Liam opened his eyes in a startle, jumping out of bed.

"What the f*ck? How long has it been..."

The young man grabbed his face as he heaved, having been thrown off balance by the dream of his childhood. He could feel it. He was different compared to when he went to sleep. The instincts he'd tried so hard to supress over the years had now bubbled up to the very surface with the memory of the fight with his father.

'Is my body preparing itself for what's coming?'

It was the only explanation he could think of.

Liam took a few deep breaths and decided to take a shower to clear his head. He knew he would struggle to get the memory of this dream out of his head for the rest of the day, maybe for even longer. Even now, he could feel the muscles he had contained starting to show their strength once more. He had been stronger than his father had ever been ever since the age of 14.

It was only hours later that he managed to calm down. The rest of the month went by without a hitch, the physical training serving as a wake up call to his dormant strength. Although Arthur did not have a body like Liam's, he tried his best to keep up. Having come from a similar background, the young man also knew what it was like to fight for survival.

Finally, the day arrived. After countless news reports, speculations and sheer hysteria, the System made itself known once more.

[The first wave of humans will now be transported by the System to the Tutorial Zone. This decree cannot be refused.]

Liam was sitting next to Arthur and the young man's parents, nervously awaiting their fate. They all wore light body armor and carried bags with them.

Out of the blue, Liam began to glow with white light. Hurriedly looking around, he realized he was the only one glowing, much to Arthur's apparent dismay.

"Don't worry. Two months from now, I'll find you, Arthur. I'll be alri-"

Before he could finish speaking his last words, the young man's body vanished in thin air, as if he was never there. To Arthur's parents, it was definitely an eerie sight. To Arthur, it was despair inducing.

...

[You are in the middle of transportation to the Tutorial Zone. Congratulations on being part of the first wave.]

As Liam opened his eyes, he realized he was floating in what seemed to be solid grey energy. He did not understand how such thing was possible, his shock being forced to wear off at the sight of the clear, translucid blue rectangle in front of him. His body armor and bag were nowhere to be seen.

[Your Status Window is as follows. Note: this is a mere quantification of your individual prowess, translated in a way to facilitate your understanding. This changes from species to species. Keep this in mind.]

[The average statistics for your species is a value of 10.]

-----------------------------------Status Window----------------------------------------

Name: Liam Allister

Level: 0

Species: Human

Race: 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴

Personal Attribute: ??? (???)

* Unlock conditions for your Personal Attribute are unknown.

Attributes:

Strength: 42

Dexterity: 22

Constitution: 58

Intelligence: 13

Perception: ???

Skills:

. Passive Skills: Survive! (S); Danger Sense (A); Hand to Hand Combat; Long Distance Runner; Basic Knife Mastery.

. Active Skills: none.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'...What?'

For a moment, Liam wondered if he'd accidentally entered a game.

'How can this be way that's easiest to understand? What if someone never played online games? Does it change individually, as well?'

Then, the youth mentally rebuked himself. Such questions were useless. He was better off trying to gain as much information as he could.

[The System will now answer questions regarding your Status for 5 minutes.]

As if waiting for a cue, the System emitted another announcement, much to Liam's desbelief.

'This is bullsh*t. There's no need for it to do that. Unless... It was created by someone and follows their instructions...'

Liam laughed at the idea that there could be a god sadistic enough to create something that pitted intelligent species against each other. What purpose could there be to it? The youth gave up on figuring it out as soon as he realized that from his standpoint, such answer was unfathomable. The best he could come up with was "for entertainment," but it felt far too shallow.

[4 minutes remaining.]

The young man chuckled to himself at the System's warning. It felt as if it was trying to "kindly" warn him not to have idle thoughts.

"Hey, system. What are these skills?"

[Skills are measurements of your ability. There are passive skills and active skills. Passive skills will improve an ability or statistic automatically and permanently, while active skills need to be manually used.]

'Just like a game, huh? Then...'

