Looking around his surroundings, Adrian realized he was inside a forest. However, what surprised him was that the trees were so tall and dense, he could only see a small portion of the sky.
And yet, even when the sky seemed to darken, it was still bright all around him.
[Hello, again.]
“WOAH!”
Suddenly hearing an unknown voice as he was about to take a step, Adrian almost lost his balance. After steading himself, he turned his head to look at the surroundings in search of the voice.
[...Have you forgotten? I’m talking inside your head.]
“Ah…right, sorry. I was just dazed looking around the forest.”
As he was too preoccupied trying to look at his surroundings, Adrian momentarily forgot about the god that summoned him. Of course, this was just an excuse. The real reason is that he suffers from short term memory loss, but the kinds of memories lost are usually random.
‘...Did I really just forget about the god earlier?’
Still, forgetting what just happened earlier made him embarrassed. What if he suddenly forgot he wasn’t on Earth?
[...Anyways, after the meeting, all of us have decided to compensate you with this gift we created.]
After hearing that, Adrian saw a small blue display screen suddenly materializing in front of him.
{System: Hello}
“ΣΣ(ﾟДﾟ;)?!”
Feeling nostalgic at the similarities between his situation and the novels and games he used to play, he was shocked that the system could talk to him. Of course, it was only by messages on the screen, but just reading it was still as shocking as hearing the voice inside his head.
“What….”
[Doesn’t your world normally have this type of thing inside games? Why are you so shocked?]
“The keyword is inside ‘games’, not reality! Besides, how do you even know about that?”
[That’s private information I cannot reveal.]
“Did you read my memories? Or did you just happen to hear it from the other heroes?”
[...]
Guessing that he was right, Adrian stopped asking and focused back to the screen in front of him.
“Uhh...hi?”
{System: Hello, Host.}
“Σ(▼□▼ﾒ) Wait, you can hear me?”
{System: Yes, Host.}
Seeing the display screen change messages, Adrian was truly shocked.
[I have other important matters to attend to, but just ask the system if you have any questions. We have spent quite a bit of power on it, so please take care of our creation. There are also additional gifts we gave you, but you’ll have to ask the system to find them.]
“Wait! What about the real hero?”
As Adrian heard the god was leaving, he quickly asked a question he was most concerned about after hearing his accidental summon.
[Oh. You won’t have to worry about it. I’ll just have to do the summoning ritual again. In the meantime, I suggest you worry about getting to somewhere safe. This place is known to be teeming with monsters at night.]
“Huh? Wait, monsters?!”
However, he could no longer hear the voice. Guessing that the god already left, Adrian looked back at the screen and voiced his concerns.
{System: Monsters are beings created from ‘mana’. They usually appear due to disturbances within the particles, and are known to frequently appear at night. Of course, it’s only in some areas, so these monsters won’t appear all over the world at night.}
‘Hmm…so it really is like what I read about before.’
Realizing that he wasn’t completely clueless about this rpg-like world, Adrian thanked his past self for all this knowledge.
Of course, he didn’t actually think all the stuff he read and played would come true...but seeing is believing after all.
“How do I get out of this forest?”
{System: If you just keep going straight from where you are looking, you should be able to come across a path that leads to a town.}
Trusting the words of the system, Adrian walked forward towards the path.
Seeing it in the far distance, he remembered something cliche about the situation, and stopped walking.
“...Do you recommend me going into that town?”
{System: Looking at your current state, it would be wise not to go there.}
“Why? What’s in there?”
{System: Just normal humans, but you currently don’t have any money for trade.}
Glad that he stopped to think, Adrian knew that he was missing something. Turns out, it was that he was now a poor man.
Remembering that he left all his things back at home, Adrian could not help feeling depressed.
“Hmm...how do people usually earn money here?”
{System: Herbs, monster loots, ores, and other goods can be traded for money. However, you are quite weak, so it would be better to just collect wild herbs.}
“(￣■￣;) Thanks for being thoughtful….”
Unable to refute, Adrian could only sigh in despair. If only he wasn’t lazy, he could’ve done some exercise.
“Well...do you know where some wild herbs are?”
{System: I don’t have a locator function, so just look around you for any plants, and I’ll verify it.}
“Alright.”
Seemingly expecting the system to only hold information, Adrian was not surprised that it wasn’t gonna be easy.
As he turned back from the path and wandered around the forest, he stumbled upon a flower with green petals around a faintly red center. Its stem and leaves were the usual green color back on Earth, but the color of the petals and its center was quite odd.
“What is that?”
{System: That flower is called a ‘Kanali flower’, it’s very common around here, selling for about 2 bad coins each.}
Hearing what the coin was called, Adrian struggled not to burst out laughing.
“Why...is it called ‘bad’ coins?”
{System: This type of coin is made out of carefully carved stone, so it’s quite easy to break if you apply enough force. People called it ‘bad’ coins since the material was quite common to find, but the durability of the coins was lesser than that of actual rocks..}
Remembering that he needed to trade herbs for those very same coins, Adrian could not help feeling depressing. However, the name of the coin just made him laugh.
