The moon was high and bright by the time Jasson made his way out of the not-ruins, finding the cobbled road which the Twins had first led him down. Clara stood awkwardly by the house behind him as Jasson found a place to sit. The grasses here were cut low to the ground, and Jasson smiled imagining Clara swinging her sword around like a giant lawnmower. A gentle breeze rustled the trees as crickets started their orchestra, and for once Clara seemed…subdued.

Fair enough, Jasson thought as he charged his phone, I’m not the best of people. It’s good that she gets a little dose of realism. Still…

Jasson pushed the thought from his mind and powered on his phone. Hopefully, he could charge it faster than it drained. Jasson noted the time once the phone finally booted. 

We'll see how fast it charges, Jasson thought.

It was like a breath of fresh air as Jasson opened TikTik, despite only being off it for a few hours. He had only one bar of service again, and yet TikTik was faster than before. Jasson ran a quick speed test and whistled.  At 25 Mbps, the phone's data was the fastest since he'd had full bars at the army camp. How was that possible with only one bar?

Having decent speeds reminded Jasson of a bunch of other things he missed. His six-foot charging cable, soft couches, frozen dinners, and the ability to comment on videos. Jasson missed driving his parent’s car and taking a hot shower with modern soaps, and he especially missed having a change of clothes. In a few months he was supposed to go into his senior year! Jasson had been too paralyzed to ask a girl to Prom all the other years, but he’d been hoping to ask someone this time around.

Was this really his life now? His ‘New Life’? He didn’t feel like he had died. Just there one moment, here the next. People knew that he’d died, right? Jasson doubted that they’d been able to recognize his body beneath that semi-truck. Would he even get a funeral? Jasson blew the metaphorical dust off of his Phasebook account and looked up his family.

There it was. Announced yesterday. Jasson Boar, beloved son, died in a freak accident. Funeral to be held on Saturday, June 29th, and the burial would be on Sunday, June 30th. 

He will be missed.

Jasson had never been to a graveyard. Oh, he’d passed through once or twice, but he’d never been there. The only graves he knew were the deactivated profiles and final posts from friends and family. Here Jasson sat, hands trembling, staring at his very own tombstone.

“Huh,” Jasson said, “I…I’m dead.”

It was like witnessing a car crash you were part of. Jasson was a ghost on the platforms, checking his friends and family’s accounts. Condolences, memories Jasson thought had been forgotten, and so many pictures from his childhood. It was as if his parents had poured out their entire Guugle Photos onto the internet. Everything Jasson ever did was wondrous and missed, cherished moments from an irreplaceable part of their worlds.

Conversely, Jasson felt his blood pressure begin to rise as his neck burned. Why did it take him being dead for people to finally notice that he existed? There weren’t even any photos of him from the past two years, just the group photos at Christmas and other events. Jasson could barely read the posts and-

Doot-doot

Jasson pressed the Light Crystal back against the port and resumed charging. Sixteen percent full.

“Okay,” Jasson said, grateful for the distraction, “One percent in around eight minutes.”

Jasson would be okay; he could think about his death later. The fact was that he was here. Jasson had a second chance at life so he would make the most of it.

Without support networks the risks would be high, heck he was experiencing homelessness right now. But everything Jasson accomplished would be his. This world operated by different laws, but he was sure of one rule going forward. Quite unlike his last life, this one would be neither easy nor boring.

Jasson opened up the DISS app store and looked through the apps. He had a place to sleep tonight and a full belly due to his 'heroic' actions. Surely that was worth a treat? He’d even learned about magic and started charging his phone. In his last life, he would have ordered Floordash, but in this world there were only the apps in the store.

Jasson opened up the categories of apps and found the one which had caught his eye earlier. Combat. Inside the category, Jasson clicked on the first app he found.

MADaptation: The go-to app for casting Elemental Magic with your phone utilizing Elemental Crystal Magics.

“Cool,” Jasson said, “How much- sixty bucks!!? For a phone app??!!”

He was about to search for another app, but the ability to use magic was too tempting. If it cost sixty bucks then it must be amazing. Besides, he’d still have forty bucks left in his VenGo. Jasson bought MADaptation and watched it start installing.

Jasson felt a hand on his shoulder as Petra's voice said, “Well, aren't you boring. You didn't e-”

“AYEE!” Jasson lurched away, “The heck! Are you trying to kill me?!”

Petra was squatting behind Jasson wearing a loose once-white nightgown and an oddly cute nightcap as her pajamas.

Petra grinned predatorily and said “No, not gonna kill you anytime soon. Unless you go running carelessly out there. I have over twenty traps out there, ready for an unwary idiot to stumble into.”

“Excuse me?” Jasson said, scooting away, “Traps? Where are they?”

