"In the future, will I wonder how my life would be different if this wasn't my first memory?" I mentally ask myself, as I casually examine my rather curious surroundings. I am just beneath the waves of a temperate body of water, an ocean judging from the way the saltiness of the water sticks to my tongue and stimulates my senses. 

As far as I know, I simply came into being just above the water and was dropped into it by whatever cosmic act created me in the first place. Whether I was created in the water, or above it, matters little I suppose... Either way, I am currently in the drink. 

I possess knowledge, but absolutely no context for any of it. Everything that I know, aside from the things I am observing right now, was seemingly uploaded directly into my brain!

All I know of my own circumstances is the fact that I am beneath what might be a salty sea. I do not panic, though I understand that many beings would be panicking in this situation. Part of the reason I am not afraid is that I can sense that I have a pair of gills, which gives me peace of mind that I take advantage of as I lightly breathe.

I sense the organs getting to work and allowing me to continue to stay still without having to scramble for the surface of the water. I scan the area I am in, my eyes adapting to the salt in the water around me with what I somehow know to be supernatural ease. The water I am in is beautifully clear and seeing in it becomes no problem for me after a few nanoseconds of my body adjusting to my surroundings. 

The ocean, I am becoming increasingly certain that that's what I find myself in, is filled with all sorts of marine life. I can see everything from microscopic plankton to large peacock bass swimming freely throughout the crystal-like waters. When I glance upward and my eyes breach the top of the waterline I find that I can see a distant skyline made up of gleaming, tall buildings that are constructed in a style that my mind unconsciously calls "Contemporary". 

I keep my eyes on that distant architecture as I begin to swim toward the surface of the body of water that I am in. When I reach the surface I eagerly push my head above the water and I feel a cool breeze begin to flow through my hair. All in all, I spent around five minutes beneath the waves, and I know I can spend more time below the water at any time thanks to my gills.

I feel my lungs filling with air, as my gills... somehow fade away, and I realize with a start that I seem to have a supernatural ability all my own. My body appears to be supernaturally adaptive, able to minutely and chaotically mutate to give me the means to survive in a range of environments. If this is true that means that my body is a powerful and adaptive tool, though I have no way of testing the sharp limits of this flexibility on my own. At least not as I am right now. 

My eyes never part from the glittering metropolis in the distance. Right now it is mid-morning, and I can feel my senses growing sharper and sharper as I stay above the surface of the water. This mostly allows me to hear the sounds of waves, but I can also faintly hear other, artificial noises, such as the distant sounds of "Ships" or the even more distant cacophonies produced by "Cars". I eventually tear my gaze away from the city and when I study my surroundings more precisely I am surprised by what I can see. 

To my left is a highway that brings drivers toward the city, and to my right is a seemingly endless body of water, the very one that I am currently in. Gigantic ships slowly trudge through the ocean, heading away from me and toward mysterious destinations. Cars drive down the highway, some heading towards the city and others heading away from it. With every passing second my senses grow sharper and sharper, and it doesn't take me long to realize that I need to do... something. 

My options are to stay in the water, and possibly explore it, or head towards land. If I head towards land I can either head towards the highway built on the coastal roads leading in and out of the city, or go to the city directly. Hmm... 

I stay still for several seconds before I resolutely make a decision. I know that I am not a fish or something that naturally lives in the ocean even though I, specifically, could survive underwater. The knowledge that has been uploaded onto my mind clearly distinguishes whatever I am from fish and other marine life, so it's within the realm of possibility that I can meet other creatures like me in the city, where I know all sorts of creatures live! I elect to swim towards the city and to see if in doing so I can begin to figure out more stuff about myself and even about my abilities. 

I take off towards the distant city and find that swimming horizontally is something I can do much faster than I can swim vertically. I push myself out of curiosity and within seconds of reaching a speed that must be in the "Miles per minute" range I am surprised to see a text box appear in my mind's eye. As it appears a variety of symbols begin to coat the corners and edges of my field of vision. 

[Alert: System Awakened

Assessing User...

Assessment complete. The user is an [Essence Creator], with the [Absolute Essence Creation] skill built into their body, and the [Essence of the Superorganism] as a preloaded essence. Other preloaded essences exist but are currently unscannable. 

The user has a fully maxed out [System] that is coming online right now. All [Perks] and [System Options] are available and booting up as this message is relayed to the user.]

As soon as I finish reading the notification the thing vanishes from my mind's eye. This startles me, but the very second that it vanishes I feel my body grow in every mundane, perfectly normal way that it could all at once. I feel my strength increasing, my stamina recovering, my body becoming lighter, and many other small changes that when put together are frighteningly impressive.

I pause my swimming for a second. While I float in the mild-temperature water my impressive sensory range allows me to detect something wholly new... Off in the distance, as well as very far behind me, there are other people in the water! I can faintly hear someone else swimming toward the shore, a woman, and I can even hear someone struggling against the water in the distance.

