When I opened my eyes again, I was greeted with nothing more than the sight of my living room fan. It wasn’t on, explaining the stuffiness in the room.

Ah. Just a dream, then. That was good. I liked having both legs, and while I enjoyed the smell of food, I would rather not smell like it myself.

I sat up, my ankle protesting the rough treatment as I moved to stand and get ice for the sprain I’d sustained yesterday. It would be unfortunate if it lasted longer because I didn’t take care of it.

Instead, a blue holographic rectangle appeared in front of me. White text appeared across the screen as if someone was typing it in real time.

[Congratulations! You have been selected as a Challenger.]

Excellent. Perhaps I was still dreaming. I laid back down, the window following my face, so it was still about a foot and a half away from my head.

[Transporting Challenger to the assigned Dungeon…]

My back slammed into snow as I dropped two feet.

“What the—” I gasped, sitting up.

It was so cold.

The heat earlier could have been passed off as my normal house temperature in real life, especially since I was fairly certain I had forgotten to turn the fan off. But the cruel cold was far too intense to be a mere simulation by my mind.

At least my ankle was being iced.

The holograph appeared in front of me again.

[Welcome to the 1st Challenge!]

That wasn’t good. First implied more, and I could probably last about fifteen minutes in these temperatures, if I was lucky. I was not particularly good at cold, which was ironic given my hobby of choice.

[Challenge Objective: Survive for 72 hours.

Time left: 71h, 58m, 39s

*In order to improve chances of survival, a dagger will be provided.]

True to its word, a dagger dropped into the snow in front of me, narrowly missing my already injured ankle.

I had to fight?

I genuinely considered lying back down and letting the cold take its course for a moment. Better to die now than to prolong the suffering only to die painfully.

[Would you like to view the System Tutorial?]

There didn’t seem to be a yes or no button, so I voiced my choice.

“Yes,” I mumbled, already beginning to shiver. “Why not.”

[Welcome to the System!

Here are 100 points to start.

You can use your coins in the Shop or to increase your stats from the Status Window.

You may acquire more points by hunting monsters, earning achievements, eliminating other Challengers, ranking high on the leaderboard, or being gifted points.]

Given that I was selected as a Challenger, ‘eliminating other Challengers’ most likely meant killing people. The thought made me want to gag. Perhaps I could stick to hunting monsters and earning achievements.

A separate rectangle popped up to my right, this one much smaller.

[Balance: 100p]

“Open Shop,” I requested. I could look at the stats in a moment. Maybe there would be a coat in there so I wouldn’t freeze to death. That would be nice, and more urgent than increasing stats.

Two more options popped up in front of me in yet another window. I got the urge to start closing tabs, but I would use the others eventually.

[Skills Shop]

[Items Shop]

Skills? Like, the magic abilities? A fire ability would be nice right about now…if it was cheap. It would be hilarious if I got an ice skill like in my dream, but an ice skill in an already icy terrain was most likely not the best idea.

“Skills Shop.”

My eyes landed on the first price tag.

[Price: 1,000p]

Fuck no.

“…Items Shop.”

The catalogue popped up, organized by level. There were more weapons, like knives and a few short swords, as well as other interesting things like potions and armor pieces, but I was more interested in the warm looking coat. Hopefully it was automatically the perfect size for me, and not embarrassingly big, or worse, too small to keep me warm.

[Coat

Lv.1

Price: 50p]

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I tapped the screen experimentally. My finger, already turning slightly blue, passed right through it.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. It was obviously a hologram.

“Uh…Coat.”

[Cost: 50p

Are you sure you would like to buy ‘Coat’?

Remaining Balance: 50p]

“Yes,” I confirmed, catching the coat before it hit the snow and wrapping it around myself, huddling there on the snow until I warmed up a little more. There were pockets all over the coat, and it was soft on the insides. The outside of the coat was plasticky, so it was most likely either waterproof or water-resistant. Either way, I’d take any form of warmth I could get.

I scrolled through the Shop a while longer to see if anything else looked interesting, and my eye caught on a pair of white skates.

[Winter Shoes

Lv. 2

Price: 145p

Effects: Temperature Regulation Lv.1. Can turn from ice skates to boots at will.]

That was intriguing. I didn’t have enough coins, but perhaps once I’d hunted monsters, I could buy them. It would be nice to have snow shoes. The System was nice enough to get my own sneakers for me, but I no longer had my phone in my pocket.

Perhaps I was taking this a bit too calmly. I should probably be freaking out about being dumped in the middle of an arctic wasteland with nothing but a dagger and blue window, but it was cold, and I didn’t have the energy to spare for a freak out. Perhaps the System was helping negate my shock, like in some of the webcomics I’d read through. That would explain things. On the other hand, there was a possibility I was just still half-asleep and not processing properly.

For now, I needed to focus on what was helpful. I could theorize once I was a bit more secure, and perhaps warmer.

“Status Window.”

A new window took the place of the Shop.

[Challenger Yule

HP: 20/20

MP: 20/20

Title: LOCKED

Skills: LOCKED

Strength: Lv. 0

Stamina: Lv. 0

Agility: Lv.0

Durability: Lv.0

Magic: Lv.0

Perception: Lv.0]

This System really was built like an RPG video game. How nice of them to put it in a familiar format.

It was a good thing I didn’t bother with the Skills Shop since my skills were locked anyways.

