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Status sheet:
- Name: Agi Rosenzweig
- Level: 0 (Energy required for next level: 0/1 arbitrary unit). Note that this has to do with a third attribute which you do not possess
- System class: Unavailable
- Class: none
- System achievements: unavailable
- Achievements: none
- Attributes:
Extension (body):
Statistics:
Height: 1.93 meters
Weight: 98 kilograms
Bodyfat percentage: 4.8%
Strength: 1 (muscle density 0.6, hypertrophy 1.3, endurance 1.1)
Dexterity: 1 (reflexes: 1.2, flexibility 0.8)
Constitution: 1 (toughness 0.7, stamina 1.3)
Perception: 1 (visual 1.1, hearing 1.2, smell 0.9, touch 1, taste 0.8)
(It is to note that all the units used in the statistics, except for the first few ones, are arbitrary and are in no way a comparison to a base model. These are unique to every individual, and they may vary in significance within a reasonable margin. They also gain a qualitative increase past certain thresholds.)
(These can be naturally enhanced by training or alternatively using a third attribute that the user does not possess)
Thought (mind):
Memory: 1
Intuition: 1
Processing speed: 1
Consciousness, reason and rationality*: present
(Note: For now these are your only attributes, though you may discover others in the future.)
- Concepts: none
(note that concepts are notions that once understood thoroughly, will resonate with the world to give certain advantages depending on which one it is. Some are purely theoretical, others only practical, most a bit of both)
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Agi looked at it again and again, until his confusion reached its peak. Just how in hell was this stupid game-like interface supposed to help him survive?
Was it magically going to spawn food in front of him if he revised some of the philosophical concepts he learned of when he was younger? Like hell that would be the case.
He had to face the situation as it appeared to be. He was stuck in a forest without any food, water, shelter, clothes, or gear to defend himself. He cannot hunt, fish nor eat any berries. No way out of the forest and no clue where the river he stayed at for a week was. He was also surrounded by monsterlike creatures spread out all over the forest, that looked like they could effortlessly split him in two just by using their side delts. And maybe for the worst, he also had an unknown entity that looked like it could morph into anything it saw from up-close that was potentially stalking him for sport.
However even in such situations, if you only saw this side of things you would rapidly end up losing hope and giving up altogether. It is when times are most desperate that you need all the positive you can possibly think of, pour every ounce of motivation you can muster, in order to keep his hopes up.
Right now more than ever, Agi loved life, every single aspect of it. He loved his father, his few real friends, his job, he loved weightlifting, reading, listening to music, and smoking cigarettes on the balcony with the gentle breeze of the wind ruffling his hair and the starry sky staring back at him.
He loved cats, going on random walks and hikes, Brazilian food, cold drinks on a hot day, hot drinks on a cold day, he also loved meeting new people and just in general making new discoveries about things he was curious about, discovering new cultures, new ways of life, ways of seeing the world.
Even in this very dire situation, if you removed the physical pain, and the fatigue, the landscapes he got to see were beautiful, it smelled wonderful wherever you went, and the species he met would probably make science take a big leap if he managed to come back intact.
All in all, he found the strength to get back up, slap his cheeks, and commit the very irrational act of shouting at the top of his lungs. After this sudden surge of confidence he immediately felt very dumb for shouting for all the potential dangers it brought. But then that thought also got covered up by his current mental state. He felt more motivated to get through all the shit this environment had to offer and come out as more capable.
This time he had no precise plan to follow, partly because he didn't have time and partly because he told himself that every plan he made was bound to end up sabotaged anyway, which was quite superstitious but that surprising at this point. Still, the main lines never changed, namely food, water and a potential place to sleep.
And so after this emotional roller-coaster he half reluctantly started walking towards the very same direction he had fled from earlier.
The sun hadn't even peeked its head from behind the horizon, but the sky was so full of stars and his eyes used to mild darkness that he could safely navigate himself around without problem.
Not even a minute after he left a loud noise sounded from his left. It wasn't quite a bang, but as if something very heavy fell down on the ground, some kind of tree perhaps. It scared him on the spot, but a tree falling on its own was pretty rare. So it meant that maybe some kind of animal was nearby. He was so desperate for anything that wouldn't try to kill him at this point that he would also take the risk of facing another potential danger.
It didn't take long for him to reach the scene, and what he met there wasn't an animal of any kind, there wasn't even a fallen tree for that matter. Instead all that stood, or rather laid down there was another carcass. In the exact same fashion as the one he had met, absolutely massacred. This time, he didn't flee right away, he watched the corpse, still as itself, with many thoughts running through his head.
