3 In the Sand
"Ack!! Fu-ughaah!!" A young high pitched voice let out a strangled yelp.
This was Michael, halfway through the transferal process. He could feel his consciousness building up in wherever this place was. Probably his new body. Still couldn't hear. Still couldn't see. And he sure as hell couldn't feel anything, other than a new type of pain.
He felt like he was the amount of sand at the bottom of an hourglass, with over half an hour left to go. So incomplete. What made it more painful was his literal inability to do anything. It became so painful to bear that he blacked out.
...
* Pain Resistance +1 *
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Michael woke up. But he found it surprisingly difficult to open his eyes. After prying them open, he was momentarily blinded before shutting them again.
He groaned. 'Well that's not an option for now' He muttered in his head.
Next, he tried feeling around, and was for some reason surprised to find two arms, two legs, a head (obviously), and a body; upper torso, abdomen and all. However... they felt... small.
Michael himself was about 175 cm tall or a little less than 5' 9" when he was on earth, but these limbs greatly discomforted him.
Then there was how weak they felt. If he was his old self, a heavy wave of the hand could probably bruise this body or even break its bones.
He tried moving, managing to do so despite his weakness, first rolling over, then pushing off of the ground with his palms.
It was only then that Michael attempted to open his eyes. There was a hard barren ground beneath him: with an orange tint, and completely lifeless. Grains of sand and sediment were drifting past him in the light wind.
A sudden burst of pain in his stomach made him collapse back onto the hard ground. He suddenly noticed, it felt like he hadn't eaten for weeks. Michael let out another groan in pain, then slowly got back hunched-over on his knees again. When he looked down upon himself, four words came to mind: thin child in rags.
He studied his hands, small, like a 5-year-olds. At most this body's age was 6 years, though such had yet to be seen seeing how malnourished he was, maybe older. And the clothes, they were nothing more than a few rags sewn together to fit the needs of covering one's upper body, fitting a little large on him. His lower body was clothed in some tough looking material in the shape of pant legs. Both items of clothing, however, were torn in various places, leaving airborne sediment to freely flow through.
Michael then observed the land around him and was deeply shocked for a moment.
Jagged mounds of metal, jutted out from beneath hills of sand and debris. There were enormous metal skeletal structures, he knew not of which use they had, they could have been the frames of spaceships. These structures were massive but broken across his view.
What were most numerous in his eyes, however, were the piles of seemingly endless scraps around him. Rusting cylinder shaped items were strewn about the place alongside bent pipes and broken plates.
"Where the fuck am I?!" A high pitched yell asked aloud.
Although the situation was intriguing, Michael was a little angry, very confused, and deadly hungry.
He looked around, searching the visible landscape for any other signs of life. But all he found was: scrap, scrap, and more scrap.
The sun, high up in the sky, and the thing that blinded him earlier, was back at it again. Bouncing beams of light off random metal surfaces at odd angles, trying to get at his eyes. The heat was also killing him.
'Let's get to shade. This heat will probably kill me before hunger does. And I still don't know where in the heck I'll be getting food from in this place.' Michael thought, worried.
*Wisdom +1*
...
...
"Wha?" Wisdom?
'I'm not hallucinating right?' Michael thought seriously, he guessed it was possible with the amount of sun he was getting.
He rubbed his dry eyes with his small hands, then returned to look at the small blue screen that popped up.
'What the actual fuck is this thing?' Michael thought as he tried reaching out to it. His hand passed straight through.
Michael received his bad language habits from many years of fury inducing game play, though he mostly only cursed silently to himself. However, since there was an extreme lack of life around him, he let his spirit fly free.
The transparent blue screen thingy faded after two or three minutes, leaving Michael to guess his level of sanity.
'Well, I guess it wouldn't be wise to just sit about and burn out here, wondering if I've gone insane. Some shade might fix my head up a bit.'
*Wisdom +1*
...
It happened again. ..
A sudden thought popped into his mind.
'What if this was that "higher being" Thetus' plot to begin with? Sending people to deserted worlds in the bodies of starving children'
«You're still accusing me of such things, human?»
Michael almost jumped off of the small mountain of scrap he was on and killed himself. He had only recently climbed up to get a better view of his surroundings.
"Y-y-you're still here?!" Michael stuttered out.
