Miles looked at the screen that hovered by his side. The screen showed a map with several red dots scattered across kilometers of rough terrain, but the red dots mattered little to him as he kept running through the dense forest.
"Show relics' location and status window." He mumbled between huffs.
The map on his right changed, showing the same rough terrain, but with three blue dots shimmering brighter than the red dots in the previous screen, along with a yellow dot that represented him, still a few kilometers away from the blue ones.
Another holographic window appeared on his left, with several lines of text glowing in an ethereal shade of blue over the ghostly black background.
[Name: Miles Thorn]
[Affiliation: None]
[Level: 05]
[Class: Unacquired]
[Skills: None]
[Strength: 13]
[Agility: 08]
[Dexterity: 09]
[Perception: 15]
[Intelligence: 20]
With an inner sigh, Miles shook his head but kept running for a few more meters, and when he found a tall enough tree, he stopped running and climbed it.
"Why did I even spend the last reward in raising my intelligence, damn it?" He grumbled as he climbed, his muscles aching in protest. "Might as well have placed the points in [Perception], if I was going to be this dense…"
After seeing many sub-ten players acquire devastating magic after placing a few points in the [Intelligence] stat, Miles thought it could be a good idea to join the Mage class trend, but it had been six months since the world had ended and the year of 2025 had begun.
And not only did he not acquire any magic through his stats…
But he was also one of the very few sub-ten players in the server, with many of the lower-level players having already even affiliated to a guild, to have more chances of survival. Which was the very reason he was stuck in that forsaken forest during the last three weeks, going through that ridiculous quest that he had stumbled upon.
Fasting a rope around him and the branch he had sat on top of, hidden by the ginormous tree top, the chirping of birds, and the whistling of the wind, Miles opened the quest instructions and read it again, just in case he had missed something.
Just like he did a hundred times or so before.
[Hidden Quest: Have You Seen My Hat?]
[Quest details: After losing his hat in a bet, the Hatter became lost in madness and died of bitterness. Nowadays, guarded by unimaginable horrors, the Hatter's hat lies hidden within leaves, stones, and graves. But beware, for you only have one chance to find it. Do you have what it takes to retrieve what has been lost?]
[Reward for completion: EXP; ???; ???]
Miles let out a heavy sigh, closing the quest window once more, and opened his inventory. From the spatial window, he took a strange glass bottle, finely ornamented in a stained-glass pattern, and a few packs of instant rations that merchants sold all around the server, for those adventurers who did not have enough money to get a proper meal.
The bottle had a special property to it, being a rare item that Miles had picked after killing his first mob, back on New Year's Eve — it had the strange ability to never run out of water, no matter how much the boy tried to empty it — while the rations were just plain, simple crackers that came in a variety of flavors — from barbecue to strawberry.
Luckily, for Miles, the crackers' flavors were not random, so he could just buy any that he wanted, and all was well.
After a meal as regal as any of his previous ones, Miles closed his eyes and let sleep take care of his sore muscles while listening to the wind whistling through the leaves.
'Ah… Despite the downs, that's life.' He hummed while feeling his body getting heavier and heavier with sleep. 'Tomorrow I'll find that relic, and with some luck, it won't be long until I finally level up past the sub-ten…'
Miles dreamed of people screaming on the crowded street of New Year's Eve, right after he tried to make some sense of the strange window that appeared above him.
There were the sounds of flesh being ripped apart, beastly growls, and other horrible sounds that the boy was only familiar with in the games he used to play.
[Do you want to convert your previous avatar to home-world 39515's latest version?]
[Yes] [No]
Miles kept staring at it, even though the noise kept getting closer and closer to him. He was in a daze, unsure of what to do next, or even how to move.
"Yes." He muttered, finally looking down and around him.
Chaos spread like fire on a gunpowder trail wherever Miles looked, and less than a thought later, the lines of text in the window — now in front of him — changed.
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[Unable to recover the avatar's previous data]
[Forceful reset in progress]
A sharp pain pierced Miles' mind, pulling him out of his stupor. As he looked down, there was a tiny figure crouching by his side.
It was green, its skin was covered in warts. It had pointy ears, blood-red eyes, and it was…
Was it the pain, the confusion that was making Miles see things, or was the goblin-like creature munching on his leg?
"Ah… Ah… Ah…" Miles huffed, strangely unable to let out a single sound.
There was only death around him, but no…
There were other sounds, too. Muffled, but he could hear them, as the little goblin-like monster chewed on his leg. But there was no pain, other than when he felt the monster's teeth piercing his skin.
Until the screen in front of him changed again.
[Forceful reset concluded]
[Features will now go back to normal]
Miles' eyes went wide as he felt the whole brunt of the pain that was being ignored by some part of his brain, or whatever else, and a sharp, agonizing scream finally left his throat, followed by the sound of the wind blowing.
Only that, through the chaos and death, Miles noticed that it wasn't wind.
A person came towards him at full speed and kicked the goblin-like creature right in its head, turning it into a mushy, red paste, saving Miles from becoming a meal to the weird monster.
"Are you okay?" The owner of the kick asked, offering him his hand. But when Miles looked up to check on who had saved him amidst the ruckus, he opened his eyes, panting.
A pair of blood-red eyes watched him from the tip of the branch he was on.