Chapter 2

The teleportation was near instantaneous. Rob didn’t even have a moment to blink.

One second, brain and guts were about to splatter against pavement like a Jackson Pollock, and in the next, some words he could barely understand had floated into his vision. Something about a Grand Authority System? 304th universe? Class selection? None of it made any sense.

Then in a blip, he was suddenly standing in a strange white room. To call wherever the hell Rob was, “a room,” was a bit of an understatement because he couldn’t quite make out anything discernibly room-like. There were no walls. No ceilings. No doors.

Just space. Empty. Vast. Open white space.

Rob patted his shoulders, arms, and legs, confirming once more that his body was still all there. He then lifted his foot and took a cautious step forward.

Despite there being no discernible floor that Rob could see, there was some kind of surface or platform for his foot to land. As soon as his foot made that first step, a ripple of energy shot outward. For a hot second, there was a wave of energy and then the white space tightened like a bedsheet snapped taut, the faintest of wrinkles smoothing flat.

Following this burst of energy, a strange figure appeared.

Standing before Rob was a clean-shaven slender man in his early thirties. Despite a youthful pallor to his face, the man had medium-length grey silver hair. He also had massive black pupils that took over most of his eyes, giving him a demonic-alien-like quality. The strangeness of his black pupils nearly hid the fact that the man had a noticeable pale remnant of a scar between the top and bottom of his left eye.

The freaky scar and weird eyes would have been the man’s most striking features if it weren’t for the fact that he was wearing a long, black tailcoat with double-breasted front and silver buttons. Beneath the tailcoat was a matching black waistcoat, and a white dress shirt with a high collar, and a black necktie. Draped across the vest was a silver chain of a pocket watch.

The figure before him looked eerily similar to the older man with the golden energy blade who had attacked Rob only minutes before.

It was at that moment that everything came rushing back to Rob.

The monster that that had materialized in his living room.

The strange appearance of his missing brother.

The weird older man with the grey goatee and glasses.

That guy and this new person here in the white room had to be working together. Outside of a Sherlock Holmes fan convention, seeing two men dressed as Victorian butlers in a single day couldn’t be a coincidence.

Rob then recalled the last words his brother had spoken to him.

“Don’t trust⁠—”

Don’t trust blank.

Way to set me up for a lifetime of crippling anxiety and paranoia, bro.

Rob looked at the strange butler guy in front of him once more.

Well, I’ll start by not trusting this guy in front of me.

“Welcome, Rob Fischer,” said the figure. The man then clapped his white gloved hands together. “Shall we begin?”

“Um, sure,” said Rob. “How about we start with–what the hell is going on? And who the hell are you?”

The silver-haired man looked at Rob with a gentle and soft smile. It was the kind of knowing-smile teachers and parents gave to kids. It had an almost patronizing note to it. It was the kind of grin that could only come from someone who had complete and utter power over you. The condescension made the strange man all the more frightening—not to mention, irritating. The smug arrogance of those in power had always pissed Rob off.

“The 304th Universe–of which Earth is a part–has begun its Integration into the Grand Authority System,” said the man. “The Grand Authority System is the all-powerful entity that governs the multiverse. As your planet and its people go through the Integration process you’ll slowly learn more and more about the system and what it can do for you.”

Rob stared at the man, not sure what to say.

“The Integration process has multiple stages that can last up to multiple years,” explained the man. “The first stage is Class Selection, followed by the Tutorial. Future stages will become clearer to you as you make it deeper into the Integration process. I am known as The Administrator–and it is my job to assist you through this transition period and ensure that you have a smooth entry into your Tutorial.”

Rob smirked. Assist me, huh?

Jonathan had warned Rob to not trust someone. The guy wearing the exact same uniform as another dude who had just tried to kill him was top of the untrustworthy list.

He would take The Administrator’s words with not just a grain of salt, but a whole jar of it, throw in some MSG for good measure too.

Rob got the feeling The Administrator was trying to draw out their conversation, as if he was purposely trying to waste Rob’s time. Like there might be some kind of benefit from moving through this Class Selection process more quickly. A benefit this sneaky butler dude didn’t want Rob to have.

“Can we start the actual Class Selection please?”

The Administrator’s eye subtly twitched, before he spoke. “Please open your system menu to view your Profile and Class Selection options. I’ll be here if you have any more questions.”

Just as Rob thought to himself, “how do I open my system menu”, a Role-Playing-Game-like Profile appeared within his retina. He quickly noted that the system must be partially tied to his mental processing, so he should be able to navigate his Profile and the system information just through guided mental control.

He reviewed the Profile before him.

Rob looked over the Profile with amazement. It was exactly like the role-playing games he liked to play on his computer. It was a bit mind-boggling to see one’s entire being broken down into a character Profile like that.