“What…”
*Due to the imminent annihilation of the sentient beings from Earth, the System is offering you the possibility of integration into the wider multiverse and a participation in the Second Chance Program.*
*The participation is optional and has to be decided within two hours. If you decide to accept the Second Chance Program, be aware that danger and adventure await you. In case you decide to refuse, you will be left on this planet and die shortly after. Choose wisely.*
The voice suddenly stopped, and Lucas’s heart was racing in his chest. What the hell was that?! He couldn’t think straight; was he perhaps having an extremely vivid hallucination? But seeing the expression in his mother’s face, with her mouth agape, she looked even more perplexed than him.
Outside the house, everyone received the same peculiar message and was faced with a choice that would decide the fate of billions.
Two hours was too little to calm down and analyze things properly but he had no choice. He had to think quickly. Doing everything he could to ignore the much more befuddling question regarding what the hell was this “System”. He began to remember the words the weird voice said.
If Lucas remembered correctly, it said that those who choose to refuse this Second Chance Program would be left on Earth, so that very clearly implied that should he choose to accept, he would be transported—somehow—to another planet.
Will there be aliens there?, this question popped up in his head. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was entering one of those science fiction stories. But in a way, it was very different from that; there were no spaceships, no visible aliens, just a voice. A robotic voice—that’s true, but still…
“Mom, what do you think about this?” he asked after regaining some sense.
His mother seemed to be in a trance; she didn’t even seem to hear him.
“Mom…”
“… What?” She turned to him, confused.
“Are you ok?”
What a stupid question, how could she be ok?!
“It’s just that everything seems so sudden, like we are in a weird dream.”
He had to agree with her. First the comet and the social collapse that came with it, and now this voice asking them to make a choice, a choice without any further knowledge of what was about to happen save the bare minimum.
A different world, one that promised adventure and danger, two things that Lucas had to scratch from his list of things to do when he was forced to realize the limitations of his own body. It would really make a difference if he chose to go? Wouldn’t he be just postponing the inevitable?
But even if this reason was sound, he knew deep down what his choice would be. He was a survivor after all, when his body failed him, he used his mind, and now, when presented with a choice between certain death and the possibility to live, it was a no brainer for him.
“We have to choose to accept the program, it’s the only way,” he said to his still perplexed mother.
It took her a minute to respond, but her face was resolute when she answered.
“We can’t. That’s not a message from the Lord, son. It must be a temptation, another trial…”
“What? Why?! What are you still waiting for? You were expecting to be saved and a voice popped out of nowhere to tell us that we could be saved, and now you are rejecting the offer? How does that make any sense?”
“Son, you heard that evil voice. The Lord has nothing to do with danger and adventure, this message can’t be from him, it’s all a test. I’m telling you, you should trust your mother on this.”
Lucas could feel a headache coming, because if he knew something about his mom, was that when she set her mind on something, it was really hard to dissuade her. And he had only two… one and a half hours to do the impossible.
“Son, promise me you will refuse, God will not abandon us, you have to believe.”
Thirty minutes later—after accepting that the discussion was a lost battle—he left the house as his mom headed to the church to stay with her friends. With a promise to refuse the prompt and a pain in his heart, he realized there was nothing he could do. He didn’t have the courage to tell his mom that he was going to accept; he couldn’t say goodbye knowing what would happen to her. So, after packing a small bag of supplies, a first aid kit, and a pocket knife—things he thought necessary to take with him—he just left a note saying his goodbyes and left.
With tears still in his eyes, he shook these thoughts off his mind and made a resolve: he had to survive. And soon, after taking a look around the city he grew up in, he decided to accept the prompt. Lucas thought about going to see some of his friends from university, but if he was being honest, he didn’t really consider them friends, more like acquaintances. He never had the time to form any meaningful relations… another thing to regret. He sighed.
Wait, how do I do it?
Looking at the prompt, he had no idea what to do but decided to start from the beginning. “I accept!” he said in the middle of the streets, getting weird looks from the people around, and surprisingly enough, soon after everything disappeared.
…
The next time he regained his senses and looked around, he was standing in the middle of what looked like a giant forest.
*Congratulations! You chose to accept the Second Chance Program. Welcome to the planet Ponos of the Keres galaxy.*
*Preparing… System Initialized.*
*Rare condition detected, multiverse equalizer initiated.*
What… Is this thing talking about my condition? What the hell is a multiverse equalizer, and what is this Keres? I never even heard of this galaxy before…
Before he could continue with his thoughts, the System sent another message.
*Compatible Special Constitution created. Adverse condition required… Concluded. Special Constitution granted.*
*Multilingual knowledge granted.*
*Identify granted.*
The voice went silent. And Lucas was left there, befuddled. He didn’t understand half of what was said. What was that about “special constitution”? And did multilingual knowledge mean that he could now speak multiple languages? And what the hell was identify? But the more pressing issue was, what was he supposed to do?
