5 First Sphere

At that point a notification popped up. {Special Offer: Extra credit for accomplishing 'Warehouse Clean-Up' mission}.

"Wow. Riki must have really messed the place up." Cody gulped. "I'll… go clean up the warehouse."

This led to an hour with a sonic-mister, a vacuum broom and a paintspray. It really was a mess.

"Job complete to satisfaction." The warehouse staff told him. "3 credits awarded, plus 1 credit for the bonus mission offer."

A notification popped up.

[Entrance Exam Objective Reached.]

[Congratulations on becoming a First Sphere student of Sophia Academy.]

The 'world' began to flicker.

[Registering new student; Cody Rivers, age 6. Location: Flora III, Galactic North Frontier. Bloodline: Xenokan.]

[New Student Data created. Cody of Flora, First Sphere, Level 1 Beginner. Currently Online. Current Base: Initial Village (SE-T3). No Licenses registered. Unemployable.]

Orb popped up. [6 Requests for Notification upon completing Entrance Exam Successfully. Notify?]

"Who's asking?"

[Jerome Rivers – Context: Father. Casiphia Rivers – Context: Sister. Cyril Rivers – Context: Brother. Midori Rivers – Context: Aunt. Vera – Context: Neighbor. Theresa of the Dancing Leaf – Context: Monitor.]

"Monitor?"

[Your Monitor oversees your progress and is available for queries or to assist you with difficulties.]

"So… she's like my teacher, or facilitator… except I'm supposed to learn most things on my own, so it's just monitoring…"

[Something like that.]

"Am I the only one she's monitoring?"

[Theresa of the Dancing Leaf is monitor over all First Sphere students starting in Initial Village (SE-T3) during this intake.]

"I guess we better notify her, then?"

[Done.]

Windows were popping up left and right, visible screens holo-projected in the air. On the left were available classes, on the right, items for purchase. A minimap appeared overhead, with navigation buttons. The missions list in the center added a few new categories by which he could earn credits; Feats, Bounties, Job Offers, and a few more lines grayed out. In the lower right was a buzzing red ball informing him of an incoming audio call.

Cody tapped the call ball. "Hello?"

"Hello, Cody Rivers. Congratulations on entering the Academy." The voice on the other side was feminine and elderly. "I am Theresa of the Dancing Leaf, and I will be overseeing your progress in this Academy. Feel free to ask me questions, but be advised; you might not like my answers."

"Uh… why not?"

"Because if it's a question I don't like, I can very well just ignore it, or throw it back to you. If it's a question I really, really don't like, I can even penalize you for it."

"Yikes."

There was a short silence. "You really have no questions?"

"I… don't dare to ask any more."

Theresa barked a laugh. "Relax. I'm not mean or anything. I'm really here to help you. Just don't ask stupid questions, and you'll be fine. Try to ask one now. Anything."

"Um… do you have any advice for me?" Cody tested.

"That's a good question. I like that one." Theresa approved. "Let's see. First of all, try to level up. You know how to do that, right?"

"Cook an egg mission?"

"Yes. That's the one for Level 2 access this week. Do that as soon as you can. Level 2 missions award 5 credits on average. Level 3 missions offer 8 and so on, so forth. The higher your level, the bigger your earning potential."

"Okay. That… makes sense, I guess?"

"Also, get to know people. There are missions that are meant for teams, and some which can only be done in teams. If you need help finding a team, try talking to Crystal; she's your student rep. Also, you're going to want to get your own equipment for missions; you could buy some from the shops or the warehouse, but I think Specs is selling cheap gear specifically made for the missions she knows about."

"Okay. I'll keep an eye out for Crystal and Specs."

"As for the rest… Orb, Crystal and Specs should cover most of it between them. Try talking to them before coming to me with anything, all right?"

"Mm." Cody gave a small assenting sound.

"Just so you know, you'll need a total of 10,000 credits to graduate from First Sphere, and you only have 2 years to do it. It might seem like a long time, but if you do not succeed in two years, well…"

"That's the end?"

"That's the end. So, any questions?"

"Not right now, thanks." Cody gulped, already feeling a bit overwhelmed.

"Well, if there's anything, look for me in Initial Village. I'm the one they know as Elder T."

"Got it, Elder T." Cody signed off, and the call ended.

For a while afterward, he stood there in the village scratching his head.

Now what? Nobody was telling him what to do. Nobody was showing him any glowing signs or such. Cody had a whole lot of freedom and not a clue as to what he should do with it.

But then, someone did tell him what to do.

