Tess ca up behind Zavier, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek.
"Kids okay?" he nuzzled his head backwards into her shoulder.
"Yeah, they're just tired and overwheld. It's crazy how quickly kids adapt to everything. I'm more than a little freaked out, I'm just trying to keep it together for them."
" too, Love. We've been through a lot though, we'll get through this too."
Tess ruffled his hair with affection. His incessant need to fix everything got old sotis, but it was coupled with a relentless optimism that never failed to give her hope that they'd be fine, no matter what ca at them. "Wait," she said as she looked at his monitor, "is that a spreadsheet? You are such a nerd."
They laughed, then he got excited and started clicking through the spreadsheet with animation. "Okay, I wrote a scraper that ran through Reddit and pulled any information about skills, abilities, character sheets, and core stats. I also wanted to look to see if anyone else got any unique rewards like we did."
"Just Reddit?"
"It's the only one I could write a scraper for and it has a big enough user base spread across the globe to get a decent sample size. I just don't have ti to read everything from everywhere else before tomorrow. I'm refreshing and crunching the data every hour but so real trends have started to erge. First, most healthy adults seem to have started with sixty stat points with those numbers going down pretty linearly for age. Second, the announcent was the sa across the world. It seems to be able to ignore language, no matter how obscure. Even people who don't use computers have the sa type of screen, so the display seems pretty standard."
"No one has discovered anything about the interface that we haven't, so that's good. What's interesting, though, is that so people have started leveling. You'd think the safe period of tonight would keep anyone from leveling, but it's not. I'm going to go outside in a bit to try it myself, just to be sure."
"Like hell you are," Tess said with finality.
"We'll see," Zavier said in the tone that Tess knew ant he was just going to do it anyway. "But I'm really starting to suspect that this ans people are already killing each other."
"Jeez, that didn't take long."
"No kidding. That's really fucking scary and it's making consider everyone we know in a new light," he reached out and squeezed her hand for a mont. "One of the interesting things I'm seeing is that, with every refresh of the data, more people are talking about leveling up by doing things besides fighting," he pointed her to a pivot table. "This updates at every refresh and counts the number of unique usernas that claim to have gained levels based on what they were doing. You can see here that people are claiming levels for crafting things, creating art, repairing vehicles, non-combat physical activities like dancing, swimming, etc. The possible ways to level up really seem to be infinite. Admittedly, it's relying on my classifying what they're saying, but the general rule seems to be that if you put enough effort and ti into sothing you gain levels for that."
"I've also been summarizing and collating the different theories on what happened, what will happen at level five, and what will happen tomorrow. First, the top theories for why it's happening. These are the ones that seem to be getting the most traction and agreent across social dia platforms."
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"Number one is the universal training grounds or military theory. Roughly 40% of Reddit seems to believe that we're being trained to join so universal army or sothing."
"Next up is the evolutionary leap or awakening theory. This one suggests that humanity is going through so kind of evolutionary jump or awakening, maybe triggered by external factors or hidden potential within us and that these aliens are progenitors. Rember that Star Trek: TNG episode? That one is getting referenced a lot."
"The third theory mostly revolves around environntal change and that divine beings are preparing us to survive a planet that can't sustain human life anymore. That one is less popular because people are bringing up the very valid point that if they could reconfigure humanity to be stronger they could just reconfigure plant life and the ecology."
"And lastly, there's the Job of the Bible theory - gods are playing with us and taking bets. Although the funniest wild theory that I'm not imdiately discounting is an alien reality TV show."
"As for what will happen tomorrow and at level five, the results are coalescing into the top five categories of:
What will happen at level five:
Unlocking class special abilities or powers, akin to superhuman capabilities.
Access to advanced technology or knowledge.
Revelation of a hidden truth about the world or its history.
Initiation into a secret society or organization.
Ascension to a higher plane of existence or enlightennt.
What will happen tomorrow:
Continued integration of the new system into everyday life, possibly with additional announcents or changes.
Ergence of new challenges or threats as people adapt to the new reality.
Collaboration and coordination among survivors to navigate the changed world.
Exploration of potential benefits or drawbacks of The System, such as societal restructuring or inequality.
Introduction of new elents or features of The System, leading to further speculation and analysis."
"Data aside, I think what it's all coming down to is pretty simple: We're now living in the closest thing to a video ga most of us can imagine, we're in a training ground for the first five levels, and after that it'll be on us to grow stronger or die. I don't know when we'll figure out the reason behind all of this but I can't imagine the process of doing this is cheap for whover or whatever is doing it, so it's not going to be for shits and giggles. They want sothing from us, and us getting stronger gives it to them. We'll find out what that is eventually. I'm not overly worried about it right now, but I want to figure out what that is sooner rather than later since it'll let optimize how we advance."
He sat back in his chair and rubbed his face with his hands. "So that's everything I've found. What do you think?"
Tess was in information overload. "I don't know what to say. There's really not much we can do tonight and we're going to want to be awake before the twins are, so we need to go to bed."
"I'm staying up for a bit more," Zavier said.
"You better not go outside," Tess said in exasperation.
"I have to honey, I need to test sothing. But I will be close by, I'll keep my phone on , and I won't take any chances. Okay?"
"Absolutely not. You're not going outside in the dark by yourself just a few hours after we were attacked by multiple mutated creatures that could have killed us," she held up a finger to forestall Zavier's objections. "I'm serious about this. What would we do if sothing happened to you? You'd be leaving and the kids alone to face this new world without you. You need to be responsible. There will be plenty of ti for us to 'check things out' tomorrow. But for now we need to stick together. How would you feel if I went out there by myself tonight?"
Zavier's face screwed up in objection, then he took a deep breath and swallowed his argunt. She was right and he knew it. He nodded. "You're right, Honey. It can wait until tomorrow. But I'm too amped up for bed right now. Go ahead without ."
Her look of skepticism was clear. "I an it. No going outside, not even for a cigar. Don't open any doors or windows that might let sothing inside. Don't go exploring. I don't care if they said it's safe, I am not taking that chance with our family."
His boyish smile was disarming and he raised his right hand. "I swear by the soul of my beloved mother that I will follow your orders to the letter."
"Your mother is still alive," Tess shook her head, her lips quirked up.
"Which ans she'll be even more grateful that I didn't go outside!"
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