The System

In a dark room, there was a glow coming from two candles on the front of a wide desk that sat in the back of the room. It was in front of a fireplace that had a small fire going. It helped with the fading in and out glow of the room. You could see the walls coved in bookshelves. Each one holding as many books as it can.

At the desk sat a man in a black 3-piece suit with short salt and pepper hair. He was intently reading a book while stroking his black goatee. All that could be heard was the crackling from the fire behind him.

The quiet room's silence was unexpectedly broken by a man wearing a white dress shirt with a light blue vest over it and the slacks to match the vest.

"Master Valentine, I have a message for you." The man in light blue said. His face could not be seen because of the shadows in the room. The light from the candles and fire couldn't seem to reach his head.

"It's been awhile since they have gotten involved with anything," Valentine said slightly amused. "Please come in and have a seat."

"No, thank you. I do not have time. I must give the message and leave. You know they like things done promptly."

"Ok, what's the message then?"

"Apparently HE is back, and they want you to look into it and take care of him or it."

"What, how is this even possible? Didn't he die almost 40 years ago?" Valentine asked while sitting up straight and looking at the man, confused by what he said.

"That is what was said. If not HIM, then the residual effect from his ability just became active."

"That doesn't make any sense. His ability is useless in today's time. He couldn't do anything. This better not be a waste of my T….." Valentine stopped suddenly due to the man in light blue raising his palm toward him. Signaling him to be silent.

"The Triad has spoken. You will do as requested. Is that clear, Master Valentine?"

"Yes, it will be done," Valentine said while fixing his composure.

The man in light blue walked over to Valentine's Desk and placed a gem the size of a bottle cap on the desk in front of him.

"When you are near him or his ability, the ruby will glow. That is all of the message. I will see myself out."

The man turned around and began walking to the door. He opened the door, then stopped and looked at Valentine and said, "Remember they do not do well with failure."

He walked out and closed the door behind him.

____

"Ugh," Eric said, sitting up and placing his hand on his forehead.

"What happen?" He asked out loud.

Right then the transparent blue square showed back up. This time it said SYSTEM IS ONLINE. "System, what is a system?" He thought to himself.

The message on the blue square changed, but this time he could hear a voice saying what was in the blue square.

<Welcome, Shadow Mage.>

It was a monotone and robotic voice that was just in his head.

"A shadow mage. Wait a minute. Is that my power?" He was thinking to himself, trying to figure all of this out.

Shadow powers. That is not an ability that has shown up yet. But this is kind of normal. It has only been a little more than forty years since powers showed up. New powers keep showing up from time to time. Although new powers have been showing up less and less the last 10 years.

"Shadow, hmmm. I really hope this isn't a trash ability." Eric said in a mumble to himself.

"Ok, what else is there to this system thing?" As soon as this thought came to his mind, the blue square changed to a long rectangle shape. Inside the rectangle, going from top to bottom, it displayed: PROFILE, ABILITIES, DIMENSION, QUESTS, AI.

The words dimension and AI were a transparent gray color.

"Wait a minute... I know what this is. Mom told me about these things. This is what is called a menu screen. This must be like the games Mom used to play before that war," he said with excitement because he figured it out.

"Ok, how do I choose profile?" Once again, as soon as he thought about it, the screen changed and displayed information about himself.

The system read it off in the same robotic voice.

<Name: Eric Carson, Level 1. < p>

Magic: Shadow,

Class: Shadow Novice.

HP 25/25

EXP 0/10

Status: normal

Attack: 5

Defense: 5

Dexterity: 4

Stamina: 3

Radiation: 5

RP 50/50>

Eric was trying to remember the stories his mother told him about the games she used to play. That's how his mother and father met. It was through a MMORPG game.

He racked his brain with his eyebrows crunched up. After a few minutes, he was pretty sure the HP was his health, or what was called hit points. EXP was easy because it was short for experience. The RP tripped him up the most. He didn't remember his mother ever saying anything about this.

He stood there emotionless, looking down at the ground, trying to figure it all out. Suddenly it came to him. This is real life. In the games, people had magic. In our world, we don't have magic. We have power due to our bodies somehow absorbing radiation.

Radiation took the place of magic. RP had to be radiation points.

"Hmmmmm. Let's look at what it says about abilities." He thought.

Immediately the profile screen changed and went to the abilities screen. The system showed five abilities. When he looked at one and thought what it did, the system would speak in his head, sounding like what he thought a robot would sound like.

The first ability was SCAN Level 1. <When looking at a person, place, or thing, if skill is activated, information will be displayed,> the system said to Eric.

NIGHT VISION Passive was the next one he looked at. < When in darkness or looking at darkness, you will be able to see like there is light. To be able to see normal in darkness or through darkness>

SHADOW STEP Level 1. < Able to teleport anywhere within your shadow or within any other shadow or darkness that your shadow is touching. If in complete darkness, you can teleport anywhere within that darkness.>

"Ok! That's pretty cool. That should come in handy," Eric said out loud to himself with excitement.

SHADOW MANIPULATION Level 1. <Able to control your shadow or other shadows as long show is touching it. While in darkness, you can the darkness. Imagination, level, and amount of RP are only limitations.>

"I will have to test this out to see what it can do."

SHADOW PIN Level 1.<Step on or place hand another shadow to lock it in place. They cannot move activate abilities this state. It works people, creatures, and objects. The larger more powerful is, the RP will cost.>

Eric started moving around and looking at himself like it was the first time seeing himself. He would look at his hand, making a fist and opening it. "I don't know what's going on or how I got a 'gaming system' in my head, but it doesn't sound like I have a trash ability," Eric said in amazement.

His plan was never to be a great fighter or have a powerful ability to help with war or keeping the creatures at bay. He always thought he would get a trash ability, just like everyone else thought too. The plan was always to make lots of money once technology could be used again.

Everything has changed now. He could do something now. "Let's see what Shadow Step can do," he thought.

He looked at where his shadow was. He didn't have to look for it. It was a strange feeling, but he knew where his shadow was. It was like it was a part of him.

Similar to one's own eyelids. You don't think about it, but you know where they are. You don't have to force yourself to blink because you do it automatically, but you could if you wanted to.

The sun was about an hour away from setting. His shadow was elongated due to the time of day it was. The end of his shadow was almost five feet away from him. He thought about going to that spot.

The light blue screen once again appeared in the lower right of his vision.

<Shadow Step Activated,> The system read the message to him.

He immediately appeared to the end of his shadow. He could feel a small rush of adrenaline. All of this happened at the same time.

<-5 RP.>

<RP 45 50>, the system stated afterwards.

"Woah!" Eric said loudly.

"That was awesome!" he said with laughter in his voice.

Seeing that the shadow step ability cost five radiation points, he knew he needed to keep an eye on his RP. Especially when fighting, whatever the reason may be.

Eric also knew he couldn't just stay there and test out all his new abilities and see what the costs were. It was almost dark, and people would most likely come looking for him. He was government property now. He isn't allowed to do whatever he wants until his time is served.

Just before Eric was about to turn to his left to go back to the barracks, he heard a voice.

"Carson, is that you?" Said a high-pitched voice. The voice wasn't annoying. It was more of a voice of a child.

The voice came from a student with brown hair and glasses. The sun was behind him, so that was all the detail Eric could see.

"O, Is that you Hurst? I'm fine. I was just on my way back," Eric said.

"Yeah, it's me. I can't believe you remembered my name. I was sent to find and bring you back to the barracks."

"Alright, lets go back then," Eric replied.

"I'm sorry, but Acer sent me to tell you something. He wants you to...