Ray spasmed, back arcing and lungs heaving as his eyes flew wide open as if possessed. He brought in a massive lungful of air in a gasp that would make any observer think he hadn’t breathed in weeks.
Which, potentially, he hadn’t.
His body came crashing down on the smooth stone floor as his lungs and heart restarted his body. Whatever had happened during the Integration had been painful. Extremely so. Like his entire body had fallen asleep and blood was only just beginning to recirculate through his system.
He wet his parched lips with his tongue and curled into the fetal position trying to catch his breath, his body on fire.
“Fucking… someone shit in my mouth. Why?” he muttered hoarsely to himself, wondering why every time he woke up from a major event, he tasted different flavors of fecal matter. He slowly uncurled and waved in the air, hoping to find someone or something nearby to help him up.
The last thing he remembered, he and the crew had just returned from the nightmare trip into the city with more than fifty survivors. He had ordered the fort fortified, Gale leading the charge with organizing the work yet to be done. Then the timer had struck zero.
Taking a blurry-eyed stock of his surroundings, he quickly realized that wherever he was, he was alone.
“System,” he gasped, bringing himself to his arms and knees. He blinked the blurriness away to see what was around, but only the gray stone of a featureless cavern filled his sight. “System,” he repeated, becoming worried. He attempted to access his inventory but was met with silence.
“What the fuck is going on?” he wondered, forcing himself to his feet. Then he froze. He had been on his hands and knees. He turned his head slowly to where his missing arm had been, only to find it restored in full. He twisted the limb back and forth in wonder, curious as to what just the hell had happened to give him a full limb back. He played with the restored arm for several minutes, testing the full flexibility and strength of the limb.
He smacked his lips, restoring his dry mouth with what spit he could dredge up. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Deciding that he was healthy, and whole, enough to stand up, he did just that. If shakily. He clambered to his feet, using the wall as a crutch. Shaking off the feeling of a full-body sleep, he took a tentative step forward and found he had full control of his faculties.
Grand.
Now standing, he took stock of his new surroundings, it wasn’t much. He was in some kind of concrete room with a single heavy-duty metal door in the wall. There was also a stack of crates in the corner, a desk with an envelope on it, and what looked like a small wall safe.
Swallowing in the dim light, he decided to try the only observable exit. He walked over to the door and placed his ear against it. If he got ambushed right outside of this place he would never live it down with the other. If they were still alive.
Thankfully, there was absolutely no sound from the other side. He tried the latch and was surprised to find it unlocked. That was a huge plus, but he let it fall back into place for now. He had crates and a desk to search. And something about that letter was bothering him.
He decided to read the letter first. It was so obviously placed that it couldn’t be more apparent that someone had wanted him to read it. Walking over, he picked up the envelope and cracked it open. Inside was a short, concise letter.
He read through it quickly, the contents taking his breath away. Then he read it again, this time slower. Someone had been watching him. The entire time. Someone who had, for whatever reason, been vested in his well-being. Someone who wasn’t fucking Kevin. Now that someone was interfering again, apparently for the last time. Even if they were arrogant and pompous enough to call themselves a supreme anything.
But their help had, apparently, cost them a lot.
Ray decided then and there that if he ever found this person… or whatever they were, he would thank them in any way he could. He was careful not to voice such a thought, however, as he had learned his lesson about System Oaths before.
He folded the latter and carefully placed it in his pocket. Gale and the guys would be interested in it, he was certain of that. He only hoped whatever this person had done to Gale wasn’t harmful or his feeling of gratitude would be non-existent.
With the letter read, he turned his attention to the safe. Entering the combination that had been at the end he popped open quickly. Inside was a well-familiar sight. Sitting on a small, but plush, cushion was his forty-five caliber pistol, an extra magazine, and a single box of ammunition. Smiling, Ray reached in and picked it up.
Then the System attacked.
