System initializing…

Simon Bliss had seen a lot of things that surprised him in his life. As the 14 year old son of two mothers, as the guy who had tried every drug under the sun and had convinced a lot of people to try the more reasonable half of them, he was no stranger to weird phenomenon. Even hallucinations could be considered run of the mill before Simon’s eyes.

Still, he was given pause by the strange message that filled the air in front of him, making him look up and away from his Playstation. He wrinkled his nose, annoyed.

This… was extremely dumb. Was it some sort of prank?

“Mom? Other mom?” Simon yelled, not caring that Denise would wince when she heard his voice. Of course, that was only if she heard it. But they were both out at that stupid charity dinner that Simon had refused to go to, and-

Everything around Simon shifted. The television, and the lamps, went dark. But still, a message appeared in the air in front of Simon.

Welcome to New Earth! Your world has bene entered into the Nexus, and as such, is now running on a new system designed to give you the tools and challenges to survive and live a fulfilling life! Good Luck.

Basic Stats Set!

Simon Bliss

Class: ---

Level: N/A

Health(/R per hour): 17/17 (13.5)

Mana(/R per hour): 19/19 (9)

Stam(/R per min): 13/13 (8)

Vitality: 3

Endurance: 1

Strength: 2

Agility: 4

Perception: 4

Reaction: 3

Resistance: 1

Willpower: 1

Inteligence: 4

Wisdom: 3

Control: 3

Focus: 1

For more information, you can view your stats anytime by thinking “Menu” and then selecting “Status”.

Congratulations! The “Newbie Path” is open to you!

Congratulations! As the System has determined you have a very slim shot of surviving the next 30 seconds, you have been given a random Uncommon rarity Path! The “Bubble Path” is open to you!

Simon eyes scanned through the Status screen with a discerning eye. Could this really be the sort of situation from the stories he read, where the world ended, and aliens took over, and everyone got stats…?

If so, his build was leaning towards some sort of mage build. Although it did annoy Simon somewhat that his stats distribution set his Resistance, Willpower, and Focus at 1, which seemed to be useful for the mage class, but it did fit his character. Even if it rankled.

Someone screamed outside his door. Right outside his door, which was a little bit surprising, as they lived on the 2nd highest floor of a pretty nice apartment building. Immediately, as the scream continued, Simon’s heart began to pound.

But this was a game, so other, more nontraditional instincts kicked in. Simon scrambled to the kitchen and grabbed a long, sharp knife and ran up to the front door, bursting out without a thought.

What he saw made him stop for a second, as he struggled to process what he was seeing. Part of the building had been sheared off. So instead of the hallway that should extend a good 50 feet to his right, there was just nothing but night sky and the ground below. A woman was at the edge of the location of the shear apparently looking down, when what appeared to be a green slime fell on her shoulder.

Now it was slowly spreading to engulf her face, even while she waved her arms frantically, her eyes white with panic. Around 6 more slimes dropped down onto her, covering her body. Clinically, Simon noted the red cores in their body, and his other instincts told him that these were the weak points of these monsters.

Almost numb, he looked left. At least a dozen more slimes were rolling forward towards the source of the commotion. Simon had a powerful urge to just leave the woman out here on her own, but then he saw that a few slimes leave the pack and ooze under doors, working their way into the apartments.

More and more slimes were dropping down, mobbing the woman. Her lower body was stuck in what looked almost comically like a glob of jello, around a meter of the green slime around her body.

The screaming was abruptly cut off as they covered her mouth, and now she flailed wildly, barely able to move. Her eyes locked onto Simon’s, pleading with him for… something. But Simon’s mind was elsewhere.

He needed to get away, but-

They were on the 9th floor, and the two stairs were either behind the oncoming rush of slimes, or in the part of the building that had been sheared off, with the elevators.

Would the police come…? Simon wondered idly. Then a thought struck him. The message had said he was very unlikely to survive the next 30 seconds. Did that mean…?

The woman’s struggles were growing more feeble, her eyelids fluttering as they simply drowned her. The slimes coming down the hall were almost at Simon’s door. If he was going to survive, he needed something crazy. Something crazy enough to get him off the 9th floor and…

Simon gave the slimes a long look. They seemed… slightly resilient…?

Simon did his best impression of a linebacker, spear tackling the woman, thick in the midst of slimes, and both fell off the edge, tumbling down. His overweight frame was enough momentum apparently to make up for the rather poor attempt. The contact seemed to wake the woman up, and she began to scramble frantically at Simon’s arms, her fingers weak.

His annoyance was simmering to a boil when they hit the ground.

…

…

…

Simon blinked, and sat up, confused as to why he felt so slimy, and his movements felt… difficult. He opened his mouth, and it was flooded with liquid. The world around him was green.

It snapped back into place. The slimes. But he couldn’t breath, and everything hurt, his calf throbbing painfully-

His calf was now the sheath of his kitchen knife, he blearily noticed, his horror mounting. Why the fuck had he jumped with it in his hand?!? He flailed briefly, before he stopped himself. That would do nothing. That’s exactly how the woman had died. He needed to… to do….

Something soft knocked against his temple. His eyes narrowed. The cores!

Desperately, he reached up and grabbed it, surprised to find it soft and spongy. He flexed his hand for a few seconds, and then something gave, and it collapsed. Immediately, the slime in the area around his head dissipated, seemingly losing all substance and fading from existence.

After several gasping breaths, Simon was able to recover somewhat. They seemed to have crashed onto the 3rd floor, as the shearing wasn’t as straight as Simon had originally thought. Which was rather good-

Almost as if it was waiting for him to notice, he felt the weight of the slimes around him, and the woman’s body who he was still entangled with, dragging them left and off the edge as the floor partially gave way.

As he was pulled forward, the knife in his calf was tugged free of the wooden floorboard, but not before it sent a stream of agony up his leg, turning his vision white. Then, for the second time of the night, Simon fell.