When Jake woke up, a wave of intense pain washed over him. It took the boy a few seconds to clear his mind and remember he was lying at the bottom of a cave, and even more time to remember how he’d ended up in here in the first place. Still, after a few moments of trying to piece the puzzle back together, he finally managed to remember most of what had happened before he’d lost consciousness.
The good news was that he’d woken up. The bad news, however, was that he was lying in a small pool of blood he could only guess was his based on the horrifying pain he felt in his back. Lying face down on the bare rock, he could vaguely recall the moment he’d flown half a dozen meters through the cave’s entrance, only to keep falling further down inside the cave, and he realized the wolf must have taken a swipe at him, projecting him forward for a few meters before he fell inside the cave, miraculously landing without breaking any bones.
Since one bad news was visibly not enough, the mysterious pressure had come back during the time he’d been unconscious, and he was now pinned to the ground, unable to move. Not that it mattered, as he felt so weak he was almost sure he wouldn’t have been able to move even without the pressure pushing down on him. Still, Jake released a ragged sigh in exasperation, almost shocked at how hard the simple act of breathing had become. It felt like an elephant was sitting on his back, pressing against his lungs and making it hard to take in more than a trickle of air at a time. Like that wasn’t enough, even the air he managed to get in seemed thick and heavy like someone had put a rag over his mouth.
After quite some time, Jake looked at his surroundings for the first time since he’d woke up, although he found himself utterly unable to make out anything in the darkness. For a second, he’d almost thought he had been taken back to the same pitch-black place as before, but he quickly thought better of it when he realized he couldn’t see his body either, instantly remembering how the cave’s entrance had crumbled as soon as he’d stepped through, earlier. However, he couldn’t find the strength to push aside his uneasiness when he thought back to the strange events he’d witnessed before he fell unconscious. First the darkness, then the screens and finally the wolf.
As soon as he recalled the screens in his mind, one of them instantly popped up right in front of him, this time without making as much of a sound as it appeared.
> [Tutorial Questline (1\3) | Survive | Time limit: 00:07:42]
It didn’t take long for Jake to notice the timer on the left of the screen, and that’s when he realized he’d been asleep for almost twenty-four hours straight. It had been around 8:00 AM when he had checked his phone at the edge of the forest, so that meant it was now morning again. He had slept through the entire day, although he wasn’t too surprised by that fact as he was covered in blood from head to toe, the aches and soreness of his body a testament to the strain he’d had to go through during his escape this morning. More than anything, Jake was surprised to be alive right now.
Jake thought about the whole situation for a few moments, and for the first time in his life, he felt lost. He had no idea where he was, no idea what was going on with the screen and the pressure and everything else, and his wounds needed to be treated fast if it wasn’t already too late. Unfortunately, he had a feeling the chances of people coming to his rescue were extremely slim if only going by the fact that whatever was happening to him must be happening to everyone else too.
Whatever was going on, he needed to go to the hospital and fast. He could tell the wound in his back was still bleeding from the warmth of the blood dripping down his spine, and he would most certainly need to get that injury stitched up even on the off chance he didn’t bleed out in the middle of this random cave before actually getting to said hospital. Still, as the minutes passed and Jake spent them anxiously trying to go over every detail of his sluggish memory, he barely noticed the timer on the screen falling to zero, when a familiar bell-like sound echoed out in the cave.
He looked around soon as the “ding” reached his ears, first attempting to turn his whole body toward the origin of the sound before remembering he was still unable to move. Finally, he glanced back to the space where a peculiar floating screen still hovered, and he was only slightly surprised to see that the timer on the screen had been replaced with the word [completed].
> [ Tutorial Questline (1\3) | Survive | Completed ]
Jake looked at the screen, or more precisely at the text it displayed for a few seconds, obviously unsure of what to make of the fact that he had completed a “quest” as it had been called by the screen. Only a few moments passed, however, before the screen started fading away as fast as it had appeared.
As soon as it was gone, Jake let out a small cry of surprise when he felt a small object land on the top of his head and then fall to the ground right next to his nose. It was extremely dark inside the cave, but Jake could still somehow make out the silhouette of an oddly shaped object that lay right next to him, thanks to the fact that the small object seemed to be emitting a faint glow. With a grunt that spoke greatly of his fatigue, he attempted to grasp at the object with his right arm, which was lying only a few inches away from the fallen trinket. He tried to extend his arm to grasp at it, but no matter how much he strained against the pressure, his arm refused to move, even by a millimetre.
Jake felt a torrent of anger rage inside his mind, he had been betrayed over and over again by his failing body since the world had gone to hell, and he could barely refrain himself from screaming at the top of his lungs in indignation. He kept fuming for a few seconds, until he once again felt a weird sensation coming from his stomach, and the warmth in his midsection intensified for a few moments, although this time the trickle coming from his stomach felt more strained, almost painful like it’d been by the time he reached the cave yesterday. Still, his arm finally moved and grasped at the mysterious object that had fallen from above.
