“Who the heck am I?” I said as I reread the little block of text several times while I made my way deeper inside the curving and branching tunnel system. When I reached the first intersection to two new paths I stopped and looked around. The first branch was sloped downwards, seemingly to another level below and the second was an upwards path. I could keep on and around the exterior of the mound's outer wall if I continued straight on.

While I decided which way to go I decided to reply to whoever C the Champion was. I didn’t like their superior tone though so I kept my response annoying and brief.

~Feed your own ego. I’m busy.~

I didn’t have time to waste on someone who thought that they owned this game. I had already almost died simply by trying to figure out my interface and I was already beginning to see how deadly this place was. At least my ankle wasn’t bothering me and seemed to actually be healing the longer I waited.

~Excuse me? You stole what is rightfully mine! - C the Champion~

~I didn’t touch your brain.~

~What? No, I mean you took First Blood. That is always mine. - C the Champion~

Always theirs? What is this nonsense?

~So basically you are the Champion of Whining and Complaining?~

A red cross appeared in the text area along with a short description.

~X = Cavii has enabled PVP (Player versus Player) mode. Enable PVP mode if you would like to go head to head with all other PVP-marked players.~

“Ha! Not likely.” I muttered to myself as I heard a rustling noise coming from the way that I had just come. It wasn’t the wind running past the entrance of the tunnel… no… it was something else. I picked the path that continued further around the inner wall of the mound and quickly continued on, my ears listening for the approach of the strange noise while I made my way around the perimeter of the mound.

~Hey coward! Enable PVP so I can find you on the map and take back what is mine! - C the Champion~

So that is what this person did. They probably always bullied and challenged anyone who got anything good inside this game and made a name for themselves being a douchebag. I was freshly minted with this game and wasn’t about to let this Cavii end my adventure until I got some more experience. He or she knew that this was my first time playing this game because it announced that it was my First Kill as well. At least I knew how to find them now when I was prepared. All I had to do was let them know where I was as well.

My short talk with Cavii did give me some useful information though. PVP made it so that you could take other people’s stuff and there was a map available in the interface.

I tried to open a mini-map and was pleasantly surprised when a little 3D map appeared in front of me with a little yellow line marking where I had been. I left it floating in front of me as I paused to listen. Something was following me. I turned and looked back down the tunnel and found the source of the noise just coming into view. It was a Fomys. The maggot-like creature was pulling itself through the tunnels by using four limbs to grab the ridges in the walls. It seemed to glide across the ground by secreting a thin layer of a glistening substance from under its ripply belly.

“Ok, that is good news I guess. That means that none of the natives can come from that way if the Fomys blocks the whole tunnel with its ugly body.” I said as I went back to studying the map. I needed to either move inwards or to continue around the outer edge to get a feel for just how large this mound was.

Five objects struck me in the chest and shoulder, throwing me to the ground. The fall knocked the breath out of me and I heard a strange whistling sound when I inhaled. I didn’t feel any pain besides the initial feeling of something pricking my chest. I tried to inhale again, hearing a wheezing sound with every attempt. The sound was coming from my chest area. Everything was getting harder to move with each passing second.

I looked down in mild curiosity and found that I was bleeding out with five barbed and pearly colored teeth sticking out of me. I wondered why I felt so calm and at peace with everything. Why was it also so hard to think?

I almost didn’t think to use my Prime Speed Control key in time. The moment that I did everything changed inside my mind. I could think clearly again and I instantly realized that I was dying and under the effects of a powerful neurological poison that made me not have a care in the world.

What an evil little cow maggot! I thought as I looked down at the teeth jutting from my shoulder and chest. The teeth were hollow... no wonder it seemed like I was bleeding out at an impossible rate. That also explained why I was hearing a strange noise when I tried to breathe… they had punctured my lungs as well.

I lay there, frozen in time, with only disbelief in my mind. I couldn’t believe that it was over for me just like that. Also… what the heck?!? No one told me anything about the Fomys being hostile little pieces of garbage. Ok, really big piles of fat and ugly garbage… but that is beside the point. So I was supposed to defend the evil maggots from the invading spear chuckers all the while staying alive at the same time? Challenge accepted!

These suckers would all need dentures by the time I was done with them though. - I thought as I looked down at the approaching circular maw with disgust. The mouth was a sloppy ring of loose-looking lips while the teeth seemed to come from sacs arrayed around the lips. I could just make out a white ooze leaking from five of the sacs, possibly from the five that had been launched at me. That ooze spoke of the poison that had to have been coating the teeth before they punched into my body. There were still other sacs that were closed, meaning that this creature still had more teeth to shoot at other unsuspecting victims. Or… perhaps I was the only unsuspecting victim in this game if everyone else knew what was hostile? I couldn’t make out any eyes, just some fleshy antenna that seemed to all be pointing directly at me.

