To Miss the Mark

You are a soul.

What you were before is lost, you were dead for a LONG time. However, you do know this much: You aren't quite dead anymore.

You woke up in an odd little office. A bed against one wall, with a dresser at the foot of the bed. There was a rug across most of the hardwood floor, a Desk with a simple spinable chair and a computer sat next to the bed, the high-tech screen lit up and displaying the words "WELCOME TO SYSTEM ALPHA 0.1!"

Opposite the Computer was a large bookshelf covering the entire wall, with only a single thick Tome on it. Finally, opposite the bed, a large, wall to wall, nearly ceiling to floor window rested, the curtains drawn and leaving the room in darkness with a bench-like resting area under the window and built into the wall. There was no Door, no escape, and no real vents either. Alone in the room, you had little to do, and simply lay on your bed. Though... now you DID have something. Curiosity. Even if you didn't have much else, you had that. And an oddly VAST number of memories surrounding fictional settings in your mind. For now, though, all you could do was... Examine something.

[X] Look at the Book
[X] Look at the Computer
[X] Look under the Bed
[X] Look out the Window

(First time attempting a Quest. If I messed something up, please let me know, and how to fix it. Thank you!

Alright!
Window: 1-50
Book: 51-100

1d100 = 13

Window wins!
------------------------------------------

With a glance at the book, and another at the computer, you stood, shaking your head and pushing down your curiosity. First things first- you needed to know where you were, then you could focus on trying to figure out what the rest of the room was like. Maybe you could escape out the window if this was some kind of kidnapping situation?

Standing, you glanced down and acknowledged that you had an incredibly tight, form-fitting suit on. If you were a woman, you must have a very flat chest, and if you were a man you must lack certain things or have a cup in, because you had no idea based on your own physical form. Stepping forward, you shivered at the softness of the rug as your feet sank into it, each step soothing and energizing you in ways you hadn't expected. It was weird... and somehow better than a cup of coffee.

Why you could remember coffee and not your own gender you didn't know, but such was life.

Shaking your head to clear it, you paused near the window, looking around the room. It looked similar on this side, only the bed was visibly now- a simple and utilitarian thing with a blanket and pillow, and some kind of box underneath it. Refocusing on the window, you reached out and opened the curtain a smidge to look out. Outside was... impossible.

You looked to be in some kind of cylinder, a massive tunnel or tube that stretched out of sight in either direction. From what you could see, there was nothing but windows forming the walls of the cylinder, and every time one of them fully opened their curtain, the entire room slid out of the wall and fell to the center of the tunnel before flaring brightly and vanishing, another room growing out to fill the missing space. In the center of the tunnel, a massive, spiraling Cyan stream flowed in a never-ending rush, countless individual bubbles of light making up the stream. Focusing on one, you felt knowledge enter your mind.

{World: Worm}
{Danger to System: Minimal}
{Danger to Host: High}
{Target: Taylor Hebert/Greg Veder/Sophia Hess/Sarah Livs...}
{Alterations: Taylor is male, Danny is bisexual, Occult magic is weak but usable- potential exploit for System improvement?}
{Recommendation: Skill focus, Trait secondary}

You pulled back, shutting the curtain and gulping. So. That was a thing. Those were entire worlds down there. Where you a god? No, you were too big... a ROB? Maybe? How was this supposed to WORK then??? How had you even reached this point??? You needed... a goal. A goal would let you stop spiraling and start MAKING something of yourself. You just... you needed to breathe and act. What was your next focus?
----------------------------
[X] Inspect the Book
[X] Inspect the Computer
[X] Inspect the Box under the Bed
[X] Write in... (What would you like to see done? This is a narrative quest, so if it gets approval from the group and makes sense in-story, I'll go along with it.

---

Knowledge. It was always the lifeblood of whatever story you ever heard about. The more a person knew about their situation, the more they could do ABOUT their situation. And right now... well, you had a LOT of unknowns. So, you just had to deal with that in the obvious, easy way! Taking a deep breath and nearly praying before remembering what exactly you now were, apparently, you nervously glanced around the room once more. It... had more color than before. The Book was silver with black and gold inlaid patterns, the Carpet was a deep and luxurious red, the bed was mostly white and red and... reminded you of a bed from a specific game about blocks and mining.

The computer sat on a light, almost yellow wooden surface that you could tell was wood, and the floors under the carpet looked to be a rich, deep brown that was nearly grey. The walls were a strangely light, dark blue. Indigo? Your mind wanted to say Cambridge blue, for some odd reason. As if the name was important...

For now, you started walking again, stepping across that delightfully pleasant carpet and feeling your worries and anxieties slowly bleed away... almost as if the carpet was feeding on them. A concerningly real possibility, now that you thought about it. Still, you deftly picked up the book- heavy, cold, slightly tingly to the touch- and looked at the cover to see the title. The words burned and twisted, making you wince and whimper as your mind stretched and cracked.

Looking away you gasped for breath, beginning to walk across the carpet and slowly feeling your mind soothe from the pain into a dull ache. As that faded, you looked at the cover again, stopping before you could really feel anything break. This repeated, a pattern that went on and on until you could look at the title without even a smidgen of strain. It was... weird. Your mind felt so raw and stretched, yet... so fast... you glanced at the title, and blinked as the words now made sense to you.

