Chapter 2

“Why does it feel so cold?”

This is the first thing which came into Clifford’s mind. It did not bother him that his entire body remained lightweight. He could not distinguish up from down, turning each time he tried to move, which became his primary concern.

From his own perspective, they’d been traversing the swirling vortex for almost an hour. Of course, he wasn’t sure of that, having no way of telling.

He couldn’t see much, despite being surrounded by those different colored lights. Neither can he glimpse at the teen he held, as they kept turning. All he knew was that the lad had lost consciousness a while ago.

Only when a sudden gust of wind, followed by a freezing chill, that he had to wince from the sensation. He hadn’t even blinked twice, but that certain moment was enough for him to lose sight of things.

When he opened his eyes, they were no longer inside the whirlpool of color, instead they now floated in a never ending void of those mixed lights. White and black like curtains flapped as far as the eye can view.

“Kid, wake up!”

He shakes the lad’s shoulder, having the urgency to at least talk to someone. Sadly, it was ineffective, leaving him to wonder alone in the eternal space.

He stops his rambling when several other teens started appearing one by one, popping into the abyss via a sudden flash of light. All of them floating, naked, and unconscious.

It was only then he realize he too was no longer wearing any clothing, making him flail his hands in sheer panic. This cause him to get separated from the lad he was holding.

“Hey kid, snap out of it!”

He started shouting, as he drifted away the minute he lost hold of the youth. It seems it was the teen who was keeping him in place.

It was obvious, since the others remained where they were, all except him, who now move farther from the group of youngster.

He tried doing strokes with his arms, swimming through the air. He did a three sixty degree turn, taking a chance if the momentum would at least shift his trajectory, but he continued moving further. After trying his all for the past few minutes, he finally gave up, seeing as he had gone a great distance from all of them.

From where he stayed, he can still see the lad along with the others, but they were about twelve inches in size because of the range. He then found out that there are more than a dozen youngsters there, all of them staying in complete stasis.

His struggles stopped when he finally went into a pause, already being about a few meters away from them.

Once he became stagnant, he returned to pondering, wondering where they were, and what exactly was going on.

His deep thought only ended when two spheres appeared, one glowing black and the other white. Both began humming and in that same moment, the youths started getting segregated, as if they were being chosen by those magical looking orbs.

Clifford remained silent, observing on the entire occurrence, trying to understand what was going on. Though he wished to get closer, his instincts told him to stay calm. Even if there’s this fear of being left alone within that dead space, the terror of being found out by those unknown colored spheres outweighed all of that.

One by one, the teens disappeared after being separated, and when they were all gone, the mystic globes followed, leaving him there.

“Shit! What now?”

He curses, but before he can say anything else, his entirety shifts, as his body gained weight, free falling within that space.

His voice echoes through the void, as he screams his lungs out, flailing uncontrollably to flap his hands, praying that he’d somehow find something to grab on to. It all stops when he closes his eyes out of sheer shock.

When he came to, he saw the sun high in the sky, his back feeling the cold and rough of the earth. He grunts when he touches the solid ground, now having that aching of his body.

“What just happened?”

He groans, finally having the strength to sit. It forced him to do so when he heard the loud rustling from nearby.

A moment of panic rush over him, remembering he had nothing on, but after thinking about it, he realize he was already wearing clothing. The only odd thing was they seem different from the ones he had before.

Worn down leather boots, a teared up white shirt and brown pants replaced his old clothes. But that did not mean much, especially when he noticed his surroundings.

He was in the middle of a house made of logs, a few barrels of fruits, and a large mound of stone.

Trees stood tall from all sides like a wall, and the chirping of some insects and birds resounded here and there. There was something familiar about the setup, but he can’t exactly pinpoint what it was.

“Where am I?”

This plagued his thoughts as he wandered his gaze.

Seems nobody else is there except for him, and looking at the environment, he was definitely in the middle of a dense forest. How did he get to that place is the least of his worries, as he became weary of the area, being alone and in an unknown location?

With nothing much to go on with, Clifford checks the dwelling. The inside was empty except for a piece of paper pinned on the side of the wall. He walks towards it to get a better view.

‘Map activated!’

He nearly screamed, backing away from the sudden appearance of a floating digital box in front of him.

It took him a minute to calm down, recognizing it as a sort of hologram.

Upon further inspection. He concluded the object resembled those text boxes in the games he’d played before. He couldn’t hide his surprise and frown when another screen appeared before him.

It showed a hut, a small little mine thing, and some pieces of barrels, similar to the ones outside. He seemed to be looking at the area from a third point of view, with the surrounding terrain being covered by a shadow.

His brain went haywire for a moment, unable to believe his predicament, but then the incident with the portal was already something out of this world. So this was not as hard to comprehend. He felt his chest tighten, his mind slowly trying to get the gist of it all.

