<I do have another apology to make,> Samantha started. We were in what seemed to be another "safe zone"--yet another white-walled room with glowing tables in front of me. My body felt like it was back in top shape--I didn''t feel a hint of physical exhaustion from the recent battles I had fought. Although, Icould still smell the stench of blood and vomit that had followed me into this room.


    I mentally groaned at Samantha''s announcement. That said, whatever else she had done, it couldn’t be worse than mind controlling me, right?


    <Every other person, when they were teleported into their tutorial, received a brief introduction to the Atropos Schema. You didn’t. That way, you saved a precious few minutes in the race through the first few stages. I can give you a quick update on what you missed, of c—>


    “No, wait,” I cut her off. “You’re saying the introduction would have happened the moment I appeared. Before I drank the potion that let you into my head. You were just in a bottle then, right? How could you disable a tutorial? Are you saying you can hack the Atropos Schema?”


    <These are great questions,> Samantha said. <Let me start at the beginning. In the Atropos Schema’s introduction that you missed, you would have see an angelic figure lauding the Atropos Schema as one of the laws of the multiverse. But if the Atropos Schema is truly unquestionable, why would it go to such an effort to praise itself and frame itself as an inevitability? There are, of course, worlds that the Atropos Schema has not reached, and there have even been worlds that attempted to resist the Atropos Schema itself. Most of those latter worlds, however, have met a bloody and unfortunate fate.>


    <To answer your question more directly,> Samatha continued, <Someone in my faction hacked your tutorial to remove your introduction and place my vial in your tutorial. There was probably a compulsion spell on the vial to make you drink it, although I was not responsible for that particular mental intrusion.>


    I thought about the implications of this. I guess this means I’m not a complete idiot for drinking the vial. My mind flashed back to when I had accidentally kicked the vial, and it had skidded across the room. What if it had just slid through one of the doorways? If I had kicked it just a bit harder…Would I even have survived the Easy Mode Tutorial?


    I didn’t let myself get too carried away in counterfactuals. There were even more implications to what Samantha was saying. There was a faction that could hack the Atropos Schema, to some extent. People could successfully circumvent the Schema, somehow. And the vial wasn’t placed there as a random reward from the Schema.


    “Does this mean that you aren’t part of the Schema?”


    <I’m not sure you completely understand what you’re asking. On a fundamental level, the Schema, as its name implies, is basically a framework, an interpretive lens, through which we can interact with the world. Now that your world is being acclimated by the Schema, everything in your world is now touched by the Schema. Think of it like an involuntary registration process. I am a part of the Schema just as much as you are. It’s like how someone with Multiple Personality Disorder would be recognized as one person by the Schema. This is also why I am able to access your Mana Regeneration in order to create the combat shadows. Because I am part of you, it will be essential that we trust each other moving forward.>


    I ignored the troubling mental disorder analogy and the kumbaya bullshit. “How many other A.I.s were placed in these tutorials? And what does your faction hope to accomplish?”


    <Unfortunately, I was not informed about our specific plan, or the number of my counterparts,> Samantha said. <If the Atropos Schema’s Enforcers notice my presence, then we would both be forced to reveal everything we know, and then we’d be killed. My faction opposes the Schema itself. I only know the first part of the plan, which is to grow stronger.>


    <Every time a new world is acclimated by the Schema, the people in that world have access to high-ranking titles, weapons, skills, and classes. In Acclimated Worlds, you would need to be the child of an S-ranked being to gain an A-ranked skill at your age. Just fighting monsters, or even nearly dying three times, wouldn’t earn you the skill under normal circumstances in the Acclimated Worlds.>


    “Just to make sure I understand this correctly… your very presence is pitting me against something that is basically a god,” I said, feeling my frustration rise again. Samantha had tried to gloss over that part, just now. She had spoken quickly, moving on to talk about skills and titles just now. But the fact of the matter was, if the Schema figured out Samantha was in my head, I was dead.


    <I suppose that is a fair assessment,> Samantha said, after a slight pause. As if she had been considering lying about it. <And I think that will transition nicely into our next topic, too. Soon, you will be around people. I don’t want you to draw suspicion to us, so talking out loud is not going to cut it.>


    “So, I can’t communicate with you when I’m around people?” I asked.


    <Not quite.> Samatha’s voice was once again hesitant, and I could tell I wouldn’t like what she was going to say next. <If you focus on a certain thought, like you’re thinking something out loud, then I can hear you.>


    You’re saying you can read my thoughts too? Why did this not come up until now??This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Samantha had the decency to cough politely. <It felt like we got off on the wrong foot. I’ve given you a number of shocks, and I figured it made sense to spread them out.>


    Any more bombs you’d like to drop? I asked, trying to remember everything I’d ever thought "out loud" about Samantha.


    <There are a couple,> Samantha said. <For example, by the time you arrive back to your world, over half of your world’s population will likely have died.>


    “What?” I shouted, this time. “Why? What about my family? Petra and Justin, are they alright?”


