The first step is often the hardest

  I awoke on a beach from a slumber I hadn’t known I’d taken, my last memory being the outside of an apartment.

  [Welcome to the embrace of the system Earthling Hiro Johnson. Keep track of your tutorial progress with your status and mission log. Good luck!]

  “W-What the…? Where am,” I said. My head whirled around, but I saw no one. “Hellooooo….” My shout went unanswered. The only sound was the roar of the surf.

  I focused my eyes directly at the screen. It was hard to do anything else with the faint blue image right in front of my face. “‘Embrace of the system?’ What the hell is going on,” I whispered.

  Gingerly, I reached out a hand to touch the screen. My hand went right through it just as it had when I was on the military base.

  The system was a thoughts based structure. It couldn’t be affected physically. The screen I was seeing wasn’t truly there. It was merely a creation of the system's prompt to aid my mind. But I didn't understand that at the start, so for a long while I sat there on the beach utterly perplexed.

  After a while, far longer than I care to admit, I managed to make my status appear. It took me thinking of a video game I’d played as a kid for it to work. The status read:

  [Designation: Hiro Johnson 0000127460118]

  [Level: 0]

  [Class: unchosen]

  [Active spells: 1. Unchosen 2. Unchosen 3.Unchosen]

  [Passive spells: 1. Unchosen 2. Unchosen 3.Unchosen]

  [System Arts: 0]

  [Body: 1]

  [Mana: 0]

  [Spirit: 0]

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Most of what was written was incomprehensible to me. There were no descriptions, and no explanations. What was on the status screen was all that I saw, not much to go off of for a system newbie. The mission log page though, was much more helpful. My first log looked something like this:

  [Mission Log:]

  [The end of the Earth is not the end of humanity. Survive integration with the

  system and enter the tutorial.] [Status: Completed. Reward available.]

  [Power is taken not given. Kill a hundred monsters.] [Status: 0/100]

  [Welcome to the fold. Complete the tutorial][Status: 0/3]

  ‘The end of the Earth is not the end of humanity.’ I think I read that line a hundred times over before the words truly sunk in. And it wasn’t because I was an imbecile or anything, I just had a very hard time adjusting at the start of the tutorial. Reflecting, maybe it had been shock.

  I stood up, and brushed the sand off my jeans while I assessed the beach. It was unassuming, something you’d see on a postcard. Palm trees and white hot sand and water so clear I could see rocks and seashells underneath the waves. The clear water gave way to an endless ocean that stretched to the horizon, and beyond the beach laid a rainforest thick with tropical foliage. It was definitely not Virginia.

  There was nothing to go off of, so I started to walk along the beach. In one hand I carried my shoes— I hated getting sand in my shoes. And to help with the scorching sun I took off my faded graphic comic tee and wrapped it around my head. Like that, I walked the beach in the hopes I’d catch sight of someone who was equally as perturbed as I, but the farther I walked the more I began to doubt anyone was near.

  When minutes stretched to hours my faith in finding another person waned. I stopped walking, and started thinking of survival. The sun wasn’t going to be out forever. Night would soon be upon me, and I could ill-afford to be caught unawares.

  I settled on a sleeping spot closer to the treeline after gathering what resources I could find. The resources amounted to firewood, kindling, a few rocks, and a large stick. The resources minus the large stick were used to start a fire. The large stick I used to create a little lean-to hut; the type I used to make with my father when he took me camping as an adolescent. Instead of regular leaves, I used fallen palm tree branches as the cover.

  As I laid down to rest, an alert from the system screen popped up in front of my eyes. The screen had been gone for a bit, so it truly caught me off guard when it appeared. The screen said:

  [Last chance to accept mission reward] [The end of the Earth is not the end of humanity. Survive integration with the system and enter the tutorial.] [Status: Completed. Reward available.]

  The line about a reward was something I’d glanced over earlier while I was in shock, but I’d given no credence to it. ‘What reward except chaos could possibly be waiting for me?’ I think I thought something along those lines when that couldn't have been further from the case.

  I mentally accepted the reward, and as I did, I heard a loud thud in the sand next to me. I scrambled to my feet not knowing it was the system reward’s arrival. I assumed someone had snuck up on me in the night, but the system message log informed me otherwise.

  After a few calming breaths I walked over to where thud sounded, and unsheathed my gift. The system reward was a sheathed short sword, the length of a forearm, my first, and most important weapon.

  “Hello Widower,” I mumbled. Widower was the sword's name according to the system. It sparkled a bit under the moonlight, and its edge looked sharp. “Keep me safe through the night, ok?”

  The knife of course didn’t answer, but I felt far safer with it. I tucked Widower next to me under the lean-to and thought of the conversation I had with my father until I fell fast asleep.