Evolution Island: Kill to Survive

Gamechanger

Using a voice command, Aaron accessed the skills section. There were three skill trees available to him – Exploration, Offensive and Defensive. Each skill tree contained 3 unique skills which he could unlock by spending his skill points.

Torn between so many choices and just the sole skill point to spare, he decided to play it safe and unlock an Exploration skill which would help him avoid dangers. The offensive and defensive skills could wait for the moment.

“Unlock Pyro Vision!” Aaron said, making his choice.

The Z-band confirmed his selection, allocating the skill point into the Exploration section and granting him a brand new skill.

[*Skill Unlocked!*]



[Exploration: 1. Pyro Vision: Grants the user thermal vision for 10 seconds. Costs 10 EP.]

As a bonus for unlocking his first skill, Aaron received an additional Exploration skill. He quickly opened the notification tab and clicked the new skill marked with an exclamation sign.

[*Skill Unlocked!*]

[Exploration: 2. Fire trail: Any enemy hit by an offensive fire skill leaves behind a lingering trail of fire which the Pyromancer can track to find the target. It uses 20 EP per cast.]

With his first skill unlocked, Aaron felt ready to explore the forest. Normally, he wouldn’t hesitate to enter a newly discovered location in a game world, but this time he wasn’t looking at things through the safety of a VR headset. This time he was physically inside the game world and his HP was perilously close to dropping to 0. Until he had acquired a basic understanding of respawn mechanics here, he had no wish to endanger his life.

Aaron knew the forest like the back of his hand. It was a level 2 region with no real threats. Most of the creatures here were docile and completely harmless. Just to be sure there weren’t any enemies lurking in the bushes, he activated his Pyro Vision. The initial scans picked up only small heat sources. Apart from squirrels, monkeys and hares, there was a herd of deer nearby. It was just as he had expected.

Without any further delay, he entered the forest and began searching for the fruit trees. After walking for a few minutes, he spotted a couple of golden pear trees. The fruits were all ripe and perfect for consumption. There were over a dozen on each tree and some were even scattered on the ground. He was about to walk up to the trees, when suddenly he heard a low, throaty noise. Something flew overhead, casting an enormous shadow over him. He slowly looked up to see a pterosaur circling overhead!

The terrifying flying monstrosity had a wingspan of almost 30 feet and a jaw twice the size of an adult human. The crest at the back of its head was dull gray while its body was close to a lighter shade of charcoal. Aaron stopped dead in his tracks and quickly hid under a nearby tree. His heart raced inside his chest and he trembled all over. He had visited this forest several times in the past and he had never once encountered anything so dangerous. This flying horror was not supposed to be in this game. He quickly realized this wasn’t the game he had been playing for a month. First, the weather system and now a horrifying new creature. Clearly, the new update had revamped the whole game and made it far more dangerous.

All Aaron could do now, was to stay hidden and hope the pterosaur flew away. This was, however, a lot easier said than done, since the flying monstrosity was flying way too close to the canopy. The trees in Zittorac forest were all spaced out, leaving enough room for the aerial attacker to dive in and grab a quick morsel if it wanted. It kept flying over the forest in circles, while making the occasional sharp dive to pick off the spotted deer running across the forest floor in panic. Aaron closed his eyes in fear, but he kept his ears open. The terrified bleating of the herbivores, followed by the sudden snapping of large jaws, almost made him scream. He covered his mouth with his hands and kept standing as still as possible.

Suddenly, the flying behemoth landed on the ground. Aaron realized that the creature must have heard his muffled cry. The pterosaurs all had excellent eyesight and even better hearing abilities. Outrunning a flying pterosaur capable of reaching speeds of 90 miles an hour was not an option.

The creature still hadn’t spotted him, but it was actively searching for any signs of movement. Aaron looked around him for anything he could use to create a distraction. Just then, he spotted a couple of stones near his feet. Slowly, he picked up the gray stone, the size of his palm, and threw it as far as he could. He hoped the sound made by the crash would attract the pterosaur’s attention, but the creature completely ignored it. ‘Of course, pterosaurs have excellent hearing. It's never gonna mistake it for the sound of running prey,’ Aaron thought to himself. As the pterosaur approached the tree behind which Aaron was hiding, he started looking around frantically to find some way to get out of this mess. His eyes eventually narrowed down on something hanging from a birch tree. Picking up the second stone from the ground, he aimed for the dangling brown structure.

As soon as the stone hit the target with a sharp c***k, a loud buzzing noise filled the forest. The thing which Aaron had just attacked was a Fire Hornet’s nest! In seconds, the entire hive was awake and ready to attack. Thousands of bright red hornets swarmed the pterosaur, which they thought was the enemy. Aaron stayed hidden behind the tree, carefully listening to the agonizing cries of the flying behemoth. The hornets had a deadly sting, which burned the skin like fire. Being attacked by a thousand of these insects was like being roasted alive. The pterosaur had no option but to take to the skies and retreat. Aaron thanked his lucky stars and caught his breath. But before he could get a grip on the situation, another notification popped up on his Z-band. The holographic display flashed green and put on a mini firework display. He had overcome his first predator encounter and gained access to more game features.

[*Achievement Unlocked: Uneasy Prey!*]

[+300 XP

+1000 Sky Gems Earned!

Map of Solaris is now available!

Class selection is now available!]

The terrifying encounter left Aaron shaken and trembling. He didn't even bother to look at the map right now. There were far too many questions in his mind.

