Something was wrong, and Mark felt it before he fully understood why.
The office lights flickered once while he sat at his computer; the familiar background hum of the office shifted strangely. Mark frowned and looked up from the screen in front of him. His monitor distorted for a fraction of a second before snapping back into place. “That’s new.”
The office had gone unusually quiet. Not completely silent, but in a way that immediately put him on edge. A faint ringing started in his ears, subtle at first but growing stronger with every passing second. Mark straightened in his chair and glanced around the room.
“Hello?” Nobody answered him. The ringing grew louder. The lights flickered once and then again. Before Mark could react, the world around him vanished.
One moment he was sitting in his office chair. The next moment, he was standing somewhere else entirely. The office was gone. No carpet, cubicles, or desks remained. In their place was a small clearing with patches of grass, uneven dirt, and scattered rocks. Thin unfamiliar trees surrounded him on all sides. Cool air blew across his face. Mark blinked several times, trying to process what he was seeing. Where had these trees come from? They were narrow and twisted. Nothing like what he was familiar with. For a moment his mind refused to accept what he was seeing.
Then a faint glow formed in the air in front of him. Mark flinched, stepping back as pale blue lines gathered together, forming a translucent screen. Words began to appear.
[System Initialization Complete]
Welcome, Candidate.
You have been selected for Integration.All participants will undergo a survival trial.Failure to adapt will result in termination.Good luck.
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark stared at the message, unable to process what he was reading. “What the crap?” His voice sounded too loud in the open air. He slowly turned around, scanning his surroundings. There were no buildings, no roads, no people. The constant sounds of the city were gone. Just wind moving through the trees and an unsettling silence pressing in around him.
“A candidate?” he muttered. “I’m too old for this kind of nonsense.”
The breeze felt cool against his skin, almost refreshing. But something beneath it made the hair on the back of his neck rise. He looked at the trees around him; this place was wrong.
“Okay,” he said quietly, trying to steady himself. A sharp rustling sound cut him off. He turned toward the sound immediately. His eyes scanned the trees from left to right, but he could not see anything.
The sound came again. This time he could tell it was to his right. His pulse jumped. This was not a dream. He slowly turned, taking a cautious step back. “Hello? Is someone there?” Nothing answered him.
Then the brush shifted. A small animal came into view. Mark let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It was just a small gray rabbit standing in the brush. He let out a shaky laugh, pressing his hand to his chest. “You just scared the crap out of me.”
The rabbit didn’t run. It stayed there watching him. Its head tilted slightly. Mark’s relief started to fade. There was something wrong with the way it looked at him. Too focused, too aware. It didn’t blink. It only watched him.
“Yeah, that’s not normal.”
Then the rabbit moved. Not away from him, but directly toward him. It moved far too fast. It lunged at him. Mark barely had time to react before it slammed into him. It knocked him backward. His heel caught on the uneven ground. Then he hit the dirt hard. The air rushed out of his lungs. The rabbit was on him instantly.
Its mouth opened, revealing sharp, jagged teeth. Not how a rabbit should look. Pain flared across his upper arm as he threw it up to protect himself. The rabbit latched onto his arm and bit down hard.
“Get off!” He jerked his arm wildly, panic flooding through him. The rabbit clung tightly, biting again, claws scraping against his sleeve. It bit down harder, and pain shot through his arm, erasing the last part of him still trying to deny what was happening. Mark’s free hand scrambled across the ground until his fingers closed around a rock. Without thinking, he swung.
The rock connected with a sharp crack. The rabbit went limp and dropped to the ground. Mark scrambled backward, breathing hard. His eyes locked on the rabbit. It twitched once and then went still.
Silence returned. Mark stayed where he was sprawled on the ground. One hand braced behind him, the other gripping the rock so tightly that his knuckles ached. His heart hammered in his chest. He breathed hard, trying to steady himself. “What is going on?”
A faint shimmer appeared in front of him. Mark flinched again, nearly dropping the rock as another translucent screen formed in the air.
[Razor Rabbit — Level 1]
Defeated
◈ ◈ ◈
[Level Up Available]
Mark stared at the message, completely frozen. “No. No. This can’t be happening.” The screen remained floating in front of him. It did not disappear. It hovered there patiently, as if waiting for him to respond. His gaze shifted from the text to the small broken body of the rabbit. Then back to the screen.
