My dreams are muddled, forgotten voices, faceless people talking and laughing, a strong sense of belonging...

I awake with a start, noticing that though the wind has yet to die down, at least the sun appeared again. As my mind settles back into being awake, the only remnant of my dream is a sense of vague loss. I grimace. This is my life now. Best start the day. Lots to do, no guidance.

[Congratulations! Cold Resistance has leveled up through use! Cold Resistance (2).]

Oh, what a nice surprise-

[Congratulation on surviving the first day! Biological protection lifted]

“Fuck.” My stomach turns inside out with hunger and pain. Holy fuck I didn’t even realize I wasn’t eating or drinking anything that whole day. Why wasn’t there a warning. God...Fucking...

[Quest Received! Reclaim the Starting Grounds. Difficulty: E23!a$%%Ss~Y

Eliminate all the monsters in the Starting Grounds area. Reward: Establishing a Village].

And the third time’s the charm. How is it that my morning started so great and over the course of two more notifications, everything is terrible.

And what’s with that difficulty? It looks like something broke, like, in the game… which makes the ‘easy’ it suggests much more suspect. Something’s up. But there’s no way I can take that quest on, not that I think anyone can right now. Not that I think all of us could, together.

So… later problems. The village sounds enticing though.

I quickly get to my feet, feeling oddly unbalanced, and meander outside to take in the view and plan my next move. As I step into the sunlight, my balance shifts suddenly, and I realize what feels off: something is on me. I freeze. Again. The movement continues, and I literally have no idea what to do. Every part of my body is screaming at me to move, flail, kick, remove all clothing, but it’s kept back by the knowledge that things like bees will just leave on their own if you don’t mess with them, but will fuck your day up if you get uppity.

True to my hopes, the weight seems to be making its way down my leg. The thing that weirds me out the most is how, other than the moving weight, there is no sensation associated with whatever is happening. I flick my eyes down toward my legs just as the weight reaches my heel.

IT’S THE GODDAMN SNAKE THING AGAIN.

Inwardly fuming and panicking in (somewhat) equal measure, I hold my movement just long enough to let the thing climb down before sprinting away and ducking behind a rock. I collapse, breathing far more heavily than the brief exercise warranted, refusing to look back at the MUCH TOO FORWARD snake thing.

No, this is stupid, you’re being stupid. Go check this thing out. I don’t care that it is literally the most terrifying thing, it hasn’t eaten you yet.

I grumpily break off the inner dialogue and peek around the rock I’m using as a hiding place. The snake thing is right where I left it, staring after me with its eye half-lidded.

I-is this thing giving me sass? I’m being judged by an alien snake worm. Truly I have never been so low. Assuring myself that it probably just has its eye half closed because it doesn’t like bright light, I slowly approach it. As though the game senses my desire to know more about the thing in front of me, a notification pops up.

[Cathid: Necessary waste recycler, usually found in caves. Feeds primarily on dead flesh, plant matter, and small organisms. Mostly harmless.]

Mostly harmless huh. I squint slightly at the cathid. It doesn’t *look* that harmful. No idea why it was climbing all over me though. Maybe I smell like rot? I tentatively sniff myself.

Nah, seems fine to me… Who knows.

The cathid regards me as I approach, doing little aside from undulating slightly.

“So you don’t do much, do you?” It only stares.

“Are you going to hurt me?” Staring.

“Do… you understand me or am I just talking to myself.” It blinks.

Sighing, I give up. The rumbling of my stomach is more pressing than dealing with this creature. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of food up here in the mountains though… And it’s not like I could use the cathid as a truffle pig, it would just find dead stuff. Not that I could even cook anything, I realize with a frown. There isn’t much plant life growing here, let alone something big enough to burn, and I have no source of fire, so that’s two strikes. Thank god for Cold Resistance.

Looking out over the valley, I see the monster camp along the river closest to where I appeared yesterday. It looks shoddy, but it’s full of monsters. Hundreds, at least. Maybe even thousands. From this distance, seeing what they’re doing is a bit difficult, but from the way the camp has been changing, they seem to be building fortifications. I can see collections of brush and sticks with raised areas punctuated along them. There always seems to be one monster or another sitting atop them, watching. They even have roving patrols, for lack of a better description. The faster monsters, the ones oddly reminiscent of dogs, run along the hills searching for… people, I assume with a shudder. God knows why they’re hunting us, why they attack us at all, but I guess this is part of the challenge or whatever. Weed out the people who can’t adapt and survive… but to what end?

To my right there is a cascading mountain stream that flows gradually out into the grasslands below. The stream appears to be glacial melting from even higher up the mountain, far past where would be safe for me to travel without some kind of weather protection. The upper parts of the mountain are completely obscured with a kind of fog, which I can only assume is tons of snow and ice. It looks like the most diverse plant life grow along the river in the grasslands, so there’s probably some kind of food there. In fact, I can see a few small camps along the river. It’s heartening to see that some people made it out and found somewhere safe enough to sleep. Far down the stream there stands a rather thick forest. It looks a bit ominous, even from this distance.The forested area seems to be less well lit, contrary to what one would think. The river flows directly through the forest, but it’s mostly obscured by canopy so I can’t tell where it goes or if it lets out.

To my left, I see only that the grasslands continue, dotted with small lakes and a few small streams. Unfortunately, they are all much further away than the stream to my right, and the monster patrols are thicker that way. No dice.

Making the executive decision to seek out food along the left river, I briefly glance back to check on the cathid, only to find it is right next to me. It opens and closes the claw on its butt, making a distinctive clicking sound.

“What, you want to come with?” *Click click* “It might be dangerous, are you sure?” *Click click* “Fine, just don’t bite me, ok?” *Click*

I touch my hand to the ground next to the cathid and it undulates its way up my arm. I still can’t feel it moving, despite knowing where it’s touching me. Creepy. It climbs up to my shoulders and loosely drapes itself there, seemingly comfortable.

“Let me know if you see anything dangerous and I’ll do my best to keep it away from us.” *Click click*

Assuming that to be acquiescence, I begin trekking down the mountain, doing my best to follow the same way I went up. Unfortunately, I don’t remember that much from the early parts of my mad dash away from the monsters, so the path I end up taking is certainly not the same, which earns me a few nicks and bruises during lost traction, sliding, and falls. The cathid, unsurprisingly, always manages to make it out unscathed, almost as if it knows when I’m going to fall and moves accordingly.

“D’you think you could find me a better way down?” Shot in the dark, but hey, maybe it’s good for something. *Click click*. I feel the weight on my shoulders change such that my body wants to move towards what looks to me like a sheer cliff. I resist at first, cautiously inching in that direction just to see for sure whether this thing is trying to kill me, but I’m pleasantly surprised to find the opposite. There’s a very clear path only a short drop from where I am. It doesn’t lead directly to the cave, but it would be a hell of a lot easier than the shitty climbing I’ve been trying to do. Turns out this thing has some sort of native knowledge of these mountains. And I can tentatively say it understands me, which is… surprising? I was mostly talking at it to calm myself down.