[DAY 1]

  Watching the above-water world was fascinating to me. My eyes had finally gotten used to all the colors, all the light and heat, and now I watched with wonder. The wind rustled my… hair. Why did I have hair?! Shaking my head, I decided to leave that matter be, for the time being, and I looked forward again. I was near the ocean from the looks of it, the blue world right behind my feet, the beautiful sand underneath. It looked gorgeous from up here, but so did the world in front of me. Giant trees reached for the sky, and I could hear several species of birds making all kinds of noises.

  "Are you done gawking like a child?" said a human voice, the words registering in my ears.

  I quickly turned around, not seeing anyone in particular. Did the human body come with two voices? No info like that has been registered.

  "Up here, dumbass." The voice repeated again, and I looked up.

  A blue, floating man was in the air, standing just above my head. He was translucent, his whole body in weird clothing that the humans called a hoodie. How strange, to see this weird animal. I knew that I looked more or less the same as him, but that didn’t change how weird he seemed to my eyes.

  At least my eyes didn’t change much. There was no heat coming off of his body, which was weird. "Who are you? My guide?"

  "No, a fairy that came here to bless thee with divine power." His eyes rolled around the edges of his eyelids.

  I instantly got excited. How fitting that fairies came to bless me, god’s perfect creation. But wait, weren’t fairies purely mythical?

  "No, stupid, I’m your guide. It’s called sarcasm. Jesus Christ, this is going to be harder than I thought." He lowered to the ground, no longer floating in the air, but instead stood right in front of me. "Okay, listen up. I heard what the gods told you. I was standing right behind you, in fact, but I couldn’t talk. They left out a lot. So you better listen if you want to get out of this tournament alive, got it?"

  I nodded and crossed my new arms. How weird, communicating like this. I’d have to get used to it quickly.

  "Good. You know what a video game is?" His tone did not change at all, still rough around the edges. I didn’t even know why, but the way he spoke to me really irked me. I wasn’t some child he could speak down to!

  "No."

  "Really? I guess Mantis Shrimp don’t play games, but I thought they implanted knowledge into your head. It’s a game you play on a computer, a type of human creation. Make sense?"

  What was this man even on about? "I just have general information about Earth. Also, what’s a game?"

  The man stopped all of his movement, his hands in the air. He put them on his head, and crouched to the ground. "God, I should have picked a fucking monkey or something more intelligent. Maybe a dolphin even."

  I didn’t even feel like listening to this man any longer. I was promised a tournament, and a tournament I would go and find.

  "Well, this is useless. You know what? I’ll just go this way, and you go that way. Bye-bye!"

  I turned around, beginning my walk towards the trees. I was about to get lost in the beauty of the greenery, when the man began shouting something behind me.

  "You don’t even know the rules, man. Where are you going?"

  "Anywhere I can learn more about this tournament."

  "I’ve literally been learning all about the tournament for the past two years, and I was about to explain the rules to you! Or, well, begin explaining. They’re quite complicated."

  I turned to him, feeling an emotion that I’ve felt quite often before. Anger. I felt it rise in me, blanketing all of my thoughts. "And I don’t care. You speak down to me, as if I were something lesser, when the opposite is the fact. I’ll learn on my own."

  I turned again, and continued walking. The man behind me was silent, floating right where I left him. I couldn't even see him, but I felt his presence. The loud huffing and puffing let me know he stayed right where he was. Suited me just fine. It was too early in my new life for it to be so loud anyway.

  It was hard to not turn around and shout at the guy again when I registered the sounds coming closer. Better ignore that guy.

  With nothing better to do, I thought back on the knowledge that appeared in my mind. I could see now that I’ve misunderstood the word Level before. It spoke of something else, not a level of a building. Weird. It was as if more and more information was appearing every second, yet there were still gaps that didn’t seem to fill in.

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  "Hey, guide guy, why do I not have memories of certain things, or they aren’t there and then they appear later?"

  A prolonged silence, that was only disturbed by the sound of the wind rustling my pants, answered instead of him. I wasn’t even going to think about why I had pants. My question remained unanswered, and so I looked back, seeing the man still two metres away from me, staring right into my eyes.

  "What, now you want my guidance? Lost your chance, bud."

  Were all humans like this? One push back against their out-of-pocket remarks, and boom, he’s not going to answer me ever again. Well, bad for him, since his survival was linked to mine.

  "You do know that we’re connected, right? There was even a line in the announcement about it. I die, you die. So you better tell me. And you owe me an apology."

  If a ghost, phantom or whatever the hell he was could get red from anger, I swear he would have done so right then and there. He was about to shout his feelings at me, but then he… stopped? And actually seemed to think for a minute.