«Originally, no. However, you did speak or think of my name, did you not?»
Michael was confused for a moment before responding.
'So, one could contact a "higher being" by simply thinking their name?'
«Not entirely. It only grants the being who is calling, the other being's minute awareness. Furthermore, your thoughts had to be directed at me specifically, no?»
'But what if I am placed into a situation that brings you into mind on multiple occasions?'
«Then that situation will either interest or annoy me. You'd rather not have me block you, however, human.»
The "higher-being sounded as though he was prepared to place an inter-dimensional "mute" on Michael if he became an annoyance.
'A-ah, I wouldn't dare to do such a thing... uh ...but, if I am in "another universe"...how did you contact me?'
'Or vice versa' Michael quickly interjected.
«Since you are a being sent here via the use of my energy, some of it still resides on your person, working as somewhat of an inter-dimensional beacon. That is all you need to understand.»
And that was probably all Michael would understand, especially if there was some sort of science behind it.
'So the blue screen thingy is your doing too?'
«"Blue screen thingy"? Oh, you meant the Universal Operating System (UOS). I had almost forgotten that you humans had no access to it in your original universe...well, but no-one did really. It only really exists here in this dimension as the creation of beings even higher than myself. It provides an enormous opportunity for you lesser beings. You really should make the most of it. But... don't be too reliant. Things may change... »
Michael looked down on his small, thin, smoldering in the heat, raggedly dressed body. Then he looked around at his surroundings, seeming not to understand the underlying meaning of the last few sentences.
'I really don't see the application of such a system here'
«Your situation does seem quite bleak, but the system does have its uses even in cases such as this. Delve into your consciousness and think of the word "status" in relation to your being.»
Michael did as instructed. He closed his eyes, tried feeling every inch of himself and thought: 'status'. He didn't feel any change, but when he opened his eyes he was shocked. There, in front of him was another blue screen, albeit this one was a bit wider and longer.
*Personal Status Overview*
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Name: ? (Michael Bonandarte)
Job Descriptions: Scavenger lvl.1
Species/Race: Uminos Andii (Human) (?)
Level: 2 (10.42%)
HP: 9/100
Stamina: 20/100
Satiety: 3% (3/100)
AP-Proficiency: lvl.1 ( 0%)
BP-Proficiency: lvl.1 (0%)
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Charisma: 4
Physical Proficiency: 3
Agility: 4
Wisdom 5 (+2)
Physical Defense: 0
Mental Defense: 1
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Additional stats* -View-
It took a while for Michael to completely look through and comprehend what he saw. He looked over the scavenger part and began wondering who the previous six-year-old owner of this body was.
'Satiety is at 3% ... well shit, I'm dead.'
«Not exactly. View your skills table. Do as you did to find your "status", but envision the skills your body are capable of instead.»
Michael tried this as well. As expected, another different blue screen appeared in place of the other.
*Personal Skills Overview*
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*Skill* ~ *Description*
Dismantle Lvl.9 (2%) (beginner) ~ Easily remove one component from a whole or dissect a piece of machinery/ equipment.
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Repair Lvl.3 (56%) (beginner) ~ Bring and piece together different components into a functioning whole.
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Barter Lvl.4 (34%) (beginner) ~ Barter for a better price with vendors and consumers alike. (Charisma bonus %)
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Survivor (passive) Lvl.8 (Max Lvl.50) ~ 1% satiety = 43 minutes 12 seconds (survival time)
Survive in harsh environments for greater periods of time, when your satiety is below 20%. Current: 96% longer survival time per % of satiety.
--------------------
Find Society (Job based skill) Lvl.10 (Max) (Max Lvl.10)
Job-based skill used to help scavengers navigate towards nearby establishments with populations above 20+ members.
*Warning: does not dissociate between allied or enemy establishments. *
'Huh...' Michael thought it over after reading all of the information. Which made him quite impressed with this body's previous owner.
'So this "survivor" skill allows me to survive 96% longer than what 1% satiety would normally give me? And the "Find society" skill will help me find people, who probably have food...'
He did some quick math in his head, that his mathematical skills from the college experience and work experience were of great help to. Given that humans could only survive without water for 3 days. He used that, instead of the possible 3 weeks food granted.