Since I was able to think freely I decided to spend the time wisely and totally look through my interface before I died. I looked over the map, memorizing where I was laying around the southside of the mound. I knew the elevation but since I hadn’t been anywhere else I had no other frame of reference besides the compass to work from. This might be enough to get me back to my body or rather… my stuff since I was pretty sure that this creature was going to eat me. I looked for my cr and found the three strands still hovering where I had mentally set them to follow behind me in the air. The good news was, they were probably going to kill this ugly creature as it came closer and tried to eat my corpse. The bad news was… I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to kill a Fomys as part of the game. The whole “Defender” in the game name kind of went against that option.

So… if I did get a second chance with Silver’s Alpha key, I would need to have someplace to come back to to get my stuff from. Preferably someplace hidden and where this Fomys wouldn’t be able to reach.

I looked around within my limited field of view and decided that I would need to be quick about retrieving the motes from my pocket and carving out a little cubby hole up near the ceiling. I mentally prepared myself for the actions that I would need my cr to take, using my hands as points of reference rather than just willing the cr to try to scoop into my pocket to retrieve the motes.

I probably could be fairly rough getting them out of my pocket, since I was going to die anyway and currently was unable to feel anything.

With that all set I did a last-minute inspection of my interface to make sure that I hadn't missed anything important.

My map was lacking and I had barely gotten to see much of the playable space yet, or even another player… of which there were only 8,911 left alive in the game. That meant that in these last few moments a little over 3000 other players had already died. That realization made me feel not so bad about my early fate at the hands of the evil maggot cow.

I was really thankful that I hadn’t marked myself for PVP because that would have given away to Cavii that I had died. I didn’t want to have to explain anything if I came back to life.

Wait for a second! Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier? What about using my Epic Life Regen mote to heal these injuries and to get out of this situation? - I questioned myself angrily.

I suppose I could try… the problem was that without being in quick time my mind had really not been in any condition to do anything productive with my body. I would have to get my hand on one of the motes and squeeze it to get it to work for me.

If I died and could get my hands on another mote… it looks like I would always have to be clutching them, ready to squeeze at a moment's notice. Maybe even to have one inside my mouth as well. - I considered as I finished looking over the game interface and finding nothing else of great importance. There had been a tab of my collected achievements that listed the two that I currently had along with their benefits. I hoped that it would stay with me when I respawned.

“Here goes nothing!” I said to myself as I already started to try to move and control my cr even before I began to slowly release control of time. I instantly began to feel as though nothing mattered and a great weakness from not being able to breathe settle over me.

Quickly before I lost too much control again I turned my Prime Speed Control key back up to maximum and reconsidered my options. It looked like I was going to have to preload my cr with rough instructions and to hope that it would be accurate enough to achieve what I wanted before I lost all control of my mind. I simply could not get my arm to move towards my pocket during that last dip back into my poisoned body.

During my brief couple of moments trying to reach into my pocket, a new little text entry had popped up.

~Cavii has set a bounty on your items.~

What the actual heck does that mean? I thought as I looked into what the limitations were outside of PVP combat.

-All items, except cr, may be stolen or taken outside of PVP combat.-

-Bounties can be created by players in exchange for current in-game cr.-

Was this Cavii related to Magus the 2nd or something? What the actual crap was wrong with some people? I thought as I grew even more determined to knock this self-proclaimed “Champion” down a few pegs.

I went back to my original plan and mentally preprogrammed my cr with specific actions, ignoring the movement of my arms and only trying to stay alive as long as possible.

I turned off my Prime Speed Control key and instantly lost the ability to care while I watched my cr spring into action. One of my cr blades moved upwards and turned into a little ice cream scoop, making a hoop out of the wire and cutting a small section out of the mud wall. The little half ball fell down and rolled into the path of the oncoming Fomys which immediately sucked it up with its rubbery lips, not even losing speed coming towards me. The other two strands had merged, forming a small sieve of wire, while moving towards the leg pocket that I had stored the motes inside. The little sieve-cage scooped into the material and flesh of my leg, managing to grab up two of the three motes before surging upwards towards the little cubby hole. I didn't feel any pain as this happened, I simply watched with a vague detachment.

