[ CHAPTER II (2): "READY FOR ADVENTURE" ]
"—t! What the fuck?!?" Bewildered by the sudden turn of events, Cain's pupils widened in both excitement and surprise at the same time.
His shaky hands came up and covered his mouth, as he then watched in real-time as a small yet sizable, glowing, see-through green box floated in front of his own eyes. Words were written in elegant black ink, reminiscent of video games.
[ TRANSLATION: PRAISE THE GOD-EMPEROR! ]
But unlike those countless video games that Cain had played, this was actually happening in real-time. In real life, and not in a 3D game created by programmers—grown men huddled on their chair, staring at computers.
"I-I can't believe this is even happening!" He twirled around the dagger, and watched closely how the glowing panel follows suit, one-to-one with the dagger.
Cain moved the dagger to the right, the panel hovered slightly above, moving to the right also. Same with left, same with up, same with down, forward and back. It was utterly entertaining for him.
Like a child that just discovered video games for the first time, he played with the said newfound features, having forgotten at the moment that he may likely be in Purgatory...
At least the place has entertaining features.
"This feels like VR." Virtual reality. Which the 21st century has, yes, but not complex enough in comparison to what Cain is currently experiencing.
In truth, the closest thing Cain could compare this to is from fictional literature. Futuristic ones wherein the story has advanced VR tech—the OASIS of Ready Player One comes to mind, his favorite story. "Awesome!"
He almost fell to his knees right then and there on the dirt, not caring about getting his trousers dirty. Ready to worship the said dagger, plus the glowing green panel. But he's an adult, so he didn't do that.
"Holy shi— I'm actually crying."
Instead he cried, teardrops rolling down his face without him having the chance to stop it. And to be honest, Cain who's a nerd for technology, who dreamt of living inside the fictional worlds that he read about, is stoked.
That is to say that he is excited, that is because he is living the ultimate dream. To be the protagonist of his own story, like Wade Watts of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
After some time of crying, Cain finally had enough and finished the session by wiping the tears off of his eyes. As he instead tried to figure out how to control the System inside of his own head—because surely, he has to have one.
He tried hand gestures. Some cool, some weird, some he remembered being done by characters in the movies he watched. None worked, go figure.
But that wasn't enough to dampen his excitement, instead, he became even more excited in trying to figure out how the System inside his head; the one deep inside his soul, work. So he went from gesture to audio.
"Open inventory." No response, it didn't work.
"Show me the mission log/quest." Again, no response.
"Tough crowd, I guess." He continued, speaking whatever comes to mind—at some point he even yelled out Shazam. He doesn't understand exactly why he did, but he did.
And overtime, the excitement of Cain slowly started to lessen, instead replaced by annoyance. But the single fact that he may have a System in his head still gives him joy. Even though he doesn't know how exactly it works.
Then finally, he pulled out his last card. "Avatar...?" To no avail of course, like the others, this one though he doesn't have doubts. He hated the movie—not the first one.
"No? Okay, yeah, I hate that movie too."
Speaking of Avatar, he was deeply disappointed by the sequel. Plus the 3rd installment, which he watched the trailer of, yet wasn't able to watch. That is because he's borderline broke, and because he did die after all.
About to continue on his sacred mission, Cain didn't, as something from afar had caught his attention. "Huh?" To be precise, his ears, as he heard something singing.
Amidst the unknown extraordinary jungle, he hadn't heard a single thing. No crickets, no birds, no animals going about. That is until now, as he turned to look high above him, on his right, trying to pinpoint exactly where the voice came from.
For protection, he grasped his dagger very tightly. The floating window panel of the System still there, floating quietly right above the dagger, akin to that of a little apprentice, or sidekick following suit.
In fear, and somewhat of excitement. Cain grasped at his chest, trying to stop his heart from pounding so much. Especially because it felt like it was about to leap out of his chest. "Please don't be a mythical monster."
On the way there, he searched for anything that may resemble life. But no matter how hard he looked on the ground, on the trees, on the skies.
He couldn't find a thing. Other than the loud shrill tone, something which he's following; which may or may not be a trap, or dangerous, or secretly Cerberus in disguise. He doesn't know, nothing is concrete yet.
[ SINGING SPARROW LVL. 0 ]
"Holy fuck." Exclaimed Cain when he spotted a bird high-up on one of the trees, singing a tone. And immediately, Cain also spotted the fact that another panel was floating right above the small creature's head.
Same color, same appearance, approximately the same size. Yes, the System actually works, and it's just merely unresponsive to Cain's actions. How weird.
"Wait..." Frowning slightly, he narrowed his eyes even more and observed the said bird singing a merry tone. Shrill, yes, but enough to entertain him. And quickly as he does, he spotted the anomaly at hand.
"It has two fuckin' heads!" That yes, the said bird—the Singing Sparrow according to the System, actually has two heads. One prominent that watches the surroundings, and the other, a smaller one, singing.
"Uhh, that's... oh dear, that's actually freaky."
Repulsed by the creature, Cain can now confirm, with more than a hundred percent certainty that he isn't on Earth. And that he may be in Hell after all. A terrifying fact, yes, which is supported by terrifying evidence—the wildlife.
