Chapter 1: A Crack of a Whip

Where am I?

I stared out into the unfamiliar dark expanse. I turned my head slowly in every direction, feeling sluggish and dizzy. It felt as though I was floating in air, completely weightless. I strained my eyes in an attempt to gather my surroundings but found it impossible to see anything. I stretched my hands out in front of me, reaching for a wall, a floor, a ceiling, anything.

I grasped for any memory that could help me figure out what was happening: had I been kidnapped? Was I far from home? Was I even alive? I felt cold sweat drip down my back as I started to get anxious; it wasn’t often that you wake up floating in a pitch black… room? My mind was completely blank, only an ear splitting headache greeted my attempts to remember something. The harder I tried, the more the pain increased. I was forced to stop, my breathing becoming harder and ragged from the mental straining.

God? Are you there? Please, forgive me for any of my sins! Forgive anything that I’ve ever done, please forgive me! Please!

Despite my inability to remember the past, I felt that I must’ve done terrible things to end up here. You can call me weak all you want for begging to God, but I figured that if I was dead, the least I could do was hope to end up in Heaven.

Ping!

A deafening ping answered my prayers, immediately drawing my attention to the fact that there wasn’t a single other sound in the room.

Ping!

Another ping and it seemed as though the room wasn’t as dark anymore.

Ping! Ping! Ping!

I held my hands over my ears as a rapid series of sounds boomed around me, accompanied by an explosion of white that blinded me. In an instant I felt the weight of my body return to me, held up by a smooth surface beneath my feet.

I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the sudden brightness of the room. I looked around only to be greeted by nothing but four walls.

You have to be kidding me… this is Heaven? A white room?

I stared down and found that I was completely naked, my body leaner and more muscular than I expected. I may have not been able to remember anything, but I was certain that wasn’t how I normally looked. I took my first step, deciding that I should look for a door or something to get out of here.

I walked towards one of the walls, hoping to find an exit, only to realize that I wasn’t making any progress despite the room being relatively small. Each step that I took, it seemed that the walls were pushed back away from me.

As I walked, diamond crystals seemed to float around me, reflecting distorted images back to me. The harder I looked, the more I realized that the crystals were the room. No matter where I directed my gaze, a crystal reflected back to me, inviting me to get closer and discover the secrets it held within. The more I tried to ignore the crystals and keep searching the walls for an exit, the more I seemed to be able to see. When I found myself completely surrounded by them, I sighed and reached out, grabbing the closest one. I held the crystal up to my eyes.

Inside, there seemed to be an entire world, images began flipping in front of me like a movie: scenes of a girl shooting fire, men in armored plating, dragons flying through the sky. I couldn’t help but keep staring- was this a real world?

“Zepra selected.”

My head snapped up at the robotic voice, aggravating my dizziness and aching temples.

I felt the crystal in my hand soften into sparkling sand before disappearing into thin air. A large transparent white box materialized in front of me. I stared at it blankly, confused at what it was. Instinctively, I reached out and touched it. It’s texture was smooth but soft, as though it was made of goo.

“Welcome to the Magical World of Zepra.”

At the bottom, a smaller box had the words Continue. I pressed the button hesitantly, unsure of what I had just gotten myself into.

“Select an Adventurer Name.”

I stared at the box, curious. An adventurer name? I scratched my head, thinking of what I would name myself if I were an adventurer. I spent a few minutes debating whether I should have a menacing name, a regal one, whether it even really mattered or not. I figured that using my real name would be easy but I couldn’t even remember my own name.

As if sensing my indecisiveness, a Randomize button appeared. I pressed it a few times until I got a name that sounded good enough, “Isobel Black,” I said to myself.

“Select Your Race.”

The box shifted, the left half showed a list of races while the right side gave a lengthy description of each one. The races went as follows: Beast, Human, Orc, Elf, Dwarf, Demon. The Beast race seemed to have hundreds of subsections. I tried to read through each of the major races, but by the time I got to Elf, my dizziness peaked and I practically threw up. I was able to pick up on a few things despite the distraction. Beasts were people with animal-like qualities, having distinct magical or physical advantages. Orcs were the strongest race, incredibly proficient in combat fighting and warfare. Elves seemed to be the smartest race, with long lifespans, an affinity for magic, and centuries of accrued knowledge. In the end, with my head hurting more and more, I chose to be a human, the most common and basic race. There weren’t any real benefits besides the fact that I didn’t feel like making this situation even weirder by choosing something other than being human.

