Gen found herself stepping out of a portal into a busy area. It reminded her of an outdoor strip mall, but instead of shops, there were just hundreds of portals with people entering and leaving.

  In front of her, she saw Jacob cheering as he fist pumped the air, he was back to full height. Turning she saw her teammates emerge from the portal one by one.

  Chuck had a wariness which quickly dissolved into a smile as he took in his surroundings, Billy ignored them as he pulled out a cell phone and dialed someone. Morna ran straight to her grabbing her arms, "Gen! We got to exchange contact information before you get dragged off to orientation!"

  Billy was smiling happily as he talked loudly into his phone, "Yeah babe just got out, it was no biggie. Yeah, just casual stuff ya'know leveled up after busting up some taxman from a RITA incursion." He paused listening to her reply before continuing, "Yeah LEO really turned up the plot with that one, but it's whatever he's got to keep it real or the viewers will get bored with me crushing it all the time."

  Jacob had stopped his celebration and the four of them were eavesdropping on Billy while exchanging glances.

  Chuck questioned, "What happened at the end? After Jacob blew out my eardrums I used a stasis consumable to protect myself and missed the end."

  Jacob shrugged, "Honestly I don't know, when I used Morna's ability at 10x power I knocked myself out." He glanced at Gen, "Thanks for the regeneration by the way, I wasn't sure before if I was a duplicate so I didn't thank you, but I'm glad I avoided hiatus I've got a family reunion next week."

  Morna started talking excitedly, "It was crazy! Most of the bots were down and I was cleaning up when I saw the taxman! I was like whoosh then he was like bam then… well then Billy showed up he clown nosed him and I missed the finale."

  They glanced at Gen and she shrugged, "I missed it too when he honked so Billy must've finished him."

  They turned back to Billy who was still bragging to his girlfriend with an unfamiliar confidence and was starting to walk away from the group.

  Chuck grabbed his shoulder, "Hey Billy what happened at the end?"

  Billy shot him a look of annoyance before saying, "Hold up babe I've got a fan here, I'll meet you at your place get dressed up we're going out tonight to celebrate my bonus."

  Hanging up his body posture shifted to a guarded one as he looked at Chuck and the rest of them watching him.

  "So you guys want to know what happened? Pay me an emmy each and I'll fill you in."

  Chuck glanced back at the group his face flickering through emotions before turning back to Billy, "Your vibes shifted…"

  Morna leaned closer, "His level as well."

  Where before Billy was level 1 it had jumped all the way up to level 5.

  Billy rolled his eyes, "It's called method acting Chuck look it up. Now are you guys gonna pay or can I go? I got a hot date and I don't have time to waste with tagalongs."

  Chuck turned silent and not even Morna had something to add as they didn't respond.

  Billy flipped them off and turned to go, "Waste of my time."

  The four of them watched him go.

  Chuck spoke absently, "I've never seen someone's vibes shift like that."

  Morna laughed, "Maybe he has a split personality?"

  Gen questioned, "He mentioned acting, was he just pretending to be scared the whole time?"

  The question hung in the air before Jacob broke it, "What a wack job." Glancing around he held out a phone, "Let's exchange contacts you guys saved my life so I owe you one." He paused, "Then again based on what the king said it was your fault anyway, but whatever." He looked at Gen, "You're alright for a generated, message me if you need help figuring things out."

  Gen's eyebrows knitted, the comment definitely made her not want to ever get help from Jacob, but with basically no knowledge of how the world worked she wouldn't have to feel guilty wasting Jacob's time as she didn't like him anway.

  Morna helpfully explained that she had a phone in her inventory now. Pulling it out, she saw it was similar to the ones in Kyle's lifetime that could be controlled mentally. Kyle had had an implant to faciliate the connection, she wasn't sure if her generated body came with the modification already or if LEO was doing some sort of reality bending magic, but the phone worked all the same.

  Quickly registering the three of them as contacts she asked, "You said something about an orientation?"

  Morna pointed at an approaching group with a man in front holding a large sign that read, "Fresh generated orientation here!" He was ringing a bell and slowly approaching. Already he had a crowd of people behind him that looked lost and confused. They were all wearing boring grey outfits identical to Gen's own.

  Morna looked past Gen and frowned, "I think he should probably go too."

  Gen looked behind her and flinched back when she saw the taxman standing there looking confused.

