Nick soared through the space between worlds. This time, instead of being granted a vision of his journey across the stars, he only had a vague impression of traversing vast distances at an incredible rate. He wasn’t in any shape to appreciate the view regardless.
Now that the adrenaline from running through the item vault was no longer coursing through his veins, his exhaustion returned in full force. It left him reeling, unable to focus on anything besides the desire to curl into a ball and sleep for a month. He forced himself to read the message from the System when it appeared in front of his eyes, sensing that he was approaching the terminus of his journey through the portal network.
All contestants have been granted a 96-hour rest period before the next mentor-sponsored event, the Fate of Earth, begins. Due to your exemplary performance during the tutorial, the quality of your safe room has been upgraded.
Your profile may be freely accessed during this time via the display mounted on the wall. A final reminder: The tutorial knowledge point system will be deactivated at the end of this rest period. Any unspent points will be lost, and participants are encouraged to spend them while they can.
When the world reappeared, all that Nick could see was a boundless skyscape. An endless ocean of fluffy white clouds stretching from horizon to horizon. His jaw dropped in awe, his exhaustion fading into the background as he gazed into the distance. He was too overwhelmed by the stunning view to remember to be disoriented, so he simply stood there and took it all in. He remained lost in wonder for long minutes, soaking in the breathtaking spectacle.
This panorama of surpassing beauty was indescribably moving, almost agonizingly precious when contrasted against the brutal battle for survival that had come before. Eventually, Nick realized that he was hungry, which jolted him out of his trance long enough to wonder where on what world he was.
When he turned around to discover the answer, he found himself looking at the interior of a luxurious penthouse suite. Half of the sprawling space was open, with comfortable furniture clustered here and there along the floor. The walls and ceiling were formed from something transparent. Nick couldn’t see them at all until he reached out to touch the glass, leaving dirty fingerprints upon the pane.
In addition to the open area, he could see a kitchen and dining room running along one corner of the bottom level. Another was filled with exercise equipment, and a third was taken up by what appeared to be a small art gallery, where a gigantic painting was hanging on the wall.
Above the kitchen was another level, with a staircase leading to a loft that overlooked the room below. Unlike the rest of the suite, the walls on that floor were heavily tinted. When he raised his gaze to take a closer look, Nick caught sight of what appeared to be a bedroom and bathroom, a heavy curtain controlling how much light poured in from the rest of the space.
He had no idea where he was, but he was certain that it wasn’t anywhere on Earth, since this building had to be unimaginably tall to rise so far above the clouds. Nick peered out the window and scanned the horizon, but there wasn’t another structure in sight. Nothing besides the vast, roiling cloudscape extending in all directions. When he pressed his face against the glass and tried to look down, he had the sense of something perfectly flat and nearly invisible continuing below his boots, but he couldn’t get a good look from this angle.
Nick wanted to explore the safe room. To pull up his profile and check out his new powers. To learn more about the challenge ahead, then start training his skills and laying down fresh plans for the future. But in that moment, a black wave of fatigue rose to engulf him, threatening to drag him off his feet. Despite the benefits of his Survivor trait, he had been driven past the point of exhaustion time and time again.
Although he had been healed by the curators of the arena, their magic had done nothing to assuage the stress of the experience. All the pain and fear. Blood and death. He still had a warehouse full of issues that he needed to ponder. An ocean of grief and anxiety to process. Not to mention the incredible ordeal that he had undergone at the end of the tutorial on the Searing Isle. It was hard to believe that Nick had been standing in a raging searstorm only a few hours prior, which already felt like a lifetime ago in the time-warped heat of battle.
It was easy to forget that he had barely slept in days. Hadn’t been able to relax in over a month, when the System had entered his life and changed his world forever. Thus, the realization that he was truly safe. That nothing was trying to eat or otherwise kill him, coaxed Nick into lowering his guard, letting all the emotions that he had been suppressing leap out of their cages and come surging to the fore, like inmates rushing through the halls after breaking out of prison.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Nick wasn’t ready to process these feelings now, although he no longer fought to hold them back. Right now, all he wanted was to close his eyes, fall into bed, and sleep for days. Because no matter what came next, he was going to crash in a proper bed for the first time since waking up in his new life.
But, as he caught a whiff of his own rank sweat, He realized that there was one thing that he wanted even more. Something that beckoned to him even more powerfully than the exquisite feather mattress just beyond the bedroom door. Before Nick let weariness carry him into the realm of dreams, he really needed to take a fucking bath.
