Chapter 2: Unwanted encounter

What has happened? Where am I? How did I get here?

When I woke up, I kept asking myself the same questions, unable to explain what had happened or how I had got into this situation.

After a few minutes, when I had calmed down, I began to analyze all the memories I had before I fainted.

They were all confused, but I remembered only one thing clearly: the YES button I accidentally pressed, which caused me to go through the blue light.

When I had finished thinking about what I could remember, I looked around and realized that I was in a cave with torches placed at regular intervals.

Suddenly, when I stopped concentrating on my thoughts, I heard various strange sounds and also some animal calls coming from the cave, and I became more and more frightened.

So I tried to look at the system, and for the first time I deliberately double-clicked on it and noticed a small change in my system. There was a level above my stats:

Lv. 1

with an experience bar below it.

XP 0/300

Then I saw another section I'd never seen before called QUEST. As I looked at it, a message appeared out of the blue:

MISSION ACCEPTED

From now on, there will be a few more features in your system. Namely, you will be able to increase your stats by leveling up, and to do this you will need to complete quests or kill monsters. There will also be a section for additional skills that will be unlocked when you reach level 10.

When I read that, I wasn't sure what to do, but for some reason, the system gave me a way to get better with less effort, even though I never asked for it.

Suddenly an iron-fanged boar appeared and as soon as it saw me it prepared to pounce on me, it was about to hit me with its left fang, so I tried to avoid it by putting my back to the ground and rolling around.

I got up as quickly as I could and tried to run as fast as I could, but it was right behind me, in fact it was getting closer and closer, but I saw that I had about five meters left to avoid it by changing course.

As I did so, it ripped off a piece of my trousers and also hit my leg with its right fang. To avoid injuring myself until I couldn't move any more, I tried to break the boar's fangs by moving to the right before it could touch me and slamming it against the cave wall.

In the end, the fangs didn't break; they were made of iron. Now I was out of ideas.

Running away from it, I stumbled to the ground and turned to face the boar, which was getting closer and closer.

Unable to think clearly, I searched for something to hurt the angry boar. As I crawled away from it, I noticed a rucksack symbol in my field of vision. I tried to open it, and inside was an item called small knife. I touched it and must have pressed equip without noticing; out of nowhere it appeared in my hand. I lay down with the boar around my feet, so it continued to run over me, and when I saw its neck, I stabbed it.

Unexpectedly, its skin was harder than I had thought. I tried to press the knife with all my left strength, and at the same moment the boar went wild to avoid the knife blade.

We both did our best, but I wanted to survive no matter what. After all, I didn't want to die because of the system.

I also used my leg to thrust down on the ground so that my whole body was pushing the knife into its neck.

Eventually the boar stopped moving, and for the first time I felt the horrible sensation of taking a life with a blade that pierced its hard skin, with all its blood splashing around and onto my clothes, soaking them with it.

I pulled out the knife, still stained a deep red by the blood, and felt how easily the soft inner skin tore and cut, making me shudder. The boar, which until a few minutes ago had tried to take my life, now lays lifeless on the ground, like an empty blanket.

Although it was a very moving scene, I had to accept it because I was fighting to survive, so I couldn't have any regrets.

I was forced to return to reality and find more efficient ways to survive because of this hostile environment.

As the boar lies on the ground, all the adrenaline is gone. I feel pain in my legs, probably from when the boar kicked me, stretching my legs even further, and also in my left arm, which has also been kicked.

I began to think about what had just happened and how I had managed to kill an iron-fanged boar. To avoid being killed, I opened an interface called INVENTORY, where I found the knife, which isn't there anymore.

I look at it, thinking that if I can get it out of there somehow, I should be able to put it back in. I try staring at it, nothing, calling it, nothing, double-clicking it, nothing again, until I focus on thinking about putting it back, and like a magic trick, the knife disappears from my hand.

I can see it in the inventory, so I just touch it once to see what happens. A small plaque near it opens, with two sentences written on it:

Equip

Inspect

I hadn't noticed the Inspect button because I had instinctively clicked Equip earlier and hadn't paid much attention to the rest.

I tap on Inspect to see what I didn't get before, and another interface appears, showing some statistics about this weapon:

Lv. 1

XP 175/200

Attack: 13

Defense: 4

Agility: 17

Magic Point: 0

What I have discovered so far is that I can level up, which increases my stats. By doing quests and killing monsters, I have an inventory, which is limited to 30 slots, to keep equipment in, and weapons or equipment in general have their own stats and levels.

When I start to hear the same sounds, I think it's better to get going to find a safe place, but also to remember the route I took so I don't get lost looking for the exit.

While I was looking for a safe place, I suddenly heard a female robot voice saying:

"You have reached a new level."

As the system pops up, all my symptoms are alleviated and in no time I can no longer feel the pain. I can deduce that leveling up will probably heal all my wounds, hopefully even the most severe ones. Now that I have leveled up, all my statistics have increased by one. The XP required to level up again has increased from 300 to 500, and I have 10 stat points to distribute:

Intelligence: 6

Strength: 6

Agility: 6

Defense: 6

Stamina: 6