Chap. 1 Civilization’s End

Devon pressed his foot against the gas pedal, ticking the speedometer past 60. Work was 40 minutes away by drive, and it didn’t hurt to push the speed limit a bit.

He felt the familiar bump as he got onto Reland Bridge. The waters to the left and right were choppy with rain, a rarity for his usually clear city in the summer.

The asshole in front of him was swerving a bit, preventing him from passing. Devon was considering honking, but he didn’t know if the swerving was intentional or not. It could just be a student driver.

He scratched his chin, taking his hand away from the wheel for a second, and that was when disaster struck. The vehicle in front of him suddenly swerved away to the left erratically.

Devon, startled, jerked the wheel to avoid the car. But he was too close, and he clipped his bumper as he slid in the rain. This sent him further spinning, and adrenaline pumped through him.

He hit the curb of the pedestrian walkway, and in an extremely unfortunate turn of events, hit the side of the bridge at just the right angle to send his car flipping over. He saw a shocked expression on a bystander’s face before he screamed as he tipped over the edge.

The whole incident happened in less than 5 seconds, and Devon only had time to think on the way down.

All he could think about was sinking. Even before he hit the water, all he could see was his car sinking to the bottom of the lake as he fought for air.

He had the presence of mind to start rolling down the window as he fell but did not think to open the door.

There was no way to tell if that would have helped though, as it could have just slammed shut on one of his body parts and made the struggle even more agonizing.

His Audi hit the water with a loud THWUMP, and water rushed in the open window. It hit Devon head on, but sadly didn’t knock him out. Knocked back by the water, he fumbled for his seatbelt.

Once that came free, he continued to try to roll down the window, but it was stuck. In desperation, he tried to stick his head out, despite the gap clearly not being big enough for it. A torrent of water hit his face and slammed his head against the car repeatedly.

Panic had already set in, but worse than that was the feeling of clarity beneath the dull pain. He knew he was going to die. His tears had already been washed away under the onslaught of water, but he would be heaving sobs if he could breathe.

Water continued to rush into his mouth, and he began convulsing like a beached fish as it was forced into his lungs.

Thankfully, his consciousness started fading as his skull was rattled by the repeated impact to the car. Devon knew he was going to die. And that was the most terrible feeling he had ever had.

His vision was a mess of white and blue, and all of the sensory overload made his last moments on Earth his worst moments on Earth. His death was not peaceful. As his vision faded to black, he slowly stopped struggling, and finally, he ran out of oxygen.

* ••

Devon groaned. His side hurt and the cold material below him made him curl up.

Wait, he was alive? Devon slowly opened his eyes, wondering if this was real. He had definitely died, there was no way he had survived something like that. He started crying again, the experience overwhelming him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He looked around, but everything was dark. His breath hitched as he thought of the possibilities.

Devon had once read a novel about gods, and in that book the afterlife was worse than eternal torture. The only thing humans would do after they died was sit in the void, alone, with their thoughts forever.

He scrambled up, already terrified. On the upside, there was at least ground to stand on. He could impact objects, and that was good. Maybe it could serve as entertainment for a bit.

He blindly stumbled forward, his feet slipping on the cold ground. He put his hands out in front of him, trying to find a wall.

Almost immediately, his foot hit a rock and he flew forward and slammed into the ground.

“Fuck!” Devon shouted. He felt his knee get scraped against the floor and heard a clattering and hit his head violently on the ground. Lights swam in front of his eyes as he struggled to get back up.

He tried to get onto his hands and knees, but only managed to spin so he was lying on his back. That’s when he realized that the light was a screen. Unfortunately, the screen didn’t illuminate anything in the cave. Probably impossible, but he could shrug that off after everything that happened.

Welcome to the System, new arrival!

Status

Devon

Human (100%) (+1 Free Points)

Level 0 [Unknown+]

Statistics:

Free Points: 1

Endurance 1 | Cunning 1

Strength 1 | Dexterity 2

Vitality 1 | Intelligence 7

Resources:

Mana: Not Unlocked

Stamina: 24/25

Health: 9/10

Titles:

Lost

Skills:

Explorer (Passive)(0), Al-----s C-o---

Items:

Sneakers (+1 Dexterity)

Devon took a second to process this. He felt immensely relieved at first, this rectangular screen a sign of life and technology, but he realized a critical thing: his Health was 1/10 gone.

He wasn’t an expert on games, but he liked old-school RPGs and newer MMOs. He didn’t like the fact that tripping over a rock could hurt him that much, assuming it was the rock that did it. He also didn’t like that he still couldn’t see into the darkness around him.

Devon kept looking over his status, and only noticed a few odd things. The “Unknown” in brackets kept jumping out at him, but so did the color of his Health. It was tinged a slight red, and his stamina was just black. He focused on this, wondering if he had gotten his soul entangled or something and now his health was always going to be red.

Health: A measure of your physical health.

9/10, Bleeding

Devon fell back, but then nervously chuckled as he saw that it was only the box. At least that effect explained the color. Then, something unexpected happened. His Health went down again, now 8/10.

Thinking quickly, Devon took off his warm coat and grabbed his shirt--something that had survived the transition--and wrapped it around his knee while concentrating on going back to his normal status. “Makeshift Bandage” appeared under Items as he did so, showing that only useful items appeared on the list.

He did think that his clothes were at least useful for protecting himself from the cold, but when he checked the description of the Makeshift Bandage, he saw that it actually boosted regeneration.

The Bleeding status effect went away, and he finally breathed easier. Putting his coat back on, he took a moment on the ground to rest, then got up.

He winced in pain at his stubbed toe, but shrugged it off. It at least meant that he was alive. He grinned at his quick change of mindset. On Earth, that would have soured his mood.

Devon felt a little foolish for being so scared of his Health dropping, but he was pretty sure that if his Health dropped to 0 he would die, and currently he was very scared of dying. Apparently even a wound to the knee could kill him if the bleeding didn’t stop, and he was certainly weaker than in his past life.

Devon took a few seconds to calm down. He was already feeling a bit tired, so he just sat on the floor for a bit, staring into the darkness. After everything that had happened in the past 5 minutes, he needed to process all of this.

He had died. He had drowned as his head was beaten against the car. He was apathetic about this whole afterlife/isekai thing, worst case scenario the screen could entertain him for a while before he went crazy.

Speaking of which, the Unknown next to his level beckoned him. He focused on it and was surprised when a myriad of options appeared. He perused the list and engrossed himself in the screen to keep the dark wave of panic from overcoming his mind.