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[Analysis determined potential adventurer’s mind to be too incompatible for process.]

[System will reject and reroute the undesirable soul.]

[Continue] [Override]

Balthazar frowned at the text as he finished reading it. He did not fully understand what all of it meant, but he knew he disliked the part about rejecting someone deemed “undesirable” by the system.

“Oh yeah?” he said, talking to the air around him. “Incompatible and undesirable like a crab using your precious little system, you stupid birds?”

He knew to be messing with things he did not entirely comprehend, but the temptation to fiddle with his unintended manager access was too great.

“Screw you, crow,” the crab muttered as he pressed the override option.

[Are you sure?]

[Undesirable candidates may resist the process and cause unpredictable effects to the balance of the system.]

“Good. If it gives that stupid crow and his bird cronies more trouble, I’m all for it.”

[Soul rejection overridden.]

With that, Balthazar looked around, expecting something to happen, but as he gazed up at the sky again, he found the clouds had simply dispersed, and all that was left was the orange sky of the setting sun over the calm waves of the sea.

“Well, that was disappointing!” he said with a shrug. “Hopefully me doing that didn’t ring any bells at bird central. Come to think of it, maybe I should have thought twice before pressing this. I should be trying to lie low, now that I got my system access back I can’t afford to have that crow show up to take it away again.” He paused and looked up and down the coastline. “Ah, I’m sure nothing will come of it!”

As he turned to the still levitating scroll, a new prompt appeared in front of the crab.

[Manager Panel]

[Would you like to enable silent mode?]

“Huh? Silent mode? What’s that?”

[Silent mode]

[User’s actions will not be logged or traced. Only to be used for testing purposes.]

“Wow, hold on, this is exactly what I needed!” exclaimed the excited merchant. “This new system is really starting to impress me! If I enable this then the crow and company should have a much harder time figuring out what I’m up to. Hopefully, at least…”

Balthazar confirmed the prompt to enable silent mode, and a new line appeared.

[Enabling silent mode will close your manager session.]

[Confirm] [Cancel]

“Ah, darn it! There had to be a downside, of course.”

The crab pondered for a moment.

“I wouldn’t mind playing with this manager stuff and seeing what I could make of it, but at the same time I know that’s bound to attract some attention sooner or later, and I don’t want a repeat of that crow’s visit,” Balthazar considered, as he paced back and forth, debating with himself. “For all I know, there’s already a bird coming this way to check on what’s going on, and I doubt they don’t have an easy way to sort me out even with whatever tricks this so-called ‘manager session’ might grant me. No, for once, being sneaky and quiet is the right move. I need to be smart if I want my plans to succeed.”

Making up his mind, Balthazar pressed the confirm option.

[Silent mode enabled. System actions will not be logged or traced.]

Worried about any potential winged fiends appearing from above, Balthazar quickly dismissed the system screen from his vision and the Scroll of Character Creation, having done its job, finally closed itself and dropped on the sand.

“Alright, you’re coming with me—” the crab started, as he moved in to pick up the scroll, but as he did, the piece of paper simply crumbled into dust, mixing in with the grains of sand and disappearing into nothingness.

“What?! Ah, come on! The old ones didn’t do that!” he protested in frustration. “Guess they don’t make them like they used to.”

Looking up at the sky with concern, the crustacean decided there was no time to cry over spilled parchment, and skittered his way back up the dunes, to the road where his companions awaited.

“Alright, we’re done here, guys,” he hurriedly said to Druma and Blue, who sat on some rocks, sharing a few rations of dried meat. “Time to get back on the road and find Rye.”

The trio quickly got on the road, leaving Star Beach behind and heading north as the sun set and night quickly approached over the sands.

By the shore, where the waves came and went, the figure of a man appeared from the water. Not dragged by the tide and left as an unconscious pile of rags like the previous arrival, but instead standing, awake and alert, as he walked out of the sea, water rolling off his entire body as his heavy steps sank into the sand.