“Hah...alright, so this flower isn’t dangerous?”
Remembering that it was gonna be night soon, Adrian wanted to ask the system more information later instead of at this moment.
{System: Just be careful with the sharp thorns on its center. Other than that, it’s harmless.}
As he was no longer on Earth, Adrian didn’t dwell on this and carefully picked up the flower by its stem.
However, it took quite a few seconds to pull it out from its roots.
“Huff...why is this thing so hard to pick up!”
{System: It appears that you are weaker than I thought. Normally, babies are able to pluck it out in less than a second.}
“(ﾟωﾟ;)...Can I just, see my stats?”
{System: Of course.}
Soon after, another display screen popped up in front of Adrian.
_____
Name: Adrian
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Social Status: Loner
Strength 4, Agility 23, Defense 0, Luck 1, Magic ??
Skills: None
______
“Σ(▼□▼ﾒ)...You were right. My stats are pretty weak.”
{System: Facts are my specialty.}
Hearing this, Adrian couldn’t help but slap himself in the face.
‘With such low stats, how can I even survive?’
{System: There’s only about 1 hour left before the monsters show up.}
“ΣΣ(ﾟДﾟ;)! I have to hurry then! But, how many coins do I need?”
{System: I would recommend getting at least 200 bad coins. Of course, I also recommend spending it as soon as possible on the off-chance that it suddenly breaks.}
“What! That means I need to pick 100 of those flowers!”
{System: Yes.}
“....”
Sensing his physical capabilities screaming at him, Adrian didn’t know what to feel at the thought of picking up those flowers.
“...Ughh. I’ll just run around picking up as much stuff as I can then. But, how am I gonna even carry all those?”
{System: You can store it in your inventory.}
Seeing another screen appear besides the system messages, Adrian felt very glad the system had this capability.
However, the amount of items he can put inside was quite limited.
“Hmm...there are only 5 slots?”
{System: Yes, but the same items put in are stackable, with a max limit of 50 for each stack.}
“Oh, so I just need 2 slots for this then.”
{System: 55 minutes left until night-time.}
“GAH! Quick, just tell me whether I can pick up the plant or not, and I’ll just randomly start throwing it into my inventory.”
{System: Sure thing, Host.}
“...Just call me Adrian.”
{System: Ok, Adrian.}
And so, Adrian wandered around the forest in a frenzy looking for plants with his system.
--- 45 minutes later ---
After 45 minutes of searching, with small breaks in between, Adrian finally managed to collect 100 plants. Of course, the plants were just randomly thrown into his inventory, so there may be a variety of items he picked up.
{System: You have enough to go rest in town.}
“...Whew. Man, that was really tiring.”
{System: I’ve been working harder than you just to clarify. It’s all thanks to me you haven’t died yet.}
“....”
Unable to refute, Adrian could only just stay silent.
{System: There’s only about 8 minutes left. From here, it will take about 7 minutes to get back to the path behind you, and 3 minutes to reach the town if you follow it.}
“What! Just how far did I wander?!”
Realizing that he did indeed go deep inside the forest, Adrian could only push his tired body even more to get to town.
{System: There are no shortcuts that are safe to travel through, so you will have to follow the path to lead you to town. But don’t worry, even 2 minutes is not long enough for a monster to find you.}
“Thank goodness.”
{System: Unless you are really unlucky.}
“...Didn’t you already know I’ve been summoned here accidentally?! That’s got to be very unlucky!”
{System: Ah yes, then you should probably run. It’s a good thing you have such high agility.}
“Easy for you to say! My body is already exhausted doing manual labor!”
However, Adrian still pushed on. He tried to run, but since he was so exhausted, the most he could do was speed walk.
--- 6 minutes later ---
{System: Congratulations! You reached the path in only 6 minutes!}
“Shut...up!”
Feeling like he could collapse at any moment, Adrian walked on the concrete path to town.
--- 2 minutes later ---
{System: It’s time for the monsters to start showing up. But don’t worry, just 1 more minute until you reach the town.}
However, Adrian did not feel comforted.
His body was very exhausted, his hands were scratched and bruised by the plants, and he was very scared of the monsters.
He’ll have to slap his past self for reading all those horror novels. And also his computer.
Why the hell did it make all those monsters much scarier with the damn bad graphics and pixels? Even the lag and slowness of it just enhanced the horror.
--- To be Continued ---
Author’s Notes:
Heyo! Just a rough draft again, since I wanted y’all to see it. My laziness is increasing every day, so I am very proud of myself for taking a few hours to work on this.
I’ll keep updating it, so just wait if it’s confusing so far. I just need to take a mind-break. And by that, I mean I’ll be procrastinating till I’m back in the mood.
Oh, I also searched for a while on the internet to find a look for Adrian, and I think this guy is close to my descriptions (Just a disclaimer, this image does not belong to me, but rather to the creator of the series ‘Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai’. I may have to take the image down if I’m not allowed to post it.):
https://rei.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/thumbs/200/42348-167986177.jpg
