Friday, approximately 15 minutes after school.
It was a sunny day, no different from every other day. At least, that's what it should've been. As I was walking with my friend, who I've known for a long time, to the usual busy subway, on our path to go home, the surroundings became dimmer as if the night was starting to envelop the sky.
'What's happening?' I asked myself, looking at my surroundings. Night couldn't have just suddenly approached. I was confused and scared. At that moment, I heard people shout.
"Hey! Look at the sky!" A stranger shouted.
"What the fuck is that!?" Another person from the crowd shouted.
I looked at the people who shouted as soon as I heard them. I saw their faces, frowning, with a grim expression, while looking towards the sky. I followed their eyes and saw something unimaginable. A hand. It was a big hand, to say it was big was an understatement. The hand closed in as if a meteor announcing the world's doom. As I watched the hand close in, I felt pain in my left hand. I looked at where the pain was coming from and saw that my friend was the one causing it.
"Ugh, Sim, you're hurting my hand," I groaned
"Ah! I'm sorry, Lulu. I just can't think straight."
I saw the look in his eyes, clearly scared, in despair. I mean, who wouldn't be. A hand was bound to crush us. But I calmed myself a little.
He then said something that contradicts our current situation, so I decided to reply with a joke to lighten up and calm ourselves even just a bit more. Surprisingly, it worked.
As we ended our conversation, the crowd grew quiet, and some kept praying but could barely be heard. We waited for our impending doom. A lot closed their eyes, including my friend. But I decided to keep my eyes peeled as the hand hit us — everyone and everywhere.
Suddenly, a myriad of lights enveloped me and the people around me. I tried to keep my eyes open as much as I could, but to no avail, the lights were too bright.
***
I felt a slightly cold breeze sweep through me, making me open my eyes. But just opening my eyes was hard, as if battling myself whether to wake up or keep sleeping. Eventually, I opened my eyes, though blurry. My head ached, giving me the feeling of dizziness.
I sat up, and looked around to see grass everywhere, occasionally spotting some small mounds and boulders, afar a forest. It was like the countryside. The air felt fresh and calming to breathe.
Surrounding me were people. Laying down, not moving an inch, as if dead. But looking closer, it seems like they were breathing.
Next to me was my friend, skinny and pale. A strong jawline, black soft slightly wavy hair, thin and sharp nose with a high bridge, a few freckles on his face, his eyes were not showing but they were also black. His height was average just like me, he looked around to be 18 years old. He was sleeping peacefully like a child after playing outside.
I relaxed for a few minutes to take in everything that suddenly happened and to also relieve my dizziness. I was confused and scared.
'Where are we?
'Is my family safe?
'Why was there a hand?
'Is this a prank by the government?'
I had many questions. I pondered for so long that I did not realize how much time passed. Some people started waking up.
I checked myself to see if anything I had on me before waking up here was still in my possession: my phone, accessories, my revolver that was given to me for protection, of course I had a license for it. I turned on my phone, hoping to see if there was any news, but as expected, there was no service, and almost all apps don't even work. Only some general apps like clock, calendar, and notes functioned properly.
***
After almost an hour, more people woke up. Sim was still asleep, so I began my worries. After some pondering whether I should wake him or not, I ended up shaking him.
"Wake up, Sim, wake up," I called out.
I called and shaked him a few times, worries slightly grew more on me, but at that moment, Sim started to open his eyes. Relief washed over me.
I could see the confusion on his eyes as he looked at me, so I stayed quiet til he fully woke up. He started questioning, which mostly went unanswered.
Finally, he asked me how long I had been awake. I knew he'd be worried about me, so I lied. Even though I did not like to lie, especially to people I trust, I also did not want him to worry over something like this.
We chatted for quite a bit, telling jokes and such. I showed and told him what I discovered, like the objects we had in our possession still being there.
***
As time passed, almost all the people were awake, some still asleep. A few more minutes passed, and suddenly, a bright white light appeared over the crowd of people.
Soon, a voice spoke, startling me. It was a voice that seemed to carry much love. The owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen, so many people, including me, assumed it was from the light. The voice seemed to enter my ears directly.
As the voice continued, I listened attentively. I was speechless. As soon as I heard "Magic and Cold weapons," "Mana and stats," I immediately thought of games.
'This is like some RPGs that I've played before!' Though I'm just a casual gamer, I still knew the general idea.
It felt surreal. I was overcome with excitement mixed with fear. Because this world was filled with creatures who have survived for a long time in this environment, especially the mentioned races, they've long adapted and lived here. And for us humans, we have just started. Danger could be anywhere.
As the voice mentioned how it could not save everyone, I felt sad for the ones crying. But I also wondered if my family was safe. Some people died of shock and anxiety, but I believed my family could calm themselves if they were together, 'They must be safe,' I thought, maybe we would be able to meet.
As soon as the voice left, the crowd grew louder due to either cheering from excitement or sobbing with sadness.
"Hey, what now, Lulu? What's the protocol?" Sim asked, as if I knew what to do.
