Somehow, like some sort of divine joke or comedy, I had been stabbed, I had died, I had met a great being (or at least listened to them), woke up in a double-sunned desert, ran from a giant beetle, and fought a mutant lizard, all in the matter of a few hours, and yet somehow this was still the most ridiculous thing to happen today. Floating in front of me, locked in place, there was a large holographic piece of parchment with odd stylized markings along the edges. It took up a decent amount of my vision, but shrunk as I observed its excessive size.

“Sure. Why not? It's already a floating screen in a desert, why not respond to my thoughts?” I reached my hand out to check and- yep, my hand passed right through. Though I did feel a slight vibration as it did so, similar to when I would touch my phone.

“Okay, this is fine.” I reassured myself. Actually, upon further thought, this was more than fine. This was potentially great!

“I’m asleep!” Or I fell asleep in a super futuristic VR headset and forgot I was wearing and I’ve been having a night terror this whole time! I never thought I would be so excited to be experiencing a night terror, but suddenly I saw a way out. My life wasn’t gone, I was just in some crazy lucid dream. Maybe someone had slipped some acid into my beer? Maybe London was a dream? Who knew? Who cared? The nightmare was ending.

Feeling much better, I straightened up and reached up to my ears to feel for the headset.

“Alright, gotta be around here somewhere, a-ha! Oh, no, that's just dried blood.” I guess some of my blood had gotten into my hair. The bite in my arm had been bleeding pretty good. It still appeared to be bleeding, albeit at a more sedate pace as the heat and the sand had begun drying it out.

“No worries Will, hyper-realistic VR headsets are equipped with pain sensors or something. You’re fine, just need to take off the headset and you can leave.” I continued to search around my head, checking my neck in case it was a Matrix-style connection. The screen continued to float there, congratulating me while I crouched there, covered in blood, gore, and sand, feeling around my head for a headset I was begging to be there.

Eventually, the pain in my arm was getting too great to ignore and I was getting blood literally everywhere. The only reason I had been ignoring it was because I was actively denying it was real.

“The pain-sensors are just really really good.” I grimaced as I walked to the water to begin cleaning out my wound. As before, the water was miraculously soothing, and the shaking in my left arm stopped as relief poured through me. I cleaned out all the grime I could get at and hoped that that little monster didn’t have rabies.

It would explain why it was so vicious. While I washed out my wound I continued to try and wake myself up. The sooner I was awake the faster this pain would end.

I closed my eyes and took in a few deep breaths, really trying to focus my senses to feel for the pressure I was certain should be somewhere on my head. When that yielded nothing, I worked through my senses one at a time, desperately reaching for some sensation that would let me wake up from this awful dream.

My desperation to sense something finally yielded a result, but not from my own body. Perhaps 50 feet away from me, I could see a dense stand of the spiky palm trees surrounded by a patch of palm bushes. Somewhere in those bushes I could hear something rustling around, it sounded large, maybe slightly larger than the creature I had just faced, and I had no interest in facing another one of those or anything worse.

I would have to continue to break out of this nightmare later. I pulled back from the water and began to sneak away, taking a quick look at the bludgeoned remains of the monkey-lizard to see if I had missed anything. Also for fear that it might come back to life. This was a nightmare after all, zombie monkey-lizards wouldn’t be unexpected.

As my gaze lingered on it my ears again rang slightly, much quieter, but still similar to the feeling I had had right after killing it. I hesitated, unsure if I was about to be ambushed again. Maybe my movement was triggering something else odd?

The screen was still floating in front of me, I had mostly ignored its existence while trying to break out, but it had moved with my line of sight and was now resting above the dead monkey-lizard. It seemed to be pulsing ever so slightly; just a rhythmic whitening of the outside edges of the ethereal parchment paper.

Honestly, if I wasn't on such a high alert I might not have even noticed it. Did it want something? Did I need to sign some terms and services agreement? What is it boy? Did Timmy fall down the well? The screen did not respond to any of that so I guess it couldn't sense all of my thoughts? Or maybe it just chose to ignore the dumb ones. The rustling hadn't gotten closer or louder, so I chanced it and moved back to the body. When moving my head side to side the parchment only pulsed slightly when hovering over the dead creature.

"What do you want?" I hissed to the screen. Did it want me to bury the corpse? Did I need to devour it and gain its strength? Do you want me to roll around in it to hide my smell? Why do all my suggestions sound like a dog made them? I was glad the screen didn't seem interested in responding to every inane thought I had.

Do you want me to do something? Is there something I should learn or gain from this experience that I've missed? Do you have some sort of mission or quest for me? It was this thought process that finally seemed to have an effect. The words that had been there this whole time faded away and were replaced with a different page of text, with a large title at the top that read "Quests".

Quests? Sure, why not? I quickly felt for a headset again, almost sure this was some kind of a joke. Still nothing, but I did take my focus off the screen to listen for the rustling in the grass. It didn't seem to be moving closer, and paying more attention I could hear the sounds of bugs now in addition to the slight rustling around and the gentle lapping of the oasis water. If not for the bloody sand, dead creature, floating screen, recent death, and still very-injured arm and stinging shoulder it would probably be very relaxing here. I wasn’t interested in adding any more wounds and refocused on the screen, comfortably convinced I had enough time to read it all before more danger found me.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Quests

GRID QUESTS (1)

AREA QUESTS (1)

TUTORIAL QUESTS (1)

“What the hell?” I muttered, taking in the strange screen before me. My new theory was that I was in some white room somewhere, being spoon-fed grey mush and clearly watching way too many gaming videos.

