“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Aristotle, Greek Philosopher (384 B.C. – 322 B.C.)

Milly’s shout echoed across the empty lobby. Her wrist ached from the impact as she stared down at the prone woman.

Oh…oh god, what did I just do? I’ve never hit anyone before. Fuck, what’s she going to do to me?

Xavier and his Tutoria glanced over in their direction, his Tutoria’s face awash with surprise. He, on the other hand, gave Milly a sly, almost approving, grin before he refocused on his Tutoria, and returned to his endless questions.

“Well, that was quite inappropriate,” Tutoria responded, springing back to her feet like a gymnast. Despite the blow, she was completely uninjured.

Milly braced herself for Tutoria’s retaliation, but all the woman did was chuckle. “Despite your rather pathetic life, you’re managed to preserve a tiny fire within you. Good for you. But will you let it be snuffed out, or will you build it into your strength?”

She swallowed hard and grabbed control of her anger, clinging to its energy like a lifeline in a storm.

I can’t lose this feeling—it’s the only thing keeping me from collapsing into a helpless pile of tears and darkness. But if I don’t get it under control, I’m going to go into this blind.

“I…I don’t want to die,” she said, desperation peeking through her anger. “But I’m not Xavier. He knows so much, and I feel like I’m drowning, barely able to keep my head above water. I need to know more. Can you tell me the basics? In, like, two minutes or less?”

“Okey dokey,” Tutoria replied cheerfully, taking a deep breath and launching into a rapid-fire explanation. “The Contest pits you and your coworkers against the dangers of the God Contest World. The world is split into four terrains—mountain, plains, ocean, and jungle—and each has its own challenges, monsters, and rewards. Defeating monsters and completing challenges gives you experience, and when you’ve earned enough experience, you level up. This makes you stronger and, once you reach certain milestones, allows you to gain incredible talents."

“Xavier would always rant about stuff like that. He made this leveling up thing sound so complicated.”

"That’s because Xavier likes to find loopholes in every game’s design,” Tutoria said with a hint of irritation. “You don’t have that kind of knowledge, so I recommend against trying anything like that. Now hush, you only gave me two minutes.”

“Right. Sorry,” Milly said, admonished.

“Now, there are three key interfaces you need to understand,” Tutoria continued. She waved her hand in an arc and three screens appeared around her. “These are fundamental to your survival. The first is your player screen. This gives you access to your personal attributes and talents, as well as other characteristics you’ll discover as you advance. It’s where you level up.”

“Xavier showed me his screen. It seemed simple.”

“The player screen starts simple but grows more complex over time. However, this next screen—the talent web—is complex right out of the gate. As you reach level milestones, you will receive talent points, and you can spend those points to gain new abilities. There are different tiers of talents, and you’ll need to have the necessary prerequisites to unlock the higher tiers. Choose carefully, because you’re stuck with what you pick. You can also gain talents in other ways, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.”

Tutoria swiped away the talent web, leaving the final screen floating beside her. It was just an image of endless empty boxes.

“Finally, this is your inventory. It is a personal pocket dimension that you can use to store your stuff. There’s no limit on space, but there are size restrictions. It’s there for convenience, not exploitation. The gods don’t want to watch you walk back to the Castle because you forgot your hoodie, but killing an epic-level monster by shoving it in your inventory isn’t entertaining either. If you abuse your inventory, you’ll lose it. And everything it contains. Be sure to remind Mr. Exploit over there of that fact.”

Mr. Exploit? Xavier’s not…well, maybe in games but…except when he gives me his paperwork, and forwards his guild calls which makes me stay late…

Tutoria stared at her wrist, as if reading an invisible watch. “Humanity loses the God Contest if all the players die. Oh, and everyone who dies along the way also loses, even if the final victory conditions are achieved. You know…because they’re dead. So whatever you do, don’t die!”

Tutoria ended in a high-pitched cheer, as if she were a cheerleader at a high school football game. “There! One minute, fifty-two seconds. Eight seconds to spare!”