Slowly the rock slipped from his hand, landing softly on the dirt. For a long moment he just sat there. He was alone in a place that made no sense. His arm was throbbing where the creature had bitten him.
He stared at something that should not have existed. Something had taken him. A system? His chest tightened. Thoughts of his family hit him like a punch. Where were his wife and kids? Had they been taken like him? Were they out there somewhere alone? Mark forced himself to breathe, pushing the panic down before it overwhelmed him. Panicking wouldn’t help them. It wouldn’t help anyone.
He looked back at the message. If this was real, and if this was how the world worked now, sitting here was not an option. “I can’t,” he whispered, his voice shaking before he forced it steady. “I can’t die here. Not like this. Not without finding them.” Mark swallowed. “Then I need to survive.”
Mark didn’t move as the screen hovered in front of him. The rabbit lay dead just a few feet away. It was small, with giant teeth. It was just wrong. It almost looked normal now that it was no longer moving. Which somehow made it worse. Mark swallowed and looked away. The floating box just hovered in front of him unchanged. His eyes lingered on the last line. Level up. The words felt absurd, like something out of the games he used to play. Except this wasn’t a game. His arm still throbbed where the creature had bitten him, a sharp, pulsing reminder that everything about this was real.
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Mark lowered his gaze to the wound. The sleeve of his shirt was torn, darkened with blood. It wasn’t pouring out, but it wasn’t stopping either. “That’s not good,” he muttered.
Mark finally let out a slow breath and shifted carefully, pushing himself into an upright position. His eyes drifted back to the rabbit’s body despite his own desire to look away. “I’m not leaving that there,” he said as he started toward the body, intending to drag it away. Halfway there he stopped. If he really had to survive in this place, throwing away potential food would be foolish. Even so, every instinct told him to get it out of his sight.
Up close the differences were clear. The teeth were wrong, too large and too sharp. Its claws were sharp and more pronounced. “Yeah, you’re definitely not normal.” After a brief pause, he crouched down, and as his hand hovered uncertainly over the rabbit’s body, the air shimmered again.
[Loot Available]
Razor Rabbit Corpse
Convert to usable materials?
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark blinked. “Of course there is a loot option.” He stared at the message, his expression tightening as he tried to process it. Convert to usable materials. The words were so clinical. Detached. Like the system didn’t care what the materials would be used for.
His gaze dropped to the rabbit again. Then back to the screen. “If I don’t loot it, then what? Just leave it here?” That did not sound like a good option, so he let out a breath and tapped the air where the prompt hovered in front of him.
For a brief moment nothing happened, and then the rabbit’s body dissolved in front of his eyes. Not violently or dramatically; it simply broke apart into faint particles of light that lifted into the air and vanished, leaving nothing behind.
Mark froze, his hand still extended in the air. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that.” Then another message appeared.
[Conversion Complete]
+1 Razor Meat+2 Torn Hide
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark stared at the list. Okay, meat and hide. Before he could think too hard about it, another screen slid into place.
[Inventory Updated]
Razor Meat x1Torn Hide x2
◈ ◈ ◈
He hesitated and then reached out again, focusing on the words. Then the screen shifted slightly, expanding to his touch. “Okay, so I actually have things now.” The absurdity of it almost made him laugh. But the pain in his arm dragged his focus back immediately. Right, he was bleeding. As if in response to the thought, a new notification appeared.
[Crafting Available]
Basic Recipes Unlocked:Crude BandageCooked MeatSharpened Stick
◈ ◈ ◈
Of course there is crafting. Mark let out a slow breath, with some of the tension in his shoulders easing away for the first time since he arrived. Finally, something that was useful to him if it actually worked. He focused on the first option.
[Crude Bandage]
Materials Required:Fiber x2Torn Hide x1
Effect: Stops bleeding
Restores small HP over time
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark frowned slightly. “Fiber, where do I get that?” He glanced around the clearing, scanning the ground more carefully this time. He spotted what he was looking for. Thin strands of plant material mixed in with the grass and low brush. “That’ll have to do.”
He moved carefully, tearing loose a handful of the fibrous plant strands. It took more effort than he expected, and his arm protested with each pull, but after a minute he had something that looked close enough. Almost immediately, another system message appeared.
[Fiber Acquired x2]
Mark let out a small, surprised breath. “Well, that’s convenient.” He pulled the crafting screen back into focus and selected Crude Bandage. The message changed to “Materials Available,” and for a moment he hesitated. Then he selected the button.
