with George Kruger, we stared at each other, unsure of what to say. It was too awkward. The last time I had seen him, I almost died.

“Did anything happen with Nanuq-ie’s parents?” I asked after a moment too long in silence.

“They died in their small world.” He paused and swallowed. He continued with a duller voice. “We found them on the list of victims.”

“List of victims?” My eyebrow arched up.

“The press released a list of all the known persons who perished. The whole of humanity was teleported to this strange world, just different places there. Plenty of people died. Around half everywhere. You can look at the list later and… see if you know anyone… and where their funeral is.”

‘Ellie!’ It flashed into my mind.

“Nanuq’s parents burned to death. Luckily, the corpses came back to this world as well. It’s best to not mention this to her. She is too young. She looks like she isn’t fazed, but I think she just overplays her grief.”

I nodded. Poor girl.

“You were out for three and a half days. It’s time to move your body, but please be careful. Recover quick.”

I grimaced. 

“For your information, we couldn’t go to the doctor’s because they’re currently overcrowded, but even without a formal diagnosis, you can’t be reckless. We will be worried! Tell us if you need something. Okay?.”

He looked at me; I looked back. His irises really looked yellow. I could have sworn they were brown before. His stare seemed to dissect me. Unhappy, I gritted my teeth and said, “fine.”

George Kruger smiled happily. “By the way, your brother called. He is on his way here and arrives in a few hours. This is the first flight he could catch here.”

I glanced over at the screens, then back to the handsome face with the yellow eyes. “Effectively, we know each other only for an hour, at best,” I said.

“I know. It’s weird. Feels like I’ve known you for years,” he mumbled.

“Same,” I replied.

That concluded our conversation. After a brief silence that was a lot less uncomfortable than before, he said he’d look after the laundry and left, closing the door quietly.

Now that everyone left, I put my full attention on the screen.

[Allocate the points.] it read. I clicked the button. Now that I could move, I could navigate the panels like a touchscreen.

Currently, according to the system message, I had 10 points of “EX”, short for “Existence”, that I could put in various “stats”. The stats available were Health, Strength, Intelligence, Presence, and Mana. 

Health and Strength were self-explanatory, and I imagined Mana being useful for special skills later, but what were Intelligence and Presence for? Would you get smarter with Intelligence? And what sort of smart? Street smart, knowledgeable or observant deduction Sherlock Holmes smart? I had not the slightest idea what Presence was for. 

‘For now, I should invest in strength and health’ At least couldn't shove me to the side that easily then anymore, like the second round at the tower.

“Can I check my own stats, too?” I whispered, trying not to attract any attention from the people watching TV in the other room.

The screen flickered.

“Di-rring!”

A new message popped up. [Sorry, I am not sure if I understand.]

“Show stats?”

“Di-rring!”

[Allocate the points. 10]

“Open my stats… window?”

[Sorry, I am not sure if I understand.]

“Open status window?”

“Di-rring!”

[Status Window]

[Name: Yu Anya

Species: Pure Human*

Age: 24 years

Level: 0

Skills: none

Stats: Health: 10 (-2)*, Strength: 4, Intelligence: 12, Presence: 0, Mana*: 0

EX points to allocate: 10

Followers: 1

Body condition: exhausted

Emotional state: curious]

My Health should be average, except for the (-2). My Strength was low. It surprised me to see Intelligence so high. I grimaced. Was I smart? That was so weird to think. Maybe 12 EX were average? But then it wouldn't add up with the rest. Maybe it was common sense smart. I had some of that.

Also, what did these (-2) mean? A negative status effect? Did the pain come from a status effect? Then again, this should be written in the profile…

I clicked on the little star next to it.

[Your body condition “exhausted” has taken a (20%) semi-permanent effect on your Health.]

Ah! That made sense.

The star next to Mana didn't explain much.

[Mana = Maximum Mana * 100]

Next, I also checked the star at “Species".

[Pure Human: Born from two Pure Humans]

I wanted to invest one point first to see what happened. After a brief pause for thought, I decided on Health.

A warm energy current ran through my body and erased all fatigue, and even the pain in my chest was washed away.

“Di-rring!”

[Health has increased by one. Body condition “exhausted” has been partly neutralized.]

The status window updated in real-time.

[Status Window]

[Name: Yu Anya

Species: Pure Human*

Age: 24 years

Level: 0

Skills: none

Stats: Health: 11(-1)*, Strength: 4, Intelligence: 12, Presence: 0, Mana*: 0

EX points to allocate: 9

Followers: 1

Body condition: tired

Emotional state: relieved]

I invested another point into Health and my body condition returned to “neutral” and right after became “energetic”. The (-1) disappeared as well.

I put one point in each category after that, so that my stats read: 

[Stats: Health: 12, Strength: 5, Intelligence: 13, Presence: 1, Mana*: 1

EX points to allocate: 4]

I didn't feel any different after the investment, like I did with Health. The disappointment immediately changed my Emotional state to “disappointed” as well.

Someone tentatively knocked on the door.

“Yes?”