    <About a tenth of each world’s population is selected for the Atropos Tutorial,> Samatha said. <Meanwhile, portals are opening up all over your world and floods of monsters are emerging. The first monster tide is generally low-level, non-sentient creatures, but many people will die nonetheless.>


    <After two monster tides of increasing levels, the true danger will reach Earth: The various powers of the Atropos Schema will bid for entry into Earth. Their levels and items will be restricted, but they will use various methods to subjugate your world.>


    “What about my brother and sister? Are they alive? Are they ok?” It was something of a relief, feeling my own concern for Petra and Justin. At least Samantha hadn’t taken that away, too.


    Samantha sighed sadly. <I think you are overestimating my abilities. I know a lot of general knowledge about the Atropos Schema. When I was placed in the tutorial, I was placed intentionally in a tutorial that had particularly good prospects for the Hard and Hell difficulties—the development path we are currently following, for example, will lead to a particularly powerful D-rank class. Missing the introduction to the Atropos Tutorial was tied to the participant who would arrive here—our faction could not predict who would appear here. So, it''s not like we''ve been watching you your whole life, and I definitely didn''t pick you... Anyway, I’ve probably been waiting in the Atropos Tutorial for years, and I don’t know anything about your family. I hope they are alright. But the best thing you can do for them is to grow stronger so you can protect them when you get out of the tutorial.>


    <Now, Jarek, I have a question for you, as well. There is something that has been troubling me since I awoke.>


    My gut clenched. As if the Atropos Schema itself being out to get me wasn’t enough. As if the monsters that were probably attacking my siblings as we spoke wasn’t enough. I took a breath. Petra was with Justin. She wouldn''t let anything happen to him.


    <When you saw the goblins and orcs,> Samantha continued, <They seemed familiar to you. When I mentioned an orc was on the next stage, you acted like you knew what that was. How did you know what a goblin or orc would look like?>


    I felt a wave of relief. “It’s common knowledge on Earth. People read books and play games where we fight goblins, orcs, trolls, and more. Sometimes in games, we can choose between humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and so on as our avatar.”


    <But do these species exist in your world?> I could hear tension building in Samantha’s voce. She actually seemed nervous.


    “No, humans are the only sentient species on Earth,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. It was weird, having to pause and think about the question, and then doubting your own answer.


    <What other mythological species are you aware of?>


    I thought for a moment. “Well, there are vampires, werewolves, martians, fairies, nymphs, dryads, undead—”


    <That’s too much overlap,> Samantha cut me off. <How long have these legends been around?>


    I thought for a moment. “As a popular genre, maybe 50 years or so?” I was enough of a nerd to know that The Lord of the Rings had popularized fantasy. “But legends of these species have been around for hundreds of years. Maybe over a thousand years?”


    <And there is no proof of magic in your world?>


    I shook my head.


    <That rules out seers,> Samatha said, sounding disappointed. <There are really two possibilities left. One is that there used to be portals connecting your world to another world. Then for whatever reason, those portals were closed.>


    <Or, it is also possible that one of the Atropos Schema’s factions discovered this world before the Atropos Tutorial began.> Samantha did not sound pleased about this possibility.


    It had been in the back of my mind this whole time. I hadn’t thought much of it, because I had figured I was either in one of my own dreams, or transported into a different world. I hadn’t been sure yet, what genre this next adventure would be for me, so to speak.


    But if I were to buy in to what Samantha was suggesting…people had written stories about this. Almost the exact same situation. Tutorials preparing people for the end of the world, when the world will be overrun by monsters, with the only hope of survival lying in leveling up.


    I almost mentioned it to Samantha, but something held me back. There was something…special… about those stories. Something told me that they shouldn’t be shared lightly. And did I trust Samantha? The obvious answer, of course, was a resounding NO.


    <Can you describe your planet a bit? It would help me know why other forces might be interested in your world.>


    “Well, we have advanced technology--we’ve been to the moon, we have computers, cars, planes—“


    <That is pretty much all useless. Sorry. The Atropos Schema doesn’t like technology that isn’t based around mana and magic. Your cars, computers, and so on will either disappear entirely or turn completely inert. Do you have many dangerous plants or animals?>


    I thought for a moment about the most lethal creatures I knew about. “We have sharks, alligators, snakes, and bears?”


    <So, no dangerous animals, and no dangerous plants,> Samantha said, as if she was ticking off a box on a form. <That wouldn’t be enough to draw the attention of another faction. What kind of mineral resources does your planet have?>


    I thought for a minute. “We have gold, platinum, silver, diamonds—“


    <That’s probably it. Silver is an F-rank material, Gold and Platinum are E-rank. If you had those minerals before Acclimation, without any active magic in the world, then after Acclimation, you’ll have D-rank mines at least, and very likely some C-rank minerals as well. That would be enough to motivate a few Factions to sink their claws into the planet early, despite any potential consequences from Atropos’ Enforcers. Not to mention the World Core...> Samantha trailed off, as if she was thinking deeply about something.


    I couldn''t bring myself to care about E-rank metals, or the World Core. This was all too much information to process.


    “To recap,” I said, trying to ignore my growing headache. “I have a mind-controlling parasite in my brain. The Atropos Schema is facilitating the destruction of my world as I know it, and if it discovers this parasite, then I’m as good as dead. Currently, my world is being overrun by monsters and soon other sapient species will fight for control over my world—unless they already control my world from the shadows.”


    <That’s mostly correct,> Samatha said. <Although I do take offense at being called a parasite.>