Chapter 4: Prove Yourself

  The status screen was simpler than Alex had expected it to be.

  No levels? No class?

  Alex was accustomed to standard video games back in his world. As a result, he was used to seeing things like character levels, character classes, and equipment or inventory. However, none of those features were present here. Even when he tried calling out as he had done before, he didn't get an inventory or item equipment screen.

  Okay, so it's different from back home? But what exactly is a 'Core'? Is it like a soul core? It seems that I have no current skills or abilities...

  He kept scanning the options on the display, careful not to overlook anything. In attempt to glean more information, he mentally tapped on the terms on the screen and even voiced them aloud.

  He was unable to prompt the system to display any information about Cores, and the percentages at the end of his attribute readouts remained a mystery. Could it be a progression towards leveling them up? But they all seem quite low. A two is my highest stat? With a sigh, he decided to leave that particular conundrum for another time.

  He did have other things he wanted to try though. While there didn’t appear there was any inventory system, that didn’t mean video game logic couldn’t apply in other places. Alex tried thinking about and voicing aloud other options that popped into his head.

  “Leaderboards.” “Settings.” “Main menu.” “Quest Log.”

  Finally, Alex got a response.

  Alex’s breath caught in his throat as he read the quest description. By the time he got to the countdown timer, he had not only managed to start breathing again, but was actually hyperventilating.

  Deleted from the system? Alex thought. He didn’t need to think too hard about the implication that the quest was making. It wanted him to be a superstar, to forge some kind of path in this new world above and beyond the norm. And he had a little less than two years to do it.

  Fuck, fuck, we are stuck in a world with a crazy murder system?

  He bent over with his hands on his knees, feeling like he was going to throw up. His breath still came in shallow gasps and the edges of his vision began to get fuzzy. This was insanity many times over. They were in a new world, under the control of some AI program? And it wanted to kill them?

  Wants us to be its favorite little sims characters. If we don’t do that, then it will kill us. He corrected himself.

  No way. This has to be some kind of joke. Alex brought up the screen again, re-reading the information on the quest. Whatever kind of joke this was, Alex didn’t like it.

  They had just been caught up in a nuclear bomb and left stranded who knows where, and now someone was pulling this shit? Whoever is doing this, they are a god damn sadist. Alex starred at the screen in his vision. It sure as hell looked like one of those menu screens in a fantasy Role Playing Game or RPG. A VR game, that’s what we are in right? I’ve played these before.

  Alex had spent quite some time playing his share of video games. VR (virtual reality) technology had come quite a bit of way in the 60’s and 70’s. By the time he was born and playing games in the 2080’s they had VR room set-ups with air jets, water sprinklers, heating, cooling and tactile response suits. Making things feel rather real as you went through the experience.

  There was one serious problem with Alex’s assumption regarding VR though. They can’t cause actually pain. He looked down at his leg, where the badger had sunk it’s claw into him during their fight. The wound Allie had to clean and bandaged.

  This wound feels very, very fucking real, Alex admitted in his mind.

  There was no way the systems today could fake actual sensory inputs in someone’s brain. There may have been attempts to do it from various companies, but the sheer legal liability and free will implications in manipulating someone’s senses and mind just made it a none starter.

  Alex really didn’t believe this was a dream either. He was never a person who had lucid dreams, but he did have rather vivid ones. Even throughout his lifetime of vivid, and rather wild, dreams he never felt something as real as this. Again, the pain also was a factor here, that was just way too real.

  Nor did Alex think this was all a hallucination. Radiation from the nuclear blast could possible explain all of this in a rather logical way. Radiation sickness could cause brain damage that lead to hallucinations, after all. He learned that in the briefings he got in the military before his missions to the mid-zone since there was a higher risk of nuclear exposure. Thus the Ion-suits. Even schizophrenic psychosis was a possible result of radiation damage to the brain.

  The were two problems with that theory though. The first being onset time. Alex knew it took weeks for those kinds of symptoms to occur after exposure. A few days at the very earliest. Not mere hours.

  The second problem being that didn’t explain the shared aspects of this supposed psychotic hallucination state. How everyone on his team, and the Uni team, were seeing the same endless forest and the sudden vanishing of the city. Then the badger, which all of Alex’s team saw and even cooked.

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  This wasn’t psychosis. It wasn’t virtual reality. Alex had to admit that. But, did that really mean he was really transported to some alternate reality where he was seeing system screens in his head and fighting fucking mutant,body-building badger-beasts?

  It was hard for Alex to admit, but yes, it appeared somehow that was exactly what was going on. He had been teleported to some new world, and he was being fucked with by some kind of super powerful god AI system. There was no other explanation that he could think of.

  This is bullshit, he gritted his teeth and looked up at the green canopy of the trees above. He couldn’t see the sky through the thick leaves, but he was certain it was up there, watching him, this System. It wanted to play with his life, with the lives of his teammates, and the mere thought of that pissed Alex off.