Dagger in front of him, he used it as a shield just in case the said monster ever did move. It is after all named, and has a level besides it; it could very well be hostile, and attack him right then and there.
"Come eat my dagger, you freaky bitch."
Cain and the bird's eyes landed at one another. The latter possessed blood red eyes, and seemingly a thirst for blood, seemingly ready for a fight as it sang louder.
"I'm ready..." Cain said, readying his stance. 'I think...'
[ SKREEE! ]
But contrary to what Cain thought, the said bird didn't fly in his direction, instead flying on the opposite side. Still making unholy noises that annoyed him, yes, but no fight. Which made him confused.
"Hey, aren't we supposed to fight?"
Leaving him there, alone. Cain thought that this goes against the script, that he, as the protagonist of this story, should of course fight with the said weird-looking bird—the monster. "This doesn't make sense."
Isn't this supposed to be the tutorial, wherein he kills monsters, then gains experience. Then steadily level up, unlock features, grow stronger. It's the basic law of RPG.
But no, fate seems to have other plans. "Weird..."
As the said bird instead flew away, without care, slowly as if mocking, all the while singing a tone. All of this was observed by Cain, who's pouting, unsure on what to do next.
About to return back to his spawn point and figure out his next course of actions. Cain didn't have time to do that, as he noticed something on the corner of his eyes, on one of the branches—something green and dark, which then jumped and crunched on the fleeing bird with no hesitation.
"Holy crap, Batman, what-what the fuck?!?"
Watching it in real-time. Cain couldn't help but panic, dropping his dagger on the ground in fear, as he placed a hand on his mouth instead; trying his best not to scream.
As in the next second, the once annoying, freaky, and monstrous bird—the Singing Sparrow, gets chomped on by the bigger monster that came out from the trees. Eaten bit-by-bit, which Cain unfortunately gets to see.
"This isn't happening."
He watched as the said monster, continued chomping, swallowing the Singing Sparrow. He could clearly see the green liquid, which may possibly be the bird's blood, splatter on about on the ground, and on the monster's lips.
Cain, who's frozen in terror, wanted to run right then and there, but noticed his legs not moving. His mouth is, which spilled out his thoughts.
"This isn't real." He said, chuckling right after to no one in particular, other than himself. Before then the eye of the said creature landed on him, no iris, instead the monster's eye was purely made out of black—like obsidian.
Though little to no shine is being given by the sun above, it gave just enough for Cain to quickly make out the features of the said monster before him. Especially it's mandibles, big enough to crush a man's head with a single bite.
He observed the creature, and could see that it is about the size of an adult dog. Cain isn't talking about chihuahua size, he is talking about golden retriever size.
That plus the spiky six limbs of the monster—three on both sides. It was enough to shatter Cain's world-view, his thoughts of fantasy, of leveling up solo.
[ LOW-LEVEL THREAT DETECTED ]
[ WILD JUNGLE ANT LVL. 3 ]
"A-ants?!?" The System pulled him out of his stupor, and made him realize, that holy shit, he is gonna die again. And so, forcing his body, he picked up his dagger on the ground and made a run for it.
"H-holy shit, I'm still a crook I can't kill that. Run!" And to never look back, praying that he's faster than it.
[ TIC! TIC! TIC! ]
Though that prayer didn't sound like it would come true, as slowly, he could hear the mandibles of the thing cackling louder as he ran. Like that of a tong, albeit more crunchy, disgusting, and terrifying.
Which made him even more afraid, running even faster. Pure adrenaline kicking into his body, as his cape gets blown by the wind. Jumping, running, screaming. He could do nothing at the moment, but flee.
"H-HAAAA." He yelled out, voice sounding more like it belonged to a 10-year-old girl rather than a 25-year-old grown man. "SOMEBODY HELP!"
Cain ran past the thousandth tree, pass by the unkempt grass, flowers, and vines. And encountered something horrifying, second only to the monster chasing him. And that'll be the fact that he reached a dead end.
"You—!" Panting, clearly out of breath. He stared at the wall of rock for a moment and was ready to run on either left, or right. But quickly noticed that they are also dead ends, no paths, other than the one where he came from.
[ TIC! TIC! TIC! ]
Yet sadly, in the moment, that option seems to have been thrown out by fate. In which case, Cain could only curse his luck, as he turned around to stare face-to-face with the said monster—even though he is deeply scared.
"Don't come any closer, you fuck!"
To be fair, the thing is at most half his height. Simply easy to kill, especially because he has a weapon. But no, to Cain who witnessed how it murdered another creature first-hand. Yeah, he doesn't know if he has the courage to do so.
Knees buckling, he pointed his dagger at it. Hoping that it may do something jump and leap on the blade, on it's own accord. Yes, very unlikely, but a scared man can dream.
[ TIC! TIC! TIC! ]
"I kid you not!"
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[ FUN FACT: "The Adeptus Mechanicus (the tech-priests of Mars) don't actually understand how most of their technology works. They view machines as having "Machine Spirits" that must be appeased with incense, oils, and prayers. To them, "repairing" a tank is a religious ritual; they believe that if they forget a specific prayer, the machine will refuse to work out of spite." ]
[ 01/03/2026 ]
[ 01/03/2026 ]