Ethan Reyes woke with dirt in his mouth.
It was the taste that jolted him more than the cold air—the earthy, copper-tinged grit coating his tongue like ashes. He spat, rolled over, and sat up, coughing. His hands dug into a field of small rocks and brittle grass, damp with dew. He blinked against a lavender-hued sky that stretched endlessly above him, split by two suns hanging low on the horizon.
The suns weren't right. They didn't give off the same warmth as Earth's did. They shimmered with an oily light, casting shadows that bled slightly at the edges.
"This isn't home," Ethan muttered.
His heart thudded once—hard—then faster. A ringing sound flooded his ears.
Suddenly, a translucent screen flickered into existence before him, floating midair like a hologram.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
Species: Homo sapien
World Designation: 55-Earth
Name: Ethan Reyes
Civilization Code: 100%
Status Panel: Online
Map Panel: Locked (initializing)
Inventory: Empty
Shop: Locked (insufficient permissions)
Chat Tab: Active
You are part of the Universal Survival Protocol.
This is not a simulation.
This is not a test.
Every intelligent and non-intelligent species across the multiverse has been relocated.
You have no skills. You may only gain adaptations by fully conquering a species.
You may not change your registered identity. You may select a display name in the chat tab.
Ethan stared, unmoving. The words blinked in and out, waiting for acknowledgment.
His breath formed no fog despite the chill, and the silence was overwhelming—no birds, no insects, no rustling wind. Just trees, some cracked and twisted, some perfectly straight. Gray rocks, blotchy ferns, and some alien red vines curling along the bark. The air tasted sterile.
His mind screamed, Panic now!, but something colder took over.
Breathe. Observe. Assess.
Survival camp. Three years ago, his parents had sent him to one for a summer. He'd been furious, sullen, rebellious—but he remembered the basics. That memory anchored him.
He tapped the screen, mentally selecting the Status tab.
Status – Ethan Reyes
Age: 20
Species: Homo sapien
World Origin: Earth
World Designation: 55-Earth
Adaptations: None
Skill Tree: Locked
Technology Tree: Accessible
Civilization Code: 100%
Note: Civilization Code represents the surviving percentage of your species. You may absorb other species' code upon their death or surrender. When your species reaches 0%, it is extinct.
That last line felt like a punch.
Technology Tree Accessed.
The interface expanded into a branching web of glowing lines and nodes. Most of them were dim, but the starting tier was clear:
Basic Fire Creation – Locked
Stone Tool Crafting – Available (Manual Unlock)
Shelter Design I – 3% Learned
Water Filtration (Primitive) – 0.2%
Signal Fire Construction – 0.5%
Small numbers flickered next to each technology—percentages, probably based on the portion of humanity learning them.
If seventy percent of the species masters a technology, Ethan remembered the tutorial line, it becomes globally unlocked.
"Shared knowledge," he muttered. "That's smart… or terrifying."
He closed the Status tab and opened Chat.
System Notice: You may select a display name. Your real name will not be visible in chat.
Enter Display Name:
Ethan paused. Names had power in stories, and now—maybe they had power here, too. He wasn't a warrior. Not yet. But he would walk this world. He would endure.
He typed: Fieldwalker
Display Name confirmed: FIELDWALKER
Chat connection pending: Local uplink initializing...
The tab closed with a soft chime, fading into the back of his vision.
He finally stood, wiping dirt from his palms. His muscles ached—not from exhaustion, but from tension. His legs felt like someone else's.
His clothes were simple: dark cargo pants, a brown long-sleeve shirt, and durable hiking boots. No backpack. No food. Nothing but the system and the cold weight of reality pressing in from all sides.
Step One: Survival Priorities.
The old instructor's voice echoed in his memory. "You get dropped in the woods with nothing? First thing you do is take stock. Second, find water. Third, shelter. Then fire. You don't get to panic until you're fed and warm."
He scanned the area.
The land sloped down to the northeast. Trees grew denser in that direction, which could mean shade, and maybe a water source. There were no obvious trails or paths—no footprints, human or otherwise.
He moved carefully, testing the ground beneath each step.
As he walked, he checked the Inventory tab again, just in case.
Inventory: Empty
Hands
Pockets
Resolve (non-transferable)
He almost laughed at that. Some part of the system had a sense of humor.
Ten minutes of careful walking brought him to a small ridge. From the top, he could see more of the surrounding terrain: forests, jagged rocks, and a faint glint in the distance—like light hitting a surface.
Maybe water.
He slid down the ridge and followed a dry, cracked streambed that led in the direction of the glint. His boots scraped against black pebbles, and his breathing grew heavier.
That's when he heard it.
A click.
Then a second.
Stone on stone.
He froze.
The sound came again, from behind a cluster of twisted trees. He crouched low and crawled forward, peering through the underbrush.
There it was.
A creature.
No more than a meter tall, its body hunched and skeletal, skin pale and grayish like stretched fungus. Its eyes were large, glowing faintly amber, and its limbs moved with a twitchy, erratic rhythm. It was trying to break a rock using another stone—unsuccessfully.
[SPECIES IDENTIFIED: UNKNOWN PRIMITIVE - CLASS 0]
Technology Level: None
Adaptations: Unknown
Civilization Code: 0.01%
Ethan's system whispered data into his vision.
One of them. Just one.
He watched as it screeched in frustration and slammed a stone against another. The rock cracked. The creature squealed in what might have been victory.
He backed away slowly. No weapons. No idea if it was hostile. But it hadn't noticed him.
Conquered species yield adaptations... but only upon total defeat.
He wasn't ready for that yet.
Later, maybe.
He turned and slipped away silently.
After another twenty minutes, he found the glint—a shallow pool of water in a basin of dark stone. He tested it. It wasn't perfectly clear, but it didn't burn his skin or smell rotten.
He took a small sip.
Flat, metallic. Drinkable.
New Location Marked: Freshwater Source – Temporary
The system was learning.
Ethan knelt beside the pool and let out a long breath. The fear hadn't left him, but it had changed. Hardened into focus.
Fire. Shelter. Tools.
He opened the Technology Tree again and hovered over Stone Tool Crafting.
Manual Unlock Available: Proceed? Y/N
He selected Yes.
A surge passed through him—not pain, but awareness. The system gave no skills, but it gave permission. It recognized what he could now attempt on his own.
He stood and picked up a flat, wedge-shaped rock. Then a sharper one. He began chipping, shaping, remembering the lessons from survival camp.
It took him forty minutes.
When he was done, he had a crude blade—a sharp edge lashed to a stick with torn fabric from his sleeve. It wasn't perfect, but it was real.
[Primitive Stone Knife Created]
Inventory Updated
Technology Unlocked: Stone Tool Crafting
Global Human Adoption: 6.3%
He smiled, just a little.
Then the chat tab pinged.
[GLOBAL CHAT: UPLINK STABLE – REGION 55]
[IronFist23]: Anyone else just kill a screaming goblin thing? What the hell is going on?
[CrimsonFox]: Do NOT drink from the green streams. I'm blind in one eye now.
[Fieldwalker]: First knife built. Water found. East forest, shallow pool. Stay alive.
[StoneKing]: Who tf names themselves Fieldwalker? Nerd.
[Fieldwalker]: Who tf names themselves StoneKing? Edgelord.
[Laughter emoji sent by 11 users.]
For a moment, Ethan wasn't alone.
Then the chat faded again, leaving only trees, water, and the rising pressure of survival.
The war for existence had started.
And humanity, for better or worse, was still at 100%.