“Select Your Class.”

There were 5 major classes: Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Mage, Paladin. I clicked on each of them to get more information. Thankfully, the words were read aloud to me by a soft, robotic voice.

“Warriors are a class focused on close-range attacking. They excel at strength, with good vitality and defense but weak dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. Warriors are the most common class in Zepra and provide the most straightforward experience.”

Well that sounds incredibly boring, who the hell wants to be a basic warrior! I pressed Next.

“Hunters are a class focused on long-range attacking. They excel in dexterity, with good vitality, defense, intelligence, and charisma but weak strength and wisdom. Hunters are the second most common class in Zepra and provide a straightforward experience.”

I skipped through rogue as it was just as basic and boring as being a warrior and a hunter. Mages were held very high in the social hierarchy as it took incredible intelligence and wisdom to become a mage. Paladins sounded the best, with great stats, guaranteed wealth as a noble, and a relatively peaceful life.

I reached my hand out to become a paladin when the room began shaking, the white box in front of me pulsing red as the words shifted violently. When the mini-earthquake stopped, I stared in confusion as a new class appeared in red. Beastmaster.

I pressed the button to get more information.

“A well-balanced class with no obvious weaknesses. Excels in intelligence, wisdom, charisma, with great strength, vitality, defense, and dexterity. Playstyle revolves around controlling the untamed beast of Zepra who’s ferocious power a Beastmaster can turn against their enemies. There can only be one Beastmaster in Zepra at a time.”

The thought of being an unbeatable adventurer with the most dangerous monsters under my command forced me to press Confirm instantly.

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The white box in front of me disappeared, replaced by a wooden chest that was floating in the air. I raised my hand slowly to open it, hoping that whatever was inside wasn’t dangerous. With a loud click and creak, the chest opened, revealing a white cotton shirt and brown shorts, both of which looked cheap and uncomfortable. Despite the rough feeling on my skin, I was glad to be clothed again.

Next I found a brown pouch with 2 crude bronze pieces inside. Underneath the pouch was a long, rolled up leather whip. I put the pouch inside my pocket and was greeted by a much softer Ping and a translucent (+2 Bronze Coins). I watched the notification dissipate and reached out to grab the whips’ handle. When I touched it, I felt something course through my body, as if electricity was running through me. The feeling was exhilarating, painful, and euphoric all at once; it felt as though the handle of the whip was being fused into me, as if we were becoming one. My eyes glazed over as images of ferocious monsters filled my mind, creatures I had never seen before that were almost indescribable. Flying wyvern’s shooting acid, black figures whose skin moved like water, golems the size of buildings exploding out of the ground, ships being crushed by blue tentacles. Somehow, they felt familiar, I felt comfortable in their presence, as though I had nothing to fear, as though I was right where I should be.

I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, my body clenched and tightened. When the feeling finally subsided, I dropped the whip and checked my body for any bruises or marks. I gasped when I saw that my right hand now had a complex circular tattoo filled with different types of monsters: dragons, bears, lizards, foxes, and a wolf with an open mouth in the center.

I looked at the whip again and noticed that the handle was now covered with similar markings, except that there were dozens and dozens of other animals swirled around the handle that weren’t on my hand. I grabbed the whip again and sighed with relief at the fact that nothing shocked me. I took it out of the box and admired it, the craftsmanship seemed flawless, the very tip of the whip was black metal, with the bottom and top of the handle being made of the same material.

While I was busy admiring the whip, I started feeling different again, it felt as though I was… falling?!?!

The floor beneath me disappeared and I began to feel the weight of gravity, normal gravity, start to pull me down again. This should’ve been comforting but it looked as though I was hundreds, no, thousands, of miles away from land.

Fuck.

I was shot out of the room at a blistering speed, the wind whipping at my body, making it almost impossible for me to open my eyes. I reached out to the world, dying to hold onto something that could save me from becoming the red bugsplat I was destined to be.

