1 The Beginning
Under the blazing sky, rays of sunshine pierce the dense foliage of trees. Tiny specks of dust seemed to dance around in the aftermath of the singing wind. The leaves ruffled beneath the cool whistle of the wind.
A leaf, upon nature or chance, fell from a tree and slowly floated down. Waving from left to right, the leaf eventually gently landed on a fine-hair like structure.
Upon contact with the leaf, the eyelash trembled signifying the owner was about to wake up. Blinking multiple times, light hazel-brown eyes appeared from beneath the eyelids and a hint of confusion marred the eyes.
"Ugh…"
A low groan sounded out from laying on the hard ground for an unknown time. The person in being, was a male, laying at 5 foot 10 inches, pale-skinned and a rough curly umbra-coloured hair resting on his head. With a soft shaped jaw and a tail-arched eyebrow embellished on his face, the young man looked around the age of 17 and displayed an average slim figure.
"Where the fuck am I?"
Rubbing his head to ease the slight pain, the young man slowly pushed his body up and looked around in confusion. His eyes slowly widened as he saw two young men on either side of where he laid.
Without waiting any further, he shook them both in a rough manner. Signs of finger spasms and quivering eyelashes indicated that they were going to wake up.
On the right side, a tan-skinned young man laid about around the height of 6-foot 1 inch. With a shaggy dark obsidian bowl hair style and a pair of black toned eyes, the young man had an average toned figure. Narrow eyebrows and firm cheeks styled his face. The young man groaned softly before rubbing his eyes from the intense sunlight.
"Hmm, Ray?" The young man vaguely noticed a standing silhouette and vaguely identified him as his best friend.
"Up and awake, Ash?" Ray looked at him with a serious face.
The tan-skinned young man named Ash felt something was wrong and looked around to find that they were in an unfamiliar environment.
"Uh, what the fuck is going on?" Ash was beyond confused.
"Wait, let Bryan wake up first before we do something." Ray suggested.
*Cough Cough*
On the left side, Bryan, a sand-coloured young man around the age of the other two, sprawled on the ground at 6 foot 5 inches. He had a short neat hair style with a stubble draped across his lower jaw and his upper neck. His eyes trembled slightly before they opened to reveal a pair of droopy, ebony eyes and a round chin. He presented an above average toned body with muscles scaped around his upper arm.
*Puh*
Bryan tilted his face and spat out a mixture of saliva and sand which caused him to cough in the first place. He then looked around, slowly observing his surroundings before finally resting his sights on Ray and Ash.
"So, did we somehow drink too much?" Bryan sceptically asked.
"Nah, if we did, then we would be having the worst hangover of our lives right now." Ash ended that notion.
"Then how the fuck are we in the middle of nowhere?" Bryan wondered.
"That's the thing, I can't remember much." Ash quavered slightly.
"Same here. The last thing I remember was us three playing some games at Ash's apartment." Ray informed with a finger on his forehead.
"Yeah, that's what I remember too." Ash nodded.
"Me too…" Bryan confirmed their closing memory.
The three best friends were in a small open area covered with dense trees and bushes with seemingly no end to them. Occasional chirps and sounds of buzzing echoed amongst the trees.
"One thing I know for a fact is that trees don't grow that big and I'm pretty sure they don't have rainbow-coloured leaves either." Ash observed.
"Maybe it's a scientific experimented tree?" Ray said with hesitation.
"Maybe…" Ash uttered softly.
Bryan took a deep breath and exhaled softly, relishing in the natural fresh air surrounding them. He stood up and checked his empty pockets for nothing. The other two searched themselves if they had anything useful but came out empty-handed.
"We have nothing on us and there's no point in trying to figure out where we are. We are no geographers, so I say we pick a direction and start walking." Bryan suggested a plan.
"Sounds good." Ash shrugged.
"Let's go towards where the sun is…" Ray suggested and pointed at the sun. The other two nodded in agreement and off they went.
Journeying through the dense alien-like forest, they encountered many unique and different forms of flora. It was unlike nothing they've seen before, at least on Earth. They were intrigued with the foreign environment but this didn't make them approach the unknown carelessly.
Their current aim was to find some edible-looking food while hoping to search for any signs of civilization. They made sure to not touch anything to avoid putting themselves in a dangerous position.
"I have a lot of things going in my mind." Bryan said aloud.
"Likewise." Ray understood his thought process.
"Big ass trees, weird buzzing sounds here and there and yet we haven't seen a single sign of an animal. I didn't wanna bring this up but I feel like we're in a different world." Ash mused out loud.
Bryan sighed in uncertainty, "What Ash said may be true. Randomly waking up in the middle of this unknown forest with plants we've never seen before ramps up the odds of us being in a different world."
"Or…" Ash trailed off. Ray and Bryan looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"…we're probably in a simulation…?" Ash questioned himself for this theory.
"Yeah, we're in a simulation…" Bryan said sarcastically.
"A different world." Ray whispered and suddenly dawned a sombre face.
"What's with the face, Ray?" Ash felt the sudden shift of his mood and asked in concern. It must be noted that the three of them are best friends in blood and as such, any troubling or emotional matters are always shared.
