Chapter 2: A Shocking Introduction
<span style="font-weight:400">"Wee," a new female voice said, startling Drake and causing him to nearly fumble over on the ground.
<span style="font-weight:400">There were no doors in the room that he could make out so it shouldn’t have been possible for someone to just appear in the room without him noticing. But after the shock of hearing a new voice in the room, Drake quickly stood looking at the person across from him.
<span style="font-weight:400">On the other side of a newly ced white table -that he was wondering where it hade from- was a picturesque woman with shoulder-length ck hair, and sharp brown eyes staring back at him. Even with her sitting down Drake could clearly see her defined body features under the office-type clothing. If anything the tightly stretched clothes only made her curves more alluring.
<span style="font-weight:400">While thinking that she reminded him of one of the KPOP stars he had seen doing a video for one of his favorite games, he let out a whispered, "Wow, you are smoking...." an upward crease forming on the side of his mouth.
<span style="font-weight:400">The woman smiled in turn, casually getting to her feet. She was slightly shorter than Drake, maybe around 5 foot 5 inches. And she sauntered just as casually over to his side of the table.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Oh. Now I''ve definitely seen this movie before," Drake muttered, looking down at the extravagant woman in front of him.
<span style="font-weight:400">Unbeknownst to him the woman had pulled out a small taser in her hand. But Drake hardly noticed since he was too upied looking at the woman’s smile.
<span style="font-weight:400">Before he could understand what happened he went stiff as a board, suddenly feeling an intense shock go through his body, falling back to the ground with an unceremonious thud.
<span style="font-weight:400">"W-hhh-what tttthh-the ffu-fuuckdyyyyy!" Drake shouted out through spasms.
<span style="font-weight:400">The woman never stopped smiling as she knelt down next to Drake, the taser still popping with swift and loud cracks in her hand.
<span style="font-weight:400">"I may be a system construct and only here for <i><span style="font-weight:400">now </i><span style="font-weight:400">to perform your introduction, <i><span style="font-weight:400">but</i><span style="font-weight:400"> I’ll be damned if you’ll subject me to your low-tier game without pants. Pervert," said the woman, giving Drake another quick shock to the thigh.
<span style="font-weight:400">Drake yelped again in surprise, pain shooting up the length of his leg like being struck by lightning.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Oh don’t be such a <i><span style="font-weight:400">baby</i><span style="font-weight:400">. This thing only does 1 damage per hit, the stun is only inconvenient since you don’t have any resistances <i><span style="font-weight:400">yet</i><span style="font-weight:400">. Now here’s an extra freebie, put them on so I don’t have to look upon your <i><span style="font-weight:400">disappointing</i><span style="font-weight:400"> lower half will you," she giggled condescending, dropping blue jeans on Drake’s still spasming, drooling face.
<span style="font-weight:400">By the time Drake was able to gain control over his body, he was even more confused than before. It had been a little over 10 minutes as he nced at the top right of the weing screen. She had just wasted the little time he had here over a smallpliment.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Sure, I forgot that I was half-naked. Drake thought. But it’s not my fault I was brought here with no pants! I just went on auto-pilot since she’s right in my strike zone!</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">He sighed inwardly as he slipped into the jeans he was given, more confused. He tried his best to ignore the blinking green bar in the top left of his vision. Not wanting to acknowledge it. Thinking that if he had he would be admitting to going <i><span style="font-weight:400">even</i><span style="font-weight:400"> more crazy than he already thought he was.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Transported half-naked to a small nondescript room. A gorgeous hottie just spawns into it after I hear voices in my head. How was I supposed to know anything but that this might be a wild lucid dream or I went into some kind ofa?! He screamed internally.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">"Will you sit down so we can get started already, you don’t have all day. We have a lot to go through," the woman said from her seat at the table she had gone back to at some point.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Oh, I’m wasting time now, huh?!" Drake shouted, "Aren’t you the one who just knocked <i><span style="font-weight:400">me</i><span style="font-weight:400"> out for giving out a harmlesspliment!"
<span style="font-weight:400">The woman raised a brow at Drake’s outburst, her hand rising from below the table. The same taser in her hand sparked to life menacingly, lighting up the side of her face with every electrifying crack, "You were half naked if you don''t remember. Want to go night night again brat?" she stated tly making it all the more terrifying.
<span style="font-weight:400">"That’s fair. No, I’m good Ma’am, let’s get started shall we!" he quickly yelled out in the most polite tone he could manage, silently sliding into the seat at the table.
<span style="font-weight:400">"<i><span style="font-weight:400">Good</i> <i><span style="font-weight:400">boy," she sneered, "</i><span style="font-weight:400">Now that we can finally begin, hurry up and fill out the basic information the screen is asking for," she prompted with the wave of the taser.
<span style="font-weight:400">"<i><span style="font-weight:400">Bitch</i><span style="font-weight:400">…." Drake muttered under his breath.
<span style="font-weight:400">"What was that, I didn’t quite hear?" she asked, the taser again snapping to life with electricity.
<span style="font-weight:400">"No, no, nothing! I just don’t really understand the first line! Haha…." he rambled nervously, looking down at the screen in front of him.
