1 Stranded in the middle of nowhere
"Where the hell am I?" said Mark while scanning his surroundings. As far as he could see, he became stranded on a deserted island.
That's impossible. I was in Germany when I hopped into the Eurail with a ticket to Spain, thought to himself while inspecting the island.
From Mark's perspective, the island seemed to be around 5 square meters, had two palm trees about 20 meters tall, and several rocks under the shade of the two trees.
Once he confirmed that he was stranded, Mark checked his belongings; he still was wearing his watch, black leather jacket, and slim pants, along with his white T-shirt and shoes. The only thing missing was his phone.
But before he could start searching for it, a mechanical voice could be heard by him.
[Welcome to your new home where survival is the principal goal]
[The island in which you found yourself is your fort, as long as you stay on it, the privileges of The System will be with you]
[All illnesses and disabilities will be permanently erradicated]
[3-day protection given to all Survivors]
[Good luck]
"huh?" still lost at what was happening, Mark quickly realized that a transparent film seemed to be in front of him.
Five taskbars resembled something like a Game interface system; [Public channel], [Private channel], [Trading floor], [Construction] and [Inventory].
Clicking on [Public channel], suddenly the System transformed into what seemed like a chat group. Lost at all the different languages in the Chat, he examined every detail of it. In the superior left corner of the System, a button with the image of a globe could be found, pressing it, all the messages translated to English.
[Hey, what's happening?]
[Is this some joke?]
[The end of times has come]
[I don't know what's happening but, if whoever put me here doesn't get me out of here, I am going to call my lawyer]
[What happened? Am I being kidnapped by aliens?]
Reading the messages, Mark realized that he wasn't the only one in this situation.
[Quick grab the metals cubes that are on the sea]
Noticing the last message, Mark noticed that about 10 meters from his island, there seemed to be something that resembled a metallic package.
"Sadly, I don't have anything t-When did that appear!?" Before he knew it, a fishing net had appeared beside his feet. Picking It Up, a string of words seemed to materialize in front of him.
[Fishing net: Device used to capture fish]
Bewildered at the sudden appearance of the information, Mark stood quiet for a couple of seconds.
"So this is the privilege of The System?" murmured Mark before redirecting his view to the two palm trees beside him.
[Palm tree: Plant that grows in tropical and subtropical climates. Can produce coconuts]
[Palm tree: Plant that grows in tropical and subtropical climates. Can produce peaches]
[Rock: You can get some stones after mining]
Although surprised at what he was seeing, Mark decided to calm himself by taking deep breaths.
Ok, I can do this.
Gathering his attention on the metallic cube, Mark skilfully handled the fishing net. The same way that his grandpa, an avid Fisher, had taught him.
Sadly the fishing net didn't seem to care about his skills and ended up about 4 meters away from it. Ugh, almost, Mark kept trying until his fifth time.
Ok, I'll do it myself.
Leaving the fishing net on the island, he threw himself to the sea and swam to the metallic cube. With the cube in his hands, he tried to analyze it, but the string of words, that, had previously appeared was not appearing. Not wanting to waste time, he quickly went back to the island. Once he was close enough to it, Mark realized that the island didn't have any shore and seemed like a cylinder that seemed to protrude from the bottom of the ocean.
Although Mark wanted to keep investigating, he just decided to ignore it for now. Once he got on the island, he analyzed the metallic cube.
[Mistery supply box: Able to get random resources once opened]
[Open]
So if I am out of the island, The System doesn't work. Huh.
Once on the island, the information about the cube is shown. This time there seemed to be an option on The System.
Pressing on the option,[Open], the Mystery box started to turn into blue dust before disappearing.
[Added: Foundation stone X 5]
[Added: 500g blueberries X2 ]
[Added: 500ml water bottle X 2]
[All items acquired will be on [Inventory]]
Mark rummaged through the options in The System; before pressing on [Inventory].
Once he pressed the available option, The System interface changed.
[Foundation stone X 5]
[1kg of blueberries]
[500 ml of mineral water bottle X 2]
In front of Mark appeared something similar to a game inventory. With 100 slots, of which three already were occupied.
Mark started to experiment with the [Inventory].
A water bottle suddenly appeared in his hand. Drinking it to quench the thirst that the scorching hot sun brought him, he stored the empty water bottle and kept on experimenting.
What if I take one blueberry; that idea came to him. Once he got this thought, he proceeded with it. In his stretched-out hand, a blueberry materialized. Mark quickly checked the [Inventory] after eating it.
[Foundation stone X 5]
[999,3 g of blueberries]
[500 ml of mineral water bottle]
[Empty water bottle]
It seems that I can avoid taking out the whole material.
Pulling out a [Foundation stone], what appeared in his hand seemed to be a round obsidian stone the size of a fingernail. It didn't seem to be anything special. Mark decided to put it back on the [Inventory] and find its functions later.
Once he thought that he understood the functions of the [Inventory], he focused on [Private channel].
[Hey, is someone there?]
[Yeah, here, I just commented on the public channel, but if I try to comment again, it says to wait till the next day ]
[Same here. Does somebody know how to get out of this place? ]
[Everybody here needs to pick up this: [Mistery supply box]]
[Where do you get that?]
[You can find it in the sea close to your island]
Stoping reading the messages, Mark realized that the [Private channel] was almost the same as the public one. Except for the 250/250 in the top right corner of the [Private channel]. He assumed that those were the numbers of members in the group.
Deciding to keep investigating The System, Mark entered the [Trading floor].
[Boxers] X [Stone axe]
[Leather shoes] X [Foundation stone X 2]
[Boxing gloves] X [Foundation stone]
[Soap] X [Rope]
[Wallet] X [Mineral water bottle]
Seeing all those possible trades made Mark realize that he wasn't the only one to bring items to the island, but there didn't seem to be useful ones to survive.
They are probably keeping it to themselves. That was Mark, first thought, but another idea popped into his mind. Or maybe when they were being kidnapped and transported on their island, those were confiscated, like my phone.
Mark was more inclined to the latter hypothesis.
Ultimately he decided to keep those thoughts in the back of his head; since overthink about them wouldn't be beneficial in any way for him.
Putting his attention back on track, Mark pressed on [Construction].
[Island expansion] Materials needed: [Foundation stone]
[Wodd spear] Materials needed: [Wood X3]
[Stone hatchet] Materials needed: [Stone ] [Wood X2] [Rope X2]
[Pick stone] Materials nedded:[Stone ] [Wood X2] [Rope X2]
[Stone spear] Materials needed: [Stone] [Wood X3] [Rope X2]
[Wooden board] Materials needed: [Wood X2]
...
Seeing the list of different options appear, Mark tried to create a [Wodd spear]. The shown item seemed to be grey as if indicating the lack of materials.
The only option available was [Island expansion]. So that was the use of the[Foundation stone], Mark realized.
Presing on it, a 2D map of his island emerged in front of him.
[The island will expand 1 square meter per [Foundation stone]]
[Confirm the location of the Expansion]
Seeing the map in front of him, Mark decided to use the 5[Foundation stone].
Once, he did that. The sand from the island started to expand, and the island transformed from a square to a rectangle.
Already numb at all the things he saw, Mark wasn't surprised anymore.
Right now, he needed to do another thing.
Get resources!.