He was fighting fear, fighting his body, who desperately wanted to run away from here, just as he has done ever since he ended up stuck in this god-forsaken forest.
He was still scared shitless of course, but running away again and again had not proved to help him in any situation he has faced so far. In fact, in some cases it might have even put him in a worse situation by needlessly tiring him.
So he tried to stay calm and rationally analyze the situation. This body didn't coincidentally end up falling just a couple meters away from him barely a minute after he left. The most likely option is that he was getting stalked, and by that poly-morphing entity no less. He didn't want to believe there were any other candidates to be able to do that.
How was he supposed to interpret this act though? A threat maybe, like you could end up like that soon too? That doesn't make much sense, with how strong it was, it could probably kill him while half asleep and limping from both legs.
Maybe it was a different kind of threat, such as behave yourself unless you want to end up like this yourself. But in this case, he didn't really know what behavior he should try to avoid, and now that he had decided to be more active in order to survive, he might unknowingly just do that. This thought did make shivers run down his spine but since this was just baseless for now, he just brushed it all off and kept going.
Hours later when the sun had finally decided to take back control over the sky, he managed to find his way to the river again. And though he didn't recognize the spot, he could somewhat direct himself with the current now.
Also his first reaction when seeing it was to run and jump in head first without a care in the world. Aware of the potential dangers coming from him making all this noise and maybe even the diseases or parasites in there, he still drank in big gulps without watching his surroundings. It had been so long since he last drank and had had a sore throat for hours now.
After quenching his thirst he started moving again this time following the river very closely, though slightly behind the tree line.
He only stopped once his feet hurt so much he couldn't keep going anymore. The sun hadn't even dipped behind the horizon line yet, but he still climbed up a large tree and fell asleep like a log rather quickly.
He woke up the next day not knowing how long he slept but still feeling well rested. It was still night, but bright enough for him to start moving again.
This time it was after around five minutes that he heard the same type of loud noise as the day before, eliminating any lingering doubt from his mind.
He still went in the direction of the noise, almost hoping to catch the culprit still at the scene, but all he was met with was another corpse of the same massive dark brown creature.
The notable difference this time though, was that the body was in a much better condition, he couldn't see a wound nor any blood leaking from anywhere. It was so strange that after a full minute, he started wondering whether the thing was well and truly dead.
Once again, this got him thinking, what message was that thing trying to get through with this act. Another threat? Look I can kill you without even leaving a trace? Similarly to yesterday, this wouldn't make much sense, Agi didn't need any convincing that it could kill him without any effort, so much so that this seemed counterproductive.
Why would it bother killing animals just to drop them almost untouched for only his eyes to see? This situation was very bizarre and honestly, Agi almost had to prevent himself from trying to find a way to butcher the thing up in order to fill his stomach.
It had been a while since he had last eaten, and his stomach was killing him, so when presented with such an intact body, his thoughts couldn't help but stray in weird directions.
In the end he gave it up, throwing some last gazes left and right to try and see if the entity was still around, but he couldn't see anything out of place.
He kept walking the whole day, hoping to encounter any sign of life but still nothing. After so long without eating anything he was so desperate that he also started to look for berry bushes, uncaring of the less than welcome side effects that came with it, however, he quickly came to the realization that there were no more berry bushes at all, and thinking about it, it had been days since he last saw one. All that was left around him were trees and vines and thorns.
He also threw up twice today, for which he could only blame the seemingly clean water, simply because he didn't consume anything else in what felt like forever.
In the end, he had made very slow progress today, progress towards what, only god knows, he had probably gone past his previous short-term resting place a long while ago without even recognizing it now. But none of it mattered much to Agi right now.
The sun was hardly starting to set that he fell asleep, on the bare ground.
He groggily woke up the next day, feeling even worse than any morning before this one, and like a well-oiled machine, without even a thought in mind, he started walking again. For what he didn't even know anymore, the only thing he knew is that if he stayed still and gave up his death was a given.
In the same fashion as the two previous days, a sudden loud noise could be heard from nearby, briefly putting a hold to the eerie quiet of the usual forest.
Not even thinking about it he changed his trajectory towards the noise, and soon enough, he got to the spot. This time though, the usual sight didn't come. His eyes opened wide and his mouth gawked. The situation was too much, he fell to his knees in contemplation, because in front of him, was a perfectly butchered deerlike animal, together with the backpack he had left while fleeing from the morphing monster.