The damn box blocked my view, and I rear-ended the car parked out in from of our street. The dog went flying into the dashboard, I faceplanted on the steering wheel, and Lisa choked on the seatbelt.

"Ugh!" I groaned. My nose bleeding profusely.

"Do you.." Lisa said, coughing. "see that?"

How could I not?

Welcome to the Universe!

We hope you have a pleasant transition.

"This is not good," I said. "This is really not good."

"It won't go away! What do we do?" Lisa said, anxiety creeping into her voice.

"Whatever happens next, if there are options, babe." I said, side-eyeing her from around the blue box. "Dont." I grabbed her shoulder for emphasis. "Pick. Impossible," stressing my words.

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My stomach dropped and my heart started thumping in my chest. Oh god, what had I done...

"Babe, pick norm..." and with a silent whump, everything around me disappeared as my vision went white.

It felt like my body was stretched, and then shrunk instantly. Like there was no air at all, and yet like water was trying to rush into my lungs. It felt like eternity. I ended up passing out.

-----

When I came to, I was I was halfway up a clean green hill. Muddy rocks and moss was around the area, but otherwise I was alone.

I spent a good 15 minutes going through the gamut of my cursing vocabulary. Then I decided to get down to business.

"Alright god dammit. 'Status', 'General', 'Show me'" I said, slowly. I listed off every possible random word I could think of, and nothing. No blue screens showing me myself, my stats, or health. No mana.

"Fine. Be that way," I said. "Let's inventory."

It was a very short list. I had my clothes, my car keys, a belt, my shoes, and my wallet. No knife, no bag, no change of clothes.

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"I can do this. First up, shelter, then water, then food," I said, listing my priorities to myself.

Then I just stood there for a minute, totally lost. What was the point? I was in the impossible tutorial. I wasn't some uber-athlete. I wasn't a crack solider or navy SEAL or some crazy asshole.

"I'm an Eagle scout. I can make fire from nothing," I murmered to myself. "I can make a spear and stab things. I can weave a basket underwater," chuckling at my little not-joke.

I aimed up the hill, and started heading upwards. I figured I could see the surroundings at least.

The top of the hill was rocky, but gave a clear view of the surrounding area. It seemed like a basic temeperate forest. A mountain range was off in the distance, snow topped and peaky. More Rockies, than Appalachia.

A large river ran from the foothills of the mountain, and towards my hill. It meandered through the forest, or so I inferred from the clear gap that sheared through forest top.

It ended over to the east, spurting out into a large body of water. Clearly, a large lake or an ocean.

Luckily, it wasn't desert or an ice tundra or something crazy environmentally difficult. I could work with this.

Fortunately for my stomach, there were clear signs of birds, and small animals in the area. Both the noise of the surrounding forest, and some movement in the treetops indicated I could find small game across the area.

However, I was alone, and humans are pack animals. I would be easy, well not easy, I would hope, prey for any pack of wolves, or bears. Or mountain lions. The creepy cats. I'm more of a dog person.

I sighed. I would love to cuddle Rufus or Lisa right now. I missed my couch.

"Work to do, miles to go," I said, as I headed down the hill.

First things, first. I headed towards the nearest stream that fed into that massive river I saw. Rivers meant fish, and I might as well be close to the water I would need.

Walking through the forest felt surreal. The light flickered through leaves, and the temperature was perfect, but something about it just felt off.

I'd done my fair share of hiking and mountaineering, but you would be amazed at how difficult it is to actually find a place free from humans. No matter where we go, it always felt like someone had been there first. Not here.

There were no trails, no sound of talking, no signs, no trail blaze. A soft loamy ground, with fallen logs and mushrooms. Faint birds chirping in the distance.

After about half an hour of walking, I reached the edge of the river. It was massive, maybe a mile across, and the water was moving quickly. It was a murky brown, and my skin started goosebumping as my imagination wandered back to crocodiles, massive sharks or any number of things that could hide in that river. Leeches... massive leeches. I shuddered.

For that matter, I hadn't seen anything living yet. There could be dinosaurs. Nessie could be right there, and I would even see her coming.

I slowly backed into the brush behind me, turning to make sure there wasn't some sabertooth tiger stalking me. There wasn't.

I started walking parallel to the river, heading west towards the mountains. I shortly ran into a small creek, and decided this would be my little piece of heaven.

"I coin you, 'John's Point'," I crowed, taking a page from my historical forefathers, claiming everything in the new world like assholes.

Water, check. Next up, Shelter.

A quick walk around the area turned up a thick downed tree. I decided to make my lean-to right there. I spent the next few hours going around picking up medium sized sticks, and placing them up against the log. A few long strips of moss for a bed and pillow, and as the sun set, I was ready to hide away in my little hole. My stomach was feeling empty, but I was not going to risk getting hurt wandering around in the dark, and shoving things into my mouth.

Food for tomorrow. Sleep for now. Just as I fell asleep...

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"Solo Explorer": Discover a new continent, by yourself.