[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: MAGICAL=16 - PHYSICAL=18 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=16 - SPEED=18 — APTITUDE: MANA=16 - STAMINA=18 — TILT: CONTROL=18 - LUCK=16 ]

  Just as I summit the mountain of how bored I can possibly be of a grassy field, it accommodatingly fades to an all-consuming darkness.

  No. Not ‘all’-consuming. I can still feel the same breeze cooling my skin, at the very least.

  Looking down, I can’t actually see this alleged ‘skin’. Or the grass brushing my ankles. Or my ankles. Or anything else for that matter.

  It all passively feels like it’s still there. But as soon as I focus on any of my senses, all associated input seems to just up and vanish entirely.

  Experimentally, I try to shuffle my feet. I distinctly feel it happen. Except, upon closer inspection, I have no feet to shuffle. Or ground to shuffle them on.

  Making myself breathe deep through my also-missing nose, I can still smell the grass. But as soon as I take note of the smell, that disappears too.

  “Hello?” I try to speak, but no sound comes out.

  So not only am I alone, but deaf. And blind. And numb, apparently. Okay, I’ll take the grassy field again. I was bored of that, but… Yep, this is definitely worse.

  Nothing else to do, I search for anything to distract me from the encroaching realization that I’m stuck in complete and utter limbo.

  I wonder if James-NOPE!!! Something else. Like… Am I actually in hell right now? It would certainly fit how I lived. Died, too.

  But it’s only now, in semi-sarcastic confrontation with my main source of anxiety at the moment, I notice something else that’s missing. Anxiety itself. This whole thing should be tying my stomach in knots.

  But it isn’t. I’m not anxious about any of it. I’m not even anxious about not being anxious. I definitely should be though. I’m sure I know myself that well. I should at least be anxious about the fact that I’m not anxious about not being anxious. Or as many steps in that recursive spiral as I can process just now.

  But doesn’t me obsessing over it like this count as ‘anxiety’ by default?

  No. I know the difference. My anxiety has always been there. Always permeating everything.

  But now it’s gone. The absence is… Noticeable.

  After an admittedly short life of ineffectually telling myself not to stress about every little thing, suddenly having the opposite problem is surprisingly frustrating. And just… Wrong.

  I really feel like I should be obsessing over all the ways this could go bad. Or at least the obvious ones.

  But I’m just… Not?

  In existential-yet-vague answer to my question, the infinite black expanse flashes into a blinding white.

  Well that’s technically different. But is it better?

  Eyes wide open, I look around.

  [ HP: 127/128 ]

  Ow… Apparently not. But at least that answers my question about a health bar.

  So then was I just invincible in the character creator? Is this a damage-over-time thing? If it is, I’m in trouble.

  Not to say I’m not in trouble anyway. I mean I don’t exactly have my bearings here.

  As though jinxed straight into existence, something new emerges from the white void. A voice. “Heya.”

  Wait… Is that a guy? Human contact! I’ve been alone for… I don’t even know how long.

  And come to think of it, I definitely have ears again. Eyes too.

  That fact becomes clearer with every passing second as they increasingly fucking hurt from all this light. Just apparently not enough to take damage from it.

  That’s also when the white starts coalescing into a blur of shapes and colors. No… Not white. Just bright.

  But now, the colors swirl and separate and expand and bend into each other, gradually melding and combining into a pattern. Then a shape. Then a person.

  Yep. Just as I suspected… It sure is some guy.

  I don’t know what other labels I can apply to someone so unkempt, standing there in a T-shirt and sweats like he just rolled out of bed.

  He’s holding up a sheet of white paper with a big number ‘6’ in the middle.

  I just stare at it for a moment. “What… In the fuck-”

  That’s when the surrounding landscape melts into clarity.

  That’s also when I shut up. Except my mouth is hanging open.

  I try to make it do words. “Whaaa-”

  But it’s apparently broken.

  Shunting the random guy from my forethought, it’s all I can do to take in… Everything. Everything there ever was, is, or could be.

  I see it all.

  Because that’s what this has to be. Everything that exists. Everything that could exist. More. More than I ever imagined. More than I even imagined was imaginable.

