Zero suddenly felt a blurry sense of brightness enter his eyes. Last he could recall he was going over to a friend's house to help study for the next exam. He opened his eyes and noticed a lime-blue mixture sky with two distinct bright lights. one shone way brighter than the other. Zero focused on them and decided he wasn't being delusional.
He pondered with mild concern, 'what is going on... did I go unconscious or something.. I feel numb.. maybe I got in a wreck.. this is no good... what if I fail the year because of this . . . Will I be permanently injured...'
The more he thought, the more he started to realize he wouldn't remember a thing no matter how much he stressed his mind and pushed his mental limits on pondering this simple task.
'damn, to hell with it!... Only way is to see for myself.' he quickly changed his looking direction to glance at himself. through his numbness he could atleast note that he was laying on his back. the ground was fairly rigid and bumpy. As his vision cleared he first noticed he had no clothes. he was bare as could be and... something was blocking him from viewing himself. At first he was confused but after taking in the sight the crazy concept flashed through his mind like a fast forwarding movie.
Due to trying to force the motion of sitting up, his body flinched in a minor spasm of uncontrollable twitching as his numbness went away. 'Oh hell! Did I go into a coma?! There's no way I have breasts like a girl. I must be delusional or maybe I'm just dreaming. It only makes sense.'
A small translucent neon blue text popped up with a radiant light acting as something to grab his attention. His eyes immediately diverted from himself to look up at the weird pop up.
--- Guideline Received! ---
Title: Slow the poison!
Description: Poison has left you in a near death situation. Use IMAGE skill to bring yourself to a stable level!
Timer until death: 22:37/25:00
Reward: You live.
He immediately got up upon forcing myself through the numbed state. immediately upon sitting up an excruciating pain coursed through his chest and up through his spine.
"gah... nn..! Fuck.. Ignore the pain.. this can't be a dream no way.. no way no way! I -- This is not the time to go into a panic. Think, it told me IMAGE.. does it mean to imagine it.. god this stupid creepy text told me nothing! What is IMAGE?!"
Upon venting his frustrations a screen popped up briefly describing IMAGE.
--- IMAGE ---
Description: One of the three core statistics of the world known as Aeriol (pronounced ah-ree-ull).
IMAGE quantifies your body, mind, and spiritual "processing power". This statistic allows you to think, move in unique ways(ex: double-jointed), or even change blood flow/speed up bodily cleansing.
Zero muttered in disbelief, "That's handy. Well atleast it's explaining things to me. so I think and it will happen? I'll try it." He noted his light feminine voice for another time and closed his eyes and imagined a concept similar to a pump. The intent of doing this was to focus on the idea of poison being pumped out of his system. The pump concept clearly worked because within the next minute he immediately threw up some black substance in moderate quantities. He wiped his lips in disgust and scowled from the result. The plan was to naturally get rid of it, not to throw it up.
--- Guideline Completed! ---
Well Done! You managed to save yourself! Guideline Beginner Series completed. Explore around to discover missions, guidelines, and other potential conquests!
Zero for just a brief moment felt like he was being taunted by that message. He clenched his fist and stood up very rapidly, but upon doing so he felt the weight of his chest subtly bounce. 'Next is to figure out the complication of where I am and..potentially who I am if this is real' He took a long gaze at his new body and noted he was very smooth and thin. the girly features were all too recognizable.. He was a hot girl probably in her late 18s!
The first thing to come to Zero's mind was-- well-- not so proper. he immediately brushed away the thought and took in his surroundings. He was in the middle of a beautiful field full of lustrous flowers and ferns which were very different from Earth's plants. some leaves on ferns had spaded shapes, while other plants sometimes had a veiny pattern going up the stem as if it had blood. Upon looking further out nothing could be viewed in the current direction except a massive Sequoia-esque tree which went far beyond the clouds and into the deep lime sky. Zero looked in other directions and noticed a small group of people. It was a scene you'd see in a fantasy movie where there's a well balanced escort guarding an important someone.
After reflecting heavily on the topic of what they could do to him unarmed he decided to postpone his observational fun and dive down into one of the fairly large ferns.
He flinched as he felt the strange leathery texture of the leaves tickling against his back. This caused major discomfort which lead to him rustling around to get the large fern leaf off of him.
A few minutes passed and the longer he waited the more anxious he got. Finally he could hear their footsteps and minor conversation which was incomprehensible. Their language was definitely not the same that Zero knew. They began to pass by slowly when suddenly a quick rustling noise resounded through the grass with very quick motions. Suddenly a horned lizard about a foot long came into view hardly a moment away from skewering him. Due to the sudden surprise he fell backwards on his ass and shouted, but due to the feminine vocal cords it sounded more like a young girl's scream. The escort group immediately turned and went into action.