In his previous playthrough, he had never come across such a vicious predator. Zittorac forest was supposed to be a low level area. Moreover, there had never been any pterosaurs in this game. It was as if someone had deliberately introduced a dangerous new enemy to catch the players unaware. Aaron’s mind went back to the cave where he had discovered pre-historic paintings on the walls. Could it be that this island had gone back in time?

Aaron’s thoughts were once more put on hold by the beeping of the Z-band. It was a communication request from Zach. He took his time to steady his nerves, before picking up the call.

“I’ve been trying to reach you for so long, but the damn weather was interfering with the comms network. Are you alright?”

“I...” Aaron gasped for breath, still shivering from his ordeal. “I’m not alright. This game has changed way too much. I just saw a damn pterosaur! What the f**k is a pre-historic carnivore doing here?”

“You’re kidding me, right? There aren’t any—”

“I’m not kidding you. I barely managed to survive. It...it just came out of nowhere and started hunting the deer in the forest. We need to get the f**k out of here!”

“I think there might have been some error in the coding. These things happen when there is a major update. You need to calm—”

“I can’t calm down! I was preparing for my tests and then I suddenly got teleported inside a game! How the hell am I supposed to calm down? I don’t wanna die here! This is all your fault!”

“How the hell is this my fault?” Zachary snapped back, much louder than before.

“You’re one of the game testers! You must have known about this!”

“Listen to yourself!” Zachary was stunned by the accusation being hurled at him. He felt like disconnecting the call right then, but slowly convinced himself to keep a level head. “Look bro, I had no damn idea something like this would happen. Even I wanna get out of this game. I had absolutely nothing to do with this,” he added calmly.

Aaron allowed his boiling anger to simmer down, before speaking again. “I’m...sorry. I just feel so scared, man. I didn’t mean to—”

“Just take a deep breath and relax. There has to be a way out of here. Maybe this is some kind of bug. I’m sure the devs will fix it soon,” Zach replied. “For now, we should just focus on survival. Don’t take any needless risks and try to find shelter. If this is a bug, it will be fixed in the next patch.”

“And how long will that take?” Aaron asked.

“I...I dunno, man. It could take a day, or maybe a week.”

“A week?”

“Look, it depends on what went wrong. We can’t get out of this world unless they fix this bug.”

“And what if it’s not a bug? What if this is a new feature of the game?”

“That’s just crazy. They’d never do anything like that,” Zach replied. The same thought had crossed his mind too, but he tried to dismiss it. If this was indeed a new feature added on purpose, then all players would be teleported to the game world. He shuddered at the thought. “Let’s not come up with wild theories, okay? This is definitely just a bug. We will get out of here soon.”

“I really hope so. My HP is down to 15 and all my stats have been halved by the rain. If the respawn—”

“The respawn mechanic will work just fine! This is just a game. Our priority should be to reach a save point. In case anything bad happens...we need to have a backup.”

“My nearest save point is gonna be Dewdale Village,” Aaron replied. “It’s about 10 miles from here.”

“The road is gonna be crawling with enemies. We should have both spawned inside the village.”

“I guess the game just wants to kill us.”

“We’re gonna be fine. This is a survival game and that’s exactly what we’ll do. We need to treat this game as our new reality, Aaron.”

“Fine, I’ll see you at the inn,” Aaron replied with confidence in his voice, though deep down he was terrified of this new game world.

After the call ended, Aaron took a deep breath and accessed the game menu. Since he had no choice but to face what the game was about to throw at him, he had to be prepared. To survive in this dangerous new land, he needed to make use of all the gaming expertise he had acquired over the years.

“Open Class Selection menu.”

The Z-band immediately brought up a display which featured all the 10 available classes from which the player could make his selection.

[Selecting Class....]

[1. Swordsman

2. Gunner

3. Assassin

4. Cavalier

5. Wizard

6. Martial Artist

7. Archer

8. Defender

9. Healer

10. Berserker]

In his previous playthrough, Aaron had picked the Swordsman class to compliment Zach’s Wizard class. Their combination of physical and magic damage was super effective against many different types of enemies. This time, however, Aaron didn’t have anyone to watch his back. Taking all the new developments into consideration, he finally spoke aloud.

“Select Martial Artist class.”

[Confirm Martial Artist?]

[Yes] [No]

“Yes, confirm the selection,” Aaron declared with an air of finality. As soon as his preferred class was locked in, another holographic display popped up, notifying him of his newly acquired abilities.

[*Martial Artist selection successful!*]

[Two new abilities acquired!]

[1. Fists of Fury: Can be used once per day. When activated, the ability allows the player to unleash a flurry of rapid punches dealing devastating damage against unarmored targets.]

[2. One with the Wind: Can be used once per day. When activated, the ability allows the player to dodge all incoming melee attacks for 20 seconds.]

“Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,” Aaron exclaimed. “I’m not gonna lose to a VR game. I’m gonna find a way out of this mess."

Aaron’s selection unlocked a whole new array of possibilities. The Martial Artist class in itself was a very balanced class and, when combined with a Pyromancer Predator, it became even more powerful. Now Aaron had access to not just two new powerful abilities, but he could also choose from a wide variety of weapons. Unlike the other classes which relied on just one or two weapon types, the Martial Artist class could use more than half a dozen weapon types, which made it the most versatile class in the game. All he needed now was to find a merchant or a treasure chest to get his hands on his first weapon.

Though Aaron wanted to get back to his world as soon as possible, he had a hunch that he was gonna be stuck here for a long time. It felt like this wasn't any glitch or accident, but part of something big. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone had deliberately brought them to this game world.