  I struggle just to rationalize it. But I can’t.

  Look, I’m not some Country-bumpkin from Buttfuck-Nowhere. I’ve been on planes before.

  Okay fine, one plane. One time. When I was six. Over half my life ago. Half of my… Former…

  Anyway, my eyes barely left the plane window for that whole flight. I did nothing but take in the landscape from miles above. All of it. A patchwork of desolated farms and mountains and everything else I ever read about or saw online. It wasn’t like I didn’t already know they were there.

  I kinda just didn’t believe it. Not really. Not until it was staring me in the face. Not until it was impossible to deny, or doubt, or even question. Not until skepticism and a deep-seeded anxiety over ever being wrong about anything, had nothing left to say.

  Not until exactly. Right. Then.

  When the world was literally laid out before me. When the landscape stretched into the distance.

  I saw more than I’d ever processed before. More than I knew how to process.

  And gradually, the further I looked, the smaller it all got, the less detail I could make out.

  I mean it still dropped off at that pesky horizon line. But that was still further than I’d ever seen before. Further than I’d thought was possible. But at least I could comprehend it.

  That flight to Wyoming felt like it was over in an instant. But it changed everything. I finally believed there were actual, real places that you could go outside the confines of Richmond, Virginia.

  I mean I’d seen maps and shit… I don’t know, I just didn’t really put it together until then. Like I knew they were there, but they weren’t really real.

  Not until exactly. Right. Then.

  Of everything I’ve ever seen or done, I’ve never had a more existentially significant experience.

  Not until exactly. Right, Now.

  Like a puddle to the ocean ahead of me in this vast green landscape of rolling hills.

  The one I’m on isn’t particularly tall. But isn’t it? It has to be, right? Otherwise, how could I see the rest?

  There are patches of trees here and there, along with the occasional sign of what looks vaguely like civilization.

  But mostly, one hill rolls right onto another. And another, and another, all the way to the end. A flowery hillscape stretching farther than I’ve ever seen, airplane window or no. How many miles is it? Hundreds? Looks like thousands… Probably not millions.

  But some stupidly far distance away, the hills do eventually end.

  As one, all the woods and valleys and meadows and grassy hills transition instantly into a vast forest. Not to be mistaken for the minuscule patches of woods spread across the rolling hills, these trees are truly massive. Like a tree next to… A much, much, much larger tree… I guess…

  But in a straight line, without so much as an intervening bush or bramble, lush meadow simply BECOMES impenetrable foliage.

  And then the trees continue even longer than the grass. Or at least they seem to. I’m having a little trouble measuring distance just now.

  At the end of the forest is an equally massive tundra.

  Catching my eye off past the tundra is a lake… Sea? Despite my earlier comparison to the whole thing, even ‘Ocean’ feels understated to describe that singular body of water. Even if it does have all the wave activity of a puddle… I mean there’s islands, I guess… Oh… Oooh, okay, it’s a bunch of beach resorts. That’s actually kinda cool.

  But what’s bigger than an ocean? And what does that say about the puddle metaphor? And why is the tranquil super-ocean in the shape of an octagon?

  Upon closer inspection, that’s exactly what it is. What they all are. Eight distinct sides, each featuring a straight line of water bordering either a smaller square or another octagon with a completely different ecology.

  Although the squares seem to feature more extreme environments than the octagons surrounding them. There’s barren deserts, permanent blizzards, molten volcanoes, and even what looks like nothing so much as a big stagnant cloud of purple gas.

  All that, and so, so much more than I can possibly process.

  But one octagon stands out in particular.

  From the ocean, one side of its adjoining squares is what looks like an apocalyptic wasteland.

  But then the wasteland transitions directly into some sort of crazy future sci-fi city. Except… No, cities can’t get that big. Or maybe now’s not a good time to assume I have any sort of grasp on the limits of things. Or even what’s possible. This whole thing already makes no sense…

  But the further I look, the more sure I become. The horizon curves up. And it doesn’t stop, either. An utter logical impossibility, right before my eyes.

  Seriously, what the fuck am I even looking at? Are those the tops of clouds?

  The octagons and squares stay the same scale, even as that scale shrinks, spreading out in every direction. That pattern continues all around me after all.