“Mostly along the road,” Petra said, “I’m sure you didn’t notice, but we had to swerve a dozen times on the way up here. If you hadn’t followed so closely then you’d be spread over a dozen yards.”

“Really?” Jasson said, sweating at the idea, “Doesn’t that seem like overkill? Wouldn’t you want to interrogate them?”

Petra raised her eyebrows and said “Oh? Think you know better?”

Petra didn't seem to be angry with Jasson so he said “Do I have to know better to have a point? I’m just saying that if someone is sneaking in, you’d want to know why.”

“But if it’s a lot of people,” Petra countered, “Like a troop of mercenaries come to kill us, then the trap will only alert them and only take out one person. It would be worse than no trap because we’d be unable to ambush effectively after that.”

“You’re capable of fighting a troop of mercenaries?!” Jasson said, “How many are we talking about? And how strong?”

“Without a doubt,” Petra said, glinting with pride, “Probably about fifty, individual difficulty from a scale of one to twenty…about a twelve. Although, as we are now we would be pushing ourselves. But get Clara some good armor and it would be easy.”

Jasson blinked, then said “Woah. That seems unlikely to happen but…wow. You two are a lot stronger than I thought. Are you secretly some ancient beings that look young and beautiful?”

Petra snorted and said “Of course not. There are people far beyond our strength. Beyond even our scale of strength. Take where we’re living.”

Petra motioned to the twin peaks and said “This all used to be part of a huge mountain with a single peak, but something vaporized the middle in a perfect circle. That’s so far beyond what we have today that it makes the streetlights in Stalt look like a geriatric firefly. It would have been amazing to see…”

Clara had already told him about the history of the mountain, so Jasson let the silence stretch as he watched his download finish. MADaptation was done installing. Jasson opened the app and reflexively clicked past the tutorial.

Dang it, Jasson thought, I wanted to go through that one.

“Looks like sis is done,” Petra stood, stretching out from her squat, “You can come back now as long as you don’t try to sneak into our-”

“I know,” Jasson groaned, rolling his eyes, “I don’t even want to. Clara deserves better than that.”

“And I don’t?” Petra said, voice sharp.

Every time Petra had accused Jasson, another response had been shoved behind the dam of polite conversation. Being Gen Alpha, it wasn’t a sturdy dam.

“I don’t know about you,” Jasson said, “You…well you’re not attractive to me. I can’t think of you in that way with your constant threats and bad-mouthing. Again, I don’t want to have the option to mess up, but I think that I should be good when it comes to you. No offense.”

Petra’s expression grew cold, and she stalked off without another word. Jasson sighed. He was being honest, but honesty was a good way to be a jerk. 

Maybe I’m just tired of getting insulted, Jasson thought, not that she’s entirely wrong to think that way. Still, it’s good to see her get a bit of what she dishes out so easily.

Groaning, Jasson stood and tried to work the blood back into his legs. The stone had not been as forgiving as the bed and Jasson’s legs tingled painfully. Jasson distracted himself by looking at his new app. On the screen there was a circle, and inside the circle were words.

Place Crystal Here

Jasson checked his charge. Seventeen percent, same as his age. Would that be enough?

Jasson stopped charging the phone and placed the Light Crystal onto the phone screen, trying to keep the phone level. Suddenly arcs of electricity flashed and exploded across the surface and light glowed from the phone. Jasson watched as the crystal slowly changed shape into something familiar.

“A headphone jack?” Jasson said, picking the plug up, “I haven’t used one of these in ages!”

The crystal was now shaped exactly like a headphone jack, but made of the same yellow crystal and sticking out of the end an inch or so. Like a thumb drive with a headphone jack instead of a USB on the end. The text on the phone read “Insert”.

“Ah, bum!” Jasson said, looking at his phone, “You needed to make a lightning port plug for this. Ophone hasn’t had a headphone jack in years. I wonder if I could- I have a headphone jack!?! Yes!”

There, beside the charging port, was the little round port of promise. When had this appeared? Had it been there this whole time? Did it get made just now?

Either way, Jasson eagerly plugged the crystal into it. It slid in with a familiar click, and the display on the phone changed.

There were Seven icons on the screen, and when Jasson pressed an icon it would zoom to fill most of the screen. Unfortunately, all they were was icons. No names, descriptions, or help of any kind.

“Okay,” Jasson said, looking through them, “Gosh. No hints for the symbols eh? I wish I hadn’t skipped the tutorial.”

Jasson picked one symbol that had a tube with a flared end with three lines coming out of it. Like a Flashlight symbol but upside down. Questioning if this was the best idea, Jasson pointed the phone out towards the road and pressed the button. Too late, Jasson realized that he should have pointed the headphone jack with the Light Crystal away from himself. For an instant, the crystal glowed a brilliant white before-

BOOM!