It’s time to get clean. His healing had done nothing to remove the grime covering every inch of his body. A month’s worth of dirt and muck. Blood and gunk in every color of the rainbow. The filth-tinged legacy of hard days spent sleeping in branches and on dirt floors. Of traversing muddy streambeds and trekking through the fetid bowels of the tutorial dungeon.
Nick’s skin was stained. His hair was thick with mud. His odor so potent that it formed a veritable aura around him. His destination decided, he began heading up the stairs, taking them two at a time on his way to the bathroom. At long last, it was finally time to wash up.
By now, he was shedding clothing with every step, stripping down to his skin with renewed enthusiasm. He didn’t even try to salvage his mangled blue jeans, which were so tattered and threadbare that they simply fell apart as he peeled them off his legs. He was immensely relieved to see unbroken skin where the bonecruncher’s bite had mangled his thigh, his latest round of healing leaving not even scar tissue behind. He tossed his leather jacket and shirt to the floor, then pulled the release lever on his toolbelt before kicking off his boots.
Nick was naked by the time he entered the bathroom. Unlike the open part of the suite, the walls and floor were formed from a luxurious black wood with deep, spiraling grains. He could smell hints of flowers and citrus, wafting up from jars of soap and ointment artfully arranged on a corner shelf. On his way over to the shower, he caught sight of his own reflection in a full-sized mirror hanging on the wall.
Despite his fervent desire to wash up and then pass the fuck out, Nick stopped dead in his tracks after catching sight of his reflection, jaw dropping as he took in the lean lines and chiseled muscles that banded the contours of his body. He had been an athletic teenager and had played sports back in high school. But after graduating college, especially when he started gaming as a full-time job, he had begun to let himself go, gaining an extra twenty-odd pounds and losing a fair amount of tone in the process.
But even at his peak, he had never looked this good. So radiantly healthy and full of life. Although he had begun to internalize his enhanced strength and speed, he hadn’t realized until this moment just how profound the changes that the System had wrought upon his body truly were. His attribute-assisted conditioning was bolstered by a month of hard living and constant exercise during his tutorial. Thanks to his efforts, Nick’s spare tire had vanished completely, and his ass, abs, and pecs were tight and toned.
If it wasn’t for all the dirt, he would have looked like a model walking off the set of an underwear commercial. The realization made him wonder just how much he had changed in other, less tangible ways. How much more he would change during the hard days ahead.
Look on the bright side Nick, he grinned back at his own reflection. The apocalypse wasn’t all bad news. After a final, appreciative glance, he stepped into the shower, which appeared to serve as a bathtub as well, depending on how he turned the knobs. The basin was formed from beaten copper, with delicate swirls etched into the surface to add a bit of traction. He set a towel and bar of soap on a stool within easy reach and then stepped inside, deciding to start with a shower to wash away the grime caked to every surface of his body.
After a bit of fiddling with the plumbing, pure water began streaming through the faucet, wisps of steam billowing into the air. A surging waterfall of cleansing liquid that put every shower Nick had taken before to shame.
All thoughts fled from his mind as he stepped beneath the miraculous flow, leaving nothing but the wonderous sensation of hot water scouring his flesh. He grabbed the bar of soap and started scrubbing, working the suds into every crevice of his body. Rivers of mud coursed down Nick’s legs, banded spirals of viscera swirling thick around his feet before disappearing down the drain. The outer layer of his stress sloughed away with it, taking away some of the pervasive tension lodged deep within his muscles, far more strain than he had realized was there.
He shuddered when he felt a knot deep inside his gut, a sensation like a metal hand had grabbed him by the stomach and squeezed, soften and then unravel. Nick sighed in relief as the aftershocks spread throughout his body, helping him to release more of the stress he had been holding in his muscles during his month-long ordeal. For the next thirty minutes, he let hot bliss wash over him until at last, the water ran clean off his skin.
He staggered out of the shower and began toweling himself dry, barely able to walk with his muscles feeling so loose, clean for the first time in what felt like ages. Nick lurched his way into the bedroom, his gaze locking onto the most comfortable looking bed he had ever seen. A luxurious featherbed covered with a shimmering green sheet that looked like a cross between satin and silk, which was easily big enough to hold five people his size.
Surrendering to the moment, he fell forward like a diver beginning his leap, groaning as the supportive softness of the mattress engulfed him. Nick was fast asleep ten seconds later.