The heavy metal door of the Barracks slid open with a low hiss.
Arthur Clarke held his breath, his heart hammering against his ribs. He crouched behind a sandbag fortification, only his eyes visible, fixed on the dark opening. Overhead, the shriek of a Stuka dive bomber grew closer, like the Grim Reaper's scythe swinging down at his neck.
What was going to come out?
An emotionless killing machine? A red-eyed demon?
The door opened completely. A tall man in a brand-new Allied uniform stumbled out of the shadows.
The first thing he did was raise a hand to shield his eyes from the harsh sunlight. He squinted, curiously taking in his surroundings. His face showed none of the coldness or ferocity Arthur had expected. Instead... it was filled with a childlike curiosity and excitement.
This isn't right. Arthur's intuition screamed at him. A normal soldier appearing in a hellscape like Dunkirk would never have that expression.
Then, the man threw his arms wide and, in a familiar Californian accent, let out a booming shout across the battlefield:
"Whoa... dude! The graphics on this Warfront Online are insane! Is this a cutscene? It feels so real! Hey, GM, where's the tutorial?!"
"GM?"
When that word left the man's mouth, it felt like a bullet had struck Arthur's brain.
For a split second, he thought he had misheard. But then, other 21st-century terms like "graphics" and "cutscene" followed, hitting his nerves like a series of sledgehammers.
He's not from this time!
This system... it hadn't summoned a soldier, nor a robot. It had pulled a living, breathing person from Arthur's own era! A person... who thought this was all a VR game!
"Hey! You!" The man, who called himself Leo, had spotted him. A bright smile spread across his face as he strode over. "You must be the tutorial NPC, right? The name's EZ_Mode_Leo. What's yours? Got a quest for me?"
Arthur's mouth hung slightly open, but no sound came out. He stared at the completely unguarded, cheerful "player" before him, then glanced at the fortifications being consumed by artillery fire in the distance. An overwhelming sense of absurdity washed over him.
Seeing Arthur's stunned expression, Leo only grew more excited.
"Oh my god, this AI is incredible! Look at the micro-expressions, that 'thousand-yard stare' in his eyes! Perfect! The devs really went all out on the details!" He marveled, waving a hand in front of Arthur's face, as if trying to trigger a dialogue box.
"Shut up! Get down!" Arthur finally found his voice, a hoarse roar ripped from his throat with all his might.
A Messerschmitt fighter plane happened to scream by at low altitude, the machine guns on its wings spitting deadly fire. Bullets thudded into the sand around them, kicking up a series of dusty plumes.
Startled by the sudden "interaction," Leo instinctively dropped to the ground. But instead of being scared, he was even more thrilled. "Holy crap! Haptic feedback and dynamic events too? This game is a masterpiece! Game of the Year, for sure!"
Arthur felt a throbbing in his temples. He realized that explaining "this isn't a game, this is a real war" to this guy was utterly pointless. In Leo's reality, every word Arthur said would probably be interpreted as pre-scripted dialogue from the game's designers.
He couldn't communicate with words, but he had the system.
It was the only language they shared.
Arthur took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He ignored Leo's ramblings and focused his consciousness on the command interface in his mind.
He needed to make this guy do something useful. More importantly, he needed him to shut up and stop attracting enemy fire like a moron.
Arthur's gaze fell upon the wreckage of a destroyed truck nearby.
"Got it."
An instruction quickly formed in his mind, and he issued it through the system interface.
Task: Collect 10 units of scrap metal from the designated truck wreckage. Reward: 5 units of Supplies.
Almost at the exact moment Arthur confirmed the command, Leo, who was lying on the ground enthusiastically studying the "texture mapping" of the sand, heard a ding. A translucent quest box popped up in his vision.
[Tutorial Quest: Scavenger]Description: The Commander needs resources to fortify the position. Proceed to the designated truck wreckage and collect 10kg of scrap metal.Reward: 0.5 Game Credits, 10 XP. Accept?
Yes/No
"Here we go! The tutorial quest!" Leo slapped his thigh in excitement and unhesitatingly selected [Yes].
He immediately sprang to his feet and gave Arthur a thumbs-up. "You got it, boss! Mission accepted!"
With that, he started humming a 21st-century pop tune and, like a happy-go-lucky husky, charged towards the burning truck wreckage, completely unfazed by the distant sound of artillery.
Arthur knelt behind the sandbags, staring blankly at his "heroic" retreating figure, a storm of complicated emotions brewing within him.
His desperate situation hadn't changed. But now, on this hellish beach, there seemed to be a new... and utterly unpredictable variable.