With the little I could open my eyes I saw flashes of blue, pink, and purple, accompanied by explosions that seemed like fireworks all around me. The ground was approaching at a speed I knew I wouldn’t survive, I closed my eyes, tears forming as I accepted my death. Visions of a boy in a hospital bed flashed in front of me just before I slammed into the ground.

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“Uughghh.”

I let out a loud groan as I laid in the small circular crater courtesy of my explosive impact. Despite the pain, I only had a couple of scrapes and bruises from the fall, probably due to the trees I slammed into along the way. I groaned again as I started to move, aches spreading throughout my body. It was nighttime and I could barely see but, thankfully, the sky was bright with color. There were small fireworks throughout the sky that lit up my surroundings each time they appeared.

Slowly I was able to piece together that I had landed in a thick forest, with tall trees that were close together, making it difficult to see far away. From where I was, I couldn’t see the end of the tree line, all I could see was darkness that stretched deep into the forest.

I placed my hands on the floor, crawling out of the crater and onto the grass next to me, which was significantly softer. I rubbed my arms, realizing that it was cold and my tunic didn’t offer much protection from the chilling breeze.

There was something different about my vision, each time that the sky lit up, I realized that something was blocking my ability to see. At the top left of my vision was a red bar Health and a blue bar Mana, underneath that was a section seemingly dedicated to my Party, which consisted only of myself. At the top right I could see that it was 22:00, next to that it said Money, with a small (2) in parenthesis.

Like a game? If there are things like health and mana, there must be a setting or something that I can use.

I analyzed my vision, looking for anything that would give me a way out of wherever I was. After minutes of searching, I sighed in frustration, “I just want the damn settings!”

Instantly, a brown transparent box appeared in front of me with an image that seemed to display what I was wearing. Most of the boxes were empty except my chest and legs, occupied by my cloth tunic and brown trousers. My adventurer name, Isobel Black, was at the top, along with 8 other tabs: Inventory, skills, map, quest, party, clan management, establishments, dungeons, and settings.

Perfect, a settings tab.

“Settings.”

The image in front of me shifted to a list of options: Persistent User Interface, Battle Mode Activation, Help, Leave Game. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I had the option to get the hell out of here. “Leave game.”

“Leave game…”

Nothing.

“Leave game, leave game, leave game, leave the fucking game, leave the fucking stupid fucking game!” I slammed my fist on the ground, my frustration exploding out of me. Tears began spilling out of my face as I kept screaming to leave the game, I could feel my throat start getting hoarse but I didn’t care, everything about this was wrong. I didn’t understand where I was, what Zepra was, what a Beastmaster was, or at the very least why I couldn’t remember a damn thing.

I took a few deep breaths, attempting to calm down. I stared at the Settings tab through blurred eyes. The first two boxes were ticked green already. I found that I could tick, untick, and select things just by thinking about it. I toggled Persistent User Interface and found that it would take away all the annoying information blocking my vision. I didn’t understand what Battle Mode Activation did and decided to leave it untouched.

I closed the Menu and rolled over to my side, digging my hands into the dirt with my eyes closed, tears falling softly.

“Battle Mode Activated”

My eyes snapped open, the hairs on my body rising instantly, battle mode? All of the indicators I had disabled returned, significantly more visible. The sound of snapping sticks forced me to look up. I laid there, tense, my breathing shallow and my heart pounding through my chest. Beads of sweat formed as I stared out into the blanket of darkness.

SNAP!

I turned my head to the left. Again, the crunching of sticks. I stared intently but there was nothing there. The shadows seemed to dance in front of me, the darkness taunting me with its hidden dangers. It felt as though a thousand eyes were watching me with cruel smiles, soaking up my fear.

SNAP!

When I looked to my right, I wasn’t greeted by darkness but by two yellow eyes approximately 15 feet away from me. I tried to gulp but there was a ball in my throat the size of my fist, making it difficult to even breathe. Stay calm. Stay calm.

I watched as another pair of yellow eyes opened not far from the original. As if synchronized, four eyes turned into eight, eight turned into twelve, and twelve turned into sixteen. A Ping followed my the robotic voice grabbed my attention-

“Quest Started: Survive Day of the Falling Sky.”

