Forever

He fell, colors fading away from his eyes. He tried in futility to lift a hand as he fell, his arm unresponsive like the rest of his body. Wind blew past him like a wind tunnel, he was yanked, body flung back up and out.

Salim eyes shot open to an outstretched hand, his feet on solid ground. His body unharmed as he stood, feeling like he had never felt his shatter into a hundred pieces. Stark white suffocated him, disorienting in how evenly it encapsulated him; he couldn’t tell if he was in a tiny box or a giant auditorium, with the uniformity of the maddeningly bright color.

The only object he could find was a lone floating box, sitting behind him, as he spun around to try and find anything in the bleached void. Scrambling over with shock still on the mind, Salim tried to figure out what in the world was going on.

You have died.

Cause of death: “Blunt Force Trauma”

Total Score

Level = 3 Points

Class = 5 Points

Stats = 10 Points

Titles = 10 Points

Total is 28 Points.

Spend Points in Shop before Respawn.

Eyes blurring as a slight wetness filled them, he had to slow down his reading to make sense of the box.

This has got to be some sick joke. He thought. This was solid enough confirmation of his theory that this was all some sort of simulation….. But the pain he felt! With how up to date he stayed with new technology, he had never heard of a breakthrough on a device that could replicate the senses so accurately. The dirt that caked his body, the irony smell of blood, and the crisp air on his skin felt too real to be simulated. Pinching himself, Salim winced as the spot on his skin slowly turned red.

He needed to think logically, figure out the inconsistencies and find a way out, but it was hard to focus after experiencing his own death, his hands still shaking like leaves in the wind. Salim rubbed his calf, he thought that he shouldn’t be so bothered by what had happened, he was alive in some form so it was all okay. But that crunch, the lightheadedness from the blood loss, the falling sensation…

Not wanting to dwell any longer on the horrors of immortality, he read back over the menu to make sure he didn’t miss any important details before pressing continue, trying and failing to empty his mind of any other thoughts

↑

Points: 28

Point Store

Confirm

⏺

Increased Stats

5P Per Stat

-/+

|

Extra Point Per Level

100P

-/+

|

Basic Class Weight

50P

-/+

↓

Basic Skill

50P

-/+

The list was extensive, scrolling through it Salim realized that he couldn’t afford anything except for the additional stat points. He couldn’t find any descriptive information from the menu, but he did find an option for advanced classes and skills with a hefty cost. How he would get the advanced versions without the menu he wasn’t sure, but the knowledge was power.

Buying the stat increase five times, he was brought to a familiar screen. While the total equaled out to fifty, he had five additional points to allocate before he leveled up. Contemplating his choices, he put his extra points into his physical abilities under the assumption that being able to run away from a wolf was a lot better than thinking about it. While he was tempted to make a “dump stat” and just not increase one stat, this was his body that he was messing with, much better to take a balanced approach until he learned more.

He was almost done making his selections when he noticed, [Depth] had selectable options next to it. While a tad strange, Salim didn’t know what the effect was, so he threw a single point into it before finalizing his selection.

Lvl. 0

Stats

Confirm

Might: 8(9)

-/+

Finesse: 9

-/+

Resilience: 7(10)

-/+

Acuity: 12

-/+

Resolve: 14

-/+

Depth:0(1)

-/+

This time when he hit confirm, the usual soreness washed over his muscles, but at the same time he could feel something else changing as well; his skin began to itch like he had fallen on an ant hill, and they were trying to bite him to death. Trying to scratch at his skin didn’t alleviate the feeling, but he kept at it, the itching was incessant; by the time it was over he had rubbed several parts of his arms painfully red.

When the itching finally subsided, Salim tried to examine what was different about himself. Besides the spontaneous muscle growth, he was back to where he had started; a tad pudgy and a less hungry than moments before in the forest. Trying to get a feel for what [Depth] had done to him unfortunately was a dead end, as he couldn’t feel any differences after the initial transformation.

Looking back at the menu, Salim was offered a single choice.

Respawn

He didn’t push it right away, still reeling from his death, he didn’t want to head out. But, he knew he couldn't stay forever, not for his sanity's sake, the bright white of the room was wearing on his senses and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stay before he began feeling loopy.

This wasn’t exactly an afterlife, as far as he could tell he would get hungry and eventually be forced to hit the button, or starve to death in a completely white room. Taking a moment to center himself, he laid down on the ground -a solid white material that didn’t have a discernible texture other than smooth and cold - finally able to spend time arranging his thoughts.

Safe for now, he contemplated what was going on; he was placed in a forest with video game-esque floating boxes that he could call with his mind. After dying, he had wound up in a void and was given the option of respawning. He pulled up his main menu, noting that his level had been reset to zero and class was no longer available.

“What is going on?” Salim whispered into the void.

While the easiest explanation for him to accept was that all this was somehow virtual reality, it had a few holes that he couldn’t fully justify. Last week, Salim had read an article about some celebrity dying of brain cancer, something which could be potentially prevented if the technology existed to completely immerse himself in a virtual world. Maybe it was something more fantastical, like other dimensions, God, maybe he had died?

He giggled to himself, knowing it was futile to try and guess why he had been into such a strange world. Not that it mattered, since all he would be doing for now would be finding a way to survive for longer than a day and a half.

Feeling himself slowly losing it, Salim stood up and hit the button. It was like flicking a light switch, his vision went pitch black before light streamed into his eyes and forced them closed. Slowly adjusting to the brightness, Salim squinted as he tried to identify his surroundings.

