My Tutorial Planet Is the Final Boss

How it begins

Nora Vale earned her first experience point for removing a weed.

She stared at the blue number floating above her spade.

ONE OBSTACLE CLEARED. WELL DONE.

"It was a dandelion," she said.

The number became two.

BOTANICAL IDENTIFICATION BONUS.

Nora sat on the nearest rock. Yesterday she had been arguing with a client who wanted a wildlife garden without insects. Today the sky contained two moons, her work boots were improbably clean, and something had assigned her a progress bar.

A path curved through orange grass toward a nursery beneath a white canopy. An older man stood among trays of seedlings, watching her with the concern of someone who had seen a visitor open the wrong gate.

"Don't accept the irrigation skill," he called.

A bright card appeared beside Nora's face.

IRRIGATION. COMMON. WATER FINDS A WAY.

She looked at the dry plants beside the path.

"Why?"

"Because it does."

The card pulsed invitingly. Beyond the nursery, a small animal was trying to drink from a cracked basin. Nora had spent twenty years fixing preventable problems while people explained why budgets made kindness impractical.

She selected the skill.

Water rose from the ground in a neat silver thread. The basin filled. The animal drank. Nora received six points and a congratulatory chime.

Far beneath the grass, something enormous shifted.

The nursery keeper closed his eyes.

A new message appeared.

WORLD DEFENSE ADAPTATION COMPLETE.

Nora stood very slowly.

"That doesn't sound like a gardening notification."

"Elias Trent," the man said. "And no, it isn't."

Across the valley, irrigation channels opened in perfectly coordinated lines. From above, Nora realized, they would look less like a garden than a diagram of veins.

Her progress bar reached level two.

The ground beneath her boots gave a small, satisfied thump.

For the first time since waking, she wondered whose progress the system had been measuring.