The patient on the bed stared in a daze. To others, it might be empty but to him, he saw a floating text window that resembled a futuristic hologram. It took him a while to snap out of it and as his hand reached out, his fingers went through these texts as if they did not exist. “Is this really real? Or the train did really hit me.” He was on the fence about this as confirming the system's existence might be a little difficult. He just wished he wasn’t going crazy with everything he was seeing.

“On second thought, perhaps I can proof the system is real.” Under the skill classification, two of them might be able to help him in determining whether all of this was real or just a trick of the mind.

“Hi-analysis,” Zane said. Hoping the skill would activate upon voice command like in those anime he used to watch. Yet nothing happened. He glanced back at the status and noticed something crucial. “I’m an idiot. Of course I can’t use it if I don’t have the power supply.”

The MP was zero, reflecting one of the attributes which were Arcane Power. Yet, lucky for him, five points were given to him free of charge without the need of diving into any sort of danger. For a test run, he placed one point into Arcane Power, and much to his convenience, the power of thought was enough to do the deed.

The MP bumped into two and now he was locked and loaded. By chance, a nurse came to do a routine check, and he found his target.

“Hi-Analysis,” he mumbled silently. Not wanting to sound like an idiot.

[Ashwin Singh][Lv.0]

[Age: 24]

[Class: None]

[Occupation: Staff Nurse]

[HP: 10/10]

[Strength: 4]

[Vitality: 5]

[Agility: 3]

[Perception: 6]

[Condition: mild fatigue, mild depression.]

[Height: 155cm/5 feet 1]

[Weight: 54kg/120lbs]

[Body Measurement(cm): B:90 W:72 H:91]

“Hi, you doing good, sir?” Ashwin asked. The lovely nurse had a polite smile hanging on her face, and yet Zane knew the truth behind that smile.

“Ah, yea,” he snapped out from gawking at the nurse. “It just feels good to be alive.” He replied with his own smile.

Ashwin the nurse nodded and got back to work, charting those numbers on her board. Silence came back. But Zane had something in mind and he went for it.

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Yes, it is, sir,” she curtly replied. For some reason, he could hear the business tone in her.

“Okay, I give it up,” his words drew a slight glance from the nurse. “I’ve been dying to say this, but you are really gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” she gave her usual smile with that same tone where you put it on repeat. But Zane noticed something else.

[Ashwin Singh][Lv.0]

[Age: 24]

[Class: None]

[Occupation: Staff Nurse]

[HP: 10/10]

[Strength: 4]

[Vitality: 5]

[Agility: 3]

[Perception: 6]

[Condition: mildly annoyed, mild fatigue, mild depression.]

[Height: 155cm/5 feet 1]

[Weight: 54kg/120lbs]

[Body Measurement(cm): B:90 W:72 H:91]

Something changed in her status window. And under the condition row, there was a new adjective that described her current self.

‘Shit, she hates me. She must be thinking I’m a lecher or something,’ Zane thought. Who could have blamed the nurse? In her line of work, perhaps it wasn’t that unusual to be hit on by one of the patients, and after so long she might be easily annoyed by it.

She left after finishing her job. Zane didn’t say a word after that mistake he just made. It was not like he tried to flirt with her as that praise was meant to lift up her mood. He just thought perhaps he could elevate a bit of her depression. But he guessed he couldn’t. Treating depression was not an easy task, even for doctors.

His MP was down to one. Yet his desire in using another skill that he had, prompted him to be a bit warier than Hi-Analysis. “If I’m not wrong, Warp is kinda similar to teleport, isn’t it? Like those warp drives in Star Trek? Or is it those portals like in Star Gate?” he wasn’t that off the mark. But to know something he had no choice but to use it.

“Warp,” he uttered. Picturing in his mind the image of his apartment living room. Yet nothing happened. But what did happen was a new window.

[Warp Points]

[1-Aneris Plains]

[2-Not Set]

[3-Not Set]

“Wait, what?” he immediately spotted the anomaly as the first warp point was unfamiliar to him. At first, he questioned whether he had been there, and a quick search through Google proved to leave him with more questions. “Your search Aneris Plains did not match any documents?” he took a second glance at the floating words again. And his imagination ran wild. “No, it can’t be.” He tried to deny the possibility of it being true. But his curiosity grew. He wanted to know whether his crazy theory was true or not. If the status system was real, then this had a higher chance of being real too.

“No, wait,” he stopped himself. “Let’s not be an idiot . . . If I really want to go through this, I need to prepare myself. And just wearing a hospital gown isn’t what I called great preparation.” He delayed his idea of using warp and thought of getting back home first.

His day went on and in the evening he was discharged without a hitch. As he exited through the hospital main entrance, the sight of two people caught him off guard. “Mom? Dad?”

The short woman with wrinkles of worries raced through the pavement and hugged her son tight. “Thank God, you’re awake,” the mother said. Her glistening eyes stared deeply into her son’s eyes. She caressed her son’s face as her aching heart was finally relieved. It was an awful four days for her as she prayed every day and every night for her son to awake.