Snarling and growls echoed around me, a frightening chorus of what awaited me just a few feet away. I knew that I had to run, no matter what was in front of me, there was no way that I could take eight of them. I placed one hand on the floor to steady myself and the other hand on my whip that was attached to my hip. I readied my body and, with one deep inhale, I bolted in the opposite direction of the eyes.

Despite the aches and pains spreading through me, I ran, dodging every tree the best that I could. My uncovered feet were stabbed by rocks, pine cones, and prickly leaves. The pain was unbearable but I knew that I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t die here, I had to get home. Behind me I heard barks and growls. When the temptation grew too much, I turned around as fireworks filled the sky and saw a pack of wolves, each of them massive in size. They were nimble and agile, maneuvering between the tightly packed trees effortlessly. I could tell that they were faster than me, that they would eventually catch up to me at this pace.

I pushed my body to the limits, forcing myself to run as fast as I physically could. After a few seconds, I noticed that I could see light shining through in the distance. There has to be someone, a town, a campfire, something!

As I jumped over a pair of tree trunks, a searing pain tore through my left calf, a weight pulled me down to the floor, slamming my head into a tree and causing me to scream in agony. The impact was coupled with a blinding light and an image of a boy in a medical bed, his watery eyes staring up at me.

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“You don’t have to do this, I know that you’re my big brother but you don’t have to protect me anymore, not like this.”

“Mr. Black, we’re waiting for you.” The vision shifted to a man standing at the doorway in a black suit and sunglasses, his finger tapping the watch on his wrist.

“It’ll be okay Rollen, just stay here, I’ll be back before you know it!” I could hear the uncertainty in my voice as I walked away from the room. I followed the man in the suit to another room in the hospital where he pointed at a blue gown, signaling me to put it on while he waited outside.

The slam of the door as he closed it pushed me out of my vision and back into the “real” world.

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“AHHHHHH!”

I clenched my jaw and turned around, greeted by a wolf digging its sharp teeth into my leg, shaking its head side to side in an effort to rip out the muscle fibers. I gritted my teeth before grabbing the whip that was attached to my hip, I winded it back the best that I could, struggling to do so from the floor. I closed my eyes and swung at the wolf with all the strength I could muster.

WHIP!

The crackle of the whip vibrated through the air as the metal tip found its mark. The wolf yelped and let go of my leg, its eyes dazed, a look of confusion evident on its face. Immediately the rest of its pack stopped in their tracks, just a few feet behind it. I used my hands and right leg to hoist myself up against the tree roots, glaring at the beast. “You want some? Come and fucking get it now!” I screamed at them as I shook the whip around to scare them. It seemed that I had gained an edge in the battle momentarily, but when I looked up at the top left of the screen, my Health bar was dangerously low and ticking down, a small box with 3 red blood droplets next to it.

I could feel my vision begin to blur and my head sway, I tried to shake myself awake but the blood loss was only getting worse as my calf continued to pour out my life force. I could tell that the pack of wolves noticed I was getting weaker and were preparing to take me up on my previous offer. Their gums seemed to pull back into a feral smile as the pack began approaching again, ignoring the wolf who was still shaking its head in the center.

The seven monsters surrounded me as I swung my whip at them weakly, refusing to go out without a fight. My efforts were useless as the closest wolf easily avoided it and jumped at me, its teeth digging into my skull… or so it would have if it wasn’t for the two arrows that pierced its head, dropping it mid-air.

“Not today you useless mutts!”

I heard the voice of a girl shout from behind the tree as arrows began to fly steadily at the wolves who were doing their best to avoid joining their pack member in death. I tried to keep my eyes open but felt myself get weaker and weaker, my vision blurring until I could barely see anything. I watched as a few of the wolves dropped, arrows piercing their skin and blood leaking from their mouths. I couldn’t help but smile slightly and breathe a sigh of relief, they thought they would kill me those dumb fucks. The rest of the wolves began to scatter, returning to whatever hole they had come from.

I felt a strong arm wrap itself around me, the calm voice of a man came like a whisper, “I got you buddy, Artum’s got you, stay with me, stay with me. Everything is going to be alright.”

“Mission ‘Survive ‘Day of the Falling Sky’ Complete.”

“Level 1 Achieved.”

“1 Skill Point Achieved.”

“5 Attribute Points Achieved.”

“Dexterity Increased.”

“Vitality Increased.”

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