Forever

Pain was something that Salim was beginning to feel deeply accustomed to, biting, tripping, breaking bones, all things he had never experienced before his abrupt abduction. Now, they seemed to blend in with his everyday life, trying to survive the consequences of being so under prepared. As much as he wished he had been more into outdoor living and survival shows, there was no way for him to know what was going to happen.

He was on a precipice, flickering in and out of consciousness with flashes of hot pain coursing through his head as he briefly woke, before becoming returning to a comatose state. In and out he experienced an awful, excruciating process until his mind became numb, unable to register external stimuli. He began to dream.

Sitting at his desk, Salim could feel his mind wasting away as the hours passed, the droll office conversations as the seemingly endless list of inane things he had to work on ate away at his soul. All that he could think about was getting home to his girlfriend, who was most likely in the same situation as he was.

I’m not going to cook for the third night in a row, let's just…

Let's order takeout.

Looking at the phone resting by the side of his keyboard, Salim idly scrolled through social media, looking at the newest bait headlines and media outrage he couldn’t bring himself to care about. He needed to escape, break the monotony of his daily life, but was stuck, unable to move on. Money was always the issue, he never made enough, and he always needed more.

Promising himself a vacation only worked so many times before his brain started to catch on that there truly was no light at the end of the tunnel. Laughing at an inane comment of a coworker, Salim watched as the clock slowly clicked its way to five. Slowly, with ever grinding finality, the minute hand pointed up to the heavens and Salim breathed a sigh of relief.

The drive home was more tedium, the numbness was so all consuming that the stop and go traffic failed to elicit any reaction other than a blank face. Salim only started feeling once he pulled into the crowded parking lot near his apartment complex and hiked up several flights of stairs. Slotting his key into the door, Salim felt the weight of the day slide off of him, like wiping mud off his shoes, his shoulders sagging as he stepped inside.

The television was on in the cramped living room, coffee table and couch taking up most of the space, with Nadalie laying on the couch, eyes closed. The door creaked, as she cracked an eye and peered up at him.

From the couch, Nadalie eyed him, “How did your day go?”

“Same as always; you have any plans for dinner?” Salim responded with perfect rehearsal.

“Not really…” she shifted, pushing herself up and against a cushion, “I had a really nasty customer, like I swear this lady was about to blow a blood vessel over the price of milk”

Cocking an eyebrow as he passed, Salim moved to the bedroom, shuffling off his shoes and discarding his keys onto a dresser.

“Can relate, boss was being stupid as usual, wanted us to add all sorts of features within the day that would take months to develop.” Salim complained as he moved back into the living room and sat on the other side of the couch, putting Nadalie’s feet onto his lap.

Their conversation continued as Salim ordered takeout for two and an hour later they were situated with food on their laps watching a movie. Salim wasn’t paying much attention, it was some romcom that he knew Nadalie liked, and was instead scrolling on his phone while exchanging quips. Eventually, after the movie had ended Salim watched the dishes and Nadalie prepared for bed, finishing up, Salim plopped down on the bed while he waited for her to finish up in the bathroom.

But as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out, consciousness fading like the last evening lights outside their building.

Salim was falling, stuck in limbo between two minds, one of his past and one of his present. He was having difficulty telling them apart as memories kept flashing through his mind: birthdays, school, friends, his life flashing before his eyes. Except he couldn’t die, not really, he would just return to the white void in the middle of nowhere and be forced to go through everything over and over again.

Over and over and over and over… His mind trailed as he repeated the words in his head like a mantra.

Maybe I did die. He was intimately familiar with the idea of hell, and this didn’t seem like it. This high concept personal torment; hunted down by animals and monsters during the night while being forced to survive in the wilderness? It didn’t seem like any form of punishment that he was familiar with, especially since he was able to fight back.

He thought about his old life, his normal life, and how it was a colossal waste of a lifetime, how much time he had wasted just sitting in his office, in his bed, on the couch all blurring together. He hadn’t lived much of a life, and while it did make him feel slightly sad, it didn’t bother him as much as it probably should have. Contentment was what Salim felt most of all, just being able to live with Nadalie, seeing his friends and family. His job was boring and inane, but it paid well enough, he couldn’t complain all that much when he knew people with far less.

His thoughts were now blending just as much as his memories, his mental state just barely holding onto coherent thoughts under the tide of static that seemed to fill his head with cotton. Whether he was alive or dead didn’t seem to matter much to him, he just needed to let go and enjoy the time with his previous life, even if it was just a mess of memories. So, with little resistance, he let go of the shores of thought and drifted on the waves of reminiscence.

Eventually, he came to. Not in the middle of grassy plains or a dense forest, but instead the harsh white light of the void. Feeling hollow, Salim stood up, pressing on the smooth that didn’t feel like anything except ‘smooth’, before looking at the screen a few feet away from him.

You have died.

Cause of death: “Brain Hemorrhage”

Total Score

Level = 10 Points

Class = 10 Points

Stats = 22 Points

Titles = 20 Points

Total is 62 Points.

Spend Points in Shop before Respawn.

