The next moment after my character was finalized, I find myself free falling. High in sky, plummeting to the ground, PP flapping in the wind.
I look around at the scenery. A lush world stretching out to every horizon. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and even a large walled city in the distance. A massive tree looming over head. A tree so large it can likely be seen anywhere in the world.
Directly below me is a huge lake. From this high up, I can't tell how big it is exactly, but it's definitely huge.
If I keep falling and hit that water, I'm done. Surface tension will kill me right away on impact.
I don't have anything to drop below me, though. Nothing to break the tension on the water.
Just as this though crosses my mind, my face collides with something while I'm descending. I get a mouthful of something soft.
After ripping the thing off my face and staring at it, I seem to be holding a bird of sorts. Fat body. Beak. Beady, lifeless eyes. Stick-like legs.
A chicken!
Wait what!
Why the fuck is a chicken flying around so high up? It doesn't matter, though. New world, new logic.
"Hey there buddy. Hate to do this to ya, but I need to use you to save my life."
"Bkaw!"
"Yeah I know. It's you or me. Guess you just had some bad luck."
"Bkaw?"
"Huh? Gonna use you to break the lake's surface tension so I don't die on impact."
"Bkaw!"
"Huh? You can carry me instead? Why didn't you says so! Fly, you fool!"
I grip the chicken's legs and lift it above my head. The small, fat bird flaps its pathetic wings and we continue to fall.
"You sure you can-"
I'm cut off as I see the chicken's wings beat faster and faster, almost starting sound like a plane propeller. Our descent begins to slow. It doesn't seem like it'll stop fast enough to stop us from hitting the lake.
Almost like the chicken must prove me wrong or something, it's flapping intensifies further and we stop descending about ten feet from the lake's surface. The chicken flaps and hovers us over to the lakeside, where I let go of the chicken and land on my feet.
"Bkaw!"
"Yeah, thank you for your help. I'm sorry for trying to use you to soften the landing!"
"Bkaw!"
"You're right. That was mean of me. But now I owe you one."
"Bkaw!"
"Yeah. If ever meet again, I'll help you out."
And so the chicken flaps its wings at sonic speed and it jets through air. What a strange chicken.
———
After wandering around the lakeside, I start to feel more comfortable in my new body. It's easier to move around and climb over things with these muscles and the lack of my beer gut.
There's a bunch of small creatures in the area. Whenever I look directly at them, I see a small status window appear.
Below the unknown name and level is a health bar with an unknown amount of points. If I had chosen starting gear, I might be able to try training with these critters. For now, I don't have any way to fight.
And so, I find myself sitting at the water's edge and dipping my feet in. It's cool and refreshing.
But then my tummy rumbles. A gurgling sound accompanied by pain and discomfort. It seems I'm hungry. I've never had a meal in this body before. I guess it makes sense that I'm starving.
But what to do about food… I don't know how to make traps to catch critters. Since I have no weapons, I can't hunt them.
Aha!
I'll just do as that god does! I'll fish!
First, I hunt around for a stick in the forested area around the lake. When I find a sturdy stick about four feet in length, I pick it up.
Hm? A skill? I gained a skill from picking up a stick?
…
Dope.
I immediately take a close look at the stick. When a status screen pops up, I'm shocked by the details.
1 ATK (+500% Legendary)
1 DEF (+500% Legendary)
Infinite Durability>
I find a stick… and it's legendary. Is this a joke?
Oh shit wait! I just remembered something. Something about my System making all gatherable items always appear at the highest quality. Let's test it.
I run around and pick up any sticks and stones that find. Every time, it's of legendary quality. After gathering five items, I gain a level. After five more, I gain another level.
Once I determined that the System was working this way, I felt satisfied and dropped all the items I had gathered.
Now to craft a fishing rod… but how? Games usually have a crafting window and you just toss stuff together to make new stuff. But this is a new world. I'm in the real life now. Not a game. Even though this world is kinda like a game so far.
After I mull it over, I decide to just give it my all. I grab two legendary stones and start bashing them together. I keep doing this for a while. Small chips are flying off with every few collisions. It takes me at least an hour, but I finally chip off enough of one of the stones to create a sharp edge.
So I gain a crafting skill. That's cool. But the item I made is GARBAGE??? Even if it was made with a legendary stone? What the fuuuuuuck?
It's fine. It's fine. Everything is fine. I'll just make a spear out of one of these sticks then. Then I can fish.
I spend a short while whittling away at a stick and eventually get the tip to become a fine point.
I might have to dedicate to this crafting stystem to actually make good items. It'll suck to have to rely on sticks and stones.
Now it's time to go fishing though!
I run over to the lakeside and then step into the cold waters. It takes every ounce of strength in my soul to submerge myself up to the waist.
Sweet mother of shrinkage!
After I regain composure from this icy torture, I ready my garbage spear and slowly move through the water.
The water is clear so I can see little fish moving around. I just need to find one that's big enough to eat.
Just waiting for my moment… Any moment now… Aaaaaaaaaany moment now…
All these fish are too small. It won't be worth it spear them.
I sigh and then plunge my spear into the ground beside me.
<15 EXP gained>
Multiple messages flash before my eyes all the same time. So I lift the spear. There's a heavy weight in the end of it. Once I pull it out of the water, I see a creature impaled through the head dangling from my spear.
It's HP bar has been reduced to nothing and now the corpse of this turtle is just dangling there.
Score? I don't even know how to feel about this. I didn't think I'd get lucky like that. And I've also never eaten turtle before. Might as well try it!
I take the turtle carcass to the shore. I leave it slumped against a nearby tree as I gather together a few things. I rise to Gathering Lv4 after collecting enough sticks to build a small fire.
Before lighting the flame, I need to figure out how to butcher this creature. Doing my best, I try to cut the turtle's shell off and the separate all the meat from it.
Once the back of the shell is off, I get another message.
0 ATK
10 DEF (+500% Legendary)
Infinite Durability>
So it's a shield, eh? I'll have to hold on to it.
After cleaning off the shell a bit, I start to remove the guts from the turtle and clean the meat. When I'm done, I cut it into chunks that can be skewered and turn some legendary sticks into garbage skewers.
With the meat skewered, I start to make a fire. At least I try. I add some dry grass and leaves to the stock pile and smash some stones together to try to make a spark.
The task is difficult, but I eventually manage to get some sparks started. After a few more attempts at getting the sparks to ignite the fire , I finally succeed.
After fanning the flames to get it to rise up, I set up the turtle meat and wait for it to cook thoroughly.
As I'm waiting, one thought crosses my mind.
Why did I use so much effort to try fishing? I can just hunt with a legendary stick…
The image of the Fishing God laughing at me is burned into my brain.