Chương 3: Chapter 2: The First Night

The three available attribute points remained on James's screen while he stood over the fourth dead Feral. He had spent most of his life making decisions that involved measurements, materials, deadlines, and whether something would remain standing after people started using it, but this decision felt considerably more permanent. If he screwed up a construction project, he could repair it; if he screwed up his own body, he had no idea whether the System offered refunds.

[Attributes] [Strength: 10] [Endurance: 11] [Vitality: 10] [Agility: 9] [Intelligence: 10] [Charisma: 8] [Willpower: 9] [Perception: 9] [Available Attribute Points: 3]"Okay, think, James. Don't fuck this up," he said while studying the numbers. Strength would let him hit harder, Vitality sounded useful for staying alive, Agility might prevent him from being hit in the first place, and Perception could help with monsters hiding in the trees.

He eventually decided that complicated builds could wait until he understood what half the attributes actually did. James placed one point into Strength and another into Vitality. The final point took longer, but memories of the first Feral tearing open his arms made the decision easier.

"Fuck it. More Strength," he said as he assigned the last point, and the System immediately updated the values. [Strength increased to 12.] [Vitality increased to 11.] Warmth spread through his muscles within seconds. James flexed his hands, rolled his shoulders, and noticed that the framing hammer felt slightly easier to control even though its physical weight had obviously not changed.

His injuries remained painful, but the discomfort in his ribs eased enough that taking a full breath no longer required careful preparation.

"Holy shit. That actually worked," James said while testing the improvised spear with several thrusts. The weapon still consisted of a branch, chalk line, electrical tape, and a severed monster claw, but the increased Strength made each movement faster and more stable. He grinned and started walking again before the excitement convinced him to do something stupid. The next Feral appeared less than twenty minutes later.

James saw the gray body moving through the undergrowth and prepared before it charged, keeping the spear between himself and the creature instead of letting it reach his arms. The claw point entered its chest, James shoved it backward, and one hammer strike to the skull finished the fight. [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.]"That was a hell of a lot easier," James said while cleaning the spearhead against the grass.

Yesterday—if several hours ago could already be mentally classified as another lifetime—the same creature had nearly killed him. He harvested the best claws and continued moving, increasingly convinced that gaining levels quickly mattered almost as much as finding food and shelter. His mechanical watch showed a little after three in the afternoon. James estimated that he had several hours of usable daylight left, though the enormous canopy would make the forest dark well before the sun actually disappeared.

"Five hours, give or take. I need water, food, and somewhere I can sleep without waking up inside something's stomach," he said while checking the direction he had been traveling. That gave him a deadline more familiar than thirty days of abstract survival. Two Ferals emerged between the trees several minutes later. James stopped and considered backing away, because one creature was manageable while two could attack from different directions.

The decision became irrelevant when one of their seven-eyed faces turned toward him and both creatures lowered themselves to charge.

"Well, shit. Guess we're doing this," James said as he moved first. Waiting for the creatures to surround him seemed considerably worse than attacking before they had time to separate. He drove the spear into the first Feral and pinned it momentarily against the dirt. The second creature rushed his exposed side and opened two fresh slashes across his thigh before James could turn.

He shouted, swung the hammer hard enough to knock the monster into a tree root, then stomped on the first Feral and ripped his spear free. The second monster recovered quickly and rushed him again. James grabbed a fist-sized rock and threw it, striking one of the creature's eyes hard enough to make it recoil.

"Oh, that had to fucking hurt," he said while closing the distance, and the hammer came down twice before the Feral could recover. [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.] [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.] James stood between the two corpses and checked the cuts across his leg. Neither looked deep enough to threaten his ability to walk, so he wrapped them in electrical tape and tried not to think about how much hair would eventually come off with it.

"Premium medical treatment right there," he said while pressing the final strip into place, then he harvested the bodies before continuing. During the following hour, James killed five more Ferals individually. The fights slowly changed from desperate reactions into something he could understand, because the creatures repeated the same movements whenever they prepared to attack.

Their bodies lowered before a jump, their middle arms spread outward when they intended to change direction, and several of their eyes tracked his weapon while the others watched his legs. Recognizing those patterns did not make them harmless, but it made them predictable. James began controlling distance with the spear, using trees to limit the direction of an attack and saving the hammer for anything that managed to get close.

By the fifth kill, he was exhausted rather than badly injured, which counted as significant progress.

"I've got to be getting close to another level," James said as he lowered himself onto a fallen log. His arms were tired, his injured thigh throbbed beneath the tape, and the muscles across his back had started complaining every time he raised the spear. He gave himself five minutes to rest before movement in the leaves ruined the plan. A snake slid across the ground roughly twenty feet away. It was about five feet long, thicker than James expected, and covered in dark green scales marked with narrow black lines.

James immediately stood and raised the spear while the creature lifted its head.

