Systematic Survival

20 - Boss

Matt focused on visualizing just a basic pencil. He had seen so many that it wasn't hard to imagine. In an instant, a pencil formed in his hand.

'Yes, it worked! So, I can make anything appear here?!'

He imagined a piece of paper as well, and it showed up, just as the pencil had. He wrote on it, and it worked just as it should.

'I can write stuff here, and no one can see it. It could be useful for keeping track of discoveries I make about the system.'

He had another idea and decided to try it. He stood up and looked at the empty grass field in front of him, and just imagined a basic room, with wood walls, and a simple roof. He added a door on the front to enter it.

Now in front of him stood a humble-looking shack. It looked cozy.

'Ok, this will be good for organizing.'

He stepped into the little house and looked around. The whole house was about the size of an average bedroom.

'I just want to keep it simple for now. If I end up needing more space to store stuff, I'll add onto it.'

He made a basic desk and chair appear in one corner of the room with a lamp. He also added a bed, just in case he wanted to chill in this fake reality.

When he went to turn on the light, nothing happened.

'Oh come on, do I need power for this thing?'

He realized he knew what a lamp looked like, but lamps he knew, needed power. If he could invent a lamp that didn't need power, he could summon it, but that didn't exist.

'I guess I can't just make stuff up.'

He thought of something that could work. He imagined a wood-fueled generator with outlets and some chopped logs. He put the wood in the generator and let it go. After plugging the light in, it worked!

'So, something weird is, I don't know how to build a wood-fueled generator. So why does it work? I've probably seen a picture of one before, is that really all that's needed?'

He was a bit confused by this power. But decided to fully figure it out later. If it worked, it worked.

He imaged a bookshelf on one side of the room and put his two quantum physics books there. He imagined a paper label, and wrote "Incomplete" on it, and stuck it to the side of the book he hadn't fully read.

'Ok, so what now? Honestly, I should sleep. I've been in here for a while so it's probably super late.'

He thought about deactivating the skill, and he was suddenly in his normal apartment again. He stretched and headed to his bedroom, but he saw something that was weird.

'Is my alarm clock set wrong?'

[11:23 PM]

It had barely changed since he had gotten home. If he remembered correctly he had gotten home around 11. But there was no way he was only in there for 20 minutes.

He quickly checked his phone and it also displayed 11:23.

'I was at least in there for an hour.'

He realized something and decided to test it. When the clock changed to 11:24, he activated his mind palace.

Now that he was inside the skill, he imagined a stopwatch and quickly pressed the start button. It ticked away as normal.

'Ok, if what I'm thinking is really the case, this power would be stupidly OP.'

He waited in the grass until the stopwatch passed 10 minutes.

'Ok, that should be good.'

He deactivated the ability and was sent back to his apartment. He looked at his alarm clock and was shocked and excited. It displayed: