Dustin lay motionless beneath the thorny purple bushes for several long hours. He listened carefully as the terrifying sounds of the forest slowly changed. The desperate screams of the other scattered participants eventually faded away. Those horrifying noises were replaced by the wet tearing of flesh and the satisfied grunts of massive unseen predators.
He forced his breathing to remain incredibly shallow. His shredded plaid pajama pants offered zero protection against the damp soil and the biting insects that crawled over his bare legs. The sharp thorns of the bush dug painfully into his back every time he slightly shifted his weight.
'Remaining in this spot is inefficient,' Dustin reasoned internally after three solid hours of hiding. 'The predators are probably full right now but they will eventually get hungry again. This bush provides basic visual cover but it offers no physical protection against something with a decent sense of smell. I need to find a permanent resting zone.'
He slowly pushed himself up from the dirt. His joints popped loudly and his muscles ached from the violent magical landing. He needed to understand what advantages the system had actually given him before he ventured out into the deadly alien woods. He closed his eyes and focused all of his mental energy on his massive eighteen points of perception.
The result was instantaneous and overwhelming.
A spherical map suddenly blossomed inside his mind. He did not need to open his eyes to see his surroundings. He could simply feel the physical location of every object around him. He sensed the thick roots buried deep in the soil beneath his feet. He felt a small colony of heavily armored beetles marching across a rotting log nearby. He could even track the slow descent of a dying leaf falling from the high canopy above.
Dustin opened his eyes and mentally measured the distance of his newfound spatial awareness. The invisible detection sphere expanded outward in every direction and then stopped abruptly at a specific border.
"So eighteen points is eighteen meters, huh," Dustin whispered quietly to himself.
It was a perfect one to one ratio. His perception stat directly translated into a flawless eighteen meter radar bubble. As long as he paid close attention to that mental sphere nothing could ever sneak up on him. He would know when a monster entered his radius and he would have plenty of time to quietly slip away in the opposite direction. It was the ultimate tool for a man who desperately wanted to avoid doing any actual work.
The alien forest was incredibly dark and oppressive. Massive trees with dark black bark towered hundreds of feet into the air. Their thick branches wove together so tightly that they formed a solid wooden roof blocking out the sky. Thick vines as wide as a human torso hung down from the canopy like giant dead snakes. The air was extremely humid and carried the thick metallic scent of fresh blood mixed with rotting vegetation.
Dustin moved through the dense undergrowth with extreme caution. He placed every footstep carefully to avoid snapping any dry twigs. His twelve points of class boosted agility gave him a surprising balance. He felt remarkably light on his feet despite his terrible conditioning.
He relied on his eighteen meter perception bubble to navigate the treacherous terrain. The mental radar constantly fed him vital survival information. He easily sidestepped a patch of brightly glowing blue mushrooms that radiated a highly toxic heat. He ducked under a cluster of razor sharp leaves hanging from a low branch.
Then his mental radar suddenly flared with an intense warning.
A massive moving object had just crossed the very edge of his eighteen meter boundary.
Dustin froze in his tracks. He immediately dropped to his knees and pressed his body flat against the damp side of a massive fallen tree trunk. He held his breath and waited in silence.
The ground beneath him began to vibrate rhythmically. A loud scraping sound filled the humid air. It sounded like hundreds of heavy metal swords being dragged violently across a stone floor.
Dustin peeked cautiously over the top edge of the rotting log.
A horrific creature was slithering slowly through the dense brush just fifteen meters away. It was a monstrous centipede that was easily ten meters long. Its body was covered in thick plates of dark crimson armor that looked harder than solid steel. The beast possessed tens of thousands of long scythe like legs that effortlessly sliced through the thick forest vegetation as it moved. Puddles of acidic green drool dripped from its massive crushing mandibles and instantly burned small holes into the forest floor.
Dustin watched the giant insect with a blank expression.
'I am not fighting that,' Dustin thought firmly. 'I do not care how many experience points the system offers for killing it. My rusted butter knife would simply bounce off that armor and then it would bite me in half. I am going to stay right here until it is fully outside my safety bubble.'