  It fully encompasses my peripheral vision, the furthest octagons so small that I can’t even fully make out their environments.

  But even then, there is such a thing as ‘past’ all that.

  After all the octagons and squares and interspersed environmental anomalies is… A barrier? Like an impossibly tall, impossibly wide blue forcefield both at the end of forever, and still below the clouds.

  None of that actually scares me though. As reality-bendingly massive as it all is, it’s just the environment. It’s not alive. Not really. It won’t try to eat me.

  The same can’t be said for the creatures apparently guarding each side of the octagonal barrier walling off the impossibly colossal landscape from whatever lay beyond. They’re far shorter than the barrier itself.

  But the separate octagons and squares they’re each standing on with different limbs imply they’re plenty big anyway. And those are only a few octagons and squares away from said barrier.

  So if I can see them clearly when they’re right up against it… The creatures themselves must be truly, impossibly, massive. Just by the laws of motion alone, they should tear themselves apart just trying to move.

  But they’re moving just fine, each behaving just like you’d expect from the animals they resemble. A few are grazing. Three are sleeping. One is rolling around. None are eating. Which is probably good since a single meal for one of them would wipe out a country. Or an octagon, at least.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Without turning my head, the furthest to the left looks like nothing so much as an extremely shiny deer. Although, to its credit, it has way more antlers than normal.

  Deer care about that, right?

  And this one has some pretty great headlights of its own with each of the antler-horn-tips or whatever they’re called, are collectively bright enough to illuminate everything for what has to be hundreds of thousands of miles at least. Which is mainly impressive because of how it’s midday. Hell, I have to squint just to make out the horns themselves through the glare.

  To the deer’s right is some kind of wolf or something, asserting its dominance from atop the highest of a series of what appear to be floating countries. And it’s glowing with energy in an all-too-familiar way. Is… Is that big wolf going Super Saiyan?

  But the next one over is something like if Olympus Mons got folded into the shape of an elephant. Only larger. Olympus Mons is just the biggest mountain I can think of. Some kind of Earth elemental? Wait, that’s exactly what it is.

  Which means the deer is a light elemental.

  And the wolf must be… Oh. Well, that’s disappointing. I thought it was doing a reference. But that’s not what this is. It’s just made of lightning. Which is still cool I guess…

  Doesn’t mean I don’t wish it was the other thing.

  Looking to the other side of the elephant, I’m almost disappointed by the sight of a supermassive hawk made entirely of wind.

  And next to that is… A fire chicken?

  Which is when the scale at work truly hits me. I’m not sure why the chicken is my trigger. But apparently, that’s what’s happening.

  Just the way it’s standing… One talon gripping the entirety of one octagon, and the other ruthlessly kicking up the sand of a desert two octagons over.

  I can’t help but imagine what that would look like right where I am now. One leg in that tundra, the other not only casually kicking me to death, but utterly desolating everything for thousands of miles around. Or if it crushed that city while not only decemating those islands, but kicking up a worse tidal wave than Earth has ever seen.

  The size… The distance… The fact that it all curves upwards, past the clouds hanging far above even the chicken…

  I just stare at that chicken as I try to wrap my head around what I’m seeing. But nothing gets through my brain fog save the occasional strutting and bok-bocking of the flames in the shape of a distinctly uncooked, adorably puffed-out bird under constant immolation.

  A voice shatters the most philosophically pivotal silence of my life. “So, um… Hello?”

  My frozen-yet-racing thoughts on the terminus of all reality screech to a halt as my head jerks to the side so fast my old body’s neck would’ve snapped.

  That guy… He’s clearly been staring at me for however long I’ve been having an existential meltdown. Looking like someone you’d expect to occasionally exit his home, check a stuffed mailbox, throw out most of what’s in there, take the rest inside, and not set foot outdoors for another week…

  And he’s just staring at me. The fuck is his problem?

  He keeps staring.

  I stare right back. This continues for a while.

  But I do eventually lose my patience. “The fuck is your problem?”

  At those words, his shoulders visibly relax. “Oh… Well, good.”

  Then he looks away like he just forgot I existed.

