My System has a Glitch

William selected a black tracksuit with a single white stripe on the sleeves. He looked at the man behind him who had been trying on glasses for a while now.

The man had on a green track suit and it occurred to him that green was a lot better for camouflage.

"Damn it," he muttered, then he looked at how much he had spent on it

"Twenty five minutes! Well, can't do anything about it now."

The clothes were already on him, in fact the very moment he had chosen the option to buy, a notice had popped up on his guide.

[ASSIMILATE ATTIRE]

[YES] [NO]

William chose yes and instantly the clothes formed around him through tiny beads of light.

'Hey, what did they do with my suit?'

He took one last look at the man with the glasses as he walked out of the store.

Everyone slept where they had eaten, resting their heads on the table and lying on the hard floors. William read the encyclopedia briefly then he decided to go to sleep.

As he fell asleep he could hear other players talking, reminiscing about the world before their regrets and their fear of the future to come.

****

The ship rocked slightly as it hit dry land or so they thought. The light in the room was dim and almost everyone was still fast asleep. After a few hours the morning light crept into the hall and everyone began waking up. The guide appeared on the podium again.

"I hate to do this but it's time."

He snapped his finger and a sharp sound like a siren rang through the room, forcing everyone awake.

With a snap of his fingers the whole hall was clean and all the dishes that had been left over from last night were gone.

Like everyone else, William got up and covered his ears .

"Who does think he is to ruin a dream, I was just past second base."

The siren stopped and the whole crowd began screaming at the guide.

"I apologize, I apologize, it's my duty to see that the event stays on schedule, the time for sleeping has now passed, now the event of your trial stands before you, prepare yourself, your future in purgatory depends on it."

No one really knew for certain what he meant by "prepare," so they just sat around and talked and waited as the air around them got more anxious.

"Hey!" Nod called out to William. William who had been reading his encyclopedia turned and greeted him and Ingrid as well.

"You're reading the encyclopedia right?" William nodded.

"Ladders, snakes and man eating plants, something tells me they don't want us to touch the earth."

"Right?" William said. "I've been wondering about that, plus there's very little mention of the terrain."

The old man tapped William on the shoulder, "sorry to interject but did you study the weapons you took?"

"What?" William was a bit confused.

"They're special you see, they have special functions, like the bullets for the rifle, some can remove or add time."

"Really! ?" William and nod said.

"That's an advantage for someone who's a good shot," Nod said.

William surfed through his guide for his tool box and when he found it. He went to the weapons section and the only item that he had was the brass knuckles.

William saw an info option at the side of it and by his intent he opened it….

[Brass Knuckle: (grade F)]

[Category: Close Combat]

[DAMAGE level: Low]

[Sp: Minus - Deducts time from those hit with it]

"Look at this pop," William tapped him on the shoulder and showed him.

"That's interesting," the old man said.

"Let me see," Nod said and William touched him on the shoulder and he could see it.

"It's pretty low," he said. "But at least you've got something."

"Don't you have any?"

"Nah, the guy who helped me out wanted all of the loot."

"And you let him."

"Yeah, but we did split the time, if that's any consolation."

William looked at the brass knuckles displayed on his guide, then he looked at the option to activate it then Nod said,

"By the way u saw your friend Ben."

"Ben!? Where? Where is he?"

"I haven't seen him since, though he seemed like he didn't want to be seen."

"Really? Are you sure it was him?"

"A hundred percent, Ingrid saw him too, right Ingrid."

She nodded.

"He seemed a bit odd, like he was preoccupied, anxious even, stuck in his own head, you know."

William let out a sigh and said, "I'm just glad he's okay. Anyways here you go," Nod saw a single brass knuckle in his hand.

"Are you sure?" Nod asked.

William nodded and said, "yeah you'll need something to protect yourself and her too."

"Hey I've been surviving without him," Ingrid said. "Maybe I should be the one to take it."

Suddenly they heard the large wooden down creak open, it moved slowly until both doors were wide open.

"I guess it's time," the old man said.

The light coming from the outside was quite bright and soon they saw a silhouette in all that light walking toward them from the outside.

It took a while for most people to recognize him due to the blinding light but it was the guide again and his peculiar quirk of popping up at random places were starting to seem creepy.

"So it begins," he said and his low voice echoed through the room. "You can't remain on the ship, it'll sink, so insure you have everything you need. Your trail starts now!"

The man snapped his fingers and the ship rocked uncontrollably, testing everyone's balance, there were cries and yells as the suddenness of it startled everyone.

When they looked for the guide to voice their anger at him, they discovered he was completely gone.

"Water! Water! "Many people began screaming as they shoved each other .

"Move damn it! Move"

William looked at his feet and saw water creeping through the cracks in the floorboard, he turned to the old man and said,

"We've gotta go."

Everyone turned towards the exit. "It's sinking, it's sinking,* they screamed.

William, and the others made it out of the hall. There were many people on the deck, and some were even jumping overboard into the water as half of the boat had already sunken.

William and the others were clustered in by the sheer number of people and with more forcing their way out of the hall they were stuck.

"I can't swim, I can't swim, I can't swim," someone screamed as the crowd pushed them into the water.

The water was quickly swallowing the ship and with the crowded Willliam had a hard time keeping his hold on the old man.

"We'll just wait till the boat sinks," he said."then we'll just swim to shore."

As far as he could see there was no land anywhere Just water and a thick fog all around them.

'It's like that guide said,' he thought. 'Those places haven't been created yet.' "Where the hell is everyone swimming to then?"

More and more people jumped out of the ship until only a few remained who didn't see the point in jumping as the ship was mare moment from being completely buried under water

"Hey," Nod said."They were both amongst the few remaining aboard the ship.

"Where's Ingrid?"

"I think she jumped in."

"I'm over here,"she said as she made her way through the few people around.

After a shot while the ship completely sunk and William felt the cold water wrap around his ankles as his feet sunk into water.

He had expected the water to rise up to his knees and then up to his body but suddenly it all stopped like the sunken ship had reached the bed of the river but as he looked at those that were swimming in the deep water, he saw that they were all get up and were all covered in mud and standing on shallow waters.

The geography of the whole terrain had been altered in a flash.

Watching on, the old man was in awe of what he had witnessed and without thinking he said, "we're dealing with power far beyond our capacity to understand."

The ship under his feet had disappeared completely and he was standing on muddy waters.