It was the first night of summer holiday with a waning hump-backed moon hanging high overhead. The drowsy stillness possessed the pompous dormitory made of red brick, but a first-year student with frizzly unkempt black hair, Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi, was still lingering in room 119.

He sat quietly in front of his desk, wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt and a red checkered short as he reviewed the mistakes he had made during the mid-term exam when he suddenly received a notification.

 "Ah..." Muttered Tsukasa when he saw his mother had called him. Hesitantly, he slid his finger across his phone screen and answered her call.

"I heard you only placed 8th on your midterm exam," She said coldly before she stopped speaking for a second, in the background Tsukasa could faintly hear her sigh, "Do you know how much your tuition fee cost?"

"...Yes," Said Tsukasa with a stricken face, "I'll do my best on the next ex-"

Out of nowhere, the chair and his foot had ceased to support his body. The scenery of a dull ivory coloured room had swirled and blended like a poorly shot action photograph. A small gasp left his lips when the expected thump of the floor didn't come, instead, he continued to fall as the darkness slowly engulfed him. He flailed his arms in the attempt to reach a small bright circle, but to no avail and he quickly fell unconscious.

****

When Tsukasa's eyes snapped open, it was to the frigid and salty blue freaking coloured water. His head was bobbing up and down under the bright blue sky as the strong waves of the sea had had him in their clutches and slowly pulled him to the abyss, trapping him, keeping him from the oxygen he needed when several words floating in front of him.

Tsukasa Tsutsukakushi

Level 0

Feat Point: 3

Disena: 0

Health(Health regen per hour)

580(100)

Magicka(Magicka regen per hour)

380(100)

Stamina(Stamina regen per minute)

620(17)

Strength

4

Endurance

5

Dexterity

2

Agility

3

Magic

1

Intelligence

10

Wisdom

6

Presence

4

<<<

Status

>>>

Which Tsukasa quickly ignored as he was moving his limbs like some stupid string puppet. There were no coordinated movements, just scratching through the thin liquid that threatened to invade his lungs.

With great effort, Tsukasa finally burst to the surface, but a few seconds later another wave struck him, pushing him down.

Surprised, from his lips came an explosion of air bubbles. Desperate for sweet oxygen, once again, he tried with a superhuman effort to swim back up to the surface, but with no avail as another wave rolled his body when his head came out.

Every time he drowned, he would immediately claw his way back to the surface and drowned again. He did the same thing repeatedly until his limbs had slowed down and he sunk faster.

Coldwater thrust up his nostrils, saltwater cascaded into the back of his throat, his lungs felt as though they'd been set on fire. Slowly, the commotion and chaotic sounds of the sea drowned out to a low hum, gradually muting into silence.

Tsukasa had given up on the thrashing, letting the water to slowly dragged his body.

For a fleeting second, he thought he would see his life flashing but he did not. The only thing that he saw was the darkness, slowly seeping in at the edge of his vision as he waited in resignedness for the numbing hands of death to suck away every last piece of life left in him, with another sentence floating in front of his blurred vision.

Do you want to learn Swim Level 1? (Feat Points left: 3)

Yes No

Without pausing to think what the floating letter was about, Tsukasa did the only thing that made sense - he used the last of his energy and forced his finger to move and pressed yes.

You have learned Swim Level 1!

You will not forget how to swim by any mean. You've become trained in swimming. Your swimming speed has increased by [Str x Skill level x 0,5]  kilometre per hour.  You can hold your breath for [Endurance x Skill level x 5] seconds longer. You have 30 metres natural water pressure resistance 

Your Health has increased by 50 Your Stamina has increased by 100 Your Stamina regeneration has increased by 3

 Your Strength has increased by 1 Your Endurance has increased by 1

One second ago, Tsukasa was sure he couldn't move a single muscle to continue swimming, but now, a sudden burst of energy surged within his body, almost as if he had just drunk two cans of energy drink and a cup of coffee while sitting under the tree shade for 10 minutes.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Though, his need for oxygen hadn't changed at all. With the feeling of an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose, Tsukasa used the very little stamina that he had left to rise rapidly toward the surface.

He stretched out his hands in front of him and began scratching on the water in wonder. His feet moved as if he was wearing flippers, and the saltwater no longer seemed to hurt his eyes. 

Then, as soon as his head broke the sea surface, Tsukasa expelled a great spout of water from his mouth and nose, replacing them with more air as though he had never breathed properly before. Not to mention this time, he could drift on the surface by putting only a little bit of effort.  

Now what? Tsukasa thought desperately. He jerked his head around to search for something and quickly noticed a green island, not so far in the distance.

Tsukasa propelled forward, though, with every kick, he felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest. The thought of resting for a few seconds had crossed his mind, but he couldn't stop, he knew if he were to stop, he would slowly, but eventually kissed the seafloor. He had to keep swimming, just kept swimming, and kept swimming, swimming without thinking anything.

Before Tsukasa knew it, he had reached the land, the white-sand beach to be exact, though he was too exhausted he could barely have enough strength to express them, let alone celebrate with a shout.

Wet, shivering, and tired, he only thought of moving out from the water, fearing that in one foot of water, he would've drowned. 

