He awoke sitting in the back of a wagon, riding across a vast expanse of plains. For a few seconds, he sat there without thinking anything about his situation. For a while, he acted as though he was in a dream. Then, he fully woke up.

“Huh, where is this?” he asked himself, turning his head to look at everything around him. He sat in a large wooden wagon along with five other passengers. The wagon was paused, and every passenger had their head down, as if they were asleep.

Suddenly, a vision flashed in Kyle Mercer’s head. He saw a man standing at the front of the wagon, looking back at the passengers and saying, “We’re now inside the Thunderstruck Plains.” As soon as the man stopped speaking, the dream-like vision stopped and became a memory in Kyle’s brain.

“So, this is the Thunderstruck Plains?” Kyle pondered. The plains around him were exceedingly normal. There was no indication of thunder or lightning being anywhere nearby.

“Lifelink, tell me where we’re at,” he commanded the open air, staring out over the plains.

“[Unable to position User according to any reference.]” A genderless voice responded to Kyle’s command; it came from inside him.

“The Lifelink Chip is unable to use GPS? How did I even get here?” Kyle had many questions, but it appeared that the Lifelink Chip would be unable to help him. If the Lifelink Chip couldn’t determine where he was at, it certainly wouldn’t be able to tell him how he got there.

“Lifelink, describe the events that happened before I woke up,” Kyle commanded.

“[One minute ago, User performed an Overflow Calculation. Two minutes ago, User began simulating a perfect Quadruple Graveyard of Gods Raid. Five minutes ago, User began simulating a perfect Triple Graveyard of Gods Raid. Ten minutes ago, User began simulating a perfect Double Graveyard of Gods Raid.]

“Okay, that’s enough,” Kyle said and sighed. Although the Lifelink Chip had told him the last four things he had done, Kyle only needed to know the most recent one to know what had truly happened.

An Overflow Calculation was something everyone with a Lifelink Chip would avoid. When someone performed an Overflow Calculation, their brain would literally melt due to the speed that which the neurons were firing. An Overflow Calculation was impossible to perform without a brain-augmenting device such as a Lifelink Chip, but almost everyone in the current age had one. By default, Lifelink Chips had safety measures put in place to prevent Overflow Calculations from happening, but Kyle had disabled those safety measures. When trying to simulate a raid in his favorite online game, Kyle had accidentally killed himself via Overflow Calculation.

“Ugh, this is kinda embarrassing,” he thought, thinking about the various files on his computer that he didn’t want anyone to see. Alas, there was nothing he could do about them.

Kyle quickly accepted that he had performed an Overflow Calculation, but he still didn’t know what to think about the place he was now in. From what he had been told, performing an Overflow Calculation caused the performer to die. From this, Kyle knew that his current situation was much more than his friends playing a prank on him.

“What’s going on? Maybe, one of these people can tell me something.” Kyle spoke, “Uh, hey, are you awake?” He waited for a response, then tapped the shoulder of the person who was sitting next to him. After a few seconds passed, he gave the shoulder and little push.

“This is strange,” he thought. He gave the shoulder a harder push, and the body fell over.

“Huh!”

Kyle could immediately tell that whoever had been sitting beside him was now dead. He looked at another body and inspected it closely, discovering that it too was a corpse. He quickly investigated the rest of the bodies in the wagon, and they were all corpses. Even the horses that pulled the wagon were dead.

“What could have happened here?” He questioned, but there was no way for him to ever know. He stood up and moved away from the corpse that was near him, then looked around the plains that the wagon was in the middle of. For as far as he could see, there was only barren plains of grass.

A few minutes later, Kyle calmed down. He resolved himself to ignore his questions which he couldn’t possibly receive an answer for, then thought of what to ask the Lifelink Chip.

“Lifelink, describe this body,” he commanded.

“[User measurements are inconsistent with previous records. User height has fallen. User weight has fallen. User muscle density has risen. User condition is good.]”

The Lifelink Chip confirmed a speculation of Kyle’s - he was not in the same body that he had performed the Overflow Calculation in.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“If this is a different body, how is the Lifelink Chip with me?” he wondered, but he quickly excused the question as something he would never get an answer for.

Kyle took a look at his body and clothes. He was dressed in exquisitely detailed cotton clothes of various colors. On the floor of the wagon, there were a few swords in sheaths, apparently having been dropped when the riders of the wagon died.

“Oh, that’s cool,” Kyle thought and took one of the swords. While picking it up, he looked at the corpses beside him, and he stepped further away once he had the sword in his hand.

Kyle pulled the sword out of its sheath and examined the blade. It had a length of four feet and a width of one inch. When holding onto the handle and viewing the entire blade, Kyle felt a sense of power coming from the sword. Suddenly, a vision flashed through his head. The vision was of his body sitting beneath a tree, stroking the sword with an oiled cloth.

“I’ll name you ‘Isolator’.”