Dozens of notifications slammed into him, smashing his awareness aside as it felt like his head was splitting open:
{ACHIEVEMENT}
FIRST WEAPON OBTAINED
{ACHIEVEMENT}
FIRST ITEM OBTAINED
{SYSTEM NOTIFICATIONS UNLOCKED}
{WARNING}
EARTH 4 CONTAINMENT INITIATED
EARTH 4 INTEGRATION HALTED
DUNGEON WORLD PARAMETERS ALTERED
DUNGEON WORLD PARAMETERS REMOVED
ARTIFACT WORLD PARAMETERS ENTERED
{CHANGES ASSIGNED}
{WARNING}
PLANETARY DESTABILIZATION AT 412%
{WARNING}
PLANETARY TRAITS ALTERED
PLANETARY SIZE INCREASED 412%
PLANETARY CORE ALTERED
PLANETARY GRAVITY ALTERED
ARTIFACT WORLD STATUS ASSIGNED
HEX ZONE COUNT INCREASED 412%
CREATURE SPAWN RATE RESET
{WARNING}
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
412 NEW SPECIES INTRODUCED - SENTIENT
{WARNING}
4,121,121 NEW SPECIES INTRODUCED – NON-SENTIENT
{WARNING}
HEX SYSTEM UPDATED
HEX CLAIM SYSTEM UNLOCKED
HEX CONQUEST SYSTEM UNLOCKED
HEX TRADE SYSTEM UNLOCKED
HEX DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM UNLOCKED
{WARNING}
ADVANCEMENT SYSTEM ALTERED
CLASS SYSTEM ALTERED
LEVEL SYSTEM ALTERED
RARITY LEVEL SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED
{WARNING}
UNIQUE CLASS DETECTED
//ErrOr\\
ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE
ERROR RESOLVED
SYSTEM LORD CLASS ACCEPTED
INVENTORY UNLOCKED
STATS SCREEN UNLOCKED
ABILITIES SCREEN UNLOCKED
“Fuck… you…” Ray grunted through the wall of text that overwhelmed his mind and body. He fell to his knees, clutching his head and breathing hard. That had been extremely unpleasant. But now he knew something he had done had unlocked access to the System. Gasping, he tried to pull up his inventory. He was surprised when this time an empty window appeared in front of him.
Studying it, the window looked significantly different from before. It was no longer just a list of items but appeared more as a kind of room. It had empty crates, shelves, and even a door. The door threw him for a loop right up until he received a single, far less intrusive message:
{ENTER STORAGE SPACE}
Y / N
Curious, Ray hit yes… and instantly found himself standing in his own inventory space. Turning around, he saw the door behind him was open and led back into the small room he had found himself in.
“That’s… wild,” he said aloud.
Approaching the door, he stuck one finger past the threshold and found himself back in the room he had come from. This… was amazing!
“I teleported into my own fucking backpack,” he said amused. An empty backpack… but it wouldn’t be for long. Picking up the handgun, magazine, and ammo, he imagined them being placed into his inventory space. They vanished from his hands, appearing inside the room on a shelf.
“Wild,” he repeated, grinning
He turned to the pile of crates and walked over to look at them. There were six crates total, each the size of a large moving box. They were each clearly labeled.
“Food, medicine, water, tools, building materials… Goblins,” he said out loud, reading off each label. The last one giving him pause.
He squinted at the last box, “Why the fuck does this box say Goblins?” he wondered aloud. Opening the top cautiously, he looked inside and saw a pile of smaller crates. Picking one up he got a prompt,
{OPEN REWARD CRATE}
Y / N
“Holy shit, these must be the rewards the letter was talking about. But why were they… asshole,” Ray muttered, realizing the person who had left these things for him had been messing with him. He quickly piled everything into his inventory space and then stepped inside. The boxes, apparently, were not auto-sorted like his weapon had been. He began unpacking everything.
He quickly ran out of space on the lower shelves. Using a box to stand on, he reached up to put a reward crate on an upper shelf, only to knock down a small metallic coin. The pling it made when it hit the ground startled him, almost causing him to fall off his improvised perch. He quickly caught his balance, then set the box down and went searching for the coin.
He found it in the corner of the room, vertical with the wall. The letter had mentioned this too, although it had declined to provide details. Picking it up, Ray examined the coin. On one side was a black plain with a massive featureless monster on it. The other side was golden, with what looked like a German Shepherd.
Ray stepped outside of his inventory, the door closing behind him. The moment the door closed he received a prompt,
{SKILL COIN}
SOUL COMPANION
{USE}
Y / N
Shrugging, he selected yes. He should have learned by now that anything System-related was as painful as lightning stuck in his brain. At least that’s what it felt like. He lay on the floor for an unknown amount of time, struggling to get his body back under control. Eventually, he succeeded.
Gasping he sat up, only to come face to face with a giant dog.
Ray screamed. The dog screamed. They both screamed.
He scrambled back quickly, taking a fighting stance, “The fuck? Where did you come from?” He couldn’t have been more surprised when the dog responded.
“The coin you used. Goodness, I never expected to be conversing with you. You always seemed more of a… snack to me really,” said the dog. It hadn’t even moved it lips.
“Are you… talking to me in my mind?” Ray asked, putting two and telepathy together.
“Certainly. I mean, I don’t have a muzzle capable of speech. Yet,” responded the canine with a shake of its head.
Ray looked the dog over, realizing it was a very large German Shepherd.
“How the hell?” he muttered. Then he swore the dog rolled its eyes at him.
“Check your status screen. It may explain a bit,” it growled. “Focus on what you see to get an explanation, since you won’t bother listening to me.”