“It’s fine, mom, I’m okay,” Zane said. He turned his glance at his father.

The man with white hair just stared at him with a gentle smile while trying his best to hold back those tears from falling. He came over slowly and placed his hand over Zane’s shoulder.

“Welcome back, son,” the father said.

Zane smiled.

* * *

After the little reunion, Zane came back to his apartment much to his mother’s protest. The son did his best to convince his mother that he was fine and there was no need for him to live with them so his mother could look after him. Yet he won in the end. He promised he would call her every day so she wouldn’t worry.

“What’s that smell?” he frowned as a stank smell lingered in the air. “Shit, the trash!” he rushed to the kitchen and saw the abomination that shouldn’t be put into words. With a look of disgust, he cleaned up and after an hour, he finally got to relax.

He slumped on his couch and looked around the silent room. But it wasn’t the time to relax yet. Now he needed to deal with his absence from work, he just hoped he still had his job.

Coincidentally, his phone rang first, and the caller on the screen was a mate of his from the office. “Hey, what’s going on? He asked.

“Wait, is that you Zane?” the caller seemed confused.

“You’re calling my number, Dave, of course, it would be me.”

“But I thought you were still in a coma,” Dave said. “The last I time call you, your mom picked up.”

“Well I guess not anymore,” Zane said. “So how is it? Am I fired?” he threw it out in the open.

“Oh, of course not. You still got your job, man, and it was quite a surprise, to be honest,” Dave said.

“Yea . . . I kinda can’t believe it. I thought the witch would have fired me just from being absent for one day.”

“Well, you’re in luck. I was about to tell your mom about this good news, and since you’re awake, then it’s better,” Dave said. “The company decided to give you a one-year paid leave with you being in a coma and all.”

“One year? Damn, the company is pretty generous,” he said.

“Just don’t take it too long, man. I doubt they’ll keep you after one year, so you might as well show your face after a month or two,” Dave advised.

They talked for a while. From how the office reacted to his accident to why he didn’t get a get-well-soon card, and by the time the call ended, he was smiling. It seemed his luck turned out pretty well. Now came the problem he had been waiting for.

[Warp Points]

[1-Aneris Plains]

[2-Not Set]

[3-Not Set]

“Should I just check it out for a while? It won’t hurt if it just for a few minutes,” he tried convincing himself. His curiosity over a new world was pushing him, telling him to go for it. Then the devil’s whisper won. Zane made his decision.

He changed his clothes to training pants and a gray t-shirt. A pair of Nike adorned his feet and for safety purposes, he held his only kitchen knife. He exhaled slowly. Readying himself for the unknown, calming his rapidly beating heart.

“Okay, let’s do this,” he said. Before he went, he set another warp point in his living room for the sake of not being stuck over there. Now he was readied.

“Warp to Aneris Plains,” he uttered. Then he was gone.

* * *

In a flash, everything changed. The vast open green field greeted his view. The ticklish breezy wind caressed his face as the temperature was neither hot nor cold, just right where everything felt comfortable.

“Whoa,” he said. The sky was blue and the white clouds floated by like it was the same back on earth. But he spotted something different. “Are those planets or are those moons?” two spherical bodies were visible in the sky in broad daylight. It could be moons, he thought. Since back on earth you could even see the moon during daylight, although it wasn’t that common.

Yet the two moons were not enough as a shock value for the man from Earth. His eyes yearned for something otherworldly. And by chance, he found it right in front of his eyes, just a few meters away from where he stood. Something lurked between the tall grasses as its dark eyes gazed at the lone man in the field. It drew closer and emerged itself to the open.

“Is that a deer?” he asked himself. Yet the roe deer he was seeing was unlike any other. What was supposed to be antlers on its head was now a pair of spiraling curved sheep horns. Then it dawned on him that he had the perfect skill for such an occasion.

“Hi-Analysis.”

[Devil Deer][Lv.8]

[Predator of the plains. Do not let its docile appearance fool your eyes as their hidden razor-sharp teeth yearn for the blood and meat of their meek prey. It is highly agile and uses it to the best of its ability, catching its prey off guard as it sinks its fangs at the oblivious. For those who are under its level, the best advice is to run.]

A sense of foreboding swept Zane immediately. The once gentle sight of the roe deer had now turned into a frightening encounter. As if he met eye to eye with a stalking tiger.

The sense of urgency overwhelmed the traveler from another world as he quickly parted his lips. “Warp Apartment 9116!” he said the magic word, yet the scene didn’t change. While something else greeted him.

[Cooldown in progress]

[23:57:52]

His eyes went wide and almost instantly his whole body shook like mad. The rustling of the grasses made him seek the Devil Deer. Yet it was no longer there. It was gone. And it was not a good sign. The hair on the back of his neck rose and Zane knew immediately, he fucked up big time.