“Woohoo! This is so amazing!” Grant exclaimed gleefully as the status sheet appeared in front of him. “I’m in some sort of game or some new universe like in those Light Novels? Wow!”, he exclaimed as he deliriously jumped about in circles commoving so much dust in the process. “I’m gonna be living the dream! This is definitely an upgrade from cleaning Area 51”.

A bit tired from the jumping, Grant finally settled down to really assess the status sheet that had surfaced.

[Name: Grant Miles]

[Race: Human (Universe B)]

[Level: 1]

[Class: Locked]

[Experience: 0%]

[Condition: Uninjured]

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Quests]

[Map]

He went about exploring the options. Everything below Experience lead to a new window but with little information. Most eager to know the available stats, he pushed the “stats” button and it revealed a new window.

[Strength: 0]

[Constitution: 0]

[Agility: 0]

[Coordination: 0]

[Will: 0]

[Physique: 0]

[Bonus Regen: 0]

[Charisma: 0]

[Congrats! You have two stat points available, select any of the stats and insert the points to proceed.]

“Okay… Just two? I’ve gotta use these wisely. And why is my experience at zero percent? Did I just get lucky and get exactly enough to level; or does experience not carry over with excess? I’ll have to look out for that, but first”. He hit the strength stat to find out what it entailed but was disappointed by the pop-up message: “Information is not available at this time. Try again later”. To his dismay, the same message kept coming up for all the stats, so he had to use his imagination. Grant had been somewhat of a lazy lad who spent a bit much time on video games and fantasy novels, so he tried to liken the stats functionality to his gaming experience.

“I'd definitely need strength to survive in this place. Never know when you’ll need to kick some ass”. He briefly lost focus as he fantasized about tearing up the next boar that’d come his way. “This means I won’t have to run off the next time I get attacked and I won’t have to rely on some sick path like a lost little kid. I’d just devour it”. He was excited.

After giving some more thought to it, he finally decided to place one point apiece into the “Strength” and “Constitution” stats.

As soon as he placed a point in the Constitution stat a new message popped up.

[Congratulations! Health bar is unlocked

New information on Stats is available!]

“Okay… What took you so long?” He asked as he made to assess the new information.

[Every stat point placed in Constitution will increase the Health Bar by 10! And, well, you’d be needing that around here. The Health Bar is a measure of your immunity and although you can still feel pains and get injured with a full bar, you only begin to die when your health bar gets empty. Now, I’m guessing you don’t wanna die]

“Whoa! That’s some savvy dude speaking. Be as informative as this every time, and we'd be good friends”, he said laughing. “The Strength Stat. Well.. I guess strength is just strength”, he thought to himself “I gotta try out these new improvements, I already feel like Dwayne ‘The Hulk’ Johnson”, he said to himself excitedly as he made to lift a fallen tree trunk off the ground. He immediately failed and then tried out a fairly big rock and was unsuccessful with that too.

“I guess this isn’t so helpful”, he said disappointedly. “Guess I’ve gotta level up higher or something since I’m living by some sort of game rules now”. Then he hit a tree trunk with his fist and felt it vibrate. “Well… maybe a little helpful”, he said smiling, then went on to lift a smaller rock which he’d have been able to lift without the systems aid but found out he lifted it with a higher level of ease. “Wow!”. “How do I go about a test-run on the efficacy of this Health Bar? Time will tell about that”, he though to himself. He was excited and fooling around, trying to find out the depth of his newfound strength.

He decided to perform some strength-based experiments, “maybe it’d help me Level Up”, being a gamer, it felt like the right move to make, so he started lifting rocks and fallen tree trunks till he got bored of that. Then he assumed boxer pose “So, now I’m Mike Tython”, he said jokingly as he started punching at a huge tree noisily. It was during this round of folly that a group of roaming goblins spotted him.

He was stunned when he lifted his head and noticed a spear-wielding goblin stealthily approaching him, yet also trying to hide behind trees. Roughly three meters away. He started to move slowly backwards thinking of a way to escape as questions raced through his mind “Is that a real goblin? Can I outpace it or am I just gonna end up being some goblin’s dinner?”. Seeing he was trying to make an escape, the goblin jumped out of hiding and started approaching Grant, cautiously.

His eyes were still focused on the Goblin as he moved backwards in a stepwise fashion, then he noticed the goblin’s eye focus behind him. Footsteps crawling up behind him, he turned around to see not one, but three goblins a few meters away from him with a closer fourth one of them swinging a club “Oh fuck m-”. He was cut short as the club ferociously struck his head and he passed out.

He woke up hours later with a pounding headache and the chattering of goblins around a fireplace nearby made him jerk back to full consciousness. “Snarky little commentator never said anything about getting knocked out with my Health Bar still intact”, he remarked with disappointment in his weak, cracked voice. He was hungry too and any attempts to sneak off was impossible as the five goblins had firmly tied him to a wooden slab in their camp.