“That was…okay, I think I got it,” Milly responded.

“You…got it?” Tutoria asked in disbelief. “Milly, that’s not how this works. Players typically spend hours or days in the tutorial lobby as they struggle to grasp their new reality. Many never leave the starting location until hunger drives them into the wilds. A few kill themselves in despair, and a few more kill each other as they use the chaos to settle old grudges. It’s great fun, you see, to watch the players agonize over their fate. But your response is…boring.”

Her anger flared again, tired of Tutoria’s putdowns and taunting. “I don’t care what you think, Tutoria. Your gods are cruel. Your Director is cruel. I won’t just roll over and die for their entertainment.”

She stalked over to the ‘You in a Nutshell’ instructional screen, fuming.

She’s not wrong though. I need to know more. Xavier knows so much about this stuff, but I’m not comfortable putting my survival in his hands. Or anyone else’s. I can figure this out. Xavier started with his player screen, so how do I…

As the thought entered her head, her player screen materialized in front of her.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Mildred Persephone Hawthorn

Level: 1

Specialty: Depression

Strength: 2

Agility: 3

Toughness: 8

Magic: 6

Talents: None

Equipment: None

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Hey, you figured out how to open your player screen,” Tutoria said, sarcastically, wandering over to her side. “Good for you. You’re learning.”

Milly read her specialty and her blood boiled.

“Depression? Really? Tutoria, tell your Director he’s a real bastard,” she spat, welcoming the renewed anger to help counter Tutoria’s sarcasm.

Tutoria started to respond, until ‘depression’ abruptly faded from Milly’s player screen, and the word ‘Survivor’ took its place.

“It…changed?” whispered Milly, surprised. A tiny spark of hope erupted inside her – hope that she had some control over what was happening to her.

“The Director must like you. Don’t expect it to make a difference though. It’s just flavor text.”

“Then why change it at all?”

“Because it’s a harmless alteration that The Director believes will help you survive,” Tutoria explained. “Like how my personality changes to adapt to your needs.”

“Your personality? I guess you do act differently than Xavier’s Tutoria.”

“Yes, Xavier seems to prefer…well, the Tutoria equivalent of a game Wikipedia. Already I can see any joy she once had is being sucked away. Poor Tutoria. You, on the other hand, require a Tutoria with a bit more of an abrasive personality.”

“I-I’ve never punched anyone before,” she admitted, stopping just short of an apology.

“Your anger helps you survive,” Tutoria explained. “If you let your depression control you, you won’t stand a chance. You needed something else to focus on.”

“So…you’re saying I needed you to be an asshole to me?”

“Pretty much. You needed someone to be mad at—someone to reignite that fire that you’ve kept smothered for so long. You needed to pull yourself out of your darkness long enough to learn the nature of the game.”

I should have been a huddled mess of anxiety and self-doubt this whole time, but all I could think about was how much Tutoria was pissing me off.

“I guess it worked. Um…thanks for letting me punch you, I guess.”

“You’re welcome. Just don’t do it again.”

The elevator dinged and its doors opened. Six new people entered the lobby, gasping in utter shock as they saw the lobby. She recognized the trio of young lawyers from Legal Eagles amongst them, their tailored suits disheveled after being tossed around in the storm. The youngest clutched his leather briefcase to his chest tightly, as if clinging to the faint hope that this was still a normal day. They looked lost, unable to grasp the new reality they found themselves in.

Six new Tutorias popped into existence and surrounded them, all talking over one another. The lawyers started to freak out, and the youngest took a swipe at his Tutoria with his briefcase.

That would have been me without Xavier urging me on. No, not even that. I’d probably still be upstairs with Calista and Fredrickson and everyone else. Would I have ever summoned the courage to leave my cubicle?

A curse from across the lobby drew her attention away from the new arrivals, and Xavier dashed to her side. He still clutched the longsword, his knuckles white as he gripped it tightly.

