A man drove down an empty street, drowning out the impossibly boring nature of life with the radio and his own mutterings. He’d just finished another day at a job he’d grown apathetic to over the years and his heart only desired a cool beer before he went to sleep, then it’d be more of the same shit the day after. But today, he wasn’t able to get home.

On this day, a beam of rosy light struck the planet with no introduction, and before he even had a chance to adapt, it had pierced all the way through to leave the world a smouldering wreck. Its core utterly fragmented, and chunks of stone rose up from the ground as though gravity was no more…

Perhaps if he’d gotten enough time to realise what was happening, he'd have mourned not talking to his family more often, or asking that one girl he'd had his eyes on out on a date. Or a million other things.

But no one received enough time to check on their loved ones as a blinding light covered the Earth and transformed every last person into a white, ashen skeleton in seconds.

On that day, the little planet, known as Earth to its natives, vanished from the small galaxy.

* * *

Joey’s eyes snapped open, awoken in shock by the rough memories of what happened. Above he saw the thick branches and leaves of… An oak tree? Perhaps he collapsed from exhaustion and had a strange dream.

That was until he sat up and realised instantly that things were wrong, his back no longer ached and instead felt flexible, and even stranger so, it felt lively. Full of energy and vigour lost over the years…

Finally he looked down and saw a body. Certainly not his one.

Looking about, this absolutely wasn’t a freeway in the states. Instead, the field of vibrant green with a forest encapsulating him on most sides definitely made that clear. He saw horses grazing in the distance, and some other shorter, fatter animals nearby, but too far to clearly recognise. Probably boars he thought to himself.

“Where the fuck am I even? Do we even have trees like that? And why am I under this oak tree?” While it sounded as though he posed questions, really Joey just vented about the shitty situation and tried to recall what happened on top of touching his new body. If this wasn’t also a dream, that is.

This tanned skin wasn’t all too bad, especially since it was smooth and blemish free. He was lean and muscular, but none of those emotions overcame the flourishing and conflicted emotions about his skin. No, not because of the colour, but rather the endless tattoos all over. Densely packed characters in black ink which littered his whole body from head to toe, and perhaps even his face from a guess… He could’ve left it there if it weren’t for a problematic fact as well.

He recognised these characters.

It matched, seemingly identically, to a tapestry his family hung up in their living room his entire life. And supposedly an heirloom which they’d preserved for centuries at that point. A finely woven tapestry made from a rough fibre, however, he always found that the tapestry remained in strangely good condition over the years. It was no surprise that he got it carbon dated to put a rest to the family’s crazy belief, and the results proved it to be just over a couple hundred years old!

Although, he always thought it looked strange. Whenever he sat nearby, the characters on the tapestry shook gently, as though beckoning attention, but after some time he put this effect down to a mere illusion of something in his peripheral vision.

“Does that mean… they’re here as well? They always said it’d be our salvation, so where the fuck is everyone else?” He looked around some more but continued to see not even a smidge of civilization.

In fact, he would’ve believed it if someone told him he was completely alone at the moment. That is until he looked at the floor besides him and saw a black cube, almost overtly futuristic in appearance. As he picked it up, part of him expected it to unfold into a giant mechanical object, or project a hologram... Or just anything which screamed sci-fi.

The cube didn’t care what he wanted, and he picked it up easily with a single hand. It felt weighty in his hand like a cube of iron, but with its small size his fingers easily wrapped around a whole face to grip its surface.

“Definitely solid, and machined very well. Even have to avoid cutting myself. So, who the fuck left this here?” He refused to believe such an object just happened to be here, right next to this body.

And only now did he look at his nails, realising how pristine they were. And then seeing the complete lack of calluses or the like on both fingers and feet. Almost as though this body were fresh, grown in a greenhouse for lack of a better understanding…

Now would probably be a good time to mention he was naked as well. But with a lack of people, and pleasantly warm weather, he didn’t really care about that as much.

“I need to get a fire going, how the fuck am I meant to do that without tools even? You better be more than a block of metal.” He looked down on the black metal with irate eyes, and continued trying to open it, or anything really.

This was going to take a while.

* * *

The sun had moved a fair distance overhead, and things changed drastically for Joey; he remained as aggrieved as the moment he arrived. Now, he held a thick wooden spear in his hands, which he repeatedly jabbed it into the water as some fish passed by. He never expected spear fishing to be so hard.

