Chapter 2 - Please Stand By

Junior lounged on his sofa, listening to a piano concerto through his sound system. It was a diabolically difficult piece of music to play; even Junior had struggled with it when he'd last tried. But this pianist was a true master of the craft and Junior bore an appreciative smile as he enjoyed.

Alone in his condo, he wasn't wearing sunglasses. Since childhood, Junior's grey eyes were perpetually crossed and rolled aimlessly without his conscious control. Or so he'd been told, at least. He could feel them moving if he concentrated, but it was the same as noticing his heartbeat or lungs breathing. It was just something his body always did and mostly ignored.

Then Junior's enjoyment of the music was completely shattered as everything he'd thought he'd known about the world was instantly challenged. The drink he'd been holding slipped through suddenly numb fingers and spilled all over his carpet.

"What . . ?" the young man, who'd lived in a world without vision since before he could walk, swallowed reflexively. "What is this?"

A blue screen of text had appeared in his field of vision.

Junior's thoughts seemed to slow even as his heart began to race. For a man with only an academic understanding of a sense he'd never personally experienced, there was a lot to unpack.

How did he know what blue even was? Or a field of vision? How was he able to read? Because read he could, and what he did only caused his shock to grow.

Failsafe System Integration . . . Initializing.

Please stand by.

"What's a Failsafe System?" he muttered dazedly. Why was it integrating? Who had initialized it? How long would it take and what would happen after?

He must be hallucinating . . . right?

Dozens of thoughts jumbled through Junior's mind at once. He wasn't exactly sure how long he lay there, seeing a floating screen for the first time ever.

But he eventually calmed down enough to notice a few other things.

First, a wet and very rough tongue was licking his hand. A gentle, canine whine reached his ears. Junior realized that Achilles must have sensed his distress and come over to investigate.

"I'm okay, Achilles," he said shakily. He turned his head to the side and the blue screen of text stayed right in front of his vision. 

Junior didn't entirely know what to make of that. Things didn't normally stay in front of your . . . eyes . . . when you moved . . . did they? It should be like sound, he pondered. Sounds certainly changed when he moved his head, according to the location of the source. Everything he'd learned from school and living in a sighted world said that vision usually worked the same way.

Yet in defiance of his reasonable expectations, the blue screen moved with him wherever his field of vision went. He even flipped over on the couch and pressed his face into the cushions. That should have done something, yet the screen remained completely unchanged.

Another whine from Achilles reminded him of his partner. He tried to focus on more pressing matters.

Junior pushed himself up and rotated his legs until he was seated upright. Then he reached out until his fingers brushed against the Golden Retriever's lustrous fur.

"It's okay, boy," Junior repeated. He tried to sound as convincing as he could, for the sake of his dog as well as his own. He patted the animal's fur gently. "I was just startled. It's okay."

Junior heard Achilles let loose a short bark. A light thumping rose from the floor as the dog's tail started to wag.

Strangely, reassuring his closest pal served to help calm Junior's nerve. Dogs were still dogs, up was still up and down was down. Grounding himself in what hadn't changed helped him put the only thing that had changed into perspective.

"So I'm blind, but I can see a floating screen," he mused. "Wait, am I still blind?" Tentatively he raised a hand to his face and gingerly touched his eyes, just to make sure the lids were open. "I know that my eyes are open," he winced. "And I know my fingers are touching them. If I could see anything other than this screen, I should at least be able to see my fingers. Right?"

Junior didn't normally speak out loud to himself, but in the current situation he felt that hearing himself could only help settle him even further.

The music he'd been listening to before (and had completely forgotten) ended. At first, Junior didn't notice the change until he realized that what he was hearing wasn't music any longer. He was hearing something else. He cocked his head, orienting an ear towards the sliding door that led to his balcony.

"Is that . . . screaming?"

Junior rose to his feet and navigated to the balcony with practiced ease. He knew where everything in his condo was quite intimately. Not that he'd gathered a lot of things to begin with. But what he did have, he kept meticulously organized and tidied away with the well-earned knowledge that the only way he'd find things again was by memory at best or luck at worst.

