Under the radiant sun, sitting on the edge of the tallest skyscraper with legs dangling, I munched on a loaf of bread that had gotten moldy, gazing down below. A red fog had covered the whole world — its dense veil often descending into the abyssal depths of hundreds of meters. In the eerie silence, peculiar noises would occasionally echo from within, as if some abominations were lurking deep beneath.

It had been three months since I was mysteriously transmigrated into this world into the body of someone I didn’t know. The last thing on my mind, I was just a day away from undergoing my thesis trial for an Informatics major…

“Uh, that damn thesis… Who would have thought that burning the midnight oil would bring me into this world?” I made a self-deprecating smile, dreading the fact that it was all real.

I must have suffered from a severe lack of sleep that I somehow died and got transmigrated here… Into the body of an eighteen-year-old named Raymond Orton.

While contemplating my plight, by accident or not, my hand holding the bread loosened; the bread dove into the endless fog below, tumbling its way down from the cliffs of the skyscraper until it was completely swallowed by the fog.

“Aah…! No!” I reached for the bread that had disappeared into oblivion with my hand to no avail. Anything that fell into it was as good as vanishing to another dimension.

That bread was the only food remaining because it was hidden in a fridge in the corner of the airship’s kitchen. If it wasn’t for that, I would have eaten it way earlier before it’d gotten moldy. Damn it.

Well, no use crying over spilled milk… It tastes awful anyway… Besides… I opened the interface that had been accompanying me all this time.

Mission: Survive in This World for Three Months

The world is an unforgiving place, so you must survive by every means possible. Ration the food and water you have, find shelter where you can hide, and be careful of the dangerous onlookers all around you.

Difficulty: F+

Countdown: 1 minute and 37 seconds

Reward: More information about the world

Failure: Death

“Death, my ass! I don’t want to die… again.” I complained over the repercussions of mission failure.

The past three months, I had spent mostly staying atop this skyscraper that was as tall or even taller than the tallest building on Earth — the Burj Khalifa. Waiting for the countdown to reach zero.

And after all that waiting that felt like forever, it was almost time for it to conclude. Or else, I would have gone crazy by now. I mean, there was nothing except red fog all around me and strange gigantic tentacled monsters that reached as tall as a few kilometers, making me look like a speck of dust in comparison.

Of course, I didn’t spend the whole time doing nothing.

“Ugh! I miss the internet, fast food, and all those novels and games…” I had taken all those things for granted; I should have been more grateful.

Seriously. My computer worked whenever I needed entertainment; I could go to any grocery store and purchase what I pleased to eat; I could even order an Uber if I was too lazy to cook; I also had family and friends to accompany me through joy and sorrow. Only now did I realize how blessed I was at that bygone time.

Mission Accomplished!

Congratulations on passing the mission. You have done great for surviving this long… Or not?

The reward will be issued shortly.

Suddenly, I was notified about completing the mission. This was the first time for me, so I had thought that the reward would abruptly appear inside my mind or something, but I couldn’t be more wrong. Who knew how this thing work?

I checked my status screen to see whether there were any changes to it.

Maxim Peterson (Raymond Orton)

[…]

Source Level: None
Source Element(s): None
Vocation(s): [All Elements] | [The Survivalist]

Stats:

• STR: F+ (19)
• AGI: F+ (18)
• VIT: F+ (16)
• SRC: F- (5)
• SPR: F (10)

Accumulation Points: 10 [F+]

It was still the same. At the top, it displayed my name and this original body’s name, followed by two things I didn’t understand, Vocations (a kind of special ability), and last but not least, my stats. The only reason that I inhabited his body was that he died of being buried under collapsed rubble, despite him having superior strength compared to me. How unfortunate.

But I was grateful that because of that, I gained basic knowledge about this world, not that he knew much to begin with. A rural teenager living in a sheltered, secluded village…

Anyway, the status screen could be manipulated by just using thoughts, and I decided to inspect further information hidden within the ellipses.

[…]

Species: Human
Sex: Male
Age: 18 years old
Height: 177 cm
Occupation: Programmer student | Novice survivalist

Nothing changed.

I had figured that would happen at least, but still…

In an instant, I sensed a presence behind me. Swiftly, my hand snatched the nearby strapped rifle, pointing it at the lurking entity.

“So here you are.”

I almost pulled the trigger at it but managed to pull my finger at the last second after hearing the monotone voice. Having to constantly watch my surroundings for any signs of danger had made me susceptible to things.

“Lunaria?” I spoke. “Why did you pull a prank on me?”

The thing that had been secretly sneaking on me was a floating, basketball-sized spherical machine that looked like a mechanical eyeball. Additionally, the one that controlled it was Lunaria, a self-proclaimed digitized mind or whatever. More like an AI thanks to her tone which was almost always lackluster.

“Oh please, don’t sweat the small details. I’ve come to inform you about the news that I’ve just gotten. You want it or not?” she questioned.

“Yes! Of course!”

It was my reward for surviving for three months, after all. It was concluded then that the reward came naturally whether through some sort of unnatural influence or not. However, I was unsure how it was done yet; further observation was required.

“Still, it has been three months since you discovered me on that site. At first, you’re senselessly freaking out and not daring to come out of the confines of your room. But now, I can only see someone that has weathered through the apocalypse like it’s his second home.”