"Alright, when in Rome" I muttered to myself and decided to play ball with this madness. The source of the rhythmic pulsing seemed to be “Tutorial Quests”, so I touched that one, which I realized was foolish because I'd been operating the screen so far with just thought. But, with a slight vibration the category expanded.

“Interesting, apparently physical interaction would work as well.” Good, almost looked like an idiot standing in the desert poking at floating screens. I should probably drink some water soon, just in case all of this is a mirage and I am actually that idiot. I knew this was insane, of course it was. I was interacting with a floating screen for Pete's sake. But, I was down the rabbit hole now, and despite being filled with fear and confusion, my curiosity was getting the better of me. That, and the joy of discovery was also slowly supplanting my misgivings. I was almost having a bit of fun. It might all be in my head, but if it was, I wanted to see what sort of world my head had conjured up.

TUTORIAL QUESTS

* SPOILS OF BATTLE (INCOMPLETE)

* REWARD: MINOR WOUND OINTMENT

* FIRST FIGHT (COMPLETE)

* REWARD: NEW COMBAT PROFICIENCY

“I don’t know what Minor Wound Ointment is, but I’m fairly certain I could use some” I said, eyeballing my still throbbing arm and stinging shoulder. The water had done wonders for pain management and cleanup, but the effects passed as soon as I removed my arm from it. If I just sat in it I wouldn’t feel anything, but I didn’t see that as a viable option. However, my eyes were drawn to the Quest that was crossed and greyed out. Apparently, I had already received this reward. Even as I acknowledged it, the greyed out quest vanished, leaving only the “Spoils of Battle” quest behind. I also felt another refreshing feeling pass through my body, akin to when the screen had first appeared. As grateful as I was for the cooling sensation, one thought did concern me.

Am I being Pavlov-ed? Was I being trained and broken in like a new puppy? Given treats when I was good? What happens when I’m bad? I glanced at the bushes, still rustling occasionally. I guess I’ll just try to avoid that option.

I had only looked at the completed quest for a moment before it disappeared, but I do remember there being a reward. Though I wasn’t too sure what a “combat proficiency” was. And I wasn’t even sure where to check such a thing.

I have a Quest screen, do I also have a Proficiency or Skills screen? The screen flashed and the parchment now showed a completely different screen. This one was slightly different from the Quest screen though. Instead of having one large title it had 3 running along the side, though only the final title had an entry.

ABILITIES (0/5)

SKILLS (0)

PROFICIENCIES (1)

NATURAL WEAPON (W)

CLASS: COMBAT, GENERAL

STICKS AND STONES CAN STILL BREAK BONES. SWORDS AREN'T NECESSARY.

MEASURES PROFICIENCY WITH NATURAL WEAPONS (STICKS, STONES, CLAWS, BONES)

LVL 1: NATURAL WEAPONS (STICKS, STONES, CLAWS, BONES, ETC.) WILL BE SLIGHTLY STURDIER AND RESIST BREAKING IN COMBAT. SLIGHTLY INCREASED DAMAGE OUTPUT WHEN USING NATURAL WEAPONS.

I glanced over to the rock I had used to bludgeon the creature to death with, suppressing a shudder while the events ran through my head. I turned my head away and refocused on the screen.

"Fair enough, you got me there, screen. I guess the combat proficiency is tied to how I went about it. Good to know, I’ll have to use a less horrific weapon next time. Skills and Abilities were both empty, so I decided to return to Quests to see what the pulsing entry had been.

“Quests” I whispered, also thinking of the word. As far as I could tell, thinking was all that was necessary, but something about speaking it was more comfortable. It also helped me feel less like a lab rat or game piece. The screen seemed to switch either way, so spoken commands seemed to be just as effective. Good for my sanity. And who knows? Maybe there will be a situation where I have to speak it, I couldn’t imagine what that situation would be but any knowledge was good knowledge.

Now back in the “Quests” screen, I stared at the remaining entry. That “Minor Healing Ointment” could be life-saving. The quest name itself did indicate what it might want, but it was when I focused further on it that the entry expanded and showed the actual requirements. Glad my instincts had been correct on that one.

SPOILS OF BATTLE

SURVIVAL IS TOUGH AND RESOURCES CAN BE SLIM. EVERY ADVANTAGE HELPS.

HARVEST THE REMAINS OF A SLAIN ENEMY TO GAIN RESOURCES.

REWARD: 1 MINOR HEALING OINTMENT

"You're kidding? Right?" I exhaled after reading the expanded description. I really didn't want to start rooting around in that dead creature's body. I had gone fishing before and my grandpa had shown me how to gut a fish, and I’d dissected a rat once in high school, but that had been a few years ago, and this thing was much larger than a rat and much different than a fish.

“I don’t even have anything to harvest it with!” I muttered, louder than I meant and my eyes flashed to the bushes as I held my breath. The bushes didn’t seem to move more or less, so I hoped whatever was in there didn’t care. When I had gutted the fish my grandpa had been there. In high school I had a diagram showing what was what and I had a scalpel. Now, it was just me, in the desert, no tools but a hope and prayer, wearing the same pants, shoes, and shirt I had been wearing since that morning in London. Which was odd now that I thought about it, I would've thought dead me would be wearing a white robe or something, but it got thrown in with the pile of odd things to figure out later.

My eyes were still on the bushes. I hadn't quite figured out what to do, but I had already dallied way too long. I needed to make a decision. The rustling could appear any second as another bloodthirsty monkey, or something worse, and I didn't like my chances right now.

“Screw it.” I quickly grabbed another drink of water, grabbed the dead monkey-lizard - holding its limp, scaly body under my arm, and carefully retreated away from the sound.