I found myself in a strange place.

> Welcome To **The Game**

> As a new player, you are given 500 credits to spend in the shop however you see fit!

> When you are ready, choose [next] to continue!

Somehow, a box of words appears in front of me. They are outlined by a white border and have a blueish background, and are easy to read. I suppose I'll choose next.

"Next" I say, and the wall of text disappears. In its place, a new box of text appears.

>**SHOP**

>Weapons

>Armor

>Skills

>Items

For now, I suppose I'll pick items. Frm the items menu, I see many different things. Tools that can be used in almost all aspects of life are available, but nothing powered by electricity or something other than manpower. I check weapons, and I see things like swords and bows. Daggers, spears, pikes, katars, anything you can imagine is there, but some things cost huge amounts of credits! A short sword is only 300 credits, but a baller-ass katana is 700! In the armor category, it is mostly armors of different materials. Nothing too special, but I wonder how some of them even protect the wearer. At the bottom of each armor, there is a listing for Armor Points and Durability, along with Strength requirements.

Next, I'll check out the skills. Wow, there are quite a few things here. Just like an RPG game, there are tons of skills. Unfortunately, most of them cost over 500 credits. I can always buy the things from the other categories, but learning skills are harder. For now, I'll use my credits on skills.

Buy skill: Trapping

Buy skill: Alchemy

And that puts me at 400 credits used. I guess for my last 100 credits I'll buy a weapon just to get myself started. If I buy a bow, I can trap enemies and kill them with the bow! But the cheapest bow is 300 credits! Dang, I'll get rid of Alchemy then. No fancy potions for me.

Buy weapon: Bow + Wooden 10 Arrows

With the skill of Trapping and a Bow with 10 arrows, I select [Next] at the bottom of the shop menu.

>You are about to start a new game.

>Do you want to start in a random location or a city?

Hm... If I start in a city, it might be easier, but if I start in a random location, I might get lucky! I choose a random location!

>Generating random location...

>Random location selected, teleporting now.

>Good luck!

With a flash of bright light, I am in the middle of a snowy forest. At least I'm not in a dungeon, but I don't seem to be in some treasure room. There are trees on all sides of me, and I don't seem to have a bow or arrows with me. If this is like a game, then saying something like inventory should work. 'Inventory' I think, and I'm surprised at what happens next.

>**Inventory**

>Wooden Bow

>Wooden Arrows x10

>Trapping Skill Book

Seems good. I take the bow out of my inventory and knock an arrow. It feels good, but I don't know if I'll be able to hit anything. I put the bow and the arrow into my inventory and take out the skill book. I open the book to the first page, and I suddenly know everything about trapping!

I see some small branches in front of me, and I make a small trap out of them. I don't know how I did it, but if a rabbit or something small runs over the trap, it will be hung up in the air. Using expertise I don't have, I make a few more traps in the surrounding area before sitting on the snowy ground.

I'm a little tired, but I don't feel hungry. Hm... If inventory worked, then a status screen should work too! 'Status!' I think, and the menu appears.

>**Status**

>Name: [Set Name]

>Level: 1

>Class: Novice

>Credits: 0

>Health: 50/50

>Stamina: 28/50

>Mana: 50/50

>Strength: 10

>Dexterity: 10

>Vitality: 10

>Inteligence: 10

>Wisdom: 10

>Luck: 10

>Attribute Points Available: 0

So, it seems very basic. It looks like my stamina has gone down after doing some trap setting, but I feel pretty accomplished right now. Anyway, it will be getting dark soon, so I should make a place to sleep. By climbing the branches of a large tree, I am able to get a dozen or so feet off the ground and lay comfortably on a branch. Now that I think about it, I should set my name....

I'll name myself... Homogeneous Khalidius.

>You have selected "Homogeneous Khalidius" as your name. Is this correct?

Hell yes this is correct. I don't see anything that could go wrong with a name like Homogeneous Khalidius! Settling down onto the branch, I wait for sleep to take over.

The next morning, I look around. There are many small footprints on the ground, and something from my trapper skill is telling me they belong to wolves. Shit, I don't want to die from wolves. I guess I'll sleep in the tree from now on. After getting down from the tree, I look for the traps I set the other day.

All the traps are broken, and nothing was caught. I guess I have some shitty traps, even though I can set them. I'll have to improve somehow, and maybe explore.

After exploring a little, I find a mountain and a cave to the west. I've never been in a real cave that wasn't lit up by light and had a wooden walkway to walk on, so I kinda felt like an explorer walking to the entrance... but then I remembered several creepy pastas from 4chan and I noped the hell outa there. No thanks, goat man of the caves.

As I walked back to the tree I'll sleep in, I set some more traps that might catch something. As I set the traps, I realize how I probably won't catch anything when the materials used to make the traps are made from roots and leaves, so I have to think of a better way later.

Late at night, while sleeping in the tree, I wonder why the cold doesn't effect me. I've been in snow for two days now, but I don't feel cold at all. This entire world might be like something out of a game, which would be dope as hell. 'Minimap'.

And just as I hoped, a map of the area comes up, but unfortunately, I can only see the places I have been to. Sleeping tree and Mysterious Cave are two places listed. Not too descriptive, but I know the spots. I can also see the locations where I have placed my traps at and... it tells me if they've been sprung or not! Dang, it looks like six have already gone off without catching anything. I'll have to get some string to increase the efficiency of the traps.