There I was, standing in the expanse that was nothingness, arms crossed like an idiot looking at empty space that was just a door.
"Well, this fucking sucks." I sighed as I wiped my exhausted face. "Ok. Ok. I can do this. I am stuck here until Aubrey comes back so in the meantime, I guess I can at least try."
I turned on my heels and made my way to my desk. The sound of my slippers reverberating in the mostly empty room was really quite eerie. I sat in my gaming chair and turned toward my desk where a sticky note laid with elegant handwriting written on it. The colorful note read 'I have set up an easy tutorial on how to run the system and sent it to your email. Its set up in a way you should be familiar with. P.S. I attached a virtual assistant who will help guide you through it. Think of them as a 'mod'. Best of luck. -Aubrey'
That prick. At least they showed some kind of decency, enough to give me someone who will help. I feel like I got hired for a job, immediately got promoted to the CEO, and forced to call the shots with no knowledge on what we even do at the company. Ugh, again I could just die if I weren't already dead.
*Ding* "You have mail!"
A digital envelope popped up on my screen and I reluctantly opened it up. The email screen instantly shown a bright prompt that stated 'Press any button to start the tutorial.'
"Ahh", I exhaled, "Here we go." then right clicked my mouse.
*Zing* "Hello there, I'm Mumsy! Welcome to System 101!"
"For fuck's sake!!! Screw you, Aubrey!" I yelled as the theme song for 'Cooking with Mumsy' started playing from my headphones.
"Starting from today I will assist you in the basics of the system. We will make a wonderful world together. Let's get cooking!" The oriental Mumsy said in her cooking apron.
I just sat there pinching the bridge of my nose, taking deep breaths, trying to forget the mental trauma of when I over cooked the roasted duck and she yelled at me that it was too dry. I honestly couldn't figure out who caused me more suffering, her or my real mother.
I pushed away from the desk and leaned back in my chair, head facing the would-be sky. "What is your name? Notice, you cannot update or change it once chosen" asked the middle-aged woman "Hello, can you not speak?"
'Ok. I said I would try.'
I looked back at the screen, pulling my mic toward my mouth to reply. "Hello, Mumsy, you can call me..." Wait, now is my chance to come up with an awesome name. I'm sick of the "Mallory is a girl's name" and the "Haha, it's fitting your name means misfortune" shtick. It should be something like "Gladiator" or "Hero", since I'll get to kind of be like one to this world. Then, again "Spy" sounds cool after the number one streamer, or maybe even... "You've taken too long; I will call you Lemon."
"Wait, what? No, no, no that's not..."
"You're a dud just like a lemon. Yes, yes, Mumsy knows best. 'Lemon' has been saved as name."
"I hate you."
"Would you like to start with the headset or system interface guide?"
I glared at my screen with utter annoyance.
"I really hate you..."
"Fun fact: Lemons are technically berries." Mumsy stated in a cheery voice attempting to sound cute, aiming to continue to ignore me until we move on.
"I know what you are trying to do, but I still am not happy." She just stared at me unmoving with a smile not quite reaching her eyes. "I see I won't win this battle. Haahh. It's not like I can change it now anyways. At least Lemon is better than Mallory." I huffed, giving up to this new fate. "Let's start with the system interface first." Reluctantly, I clicked on the 'system interface' option.
"Excellent choice!" Mumsy said as she swooshed off the desktop onto a load screen with an animation of a frying pan continually flipping an egg. She put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot to the theme song playing in the background as she waited for the guide to download. Then she hit me with the "Fun fact: Cooking is a proven stress-reliever!"
"I can say from personal experience, that is definitely not the case." I replied as the bar was nearing 100%. 'This is going to be a long day, no scratch that, a long however how long. Aubrey can't come back soon enough.'
The once gooey liquid inside of the skillet started to get golden on the outside, and the hot pan tilted over to drop the perfectly cooked egg on a dish. Then Mumsy hit a dinner bell that wasn't there a second ago and yelled, "Order up!"
"Today, we will start with the basics, as easy as chopping onions."
'Yeah, I have a feeling I will cry after this too.' I thought, already exhausted.
The screen changed into the vibrant 'Cooking with Mumsy' kitchen scene where the cabinets were the clickable tabs. My eyes scanned over it briefly. All I could really focus on was the mean Asian lady who was pretending like she had just finished sweeping and has only just noticed I was here. Then she proceeded to set down her virtual broom in the corner of the room and turned to speak to me. It was all very theatrical.
"Oh, I didn't see you there Lemon, please, come in."
I rolled my eyes.
"Here is your main menu screen. This is where you will be able to access all the functions needed to be a successful system. Let's start this off with the first tab, Rules." Mumsy said, then walked over to the farthest cabinet and opened it. When she did, a smaller box came to the forefront of the monitor and at the top read in big bold letters 'Rules'.