  The rising anger washed away the denial, shock and fear he was feeling just minutes before, to make room for frustration and hatred. His blood boiled and he felt the rising heat in his chest begin to ignite again.

  I’m not a pawn! He thought. His hands began to tighten into fists at his sides. Not a toy be played with. Neither is anyone on my team. Devon, Garret, Allie, Henry, even the captain. We are not play things for some damn game. This thing wanted to get some entertainment out of them? To watch them squirm and dance for survival, reaching some unknown goal.

  But what can we really do about it? He realized it just as he thought of the question. Nothing. They could do nothing about this.

  Alex sighed and breathed in slowly. He was getting riled up again, and that wouldn’t help him right now. He needed to think. We can’t do anything about this damn quest right now, or this system. There has to be some kind of way to get out of this mess. A way back home, to Earth.

  He had a family and a life to get back to on earth. His parents, and though he hated to admit it, his brother, were probably worried about him. If the military had gotten word to them by now that is.

  Alex knew everyone on his team had people that they cared about, and cared about them in return. They had lives they were all suddenly ripped away from. Alex needed to figure out a way to get back. If they made it here somehow, then there had to be some process of reversing it.

  He remembered the initial status screen from before. There was more on that character status than just his name, some stats, and numbers. A glimmer of hope he had seen all the way at the bottom.

  The last line had made him pause. A single word that leaped out at him and made sure it grabbed his attention. Spells.

  Alex's eyes had sparkled with excitement when he first read it. The word's presence signified the dream of every RPG enthusiast. A world with magic and spells. He could almost see his younger self dancing a crazy jig in his mind at the opportunity. Who wouldn't relish the power to cast spells, to summon lightning and fire at will?

  He curtailed his inner child, trying to refocus. The reason he was going back to that thought now wasn’t because of the initial excitement of his childlike fantasies. It meant something else too.

  Alex dismissed the quest screen with a swipe of his hand and a thought, noting its rather intuitive disappearance. Mastering the user interface would come later, he had to focus on other things for now.

  If we are in a world where magic is possible, then that might be our key to getting back home. He thought to himself. Magic could mean teleportation and portals. If those exist, then it would be our shot at getting back to earth and we won’t even have to worry about the quest in the first place. So magic is a priority. Leveling up and getting stronger is going to be needed for that though. I need to get stronger. And to get stronger, I need to survive.

  His eyes glanced around at the trees the surrounded him. He was alone in a forest, and he needed shelter, food, water and more. Magic could be their key to returning home, but right now it was nothing but a fancy. He needed to get serious.

  "Step one, figure out what supplies I have. Step two, make a game plan." He thought out loud. Game plan. He chuckled at his own joke, which slowly faded as he remembered his solitude.

  Within a minute, Alex was bent over the items and backpack he had laid out on the grass. He realized he had more stuff than he initially thought, which wasn't too surprising since the military's standard kits were always well-equipped.

  Tourniquet, bandages, antibiotics, and adhesive tape. Diazepam injector, not sure how useful that will be. Anti-clotting powder, that will definitely be needed. Alex set his med kit aside, half-wishing he had Allie's fully stocked IFAK pack, but he knew the team needed it more than he did. His medical supplies were quite adequate, he reminded himself not to be greedy.

  Para-cord, pliers, screwdriver, duct tape, extra ammo magazines -those are now useless- hazmat mask, Alex tallied the rest of his equipment.

  He thought having his rifle might actually have been better than leaving it behind now. It was solid and could be used as a nice club. Again, too late to do anything about it.

  Or is it? He thought a moment. I didn't go too far, and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one with a status screen. I could just go back to camp and have them all pull it up, proving I was right.

  Certainly, it was an option. Now that he had calmed a bit, Alex regretted his actions deep down. His behavior was impulsive and upon reflection, somewhat childish. His anger had flared up simply because his team didn't believe him. He was aware that his story might seem unbelievable and that there was a significant chance they would dismiss it. So why did he lose his temper over it? What drove him to react so strongly? He couldn't explain it.

  On the other hand, even if Alex returned, showed them the screens, the quest, and convinced everyone, it wouldn't significantly alter the situation.

  "Thompson will- No, Eric," he corrected himself, "Eric won't simply abandon the chain of command. He won't stop living with his mindset in the military, in the old world. The man has been immersed in the Armed Forces with his mind and heart since I first knew him. It's all he's familiar with; he can't change and adapt quickly enough."

  "Everyone else will follow his lead too," Alex realized, understanding their fear. He was terrified too. But he wouldn't depend on the captain; he had to depend on himself. "Alright then. I'm on my own. The next step is to create a weapon."

  ***

  The wind whispered in his ears, and leaves brushed against his face as Alex made his slow creeping walk through the forest. Yet his focus remained unbroken, locked onto the figure ahead of him. After several more agonizingly slow steps Alex spotted his chance; a gap appeared in the trees marginally wider than the rest. He had to make his attempt now.