Around him were trees that he felt much more familiar with than the redwoods he had tried to climb. Not nearly as tall, they spread wide, limbs dipping low enough to mount from the ground, with flat spiny leaves blocking out the sun. They looked similar to oaks, but the bark was slightly off and the leaves were tinged with a brighter green, but were undeniably related to oak trees.

The trees surrounded him, covering his vision in verdant green and oak brown. Setting to work, Salim found a branch in the tree that looked the most climbable, only pausing briefly after having flashbacks to his previous life, before slowly worked his way to the upper branches.

Looking through the canopy, Salim saw that he was in a veritable forest, with green covering the land as far as he could see, except for a range of mountains on his right, far off in the distance. Not too sure which direction he should go, he felt orientated as he grabbed a newly dropped branch that had yet to be rotted through for self-defense and a good walking stick. His efforts of sharpening his previous stick hadn’t panned out like he thought, so why go through all the effort of sharpening it when swinging it wildly would do the job of warding off most things.

Thinking about his surroundings, he decided to head diagonally towards the mountains, with any luck there would be a river along the way. While he wasn’t pleased to just be looking for a river again, it was the easiest way to get water; there was a reason most civilizations formed around them. Mulling over his previous journey, he realized that it was pretty stupid of him to not look for shelter sooner near the river, since that was where a lot of the wildlife was as well.

In the meantime, he could test plants for how much water they had, or find berries with high water content, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do but knowing that he was functionally immortal helped him make the decision. Stalking over to a tree, he had been meaning to test this since he came back, but had got lost in thought. Ripping off a piece of bark off the tree with his hands, Salim watched with expectation, but was disappointed when nothing happened.

Maybe I need to cut deeper, Salim thought, picking up one of the sharper rocks that he could find. He tried his best to mark deep into the wood, pushing it deeper and deeper into the bark until glowing green fluid slowly leaked out of the gash. Feeling a small amount of euphoria for his deduction that had paid off, Salim touched the sap, seeing it dissolve similarly to the redwood, shrugging his shoulders he let it be and began hiking towards the mountains.

As evening came down on the horizon, Salim realized that he needed to find some way to level up, his [Wayfind] skill was more useful than he gave it credit for since he was pretty sure that he had been walking in circles for at least an hour. He still needed to find a place to stay the night, so he began to make a makeshift shelter out of dry logs and overgrown grass.

Looking at the tiny hut, Salim felt like he had done a good job for how quickly he set it up. Curling up inside, he made sure not to disturb the hut's sides before beginning to mess with his menu. Looking through the different screens, he saw that the [Logs] had been completely wiped, with the only way he knew to get the log to trigger was through killing something or completing some nebulously defined task that impressed the system.

So he had to kill something. The problem being that birds and other small critters were very adept at hiding, while the predators were a temporary health and permanent mental risk to him. He would figure something out eventually, hopefully, if he found a river he would be able to tenderize something with a stick while it was drinking.

Getting to his titles, he saw that he had earned another, reading through the description he felt that it was deserved for what he had to go through to get it.

Titles

Number of Titles: 3

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.

Musing over the menu, he reasoned that none of his titles were earned fairly, given based on pure circumstance, but he wouldn't complain. At this point, he was just technically surviving, if counting the continued stream of consciousness was allowed.

He needed to think long-term and get a plan together, since he didn’t want to be jumping from place to place dying constantly; he wanted to live instead of surviving. That meant he needed levels and a class. Contemplating trying to kill a tree, Salim slowly fell asleep in his collection of sticks.

Dawn came too early for Salim’s liking, causing him to push against the hut's side a little too hard as he woke up. The structure promptly collapsed on top of him, making a stream of curses slip out from underneath fallen sticks and leaves. Pushing himself out of the debris, Salim set about sucking on moss wet with morning dew to try and get some semblance of hydration; the moss didn’t taste good, but dehydration was worse.

Picking up the most readily available weapon, a trusty stick - no, his trusty stick, Salim set off, occasionally picking up different berries and nuts that he found. Not quite willing to eat them until he was starving, he fashioned a pack with a few larger leaves lying in the grass and some from the branches he could reach, creating a makeshift bowl to store whatever edible objects he found.

Collecting the nuts and berries made him think; he could probably lure an animal into a trap to try and gain a level. Seeing that it was still around midday, he thought that it would be best to wait until the evening to set something up, so he kept his head down and hiked.

Occasionally he would set his bowl and stick aside, before climbing up a tree to make sure he wasn’t getting too off track. The sun helped, but was equally unhelpful in kind, due to its burning rays. It was unpleasant work, made even worse by his empty stomach, but he managed by taking the climb slowly.

As evening approached, Salim found himself a flat clearing where he could prepare his trap, digging out the ground to make a rough cylinder about the size of his fist. Laying some leaves precariously over the hole, he squished some of the berries he was unwilling to try his luck with and flicked the juice into the pit.

With his impromptu trap set, Salim began his second attempt at temporary shelter, this time leaning sticks up against an old but sturdy looking tree near the clearing. Getting done with his preparations before nightfall fully blinded him, he sat and waited, unwilling to fall asleep so easily after the events of the previous day. But, at some point he couldn't hold it any longer and dazed off from exhaustion, daydreaming about waking up in an office before eventually falling asleep.