INTEGER UNLIMITED

No, this would not be the end. Leo refused to give up hope and accept that this would be his fate. He had been placed in a new world, a place unlike anything he’d ever seen. He felt his resolve harden. He had lived a life that lacked motivation, but as his death approached he felt a desire to live greater than he had desired for anything before.

“WHATEVER GODS ARE OUT THERE, GIVE ME ONE MORE CHANCE! I BEG YOU, DON’T LET MY STORY END HERE!” he shouted, each syllable making his shattered bones shred his damaged lungs.

He felt his eyesight blur as he spoke, but his pained eyesight couldn’t help but pick up on a glimmer nearby. He could barely see it, as his vision darkened. Leo knew that if he wanted to live, he’d need to put his faith in whatever was ahead.

He used his legs to push him towards the glimmering object, each push worsening his injuries, yet only moving him a few inches at a time. He used everything he had to crawl towards the light.

By the time he closed the distance and reached the bush, his heartbeat was erratic, and he felt his body go cold. Even with his eyes growing weak, he could tell that what he had found was a small glass vial that had reflected the sun's light. He used his right arm to grab it, his mind no longer able to process any feeling, let alone pain.

He fumbled for a moment before he popped the top off. He tried to read whatever was written on the vial, but he couldn’t make out any details. Without another moment to spare, he dropped the vial in his mouth and let it pour out.

[PERMANENT STATUS EFFECT GAINED]

[CURSE OF THE WITHERED KING]

[EFFECT: YOUR STRENGTH WAS PERMANENTLY SET TO -2 OF CURRENT STRENGTH]

“...shit.”

That was the last thing Leo muttered before he fell unconscious, in disbelief that his luck was truly just that damn bad.

His body laid still on the forest floor, the grass stained a bright red. He should have died, his body far too damaged to keep him alive, yet he didn’t. His body started to repair itself, as if it was refusing its fate.

His body mended damaged bone and flesh in mere moments, and his breathing returned back to normal. His body replaced the obscene amount of missing blood and stopped his once fatal injuries from ending his life.

The most exhaustive part of his transformation were the muscles that took form all over him. He grew from a sapling to a full grown oak faster than one could say photosynthesis.

Despite the miraculous transformation, Leo didn’t awaken for the entire process. It seemed as if the change exhausted his body, as he lay unconscious for days. The only signs of life he had was a slow heartbeat and even slower breaths.

Days passed by as he lay there, until one day a heavy rain showered the forest, it cleansed the blood from his face and awoke the sleeping beauty. His eyes struggled open, his mind stirred by the cold water that fell on his face.

He remembered his humiliating first day, from the painful burns to the mysterious poison. His eyes shot open as he remembered the poison, confused as to how he survived if it wasn’t a healing potion.

“Oh man, this is embarrassing. What do I have to say?” he questioned, as he noticed that his voice had become slightly deeper than before, “uhhhh, usually it’s something like ‘Status?’”

The moment he said status, the same translucent blue screen as before appeared in front of him, as it listed out his stats once more.

[Leo Eule - Human][Health: 99,999/99,999]

[Class: None][EXP:0 ]

[Strength: 2,147,483,647]

[Dexterity: 3]

[Intelligence: 3]

[Charisma: 2]

[Abilities]

[Curse of the Withered King: Your Strength was permanently set to -2 of current Strength.]

“What.”

He wasn’t sure of how things worked in this world, but he was positive that that number was definitely higher than what a good nap could produce. He used his hands to prop himself up and sat on the ground. This caused him to notice two things.

The first thing he noticed was that his arms were completely fine. He couldn’t feel the slightest trace of pain in his body as he moved, but he did notice his once baggy clothes now felt tight against him.

The second thing he noticed was that the ground he pushed against to sit up had been crushed. He decided to test if that was just a really odd coincidence, as he gently stood up.

When he finally stood on both legs, he confirmed that just the slightest touch would damage the ground he stood on. He looked himself over, staring at his new muscular body.

Leo felt his mind swirl, as he thought out loud.

“Okay, so I was nearly dead and on one health, right?” Leo asked himself. “If my body now has crazy strength, and health, then that means something must’ve happened to make it go from nothing to everything.”

“WAIT!” he exclaimed, “I know that number! That’s like the max number a game can have, right? It’s the uhhh, integer limit, yeah. Something along those lines.”

“Okay, so that poison made me negative, so my stats just went back around to full,” he reasoned with himself, a smile growing on his face as he realized just what that meant.

“If that’s true, then that must mean I’m crazy strong. Okay wait, lemme test this out,” he muttered as he thought more about it.

He walked towards a nearby tree, each step sending rocks flying and leaving deep imprints in the ground. A few feet above him hung a bright red apple. He figured he should be able to make the jump and grab it off the branch.

Leo crouched down, leaping towards the apple with everything he had. He felt the unexpected force of the jump throw him off balance, but even then, he had more than enough height to reach the apple.

Well, he would have, if he didn’t just uproot most of the trees in the clearing, alongside definitely pulverizing the apple. The second problem was that he seemed to be going far higher than expected. He wasn’t very good with estimating distances, but if he had to guess, he’d say he was pretty damn high.

He looked down at the forest below, watching as it grew into a sea of green. He was able to get a good view of his surroundings, noting the mountains to the west and vast desert to the east. That was, of course, a complete guess, as Leo had no idea how to tell the direction. The most interesting sight was a village that lay only a few miles away, as Leo thought it could prove useful in learning more about the world.

Sadly, due to his very minor error of not having expected this at all, alongside being off balance, he was angled in the complete opposite direction of the village. He had found himself comfortably nestled in a cloud by the time his ascent came to a stop.

The end of the ascent signaled the start of his unfortunate descent, as he began to rapidly plummet towards the ground. To anyone below, it would be like seeing and hearing a swearing meteor, one that was very unhappy about its very sudden landing.

The landing was similar to how he came into this world— extremely painful and with a face full of dirt. At the very least, he did not end up with a sprained ankle this time, rather, he gave the forest one. Well, that is if you’d call a large crater in the middle of the forest the same thing as a sprained ankle.

Despite just how violent his landing was, Leo didn’t feel any more pain than when he fell off the monkey bars while the whole class watched in third grade. He sat up in the crater he left, as he summoned back his stat screen.

[Leo Eule - Human][Health: 99,998/99,999]

[Class: None][EXP:0 ]

[Strength: 2,147,483,647]

[Dexterity: 3]

[Intelligence: 3]

[Charisma: 2]

[Abilities]

[Curse of the Withered King: Your Strength was permanently set to -2 of current Strength.]

“Fuckin ouch. Okay, so my vertical is definitely more than expected. Thankfully, it seems like my health and durability are connected to my strength,” he thought aloud, “I guess the next thing to see would be if I’m any good at fighting.”