02 – And now that you’re inside, what do you do?

The first thing that Jacob noticed upon arriving wherever he was right now, was that it was no longer evening. His brain had not even processed yet the fact that he was seeing an HUD that was displaying his health, not did he still understand the sensation of having an inventory.

All he felt was the warm light of the sun on his face, the fresh and crisp air that entered his lungs and the pleasant chirping of birds. His body relaxed on instinct, and he closed his eyes for a little moment as he breathed deeper.

He wanted to enjoy this moment for as long as he could before giving in to panic.

He opened his eyes. In front of him, a vast open plain extended as far as the eye could see. It rolled gently into small hills covered with tall grass and occasional bushes, that obstructed the view of the horizon.

One of the first thoughts that came to him now, was that they didn’t look as pixelated as he thought they were going to look. And then, as soon as that thought was over, he scrunched his face and looked around for a bit.

“Why did I just jump to that conclusion?”

Then it registered. The HUD: a health bar and an empty hotbar. Just like in Minecraft.

A small bead of sweat formed on his forehead, soon to be followed by many other similar ones. As they rolled lazily down his temples, he slowly turned around to see what was behind him. His neck strained, but it was the only part of his body that he felt he could move at the moment, and it had to do.

Slowly, his field of vision began to encompass what was behind him. Tall trees, with large trunks and deep green leaves that formed a thick canopy. Not what he was half expecting, half hoping to see. No large, dark rectangle edges floating in the air.

Still clinging to the possibility that maybe the portal that brought him here was still open, he somehow managed to convince the rest of his body to act. Turning around, he was now beyond doubt forced to concede that there was no portal there. Just the view into the very outermost layer of a decidedly thick forest.

His legs gave out. He sat on the floor, panting, feeling the light breeze chill his face covered in sweat. The warmth from the sun was now an uncomfortable heat that made him sweat even more, and the light pleasant breeze was now cooling him too much and sending chills down his whole body.

The grass was tall, reaching to his face and whipping him as it moved with the wind. The green blades felt sharp and pointy, the yellow stalks hard and thick. A cloud obscured the sun, and he felt cold. He was thankful when it went away.

Shakingly, he got to his feet. He had no idea how much time he spent sitting here, but judging by the position of the sun he guessed that it was quite a long time. It was nowhere near where it was when Jacob appeared here. Hours must have passed, entire hours.

His legs should have ached, the blood flow partially blocked by his sitting down because he knew that he was not the fittest of people. But as he got up he noticed none of that, the shaking only due to his psyche and not his body.

But his health bar was down a half heart. There were still nine full and one half there, but he lost the last half part. No pain, no odd sensations. Only a little part of a painted over, pixelated image of heart missing.

He looked around, and felt that the idyllic view was now not so much calm and peaceful. His brain was giving him two possible explanations for this situation he was in, and he was forced to act upon them and at least acknowledge one before moving on. Because if he didn’t, then he would be stuck here.

“Either this is real, or it’s not.”

His education consisted of mostly home schooling, at least up until when he enrolled in college. And that schooling was heavily influenced by the view of the world that his mother had, a thing that ultimately led him down the STEM path.

Therefore, he knew how to think logical if needed, and he knew that in this particular case it all came down to one of two possibilities. And each of them would then branch out in a myriad of possible explanations, but at the very core the situation reduced to two choices.

Which one should he embrace, then, would shape his actions to come.

A sensation had been nagging at him this whole time, the somewhat vague awareness that behind the empty hotbar he had there was something else much deeper within. He stretched his perception to that very space, and found that it was empty and quite large, and it worked in a way that once again felt at least superficially familiar to what he already knew.

Achievement unlocked: inventory.

Just as predicted. Another element that could support both theories at the same time but in different ways.

The dilemma was pressing. Act, or not act? Assume, or pretend?

In the end, even the real cannot be treated as real, at least according to some philosophers and scientists. And in the end, he had to act.

He balled his hands into fists, the pressure driving the blood away from the superficial blood vessels and making his knuckles whiten for a moment.

“Well,” he said, walking towards a feeble looking tree on the outskirts of the dark forest. “Let’s see if this works the way I think it does.”