Chapter 1: Insanity

Smoothly, the game loaded and the voice bid Maverick goodbye and good luck for his journey to the unknown.

[May you survive through the cold winter nights where hail and freezing cold temperatures never waver.]

As soon as Maverick materialized in his random starting point, notifications from the system popped up in his eyes and the extreme cold weather slipped through his winter clothes.

"So cold!"

[Welcome to Frooz Woods! A northern forest on the outskirts of Frooz City.]

[For your starting items, you received a "Frooz Bear Coat," "Frooz Bear Gloves," "Frooz Bear Earmuff," "Woven Pants," and a pair of socks and "Unfreezing Leather Boots" as parts of the "Entrant's Starter Pack."]

"What about weapons? Don't I get one?"

[Notice! The surrounding temperature is below -1 degrees Celsius. Stay warm and safe.]

[You have been granted a weapon and a piece of defensive equipment, "Serrated Dagger" and "Wooden Shield."]

Both equipment were made from typical material, befitting for the role of starters and a good beginner's weapon.

"A round shield and a saw-like dagger, not what I had expected but I'd say it's okay."

His eyes suddenly wandered around. Snow-covered tall trees and a snowcapped mountain from eyes' reach captivated the curiosity of a province boy like Maverick. Surely, it was a new experience for him, plus the shiveringly cold temperature. And as someone who hadn't seen snow and played with snow before, Maverick forgot his purpose there for a moment and basked in the snowfall.

"This is fun!"

But as seconds passed by with Maverick lying in the snow and playing with it, the cold weather was easily seeping through his winter clothes.

[Your body temperature is gradually going down. The system suggests that you keep yourself warm to avoid hypothermia and frostbites.]

"Wasn't it called a hailstorm? It seems like it stopped before I got here."

Playtime was over and Maverick deemed it was time to check what he had to do to make progress.

"I wanna take a look at my character profile."

[Name: Maverick]

[Level: 1]

[Title: None]

[Exceptional Ability: ???]

[Affinity: None]

[ETHEL: 0]

[Physical Damage: 39 + 10]

[Magic Damage: ???]

[Stamina: 100/100]

[Agility: 29]

[Physical Defense: 26 + 15]

[Magic Defense: 10 + 15]

[Dexterity: 39]

[Mana: 139/139]

[Potential: 1:100]

"Plus 10 to my attack damage because of my weapon and plus 15 to both physical and magic defense because of my clothes."

Other than that, there really is nothing remarkable with Maverick's status.

"But why is my Exceptional Ability locked? Do I need to do something for it to reveal itself?"

[Exceptional Ability will be unlocked after you've leveled up! You can level up by earning EXP from foraging, cooking, and other exceptional skills you can apply to this world. And the fastest way to level up is by defeating monsters.]

"I just hope I'm lucky enough to come across some weak monsters I can take on myself to slowly earn EXP."

Around 2 feet tall the piling snow of the freezing winter stretches as far as Maverick's eyes could see. Traveling in such bad weather with monsters lurking definitely poses a threat but also ignites the cat's curiosity even more.

[Reminder! Other than the starter pack you've received, any item from your inventory will drop in the chance that you die! So, make sure to keep your important items and equipment stashed in a safety inventory!]

"Reasonable enough, considering that the game difficulty is set to impossible."

[Would you like to view your map?]

"And the system comes with a map as well. Pretty sweet, no?"

It was no mere map but rather an entire globe fogged so as to not reveal any location except for Maverick's current coordinates.

"So, I just spin this around? This should be the mountain. I see, then I shall head north." Maverick was rotating the sphere with his index, spinning it like a ball. "Cool features, but I'm starting to feel the cold. Guess I'll begin making my way towards North."

Because there was not much to see from the map anyway, Maverick carefully tread on the piling snow with his shield and weapon in both hands. One must always be ready to defend themselves.

"How convenient are these boots! Snow doesn't slip through and my feet are completely warm!"

Silence fell upon Maverick, minutes after he had made his move.

"Did something just move from the ground?"

Maverick's eyes were not playing tricks on him when he confirmed another movement beneath the snow.

"Is it smaller than 2 feet?"

Cautiously, Maverick assessed his surroundings by looking around him to see if there were multiple movements at once. And there were.

"Around 5? No, 7 of them."

Coordinatedly, the unknown movements beneath his feet were running in all directions. Although he could see the snow shaking, which indicates the monster's location, the movements affected the snow ever so faintly.

"Are they not beneath the snow? Could they be moving around on the ground?!"

[Ground Drillers' Lair]

Being covered in tall snowcapped trees and frozen branches, Maverick stood in the middle where it was a barren spot. The Ground Drillers noticed the vibration from the snow, thus alerting each other of potential prey.

"Two of them stopped moving!"

Maverick had always been fascinated by games and fantasy-related topics. However, being in poverty— having little money to spend on vices, Maverick did not get to enjoy games or books. And when he reached high school, he spent most of his savings on his parents to support his siblings.

"I have no experience whatsoever but I don't think I'm not physically fit to exert an effort to defend myself."

Two of the Ground Drillers, who momentarily stopped, emerged from the snow in two different directions, causing panic over Maverick's careful attention.

"One from behind and one ahead! And another one just stopped moving!"

From there on, the Ground Drillers simultaneously stopped moving and appeared two at a time, making defending and attacking at the same time difficult.

Maverick waited for the right time to jab the first Ground Driller with his wooden shield but his timing was slightly off, thus resulting in him getting his body drilled into.