"Oh, hell no. I hate snakes," James said as the animal began coiling itself. He had nothing against ordinary snakes in theory, but ordinary wildlife had become a questionable category since Integration. The snake followed him as he shifted sideways, keeping its head pointed toward his legs. James considered stabbing it with the spear but worried that missing would give the creature a clear path up the shaft, so he grabbed another rock and threw it beside the snake instead.

The head snapped toward the sound, and James abandoned good judgment long enough to rush forward and grab it directly behind the jaws. The snake immediately wrapped around his wrist and forearm. Its body tightened while its mouth snapped inches from his fingers, forcing James to use both increased Strength and a great deal of panic to maintain his grip.

"Stop fucking moving," he said as he pulled the utility knife free with his other hand, and the first cut scraped uselessly across the scales. The second cut went deeper. James sawed through the neck until blood covered his hand and the snake's body finally stopped fighting. He dropped the severed head, unwrapped the dead body from his arm, and spent several seconds checking himself for a bite he might have missed during the struggle. [You have slain a Forest Snake lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.]"That was disgusting," James said while wiping his knife clean. The snake had been harder to kill than a Feral despite being the same level, which told him that levels were probably only part of whatever determined actual combat ability. He added that information to the growing list of things the System had apparently decided he should learn through practical experience. James found the river shortly afterward.

The sound reached him first, and he followed it through a thick line of bushes until clear water appeared between the trees. He dropped beside the bank, drank carefully at first, then considerably less carefully once the cold water hit his throat. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. He knew untreated river water could make him sick.

He also knew dehydration would become a problem much faster than whatever microscopic nightmare might be waiting in the current, so he accepted the risk. After drinking, James removed the worst of the electrical tape and washed dried blood, dirt, monster fluid, and old sawdust from his body.

"Okay. This stays," James said while looking along the riverbank. The water gave him something reliable to return to and reduced one of his immediate survival problems. He mentally marked the area for a shelter, then decided to hunt a little longer before the light failed. Another snake and several Ferals died during the next stretch of hunting. James avoided unnecessary risks, but he kept moving until another Feral lunged from beneath a thorny bush and met the point of his spear.

He drove the creature backward, finished it with the hammer, and stepped away just as blue light gathered around him. [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.] [You have leveled up!] [You are now Level 2.] [3 Attribute Points are available.]"About goddamn time," James said as the now-familiar warmth moved through his body.

He immediately opened the attribute panel, considered his accumulated injuries, and decided that being harder to kill deserved priority over hitting slightly harder. James placed two points into Vitality and one into Strength. The effects settled into him within seconds, reducing the sharpness of his cuts and taking some of the weakness from his legs. He was not healed, but the difference was substantial enough that he could stand straight without his ribs constantly reminding him about the cliff.

[Strength increased to 13.] [Vitality increased to 13.]"Vitality is doing some serious work," James said while pressing a hand against his injured side. He made a mental note not to neglect the other attributes forever, but staying alive long enough to regret an unbalanced build seemed like a reasonable first objective. The sky had darkened by the time James returned to the river. He began collecting thick branches, stones, bark, leaves, and anything else he could use to construct a shelter.

The lack of proper tools and materials was irritating, but this was the first problem he had encountered all day that fell directly inside his professional experience. James leaned several heavy branches against a fallen trunk and positioned them so their weight supported one another. Smaller branches created a rough frame while stones stabilized the base, and layers of bark, leaves, and pine needles covered the outside.

The finished structure was cramped and ugly, but it provided cover from wind and enough protection that James would not spend the entire night completely exposed. [Action recorded.] [Class seed is growing.]"Again with this class-seed shit," James said while checking one of the supports. He was beginning to suspect that crafting and construction were influencing whatever class the System intended to offer him, though repeated combat appeared to matter as well.

"I swear, if I spend thirty days killing monsters and you give me something called Basic Shed Builder, I'm going to be pissed," James added as he dismissed the screen. The shelter remained standing after he shoved against it twice, which mattered considerably more than its appearance. Finding dinner became the next problem. Fish moved through the river, but stabbing one with a crude spear turned out to be substantially harder than James expected because the water distorted their apparent positions.

He spent nearly an hour missing, swearing, adjusting his aim, and frightening every fish within reach.

"Hold still, you little shit," James said after another miss sent water over his boots. The fish continued behaving with absolutely no respect for his nutritional requirements. Practice eventually solved the problem. James adjusted where he aimed relative to what he saw and finally drove the spear through a large fish near the head.

"Yes! Fuck you, nature," he shouted while lifting it from the water, and his celebration almost ended immediately when the fish slipped from the spear. James caught it before it reached the river. He cleaned it with the utility knife, gathered dry material, and spent another frustrating period starting a fire without a lighter. By the time the fish was cooking over a stable flame, the sun had nearly disappeared. A blue System message appeared while James took his first bite. [First nightfall approaching.] [942/1000 participants remaining.] [Highest Level: 5.] James stopped chewing.