One of the first things Lucas noticed after diverting his attention from the notifications was that his bag, along with his supplies, first aid kit, and pocket knife, had disappeared. The only thing that remained was the clothes on his body. He had no idea why that had happened, but he felt even more vulnerable without his bag. Quickly, he began to scan his surroundings.
All he could see around him were trees and plants, not another person in sight. He couldn’t be the only one to have accepted, could he? No, there were too many people on Earth for that to be possible, and he believed that at least half of them would have accepted; after all, not everyone was as devoted as his mother. He pushed the thoughts about his mother to the back of his mind. Now was not the time; he needed to figure out what to do fast before something dangerous showed up.
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Before he could start planning, something popped up in his eyesight—or was it in his mind? It was a chart with data, and on top of it, it was written:
Every time you want to use the status menu, all you have to do is think to open it.
And below:
Status:
Lvl: 0
Name: Lucas Romano
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Health Points (HP): 150/150
Mana Points (MP): 100/100
Stamina: 80/80
Stats:
Strength: 6
Agility: 8
Toughness: 0*
Perception: 8
Vitality: 13*
Magic: 6
Distributable points: 0
Achievements: Special Unique Constitution.
Abilities: N/A
Skills: N/A
Lucas had played enough video games to understand what this status menu was, but that didn’t make him any less confused.
“So… this world works like a game…”
His mind started working faster as he began to grasp what this implied. The “Lvl: 0” in his status menu indicated that he could level up, and in all the video games that he had played there were only a few ways of leveling up. The main one was killing things… monsters. He looked around suspiciously but saw nothing nearby, much to his relief.
The other thing that caught his attention was the symbol next to his Vitality and Toughness, indicating there was more to it. He tried interacting with it to see if he could find out more, but after several attempts, he gave up. If that “system” was interactive at all, it was unavailable at the moment, and he could only see what was in front of him.
Considering the asterisk matter again, Lucas understood—despite being bitter about it—that the 0 in his Toughness was probably due to his disease, and it was likely the symbol was there to explain that. But the Vitality…
“ROOOAARR…”
Just as the thought cross his mind, he heard this guttural sound, and his body froze. Shit, shit, shit. As he tried to calm down, he realized that the sound came from very far away. He was not in any immediate danger, but that situation wasn’t stable.
“I need water, a weapon, food and shelter,” he muttered to himself, and focused on his surroundings. He wasn’t used to being in the wild at all, but back on Earth he was a major fan of survivalist movies, so he knew what his first priorities should be.
Lucas looked around and started walking. It was weird how, despite being on a different planet, at least this forest didn’t seem so different, and there was only a single sun in the sky. Even the climate was mild, to his relief.
Soon he found that the leaves on the plants around him contained some water, everything pointed to having rained the day before, so he was set for water, at least for the time being.
Everywhere looked the same—large trees, with plants in between, but he was grateful there weren’t any mosquitoes around. He made sure to listen carefully for any signs of other people or animals and see if he could find some cave or other possible natural shelter to spend the night, but he wasn’t so lucky.
After about twenty minutes walking, being very careful of snakes and other potential crawling aliens, he found two things that he was looking for: a twig of good size and a sharp small rock.
Afterwards he went looking for a place where he could at least see his immediate surroundings, he didn’t want to be surprised mid-craft. Once he found a good spot, with some big rocks in the middle and a good space around, he accommodated himself on one of the rocks and started, what would prove to be a very arduous task.
All right, it wasn’t that difficult; he only needed to sharpen the twig using the rock to make a rudimentary spear. The thought of attaching the rock to the twig crossed his mind, but he soon discarded it, because for that, he would require something to tie the rock on the tip of the stick, and that could take some time.
The problem was that every time his hand slipped, the rock would cut the skin in his hand, and by the end of it, it looked a bloody mess. He was very tolerant towards pain, so he didn’t mind too much, but that made him think.
Did my skin grow softer? It really looked too bloody for a simple attrition, but he didn’t give that too much thought.
He looked at his spear after finalizing it and felt proud. It seemed to be the first thing he made in ages, maybe since he was a little boy. And looking at it from a critical point of view, it didn’t look too bad. It wouldn’t be able to kill a bear or anything like that, but it should be enough to protect himself against weaker animals or keep them at a safe distance at the very least, which, with his weak body was a must. As he looked more closely at it, some text appeared.
Low Quality Wooden Spear
Required level to use: 0
So that’s the identify that voice mentioned, he thought. And right after he identified the spear, another message appeared.
New ability acquired!
