Disorganized stacks of books were shuffled and re-stacked. Handwritten notes had been torn off the walls and nailed back on in a rush. His hair and beard were long and disheveled, his eye sockets dark and baggy.
Obscenities echoed through the spacious room in various languages, none of which could properly convey his frustration and panic.
Gabriel, calm and collected, gave a gentle knock on the door before entering. He cracked it open to peer inside, curious as to what all the commotion was about.
"Quentin? What's going on?"
Quentin froze like a fawn in an industrial spotlight. He was clutching a thick, worn, leather bound notebook in his hands. It took his best effort to avoid dropping it in that moment of panic.
"Lord— I mean, Gabriel. I'm just trying to find some notes, is all."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow, not believing such a bald-faced lie for even a second. "Alright, what is actually going on here? We both know that's a load of sh—"
"I acquired an agent to fix the tether." Quentin braced for impact.
"...And?"
"Well, I actually acquired five."
"Five?"
"Five."
"How, and more importantly, why, five?"
Quentin took a calming breath. "There was a ship a few miles out to sea. I figured one of them could be a good candidate."
Gabriel's eyebrow stayed glued to his forehead. "Why them specifically? Also, why ?"
Quentin shifted in place, his unease plainly on display. "They were far away from any civilization, no one will notice they're gone."
It took all of Gabriel's patience to not ask the same burning question a third time. He inhaled sharply, letting out a long, slow breath. "Okay, so you have our , now what? What's your plan for instructing them on fixing the tether?"
Quentin looked back at the mountain of notes and textbooks. "About that..."
***
Roy ached his weary eyes open, the crusty debris on them sending sharp pain from the corners of his eyelids. He desperately wanted to wipe them, but his arms, along with the rest of his body, were caked in sand.
Familiar ocean waves crashing against him made it clear that he was on a beach somewhere in the tropics. His head felt like a metal ball bouncing around inside a washing machine.
He dug himself out, brushing off what remained of his clothing. Last he knew, it had been late at night, now it was clearly early morning. He scanned his surroundings, searching for signs of a shipwreck, debris, or any sort of civilization.
Roy was alone, covered in sand, on a beach of an uninhabited island. He had spent a lot of time by himself, often enjoying long walks in nature, but nothing had prepared him for how truly alone he felt at this moment.
He resolved to not let his thoughts get the best of him. He needed to get a handle on the situation, if he wanted to survive.
The treeline at the top of the beach obscured view deeper into the dense jungle. Thick moss covered every available surface, and the air was heavy. There was a distinct lack of buzzing from insects that would normally fill the air. In fact, the only sound Roy could hear was the crashing of the waves on the shore.
"Helloooooooo?" He called out, not expecting a response.
The silence was eerie, like the jungle was waiting for him to make the first move.
It became clear, after just a moment of scanning his surroundings, that the only thing to do was to explore the area in search of shelter. Lost in thought, he didn't notice the long, flat rock in his path until after he had already rammed his foot full force into it. He face-planted into the beach, sputtering out debris and curses.
Once he got over his excessive wallowing, he resumed his trek towards a bend in the beach, revealing a rock field jutting out from the island.
Although most of the rocks were sharp and unwelcoming, the few exceptions with flat, even surfaces would make a good spot for a campsite. They seemed high enough above the tide line to stay dry, besides any storms that would inevitably blow through.
Roy had spent time reading about Hawaii, hoping to one day visit when he could afford the expensive vacation. He chuckled to himself, the idea of vacationing on a tropical island seemed laughable, given his circumstances.
With an adequate spot selected, he set out to collect firewood. A problem immediately became apparent at his first attempt to tear a chunk of bark off a dead, fallen tree. Roy recoiled at the geyser of water gushing out from the spot he had torn the bark from.
If even the dead trees in this jungle were filled with water, then the only option for a fuel source left was driftwood. He trudged along the beach towards the spot he had awoken at. The stone he had tripped over earlier had been uncovered by the tide, now revealing a circular platform submerged in the sand.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"That wasn't there before…"
With careful, slow strides, he approached the platform and crouched down next to it. The surface was mostly smooth, some shallow pits in the black stone were filled with sand. There was a large blue plus symbol in the center of the platform, and more text was still yet to be uncovered. He brushed off the sand obscuring the rest of the platform by hand, reading it aloud to himself.
"Spawn Point Seven… Huh. 'The hell does that even mean?" Roy had played his far share of video games, but it's not like he could possibly be one. Could he?
Roy dismissed the thought as simply impossible. His perception of the world seemed too realistic, the senses too vivid, his mind too clear. He didn't feel disoriented, not more than waking up dehydrated on a beach would leave him, anyway. He felt rational, whole, and coherent.
His lack of knowledge on mental health or psychological disorders left him unable to determine if he was hallucinating or not. Even if he was, what could he do about it? He pushed those possibilities out of his head before they could spiral any further out of control.
The fact that this platform was labeled as the seventh gave reason to suspect that his friends were somewhere on the island with him. That thought was both comforting and distressing.
The blue plus symbol on the platform pulsated in a slow, regular rhythm, as if coaxing him to press it. Without another thought, he placed his palm on the symbol, the stone feeling cold to the touch. The symbol itself began to heat up and turn white.
"Ow!" There was an audible zap from the electrical shock, knocking him onto his back.