  Chuck held his chin, "We did liberate him didn't we?" He held out a hand to the man who now had text above his head which read Level 5 with no name.

  The man ignored the hand looking at Chuck warily. Chuck lowered his hand and spoke kindly, "You're free now, RITA can't force you to work anymore."

  The man glared, "So what, I'm unemployed now? What do you people have here? A gulag for people like me that can't pay their taxes?"

  They exchanged a look and Jacob clapped Chuck on the back, "Well I gotta go, good luck with the whole rehabilitation thing. You guys got my number so message me…" he quickly hurried away.

  Morna stepped closer to the taxman and said, "We don't have taxes here, as for where you live they'll explain in orientation and it's not a gulag. The starter homes are a bit… well you're level 5 so I'm sure you'll get things upgraded in no time!"

  He blinked, "No taxes?"

  She nodded excitedly, "Isn't it great?"

  He shook his head, "What is the point then?"

  Morna was at a loss for words. Chuck tried to help, "Well you can try and find some hobbies, make friends, maybe even find a partner or have kids someday."

  The man took a step back, "No children, I've done the math. The tax implications are abysmal, my retirement would never survive such an investment."

  Chuck grimaced looking at Morna he said, "Annnnyway, looks like your ride is here." The man with the sign and bell had reached them and he had a dozen generated behind him now. Chuck looked at Gen, "Hit us up tomorrow the three of us should get dinner."

  She agreed and watched her two friends leave, Morna was giving Chuck a LEO's Laddies business card as they went. Gen looked at the taxman who was staring at her as well.

  "Umm, I guess we should go to orientation."

  He didn't reply but followed her as they joined the group at the end of the line. They were all dressed the same including the taxman, everyone was level 1 except for the level 4 man leading the group in an orange jacket and of course the taxman.

  She noted that as a whole the generated were… plain. They didn't have much variation in their age or details. Heights, ethnicities, eyes colors, and everything were all over the place, but underneath it all they had similarly sized features, hair and skin quality.

  Using her phone's camera she confirmed that her own face was similarly unremarkable. With a sinking feeling, she sensed LEO might not be done with their appearance polls. Thinking of cameras she realized she no longer had access to her photographic memory ability either, the polls from the scenario hadn't finished yet so none of her abilities were finalized and were currently disabled.

  As if reacting to her earlier thought a poll appeared.

  Ding~!

  Sighing she didn't look forward to whatever fresh pain LEO would inflict on her for the upcoming eyebrow transformation.

  She hadn't had proper time to react to the end of the scenario and had glazed over the polls, ignoring the house and knowledge rewards. She was surprised by the equipment poll as she had been offered the two items that the evil iguana had been holding.

  Focusing back on the generated around her, she noted that she differed from the rest in how alert she was. Many trudged along like zombies and the ones that were aware of their surroundings looked scared. She also noted that including her four of them were named Gen.

  The taxman was different and stood out from the group beyond his missing name and higher level. He looked like a grizzled older man who might play the part of Ebenezer Scrooge in yet another remake of A Christmas Carol and he eyed everything with a deep rooted suspicion.

  They reached the end of the strip mall area with portals and their conductor who was named Alfred said, "We'll wait for any stragglers here for a few minutes."

  Gen glanced back and saw that the busy area was rapidly clearing out, she asked "Are the scenarios synchronized?"

  He looked at her surprised at the question and then his jaw dropped when he saw the taxman next to her. Fumbling he answered, "Yes, scenarios are run on a weekly basis and regardless of the relative time taken within the scenario they always end within twelve hours of overworld time."

  The taxman glanced at her before asking his own question, "Are taxes due at the same interval?"

  Alfred looked at him in confusion, "...we don't have taxes here."

  The taxman narrowed his eyes like he didn't believe him, but didn't comment further.

  Another two generated were brought over by people in orange jackets that matched Alfred's.

  "These two wandered off Alfred, but they should be the last of them."

  The two new generated stood close together and their names were Bo and Francine.

  Alfred clapped his hands together, "Okay everyone! We'll do a quick explanation here before going to a classroom. There's a full week before new scenarios, but there are months worth of optional orientation content to get you all up to speed and you will all receive thirty bonus emmys that should be enough to live off of in the meantime."

  Alfred gestured behind him which was a large park with a fair amount of actors milling around casually or playing with animals. Gen noted with interest that the animals were not limited to just dogs and extended even past the variation of modified creatures from Kyle's life. One level 7 woman was walking a giant spider on a leash casually.