Brain Hemorrhage? Salim wasn’t sure what to think, the last thing he could remember was hitting the ground before his vision went black. Maybe the impact had shattered his skull, but it seemed unlikely with his [Resilience]. Struggling to remember anything after he was knocked out, all he could remember were bits of pain and a feeling of nostalgia. Giving up on remembering anything, he checked his titles to see what had changed.

Titles

Number of Titles: 4

The First

You were the first to step upon the path of sentience.

Alone

Whether by creation or genocide, your existence is unique.

Deathless

Through medical marvel or mystical means, you have come back from the dead.

Moon Touched

The moon has marked you as one of its own.

Salim rapidly shut the menu as a sense of fear and foreboding overcame him.

Nope, not dealing with that right now.

Distracting himself, he pulled up the shop menu and began to hunt through options for info or anything he might have missed the first time through.

↑

Points: 62

Point Store

Confirm

⏺

Increased Stats

5P Per Stat

-/+

|

Basic Class Weight

50P

-/+

|

Basic Skill

50P

-/+

↓

Increased Level

50P Per Level

-/+

Perhaps foolishly, Salim felt like he had nothing to lose, trying something new would help him in the future, but he was still deciding between [Basic Class Weight] and [Basic Skill]. He eventually settled on getting a skill for a couple of reasons, he only knew a few classes and what they did, plus another skill would mean more stat points. He already knew what skill he was going to get, [Wayfind] was just too useful, so he went ahead and selected [Basic Skill] along with two additional stat points. Salim hit the menu button to confirm.

↑

Skill Selection: 1

Confirm

⏺

Wayfind

Forage

Safe Travel

|

Reinforced Stamina

Energy Manipulation

Energy Sight

↓

Energy Toleration

Channelers Mind

N/A

Before him were all the skills he had gotten from both [Wanderer] and [Channeler], all having skills he had seen before. Seeing as none of the skills from the upgraded classes were present, Salim selected [Wayfind] and felt the skill immediately begin to go haywire as he hit confirm. His head began to spin as the skill was unable to find anything, causing it to point in every direction, and no direction at the same time. He had to sit down while the skill calmed down, eventually subsiding enough that he was able to assign his stats without feeling like he had gotten off of a crazy rollercoaster.

Lvl. 0

Stats

Confirm

Might: 8

-/+

Finesse: 9

-/+

Resilience: 7

-/+

Acuity: 12

-/+

Resolve: 14

-/+

Depth: 0 (2)

-/+

Throwing two pitiful stat points into [Depth], Salim suffered as the first stat points almost overwhelmed him, the itching feeling being even more present now that he knew where to look. He had already forgotten how intense the first couple stat points felt, although thankfully it did seem like he was slowly getting used to the feeling, even after death.

Closing the menu with a swipe from his hand, Salim stalked around the white void, trying to look for anything noteworthy.

There has to be something, right? Some reason that I was brought here or some clue on why I keep coming back. But the longer he searched, the more he was certain that there was nothing, or at least nothing obvious to be found. The lack of any obvious walls meant that he could continue to walk for hours and not see any change in scenery.

It was maddening, yet Salim couldn’t help but think it was by design, an unnatural void that robbed his depth perception and made him to feel empty. The abyss also seemed to have different rules than normal, he couldn’t hurt himself no matter how hard he punched the ground or bit his fingers, and full sprinting across the ground didn’t seem to make him any more tired. Giving up, Salim tried a last ditch effort of jumping to see if there was a ceiling but, just as expected, caught nothing but air.

Slowly losing his sanity the longer he stayed, Salim walked over to the [Respawn] button, which had been floating behind him the entire time he attempted to explore. It had been driving him insane how it made him feel like he was on one gigantic treadmill as it kept pace with him even as he sprinted.

Respawn

Bracing, Salim pressed the button and his vision flashed with light, making him close his eyes out of instinct.

Slowly, he began to feel the wind in his face, a calm warm breeze that melded with the sounds of crashing waves. Salim opened his eyes, looking down from the top of a cliff at a rocky beach below. Water crashed against the rocks with extreme force, jetting mist up the side of the cliff to where he was standing.

Taking a step back, Salim looked around at his surroundings, finding himself between a conifer forest and the cliff's edge. The trees were fairly barren of leaves around the bottom, giving lots of room for other shrubbery to grow up around them, as he spotted small animals flitting through the bushes. Not being the scariest forest he had been in as of late, Salim set to work using [Wayfind] to try and find shelter.

Stepping foot into the forest, Salim had to watch his step as a thorny plant stabbed into his soles several times. I can’t wait to level up my [Resilience], he thought as a low-hanging branch scraped against his hand and made him wince. Despite the pain, he was feeling rather accomplished, as his trek through the woods was substantially easier than it had been in the past… month?

Time was getting hard for him to track, especially since the thought of days passing reminded him of the moon, Salim shuddered, I definitely needed to find shelter. Carefully watching his step, Salim eventually felt the skill pull him towards a berm that a tree had fallen on. Looking at the dried out husk, he checked to see how much room was available and was happy that it had enough room for him to squeeze in.

So when evening quickly arrived, Salim squeezed himself between the two and jostled around to make the space as comfortable as it possibly could be. Night fell soon after, and unfortunately, Salim was unable to sleep, staring at the moonlight that shimmered only a few feet away from his hiding place as he thought about his future.