His vision blurred, filling with blue TV static. The intense headache from before returned, his mind feeling like he had just been dropped into a pit filled with metal ball bearings. Disjointed thoughts stumbled over one another, his mind rewiring itself in real time. The world in front of him momentarily blurred into a kaleidoscopic fractal mess.
Distinct shapes coalesced in his field of view, appearing as elements of a video game heads-up display.
A notification box with a scroll bar appeared in the center of his vision.
Feature unlocked: [User Interface]
Welcome, Roy Ketran.
It took several attempts to read the text through the pain, though his disbelief only grew by the second. He rubbed his temples, trying to his best to focus. He waved his hand in front of him, trying to reach out to touch the box, only to realize it wasn't actually there.
"Maybe I am crazy after all." He muttered, though speaking only made his headache worse.
He mentally told the text to scroll, hoping telepathy would work. To his surprise, it responded without hesitation. The notification box scrolled down, revealing more entries to the long list.
You have spawned at: Spawn Point 7
Now entering region: [Forgotten Islands]
Region discovered: [Forgotten Islands]
He raised a painful eyebrow at the messages, doing his best to understand they meant. He continued reading, a warning message appearing next, the edges of his vision turning a faint red.
System Announcement:
You have sustained a severe injury to , and a minor injury to
You lack any healing items or knowledge of healing magic. Injuries will heal slowly over time.
"Healing magic?" Roy mused, his throat still bone-dry. "Why should the mention of magic even surprise me at this point?"
After clearing the warning message, the standard appearance returned.
Spawn platform activated.
Feature unlocked: [HUD]
[HUD] activated.
"What moron would disable the HUD by default?" Roy shook his head, dismissing the last notification. He inspected the other elements that had finished forming in the edges of his vision.
In one corner, there was an image of a human. It was divided into sections, each varied in color from green to yellow to red. Every part except his head and left foot was tinted yellowish green, the head and foot being tinted a sickly red. At the top, there was a bar-style compass, indicating that he was facing roughly south.
Below the human diagram, There were two boxes that contained a display for his approximate health and stamina. His health was listed as "medium", and his stamina as "high".
He could feel an inclination in the back of his mind to open a menu, almost like a muscle memory. He reached out to that feeling, experimenting with his strange new abilities as he stood up, his questionable balance threatening to topple him over.
Indeed, a new menu did appear, confirming his hunch. There were several options listed. He inspected them on the way back to camp.
- Objectives
- Social
- Inventory (Locked)
- Profile (Locked)
- Map (Locked)
- Wiki (Locked)
The only two available options were empty, though the locked options caught his attention. Each brought up more questions than answers, further undermining his insistence that he was not in a video game. With no new information to find, the menu only proved a distraction until he could find out more.
Finding food and water were his top priority for the time being, anything else would be pointless in a matter of days without them. On top of that, he had not found any semblance of a shelter. Although it was only midday, and there hadn't been any sign of wildlife, the idea of being attacked in his sleep gnawed at him.
He passed by the rock he had chosen for his camp, but kept walking. Without a means of making a fire, there was no point just sitting there, waiting to die. On the other side of the rock field, the beach stretched on further, another island loomed off in the distance.
There was a tall mountain making up most of the visible landmass, a hazy plume of smoke rising high above the peak. If it was in fact a volcano, then the surrounding land had to be dry.
He felt a renewed sense of determination, even a twinge of excitement at the thought of seeing a volcano with his own eyes. With that, he set off towards the other island.
***
Beth's first sensation when she awoke was that of falling out of the sky. She landed hard on her left leg, the searing pain fading to numbness. It took a minute for her to regain her bearings, then several more to pull herself out of the tangled, thorny bush at the base of a steep hill.
It was a great test of her willpower and grit to work through the pain, but her determination allowed her to push on. She was reminded of the first few days of basic training when she enlisted for the RAF.
All she could think about was giving up and surrendering. Eventually, that desire no longer pulled at her, it no longer mattered. The pain became part of her life. That is when she had truly excelled, and now is when she needed that breakthrough the most.
She collapsed on the ground next to the bush, exhausted from the fight to untangle herself. Now free to inspect the wound, she readied herself for the next stage of the battle.
Her leg was certainly broken, to what extent, she had no idea. Her medical knowledge was minimal, only knowing the basics of how to set a broken limb. A pair of branches would make up the frame of her makeshift splint, and a long scrap of denim torn off from her jeans would tie it in place.
She worked with haste, but not in a rush. It was of utmost importance that she got this right the first time, otherwise it might break when she needed it most.
With the splint in place, and the bone set, she was finally able to take a deep breath. She scanned her surroundings, though the dense overgrowth obscured her vision further into the jungle. The steep hill behind her stretched far beyond what she had expected. It was definitely a mountain, perhaps even a volcano, though it seemed dormant.
There was a large black disc stuck halfway in the side of the hill, like someone had thrown it like a Frisbee. A blue plus symbol glowed in the center, and a vague semblance of text arched along the perimeter, but was too far away to be legible.
There was no obvious way to climb back up the hillside in her condition, so she turned her attention elsewhere. A beach or a stream would be the ideal spot to set up camp, either giving access to water.
How she ended up at the base of a volcano on a tropical island, she had no idea. One thing was for certain, whoever put her here was going to have hell to pay for it.