When I awoke, it was still night, but for whatever reason, I didn't feel tired, despite having slept for only a short time.
I unwrapped the makeshift rock-climbing gear from around my waist, unfolding the pants and slipping them on. Regrettably, I couldn't do the same with my shirt as it was torn to bits.
What I saw out the window made my eyes widen. A colossal flaming bird, the size of a blue whale, flew around far too close for comfort. It seemed to have found its prey as it swooped down to pick it up. I had zero clues as to what it had gotten, and it was too dark to see.
I watched as it flew off into the distance, behind the mountains and out of view.
***
Dawn arrived, and I stepped out of the car, surprised to see the ravine before me stretching off into the distance and out of view right from where I stood. The car I slept in just so happened to be right along the edge of it.
Many different flying beasts of various sizes could be seen flying off in the distance, but I had yet to see a creature without wings.
It was unnerving, but better be they miles away rather than up close and personal.
At the end of the road on the other side of the ravine, I noticed a camp of people set up in tents between the rows of abandoned cars. Around them were built-up makeshift fortifications comprised of furniture and nailed together plywood.
I waved my hands to signal their attention, hoping that would be enough. I could've yelled out to them, but It was too risky. I was trying to stay low-profile from monsters, after all.
After a few seconds, one of the people noticed me and waved back.
Soon after, twelve men approached the ravine's edge with a length of nylon rope wrapped around a small boulder. The man holding the boulder in the front looked extremely buff, and his skin was an off-color grey, oddly enough.
"What the hell?!"
The grey-skinned buff man suddenly chucked the boulder all the way across, landing over in a patch of grass off to the left. His weird appearance and devastating feat of strength left me a little freaked out and questioning if they were actually friendly. However, I was willing to put my trust in them anyway.
The rope still attached to the boulder now bridged the gap between both sides of the ravine, with all twelve men on their side holding the rope tight. There was no that they could drop me unless they did it on purpose, and I didn't see a reason for why they would.
Walking over to the boulder, I noticed a harness rigged to it. It looked sturdy enough to be zipline gear.
As an extra precaution, I got back in the car and slowly maneuvered it so that the front right wheel rested atop the boulder. Then turning it off and stepping out, I fastened the harness around my body, and without a second thought, I jumped off the ledge and dragged myself along the rope with my bare hands.
Nothing. Why do I feel nothing?
By the time I neared the other side, my hands felt numb with the rope burns I accrued from the upward climb.
As the men came into clearer view, I noticed oddities in their appearance. Some of them looked normal, but a few of them looked a bit like they were a fantasy races. It was as if they were only half-human, or maybe humans who were altered to have fantasy traits.
"This guy's completely unchanged," one of the men suddenly yelled out.
"How do you know?" the buff grey-skinned man inquired.
"Look at him. He looks like he hasn't changed since the last burger he ate."
The worst feeling is when the people supporting the rope that quite literally carries your life start insulting you.
Grasping hold of the ledge, two of the men came to the front, lifting me up by the shoulders and safely atop the surface.
Crawling onto my feet and unlatching the harness, I noticed that the rope burns that were on my hands had completely vanished without a trace.
I whispered, "What's going on—"
"Are you okay? That must've been terrifying for you," consoled the buff grey-skinned man.
I looked up to the grey-skinned man towering above me and stated, "It should've been, and yet for some odd reason, it wasn't. In fact, I didn't really feel any fear at all, and I'm not exactly sure why."
"Maybe it's an ability."
"A what?" I queried.
The grey-skinned man lifted an eyebrow and tilted his head as he spoke.
"Your class ability. It's an ability you unlock with your class. Didn't the system tell you about it in the tutorial?"
"Tutorial…?"
I thought about it for a second before realizing what might've happened.
"I passed out for a couple hours, so maybe I didn't get to see it."
The buff grey-skinned man's eyes beamed with excitement at hearing this.
I couldn't wrap my head around this guy. He was bald and looked similar to an orc, and yet he acted like a nerdy high school kid.
The grey-skinned man lifted his pointer finger between his eyes as if he were pushing up a pair of non-existent glasses when he spoke.
"So essentially, every person was assigned a race and class by the system dependent on their actions during the evaluation quests, and our bodies were augmented by the system to match those descriptions."
My eyes drifted away to the rocky mountain range on the horizon as my mind drifted away from the conversation.
Sheesh, this guy was a bigger nerd than me.
"—Even those who remained a member of the human race had their bodies augmented by their class's effect on their attributes stats."
Looking back to him, I asked, "Then do I still look human? Have I changed?"
"Well, I'm not really certain, but as I had already said, you can check all that stuff in your stats menu."
"Okay, how do I do that?"
"Were you even listening, at all?" the buff, gray-skinned man asked with an irritated expression.
"Sorry, I've got a lot of things on my mind right now."
He sighs, "That's understandable."
A dash of sadness rested in his eyes.
"Well… I'm sorry, I'm just getting a bit excited. It's embarrassing to say, but this has always been a bit of a fantasy of mine."
I focused my eyes back on him and replied, "Me too, actually, though now I regret it."
Walking over to the edge of the ravine, I sat down dangling my legs over the dark depths of the abyss.
"I'm a loser otaku who's never touched a girl or got even close to touching one. I had this idea that this kind of fantasy videogame-like thing would be amazing, but now I feel like I'm responsible for anyone who dies—like it's my fault. I wished for this, and I feel like my wish made it happen. How else do I come to terms with how nonsensical things have become?"
The men dropped a boulder on the rope's end and walked away, leaving me with the grey-skinned man. They definitely didn't care to hear about my sob story. I don't blame them; they're probably ordinary people who'd have been just fine with not getting roped into this new fantastical world for basement-dwellers.
The grey-skinned man leaned up against the hood of an abandoned vehicle.
"I don't blame you for feeling that way. My parents may be dead for all I know, and yet I'm feeling excited about this game-like world. It makes me feel guilty."
He takes a big breath in and exhales.
"But listen. You're not the only one who had those fantasies, so don't feel like you're solely to blame. All it really means is that you'll adjust quicker to this new world than others will. I mean, look at me, I was a hardcore D&D nerd, and I'm already the leader of this group solely because of my background knowledge in fantasy. This world gives new opportunities for people like you and me. We're no longer just the bottom-feeders. Take advantage of it, be proud of it."
Patting me on the back, he chuckles and walks away while hollering back, "Go find a house that has running water and take a bath. We've got girls here."
Laying on my back, I looked up at the cloudy orange northwestern sky.
Be proud of it? As if I could. That's like a loan shark saying other loan sharks should be proud that they know how to take advantage of desperate people.
Backing away from the ledge, I stood up and started walking from door to door until I found a house that was unlocked. Stepping inside, I walked straight to the kitchen and turned the handle on the faucet.
Heavenly water poured out, and I immediately dunked my head under, lapping up every bit I could get down my esophagus.
Looking around made me notice how completely disheveled the building had become due to the earthquake, but the bathroom was hygienic enough despite all the stuff that had been knocked to the floor.
"This'll do."
Turning the handle toward the red, steaming water came flushing out of the spigot down into the clawfoot bathtub.
Turning to look in the mirror, revealed a fat man staring back at me. Though now he looked a bit different. His face was covered in dirt mixed with sweat, and his hair was an albino-white stained brown with dried mud. What once was blue eyes were now a colorless steel grey, and he also looked substantially younger.
"Did I become younger? I look like I'm in my late teens. And what's with my hair? Did I become an albino? That's stupid."
Stepping into the bath, I laid my head up against the wall letting out a relaxed sigh.
"This all feels far too surreal."