The nightmare begins
—𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗟𝗘!!
"Mmphgaah!!" —My body jerked upright on the bed, startled by the sudden tremor.
!!
I stammered, "An earth...", but my brows furrowed, and my voice slowed down, "...quake?"—— My questioning died down in my mouth, and my eyes landed on what was in front of me.
Spread out before my eyes was a pristine white canvas, intricately decorated with the undulating patterns of sandy dunes. It was an immersive display, as if I was in a...
"Desert?"
It definitely was a desert.
I looked above and found a clear blue sky.
"Where ...am I?"
I looked downward, only to find that I was not exactly sitting on my twin-sized bed, but rather on the sandy surface of a desert.
I slowly lifted my right hand, allowing fine grains of sand to slip through my fingers.
"This definitely is sand."—I let out, feeling the texture of the grains on my skin.
"What is this? " I asked confused, and stood up, moving my head around, left, right, all around.
All that met my eyes was nothing but desert.
Dry, sand, no civilization.
Before I could even properly understand my current situation, a message popped up in mid-air:
[You have been transported to the penalty zone for failing to complete the daily quest.]
[Generating a new Quest...]
[A new quest has been generated.]
⌜ ⌝
Active Quest: Survive.
Description: Endure for 10 minutes
the midst of this desert.
Reward: Experience points and
credits will be granted.
Failure: ???
⌞ ⌟
I frowned instinctively as I read the 'message'--the floating window?
An instinctual reaction compelled me to try and piece together the reasons, the 'whys', and the 'hows' behind my current situation.
Fragments of words like 'Quest', 'system', and 'messages' swirled in my head, hinting at some larger, invisible puzzle.
That's when I remembered everything about the system.
I was on my bed sleeping..
And this...
'Hmm.. '
I don't know if this 'system' thing is any sentient or not, but regardless, I voiced my question into the void, "What exactly are you?" I was not exactly feeling safe right now...
But suddenly...
—𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗟𝗘!!
The entire ground shook violently, and the sand in front of me started to boil like a pot of hot water.
No, it wasn't exactly 'boiling'—it was...
"Shit, I need to run!"
Without a second thought, I pivoted on my heels and bolted away.
My instincts were screaming at me.
The were screaming —Run, escape, flee... anything! Do anything but don't stay in this place.
But before I could even create some distance...
—𝗣𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗦𝗛!! A sound erupted behind me. A sudden and thunderous sound.
Impulsively, I looked over my shoulder, only to witness an astonishing spectacle—massive quantities of sand billowing into the air, a mere 15 meters from where I had just fled.
And emerging from the sand, like it was as pliant as water, was a grotesque Insectoid creature. It's features resembled a hybrid mix of a tapworm and a centipede.
The insectoid creature's appearance was otherworldly disgusting, a macabre amalgamation of its tapeworm-like body and the wiry legs of a centipede...just, purely abhorrent, vomitable. Gah!
Most noticable, but, was its colossal size.
And as I fixed my gaze upon its jagged-mouthed face, akin to that of an earthworm but puked with countless fangs, intense cringe, disgust and bizarre chill 'crawled' up my spine.
"Shit! "—I cursed, turned around trying to leave when an unexpected happening happened directly in front of me——a blast of sand erupted into the air, creating a chaotic whirlwind.
And in an instant, another nightmarish, centipede-like creature burst forth from the ground, catapulting an astonishing 20 feet into the sky.
It was only now that my eyes caught sight of the luminous blue box hovering above the creature's head: [Poison Sand Worm. Level: 4.5].
Seeing all this, I tried to run, but something grabbed me by the upper torso from behind—it was the same centipede monster I ran away from, earlier.
Enormous insectile fangs clamped down on my upper body, imprisoning my head within its jagged -toothed maw.
"Ahhgggh!ghhhhraaaaaaa!!!! Fughhhhh!" —a blood-curdling scream, escaped me.
Pain that radiated from the fangs searing into my stomach made my mind almost go numb or even senile.
I was bathed in the foul slime oozing from the creeped grotesque abomination's maw, mixed with the stench of my own blood trickling from the wound.
At the same time, the other centipede emerged, latching onto my lower legs with a brutal bite of its own.
A futile attempt to scream was stifled, my mouth still imprisoned within the first centipedes toothed maw.
And in a twist of fate, both the creatures agreed to pull from the opposite sides, stretching my body apart like a cheese pull. The sickening sight of my intestines fell onto the sand, akin to spaghetti drenched in tomato sauce.
[You have died. ]
[You have failed the quest to survive. ]
[Restating from the start... ]
"Where... am I?"
I looked above, my eyes met a clear blue sky..
I stood up.
Spread out before my eyes was a pristine white canvas, intricately decorated with the undulating patterns of sandy dunes. It was an immersive display, as if I was in a...
"Desert?"
"What am I doing in a desert?"—I asked confused, but there was something off about all of this... Like Deja Vu?
⌜ ⌝
Active Quest: Survive.
Description: Endure for 10 minutes
the midst of this desert.
Reward: Experience points and
credits will be granted.
Failure: ???
⌞ ⌟
"A quest?"—suddenly my brain clicked and I remembered that I was watching a weird dream where-
Fwiiissshh! —Chukh! —"Gaaahhh!" I cried out, my pain propelling me forward. My legs paddled away as if trying to walk off the pain.
I could feel a prickly sensation lodged into my right shoulder blade, as if something had forcefully impaled me from behind.
I tried to reach for it with my right hand but—"Shiikkthuurts!"— I howled in pain, collapsing to my knees upon the scorching, sandy ground.
My right hand rendered useless and immobile.
I used my left hand to touch the area and realised that, I was hit by an arrow.
But I was not able to walk or even understand properly what had happened—CHUKH! —something hit me again.
My mind went blank from the hit which seemed to have striked my neck. No scream escaped me, my mouth was paralyzed.
I fell down on my back, my weight pushed the arrows deeper into me.
The last thing I noticed before losing consciousness was a goblin riding an ostrich-like creature, coming closer to me with a smirk, as if it just hit its prey.
In his hand I saw a bow and arrow.
But my consciousness was lost all of a sudden.
[You have died.]
[You have failed the quest to survive.]
[Restarting from the beginning...]
"Where... am I?"
"Hmm?"—Before I could start asking questions, my attention was captured by a particular black speck in the sky.
It seemed insignificant at first, but as seconds passed, it rapidly grew in size.
It was becoming bigger and bigger, redder and redder, transforming from a mere tennis ball into a colossal football. And before I could realise, an enormous pressure was already pressing down on the entire desert, causing the air to heat up and scorch everything around.
In an instant, everything was enveloped in a dazzling white light.
"Gahhthiiss!!"
Everything became black.
[You have been hit by a meteorite.]
[You have died.]
[You have failed the quest to survive.]
[Restarting from the beginning...]
"Am I where?"