“Uruvi? Uruvi!”

  Uruvi was snapped back to reality by a soft smack to her arm. She found herself standing in front of the copy machine, staring at a scenic painting that hung on the wall across from her. She looked to the left to see the fuming face of her manager.

  “Zoned out? Again?” asked the manager in a shrill voice. “I asked you to get the printouts a while ago!”

  They looked down at the machine, which was still scanning the large stack of documents.

  The manager looked to the clerk and asked, “Can’t this go any faster?”

  The clerk, who had heard this question a thousand times, said, “No.”

  She rolled her eyes and said to Uruvi, “Get this done fast and come upstairs. We are already behind schedule.”

  She walked out through the glass door and vanished up the stairs, leaving Uruvi alone with her thoughts.

  ‘You were the one who constantly delayed the drafts with your nitpicking, and now you are rushing the team. What a joke!’ As much as she hated her manager, she was the least of her problems. ‘I will just get these documents to her, and everything will be alright.’

  She let out a dull sigh. No, everything was not alright, and she desperately needed some help. But she had already tried, and no matter who she spoke to, they always gave her the same answer: “You are doing just fine! Just think about your future and aim to stay on it.” The word future would be replaced by something like career, marriage, family, or children, depending on whom she was talking to.

  But she wasn’t fine. She hadn’t been for well over a year. She was twenty-nine, and in nine months, she would be thirty. People around her age always appeared to have their lives in control. They were moving up, getting promoted, buying homes, finding love, getting married, and some were already having children. And then there was her, earning a decent wage, spending most of her time at work, drinking herself to sleep at night, and binge-watching web serials in her free time. Her life was stuck in a cycle, and she had no motivation to break out of it.

  It was 7 P.M. on a Thursday. She should have been home by now, but here she was working in a bustling office, and it didn’t appear like she would be going home anytime soon.

  ‘I am happy…right? No… Who am I kidding… I am a complete mess.’ She bent over and slammed her forehead against the copy machine.

  “Please don’t hit the copy machine!” said the clerk.

  She snapped back up, rubbing her forehead. Her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment.

  The second floor of the basement was reserved for the utilities department of the company. Everything from stationery to the computer service department was crammed into this one single floor. As a result, the floor was always working at a full load. People from the six floors above constantly flowed down for their needs. With no natural light reaching the depths, the entire floor was drenched in fluorescent white. The cold air of the entire building sank to the bottom, making even the scorching summers feel like the dead of winter. Several petitions were made to move the department to the first floor, but it was continuously ignored by the management, who didn’t want a messy hardware department interrupting their aesthetic workspace.

  The machine began spitting out sheet after sheet, creating a stack of documents that were to be submitted for approval. Just as the first stack was about to be completed, the machine stopped, and the entire floor was drenched in darkness.

  “Fuck!” she cursed out loud. However, the silence that followed made her reevaluate her choice of words.

  “Relax, the generators should kick in any second. The machine will pick up from where you left off,” said the clerk.

  She awkwardly adjusted her throat and replied, “Thanks.”

  Suddenly, a loud boom erupted from outside the building, sending tremors through the whole floor.

  “What was that?” asked one of them.

  Uruvi felt a shiver travel up her spine. The dead silence made her skin crawl, and her stomach turn. She stood still and held her nerves, hoping for it all to just blow over, for it to be nothing more than a busted transformer.

  More loud explosions rocked the building, sending the furniture and some of the people tumbling. The screams got louder and more frequent. Uruvi could hear people making a run for it. Their footsteps sounded like a burst of rain had just hit the ground. Her heart began to race, beating against her rib cage. She could not handle it anymore; fear overwhelmed her.

  She quickly spun around and made her way to the exit. In the pitch dark, it was nearly impossible to tell where she was going. However, she had worked there long enough to draw a rough path towards the flight of stairs. She weaved her way through the stationery’s furniture, and she felt someone rush past her, knocking her over a table. She recovered fast, landing on her toes and palm, before pushing herself off the floor.

  She felt the glass divider and used it as a guide to find the door. However, the second she exited it, she found herself swept up in the crowd that formed before the elevator. Cries of people filled the air as the panicked crowd struggled to find the door to the elevator. Uruvi felt herself getting squeezed in the crowd that was being pushed around.