As the new arrival reached the beach, he stopped, breathing fast as his intense gaze scanned the area, an expression of ire mixed with confusion about his circumstances carved into his face.

“Where the hell am I?”

***

Warren had it all. A perfect life full of accomplishments even before reaching his thirties, with a well-paid job in a large corporation and a beautiful fiancée, a healthy body and sharp mind, he did plenty of sports and even still had time to do some gaming with his friends on the weekends.

Everything about him was just perfect.

And then he died.

Dragging himself out of an unknown sea to an unfamiliar beach and wearing strange rags, Ren—as everyone usually called him—looked around, searching for any clues as to what had happened.

“What is this place? How did I get here?” the young man asked himself as he tried to regain his breath. Any common person would have likely lost consciousness in those deep waters after such a rough dive, but not him. Years of swimming practice and having been the captain of his water polo team meant Ren was an excellent swimmer with an impressive lung capacity.

Steeling his mind, Heartha’s new arrival scanned his surroundings with great care, assessing the situation with the same calm and logical perspective he’d always use when resolving complex problems at his job.

“I don’t know this place, but there does not seem to be anyone else here, nor are there any immediate threats. That’s good. I need to focus and figure out what’s the last thing I remember.”

Still standing on the line between wet and dry sand, thick droplets of saltwater dripping from every end of his body and ragged clothing, Ren closed his eyes as he rubbed his forehead, trying to unscramble his thoughts and find out what had happened before.

“A crosswalk. Yes, I was crossing the street, because the light was green. I remember… tires screeching, and… a wide metal grill, from a truck. Where was I coming from? Work? No, a house. My parent’s house? There was a girl there, too. Yes, my girlfriend, she… she…”

Ren’s thoughts were growing heavier and harder to bring to the surface of his brain, and as his eyes snapped open, a milky layer appeared over them, like a fog settling over his mind.

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“No!” he exclaimed, clutching his head with both hands as his knees hit the sand. “What’s happening?! There’s something trying to cloud my mind!”

Suddenly and with a loud snap, Ren slapped his own face, and after squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, he opened them back up, the mind haze gone from his sight.

Out of nowhere, a line of bright text appeared in his vision.

[Fatal error]

[Incompatible mind. Mind haze aborted.]

[Please contact your nearest manager to correctly wipe your memories.]

“What was that? Why was something attempting to wipe my memories? I almost… I almost… what was it that I was remembering?”

The young man rummaged through his brain, searching for details, any specifics about his past, but quickly realized that he could only remember fragments. Like a maddening feeling of something at your fingertips that you just cannot reach, or a name on the tip of your tongue that you just cannot recall, he remembered things, he just could not remember what they were.

Reeling from the effects of the unfinished mind haze that took memories from him without also taking the knowledge of having lost them, Ren stood back up and took a deep breath, remembering all the breathing techniques to use during stressful situations that he had learned from his martial arts classes. Try as he might, he couldn’t remember his teacher’s face or name, only that he had those lessons at some point in his life.

Focusing his sights back on the strange text, he frowned at the last line.

[Please contact your nearest manager to correctly wipe your memories.]

“Why would I ever do that?” Ren said. “And where did this strange UI come from?”

Taking another look around and towards the forest and hills past the dunes, the young man rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Judging by the coloring of the vegetation, it seems like this place is currently undergoing its autumnal season, but I can still clearly remember it to be the middle of winter as I was crossing the road just now, given the snow and winter clothing I recall wearing, so that means I’m nowhere near home. I could be in a different part of the world, but if I was in a different hemisphere, that should mean it would be summer instead. No, something about this ocean and the landscape doesn’t feel right. If only I could remember my geography classes more clearly…”

Ren exhaled and crossed his arms as he looked around again. Ever the pragmatic thinker, he started nodding slowly.

“No, as unlikely as it might sound, this seems to be a different world from mine.” He focused on the text in his eyes once more. “With some kind of… system interface.”

