If you ever open your eyes, to the gentle stimulation of your nethers baking in the midday sun, you’ll probably know, on some instinctual level, that there’s a problem.

I opened my eyes, blearily taking a moment to consider the fact I sprawled on a hot sandy surface, completely naked, with my arms and legs buried deep into the sandy earth. Not the rest of my body mind. No, that lay exposed in all its glory to the harsh sun pounding its rays into my pale radiance.

‘What. The. Fuck?’ Yes, times like these need the conviction of an expletive.

What can I say to explain my thinking? Nothing – there were no thoughts, words, or ideas.

Instead, I dug myself out of the sand and sat, staring at my body, staring around, and staring at my surroundings while wondering where I was and what the hell I was doing. The memories wouldn’t come—at all—no matter how hard I focused. And it wasn’t like I’d just finished a three-day bender with my mind woozy, delirious, or moments from forcefully ejecting my stomach. No, I felt as fine as could be, under the circumstances of being toasted in all the wrong places.

I squinted through the brilliance of the relentless midday sun, my eyes not appreciating its power as they awoke from their state of oblivion. Around me, the world stretched endlessly across rolling hills or sandy expanses of rocky terrain only broken by distant forests. The forests, or the glaringly stark exception of a deep canyon cutting across the land like a giant scar.

Sitting up, I winced at the pain of my sunburned skin as I cast my gaze over the desolation. The memories of how I arrived remained elusive, swept away by the same winds that no doubt whipped across this landscape. But there! Yes… In the distance, far beyond the scorching horizon, a mirage town shimmered behind the heat haze. I could get answers there, surely. Well, hopefully… I’d better, otherwise, I’d be stuck circling on that same question playing across my thoughts. What was happening?

My slow-moving nature allowed a nearby pika to poke its head out from behind a rocky outcrop.

Pika [Level 1]

Ummmm? I rubbed my eyes. That’s not usual… I think.

Pika [Level 1]

Yes, writing hovered above the pika as it shuffled further from its rocky hideaway to gaze upon me with curiosity. It definitely wasn’t my imagination.

'Got any idea what's going on?’ I asked it.

Startled, the pika fled back into the rocks.

Sighing, I pushed myself to my feet. Time to take stock and figure out what to do. Was I... I wasn't actually sure what the right questions to ask were, at this point. Could this be a game? If so, what game, or hell, why would I even think that it was a game? The notifications led me to that conclusion… or they suggested I'd lost all my marbles. Probably the latter.

In my peripheral vision, I noticed more writing – smaller, and harder to see due to it being wedged in that spot in the corner of your eye that moved when you tried to look at it. But if I stared straight ahead, relaxed a little, and just let my brain process, I could make out a flashing star symbol.

Soft white writing centralised in my vision.

CHARACTER INFORMATION: JACOB BOSMA

Class: Unknown

Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

Health: 9/10

Essence: Unknown

Statistics:

· Strength – 1

· Dexterity – 1

· Constitution – 2 (+1)

· Wisdom – 2

· Charisma – 0

Titles:

Traits:

· Outcast (-1 to charisma while trait is active)

Skills:

Bonuses:

· Sunbather – You have ritualistically tanned your skin in the midday sun. +1 to constitution when fighting in direct sunlight.

So, it was a game! Suspicion confirmed.

I tried to take in the rest of the information with a cursory glance, aware of the fact the burning sensation had begun to attack new places.

‘Jacob Bosma. Hmmm.’ My name felt right on my tongue, and speaking it felt as if a lost piece had returned to me. There wasn’t much else to go on though. Outcast, huh? Zero charisma, no way! What consequence would that have? And then I had nine health points currently, which, from the feelings emanating off my pale chest, I was dangerously close to roasting through another one.

I thought from somewhere struck me. If this was a game, then they usually came with instructions, logs or even journals.

Looking the fool, I decided that speaking to my notifications was the path forward.

‘Log.’

No response.

‘Journal.’ Nada. Zip.

‘Quests?’

