First Song

by Blaise Corvin

  He stood up, “Well, I gotta head over to Johnny’s. Why don’t you and Azar do a peaceful demonstration?”

  His mom’s eyebrows shot up. “Like, with signs that say, ‘Say a Prayer for a New Mayor’?”

  “Yah, just like students at college campuses do.”

  “That might—” his mom pondered. “What’s your angle? I don’t see nice old Azar doing something so radical.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Noah thought of old lady Azar, a family friend who had grown considerably closer to his mom in this new lifetime. A screen appeared in Noah’s view.

  [Community] (Mundane) Level 2

  Azar (last name unknown)

  Age: 80+ years old

  Race: Human

  Notes:

  -Persian immigrant

  -Won several international feminism awards in the early 2020s

  -Family died in the Great Korean War during a trip to Seoul

  -Hates lying

  -Loves pie

  -Makes frequent attempts to set wielder up with her niece

  -Possibly follows Zoroastrianism but most likely Atheist. Celebrates Christmas as a holiday

  -Dislikes formalities

  -Hates corrupt governments and politicians

  It was the last item Noah focused on. Out of all the [Listener] skills he had gained after the Trial of the Archetype, Noah had relied most on [Jack of All]. It had not only allowed him to learn mundane skills with nearly superhuman ease, but had also organized information he’d learned in ways that proved to be more useful than he could have ever imagined.

  The mundane skill [Community] had allowed Noah to gather and compile important information about every person he had ever met. With his high Charisma, this had allowed him to create strong bonds with everyone in the community, spreading his influence among them over the years. Of course, he also had the mundane skill [Memory Palace], but it was limited compared to [Community]. Even at level five, [Memory Palace] only afforded him five very small rooms worth of information.

  He hummed two notes silently in his head, assigning his mother and Azar to each. Normally, I’d need my guitar for this, Noah thought. But it’s just two notes.

  Harmony

  Wielder may assign each entity their own note.

  The notes played around in his head, and Noah received a better understanding of how the new interaction between his mom and her friend Azar would turn out. If his mom followed through, the corrupt mayor and his cousins were probably going to have a bad day soon. Noah suppressed a smile and walked to the door. “I’ll be back later tonight. I have my phone on vibrate if you need to get a hold of me. I think Azar might be able to help you get through to the mayor.”

  Noah made sure to grab his acoustic guitar leaning against the wall in the hallway, checking to make sure it was in tune before stepping outside. The instrument was necessary if Johnny’s team was going to have a shot at taking down the powerful gamer group, Anonymoose.

  The grinning young man didn’t need to see his mother’s expression as he closed the door behind him–he knew she would take his advice. Even at ten years old, it was difficult for him to wrap his head around how overpowered his high Charisma felt. Sometimes at night, he felt haunted, wondering if he was merely manipulating his parents like puppets. He had to constantly remind himself that his skills were a part of him, like his limbs.

  Charisma may have given him advantages others didn’t have, but others didn’t need to prepare humanity for the end of the world and fend off an invasion of Aelves. I’ll take every advantage I can get.

  The lanky boy let his mind wander as he made his way through his quiet suburban neighborhood. The summer sun climbed the stark blue sky, brightening Noah’s mood. He took it all in, savoring this moment like others that he could revisit after the Shift occurred.

  Suddenly, his thought process about his skills and stats reminded him of Mod. The memory of the Trial of the Archetype years ago left a bitter taste in his mouth. He hadn’t seen the Modifier in his dreams again since his test. I probably have to meet certain conditions for it to show up again, just like my abilities.

  When he had turned seven, it had become increasingly clear to Noah that although he had levels for his abilities like most role-playing games, they didn’t work the same way. Whether it was a [Listener] skill or a mundane skill, he wasn’t exactly granted any kind of measurable experience to judge how far he was in growing a specific ability.

  If he could figure out how the system worked, maybe he could figure out a way to exploit the system, levelling up all his skills and stats to their maximum.