  Well I do exist, damn it. “Hey, shut-in! The fuck is your problem?!”

  Flinching as though surprised by said existence, he looks back at me. “What? Oh right. Never mind, it’s cool. You can just ignore me now. I’m doing a thing. Don’t even worry about it.”

  At that, he goes right back to ignoring me.

  I neglect to reciprocate. “Well?”

  “Well…” He twirls his finger in a get-on-with-it sort of way. “What?”

  “Oh I dunno… How about ‘What are you doing?’”

  He raises an index finger, as though about to answer.

  “Or ‘Who are you?’”

  His hand freezes.

  “Or maybe something along the lines of ‘Where the fuck are we?’”

  Hand still frozen, he seems to be waiting for my questions to end.

  For my part, I point out to the vast expanse he distracted me from. “How is that even possible?!”

  I don’t wait for him to look towards where I’m pointing. “And why did you just say ‘hi’ to me twice, and then, when you had my attention, ignored me like a fucking asshole?”

  “Oh, I mean… Um-”

  He’s stuttering now. “-I’m just… Wait, hold on.”

  He lowers the finger he’s had raised since my first question. “I just remembered. It’s none of your business.”

  Then he turns away from me again.

  This son of a… I take a deep breath.

  And another.

  And… Nope, that’s not working.

  I am so over this whole thing. “Okay fuck you too I guess.”

  I was gonna ask him for information, but he’s apparently a dick. Now where would all the non-dicks be? That huge city over there? No, it’s too far.

  I mentally add up the distance implied by all the squares and octagons from here to there.

  [ NEW MAIN QUEST: GO TO CENTRAL — SUCCESS: STEP FOOT IN YOUR OWN RACE’S CENTRAL CITY — XP: 512 — REWARD: 1 RANDOM RARE ITEM OF CHOSEN TYPE — DIFFICULTY: NORMAL ]

  [ NEW SIDE QUEST: WALK TO CENTRAL — SUCCESS: STEP FOOT IN YOUR OWN RACE’S CENTRAL CITY — FAILURE: USE SYSTEM TRANSPORT — XP: 32,768 — REWARD: 1 RANDOM LEGENDARY ITEM OF CHOSEN TYPE — DIFFICULTY: VERY HARD ]

  Waaay too far.

  But much closer, off to my left, I can just barely see a bunch of what look like cozy cabin rooftops. Some kind of isolated camp? A fort? Well, I’m willing to bet it belongs to someone.

  And it’s only a few miles away if I cut through the woods at the bottom of this hill. I can walk that, easy.

  [ NEW SIDE QUEST: STARTING TOWN — SUCCESS: REACH THE TOWN OF ALL BEGINNINGS — FAILURE: LEAVE OUTSET BEFORE REACHING THE TOWN OF ALL BEGINNINGS — XP: 8 — DIFFICULTY: VERY EASY ]

  So, I guess quests are just a thing, now?

  First, I decide to do something. And then…

  [ NEW SIDE QUEST: FUCK THAT GUY — SUCCESS: FLIP OFF ONESHOT — XP: 1 — DIFFICULTY: TRIVIAL ]

  Cool. Wait, he named himself ‘Oneshot’? Wow… What. A. Douche.

  “Whelp…” I flip him off before heading out. “Bye!”

  [ QUEST COMPLETE: FUCK THAT GUY ]

  “Hey, hold on a sec.”

  Two whole steps into my journey, and this asshole suddenly wants something from me. Or maybe not. I have to admit, I’m not being entirely fair. Might as well know whether I’m justified before I enthusiastically never see him again.

  In the spirit of second chances, I try to calm myself down a bit after the less than auspicious first impression. “Yeah?”

  My voice comes out more clipped than I intended. A happy mistake, all things considered.

  If Oneshot catches my obvious mood, he’s got a good poker face because he visibly registers exactly none of it. “Hey, um… Actually, how old are you? I mean for real. Like, how many years between your birth and death?”

  Everything he says is even more clipped than me. Like he’s compiling the words in real time as he says them. But more to the point… Seriously? That’s why he stopped me? Fuck this guy.

  Turning around fully, I glare at him. “Hey.”