'Damn. That gives me only about 6 hours 'till I'm done for...um...how do I activate skills?'
«Simply concentrate on the skills name and say it aloud. Quite easy isn't it human? Now, I shall leave you to your own devices»
And with that, the so-called "higher-being" left Michael's conscience.
'Oh wait!' He forgot to ask about that whole AP, BP- Proficiency mess in his status overview. Those two were the only stats that he was unsure the function of, he could get the rest from gaming experience.
'Ah. Well...' he probably shouldn't bother the being who just "left him to his own devices".
"Might as well give this skill thing a go." Michael murmured out in his new dry childish voice.
He concentrated on the skill "Find Society" before saying it out loud.
"«Find Society»"
All of a sudden, a soft glowing white line gradually appeared before Michael, leading off into the distance, over mounds of scrap.
'Well here goes' Michael descended and began to ascend the various hills of scrap. Sometimes he even crawled through skeletal frames within the mounds if they were large enough, to get to the other side. All of this, to get to the end of that glowing white line.
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Time passed and hours went by as Michael noticed that the white line was leading him towards one of those enormous metal wrecks, half buried in the sand, that he could see from kilometers away.
'Probably somewhere around there then'
Michael hungrily and exhaustedly continued for another hour or so until he spotted a moving speck in the distance.
'What the hell?' He went forward to get a better look.
Crawling slowly, so as not to let whatever the creature was notice him, Michael approached.
He was not shocked but delighted at what he saw. From a distance, it looked like a bird.
'And if it looks like a bird, it's probably edible'.
Michael was hungry beyond the point of reason and the point of no return. If something looked even remotely similar to something he recognized on earth as edible, he would try eating it.
This was how he almost lost a few teeth, attempting to eat metal plates shaped like chocolate bars.
As he approached, he didn't even notice the thin, leather-like garments the creature was wearing. Michael, lost in his hunger, picked up a lengthy metal pipe (by a 6-year-old's standards) and stealthily approached the bird-like creature which was bent over, observing something on the ground.
Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly when involving a hungry Michael, the bird creature didn't notice him who came up a mere meter behind it, at all. It never had a clue.
Michael swung with all his might at the back of the bird's head and a sickening crunch spread out in the silent air as a response.
The bird flopped over, and onto a small pile of scraps on the ground. And Michael. Michael rushed forward and began an irreversible process.
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Half an hour later, Michael woke up from a daze. He felt around himself, noticing an abundance of feathers. He also had a strange taste in his mouth.
'What the fuck?' He thought.
Michael tried to get up, only to notice his hands coated in a sticky red liquid. Looking around for a clue, he found a half of a corpse to his left a meter away.
After realizing the chain of events, he felt so disgusted. He wanted to throw up but somehow felt that wouldn't be the best idea at the moment. An odd, mysterious sensation was reinforcing his willpower, causing his head to ache a little. After managing to pick himself up, he stumbled away and checked his satiety bar.
It had risen to 67% and his health had risen to 37% (37/100). More shocking was that he gained 3 levels, a few stat points, and an achievement. Interested, he looked to see what it was, only to become even more sick to the core.
* Achievement unlocked: Savage predator -
Consume a sentient species, unaware. *
His mind was blank and sore.
He knew for a fact that crying about this event would do absolutely more harm than good. Though it did revolt his mind, heart, and stomach to know he had eaten another living, thinking being. He couldn't stand to stay in this place any longer. So he stumbled up, steadied himself and prepared to activate "Find Society" once more.
As he was preparing to do so, something caught the corner of his eye. It was a small brown pouch that he guessed must have belonged to the carcass.
He picked it up and opened it, seeing as how the bird creature probably had no use for such things anymore.
Inside was a small, 3cm wide, blue transparent cube. He knew not of its uses but kept it anyway seeing as how the bird found it useful enough to carry around in a place like this. Sadly, he had no choice but to carry it in hand, because he had no pockets.
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As time wore on and Michael continued to follow the path towards the massive wreck, the sky began to darken, leaving him unsure whether or not he would make it in time.
He decided to take refuge inside of a giant metal pipe covered in (you guessed it) scraps for the remainder of however long a day was here.
Michael curled himself into a ball and attempted to force himself to sleep until he was successful, and he was...