The ropes felt like the kind you used in a game of tug of war; the ones designed to be rough and provide grip. Not to mention very big and heavy. “Just to hold down a little me?”. The camp reeked a mixture of goblin mess and blood. At this time Grant was getting scared. The gibberish chattering of the goblins was getting louder, they seemed to be having some sort of argument, and he tried his best to pay attention but couldn’t make out anything of it until help came.

[New Language Encountered! Language is biologically incompatible with host’s system. Symbiote V8 Will Now Proceed To Translate Language To Host’s Understanding In 3. 2. 1…]

[Translation Process Completed! You Can Now Understand The New Language But May Not Converse In New Language]

“Maybe I can get some firsthand knowledge on goblins before ending up in their soup or some nice beefsteak. Since I can’t tell these fuckers to get me off this plank!”, he said rather loudly and was lucky the goblins hadn’t heard him. That’d have drawn their attention to the fact that he was now awake, something they’d been waiting for.

Their Gibberish-turned-English was very primitive and lacked words for several expressions but he could hear the goblins deliberating on the best way to kill him, one of them was protesting that she needed to be availed the opportunity to make the kill since she badly needed to Level Up. One who seemed like a leader proposed that they could all level up as a group by torturing it to death, rather than by one individual single killing by the stab of a spear or something.

“Torture? That’s cruel!”, he sadly muttered to himself. At this time, he was almost pissing his pants. His lifetime of watching movies let him know how cruel torture could be and he could only imagine what techniques such primitive creatures would use. “Maybe I’ll be sliced into a thousand pieces, or maybe they’ll puncture a thousand holes in my body”. He tried to listen for details on their torture method, but it seemed they had it all figured out and there was no need for elucidating.

His heart raced faster and faster as they began to march towards him. Recently, he had encountered several near-death experiences from the breach of Area 51 to Map’s attempts to shoot him dead and his experience with the monstrous boar, but this seemed to him like the closest and, indeed, the end of his journey. At least on none of the occasions was he bound by four strong ropes and was being approached by five prior fictitious creatures who couldn’t understand whatever he had to say.

As they reached his spot, they each pulled out small knives from little, fleshy sheaths slung around their waists and made to begin the torture. Grant began to plead at the top of his voice, hoping they might understand at least from his facial expressions and wailing. They proceeded anyway, each wanting to get as much of the action as possible in a bid to Level Up.

With each prick of their sharp knives, his Health Bar began to reduce drastically till it was empty then his actual health began to dwindle. The pains began to eat him up as his blood gushed to the point he felt dizzy and too weak to scream.

[Emergency Alert! Hosts Vitals Are Within Dangerous Parameters And Expiration Of Host Is Imminent. Urgent Action Is Required]

This was the V8 systems message in Grant’s head, at that point he felt the complete extent of helplessness. “Fuck you”

Seeming to sense Grant's crushed hope and lack of will, V8 provided another message; this one a bit more surprising.

[Emergency Alert! The Symbiote V8 will now proceed to bypass safeguard measures and activate PRESERVATION MODE to avoid expiration of host]

• • • •

[Preservation Mode Activated]

Grant immediately fell into a daze where he was barely aware of the happenings around him but felt a new rush of energy and it felt like the source of pain had disappeared. The Symbiote V8 system had flooded his system with excessive adrenaline, proceeded to disable his pain receptors and thus, allowed the decreasing of the human limiters on speed and strength.

He could see his body parts moving but it all felt like he was in a dream. The strong ropes suddenly felt like crackers as his arms and feet broke through them with ease, and he was set free to the amazement of the goblins. Their eyes widened with fear.

He reached out for a spear and flung it straight at one of the goblins before he grabbed the one closest to him, lifted it up and jammed his two fingers through its eye sockets bursting them and smashing its brain in the process. Meanwhile, the spear had struck one of the goblin warriors in the long protrusion that emerged from the middle of her face - what she’d like to call her nose.

It was all happening so fast as he lifted two of the goblins from their legs and placed them headfirst in the campfire; pressing their heads into the flames and roasting their brains in the process. All while the screaming of goblins and smell of roasted meat rented the air. The last goblin, having lost hope, had dashed off trying to make away with its life but Grant picked up one of the small knives they had used to mutilate him and threw it through the air. It raced in the wind and struck the fleeing goblin in the back of its head and it fell over dead.

The stench of blood, roasted meat, and the gory appearance of the scene would obviously attract dangerous animals. Making progress in understanding his new forest environment, Grant knew this and immediately dashed off to leave the place.

The Symbiote V8 System provided a wide dirt road in his view, far from the danger zone, which it decided was a safe haven

[The V8 System Will Now Shut Off Preservation Mode To Conserve Host]

Grant was surely enjoying the extra energy but more of that would have quickly spelt doom for him

[Preservation Mode Shutting Off in 3. 2. 1]

And suddenly, the pains were back but, this time, much worse. The drastic depletion of his adrenaline levels and his muscles torn from exceeding their limits left him wriggling in excruciating pain a thousand times worse than what he was feeling before the Mode was activated.

He fell to the ground and passed out but not before seeing the hazy outline of an approaching wagon and hearing the piercing scream of a young child in the distance.