He’d realized the strange object was some sort of crystal the very moment he’d touched the glassy, polished surface of the item, which was only around a few inches wide and maybe seven or eight inches long. Although he was surprised to have found a crystal in the middle of a cave even as it was, he had been even more shocked to see with his very own eyes the object start radiating a vibrant blueish glow, before slowly disappearing into notes of light a few moments later. Even so, that had been nothing out of the ordinary compared to what followed after the crystal had disappeared.
As soon as his fingers brushed against the item, a series of images, sensations and words entered his mind all at once, cramming his mind with a giant load of information, overloading his brain the point where it took him around a minute to regain the ability to think.
“What was that?” he muttered.
What a strange feeling it was to gain that much knowledge in an instant, it felt like someone had opened up his head and scribbled things around inside his skull.
“If only all my school books were that practical.” He thought aloud.
He quickly focused back on the information inside his head, still in disbelief. The experience had left him completely speechless, and he was starting to think this whole thing wasn’t a prank after all. While he had suspected at first that he’d fallen victim to a prank from some of his fellow students, he’d finally refuted this theory as he couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that anyone, and much less students, would be able to pull off a prank of that magnitude. This meant that the only two possibilities left was that he was either in the middle of an extremely realistic dream, or that this entire thing was real.
It only took a moment for anxiety to creep up Jake’s mind and form an uncomfortable knot inside his stomach. Jake had never been the anxious type before, just the thought that this whole thing was real felt like being thrown into a freezing ice bath, and the cold reality of death washed over him in a way that felt even more real than the pain that flared inside his entire body. But then, the anxiety disappeared as easily as it had come, and was instantly replaced by an entirely new feeling inside Jake’s mind, one with which jake was a lot more familiar, and he recognized it instantly.
He could barely contain the seething rage that consumed him at the moment, thinking about the fact that someone had gone out of their way to make his life miserable. First the pressure, and then the bloodthirsty wolf, and now he was stuck in a pitch black cave in the middle of the forest, covered in his own blood. He would make them pay.
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It was only after a few calming breaths that Jake finally regained his composure, and he immediately focused back on the foreign memories that were now crystal clear inside his brain. It wasn’t without quite a bit of excitement that he finally sat back up after some time, making use of the tingling sensation in his stomach that would allow him to move for a few moments before he crossed his legs. It had taken him the better part of a few minutes to piece together all the little snippets of information in his mind, but he finally had the faintest of ideas of what was contained inside the crystal.
Still, of all the things he had expected to find inside a weird crystal that had appeared out of thin air, step-by-step instructions for a “meditation technique” were probably at the bottom of the list.
Just that thought alone rekindled some of his earlier rage, and Jake swore that if he had gotten himself trapped inside a pitch-black cave, bleeding out on the cold hard floor for 24 hours, only to get taught how to breathe in exchange, whoever was in charge of these quest rewards would feel his wrath someday.
Pushing the thought aside, he went through the instructions with all the patience he could muster in this situation, going through each step carefully as his anger slowly grew into visible confusion.
“What is that book talking about? What does absorbing spirit energy even mean anyway?” he raged, after having gone through the technique for the second time.
It was finally the curiosity that had gotten the better of him, and maybe a little bit of boredom due to being pinned down to the cave floor for so long, because a few instants later he found himself gingerly following the instructions.
He closed his eyes, putting his hands on his knees and slowing down his breathing according to the breathing pattern that was depicted within Jakes mind thanks to a series of images and sensations he’d absorbed from the crystal. With each inspiration, he imagined himself drawing in the “spirit energy” from all around him, cramming it all inside his midsection, trapping it inside his “core” and slowly purifying that energy inside his core.
None of these words even remotely made sense to Jake, but it was the words used to describe the process by the crystal itself, and as weird as that felt, Jake completed each step like he’d been meditating with this technique his whole life. Although the whole process wasn’t exactly hard, Jake couldn’t help but notice it required constant concentration, which he’d almost lost a few seconds later when he’d realized the warmth he’d felt earlier inside his stomach had gone from a burning discomfort to a soothing and mending sensation.
It felt good, too good even. His whole body felt light and his mind felt clear, and he could’ve stayed like this for days if not for yet another bell sound echoing in his ears after what felt like quite some time later, signalling the appearance of a new screen.
Sure enough, Jake opened his eyes, only to find a new screen hovering a few feet away. As soon as his breathing rhythm returned to normal, the soothing feeling in his midsection was immediately replaced by the warm trickle he’d felt earlier. He focused back on the screen that stood in front of him, and his confusion only grew. Jake hadn’t played many video games in his life, but even he knew what that was.
image [https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:875/1*5TS02eweFfFHX_NQqGqnyg.jpeg]
First the quests and now a status screen? Had his life been transformed into a video game for some reason? With no one to answer his qualms, he instantly looked over at the status screen, hoping to gain more information on the current situation.
