Chapter 2:

Hooking up the Computoother

Don't cry over a bad teeth


Ren woke up in his room, as usual, his phone woke him up at 5h30. He started up his morning routine by starting his assistant with a mental nudge.

"Good morning Ren, today, July 1st 2026, is a Wednesday. It is currently 5h30. it is currently 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather is clear and no rain in sight. Now with the daily news. Since you picked this topic during your last inquiry, we will be playing news about technological evolution! Will that be okay?"

He groaned and gave a quick skip command vocally, wondering why they didn't make that use a mental command as well. As he said skip, a weird beep rang in his head and a slight crunch was heard coming from his mouth. 

A grey screen appeared in front of his eyes and he stared at it in disbelief. On the screen, the words read:

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

  User Skip was added. Thank you for inputting vocal command. 

Would you like to start the program?      

Yes /  No 

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

The yes button was softly blinking in front of Ren's agape mouth. His hand moved towards the screen and his hand went through it. Enhanced reality was a thing but you could always tell where the enhancement started and where it ended. This thing was in front of his face but it didn't follow his gaze, it stayed where it appeared as if it was a physical entity. He took a while to reflect on what he should do. This was a weird alien technology or something. Would it be safe to start it?

He supposed it was worth a try and he clicked yes. Another crunch was heard in his mouth followed instantly with a jolt of pain in his brain. The young man jumped in pain, almost coming to a scream but fainting and landing flat on his face before the sound could escape his lips.

An annoying ringtone could be heard. Very far away. He could recognize it, it was the ringtone he used for his company's number. He had put a customized ringtone in order to know when work was calling so he could always pick it up quickly. Today however, his eyes weren't looking at his room. They were looking at an hazy dark gray fog that encompassed everything. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that there had been a fire but the lack of burnt smell and lack of heat calmed him down. It felt like regular fog. The ring tone kept going off incessantly, piling on his annoyance. Despite all the rummaging he was doing with his hands around him, he couldn't find his phone and he couldn't see anything. Deciding this wasn't gonna help, he quickly got up from the ground. He was laying down when he opened his eyes. 

The ringtone finally shut up and he instantly felt like everything became more real, he could hear a light buzzing all around. He could also taste the humidity of the air now. The humidity was so strong that he felt very wet soon after. A part of the fog looked less dense so he walked that way, the buzzing slowly fading away as the sound of his footsteps resonated on the floor... Well he assumed there was a floor since he wasn't falling. Truth be told, he wasn't able to see much except for his nose and the top of his torso, the rest was covered by this weird fog.

A far away voice started talking in a monotone way. He couldn't hear much of what it said until he focused strongly on it.

Greetings, Skip. The system has been successfully launched. 

Following the guidelines, you will now be awarded with first time achievements.

10 windows overlapped themselves, piling up neatly. A small beep resonated 10 times as well

First living being connecting to the system

+ 100 HP

Ok

He clicked OK, wondering why he was receiving stats like in a video game.

First human being connecting to the system

+ 100 Mana

... error... User doesn't have mana implant. Creating.

He flinched, expecting to feel massive pain. Instead, he only heard a loud crack and that was it. Whatever happened, it wasn't painful and he felt extremely relieved.

Mana has been added. A slight error in dental record has resulted in minor damage. Applying 90 damage to the player. Pain has been turned off following startup directive. Magic has been temporarily shut down for subject's security.

... Patching... No permanent damage noticeable, minor blood loss.

Ren's eyes grew bigger. Nothing made sense ! He ran his hands along his body and he couldn't feel any different. There was no way he lost blood, there wasn't even a wound on him.

Analyze of dental structure... Error.

Recalibrating... Error.

Updating... Error.

Creating new profile with new dental ... Success!

A small ding sounded and another prompt opened in his view. The mana prompt had automatically disappeared when the error showed up.

Welcome, Skip.

There was an error during initial mana initialization. Mana is currently impossible to use. Awaiting repair.

In respect of guidelines, applying JOB in its stead

JOB Founder was automatically selected

An extensive list of jobs briefly appeared. Everything was grayed out except the option for the founder job so he didn't have much choice. A lot of extra beeps went off but before he could read them, he felt like a thunderbolt hit him and his eyes shot open, a migraine and a tooth ache immediately assaulting him. His eyes adapted to the light and the worried face of a paramedic came into his focus. The woman was holding what he understood was a defibrillator. He looked around and recognized his room, he was laid down on the floor. In the corner of the room, a police officer seemed to cross out something he wrote.

His eyes went back to the lady in front of him, she seemed to gradually get more worried since he didn't respond so he focused on her voice.

"Mister Yaeba! Are you able to hear me?" - The paramedic kept screaming at him.

He blinked a few times and nodded while responding with an apologetic yes.

"Thank god. We thought we lost you." - She sighed with relief.

The police officer took that as his cue to leave and he headed towards the exit. The paramedic had introduced herself as Hina. She was sent for an emergency call when Ren's team leader noticed his absence. Apparently, his team leader was so used to seeing Ren always on time at work that he assumed Ren had died. He called the police as soon as he noticed Ren wasn't at his desk. Ironically, he had fainted two hours ago. According to the clock he had in the corner of his vision.... Wait... Why did he have the time in the corner of his vision??? He blinked a few times and shaked his head. The paramedic jumped in surprise and advised him not to shake his head so much. He may have hit his head when he fell.

Ren took a breath in and calmed down. Saying he was a little out of it right now. Hina was worried so she had the medical robot get in the room and scan him. There were no health issues except for the two artificial teeth in his mouth. Once again, he looked at her confused but let her go on, not wanting to take more of this poor person's time. He knew for a fact he only had one artificial tooth. Yesterday's surgery was his very first time.

After several more checkups from Hina, she sighed, gave him a few pills and left him alone. Ren found his phone and immediately called his boss to apologize for not being on time. His boss told him he had been working hard enough lately and that he was worried for Ren's health. He obligated him to take two days off to recover. His work days would be moved to the weekend to pick up what had piled up. After thanking him profusely for being so understanding, he politely hung up.

He touched around in his mouth and couldn't feel much difference in texture so he went in front of the mirror. He indeed had two teeth that were a different color but he was sure he only got one. Was the system notification regarding the implant talking about a second teeth? That was crazy! There weren't any at home dentist machines! It was impossible for him to have gotten a second teeth out of nowhere and he knew he only had one when he left the dentist's office. He'd seen it in the mirror that day.

He focused to the place he could see the time on and he noticed an exclamation mark with the number 28 in red near it. He mentally clicked it and pages grew in his vision. This time though, they felt a lot more like virtual reality since they followed his gaze and he could mentally interact with it.

Regular state menu has been opened. Time is not slowed in this mode. Would you like to shift to immersive state menu ?

Yes / No

Whaaaaaaaaat???