<b>[Please enter your name or alias.]</b>
<b></b><span style="font-weight:400">"Why would I need an alias, I’m assuming since I’m here you already know my name. This seems like a sign-up for some type of job or game. Did I reincarnate, maybe?" Drake asked rapid-fire, his enthusiasm starting to eclipse his terror of being shocked again.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Ugh… So many questions and we haven''t even passed the first prompt. Can’t you use that thing between your fleshy ears?" the woman said dramatically with a flourish of her arms.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">When she popped in I could have sworn she was an angel, but what''s with all this sadistic crap! She’s a 10 but her personality is like a 1! I guess that’s why they say don’t judge a book by its cover. Thought Drake, staring at the woman, waiting for a proper answer while willfully ignoring the taser she used so liberally.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">The woman’s eyes thinned in annoyance, reluctantly answering, "You are lucky I’m forced by the system to answer even the most mundane of questions as long as it’s within a certain scope. <i><span style="font-weight:400">No</i><span style="font-weight:400">, you haven’t reincarnated. Are you stupid? And the reason for the option of an alias is because in theing tutorial. You will be ced on specificdders for thepetition of rewards at the end of it."
<span style="font-weight:400">Drake’s ears perked up at the mention of thepetitiondders. He was an avid gamer during his 26 years of life, even ying games when it wasn’t mainstream. Having to hide the fact, he would turn down dates and outings just to get a few more hours in front of the screen.
<span style="font-weight:400">"So it is like a game sign-up, almost like a Gamer Tag?" he mused.
<span style="font-weight:400">"You can think of it like that if it helps," she said, twirling the taser between her fingers as she continued, "But this is no game, the system is made to promote the growth of Mana Vessels by any means."
<b></b><span style="font-weight:400">"Mana Vessels?" Drake asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Yeah, the most simple exnation I''m allowed to give you is that they, or more specifically; you and the rest of your race are containers for ambient mana. Meant to contain infinite sums of it throughout the multiverse. You know about the Big Bang right?" she asked pointedly.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Yeah, I went through school," he answered.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Could have fooled me," she giggled.
<span style="font-weight:400">Drake scoffed a scowl quickly forming on his face.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Well," she continued. "That didn’t happen for just any reason. The build-up of mana from the Originators, or the <i><span style="font-weight:400">first</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Vessels couldn’t be held. And went pop!" the woman exined with a pop of her hands and lips.
<span style="font-weight:400">"And now all that Mana is continuing out into the multiverse just all willy-nilly. Doing <i><span style="font-weight:400">whatever</i><span style="font-weight:400"> it likes, creatings, destroyings, creating and copsing whole sectors of the universe. So to contain the unstable mana, the surviving Originators developed the system to gather and process it," she finished.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Well doesn''t that just make two bombshells in the roomdy? I feel like you should apologize to all the people who worked so hard toe up with the Big Bang Theory," Drake said.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Nope. It isn’t my fault they were uninformed, ipetent monkeys," she said tly.
<span style="font-weight:400">Drake didn’t let some of the information she slipped in go past him without question either, "You said <i><span style="font-weight:400">my</i><span style="font-weight:400"> race as if there were others. Are you insinuating that there will be other ‘races’ in this tutorial?" he asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Yes," she stated just as quickly.
<span style="font-weight:400">"And they are….?" Drake asked exacerbated.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Can’t say, won’t say. Can’t give you all the info, but I will say that the area you are going to only has humans in it," she quipped, adding, "At least as far as participants go," she finished coyishly.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Fair...." Drake said a little suspicious of thestment but forced himself to look back at the screen hovering in front of him nheless, pushing the thought away.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Well, I guess I’ll just use my gamer tag for now. He thought.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Drake pressed the empty box on the screen for his name, a cursor shing in the box as a keyboard manifested into existence in front of him.
<span style="font-weight:400">Beginning to type out the name he had used in some of his more recent RPG games.
<b>[Please enter your name or alias.]</b>
<b>[xXxDemonHunterDrakexXx…]</b>
<span style="font-weight:400">Drake’s hands moved nearly at the speed of light to cover his flushing face. As he started typing the name he had used for his solo-y RPG games. He slowly realized it would be seen by others.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">I’m 26 dude! He screamed internally. This is going to be seen by who knows how many people. How embarrassing would it be to introduce yourself like this?! Oh hey! I’m xXxDemonHunterDrakexXx! He continued to think, only embarrassing himself further. The embarrassment became even more physical as he squirmed slightly in his seat.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">"Hurry up, you have only 40 more minutes to get through everything and ask any other questions you might have. So there’s no time to dance about. And if you’re worried about the alias, don’t be. It will onlyst for the tutorialdders and won’t matter afterward," the woman said, her face giving away how bored she was growing of watching Drake mull over only the first prompt of the introduction, losing so much interest that she picked at the under of her nails with the taser blowing the dirt off asionally.
<span style="font-weight:400">"Thanks…" he muttered.
<span style="font-weight:400"><i><span style="font-weight:400"></i><span style="font-weight:400">Remembering the old MMO he had yed when he was younger. Drake smiled with nostalgia. He thought of the name he used through most of the 10 odd years that he yed.
<b>[Please enter your name or alias.]</b>
<b>[Shot]</b>