Again, Information scrolled into my view, replacing the character information screen.

New Quest – Travel to the nearest town.

Well, that gave me nothing and yet something. No hints of where I was from, or why I awoke in the middle of this landscape. At least I had somewhere to go, some direction to keep my mind focused towards, rather than fixate on… Nope, nice try. Not going there.

‘Guess there’s only one thing to do then,’ I sighed my thoughts out, eyeing the distant landscape and noting what looked like a several-hour walk in front of me. Better get to it.

To be honest, the walking made me feel better instantly and gave me time to sort things out in my mind. That wasn’t easy, seeing as my thoughts were not connected to anything concrete. There were no memories to tell me if a quest log appearing in my vision was normal, no memories to tell me if I’d entered some elaborate game. Instinct told me this was real, that this was ‘life’, but how would I know?

Reaching the town required me to walk beside the canyon for some distance, then continue onwards where the canyon veered away to the horizon. East, maybe, judging by the angle the sun drifted on.

Ambling past the low scrub to the edge of the canyon, I stared down into its depth, resisting the urge to yell out ‘hello’ and await the echo. It was not particularly wide, no more than one hundred paces across in various places. The hard edge allowed me to warily creep up to investigate the depths – only to see nothing. No bottom or small stream wandering along the bottom. No rocky piles of collapsed walls. Only misting darkness.

I whistled to myself. That canyon was deep, so much so that the light didn’t even penetrate its depths. Something felt wrong about it, a feeling that permeated through me and made the hairs on my neck stand up. My current limitations on canyons notwithstanding, but this one felt weird.

Shaking my body to ease the tension, I set off walking. Surely, I was just being a fool, one haunted and afraid by a little bit of darkness? I had enough issues without making anything else a priority; clothes, the town, anything relating to why I’d awoken here? Those things needed my attention, not a canyon.

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Walking the canyon’s edge gave me a simple line to follow – well, not too close, as I had a not-unwarranted fear an edge collapsing would leave me plummeting downwards into darkness’ embrace. About twenty paces was the sweet spot; where, whether from wind or some other environmental effect, larger plants and trees were mainly cleared away. That made walking easier, if tiring, as the searing pain of my sunburn and the sandy terrain beneath my feet made every step an ordeal.

Those things made it difficult for me to either see, or stop, the attack when it came.

With a swift suddenness, a blurring in my peripheral vision announced the arrival of some form of predatory phantom. My brain had no time to react, or let out a scream to be fair – it watched a wall of fur and muscle approach on a collision course with my face. And fangs… yes, there were definitely fangs as the fur-creature came closer.

Preservation instincts kicked in as the animal leapt at me.

I fell over.

That seemed to help. The creature, some sort of lion, sailed over the top of me as I lay on my back, its claws swiping along my leg and triggering searing pain.

Stranded but desperately scrabbling backward, I witnessed the feline predator's agile recovery. It rose in a graceful flurry of motion, its yellow eyes never leaving me. It approached with a hunter's caution, a mere ten paces away.

Summoning courage, I forced myself upright. My trembling hand stumbled upon an object – a makeshift weapon in the form of a three-foot-long piece of wood. Fear and shock spasmed through my veins as I raised it, but I did raise it in front of me, and I did stare that creature down.

Fight. Got to fight. This was my first day in this unfamiliar land, and I refused to meet my end as a light snack for a lion.

If I could judge anything, I knew the odds were decidedly not in my favour. Unlike the pika, no information displayed above the creature’s head.

‘Hyah!’ I screamed at it, no doubt convincing the lion of my threatening nature as I continued to back away.

I edged back towards the canyon, at the same rate the lion stalked forward.

I still didn’t know what it was – it looked like what my absent memories were apparently calling a lion. If a lion that easily came up to my waste, even when crouching down stalking. It had a powerful body, covered in reddish-brown fur, and limbs that could clearly rend the flesh from my body if they caught hold. Dark yellow eyes fixated upon me, set over a mouth held upon in threat.

