The words rapidly fading with the world around him had Max expect the worst. Fully prepared that he was passing out, he tried going on his knees before it was too late.
Except, he didn’t move at all. He lacked any motoric response from joints and muscles. Neither did his perspective of the fading world change. That had to exclude that he had passed out.
Right? So what’s this? A manic episode? He didn’t think so. After taking stock of himself, which he only later realized required some sense of lucidness, he came to the conclusion that all sensory sensations except proprioception were drastically diminished. Sight had been reduced to a black void that seemingly surrounded him. Hearing could best be compared to the sounds of seashells close to ear. Taste and Feeling were impossible to tell in his current state.
Max recalled the words he’d seen before he’d lost all senses, but was barely able to. He did remember the words he’d heard.
“Fuck you guys. Humans are ready for integrations.”
Whatever they meant, they had the highest likelihood of being related to his current situation. Yet, they made no sense.
Max tried to come up with scenarios in his mind, keeping himself occupied and calm.
Sooo, what are the odds of this being a videogame scenario?
The thought alone felt silly. He felt clear of mind and hadn’t been plugged into anything. Yet, the black void all around him spoke of something not quite real.
As he kept staring into the darkness, he thought he saw individual infinitesimal small points light up with light, vanishing in a heartbeat.
Max concluded that a stroke was the most likely scenario. He tried remembering random moments of his life to determine his mental capacity, when the lights stopped disappearing. In fact they felt like they were coming closer. Rapidly growing in size and brightness. All of the same hue, all feeling oddly threatening.
Some primal instinct made him want to run, seek out safety, somewhere else.
After a moment of panic clarity took over. He reigned in his motions promptly. Should he have passed out, the consequences of rapid movement might be hitting medical personal and that wouldn’t do anyone any good.
With the growing light he was able to confirm that his vision still worked. He could see his nose and in the edge of his peripheral vision grew able to see some of his skin, he could see his arms, torso and legs when he moved his head.
That begged the question.
“What the hell is going on?”
He could speak and hear. He thought he hadn’t been able before. Two more indicators that he hadn’t passed out, but rather was experiencing some weird trip. He’d never done shrooms or any synthetics, that had always been his older sister, she’d described similar experiences.
So, what was going on?
He gazed around and the approaching light and witnessed it crystallizing into letters, at first at random, then forming words. Deeming it to at least be interesting he felt like it would make sense to read them.
Each of the various points now showed text, some unreadable due to size, others were blurred, and some were blocked by the giant text in the center of his vision.
> Welcome probationary citizen.
>
> Please be aware of the manditory rules of THE CRAWL.
>
> Whenever half of the current Crawl participants advance to the next lair of the crawl, the rest will be expelled. Leaving THE CRAWL under such circumstances halves your personal development and will result in a two-week, one day, and seventeen-hour growth inhibitor.
>
> The current minimal power level to survive on your home planet is Novice.
> Recommended level: Apprentice
> Current power level: None
>
> As per the rules of the integration you are informed about the current threats to you on your home world. The following one hundred species are the largest currently native threats:
>
> * Chickens
> * Cows
> * Pigs
> * …
> * Whales
> * Ants
> * …
> * Apes
>
> The largest currently existing non-native threats:
>
> * ‘Unnamed’
> * ‘Unnamed’
> * …
> * ‘Unnamed’
>
> Your odds of survival on Earth currently don’t exceed 0.1%.
Max stared at the words in front of his eyes uncomprehending, his eyes still stuck at the first entry of the threatlist. How were chickens the number one or even one of the largest threats to him on earth. Sure, the avian flu existed, but as far as he knew, it was not transmissible to humans? As he kept reading the list one realization hit him. There was a very large correlation with biomass or intelligence, and maybe a few other factors.
Then his eyes switched to the rest of the text, the list had previously grabbed his attention due to the different structure, but now, reading the text he was unsure. It made no sense. He’d never signed up to do any crawl. And what even did that mean?
What did odds of survival on earth even mean? Exceeds 0.1%. In what time frame. That he would conclude his natural life span? Die prematurely? So many questions so few answers. He’d assume that it talked about natural life span. That wasn’t too too bad. Every person had to die of something, and he didn’t know anyone that had died of natural causes anyway. Usually, illness was involved somewhere in there. Or accidents.
