Atlas felt a jolt go through his body, and he opened his eyes, only to find himself staring into a black void. The endless darkness was everywhere, threatening to swallow him whole. There weren’t stars- or any light at all actually.

“Huh?”

He shuddered, blinking his eyes and glancing around to try and figure out what was going on. The last thing he remembered was seeing words on a screen, and watching his flesh turn into white light. And then… A tremor went through Atlas’s body as he shoved the swarm of unpleasant memories out of his head.

A deep and masculine voice boomed throughout his brain, shocking Atlas enough to scream into the endless void. “WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF LIMIT!”

As he took a deep breath to calm his nerves, he was assaulted by the voice again. It rang from inside his head, and didn’t seem to care that telepathy shouldn’t be possible. “WHERE YOUR DREAMS BECOME REALITY!”

There was a brief pause, as though they were an announcer on television looking at a script. Atlas raised his eyebrow and scanned the void again, but to no avail.

“Wait no, that's a different world.”

There was another long pause, and Atlas glanced again at the infinite blackness that stretched all around him. Where was he exactly? And who was this voice prattling on inside his head?

“Found it!”

The voice suddenly shifted into a booming monotone voice.

“WHERE YOU BREAK YOUR PERSONAL LIMITS AND GROW STRONG!”

Atlas clamped his hands to his ears and winced. That was loud.

“Hello mortal.” The voice started. “What tutorial difficulty would you like to have?”

“Um… What are the options?” Atlas said, taking a deep breath and fighting to sound calmer than he felt. And as though he had any idea of what was going on.

“Oh yeah. Here they are.” As the voice spoke, a screen appeared in front of Atlas.

-Super Easy, G grade skill and potential.

-Very Easy, F grade skill, talent and potential.

-Easy, E grade skill, talent and potential.

-Moderate, D grade skill, talent and potential.

-Medium, C grade skill, talent and potential.

-Hard, B grade skill, talent and potential.

-Very Hard, A grade skill, talent and potential.

-Super Hard, S grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

-Nightmare, SS grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

-Hell, SSS grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

-Impossible, Z grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

Wow, that was… a lot. Atlas was still trying to understand the situation he had suddenly been thrust into, but he instantly ruled out anything below hard. If this was to be his new reality, as it was becoming increasingly apparent. He wants to be strong, and able to control his own fate.

He was going to take this as an opportunity to get rid of all of his past mistakes and start over with a new clean slate. He didn’t wonder if this was a dream, because his memories, hard as he tried to avoid them, told him otherwise.

As he looked at them all over again, he narrowed his focus, he would go Super Hard at the minimum, he wanted to have whatever a “title” was.

He spent a long time looking at all of them, wanting to make the best choice possible. He wouldn't screw up again, even if fate tried to intervene.

He shouldn’t have thought that last bit.

Black text appeared in front of him, almost invisible with the void he was in.

You are being forced to choose difficulty “Impossible” all the other players have chosen there difficulties, as a punishment for being last, you are forced into this world.

“But he was just wanting to make the best choice he could!” The voice said, sounding very angry at this new development. Is it trying to defend me? Strange. Atlas wondered briefly.

TOO BAD. The words said.

“Urgh, I hate them.” The voice said. There was a brief pause as the voice seemed to gather its thoughts.

“Alright, I will help you,” It said, sounding determined.

“Mortal, we- I mean I- will grant you our -ahem- my blessing, you will get it once you arrive in the tutorial, it won’t be much help outside of the tutorial, but during it, it will be very helpful.”

The voice turned serious. “But ultimately, it comes down to you, if you don’t do your absolute best to survive, you won’t.”

Atlas grit his teeth and smirked at the void. He was liking this less and less, but he wouldn’t go against what he had already decided. He would crush this tutorial, and then get so powerful that nothing could do something like this to him again. He wasn’t going to waste his second chance.

“Thank you.” Atlas said earnestly, this really meant a lot to him, he could tell that they actually cared for his well being, even though they didn’t even really know him.

“You're welcome.” The male said,“Goodbye Mortal.”.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

***

Atlas blinked blearily. He didn’t think he was ever going to get used to being thrown through space to another place. That was roughly what it felt like to him.

He was in a small clearing in a lush forest, and he couldn’t see anything other than the tops of the trees. No mountains, nothing.

Another screen appeared in front of him, but for a change, it held good news.

Blessing of the Tutorial: Grow strong and prosper. Your awareness has taken a step forward, and it is easier to notice things. Your body is stronger while in the tutorial. You level at double your normal leveling speed while in the tutorial.

Atlas nodded to himself, that seemed very good this early on in the game. He froze only a split second after thinking that.

This is not a game. He reminded himself sternly. He could die here, that kind of thinking could be disastrous.

Atlas suddenly felt as though a searing hole was being burned into the back of his head, and he whipped around, remembering the warnings of the voice.

He came face to face with the most disgusting creature he had ever seen. It was like a human and a slug had a child. It had beady stalks on the top of its head, and its skin was slightly transparent and looked slimy. It was hunched over and was roughly the size of a full grown man, just… a slug.

It opened its mouth, revealing dozens of razor sharp teeth and roaring in his face.

