Eli opened his eyes, lying on chilly pavement.
He stayed still for a sec, eyes blurry, looking up at the gray sky. Reality hadn't caught up yet, like his mind got rebooted mid-thought. A chill snaked from neck to tailbone. His breathing cut through air in quick white bursts. The temperature? Way lower than it should've been seconds ago.
Except… so where was he just now?
He dragged himself up, hands grinding against the rough ground. Then came the scent - wet foliage, crumbling stone, something sharp drifting through the air. Didn't ring any bells. Nothing here felt known. His eyes flickered open, strained, reaching for a thought lost in haze.
Nothing.
A break. No loss of light. Just a sudden shift.
He got up, unsteady. Roads stretched out nearby, woods rising like shadows left and right. Off a bit down, a tilted sign waited. Moving closer, he noticed how the chill slipped through his light coat.
"Welcome to Hawkins."
His stomach dropped.
No way.
No shot.
Hawkins didn't actually exist. That's just where the series took place - one he'd seen way too many times. A spot where things always fell apart. Monsters slipped through cracks and dark corners there, while kids like him nearly got killed each year.
A sharp breeze cut through his body. It felt true. Not just because of the sting in his hands, but also thanks to the fog of air from his mouth, along with the soreness deep in his legs after that tumble - he couldn't forget how solid it all seemed.
He slowly realized what was happening - then fear kicked in right after.
"How the hell am I here?" he whispered.
The world just stayed quiet.
Yet another thing happened instead.
A quiet beep rang in his mind - sharp, digital - shattering whatever he was thinking. Instead of fading, it snapped everything into focus, cold and sudden like a wire pulled tight.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
He stepped backward. "Huh - "
A pale glow popped up ahead of him, kind of like a ghost image hanging in air. Only instead of touching it, he waved - his fingers went right behind the light.
[Welcome, Eli.]
His heart pounded hard.
A setup. Exactly like an RPG game's rules.
He swallowed hard. "Okay… okay, I'm dreaming. I gotta be dreaming."
The display didn't respond to his touch.
[Time Displacement Confirmed.]
[World Identified: Hawkins, Indiana]
[Threat Index: High]
Eli gasped, breath unsteady. Not useful - zero benefit.
The screen flickered once more, showing a basic setup:
NAME: Eli
AGE: 12
LVL: 1
HP: 50
MP: 10
STR: 4
AGI: 5
INT: 6
WILL: 5
END: 4
Beneath it, just one line -
Skills: [None]
"Bro, I'm a literal NPC," he muttered.
He breathed out, fog curling into the air once more. Cold crept in, sharper now. Not a soul on the road, only some far-off sound - could've been branches swaying. Or something else.
He'd seen Stranger Things. Because of that, he understood what lurked in Hawkins.
He wanted heat - somewhere safe, maybe a lead or two.
He knew he had to figure things out.
He picked the one way the road went - straight ahead into town. Soon enough, homes popped up - tiny, neighborhood-style, lit by faint lights on their porches. Off in the far-off, a dog let out a shout. From some hidden spot, a motor growled.
Life was here. Just regular days back then - nothing fancy, just people doing their thing.
Which ended up making things even messier.
His shoes cracked over stones when he got to the edge of town. Each window seemed to stare his way. Shadows looked darker than normal.
The system screen beeped once more.
[New Quest: Find Safety]
Reward: +5 EXP
Penalty: Exposure, Risk of Encounter
He exhaled sharply. "Great. Awesome. Literal quests. What's next, a tutorial boss?"
Yet the dread creeping beneath his chest stayed put. Then he walked the road till a known sight appeared - nothing from recollection, just something seen on screen.
The Wheeler house.
He froze.
If that really was the Wheeler place… If my mind wasn't playing tricks… then Mike was somewhere inside at this moment. Eleven likely remained stuck in the facility. Will? He hadn't "died" yet. And Joyce - she still didn't suspect everything would go sideways soon.
It struck him like a wave - sudden, sharp, outta nowhere
He existed prior to the mess.
Back when the world below hadn't shattered everything yet.
His chest tightened.
He had the power to halt stuff. Yet he could also twist it somehow. Fix what was broken - or mess up every little thing instead.
The porch light snapped on, so Eli almost leapt sideways. Then a dark shape shifted near the window.
Nah. Not keen on chatting with story folks when he appeared like he'd just rolled through mud.
He stepped back, moving on till the Wheeler place vanished from view. Then he pushed forward until spotting a bare bus shelter with just a small cover. Not great, yet it took the edge off the breeze.
He took a seat, tugged at his coat, while cold truth started to sink in.
Hawkins.
A System.
No explanation.
No way back.
He looked at the system display once more, just in case something had changed.
Nothing.
Yet as he shut his eyes quick, a soft alert popped up near the edge.
You'll move forward when you take steps. The setup changes as you do
"So it won't babysit me," he muttered. "Cool, cool, that's not terrifying at all."
He exhaled hard, mist puffing out. Thick blackness closed in close. Off far away, a sound ripped through - brief, sharp. Could've been a bird calling at night.
Maybe not.
Eli shivered harder.
He had to find a place where he wouldn't get hurt till morning. Then figure out what comes next. Grab something to eat. Get new clothes somehow. Come up with how he ended up here - something believable.
He needed everything.
He didn't have a thing.
Another chime.
[New Passive Skill Acquired:]
[Survivor's Instinct (Lv.1)]
He blinked. "I didn't do anything…"
Skill gained from constant pressure over time - so the body adapts just to keep up
He looked toward the town - those silent homes, the shaky glow of lamps on poles, what's coming next ready to crash down.
This wasn't just some fantasy.
This wasn't just fun or pretend.
This was Hawkins.
He got stuck there - no weapons, just a strange system plus a body so frail it couldn't handle anything weird or ghost-like.
Even so, when the wind screamed among the branches, Eli pushed up onto his feet once more.
No one showed up to help him out.
But perhaps… just perhaps… he might pull through.
He stepped into Hawkins for the very first time.
The system buzzed low, just sitting there. It stayed still, like it was holding its breath.