1 A Day Unlike Any Other

"Henry. Hey, Henry!"

"What?!"

"Boss wants to see you."

"Where is he?"

"In his office."

The man, introduced as Henry by the other person, pauses and thinks, "This is about the auto-miller, isn't it?"

"Dunno. Maybe."

"That might be the last stroke that broke the camel's. Or in this case, his patience."

Henry breathes in deep and lets out a long drawn-out sigh.

"You know what? Fuck it, Dwight. He pushes the equipment WAY past their maximum operating times and neglected their regular maintenance schedules. And when they break down, what does he do? Does he say, 'Sorry guys, my bad.'? Fuck no! He blames it on us. EVERY! SINGLE! TIME!!!"

Henry pauses, catches his breath, and continues, "Just this last month, my team fixed enough machines that it can be considered an entire assembly line. Now, instead of putting them on maintenance downtime - mine and the maintenance team's professional recommendation - he pushed the technicians to take double or even triple shifts to get them up and running. After they got fixed, what does he do? He pushes them way beyond their rated maximum capability. AGAIN!"

"The worst part? No overtime. Or even regular pay for the extra shifts we took. Asshole. The entire team quit after that. And the fucking pig falsifies the reports sent to HQ."

"Sorry, Dwight. Started ranting at you, even you're not at fault."

"No prob, man. All us guys knows it's his fault. So what ya gonna do about it?"

"Don't worry, guys. I've prepared a nice surprise waiting for him. If he's planning on firing me, he'll be in a world of suffering. Hmph... even if he doesn't fire me, he'll be in a bigger problem than what I unleashed now."

"Well, good luck then."

========================================

'Office of the Plant Manager'

"Want to see me, sir?"

"Yes. Sit down."

Henry sits on the offered chair.

"So, is there something I can do for you, sir?"

"I'm sorry to say this, but I'm gonna have to let you go."

"So, letting me go huh. What's next, pinning your incompetence and flagrant violation of safety and maintenance policies on me? Making me you're fucking scapegoat? Well, I have something to say about that."

"Really, now? Tell me quick, then get out of my office."

"Okay then.

Henry takes a deep breathe and continues.

"Since you chucklefuck has been tampering with the files that is being sent to HQ, I've decided to correct that HUGE mistake you've made. I've sent them a nice, original, UNALTERED copy of ALL the technical reports I've made. And HQ read them. They're not very happy with it."

"They would like to have a 'chat' with you."

"You fucking shit! I'll fucking...!"

WHAM!!! Henry throws a gut-busting punch to the corpulent asshole that is his boss. Or ex-boss now.

And he's down.

Retching noises ensue.

"Didn't like that, did you? How do you think we feel when you fucked us over with the way you run this plant? You disregarded established procedures to pump up the production volumes. Even equipment maintenance and downtime is thrown out the window. Well, guess what? The plant's breaking down left and right. And losing money badly due to production delay.. If we just followed the procedures your father has established, we wouldn't be at this position."

More retching and groaning sounds.

"Me, I'm done. I'm out. I've been working in this plant for ten years now. Your father has been running this for 30 years. But, in just a span of eighteen months, you destroyed everything. Your father's legacy, gone. Every employee from your father's time, gone."

"And if HQ doesn't change their mind, the plant will be gone, too."

"And me? I'm going. I'm not gonna deal with any bullshit, especially coming from you. And I have to thank you for firing me. You just gave me a nice way out. That means I don't need to deal with this mess."

"Just make sure to send my severance and all back pay to my bank account. Ciao."

Henry then walks out the door, leaving his former boss lying on the floor, curled up and 'swimming' in his own vomit.

========================================

Meet Henry, our protagonist. He works, or worked, as a facility and maintenance technician for a manufacturing plant that produces parts for firearms. From fixing broken equipment, to even fabricating replacement parts for them. He's well-trained technician and engineer, having a degree in both Mechanical and Electrical Engineering AND Chemistry, all from a well-respected university. He even trained in every technical and machine operation course he can get his hands on.

His specialty?

By just a cursory inspection, he can easily determine an object's function and what it's made of. More prodding will tell him the structural composition and integrity of the item in question. And once he gets into the internals, he can repair and duplicate it. As long as it is not that complicated, like microchips or advanced electronics, he can definitely duplicate it. He'll just need all the right materials, tools, and equipment.

Case in point: the auto-miller. Broken graspers for the arms that hold and move the item being milled? He made replacements for labor and materials worth 350 dollars. If the plant bought the replacement, it will cause them almost 2 grand.

He' well built; standing at 5 feet, 11 inches and weighs 175 pounds. Hours and hours of dealing with heavy machinery gave him a nice, toned, swimmer's physique - the envy of models everywhere. He even got offers to become one, but turned them all down. He prefers to work with his hands, not let other people's hands work on him, if you know what I mean.

And now... he's jobless. Well, at least he's out of the company. It's not like he's lacking work opportunities himself.

========================================

"Well, that's that. I've updated my CV, and sent them to any company that may need my services. I've even updated my online profile."

A 'ping' sound is heard.

"Wow, that's fast. I just sent them and got a reply immediately."

A few mouse clicks later.

