"What in the fresh hell?!" Kayn bellowed, or rather, tried to, his voice coming out foreign and burning as the words spilled from his throat. He blinked his eyes as he tried to get some kind of bearing on his surroundings, but his vision was otherwise useless, nothing more than various shades of grey and brown. After a few more blinks, it was clear this was a dead end, so with eyesight being a no-go he strained his ears desperately hoping to hear something familiar, but the only response was a haunting gust of wind whipping past him, not so much as the flutter of leaves or the chirping of crickets. He continued to listen, hoping to maybe hear the rush of water, the thrum of traffic, anything would be better than this senseless purgatory, and yet, nothing reached his ears.
Kayn scrambled to his feed, his hands met coarse dirt as he pushed himself upright, the grit biting into his palms and his knees. His bare feet met the same fate as what he hoped were merely sharp scattered stones began pushing hard against his flesh. Survival danced with anxiety and fear as he stood on wobbly legs as a gust of wind ripped past him, licking him from head to toe and confirming that he was without any protection.
Kayn slowly adjusted his body, shifting in a small circle as he squinted to make out anything around him. Still the bleak grey surroundings pressed in on his vision and he became increasingly frustrated.
"Fuck, fuck, what the fucking fuck is happening?"
He hadn't intended to be so loud, still cautious of his surroundings, but rapidly losing his sanity as he found himself utterly helpless in a strange place and without so much as a shred of clothing to cover him. Any concern he had was unwarranted, as his voice trailed off only a short distance before being enveloped by a strong gust of wind, the second so far, that tore past him, reminding him just how cold and vulnerable he had become.
Kayn could feel his heartbeat in his temples as he tries to sooth himself, to regain his composure, a challenging task even without one's genitals flowing in the breeze. Bringing his hands to his face, he shut his eyes tight and rubbed at his orbs, desperate to regain his primary sense. He blinked again and again, with more fervor, as though he were willing his sight back into existence. After a few long deep breaths he spoke words of affirmation to himself.
"Okay, okay, think," he muttered, his mind was a foggy mess. It was as though every memory he had from before this very moment was just out of reach. He couldn't remember his name, his family, if he had one, or any part of him that existed before the here and now. The only thing he knew for sure, was that something was wrong, and that he did not belong here.
He opened his eyes and was astounded to discover that things had cleared up ever so slightly, at least until another gust tore across the terrain and peppered him with dust and particles that stung his eyes and stifled his breath. Kayn covered his mouth, but in that absence, had the lack the sense to breath through his nose, only to take in a cloud of dust, causing him to sneeze and cough simultaneously. The action resulted in him doubling over in pain, grasping at his face, and being no closer to where he was only a short time earlier.
The pain was nearly enough to distract him from one crucial, undeniable fact. He smelled the acrid air, he smelled the ever familiar yet always avoided scent of death lingering in the air. He could smell now!
The revelation hit like a truck, wait, a truck? Was that important? Why did he pause at this moment? The thought was short lived as the gust of wind subsided and he took another deep inhale of his surroundings. The air was foul, it was an aggressive aroma that made him want to recoil. Sickly sweet, like cabbages and beef, a stew left out in the sun for far too long. It smelled like the rats that had perished in the walls, like the deer splattered on the road back home, home… Where was home?
The longer he breathed it in, the more his stomach churned and his body rebelled. Though the gust had passed by, the lingering smell remained and it nearly caused him to retch. It clung to his sinuses, to his throat, it refused to let go and caused him to gag. He stumbled back reflexively, one step, and then another, until his heel caught on something hard.
Kayn looked down, or rather tried to. The thick haze in his head, in his eyes was beginning to fade, the blur of endless grey came to part and make room for more distinct variations. Shapes began to assert themselves, less uneven shadows, and more defined jagged things that protruded from the earth. Soon he found himself struggling to identify specs of white and silver that reflected light from the grey sky.
His pulse picked up again, the hammering in his head now a powerful rhythm, rattling his very brain. The wind picked up but then died down for longer than he had been accustomed to since waking in this foreign place. With every delicate step he took, only his breath and the crunch of bare feet on earth could be heard. Without the howl of the wind, the silence became nearly unbearable.