“Shit, looks like we’re out of time. Come on, Milly. We need to go,” he said, pulling her towards the western exit that led to the prairies. He glanced suspiciously over his shoulder at the lawyers.

“What? But…but shouldn’t we help them? Don’t we all have to work together to win this…this God Contest thing?” she asked, as he stopped at the crate of rusted weapons beside the exit to the prairies.

He scoffed at the notion as he plucked half a dozen weapons out of the crate—two daggers, a mace, a war hammer, a short sword, and a second longsword that was identical to the first. “Don’t believe that teamwork nonsense, Milly. There is no team. And there is only one rule. You get strong or you die. That’s the only path to survival.”

His inventory appeared beside him, and he shoved the weapons inside. Each time a weapon touched the screen, it vanished, and one of the empty boxes filled with an icon that mirrored the item he added.

“I will be the best. The strongest. The fastest,” he continued, talking more to himself than to her. He leaned into the crate and rummaged around the bottom, pulling out a dozen crudely built arrows. He added them to his inventory but frowned at the absence of a bow. “I intend to survive. No, I intend to thrive. And I’ll do that by getting out there first. If you fall behind in these games, Milly, you become a victim. And then you die.”

“But don’t we stand a better chance if we help each other out?” she protested, feeling pulled along in the riptide of his ambition.

“And who will you allow to become stronger than you, Milly?” he asked bluntly. “Calista, so she can bully you in new ways? Fredrickson, who can’t even remember our names? Our CEO, who will use his power to control you? Hell, any of our managers? Or coworkers? These people have spent every day walking all over us. Treating us like garbage. Do you really think they’ll treat us any differently now that our situation has changed? Just because some magical, pink-haired trollop—”

“Hey!” protested Milly’s Tutoria.

“— says we have to work together?”

He plucked a mid-sized hammer out of the crate and thrust it out towards her. She tentatively took it from him, its weight driving home the reality that lay beyond the lobby exit.

“You can only rely on yourself.”

“Then why are you bringing me with you?” she asked. She closed her eyes and pictured the screen of empty boxes, and her inventory appeared next to her. She stowed the hammer inside, gasping as it disappeared from her hands. She reached into the crate and pulled out a rusty spear, clutching it to her chest. “Why bother with me at all?”

“Because you’re the only person I trust,” he responded softly. “Because you’re my only friend.”

“I-I’m not your only friend,” she whispered. “You have your guild, right? I can’t be…”

For a fraction of a moment, Xavier’s face dropped, and she saw the loneliness he had long hidden beneath his abrasive personality.

Oh…

He buried it as quickly as it came, throwing open the lobby doors and letting the scent of prairie wildflowers fill the lobby. A warm breeze blew through Milly’s hair, weaving its way through her unkempt morning tangles as the bright sunlight washed over her.

Xavier took a deep breath to savor the moment his impossible dream came true.

“It’s a new life, Milly. Embrace it,” he encouraged her as he stepped through the door. “I certainly intend to.”

In the distant horizon, beyond the gentle hills and winding rivers, dark storm clouds started to gather. She watched as they rolled across the sky, sending flocks of birds from their path.

Leveling up in a deadly contest with my coworkers? Not exactly the new life I had in mind. All I wanted was a family and a few friends to call my own.

“You coming, Milly?”

But if Xavier can find his dream, maybe…maybe I can find mine too.

With a deep breath, she willed the angry fire within her to keep burning and followed Xavier out of the lobby.

Into the God Contest.

Into the unknown.

The Non-Canonical Aftermath:

“Are you certain you can’t come with us?” Xavier ‘Mr. Exploit’ Holloway asks his Tutoria for his two hundredth and seventy third question.

“Not in this phase of the Contest,” Tutoria #001 confirms. “That may change, if you survive long enough.”

“Right…right…but you’re some kind of program or something? You’re not technically alive? You’re like an item…an item that could be stored…”

“Well, I’m not alive by your limited human understanding, but my designer imbued me with…Hey! What are you doing? Xavier, put me down! Stop trying to store me in your inventory! Xavier!”