The Desert

I come to confused. Confused about why instead of my bed, I am lying in hot sand, confused as to why the sun is so bright, but most of all, I am confused about what the fuck happened last night.

I honestly can't remember, or at least whenever I try to think about it, everything seems... blurry. It's kind of what I would think having a hangover would be like. Not that I have experience.

Though any one would know that I need shelter and food, I have no idea where I can get anything. Everywhere I look, there is nothing but sand. Well, that and I big blue window that looks like it came straight out of a RoyalRoad fiction.

It still seems like it only has useless stuff about surviving on it. I would try asking questions if not for the now not so blurry memory of the repeated "invalid questions" that I had asked.

I guess I can only hope cliche jargon will work.

"Status"

...

"Skills"

...

"affinitiesshopspellsexperiencemarketabilitieswisheslevelinventorylibrarymanagementpropertiesconnections"

...

Oh God, it looks like one of those actually worked, at least if the blue screen to the right of me says anything. I check on it after swiping away the annoying mission screen.

[0/20000]

That... sure is helpful. Based on all the stuff I said this is probably my experience counter.

Now that this system has crushed my dreams, I have an important choice to make. Do I stay in one place trying to conserve energy, or do I explore. Honestly, there is not much of a choice to make. Even if I manage to live without water for three days, I will still die soon after. Most likely despite the fact that I will have fire affinity.

Hopefully a nice walk through nature's wonders will be as good for the soul as they claim it is.

—3 Hours Later—

I never knew how bad wind is in the desert; sand scrapes past your body, scratching you and getting into your eyes. It's a horrible experience. That along with my aching feet and the heat makes one of the worst trips that I think is possible. The only good thing relating to this is that I don't have fucking sand engulfing my shoes yet.

At least I found another system function, it seems that there is a function to tell the time. It seems to go by the command "time". (Right now it is 17:02)

Though knowing the time is good and all, it's practically killing me that I have been walking for three hours without seeing anything, I haven't even seen a cactus.

—7 Hours Later—

The desert slowly but surely got dark so I stopped walking. After all, my feet are tired and my mind isn't exactly in the best place right now. I mean, one moment I was chilling in my air conditioned house, I was with my family in a comfortable place. Then I was... well somewhere.

I'm definitely not an optimistic person, and I am scared of change, especially drastic change. But I feel fine. I know that I should be licking my lips every moment because of the dry air. I know that I in fact would be freaking out, but for some reason, I'm not. I'm not even thinking about my family.

Somehow I feel calm, even indifferent to this circumstance. And that scares me. I never thought something like this could feel so normal.

I fall to sleep.

—6 Hours Later—

Surprisingly, I managed to get a pretty good sleep. Though 6 hours might not sound like much, it did a lot to rest me physically.

After a few morning stretches and a thorough brushing of my clothes, I decide to start walking again. I do make sure to take it slow though, as I can already feel the mornings grogginess turn into genuine fatigue. I guess lack of substance will do that to you.

I wish I had some way to be done with this, but I know walking is still my best choice at the moment. And while my breaks were a bit on the heavy side, I know I am getting somewhere. Especially considering what I found after a days walk.