I suppose I should have been upset as I watched the third little mote that my retrieval cage had missed as it fell out of the hole in my pants and tumbled towards the cave wall… but I was more fascinated in watching the little stream of blood spraying out from the gash that the razor-sharp cage had bitten out of my leg.

That little stream quickly started to ebb and fade away as my vision started to dim and blur away. I noticed movement, my legs were getting sucked into something before I completely lost my grip on reality.

I came to, mentally completely clear and fresh, standing back inside the game lobby.

-Use of Keys and External abilities are disabled while playing.-

-Error encountered-

The game was still going! I still had all my messages, the map, and could still see the countdown number when each contestant died. I could still get back in and play some more!

I tried to become a human again and to set my clothes back how they were when I first started the game but ran into a real error that I couldn’t get past.

-Recursion error encountered. Human species is currently unplayable.-

Reading this made me switch on my Prime Speed Control key to give myself time to think as I looked over at the grayed-out disk that had formerly held a flexing human in the center.

Yup, there were bugs with this key. - I thought as I looked around for another suitable candidate for me to play.

The Saber Tooth/praying mantis hybrid looked formidable as did the heavily spiked body of the shark/dog creature next to it. The problem with some of these aliens was the fact that some of them just made me sick to my stomach looking at them. It wasn’t the extra mouths or heads that tended to throw me off, instead, it was the phobia of too many holes or eyes all over the place that set me on edge. Was it called Trypophobia? Probably.

Not all of the creatures were overly large. There was a short leprechaun-bodied, Cthulhu-faced creature called a Xeath. I couldn’t help but feel that the diminutive creature just seemed evil. I think it was the fact that the Xeath’s eyes seemed to be on fire inside its skull or the fact that it could actually turn itself completely invisible for 10 seconds. I would probably have to pick him at some point down the line just so I could grief the other players and demand that the “Great Old Ones wanted their pot of gold back!”

I ended up picking a creature called a Blidda that looked like a cross between a bat and a spider. It had four eyes and splotchy green-hued leathery skin with three thick fingers on its hands and feet. The Blidda was reportedly very good in the dark and was even able to change its skin to match its surroundings. I knew that I would need something that could sneak if I wanted to get my motes back. The Sabertooth/mantis hybrid was deaf and mostly observed using hairs along its body to detect sounds and movements. Perhaps I would try that one later. It was called a Jaz’era Prime. There even was a Jaz’era Lesser which turned out to be a Cicada-looking lesser version of the larger Prime.

Once I selected the Blidda the game dropped me right back in the same place that I started at. My boots and the spear were gone but there was still a gash in the ground where the spear had lodged itself as well as a stain of blood from my foot in the crevice left by the missing spear. It looked as though the Fomys had actually come from the outside and ate everything on its way into the mound.

This made me squint as I moved back against the wall of the cave, trying to remain hidden. How had the Fomys come from outside if we were supposed to defend it inside? It didn’t make sense to me. A system-generated notification popped up a few moments after I pressed myself against the side of the cave wall, willing my skin to match the color and texture around me.

-Achievement earned! I was eaten by a Fomys!-

-Reward not given. This always ends in death.-

-Error-

-Legendary Achievement earned! You somehow survived being eaten by a Fomys!-

-Reward: Fomys pheromone gland key. Repel or attract Fomys with this gland.-

A key? Did I just get an actual key as a reward? An evil smile lit up my face when I began to wonder if the keys created in the game would actually carry over into real life. Now I had to try that Xeath alien out to see if invisibility could be learned.

Movement caught my eye outside the opening of the cave. I could hear some hooting and sounds of combat a little distance down the side of the mound. Cautiously I peered downwards, keeping my exceptional hearing directed down into the tunnel of the mound so that I would be warned if someone tried to jump me.

Down near the treeline, at least 50 different players were harvesting the alien coconut trees. They had at least 12 players standing guard, simply waving their cr blades around or forming mesh shields in case a spear was flung at them from the cover of the trees.

Why were they harvesting and making boards out of the larger trees? I had no idea. I just had so many questions about this game and what its main goal and purpose were. 20 of the players were working in a chain to carry away the planks of wood into another opening near the base of the mound. The most prominent species among the players was one that was called a Herv. I hadn’t been impressed with it because it looked and had the characteristics of a sloth. What I could see with my exceptional eyesight was that their fur and skin were immune to the sharp edges of the fronds and perfectly suited to carry large burdens on their backs while they used their small amount of cr to help drag even more boards along.

I willed my cr to form out in front of me, not wanting to be defenseless in case something decided that it wanted to attack me.

-No cr to command-

Oh crap... that was not good.