"The God said something about survival. Maybe we should look for foods and such," I replied, thinking about what to do first, and that was to survive. But I knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Besides me watching videos and tutorials, both of us had no idea how to hunt animals or start a fire.
I also came into terms with other people's idea that the voice was coming from a God.
We chatted to come up with a plan and eventually just agreed to explore, with only the two of us, because we both knew the danger of trusting strangers with our lives.
We walked towards the forest and readied ourselves mentally. I tried to calm my nervous self by talking to myself, 'It should be fine, the God wouldn't have sent us here if there was any danger.' 'we're just gonna look for something to use for sleeping and eating too.'
***
After some time of walking in the forest and finding nothing, I remembered what the God said earlier about "Mana" and "Stats." I don't know how, but I somehow forgot about it. So, I decided to talk about it to Sim.
"Come to think of it, Sim, the God said something about mana, weapons, and stats, right?" I said, feeling the hint of excitement.
"Oh yeah! they did! how could I forget something as cool as that!"
"Maybe you forgot because of the sudden things that happened," I replied, like I did not forget about it.
"It's probably that. Anyway, how do we see our stats?"
"Well, I have some ideas, probably say something like "System!" I said, not being able to hold on to my excitement.
...
But to my surprise, nothing happened. I felt hot from embarrassment because I even shouted. Sim was laughing at me uncontrollably, I felt happy that the tension was finally clearing up, nonetheless, still embarrassed. I waited for him to calm down so that we could actually try to find some way to see our stats.
"Open Sesame!" Sim said, I can feel and hear him snicker a bit as he said those words. But I also still hoped for something.
...
But nothing happened.
'Does the stat panel just not exist?
'What other commands are out there?
'The God didn't even give us a hit on how to find out our stats,' I sighed inwardly.
I decided to give out a try some other keywords.
"View Profile!"
It appeared.
'No way.'
It felt unreal. I stared at the transparent panel that showed my stats. I briefly felt like I left the real world. Then I heard Sim calling out to me. I saw the glimmer in his eyes, so I told him that it actually worked.
He hurriedly tried it out, grinning from ear to ear. I probably looked like that, too. We chatted a bit about our stats, thinking of all the possibilities out there. But I cut it short, saying that we need to find some stuff so we can finally rest.
It probably seemed like my reaction was too stale to Sim, but in truth, my mind was stirring, thinking of everything that we could do in the future. But we had to survive in order to get that future.
***
We walked in the forest for a while, still finding nothing. We were both tired, and I could feel the exhaustion crawling on me. I had to agree with Sim's absurd idea of just climbing up a tree. But Sim suddenly changed that idea by calling out to a humanoid figure.
I wanted to call out, too, but I felt like it was dangerous. Though I couldn't stop Sim since we were both tired, we couldn't let an opportunity go to waste.
The figure stood up and started going towards us. Slowly but quickly closing in. I looked at Sim and saw that he was out of it.
"RUN! it's running towards us!" I yelled to snap him awake.
We turned around and started to run as fast as we could from it. But I was slow, I didn't even have time to look at what the figure was. All I knew was that there was a smell that was vomit inducing.
I decided to stop from my tracks and took out my revolver. I felt confident that having such a weapon would protect me from basically anything. Before firing, I observed what was following us. I concluded that it was a corpse, maybe in game terms it was 'Undead.'
*bang*
I shot at the corpse, hitting the neck, I hoped that maybe I'd be able to shoot its head off, but I saw that the part I shot was quickly healing.
*bang* *bang* *bang*
I shot thrice at parts that were commonly a weakness, but to no avail. I started to panic. Realizing that the weapon I trusted the most is failing.
*bang* *bang*
I shot towards its legs, hoping to hinder the corpse from following us. But I missed one leg.
I slowly stepped back and turned to run. But as I ran, I began to be more exhausted. I gasped for air, I could see Sim a little further looking at me, exhausted too.
Soon, I felt something grab my shoulder. It felt nasty. The smell was so close to me that I felt like everything I ate that day was climbing up my throat. Before I knew it, I was struggling on the ground. I saw Sim running towards me and the corpse. I tried to stop him, but it seemed like he couldn't even hear me.
'I'm scared.
'It hurts.
'Please, help me.'
But contradictory to my thoughts, I shouted at Sim to tell him to run.
*swish*
I closed my eyes in fear, but I heard something besides Sim's attack and the corpse's groaning. A voice telling to attack the head. I opened my eyes to see, but the corpse did not let me.
*thud* *swish*
I heard Sim's attack and saw an arrow hit the head of the corpse. Which soon fell off after a final groan. I felt joy swell upon me. I felt like I was finally out of danger.
I thanked Sim for his help, even though at the moment he looked like a psychopath, I felt thankful that I had him to my side.
Fatigue and exhaustion began to creep on me again, probably because the adrenaline rush was finally gone. I panted while laying on the ground. I just wanted some rest. I felt like my consciousness was drifting away.
Soon, I felt something cold touch my lips, but I couldn't react. A cold liquid poured in, and I had no choice but to gulp down. As soon as the liquid went down my throat, I fell asleep.
...