New World

By the time Adrian woke up, the sun had started to set, covering the world in a soft orange glow, while the two moons far above looked much brighter.

[Mas… Sakura means Adrian, are you awake?]

As Adrian tried to weakly push himself off the ground he noticed that all of his wounds were now no more than faded scars.

"What happened to me? Why am I healed?" Adrian asked in a highly confused tone

[Refer to your Endurance stat increase for why you are healed.] Sakura responded as if it was common sense before saying, [Sakura, who by the way is still not a bastard, also suggests you accept the rewards of your Leave The Void Quest]

'That's weird. Without my bloodline, I shouldn't still be able to heal this quickly.' Adrian thought confused by this weird new ability

"Fine, accept quest rewards."

A blood-red light washed over Adrian's entire body scanning every part of him, making him feel violated.

[Ding! Summoning Bloodline Strengthening Pill]

After the light faded it pulled a small blood-colored pill that had a dull gray glow out of his body.

Adrian reached out and grabbed the pill, examining it closely, wondering how it appeared from the air in front of him.

[Adrian, Sakura again wants to remind you that Sakura is not a bastard and that Sakura suggests you say Status, Nexus Shop, or Quests Board. If you say any of those words, they may help you.]

"Sakura, can I ask you to either be helpful or comic relief and not both also DON'T JUST FORCE BLINDNESS ON SOMEONE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!" Adrian commented half-jokingly

"Stop saying you're not a bastard and just show it by… Oh, I don't know… not trying to scam me again. THANK YOU! Status." Adrian adds in an aggressive tone

[Efficiency System Status]

[Endurance 35%]

[Absolute System Status]

[Race: 90% Human, 10% ???]

[Requires: Evolutionary Chip]

[Evolution Tree, Stats, Skills, & Genetic Proficiency Locked]

[Evolution Points (EP): 3]

"Thank you for not scamming me." Adrian off-handedly comments

Adrian popped the Bloodline Pill in his mouth and got to work.

After checking his status, he felt fine without checking the Shop or Quests.

Adrian grabbed the half-starved wolf's corps and dragged it away from the water.

After Adrian got done dragging the wolf to the middle of the beach, he decided to climb the nearest and highest rock formation to get to know his environment.

As he looked around, he noticed that the island was incredibly strange. It was structured in almost ring-like structures as far as he could see.

The first ring was the beach, then a forest, then a mushroom-filled wasteland, after that was a large scar of deep caverns and ravens, and the final ring he could see was full of mountains.

[Issuing Quest: Getting Started]

[Description: Make basic survival tools]

[Reward: White Fox Clothing Set]

It only took an hour for Adrian to make basic primitive tools such as a stone hand ax, a stone knife, a fire starter, and a wooden spear.

"Accept Reward"

Just like the Blood Pill, before it, the clothing set appeared after the space in front of Adrian was distorted.

"Sakura, if I can get items from simple missions, can you show me all the missions that I can complete?"

[The Nexus Interface will not allow Sakura to know about the Quests, much less tell you about them.]

From there, Sakura ranted about how important Nexus was and bla bla bla… Adrian tuned her out while he put on his new clothes.

The set included a sleek black short sleeve t-shirt, black jeans, and black hiking boots. Each piece had a peculiar logo on them of a white fox curled in on itself sleeping.

With night fast approaching he set up a small camp by the wolf remains using a random rock and his hand ax Adrian made a fire with random driftwood around the beach.

Hunger finally caught up to him as he sat down on the now cold sand warming by the fire.

Adrian walked over to the wolf and carefully skinned it with his dull stone knife taking a few small chunks of meat off the wolfs.

He grabbed his spear impaling pieces of meat on it before setting the spear in the sand.

******

Just as his food was done cooking and he took a bite, Sakura had something to say.

[Sakura, reminds you that 10% of the energy you intake will be given to the Nexus Interface.]

Exaggeratedly, Adrian scoffs, "Of course, how could I forget that the only other existence that will talk to me scammed me as soon as we met."

The original hazy purple screen appeared saying, [OS, Cursed Writer, and many other constellations take offense to your words.]

Shocked, Adrian makes fun of the message, "Really you supposed gods are offended by my comments."

[The party falls silent.]

As Adrian continued to take bites of the wolf meat a portion of each bite seemed to evaporate in his stomach making him less satisfied.