  She quickly began to feel breathless as the pressure on her chest increased. She wanted to scream, asking them to stop, but no words came out. Her arms were pinned by the people around her, making it impossible to push them off her. She felt her throat closing as her chest was getting compressed.

  She felt like she was on death’s door, when there was a sudden and loud thump followed by the sound of cracking wood. The crowd thinned almost immediately, and Uruvi could breathe once again. She was swept up by the moving crowd, forced to adjust to the movement of it. Just as things seemed to be going the right way, she felt something hard hit her on her forehead. The noise disappeared, replaced by a loud ringing, before being engulfed by the dead silence of darkness.

  ***

  When Uruvi woke up once again, she found herself staring at a pair of white lights shining down upon her. As she tried to move, her body began to scream. Every muscle in her body was aching, while a splitting headache caused her vision to turn into a blur briefly.

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  “Ow, ow, ow…” she said as she pushed herself off the ground.

  She hunched forward with her legs spread on the floor. She brushed her hair aside and gently touched the left side of her forehead. The skin was broken from the hairline down to the eyebrow. It was sour to the touch, but the bleeding had stopped.

  “What in the world hit me?” she wondered out loud.

  Memories of the events before her blackout flooded in. Her eyes wandered about the place, only to find it devoid of any life. It looked like they had evacuated but left her behind. “They abandoned me?” Her blood boiled just thinking about it.

  She grunted out loud as she got back up on her feet with great difficulty. As she stood up, her knees were bent, her legs and arms were slightly twisted, and her feet were awkwardly placed. She struggled to pull herself back together, as every movement of her body sent a shot of pain radiating through her body.

  She checked her pockets before pulling out her phone. The time was 10 A.M.

  “What the fuck…” She had been knocked out for an entire night. The phone showed that there was no network. Being two floors under the ground, the network was always weak. However, this time the phone showed that there was no connection whatsoever.

  She cursed under her breath and put her phone back into her pocket.

  The elevator was right in front of her. To its right was the door to the flight of stairs, which was torn down from its hinges. She remembered the crowd and the feeling of claustrophobia that had consumed her for that brief moment. She shut her eyes and her whole body shuddered. “Never again,” she said before lunging forward towards the door. She had a slight limp in her right leg, as if someone had stepped over it. However, it wasn’t bad enough to hinder her at the moment.

  Just as she reached for the door, words suddenly appeared in her vision. ‘Initializing System…’

  “What’s this?” She tried to reach for the words floating in the air, but there was nothing there. They seemed to move as her eyes moved. ‘Have I finally lost my mind?’ she thought as she pressed her palm against her forehead.

  A loud ding drew her attention towards the elevator. She could hear the motor running and the gears turning. The number on the floor panel began counting down from 1 until it finally reached B2, her floor.

  She held her breath as the doors parted ways revealing a humanoid creature standing inside. Her body froze, her chest caved in, and the hair on her skin stood on end.

  It was as tall as her, covered in grey skin from head to toe, with patches of hair spread all over its body. It lacked any eyes or ears; its gaping mouth stretched from what looked like its forehead down to its throat. The teeth that surrounded the lining of its mouth appeared sharp, like those on a shark. A pink ribbon-like muscle stuck out of its mouth, whirling around as it let out a loud screech.

  She let out a blood-curdling scream before turning around and making a run for it. The monster, with its skinny arms and legs, chased after her. It was slow and sluggish, limping as it tried to catch up to her.

  The stampede had left the place in a mess, with furniture scattered all over the place. She picked up a stray wooden chair lying on the floor by its leg. In one swing, she threw the chair right into the monster's face, sending it crashing onto the floor, before taking a hard right. She passed through a doorway and quickly slammed the glass door shut. Her hand searched for a lock of any kind but found none. She grunted in frustration as she searched for a way to block the door.

  Her eyes caught a glimpse of the creature getting back up on its feet, which made her heart leap to her throat. She reached out to the short wooden desk that sat next to her. It was light and moved easily, which helped her push it against the door. She quickly stacked two more desks just as the creature reached her from the other side.

  The monster appeared to look at her before swinging its arms wildly at the door. The glass creaked and shuddered but did not shatter. She took the opportunity to run deeper into the room, through the maze of cubicles, until she reached a wooden door sitting flush against a wall.