  Alex extended his foot forward and shifted his weight onto his heel. His left hand, clutching the lengthy wooden shaft, tensed and lifted it above his shoulder. The doe he pursued skirted past another tree and into the gap Alex had eyed. As he leaned into his step, Alex shot his arm forward and unclenched his hand. The spear soared, striking the animal's back and completing its descent. The doe released a wail and collapsed.

  "Fuck yes!" Alex exclaimed, he dashed toward his quarry and drew his knife in one fluid motion.

  The creature was still alive when Alex reached it, compelling him to swiftly end its suffering with the knife, reminiscent of the incident with the badger. After he did so, the kill screen appeared before Alex for the second time in his new existence.

  He retrieved the spear he had fashioned from the animal's body, taking care to clean both it and the knife with a rag from his pack. Crafting a more dependable weapon had been Alex's top priority. He had assembled a spear using a sturdy branch, which he whittled down -with help of his best caveman impression- and a stone he had shaped into a serviceable spearhead. The paracord from his pack provided the final touch, binding the two together securely.

  This spear had now secured his first successful hunt.

  Alex's initial attempts had not been aimed at such large prey. He had spent the last couple of days targeting squirrels, birds, and other small creatures, but his skill with the spear was lacking, and the swift movements of these smaller animals gave him traumatic memories of playing basketball against his brother Adam. He was getting so very hungry now.

  So instead, he fell back on what he knew. He recalled his father's lessons during hunting trips with his brother. His father's advice echoed clearly in his mind: "Find a vantage point with a clear view. A difficult task here with all the dense forest. Something near a patch of greenery and then wait. Sooner or later, a deer will come to graze, and that was the moment to approach silently and strike."

  Alex remembered this being immensely easier with a gun than the caveman spear he had now. He had lost sight of, gotten outpaced by, or frustratingly missed his throw on four other deer before he finally got this one.

  The last one was a buck too. It would have had so much more meat, and experience, on its bones. He wasn't certain about the second part, but he could only guess the bigger the animal the more experience one would earn. Alex cringed internally at the loss before just sighing and moving on.

  After not eating for two days, he was itching to get the deer cleaned and start cooking. He began tying up the doe's legs and wrapping it up in the tarp from his pack. He would have to carry it back to his makeshift camp about a mile and a half away. Not a fun task, but he wasn't just going to leave his hard-earned kill out here for someone else to snag. He had everything set and ready in just a couple of minutes and was prepared to make his trek when he realized it.

  It didn't say I had leveled up. He thought.

  Despite his status screen not displaying a spot for his level, Alex still held out hope that it just didn't show until he had made some progress. He wasn't going to just take the screens at face value. He had so many questions and unknowns in his head that he was going to have to feel things out for some time first. The act of leveling up for the first time was one of those things Alex definitely wanted to feel.

  As this was his first actual kill since he discovered the status screen, Alex had yet to pull it up again since the first time he viewed it. Admittedly, he was rather busy between then and now: making a spear, doing inventory, trying to catch a bird with the agility of a normal human and all that nonsense. Now was his chance though.

  "Status scre-" Alex spun around, spear in hand just as he heard the rustle of leaves behind him. He was ready for a fight with an angry buck wanting revenge, or a wolf trying to steal his kill.

  What he saw instead sent a chill down his entire body.

  It was a predator for sure, a tiger, or a leopard, he wasn’t entirely certain. It didn’t have stripes on its fur, but dark black spots. But it was much larger than any feline predator he knew of back home. It’s shoulders were just as high off the ground as his own. Its head high enough that it almost looked down at Alex from eye level.

  But none of that was the reason Alex felt frozen. It was its glowing eyes. The beasts eyes were glowing faintly an azure and purple color. It wasn’t the reflection of light from a cat’s eyes either, but literal glowing illumination emanating from the thing’s face.

  Whatever this was, Alex knew he couldn’t kill it. He had no chance. He felt a creeping desperation inside himself, as the thing took one slow clawed step towards him. A growl beginning to grow in its throat. Alex gulped.

  The light of the beast’s eye flashed suddenly and Alex saw the teeth and claws of the thing begin to change into a sickly purple color as well. A liquid built at the edge of it fangs, a thick ichor of a foul stench. A single drop fell to the ground and it hissed loudly, burning through the plant life like fire through tissue paper. The liquid touched the dirt underneath and also began to rapidly dissolve that as well.

  Holy fuck, is that acid? Toxin? Alex shivered at the thought of that substance eating through his flesh.

  The shiver seemed to be the signal that the animal was waiting for. At that moment it leapt at Alex. Its movement was faster than Alex could follow with his eyes. It became a blurry streak of movement that closed dozens of feet of distance nearly instantly.