The blaring sound of the alarm told Samson that it was time to get up. He looked at his phone “7:15am,” he had already slept through the first five alarms. He went through the same routine of grumbling to himself as he finished a quick shower, skipping breakfast, and making his way to work.
On the drive over, Sam was lost in his usual thoughts… “this is how I’d fight a bear,” “why shouldn’t I wrap my car around that tree right now,” “ah shit I’m gonna be 15 min late.”
More than anything, Sam wanted things to be different today, for something to change. The problem was, like any other time he found himself wishing for that, he didn’t know what he would want to be different aside from the constant background hum of “you’d be better off dead.” So instead he kept making his way to work, to a place where he might as well be a patient as much as if not more than the people he takes care of everyday.
Something was changing today however, and Sam didn’t know that his wish for change was coming more than he ever thought possible. *BANG* followed by a high pitched ringing noise, that to Sam sounded like when his tinnitus acted up or like when an explosion of a flash grenade happens in a video game, and a flash of white.
Suddenly he wasn’t at the punch machine clocking into work anymore, instead he found himself in a blank white space. There were only two thoughts running through Sam’s head at this very moment, either “I’ve gotten into some kind of accident” or “it's finally happening.”
The previously empty white space was now suddenly filled with thousands of other people, none of whom looked at all familiar to Samson. At the forefront of all those people, a nondescript one meter diameter gray orb was floating and (for lack of a better word) told all these people [Welcome to Phase ONE of System integration]. Although it was more like that information was being projected into their brains rather than actually hearing any sound coming from the orb directly.
Looking around, Samson saw everyone begin to be covered in motes of light and soon enough he was too.
“I guess all the years here of reading those stories with dad are finally about to pay-off; I really wish you could’ve been here for this old man.”
[Choose a tutorial starter weapon and kit]...
He’d gone over enough of these hypotheticals with dad to know exactly what he needed and wanted to choose. While he would always want to be able to cast Fireball, it wasn’t exactly like this was a webnovel and he was a prodigious user of magic. And if the fiction he’d read growing up was any indication, then a lot of magic tended to rely on talent. So Sam chose a spear and a healer's kit.
[Transferring to Tutorial Area]...
Sam felt a slight breeze and found himself on a grassy field amidst a few thousand other people– none of whom he recognized. To his west was a still lake and to the east was a forest.
[Life in the Multiverse seldom knows peace]
[First Tutorial Quest: SURVIVE]
[59:59 remaining]
A warm yellow light flashed from the direction of the forest and what looked like a horde of goblins spawned about a thousand feet away. Without any indication that this was the sort of thing that one could survive peacefully, Sam put away his moral quandaries for now and prepared to fight. He singled out a goblin near the front of the pack that held a short spear and decided that he would take the initiative and not merely run away. After all, what was the point of all that training and hypotheticals with dad if he wasn’t actually going to put it into practice given an actual chance to do so. Just like that, Sam booked it toward the little green man that caught his eye. Feeling his feet thumping against the loose dirt and the wind brushing past his hair, he felt free and excited.
The moment he neared the goblin, it thrust the spear it was holding toward him but that much was something he was prepared for. With a deft twist of his upper body and a lunge, Sam firmly grasped the spear by the shaft with one hand while he buried his foot deep in the goblin’s gut doing a sidekick. Not letting the goblin have any purchase to recover, Sam brought his heel down on the goblin’s head, preparing to stomp down harder if that following kick hadn’t already crushed its skull.
[DING!]
[Achievement Earned: First Blood]
Not letting himself get distracted by the notifications from the system, Sam took advantage of his sudden action by quickly killing the three closest goblins to the one he’d taken the spear from. He quickly picked up any weapons those other goblins were holding and ran back to the group of people had shown up with. Sure they were all given starter kits, but not all the starter weapons would be all that helpful depending on what some of the others chose. Shouting at the others, he told anyone who had picked a magic based starting kit to pick up one of the weapons he’d brought back if they felt like it. After all, the system may have given them those items, but it hadn’t yet taught anyone how to employ skills that weren’t mundane. A few others in the group were quick on the uptake, and seeing how effective he had been with the spear, had picked up some of the weapons he had brought back.
