The ARK

My vision began to turn blurry as I blinked rapidly. I jolted up and found myself on a massive beach with a forest a few kilometers in front of me, and a large, never-ending blue sea behind me that gave me the chills from just looking at it. I looked at my hands and noticed that I was, indeed, still in my body despite seeing it break apart in front of me.

Then, I noticed that I was completely naked. THEN, I noticed that I wasn't on Earth, if the multiple Dodos surrounding me didn't make it apparent enough. I jumped to my feet and adopted a low stance and waited for the beasts to attack, but they just cocked their heads to the side and made these adorable noises.

A giggle echoed around inside of my head, making me jump from surprise. 'Those are harmless! If you think these little guys are bad then you're going to have a bad time when you see some of the real predators out there!' I stalled for a second before shouting 'E-E-Emily!!??' in my head. Another giggle resounded inside of my head before the voice said 'Bingo!'

'I've lost it. First I see extinct creatures, and now the person who murdered me is in my head...' I thought as many, MANY things began to not make sense. 'You're not dreaming, and you're not dead, stupid. I'd suggest you get some things and get a spear going or something, or else you're going to be in some tough shit pretty soon...'

I furrowed my brow as I got up and took a closer look around, only to notice a large creature, standing at around 10 feet tall, with two horns atop is head, two short arms with literally no elbows and three claws, and a maw full of razor sharp teeth brutally eating a ridiculously large turtle alive. The scene alone was enough to make me feel nauseated as I stumbled backwards and struggled to keep the scream tearing at my throat mute.

The Dodos surrounding me stiffened in fear before honking wildly and waddling away. The Carnotaurus stopped feasting and squinted its eyes before looking directly at me. The beast placed a foot atop its kill and released a loud, piercing roar before dashing toward me with its mouth wide open. I glanced toward the forest and ran toward it without a second thought, thinking that I could lose the beast in the trees.

Suddenly, however, a beast standing at 11 feet tall with two crests over its eyes, and two short arms with actual elbows ran out of the forest and released a threatening roar. Soon after, two other shambled out of the trees, and the Carnotaurus had stopped dead in its tracks, not wanting to face the beasts.

'Fuck! I have a man-eating Carnotaurus at my back, and three things that are way bigger than the Carno in front of me!! I'm dead!!' I began to panic as the three Dinosaurs began to slowly walk toward me as the one in the lead showed its toothy maw. 'Y'know, you can just die and respawn, right?'

I froze and my brain stalled for a second as I yelled 'What!?' in utter amazement. I was surprised that the imaginary voice in my head could joke about me being in a game when I was about to be eaten alive. 'Yeah, you can practically live forever as long as you don't get killed by some stupidly strong creature with the ability to destroy your soul, or something like that.'

I was about to reply when, suddenly, a scorching hot pain spread through my left half, and I looked over to see the Dinosaur chomping down on my shoulder. The beast tore my arm off and I screamed out in pain as I fell to the floor and grasped my bleeding shoulder, or what was left of it.

The beasts stomped down on my body with its foot and crushed everything in my body, piercing my lung with its talons in the process. It felt like I was stuck there in pain for an eternity before the creature finally decided to chomp down on my head, ending my torment for good, or at least that was what I thought.

I jolted upwards and found myself in a grassy plain with flowers and various bushes scattered for as far as the eye could see. 'Ah! Finally, your body adjusted to the Specimen Implant! Check your left arm for me.' I followed Emily's instructions unknowingly and saw a strange, metal object in the shape of a diamond stuck in my arm, just below my wrist.

The object emit a low glow and it vibrated ever-so-slightly, making it very annoying to deal with. I scratched at it, but it didn't react at all, so I decided to leave it alone for now. I got up and looked around to make sure nothing would jump out at me before asking 'So, what the hell is this thing?' Emily giggled once more and said 'It is what every Survivor has on the ARK, and it is essential in your new lifestyle. Think about opening an inventory, like in a game.'

I did as she said and thought of opening an inventory, and a blue screen popped up in front of me.

