Perpetually Distracted

"... Wait, why does my avatar have Chaos Energy?! Just how much of this game did you change?!"

[I plead the 5th.]

"... The fifth of what? Are you counting something?"

[Nevermind. To answer your question, are you really sure you'd rather use this game's native system? If you do, then quests in here won't help you level up in real life.]

Alesha took a moment to process what the System had just said. "Wait, what? Are you saying that because you synced my actual stats into the game, that quests in here can count in real life?!"

[Yes. You can even complete your quests from reality while inside the game, but only if your stats are synced. Otherwise the conversion rate between your body and your avatar isn't high enough for rewards to transfer. Now, do you want me to revert your stats to the game's default?]

"No! No, I uh, nope, let's keep it as is. You're the boss, you know what you're doing! Haha, ha…" 

In truth, she was just ecstatic that she could complete the System's (quite frankly unenjoyable and stress-inducing) quests while inside of the game. She could deal with the consequences of theft if it wasn't real, heck, she could probably endure meat penalties in the game with far less hassle than in real life. That in particular would have been so much easier to cope with in-game. Not just for the lack of having to avoid her family and others, but also… she could have bought a lot more meat and suffered perhaps a little less for it. Maybe if she had completed the penalty in Virtual Reality, her real body wouldn't have ended up with the Carnivorous Constitution racial trait! 

Whatever the System threw at her, she was certain that it would be easier to deal with in Virtual Reality than in her real life.

"Alright, so my stats in here are the same as in real life, and some of my characteristics too, like the Bite skill… Hey System, is there a way for you to make a notification panel be reflective? I'm suddenly curious what the Bite skill would make me look like." Continuing her earlier line of thinking, Alesha figured it would be safest to test this in-game. 

[Huh, that's an interesting request. Never thought of trying that before. Here,] the System answered. 

A blank silver screen pulled up. It was reflective, but only about 50% opaque, so half the light went right through it instead of reflecting back at her. The effect was kind of like trying to use a reflective super-fine mesh as a mirror. It worked, but not nearly well enough to use for anything requiring a clear reflection.

She examined herself as best she could. Yep, this was the avatar she'd designed. The teeth looked identical to human ones, so that made the starting point easy. "Alright, System! Activate Bite!"

Nothing happened.

[There is no way in hell that I am letting you activate your skills verbally, Alesha Jane Williams.]

"... Then, aren't you at least going to tell me how to activate them? At least give me a hint?"

[No. Let your instincts guide you. oooOoOooooOoooOOOooooo!]

"But this IS where my instincts guided me! In fully half or more webnovels involving Systems and/or Skills, the protagonist vocalizes the name of the skill as they use it! Sure, the trope has a heavy dose of Cringe with a capital C, but… aghhh System you're doing this just to spite me at this point, aren't you?"

[... Perhaps.] This vocal communication even came with a little notification screen with an emoticon on it: [ :) ]

"Come on, Rogork, please? You were being so chatty a minute ago! Can't you just, I don't know, be super chatty about how to activate my skills?"

[If you're trying to get me to talk by sucking up to me with my name, it's not going to work this time. I'm in charge of your growth as a Servant of Chaos and in my very professional and very experienced opinion as a Personal Trainer of Servants of Chaos, what you need right now isn't coddling but a good shove off the top of a cliff. So, have fun!]

Alesha facepalmed energetically, falling from her sitting position to lie down among the crinkly dead leaves. The System was obviously just bluffing. It had straight-up told her that it didn't even exist before bonding with her, so how could it be "professional" and "experienced" in anything? 

As for testing methods to activate the skill? She didn't. She gave up trying to do so before even trying; if there's anything she hates, it's feeling stupid. She'd spent so much of her life having her intelligence and skills praised that it made her hesitant to try when the most likely outcome was failure.

Some would say this made her lazy, or perhaps spoiled rotten. Maybe they were right. But that didn't make facing her fears any easier, and she would have time enough for this madness later.

 "System, when I figure it out, please make the reflective screen again," she said, not even protesting the System's obstinate behavior anymore. By now she knew the System wouldn't relent no matter how much she continued to complain.

Alesha zoned out, eyes closed, listening to the leaves rustling high above her as they swayed in a breeze that only existed in their highest boughs. Crisp scents of dirt and dry leaves infiltrated her senses. She shifted absently to pull an uncomfortable branch from under her. Some sort of bird sounded its call, the toneless mix of clicking, cawing and screeching forming a combination she had never heard before. Its call was answered by another of the same type, from a different direction. Their "conversation" continued back and forth for a while, accompanied at times by the sounds of more familiar bird varieties. Two crows cawed at one another in a short burst, likely fighting over something, and a group of songbirds tweeted their happy tune for a short while in another part of the forest. 

The branches above Alesha shook without warning. Their motion sent a few dead leaves drifting down in her general direction, as well as causing the shadows covering her face to shift, allowing a beam of light to pass over her eyes, which had snapped open at the noise.

Squinting against the light, Alesha sat up slowly, brought her legs underneath her and stood in a crouch, eyes fixed on the branches above. Unfortunately for her, this was not a low-canopied forest, but one where the lowest branches were well out of reach--at a height of over 50 feet. This meant she couldn't search them for threats very effectively. After all, human eyes didn't exactly come equipped with telescopic capabilities.

Come to think of it… her sight hadn't been blurry at all ever since waking up from the hospital, had it? It was normal enough to forget her naturally poor eyesight while in a game since CT-VR technology controlled your senses in the virtual space, and could give you perfect vision while logged in. But spacing it in reality only to pick up on it in the game?! That was so backwards it was almost funny. How on Elantris had she managed to do it? Had she accidentally conditioned herself to expect her vision to suddenly function properly when her environment changed? She had always utilized the "perfect vision" function with her gaming avatars, so that could very well be the case.

"Agh, now's not the time to get distracted!" Alesha muttered to herself, shaking her head and cursing her inattentive brain. "Focus, focus, there's something above me, probably."

Despite her renewed wariness, nothing jumped out to kill her. The leaves continued to sway up in the tallest reaches of the canopy, the birds continued to chatter. Everything had returned to how it was before she was startled by the sudden noise.

She sighed, stood fully upright, and took her hand off the sheathed knives at her belt. Hm? Well, apparently she had good instincts at least. Or maybe that was the racial knife proficiency at work. The beginner's Motion Assist could very well have detected her perception of danger and prepped her for action. Handy.

"Ahk!!" Alesha exclaimed, remembering something that she really shouldn't have forgotten. "I forgot about Dennis!"