He waited patiently for another ten minutes. He did not move a single muscle until his perception radar confirmed that the giant centipede had slithered completely out of his eighteen meter range. Only then did he let out a long breath of genuine relief and slowly stand back up.
He continued his quiet journey through the terrifying woods. His primary goal was to find a high elevation hiding spot where giant armored bugs could not easily reach him.
An hour later he encountered another horrific example of the local wildlife.
A soft buzzing noise filled the air near a cluster of large fern leaves. Dustin stopped and scanned the area carefully. He spotted a strange winged insect resting on a broad green leaf just a few meters ahead.
It was a mosquito the size of a human palm. It had delicate translucent wings and a long needle like mouth perfectly designed for draining blood. However the creature possessed a very long and muscular tail covered in dark green snake scales. The thick tail ended in a sharp bony rattle that twitched aggressively in the humid air.
"What the hell is even that," Dustin muttered under his breath.
The magical system had apparently decided to violently mash random terrifying creatures together to see what happened. A snake tailed mosquito was a biological nightmare that defied all logical science. He carefully backed away and took a very wide detour around the resting insect. He had zero desire to find out if the creature possessed venom or just a massive appetite for human blood.
He walked continuously for another few hours. The darkness of the forest canopy slowly began to shift into a very dull shade of grey. The sun was finally rising somewhere high above the thick wooden roof of the training zone.
Dustin was dragging his feet through the dirt. His pathetic two points of stamina were exhausted from the constant slow walking and the high mental stress of avoiding terrifying monsters. His muscles burned with a fiery ache and his lungs felt incredibly heavy in his chest. He desperately needed to find a safe place to sleep before his physical body simply shut down.
He pushed his way through a thick curtain of hanging green moss and stumbled into a small clearing.
A colossal tree dominated the center of the open space. The trunk was wider than a large modern house and the bark was a deep charcoal grey. Dustin immediately noticed a large natural hollow carved deeply into the side of the massive wooden pillar. The dark opening looked like a perfect miniature cave designed specifically for hiding.
Dustin smiled weakly and took a step forward. Then he paused and looked at the placement of the hollow.
'Now to be safe I really need to be inside that cave,' Dustin analyzed tiredly as he stared at the massive tree. 'But that cave is at least fifteen meters up in the air. That means I have to climb. Climb. I have not climbed a tree since I was a kid. The last time I climbed one I was twelve years old and I fell and broke my arm. Whatever. Breaking an arm is significantly better than dying down here in the dirt.'
He walked heavily to the base of the massive trunk and placed his hands against the rough charcoal bark. The wood was deeply textured and offered plenty of solid handholds and small ledges for his feet. The physical path upward was very clear but his gas tank was already running on dangerous fumes.
He reached up high and grabbed a thick knot of wood. He pulled his body weight off the damp ground and began the brutal ascent.
The first five meters were pure agony. His fingers started bleeding as the rough bark scraped away his soft skin. The muscles in his shoulders screamed in loud protest with every upward pull. His twelve points of agility helped him easily find the right places to put his feet but his two points of stamina made the physical effort feel like lifting a car.
He was forced to stop and rest every two meters. He clung tightly to the side of the tree while his chest heaved violently. Sweat poured down his face and stung his eyes. He seriously considered just letting go and falling back into the soft dirt. The sweet release of gravity felt incredibly tempting.
'If I drop back down that giant centipede is going to find me and eat my legs,' Dustin reminded himself fiercely. 'Climbing is terrible but being digested alive is worse. Just keep pulling.'
It took him thirty minutes of physical torture to conquer the fifteen meter vertical climb.
His right hand finally slapped onto the flat wooden floor of the hollow. He groaned loudly and dragged his upper body over the rough wooden lip. He kicked his bleeding legs weakly until his entire body was safely inside the dark space.
The interior of the tree cave was surprisingly spacious and dry. The hollow went back about three meters into the solid wood creating a perfect natural shelter against the rain and the predatory sightlines of the forest floor below.
