Chapter 1: The Wasteland Welcomes A New Challenger

"Fuck man, of course I would finish this week off with another shit work day." I complained aloud grumpily to myself after closing the front door.

Haaa, at least I have the weekend to look forward to before I have to head back Monday to resume slaving away in the shop again.

Putting work off my mind, I plopped my butt on my living room couch and took a moment to relax for a second.

...

Alright, that's enough lounging time to get a workout in and then some dinner.

Once I finished that thought, I proceeded downstairs to my basement, which I had converted into a home gym. Coming off the steps, I went ahead and grabbed the curl bar that I had loaded up with two 45-pound plates and two 35-pound plates the previous day. Getting a good grasp of the bar, I strained my arm muscles, lifted it up and started repping it for sets.

An hour and a half of working out later.

Come on, almost there, just a few more reps to go.

Aaand, I'm done.

Right as I got that final rep, I released my hold on the pullup bar, landing back on my mat-covered floor, where I immediately sat down to take a much-needed rest after my intense workout.

That was a solid ass workout, but I'm pretty sure I felt something off at one point during it. However, I can't quite put my finger on what it was. Maybe I just need to relax and chill out for a few days.

*Growl*

Or I might just be hungry.

Well, whatever, I've rested enough and since my stomach is telling me it's time to eat, I guess I'll be whipping up a fat dinner to fuel my sore muscles. Though, before I head back upstairs, let me see how my muscles have been developing as of late.

"Damn, that 70mg of baby dbol has been making a pretty substantial difference in this cycle." I thought aloud, more than impressed with the very noticeable results I've managed to obtain so far with the new compound I introduced to my second ped cycle.

And I've managed to put on 12 pounds of relatively lean muscle, nice.

That's not bad for only being 4 weeks into my 12-week cycle. I might actually have a chance of competing in a bodybuilding show and potentially rolling it into a career of some sort. I'd much rather spend my days lifting heavy weights compared to what I'm currently doing for work. But if I want to make that happen, I got at least two to three more years of hard work ahead of me, sadly.

Directly after that, I logged some data into my notebook and left my home gym behind and headed on back up the stairs to the kitchen to prepare dinner. On my way there, I made a brief pit stop at my bathroom to take a cool shower and remove the sweat I accumulated during my workout. 

Quickly showering off, I departed for my original destination and when I arrived; I made a beeline for the fridge, opened it up, and looked inside to see what I was going to make tonight.

"Hmm, what to have..."

Perusing through the contents of my fridge for a minute, I settled on what I was going to have rather fast and got to work.

A bit more than fifteen minutes later, I had everything hot and ready. So I grabbed a plate from one of my upper cabinets and loaded it up before heading off to the living room to throw something up on the tv while I ate. Annihilating my meal in no time at all, I deposited my empty plate in the dishwasher and handled a few things around the house.

Now that I've taken care of everything that needed to be taken care of for today, I can relax for the rest of the night and get some gaming done.

As I had nothing else that needed to be done, I walked over to my desk, pressed the power button on the front of my pc's tower, and plopped down into my chair. Waiting several seconds, all the monitors turned on, with only my main monitor displaying the login screen. Thus, I logged in and began looking through my library of games. I browsed through it for a bit before my sight settled on a series of games that I hadn't visited in a long while.

It's been a minute since I've last played one of the Wastelander series of games. And with that new mod released recently, that combines all the games into one, I might as well play that tonight and take a venture through the Wasteland.

That being as good a decision as any, I opened up my web browser and downloaded and installed what I needed and booted Wastelander 3 up and got to roaming around the wastelander world that was basically a mashup of modern day mixed with sci-fi.

...

Many, many hours of gaming in, I killed off the last remaining gila monster I needed to exterminate for my side quest with a spray of hate from my unique minigun.

Damn, that was a hell of a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be, I would've been done with this side quest much sooner and on my way if the game didn't throw in a giant mutated gila monster into the group I needed to kill. I had to pull out all the stops to put that big bastard down.

Directly after I shredded its head with a stream of bullets and its massive dead body collapsed onto the light colored Nevada sand, I leveled up to level 25 from the exp I gained from eliminating the poor creature and its brethren.

And with its death, I finally hit the requirements for level 25.