Tsukasa walked clumsily though he fell several times, and after falling for several more, gritting his teeth, he chose to crawl like a reptile. His fingers gouging the wet sand, his eyes were fixated at the treeline, and when he arrived at the edge of the green, he stopped just right under the tree shade.

This... doesn't make any sense. Tsukasa thought as he positioned himself and leaned on the tree.

If this is a joke, this has gone too far. Then again, he wasn't sure someone could pull a prank at this scale.

Maybe I'm getting kidnapped? Does father or mother have an enemy?

Or... some kind of alien had kidnapped me? He sneered for a bit when he thought that.

And what the hell was that floating letters about? Was that even real? The effect is real though.  They... real, right?

Sighing, Tsukasa put every thought to the side as he slowly closed his eyes. Even though the bright sunlight was making his wet face sting, but he still had fallen asleep, a diluted sleep that had brought no rest and no dreams.

****

When Tsukasa awoke, it was to the strong cold breeze which made him sneezed and his nose runny.

Shivering, he rubbed his chest and noticed that he had fallen asleep with wet clothes that hadn't gotten dry.

Tsukasa thought his situation couldn't get worse, but as soon as he let out a frustrated groan, he heard a thunderous rumbling from his stomach along with a sharp pain on his dry throat.

Squirming in the ground to try to silence the rumbling, Tsukasa aware that he hadn't eaten anything since he started reviewing his exam result, not to mention, the red blended sky with orange had somehow reminded him with a tangerine.

Standing up, Tsukasa swayed a little bit, unsure whether it was to his sore muscle or empty stomach. Either way, his priority was to search for food and water. Primarily water so he could wipe the sea flavour in his mouth.

After gathering enough willpower, Tsukasa started to move slowly, trying his best to not exert his muscle.

As Tsukasa walked quietly just right at the edge of the treeline, he'd only noticed the tree he had leaned on and other similar trees had slightly glowing green leaves with translucent white jelly-like vines dangling on their branches.

He played with the one near him, squeezing it, spinning it, the thought of eating it had crossed his mind as he imagined the vines should've had the same taste as udon.

Luckily, right before Tsukasa put the vines into his mouth, from afar, he noticed a familiar tree. A large palm, growing taller than the rest of the trees, with pinnate leaves and brown ball in the middle.

"Is that... coconut?" He muttered as he squinted his eyes, trying to take a clearer look on the tree.

Ignoring his sore muscles, Tsukasa began running toward the coconut tree, though, he quickly stumbled upon a problem.

Tsukasa thought it was only a few dozen meters high, but in reality, it was taller than he originally thought, maybe 25 or 30 meters high, or maybe more.

Sighing, Tsukasa knew he wasn't able to climb a normal-sized tree in his prime condition, and now he should climb a tree several times higher than a normal tree with muscle aches and empty stomach?

He tried to climb it but as he initially guessed, he could only go for three or four meters before his arms gave up and he eventually slid down.

He tried to kick with naked foot and shake the tree, hoping that the fruits would fall... which didn't do anything and only make the tip of his toenail cracked.

Gritting his teeth, Tsukasa then started gathering some shells and pebbles, throwing them several times to the fruit, though, they barely flew beyond one-fourth of the tree.

"Ah, right..."

Struck by an idea, he took his shirt off and started putting the pebbles on it. He then tied his shirt with the vine, making sure no pebbles could come out from it.

Spinning the vine, Tsukasa hoped this would give his pebbles-filled shirt enough momentum to increase his throwing distance.

Letting his grip off, he saw his pebbles-filled shirt flew a little bit higher than his last several attempts. 

His lips curled up, he then tried to do it several times. Reducing and adding the number of pebbles, and even changing them with one big rock, and putting the combination of a rather large rock and several pebbles.

None of them worked.

Desperate, he started putting the clamp's shells in, praying that it would've made a difference.

But, the moment he let his shell-filled shirt flew, another blue screen appeared in front of him.

Do you want to learn Throwing Combat Level 1? (Feat Points left: 2)

Yes No

Much to his surprise, the floating letters that he had seen before was, in fact, real. Though, rather than only letters, it had a slightly glowing and slightly transparent blue-indigo pane, which had the same hue as the sea.

Apathetically, Tsukasa, of course, clicked on yes.

You have learned Throwing Combat Level 1!

You've become trained in using throwing weapons and throwing things. Any projectile you've thrown that has weight less than 1kg won't receive any physics penalty. Anything that you threw will have an additional [Str x Skill level] damage. Your throwing distance has increased by [Str x Skill level x 5] meter. *Only affect things that don't receive any penalty. Your throwing speed has increased by [Str x Skill level] meter per second. *Only affect things that don't receive any penalty. You've unlocked Technique(Throwing Weapon) " For more information, you can view your Technique anytime by thinking “Open Menu” and then selecting “Technique”.

Your Stamina has increased by 50 Your Stamina regeneration has increased by 1

 Your Strength has increased by 1 Your Dexterity has increased by 1

"...There's no way, right?" He muttered as he thoroughly read the things that appeared on the blue screen.

Tsukasa then silently grabbed a rock around the size of his palm, with half disbelief and half curiosity, he then threw the rock, which then flew straight up to the air and soared past the towering coconut tree.

Tsukasa's mouth left open as he blankly stared at the rock made its way back to the ground, which made him laughed mirthlessly.