He quickly ruled out the possibility of dreaming, as he was sure he would have woken up already if he chose to, given his mastery of lucid dreaming, after taking a three-month run of seminars on the subject.

“Is this some kind of… video game? I’m sure there is no VR technology this advanced yet, I keep up with every major tech news outlet, I remember that much. Yet, why do I see a user interface in front of my eyes?”

A groan came from the sand nearby, and Ren quickly turned to it, his eyes homing in on its source instantly thanks to his razor-sharp senses, gained from a lifetime of tennis practice with professional athletes.

A young boy, wearing similar rags as Ren\'s, was sitting up from the sand, holding his head with one hand like someone waking up with a hangover.

As the newest arrival rushed towards the awakening adventurer, he noticed a strange red imprint covering most of the boy’s face, like a star-shaped suction mark.

“You there!” called Ren. “Can you understand what I’m saying?”

The boy frowned as he rubbed his head. “Yeah, of course I can. Why?”

“Good, there is no language barrier, at least,” the other said, more to himself than anyone else. “What is this place?”

“I don’t know,” said the younger adventurer as he stood up. “A beach?”

Ren groaned in frustration before grabbing him by the shoulders. “Who are you? Some kind of NPC? Is this a VR game?”

“What?” asked the befuddled boy.

“Are we in some kind of virtual reality world?!”

“No! I don’t think so, at least.”

“How did you get here? Do you remember that?”

“I… I… I’m not sure? Something about bright headlights?”

“A truck? Were you hit by a truck while crossing the street too?”

“I… oh god… was I? I… I think so? Did I die?!”

Ren let go of the boy’s shoulders, turning to the side into his own thinking process.

“It’s as I feared. This isn’t some game. This is real, like some kind of reincarnation, but… something’s wrong about it. And why can’t I remember my past? Only fragments of what I’ve lost?”

The red-faced young man tapped Ren’s shoulder. “Hey, uh, you alright, pal? You\'re talking to yourself a lot there.”

Ren turned around in a flash, his expression becoming sour.

“Alright?! We apparently just died and someone or something wiped our memories, that is far from alright. How are you not more concerned?”

“We died?! Oh damn, that doesn’t sound neat at all,” replied the addled boy.

“Useless,” muttered the other. “Clearly too mentally weak to withstand the mind hazing. His brain is probably all scrambled.”

“What’s that?”

“Nothing. Try and focus: have you seen anyone at all since you arrived here?”

“No,” said the boy. “Wait, yes, I think so. He was the strangest merchant I’ve ever seen, I tell ya.”

“A merchant?” repeated Ren. “Who was he? What was his name? Where is he now?! Answer me!”

The new arrival moved up on the previous newcomer, their noses nearly touched as Ren grabbed the collars of the boy’s soaked burlap shirt.

“Woah! Easy, pal! No need for that! His… his name was Balthazar, I think! And I don’t know where he went after he took my scroll!”

“Scroll?” said Ren, slowly letting go of the collar. “What scroll?”

“A scroll in a bottle that was shining for me somewhere around the sand here. He told me a bunch of stuff and, next thing I knew, I traded him the scroll for a conch. Damn, where did my conch go? Do you think he scammed me?”

“A scroll in a bottle…” whispered the young man, turning away from the confused boy and looking around with a scowl.

Soon after, he spotted it: a twinkling shiny spot in the middle of a mound of sand, beckoning him to it.

Ren rushed to it, leaving the other new arrival behind, and found a bottle with a rolled up piece of paper inside.

Frantically opening it and pulling the scroll out, he was shocked when the piece of parchment escaped his hands and floated in front of him, slowly unrolling itself.

For a good minute, Ren stared at the page in front of him and the glowing text displayed in his eyes, struggling to come to terms with what he was witnessing. Despite his well-educated and open mind, the fact that such an undeniably magical thing was real and happening was still stunning to him.

Meanwhile, the other aspiring adventurer had already shrugged and gotten on with looking for his dropped conch.