"Guwah!"

The arduous spinning of the Ground Driller stopped when its harrowing claws got stuck in Maverick's body, leaving the teen grievously bleeding and in tremendous pain.

"I– I can't breathe!" He exclaimed with blood dripping down from the corner of his lips. "This is... insane! I didn't," he was coughing as the Ground Drillers' attacks came crashing towards Maverick, "expect this game to be this... painful."

[You have died.] Seconds after he was swarmed and a barrage of attacks came flooding like drills onto his body.

[You will spawn after 1 minute.]

Maverick gasped as he saw his own self get devoured by the Ground Drillers till his previous character no longer existed in the face of Ethereal. He was at a loss for words.

When the Ground Driller first drilled a hole into his body, Maverick felt like he had died from pain. It was so excruciating that he wanted to scream but having his left lung damaged rendered him unable to do so. Moreover, the next thing after getting a hole in his lung, which almost instantly killed him, left him baffled by how realistic the game felt.

"They were too fast for me to react. My eyes barely caught up to their speed."

The one-minute spawn cooldown was finished and Maverick came back to where he first arrived.

"I'm back," he began, then fell into his thoughts. "Now, the question is... should I go back to the lair or take a detour to avoid the monsters? But I gotta level up."

Burdened with the thought, Maverick came back eventually, hoping to succeed this time by landing an attack. And at the very least, killing one. He knew his limitations and capabilities. As he sees things right now, he is nowhere near the skills it requires to eliminate a bunch of Ground Drillers without taking damage. Therefore, he opted for a better and more convenient approach that would gradually earn him the experience and knowledge he needed.

The flinching tinge of pain displayed itself in his expression as his body mentally processed the event that unfolded a while ago. His body and mind still remember how excruciating it was, thus the series of subtle flinching in his muscles. And like a sharp sword, a sudden itch of pain occurred in his chest, rendering him frozen for a moment.

"My body... Is it recalling the pain?"

Maverick ignored it as the flinching of his muscles stopped eventually. After a few minutes of striding along the snow-filled path, Maverick once again stood near the monsters' lair.

"From my feet's movement do they react? Is there any way I can mimic that to lure them out?" Like a thumping motion onto the snow and the ground to make the Ground Drillers think that someone was above their lair.

Looking around, there were nothing but snow-capped towering trees, so his idea was immediately discarded.

"If I'd thoughtlessly marched there without a plan in mind, I'd just meet the same fate as before. I have to think of a foolproof idea."

One plan was to shove the ice so that the monsters' movements underneath the ground would be visible but Maverick couldn't do that, seeing as the lair was spacious and the slightest steps above the nest would alert the monsters.

"Other than that, it all boils down to how good I can predict where they will pop up."

At the end of his critical scheming, Maverick began towards the lair and suddenly started kicking the snow all over to clear some of it.

"While they are still beginning to move, I need to remove as much snow as I can to increase my mobility!"

Arduously, Maverick ran around in circles as he kicked with his feet. Seconds later, the Ground Drillers commenced with their usual tactics but Maverick's effort in doing what he could allowed him to track their movements more easily than before.

"I can see their courses! I should stay away from the parts that I could not properly clear."

As he was cautiously walking while carefully guarding his enemies' movements, Maverick noticed the soft ground.

"Might be from the excessive digging underneath. The soil is not as compact as it should be!"

Isolation from the Ground Drillers was the only plan Maverick could think of. His idea of clearing some parts of the lair to get a much better vision of his enemies as they dig around and crawl underneath would prove to be efficient enough to have a decent fight against the group that brutally murdered him a while ago.

Upon noticing the decompressed soil, one idea came to Maverick's.

"Maybe I could stab through the soil before they could even emerge from it?"

While it was a good idea because it prevented less harm from him and reduced risk from monsters, the digging capacity and agility of the Ground Drillers were not to be underestimated. They move well underneath just like crawling tunnels but with obstacles and all. Moreover, they do it without a hitch.

"Four at once?!"

Again, in all directions, the Ground Drillers were moving, quickly.

Maverick steeled his resolve. Tightly, he clutched his Serrated Dagger and wooden shield as he was observing the movements of the Ground Drillers. Because of the initial plan that he had done— clearing the snow, and removing the obstacles from his vision, Maverick steadfastly lunges and approaches the incoming monsters ahead of him.

"My hands are freezing!" To deal with his problem, Maverick held down his weapon where the pointy tip had touched the ground as he was running toward the enemy that was in front of him. Then gradually, Maverick lowered his body so that his dagger would thrust deeper into the soil, aiming to meet the ground driller with his weapon on the way towards it.

As a way to let out his frustration and anger, Maverick screamed at the top of his lungs while the four drillers continued to approach in all directions, even though the ground was slightly difficult to traverse due to the decompression and wetness of the soil.

"I got you!" Maverick smirked as he slashed upward from the ground. The Ground Driller he was focused on was caught up in his dagger's serration, causing it to flung up in the air. "You're finished!"

Then comes a powerful hook the wooden shield that landed and pinned the monster on the soft soil. As soon as he had the monster rendered even if it was struggling to get away, Maverick used his dagger to stab it through its neck.

[You earned 29 EXP.]

[Congratulations on your first kill!]

[Achievement unlocked.]

[...]

More notifications from the system began popping up, but Maverick was not yet done, for more Ground Drillers began to emerge from behind.

~