He did as the canine asked, mentally prodding the System to show his stats, focusing on each item on the list as it appeared;
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
{RACE}
HUMAN
THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF EARTH 4
{CLASS}
SYSTEM LORD
A UNIQUE CLASS THAT APPLIES INTENT OUTSIDE THE CONFINES OF THE SYSTEM
{CLASS GRADE}
UNIQUE
UNIQUE GRADE CLASS OUTSIDE THE RATING SYSTEM
{STAGE}
1
STAGE INDICATING THE POWER LEVEL OF THE CLASS ATTACHED TO IT
{LEVEL}
1
PERSONAL LEVEL INDICATING OVERALL CAPABILITIES
{STRENGTH}
5
UNAUGMENTED PHYSICAL ABILITY
HUMAN BASE: 5
{AGILITY}
5
UNAUGMENTED PHYSICAL SPEED
HUMAN BASE: 5
{POWER}
50
THE ENERGY WHICH POWERS ABILITIES
HUMAN BASE: 0
{WISDOM}
10
HOW WELL YOU ACCUMULATE AND APPLY KNOWLEDGE
HUMAN BASE: 8
{LUCK}
10
THE SYSTEM IS WATCHING
HUMAN BASE: 2
{ABILITIES}
CLAIM HEX
CLAIM A HEX WITHOUT THE USE OF A CLAIM ITEM.
OATH OF FEALTY
SEAL ANOTHER'S FATE TO YOUR OWN THROUGH A SYSTEM-ENFORCED OATH.
SOUL COMPANION
SUMMON A COMPANION. YOURS HAPPENS TO HAVE WANTED TO KILL YOU IN A PAST LIFE.
“Oh,” Ray said with finality, looking back at the canine. “You’re my nemesis, aren’t you?”
“Rather intuitive, making that connection so quickly,” the pup said, barking once aloud. “I was, yeah. Although I find my burning passion to rip your throat out significantly diminished. In fact, I have the oddest urge to get you to scratch my ears and call me a good girl.”
“Really?” Ray asked, a bit incredulous.
“Not in the least. Compliment me all you want, but if you touch me, I will bite you,” the apparent female dog growled back.
“Fair enough,” Ray conceded. “I’m going to assume that we are on the same side, seeing as you haven’t tried to murder me yet.”
“Correct. It seems that I have been… reassigned to this body,” it stated.
Ray looked at the Shephard critically before saying, “Well, welcome to the team. Now let’s go find whoever we can and figure out what the hell has changed.”
The dog barked her agreement, and the unlikely duo moved over to the door. Ray opened it cautiously, peeking around the edges for any signs of enemies. Not seeing anything, he stepped out into the morning light. The sunlight nearly blinded him as his eyes adjusted. And what he saw shocked him.
The door from their room opened into an open courtyard of what seemed to be some kind of apartment building. The old, decayed building was overgrown with plants. The cracked tiles underfoot and the ruined fountain in the center told him that things had been like this for a long, long time.
There were trees growing out of the corners of the yard, crawling their way up the sides of the building in massive networks of roots and trunks. The scene was beautiful, if silently devastating. Ray was about to see what the dog thought when a scrabbling noise of claws on wood caught his attention. He quickly backed up to a wall and examined the area… only to see a two-and-a-half-foot tall squirrel climb cautiously down one of the trees.
Ray marveled at the beast, its lush and gorgeous fur covered it from head to toe. The creature slowly climbed down to the ground, examining him as it did so. Awe struck; Ray walked forward slowly.
“It doesn’t look hostile. Maybe it’s tamable,” he said, making clicking noises with his tongue. “Here buddy. Come here, that’s it. I won’t hurt you. I’m friendly… see?” he said, holding out an open hand.
The creature made its way over to him slowly until it was only a foot away from his hand. Stretching forward, it sniffed his fingers and open hand… then its eyebrows slammed down. It did a quick backflip, landing on its feet, paws held forward in some kind of martial arts stance.
“Chiiiii yow!”it screeched at him.
“Ray… I do not think-“ the dog began, but was cut off when the squirrel streaked forward and delivered a devastating flying squirrel kick… directly to Ray’s jewels.
He doubled over groaning and with the air knocked out of him, even as the dog tipped over as it laughed so hard it couldn’t remain standing. The squirrel, however, was not amused.
Neither was the System.
{COMBAT TUTORIAL INTIATED}
DEFEAT THE SQUIRREL NINJA
ENEMIES REMAINING – 1
“Why the nuts?” Ray gasped weakly, collapsing to his knees with both hands between his legs. “Fuck you System,” he squeaked. “Fuck you!”
The squirrel just folded its fingers into its palm, gesturing him forward. Dog, on the other hand, had literally howled itself onto its back with laughter.
Ray hated this place.