1 1. Welcome to Pandora!
Your Baby R-Giganotosaurus - Lvl 253 [R-Giganotosaurus] was killed by Liam - Lvl 190
"Again? It's the freakin fifth of the night."
"Yeah, I didn't get the health status of the mother and the color I wanted.", Liam answered nonchalantly through the mic, not phased by the body of the baby glitching in and out of existence he was mining the prime meats of.
Muting himself he yawned, rubbing his eyes as he looked at the hour, 0:09 am, he was surprised by how fast time flew by. Tomorrow, or more like in a few hours, he had to go to work, work as a Sous-chef in a restaurant, and if he arrived late he would get emotionally and mentally demolished by his superior.
Pity, mercy, and anything remotely related to empathy was foreign concept when you enter the cuisine.
"Gonna stop for tonight. Goodnight guys.", he unmuted himself and said, this was answered by three good nights and 'Ah right you have work tomorrow, RIP bozo.' which was answered by a fuck you to that person and then he disconnected from the server, and Discord.
Stretching himself he stood up and walked up to his bed before plopping himself onto it. And so it was the last time on the Earth of this universe that the 24 years old man that was Liam Cram will be.
His body, void of any life, will be found two days later by his Mother who was supposed to bring him to his Aunt's birthday, his death forever inexplicable. It was as if his life was switched off.
On a beach in another universe, on the moon of a giant gaseous planet light years away from the Earth of this universe. What looked like a well-built human male could be seen breathing slowly in the atmosphere of Pandora, only having some minor difficulty doing so.
He was shaved off of all bodily hair and only wore a white boxer drawing a thin line between nudity and exhibitionism.
"Urg…", Liam groaned, his body hurting all over like a bitch, turning around he was met with the sun assaulting his eyes. His mind was still not there but rapidly catching up to the oddness of the situation.
Bringing his left hand in front of his face he blocked the harsh sunray. His eyes turned to pinpricks as an all-familiar prism entered his vision. It was of an icy metallic gray with an orange hologram floating millimeters above it.
'Hehe… This dream is strange…', he instantly denied the possibility of it being real, he was having a very realistic dream while he was sleeping in his room and he would wake up.
To prove his point he scratched the implant, the feeling of his finger against the metal and nail against his skin. He froze, it was too real.
'No. This doesn't make sense. This is a dream, this must be one. It must.', he denied, but denying as must as he wanted didn't change anything but increase the weight of his current reality in his mind.
The wind against his bare head and chest, the soft sand on his ass that was infiltrating everywhere, the distinctive smell of the sea. And the many moons with a fucking gas-giant for all to see in the sky.
He sat on his knee with his eyes closed trying to find anything to hold and prove it wasn't real. Panic was setting in, his breathing increased, and the only thing on his mind was: Why the fuck was he on a beach with a Survivor Implant embedded in his left wrist?
As time flew by he got his breathing in check, panic won't help. On the contrary, however, saying it was easier than doing but his mind felt clearer. He felt a strong sensation of déja vue, and he wasn't dense enough to not realize the possible implication.
He stood up with difficulty, he was taller and more muscular. Before he had a thin frame and was 1.79 meters (5ft9) tall and now 1.95 meters (6ft4) tall with the body of a bodybuilder. Quite an imposing figure for a human.
The difference was drastic and disorienting, the weaker gravity of Pandora only added salt to the injury. But he rapidly got the hang of it.
With hesitation and no small amount of dread, he walked up to the clear water of the sea, the cool water washing over his bare feet.
What he was met with wasn't his face, it was the face of a man in his late twenties-early thirties, he closed his eyes and sighed. His skin was now tanned, his eyes now a soft grey with a hint of azure, almost ethereal.
The overall shape of his face, nose, jaws, and ears. Nothing remained of what he once was but his mind and that also felt different.
Luckily he wasn't using a PVP character nor did he like making abominations as funny and ridiculous as they look. The server was vanilla in almost everything stats being in that, and there were multiple quality-of-life mods on the server, one that gave more options to customize the survivor… To make them less ugly.
"I… Fuck, even my voice is not my own… This is insane.", Liam uttered, his mind ablaze with too many questions, mostly about the identity crisis and more questions that only made even more questions that will likely never be answered.
He was his level 190 character, and it was more than appearance-wise, he felt stronger, stronger than he ever was, he felt like he could punch through a tree, break human bones like they were matchstick, and more.
And there was new information, new knowledge, new data, about the various engrams the character had that were swimming in his mind. From how to make a simple stone ax to a futuristic force field capable of tanking the strongest nuke of humanity point blank.
And it was only the tip of the iceberg, it was more than just the engrams in the games. So much more, he marveled at it, the ingenuity, complexity of i,t and yet…
He wasn't in his own body, he wasn't where he should be, it felt alien, wrong but also right in a strange way he couldn't explain, it was as if it always had been this way but he knew it wasn't. It was both terrifying and soothing.