“Naturally, I must adapt to every situation that arises, lest I got killed without knowing anything.” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Mm-hmm. Fair enough. Come aboard the airship first.” The spherical body flew into the air, to the topmost floor of the skyscraper.

Since it was impossible for me to do the same, I walked into the building and went up the emergency stairs with all my belongings. The inside wasn’t too dark since it was almost noon, but the escalators and the lifts didn’t work without electricity, though I was already near the topmost floor anyway. In fact, the building was dilapidated and crumbling, as if it would collapse at any minute.

This place was filled with boards containing strange characters that I’d never seen back on Earth that for one reason or another, I was starting to understand after only a day observing it. The memories of this body’s previous owner also didn’t have knowledge of this language, although the written language here slightly resembled the one that Raymond used in his village but with various different changes. Therefore, I believed that it had something to do with my Vocation — [The Survivalist].

[The Survivalist]

An ability that allows the user to be like an expert survivalist in a post-apocalyptic world, with the mindset and experience of one.

Additional Abilities:

• [Identification]
• [Danger Notice]
• [Mission]

I could access more information about the additional abilities such as [Identification] and [Mission] (as this was where I accessed the mission so far). But it appeared that the last one — [Danger Notice] was passive.

Shortly, I reached the topmost open area of the building. It was so windy up here that it blew open the hood of the furred army jacket I was wearing. The temperature of this world always fluctuated from melting hot to chilling cold. Not a very hospitable place.

Nearby, a large airship with a passenger compartment at least fifty meters long and a zeppelin balloon about twice its size connected by a dozen cords loomed over me. Two propellers were situated at the back, looking like they worked through some sort of unearthly engines.

I had parked the airship at the highest place of the skyscraper, a level area that appeared to have been formerly used as a helipad or something. As the ship didn’t directly touch the ground and instead was linked by a few ropes and anchors, I had to climb a wobbling robe ladder to get inside.

The interior was as expansive as the exterior, capable of accommodating a hundred people if they were willing to endure cramped living conditions at full capacity.

The airship was, of course, named Lunaria.

Why did she name the ship after herself? I thought as I got into the bridge and held the steering wheel or the helm.

“You’re finally here.”

As that voice appeared, a 3D hologram projection of a pretty teenage girl about sixteen to seventeen years old in a black Victorian dress appeared. She had shining silver hair that reached down to her waist, and a black frilly headband that matched the theme of her dress adorned her head. Plus, a black necktie with a white gem below her collar.

Her face was doll-like, flawless, and expressionless — sometimes lonely. She wore thin black gloves and thigh-long black stockings and had porcelain-white, delicate skin and a pair of bright purple eyes that dazed the onlookers, yet they exuded some sort of ethereal charm like a pair of amethysts.

Truly a sight to behold.

“You said that you’re an artificial intelligence, didn’t you? But I don’t understand your over-the-top appearance…” I frankly expressed.

She quickly refuted, albeit still expressionless, “How many times do I have to tell you? I. Am. A. Digitalized. Mind!”

“Okay, okay, I got it. Sheesh. Let’s just get this started with.” I decided to comply, even though the authenticity of what she said was doubtful at best. 

“Hmph, alright.”

At the end of the day, she had been my one and only companion for these whole three months; I hadn’t had any other chance to find other survivors in this world that were basically covered with deadly fog that could turn you into a monster.

“So?” I inquired, “What information have you gathered?”

“You see, I have deducted a pathway to lead us somewhere safer.” Her projection changed into a landscape map of the area around us. “There, by following this path, we can escape this place that has confined us for all this time.”

“Good, good, good. We just have to make it this time.”

I always wondered how she was able to project a hologram. Heck, even this whole airship was a total enigma even to an intellectual such as me. Though, that said, this world just so happened to possess technology not inferior to the one on Earth or even exceeded it by a bit in some areas… Just that it was a post-apocalyptic world.

In any case, I’d tried to explore the world, to find where other people lived. I knew for a fact that there were survivors out there, at least through the memories of this body’s original owner. But because of the immensity of the red fog coverage that could be larger than the Continental United States, it would be impossible to go around blindly.

My stomach suddenly churned; I hadn’t had anything except for a few bites of that moldy bread for the past two days. I was so very hungry!

“I hope wherever you lead me will have a bountiful amount of food there…”

“You wish. You ate all the food that I had prepared on this ship,” she remarked, turning the map projection to herself again.

“Sorry… But hey, you can’t eat, can you?”

At that, she didn’t answer. It seemed like she had been keeping something secret, though I didn’t bother to force her to answer me since it wasn’t important.

“Whatever. Anchors aweigh!”

“Ahoy, Captain.” She decided to play along with my play and forget about the question I asked earlier.

And so, through the windows around and the hologram display, I noticed the anchors were pulled and the rope binding the airship and the building was released by the spherical drone. The propellers began to spin, and the airship soon ascended higher and moved forward.

I only had helmed this airship a few times to scout around the area. After all, it was propelled through the mix of technology and magic and required tons of energy to operate. Even though some energy could be compensated through solar power, it was far from enough. Only the creators knew what this airship used as energy… And maybe Lunaria?

Normally, this airship could reach a cruising speed of up to two hundred kilometers per hour. It was much faster compared to the zeppelin used back on Earth in the mid-1900s. The material used to make this was also several notches better, despite everything.

Several hours after cruising the endless red fog by following the route given by Lunaria, I received a notification.