After what felt like an eternity, but what could have been a few seconds, Aya’s eyesight slowly returned to her. She slowly took in her surroundings, although there wasn’t much to be seen. White walls, white floor, white ceiling, it all looked the same. She couldn’t even guess how big the room was, because it all looked the same! She felt the sudden urge to smudge the floor. Unfortunately, her socks left no mark. Wait… where did my clothing come from? Aya was wearing her favourite outfit when she lazed around at home; comfortable, fluffy socks, a stretchy jogging pants and a sweater which was two sizes too large. Although more importantly, where the hell am I? And what in the name of everything holy did just happen? She took a deep breath. ‘Okay, don’t panic. You’ve only been transported to some weird ass room after hearing the world as you know it will seize to exist, something or someone dressed you without your notice, approximately 40% of humanity will die. Oh, and aliens are real. No biggie.’. She put her hands on her head while focusing on keeping her breathing nice and deep. Her father, who was a marine when he died, always stressed the importance of a calm and clear mind. ‘If you let an enemy rattle you, you have already lost half the battle’ he used to say. Maybe that wasn’t his best advice to a six-year-old girl who just got into a hair-pulling fight with a (former) friend, but it was one of the lessons she kept close to heart. It came quite in hand at the hospital, where patients or their family and friends weren’t always as understanding or nice as you would expect. God she missed him.

  Aya sighed and rolled her neck. ‘Focus on the here and now and go from there.’ she muttered to herself, mostly to fill the silence. That and well, she might have a habit of muttering to begin with. She started to explore the room, mostly to keep herself occupied. ‘One step forward, almost one meter closer to the wall, a deep breath in… Two steps forward, almost two meters closer to the wall, still breathing in… Three steps forward, almost three meters closer, slow breath out…’. She continued to walk towards the wall directly in front of her while counting her steps. But after 500 steps, something like 400 meters and about 75 deep breaths later, Aya didn’t really feel like she came any closer to the walls. She threw up her arms with a cry of frustration. ‘Aaargh! What in the seven hells? What is the meaning of this bloody room?! And why is that goddamn wall still so far away?’. She huffed out a breath. ‘Like hell I’m going to let some punk ass wall get the better of me’ she stated like a complete sane person. But she figured it was better to focus on something insignificant as the distance to the wall than to give in to the freak-out she could feel hovering in the distance. She pulled off her socks before starting to stretch her arms and legs. While she moved into a running position, she glared at the wall. ‘I’ll get you, don’t you worry. Ready… Set… GO!’ she shouted a second before she leaped forward and started to sprint towards the wall.

  No matter her schedule, Aya always managed to reserve 1,5 hours 3 times a week for a cardio workout. Sure, sometimes it was difficult since she had to juggle her classes for her Bachelor degree in nursing, the six-month long internship at a local hospital in Seattle the extra classes about understanding and working with people who have PTSD, and a part-time job at an animal shelter. But she still managed. She would normally start her workout with a 10-minute warming-up consisting of jumping jacks, squats, push-ups, and sit-ups (got to keep those belly muscles engaged). After that, she would start her run, which consisted of 10-minute sprints at around 75% her maximum speed, alternated with a slow jog to catch her breath. She would switch between the two for about an hour before ending her run with an all-out sprint as long as she can manage. After catching her breath again, she would stretch her muscles to avoid injuries and (in her opinion, the most important one in the short-term) muscle ache.

  Back in the ginormous white room, Aya slowed down to a walk after running and jogging for about an hour and a half. It seems that pouring your fear, panic and frustration into a workout works wonders for your endurance. Go figure. Putting her hands behind her head to open up her lungs more, Aya swore between breaths. ‘Damn’ gasp ‘wall. Still’ gasp ‘no closer’ gasp ‘than before.’ Gasp. ‘What kind of’ gasp ‘monster built this thing?’. She would have grumbled more if not for a blue box popping up in front of her eyes with a Ding. She was starting to resent that sound.

  Aya could only stare at the message in horror. ‘35% of the people on Earth died?! How the hell is that possible?! What happened to them?!’.

  Aya rubbed her hands across her face. ‘Focus on the important things, Aya. No need to freak out about the deaths or the fact that apparently, the System can read your mind. Your family is known for their pig-headedness, there is no way they didn’t make it. Let’s just focus on this latest information and let’s see where it goes.’. She took a couple of deep breaths before clearing her throat. ‘System assist, what are titles?’.

  Aya was surprised it worked, yet at the same time still disappointed at the answer. But hopefully, she could get some more insight into what is going on and as a bonus, these notices didn’t reverberate through her mind or anything. She could just read it, although the notice still blocked her view. Thank heaven that the blue box seemed to disappear as soon as she finished reading it. ‘System assist, how do I change the blue box thing?’. Aya waited a few seconds, but no notice box popped up. She had to admit, the wording of her question wasn’t that great. ‘System assist, how do I change the settings of the notices?’.

  These notifications only seem to raise more questions… did our world suddenly turn into a game or what? Small steps Aya, small steps. ‘System assist, what does the title Survivor mean?’.

  ‘Free stuff is always nice… I guess?’ she muttered to herself. ‘System Assist, what are attributes and what do they entail?’.

  ‘Sooo many follow up questions. And this suspiciously DOES sound like one of those RPG’s my brothers tend to play. I bet they are having a field day when they’re not stressing out. System assist, what are the invisible core attributes?’.

  ‘That’s a bummer… Is it because my intelligence isn’t high enough or is there something else going on? Anyway, let’s continue. System assist…’.

  Aya continued to question just about anything and everything she could think of. Sometimes she got answers. For example, there are different ways to earn more point in an attribute. But unfortunately, she more often than not got the message that an answer was not available or was just plain ignored. During her interrogation, she continued to walk towards the white wall. She had even tried to question the System Assist, but regretfully, she got no answer. It infuriated her! Well… Not really, but it was a safe way to vent her frustration and uncertainty about the whole situation. After a few hours, she was interrupted again by a System Message.

  Without any prompting from Aya, as she was still speechless, the meaning of the two new titles appeared.

  ‘What the ever-loving God is wrong with this System?! Culling people for freaking out about a situation this so-called System put us in in the first place?! What are we, some kind of livestock?’ Aya fumed while ignoring the explanations about the new titles. ‘The audacity, the sheer callous disregard for life. It’s goddamn atrocious. Abominable. Horrible!’. And with growing fear in her heart, it didn’t bode well for the rest of humanity. If this was the way the System started, how much worse could it get? Small steps, Aya, small steps. She repeated the mantra in a bid to control her emotions. Every problem is solvable when you break it into small steps and then tackle each small step one at the time.

  While Aya was trying to control her completely justified freak-out, a new blue box in front of her kept flashing insistently. She had ignored the notice, even going so far as to close her eyes so she couldn’t see it. But as a pressure started to build behind her eyes, she let out a disgusting sigh before reading it.

  The notice was immediately followed up by a different kind of message, this time a glaring red box.

  'Fuck my life' Aya whispered to herself as she read the warning. 'Shit's about to get real.'