Ability: Beginner Craftsman 1
Craft your very first weapon. Grants the ability: Crafter of rudimentary weapons and other equipment — This ability allows you to more easily craft rudimentary, low quality weapons and utensils.
Right after this notification, a flood of information surged into his mind. He stood perplexed for a second, absorbing it all. So… this System seems to reward and help those who try to do or learn something, it seems.
Lucas felt slightly offended by the “low quality” but chose not take it to heart. If he had never tried to build the spear and just stood there waiting for help, Lucas was sure nothing would have happened, or maybe a wild animal would have found him there, defenseless. His eyes shone with the prospect of what that entailed.
He looked at the rock in his hand. He knew exactly how he should tie the rock to the spear now, he was just lacking the materials. And beyond that, he bet that if he tried to make another spear now it would turn out much better than his first one.
Despite being very excited and eager to discover more things about this peculiar system, he didn’t have time to lose. He had a weapon now; all that was left was find food and shelter. The first was a little hard; since he didn’t trust himself to know what fruit he could eat and wasn’t confident he could kill anything, he decided to leave that for last.
While the spot that he was in now was relatively safe, without other people to watch the surroundings while he slept, there was no way he could remain there; it was just too open. No, I need to find a cave or maybe climb one of those trees before some…
Just as he was thinking that, he saw what looked like an alien Wildebeest from one of his middle-school books. Its horns looked a little bit bigger; besides he never saw a Wildebeest in person but he doubted it looked that terrifying. As he locked eyes with the beast, something pop up right above it.
Lvl 2
Wild Tuk
He froze momentarily. Looking at it, his first thought was that he needed to run. But then he remembered all the times he had stayed away from danger in his life. He didn’t do any sports, he didn’t go to any concerts, he avoided bumping into people, and he even avoided going outside when he could help it. And where had that led him? In the end, the comet showed up, promising a quick death whether he stayed inside or outside; it didn’t matter, it would surely annihilate him, rendering all his previous decisions to avoid danger useless.
When he chose to accept the prompt, he had thought he did so because he wanted to survive, but after arriving, he realized he didn’t want to just survive; he wanted to live.
He wanted to have the life he wasn’t allowed to have due to his disease; he wanted to face danger and do all the things other people could do, and that beast in front of him was his first test. The first trial to see if he had it in him to fight against the limitations the world had placed on him and rise above them.
Despite being scared shitless, this time he decided that he wouldn’t freeze; he made up his mind and gripped tightly on his spear with his heart racing. He knew he couldn’t take a direct hit from one of those horns, nor could he bear the weight of that beast, which, by the looks of it, must weigh about five hundred pounds. No, he had to be smart about it, he…
Without giving Lucas any more time to think of a plan, the Wild Tuk sprinted in his direction with its horns pointed at him. Lucas let his instincts take the wheel; since he was always avoiding potential dangers, he had developed great reflexes; after all, what was a Wild Tuk compared to his uncle’s Saint Bernard.
He stepped to the side just as the horns were about to hit him, feeling a shiver almost freeze his body again. But he gathered all the willpower he could muster in that split second and thrust his spear into the side of the animal with all his might.
Despite the side of the Wild Tuk being relatively soft, the spear didn’t go very deep and became stuck. Lucas felt despair; the beast wasn’t dead nor did it look very injured, on the contrary, it looked very pissed off.
Lucas had no time to think. He gripped his spear and tried to pull it out, but to no avail. At the same time, the beast started turning in his direction, but he promptly followed the movement holding onto the spear.
From an outsider’s perspective, it sure looked very amusing, a man and a beast running around in circles, like a dog and its tail. But from Lucas perspective, it was the most frightening experience of his entire life.
He had no idea what to do, and before he could think of something, the beast made a powerful movement, swinging him away and sending him flying until he collided with the rocks in the middle of the clearing. He could feel his ribs being broken. And without giving a moment’s rest, the Wild Tuk ran towards him again.
Desperate once again, Lucas looked around and found the rock he used to sharpen his spear, grabbing it. It wasn’t much, but it was all he had. A wild look appeared on his face at the moment he turned to face the beast again, one of pure rage, the fear now completely suppressed by the adrenaline that coursed through his veins. Right after he got his second chance, someone was trying to take that away from him? With that in mind, he managed to stand up, rock in hand, and shouted, “COME!”
The beast obeyed, with the spear still stuck in its body but still looking as menacing as ever. Time seemed to slow down as the Wild Tuk edged closer to him. Just as it was about to reach him and destroy his frail body, he extended his left hand and grabbed one of the beast’s horns. With the other, he put all his strength into stabbing its eyes.
He felt it penetrate until half the rock was stuck in the beast’s eye, and he was once again sent flying due to the impact. He fell to the ground with a thump, and the last thing he felt was the taste of blood in his mouth before everything went dark.