7 First Contact

Waking up, Trent pushed himself up off the ground, unsteadily.

"What just happened?" Even his words were slurred as he held his head. It was like a siren was going off in his head. He could barely stand it but, the feeling felt very familiar.

[You fainted. You do realize you haven't eaten since getting here, which you could stave off in the beginning, but the power you picked last drew too much energy from you. I'm actually surprised you lasted this long. It's been like half a day since you got here.]

Looking around, Trent realized that he was right. It was bright morning when he got to this forest, but now it was extremely dark.

"How long have I been out?"

[I don't know.]

"What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you some kind of super systems?"

[Yeah, a system for superpowers, not some all powerful sentient being! Besides, have you even thought whether this place works on a different time than your world?]

"I was kinda leaning on you, you useless ass system. Kind of bullshit is this? I get stuck with the only AI that doesn't tell time."

As he grumbled in anger, Trent tried to stand up, only to fall on his backside. He couldn't seem to put power into his legs. Deciding for himself, Trent pulled out his phone and immediately went to the store.

"Is there anything in here that can help?"

[Actually, there is a chocolate in the store that could fix your problem. Just go to equipment.]

Searching through the equipment section, Trent finally found what he was looking for. It was a chocolate ball with an insane number of calories. It was enough to cause a food crisis if he had to eat normally. Looking at the price, Trent was a little crestfallen. It was 50 crystals. So he could only afford two of these chocolates.

Buying one, it appeared in his hand just like his clothes did earlier. Wasting no time, he popped the ball into his mouth. It ended up being extremely bitter, but he forced it down anyway.

"How long do you think this will last me?"

[Based on the energy in your body and your top speed, at the least a day and at the most, a month.]

"Thanks TIP. That was very systemy of you."

[Don't call me that.]

"Well I gotta call you something. Can't keep calling you "you" all day."

[I told you. My name is Bernie.]

"Hahaha! No. See you aren't Bernie. You think you can just say you changed your voice and have me ignore the complete personality change between you, Bernie, and the asshole."

Trent's response was met with silence before the system spoke again.

[Fine you got me. Just call me Nate, but don't ever call me that other name.]

"Alright Nate. So what do we do now?"

Looking around, the area was no different from earlier. Completely devastated. He couldn't even tell north from south. Not like that information mattered in a different world. It probably runs on different rules from Earth.

"Alright screw it. We're going to do this by luck."

Closing his eyes, Trent spun around a few times before stopping and opening his eyes. He was pointed into the direction where the wolves originally came from.

"Well it looks like that's where we're going! So let's hit the road, or the lack there of."

[That's how you're choosing? For real?]

Ignoring him, Trent crouched and took off into the direction of a new adventure.

----------30 Minutes Later----------

"How long have I been running now?"

Looking around, the area Trent found himself looked the same as what he's been seeing, trees, trees, and more trees. He stumbled across quite a few of those lightning wolves he fought earlier and collected even more crystals. He now had 1050 of them to spend but, he decided to save them so he could get something cool from the store.

[I told you already, I'm not about to tell time for you. You do realize you have a perfectly functioning phone in your pocket right?]

Trent stopped in his tracks and smacked himself on the head.

'Why didn't I think of that?' Bringing his phone out, Trent could see that his phone said 1:15 in the morning. He also realized that he could use his phone to illuminate his path. He had stumbled quite a few times in this forest. If not for the moon, he wouldn't have been able to make any progress.

Trent activated the light function on his phone and looked around, and immediately turned it off.

"Hey am I seeing things or was that a dead body?"

It was indeed a dead body. It was a man in his forties or fifties wearing a full plate of armor. He was pale white with short cropped blond hair and a heavy build. Approaching the body, Trent put his hand under his nose to check for air but felt none.

He immediately moved away from the body. Luckily, he didn't throw up. All those wolves he killed earlier steeled his stomach enough that he wouldn't puke on site of a body.

"It's not a zombie or something right?"

[I would assume not. There isn't any energy flowing through it's body so you should be good.]

Just as Nate finished speaking, there were rustling noises coming from the direction of the body.

"@#$%$%#%@$@#$%"

An unknown language came from that direction.

"I thought you said it wasn't a zombie!?"

[It's impossible for it to be a zombie.]

"Then what do you call that? Hmm?"

Pointing to the body, Trent realized it wasn't coming from the body but behind it. The bushes behind the body shook before a person came walking from them. The person was covered from head to toe in body armor, revealing not a shred of skin. Trent could even tell it's gender.

"##@$%$#%&$%#@$#"

Speaking again in that mysterious language, the person looked from the body and then at Trent before drawing it's sword and pointing it at him. Trent immediately held his hands up. Although he changed cloths earlier but he still had blood on his hand and area of his body. It wasn't a good look.

"Woah wait! I know it looks bad but I didn't do anything! I just got here!"

"@#$#@#%%#$$$@#$###$!!!"

Now the person was yelling at Trent and charged at him aggressively.

"Fine. If that's what you want then I'm much obliged to give you a fight."

Through trying to explain himself, Trent immediately charged at the warrior, brandishing his newly gloved fist. He actually had 1550 crystals from hunting all those wolves but, he spent 500 on these gloves that would absorb the shock from his punches. He didn't want to dislocate or break anything else from his own attack.

The warrior snorted and prepared his sword for Trent's punch. Trent wasn't even moving at Mach 1. He just wanted to beat the guy, not kill him. Trent threw a right hook at the warriors side but, it was defended. Trent was shocked! Although he wasn't moving his fastest but, he was moving over a hundred mph.

Trent wasn't the only one who was shocked either. The warrior stumbled back a couple of steps, trying to stabilize his stance but, Trent wasn't going to miss this opportunity as he spun with a roundhouse kick to the side of the warrior, launching him into a tree, imbedding him into it.

"Roadhouse"

Finished with his joke, Trent walked to the warrior, who wasn't moving at all.

"You ready to talk like adults?"

Trent stuck out his hand to the still conscious warrior. Trent had to say, this warrior was quite sturdy. Looking at his held out hand, the warrior grabbed it and Trent yanked him out of the tree.

'Hey Nate, is there anything I can use to learn this language?' Speaking in his head and using flash speed to not alert the warrior, Trent wanted to avoid pulling out his phone in front of this man, lest he try to steal it.

[Actually we do. Want me to buy it? It cost 1000 crystals.]

Even the system could mimic the speed of thought that Trent was using, keeping their talk short enough that barely a second passed between Trent pulling the warrior and now.

'Fuck it. Yes.' Trent begrudgingly said. As the system installed the language interpreter, Trent suddenly felt danger. His spider senses were blaring hard. Trying to pull his hand from the warrior, Trent realized this guy had some amazing strength and he couldn't pull his hand out. The warrior's hand started to glow bright white.

[It finished installing so go wild.]

Just as he finished talking, the warrior finally spoke in a feminine voice, showing her gender and giving Trent a great scare.

"{Sleep}."

And sleep he did, passing out in her arms.