Black.
Black was the only color I saw when I woke up. I tossed and turned to find some sort of clue about where I am, but I could see nothing other than the pure darkness that covered my eyes.
How appropriate, considering my last name.
Is this death?
It wasn’t just my vision, too. None of my other senses were functioning in this pitch-black darkness. In this state, I couldn’t tell if I was floating or if I was lying on the ground. While my arms and legs were most certainly here, the lack of any tactile feedback against my surroundings almost made it feel like I didn’t have any limbs.
Perhaps I’d died from the bleeding on my head, or perhaps I went mad from the constant depression and suffering. Regardless…
[Zane Black, welcome to the tutorial.]
In an instant, my surroundings exploded into pure white, manifesting itself into a dome covered in pure, almost blindingly bright, whiteness. My sensations returned right after that initial burst as I felt my back resting on a cloudy surface. The brightness went down a few notches after the initial burst of radiance, revealing... well, whatever it is that was ahead of me.
A small, bright orb floated in the middle of the dome. I had to squeeze my eyes from its radiant coloring, blending its shape almost completely with the bright dome. It pulsated for a moment, then morphed into something else.
Something… Humanoid?
[Player Zane Black]
[Welcome to the integration]
A robotic voice played inside of my head. A wave of confusion stunned my brain as I turned to both my sides, attempting to find the source of the voice. Is it Telepathy?
Amidst my confusion, the shining humanoid stepped closer.
“Welcome.” The figure said in an androgynous voice. I couldn’t hear his speech, per se, it was more like there was a sentence directly streamed into my brain.
“Where am I? What’s going on?” My eyelids had forced themselves shut from the brightness that blasted my vision when he approached.
“The system has chosen your world as the next sector to be integrated into the system’s will.”, It answered. “It began the transformation from a satellite of your planet. I believe you call it the moon?”
A million questions ran their course in my head, but I struggled to eke out another question or sentence. “To put it simply, the world you used to live in no longer existed. At least, it won’t be how it was before.”
“Where’s everyone else?”, I asked again. “Am I dead?”
“This pocket of dimension is only for the both of us.”, He said, turning back. “The rest of your kind are in another one of these, too.”
“As for whether you’re dead, there’s no need to worry. You are very much alive.” The figure continued, “In fact, you’re probably more alive than you’ve ever been. The system cleansed all human known diseases and parasites from your body when you were teleported here.”
The bizarreness of the situation is still kicking my sanity as I sat there trying to process everything together.
The figure, however, remained still. There was barely any enthusiasm shown in its hollow eyes, at least, judging from the way it looked.
“Are you serious?”, A wave of nausea hit me when I tried to stand, dropping my miserable body back to the ground. “My sister… if you came a month earlier, she would’ve been…”
“Alive?” Completing my sentence, the figure watched me with a hint of sympathy in its gaze. “Unfortunately, the system does not care about your personal matters. All it wanted was capable individuals. Those who died before were irrelevant in its eyes.”
Just one month quicker, and she’d be here with me. Just 30 fucking days…
Despite all the chemicals in my brain forcing me to cry, my eyes couldn’t eke out a single drop of tear.
“There’s no point in trying to change things that couldn’t be changed. Death is permanent, back on the earth, and also the next world you’ll be in.”, The figure said, recognizing the emotion I was feeling. “All you can do now is look towards the future.”
A tired sigh escaped my dry lips. “That’s easy for you to say…”, at the end of the day, I had grieved her death for close to a full month. Perhaps in a twisted way, I had already accepted that she was gone.
Hell, maybe it wasn’t not so bad that she wasn’t involved in whatever mess I was about to be in. This tutorial thing sounded like a nightmare.
Gently brushing the back of my head, a visible shock could be seen in my eyes when I found out that the previous swelling had completely healed. “What’s going to happen in this tutorial?”
I perceived that he smiled, even when he possessed no visible facial features. “You will be tested, Zane Black. The system wants to know if you’re deemed worthy of its boons and fulfill your duty as a member of your sector.”
“You do know that none of what you said made any sense.” Trying once more to get up, I finally gave up trying and simply laid still, waiting for it to continue. “Damn…”
“You don’t have to understand everything at once. Right now, your only focus is to survive the tutorial and get stronger. Everything else will come in time.”
Okay… None of his sentences were remotely sensible. It felt like I was talking about a topic that was way beyond my capacity for understanding.
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“Just… make it simple for me.”, I sighed.
“I can do that.”, His left arm extended towards me, pointing straight at my temples, “This will hurt a little.”.
He - or it - shot a white beam from the tip of his index finger aimed directly at my head. I winced when the beam passed through my skull, but not before I felt a surge of new information circulating in my thoughts. Within a few milliseconds, I understood what the system and the integration were.
I see.. So it’s like a game?