As I was going through the level up and selecting a perk and distributing skill points wherever I wanted, the sun began peeking through my bedroom window.

Time sure does fly by when you're having fun. I guess I should wrap things up here and head to bed to get some shuteye, don't want to fuck up my sleep for this coming week.

The sun currently rising in real life and my character reaching level 25, I sprinted off in game to the nearby wasteland town of Crystal Springs, the town I had received my side quest from.

When I at long last reached the town, I first headed off to turn in my side quest at the town's center. Taking the shortcuts I knew of, I closed in on the entrance in no time at all and made my way inside of the town's town hall and turned in my side quest at one of the several counters. Netting myself another good chunk of exp as well as some decent rewards in the way of several items and 10 silver coins which alone had a value of 10,000 dollars.

Don't know how or for what reason old world coins became the wasteland's most universally accepted form of currency. I suppose it has something to do with them not deteriorating like most of the bills have.

My quest reward in hand, I proceeded to the nearest local trader to sell off all the excess gear I picked up along my adventure that I no longer need anymore thanks to me now being fully decked out in a full suit of X-1 Tesla Power Armor and armed with a unique minigun called Bloody Mary, both of which I looted from Fort Kern.

All that crap sold off. I speedily headed to my player home in town and stashed all the useful loot I found on my recent quest before saving and exiting to my desktop.

Time to get some sleep.

As I got up from my chair, I felt a small sharp pain in my head that I initially ignored and as I started walking over to my bed; it grew and became increasingly worse at an insanely fast pace. 

Shit, this could be bad.

Realizing the danger I was in, I started racing over to the nightstand beside my bed where my cell was to call 911. However, before I could get anywhere near it, my knees gave out and darkness quickly overtook my vision, and moments later, I lost consciousness.

...

After an indeterminate amount of time, I ultimately regained consciousness. Though only somewhat since I wasn't entirely there yet and everything was kind of fuzzy.

With that being my state, I continued sitting there waiting, hoping my head would clear up. As time continued on, my head got clearer slowly but surely until I eventually regained full clarity. Despite that, I now had a new problem. Everything within my vision remained enshrouded in darkness, and for some reason or another, I now felt as if I was floating.

What in the hell happened?

Unsure of what kind of situation I was in, I began thinking back on what I could remember. Processing through my recent memories, I remembered I had been overwhelmed by a sharp pain in my head before suddenly passing out.

I doubt with the pain I experienced back there that I'm in a coma, so I suppose I died. As for where I ended up, I have no clue since everything appears as nothing but a pitch-black void and shares no resemblance to any heaven or hell I know about. 

Guess all the religions back in my old world were all just spouting a bunch of bullshit in the end, supposing this is where everyone ends up. However, seeing as I appear to be here by all on my own, maybe I diverged from the path I was supposed to have taken, only to end up here somehow.

Whilst I continued thinking and observing the dark void around me that I appeared to be floating in. I leaned my head down to check if I could actually see my hands and to make sure that my vision was truly working or not. The very instant I did, I saw that my hands appeared ethereal and ghost-like, which confirmed that my vision wasn't the issue at the very least.

That pretty much confirms that I'm dead... Eh, I had a good run. Just wish I could've seen my family one last time before I departed for the afterlife, but it is what it is.

Assured that I was most likely dead at this point, I continued floating through the void with nothing to do. This went on for god knows how long and as I was beginning to lose my patience with the current situation, mostly because of boredom, a light cyan colored holographic screen suddenly appeared out of the blue within my vision, taking me by surprise.

Quickly getting over my initial surprise, I regained my usual calm and directed the entirety of my focus to the holographic screen before me. The only thing of interest in this god forsaken dark void, although not lightless void.

[ Wastelander ]

The choice is yours.

1. Cheyenne Mountain Bunker, Colorado Springs, Colorado [ + ]

2. Undercity 1, Washington, D.C. [ + ]

3. Raven Rock Bunker, Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania [ + ]

4. ??? [ + ]

5. Random Start [ + ]

6. Undercity 7, Nevada [ + ]

I'm in one of those reincarnation or transmigration scenarios, aren't I.

I guessed before my mind ran wild with various thoughts and ideas regarding my current situation and the several options shown to me.

…

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