  The door led to the janitor’s closet. It was small, but so was Uruvi. She squeezed in with ease and shut the door, cowering in fear.

  “It’s okay… It’s okay… It isn’t smart enough to find me here…” she told herself. But no matter what she said, her heart shuddered every time she heard the monster bash itself against the door.

  ‘Initializing System…’ In the chaos, she had forgotten about the words that were plastered to her vision. After a brief few seconds, the words finally vanished, and in their place, a new set of words began to appear one after another.

  Welcome.

  Please wait while we formally induct you into our system.

  Name – Uruvi

  Race – Human

  Age – 29 Years

  Height – 153 cms

  Weight – 52 kgs

  Class – Undefined

  Traits – Empathic, Stubborn

  …

  Uruvi watched the words with bated breath when, suddenly, a horizontal line appeared.

  “Greetings, Uruvi,” a voice spoke.

  Uruvi’s heart jumped to her throat. She covered her mouth with both her hands to keep from screaming. “Who was that?”

  The line before her began to bend whenever the voice spoke. “I am the Grand Advisor. You are the lucky few to have been chosen by the system to take part in the Grand Experiment. And I am here to help you induct into the system.”

  Uruvi was not in the best mental state. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Oh my! It may help if you could tone down the cursing,” said the voice. It sounded like an automated call trying to sell her a new credit card.

  “How about you tell me what is going on? Am I dead? Is this hell?” asked Uruvi.

  “Are you dead? No. Is this hell? Yes. Your world has been chosen to be a part of the Grand Experiment! As a consequence of that, the world you currently reside in has been infested with creatures of all shapes and sizes, with the sole intention of killing as many humans as possible.”

  Uruvi’s chest turned cold. “What…?”

  “Yes. The lucky few who survive the initial onslaught have been given the chance to officially induct into the system!” It tried to sell every sentence like it was a deal of a lifetime.

  “Hold on. Back up! What do you mean by initial onslaught?” asked Uruvi.

  “The details will be presented to you in due time. Meanwhile, your building has been marked as a Tutorial Area. All the creatures in this building are level three or less. Defeat the monsters, gain experience, and level up. Once you level up to level five, you will receive a bonus gift. Leave the tutorial level without clearing it, and you will be removed from the system. You will have an assistant to help you with your journey. We wish you all the best!”

  “Wait! Wait! Before you leave, please tell me this. Are my parents alive?” Uruvi held onto her nerves, praying for some good news.

  “Hmm… Father – Vikram. Mother – Savitri. Status – Alive. It appears both your parents are alive. If that is all, I will be on my way. Farewell!” With that, the line before vanished as well.

  She felt like a heavy weight was removed from her chest, letting her breathe easily once again. ‘Okay. One headache resolved…’

  A screen popped up before her. It had a photo of a scrawny, young girl with long, black hair and equally black irises. She had a lean face with a sharp chin, painted in a dark shade of brown. “Hmph! I wish my ID card had this good a photo.”

  Besides, it was her name and the details she first saw pop up on her screen. “This looks just like a game… An RPG? What the hell?”

  In college, she crushed on a guy so hard that she learnt to play video games just to get a chance to talk to him. While the relationship only lasted eight months, her fondness for RPGs was something she carried to this day.

  She smirked as she clicked on the next button.

  Possessions:

  Weapon – none

  Armor – Plain T-Shirt and Jeans (+10 Defense)

  Charms - none

  Pet – none

  Base Stats:

  HP – 500

  MP – 100

  Attack – 80

  Defense – 90

  Speed – 110

  Special Attack – 50

  Special Defense - 50

  “Well…we got the basics covered…” She clicked on the next button and saw more stats. She tried reading a few, only to find herself overwhelmed. “Okay…okay… This is too much information at once.”

  The loud banging from outside continued.

  She bit the tip of her thumb and wondered, ‘This… This might just work…’ At that moment, she did not understand why, but she felt a rush of energy and excitement. The only two people she cared about were safe, and now, her only job was to survive. It was rudimentary… No. It was primal. But that was exactly what she needed.

  Her skin crawled at the thought of getting into a fight. However, her mind had already been made up. ‘My only way out is to kill that thing. Either I die in this closet, or I die fighting… Come on! It is the end of the world! It would be a shame to die without bleeding a little!’