Floating, floating

Hours later.

'How stupid could I have been?'

Jim said to himself as he floated in complete darkness. Absolutely nothing had happened since mutating his plasma membrane. He should have gone for the flagellum. At least then he would have been able to explore. Maybe there was light somewhere in this darkness.

'…'

Come to think of it though, maybe he couldn't see or sense anything because he didn't have the necessary biology for them. Which meant that he could be anywhere right now.

'What if I am in the guts of some animal!'

The shock of the thought was mental at most. But it rocked his world.

'What if I am wondering through outer space or in a volcanic vent on a volcano!'

Suddenly the darkness became the unknowable depths. Fear tried to overwhelm his …

'What am I thinking? I am some kind of spirit attached to a unicellular organism. At this point I don't even have a body to be flushed with fear or desire or anger.'

This realization short circuited Jim's existential angst immediately. And once Jim's own mind was no longer manufacturing its own reactions he was able to let go.

Relaxing Jim allowed the zen of emotionless awareness overtake his soul.

Once he did this he actually was able to process in an abstract way what an amazing chance this was. Free from all physical sensations on the precipice of death at any moment he found it easy to really meditate for the first time.

'I mean I meditated at lot in my precious life. But it was never like this.'

[Warning: You are approaching dissolution. If you don't eat within the next two hours your cell body will no longer be able to maintain homeostasis.]

'Yeah, I bet that normally at this point in the game a player would be desperately flailing around trying to level up as much as possible.'

Floating, floating around, Jim absolutely embraced his current state. Knowing that he was about to die unless the miracle of food literally offered itself on a platter.

[Meditation +1]

Soon a notification sounded in the darkness and the goddess's voice was a comfort in the lonely dark.

Continuing to experience this life for all its simplicity Jim went on just allowing the darkness to be.

[Meditation +1]

'Wow, that is interesting. I wonder why it leveled again so soon after the first notification?'

Maybe there are bonuses for danger. The closer I get to cell death the more experience I can get for honing a skills?

[Warning: You are approaching dissolution. If you don't eat within the next hour your cell body will no longer be able to maintain homeostasis.]

'Nice of her to warn me of my eminent death. I wonder if this is normal? Since I only have one hit point there is probably some exception in the system since I can't base an understanding of how close I am to death when I only have one hit point.'

It was actually a very nice thing that the system was doing for me. It went to show that whoever created the system really went out of their way to care about these little details.

'Wow, if I wasn't a unicellular orgasm I would probably feel really loved right now!'