Player : Zane Black
Race : [G - HUMAN]
Level : 0
Health : 50/50
Stamina : 50/50
Mana : 50/50
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
ATTRIBUTES
Physical [0] :
[Strength] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Dexterity] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Constitution] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
Mind [0] :
[Intelligence] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Willpower] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Capacity] - 0 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 0] [equipment :0] [bonus 0% : 0]
[Free Main Attribute points : 0 ]
[Free Sub Attribute points : 0]
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Classes :
[]
Skills :
[]
Achievements :
[]
Affinities :
[]
Talents :
[]
[Warning : because of the G-rank status of your race, the aura attribute is locked until you reach racial evolution.]
Aura? What’s that?
While I have lost the drive to play games upon reaching adulthood, I knew enough about them to understand the similarities of the status with an RPG.
The only big difference is that if you die here, you die for real.
From the strange beam, I was given the knowledge about accessing the system and most of the features within.
“I see that you’ve understood how to access the system’s features.”, The humanoid figure said. “I’d love to share more, but because of the fear of information overload, I cannot provide the full information that way. And, yes, because of the un-evolved state of your race, you’re unable to access the aura attribute. Do not worry about that right now, since survival is your primary concern.”
Glancing back at the figure, I watched it continuing its attempt at explaining the things that were ahead of me, only to return his efforts with a blank stare. The shift from my life back on the earth to the system’s introduction is just too much for my feeble mind to deal with.
“We have little time.” The figure spoke. “Your tutorial begins in 30 minutes.”
30 minutes? That’s not a lot of time.
“Are you able to stand up?”, The figure asked.
Grunts echoed in the white nothingness as I struggled to get up. It worked this time, but the disorientation was still present even after I stood up straight. “Good. Then, are you ready for the orientation?”
“About as ready as I can be.” I shrugged. “I get the gist of things; the system I can understand, but I’m hazy on pretty much everything else. I know that the new world I would return to differs from the one before, but to what extent is unclear to me.”
“Hostile. Dangerous. Deadly.”, He answered. “Those are the most common adjectives used to describe the type of world the system introduces. I can’t explain the danger you’ll face, since they vary wildly between the sectors it will drop you into.”
“Yeah, how encouraging...”
“There’s no better explanation I can give other than experiencing the sector yourself.”, He continued. “Use your wits and the boon of the system. Get stronger, rinse and repeat.”, The figure chuckled. “That is a saying on your earth, right? Well, upon a quick analysis of the history of the Earth, I strongly believe that it was similar to the system used by the common games played in your world.”
I stared at the status page once more while talking, “I knew that much… The status page is eerily familiar. But what about the world out there? Is it like living in the wild?” my head pictured the cavemen tribes that lived in the past, hunting animals and foraging the wilds for food and survival.
“That’s a good way to describe it.”, He shrugged. “Do not worry, the system will aid you; Provided you’re worthy enough of its help. Not everyone is worthy of the system’s guidance. Those who are unworthy will perish in the early tutorial stage. Strength is the single most important value a player must have.”
Strength overruled everything, huh? It wasn’t all that different different from the history of humanity.
“What about the tutorial? How do I clear it?” I asked the next most obvious question.
“That depends on the sector and the system-generated events. The system will display the goal by the time you enter the tutorial.” It paused afterward, twitching its head as I waited. “Which will begin in 22 minutes.”
“Time is of the essence.”, Extending his arms to each side, I saw three types of weapons conjured from thin air and floated below his extended arms. “You need to pick your desired weapon before entering. You will gain a level after you do so.”
“A weapon..”, my eyes shifted focus to the weapons displayed. As soon as my eyes gazed at the sword at the far left, a message box popped.
[Pick up 1x enchanted sword?]
No… I’ve never wielded a sword before in my life.
The next two weapons were a bow and a spear. Sadly, the modern age had rendered all these weapons obsolete since the invention of gunpowder. But if I had to pick one..
My eyes then focused on the spear.
[Pick up Spear?] [Yes] [No]
[You’ve acquired 1x iron enchanted spear.]
[You’ve gained a level. + 1 Free attribute points.]
I held the spear in my arm, getting a good feel of it. It has a decent length; marginally longer than my 6’2 frame, complete with a sharp iron tip. The wooden handle felt sturdy to the touch, enough to endure all the strain a spear typically encountered.
[Iron enchanted spear : Enchanted with the auto repair ability. As long as the weapon doesn’t break or split, it will repair itself.]
Cool. I thought, taking a few practice swings and thrusts with the spear.
I can’t say I was proficient with a spear, but with my limited experience of wielding one, I’d say that it was the easiest weapon to wield, especially compared to the other weapons. If my survival is on the line, it’d be best if I picked the simplest weapon to use effectively.
While I was most familiar with my fists, my fighting experience only applies when I am fighting another person. No punch of mine will bring down a bear that was looking to maw my face off, but a spear definitely helps.
Satisfied, I checked my status screen; There was a notification about a level up when I grabbed the spear.
Level up… This felt almost too similar to a game.