"Come on," he whispered hoarsely, slapping himself in the face a few times as his voice trembled between desperate plea and command. "Come on, just show me where I am. I can handle it. If I could just know what is going on, I can do something about it."
He could make out mounds, or maybe hills? No, they were much too angular for that. His vision would occasionally provide him with snippets of the world around him, allowing him for but a brief horrifying moment, to see what appeared to be the remnants of various walls. Some towered, fractured, others lay at his feet, buried by whatever the winds had brought with them.The sight was deeply unsettling, yet still he cursed at himself for not looking directly in front of him,t o figure out what might pose a threat to him in the moment. As he turned his head to rectify this issue, his vision faded out again.
Kayn took a cautious step forward, then another, his bare feet scraping across the uneven and often painful earth. Each movement returned more sensation, mostly in the form of cuts along his feet, the burn of the wind on his skin, the groan of what he assumed were structures that somehow withstood the test of time. Slowly, piece by piece, the world began to rebuild itself around him, only to reveal that there was nothing left worth rebuilding.
A few paces ahead, something jutted out of the ground, it was twisted and metallic, skeletal and rusted. If he hadn't been proceeding with care and feeling out everything in front of him, he may have impaled himself on the object.
Kayn squinted, wiping the tears that refused to let up, dust and debris still clinging to the corners of his eyes. It was… A streetlight, or what was left of one, bent nearly in half, the bulb shattered and blackened. Beyond it, a faint outline of what he could only assume was a road, curved off into the distance, though with everything peppering the path ahead, it might as well have been an obstacle course.
Suddenly a strange voice, not male, nor female, not human, nor robot, blared in his head.
[Syncing… Please wait. We appreciate your patience.]
Kayn froze, his head darting back and forth, trying to locate the origin of this strange voice.
"Sir? Ma'am?" he hoarsely coughed, "Please, help me…" he trailed off, waiting for a response.
[Please wait… Senses loading. Vision: 50%, Hearing: 30%, Touch: 75%, Taste: 30%, Smell: 75%.]
"What? What are you saying? Please help…" He coughed at the exertion, his voice still strange and foreign, his throat still swollen. "I can't see…" he muttered, rubbing at his eyes again.
[Request acknowledged. Vision now prioritized. Vision: 75%.]
With that, he could suddenly see a lot more clearly. Unfortunately, this was not as much of a relief as he had assumed, for with vision became a better understanding of his circumstances. With a better understanding of his circumstances, came a sense of dread and hopelessness.
His heart clenched, and for the first time since waking, a flicker of memory tried to surface. It was nothing more than a whisper, but as the shapes formed around him, he had the faintest clue as to where he was.
"This… this was a city," he murmured. The words came out as more of a disbelieving reflex than an actual statement.
Another gust of wind surged past him, carrying more dust, more death, and further within, a faint whisper of life, a cry for help or a mutter of pain, he couldn't tell.
Kayn turned sharply, heart skipping as he scanned the horizon for the source. The disembodied voice informed him he had 85% vision, something he still didn't quite comprehend as his eyes continued to water from the materials in the air. Still, despite it all, for one fleeting instant he could've sworn he saw movement in the haze, a shadow crossing through the ruins.
Kayn swallowed hard, forcing his breath steady, not sure to call out to duck for cover. The hair on his neck stood straight as he stifled a cry. "Quiet" he whispered to himself, "Stay quiet… We need more information."
He blinked a few times to clear his eyes, but the shadow was gone and only the wind remained, peppering him further more and obscuring the view with another sheet of dust. Unsure as to what actions to take, Kayn stayed perfectly still, one arm shielding his eyes as the dust rolled past. The sound of the wind faded again, replaced by a low pulsing hum inside his head. It reminded him of the voice, when suddenly–
[Syncing… Vision 95%, Hearing: 50%, Touch: 85%, Taste: 50%, Smell: 85%.] Neural calibration in progress.]
Kayn winced, clutching the sides of his head. "Stop! Whatever you're doing, stop!"
[Error. External interference detected. Compensating.]