There was a lot of information contained inside the status screen but Jake went through each line one by one, trying to gather as much information as possible so he could finally find some answers. There was barely anything worth noticing in the ”general information” section, other than some information about himself he was obviously aware of, as well as a few other lines that confused Jake even further.
The line right below his name, in particular, had Jake thinking for a few seconds, visibly shaken. If the status screen felt the need to specify his belonging to the planet Earth, did that mean there were other planets out there? The same could be said for the line that specified his race further down, and that only reinforced Jake’s suspicions. He finally decided to push the thought aside, unwilling to deal with the anxiety that came with that hypothesis, and he kept on looking at the other sections of the screen. Like always, the screens were very intuitive and he could navigate through them with nothing more than a thought.
The “stat” section immediately caught his attention, and he curiously looked down at the stat screen. In games, each “stat” represented a different attribute that would influence your character’s abilities, whereas free points could be spent to improve one of your character’s attributes and were usually received upon gaining a level. Each attribute usually affected the player’s abilities as follows.
Strength (STR) and dexterity (DEX) didn’t need much in the way of an introduction, and endurance (END) represented the body’s stamina and resistance. Furthermore, vitality (VIT) indicated the body’s ability to regenerate and recover, while intelligence (INT) and wisdom (WIS) represented the brain’s mental faculties. As for luck (LCK), Jake had no idea what the it did, but he didn’t believe it to be too important anyways.
Looking back at the bottom of the screen, he immediately tried allocating his two free points. As he suspected, he was able to put the two in vitality right away. Hopefully, that would help with the wide-open wound in his back, as it was still hurting like hell even though it had mostly stopped bleeding, for now anyway.
He looked back to the top right of the screen and was quite surprised to see not one but two titles in the corresponding section, and he quickly focused on them to get more information.
> [ Pioneer | Become the first generation of a newly integrated world | All attributes + 10 ]
>
> [ Survivor | Survive the first 24 hours of the integration | All attributes + 5 ]
Jake looked at the titles, confused, when he realized that he’d already been awarded more than fifteen points in each attribute thanks to his two titles. According to his status screen, every single one of his stats had been improved around 3 times over in the last 24 hours. Wouldn’t that mean he should be a lot stronger physically than before by all accounts? Hell, he should be in even better shape than Olympic-level athletes if his physicality was three times as high as before. Yet here he was, slower and weaker than ever before, barely able to run like a turtle for a few meters before he fell to the floor panting. And that was when he could move, as he had understood a little earlier that the only thing that allowed him to move at all was the spirit energy inside his core. He’d previously mistaken that energy for a tingling sensation, but he could use it by infusing it in his body and muscles, allowing him to improve his physical abilities by a tremendous margin. He’d learned all of this the second he’d laid hands on the crystal, but it didn’t feel any less absurd than it sounded, even now, after having spent the last minute or so scrolling through a real-life game status screen.
“This game seriously sucks” he mumbled, before closing his status screen.
There was one last thing he wanted to check before going back to “meditating”, and he didn’t have to wait long before yet another screen popped up with a thought.
> [ Tutorial Questline (2\3) | Reach level 10 | No time limit]
There it was, the next quest in the tutorial questline. Jake looked over the text, a clear mix of excitement and fear going through his mind. But he finally closed the screen, resolution drawing itself on his face.
He didn’t know what was going on, and he had no clue how this whole thing worked. Levels, stats, all of this didn’t feel real but if there was one thing that Jake understood at this instant, it was that he wasn’t getting out of that cave until he got strong enough to move under the mysterious pressure. Although he still had a mountain of unanswered questions at the back of his mind, one thing was clear. By meditating using the technique he’d learnt earlier, he could gain levels, and then use the free points he gained with each increase in his level to grow his stats. He could get stronger.
The only problem was that he was stuck in a cave, where he would eventually succumb to hunger and thirst if he didn’t bleed out and die first. He wondered if the others at the club were doing okay at the moment, or if they were even affected at all by the “integration”, as the screen had called it. He couldn’t help but have a feeling that when he finally got out of that cave and came back to campus, the world would have changed in ways he’d never thought possible. His previous world had been nothing but a nightmare for Jake, constantly working to make ends meet, his uncle passing away due to a disease for which they couldn’t afford treatment, and every single person he’d ever met looking at him like he was either a monster or garbage.
The only thing he’d ever been good at was fighting, and he’d never fit in anywhere else other than in the ring. That’s why he worked his ass off to i hopes of becoming a professional boxer one day, and that was why he trained harder than anyone he knew. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder, if the Earth truly wasn’t alone out there in the universe, and if he could use spirit energy and attributes to strengthen himself far beyond what was normally humanely possible, how far could he take these fists of his in this new world?
He let out a small chuckle. Here he was, going crazy already after a day inside the cave. While it was comforting to imagine himself scouring the universe in search of worthy opponents, he was far from that goal at the moment, if such a thing was even possible. However, he did think back to the wolf he’d faced yesterday before he silently made a promise to himself.
The next time he saw that dog, it’d be the one fleeing with its tail between its legs, no matter what, that was the first step on his path.