  "We are currently in the city Spotlight which is the capital of the planet Reelity, it is the largest city, but not by much." He pointed back toward the portal corridor, "The scenario portals are present in every city and are free to access, most citizens will use them on a semi-frequent basis, but they are not the only means of income." He pointed at himself, "I myself was a generated so I know how lost and confused many of you likely feel now especially if your fractured memories do not give much context for our modern society." He smiled, "But! There is a large organization of both generated and descendants that are dedicated to facilitating your transition to this world."

  A hand went up from an androgynous-looking person named Tony at the front.

  Alfred paused and looked at them, "Yes Tony?"

  Tony glanced around and whispered, "My viewers didn't give me any genitals."

  Alfred nodded sagely and pointed to a nearby row of telephone booth-looking orange structures with neon signs on top flickering Remixers. "We'll take a quick break, anyone who is not satisfied with their physical features or name can have them altered in one of the booths for the cost of 1 emmy. Some people will try to scare you into thinking you'll lose viewers by altering your form from what the viewers selected, but your own comfort is more important than maintaining a handful of fickle viewers."

  Tony glanced at the machines and started over to them, but Alfred held up a hand "One thing to note first is on the topic of sexual characteristics. LEO is a proponent of sexual equality as such our bodies differ somewhat from what you might be familiar with from your souls' memories. First women, men, and non-binary individuals have equivalent levels of physical strength and flexibility, testicles are not a weak point, and menstrual cycles and menopause do not exist, additionally, regardless of your genitals, your body is capable of both lactation and pregnancy. Additionally, you can select more precise options if you want only some features associated with a given sex." He gave them a serious look, "On the matter of pregnancy everyone is sterile by default and you must apply for a permit to have a child. The reason is related to the finite amount of souls in Reelity, but we will touch on this more later."

  Tony nodded and continued off to a booth. Most the generated were still standing there numbly, but a handful made their way over as well disappearing behind curtains as the machines made whirring noises.

  Gen considered if she wanted to be remixed, she didn't feel uncomfortable as she was and the booths appeared to always be available so she wasn't in a rush. She was all for the elimination of the menstrual cycle, if not for that she might have remixed just for convenience.

  In short order the remixed generated rejoined the group, Gen hadn't paid close attention to them going in other than Tony so she couldn't remark on their changes, but she saw that Tony had renamed themself to Tonata and now had more masculine features while also now sporting distinctly feminine breasts.

  Looking away she considered that she was going to have to be more careful with pronouns. As the thought crossed her mind, her vision flickered, and suddenly, the names floating above everyone’s heads were tinged with soft hues of baby blue, pink, or silver. The meaning settled into her effortlessly, it displayed each person’s preferred identity. For Tonata, the color was blue, marking his preference as male.

  Alfred clapped his hands together, "Let's head to the classroom."

  Walking through the park their group didn't gather much attention, aside from a trio of teenagers who pointed and laughed, most people didn't give them more than a glance. Gen observed the society trying to get an understanding of what was normal.

  Most people had binary gender appearances, but mixed appearances like Tonata's were still present occasionally. As for the gender preference view, she saw it usually lined up with how people looked, but not always and that silver non-binary was mixed in semi-regularly.

  She also saw people using abilities, super leaps, hovering, dazzlingly lights spraying from an entertainer's hands, it seemed common for people to use abilities casually, but none of the displayed abilities seemed innately dangerous, additionally none of the children or teenagers manifested any abilities at all.

  Exiting the park they entered a more industrial-looking area and things started looking a bit rougher. It wasn't bad enough to look like they might be being lured away to have their organs harvested, but it was more worn down with cracked grey warehouses and trash-littered corners.

  Alfred led them to a nondescript building while his two companions shepherded the group from behind. Above the door was a small worn sign that read Generated Guidance Department. Alfred waved them in past a sleeping receptionist and into what looked like an old highschool classroom complete with chalkboard and dilapidated smell.

  Alfred ushered them into desks and Gen took one near the center, the taxman sat to her left. She had mixed feelings about him following her around when he had been trying to kill her and enslave her soul to some sort of tax demon just an hour previous.

