[Initializing user orientation. Loading: 1%…]
[Syncing Senses: Visuals Online. Auditory Senses Online. Olfactory Index Online.]
The lights that had wrapped around him dimmed to little more than a flickering light. Kayn inhaled and tasted ash and stale air beyond the rot that lingered. The System's voice receded, for but a moment as he had a moment to ponder his next few steps. Soon the voice boomed again, interrupting his thoughts.
[Objective 1/3: Visual Focus: Identify Three Landmarks.]
[Marker spawned: Streetlight: 120m. Marker: Rusted Bus: 230m. Marker: Top of the Tower: 540m.]
"You're– You're actually serious? We're going to run through a basic video game tutorial?" Kayn muttered, squinting across the grey.
[The 'Tutorial' is necessary to ensure that you are capable of progressing beyond the starter zone.]
The voice responded with little to no emotion.
"Riiight…" he said as he looked around. It wasn't long for him to find the streetlight which was a bent skeleton of metal not far off. He could just barely make it out, and was a little surprised that it resembled something similar to what he had known in his world. He couldn't remember much of that world, but it seemed as though the lamp was out of place in a world of brick and mortar.
The bus was a hulking smear of shadow, obscured by the natural dust that fluttered through the area. It made what Kayn figured would be an otherwise beautiful spring morning, more of an orange hue, as though a wildfire had just torn through the distant pitiful forest. Dead as it would, it would create quite the impressive inferno, though that wasn't the case.
The tower, or what was once a tower, was a needle of darker grey on the horizon. Even with how obscured it was, the tower was certainly a shadow of its former glory.
[Prompt: Use Focus to lock visual target. Command: Focus on Target.]
"Okay… That's great and all, but I can't exactly hit the middle mouse button or hold shift while I look out into the distance." After a moment without any response, Kayn closed his eyes, annoyed at the idea of playing along with whatever this thing was. However orientation promised improvement and improvement meant strength, at least a strength of some sort. That sounded better than dying.
Kayn channeled his inner gamer and hit an internal shift-button to try and steady his vision, like some kind of virtual sniper. He stopped blindly gazing into the distance, was no longer just scouting the area but let everything enter his vision. The System hummed, and a tiny pulse pricked the back of his skull. A faint clarity pressed through the static and the streetlight snapped into place like a photograph developing. He felt the System respond to his actions.
[Focus: Streetlight acquired: Vision: +10%.]
[Objective 1/3 complete.]
"+10%? So, I can see a tenth farther and more clearly?" he asked the air with no response. A gust pushed dust across his face and his eyes watered as he stared at the streetlight. He blinked and then locked onto the bus. The edges came into being, windows broken, a logo half peeled, and then it hit him.
"Oh… I thought this was some wild 'Hit by a truck and transported to a magical world' scenario. But–but that's a bus. Like a real bus, a piece of logistics to move a set of people from one area to another en masse. Where the fuck am I?" Kayn's vision started darting around, his improved vision working double time. He glanced at each battered building, or rather ruins, and noticed shattered glass. He turned again to the streets and saw what he believed to be run down vehicles, though he was a bit on the outer limits of the city, and if those figures were indeed vehicles, they were deeper into the city.
[Focus: Rusted Bus acquired: Vision: +10%.]
With that his vision flickered, much more clear, able to cut through some of the dust that reflected light with its presence. He shifted his gaze once more to the tower, a bent spire with a skid mark of collapsed floors. With each accomplishment, the percentage bars nudged upward.
[Focus: Tower Top acquired: Vision: +10%.]
Kayn didn't wear glasses, that much he knew before coming here. Still, he felt like this is what it would be to take off your glasses and be able to suddenly see more clearly. Because he did not have glasses, his vision responded so much the better, now able to make out the scattered objects of the exposed floors in the tower. There was movement, though not much. It looked like there was plenty to explore, but if the movement was all zombies, Kayn figured staying on the ground would be his best bet. If he could keep improving his vision, he might be able to zoom in like some eagle eye perk and pick out exactly what threats existed in each building. For now, he was content with finishing the tutorial.
[Visual Calibration: 100%. Congratulations. You have reached level 2. Stat points are available for allocation.]
"Shouldn't a tutorial tell me 'how' to allocate these points?" he whispered. For a single heartbeat, the world became sharper, and he wondered to himself if these points could improve it further.
[Objective 2/3: Olfactory test: Identify sample scent A, B, or C.]
[Sample delivery: nearby. Approach required.]
"So I have points to use, that could do a lot for me. Let's see, if I– Wait, olfactory? Didn't that mean smell? You want me to go around sniffing stuff?"