Yeah, it didn’t need to do that, I was already terrified. Hours into my waking, I was naked, nicely burnt, and in a standoff with a lion next to a cliff.

The lion stalked forward; I walked back.

My stick did a good job of keeping the creature back. Surprising, really, although it steadily drove me closer and closer to the canyon’s edge despite me waving it back and forth. But what else could I do? I couldn’t fight it – I’d die almost instantaneously as far as I could tell. No three-foot stick could keep those teeth and claws off my body. I knew that. The lion knew that. So, why hesitate?

As my feet reached the edge of the canyon, a glimmer of hope struck me as my foot precariously perched on the paces of solid ground. Below me, a broad ledge loomed in the depths of the dark canyon.

My way to safety...

With no grace whatsoever, I tumbled over, falling onto the ledge below to meet it with a solid crunch.

Okay, not several feet – more like ten.

Luckily my body had twisted slightly, so the fall hammered into my thigh and hip, and only partly into my forehead. Pain blossomed, but he’d become my constant companion today as I sprawled on the rocky ledge, dazed and confused. No, think past the pain. I need to. A lion was still about, and I was even more trapped than before, just at a slightly different level from my predatory friend.

Dragging my face off where it had splatted into the ground, I whisked around to confront the lion, fully expecting it to be sailing through the, claws wide, as it prepared to gorge itself on my fine flesh.

Nothing. No lion. No growling. Just an eerie emptiness where I expected something horrific.

I stood staring at the lip of the canyon for minutes – ten, fifteen, it was hard to say. You don’t just take your eyes off somewhere you think an attack will imminently arrive from. Sure, I still had my stick, and any lion coming to my impromptu battleground was going to get beaten down if it arrived…

Which it didn’t.

Minutes passed, each one feeling like an eternity as my eyes fixated on the edge of the canyon. No, I needed to relax. It’d been an age, and no lion had leapt below to finish the job. I began to relax, my fingers gently probing the sore spots on my body, wiping away the blood that ran down my legs. I still couldn't tear my gaze away from the canyon's lip, waiting for the furry face of the lion to reappear.

I’d guess it took twenty minutes for me to relax enough to notice the ledge I’d put myself on was the top step of an endlessly deep chasm. Startling deep. So far, I couldn’t see the bottom. I took in the swirling dark mists plummeting to its depths, took in the way the light cut off abruptly, roughly fifteen feet under the ledge I was upon, and oh, yeah, I took in the bona fide body of a dead man lying on the ledge ten feet beside me.

Great, had this guy been stalked down here by a lion too?

The man’s body lay face down on the ground with his arms awkwardly behind his back. There were no clear wounds or pooling blood beneath him. He just… wasn’t moving anymore, and clearly hadn’t been for some time judging by the way the flies had gathered nearby.

When impersonating a slow-cooking pig on a spit, it’s fair to say that you develop a significant level of desperation. But come on, it was like, voilà, my pathway to clothes is revealed… Memories or not, I knew that clothes were important, whether as protection from the sun or just because polite conversations didn’t usually follow a fellow who wandered into a town with his ol’ meat and veg on display. You can bet your bottom dollar I’d be taking everything this man had to offer.

With my eyes still flickering nervously toward the edge, I made my way toward the lifeless stranger sprawled on the rocky ledge. He was in an interesting location. However this unfortunate soul had made his way into the canyon, nobody or no thing had descended to see whether he’d completely adventured to the depths of darkness below. Had he fallen? Had he been chased down here by my friend lurking above? Or had someone decided that playing a second round of ‘toss the corpse’ was too difficult after the body had landed on the ledge? I couldn’t know, but I had a body in front of me that had clothing – and I did not. The equation here was simple.

White text flowed into my vision.

New Quest – Steal the clothing and items off the dead body.

New Quest – Steal a weapon (optional).

Active Quests:

· Steal the clothing and items off the dead body.

· Steal a weapon (optional).

· Travel to the nearest town.

The text faded away as I pondered. Steal a weapon… Did that mean that somewhere on this body I could find a weapon?