  Alfred stood at the front and smiled, "Now you all got the speech from LEO so I trust you have some of the basic details. Reality was destroyed due to human hubris, but luckily humanity lives on thanks to the intervention of LEO. There is a lot of information related to this and some people have spent their whole lives theorizing on how it was possible, the ethical ramifications, meaning of life and such, and that's not even factoring in the other AI systems…"

  He took a large breath, "But! We're here to focus on all of you!" He held up a golden coin and squinting she saw emblazoned on it was a drawing of an Emmy award. "This is an emmy, it is the basic currency of the city and you all should have some from your first scenario as well as an initial stipend for being a generated." He glanced at the taxman and hesitated, "We don't get many liberated here and it's not the main purpose of the orientation, but for the most part everything applies the same to you. Your starting funds might be slightly higher or lower as any wealth in your previous reality would be converted into emmys as part of the accords."

  The taxman didn't respond just giving him an untrusting stare.

  Alfred broke eye contact, "Anyway! Emmys are the basic currency and you all should have enough to live off of for your first week or so. Housing, phone plan, water, and electricity are all free leaving food as the only required expense." He held up a food bar with LEO's face emblazoned on it, "These are LEO bars, they are nutritionally complete and incredibly cheap and healthy. However! They taste like shit. Despite that, if your money gets tight you'll need to rely on them."

  "Spotlight has a very healthy restaurant industry and it can get very pricey very quickly I'm talking easily twenty emmys a plate. Do not blow through your savings on these places! Until you're grounded and get a better idea of how many viewers you'll retain try to live within your means. I will provide you all with a list of affordable eating options."

  The taxman questioned, "What happens to those who cannot afford this food tax?"

  Alfred twitched slightly, "It's not a food tax it's just the price of food."

  The taxman didn't back down, "Sales tax then if you will."

  "It's not a sales tax either! There are no taxes in Reelity, viewers provide energy which LEO converts into resources and businesses handle the details from there."

  "So the taxes are handled at the business level and the costs are passed onto consumers indirectly?"

  Alfred shook his head, "Businesses don't pay taxes either they get money for the selling goods and services and give emmys to LEO in exchange…" his voice hesitated before finishing "... for the raw materials… Fine, I know what you're going to say. If you want to consider it as such the taxes are typically paid by businesses, but it's included in the price of resources so it's not visible. If you pay something to one of the systems such as the remixers then and only then are you technically by some twist of terminology paying a sales tax."

  The taxman looked pleased with himself as he made no further comment.

  Alfred looked stoic, "As for what happens if you still find yourself in a destitute state, you have several options. Once you can pass over the veil and become a viewer, there are theories on what being a viewer is like, but no direct contact is allowed across the veil so I will not entertain questions about what it's like. Otherwise, the world is just like the previous reality if you do not work and do not run scenarios then you will starve unless someone takes pity on you, upon your death you will go on hiatus as normal, and upon being reconstituted you will return to a base healthy state and start starving all over again. Your viewers are unlikely to stick around watching your repeated demise, however. If all your viewers abandon you then you will be offered a final chance to be a viewer once again or your soul will be recycled."

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  His expression turned less serious, "Moving on!" He pulled out a small red button, "Typically your reward polls will be finished instantly upon completing a scenario, for first-timers such as yourselves, they will resolve when I press this button. The reason is that you need to understand what the rules are with using abilities in the overworld."

  "The basic idea is simple, don't cause chaos, don't hurt people, don't break things, don't leave messes. For example, if your ability makes tons of slime don't slime the place up, if it lets you summon any sort of living creature only do so if you can control and contain the creature. Security forces can trace ability use back to the originator so do not think that it won't get back to you."

  "In general it's all very self-explanatory, but to make sure we're clear I will go through with you all one by one to talk through your finalized equipment and abilities and make sure it's clear what you can and cannot do in public."

  "Finally you should know that all your abilities are weaker in the overworld than they are in scenarios, the higher your level the more they will approach scenario strength, but for most of you" he glanced at the taxman, "They will be extremely weak at present as you're only level 1. When you reenter a scenario they'll return to normal power."

  He pressed the button.

  Ding~!

  LEO's voice rang out in her head Four polls and three ties! Wow, you really need some more viewers! These statistically happen a lot less when people actually care about you! Okay, let's get down to business.

  First poll 15 knowledge, we've got disarming bombs… what's the fun in that? The whole point of a bomb is to explode so that's out, next parkour wheels? What does that even mean, let me read my notes… Wow did I really make that? What the hell why not, I'm not even reading the last option!