When he reached the balcony door he slid it open and was immediately blasted by the noise the thick glass had muffled.

" -est damned tank/healing/damage barbarian/druid/sorceress EVER! I KNEW it would happen! Bring on the goblins and fetch quests!"

Junior listened to this all bemusedly. He understood . . . most of the words he was hearing. At least in isolation. But he had no idea what they meant when put together in this context.

Junior's balcony was on the top floor of a mid-sized, eight-storey condominium. It was morning, though hard to tell except for the slightly lighter grey to the perpetually overcast skies.

The streets below Junior's feet were a scene of confusion, uncertainty and fear. People were everywhere. Some huddled together, talking, while others held cellphones, urgently scrolling through their browsers. Even traffic had come to a grinding halt. Some drivers had tried to pull over to the side while others seemed to have simply stopped where they were and exited their vehicles.

But while Junior could hear hints of this from his balcony, mostly what he heard was the woman in her bathrobe on a balcony one floor down and two balconies to the left.

"I was BORN for this!" the woman screamed at the top of her lungs. She was loud enough that some people below glanced up at her, but most were too focused on their own worries to care. "I'm gonna get so MANY world first achievements! I'll find the CRAZIEST gimmick and exploit the HELL out of my build! I'll max ALL the stats and be the most over-powered MC. S-grade here I come!"

The woman finally paused to take a huge, gulping breath, chest heaving after her long tirade.

"I . . . can't wait . . . to boost . . . my CON," she panted with a wild grin.

With the screaming seemingly paused (for now at least), Junior ventured to ask a question.

"Excuse," he called out loudly. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

The woman in the bathrobe looked up to find Junior on the balcony above her. Then she looked down at her bathrobe as she realized she hadn't closed it properly.

"Ahhh!" she yelled, clutching the robe closed with both hands. "Don't spy on me you pervert! Haven't you ever heard of privacy?"

Junior was confused for a moment until he realized the woman must be in some state of undress to have reacted that way. Although it didn't matter to him for obvious reasons, he politely turned his face so it wasn't aimed in her direction.

"I apologize, I didn't mean to startle you. But if it's any consolation I truly didn't see anything. I'm completely blind, in fact."

"Oh," she responded, nonplussed.

After a moment, she realized she couldn't really complain about privacy after coming out on her balcony in a bathrobe. And she also realized she'd just accused a blind man of spying. That had to be pretty insensitive, right? 

"Umm, sorry. I didn't mean . . . I just got a little excited. Sorry to accuse you of . . . sorry."

"That's all right," Junior replied graciously. "But I really could use your help. Are you . . . seeing anything unusual right now?"

"Are you kidding me?" The woman gasped loudly. "Of course I am! The System is coming! It's already all over the news and the internet! Didn't you see the . . ." belatedly she realized her mistake. "I'm so sorry! I did it again."

"It's okay!"

Junior masked his growing irritation. Some sighted people seemed to feel they had to apologize for everything, like his situation was somehow their fault. Others, more rare thankfully, wore their callousness like a badge of honour. Personally, Junior just wanted to be treated like a human being, deserving of respect and consideration like any other. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Now, about that help . . ?"

"Right. One minute," the woman said. Then she lowered her voice to a level she clearly thought he couldn't hear. "My first follower. I don't even have the System yet and he's blind. This is definitely gonna be a hard mode Tutorial. But if anyone can do it, I can!" She pumped her fist up and down in the air.

Unbeknownst to Junior's somewhat irritating new acquaintance, he had excellent hearing. He shook his head and reconsidered his options. He decided it would be better to ask someone less . . . excitable for help.

He'd just resolved to bid the woman goodbye and try to call Miss Mallory when the woman on the other balcony called out to him.

"So, uhm, I'm not sure how to say this." She took a deep breath. "But I guess the most important thing you need to know right now is that the Apocalypse is coming and . . . you're maybe . . . probably . . . gonna die?"