“Uh…level up strength.” I requested.

[Cost: 5p

Are you sure you would like to level up your strength stat?

Remaining Balance: 45p]

“Yes.”

[Strength Lv.0 —> Strength Lv.1]

Immediately, a surge of energy jolted through my muscles. I certainly didn’t feel strong enough to fight God or anything absurd like that, but I could feel the effect— and 5p was cheap.

“Level up strength.”

[Cost: 10p

Are you sure you would like to level up your strength stat?

Remaining Balance: 35p]

So there was an increase. The question was if the increase was +5p or 2x, and more concerning, if the increase applied to other stats automatically, or if each stat’s price increased on its own. It was good that I had a preview unit.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

[Strength Lv.1 —> Strength Lv.2]

“Level up strength.”

[Cost: 20p

Are you sure you would like to level up your strength stat?

Remaining Balance: 15p]

It was doubled. That was certainly inconvenient.

“Cancel,” I decided, checking on the other stats. “Level up…stamina.”

[Cost: 5p

Are you sure you would like to level up your stamina stat?

Remaining Balance: 30p]

At least the cost for stats increased independently of each other. That was nice.

“Yes.”

[Stamina Lv.0 —> Stamina Lv.1]

Great. Now I had to do the math.

I had thirty points remaining. I had already gotten one stat to Lv.2, and another to Lv.1. The most effective use of my stats was probably to finish leveling up stamina and increase my agility to Lv.2, and then place the remaining five points into something else. I didn’t have any spells or skills I could cast with magic, so it didn’t make sense to improve that at the moment. Perception would be useful. I could avoid the durability if I moved fast enough to not get hit in the first place.

Perhaps that wasn’t the best logic, but perception it was.

“Status Window.”

[Challenger Yule

HP: 20/20

MP: 20/20

Title: LOCKED

Skills: LOCKED

Strength: Lv. 2

Stamina: Lv. 2

Agility: Lv.2

Durability: Lv.0

Magic: Lv.0

Perception: Lv.1]

I would need 25p to even out all of my stats, and then 100p to get all of them up to Lv.3. I hoped that monsters dropped a lot of coins. My best bet was most likely to keep everything even until I had a reason to favor one stat over the other. If I acquired a tank-like ability, I’d want to prioritize my health and durability. If I ended up with more stealthy abilities like an assassin, the best thing to level up would be perception and agility.

Apparently sensing that I was staring listlessly at my status window, a new pop-up appeared.

[Would you like to continue the System Tutorial?]

Ah, so there was more. I hated long tutorials in games. I usually learned from dying.

Perhaps that wasn’t the best way to do this, considering I didn’t exactly get a ‘Return To Last Save’ option.

“Yes.”

Yet another window popped up. This one just held a few rows of square boxes.

[Capacity: 0/50

This is the inventory. You can use it to store any items you find inside Dungeons, and System-approved items from other areas. In order to access your inventory, visualize the item you need with your hand open or your arms up for larger items. In order to store items in the inventory, pass the item through your inventory window. Inventory is auto-sorted by the level of the item.]

How nice. I could keep my hands in my pockets for warmth instead of holding my dagger. I scooped the weapon out of the snow and hesitantly poked it through the window. An image of my dagger appeared in the first slot.

[Congratulations on completing the System Tutorial!

I sincerely hope for your survival, dear Challenger.]

The window closed.

That was ominous. The ‘I’ certainly implied the System was a sentient being. The message’s typing animation had seemed slower than usual, as well.

Or maybe it was just a pre-programmed message. I couldn’t do anything about it, so I might as well let the matter rest.

The window earlier had announced I had three days I needed to survive. I was fairly certain the human body could go for quite a while without eating, but there was no telling how the current temperatures would affect that. In any case, moving around would at least warm me up.

My socks made an unfortunate squelching noise as I stood. Excellent. The snow had already soaked through my sneakers, and my pants weren’t exactly dry, either. Hopefully, wet socks in freezing weather wouldn’t cause frostbite…

To my right, there was a large expanse of ice. It seemed to be a frozen-over lake. Perhaps once I gained enough points to buy the skates I’d seen in the shop not long ago, I could see if there was anything interesting on the other side, and if I broke through the ice, there might be fish in there. If the ice was too thin and couldn’t support my weight, that was as good as a death sentence. If I did manage to fish through the ice, if the cracks spread and I fell in, I was still dead.

To my left, there was a forest of some kind of coniferous tree. I had the highest chance of finding food there, like hares, but between the small amount of information I’d gleaned from the nature documentaries I’d watched with Rounin and video game logic, there was a high chance of monsters, wolves, monster wolves, or both. And of course, the issue of how to catch said hares was rather restricting.

Speaking of Rounin, it would certainly be nice if I had paid attention when he was rambling about what plants were edible and not edible. That would have been useful information. He had mentioned pine trees having edible parts.

There were two issues with this. One, I couldn’t remember what parts he had mentioned, and two, I wasn’t sure if those were pine trees. Either way, no matter what tree they were, trees meant wood, and with wood, I could start a fire. That would help with the frostbite, and I’d need to cook whatever food I did manage to hunt eventually.

The sound of howls broke me out of my concentration.

Video game logic prevailed. There were wolves in the forest.

And by video game logic…hunting those wolves meant points.

I turned left, and walked into the woods.