Infuriating was a better word in his opinion.

Every single time he stabbed out, a fish already swam away as though filled with precognition, and on top of that, he saw the spear just barely grazed a fish several times which sent it hurriedly swimming to survive. And so, dozens of potential prey escaped just like that.

“You little shits can’t run forever. I’ll just come back later… And when I do!” He scowled to himself with thoughts of roasting a bunch of the thicker fish over a flame, then transferred some of that anger as he annoyingly glared at the innocent creatures. With a voice smooth and deep, it would be easy for anyone to get lost in it… If not for the habit of swearing he retained afterwards. No surprise most of his friends called him a ‘miserable bastard’ so much. It seemed as though he was never that happy, and every time someone asked, he’d tell them it absolutely wasn’t depression. You’d be surprised how often strangers asked.

He waded out of the ankle deep waters and returned to dry land, his wetness was of no concern in the warm sun. Shaking his head from the waste of time, he said, “How the hell am I supposed to eat... Who knows how hungry this body is too, really need some food soon. At least the river wasn’t salty.”

At the river’s shore he reached down to pick up the small cube, having eventually learnt of its workings and intended to take a look at his next step.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Before that though, he touched the spear against it and still stared in wonder as it simply disappeared, like the thick wooden tool was no more than a popped bubble. The instant this happened, he saw the symbol of an orb appeared on the top face in a blue light. Having figured out the basic utilisation of the cube well enough, he held it with both hands on opposing sides and saw the symbol of an eye appear on its top face this time round. He really hated the next part.

It felt as though gravity instantly inverted and the sensation of falling forced him to wince, even though physically his feet remained planted on the ground. With discomfort he said, “Am I really gonna have to do this every single time?”

And as always, it disappeared after just a few seconds to find himself floating in a black void. Below him, it was easy to see purple orbs neatly arranged into three sets of ten. However, as long as he remained here, something about it directly imprinted a list of all the items inside the orbs into his head at all times. At the very least it made managing the items in here very easy, although that isn't to say he hadn't found some nuisances regarding the place.

Each orb could store a single type of item, but he didn’t know what the limit was.

But he instead focused on the four items still within this place. The first three were a wooden spear, a rod, and five sticks. The third of which sounded so easy to obtain, as one should just be able to snap one of a tree, but he recalled the process well. “Not like it’s easy making those things, how does it even tell the two apart?”

He initially just broke off some thinner branches from trees to use as sticks, but the cube seemed to use its own way of classifying objects as the words imprinted into his mind was 'saplings' instead. This was no fluke, as any random branch he snapped off was also called a sapling, and it took a short while, but he eventually realised the problem.

Only by removing all the leaves, then breaking off all further branches from the 'stick' he wanted, as well as smoothing them all down to flat surfaces, finally met the requirements of a stick.

All of that had to be for every stick he wanted from a tree.

Just why the cube had this identification process seemed a bit ludicrous, not to mention since it assumed that the cube then knew the names of anything placed inside it! However, it was fair in its identification method in the end. And at least he recieved instantaneous feedback in the form of it imprinting the words directly into his mind.

He remembered why he even came to this river, the spearfishing simply an attempt to gather food in advance before starvation set in. He came to use the box’s true purpose.

By pressing on the symbol of a tree beside his left foot, the orbs below vanished and instead a gargantuan tree appeared in front. Its bark was a deep brown, and about halfway up one would notice branches spanning off in all manner of directions with vibrant green leaves packed so densely it seemed impossible to see beyond. However, he only focused on the base of this tree, as two sets of little lights drew his attention.

There were four in a rough line at the tree’s very base, and then three in a line a bit higher. With a thought of standing nearer, he disappeared from a spot further above to instead appear eye level with the set of three lights. On closer inspection, one clearly saw faint grey lines connected each of these lights to one below.

Naturally, he expected the fourth light on the line below to create a new one up here.

He focused his thoughts on the three points of light in front of him, and three images appeared in his head. The first, which he recognised the most, was three rocks with an arrow pointing towards the output, a stone axe head.

This recipe required ‘chipped rocks’ specifically, and then had to be placed precisely as the image in his head described to successfully create it with the box.

The second recipe was the reinforced wooden spear, made from just a wooden spear and rod. Aside from its thicker and sturdier form, he saw no upsides.