"Huh, what's this? Terra Solutions? Never heard of them. Maybe a new company or something. Hmm... let's see what they are offering."

More mouse clicks later.

"That's weird. They wanted to hire me as a 'Technical Expert', then send me to an unspecified location. No details on what the 'Technical Expert' job requirements or where the location will be. Should I? Well, this e-mail says I can only get the details if I accept their invitation. I can accept the invitation and then reject the offer if I don't like it."

Click.

"Okay, there. Invitation accepted. Now let's just waiAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

'SWOOSH!'

Noises of things getting sucked in by vacuum, items getting flinged around.

And then silence.

========================================

THUD!!!

"Ow! Fuck! Aaargh!"

After a bout of shouting and cursing later.

"What the fuck was that all about!? Oh, I think that broke my back."

Cracking noises.

"Oh that's sooo much better... feels like I'm dropped on something really hard."

Henry notices his surroundings.

"Wait a damned minute. I 'AM' lying on something really hard."

Henry gingerly sits up, wincing at the pain from his back. He looks around him, his eyes beginning to adjust to the scene.

"Wait a damn minute, this is not my apartment! Where the fuck am I? Why the hell am I in this dirty, trashed-filled alley?

His hands then feels the rough cobblestone beneath him.

"Is this cobblestone? I don't know any place near my house that has an alley paved with cobblestone. Or alleys for that matter."

Henry looks around some more.

"Aaand... apartments. Lots of them With old-style chimneys. Trash everywhere. Yup. Definitely not in Kansas anymore."

Henry then smells something foul.

"The hell!? Is that piss? It is fucking piss. Really!? Of all the...!"

Henry rants, "First, you fucking drag me to whatever this place. Then proceeded to NEARLY BREAK MY SPINE by throwing me down HARD on this alley. And I'm hungry and fucking half-naked to boot."

Henry then remembers what happened to him earlier.

"Oh fuck.... No.... no, no, no, no...."

Panicking ensues.

A few moments later....

Getting his panic down with breathing exercises, Henry exclaimed "Fuck."

"I knew it. That fucking e-mail.... The offer's too instant. And I'm sure I didn't send an application letter to them. Or even knew that they exist. They dragged me here just like that, without an explanation as to why."

"FUUUUU...!!!"

After several minutes of ranting and cursing that will make a drill sergeant take copious amounts of notes while singing high praises. (Author: That's... a terrifying image.)

"Okay, Henry... calm down... let's see what we can do. What do we have to work with? Come on,boy, you're better than that. There's got to be something around here...."

Henry then looks around more.

"Hey, some of my stuff are lying around here. Did they got sucked in too? Well at least that's gonna help me somewhat."

"Now... let's see what items we have here."

Henry spots his hiking boots.

"Oooh nice. Boots. And my hiking ones to boot.... Hehe, nice one brain."

"No more barefoot for me, then."

Henry reaches for his boots.

'ANALYSIS COMPLETE.'

"What the...?"

Then a blue screen appears in front of him, attached to the boots.

[HIKING BOOTS:]

[TYPE: Armor(Foot)]

[MATERIAL: Ordinary Leather(+)]

[QUALITY: Common(+)]

[ATTRIBUTES:

[DUR: 10/15(+)]

[RES: Blunt: 1/5(+), Cut: 1/5(+), Acid: 1/5(+), Fire: 0/5(+), Cold: 1/5(+)]

[DEF: 2/5(+)]

[DMG: Blunt: 3/5(+)]

[WGT: 2.5kg(+)]

[ENC: Lower Body: 10(+)]

[BONUS: +1 TO DEF]

[ENCHANT:]

[None(+)]

[MOD:]

[LINING: Standard]

[SOLE: Standard]

[INSERT: None]

[OTHERS: None]

"Okay, is that...? Wow. I got powers... I GOT POWERS!!! Woohoo!"

Henry calms down and analyzes the situation. (Author: Oooh, another one.)

"Right, check it out first, then celebration later. Hmm, what does 'DUR' or 'WGT' even means?"

Then an ideas sparks itself in Henry's mind. Press one of the lines in the 'notification box', as he now calls it, just like in the LitRPG novels he read.

PING!

[DUR: Durability - the toughness and construction of the item. Decreasing this value to 0 by damaging the items will break and render it unusable. ]

[Spend 1 'Upgrade Points' to increase DUR by 1 for this item. You have '10/10' 'Upgrade Points'. Spend?]

"It worked! Haha! And they say reading those novels will rot your. Hah!"

Henry read the description, mulling over the blue screen.

"Let's see... um... okay... right. Spend 'Upgrade Points'? Hmm, I've got 10 of them. How do I spend an Upgrade Point? Wait... there a 'plus' sign after the value. Is that how I spend 'Upgrade Points'? Let's try that out."

PING!

[DUR has been increased by 1. 'Upgrade Points' decreased to '9/10'. Spent 'Upgrade Points' will recover by midnight.]

"Sweet. Hehe. That... that changes everything. With virtually unlimited durability, I can maintain all my gear and mitigate the risk of them getting destroyed. And I bet those others Attributes will mean something else. Something nice. Going to check them out."

And a pause, realizing his state of undress and location.

"Right. After I put this boots on. And check out what items have been scattered around here. Almost forgot that."