Adam didn’t know what to expect when he accepted the Systems offer to become one of the Forerunners, but a seemingly endless darkness definitely had him on edge.

After he “lost consciousness” Adam thought something would happen but, so far he felt like he was just floating in some kind of ocean or pool.

Is this what space feels like? He wondered. The unsettling feeling of no control or a lack of grounding only increased his anxiety over the matter.

This whole thing was crazy. A SYSTEM?! Like from the manga and webnovels Henry talked about? What was happening to everyone?

Were they all going to be okay?

Adam couldn’t help but think back to the system message from before. It had said that by accepting this opportunity, it would increase his chances of survival. Were the people of Earth going to be fighting aliens or something? Monsters? Each other?

Obviously, he had many questions and no answers.

Time was weird in this space. Had he been in the dark for an hour or had a single second passed? Adam, once again, had no idea. All he knew was that time felt very soupy to say the least.

This must be what it feels like to be a piece of stew meat. Or maybe more like a dumpling? Man, I am so hungry.

As he focused on his feeling of hunger, a glimpse of light appeared before him.

A new system message.

PREPARE YOURSELF

The Forerunners Trial selection is very competitive.

Only a select few participants will survive and return as FORERUNNERS

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘FEW SURVIVE’?! Adam tried to yell. In this liminal space, it seemed that he was incapable of actual speech, turning his words into projected thoughts that only he could hear.

You have been preselected by one of the Premier Factions of the Multiverse: The Chimaeric Order

This means that, should you return as a Forerunner to your World, you will receive a SPONSORSHIP directly from this faction.

SPONSORSHIPS are powerful boon’s and should not be taken lightly.

Accepting a SPONSORSHIP does not make you a part of the Sponsoring Faction.

Adam began to feel his body righting itself within the darkness as he continued reading the system messages. Feeling was slowly coming back to his limbs and he felt his body weight settle as his feet touched down on an unknown hard surface.

Still stuck in the dark, Adam mentally gave himself a once over. His body seemed okay and it felt like he was still in his loafers, jeans and button up shirt that he wore to work. So far, the only things that weren’t accounted for were his hearing and his ability to see anything aside from the changing System message screens.

FORERUNNERS TRIAL

Host: The Chimaeric Order

Trial Type: Beast Gauntlet (F)

Duration: Unlimited

What is a Beast Gauntlet? Adam wondered.

Objective: Survive the onslaught of stampeding beasts.

Conditions for Success: Be selected for SPONSORSHIP

Conditions for Failure: Death

Wait.

Adam’s heart started pounding in his chest. Though he couldn’t feel it, he was sure that sweat covered his body.

Wait wait wait wait wait…

Based on the system message, Adam was going to have to outrun stampeding beasts? And if the “Conditions for Success” was to be selected, did that mean that even if he survived the stampede, if he wasn’t selected then he would either have to run forever or he would die?

The Trial will begin in 60 seconds.

Prepare yourself, Human.

Prove that you are worth what you have been offered.

With that final message, a blinding light flashed, causing Adam to flinch away and fall to the ground with a crunch.

Crunch?

Adam opened his panicked eyes to see where he was and felt his pounding heart drop into his stomach. He found himself in a large canyon, similar in depth to the Grand Canyon. At least, it felt like it was about that deep. Looking around, he noticed that the canyon extended far beyond his vision, to his left and right were trees and bushes as well as long grasses that swayed in a gentle wind that was blowing through the area.

Part of his brain recognized that the area was beautiful, despite the terror that had sunk its claws into him after he learned that he very likely was going to die.

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All around him, Adam noticed other people standing with similar confused and anxious looks on their faces. Some were yelling at the sky asking to go back while others were looking for people they knew.

Returning to his senses had been disorienting, causing him to fall over once his sight was returned to him. Not wanting to be caught any more off guard, Adam tried to stand, flipping onto his hands and knees, but heard another crunching sound when he moved. Not only did he hear it, he felt it.

Littering the ground were bones. Hundreds of thousands of bones covered the floor of this canyon. The bones looked like they were from an assortment of various animals and if Adam was correct in his assumptions, he had fallen directly onto a sun bleached human ribcage.

Adam screamed and felt the bile rising in his throat as he scurried back away from the skeletal remains of a human being. Fear seeped into every fiber of his being as he thought of all the people that had died here before him. His fear only increased as a new message scrolled past his vision.

The Beast Gauntlet begins in…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Fight, Flee or Hide.

The choice is yours, Participants.

A rumble could be felt through the ground as a shattering noise echoed through the canyon. Panic exploded through the ranks of participants in the small clearing as people ran to find cover. Adam leapt to his feet quickly enough to make Otto proud and scanned the area around him looking for somewhere to hide.

Maybe the beasts won’t be too big. Fighting was one of the available options, so it’s a possibility.

As Adam quickly ran towards the tree cover, he noticed that the local flora, mainly the trees, was massive. So large, in fact, that the tree’s could easily hold multiple humans on each of their branches. The only downside was that it would be difficult to get to them.

Adam and many of the others in the clearing rushed past the treeline into the forest, away from the direction that the shattering noise came from.

While the noise had stopped, the rumbling seemed to be getting stronger, causing rocks and bones to rattle along the ground.

Bushes and brambles across the forest floor whipped by him as Adam sprinted through the underbrush. He needed shelter but the ground seemed like a terrible choice. Being trampled sounded awful. He was currently too far away from the wall of the canyon to comfortably consider hiding in a cave or something.