And the last recipe came from an item which he crafted but left by the oak tree he appeared under, a wooden club. The unlock it provided was actually a wooden mallet, something of real use to him. However, the mallet actually required a tree log as well as a rod, but since the log required an axe or saw…

Well, it was clear to see where the conundrum lay.

The final recipe was a length of hemp string, but for that he needed some hemp plants to strip for fibres first. A process he’d seen before and vaguely remembered.

But of all these recipes, he only cared for the chipped stones, and they were the real reason he walked a fair length to this river. From the shallow depths grabbing a handful of them to throw into the box as need be. He tapped the cube against the small pile, one at a time, and just like that he now had 20 small stones inside it, although how it quantified this was all a mystery. Some of the stones were distinctively larger or smaller, not massively so, but still the box threw them all into the same orb.

Soon, he made it back to his starting spot, a large oak tree which sufficiently shaded the surroundings. Against it laid a large wooden club which he didn’t doubt could cave in a skull.

But there was one last item in his cube that hadn't been mentioned.

It was a small statue, although carved egg-shaped rock was more appropriate of a title, with the name of, ‘Safety stone’. After taking it out once, he didn’t really understand its use. While it did send some words like ‘safety’ into his mind, akin to how the purple orbs told him what resided within his cube, none of them actually explained what its function was.

Still, if things ever got bad he could retrieve it from the cube and, hopefully, save himself with it.

Underneath the tree, he retrieved the pile of rocks and held it awkwardly in his hands whilst trying to smash one against the other.

Joey knew how to fix, and create, a massive range of things… But chipping stone was just not one of them. Actually, he once tried masonry and stonework as a kid, believing it was just as interesting as his other rather childish attempts at building things…

But then found out he sucked at both horribly. This wasn’t just on the first day as well, even a month into the idea he only barely improved.

Occasionally, he jumped back to the recipe tree as a way to compare how the stones he chipped compared to the ‘ideal’ ones, as he called them. Their edges were not continuous and sharpened, but rather formed of several small bits chipped off to form a somewhat straight edge.

As he swung downward with his full strength, a shard of stone cracked and flew off all over. In the process some shards ran against his skin and left a light cut on his forearm, drawing blood. He grunted, as is par for the situation, but he spoke as well. “So… Dammit. I do bleed, and it still really hurts. I need to find something to tie this…” His voice trailed as the cut he held tight suddenly stopped bleeding.

Letting go, he found that it had entirely closed up. In fact, all the minor cuts and scrapes healed already. While his body wasn’t durable, its regeneration was absolutely insane.

“Well, it could've been faster. Not too useful if I’m being mauled,” his voice only showed disappointment in the ability. Even if it should’ve been treated as an explosive boon. Then again, his fear was right, technically speaking. What good was regeneration if he'd just be killed by a single beast?

He needed weapons and armour. Proper weapons.

Unfortunately, this was the easy half of the process as he now had to sharpen the other side to form a blade-like edge. Having reached this point several times now, there was no hesitation in starting another attempt straight away. However, this time, with just a light tap downwards, he knocked off small pieces until a real edge formed along the stone as a whole. This was enough… Right?

He only had to input it and check, the orbs told him a count of all items stored within.

A chipped stone. And now he just needed two more.

He absolutely took it back, stone chipping wasn’t that bad. Instead, he didn’t know why, but something about it all clicked in his head and he found a strange sense of enjoyment from every little shard of rock which spat downward.

He sucked at it way too much though. That he accepted.

With a third chipped stone created, he entered the cube once more and this time looked to his right. On the floor was a ‘plus’ symbol made of the familiar blue light. A simple thought was all he needed to move the three chipped stones onto the plus, one in each corner with the exception of the top-right.

“Three chipped stones for a stone axe head. Honestly, how the hell did they do it,” he spoke and referred to those ancient craftsmen from so many years ago, simply unable to believe they made such tools without such a convenient box to help.

Although… that combined with slow information is a good explanation as to why the ancient era took thousands of years to move past.

With a single tap to the blue symbol, he saw the three stones vanish and a new item appeared in one of the orbs below. None other than the stone axe head he needed so badly. A joy appeared in him, and with a smile he tapped on the glowing tree to his left with high expectations.

It was time to collect some wood.