The world was black at first, then it seemed foggy, then the fog became clearer and clearer until they saw a beautiful sky filled with fluffy clouds.
Vivian groaned and sat up, her head was fuzzy, the weird visions she saw... It felt so real.
"No,no... That must've been a dream caused by stress." She said to herself, though she can't explain or find a reason as to how she's sitting in an open grass field.
As she was in a moment of confusion and dumbfounded shock, Vivian heard a yawn just right behind her, she looked and found her boss waking up as if there was no problem at the moment.
Zhao Yi Chen sat up, his hair in shambles yet still somehow looks handsome, he heard a click of a tongue and saw Vivian.
"Well took you long enough." He smiled, Vivian frowned, and replied with an irritated look he knows well:
"What the hell do you mean?"
He scratched his head and then
shrugged, "I woke up first, you slept for an entire day..."
"Why didn't you wake me up!?" She screamed but he quickly replied in a calm manner
"You wouldn't! I tried but you wouldn't budge!"
Vivian sighed and calmed herself down after a minute then stood up looking around the beautiful grass field.
The wind was cool and blew her hair around, it was magnificent that she almost forgot about her problems in life.
Currently they were at a small hill, Vivian did not want to sit still in a place they had no idea what could happen.
Finding a much bigger hill with a random tree on top, they used the vantage point and surveyed their surroundings.
Trees.
Nothing but trees surrounded the beautiful grass field, the rays of sunlight shine through the few holes on the clouds, the view makes them not want to leave at all.
"Nothing to be seen up north,and a freaky looking spot in the west."
Zhao Yi Chen said with a yawn, pointing far away that can barely be seen.
Vivian squinted and indeed, something freaky looking was there, the lush green trees had a black area, it looks like it was burnt. And a taller tree by the center, the ashen leaves were dangling like vines on a branch.
She thought she saw a knot of vines spreading to a tree but she ignored it and looked to a different direction.
Towards the south and the east.
There lies a village by the shore of a very wide river, the village seemed populated despite the few buildings they could see, the rest were probably hidden by trees.
The river looked to be almost or even over 50 meters wide, and by the deep blue spots in the river bed, it seemed like there were different kinds of fish that can't be found in shallow waters.
"This place has some weird geography."
The village was by the east, and the river stretched far off into the horizon, indeed pretty weird.
Far south however was nothing, a deep impenetrable fog lay beyond the river, and just bordering that fog was a sudden ray of light burst through the clouds above and landed on the ground, shaking the world from the impact.
The light looked beautiful before it surged with power, and in seconds the light was gone.
Troubling. Vivian thought, she didn't know what to do in these kinds of situations, and she's usually the one strategizing the most in marketing meetings.
Do I even bother asking?
She turned to face Yi Chen, finally bringing herself to ask, but before she could he responded to her question that was not yet asked:
"Let's go to the village," he said in his usual nonchalant and calm tone which only happens when he's focused or not making bad market decisions.
"You remember that weird interface before all went black right?"
He stared off into the distance, though his eyes moved side to side as if he was reading something.
"Yeah, I do. What about it?"
Standing up he stretched his back and faced her with a smile, the kind of smile that rarely happens only when he's about to make a breakthrough.
"I think I figured something out. But let's talk about it going to the village yes?"
***
Vivian Liying Crowe and Zhao Yi Chen went on a long and tiring walk, all the while discussing about what Yi Chen has figured out.
Firstly, was the terrain.
During the first day where Yi Chen woke up first, he only walked around within the forest for a few minutes in all directions.
He didn't go far though as he discovered how odd the trees and the ground looked and shaped, it was all so unnatural.
Trees were normal, then a downward slope where trees were long enough to stay the same height as the others, roots and potholes and unnatural rock were everywhere.
And second was the interface.
Zhao Yi thought Vivian how to see her interface.
" A Journal Entry interface, inventory, and... A weird branch system? A skill tree is what they call it in games right?"
"I have a skill tree as well, but why do you have a Journal Entry interface?"
Vivian shrugged as she tried to climbed over an overly big tree root that emerged from the ground.
Later they then discovered that they were linked together, or what the system labeled them as Business Partners.
The Journal Entry recorded a DebitCash and a Credit Capital.
However what Yi Chen has were stats whether they made Income or Loss.
Income represented a green arrow facing up with a plus sign which seemed to hint a good kind of income that will benefit them in the future or how great the income is, maybe both.
He also has inventory, but the other interface was named
' Contracts to be Reviewed.'
It was empty at the moment, but there was no information given in his interface.
"Oh I have another."
Vivian then read it aloud
"Contracts can be collected by you and only you, then the Owner will decide to accept it or not. Contracts differ depending on who you are negotiating with, Contracts offer different enhancements whether it is an ability, or you yourself..."
Yi Chen groaned, that was way too much words for him to take in at the moment, he was already getting tired from the walk, but they were still far from the village, and the sun was setting.
"We'll continue again, let's just keep walking for now and figure things out in silence."