On the day the world ended, I had just flunked out of college and was driving down a long, empty highway. The doubts and anxiety that I had accumulated over the years at the school finally flared, and I broke down completely, leaving me to pack up all of my things into my cramped two door sedan and set out away from society, away from humanity, in search of something resembling myself.

In contrast to the bustling life on campus and in the city, the expansive forests held a profound stillness, an emptiness and quiet that resonated in the very heart of me. For the first time in years, I felt a sense of comfort as I sped down that highway, following the slow curves as the road wove between hills. Tall pines reached towards the heavens, rising and falling with the pattern of those hills, surrounding me in those rich browns and greens.

Then the message appeared in front of my face.

System integration beginning.

Welcome to the Great Game! Your integration will lead to your species and planet being able to reach their fullest potential, under the guidance of this system! More information to follow!

we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry we’re sorry

Pain followed.

I struggled to maintain control over the car even as my body shuddered and writhed as I felt like my insides were boiling, my blood turning to steam as my very bones became as flame. Obviously, I was not able to maintain that control and spun off of the road, the front fender slamming into a tree trunk. My airbag failed to deploy as I bounced forward, my forehead cracking against the steering wheel, but despite that new source of pain, unconsciousness refused to come. Instead, I became even more aware of my body being ripped apart from the inside out.

All around me, the trees began to glow with a bright blue, flowing out of the bark and the leaves. Looking down, I saw my hands were also glowing that same color and in a panic, I rapidly cast my gaze around, trying to find some explanation, some cause, but no reason came to mind. I couldn’t think, couldn’t even begin the process, until a scream ripped from my throat.

Then just as suddenly as it began, the pain ended. Suddenly relieved of that sensation, I immediately blacked out.

I had no idea how much time had passed while I was unconscious, but the sun was beginning to set when I finally opened my eyes again. Only then was I able to take stock of the condition of my car, and it definitely seemed worse for wear. The windshield was cracked, the engine clearly crumpled against the tree ahead of me, and the blood from my forehead was painted throughout the interior. Groggily, I pushed open the door and stumbled to my feet.

The boughs of the trees formed a thick canopy, making the twilight even dimmer than it might otherwise be, and I immediately noticed that I couldn’t see the highway. How far had I gone off the road when I lost control? Also, the trees seemed somewhat thicker and taller than I remembered, though my recollection could have been altered by that high level of pain, it was difficult to focus on anything after all.

Then there was that message. I tapped a foot in contemplation and leaned back against the side of my car. There was no denying that I was a nerd, my gangly frame and unfashionable glasses were the most visible indicators of that, and I had watched my fair share of anime, so I wasn’t entirely out of the loop of what that message indicated. Yet, that part of the end had me off-balance. Why was it apologizing? What was it apologizing for?

Thankfully, the message promised more information, and hopefully that would come soon. Unless I had been passed out when the information came, which would put me on an off foot for certain. Fortunately my concerns were alleviated a moment later.

System integration complete.

You may have noticed some changes and some discomfort during the integration process. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but it was necessary to adapt your bodies to the use of ergon.

Ergon is the core of everything you can do in the Great Game! It is generated naturally by the processes of life and death, but only once it has been activated. Now that your planet is activated, your body will naturally produce ergon! This may be confusing, but fortunately the system will help guide you to maximizing your usage!

we have doomed you as we have doomed ourselves

Instinctively I stiffened, expecting pain to follow after the appearance of the system message, but mercifully none came. Instead, I felt the quiet of the surroundings deepen, the weight of the knowledge that the world had truly changed and here I was, all alone with no one to share questions and ideas with, no one to theorize as to the meaning of these messages. No one to seek comfort with in the depths of this change.

I thought briefly of Sam.

It was interesting that the messages referred to what it was bringing as a game, though the idea of ludic structures made sense with my exposure to these sorts of things in fiction. Not that fiction was ever a perfect guide to reality, stories had to make sense, while reality rarely did.

Maybe a change would be an improvement, and the idea of a game meant rules that could be understood, that could be analyzed. I could look for a winning strategy via application of logic to a base set of axioms, with the knowledge that those axioms were true, maybe this would be for the best. But then, there was that line at the end again, which filled me with uncertainties. Doomed.

We’ve finished our analysis and are now able to offer you your first tool for playing the game! By thinking the word “STATUS” you can call up your Status Screen! There’s a lot of information there, but we’ll help guide you as we go along! Go ahead and open up your Status Screen now! If you want to know more about any item on the screen, just concentrate on it!

extinction is our legacy

I decided to simply ignore that unpleasant rejoinder and called up my status. Thinking on the word proved easy enough, I didn’t even have to fully verbalize the word in my head, the screen manifested immediately after I considered the concept.

Name: Placid Wainwright Level: 1 Paths Skills Health: 100% Erg: 10/10 Path Points: 0 Attributes Path Perks Might 7 Coordination 10 Endurance 6 Intuition 14 Structure 18 Flow 12

I briefly scanned over the sheet, taking a notice of the disparity in the Attributes section. The top three were all physical traits, so I wasn’t too surprised that they were low. Skimming over the fine details of each attribute, I saw that Might was about physical strength, while Coordination and Endurance were both pretty self explanatory. The bottom half, meanwhile, defied understanding from a glance, so I dug in a bit more.

Intuition: competency at coming to correct conclusions based on limited data

Structure: competency at organizing one’s thoughts and generate new information from the logical interrogation of known facts

Flow: competency at processing erg, the doom of all who touch it

Before I could go into the details of the rest of the sheet, another system message popped up.

Don’t worry, this is the last message before the official start! Further assistance can be found by thinking “HELP.”

no aid is enough in the face of what we have done

But before that, think “PATH STORE!” This will open the place to spend your Path Points in acquiring Paths and Perks related to them. These are necessary to survival in the game, so we recommend you do so now!

Path Store, The combination of words took slightly more work to fully verbalize, probably because it was a concept that I wasn’t familiar with. Immediately, a window appeared in front of me, filled with a list of Paths and their costs. Before I could even begin digging into the list, an error message appeared.

[ERROR: This User Cannot Access Path St-

Battle is coming. You have been Chosen. Seek the depths of the forest. We will be waiting. You will know the structure when you see it.

It is your only refuge.]

“Okay, what the fuck,” I said outloud before bringing upn a hand to pinch my nose. This wasn’t exactly going smoothly, though I still had no idea what was going exactly. I had a feeling I’d realize the source of this fault before too long though.

Before I properly recentered myself, another system message appeared.

The Great Game has begun! Your first challenge is to make use of your new Path and Perks to defeat your first monster! Success will yield you more Ergon which will raise your level! Raise your level to gain more Path Points to acquire additional Paths or more Perks!

Failing to defeat this monster will result in your death!

death death death death death death death

That was not good. Without any abilities, I’d be reliant on my own natural physical prowess to handle whatever was coming, and considering what the screen said about my attributes, I wasn’t particularly pleased about my odds. Maybe if I had a gun, but there were plenty of reasons for me not to have one of those before this.

Which left only the advice of the error message, but who even knew where the depths of the forest were.

As I drew my thoughts together, the sound of a heavy footstep drew my attention off to my left. There, watching from the trees stood a massive four-legged beast, about five feet tall at the shoulder, vaguely resembling a wolf. But it looked like its flesh had torn at the legs, revealing red, swollen muscle beneath, and the jaw of the beast had grown as well, pushing every feature of its face into a distorted grimace, the lips pulling back from the gums to reveal an array of razor sharp teeth, gleaming in the last lights of day.

I couldn’t move, caught in its gaze, until it lunged forward at me.