Siva stood and tossed his sandwich wrapper into the fire and looked at me intensely.

  “We need to get you to a 7-Eleven.”

  I blinked. “Come again?”

  “That’s where you’ll unlock your system fully. HUD, stats, class selection. The works.”

  I just stared at him. “You’re telling me the answer to all this, monsters, magic numbers floating in the air, is a bloody convenience store?”

  He didn’t even flinch. “Convenience. It’s in the name.”

  I groaned and rubbed my temples. “You’re shitting me.”

  “I wish I was.” he replied, eyes steady. “But that’s how it works. You’ll see when we get there.”

  I exhaled. My wife’s face flickered in my head again. “Fine. There’s a 7-Eleven near my block. If you’re right, I’ll unlock whatever the hell this is there.” My throat tightened. “But I need to find her first. You coming?” I asked, standing up.

  Siva hesitated, then gave a curt nod. “Ok. I’ll tell you what I know as we walk. You need to be ready.”

  I fell into step beside Siva as we left what had turned out to be an empty factory just off the highway. We took smaller roads heading toward Woodlands. I took in the surroundings of the fractured streets. I was still amazed at how wrong everything felt, as if Singapore had been lifted, shaken, and then dropped back imperfectly. Broken streetlamps flickered. Debris littered the roads as distant fires glimmered through the haze.

  Siva walked warily with his katana resting on his shoulder, his eyes scanning every shadow. He dropped information piece by piece, like crumbs on a trail.

  “You never did tell me your name.” Siva said.

  “Call me Chris,” I replied.

  “I should be calling you Uncle,” he said.

  I turned and glared at him.

  “Hokay… Chris… The world runs on mechanics now. XP, levels, loot. You fight, you grow. You stop fighting, you stagnate and die,” he said.

  “And the rules?” I asked.

  “Half discovery, half suicide missions. No handbook. No tutorials. Well, except the 7-Eleven.”

  I shook my head. “You’re telling me reality is now one big MMORPG but with no patch notes?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Fantastic,” I muttered. “Always wanted to beta-test hell.”

  “Wait. You know what an MMORPG is?” He said, stopping in his tracks.

  I didn’t bother to stop, replying over my shoulder. “Yes.”

  “So, you said you used to play tabletop RPGs, stuff like Pathfinder and D&D?” Siva asked, moving faster to catch up.

  I hesitated for a fraction of a second, then muttered, “Yeah… used to.”

  Siva tilted his head. “Used to?”

  I shrugged, forcing a light tone. “Long time ago. Friends, erm… drifted. Campaigns died. Never really finished the one-shots either.”

  Siva pushed on, “Wait… you actually understand MMORPG mechanics? Like stats, loot tables, aggro, rotations?”

  I raised an eyebrow and said, “Uh… yeah. I get the basics.”

  He froze. “You, you know all this… and you’ve been playing long enough to actually get it? But... You’re… ancient.”

  I scowled at that. “Holy shit, I’m 45. I’m not ancient.” my exasperation showing in my voice.

  Siva shook his head. “I can’t even… you actually get it. This is ridiculous.”

  We moved on in silence, an uneasy quiet settled between us.

  “You know,” Siva finally said, voice low, “not everyone left out there is… real.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Some people,” he said, casting a glance at the distant street, aren’t survivors. Not like you or me. They’re NPCs. They act, react, but they don’t really live. They sometimes spout exposition, give you quests, I… I try to stay away.”

  I nodded slowly, letting the words settle. I thought back to the old man’s blank, hesitant eyes, his slow shuffle through the debris, his almost automatic responses to danger. Not wrong enough to notice at the time, but maybe what Siva said was true.

  I exhaled slowly. “So, the next humans we see might as well be side quests for all we know.”

  “Something like that,” he said quietly. “Just remember, not everyone out here is on your side, or even… fully alive.”

  I shook the thought away. It didn’t change the fact I had to get home. Fast. I increased my walking speed and Siva followed along.

  By the time we reached my block, sweat was sticking my shirt to my back. Not just from the walk. The air at the void deck felt wrong. It felt... charged.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Siva raised a hand. “Stop.”

  Then I heard the faint whir of wheels on tile.

  From the shadows rolled out… things.

  At first glance, they looked like sweaty, middle-aged men in polo tees, bellies spilling over cheap belts, riding PMDs. Fucking Personal Mobility Devices. These idiots terrorize the sidewalks on these things, racing through bus stops and stop signs. I hated them. The government was just about to pass a law that only allowed medically unfit people to ride these things. It was, for once, a law I welcomed.

  But when they tilted their heads, the illusion broke.

  Their faces were stretched too thin, their skin plastic-smooth like mannequins. Their eyes glowed like cheap blue LEDs, spinning in their sockets. Their mouths split impossibly wide, stuck in a permanent grin, full of jagged, metallic teeth.

  Their PMDs weren’t simple riding machines anymore. The frames were fused to their bodies. The back seat was melded into their backs and their feet were inside the leg rest. The wheels had dangerous-looking spikes on the hubcaps. Smoke billowed from exhaust pipes running out the back. They revved their machines.

  There were four of them.

  “Oh, come on,” I groaned. “Fucking PMDs?”

  Siva’s voice was grim. “These buggers again.”

  I actually laughed. A harsh bark emanating from me. This was ridiculous. But any thoughts of the ridiculousness of the situation quickly left me as one shrieked, revving its engine and charged.

  It barreled straight at me, sparks flying from its wheels. I dove sideways, my shoulder slamming into a pillar. The PMD clipped the wall with a screech, leaving a gouge.

  “Focus!” Siva barked, blade flashing as he intercepted another. Metal rang against metal.

  I scrambled up, scanning the environment. Void deck. Pillars. Broken floor tiles. A busted bicycle against the wall. Perfect.