It was actually far more like a gurgle, but it was still terrifying all the same. Atlas scrambled backwards, kicking out with his right foot as he fled.

It landed directly on the creatures middle, and with a *Swelch* his foot sank into it. It was only then that he realized he was still wearing his dress shoes. Ripping his foot out of its- stomach? He didn’t know what to call the mass of goo in the center of the slug-like creature. He stood up slowly, looking around frantically for anything that could be of use.

Atlas glanced down at his foot, only to find himself without a shoe on his right foot. Glancing at the slug like thing, he saw he shoe vanish with a *pop!* inside of itself.

Atlas’s face turned pale. Had it just eaten his shoe? Now that he got a better look at the monstrosity, he saw words hovering over the creatures head.

Humanoid Slime, Lvl 10

That meant almost nothing to Atlas, but almost nothing was still more than nothing, so he could complain.

He was a little occupied at the moment anyway.

His foot came to rest on a rock about the size of a softball, and Atlas reached down, picking it up.

It was a lot lighter than he had thought that it would be, and he hefted it over his shoulder, throwing it at the thing's face.

The slime opened its mouth, and the rock plummeted straight into its gullet, vanishing with another *pop!*.

Welp, that was a bust.

Atlas turned, running as fast as he could, wanting to be anywhere but with this creature.

As he ran, he glanced back, only to find the creature steadily following him. At the pace of a slug. It slowly inched towards him as he ran, and the distance grew greater with everyday.

He slowed down, thinking. He didn’t want to die, and that thing was definitely capable of killing him, but as long as he kept his distance and found something that could kill it, it was definitely possible.

If creatures like this were commonplace here -wherever the heck here was- he needed to get stronger. And fast.

“Isn’t there supposed to be some sort of status?” Atlas murmured to himself, trying to think about what could kill this fiend.

Water might do it, but they were surrounded by forest, so Atlas didn’t think water would be all that easy to find, unless he found a stream of some sort. If he dropped something heavy enough on its head, he might be able to crush it altogether.

Deciding that was the best course of action, Atlas searched around for a rock bigger than his head, he found a lot of small ones, but didn’t see any rocks that would do the job.

As he searched, he could hear the slime slowly crawling towards him, and occasional pops as it absorbed its surroundings.

Atlas started to panic, maybe he should just run for it. Shaking his head, he snapped himself out of that line of thinking. If he couldn’t kill this, he wouldn’t be able to kill anything that came his way, which would mean almost certain death.

Later down the line, there would be something he couldn’t outrun, and he would have to stand and fight, might as well get in the habit while he was working his way up the food chain.

He trotted a couple feet away from the slime, just to create a little more distance, when he spotted what he was looking for. The rock was about the size of a soccer ball, and looked like it would do the job nicely.

Bending down, Atlas grabbed both sides of the rock and heaved. The rock lifted about 1 foot off the ground before it slipped out of his hands, thudding on the ground.

Well, that was a bust.

He tried again, only to get the same result. He started to get frustrated. What could he do? He froze when he realized he couldn’t hear the slime, turning slowly, he came face to face with the creature. It opened its mouth and lunged at him, moving far faster than it had previously.

Atlas dove out of the way, feeling needle like teeth rip through his pants and scrape against his leg. Rolling to the side, he stood up, fists raised like some sort of boxer.

He backpedaled trying to maintain distance with the slime, but he felt his back hit a tree, halting him.

Atlas whirled, grabbing a low branch and hurling himself up, climbing the tree with a quickness that left him gasping for air when he stopped on one of the higher branches.

Looking down, he saw the slime staring at him with its two stalk-like eyes. “What are you gonna do now? Eat the tree?” Atlas said, mocking it. He was getting really frustrated with this whole thing.

The slime looked down like it would do exactly that, opening his mouth up wide and snapping its jaw shut on the trunk of the tree. The tree shuddered, and the slime ripped out a head-sized chunk of bark.

The tree swayed, and Atlas started to glance around, looking for anything he could use. He spotted a branch that was barely hanging on, and ripped it out. It was a little longer than a baseball bat, and a little thicker too.

It would do perfectly. He waited for the slime to go to take another bite. When it finally did, swallowing the bark with another *pop!* Atlas jumped from the tree, hurtling straight for the things head. He fell over 10 feet before landing on the things back, shoving the large stick into its head, like some hero in a movie.

The slime gurgled from the sudden weight and stab, before goo started to spill out of the back of its head. Atlas jumped off, taking his stick with him. The slime turned, transparent goo still flooding out of its head. It gurgled at him, and lunged with surprising speed.

But this time Atlas was ready, jumping to the side, he swung the bat with all his might, and with a spray of goo, the head of the creature flew off.

Thinking it was over, Atlas fell to the ground, shaking slightly.

The slime's body turned to him, and started to advance.

Atlas yelled, picking up his bat and throwing it with all his might. Only a moment after it left his hand, he realized that it was not a good idea to throw his only weapon.

The bat flew through the air, spinning in the slime.

With a *SCHULK* the bat sunk into the slime's body. The slime exploded into goo, covering Atlas in the sticky fluid.

LEVEL UP!!!

LEVEL UP!!!

LEVEL UP!!!

LEVEL UP!!!

LEVEL UP!!!

Huh?