"I-I... I'm my fucking Ark survivor.", Liam said, his voice quivering, yet he was calm, as calm as one can be in this unique situation.
He was in control of himself and his emotions, he knew he shouldn't be this calm but he was and was somewhat grateful for that but he was far from fine. This situation was insane, it utterly violated all of what he believed possible.
'This… Okay… Well, go step by step. First, let's see how much I can use my implant.', Liam thought, immediately deciding to set himself objectives, and the first was to learn more about the implant and what he can do with it.
This little tek device, which was functioning with the small amount of Element it passively produces with the help of the body was for all intent and purpose his lifeline, both metaphorically and literally.
It was fused with the bone of his left forearm, intricately connected to his nervous system, it was more than just an implant. It was an integral part of his body.
It stored the Memory Matrix, his Memory Matrix, it was his consciousness, memories, and personality combined, as close as soul as it could get. And it also stored all of his biometrics, constantly, such as muscle memories.
The thing that interested him was to see if it worked like in the video game, he crouched down and picked a stone with his left hand.
Now was the tricky part, he didn't know what to exactly do, focusing on the implant he sensed a sort of very deep pocket, a personal pocket space. Immediately he stared with bated breath as the stone and its close surroundings seemed to get spaghettified before the stone disappeared from the face of Pandora.
He could still feel the weight of the stone, it was minimal and evenly distributed all over his body, if he didn't focus on it he wouldn't have sensed the difference. Picking another peddle, this one decently sized, he repeated the same and had the same result.
"This is amazing.", Liam said with awe, a small hopeful smile found its way on his face, the use of the inventory felt familiar, he was sure that he got more from his in-game character than his body.
And the implant scanned them giving him rough information on what the stones were composed of, they were composed of mostly high-carbon iron, with a sliver of tin and a teeny-tiny bit of gold.
Then he willed one of the stones out, the process took a good two seconds then he stored it again, and he repeated the process a dozen times.
'The inventory is here… Now next on the list.', he focussed on the implant and a bright light emanated from it, it was a hologram only decipherable by him.
The first thing he noticed was the dozen red messages popping up, one that said he was disconnected from the ARK Orbital Network, the Colony Ship, and all he should be currently connected to.
This confirmed one thing, he wasn't in the universe of Ark Survival Evolved, this severely limited the implant's normal function such as the ability to tell the time, weather, humidity, and temperatures, and let the survivor respawn with his/her memories if he/she were to have an early death but it also meant that any rules were now void.
The second thing is the interface was fundamentally different, with less video game-ish, and a clear lack of stats/attributes with exception of the weight limit standing at 700kg (1 543 lb), which is equal to approximately three big adult female brown bears and a half, more or less.
The other stats were here, just not shown, and in plain effect as an integral part of his body, all were based on the physical aspect and this resulted in him for one feeling this strong, and not being already dead of gas poisoning. This didn't mean he was imperceptible to the atmosphere of Pandora, he had an honorable and weak tingling sensation in his lungs.
The in-game character was far from being restricted by human limits however it was far from magical here. It came with a cost: resources. It is impossible to light an entire house with the same amount of energy necessary to light a single lightbulb.
Third, there was no crafting, it was grayed out. Unusable, he will have to do everything with his own two hands. This was a major weakness as this function let him jump through a multitude of steps, but at least he had the theoretical knowledge in the deepest of detail.
It was a strange sensation… To have such a wealth of knowledge, so much information from the most primitive and ancient human first tools to futuristic technological marvels only thought in fiction that would take several lifetimes of even the most brilliant mind to learn.
Here all at his disposal, but ironically, most of this knowledge about future technology was unusable. And, fourth, all other aspects besides the one said and the ones containing the adventurer notes were grayed out.
"This is sorted out… Now only need to map the area to know where the fuck am I, find a stable food source, drinkable water, make shelter, tools…", Liam said, each new task adding a mental weight, it will be hard.
He then gazed upon the fantastical dreamy sky of Pandora, of enchanting blue with soft white clouds, all of it beautified by the ethereal shape of the gas giant in the far distance. It was one of the most beautiful sights he ever saw, but he couldn't truly appreciate it.
"And someway, somewhat, somehow find a way home."
He had a family, friends, and a simple and pleasant life he was forcefully taken from, he didn't want to be here, even with this superhuman body and a vast array of knowledge.
How he dearly wished it was but a dream, but he knew better, and this objective of finding his way back… An objective that he will with certainty not achieve, that much he was aware of, but that's still something to thrive for, an end goal.
Anyway, that's good and all but he needs to survive, no, thrive to the highest extent before even thinking of that.