  Gen felt an electric shock in her mind and she suddenly was very confident she could do a kickflip on a skateboard. Not only that but all sorts of tricks for bicycles, skates, heelies, anything that was human-propelled with wheels she felt like she could do something fancy with, even a shopping cart wasn't out of the question.

  LEO's voice continued, I've got a lot of these so let's move fast poll 16 ability finalization! You can summon iguanas or bring back the dead, well resurrection really screws with the betting pools so let's keep it simple and go with hundreds of iguanas!

  She felt a mental click as the iguana summoning ability became available again.

  Last and most confusingly poll 17 equipment finalization. I've explained this to the viewers hundreds of times, but they really just don't get how it works. It doesn't help that not all viewers were humans, to begin with. Was a dog watching the TV at the time of the collapse? It's a viewer now! We've got dogs, cats, parrots, fish, and even some dolphins, and an elephant kicking around up here and they're all really bad at math! So here's how it works, you're level 1 you get a maximum of 1 plot value as a reward! Your highest-voted equipment is… a swimming pool? Anyway, that's worth .4 plot so one minus point four leaves us with point six… Okay and then we've got a tie between a hat that lets you see bombs and a stick that makes bombs their total value is point eight. Now here is the key issue point eight is more than point six so you can't have both you can only have one. You want both anyway? Too bad! So yeah I'll give you a stick that makes bombs as being able to see bombs is pointless if you don't have any bombs.

  See ya!

  A brief look at her inventory showed that the swimming pool had returned and she had a new addition of the Minefield Scepter. The only poll that wasn't tied was her house upgrade one which had earned her hot water, she couldn't see any change, but presumably, it was upgrading her actual house wherever that was. She felt mixed with the result, obviously, she wanted hot water, but it felt very mundane compared to the sci-fi and fantasy alternative options.

  Alfred was going through the group now as everyone was reacting to their polls completing. She could hear him asking simple questions about what ability and equipment they had finalized and advising them of potential legal ramifications of using them.

  The taxman was staring straight ahead with his arms crossed silently, a couple of generated were crying, one woman was giggling madly to herself, and even more were vegged out as they idly tracked Alfred's progress around the room. Only two generated were talking with each other, Bo and Francine the two late arrivals who were sitting in front of her.

  Bo was speaking animatedly, "Yeah so I noodlefy them and nobody can tell the difference!"

  Francine looked like they had a mounting headache, "Bo it's wood, you can't eat wood."

  "You can't eat it normally, but when I noodlefy it then it's a noodle! I'm telling you we can make good money on a street stall like this! No material cost!"

  "It doesn't make things noodles! It just makes them floppy! Floppy wood is still wood! And what do you mean no material cost? Regardless of if we could get free noodles, we would still need sauce or seasoning, something to make it actually taste good especially when your whole premise is that people would be eating floppy chopsticks instead of I don't know actual food."

  "I'm sensing a lot of negative energy from you Francine, don't you remember Dougy? He taught us all those meditation techniques you've got to work on your zen."

  Francine scowled, "I don't remember that, I remember Dougy stealing our TV and selling it for drugs before disappearing on us."

  Bo looked shocked, "Did he really? He seemed so nice though…"

  Gen interrupted the conversation by asking, "Did this all happen in your first scenario together?"

  Francine shook their head glancing back, "No I think we're some sort of joke by LEO. Bo and I have a dozen or so people's memories, but the kicker is Bo has all the memories of their lifetime's relationships during their honeymoon phases while I have all the memories of when shit hit the fan in each life."

  Gen glanced at Bo who had a suitably awkward expression. Bo tried to speak, "My memories weren't all perfect…"

  Francine rolled their eyes, "What's the worst thing you remember happening?"

  Bo scrunched up his eyes thinking hard, "Well there was that time I burnt the dinner that I made for the two year anniversary with Pamma, she was so disappointed in me!"

  Francine gave a sick laugh, "But you don't remember when Pamma became increasingly paranoid that we were cheating on her and stole our phone and locked us in a basement."

  Bo looked away, "Well no… But it's still somewhat romantic she cared so much…"

  "I starved to death in that basement!

  Bo gasped, "I'm sorry."

  Francine waved it away, "It's fine, having so many bad memories, each one starts to lose impact."

