Steven stirs awake, feeling a wall against his back. He slowly opens his eyes, blinking a few times as the light hits him. It's then when he realises he's outside.

"Then what am I..." he turns around, still unsure if this is a dream or not, but quickly finds apart of the hotel wall. It was just a chunk of the wall from before, just big enough for his back to lay on, the sides of it perfectly smooth and the edges of the tacky wallpaper burnt black.

"What kinda dream is this?" Slowly getting up, he could still feel the grogginess of his body, his muscles feeling like he just ran a marathon. He then saw it at the corner of his eye.

Steven System 0.1 Alpha

It was the same font as what his phone would show, using while showing the model of the phone. "What's a 'Steven' Sy-" before he could finish he question, a window expanded from the corner until it filled his view.

Congratulations for surviving your first astral event

Please choose one of three system functions

-Achievements

-Levels

-Titles

Warning: These functions may or may not appear again in later System Developments

"What the hell?! Was I playing some MMO when I was trying to sleep? And what does it mean I can only choose one, aren't all of these usually a given."

Please choose

The voice of the system seem to have a sterner tone to it this time. It sounded familiar to Steven as well, but where did he hear it. Not able to think of the person in time, and not wanting to gain even more ire of this system, he made a quick decision. "Fine, Levels"

You have chosen 'Levels'

"Every Action has an Equal and Opposite reaction" (Issac Newton)

"... Why did it just quote at me?"

Now imprinting Levels in the Steven System... Updating..

Suddenly a wave of pain envelops Steven's body. He swears he can feel bones pop and organs move within himself, some feverish heat spreading over his body before all of it suddenly stops.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Levels have been imprinted

Level 1

"O-Okay... Okay" He huffs out deep breaths as his torso is hunched over, his hands on his knees. "This isn't a dream. There's no way in hell it is! So, what happened?" He tries to think of the previous day, his memories of what looked like his final moments as blue flames engulfed his hotel room hitting him all at once.

"Wait... did I die? I don't feel dead." He finally looks around his surroundings, it surrounded by unnaturally green grass and tall trees in the distance. The only human made thing nearby being the chunk of hotel wall. "This looks like a place dead people would go, if there we other people. But then what's with the wall." He quickly found himself rubbing the side of his head, noticing something else. He moved his hands slowly up, horror slowly dawning on him. "No... No, No, No! You can't do this to me! I worked so hard for this!" His hands rub across his head, only feeling smooth skin. He then felt his face, once again feeling no hair what so ever.

"Fuuuuck" he fell to his knees, realising that the long years of having long hair and a bushy beard has ended, that era of his life now over. "I'll avenge you hair, I swear it" he said while dramatically raising a fist to the air, shaking it to the heavens... only to be meet with silence. He lowered his hand, looking around but still finding no one. He hoped that at least joking with himself might ease the growing tension, but it didn't. Several questions started to flood his mind as the silence seemed to surround him. Was his family alright? What about Heather? Who was she even with? Where is everyone? Each question hitting him like a brick, before he finally took a deep breath in and simply moved forward.

Just like usual. Big project with a steep deadline? Just move forward. Other IT gets let go due to budget cuts? Just. Move. Forward. He will have time to think about this later, if ever wanted to. Right now, he needed to see more of his surroundings. Maybe then he can find more people.

He walked to the trees far away, hoping that it might lead to some type of forest. Back when he was a kid, his father took him and his two siblings out camping. His father was very passionate about the outdoors, teaching all of them about basic hunting and scavenging. If he was honest though, not a lot of it stuck. Steven became a lot more interested in computer games when he reached his teens, and then quickly became the family's teach self-taught tech expert. Still though, something was better then nothing in this case. "Wait a second" he said out loud while still walking, the trees were getting closer into view at this point, the forest past them in full view now. Ignoring the forest for now, he reaches into his jean pocket before pulling out his phone. "Fuck yeah! Suck it blue fire!"

He pulled the phone in front of him instinctively, only to find that the screen was completely broken. Hoping that it would at least turn on, he held down the power button. But nothing happened, not even the 0 battery icon. "Damn you blue fire! First you take my hair, now my phone!" Just as he was going to dramatically raise his phone, another thought pasted him. Why was he afraid to look up? He raised his hand up before, yet he didn't look towards it. He didn't even look at while walking closer to the forest, only looking to the trees. What was making him so afraid? The memory of the sky filled with flames hits him, a cold sweat going down his neck. "I-It can't be still like that right? No, no. It's stupid to be afraid of the sky. I just need to look up. Look..." He strained his neck, as if fighting off an invisible wall "Up!" Then finally, as if breaking through, his head shot up to look up.

The sky seemed almost fuller somehow. The flames where indeed gone, yet the blue skies seemed even more vibrant than before, almost like they were waiting to be set ablaze once again. But, the most disturbing thing, and the rest of it seemed to look bigger, was the now small blue ball sitting in the middle of the sky. It was the sun. "What the hell?!"