Back in the Present

Nick woke up several hours later, shivering in the breeze that was flowing across the shoreline. The only fragment of his dreams that remained with him was a strange place that seemed like a cross between an office building the size of a continent and a superhero’s hideout.

The room where Pax had informed him of the fate of the Earth. His integration into the System and its game-like rules. The existence of magic and other fey forces far beyond his comprehension. While the memory of his orientation was fuzzy, Nick knew, deep in his bones, that it wasn’t just a dream.

With that realization, more details came into focus, each more surprising than the last. That his world had been claimed by the System. That he was taking part in a survival challenge it had called a tutorial. Nick still couldn’t remember what had happened before his orientation or how it had ended, but he could sense that it was bad. Too painful to face just yet. That something was shielding him from the worst of it for just a little longer.

Though his memories were returning at last, he set them aside for a few final moments. He wasn’t ready to ponder the full implications of his new reality yet. For now, reflecting on his first day on the island was all he could handle without falling to pieces.

As Nick gazed into the blanket of fog shrouding the heavens, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, turning inward to face what had happened head on. He had been avoiding thinking about the impossibility of what he’d seen until he had a few hours to himself, but now was the time.

He was deeply shaken by everything that had happened over what was officially the longest day of his life. To keep himself going, he had shoved his emotions into a box while he struggled to survive, but they all burst free in that moment. Nick was engulfed in a tsunami of fear, confusion, and excitement as he began sorting through his experiences.

He had woken up alone on a mysterious shoreline, his recollection of recent events filled with more holes than Swiss cheese. Judging by the growth of his hair and nails, Nick had lost a considerable amount of time. At least six months by his rough estimate. He was still dressed in the clothes that he’d been wearing the last night he could remember, carrying none of the gear required for surviving in the wilderness. Not even shoes on his feet for fuck’s sake. With no source of water and only a pair of cookies to sustain him, Nick had been forced to explore the island’s unfamiliar and increasingly hostile terrain.

If that wasn’t unbelievable enough, his understanding of the world had been fractured when he’d discovered the obelisk, seeing his name appear beside a bunch of terms straight out of a role-playing game. Informing him that he’d been given a quest to survive for a month on the Searing Isle. The interface had proven to be extremely responsive, displaying an updated list of Nick’s possessions like he had a camera watching over his shoulder. Like reality itself had been overwritten by some kind of AI system.

Moving on, he had been attacked by a pack of carnivorous lizards, escaping after a desperate battle that had ground him down to the dregs of his reserves. But what was really upsetting Nick. What did more than scare him. Made him question his fundamental understanding of the universe and the laws that governed it, was what happened next. The friendly-until-that-moment supersized lemurs had responded to the lizards’ intrusion with lethal force. Using tools and tactics that should have been impossible for any animal on Earth.

While that much might be explained away by some kind of intensive genetic manipulation, it still left the greatest shock and deepest mystery of them all. The one that Nick had been avoiding processing for as long as he could. The existence of the monstrous beast that had ambushed the lemurs. Slaughtering part of the tribe while they were harvesting the coconuts that had saved him from dehydration and starvation.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The furry dinosaur that Nick had decided to call the lurk was utterly terrifying. He was certain, on a primal, fundamental level, that if the lurk had noticed his presence, he would be digesting in its stomach instead of shivering beneath a blanket of fog. The beast was unthinkably strong, lightning quick, and stealthy enough to sneak up on a pack of hyper-intelligent lemurs, despite the sentries they had posted.

In addition to being an apex predator, the lurk was an ambush predator, making the northern forest a constant, threatening presence. Not only was the lurk a creature that didn’t exist on Earth, it was one that had never walked the surface of the planet of Nick’s birth. An entity beyond the powers of modern science to create.

Thus, he could no longer think of his situation as an elaborate prank. It wasn’t a sociopathic death game or a mad scientist’s paradise either. That only left two possibilities to consider. The first was that Nick was lost in some kind of complex hallucination. The problem with this theory was that he felt sober, no trace of altered consciousness besides his memory loss. More, this place obeyed none of the rules of being inside your own mind that he had learned from lucid dreaming and the chemical experimentation of his youth.

There’s too much clarity. Too much consistency. Novel stimuli, pain, and lasting consequences to each decision. This is no vision or dream. If he wasn’t lost inside of himself, that left only the most amazing possibility of all. The one suggested by the memories of his orientation. With a sigh, he examined them head on. Blended the shards of his recollections with his experiences on the island to form an undeniable truth.

“It’s all real,” Nick spoke the words aloud. Admitting what he had known deep within his soul from the moment he first set eyes on the lurk. Everything that he’d read at the obelisk and remembered from his dreams was true. The rules that governed his corner of the universe had been overwritten by the System. He stood upon the face of an alien planet, engaged in a contest with his life as the prize.

For all of Nick’s faults, he had never ignored the evidence of his own eyes or refused to face unpleasant realities. Thus, though it rocked him to his core, he accepted the truth of his situation. Owned it. Made it his own. A part of himself.

In that moment of acceptance, the clouds parted. He found himself staring up at foreign stars arranged in unknown constellations. Undeniable evidence that he was stranded on another planet. Lost, bereft from his loved ones, and far away from home.

Although he had yet to encounter it, Nick knew that the magic the System spoke of must be real too. Classes, levels, traits, all of it. Taken together, it meant that this was only the beginning of the changes occurring inside him. That given time, wise decisions, and a bit of luck, Nick could transform into something he had never dreamed was possible. A person with the powers he had been fantasizing about for his entire life.

As shocking as all of this was, he realized that he was excited too. Maybe even happy to be here. He was experiencing something far beyond his games and stories. Walking along an alien shore in his own flesh. Level zero and bursting with potential.

This was Nick’s origin story. The end of his old life and the start of something new. He stood at the starting line of a journey that would transform him in ways he couldn’t begin to imagine. A grand adventure that he’d been preparing for his entire life.

Although he would be processing his trauma for months to come, by accepting his new reality, his mind stopped fighting with itself, freeing his subconscious to assist him in the battle for his life. If his survival hinged upon rules that took on aspects of a game, then Nick would play to win. After all, he’d been playing games his entire life. He lived them. Breathed them. Dreamt of stats and strategies every time that he closed his eyes.

In that moment, Nick vowed that he would unravel the rules of the System. Learn how to survive. He would fight with every fiber of his being. Use every skill, tactic, and trick that he’d gathered from a lifetime of competition. He would find a way to come out on top in this new and wondrous existence and protect the people he loved.

Bathed in the light of foreign stars, Nick swore that he would find his way home, no matter how rough the road.