Ray looked at his best friends and melancholy said, "If we truly are in a different world, then what about our parents?"
The other two were rooted on the spot and suddenly thought of their parents. There was just so much going on with them that they haven't considered their parents yet.
Bryan crouched and gently touched the grass. Ash simply stood and stared at the trees with sadness crowding his eyes. Bryan softly said, "Then all the more reason for us to steady up and continue on with our path."
Ray's face trembled and he slowly nodded, "You're right. Anyways, it's us three. We always find a way out of troublesome situations."
Ash suddenly chuckled and stared at his best friends, "Haha, what are we waiting for then? It's not like the forest is endless."
"Knowing you, you probably jinxed it." Bryan finished and the three smiled and continued on their way.
After about 30 minutes, they came across a small clear untouched pond. Next to the pond was an inconspicuous shrub with four blue coloured fruits hanging from it. The blue fruits had small ridges sketched all over its skin. They were excited to finally find something that looked edible but they had their own qualms about whether they should eat it or not.
"Hey guys, don't you think that weird looking fruit feels different?" Ash inquired.
"I know what you mean. My body feels…weird the closer I get to it?" Ray agreed with Ash.
"Well, it doesn't feel like it's something bad. If anything, I feel kinda refreshed…" Bryan said with bewilderment.
The three shrugged and approached the shrub containing the blue fruits. They each plucked a fruit and carefully analysed it. Finding nothing suspicious on the outside, they each took a bite of the blue fruit.
Immediately, the three best friends felt a stream of energy burst forth from the fruit in their mouth. The stream of energy entered their body and they felt refreshed. Not only that, their bodies felt extremely full just from that one bite.
[Ding]
[System Activated]
[Initial display of the user's status…]
[Name: Ray
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: None
Cultivation Realm: None
Energy Points: 10/10
Bloodline: None
Physique: None
Element Affinities: None]
"What the fuck…" Ray's eyes widened in bafflement as he saw a floating screen in front of him. The floating screen was translucent and a description about him was aptly displayed in bold letters. Ray shifted his sight to the other two and saw them both staring dazedly into the empty air.
[Name: Ash
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: None
Cultivation Realm: None
Energy Points: 10/10
Bloodline: None
Physique: None
Element Affinities: None]
'Uhhh, am I a fucking terminator?' Ash was mind-fucked beyond belief. Prior to this, he was closely observing the blue fruit in his hands and the next thing he knows, a screen just popped up in his face.
[Name: Bryan
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: None
Cultivation Realm: None
Energy Points: 10/10
Bloodline: None
Physique: None
Element Affinities: None]
"…" Bryan just stood still in a mystified state.
'Title? Cultivation Realm? Energy Points? Blah blah blah! What the hell are these descriptions?' Bryan inwardly groaned.
Ray took a deep breath and said aloud, "I assume I am not the only one with a floating screen in front of me?"
"No, you're not." Bryan spoke while still fixated on the floating screen.
Ash broke out from his reverie and slowly replied, "Are we some sort of cyborgs?"
"It doesn't feel like it." Bryan frowned and don't know why he responded to that absurd question.
"Oh, fuck me right in the butt…" Ray crouched and rubbed his head in annoyance.
"Did you figure something out about the floating screen?" Ash questioned curiously.
Ray looked up to them and sighed, "Although I'm not an avid reader, you guys know some of the books that I have read right?"
"Yeah, what about them?" Bryan was confused to where Ray was going with it.
"I am 100% sure we have been transported to a different world. And it's not just any world, it's a world…full of fantasy elements that we only ever read in books and watch in movies. It is almost dreamlike…" Ray shortly explained.
"A world full of fantasy elements? You mean like this…cultivation whatnot and stuff?" Bryan was perplexed.
"Yeah, cultivation, magical beasts, magical weapons…you name it and you will find it." Ray briefed.
"I read few pages of your books and from what I gather, won't we be in constant danger due to the unscrupulous people of this world?" Ash popped in.
*Sigh*
Ray sighed again and continued, "That's what I'm worried about. This world's cultures and laws in no way resembles Earth. Here, I assume only strength rules above everything and murder is as common as breathing."
Bryan and Ash frowned in worry but it soon eased following Ray's further explanation.
"Although it may be dangerous, that's why we have the floating screen in front of us or in other words, a system to assist us in this unchartered territory." Ray dawned a small smile and continued explaining.
"I don't know why or who did this to us, but this system will be of great help to us. It should provide us with necessary information and strength that we absolutely need right now. Normally, the system is accompanied along with an AI but so far, there's no sign of a talking AI."
"Maybe we should call it out?" Ash suggested.
"System?" Bryan hesitantly called out.
[Ding]
[Good morning, Ray, Bryan and Ash. How may I help you?]
They were startled from the response but were even more surprised to hear a soothing non-gendered voice from the system.
Aside from the surprising voice, an astounding detail was noticed by the three. The same system message was displayed for all three of them, also considering the system greeted all three of them simultaneously. In one way or another, their systems were somehow linked.