> Would you like to synchronize with the crawls tutorial system? Inborn abilities will be judged and can be gained. You may postpone the synchronization.
>
> YES/NO
As this was not the only prompt currently there, he felt it prudent to inspect the others as well.
> You may be positioned close to people you are familiar with that are in proximity to your previous location.
>
> Janett.
>
> Jamie.
>
> Kazuo.
>
> If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
>
> Barbara.
>
> Christian.
>
> Taylor.
Then, after a moment the list changed. And one by one the entries changed. Kazuo, Barbara, Christian, and Taylor were all greyed out after a couple moments. That was unfortunate. He did try to poke the prompt to focus on Jamie though. At first nothing happened, until he took a step forward and moved his finger through the word ‘Jamie’.
> Invitation extended to Jamie Eighty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty-six of Earth.
A moment later she stood next to him, giving the empty void a bit more character and flair. It was still mostly barren though – with the exception of the texts.
He tried speaking to Jamie, but no words came out. Nor did she seem to move at all or react to his movements. The prompt asking him to be positioned to other people disappeared.
After trying his best to elicit any kind of reaction from her and failed, he observed the other prompts in his vision.
Then he inspected the other prompts around him.
> A total of 4.3 trillion entities from your universe have entered THE CRAWL. 1 has progressed to Floor Two.
How the heck? Max stared at the one. He was still stuck in whatever black void this was. As he saw the stared at the number it changed to two. Was this Floor One? Doubtful.
> Would you like to enter THE CRAWL – Floor One?
>
> Accept.
And there he had his answer. He could enter floor one. He was behind, and with the rules he’d previously read, it would be prudent to be one of the first movers. The amount of people that had moved to the second floor would grow exponential – he assumed.
In the end he chose to synchronize with tutorial system. Whatever that meant.
> Tutorial overruled by entering THE CRAWL. Welcome to the system. For further information contemplate your Status.
Max did just that and another row of words appeared in his vision. Though he lacked any knowledge of what that meant, simply thinking about the prompt summoned several more lines of text.
> Status:
>
> Max Fifty-seven thousand three hundred and forty-one of Earth
>
> The Crawl – 1
>
> Dungeons – 0/1
>
> Boss – 0/?
>
> Stats:
>
> Might – 3
>
> Endurance – 3
>
> Agility – 3
>
> Soul – 3
>
> Perception – 3
>
> Traits:
>
> Primal - System Events do not discriminate by age. Increases starter skill amount by one.
>
> Equipment Mastery (Beginner) – Your equipment is slightly stronger, durable, and more useful. Just as you can enforce your Equipment it can make you stronger in return.
>
> Skills:
>
> Pitchfork Wielding (Beginner) – The weapon you are most familiar with and one you have at hand. Wield Pitchforks more effectively and with greater ease.
>
> Running (Novice) – The movement-type you have the greatest passion for. Through years of study you have learned how to boost your speed to the height of human ability. As a Novice you might even find that human limits are no more.
>
> Academics (Novice) – You have learned many things in your life. Increases knowledge internalization.
>
> Biology (Beginner) – As a subskill of Academics it is limited to the supernatant skill. Biology is more than just a domain of knowledge it is also an outlook on life.
>
> Climbing (Beginner) – A recent skill you have picked up, with it at hand you may learn climbling faster, and be able to slightly reinforce your body during the activity.
>
> Pattern Recognition (Beginner) – You’ve always been keen on seeing knew things in a different light. Patterns are more apparent to you.
>
> Abilities:
>
> Analyze (Beginner) – Due to your minor skill in Biology you may analyze flora and fauna to a certain extent. Limited by Biology.
>
> Sprint (Beginner) – Due to your minor skill in Running you have gained the ability to move faster than normally possible with your stats for a short duration.
>
> Items:
>
> Standard Human Workman Attire (Common) – An attire set common for the humans. Slightly more resistant to damage. Equipment Mastery Bonus: A slight bonus to the effects of Endurance.
