“The spawn radius of the snail is 5 kilometers; the snail speed is twice the speed of an ordinary snail; the snail becomes superintelligent; the snail is the only thing that can kill or even hurt you.”

I stood under the winged elm. No, wait. The Winged Elm - I have never seen such a majestic plant. More than a hundred meters tall, its enormous crown cast a shadow that could cover half of Lichtenshnein. I did not remember what the Lichtenshnein was, but the comparison felt overexaggerated just enough. Near its massive trunk, a fruit machine stood. It was old and rusty. Only several lamps were still functional, and their blinking was somehow sporadic - they may have stick to their program, but without the complete set, they looked very lonely and almost inappropriate on the ancient shabby machine.

The sentence with the changed conditions shimmered on the barely working screen. The screen panel was monochromic but of an impressive resolution, and defective pixels were forming complex fractal ornaments on its surface.

First steps away from the slot machine were hard. It was like moving away from a familiar, comfortable office chair. Used by dozens before you, with the cushion that remembered each and every one of them with its dents and abrasions and vertical symmetry line tilted to the left, it is still the best thing to sit on.

It was night outside. I tried not to think about what was inside of the stinky warehouse several moments ago. I am not there already - why bother. Problems should be solved as they arise. When we about to meet again with that pleasant company, I shall consider my options. I never even doubted it should happen. It was weird, but I had many strange predictory feelings in this world. For example, somehow, I knew that I am not from this world and that it is not normal to know such things without concrete evidence. I didn’t care about the argumentation. I just walked.

The Snail was nowhere to be seen, but I knew for sure it is somewhere there doing its snail things and slowly but surely crawls in my direction. I decided that the slime should have some name - it is not good to call your archenemy just by its generic name, even with a capital letter. Gary, I will call him Gary. It sounds like a suitable name for a mollusk.

I slowly descended from the hill and stopped near the fringe of the shadow, giant Elm cast onto the ground. I couldn’t see it still, but I knew for sure only a few steps sidewards, and I will meet the full moon of this world. I didn’t want to perform those steps. The light of the moon will obscure tender lights of stars in the night sky. Complete set of completely unknown stars - no Orion belt, no Polar star, no Pegasus or his faithful owner Andromeda…

I either was an astronomer, or it was my primary hobby. I guess…

“Have you used her?” - Sudden verbal attack was so disconcerting I jumped as high as my height and fell onto the ground two meters away from where I stood. The moon blinded me with its bright and a bit scary smile. I even forgot about the person walking towards me when I saw it: the moon wore an old-styled victorian era cylinder and a butterfly tie. Its eyes were round and wide, paired with the Cheshire cat’s smile, they made a woefully disturbing impression. I doubted this moon was a natural satellite.

“Are you deaf? Have you used her?”- during my shocking observation of a local satellite, the person managed to reach me. The giant barrel once again touched my cheek, not so tender this time. On the other side of the gun, a woman appeared. She wore simple traveler clothing: tight cloth trousers with leather patches, simple but tidy cotton jacket with a deep hood, now unused, and leather steel riveted boots.

“Beg you a pardon?” It was the second time I talked for… I don’t know for how long. This time, though, my voice sounded more pleasant. The absence of beatings appeared to be rewarding for my body.

“What? Are you from those… you know?” - She rolled her finger near hew temple.

I tried to stand up, but barrel unambiguously let me know how I was wrong.

“Sit where you are, Tad. I will ask you once more, slowly. Have you used that Big Bertha on the heel near the Elmont?”

I have understood all the words in the question, and my sixteenth feeling told me it is unusual words for my previous world, and the fact that I have understood them is even more unusual. I’ve decided not to joke with this combative lady.

“What do you mean by used?” - After this question, she looked at me with a strange look, and it was obvious her brain behind her pretty face is processing some information. After some time barrel of the gun lowered a bit and the finger on the trigger became a bit more relaxed. At least I wanted to think so.

“You are new, yes?” - The question was dubious, but I decided to be a bit more open now. She is the first person here who is trying to kill me less persistently than others - maybe this is a good sign.

“If you are referring to this hm.. place - then yes. I have got here not so long ago. Frankly, I am a bit puzzled by some weird-ass stuff that is going on around. And the moon. Especially the moon.”

She smiled and lowered her gun even more.

“You are holding up very well, though. I’ve seen guys who were freaking out so hard Utilizers had to put them down for good, completely lost it, even before witnessing Old Martin. Statistically, he drives mad more than fifteen percent of newcomers.” - She pointed to the moon. - “If you are that articulate after seeing him - you will be ok.” I relaxed a bit, picked up some herb from the ground, and started to twist it in my fingers. I had millions of questions, but I didn’t know where to start and let her lead the conversation further.

“So you have used it then, Big Bertha. Newbies almost definitely cannot resist. Wha.. What initial blessing and curse have you received, Tad?”

“Why do you call me Tad?” I wanted to answer, but I sensed that the answer to that question is critical to her and decided not to rush with it.

“You have this old scar on your forehead which says ‘Tad’. Most definitely, you don’t remember your name or past, so I figured this name is as good as anything else. We have a tradition of giving names to newbies. It makes us their godparents in this world. By the way, what that tattoo means under your left eye with a number zero?” - Her tone was casual, but her gaze was quite the opposite.

“Tad… Zero...Hm...” - I slowly touched my forehead and then a cheek under the left eye. The first touch revealed a long healed scar, while the second expectedly brought nothing. Anger arose inside. “I have an immortal killer snail as a curse and a talent as a blessing.”

Barred of a gun quickly re-established its presence at my cheek with a speed of sound. The sound was her voice saying, “It is time to die, Tad.” And that voice was full of fear and doom. Shortly after that, light click and following thunder notified me about my fate.