The Calling

“A quest has been issued.” A soft feminine voice chimes in your head. You start at the sound and look around, wondering if anyone else had heard. You don’t see any people similarly startled, but you do notice a floating window hovering in the center of your field of vision. What the fuck? You think as you begin to read the words laid out before you. “Invalid response. A quest has been issued. Will you accept it?” The voice responds to your unvoiced thought.

Answer the Call

A quest has been issued to you. Will you accept it and answer the call?

If you accept you will be rewarded.

If you decline you will be penalized.

Rewards: 100 EXP

Penalty: ???

You wonder if you’ve had a mental break. If watching all the anime and reading all the manga and web comics over the years has finally resulted in a severing of your mind from reality. This year has been one hell of a dumpster fire, so really, if it was going to happen it made sense it would be now, in the middle of your one class that was still meeting in person despite the raging pandemic. For once you were grateful for the mask covering your face. It surely was helping to hide your look of sheer incredulity.

You stare at the window for several more seconds, blinking tightly several times to see if it would fade or go away. It does not. “A quest has been issued. Will you accept it?” The voice comes once more, seeming as if it will continue to ask until you give it one response or another.

Fuck it. I accept. You think the response, picking up on how it had responded to your thought earlier. “Quest accepted.” The voice speaks once more and a soft fanfare of music plays within your mind. You struggle to keep yourself from bursting out laughing. The possibility of this being some kind of mental break seemed more and more likely to you with each new cliche that was thrown at you. “Quest objective: Answer the call.” The voice speaks once again to inform you of what you were supposed to do, but what the hell did that mean? Answer the call? How vague could you get?

The moment you think on what call it is you're supposed to answer you feel the buzz of an incoming call coming from your fitness tracker. Unknown number. Out of habit you begin to pull your phone out to decline the call, and then freeze. What if this was the call you were supposed to answer? You accept the call and bring the phone up to your ear, half expecting to hear some kind of robo scam message.

“Welcome player! You answered the call, and have joined the game. Your life will never be the same again.” A cheerful male voice speaks to you, it has the canned sound of a prerecorded message and you remain silent to listen to whatever else it may say, ignoring a glare from your professor. “Continue to play and you can have everything you’ve ever dreamed of! Stop and… well, we won’t dwell on that! All that really matters is that now you’re playing, and you will continue to play. Forge your own path, and do not falter! A new quest will be issued to you shortly. Do yourself a favor and accept it. Good luck, player!” The call cuts off with a click and a sharp whine of feedback that is loud enough to make you flinch; and you nearly drop your phone.

Several people are looking at you now and you feel your face grow warm beneath your mask as you mutter an apology to them and your professor. You’re wondering what the hell you’ve just gotten yourself into. Your life would never be the same? What kind of ominous promise was that? What game had you just entered into? These questions and so many more flood your mind but in that moment you hear another fanfare in your head.

Quest complete!

Rewards: 100 EXP

You have leveled up!

You are now level 1.

Status screen unlocked!

Inventory unlocked!

Store unlocked!

You have 3 unspent status points.

A series of messages flash past your eyes, each staying just long enough for you to comprehend it before the next appears. At this point you are completely overwhelmed and it’s all you can do to make it through class without bolting out the door before the bell rings.