  He relaxes his shoulders. “…Yeah?”

  “Fuck you.”

  He doesn’t move. He just looks at me.

  Is… Is he going to respond? Oh fuck, is the response going to be verbal? For that matter, how does unarmed combat work? Is it a Skill? Hopefully not because I definitely don’t have it. Or any.

  I belatedly feel at my waist for a sword. Except I don’t have a sword. I’ve never had a sword. And I’ve clearly made a grave mistake in assuming my new Anime Swordsman CLASS would come with one.

  Actually… The fuck am I wearing?

  Just as belatedly looking down, any clothes or lack thereof are covered by some sort of featureless brown tarp. It doesn’t even have pockets.

  Oh fuck. Is spawn killing a thing here?

  Watching me fumble all over myself like I’m the least threatening thing he’s ever seen, the jerk finally answers. “Mkay then… So anyway, I just figured since you didn’t seem confused by the terms I was using, you must be a human from Earth. Most women make themselves younger, but that typically stops in the early twenties or so. And the men who transition usually pick some kind of absurd proportions for any number of features. But you look like a teenager. And, ears aside, I could totally see you blending into a crowd on Earth. Even with the crimson hair. Which only makes me more sure about you being both originally female, and not an adult.”

  He says this all in the same speech pattern he greeted me with. The tone of this conversation should’ve just shifted, right? That was supposed to have happened?

  A moment of silence passes.

  What? Is he done? Did that answer any of my questions?

  No… So, what, he’s bragging about his thought process or something? Seriously, Fuck this guy.

  I throw up my arms. “Ok, so the fuck what if that’s true? What if it’s not? What if I’m the fucking Pope?!”

  Realizing my mistake, I rush to amend that. “No wait, never mind! Don’t answer! But do, please, kindly, FUCK OFF!!!”

  Oh god… I was alone way too long in that character creator thing. Have I ever actually yelled that word at an adult before?

  Well, James… Doesn’t count. Whatever. No regrets.

  The asshole only sighs. “Okay, kid. I don’t know how old you actually are, but you’re acting twelve. And if you’re twelve, then you shouldn’t be alone here and I need to take you to a-”

  He abruptly pauses his thought mid-sentence. “Hold on… I’m trying to think of a word…”

  Now he’s just standing there. Did he distract himself mid-sentence?

  [ NEW SIDE QUEST: ESCAPE ONESHOT — SUCCESS: ONESHOT IS NO LONGER AWARE OF YOUR EXACT LOCATION — FAILURE: DEATH BEFORE HE IS NO LONGER AWARE OF YOUR EXACT LOCATION — XP: 1 — DIFFICULTY: TRIVIAL ]

  So I’m just supposed to make it so this guy doesn’t know where I am? Yep, that actually sounds like a good policy in general.

  Turning on my heel, I book it straight for that town I got the quest for.

  Right away, I’m moving as fast as my new body will let me. Faster than I was in that endless field of grass. Straight for the intervening stretch of trees.

  Gotta find a weapon. Or a Skill. Or… I’ll take anything at this point. Because right here, right now, if this guy decides to make me stay, I really can’t do fuck-all about it. So I need to get away before he does.

  Just as I’m about to reach the trees, his voice fades in from the background behind me. “Okay! Sure! Yeah! Whatever!”

  With a backward glance, I see that he’s still standing exactly where I first saw him.

  More baffled than anything, I come to a stop and just watch as he doesn’t even begin to move.

  He scoffs down at me. “Oh what!? Are you SHY??? If you start running from someone stronger than you, you should keep running! Won’t get very far if you-”

  A heavenly chorus sounds as a fountain of blue light erupts from right next to Oneshot.

  His chastisement cuts off mid-sentence even as he turns towards the light, seeming to put me out of his mind entirely.

  The brilliant display soon fades, revealing… Someone. It’s hard to tell with the hood up on their featureless brown cloak, standing… Right where I just was.

  Looking myself over, I check the back of my own tarp for a hood, which I find right away. Not a tarp, then.

  So did the newbie just come from the same grassy field as me? Awesome! I was sick of this world populated exclusively by myself and one other person who I already can’t stand.