The System nudged him with an invisible pointer pulling his attention toward a collapsed kiosk two streets over. He crossed toward it, each step sent agony down his raw feet on the jagged pavement. Inside the kiosk, the System projected three translucent flares above a counter, each labeled with a letter.
[Objective A: Faint Smoke.]
[Objective B: Sour Rot.]
[Objective C: Metallic Iron/Blood.]
Kayn approached the kiosk, a familiar structure that seemed out of place in what he expected from this world. The more he tried to think of this place as being some future apocalyptic wasteland, he could comprehend the surroundings in a meaningful way. He walked up to the counter and folded his torso over the counter, breathing deep in the way that he figured the system requested. The memory of a burnt pan filled his nostrils, like searing a steak without any ventilation. He inhaled again, there were layers to the scent. He was able to pick out the burnt smokey scent from the metallic cast iron scent.
[Olfactory Objective A Complete: +10%.]
[Olfactory Objective C Complete: +10%.]
Scent A and C seemed to be accepted as completed tasks, but the sour rot smell evaded him. He figured part of that was the fact that literally the entire city smelled of rot. He focused deeper and was able to identify something slightly stronger than the lingering background smells. Following his nose like some kind of colorful tropical bird, he located the source. To be fair, he heard it as much as he smelled it.
There was a clacking, snapping sound that came from the powerful smell of death. He nearly climbed on top of the counter before he saw an animated head on the ground, trying to bite up at him. It had no eyes, no ears, very little skin on its face, but it wanted to eat him, that much he was certain of. He grabbed his rebar and held it in both hands, before stabbing it down on the zombie head. The bone crunched with ease, nearly turning to dust as he hit it. The creature died and his task was complete.
[Olfactory Calibration B complete: +10%.]
[Task Completed.]
His nose seemed to clear by fractions, as if the System had tuned a knob and removed the typical inconvenience of a stuffy nose. Even with all of the dust, he found he was able to smell better.. The hum in his head settled into a low metronome. He forced himself to try the last test.
[Objective 3/3: Tactile Calibration: Locate Heartbeat Emitter Within 10m. Range: 6m.]
"What?" he said, his voice hollow and utterly confused.
[Emitter pinging. Vibration index: Feel and Confirm.]
"Is this something I absolutely need to do? I really don't feel like touching anything in this city other than my good ol' trust rebar is a smart idea…"
Something warm, and not the heat of the obscured sun, vibrated under a scrap of fabric beside a mound of paper. Kayn poked at it with his rebar but could only feel the faintest vibration. It was like a tiny mechanical pulse, like a massive trapped insect. The System took the time to tell him that it needed him to press his palm to it and his face was plastered with horror. Still, power, he had to remember that power came from every completed objective, so he obeyed. He placed his hand against it and a small shock ran up his arm, not causing any pain but startling him a bit and causing him to pull his hand back.
[Tactile confirmation: Heartbeat Emitter Engaged. Touch: +10%.]
[Sensory Calibration: COMPLETE.]
"So I don't get three sets of 10%? No 30% to tactile senses?"
[Reward: Bonus XP. Passive unlocked: Sensory Stabilization (reduces sensory drift by 25%).]
"That sounds great and all, but what is sensory drift?" It felt like a reasonable question, but Kayn wasn't sure he would get a response, he rarely did.
[Sensory Drift refers to the gradual loss of alignment between your physical senses and neural perception. Prolonged instability may cause delayed reaction time, visual distortion, or false sensory input.]
[Recommendation: maintain stabilization to preserve accurate perception of reality.]
"Okay, that sounds decent. Thank you… System?"
Kayn breathed the new air like a man taking his first full breath after being underwater. The percentages settled beneath the UI in his head, Vision 100%, Hearing 100%, Touch 100%, Smell 100%, Taste 100%.
"You're giving me experience for breathing?" he asked the system., "And I don't need anything to complete taste?
[Affirmative. Survival requires optimization and the requirements for taste do not meet reasonable parameters in this area. Would you like to over-ride the tutorial and begin the Taste tutorial?.]
"Oh god no! No, no, no, I am happy with this. Thank you so much!" He laid it on thick, really not wanting to taste anything in the area, despite the rumble in his stomach that demanded he eat something.
He let out a humorless laugh as the System's checklist added another line.
[Next Objective: Basic Mobility. Traverse a short obstacle field.]
Kayn looked around. The city was a chaos of low rubble a few meters down the block, perfect for a test. He recalled something from his past, hopped up and down, stretched his limbs, and started shouting as he dashed forward.
"Parkour!" for the briefest of moments, he let himself give into the tutorial.
[Mobility Tutorial: Commenced.]