The tree tops are probably my only viable hiding spot. Adam sighed. Yay for my super athletic body and supreme tree climbing skills. Sarcasm was the best way to put off the thought of his impending doom.

Adam’s mad dash through the woods allowed him to quickly take stock of the other participants as well. Being on the heavier side, he unfortunately was overtaken by many of the more athletic participants.

He suddenly heard a series of loud snapping sounds. Glancing behind him, Adam could barely make out the edge of the treeline, roughly 100 meters behind him. Looking between the trees was difficult but he could clearly make out what looked like the silhouettes of many horse sized figures breaking through the smaller trees and carving paths through the heavy undergrowth.

Screams and loud bugles began to fill his ears as he watched the beasts run down people that were behind him. There goes my hopes for them being small.

While most seemed to be focusing on running away, some picked up bones and sticks from the ground to use as improvised weapons, believing that fighting would improve their chance at survival.

Being as slow as he was, many of the best “weapons” were taken already but he did happen to come across what looked like a boar's skull. The skull was laying next to one of the larger downed trees. A tree that seemed big enough that it might provide cover for someone his size.

Sprinting faster than he ever had before, Adam raced towards the downed log as the sound of heavy footfalls and wild snorts crescendoed behind him. Nearing the skull, he bent to pick it up as he ran to hide.

Unfortunately, someone else had the same idea.

“MOVE DUMBASS!” a voice, quickly followed by a weight slammed into Adams side out of nowhere.

Adam, panting from the effort of his sprint, tripped over his feet and face planted on the backside of the log as the other person snatched the boar skull away from him.

A large man stood over Adam holding the skull and sneered, “Don’t blame me for this. You never would have made it anyway.”

His words were almost drowned out by the sounds of thundering footfalls approaching at a tremendous speed. The force of nature that was the wave of creatures steamrolled through the forest destroying everything in its path.

The discourteous man stood his ground saying, “No bull, aliens, or mystery wizards are going to take me out! COME ON!” He brandished the skull and the beasts were upon them.

Adam, hidden behind the log, finally got a good look at the beasts as they charged around the ends of the log into view. Slightly larger than a horse, the beasts looked like an unholy combination of a bulls torso, an elk's antlers and head shape, and a hippopotamus’ hide-like skin and legs. Each of the beasts felt absolutely massive and were moving at a gallop.

Despite being behind the previously downed tree, thereby obscured from the creatures’ view, Adam didn’t feel any safer here than he would have out by the other man, who against all odds seemed to be dodging the creatures as they barreled by him.

Terrified that the creatures were going to see him, Adam pressed himself against the base of the log as hard as he could, attempting to make himself as small as possible. With any luck, the creatures would ignore him.

Adam’s back flush against the downed tree, he watched as the boar-skull-stealing stranger was “fighting” the monsters, if you could even call it fighting. Rather than trying to strike the creatures, he seemed to be using the skull as a shield to block any of the antlers that swung his way. The longer he watched, the more Adam envisioned a Spanish matador but with a skull instead of a cape. The skull got the beast's attention and then the man moved out of its way when he had gotten their focus. It seemed that the creatures weren’t actually focused on killing what was in front of them but were instead focused on crushing anything and everything before them as they ran through the canyon.

After a minute of dodging, Adam winced as the man failed to react in time, receiving a glancing blow from one of the creatures, sending him spinning to the side. Mid-spin, he lost his grip on the boar skull, sending it flying towards an unsuspecting Adam who, not surprisingly, failed to catch it as it slammed into his left arm. The force of the collision sent a piercing pain though the left side of his body.

Horrified by the sight of the man spinning to the ground, Adam ignored the pain in his arm and watched as the man steadied himself on all fours. He looked up, determination filled eyes locking with Adam’s, as he quickly crawled towards the safety of the log before a shadow fell across his face.

A moisture splashed across Adam’s face as he watched a large purple-gray hoof descend onto the head and neck of the man, bursting his skull upon the ground, painting the vicinity in thin streaks of blood. He continued to stare as the body was trampled by an untold number of the beasts, reducing the once large man into nothing more than a puddle of gore and viscera.

He stayed, huddled by the log, staring at the place where the man had been for an unknown amount of time, only coming out of his shocked state when a message flashed into existence before his eyes.

The First Wave of the Beast Gauntlet (F) is complete.

Number of Participants remaining:

1687/2500

Sponsorship Opportunities Remaining: 46/50

The Second Wave will begin in 5 minutes.

Oh shit… Oh shit… Ohshitohshitohshitohshit! Adam just watched a man die. Not only did he die, he was completely obliterated by the FIRST wave of beasts. How the actual FUCK was he supposed to survive more?!

Adam tried to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead but found that he couldn’t for some reason. Looking down at his left arm, he remembered the piercing pain he had felt earlier and took stock of the state he was in.

One of the boar’s tusks had pierced through his bicep and, by the looks of it, the force of the skull hitting him had probably cracked a couple of his ribs. The damage he had sustained hadn’t fully registered yet, as he didn’t feel more than the initial piercing pain. The thing that set him over the edge was just one thing.

The splattered blood of the fallen man, splashed across the front of his body, dripping down the boar skull and mingling with his own.

He couldn’t hold it in any longer and violently puked as he bent over and sobbed.