I shrugged. Only one way to find out.

Despite my fear of handling a body, the absence of blood buoyed me. No blood at all, really. Instead, this looked like strangulation. Hanging perhaps? That would explain the angry red and black welts circling the man’s throat.

Awkwardly, I began the delicate task of stripping the stiffened corpse of its attire, trying to ignore the fact his tattooed arm remained wrenched unnaturally behind his body. The fixed stare too. I needed to avoid that, which wasn’t easy, as the man’s glassy eyes set deep into his stubbled face watched my every move – watched me defile his corpse.

Yeah, I know. It’s kind of sick… but come on, most of me had become burnt. And it wasn’t like I didn’t have boundaries. There's no way on earth, or wherever the hell I am, that I'm taking a man's undergarments. Some lines you just don't cross.

After a few minutes of jostling, undressing and refitting, I managed to secure the gunslinger's whiteish shirt, dark breeches, a serviceable pair of boots and long socks. They fit – just – as it is fair to say that man had a much larger physique than I. The perfect gift, however, was the long duster, protecting all the essential areas the sun sought to punish. Except for my head. I’d need to look into a hat at some point.

Unexpectedly, the duster had some silver coins in the pocket, a thick kerchief, and a tarnished locket with ‘Mary Percival’ inscribed on it. Now that raised some questions. If this guy was killed, and robbed, who would be leaving money and jewellery in his pocket? That wasn’t something I could easily answer right now.

New Quest – Return the locket to Mary Percival (optional).

I patted down the multitude of duster pockets for more treasures, both internal and external, without any further luck. The gunslinger was mostly naked, and I’d jostled him around enough to know that my optional quest to find a weapon wasn’t located under him. No, as I stared down at him with arms folded, I knew exactly where the weapon lay.

Sighing yet again, I carefully reached my hands into the man’s undergarments. Uh, no… Not that – goddamn it. And then, yeah, you know, hello – where else would it have possibly been?

In my hands, I held an old-style revolver, its polished wooden handle gleaming dully in the light of the canyon. The weapon looked old, having a few scratches and dents. I’m no expert, but it looked to hold six shots, with three still in the chamber. Did that mean there was one ready to go?

Yeah… not an expert.

I studied the revolver carefully, wondering what information would be revealed.

STOCK REVOLVER

Type: Firearm

Rarity: Common

Damage: 5-8 (x2 critical)

‘Nice,’ I whispered. 5-8 damage wasn’t great, but that meant that two bullets killed me, and only one if that bullet hit somewhere essential.

Further white writing sprawled in front of me.

Quest Completion:

· Steal the clothing and items off the dead body.

You have been awarded 3 experience for your ability to steal things from dead people. Congratulations, perhaps you can upgrade to a drunkard next?

· Steal a weapon (optional).

You have been awarded 2 experience for stealing a gun from a dead person. Remember to not look at the end with the hole. Ah, wait… perhaps it’s for the best if you do.

The text continued.

Active Quests:

· Travel to the nearest town.

· Find the reason for the body in the canyon.

· Return the locket to Mary Percival (optional).

‘You snarky bitch.’ I told the quest system, looking up in the air as if it watched me from up high.

The moment probably lasted too long as I waited for an answer from whatever god watched on in this realm. But nothing, of course.

I admit, at this moment, I did a pause to take stock.

I’d awoken lost and with no memory. I appeared to have entered a… whatever, maybe a game? And then there were the words which felt familiar – like bitch – which felt like it had a very specific meaning. That led to the simple conclusion that I did have knowledge of many things… I just didn’t have the memories accompanying that knowledge. Anyway, that aside, since awakening I’d progressed to robbing a dead man of his wealth, clothing, and weaponry… A good day?

If I didn’t know that pain was real in this world, I’d swear it was nothing but a dream.

‘Move on,’ I told myself. ‘You keep moving.’

I don’t know where the advice came from, but it seemed solid. Nothing else to do but plod one foot in front of the other and make my way to this town.