"What is this 'Survive!' skill?"

Then, another blue window showed up in front of him. This time, however, it contained only information about his skill. The System's voice soon could be heard in his mind.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Survive!

Rank: S

Skill effect: Increases Strength and Dexterity based on user's will to survive. The higher the user's desire of self-preservation in the face of death, the higher the skill effect. There is a limit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"...Huh. System, how are skills acquired?"

[Skills are acquired through certain events, repeated actions or other conditions. For example, a fighter might acquire a Weapon Mastery passive skill after a determined amount of time training. However, an ordinary individual might also acquire the skill if they use a weapon in a situation of life and death, or are taught the skill by a stronger individual. There are many ways to acquire skills and the System suggests learning them naturally.]

Liam recoiled in distaste. Every response seemed pre-programmed, as if the System had received these exact questions millions of times before, and now answered them the exact same way. It felt artificially unpleasant.

[3 minutes remaining.]

Liam's mind raced as he looked at his Status Window, trying to obtain the maximum amount of information with as few questions as possible, as well as trying to keep them short.

"What are Personal Attributes?"

[Personal Attributes are humanity's unique trait. Every human has one. They are influenced both by inborn and environmental factors and can develop and change unpredictably over time.]

"Why is mine locked?"

[Some Personal Attributes require specific actions to be done before unlocking their effects. It falls to the host to discover and realize those actions.]

'What garbage. So it doesn't even mean it's a good one? Just different?'

[2 minutes remaining.]

The youth cursed under his breath.

"What does each Stat affect and what is the Perception Stat?"

[Strength refers to the power of one's muscles, affecting explosive use of force, direct speed, muscular density, as well as other factors involved. Dexterity refers to one's agility and flexibility, as well as sense of balance, coordination, reflexes and bodily control. Constitution refers to the general state of one's body, measuring stamina, endurance, durability, toughness and tenacity. Intelligence refers to brainpower, in regards to memory retention, problem solving ability, speed of thought, associations, logical thinking and others. In particular, Intelligence affects skill acquisition speed.]

"...Jesus Christ."

The amount of information dumped on him had been more than he expected. It would take a while to digest all of it. Nevertheless, Liam did not miss the fact that the System had missed a statistic.

[One and a half minute remaining.]

"What is the Perception stat and how does one increase all of them?"

This time, the System did not answer right away. It was as if it did not expect such a question, though Liam knew an unfeeling string of commands like a system could not possibly feel surprised.

[The Perception stat refers exclusively to one's awareness regarding the truths of the universe. It affects mainly skill effects and skill acquisition rate, but has many other, often unforeseeable effects. It may also lead to madness. Statistics can be increased through training and leveling up. Each level up will increase most stats by 10% of their previous value.]

[Your allotted time is now over. Host will arrive at the Tutorial Zone shortly.]

"Wait, what?! What do you mean madne-"

The grey matter surrounding him erupted in white light, engulfing his entire view. His stream of thought was cut short, while the feeling of being bent through space covered his entire consciousness.

...

Liam landed on the humid dirt with a crunch. Beneath his feet, wet dirt and leaves were crushed, making the smell of rain waft towards his nose. The sounds of insects rang throughout his entire surroundings, making the whole place feel like it was alive. Liam hurriedly rose up to his full height, his gaze darting around as he took in as much as possible of the environment he was in. His heart beat harder than it had in a long time, for he realized: it was an opportunity to make his dream come true.

If all the System had said was true, then he could become not only individually powerful, but also aware of the universal truths. And with that knowledge, maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to create a better reality. A fairer, less brutal reality. And for that small kindling of hope, Liam was willing to fight to the death as many times as it took. For his dream, he would live until it was realized. Before, it was an impossible wish. But now? Now, it could be possible after all.

The youth took a deep breath and spread out his arms. Looking towards the sky and seeing only the crown of gigantic trees, he confirmed his hypothesis.

He was in the middle of a rainforest.