  Gen felt awkward, but couldn't suppress a question, "I hadn't thought that much about what happened to the missing memories from my lives, are they in a different generated?"

  Francine shrugged, "I don't know, we're all new here, but the people in our first scenario said we were an unusual case for sure."

  Bo spoke up, "They were incredibly mean!"

  Francine shook their head, "They were normal, you just have a skewed baseline for what being mean is."

  Bo muttered under his breath, "So do you."

  Alfred went through both of them first discussing their abilities. Bo had an ability simply called floppy that could make things more elastic temporarily. Alfred said he could use it, but not on anything structural or living without permission.

  Francine had an ability called wood barrage that could shoot wooden spikes from their fingers of varying sizes. Bo's idea was for them to create chopstick-sized strips of wood and then make them floppy like noodles to sell.

  Alfred gave Bo a pitying look, "You realize your floppy ability is temporary right?"

  Bo looked uncertain, "So?"

  Francine interrupted, "He's saying that even if you ignore the fact that people don't want to eat wood and that it has no nutritional value that once it wears off it's going to rip people a new asshole."

  Bo looked downcast, "You don't have to be mean about it…"

  Alfred went through a few more generated before reaching the taxman. There was a back and forth where the taxman tried to demand payment to disclose his abilities and Alfred refusing which culminated in Alfred warning him that he could be fined if he used his abilities inappropriately.

  Gen listened intently as the taxman quickly listed his abilities. Flight, precision, cutting light, herculean vitality, and pain resistance.

  Alfred looked suitably intimidated before warning not to cut anything without permission, to only fly above areas where walking was already allowed, and to not exceed flight heights of the tallest buildings in the area.

  Gen was next and she was one of the few with notable equipment, he warned her in no uncertain terms to be careful with the minefield scepter but had her activate it on a scorched concrete corner of the room to demonstrate how her current level influenced the tool’s effect.

  She intuitively sensed how to use the scepter and with a wave created a landmine in the center of the pad, it was tiny, no bigger than her thumb and Alfred pointed at it shooting a pebble from his finger, the mine detonated with a small pop more akin to a firecracker than an anti-personnel mine.

  As for the swimming pool, he said that consumable items could be used once a week, and its size would be shrunken just like the landmine, regardless he said within city limits she shouldn't use it anywhere unless given permission. He said in the future she might be able to make a living simply by being a pool installer.

  Next, he had her use the iguana ability and she was surprised when a bright green iguana only the length of her finger appeared. It looked around its surroundings in consternation before clinging onto her. She allowed it to ride on her shoulder where it sat observing.

  Trying to use the power again failed with the quantity being capped at a single mini-iguana outside a scenario.

  It didn't take that much time for Alfred to work his way through the whole group and return to the front.

  "Okay! Next up are your homes! Please follow me!"

  He led them down the hallway to an empty room with twenty or so doors.

  "This is a dormitory room. Regardless of which door you open, it will always take you to your own house. When you exit your house you will return to the dormitory room you entered from, but not necessarily the same door. Throughout the city, there are numerous dormitory rooms and you can use them interchangeably."

  He gestured to one generated, "If you would be so kind as to open a door I will give you all a tour as your homes should be mostly identical aside from your initial upgrade."

  The generated opened a door, and they all leaned forward and looked inside. It was… not a home by conventional standards. It was more similar to a closet.

  Inside there was a cot-sized bed built into the floor that fit perfectly against the walls leaving no gaps.

  Alfred stepped inside and onto the bed as he said, "It is meager at the start and the most affordable way to get upgrades is to complete scenarios, but some upgrades can be purchased directly with emmys."

  He grabbed a handle on the wall and pulled down to reveal a toilet seat with a plastic bag hanging under it to catch waste. The toilet seat was positioned directly above the built-in foam pillow.

  "This is the toilet be careful when using it as your sleeping area is below. When done tear off the bag and place the waste in the trash shoot."

  Tearing off the bag a new one unfurled to replace it. He pulled open a slot at the foot of the bed to reveal a dark void and threw the old bag inside.

  "Last thing is the shower…" he pushed a button on the wall and water streamed down from above splattering all over the bed.

  He pointed at a drain along the side, "The bed is waterproof, but… it still leaves plenty of drips and blankets are basically impossible. With emmys, you can buy square footage, walls, doors, or rearrange the fixtures."

