Greed

There was no concept of time when one was unconscious. One could only dream in the time they had lost their ability to stay in control of their own body. And dream Jack did. He dreamt of many things: a loving girlfriend, a better job, some friends with whom he spent his childhood, his grandpa's words, and even his mother. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't hate her. In the end, she was someone important to him after all. It all felt rushed and mixed. It was a dream in the end.

One moment he was enjoying it with all his friends; the next moment, he was at the dinner table with his grandpa. But suddenly, his grandpa spoke up.

"Do you know why you lost, Jack?"

The Jack who was in the body of his child self remembered these events. 'It was after my class lost that tug of war game at school… I remember I was upset,' he thought to himself, looking at Gramps as the child Jack spoke nothing.

Grandpa smiled and placed his hand on Jack's head, ruffling his hair. "You lost when you stopped trying. Listen, kiddo, life is hard, and you already have seen it. The moment your team started getting pulled in, you guys started losing hope. That was where you lost."

Grandpa smiled, looking down at him, picking up a cup of green tea from the dinner table, taking a sip, and sighing. "It's okay to feel hopeless. But it's never okay to lose hope and give up. You know what's the one thing about humans, Jack? Why are humans able to stay atop the food chain? We are not the strongest. We are definitely not the smartest. It's because humans are stubborn. Because humans are greedy."

After speaking that sentence, he got quite a look from the little kid who thought the world was more black and white. "Being greedy isn't a bad thing. If humans were not greedy, we wouldn't survive. We are greedy for things, and we never give up. Humans have the hunger to achieve things and the will to make it happen. So listen to me. From now on, be greedy and never give up until you achieve what you want, son. Life's not gonna be easy; it's hell out there for all of us. And the only way you will survive is being greedy and not giving up. Now go."

The last words caught Jack off guard as if grandpa wasn't talking to the kid but the adult Jack directly. Just then, the man felt his dream crumble around him as his consciousness drifted back to reality…

The man slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on the ground; the ground, however, was softer, unlike the concrete street he passed out on. As Jack opened his eyes, he would finally realize why that was so.

He found himself in a savannah-like place. The giant grassland stretched as far as the eye could see in front of him, and right behind him were trees. Giant trees, ones that would make a two-story building look like a cardboard box. Whatever was going on definitely wasn't normal, and Jack was going to learn this the hard way.

He wasn't in the city anymore, that was certain. Maybe this was another dream, but a red cheek soon made him realize it wasn't. This was real; everything that's happening was real. Surprisingly, he didn't feel as scared as he thought he would.

Jack looked around, trying to see if there was anyone else there except him. But even after looking around the grassy area, he found no one. He didn't dare go closer to the forest at first. But in the end, he was left with no other choice as his feet moved towards the giant trees.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he noticed something. From under one of the tree roots, two blood-red eyes stared out, not leaving Jack's face even for a second. He realized this might have not been a very good idea as he took a step back. That was a worse idea as whatever it was saw Jack trying to retreat and jumped out at him.

Finally coming out into the light, Jack was able to see the full body of the creature. It had red eyes, and it was as big as an adult human dog. Yet it wasn't normal. Its shape was pointed towards the front, and two fang-like teeth protruded out from the front. It was some kind of giant rat.

As it jumped at Jack, he was taken by surprise, but he jumped away just in time to avoid getting mauled. As the rat landed on the other side and turned back, looking at Jack, growling. Just then another screen popped up with a ting:

[QUALIFICATION GAME HAS STARTED

TIME: 10 MINUTES 

REWARD: tutorial pass 

OBJECTIVE: kill]