{Book of Systems and Subprocesses, Vol. 1}
A glance inside gave you some relief and some serious concern.

{Congratulations on completing your first world! As you may have discovered during your attempts at completing your tasks, you have several subsystems, none of which you can access without codes. Many try to read this book and only realize the strain it puts on the mind after, however now that you have failed to complete your first task, your mandatory post-world enhancement has forcibly granted you a higher level of consciousness. This is necessary to both understand this book, AND to access the subsystems mentioned before.}

{You may be aware that the computer provided some false information, implying we were relying on you for your first world, however that is not true- the stream is endless. While we rely on our elites to accomplish their tasks, very few discover the healing and mental-enhancement properties of the rug provided you. Failure to discover and utilize it on your own means that you will be seeing your rug removed after your second world, so best get the most use out of it that you can.}

{Before we move on to the subsystems, I must address those chosen few who DID figure it out and access this information before their first world. Congratulations, you have exceeded expectations. Now you have access to these subsystems before your first world, which will grant you vital resources needed to impress us. Please, do not disappoint. Now, to describe the access codes, we-...}

The book continued, and you read every single paragraph and sentence. Carefully memorizing the codes and teachings inside the book with your mind, you began to piece things together. You would be sent to a world... to empower another. Specifically you would get to design the very system that the protagonist would use while trying to overcome their trials and struggles. And sure, that could cause you to be bored, theoretically, except... from this, it seemed to imply that you would effectively LIVE in the mind of whoever you chose.

And that first section certainly implied it wouldn't be only one world... So. Now... now you knew more. You were effectively a self-empowering hero who could choose a target and a main character. You could empower that character- yourself- and then live out their life and try to survive there. Which was... interesting. Which was a goal- complete your first world with the best possible score you could get. Now you simply had to figure out what to look at next... and what to do. The Window seemed to choose the world, so... probably save that action for last. But other than that... what now?

---

You have gained access to the 'Live updates', 'automatic updates', and 'reality integration module' subsystems for your primary system. Gained +3 System Capacity.

[X] Inspect the Box under the bed
[X] Inspect the Computer
[X] Study the rug in greater detail

This is going to be useful later on. Congrats on circumventing the traps set by your jerk bosses!

---

You knew that the Book had given you some incredible insight, but there was another item or two in the room that held potential secrets to be exploited. And if you were going to go into a world, you wanted to be as successful as possible. So, you moved to the box, kneeling and carefully pulling the box out from under the bed. It was a big, old, weathered thing that looked to be made of rich mahogany now that you could actually see it properly.

You huffed, calmly considering the box and looking over the smooth, glossy thing. It was cold to the touch, and there was a sensation akin to that feeling in your gut when you start falling from a great height suddenly. Like you were weightless, or your stomach was being pulled back and up, lightly squeezed and tingling like crazy. It made you shiver and chuckle nervously. Still, you were alone. You might as well open the box.

Pushing on the lid, you lifted and it smoothly opened, revealing the inside. It was made of a rich, fine, red velvet fabric and held a simple book, a basic and small instructional primer. Looking through it gave you a basic understanding of how to work the computer and what the basic codes needed to run various programs were, removing any chance for some cosmic roll of the dice to render what you'd work on unusable. So. Now you knew how to use the computer. But... it felt like that wasn't all. After all, the book had needed effort to understand, a LOT of effort that had hurt. This box wouldn't be so basic as this, would it?

Some more thorough inspection led to finding a false bottom as well as a false lid. The bottom hid another book, but this one stung to have even exposed, much less looked at or touched. You covered it again when you felt your nose begin to leak... something. Your hand didn't come back red, but... some color that didn't quite fit with what you knew of green, but somehow could be best described by that color. You grimaced, inspecting what was hidden under the lid instead, finding two papers. One which explained that the book you'd found in the bottom could literally only be read after you'd visited at LEAST one world. The second... that one went a bit further.

{If you've found this, you've also found the other note and the book in the false-bottom of the Box. Congratulations. Now please hurry to work on your next world. If you don't start being productive, you may be dismissed as a useless attempt at a System Admin. You'll get more books after each world, with access to more subsystems each time, which can be learned or improved while you're in this space. These worlds will test the Systems you design with you as the testing 'Host'. The more successful you are, the better the rewards are at the end of this. Each System acts as a layer of defense and survivability around your soul- the more you complete before you have to try a dangerous world, the better your chances of surviving them. Best of luck.}
You hesitated, looking around and swallowing thickly. Not infinite time then. Maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours. But it was impossible to be certain. All you knew was that you had more than the basics down, and you had two distinct individuals talking to you. Green and Blue. Which meant... well, you weren't certain right now, but you needed to get going regardless. So... you could either risk studying the cool rug more in-depth, or get on programming yourself a System for the world you were going to visit. Which did you feel like trying?

---

Dice rolls around your programs can only fail them if you crit-fail. You now can receive bonuses from rolling high enough.

[X] Access the computer
[X] Study the rug more in-depth
[X] Write in... [If you can think of another action you'd like to take instead, feel free to choose.