Had he gotten transported to some kind of game? But how and why, and can it be a dream?

He quickly pinches himself to remove the doubt, groaning in pain afterwards. So he wasn’t asleep, that’s for sure, but then, there is the incident with the teenagers, together with those large orbs that he can’t properly grasp yet.

Then he noticed a mini map on the side of the box, showing a larger area. There was this exclamation mark on the upper part, wherein from his understanding, it indicated he was in the middle of the entirety of it all.

It wasn’t that hard to navigate, since he’d played such games before. But what he can’t discern what the symbol was for.

For now, he puts that aside and starts focusing on his current situation, considering there was nothing he can do about that, except adapt to what he had.

If this was indeed some kind of game, then there’s bound to be rules and such. And from the looks of the system he was being shown, the window in front of him was similar to that of real time strategy games. The only problem is, there weren’t any controls or units available.

He squints, further studying the setup he was dealing with, since he was sure he’d seen it before. The thing showed multiple tabs, each with a corresponding icon. He was positive they represented something, but he didn’t want to touch anything yet until he became certain of its use.

It took him about a few minutes before he finally figured out what its for, gaping in shock and amazement. A tickling sensation crawled within him, having tinkered with such a system before.

The rush of excitement was enough to make him forget about his woes, as his curiosity and astonishment got the best of him.

He inspected each of the dropdown controls, only to groan in disappointment when he saw most of them were unusable and grayed out. The only thing he can use at the moment were the ones which say modes. And there were only two of three options usable, wherein he was currently on editor mode.

With a frown and pouted lips, he clicks on the one saying controller.

In an instant, the window he changed. It now had those clickable buttons for giving out orders and such. There is also a counter on the upper right corner, showing his resources and units available. All of them showed zero, except for the food, which probably pertained to the stuff outside.

His walkthrough got disturbed when he hears a warning bell. Upon checking his screen, several creatures had appeared in his line of sight. They were about a dozen wolf like beast and they moved cautiously, sniffing around the area.

He rushes to the window to see if they were in fact there, and sure enough, the beasts were outside.

From the looks of it, the monsters are not friendly. They must have gotten attracted by the smell of the meat from his stockpile, as the pack headed towards the barrel.

‘Warning, we’re under attack.’

The pop-up note kept blinking the message in red.

“Shit, I know!”

He curses himself for getting too enthralled with the system, not considering he was in the middle of the forest. Also, there is no option for pause, giving him the notion that he is playing real time.

The number on his stockpile decreased as the monsters ransacked the food in it. He checks his screen to check if there was a way for him to escape without being noticed. Sadly, the area had gotten surrounded by the pack.

One of them took a peek inside the hut and immediately attacked upon seeing the unsuspecting human within.

“Fucking hell!”

Clifford screams aloud, almost falling because of that. The wooden walls started cracking, creaking, and breaking with each scratch and ramming.

With gritted teeth, he presses the hut with his fingers. Its hp points were quickly dwindling, showing how much damage it was receiving with each attack.

Hopeless, his mind went into a state of immense concentration, slowing everything as his thought process quickened, the same speed as his heart rate.

His gaze began checking all the options he had. His brain was also rushing to remember the rules of such a game. He recalls that there’s usually starting units available in the beginning, prompting him to click the plus sign showing within the huts buttons.

He hovers his fingers at it, enabling the details of the said unit. Five worker golems were at his disposable, each having a good amount of life points.

With a simple press, four creatures rose from the ground. Each made from rocks, with a head, large torso, arms, but instead of legs they had spheres via the hips which allowed them to levitate.

That caught the monsters by surprise, stopping for a moment to back away. The siege halted as the two groups sized up each other. But seeing as there were only four units being the size of a normal human, the pack’s head wolf did not hesitate to attack again.

The wolves and golems clash. Though outnumbered, the summoned workers put up a good fight, being made of solid stone and all. Yet, their strength was still not enough to fend off the enemies.

“I’m sorry.”

Clifford mutters, feeling bad he had to see them get beat up like that.

His unit’s life bar had reached half, while the wolves barely had any damage.

It was clear he was at a disadvantage, and it won’t be long before all of his workers got defeated.

He tries luring the pack away, but none of them fell for it, as a few continued gnawing at the hut. The dwelling was already at its limit, with a few more attacks, and it was going to fall.

With no other choice, he dashes out of there after summoning his remaining unit. They make a run for it, with him riding at the back of his last golem. They go straight into the forest, no longer considering the dangers lurking there.

Either he gets ripped by those wolves there or some other thing inside the woodlands. For now, he chose the second one, hoping he wouldn’t encounter anything else.

From his map, he followed the blinking exclamation mark showing in it, as it was the only lead he had at the moment.