---

Name - Ash Yuragi

Race - Unavailable

Gender - Male

Age - 19

Height - 6'0

Hair Color - Ash-Gray

Eye Color - Sky Blue

Health - 100.0/100.0

Stamina - 100.0/100.0

Oxygen - 100.0/100.0

Food - 100.0/100.0

Water - 100.0/100.0

Weight - 0.0/100.0

Melee Damage - 100.0%

Movement Speed - 100.0%

Crafting Skill - 800.0% (Changed this up to be the skill one has in crafting instead of just speeding up the crafting process.)

Fortitude - 0.0

Torpidity - 0.0/200.0

---

"Woah. This is actually pretty badass..." I was so surprised that I couldn't help but mumble out loud. I felt like Emily nodded in my head with a smug smile as she said 'Yep! I'll give you a few basic blueprints to help get you started, but you have to gather the materials!' Suddenly, notifications popped up in the corner of my vision and a new tab opened up on the left of my skill sheet.

"Hmm...so there's [Crafting], [Weapons], [Armor], and [Structures]. Let's check out the [Weapons] category first." I browsed through the various blueprints and saw that I could make a stone pickaxe, stone hatchet, and stone spear. I could also make cloth clothes and a complete thatch house set, but that was really all.

"Damn, now I gotta find a way to get the materials to make a safe shelter...I really hope I don't run into another one of those damned creatures..." I carefully moved over toward a patch of loose rocks on the ground and began to collect them, however, they disappeared into motes of light upon contact. 'Don't worry, I just transported them into your inventory. Be careful of how much you're carrying though, because you can get encumbered quite easily if you don't pay attention, so I'd recommend that you level your weight stat up.'

I quickly shook my head and said "I'm not planning on going out too much anyways. Like hell I'd pick a fight with another one of those bloodthirsty creatures." I continued to pick stones, gather fibers from the various plants and bushes, as well as pick up random branches lying around. When I finally got enough materials to make a stone pickaxe, I selected it in my inventory and it immediately popped out into thin air.

I raised my brow in amazement as I grabbed the pick and noticed just how heavy it actually was. 'Well, at least you can kill something with that...' Emily said in an almost depressed voice. 'Woah, what the hell's gotten into you? You're usually so upbeat.' I heard Emily produce a loud "Hmph!" before she yelled out in frustration and said 'I just want to watch you kill something for crying out loud!! Having a complete hottie like you dominating things like a barbarian is the only thing I live for since I have no bodyyyyy!!'

I sighed and said 'So, in other words, you're pouting because I'm having a natural reaction to being eaten alive?' Emily fell silent and I continued on with my harvesting and such while fashioning a makeshift hair tie from some leftover fibers to tie my hair up. My main priority was getting enough fibers to make a pair of pants at the very least. It's not like I'm a nudist or something.

I continued to "farm", as one would say in a game, until I was able to create a pair of cloth pants. They were a bit scratchy, but they did the job quite well. Luckily, I still had the knowledge from my previous life, giving me access to a plethora of designs for clothes all the way to computers. This was the only time that I would have thanked my parents for forcing me to be their "Little Crafter."

Suddenly, in the middle of my farming, I got a notification saying that I leveled up. I browsed through my stat page and noticed that my weight stat was already halfway filled, so I decided to put the point into weight, giving me 110.0 weight instead of 100.0. A strange power surged through my body as I felt myself growing sturdier, and the slight weight I felt on my body suddenly lifted, albeit slightly.

I flexed my arms and clenched my hands as I thought 'Yeah, I can get used to this feeling...' I used my pickaxe to harvest a large amount of stone from the various medium sized rocks scattered about, and I eventually gathered enough to make a stone axe, which in turn made it much easier to gather wood from the large logs that I found further in the plain.

After hours of hard work, I now had a small, two foundation thatch house with a working door and everything. I walked inside of my new home and collapsed onto the floor with a relaxed sigh. I felt my consciousness slipping as I faded away into a blissful sleep.

---

The sun shined onto my eyes and I awoke feeling refreshed and absolutely wonde-

...

'Wait...why am I inside of a cage...?'