The materials vanished from the inventory list. A faint glow gathered around his hands, subtle but unmistakable, and then his fingers took hold of the fibers, and the hide seemed to pull itself together, tightening and twisting in his hands as if guided by something unseen until they bound into a rough strip of layered material. A second later, it was done.
[Crafting Complete]
Crude Bandage Created
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark stared at it. “Wow, pretty cool.” Carefully he wrapped the bandage around his injured upper arm. He tightened it enough to stop the bleeding.
[Bleeding Stopped]
[Minor Regeneration Applied]
Mark let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Okay,” he said quietly while flexing his fingers slightly. “Okay, that helps.” For the first time since everything had changed, something had gone right. He wasn’t safe, but he was no longer bleeding, and he had taken one step toward figuring out what was going on.
He looked back at the system prompt. He had crafting, loot, and resources. If he could be attacked like this by a rabbit, what else was out there? What was worse than a rabbit?
Mark took one more long look at the trees around him. What was going to come after him next?
His eyes drifted back to the faint glow of the message still waiting for him.
[Level Up Available]
Mark swallowed once and hesitantly reached out. As his finger pressed the button, the first screen vanished and was replaced by a completely new message.
[Level Up]
Character: Mark
Level: 1
+5 Stat Points Awarded
Skill Unlocked: Rapid Assessment Level 1
◈ ◈ ◈
[Skill Acquired]Rapid Assessment Level 1
Allows:Quickly evaluate immediate threats.Identify useful resources and opportunities at a glance.Maintain clearer judgment during life-threatening situations.
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark looked at the screen. It was like a game; he had stats and skills. This was important, significant even. But at the same time it didn’t actually tell him anything useful. He was hoping for a little more information than that. As if responding to him, the screen shifted.
[Character Sheet]
Level: 1
Health: 80 / 80Stamina: 60 / 60
AttributesStrength: 6Agility: 5Vitality: 8Intelligence: 9Perception: 10
Skills: Rapid Assessment Level 1
+5 Stat Points Available
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark leaned forward slightly as if studying the screen in more detail. Okay, that was more like it. This he understood.
His eyes then flickered to the bandage he had wrapped around his arm. The pain had finally dulled some, and the bleeding had stopped entirely. Okay, my health is full now. So either that bandage worked a lot better than I expected or leveling up restores health. Or maybe a combination of the two? He frowned slightly; it would be good to know which of the two had healed him up.
His Intelligence was already higher than most of his other attributes. Was that linked to his previous life and the problem-solving skills he had gained over years of work? His perception was also high; he had always been able to spot problems before they were out of control and find a way to fix them. But how would these skills change the life he would have here? Would it make a difference?
Mark’s attention finally shifted to the final line. +5 stat points available. Mark stared at it for a moment, his expression tightening. “Alright,” he said quietly. “What do I actually need?” His mind went back to the fight. The speed of the rabbit. The sudden impact. The pain he felt. How close it had been.
His eyes moved to Vitality. “I was way too close to dying to something that small.” And he assigned two points to Vitality. “Not happening again.” He had not even seen the thing coming. His eyes shifted to Perception. Maybe if he had noticed it sooner. He then added two more points to Perception. That left one point. He hesitated. He had been too slow. So he added his last point to Agility. Mark exhaled slowly. That should help some. Not enough, but something.
His eyes drifted back to Rapid Assessment. Quickly evaluating threats and opportunities... that would have been useful earlier. If the skill really helped him make better decisions under pressure, it might keep him alive long enough to use everything else the System was throwing at him.
The screen then faded, leaving him alone in the clearing once more. The quiet returned, and he stood there for a moment just looking around. His mind was already turning things over. If that rabbit was the weakest thing out here, Mark was in trouble. He exhaled slowly. “I’m going to need more than this.” His grip tightened slightly. “A lot more.” Mark stood in the clearing for a moment longer, turning slowly as he took in his surroundings. Surviving the rabbit had been luck. He knew that, but luck wasn’t something he could rely on. He needed a plan. As he considered where to start, his lips felt dry as he ran his tongue across them, suddenly aware of how thirsty he was. That fight, the adrenaline, the healing. It had taken a lot out of him. “Alright,” he muttered. “Think. Water first. That had to be the priority.”