A voice was broadcasted over the village. "Attention, all new students. Please gather in the village square immediately. I repeat; new students, get over here, now!"

Wondering what it was about, Cody joined the trickle heading for the village square. There were about a dozen gathered already, with a few more arriving.

Riki was one of the last to arrive. He looked rather messed up somehow, like he'd been fighting ashes and dirt and lost the fight.

Melinda took one look at him and rolled her eyes. She looked as prim and proper as ever. She didn't seem to have so much as broken a sweat.

"What?" Riki demanded, looking at her grumpily.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything." Melinda said in an aloof manner.

"Your face is saying everything!" Riki grouched.

"Okay, that's enough fooling around." Someone voiced as she clapped her hands twice. They turned to see an older girl in full combat armor coming out onto the village square. "Come along, newbies. Line up and let me take a look at you."

"What makes you think we're newbies?" Riki asked.

She snorted. "I'm the students rep here in Initial Village, and I know everyone here. Literally. There's about fifty people in our village and only half are students. Until yesterday, there were only sixteen of us left. Today, our population has reached fifty. That means fourteen new students, and I've only met five so far."

"But what if we're just taking the Entrance Exam and haven't succeeded yet?"

"Four hours has passed since the Entrance Exam, so if you're still here, that means you've already succeeded and been officially enrolled."

That made sense.

"Call me Crys, or Chief!" she told them. Yes, she was indeed the Student Rep that Theresa mentioned. "I'm here to help you cheat!"

"Wha…?" Specs stared. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that this place is supposed to be educational! You're supposed to figure out everything for yourself and get everything for yourself! For example, the berries mission! Where do you get berries from? How will you carry them? How do you even know what's edible and what's not? You have to figure out everything for yourself! Nobody's going to give you anything for free! Except me!"

"Why?" Kalen asked, suspiciously. "You just said nobody gives out anything for free."

"That's right! Remember it!" Crystal nodded firmly. "But there's another lesson here that every student learns the hard way. The fact is; we need to help each other. The stronger you all are, the better off our village will be. So I'm just going to save you all a lot of mistakes and struggling to figure out what's what, and give you all a head-start… because we need help, and we need it now."

"What sort of help?" Oren asked.

"Everything. Originally, this was supposed to be a safe place, and you could learn all the basic education you need from doing missions, like math and science and geology. But the system is bugged." Crystal frowned. "Or maybe it's supposed to make things a bit more fun, but something went wrong."

Cody and Riki exchanged glances. Cody was apprehensive, but Riki actually looked excited.

"There's something weird going on in this village." Crystal told them. "Crops are mutating in crazy ways. Strange sounds come from the Scrapyard at night. Small livestock animals are disappearing without a trace. Our entire grain stores just suddenly went bad last week, for no reason at all! And just this morning, hours before you arrived… the village population dropped without a student leaving."

"What do you mean 'dropped'?" Oren had to ask.

"I mean, when I logged out last night, we had thirty-three people in our village. This morning, I was the first person to log-in… and that number had dropped to thirty-two."

Cody felt a chill creep down his back.

"I checked my logs. The only student activity due today was your arrival. Nobody has been expelled, nobody has been transferred. Other than us students, the population of this village consists of NPCs. In other words, last night… somebody in the village died."

Cody shivered.

"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real." Riki was chanting in a low voice. "It's just a computer program. It's not real. It's not real."

Even so. Everything here felt real.

Cody saw the looks on the faces of the other new students. All of them were pale, especially Specs. The look on Crystal's face told him that she was serious. This wasn't some sort of joke. Something had gone creepily, terribly wrong.

"So that's why… we can't have everyone running around on their own figuring things out slowly. Outside of this village, nobody travels alone, understood? Always move around in pairs or groups and watch each other's backs! You need to learn how to get things done and get stronger, and you need to learn it fast."

"Why do we need to get stronger? Why can't we just tell the teacher or go to another village?" Specs asked.

"The teachers just tell us to bear with it. Also, we're in a hollow surrounded by mountains. The only way out is to climb the First Sphere Challenge Mountain, and that's suicide without proper skills and gear."

"But there's a shuttle pad, right there!" Specs pointed.

"That's only for buying and selling goods. You're only allowed to use the shuttle to fly out for official missions and then you'll be sent right back. Even if you try to hide out someplace else, the next time you log in, you'll appear right back in your Personal Space."

"What if we didn't log in anymore? Simply… didn't come back?"

"That's basically quitting the Academy." Crystal said shortly.

That put an end to Specs' questions. Nobody wanted to quit the Academy simply because their online starting point was buggy.