  One of the riders came around again, revving like a maniac. I grabbed a portion of the broken bike frame and held it up like a lance. As it raced toward me, I braced like I was going to stand my ground, but at the last second, I stepped to the side and jabbed the broken bike frame into its neck. Blood sprayed from its neck as I was pushed sideways and fell to the floor. I turned and saw it had crashed into a pillar, wheels still turning and burning rubber. The rider was dead.

  Notifications hovered before my eyes.

  [+20 XP]

  [Skill Unlocked: Improvised Weapon Mastery I]

  [Passive: +5% damage with non-standard weapons.]

  What the fuck? Not now. Not now. I can’t see.

  I tried to wave the notification away. It glitched a few times and disappeared.

  Another rider zoomed past, swinging a length of spiked chain at my head. I ducked, barely evading the swing and stumbled. Siva intercepted, blade cleaving down to shear the rider in half, from the back of its shoulder forwards through to its stomach. The front quarter of its body slipped off the PMD and splattered to the floor. The machine continued moving till it drove off the void deck and continued in a straight line to the next block, moving out of sight.

  The two left circled me, revving louder and moving faster, trying to box me in.

  “Chris! Move!” Siva shouted.

  I turned and ran, straight toward the broken floor tiles, jumping over it.

  One of the creatures tried riding through the deep pothole and toppled sideways, crashing into its buddy. They went down in a tangled heap of metal and limbs.

  I didn’t pause to think. I grabbed a loose brick from the floor and smashed it down on the nearest grinning, mannequin face. I smashed its face once, twice and kept on smashing until it stopped twitching.

  I was heaving, my sweat dripping into my eyes, I looked up just as Siva finished the last one with a clean thrust through the chest.

  Once again, there was silence.

  The only sound left was the faint crackle of electricity from a dying wheel.

  [+60 XP]

  [Reward Pending: Unlock the system to receive your loot.]

  The text floated, solid and crisp. It didn’t fade for a while this time.

  “Oh, fuck,” I whispered.

  Siva’s eyes were steady. “Congratulations. You’re really in it now.”

  The stairs to my flat felt longer than usual. Every step on the concrete stairs, every shadow in the corners, made my skin crawl. My stomach clenched as I fumbled with my keys and shoved the door open.

  Inside, the flat looked like it had been torn apart. Drawers were yanked opened; clothes were scattered across the floor. Empty cupboards stood open. Her mug still sat on the coffee table, cold tea staining the rim. She had been reading here, on the couch, when I had left for the night market.

  “Amira?” I called out softly, my voice cracking.

  Only silence replied to my call.

  I searched every room in the house. I searched the bedroom, the kitchen and even the bathroom. All the places where life had once been ordinary. I found no one.

  My hands shook so hard I had to grip a doorway. My chest felt hollow as my ribs tighten, bile rising to burn my throat. Gone. She was gone.

  I told myself she might still be alive somewhere. She would have run. I repeated it over and over as I sank onto our bed, my chest heaving, keeping in the tears I knew were coming.

  I don’t know how long I sat there, but I finally forced myself up. I changed into clean clothes, pulled on fresh sneakers, and stared once more at the ransacked unit before stepping to the door.

  Siva waited quietly in the corridor, giving me space. He didn’t say a word. I didn’t need him to. Just the way he cradled his arm, his head down, told me he had survived this same loss.

  I was about to leave when my eyes caught the lightsaber hilt hanging above the key rack. Amira had bought that for me last anniversary, an item I’d always wanted. When she had first presented it to me, I had spent the next few days walking around the house making lightsaber 'swoosh' noises. Then it became my night light if I needed to go to the toilet at in the middle of the night. And finally, it was placed in a prominent position above the kay rack. The plastic blade was detached. It didn’t look right had I displayed it with the blade attached. I had my wedding ring on. I needed another memory of her. Something else I could carry with me. It was an irrational thought but still... I hung the hilt on my belt by its clip and exited the house, shutting the door behind me.

  “There’s a 7-Eleven just across the road,” I said, voice hoarse. “Let’s go.”

  Siva just nodded.

  Across the road, the familiar green-and-orange glow of the 7-Eleven sign at Woodlands Mart cut through the night. We approached it like it was a normal night and we were just two guys who needed snacks.

  At the door, Siva stopped.

  “You go in alone. Everyone’s initiation is different. No one else can walk you through it.”

  I blinked. “Alone?”

  He nodded. “I’ll keep watch outside.”

  I muttered under my breath, “Great.”

  Siva gave a curt nod and stepped back from the door.

  I drew a deep breath, stomach twisting from a cocktail of excitement, fear, and sheer absurdity. A 7-Eleven. Of all things. My "tutorial” was here, fluorescent-lit aisles and slushy machines included. Somehow, it felt both ridiculous and terrifying.

  The glass door resisted for a moment, like it didn’t quite want to acknowledge me. Then it slid open with a soft electric hiss.

  I stepped in.

  The air shimmered, faintly crackling with invisible energy. Fluorescent lights flickered and stabilized, bathing the store in a surreal glow. The aisles stretched longer than they should have, instant noodles stacked impossibly high, ice cream freezers humming a low, expectant tune. Everything seemed subtly… wrong.

  I swallowed and stepped farther in. Each footfall felt like crossing a threshold into another reality. I could almost hear faint hums of systems initializing behind my vision; stats loading, abilities unlocking, a world unfolding beneath the fluorescent hum.

  Then I saw it. The digital tablet display normally used for showing the price of scanned items. Instead of the regular advertisements, an outline of a palm hovered, glowing faintly.

  It was clear what I needed to do.

  I placed my right palm on the screen. Immediately, a soothing female voice spoke in my head.

  “Welcome, Chris. Shall we begin?”