  Noah hadn’t been a huge gamer in his previous life, which was one reason spending time with Johnny was proving educational. Besides being a fun goofball, Johnny Dormund loved playing games. Since Noah’s abilities had manifested through screens that resembled video games, Noah had reasoned that learning gamer culture would prove beneficial to figuring out his new abilities–online research hadn’t been enough. Plus, it was nice to have a best friend, something he never had in his previous life.

  Hanging around Johnny and his online gamer friends had led Noah to realize that there were other ways to level up in some video games. Noah had watched the other boys play games that required certain quests to be fulfilled before achieving new abilities or powers, or unlocking new things. This had led him to believe that levelling his [Listener] stats like Charisma didn’t require experience, but perhaps completing certain tasks.

  Maybe he was wrong, but it was the best guess he currently had.

  Except, Noah thought, a little irritated, I don’t know what the darn conditions are. It could be, “collect five raspberries for your mom by the end of the day and you’ll be rewarded a new [Listener] stat point.” So far, none of his experiments had helped at all.

  Noah made a face, scuffing a foot on the ground. Now he was only a few blocks away from the Dormunds’ bright yellow, two-story house. He’d be arriving five minutes before Johnny’s group fought against Anonymoose for the coveted number one spot in their online game. Noah used this last bit of time to block away his thoughts and focus on his oldest and most reliable skill, [Listen].

  With his sharpened focus, all the sounds within a two hundred yard radius around Noah came to him with perfect clarity. His ability helped isolate each sound and note where they were. The skill wasn’t perfect - it didn’t usually allow him to hear every conversation within homes. Walls still muffled sounds. But he could pick up conversations between neighbors, strained arguments between young couples, and dogs barking at each other. If he strained, he could hear farther, but with less clarity.

  All of the information got filed away into his increasingly useful skill, [Community]. He didn’t know when the information would be useful, but it might be good to have it. After surviving the Shift for a while, he understood the value of being prepared.

  After reaching his destination, Noah cut off his [Listen] skill, letting the world fade into background noise again as he opened the fence to Johnny Dormund’s house. He smiled and strummed his guitar, playing a perfect e major chord.

  ***

  “Navi!” Johnny shouted over his shoulder to Noah. The chubby blond boy sat cross-legged on a flat pillow, his body tilted as he mashed buttons on his game control. Before him, the holographic display showed eight game characters duking it out in fantastical forest. Magical beam attacks shot in every direction.

  Noah heard his friend but was busy looking at his phone screen. His thumb swiped through a few real estate listings in Colorado, all houses within the same neighborhood. With a few presses, the houses were earmarked to be purchased under one of his manufactured identities—this one created when he’d been seven. His alias was also named Noah Henson but was old enough to legally spend the ridiculous sums of money he had accrued over the years. Noah set the phone down and picked up his guitar, his attention back on the hologram screen.

  “Navi!” Johnny screamed in frustration, his ey
es glued to his character, a paladin, currently taking the brunt of Anonymoose’s long-range attacks. “Dude, any tips?”

  Noah breathed out and strummed an open c major chord on his guitar.

  [Harmony]

  Wielder may assign each person their own note.

  Johnny’s group, Dragonx42, had four players and characters—his own paladin, a spellsword, a blood barbarian, and a body witch. Even though they had only been fighting Anonymoose’s players for a few minutes, Dragonx42 was getting destroyed. The nervous voices of Johnny’s team came through his coms.

  “Friggin’ Christ! How am I on my last potion?”

  “How the heck are their skills combining like that?”

  “No, no, no, no, no. I’m almost out of MP!”

  “They’re definitely cheating, using aimbots or something. I call HAX!”

  “Naviiii,” Johnny repeated to Noah nervously, wearing out the buttons on his controller. “We could really use your help right about now.”

  Four avatars for Johnny’s team. Noah assigned each of them a note. A major chord would do nicely. More voices came through the stereo, the other team trash talking. Their voices were filtered, altered to disguise their identities.