Feeling like he’d done enough to assuage his conscience, Sam brought his attention back to the pack of goblins. Taking out the starter spear he’d chosen from the system and murmuring a quiet prayer, Sam really let loose for what felt like the first time in his life.
[00:59 remaining]
Breathing heavily and pouring with sweat, Sam felt like he was on the brink of death and yet he had also never felt quite so alive. Realizing himself, Sam tried his best to calm down and not relish in the violence that had just occurred– his dad had always taught him to be wary of that. Dad had never called himself a good man, but he was always trying his best to be better than what he thought he was and that same mindset had been passed down to Sam. He knew that there were some flaws in his psyche that he needed to be wary of, but he wouldn’t let that stop him from trying his best to be a better man than he was the day before.
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[Quest Complete]
[Congratulations!]
Just like that, the hour was over. Looking around, Sam saw a good amount of people had made it, though the number of people still standing was noticeably smaller.
Now that his life wasn’t in immediate danger, Sam was able to get a better look around where they were. Though it seemed like day time, he wasn’t even sure if they were still on earth. The sky above, despite being blue, contained nothing else. There wasn’t a Sun, or clouds, or even birds; it was just a plain sky blue as far as he could see at least.
[You all will be in the tutorial zone until all the main tutorial quests are completed. Good luck, you’ll probably need it. Grow, all of you and find your way.]
[Ding!]
[You’ve earned rewards for your performance in the first quest of the tutorial. Additional rewards have been added as a result of your efforts. Survive and find your way forward]
[Reach level 10 to claim your rewards]
Sam wasn’t sure how long this tutorial thing would actually last so finding or making shelter was one of his top priorities. He knew it was probably safer to stay as a group but even though he had helped a few of the others to survive the goblin wave, he still didn’t really know those people. Much like his father had been, Sam wasn’t the best at dealing with and getting to know new people. Sure once you became friends with him he was probably more dependable than anyone else but the number of people that he actually considered friends could be counted on one hand. Anyway, having no indication if there was a proper path forward, Sam chose to walk between the forest and the lake in the direction of the mountains. He fondly remembered being brought to his family’s ancestral home as a young boy, a place with mountain ranges and lush jungles, so he headed for the mountains with a sense of nostalgia. Keeping the forest on one side of him so he could run for cover if need be and staying near the lake so that he was sure of where to get water.
After walking for about an hour, the thought occurred to Sam that perhaps the cultivation practices in the martial arts stories he read with his family are actually possible now. Wasting no time, Sam immediately sat down and started praying while trying to imagine ki or mana or really just any esoteric source of energy that might now actually let him touch upon what lay beyond the mundane. After all, keeping some of the options for the starter kits as a reminder, there’s no way something like magic doesn’t exist now. He knew that the world as he knew it was completely gone (or at least that is what he assumed) and that the following days would be filled with a lot more danger that he was normally exposed to in the modern world and yet all he felt was excitement. Sam simply had a lingering anxiety and discomfort with his place in society, perhaps a final gift of similarity to his father or perhaps the natural result of how his father had raised him but regardless this seeming apocalypse gives him the opportunity to find what it was that seemed lacking from his daily life. After meditating for a few minutes, Sam began to feel a strange tingling with every breath he took while he imagined himself practicing a cultivation technique from the countless manhwa he’d read. Although, of course, he wasn’t sure if he was actually feeling something or whether he only thought he was on account of how much he wanted it to be possible now. While it was likely a possibility now, it was also just as likely that it might be related to innate talent; and he was under no illusions that he would be the once in a whatever timeframe prodigy that main characters of such stories often were. If anything though, Sam desperately wished he could at least glimpse upon and participate in that world. When over fifteen minutes had passed with nothing of note seeming to happen, Sam sent one last prayer hoping that his path forward would be shown to him and he continued making his way to the mountains in the distance.
