It was the bright light that woke him up. Groggy and lost he looked around with squinted eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening. He felt a cool breeze brushing his face and saw a muddy patch of water underneath him, a few feet below him. He grabbed his head, it was aching as if he was suffering from the worst hangover of his life. He made up his mind and decided to sit down. But was then he felt it.

As if waking up from a weird dream, he jerked his head with a headstart. Although he could see that muddy patch below him, he could feel his legs touching the ground. He looked down at his body, only to realize that he was floating in the air, lying horizontally in the air as if sleeping on a mattress. And if that was enough, he saw a woman, a few feet away from him. She was unconscious and was floating in the air just like him. He turned his body, which he was able to do so very easily. It was like he was in zero gravity.

He waved his brown hands around, he could feel the air but not the power of gravity. He looked down and saw that he was wearing a light thread shirt and pants, with leather sandals.

Floating in zero gravity, while on earth made many alarms go off in his brain. Panicking, he started waving his hands and legs around. Then came a time when was stood upright in the air, and saw that he was in some kind of ruins or something. The scary part was the rows and columns of people all around him. The woman that he saw was one of the many people in the area, stuck in the zero-gravity prison. The strange part was none of them were panicking like he was. He looked further to realize that they were all unconscious.

What kind of shit show is this? He suddenly gasped, Am I being abducted by aliens?

He heard about people who had claimed that they were abducted by aliens. And this seemed to be exactly the case here.

It was then he heard a noise, something big and huge landed to his north-east. He then started hearing someone speak a foreign language from that direction, the pin-drop silence in the air helped him hear everything. Quickly he started flaying his legs and arms around and reagined the horizontal position that he woke up in and closed his eyes shut. He didnt want to get caught being awake, when everyone else was unconscious.

Due to how quiet it was, he could hear everything around him. He soon figured out that multiple big things or beings were moving around the place. And they were quite big from the noise they were making on the muddy ground.

Then he heard, "Name and Place of Birth," one of the beings said with a creepy archaic voice. This alien was near him, just a few feet away.

"Joseline Wang, United States of America," he heard a woman speak. He heard footsteps, and then the beings spoke to one another guy, but this time the being spoke in Spanish, he was sure of it. "Michelle Gonella, Spain" came a woman's voice.

And just like that the alien started moving from one person to another, asking them their name and place of birth, making him realize that whatever that thing was, it would soon come to him as well.

Well from the sound of it.. That thing is not harming anyone… I will be fine. Yeah.. I just need to say… A wave of Panic engulfed him.

He didnt know his name, he tried remembering it but to no avail. He couldnt tell what his name was or where he was from.

What the fuck is going on? Why can't I remember anything?

Hearing the footsteps getting closer to him, he started panicking. He didnt dare to open his eyes to see what was happening around him, nor did he have a way to get out of the place.

I cannot make a run for it. What should I do… I need to make a run.. A run… Wait, A Run… Arun.. Arun.

He had an idea. If he doesn't know his name, he could say a fake name. He didn't know how that alien would react to his most likely fake name, but this was the brightest idea that he had.

He heard footsteps, the alien was upon him. Instead of asking his name and place of birth, he felt a paper slip into his shirt.

"Keep pretending like this," the thing whispered, "Read the letter as soon as you get down,"

The alien moved to the next person. Low key, at that moment he wanted to open his eyes and wanted to see for himself what the hell was going on. But he figured that it would be wise that he stay put for now…

A time came when he couldnt hear any more footsteps. When he was guessing what was going to happen next, suddenly the zero gravity around him vanished. With a thud, he fell into the pit of mud below him. As he sat up straight, he looked around to see all the humans that were unconscious till now had fallen down just like him and they had regained consciousness.

As he got up, he saw that everyone was as disoriented as he was a few minutes ago. "What the hell is going on here?" someone yelled.

"Where am I?" Another one yelled. And soon serene silence of the place was replaced by the murmurs of people.

He remained silent, while he touched the piece of paper in his shirt. After making sure that no one was looking at him, he made his way to the nearest stone wall. After ducking down behind it, he peeked out to see whether someone was looking at him or not, only then he took out the piece of paper, which contained a very familiar writing.

 ___________________________________________________________________

Hello future me,

You might be disoriented and confused now, I can only imagine what you are feeling. Losing memories is no joke. Especially when stuck in this situation. So read this letter carefully, and follow it to the point. I know that your instincts will tell you that you should not trust this letter. But you need to shove that instinct deep inside and follow this letter to the dot.

Follow these instructions.

1. Learn everything about the system. Then learn everything about this world. Find clues from which you can go to the next floor.

2. Trust no one. You are not like other players. You are an anomaly. And if you dont want to die, do not accept any invitations or work with other players. The moment that people would know that you are an anomaly, you will forfeit your life. Also, do not openly admit that you are an anomaly.