  Speaking of which, said pain-in-the-ass is back to holding up the same sign with a ‘6’ on it that he insisted on showing me.

  But instead of flinging insults or zoning out like I did, the newbie responds to Oneshot’s paper by falling over like a puppet with its strings cut.

  He just lays there, twitching spasmodically and foaming at the mouth.

  I’ve seen this before. A seizure. All those lights and shapes… Of course some people couldn’t take that. I’m not even epileptic, and all that sensory input still did some damage.

  Before I quite know what I’m doing, I start running back over.

  [ NEW SIDE QUEST: HELP THE FALLEN MAN STAND — SUCCESS: THE FALLEN MAN STANDS OF HIS OWN VOLITION — FAILURE: HE DIES — XP: 2,097,152 XP — DIFFICULTY: NIGHTMARE ]

  I frantically try to remember the steps Thomas drilled into me… About… It’s okay. The memory was from long enough ago. When we were kids, he taught me how to deal with his epilepsy. I mean I never actually did it. He never needed me to. Still, I saw him do it I-don’t-even-know-how-many times. But Thomas isn’t…

  I skip a step and almost trip, lost as I am in my own mental sinkhole.

  Still nowhere near the top of the hill, I call out ahead of me. “Hey, I can help! Back up for a sec, so-”

  Oneshot doesn’t listen. Instead, he just looks sadly down at the collapsed form of the newly arrived Hero. “Ah… So it’s you..?”

  He bends down, reaching for the newcomer’s hand.

  A thin blade extends from his wrist.

  When it pricks the fallen hand, the impact point explodes with a blinding red light.

  And can’t see either of them anymore.

  What in the hell is that? Oh right, magic is a thing here… So that’s what healing looks like? Why is it red? Is it a blood magic sort of deal?

  Every step takes me further up the hill as it gradually flattens out. But no amount of distance or lack thereof helps me see a thing. They might be fine for all I know. Or they might still need my help.

  As I approach, it shines brighter. No, not brighter. Higher. Whatever its source, the light is slowly rising.

  Squinting now, I can just barely make out a shape in the center. My eyes don’t quite hurt. It’s not bright like a single powerful light source. It’s more like there’s just a ton of weak ones, all somehow layered on top of each other. I wouldn’t have thought that distinction mattered. But looking at it, there’s clearly a difference.

  Within the overwhelming red aura’s center, I can make out a matte red, vertical bar. But the bar itself isn’t a light source. In fact, it isn’t even bright. The light just sort of ‘starts’ where the bar ends, without either illuminating, or casting it in shadow.

  As the pixelated Sauron-eye-looking healing spell rises up, it seems to envelop the entire sky. Right up until it doesn’t.

  Just as suddenly as it entered the world, the red light winks out of existence, center bar and all.

  Once more plainly visible, Oneshot is still kneeling in the same spot, extended wrist blade and all.

  But the seizing man is gone.

  In his place is a vague impression of… Is that a feather?

  [ FAILED SIDE QUEST: HELP THE FALLEN MAN STAND ]

  What did I just see? That… Wasn’t a healing spell, was it? Did he just fucking kill that guy?

  [ NEW VENGEANCE QUEST: AVENGE THE FALLEN MAN — SUCCESS: YOU DEAL A KILLING BLOW TO ONESHOT — FAILURE: NONE — XP: 2,097,152 — REWARD: 1 UNIQUE ITEM FROM ONESHOT’S INVENTORY — DIFFICULTY: NIGHTMARE ]

  Holy shit, he’s a murderer. Serial killer? Assassin? It was so purposeful… No hesitation. No remorse at all. And what was that light? I can’t fight that. And why am I still running towards him?

  Braking with all the force my new muscles can summon, I kick up mounds of grass and dirt as I skid to a halt before using that as an adrenaline-fueled springboard to sprint away like my life depends on it. Because, I mean, doesn’t it?

  Behind me, I hear him laughing evilly. Literally. It’s exactly, precisely, an evil laugh. Like what a villain sounds like in a cartoon. A cartoon for children.

  I fully realize it’s a strange sound to hear in this situation. And I’d normally explore that further.

  But just now, I’m far too busy running the fuck away.