>
> Soiled Pitchfork (Common) – A tool used for labor, with minor combat abilities. Equipment Mastery Bonus: The stain work has left behind cannot be removed. Has a chance to inflict minor debuffs on targets.
He looked over his status a few times. Everything seemed self-explanatory to the most part, besides the fact that all of it felt a little arbitrary. Sure, it fit him with a single exception, but apparently that mattered little. He wasn’t aware of any sort of Equipment mastery – though maybe he’d never had an issue with clothes breaking or phones shattering.
When the counter of people on the second floor ticked to 10, he grew a little anxious and accepted the prompt to enter THE CRAWL.
The void was slowly overlayed by a prairie and eventually banished entirely by endless grasslands and hills in every direction. And an unmoving Jamie next to him. He was trying to get her attention for a while, but she didn’t react whatsoever. He couldn’t even touch her. There was a wall of something invisible around her, preventing him from reaching out to her. Waving his arms in front of her face proved pointless too. She just kept staring off into space.
Max was a bit at a loss for words. He clearly had a goal, getting to the next floor or lair, or whatever it was called. He would have to talk with Jamie about that. In the meanwhile, everything here looked safe, though the fact that he had gained a skill that was combat related caused a little worry in him.
After some consideration he decided that checking out the general area while he waited for Jamie would be helpful. It might give them a direction to head off into and familiarize him with the local terrain.
He made sure to keep Jamie in the corner of his vision most of the time, though he had to walk directly away from her to get to one of the hills nearby.
It took a while to reach any significant distance to his friend, but even that was enough to tell Max that he had underestimated the distances and heights at play. The hills had to be close to a hundred meters tall each, with kilometers distance between them. As the slopes were rather gentle and he still didn’t see anything around, he began to jog at a light pace.
It felt easier than ever, he moved almost automatically carrying maybe half the weight he should have carried. That was not all, as he speed up, certain knowledge bloomed in his mind. With the efford it took to snap a finger, we’d be able to pull a mental trigger. Something that felt like sprinting – oddly enough. Telling him that he could go a good chunk faster if he wanted to – even though he’d fully started sprinting by now.
As he considered pulling said trigger a distant voice brought him back into reality. With worry he realized that he had stopped looking out for Jamie and was already halfway up the mountain. He couldn’t say how long it had been since he had started jogging, but it couldn’t have been long.
“Holy shit, that’s trippy,” Jamie exclaimed. “Banger, at least the fade animations are cool. Jo Max, do you…” she trailed off as she turned around looking for something.
Not wanting to let his friend feel abandoned in a new disorienting place he yelled out to her, turning around and running back down the hill.
Within less than a minute he stood in front of his friend, not worse for wear at all.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m as good as it gets,” she responded shrugging. “Though I guess you could call me confused. None of the answers I got were really helpful. Don’t have a clue what’s going on and all this feel a little too much like a video game. That being said, I’ve not felt this awake at seven in the morning in years.”
Max chuckled and before affirming her sentiment. He did feel surprisingly awake.
“That means you also saw those weird letters and status? And the information that we need to hurry up and get to the second floor or otherwise we’ll be in a bad spot?”
“Yeah, a 0.1% to survive a week on earth doesn’t sound good, does it?”
“A WEEK? I thought it was just premature death. How do you know?”
“Uhm, I asked?”
“You can do that?”
“I guess?”
Max needed to use all his concentration to not face palm. That was the simplest thing he could have done. But he hadn’t for the simple reason that he’d felt annoyed by the previous interaction he had had.
“So, what can you do Max,” she asked with a grin. “Anything useful? I really hope you got a bathing ability, because you smell like crap.”
“Let’s talk while we walk. We need to find a way to the next floor,” Max said looking up. “Though I guess floor two doesn’t make much sense given that there is only sky above us.”
> New Quest issued.
>
> Floor Advancement – Reach a pathway to the second floor.
>
> Bonus Objectives - HIDDEN
>
> Potential Rewards – Floor Advancement. Upgrade to a current piece of equipment. Upgrade to Equipment Mastery.
>
> Failure – Permanent Expulsion from THE CRAWL
“The sky’s the limit,” she grinned. “Did you get that Quest too?”