It only takes me a moment of consideration to turn around, deciding on a whim to go and save the guy who doesn't seem to be able to swim. I begin to swim back the way I came, though this time at a speed that is much faster than the speed I was swimming in the time it took me to get here. 

The water is almost helping me now, pushing me to move faster and faster with every stroke I make. This shouldn't be possible, since I am swimming away from the shore but no waves batter me, streamlining my swim. It doesn't take me very long, perhaps a minute or two, to find myself far from the shore I was almost approaching when I first see a figure in the distance, struggling to stay above water. The man is human, and he is a mildly heavyset man wearing a once crisp and clean suit. He does not seem to be a very graceful swimmer, and his struggles are compounded by his clothes.

I reach him and I use my strength, which is considerably greater than his own, to forcibly calm him. I do this before I position him on my back. He is panicked and mumbling things but he is no longer fighting the water and at this point, any progress is happy news. The man feels almost weightless, and I sprint through the water with him on my back with supernatural ease. 

As I swim I feel some sort of unconscious knowledge regarding both "Perks", broadly, and specific perks that I possess filling my mind. "Perks" refer to abilities that are imprinted on one's soul, somehow. I also sense knowledge of specific perks, ones named "Lightning Quick", and "Tough as Nails" filling my mind. These two perks make me faster and increase my total energy, respectively. Both of them also do other stuff, but for now, that's all I really need to think about. 

In minutes I cross where I was before, and I continue my supernaturally fast swim. The man's weight is not enough to make this tax my stamina. As I begin to edge closer to the shore my supercharged eyes allow me to study it and when I look at the distant beach I am surprised to see large crowds of people on a boardwalk, carrying banners that say things like "Welcome newcomers!" and "You're home now!". These crowds of people seem excited and their eyes are glued to the edges of the beach. 

On the actual beach itself, a single young woman is speaking to a cameraman. She is a stunning blonde dressed in a professional-looking outfit one might expect to see a T.V. studio intern wear. She is holding a microphone but I can also see some devices connected to her sleeve and her collar that I recognize as smaller microphones.

Before long I am close enough to the shore that people can actually see me and so is the other person who was ahead of me when I first noticed her. The crowd erupts into raucous applause that fills the air between them and the three of us. As they do I reach the shoreline and fully get out of the water for the first time. While this is happening the man I rescued seems to relax as soon as he slides onto the sandy floor. His panicked mumblings stop altogether and he closes his eyes. What happens next completely catches me off-guard. 

"Thank you for assisting me." The man says, his voice polite but very quiet. Though not all of that is his fault, a crowd is approaching the two of us even as the woman reaches a part of the shore south of where we are. The crowd is audibly cheering, and though that is quieted a bit when they see the man who I saved, it becomes even louder when they realize that the man is alive. The blonde woman is at the head of the crowd, her cameraman somewhat behind her doing his best to catch some sort of superfluous footage. 

I walk over to the man whose life I saved and I help him to his feet by offering him a hand that he, to my surprise, actually takes. I pull him up and the journalist smiles at us as she reaches the two of us. The man whose life I saved offers her a hand and so I mimic him, causing her to gasp in delight and take our hands.

She shakes our hands, mine first and then the hand of my companion before she takes a step back and readies herself for an introduction. She tells us that this is part of what the city does to welcome newcomers, and asks that we participate while telling us this may help answer any questions we have regarding our current circumstances. We both nervously nod, thereby agreeing to be a part of this ritual and succumbing to a powerful mix of social pressure and fear of the unknown. We have no idea what is going on, or at least if the man I saved does have more knowledge than me he sure doesn't act like it, so we're basically unable to say no if we want to immediately get our bearings.

Nevertheless, this news relieves the journalist, who visibly relaxes at our words. She turns to face the cameraman and smiles, before freezing so she can enter the mental headspace needed to successfully be a news anchor.

"Hello, Channel Thirty-Seven News! My name is Linda Lee Danvers. I am here on the beach where it was predicted that this year's 'Fallers' would arrive over a week ago. I can confirm that we are seeing newcomers swim out of the sea, starting with these two men, one of whom exited the ocean carrying his fellow man with him!" The woman exclaims, happily, a few moments after her dramatic pause. This elicits a bunch of excited noises from the crowd gathered behind Linda. 

She steps over to the man who I rescued and begins to badger him with questions, causing me to internally chuckle. That said, the man is handling the questions he is being asked reasonably well, and I know that when he's done being asked questions it'll be my turn. I study the man, even as I sense the attention of the group partially shifts away from my friend and I as more and more people begin to enter the edge of my sensory range.

More and more of the crowd notices distant swimmers, drawing some of their attention away and allowing me to focus on the conversation between my friend and the journalist. I am happy to be listening, to be devouring knowledge before it becomes my turn...