Chapter 2: Chapter 2- The System

The city was silent. The suburbs and streets seemed to be devoid of all life, the usual sounds of traffic and angry drivers completely absent.

A cat walked across the road as it spotted something interesting lying on the opposite sidewalk. Hmm. It thought to itself. A delightfully new sensation. The loud metal pests are strangely silent today. As expected they're too preoccupied with my feline grace to make any noise whatsoever. It didn't stop to consider that nothing of the sort had ever occurred before today. After all, it was still just a cat. It approached the strange two legs that had been graced with its attention. The creature was lying down in a pool of spreading red for some reason and the cat decided that the liquid smelt quite delicious. Not as good, maybe, as the food its other pet two legs offered as tribute, but good enough to satiate its refined palette, it decided. Yes, it would do quite nicely…

 

It was a strange day when you woke up to a cat enthusiastically licking your face, especially when you didn't own one. It was a terrible day when you woke up in the middle of the street, in a pool of your own blood and who knows what and remembered that you'd been hit by a truck. Arthur groggily opened his blood-encrusted eyes and wiped the cat slobber off his face. He groaned. His body felt like it had taken a pummeling from his Muay Thai instructor and his left hand definitely wasn't meant to look like that.

Wait… was it… backwards!

He quickly got to his feet or at least he tried to but a dizzying wave of pain quickly made him sit back down. Taking a deep steadying breath, Arthur tried to make sense of his situation. He remembered going to university for his medical exam, talking to Liz, the beginnings of his guilty confession and finally being hit by a truck. No, something’s definitely wrong in that sequence of events. You didn't survive getting hit by a truck and it didn't take his years of studying human biology to tell him that. That was just plain, common knowledge.

A sense of vertigo gripped him though, as he looked up to see a dented vehicle in front of him with an Arthur-shaped dent on its hood. Arthur took another deep breath. He'd been hit by a truck. Liz had disappeared. And he was still somehow alive!

Arthur thought back to see if he had taken any drugs earlier that day but that couldn't be right. He’d seen the devastating effects they could have on someone first-hand. He would never take them. With those thoughts came the rush of guilt that usually accompanied them, but he hastily thrust those emotions aside. Now wasn't the time for a mental breakdown.

He was dead for god's sake or at least supposed to be. Arthur looked around the street and realised it wasn't just Elizabeth that had disappeared. Everyone was gone. All the crashed cars were empty as if the whole city had just decided to take a trip somewhere and leave his dead body on the sidewalk.

Well, maybe not everyone. Arthur smirked as he looked back down at the cat that was still enthusiastically licking his blood off the concrete floor, except it probably came out as more of a grimace of pain.

Bobcat level 2- Happy, hungry

He blinked, surprised at the blue identification tag that appeared above the cat. He closed his eyes, counted to ten and looked back at it.

Bobcat level 3- Happy, tired

Maybe I did take drugs after all. No other explanation could make sense of what he was seeing. Wait it changed, didn't it? The cat had somehow gained a level.

Once again Arthur thought back to the truck that had brought him to this strange situation to see if he had missed something that explained all of this craziness. It took him a few moments to find it. Just before Arthur had died; or passed out as it currently seemed, he had seen a strange message in that same strange, blue text. System initialising or something like that. Either he'd been delirious and hallucinating at the time, a very likely possibility, or he'd actually seen the weird text. This sounded suspiciously like those strange fantasy books Matthew was always glued to or maybe it was a simulation of sorts and he'd been captured by a group of aliens for experimentation. It was a story out of the realm of science fiction except this was what his new reality now seemed to be.

Arthur was tired, dead tired and his left arm was still the wrong way around, which didn’t really hurt for some reason, and so he couldn't go to sleep quite yet. And I have no idea what the fuck is going on. He concentrated and tried to recall the strange message he had seen and suddenly Arthur felt that same cold breeze he’d first felt when talking to Liz before all of this crazy had taken a dump in his life as if he'd just been dipped in an ice bath. The sensation was a little more subdued this time around but it still felt unsettling.