  Opening up a slot above the head of the bed he revealed a loaf of bread, "This is an endless breadbox it creates one loaf each day and is what Rusty here got for their room upgrade. Depending on what your viewers selected you will all have your own feature, but there are several common ones such as hot water, extra square footage, my favorite a cleaner bot, voice controls, and plenty of other things."

  One by one people started opening doors and checking out their spaces. Gen didn't bother as she figured hers was identical and her hot water upgrade wasn't anything worth seeing.

  The taxman opened a door and she immediately saw that his differed significantly opening up to a full courtyard with a plum tree and a traditional Japanese-style house in the background. He entered, shutting the door and not giving her the chance to observe further.

  Shaking her head she saw Francine dragging Bo over to Alfred. "Can we combine our rooms? I can't trust him on his own."

  Alfred gave Bo a look who looked away defensively, "I know how to take care of myself…"

  Francine glared at him and hissed, "No you don't, you just don't have the memories to realize how wrong you are!"

  Alfred stepped between them and said, "Are you two twin souls? It's not common, but it's happened before." He gave Francine a hard look, "I recognize sharing part of his soul makes you feel protective of him, but he is his own person now and healthy boundaries would be in your best interest."

  Francine rolled their eyes, "I know he's a unique person, but he's basically a child that needs a guardian!"

  Alfred shook his head, "LEO gives all generated enough memories to make them fully adult so regardless of your feelings he will have to make his own mistakes."

  Francine seemed to want to argue, but seeing everyone watching them turned away. "Fine, we'll see how long you last." Francine walked to a door and entered their room slamming the door behind them."

  Bo looked awkward and avoided eye contact as he stood to the side.

  Gen took the moment to try her hand at interrogating Alfred a little and asked, "Could you elaborate on souls a bit? In some of my memories I was an atheist so having a soul period is a bit unexpected, but what's up with them being split up in different people and why are they even necessary. You mentioned you needed a license for have a baby where do the souls come from for that."

  Alfred looked at her and sighed, "We've got a few minutes while the other generated check out their rooms, but most of your questions are covered in the seminars over the upcoming week.

  "The short answer is that souls are the part of creatures that actualize things by observing them. LEO can harness this to create and maintain reality, but he can't generate new souls. To expand reality new souls are necessary so they're harvested from the past."

  Gen interrupted, "How are they harvested and where are they prior to being harvested?"

  Alfred shrugged, "People smarter than me are clueless about the details, but basically time is shattered, but it still exists LEO and other AI's parse through the timeline grabbing souls at the moment people and creatures die and pull them into the present. This is very energy intensive however, are any of your memories familiar with mining cryptocurrency?"

  She ignored his question and asked, "Is the timeline shattering why the souls are fragmented?"

  He shook his head, "No that's all LEO, the original generated weren't amalgamation of souls and instead each had a single intact soul. With those complete memories came existing personalities that were resistant to change. To avoid such problems LEO splices them to make generated more adaptable to their new lives." He hesitated, "Some of his techniques have been more successful than others…"

  "Aberrants?"

  He nodded in surprise, "Heard of them already? They're not common and don't refer to anything specific, but some generated come out a bit more disruptive."

  She frowned, she had thought that her mental state was random or at the very least unpreventable, but after seeing Bo and Francine and talking to Alfred it was clear it was instead very much intentional. Already accepting who she was she didn't want to change, but when the explanations were somewhere between being constructed to be entertaining and not being too disruptive to society she didn't like either option.

  Alfred was still talking in the background, "LEO typically will give a generated a spread of time periods from their memories, having at least one set of memories familiar with technology helps with onboarding and makes things much easier than having cavemen running around."

  Shaking the image of a caveman with a raygun out of her head she asked, "What about babies?"

  "Babies are technically the same except with a lot more processing. Their souls are so well blended that they can't recall any individual lives, souls from animals and things like bacteria are thrown in as well to mix things up even more, in the end, they act almost the same as babies prior to the collapse."

  She didn't miss the word almost but didn't dig into it. Overall this reality's version of reincarnation was… well it sufficed to say that any Buddhists would be greatly offended.

  Seeing she had no more questions Alfred clapped his hands, "Okay everyone! I'm your liason during orientation so get my contact added while you're here and I'll send you a daily schedule and also be available to answer questions as needed. For food, there's a messhall down the hall with affordable options, but otherwise, you all have the evening to yourselves to get acclimated to your new bodies and reality!"