He dropped to his knees as the hum spiked, a blinding pulse flashing behind his eyelids. For a single, unbearable second, his vision flared with color before now unheard of. Flashes of red, yellow, and blue streaked across his vision before settling again into dull tones of grey, black, and white.
When the pain dulled enough for him to breathe, he realized he could see further than before. The city stretched out before him in jagged ruin full of collapsed towers leaning against one another, likely to crumble at any moment. He stopped just shy of piercing his foot on a heap of broken glass and twisted steel that reflected light previously unseen. There was no vegetation, no sound but the wind, followed by an uncomfortable silence that seeped into his bones.
Kayn swallowed hard. His throat felt like sandpaper. "Where the hell is this place? I don't recognize anything."
[Environmental analysis: Complete.]
He froze as the voice returned in its cold, genderless, monotone.
[Warning: Contamination level: Critical. Biological hazard detected. Oxygen purity: Dangerous. Water sources: Nonviable. Civilian population: Terminated.]
He stared blankly into the ruins, unable to process what he'd just heard.
"Terminated?" he whispered. "Like, terminated terminated?"
The wind shifted again, carrying with it a distant rattling. He stiffened as he realized it was not just the wind tossing things about. There was something out there.
Kayn turned, heart screaming as he scanned the uneven horizon. Something was definitely out there, ground level, dragging against the dirt and debris. A shape limped through the fog and stopped, as though listening to its surroundings. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his body wouldn't move.
[Syncing… Overall progress: 82%. Cognitive functions stabilizing. Combat protocols locked until first engagement.]
Combat protocols?!" he parroted too loudly in response. "What are you even doing? Am I going to get…" He paused as a few memories trickled in, "Are you going to give me some kind of Gundam?" The thought soothed him briefly, a giant robot mech would certainly alleviate some of his stressors.
Unfortunately, his questions gained him no further answers and he was only left with the blasted hum in his head that told him the voice was there, but not responding.
The shape drew closer, details bleeding into focus with each strained blink. At first, it looked human, a small frame, slouched posture, but the way it moved was far from human. It more more unstable, more jerky than anyone he had seen, other than drunks and addicts. It stumbled, then corrected itself, as though learning how to walk again.
Kayn took a half step back, one hand raised instinctively though he held no weapon, no tool, not even clothing to shield himself.
"Hey!" he called out, voice cracking. "If you can hear me, say something, say anything!"
The figure stopped. Slowly, its head turned toward him. A long, wet sound broke the silence, some kind of gurgle, then a breath that rattled through what he hoped were diseased, broken lungs.
Kayn's stomach flipped as the wind shifted and the stench hit him full force. Kayn was familiar with the occasional dead rat in the walls, or the bit of roadkill on his ride home, but this… This was all of that, on steroids, having vomited up its lunch, and died on the pile of mess in the full mid-day sun.
The figure shambled forward again, dragging one foot, the other bent at a grotesque angle. The flesh on its neck sloughing off with every moment. He refused to consider what other parts were falling from the body of the creature.
"Oh, hell no!"
[Threat detected.]
The voice was calm again, completely detached from the actual terror that approached him.
[First hostile encountered. Syncing: 90%. Neural link optimization required. Please eliminate the threat to complete initialization.]
"Eliminate?" Kayn rasped, backing away faster now. "With what?!"
[Resource unavailable. Manual engagement required.]
He nearly tripped on the uneven ground as the creature lunged. Its jaw hung crookedly, teeth flashing in the dim light. Kayn scrambled back, slipping in the dirt, his hands clawing for anything he could use. Suddenly his hand glanced against a rock that he had barely avoided landing on.
"Wait, that's not a rock, there's some kind of texture to it…" a shard of metal, no, not a shard, a length of metal. His fingers closed around a piece of twisted rebar jutting from the rubble.
[Weapon detected: Improvised. You are not proficient with this weapon.]
"Whatever, it works for now," he growled through gritted teeth, lifting it just as the creature reached him.
The impact rattled up his arm as he swung blindly, the rebar connecting with a sickening crunch. The thing staggered, then came again, mouth snapping, eyes glossed over, no intentional function pushing it forward, other than maybe attacking. It reminded him of a shark, of a doll, of a movie, but now wasn't time to ponder pop culture.
