I sit there staring out over the water it's 7ish I don't know I don't have a clock.

The strange smoky computer face tentacle monster is still with me it's body is about the size of a basketball with its screen face taking up most of the space, trimed with gray it's the only truly solid thing about it. The rest is black smoke tentacles, the one at the bottom are about 2 feet the one at its side are 1 foot, and I cant get a good count of them because they disperse in to smoke before flowing back into the screen. It like something from the deep black of the ocean Unknown and strange. What are you?

Text appears word by word and even though I'm pretty sure that's not English, I can read and hear it without any sound.

Freaky

[ I am your assistant her to help you in the transition from human to core, I contain knowledge about many things not of your world and of it]

O-K but what are you?

[I am a %A♧Zc》+/:!>y○`]

I hear? Read? The word and its like sluge and ice so much meaning, so much subtext it is a head ace just to think it,

"Servant lesser lest grater slave knowledge useful loyalty mind holder" meaning goes on and on and once the migraine passes I finde I understand. It's a knowledge slave used to carry out tasks that the master is to busy to do. A message holder and the message itself

[ yes correct you shall learn the language quickly ]

It waves its tentacles, it's almost happy looking. Your a slave?

[ that is the human word for it yes ] Why are you a slave, are you ok with that?

[ I was made for a purpose I am to fulfill my purpose ]

So your some kind of robot or ai?

[ of a sort, I am not natural thing however I can think and "breath" not like humans however but if it help you then yes I am a artifical life form made to serve you. ]

Made to serve me?

[ yes I was born 32 hours 34 minutes 24 seconds ago with the purpose to serve you ]

Why?

[ because you are unable to continue alone not that you are incompetent, simply that having an servent increase your chances to survive the first 187 hours by 75.67% ]

This thing this strange squid thing was born to serve me. That's surreal, so what am I?

[ You are a core a death core specifically, a tipe of dungeon core made with the soul purpose of trying to murder, your task is it determine who are and art worthy. ]

I'm What!? I'm a murder machine?!?!

[ more then a murder machine but yes you will be murdering a number of people. ]

AND IM- ok with that why am I ok with that? I want to rage to scream at that fact but it's so hard,

And in my chest my memory's burn me ground me to what it is this box is asking me to be to be a monster.

[ a problem has been detected in host soul removal of abstract nonfunctional soul core bringing ]

The tentacles extended reaching further then before, and reach into me going for my memory's NO STOP NOW the tentacle of smoke disappeared from my chest.

[ why you are in pain and a part of you is malfunctioning alow me to remove the malfunction ]

No

[ Very well ]

We sit there in silence as the chunk of me that is still warm burns as its trying to make me remember warmth of life.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The tentacle monster almost seems uncomfortable.

[ so should I run the tutorial? ]

There's a fucking tutorial?

[ yes would you like to see it? ]

I laugh I laugh for a solid 2-3 minutes a tutorial to begin a monster I killed two people and I'm having a tutorial, it's darkly funny.

Then I think about what they did to me the laughter stop, and I cry. I cry because I'm dead I cry because I'm some kind of ghost I cry because I murder 2 people. I can still see them even though there corpses are below deck, behind me.

Ok what's this tutorial?

[ play_human[earth]_tutorial_]

I jump a little in surprise a voice is coming through the box and a fucking video player in on the screen. The voice is slow and measured, but excited about what it's doing, its like leting rotten homey poor in to my ears "you are dead, this however does not need to be the end because you have been chosen for a glorious purpose. Rejoice in the knowledge that your weak human flesh shall hinder you no more, you are a core a marvelous being of thought and soul. Capable of altering the world as you please and even create life! For you are a God in the making!" Pause

[pause_human[earth]_tutorial_]

What the fuck, was that?

[ that was the tutorial ]

Ok who was that creep then?

[ Terry Renbur ag 72 was a New Yorker cultest who successfully created a core, however before the core could establish itself both the core and cult were killed. ]

So that crazy sounding guy was a cultists? I feel my body shiver as the cold deepens my anger rising, just waiting for-

[ he has no connection to the cult that you have _cursed_, because 1 they all died

2 there cult was brought together in the 1950s ]

I calm down If only a little, well I'm not listen to another word he says. If there's a tutorial you do it

[ very well, in sort you are a core a wide range of subtypes a shoot off species like city core or dungeon cores you are however a oldest and most powerful type of core there is a death core ]

Hold on there are other species of core? But I'm a ghost I are there . . That, explain.

[ cores are beyond simple living or not they are in short a significant step above humans, when the cultest described you as a "God in the making" he was significantly wrong but his words had some truth and before you ask become a God Is not possible within 2 century's so it is best to simply focus on the now So gods are real? What are they like? What gods!? What's the afterlife like!?! Am I going to go there?!? What am I I spiral asking questions afraid of the answers not being able to stem the growth of fear in my chest I'm dead some kind of murder machine, and now gods are real as in many?!

I sit there panicking for a couple hours. The boat has drifted far from shore, all I can see around me is empty sea

After a day of panicking and asking questions the box told me three important things, gods are real he doesn't know which, the afterlife exists he doesn't know which and I'm a apparently a im a "test of the metal of man" and I'm to judge the "worthy" among them. And apparently I need to start soon because the phone in the butchers pockets start ringing, if I judge the worthy then I know who isn't

H U G O