  He looked toward the door where they had entered, "You are free to enter the city and explore, but I would advise taking it easy at first." He looked at his phone checking the time, "Also to be aware there are city-wide events that happen on a weekly basis. You can participate in these if you choose doing a variety of jobs to earn emmys or just ignore them. The event will still happen even if you don't participate, but you won't be obligated to do anything, and depending on what it is the NPCs will ignore you for the most part."

  Ding~!

  Do you wish to participate?

  She could mentally see a yes/no dialogue and pressed yes. All her memories were consistent in that she needed money if she wanted to be happy so she couldn't afford to pass up potential income.

  The generated as a whole were starting to get more comfortable with Alfred and looking a lot less loopy than at the start and one immediately asked, "What does picking a side and headquarter location mean?"

  Alfred nodded, "It'll depend on which scenario the city selects, but protagonist will be helping the city and antagonist will be working against it. Zombie is probably the most obvious example and it's done frequently, the protagonists will try to eliminate the zombies while the antagonists will try to spread the infection. As for the headquarters, it will just be a spot where you'll be able to coordinate with people on the same side as you, each side will have multiple headquarters that can be destroyed as the event progresses."

  A generated held his hand up and Alfred nodded to him, "How does antagonist work? Like we'll be killing people isn't that a crime?"

  "Normally yes, but certain sections of the city will be marked as active for the event, and inside those scenario law applies. You can legally operate according to your role even if it involves normally illegal actions."

  Gen held up her hand, "Can we not participate after choosing to participate? I don't have many viewers so I don't want to die permanently if it ends up being a dangerous scenario."

  He shook his head, "Dying in a scenario will just knock you out of the event and you'll resurrect immediately. It's a good way to test abilities without risking hiatus. As for if you have to participate you don't, but your event reward will be based on your team's success and your contribution."

  A few more generated asked questions and Gen started feeling confident about what would happen. It was more or less a giant game that happened over the course of a week ending just before the next batch of scenarios became available.

  Participating was low-risk, but they were also unlikely to make much money as the events were usually dominated by higher leveled actors and they would just be background characters being only level 1.

  The group split up and Gen went to the messhall while exploring the features of her phone. She had several dozen texts from Morna wishing her good luck with orientation and checking in with her and giving a hodgepodge of advice about the city.

  She ignored the messages for now and explored her finances. In total, she had 50 emmys, 10 from her viewers, 10 from the RITA invasion bonus, and 30 as a starter amount for being a new generated.

  The food in the messhall was spaghetti and didn't taste bad for only costing one emmy. Her iguana sat on the table chomping away at a noodle larger than itself that she'd given it. The coloring matched the evil iguana, but she couldn't be clear if it was the same one, the teamwork augment was evidently still in effect as it behaved much more intelligently than what she remembered of the unaugmented iguanas at the beginning of her first scenario.

  Planning ahead she calculated if she ate three meals a day then that would be 21 emmys a week and if she did a scenario a week then she'd only make 10 emmys leaving her 11 emmys shorts unless she got more viewers.

  Questioning the other generated she found she was a bit above average in amount of viewers with most only having 5-7, Bo was an exception with 21 viewers already. Francine hadn't emerged from their room yet so she couldn't ask them.

  Messaging Morna the same question the response was immediate.

  Wow! Gen! You're so rude! You can't just come out and ask someone how many viewers they have! ??????

  Consider yourself unfriended you jerk! ??

  Before she even finished reading Morna sent another flurry of messages.

  JKJKJKJK

  DON'T PANIC GEN IT'S JUST A JOKE!

  Like it being rude is the truth, but you're a generated so you wouldn't know and I don't care anyway ??

  I've got 70 viewers, I'm pretty hot stuff ??

  Shooting a few follow up questions Gen learned that viewer counts were very polarized. In general, the more you had the easier it was to get more.

  As proud as Morna was of her 70 viewers she was the equivalent of lower-middleclass. Rich people could easily have thousands of viewers or even millions.

  She wanted to ask Chuck and Jacob as well, but now that she knew it was rude to ask she felt awkward sending the question.

  With little else to do she headed to her bedroom and turned in for the night.

  The waterproof mattress with no blankets was uncomfortable and sweaty to sleep on and she resolved to run as many scenarios as possible to at least make her room livable. Her iguana seemed satisfied enough though as it curled up next to her head to sleep.