002

Looking at the floating screen, I was left speechless.

What the hell is this! Some kind of videogame!?

For a second I even thought that I was inside of a videogame.

But I rejected that idea completely. This felt too real. The fatigue, the pulsing pain in my legs or the fact that my sweat has started to freeze, my mind might not understand what is happening but my body did and the pain that spread throughout my body screamed that none of it was fake.

“Looks like I’m not being chased anymore…”

After a minute or two of sitting there, I was certain of this.

Now that I could finally take a breather, I carefully thought about my current situation in the most rational way that I could.

From what I know is that I’ve somehow come to this frozen hell of a place, I don’t know where this is, who brought me here or even how to get out of here.

I don’t have any warm clothes to help me in this weather, nor do I have any food to sustain me other than the uncooked noodles, all I do have right now, is the snow so at least I won’t be thirsty.

That was all the negative that happened. On the other hand, I did get something here. The status.

I thought of that screen appearing once again and it did.

Status

Name: Grant Steele

Lv.0

HP: 14/23

MP: 0/0

BA: 0/0

QI: 12/12

Skills: Sprint Lv.1

“I know that I haven’t played many videogames in my life, but even I know that these stats are bad.”

First problem, my health, just running for that long and the hurting in my legs had reduced my HP by almost half. This means that HP can decrease without taking any damage, just by my body’s fatigue and physical condition.

I can tell that the HP shows more than the life I have but like the entire situation of my body condensed into a number.

Second problem, I’m level 0, basically I haven’t even started to grow. I guess it will take more than a skill to help me level up. So learning skills don’t give EXP, now I know that. I’m going to assume that levelling skills also don’t give any EXP.

Third problem, if I’m right then MP means Magic points, and I have a big fat 0 in that, I don’t know what BA is but I have a 0 in that too. Although I’m only level 0 right now, but I can’t help but think that it shouldn’t be zero.

If I guess that every level up is supposed to give me a certain percentage of my stats then doesn’t this mean that these stats will always be zero?

Only the last stat gave me any hope as I saw that it wasn’t empty. QI has 12 points in it, but I don’t know if that’s considered good or bad on level 0. Since I don’t know what this Qi is used for, I’ll leave it for the time being.

Now that I think about it, even this is bad, there is nothing that’s good about my status. I have a magic stat that I can’t use, a mystery stat that I can’t use and a third that I don’t know how to use, if this is isn’t bad then I don’t know what is.

I was feeling pretty down. I looked at the only thing remaining in status, my only skill.

I finally got something when I concentrated on it.

[Sprint Lv.1]

This skill allows the user to run faster than the average person, the speed of which depends on the Qi value of the user as well as the level of the skill.

Activation cost: 10 QI

“This is good!”

Finally, something positive!

This is the perfect skill to have in such a situation. I know that I can’t fight those beasts head on, at least not yet.

So this should help me get away from combat until I’m able to take one on. If I increase the skills level even more, who knows, I might be able to get out of this place.

I should also figure out how I can increase my level, the big fat zero is making me quite anxious. If the method is standard like in most videogames then it means that I’ll have to defeat enemies to gain EXP as the skills provide none. Hopefully I can increase a skill’s level without having to engage in combat.

Now that I’ve sorted that out, let’s look at the most glaring problem next. Where do I go?

I need a place to stay, somewhere I can sleep for the night. I can’t sleep on ice, I’ll freeze to death. I doubt that I can find a town or city considering I don’t even know where I am. My best bet would be to find a hiding spot away from the beasts.

I’ll also have to find a way to start a fire. If those years of stupid survival shows have taught me anything then it is that in such a cold environment it is mandatory that I start a fire, it will keep me warm as well as keep away the beasts, I hope.

I got up now that my breathing has calmed down and my body was starting to feel the bitter cold here. If watching Gear Brills has taught me anything then it is that I need to keep my body moving in this cold of an environment.

My feet still hurt a lot as even taking a step is hard. This is the first time that I’ve ran that long, and since I don’t exercise very often, the pain is bound to stay for a while.

I walked around the place slowly, in consideration of my body as well keeping a low profile, and while also keeping an eye and an ear out for any sounds.

Going around trees I picked up all the branches that I thought looked even a little dry, I had to do it quick as the cold was starting to get worse by each passing second.

I would’ve done some exercises right now to warm my body a bit if my legs weren’t feeling like they would snap off with every movement I made.

It took a few hours because I had to be careful. But I’ve gathered enough to last for a night. Thankfully it was a forest otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to find this much wood in a plain area.

I took all of it, the noodles and the sticks to a place that I found when I was searching around.

It was a cave near a small frozen lake, and since the area near the lake was open, I could also see a little farther. It was the perfect location.

Inside of the cave was pretty small as well, the walls were two metres apart, the length was around five to six metres in and the ceiling could be reached with my hands, since this place was so small there also weren’t any beasts living here. There also weren’t any signs of anything that lived here previously, so I felt safe moving in here.

