David woke slowly, a quiet but insistent alarm buzzing in the back of his mind as he slowly rallied to consciousness.

He felt cramped and was lying at a strange angle, head and knees touching for some reason, his arms wrapped around himself tightly. David felt far too warm and a bit ill, not quite sick but not well. He tried to open his eyes but found that it was impossible, panic quickly setting in as he thrashed against whatever had pinned him down. The harder he fought the more his prison seemed to clamp down around him, smothering him and restricting his movements before a bright and happy chime played loudly in his ear. Soon lines of text began to scroll past his vision and he froze momentarily.

–System Integration Complete–

–Leaving Standby–

–Updating User: David Fisher–

–You have 1 Message–

**System Communique**

Congratulations, David!

Due to your high cooperation metrics detected by our core systems, you have been chosen to participate in the First Wave! You and other users across the newly reformed planet Earth have been selected to forge the way into this new world and now hold the power to shape the path of your planet as we move forward!

Local species have been subject to sweeping improvements, please remain aware of your surroundings and your new place in the local ecosystem.

As a special gift for participating in the most difficult phase of the Integration, you will be provided with additional Quest rewards until the commencement of the Second Wave!

Please remember that every choice leads to evolution, and every evolution is a step closer to supremacy.

**END OF MESSAGE**

–Quest Available: Hatch!–

–Reward: 25xp–

–Bonus Reward: Random Mutagen–

David jumped in surprise as the message concluded with a repetition of the happy little chime and the words darted down from the center of his field of view to a tiny blue dot that sat in his periphery like an irritating dead pixel on a screen. Every time he directed his attention to it, the message proclaiming he had a quest would expand to cover his field of view again, only to disappear when his attention wandered even for a second. After a dozen repetitions of this, David panicked completely, unable to process the bizarre situation any longer. With a scream, he surged against his captivity, pressing outward with his entire body as his muscles burned with the effort. Blood rushed to his head and his ears rang with the strain until something finally gave.

With a loud sucking pop, he felt his shoulders push through something as cold air suddenly poured into his tiny prison. David sucked in huge gasps of oxygen as the burning in his muscles slowly faded and he wiggled to bring his head to the gap. With the tiny amount of light pouring in through the crack, he could see that he had been wrapped in some sort of…springy material. It had cracked raggedly along the gentle curve of its side and he struggled to bring his hands up to widen the gap. His fingers and arms felt clumsy and wrong, unable to move at the angle he desired them to. In desperation he bit at the ragged edge, tearing off chunk after chunk of the surprisingly brittle material until, finally, a large section broke free and he spilled out with a surprised screech.

David hit the ground hard despite the mercifully short fall free of the strange restraint, once again unable to catch himself as expected. His arms flared forward and somehow caught the air, causing him to flip painfully forward and land on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He lay there shivering from fatigue and trying to collect his thoughts as the happy little chimes sounded again and more lines of text began to populate his vision.

–Quest Complete: Hatch!–

–Reward: 25 Exp!–

–You have reached Level 1–

–You have been rewarded 2pts!–

–SysAutoGen_BonusLoot…–

–Received Unnerving Mutagen B–

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

User: David Fisher

Species: Duskling

Rank: F

Health 24/24

Stam 125/125 (++)

Level: 1

Exp: 0/50

Special: Echolocation F

Traits: 4/4

Nocturnal: +8% Damage, Stam Regen, Exp Gain at night.

Next Upgrade: E

Echolocation: Manipulate high-frequency sound waves to see with more than just your eyes. Next unlock: E

Flight: Allows for short flights and gliding. Moderate Stamina drain. (stam+)

Next Upgrade: E

Small: Your form is small, weighing no more than 65lbs. (stam+)

Next Upgrade: D

Abilities: 1/4

Screech F (2pts): You emit a loud screech, damaging enemies around you. Low Stam consumption.

Next Upgrade: E

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

Mutagens: 1/5

Unnerving Mutagen B: Your appearance is unnerving. May cause enemies to reconsider aggressing you.

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

Empty:

David clenched his eyes shut as they began to burn and tingle when he read the section about Mutagens, the floating panel of light proclaiming to be his Status vanishing momentarily while he pawed at his face. After only a few seconds of this, he froze, coming very suddenly to a horrible conclusion. His hands still felt wrong, and worse than that, so did his face.

His eyes snapped open and he looked over at his arm only to be greeted by the sight of a large batlike wing, leathery membrane stretched between the long fingers and vanishing out of his line of sight. David flexed his hand experimentally, and sure enough the wing curled inward in tandem with his movements. This repeated several times before something seemed to ratchet into place in his brain and everything kicked into gear already redlined. David sucked in a massive breath and screamed his lungs out, wings flailing as he floundered his way upright. Compact and powerful hind legs bunched under him as he instinctually flung himself into the air, wings clawing for lift.

–Screech: Level up!–

–Gained 3xp–

Moldy drywall crumpled under the force of David’s scream as he emptied his lungs in panic, surging forward clumsily through the air. His frenzied flight continued for two wingbeats before he slammed into the wall face first, once again falling hard. He thrashed about on the debris that covered the floor, screeching with fear for a few seconds before curling up into a ball, covering his aching face as best he could.

–You have taken 2 Impact Damage–

What the fuck is going on? What did they do to me? Oh my go–

David’s thoughts spiraled in confusion as he huddled against the wall for a long time. The minute amount of sun that leaked through the dirty windows began to slide down the wall and fade away before he finally collected himself enough to begin to come to terms with the situation. Slowly he began to explore his own body, finding to his horror that he could see much better in the dark than he could when light had filled the room.

He was about the size of a large dog, hunched and compact. His new body was almost batlike, but a bit longer in the torso, allowing him to walk more upright and quickly than he would have thought himself capable of. His back legs were short but strong, allowing him to hop a disturbing distance into the air with relative ease. He did so dozens of times, amazed by the lightness he felt in his body, the large leaps pathetically easy to perform. Everything seemed incredibly loud to him, and with a bit of practice he found that he could swivel the enormously long ears he felt to zero in on certain areas; honestly, the appendages almost did it by themselves when he stopped thinking about it. The colors of the room also seemed off to David as he observed himself in an attempt to figure out if his fur was grey or black, and it took him a few minutes to realize that the room was completely dark…just not to him.

“Well, shit.” David squeaked in defeat.

Are you shitting me? I sound like a squeaky toy!

“Shit shit shit, testing testing. Oh goddamn it!”, he cursed loudly, his voice high enough that he felt utterly ridiculous.

–Quest Available!–

–Find Food–

–Reward 35xp–

–Bonus Reward: Random Skill Token: F–

David froze as the text he was beginning to hate scrolled past his vision accompanied by the all-too-cheerful musical chime. For the first time, he focused on his surroundings and not his own body, willing the block of text to disappear as it flew down to the corner of his eye and vanished.

He hadn’t recognized it because of how badly it was overgrown, plants creeping through the crumbling floor and up the moldy walls. His eyes darted between the derelict computer desk, the bed covered in leaves and mushrooms, and the computer chair that now held a huge egg with a gaping hole in the side.

He’d never left his bedroom.