Matt felt five large fingers pressed down on his jacket and he could feel how cold their hand was through his clothes. Needless to say, it sent chills down his spine and made the hair stand up on his arms and neck.

‘Is this how I die?’

He had lots of thoughts flashing through his head. He realized that since he had the system, he at least could fight. But the enemy already had him in their grasp. What if they killed him before he could react?

As thoughts of death filled his mind, he slowly turned his head, barely gathering enough courage to look behind him. His heart raced and his breath hitched as he shifted his gaze.

But just as he was about to confront the owner of the hand and before he could get a good look, he heard a quiet yet booming voice.

“You… Dropped… This.”

Matt saw the figure hold out their hand, and in it was a phone. Matt’s phone. Now that he got a good look at the figure, he noticed they were a large man, much more than 6ft in height. They didn’t have a hood, so unless they took it off, he didn’t seem to be the hooded figure.

But the man didn’t seem to show emotion. It kinda creeped Matt out and he nervously let out a quiet response.

“Thanks.”

He received his phone and scratched his chin, the stress he had felt a few moments before starting to fade. Though considering his situation, he stayed cautious.

‘Did I drop this before or after I entered my mind palace?’

Matt wasn’t sure why this man was here, but he didn’t seem to be a player, but there was no way to tell anyway.

The large man started walking away after he had handed the phone to Matt as if he no longer had business there. But before he got too far, Matt called out to him.

“What’s your name?”

It seems like maybe the social skill he had learned through the system rubbed off on him a bit since normally he would’ve been too shy to ask something like this, especially to someone he didn’t know.

The large man didn’t turn, he just responded.

“Helix.”

Matt decided it would be polite if he told him his name as well. He was new to social stuff but he didn’t want to be rude to someone who found his phone for him.

“I’m Matt, nice to meet you!”

The man didn’t respond and kept walking until he disappeared into the night.

‘Well, that guy was a bit weird.’

When he tried to think back to losing his phone, he really couldn’t remember when he dropped it.

‘It must’ve been when I opened the map and was freaking out. [Help] would’ve been really mad if I came back without it.’

Matt realized that he had just been storing his phone in his pocket, but he completely forgot that he had a storage system. He could just keep it in there and this wouldn’t happen again. It was small enough to fit, so he did just that.

(+1 Smart Phone) [4/25 Items]

After that encounter, Matt felt like he didn’t want to risk being out here anymore. Just the few scares he’s had so far were enough for him. He weighed his options and thought that he should head back to his apartment.

‘I’ll see my family once I get stronger. Right now, I would just be risking their lives. But once I can protect them, then hopefully it’ll be safe to visit.’

Matt started his trek back to his familiar apartment, though it would take him some time to arrive back.

What Matt really wanted was some sort of high-damage output. Currently, he only had passive skills mainly and even the ones that were combat-focused were all hand-to-hand combat. If he ended up in a fight with another player, he felt like he would do minimal damage.

‘I do have decently high strength, but how much damage would I do with my fist?’

He decided it would be best to test his damage later. Right now he didn’t have a good way to measure damage, so he wanted to do some tests with some already existing units of measurement.

‘Maybe PSI?’

His thoughts started drifting back to his family as he walked.

He considered calling them for now to discuss college, but he knew it would be awkward. That’s why he wanted to talk to them in person in the first place. He felt a phone call to be too low effort after not talking to them for months.

Though if it’s for their safety, he would rather just do that. In the end, it wasn’t that big of a deal and he felt like he needed to get over his anxieties. However, that was much easier said than done.

‘That’s final then. It’s too risky, so I’ll just call them.’

He realized it was now pointless that he had come out here, but he was glad he at least leveled his agility and a few other skills.

But then, as he was walking through the dark city, he realized something that made him feel uneasy.

‘The quest complete popup hasn’t appeared yet?’

He scrolled through his menu to confirm and as he suspected, the survival quest was still incomplete. He imagined it could be due to a few things.

‘I don’t know how advanced the system is when it considers quest requirements. It could be that the other player is still hunting, but nowhere near me. Or am I still in danger?’

He considered the possibility that it was also distance-based. But there was really no way of knowing which one it was. He hoped that it was the safer option. Matt continued on while making sure to keep an eye on his surroundings.

He felt like he could’ve been overthinking again, but it was better to be safe anyway. An hour passed and he was much closer to his apartment already. At this point, he was no longer in his hometown and well into the next city.

He didn’t want to use his agility or shoes just in case the player was nearby. This caused him to take a lot longer than when he travelled earlier using all of his speed advantages.

Matt still hadn’t received a quest completion notification, but considering the amount of time that had passed and the distance he had traveled, he assumed it would probably be completed soon. But nothing ever seemed to go his way.

As he was walking through another alleyway, slowly making his way home, he heard a loud voice a few dozen feet behind him. The voice sounded sickeningly cruel and psychotic.

“Found you!”

-

-

-

-

-

__________

||Stats||

Name: Matt Peterson

Age: 18

LVL: 3 [XP 108/144]

HP | 27/30 (+1)

MP | 0/0

Status Effects: +10% Speed, +10% Defense

-

||Attributes||

[Str] - 24

[Con] - 14

[Agi] - 23

[Dex] - 13

[Int] - 18

[Luk] - 12

[Cha] - 9

[Stat Points]: 0

-

||Skills||

Inspect [Lv.2], Map [Lv.2], Help [Lv.1], Storage [Lv.1], Mind Palace [Lv.1] (Cooldown: 21 Hours), Self Defense [LV.2], Boxing [LV.2], Karate [LV.2], Kung Fu (Unspecialized) [LV.2], Wrestling [LV.1], Judo [LV.1], Kickboxing [LV.1], Interpersonal Communication [LV.1], Basic Survival [LV.1], Running [LV.2], Freerunning [LV.2]

-

||Quests||

-General-

Reach LVL 5 [3/5] [Reward: +10 Unassigned Stat Points, +1 Artifact]

Compete in an event and win [Reward: +1 All Stats, +75xp]

Survive [Reward: +1 Unassigned Skill Point, +5 Unassigned Stat Points, +100xp]

-

-Daily-

*Daily quests not available in beta*

 

||Equipped||

Feet: Sports Shoes of Bursting Speed (Ability: Speed Burst)

 

||Storage||

-Items [4/25]-

Used Bullet [1], Gun [1], Knife [1], Smart Phone [1]

__________