  "Okay. Sorry. It’s a bit frustrating to be locked up with so much information that you have to study for two whole years, just to come into a new world and see it’s not a bad dream. Okay? As for your memories, y-"

  Whatever he was about to say, he didn’t get to finish. A claw swiped right through his translucent body so quickly he didn’t even have time to register it . Hell, even I didn’t. I looked at the new creature attacking us, and I instantly felt myself ready for action, all my cells coming to life. I was born for this.

  In front of me stood a wolf, or, well, something like a wolf. My memory told me that this creature shouldn’t be quite as large as this one was, and that wolves usually hunted in packs. This one was alone, from what I could see, and was almost as tall as I was when it stood on all four of its legs. The teeth protruding out of its mouth were weirdly crooked - the longest fangs almost as long as a dagger.

  Its black fur reflected the sunlight, as if the creature was groomed, the ebony color giving it a presence of a wild predator. God, it looked so fluffy, so much so that I just wanted to… bury my hands and face into it, to squeeze it and play with it just for a short while.

  Stop it. Focus. No time to do… whatever that was with a beast that wants to kill me.

  Before my guide even finished rematerializing, I was already in action.

  I quickly strode toward it, the air around me whooshing in my ears, and I punched as hard as I could, as I’ve always done. But this was weird. My hand was shaped weirdly, and the five protrusions, fingers, didn’t generate as much force as I would have liked. The hit connected, yet instead of a sonic boom that I expected, I was met with a slapping sound.

  The creature was hit, but it seemingly wasn’t hurt much from the attack. In fact, the glint in its eyes looked amused, mocking, even. What was this sensation that came from that attack? It felt as if little flames danced on my palm, phantoms moving in irregular motions. Were humans flammable? Or was it just me? So much to learn, yet my knowledge wasn’t expanding fast enough.

  While I inspected my hand and the new sensation connected to it, the wolf took a step forward and bit at the same hand I was looking at, which I moved out of the way to the best of my capabilities. That wasn’t nice.

  It continued lunging after me, swiping with its claws as I made some last-minute dodges. I was getting used to this body quicker than I thought, but it still didn’t feel adequate. I was basically a newborn, after all.

  Just as another claw-swipe cut the air above me as I dropped to the ground, my oh so gracious guide finally materialized a few metres away from me, and immediately started shouting.

  "You have to close your hand to punch, you dumbass. Also, turn on your stat view for gods’ sake!"

  I would probably rip him a new one if I wasn’t occupied by a three-hundred-kilogram beast that was looking for a snack. But taking my current situation into account, I decided to not spark a new fight right after he apologized. For now.

  I didn’t even stop to think about what this ‘statue view’ or whatever could be, but I did listen to his advice on closing my hand. Why the fuck did he want me to look at some statues right now was honestly beyond me. Human eccentrics. The wolf’s fangs grazed my arm as I dodged just a second too late, but with its mouth closed, it was now my turn to attack.

  Again, with as much strength as I could muster, my arm flew out to punch, all my focus on connecting with the attack. It did reasonable damage this time, although not incapacitating. The head of the thing moved in the other direction from the force of my blow, and it took a few steps back.

  This thing was intelligent then, more than a wolf should be.

  With me being the better predator now, I took a step forward, just to get interrupted by the guide guy again. Could I PLEASE punch him too?

  "Your statview, dude! Christ, just think of "Bullet strike" when you attack, okay? I’ll take you through the rest after this."

  That was all I needed to know. What more could this guy tell me, at any rate? I sprinted toward the creature again, just as I did the first time, and it got on its hind legs, both of the front legs trying to slash me into ribbons. I quickly threw myself to the ground, the force of my jump sliding me right underneath the creature, and looked up. The torso of the wolf was there, getting larger as it’s front legs came down, the paws planted firmly on the grass now.

  That was my chance.

  I mentally commanded the words the guide told me to, and punched upward with all my strength, toward the torso. My hand flew out a hundred times faster than before, a sonic boom following it in another split of a second. I felt a wet and sludgy sensation, married to heat wrapped around my hand. The wolf’s body caved in, the torso that I punched decorated by a new hole in it now. The hole ended right where the wolf did, and I was rewarded by the sight of the trees rustling in the wind, filtering the strays of sunlight.

  Well, rewarded for only a moment, just until the blood started flowing out, gushing out of the tissue and right on top of my face. The smell of iron was disgusting.

  But then another thought struck me. I was lying on the ground, under a giant creature. A creature that was now dead, and probably about to crash on the ground. Or better yet, onto a certain Mantis Shrimp lying right underneath it.

  And just then, the thing fell down right on my face.