With each mouthful of meat, Adrian felt like something was wrong, then he remembered that a percent of his "energy" intake would be used as a fee.

Still hungry after finishing his portion of meat he cooked, Adrian grabs the rest of the wolf and for the next few hours had to cook all of the wolf's meat.

Only after he ate every bit of the wolf's meat did he feel full and satisfied.

Adrian curses in his mind, 'So this is what they meant. … Stupid con artists.'

In a seemingly automated tone, Sakura said, [Thank you for keeping your end of the deal.]

"Did I have a choice?" Adrian sighed

[You did… you could have not consumed energy and died.] Sakura said in an emotionless cold robotic voice

Hearing this Adrian rolled his eyes before laying down and trying to get some rest.

Just as Adrian started to close his eyes, Sakura's cold robotic voice called out saying, [Adrian please, before you sleep, open the shop, it will help.]

Once Adrian heard this he closed his eyes tighter in an attempt to ignore Sakura's rambling.

Sakura pleaded in an almost human voice in stark contrast to her normally emotionless voice, [I promise Nexus will not scam you… we provide many of the energies, outsiders, and constellations that control most large portions of the multiverse. Please trust Nexus even if you don't trust Sakura.]

In an attempt to annoy Sakura, Adrian said, "I'll do it tomorrow. For now, let me rest."

After obtaining a response Sakura's voice returned to its uncanny robotic tone, [If you open the shop, Nexus will give you free incentives.]

"I have a counter-question. Will you leave me alone if I open it?" Adrian asked trying to gain a real reaction

[…]

Shaking his head, Adrian muttered, "Open shop."

[Generating Free incentives…]

[10 Credits worth of energy consumed]

[Activating 2x credit incentive for first open]

[Balance: 20]

After the messages faded, a gray interface came into view.

At the top of the interface was a search bar, and to its right was the balance.

On the left of Adrian's vision was a Gacha wheel, and above it was a small sign claiming, '3 Free Rolls.'

"If it's free, might as well. Right?" Adrian muttered unaware of the trap he had stepped in

Soon the interface changed with the gacha wheel overtaking his vision.

[Searching for Luck Stat to alter the chances. Error no luck stat.]

After assessing Adrian's lack of luck the gacha started to slowly spin but it gradually gained speed until it was so fast you couldn't even tell if it was spinning or not. A red button appeared once it got to its top speed allowing him to stop the wheel while dropping down three arrows.

[Ding. Small Shelter x1]

[1% Energy Refund 1-month pass]

[5 coins]

Adrian chuckled to himself, wondering if he saw the messages wrong. After all, he had expected to roll; return all coins, or for it to take 99% of his energy.

Around a hundred meters away from camp, a fully furnished beach house appeared.

[Quest: Sleep normally until leaving the island]

[Reward: Replenish Stat]

[Quest: Daily Training]

[Clear Condition: 0/100 Squats, 0/100 Push Ups, 0/100 Lungs, 0/100 Pull Ups, and 0/10 Kilometer Run]

[Reward: +1 Evolution Point (EP)]

Looking at the two easy quests Adrian was filled with confidence so he decided to complete the training.

That confidence was quickly extinguished, finding that each movement had to be completed perfectly, ending up taking him a little over 3 hours.

In an almost teasing tone, Sakura said, [Sakura suggests you watch out for exhaustion]

"Fine, moommmmm..." Adrian said, rolling his eyes, laughing to himself

[Sakura is not mom, Sakura is Sakura. You named me.]

Adrian's body was screaming at him, but he wouldn't give Sakura the satisfaction of knowing that she was right.

Adrian put out the embers of his fire and started to walk around his house.

The porch was shaded by palm leaves with a hammock stretched between two wooden beams on the porch.

Inside his new house was everything you would expect from a western-style beach house, there was a small table with two chairs, while in a side room, there was a comfortable bed with white cotton sheets, with a bathroom just outside the room to the right.

After taking a shower, Adrian decided now was the perfect time to sleep.

******

In the forest line, there was a transparent shade of a small bird covered in a white fire and a white fox with nine tails watching Adrian.

[Mythical Beasts, "Helpful Clothing's Dealer" and "Lord of Flames and Rebirth" ask to help Adrian, but was muted by ???]