Caelen sat on a mossy rock, holding a rusty pickaxe and looking around like he was in the world's weirdest camping trip.
"Okay. I've got a pickaxe, no food, no shelter, and a squirrel that's aggressively judging me. Step one: get out of here."
He activated Googel Brain with a thought.
Search: How do I leave this world?
[Admin Jeff: "You can't, stupid. This is your second life. No backsies."]
Caelen closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. "Okay. That's fine. I didn't need options anyway."
Next search.
Search: How to make axe
[Step 1: Gather Wood]
[Step 2: Gather Stone]
[Step 3: Combine using crafting or big brain energy]
Also listed under Step 0: Find materials before you try to be useful, genius.
Caelen rolled his eyes.
Then—ping.
[Googel Brain Notice: 2 / 20 searches used today]
"Wait, seriously? Twenty searches per day? That's not even enough for a noob like me."
[System: Deal with it.]
He sighed and decided to be smart about it.
Search: Easiest way to find stone in forest
[Look for grey-ish rocks near the base of cliffs or by rivers. Stone = big rock. You can do it.]
He looked up.
And there it was. A small cliff in the distance, with a few chunky rocks lying at the bottom.
Caelen lit up like a raccoon spotting a trash can.
He ran over—okay, stumbled—and found a medium-sized stone sticking halfway out of the dirt. He raised his pickaxe like he knew what he was doing.
"Let's get it."
CLINK. CLINK. THUNK.
It wasn't elegant. It wasn't fast. But eventually—
[You have acquired: 3x Stone]
He held the rocks in both hands, grinning like a kid who just found snacks under the couch.
Then he opened Creation Mode. A simple floating menu appeared with item icons, a few grayed-out options, and a big "Craft" button.
He dragged "Wooden Stick" (thankfully still in inventory from his last game) and "Stone" into the slots.
Hit "Craft."
A small light flashed.
[Stone Axe Acquired]
"Oh, baby," he whispered. "We're in business now."
He gave it a few test swings. It was ugly, uneven, and probably full of splinters—but it was his ugly axe.
He turned toward a nearby tree, feeling powerful.
Then the wind shifted.
The light dimmed.
The sky turned… a little too orange.
Caelen froze.
"No."
He looked up. The sun was starting to set.
"No no no no—"
A squirrel made a weird noise and darted into a tree hole. Birds flew off. The air got quiet in a bad way.
He knew this game.
Daytime? Mildly dangerous.
Nighttime?
"Straight-up murder hour," Caelen muttered.
He gripped his new axe tighter.
"I have like, fifteen minutes to build a shelter or I'm going to be chewed on by something with twelve legs."
He looked around at the trees. The bushes. The shadows creeping in.
The forest was no longer peaceful.
It was loading danger.
Caelen took a breath.
Then whispered to himself: "Okay, no big deal. Just gotta build a base with zero building experience, limited materials, one axe, and the confidence of a guy who died sitting down."