Something had definitely worked though as he saw blue messages rapidly filling his vision. Or maybe he was still hallucinating. The process was so sudden and unexpected that Arthur couldn't help but swear in fright. This is dangerous, stupid even. Someone could die if those messages appeared at random. What would've happened if I'd been driving? He sighed wearily as he set his grievances with the strange messages aside. Now wasn't the time for that. Taking a deep breath, Arthur looked at the first bit of floating text.

Re-Establishing link with host… Error … Insufficient… Error … Re calibrating … Insufficient energy… Link established… 27%... Integrity compromised… Recalling host's previous logs…

Arthur stopped reading at that. So he wasn't crazy, after all. Or maybe he was; he wouldn't know, either way. Either he'd lost his marbles or there was now a system that was governing reality. Or at least his. One capable of miracles it seemed if his beating heart was any indication. By all rights, Arthur should be dead and yet somehow he lived.

And if I'm not dead then…

Arthur quickly squashed that line of thinking, as well as the budding hope in his chest. There would be time for all that later. Right now he needed to know what was going on, what exactly was this strange system, and most importantly if and how he could exploit it. That was how all of Mathew's stories went at least.

Arthur braced himself and began to read the system messages from the beginning.

System initialising… Teleporting host to tutorial zone… Error… Host deceased.

So I did die after all.

Introducing host to system… Error host deceased… Assigning host skill...Error host deceased.

These errors are quickly becoming very annoying.

Determining cause for hosts death… Host's teleportation delayed by nine seconds… Error…Error... Resulted in host's termination… Rectifying system error... Error... Insufficient energy... Reassigning system energy from normal Initiation protocols... Host revived

Arthur once again had to stop reading the system text. Taking deep breaths, he tried to calm his racing heartbeat down. The system was capable of reviving the dead. Simple. Just a single line of text and yet it was so much more. Something that went against the fundamental laws of the universe was now apparently possible. He had died and been revived by the system.

Fair enough, he'd only been dead for nine seconds, but still. His body had been a mess. This was far different from using an AED to get someone's heart beating again.

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This was bloody magic.

The first thought to cross his mind in this absurd situation was obviously his sister and her recently deceased status. He didn't know how it could be done or if it was even possible at all; but as he sat there dazed on the sidewalk, tears of both relief and hope making their way down his face, he made a firm intention that he’d bring her back.

The first real emotion he'd felt in so long.

No matter what happened, whatever he may have to do, whichever line he'd have to cross, Arthur decided he would see this goal to its ending. Nothing would get in his way, and if anything did like they had many times before, he would crush them underfoot, and give them a hell of his making. Taking a deep breath, Arthur tried to calm himself down. This wasn't the time to be getting melodramatic and go all chuunibyo.

He looked back at the system messages.

Assigning host skill Identify… Skill assigned... Anomalous situation detected… Energy below acceptable levels… Integrity compromised… 30%... 29%... 28%... System preparing for failure… System survival protocols activated… Error… Formulating message to ensure host's continued survival… … … Assign host quest… Ether is required to fix the system… Collect ether to establish a proper system link.. 27% integrity… Obtain ether from monsters… System activating perseverance protocols…

Collect ether 118/42,000

The messages stopped there it seemed, or at least they had until he'd reconnected with the system, faulty as his connection apparently was when he'd regained consciousness. Arthur took a deep breath as he tried to make sense of all the information he’d just heard; mentally deducing all he could from the fragmented messages. It seemed as if every sapient thing on Earth had been initiated into this so-called system, and then been transported somewhere for a ‘tutorial.’ Whether humanity was still on the planet, Arthur could only guess, but he’d put his money on them no longer being here. The tutorial sounded like an entirely different place, separate from Earth from how the system messages sounded. So let's get this straight. Everyone has gone to a Tutorial for an unknown amount of time. I should've gone too, except my teleportation was delayed and I died of all things before I could be transported.

His thoughts just raised more questions rather than answers.

It seems as if the system runs on a weird energy source called ether. Why was my teleportation delayed? Was it sabotage? What even is ether? And what does it mean to collect it from monsters? What the hell classifies as a monster?

These questions rapidly flitted through his head and Arthur could feel a migraine coming on. He didn't want to even start thinking of what happened to people who died of natural causes as the system was initiated. Were they transported to the tutorial dead, left behind, or revived like him? He doubted the latter option considering that the system wouldn't have been at fault for those demises, seemingly one of the main conditions for his own revival. But what about a soldier that just got shot right when the system arrives... Arthur's headache only continued to intensify.

