Survival basics

Marcus had gathered all the right materials for his water filter including charcoal from the fire pit. He only needed a funnel or a bottle to put them in. Surely he could get a plastic bottle from completing a quest or by reaching an achievement. The system hadn't been very helpful so far only saying hi when he'd done something note worthy.

But if the system was anything like that strange video game he remembered... He had to give it a try.

"System! Open menu!" Marcus yelled at the top of his lungs. A large holographic window materialised in front of him just like in the game he remembered. He gave a fist pump in triumph before scanning over the text in front of him.

As far as he could understand, this was the main menu and it had many categories to choose from. 'I feel like if my guide was here, I would have known about this much sooner.'

The selectable categories were in rows:

*MAP*

*SHOP*

*STATS*

*SKILLS*

*QUESTS*

*ACHIEVEMENTS*

*HELP*

There were some more with just question marks. Most likely locked until he did something extreme to trigger their use. In a way this was similar to how he unlocked new memories.

Marcus decided to look at the help section first. Here he found information written in the same format as in the survivor's handbook. The contents page displayed useful sections on using the menu. Marcus learnt that a currency known as survival coins could buy items from the shop. Maybe he didn't need to fumble around in the dark until he came across the right quest after all. He decided to open up the menu's other categories starting with his stats:

*STATS*

A new window popped up in front of the main one reading, 'Discovered Stats page. Distributing survival coins from previous quests and achievements.' Marcus dismissed the window to see what his body was made of:

Strength - 11

Agility - 14

Stamina - 12

Dexterity - 14

Intelligence - 10

Wisdom - 11

Fortitude - 13

Charisma - 9

Survival coins - 25

Defence - basic clothes (1)

Age - 18

'I guess my body is fairly agile and dextrous,' Marcus pondered silently. This was good as it meant he was skilled at crafting things with his hands and faster than the average person. His slightly high fortitude must have been what saved him from getting sick from the cold last night. However, he didn't like that his charisma was below average. There was not much he could do to improve it either as his group WAS missing. Everything seemed pretty average but overall he was pleased to know his fitness was at a healthy level.

Marcus took a proper look at his reflection in a puddle. Overall, he didn't look too bad. Tousled hair that was a light brown shade. Taking a closer inspection, his eyes were revealed as dark green and his skin had a slight tan but it was obvious that he hadn't got much sun in the past few hundred years. His ears had slight points too plus a sharp chin.

Moving on, Marcus went to the shop:

*SHOP*

A second window popped up like before to introduce the shop. 'Discovered shop. Use your survival coins to purchase useful items.' Like before, he swatted it to the side to view the merchandise:

Basic shop level one unlocked.

Food/ingredients:

Cereal bar - 3 coins

Apple - 4 coins

Meat - 6 coins

Water bottle - 5 coins

Equipment/tools:

pen knife - 10 coins

Clothing/armour:

hiking boots - 80 coins

Brown cloak - 30 coins

dust mask - 15 coins

The shop only had three market stalls as Marcus discovered they were called and they each only had up to four different products for sale. Marcus assumed new items would unlock as he bought the ones available now.

He realised that 25 survival coins wasn't as much as he'd first thought. The water bottle was a must so he gently tapped it with his finger and felt a slight resistance. 'Is this more than a hologram?' His coins went down to 20 and soon instead of a crate, a water bottle floated down from the sky with a parachute. 'Maybe only multiple items or heavier drops need a crate.' Marcus had wondered if he could get an infinite supply of crates or wood by purchasing lots of cheap orders in the future but now he knew that was unlikely.

First he took a long draught before pouring the rest into his reusable flask. To turn the bottle into a funnel, he used the survival knife's serrated edge to cut the bottom off. He then turned the knife around to use the point as a drill into the plastic lid forming a hole for the water. Following the instructions in the handbook he filled it with moss first, rocks and slowly added smaller, grittier material each time until he got to sand. Charcoal was thrown in as a variety spread throughout the bottle.

Marcus hoped it would be enough as he then passed water he'd tried to source from the fastest flowing part of the the river through his makeshift filter. He let it filter through into the cooking pot and after waiting patiently, boiled the clear liquid produced from his filter.

While Marcus waited for it to boil, he purchased a penknife from the shop leaving him with 10 coins left which he decided to save for an emergency if food was scarce. Speaking of food, he'd made sure to set aside his blackberry haul from earlier which he ate for lunch.

The filter was incredibly useful so once it had stopped dripping for at least half an hour, he found a branch which he cut a circular piece of wood from that acted as a bung to plug the top of the filter until future use and a piece broken off from a twig to seal the hole in the bottom. His bag was becoming quite full now though. A system notification surprised him into falling from his sitting position onto his back.

'New skill unlocked - crafting. Distributing 5 survival coins.'

Marcus was pleased to see survival coins were now showing up on his pop ups. He was even more pleased to see his penknife coming down to the ground. The wind blew it slightly off course so he had to run outside the forest to fetch it. After trudging back, he examined it using the system but all it said was that it was a multi-purpose penknife. So instead he opened up each tool. It had many functions including a can opener.

He reopened the main menu this time simply speaking the words instead of yelling them. In achievements there were feats he could complete to receive rewards. One was almost complete and after closer inspection revealed a countdown nearing completion. It read, 'survive for 24 hours.' There was a digital clock in the corner of the menu reading 11:59. The timer for the achievement had less than a minute to go. Soon it got to 3...2...1...

DING!

Marcus jumped back at the sudden notification letting him know he'd survived for 24 hours. It also told him, 'Distributing reward - 10 survival coins and a basic crate.' Whilst waiting for the crate to arrive, Marcus checked out the Map.

Once he opened his map he zoomed as far out as possible. Unfortunately, it only let him view a maximum of a 10km radius so since he wasn't near the ocean there was no way of telling which continent let alone what country he was on. He doubted being able to see the ocean would help with such a limited view though. Marcus wondered how far away he was from the nearest town. Surely some buildings were still left after the collapse. Unless there had been a disaster of some sought big enough to erase them from existence. And yet the technology to send him the crates was still operational. A blue dot resembled his location and sadly there were no other dots to be seen.

Skills was the next category Marcus decided to load up:

*Skills*

Ignite (level 1) - You have some proficiency with using fire starters e.g. fire steels, matches, fire saw, bow drill etc.

Crafting (level 1) - You are able to craft a basic tool.

Climbing (level 5) - You are comfortable with climbing all sorts of trees. You also have some ability when traversing cliffs.

Botanist (level 2) - You can examine plants to reveal basic info as well as view their status e.g. in full bloom, dehydrated, flooded etc.

After the basic crate landed, Marcus found some other achievements that seemed easily achievable like walking a certain distance or catching your first prey. He finally turned his attention to the only unchecked category:

*Quests*

Fine dining - Cook two hot meals (progress - 1/2)

Stone age - Craft a stone tool (progress - 0/1)

Agriculture - Farm one type of crop (progress 0/1)

The fine dining quest seemed simple. However, the other quests looked like they'd have been useful if he'd woken up in a group. With enough people, setting up a permanent base sounded ideal. On his own it would be difficult so it would be better to travel. How else would he find other survivors? It was time to open the crate!