Kayn screamed, a raw, panicked sound, and swung again, this time with all the force he could muster he flung the object at the shambling monster. The metal tore through rotten flesh and brittle bone. The creature collapsed, twitching once before falling still.
He stood there, chest heaving, staring down at the ruin he'd made. His arms trembled, his vision blurred again at the edges. Before he could truly evaluate what he had done, that god dammed voice blasted in his mind.
[First hostile eliminated.]
[Sync complete. Neural interface stabilized.]
[Welcome, User: Kayn.]
"Please send me home." He whimpered as he hefted the rebar to his shoulder. It would have been light, but he didn't have the same strength he had just yesterday. He was different, and it was quickly becoming more and more apparent.
[Would you like to begin orientation?]
Kayn squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. "No. No, no, no. I'm done listening to you. You already hijacked my brain, made me fight some silent hill shit, and now you wanna… You wanna what? Give me a tutorial?"
[Orientation is highly recommended for all new users.]
"I'm not a user!" he barked. "I'm…" He stopped, swallowing hard. "I'm me."
[Identity confirmed: Kayn.]
"That's not what I meant!" He kicked at a loose that sent a puff of grey dust curling into the stale air and a shooting pain through his foot. After the customary expletive and grunt of pain, he continued, "I don't need your orientation, I need answers. What the hell is this place? What did you do to me?"
[Query: Invalid. Information restricted until orientation is complete.]
He laughed, a sick, broken, nearly hysterical laugh. "Of course it is. Of course I have to 'accept the terms and conditions' before I get to know why the world's gone to shit." He dropped to his knees, feeling the bite of the earth against his knees, followed by more of the same in his hands as the cold unforgiving earth retaliated against his presence. "No. You can shove your orientation. I'm not doing it."
A long pause followed, way too long for a man in a city possibly full of zombies. For a moment, he thought maybe the voice had actually listened, maybe it was gone. Then came the hum again, low and invasive, crawling into his skull like static..
[Warning: Declining orientation will result in reduced synchronization efficiency. Neural interface will remain at base configuration. Strength, endurance, and cognitive upgrades will remain locked.]
He froze as he pondered the options. "...What upgrades?"
[Orientation grants access to skill tree integration, combat enhancement, environmental resistance, and experience leveling protocols.]
"Leveling?" He frowned, the word far too familiar given his foggy memory. Suddenly an image appeared in his head and he responded, "Like… a video game? You're saying I can level up?"
[Affirmative. Each successful engagement yields experience points which may be allocated toward desired traits. Would you like to begin orientation?]
He stared out at the endless ruin before him, the twisted towers, the wind screaming through hollow windows. Somewhere out there, that thing he killed had probably been human once. If it had been human, and all humans had been… 'Terminated'... Then there were likely thousands more on a good day.
He looked down at his shaking hands, streaked with grime and something darker. He didn't feel strong, or ready, or anything like he used to feel.
"Goddammit…" he muttered. "You're manipulating me, aren't you?"
[Clarification: Incentivizing compliance.]
"Okay smartass, sure, that's one word for it.
He sighed and rubbed at his face, smearing dust across his skin. "Fine. Whatever. If this orientation gives me a chance to not die horribly, then yeah, sign me up."
[Acceptance registered.]
His entire body vibrated, or that was the best way he could put it. It was like every atom of his existence was reacting to the voice's confirmation. His pulse synced with the hum in his head, a steady thrum that began to match his heartbeat until they both blended into the same thing.
[Initializing user orientation. Loading: 1%...]
The sound of the voice shook him to his very bones. Lines of faint light began to crawl across the ground in front of him, weaving together into shapes he wasn't sure he had ever seen before.
Kayn took a step back. "What the hell is this supposed to be?"
[Please remain still during initialization.]
The light surged upward, wrapping around him like a flaming inferno, but so much more intimate. He gasped as heat bloomed through his chest. It didn't burn, but it seemed to be building up into something. His very core shifted as every part of Kayne became a well oiled engine of efficiency.
[Welcome to the System, User: Kayn.]
[Orientation commencing.]