The mountains ended up being farther away than he thought they were but he was determined to at least make it to the beginning of the mountain range. Every few hours or so he would take a break by sitting down beneath the shade of a tree near the water. He would take a few drinks of the water, that he unfortunately couldn’t find a way to boil first, then he would meditate as he had tried earlier when the thought first occurred to him that cultivation in martial arts stories might be possible now. One thing that Sam was grateful for was that he had his confirmation rosary in his pocket when he got pulled into the tutorial. Sure this was something that he had been fantasizing about for forever, constantly running hypotheticals with his dad when he was still alive, but it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t at least a little terrified and apprehensive. After all, this situation only bore similarities to the premises of the stories he so loved to distract himself with but he had no real way of knowing how things would actually turn out. The presence of the rosary in his pocket worked to ground him and give him some comfort with the uncertainties that lay ahead of him. Repeating this process a few times, nightfall soon approached; or at least it should have, but the Sunless sky above remained about just as bright as it had initially been. Then when about twenty hours had passed (or at least what felt like twenty hours to Sam but he couldn’t be too sure since he had neither his phone or a watch on him and even if he did, he would have no way of knowing whether they would work properly given the circumstances anyway), the colour in the sky gradually began to fade into darkness. This happened just as Sam saw he was within a few miles of the base of the mountain that he aimed to reach. Unsure as to whether he should try and make it to the base of the mountain before night completely fell or if he should just try and make shelter where he currently was, he flipped a coin to decide. Well coin would be a bit of an exaggeration considering what he actually flipped was a relatively flat looking rock he picked up from the ground and had arbitrarily assigned a heads and tails side to. Regardless, it worked just as well for its intended purpose and so Sam began trying to make shelter for the night where he was. There wasn’t much available to work with but some of the trees did have big enough branches that seemed like it would support his weight. So he went and collected some broken branches and brought them to a tree he’d picked out. After climbing the tree to what felt like would be a height safe enough from would be woodland creatures, he placed the branches he collected between two strong looking branches to make a sort of platform he could sleep on. Excited as he was about all the thrilling events that had taken place the past day, he was also equally exhausted so sleep came rather quickly.
Sam woke up to the sound of something skittering about the base of the tree where he had fallen asleep. From the looks of things it was still the dead of night, which was a little odd considering it felt like he’d already had a full night’s rest. Then again, the day prior did feel like it went on for longer than it should have so perhaps the day/night cycle of wherever he was simply lasted longer. Looking below him, Sam saw the source of the noise. It looked like a couple goblins were at the forest floor near him scrounging around for something (probably looking for food of some kind). Deciding it probably wasn’t worth the risk of letting them know he was there, Sam decided to just stay quiet and keep hidden within the canopy of the trees.
With nothing better to do and not wanting to brave the mountains in the dark, Sam just started trying to meditate/ cultivate like he had the day prior. Perhaps pray would be a more appropriate term to describe what he was doing right at that moment considering that what he actually started doing instead of trying to “feel” magic like he had been before was use his rosary. Even at times when he was loneliest, praying always helped him feel like he had someone there who cared about him so he always began with gratitude for the life he’d been given (ironic when looking at how he normally was but well people are weird like that). Eventually he got around to actually trying to feel magic again or well something like it. He still wasn’t sure if he was actually beginning to feel something or if he was just deluding himself but he liked to think it was the former. If the length of yesterday was any indication, Sam still had quite a bit of time left in the night to figure out which of the two it actually was, relatively speaking anyway. After a few hours of this, still no signs from the system on if what he was doing was actually getting anywhere but who knows how long these things are supposed to take so Sam didn’t really lose heart. This went on for a while, with Sam taking breaks here and there and at some point eating the rations that came in his healer’s kit.