3. Exploration is a key to clear this floor. Kill beasts, and improve your strength.

4. You are a Shikari, you always have been. So act like one, and you will be fine.

 ___________________________________________________________

As soon as he read the whole letter, the parchment caught fire and in a second the whole paper burned out of existence.

Did I write this? For a person who had no memory of himself, he was having a hard time understanding what was happening, or what game was this letter talking about.

One thing is clear though… The letter said that I am a Shikari, which is a Hindi word for Hunter. Also, my instincts told me to name myself Arun previously, which means that not only do I know Hindi but I also might share my roots with India…

A horn blew in the distance, gathering his attention. He stood up and went to join the herd, something was about to happen, he could feel it in his bones.

For some reason, everyone present there started moving toward the center of the ruins, and that too in unison. Seeing the lifeless and calm demeanor of everyone he felt as though they were bewitched. Not wanting to attract any attention to himself, he also joined the herd.

In the center of the ruins, a man was waiting for them. Wearing a tuxedo, with brown skin and a top hat, he was standing on an elevated platform. The man bore a huge charming smile on his face. As the man saw that everyone had gathered around him, he started speaking, "Welcome Players!" the man exclaimed, "My name is Bobo I am the proxy of the Game Master of the First Floor of Tower of Yggdrasil."

Showing showmanship, the man tipped his hat, "You guys must be confused and afraid… And I get it, this is a very scary experience. But worry not, Bobo is here to give you all the essential information that you will need in order to survive this game,"

The sky suddenly became dark, and above Bobo appeared a hologram of what looked tower, "This is the Tower of Yggdrasil. You guys are here," the first floor of a tower in the hologram started flickering, "This is the first floor of the tower. This world is called Midgard. This place is infested with monsters and beasts of various kinds, which will provide you guys with opportunities to grow strong and become someone to reckon with…"

Then the hologram vanished and Bobo smiled brightly, "In order to regain your freedom, you need to get stronger. And for that, Game Master has provided you all with a system." Bobo snapped his fingers, a window appeared before everyone. "This right here is your status window, state of the art, and is thought controlled. This is your system's interface. And it will give you all the information there is to know about you."

______________________________________

Name- Shikari

Faction- ERROR

Level- 5

Stats-

Common Inventory-

Quick Access Inventory-

Friend List-

Skills-

________________________________

The fuck? My name is Shikari. What kind of parents name their child after a fucking profession? He ranted.

There were a ton of things that were going on in his mind at that moment. But it is then he decided that he would rather be called Arun, which at least is a proper name, than be called Shikari.

Another thing that he noticed was that he could see the silhouettes of windows of other players, but he could not read the information that was on their system windows. It was as if there was a security function in the system that dont allow players to see other player's status windows.

Bobo then took off his hat and looked around, "I hope that most of you guys will survive this whole ordeal. If you guys want your freedom, or simply dont want to die a very gruesome death, I would suggest that you go out there and explore the world. Find a way to upper floors, and survive."

Putting the hat back on, Bobo passed them a smile, "See ya!" And Bobo vanished along with the platform…

As Bobo vanished mayhem was unleashed once again. People who have been under some sort of spell till lost their composure. There were a lot of curses and swearing. People were rallying up and trying to understand what was happening here. Some of them were even coming up with conspiracy theories about all of this was the government doing to shut them all up. But he knew better.

Arun could observe that there were people from all kinds of different cultures and countries from all around the world. There was no way that this could have been done by any human, plus the status window, system, and the world seems very surreal to be made by humans. This was surely done by supernatural means, otherwise, there was no way it was happening.

It was then a window appeared before him, from the corner of his eye he saw that everyone received a window as well.

_______________________________________

Congratulations Player,

You have received a welcome gift or a rookie pack from Game Masters. Please proceed to the next menu in order to get your items

Bobo said that he was thought activated right… And sure enough, another window appeared before him now.

___________________________________________

You have been given 100 coins. Please use them wisely and choose items that you wish to purchase from those coins. Please note, that if no items are chosen then the 100 coins will be credited to you as it is. In case some coins are left after the purchase, the rest of the coins will be credited to your systems.

_____________________________

1. A Survival Kit

->Contains a water pouch, some beef jerky, and some firewood. Appropriate and valuable items, that are needed to survive in the wild.

-> Cost- 90 coins

__________________________________

2. A Sword and a Shield

->Perfect weapon to start your adventure.

->Cost- 60 coins

__________________________________

3. A Bow and Quiver full of Arrows

->Perfect for those who knows how to aim

-> Cost- 70 coins

_______________________________________

4. A Sharp Knife

-> A survival knife

-> Cost- 20 coins.

_________________________________