The warm morning light fell upon the charred side of my face, and it hurt like a damn bastard was stabbing my skin over and over again. When I raised my arm to cover myself the sunlight fell upon my exposed arm, which started to itch. I groaned and lowered my hand just before stepping on a twig and tripping down to the ground. In the process I accidentally bit my tongue, sprained an ankle, and possibly twisted my neck.

“Curses!” I yelled, but that probably came out as cushcush with my bitten tongue. I stood there, my ass high in the air, and my mouth tasting the soil along with my own blood, when my ghostly companion decided to appear again.

A thin translucent blue screen appeared right in front of my eyes with a single message.

Get Good!

If the so-called screen was a living thing I would have eaten it by now.

That brought me to the second problem - food.

It’s been a whole day since I woke up in a body of an undead creature with a blue screen right in front of my eyes. It went away and appeared whenever I willed it, but each time it appeared it had welcome messages that seemed to slap me in the face.

Welcome to the world of the living!

What a great day to be alive!

Death may be close! Enjoy living!

I first found out I was an undead when I looked at my reflection in the water. And there I was a creature with disheveled skin, one eye completely white, and only patches of hair on my head. Even my skin had wrinkles and zits scattered all over it. I was wearing a torn white shirt that was too big for me and pants that were too short. But what really struck me as amazing was how I never breathed, and when I placed a hand on my chest, I found no beating heart.

Under these circumstances, you might ask what brought me into this position. But no, I had no memory of who I was, or what caused me to wake up as an undead creature.

Which brought me to my companion.

I waited a few moments in the same posture as I heard my bones click. I felt something tickling at the end of my tongue and I lolled it around my mouth until I felt it hit on all the corners. And there it was! A fully regenerated tongue!

I groaned again and pushed myself up. It still ached when I tried to stand, but the pain was something I had gotten used to over the day. I looked at the blue screen in front of me and tapped it twice. The message disappeared and was replaced by a new screen.

Main Quest - Eating is Sating Find something to quench your hunger.

The quest had been there ever since I woke up, and even though I ignored it at first, I started to pay attention to it when my stomach started to claw itself. Undead may not breathe, but they still needed to eat.

My first choice was fruits. I woke up amidst thick woods, so finding fruits was no harder task. I tried eating two apples, and in both cases, it felt bitter, almost like eating mud. I threw up the first bite, and even when I swallowed the other with tears welling in my eyes, I felt nothing. The system appeared again, with a new message.

That’s not edible. Find meat.

“That’s not fair!” I whined, but I might as well scream into thin air because the blue screen never materialized again.

I had survived for an entire day, but as the first morning light fell upon me and I exited the thick woods I was in, my legs felt wobbly, my vision was starting to blur, and my ears started ringing.

I needed to find some food, or even as an undead…I’ll be dead.

“Do undead die?” I uttered hoping it was rhetorical, but the blue screen flashed again.

Undead do not die. They continue to live and suffer.

“How wholesome,” I grumbled.

Stolen story; please report.

A few more steps and I knew it would only be a short while longer for me to trip down and crack my neck again. I was about to sit down and let my pain take over when I saw something in the distance.

At first, I assumed it was a dead horse lying on the ground, but as I started to step close I noticed it was human. He was dressed in armor but without a helm. A long arrow protruded outwards from his nape, and blood trickled out from the wound. The man was lying face-first into the ground. Murdered. Killed.

As I stepped even closer I started to notice other things around him. There was a sword lying beside the tree, clean and polished, and no blood at all. A scroll lay on the ground a few feet beyond it, tied with a red band. The dead man was holding a casket of water with its lid open. The nearby ground was wet, and the casket was empty.

Hmm…what do we have here?

I knelt down…or ‘fell down to my knees’ would be an appropriate term since I barely had any energy left. The water hadn’t dried, and the blood hadn’t either. The murder had happened recently. And judging by the position of the arrow it was a surprise attack rather than a planned one.

I looked at the bark of the tree where the sword and the scroll were lying in the same position. If my guesses were right, the man was relaxing, possibly taking a little nap. Once it was over, he stood up to have a sip from his casket and turned in the direction I was heading. Then the arrow landed on him.

The blue screen appeared again.

Intelligence increased by +2 “Dead Have Brains Too” Achievement unlocked.

“Very funny,” I brushed it away but the screen stayed, this time displaying a new message.

Meat spotted. Quench your hunger.

“Meat?” I looked at the corpse. “This?”

The screen didn’t flash another message, but considering how there was no campfire nearby the message meant only one thing.

“I’m not eating him!” I scrambled back from the corpse. The entire thought of eating the dead made me want to throw up. But the little screen wasn’t done.

If meat isn’t consumed your energy will be quickly dissipated. You’ll be unable to stand. You will lie there suffering for eternity until someone decides to put some meat in your mouth.

“I don’t care!” I snapped. “I’m not eating human meat!”

Look at that human ear! Yummy!

“Get out!” I angrily brushed the screen away, and it disappeared.

I looked at the corpse. He was a soldier, and considering how he didn’t have a horse, he must have been nearby. Or maybe he had a horse and forgot to tie it to the tree. Or maybe the attacker escaped with the horse.

My eyes moved to the scroll. If my last guess was the case then the scroll wouldn’t be anything important. Or else the attacker would have at least taken the trouble to untie it and read.

Or maybe the attacker isn’t here…yet.

I staggered towards the scroll, picked it up, and untied it. My hands were fiddly, and it took me several tries to pull the string. By the time I was finished the sweat and grime on my hand had already deposited itself on the clean parchment of paper.

It was still readable though.

Make Haste!

The Redwinds are approaching the Cemetery Bounds! We would request you dispatch the Seventh Division the moment you receive this note. It might be too late!

Duke Osso

It was scribbled in quick handwriting, with a blood-red seal of a lion and a snake at the very bottom.

“Nothing worth here!” I was almost about to throw it away when the blue screen flashed again.

Side Quest Unlocked! Inform Whitecloaks of the threat!

And it was gone again.

“Do this, do that,” I grumbled, sitting down and leaning on the tree. “Screw it! If eternal pain of hunger awaits me, then I’ll gladly enjoy it. Nothing better to do anyway!”

I sat there, basking in the morning light, letting fate judge whatever awaited me. I didn’t count on how long it passed, but the clawing in my stomach worsened, and the pain welled my eyes with tears.

I started to see hallucinations - a dog with two heads running through the field towards the forest. A man without a head sluggishly walked past me. The sword beside me decided to talk.

I’m really lonely, aren’t you?

The corpse right in front of me move its hand back, pulled out the arrow on its nape, and stood up.

I laughed at all of that.

And then I realized the corpse had actually stood up.

I wiped off my eyes and blinked twice. The man was cracking his head, then his collarbones, and then he gave an invisible kick at the air while grinning. He raised both his arms and then bent backward until his spine made a complete U, all the while giggling like a little child.

Then he turned to me. His eyes were completely white, and patches of mud and clotted blood fell down from his face and beard as he staggered.

“Uh…” I didn’t like the look he was giving me. I tried to push myself up, but I had no strength remaining. Perhaps I should have listened to the ghostly blue screen.

“Can I help you, kind sir?” I said, my fingers searching for something.

The man stopped grinning and slowly opened his mouth large enough to swallow a horse. His teeth were perfectly clean unlike mine, but I doubted his intention was to showcase his beautiful pair of teeth.

He let out something between a grunt and a roar, then lunged straight at me.