Miles stepped out of the house and onto the sidewalk, the stiff, formal clothes feeling like a second skin. He adjusted his tie, his eyes wide with wonder, drinking in the sights of this strange new world.
The air smelled of old motor oil and fresh rain, a scent he found oddly comforting. His feet carried him down the street, his head swiveling to take in everything at once. The bustling street was a living museum, with sleek black cars sharing the road with horse-drawn carriages driven by stern-faced men in top hats. Women in long, elegant dresses walked past men in suits and fedoras, their laughter and conversations a strange melody to his ears.
He was so absorbed in the spectacle that he didn't notice the young woman hurrying in the opposite direction. They collided with a jarring thud, and a stack of documents she was carrying scattered across the pavement like fallen leaves.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Miles blurted out, a reflex from his old life. He dropped to his knees, immediately beginning to gather the papers. As he picked one up, his eyes caught a name printed at the top: "Katherine Vance."
"No, no, it was my fault," a soft, apologetic voice said.
He looked up and saw the girl. Her dark hair was pulled back in a loose bun, and her brown eyes were wide with a mix of surprise and a gentle kindness. She knelt beside him, her hands moving quickly to gather the rest of the papers. He was about to apologize again, but she was already on her feet, clutching the documents tightly.
"I have to go, thanks!" she said with a hurried smile, then turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving him to stare after her, the name "Katherine Vance" echoing in his mind.
Miles finally shook off the daze and resumed his walk, but his mind was still buzzing. He walked down unknown streets and unfamiliar places and felt he was going round in circles, he asked dome bypassers about the institution, but some was unable to give him details about the place, with few able to direct where he might be able to find it.
[Quest Update: First Mission]
Objective: Locate and join the Aethelred Institute of Investigation.
Time Remaining: 13:00:00
He frowned. "Thirteen hours? I've been walking for hours!" he muttered to himself. He still doesn't understand why his following the system, but he didn't have a choice after experiencing what the system was capable of doing.
When he woke up and heard the system voice and the quest it gave him, he grumbled after searching for half a minute to find the house of Miles Corbane, "I've been searching for decades I give up, I'm living my own life I'm not following anyone orders."
Before he could walk away the system troubled his minds with voices sounding like a malfunctioning computer which made his head throbbed, he started feeling his body turning feeble, and he knelt on one knee , the world revolving and dimming in blurs with indistinct chatters heard from the people who passed him with a glance.
He felt his energy been sucked out by the system, his heart pulsating slowly giving him breathing issues, feeling weakened by the aura of the era and he weakly uttered, "I take back.....my...words I will complete the quest just let me live!" At the final statement he felt released, everything back to normal as he inhaled and exhaled in enthusiastic relief, still people were staring at him.
He clenched his fist tight, consumed by utter rage and fury, he was gasping for breath and fighting for oxygen and no one was even considerate enough to help him? And they just kept standing, giving glances and staring!? He thought as the anger got to his neck and he yelled at them, "don't any of you have jobs? How impertinent to stare at someone like that!" Saying this they all turned their faces and left, some going back to what they were doing in their shops.
He shook off that embarrassing memories in his head and he looked up, and his jaw dropped. Right across the street, a massive, gothic-style building loomed over him, its stone walls carved with intricate gargoyles and its large, iron doors standing open. A big heavy-looking banner above the entrance read: "Aethelred Institute of Investigation."
[Quest Completed: First Mission]
Reward: 100 XP
New Quest: Pass the Entrance Exams.
Miles felt a rush of adrenaline. He crossed the street, his heart pounding in his chest. Inside, the main hall was a grand, bustling space with a long line of hopeful applicants.
A stern-faced man at a desk announced, "Listen up! I will only say this once. This is the final recruitment day. The exams will be taking place in the rooms down the hall. You will be called by name and directed to a specific room. Do not speak to other candidates, do not attempt to cheat, and do not cause a disturbance. Failure to follow these rules will result in immediate disqualification. Now, the written exam will begin in one minute. Good luck to you all."
Miles's blood ran cold. He had to pass. He stood in line, his nerves on edge, but then a calm, unfamiliar voice whispered at his back. "Do not fret. I have prepared you for this."
The First Exam: Logic and Deduction
The stern-faced man at the desk bellowed, "Miles Corbane! Room 4! You are the final candidate for the day. Everyone else," he gestured to the remaining hopefuls in the hall, "the recruitment period has ended. Try again next year."
A collective groan of disappointment rippled through the hall as Miles walked toward the doors "why did I have to come late?" One muttered. That witch caused this!" Another said. He felt a bead of sweat trickle down his temple. He was a man from another time, with a dull, untrained mind, relying solely on a disembodied voice in his head.
He entered a large, sterile white room. A single table sat in the center with a pen and a packet of papers on it. A woman in a crisp white lab coat smiled at him. "Welcome, Mr. Corbane. This is the written portion of the exam. You have one hour to complete all twenty-five questions. Your answers will determine if you move on to the practical portion." As he passed her after nodding his head done tailed behind with the room filled with people, their seats far away from one another.
Miles sat down, his hands trembling slightly as he opened the packet. The first question was a complex, multi-layered riddle that seemed to twist his brain into a knot. His mind went blank, a wave of panic threatening to overwhelm him.
"This is impossible," he whispered to himself.
"No whispering!" The welcoming woman said to him and he nodded with a forceful smile on his lips.
"It is not impossible," the system's voice was a calm, steady presence in his mind. "Activate Deduction. Let me guide you."
A strange sensation washed over him. It was as if his consciousness was expanding, and the jumble of words on the page began to re-organize itself into a logical sequence.
The riddle's seemingly unrelated phrases—a 'silver key to a door of shadows,' a 'clock that tells no time,' a 'bird that sings a silent song'—suddenly clicked together like pieces of a puzzle. He saw the solution, a clear and undeniable truth that had been hidden in plain sight.
His powers got activated by the system and he moved his pen, scrawling the answer. He moved to the next question, then the next, and the next. With the system's help, the questions concerning everything about detectives, the riddles, the logic puzzles, and the cryptographic codes all unraveled effortlessly. The questions that would have stumped him for hours were solved in minutes. He felt like a human calculator, a puppet whose strings were being pulled by an all-knowing entity. He finished the entire exam with thirty minutes to spare.
He handed the completed packet back to the woman, who looked at him with a mix of disbelief and admiration. "That was... very fast, Mr. Corbane. Please proceed to the second room for the final test."