Dustin collapsed heavily onto his back. He did not care that the floor was hard wood. He did not care that his pajama pants were ruined or that his hands were bleeding freely. He was safely elevated and his perception bubble would alert him if anything tried to climb up after him.
His highly efficient energy management philosophy demanded immediate rest. He closed his eyes took one deep breath and instantly passed out into a deep dreamless sleep.
Far away on the opposite side of the localized training zone a very different survival strategy was currently unfolding.
A small group of randomly selected participants had managed to spawn relatively close to each other. The chaotic magical transit had dumped roughly fifteen terrified people into a large rocky clearing surrounded by towering black trees.
The center of the clearing was dominated by a massive wooden stump. The top of the stump was violently splintered and torn as if a giant beast had simply chewed the rest of the tree off.
A tall and muscular man was standing proudly on top of the ruined wood. He wore a tight grey athletic shirt and held a massive iron broadsword resting comfortably on his right shoulder. He looked down at the gathering crowd of frightened civilians and weeping teenagers with a strong and confident gaze.
"Listen to me everyone," the tall man shouted clearly. "I am Andrew and I have received the Warrior class. I know you are all terrified right now but panicking will not help us. I can assure you that I can protect you all if you join me."
The group of fifteen survivors looked up at him with desperate hope shining in their eyes. A woman clutching a useless wooden crafting hammer wiped tears from her dirty face. A man wearing a torn business suit nodded eagerly at the promise of physical protection.
"But you also have to protect yourselves because I alone cannot do everything," Andrew continued with an authoritative tone. "This forest is massive and heavily populated by monsters. If we all work together and follow a strict command structure I can assure you we will survive this place."
The emotional response from the small crowd was mixed. A few of the weaker civilians were still terrified and shaking uncontrollably. Others were suddenly filled with a nervous excitement at the prospect of forming a strong community. Three young men standing near the edge of the group tightened their grips on their starter weapons and looked ready to start fighting immediately.
Andrew smiled confidently at the rising morale of his new followers. He pointed his heavy iron broadsword toward the clearing floor.
"We need to establish a perimeter and secure this area before the sun sets tonight," Andrew ordered loudly. "Now all of you who have fighting classes come forward right now. We need to organize our vanguard."
The people holding swords and bows slowly stepped forward to join their new charismatic leader. They were unaware of the loud noise they were making in the quiet clearing. They did not realize that their shouts of teamwork were currently ringing out like a massive dinner bell to the dark and hungry forest surrounding them.
Far beyond the dense canopy of the training zone and far beyond the shattered reality of the dying Earth a different conversation was taking place.
The space was a boundless and swirling void of dark purple energy dotted with millions of floating silver screens. The screens displayed endless streams of violent footage showing thousands of different planets undergoing the same brutal survival tutorials.
Two towering figures made of pure shifting starlight stood on a floating platform of dark stone. They watched the glowing screens with the bored indifference of seasoned office workers reviewing highly repetitive security footage.
"So it is another batch of new participants," the first glowing figure noted with a flat and smooth voice. "This is getting far too frequent. The lower realms are being violently integrated into the primary system at an alarming rate."
The second figure crossed its arms composed of bright cosmic energy.
"It is not that frequent," the second figure replied calmly. "You are simply getting too old to keep a proper handle on the flow of time. A few centuries pass and you think the entire schedule is rushing forward."
The first figure gestured vaguely toward a specific cluster of floating blue screens. The screens displayed the dense dark forests of the newly integrated Earth participants. One screen briefly showed Dustin fast asleep inside his wooden tree cave. Another screen showed Andrew proudly organizing his loud group of eager fighters.
"Regardless of the timeline the quality of these current batches is always questionable," the first figure stated. "Anyway I assume this specific terrestrial sector will be overseen by Shantu."
"Correct," the second figure confirmed while turning away from the glowing displays. "Shantu will manage the local administrative duties and distribute the proper suffering. Our only job is to ensure the core network remains stable during the bloodbath. Let us simply watch and see which of these fragile little creatures actually manages to entertain us."