  “How did these punks get to third place?”

  “Don’t know, bro. I give it another two mins before we sack their corpses.”

  “I almost feel bad for ‘em.”

  “You heard them say Navi, right?”

  Noah smiled and gave the four opposing players of Anonymoose their own notes on his guitar, all in a minor chord, then he played.

  His eyes stayed glued to the hologram as his fingers danced on the guitar strings. At first, the notes were arranged simply, the minor chords overpowering the major chords. But through [Harmony], Noah pushed for a song where the major chords overtook the minor.

  It took some tricky finger positions and picking, but he was able to make a song that sounded like victory.

  The song took about half a minute to create. The music burst through the small, second story bedroom lined with football and video game posters. Although everyone on his team was down to only half health, Johnny looked over his shoulder and matched Noah’s grin.

  The chubby, friendly boy let out an imitation of an evil villain’s laugh. “You guys are in for it now. Navi, talk to me.”

  Noah played the song through his guitar with perfect clarity and spoke with calm authority, “Cut to only team chat.” Johnny pressed a button, and the hologram flared purple for half a second followed by several frustrated exclamations from Johnny’s online teammates.

  “Finally!”

  “Marry me, Navi.”

  “We need a miracle.”

  A chord echoed through the room. Noah said, “Listen! Blood barbarian, when I tell you to, begin your mid-range twin attack, but cancel it halfway through. Then drop your last potion while moving to your three o’clock. Spellsword, pick up the dropped potion and then use your area of effect on their dragonkin.”

  “But he’s fire resistant!” a voice countered.

  “Shut up!” Johnny ordered. “It’s Navi; you know this.”

  Noah continued. “Body witch, drop a curse spell on their mirror knight when your blood barbarian starts the attack I signal, and jump back immediately. That jump is important. Paladin, pour every ounce of faith magic into healing your party.”

  Johnny gave Noah a double-take. “All of it?”

  Noah played the same chord again to make sure—it rang true. “All of it.”

  “Alright, pal,” Johnny agreed nervously.

  Noah breathed in and kept playing the song. “Okay, execute in three. You can go back to main chat if you want.”

  The enemy voices came back through the stereo.

  “Who’s that other voice?”

  “I think it’s the one we’re talking about.”

  “The kid?”

  “Yeah, maybe this won’t be so boring anymore.”

  Anonymoose’s responses made Noah’s heart flutter. All the hard work he had poured into helping Johnny’s team grow in the rankings would be worth it. Noah shouted. “Two. One!”

  Dragonx42’s blood barbarian feinted a mid-level double-axe swipe, fell back, and dropped something that looked suspiciously like a potion. The raven-haired spellsword’s avatar floated over the potion, causing her to erupt in a blue aura. She swiped her giant, rune-covered sword at the four enemy avatars.

  “Ha!” the dragonkin said. “Noob move! Fire can’t—”

  Noah stopped playing the guitar to enjoy the next moment. The body witch’s ritualistic incantation had finally finished, unleashing her most powerful curse, containing every negative status ailment she’d wrapped into it. Normally, the curse would affect only one target, but since it fell on the enemy mirror knight, it bounced off the avatar’s magical armor and spread to an area twenty yards around, hitting all of his teammates.

  One of the enemy voices managed an, “Uh oh,” before the hologram forest filled with black smoke, immediately followed by the spellsword’s red flames. Johnny’s fingers pressed a complex series of buttons to execute his special healing move, pouring all of his faith and magic into the skill.

  The screen went white.

  No one spoke, all the players probably engrossed with the startling turn of events. Soon, the blinding white light disappeared. The hologram finally cleared to show four avatars standing above the crispy corpses of Anonymoose. The view suddenly transitioned to a fireworks display as the rankings replaced Anonymoose with Dragonx42 as the second best team in Adventures on Corinthia.

  “No way.”

  “W-we did it. Does this mean Shiek Freak is next?”