Once Kyle learned the name of the sword, he looked at it differently. When he was still in his previous body, he had never held a real sword, so he was in a state of mild excitement. However, when he learned the name of the sword, he once more began to question the things around him.

“Why is it called Isolator?” Unfortunately, even after asking himself that question, there was no vision to assist him.

Soon after picking up Isolator, Kyle looked back at the corpses in the wagon and decided it was time to climb out. He exited the wagon, hopping down onto the dirt road that stretched into the horizon. For as far as he could see, there was nothing but grass and that dirt road.

But, then, there wasn’t. Only a short time had passed since Kyle looked at the surrounding plains and saw nothing besides grass, but he then saw a group of black dots making their way toward the wagon. The dots started as barely visible specks against the plains, but they slowly became larger. When they reached a certain distance from him, Kyle became instinctively afraid.

A vision flashed in his head. In the vision, he was sitting in the back of the wagon, and the wagon was slowly moving across the plains. “There aren’t many dangers inside the Thunderstruck Plains. The biggest threat to travelers in the Thunderstruck Plains is the Black Grassland Wolves. They usually stay outside the Thunderstruck Plains, but their packs will occasionally hunt inside the Thunderstruck Plains if food is sparse outside or if they smell blood. As such, it is forbidden to hunt or butcher meat while inside or near the Thunderstruck Plains.”

“Black Grassland Wolves? That doesn’t sound like something I want to mess with.” Kyle thought for a second, then climbed back into the wagon. He brandished his sword in front of his body, then waited for the Black Grassland Wolves to come closer.

The Black Grassland Wolves ran extremely fast, and they arrived before the wagon after only a few minutes. Now that they stood closer to him, Kyle could see exactly how large the wolves were. Most of them were around three feet tall, and one was over four feet tall. They were ferocious wild creatures. In total, nine Black Grassland Wolves had approached the wagon.

Seven of the Black Grassland Wolves - including the obvious leader - went to the front of the wagon. They bit into the dead horses - which were still attached to the wagon - and tore off large pieces of meat. While they did that, two Black Grassland Wolves watched Kyle with menacing eyes.

Kyle stared down at the two Black Grassland Wolves and occasionally glanced at the seven others. He was vigilant of Black Grassland Wolves coming around the wagon and striking him from behind. He couldn’t estimate how quickly a Black Grassland Wolf could enter the wagon, so he had to be prepared for one coming from any direction at any time. Still, because two were facing off against him, he spent most of his time looking at them.

The seven Black Grassland Wolves quickly ate through the corpses of the horses. One of the Black Grassland Wolves pulled down the body of the driver of the wagon, and they also feasted on that. Once the horses and the wagon driver were eaten, the seven Black Grassland Wolves circled around the wagon to join up with the two Black Grassland Wolves that were watching Kyle.

The sight of nine Black Grassland Wolves that were more than half as tall as Kyle was incredibly frightening. The sword in his hand shook slightly. Kyle noticed how he was unable to control the sword properly, causing his hopes to fall.

Suddenly, a vision flashed through Kyle’s head. It was of his new body swinging a sword, practicing sword moves. Although only a fraction of a second passed in reality, Kyle saw years of time fly past in his vision. He immediately felt a thread of hope.

“Lifelink, can you autopilot these sword techniques?” Kyle asked.

“[Error when attempting to use autopilot. Please take your Lifelink Chip to your nearest Lifelink retailer for necessary repairs.]”

“Damn, I can’t use autopilot,” Kyle frowned. He reaffirmed his grip on his sword. “Lifelink, replay the vision of the sword techniques.”

In his previous body, Kyle’s Lifelink Chip could use an autopilot feature to move his body in certain ways. The autopilot of the Lifelink Chip was great for cooking, exercising, and performing tasks that were difficult to master but well documented. Apparently, his new body was unable to use the autopilot feature of the Lifelink Chip. After learning such, Kyle prepared to put the sword techniques he saw in the vision into action.

After watching the vision several times, Kyle felt more familiar with the sword in his hand. He raised Isolator and saw it in a different light. Compared to before, the sword now felt like an extension of his hand.

When the first Black Grassland Wolf jumped toward him, Kyle instinctively tried to swat the Black Grassland Wolf with whatever he had in his hand: the Isolator sword. He stabbed forward, subconsciously using one of the sword techniques he saw in his vision, and he lightly grazed the side of the attacking Black Grassland Wolf’s head. The Black Grassland Wolf immediately pushed against the wagon’s side and jumped back, where it joined the ranks of the rest of the Black Grassland Wolves.

Kyle’s heart rate began to rise. He had never before harmed a real living being in his life, but he had now nearly stabbed a wolf in the face; it was exhilarating. He had no idea that he would feel such excitement from causing an injury to a giant wolf. Of course, at the same time, he also felt unparalleled fear; the only thing was, his adrenaline was stimulating him to a point where the excitement seemed much more powerful than the fear.