“This… this is ridiculous,” Ren quietly said to himself “Levels, attributes, skills… This is like a game world, except it’s all real and happening to me. How? Why did I have to die and end up here?”

His expression slowly shifted away from confusion and anguish to a frowning anger.

“No, someone is responsible for this. Someone has to be behind this whole charade of bringing innocent people here. I must find them and get some answers. Find out what they took away from me. I need to go back.”

His eyes snapped back up to the scroll, reading through its requests and mentions of many values and options. Despite his spectacular social life and busy schedule, he was also an accomplished gamer with multiple wins at several Esports tournaments and an expert understanding of strategy and complex mechanics.

To say nothing of his magnificent proficiency as a cook.

Or his flawless driving skills.

Or his gift with gardening.

Or the things he could do with his—

“I don’t have time for this right now,” Ren suddenly said. “If I am to use this system to my advantage, I must first learn and understand how this world works and then build a well-thought-out character. I can’t afford to recklessly spend any points without full knowledge of what they will entail. Only a fool would do that.”

Ren stood up and quickly snatched the floating scroll, which stopped glowing with a sudden whimper as he stuffed it inside his pocket.

“Whoever this Balthazar is, he must be the one with the answers, or perhaps even the mastermind behind it all.” He scowled at the horizon. “I will find him, and I will get back what was taken from me.”

Placing his sights on the road past the dunes, Ren set out with determination on his step, stopping at a wooden sign before heading south.

Meanwhile, back on the beach, the other new arrival was still wandering by the coast, searching for his lost conch.

“Oh, neat, what’s this?” he said, leaning down to pull on a pinkish appendage sticking out of the sand.

Moonlight slowly rolled over the white sands of Star Beach as the sound of waves on the shore drowned out the muffled screams coming from behind another killer starfish hugging its prey, in another trip around the natural circle of an adventurer’s life.

***

“Huh, I wonder why my antennae feel so warm,” Balthazar mused as he made his way up the road leading north, trying to meet with Rye.

Gazing up at the sky above, the crab knew they could not keep going much longer. Despite his inexperience with travel, even he knew that the darkness of night meant dangers could be lurking anywhere, and that they’d need to stop and make camp until morning.

“Hey, Druma,” said Balthazar, turning to the goblin walking a few steps behind. “We should stop and make camp soon, so we will need to get a fire going, for light. Can you gather some firewood?”

The assistant gave the crab a firm nod with his head. “Yes, yes, boss!”

“And you, Blue,” Balthazar continued, turning to the drake following along at a lazy pace. “Can you maybe fly up and do a few rounds over the roads to see if you spot Rye before it gets too dark?”

The golden-eyed creature slowly cocked an eyebrow at the crab, as if expecting something more.

Balthazar rolled his eyestalks.

“Please?” he said.

With a flap of her powerful wings, Blue took off past the forest canopy and soared across the streaks of orange, purple, and black of the dusk sky.

With his two travel companions going their own ways, Balthazar continued on through the road, lost in his own thoughts as he kept an eyestalk out for the archer.

As he pondered on what to do next once he found Rye, the crab heard a twig snapping up ahead.

“Well, well, well…” a raspy voice said, as a man wearing dark brown leather armor stepped out from behind a tree on the edge of the road. “Turns out that guy at the tavern wasn’t lying. There really is a merchant crab traveling on this road. You owe me five crowns, Tem.”

“Heh, yeah, boss,” a ratty-looking man said with a nervous laugh as he appeared from the opposite side of the road.

Balthazar’s eyestalks stood up. He didn’t need his Monocle of Examination to know exactly what those guys were. Bandits.

As the crab took a tentative step back, he heard more noise coming from the edges of the road behind him. Two more bandits emerged from the shadowy woods surrounding the winding path, each one flanking him from a different direction.

“Uh… evening, fellas,” the nervous merchant said. “I see my reputation precedes me, ha ha. Do you guys need something?”

The one woman in the group stepped closer, pulling a knife from her belt.

“Yes, crab. Your coin, or your life. You choose.”