  “So like, all the DOTs were multipliers for the fire, and we all almost died, but they got hit harder? We came out on top? That’s wild!”

  “Navi, I meant it. Marry me.”

  “Noah,” Johnny turned to his friend with wide-eyed disbelief. “Bro.”

  Noah gave him an annoyed look for using his real name, but it didn’t matter now. Helping Dragonx42 defeat the second-ranked team in the game hadn’t been his main goal. Their enemy’s reaction was what he’d been looking forward to for a year. He bit his lip, waiting for their reply.

  Surprisingly, the voice that came through the speakers wasn’t mad. A young man’s voice, oddly calm and commanding said, “Navi, you there?”

  Johnny gave Noah a look as if asking him if it was okay. Noah nodded, and his friend pressed a button, allowing Anonymoose to hear him speak. Cautiously, trying to hide the excitement in his voice he said, “I’m here.”

  A pause, then, “Noah Henson, you have our attention. We’ll be in touch.”

  The line cut to static and the hologram shut off. Johnny fumbled over to Noah and gave him a giant, sweaty hug. “Dude! We did it! Heck, you did it! We can take Shiek Freak on now!”

  Noah pushed his enthusiastic friend away. Johnny always sweated when his character had an intense fight. “I don’t think even I can help you take him down. There’s a reason the number one team is made of just a single player. The guy is undefeated. Even Anonymoose got manhandled by Shiek Freak a few months back when they accidentally ran into him.”

  The excitement in his Johnny’s face faltered, but was quickly replaced again by excitement. “Pshh. That’s okay. This means our gaming streams are gonna rake in some hard cash. I might be able to buy that bike in the window at Racks on Racks on Racks.”

  The image of a garish, ugly, overpriced, bright red mountain bike flashed through Noah’s mind. With the money he had just spent on his phone buying houses, Noah could have bought the entire bike shop and the neighboring five blocks. He wanted to be honest with his friend about how stupid the bike looked, but Johnny’s infectious goofy grin proved too much for Noah.

  All he could manage was, “Yeah, man. You do you.”

  Johnny stepped back and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Sorry about saying your real name there. I got a little carried away.
”

  Noah held a smile for his friend but felt his stomach stir. He didn’t mention the fact that Johnny had only said Noah’s first name, and that Anonymoose had said both Noah’s first and last name through the game. It was exactly what he expected. “Don’t worry. It’ll all work out.”

  ***

  Noah sat in his computer chair as light from the full moon spilled through his room. The bright holographic screen of his computer showed letters being typed, but his fingers were not on the keyboard. The message read: “Noah Henson. Ten years old. Hacked the White House at age nine. Created a secret identity that even we can’t completely trace. Why did you spend all that time helping your friends just to fight us?”

  To gamers of the world, Anonymoose was known as four of the best players in Adventures on Corinthia. But in the darker side of the internet, to those who broke systems and securities to plant, destroy, or obtain information, they weren’t just famous–they were infamous. Anonymoose were whispered to be the most elite, freelance hacker group. Their gaming activities were thought to be a way of flaunting their status, mocking the system around them.

  Noah’s [Listener] skill, [Jack of All], had allowed him to learn the mundane ability [Hacking] ages ago. He hadn’t even levelled it to five yet, but was still proficient enough to hack some of the world’s securest networks. With [Hacking], Noah had scoured the internet for any information he could find on the Aelves, the coming Shift, and Chris Broad. Even with his considerable ability, he had gotten nothing but false leads and dead ends.

  He needed more skilled contacts; people could get him into places he couldn’t reach yet. Anyonmoose could help him with that. He had already laid a strong support foundation in his small Michigan town, people he could trust. This would grow deeper and larger in the years to come thanks to his Charisma stat and [Community] skill.

  To prepare for the coming Shift, Noah had created separate digital identities to make an astronomical amount of money. His plans were starting to come to fruition. The only thing he didn’t have yet was a reliable information network, people he could trust. It had taken some effort to prove himself, but maybe he’d changed that now.