"Level Five? Who the fuck is already Level Five?" he said while reading the announcement again. The number irritated him far more than the System probably intended. Somebody elsewhere in the tutorial was already moving considerably faster. They might possess a unique skill, have access to stronger monsters, or be surrounded by a group that allowed them to take most of the kills. James knew none of that, but he immediately decided that being three levels behind was temporary.

"Enjoy the lead while you have it," James said before returning to his fish. The competition gave him something to focus on besides the fifty-eight people who had already died. At the top of the cliff, Elizabeth Johnson stood beside a rough shelter while fifteen people prepared for the night. She was the Level Five participant James had just cursed without knowing her name, and her Echoing Sound bloodline had allowed her to kill monsters faster than anyone around her.

The secret had not remained hidden for long because survival eventually required using the advantage. Her group had formed quickly afterward. Most remained at Level Two, two had reached Level Three, and Isaiah Torrings had reached Level Four by making himself consistently useful during hunts. Elizabeth understood exactly why they stayed close to her, and she had no problem accepting their help as long as everyone involved understood the arrangement.

"Think anything nasty comes out after dark?" Isaiah asked while staring toward the tree line. He held a sharpened branch in both hands and kept his voice low enough not to disturb the exhausted survivors behind them.

"Of course it does," Elizabeth replied as she continued watching the forest. Daylight monsters had already killed dozens of people, so she saw no reason to expect the night to become kinder.

"Yeah. Stupid fucking question," Isaiah admitted as he adjusted his grip. Neither of them went to sleep. Far below, James finished eating and sat beside his fire with the hammer across his lap. Darkness changed the forest quickly, removing most of the familiar daytime sounds and replacing them with distant cries, movement in heavy brush, and occasional noises he could not identify. His new shelter seemed less reassuring when he could no longer see more than a short distance beyond the flames.

"No deep sleep tonight," James said while adding another branch to the fire. He intended to rest in short periods and wake at every suspicious sound, which promised to make tomorrow miserable but preferable to being eaten. James opened his Status while he waited. [Status] [Name: James Roller.] [Species: Human.] [Tier: Unawakened.] [Level: 2.] [Class: Unavailable.] [Skills: Language Comprehension, Basic Punch.] [Titles: Newly Integrated.] [REDACTED] He focused on the final entry again without success.

The System refused every attempt to expand, inspect, or otherwise explain why part of his own status had been hidden from him.

"One day I'm going to find out what the fuck you are," James said before dismissing the screen, and the sealed entry offered no reaction. The first clicking sound reached him several minutes later. James recognized it immediately and slowly reached for his spear. A second clicking noise answered from another direction, followed by a third.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me," James said while rising beside the fire. Three Ferals appeared at the edge of the light, but their behavior was different from the mindless daytime attacks. They spread apart. James immediately understood what they were doing. The first Feral charged from the front while the others moved toward his sides. James caught the first with the spear, shoved it away, and turned too slowly to prevent the second from cutting across his shoulder.

The third jumped directly onto his chest and drove him backward into the shelter.

"Nope. Get the fuck off," James said as he grabbed the creature by its fur. He smashed his forehead into its face, stabbed it repeatedly with the utility knife, and finally threw the struggling monster into the fire. [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.] The remaining fight lasted less than a minute. James crushed one Feral with the hammer and chased the last creature when it attempted to flee, pinning it with the spear before finishing it.

His shelter had partially collapsed during the struggle, but he remained alive and had suffered nothing worse than several fresh cuts. [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.] [You have slain a Battleground Feral lvl. 1.] [Experience awarded.]"So that's how tonight is going to be," James said while dragging the burning corpse away from the fire. The smell confirmed that cooked Feral was not going onto tomorrow's menu.

James repaired the shelter, moved the bodies away from camp, and spent the rest of the night sleeping in short intervals. Another Feral approached and died near the river, but the final visitor was something he never clearly saw. A long body moved beyond the light while two pale eyes watched him for several minutes, then disappeared without attacking.

"Yeah, keep walking, you creepy bastard," James said after the eyes vanished. He remained awake for a long time afterward because he had no idea whether the creature had actually left. Gray light finally appeared between the trees. A blue System screen opened in front of James as he sat beside the dying fire. [Night Survival Event completed.] [Participant: James Roller.] [Performance: Above Average.] [Reward: Survival bonus applied.] [Additional actions recorded.] [Improvised weapon crafting.] [Shelter construction.] [Solo survival.] [Repeated close-combat engagements.] [Class seed is stabilizing.] [Class selection will become available at Level 10.] James rubbed both hands across his tired face.

"Level Ten. Fine. At least now I know what I'm aiming for," he said as he looked toward the forest. He needed eight more levels, better weapons, a safer shelter, and a great deal more information. The tutorial had given him thirty days, but after seeing how quickly people were dying, James had no intention of using all thirty before becoming strong enough to not shit his pants.

"All right. Day Two," James said as he stood and picked up his spear. He checked the bindings, hooked the hammer onto his belt, and stepped away from the river to begin hunting again.