His quickly devolving mental acuity, however, was suddenly interrupted by a sharp stabbing pain near his ankle. The bloody cat had bitten him! He tried to prise its teeth off his leg, but it had his flesh gripped firmly in its sabre-like teeth.

Wait, sabre teeth! This is supposed to be a god-damned bobcat.’ Why does it have sabre teeth?’Arthur tried identifying the creature again and got answers to many of his questions.

Razerfure Bobcat level 5 (Frenzied)- An indigenous species of Earth, this Bobcat obtained access to Ether-rich blood and failed to evolve properly. This is the result. Has an extremely resistant hide. Ether content: 92

Grasping the raging cat by its jaws, Arthur struggled to pull it off his legs with his one working arm. At least now he knew where he had to get his ether from. The sabre cat was nothing like its former self though, and his ineffectual struggles to remove it from his foot did little but enrage the tiny beast. Looking around for a weapon, he gripped a large glass shard from the ground, wincing as it cut into his palm. It wasn't the best weapon, but beggars couldn't be choosers and it looked like he was about to lose his leg. Arthur really liked his leg.

Steeling himself, he thrust the makeshift dagger into the cat's head, expecting it to swiftly end the small feline's life. Nothing of the sort happened. The glass shard did no damage whatsoever; only inciting the sabre-cat to try and tear into his leg further. The cat's god-damn fur was stab-proof, or at least it was to his glass dagger.

Beginning to panic, Arthur realised that this cat could actually be a threat to his life. It would be the biggest cosmic joke if Arthur got killed by a cat right after coming back from the bloody dead. Like, come on. He’d just got his second chance. Couldn't fate cut him some slack?

Fear now fueled his strikes, as he repeatedly bashed his glass weapon into the little monster's head. Nothing seemed to be working, however, until he suddenly heard a squeaky yelp from the cat glued to his leg. Looking down at its blood-covered face- his blood sadly- Arthur saw that a piece of glass had managed to cut into its eyes. Realising that the little bastard had a weakness, Arthur redoubled his pathetic efforts. An agonising eternity later, he looked down to see its dead body, its small head a bloody mess of brains, blood and splintered glass. His own state was only a little better, but not by much; it had mangled his ankle into a disgusting mash of flesh and his palm was cut deeply from clenching the smashed piece of glass too hard.

The pain threatened to make him pass out, but he knew if he went to sleep now, he probably wouldn't wake up again, system shenanigans be damned. He’d have died from blood loss. Looking around desperately, Arthur tried to locate something, anything, to staunch the bleeding, but couldn't see an item that would be of any use. An adult human only had around ten pints of blood in them and judging by the rate Arthur was bleeding out, he was quickly approaching the parameters of what would be considered safe.

Wait! ‘Wasn’t my blood the cause of the cat's frenzied state? With desperate hope, Arthur identified the pool of blood he’d woken up with around him. He was clutching at straws here, but there was little else he could do in his current predicament.

Ether-Infused Blood (Rare)- Blood infused with large amounts of Ether of healing and life affinity by the system to revive its host. Contains regenerative properties when ingested. A useful catalyst for many elixirs and alchemical solutions.

He didn't stop to consider why the stuff didn't seem to be working when it literally flowed through his veins. Now wasn't the time for that. Sighing with relief, Arthur tried lapping up his blood from the ground, which had now achieved a gel-like consistency from its time lying in the sun for who knows how long. It was a degrading way to eat, but Arthur would do just about anything to survive right now. Ironic really, considering how much death had appealed to him only twenty-four hours ago. Perhaps there was some truth to the old proverb, after all.

Throw a suicidal man into the sea and see just how hard he clings to life.

Nothing seemed to happen even after he’d drank a single mouthful and so Arthur grabbed for another and- SCREAMED!

Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. It felt like he had liquid fire in his stomach. Magma was flowing through his veins.

Arthur tried to retch up the blood he had just ingested but his body just didn't seem to want to comply with him. With tears in his eyes, Arthur managed to look down at his mangled arm.

Hey wait, it looks like it's going back in the right direction. Those were his last thoughts before he passed out.

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