I walked towards the farthest end of the cave, dropping my stuff beside me, I made my preparations to start a fire.

I grabbed two pieces fairly large pieces of wood. One of them was a little flat and the other was kind of slim. The basics of starting fire with sticks came down to friction, if I can create enough friction and get a spark going then I’ll just need to some fibre for the flame to grow.

“I have seen this in every survival show ever, so it must work.”

The process of getting the fibre was difficult as I needed very dry and very fine timber to do so. With no real tools with me, I had to do it by hand. Very carefully I picked out one of the driest looking piece of wood and started shredding.

I was trying to make a fire like the ones they show on survival shows.

When I had enough fibres and my fingers felt like they were numb that was when I stopped.

Using the flat piece of wood as base and holding the long piece between my hands, I started spinning it.

The method I saw on TV was using a rope or something similar. Using another piece of wood to hold the long one, they would use the rope by tying it to the ends of a curved stick, then folding the rope over the long stick, it made it far easier to create friction for the fire.

The only way I can get rope is by tearing my clothes and I don’t want to do that considering the weather outside.

So I had to do it by my own hands, which took a lot of time and a lot of pain, but I was able to get some going after a long time. I used the shredded fibres to transfer the spark and while slowly blowing over it, I started feeding the fire.

Even though my hands hurt like hell, I have never felt more relieved in my life. A smile involuntarily covered my face.

As the warmth spread in the cave and the fatigue kicked in at the right moment, I fell asleep very quickly.

…

When I woke up the next morning I woke up with a jolt going through my body, I realized how dangerous of a situation I was in.

The fire had gone out a long time ago and I was totally unaware because of the lingering heat in the cave.

I was also quite hungry now since I hadn’t eaten anything last night. Having nothing other than the packs of noodles, I ate one of the noodles dry, since I don’t have anything to cook them in.

Now, I only have two packs left, who knows how long they’ll last.

Good thing these have a lot of calories in them so I can go on one until evening but after that I have to look for a new food source or I might be forced to eat these noodles again, I don’t have much choice considering my situation, but these noodles are going to run out, worse by tomorrow or the day after if I only one every day. So, it is mandatory that I find a new food source as soon as possible.

And let’s be honest here, who likes to eat uncooked noodles, even if the instant ones are considered cooked anyways.

I can tell you who doesn’t and that’s me.

I then spent the entire morning finding some more wood. I purposefully looked for wood that was easy to shred this time around, my sore fingers made sure I did that.

I want to have a stable supply of food before I can think of getting out of here and I also want to raise my levels a bit, I don’t know what kinds of beasts and monsters roam this area and frankly, I don’t want to find out, but considering my luck I probably will and so, I want to be prepared.

So, the main objective for today is hunt for some food and get my levels up.

I also want to raise my [Sprint] skill’s level, but I’ll do that after I have a stable supply of food because I have a feeling that skill is going to burn a lot of calories.

…

I think I found something.

I don’t know for how long I was out there searching, but the sun had long passed over my head. It was going to get dark soon.

I had to keep track of my location so I didn’t go too far from my cave and I could go back instantly if I wanted to. It reduced the radius of the area I was searching in, but this helped me in a way as this was the only area that I knew of where there weren’t any beasts nearby.

I was very lucky that I ran into a place like this, so I was reluctant to leave into more dangerous territories, especially the one with the huge bear-like creature.

It was a very gruelling experience and one that I would definitely would not want to undertake again under any circumstances. But it was well worth the trip because of what I found.

“It’s a trail.”

If I’m right, this trails has to be a rabbit, they are the only creatures that I know can handle the cold really well.

Judging by the snow trail, there are quite a few of them here. They must’ve a den near here somewhere.

The tracks are a little larger than normal rabbits, but considering the fact that bears are twice the size, this should be considered normal. I knew I was just consoling myself, but I was hungry so I don’t think my mind or my body really cared what kind of an animal this was.

It was a fair distance away from my cave but I had no choice as there was nothing near it. If the lake wasn’t frozen over then I would’ve fished but that’s not something possible right now.

I really want to hunt these rabbits right now, but I’m not confident. Frankly, I don’t even know if these are rabbits or not.

I would’ve made some traps if I knew how to make one, but sadly I didn’t. I can’t waste my time doing something like that, so my only method of hunting these have to be the caveman way, a very fitting way considering my situation.

But staying here also comes with its own problems. First is the cold, since I have been moving around the entire day, I could still bear it, but if I have to stay here then I can’t be wearing the clothes that I am.

I also don’t have the option of going back, if I want to hunt them then I’ll have to stay here waiting for them, sooner or later.

I also can’t risk burning a fire as I don’t know if it will alert them or not.

With my limited options, I carefully made my descision.