Tutorial

"What the fuck?" Laura yelled. She was not standing or sitting on anything. In fact, she didn't even have a shadow. What's going on?

[Welcome to the G System alpha release 1.0. During the initiation phase, tutorials may not be skipped. Please press next to continue.]

Laura blinked at the pop-out screen in front of her. This looked very similar to the touch screens that she used to get her train passes topped up except, it was cooler. the moment the ex-dirt racer hit "next", the screen blurred for a moment and the words changed.

[Please press this button to go to your status screen.]

Laura followed the instructions. So far, it appeared like a normal home screen for a computer or a phone but much bigger. She had a feeling that the 'picture' of the room was not just a picture. After all, why would her room behave exactly the same as the inside of a device? She was no computer program, she had a name and identity. She had memories of her past and certainly didn't think that she wasn't alive. Programs don't have emotions but she did.

Laura was looking through the new features of her system to familiarise herself when she heard the door open. Although she still could not see anyone from her 'window', the girl was certain that the sneeze belonged to a man. She just managed to find her Task button when a half-naked man came into view.

He was very tall and pale with very messy ginger hair. Laura had seen her fair share of mixed-blood models in her lucrative career but she didn't think there would be anyone who would carry such beautiful genes in such a wasted manner. If only this man paid more attention to his looks, he would have ladies swarming all over him. Too bad Laura wasn't really interested in men even though they hovered around her all the time. For Laura, her love was only for the bikes and the dirt track. You can take the dirt away from the girl but you can never take the girl away from the dirt.

Laura watched as the nerdy half-Asian pulled over a crumpled shirt from underneath his duvet to pull over his messy wet curls. He then ripped the towel off his waist and the girl turned red and shut her eyes while the man searched for his underwear and pants. How could he do this in front of a lady?! Had he no shame?! Then again, she couldn't quite blame him. How was she going to explain to him her mission to be able to regain her body? According to the system, she had to complete missions given by the system in the Task menu. After completing tasks successfully, Laura can exchange the soul points for a reward in the Shop.

Her first Task was to introduce herself and it would give her just enough points to purchase one of the three upgrades in the Shop. Laura knew the upgrade she wanted. The first upgrade allowed her to move things for one second by one centimetre. Laura deemed it useless. Unless it was meant to annoy, scare or kill someone, Laura didn't want such a useless ability.

The second ability allowed Laura to see past her current field of vision. In other words, she was getting a 'window' expansion. That might be useful if there was actually something worth seeing in this room. If she was going to invest her soul points, Laura certainly didn't want to waste it here. The first upgrade she bought should help her advance to the next level easier and complete the task better. Thankfully, there was a promising third option.

"Don't you think that it's rude to change in front of a lady? Have some decency!" she shouted, unable to take it anymore.

Tynan who was scratching his sides jumped and banged his shin against the computer desk so hard that he teared up. Where was this lady watching him from? He was very sure none of the windows were open. The man lived alone so it wasn't possible to have anyone this near him. Why did it sound like there was a girl just two feet away from him?

"Over here, carrot head!" Laura was annoyed. The nerdy man was still searching the room although the racer was happy that he was now at least decent. She still blinked at his lame choice of clothes. While she had nothing against tracksuits because of how comfortable they were, she had never seen a tracksuit made to look like patch quilts. For someone who could afford a luxury phone, why did this man live in the dumps and wear rags? It was a mystery.

"Wha-? G-phone has an AI too?"

Laura raised a brow. AI? Did this geek really think that an AI would be this intelligent? Was he living in a fantasy world?

"No, I have a name. It's Laura and to be more precise, I'm currently an e-ghost. That means I am dependent on your power source in the phone and cannot leave the phone until I level up enough. For your information, this isn't a programmed back story, don't look at me like that. I'm a real human... was a real human anyway. I died many years back, I think."

Tynan didn't know what to say. There was a beautiful girl who looked and talked like a human trapped in his phone. If this was a realistic AI developed by G-phone, Tynan would gladly believe it. However, the way Laura behaved was too uncanny. She acted like a human down to the very details from the way her eyebrows furrowed to that judging stare. Especially that judging stare! How dare a common manufactured AI judge him! There was no AI in the world that would be so bold as to outrightly judge their owners unless they were, as Laura proclaimed, an e-ghost.

While it didn't quite make sense, Tynan wasn't going to quibble with that logic. They have e-books and e-shops so why wouldn't 'e-ghost' be a thing too? Surely there must be some kind of reason behind how Laura ended up as an e-ghost but for now, he would do the right thing and introduce himself in return.

"Ahem... sorry about that. I was just trying to process that in my head. Well then, Laura. It's nice to meet you. I'm Tynan Boey and I just bought this phone online. It was delivered about two hours ago so I was charging it. How are you feeling? It currently says that there are still two more hours to full charge. Is there anything you would like to do?"

Laura was slightly taken aback. "Actually, yes. I would like to take a little more time to understand the system inside this phone. Can you give me some time to finish my tutorial stage?"

As if the AI didn't just say something ridiculous, Tynan nodded and told her that he was going to make some cup ramen then play an online game. Laura smiled and waved until Tynan was out of her sight.

The e-ghost turned her attention towards the blinking Task menu and pressed on the notification.

[Congratulations! You've just completed your first task and earned 10 soul points. Head over to the Shop to purchase your upgrades.]

This time, Laura smiled. She already knew which option she wanted.

Heading over to the Shop menu, Laura scrolled down to the third option and pointed at it.

[Are you sure you want to purchase "Internet Consultation" skill Lvl 1? You cannot sell this skill back to the Shop.]

Laura looked at it. Although it only allowed her to ask the consultant one question every hour, it was the exact skill Laura needed right now.

After choosing the confirm button, the system levelled her status and more options were made available to her.

[Congratulations! You're now a Level 2 E-Ghost. You can now access the 'Observation Journal' and 'Reminder' menus to aid you with your daily tasks. If you require any help, go to the home button and type in the search bar. The system will source the best possible answer in its archive to provide you with a suitable answer or ask if you would like to use your Internet Consultant skill to search for an answer. Best endeavours!]

Laura closed the window and felt exhausted. She glanced up at the world clock and battery percentage. There was still about an hour and ten minutes left till full charge. Her Task menu had two new tasks and she decided to check them out while Tynan was still occupied.

[Task: Fill up the basic Observation Journal entry about Tynan. Reward: 20 soul points.]

[Task: Purchase 3 upgrades from the Shop. Reward: Level 3 unlocked.]

Curious about what kind of information the system wanted her to get from Tynan, Laura selected the Observation Journal menu and explored.

Name: Tynan Boey

Age: ???

Job: ???

Likes: ???

Dislikes: ???

The ex-racer rolled her eyes. Those were easy enough to find out from a simple conversation. Now all she had to do was wait for the man to finish his dinner and catch him before he started his game. The quicker she could complete her mission, the quicker she could upgrade the Internet Consultant skill to understand her situation better.