From Game to Reality: Dawn of Systems

Genesis

"Zap!" A flash of lightning seemed to strike.

"What the hell?!" Nolan Anderson, an average college student studying Geology at Stanford university California suddenly found himself in what seemed to be a black space while playing an online game called Player dimensions in his one room apartment.

"Shit, am I dreaming?" Nolan asked himself as he looked around the darkness, he raised his hands lowering his head but he couldn't even see his own hand in the darkness, "This definitely is a nightmare." He muttered once more when a blinding white light suddenly shone down on him from above like a spotlight.

"Congratulations, host has activated the dimension travelling system." A robotic sounding voice suddenly spoke up in the darkness.

"The what now? The game I was playing must still be clouding my mind, this voice sounds exactly like the robotic voice instructions in the Player dimensions game."

"Host will now be transported to the first dimension, world information;

Dimension name: Nexupia

Dimension level: Level 1 dimension

Description: Nexupia is a world dimension currently disrupted by a zombie apocalypse, the world's inhabitants are humans with magical powers called abilities; the abilities are governed by elemental powers of nature, such as water, air, earth, fire and aether(space). Each elemental magic has to be recharged by consuming the spiritual energy from the natural element.

Host's mission: 'Kill 50,000 zombies in order to be transported into the second dimension.'

Time frame to complete mission: 30 days.

'Tap the left side of your chest to view your stats.'

'Goodluck on completing mission 1 host.'

***

Nolan wasn't even given the chance to react before the white light surrounding him got brighter, the information that had flashed on the transparent blue screen that appeared before him disappeared.

His body felt like it was being transported through time and space itself before he felt himself land on solid ground.

"What the fuck was all that? How could I have gotten inside the game? That's impossible, it only happens in the novels I used to read when I was fourteen." Nolan muttered to himself, however the minute his eyes landed on his surroundings, he immediately realized the reality of what he had been plunged into.

"No freaking way, isn't this level one of player dimensions called the zombie arena, otherwise known as the Blue city?"

In the game, the level one was called the zombie arena where the player would have to defeat a certain amount of zombies while gaining more XP for enough level up into the second level which was another dimension.

And recalling what the robotic voice had said to him in the dark space, it seemed he had truly been transported into the world of his favorite online game. Or perhaps, an even more realistic version of the game. Looking around Nolan couldn't help but marvel at how realistic everything looked, it all looked similar to the game but it felt like his reality.

"If this is really a real version of Player dimensions, it means in order to leave this world, I'll have to kill fifty thousand zombies just like that system said. But will I ever be able to go back to the real world after this? My final exams for university is fast approaching, if I miss those exams, all my years of hard work and studying to become a great Geologist on earth would have been wasted, my dream life will all be gone down the drain..." Nolan said to himself despairingly before determination shone in his eyes, "No, I'll have to complete this mission and go back to earth."

Nolan quickly stood up looking at the eerily silent tarred road ahead of him, a long line of residents on either sides of the roads.

Having played and surpassed the first level of player dimensions, Nolan knew that these residential areas were the most dangerous parts of level one, but they were also the areas weapons and valuables could be found the most.

"Alright, let's do this, it shouldn't be so hard since I'd already played the game before, being at level 38 In the game back on earth, level one should be just a piece of cake."

Nolan tapped the left side of his chest, and the transparent blue screen appeared before his eyes in the air.

*

Name: Nolan Anderson(Player 115)

Level: level one player

Element: Wood

Ability: Grass mutation

EXP: 0/10,000

Health: 100/100

Inventory: Empty

***

Nolan sighed looking at his stats, he tapped his chest once more and the screen disappeared.

"Guess I'll have to start from scratch now huh?"

When he'd been playing the game in the real world, he had an inventory full of precious power up items, special weapons, health potions he'd bought with coins he'd obtained in the game and a lot of other treasures.

Player dimensions was the most realistic looking game he'd played, it was designed so it looked real enough for the players to get the feeling that they were living in the world of the game, they had to earn everything they owned, and the NPC's were not like mindless robots but behaved more human, even the zombies used to seem to possess some sort of intelligence.

And now the only difference with when he'd been playing the game was that he used to sit in front of his NZXT Canvas 32Q curved gaming monitor while now, he was living and breathing in the same world he used to see through the screen.

"First, let's stock up on valuables before we become cold lunch for the zombies." He said to himself as he swiftly headed into one of the residential buildings on the side while wondering what would happen if he were to die inside the game.

Nolan knew that all the houses were emptied already without any humans living there, however there were still a lot of supplies in them as the in-game story had said that all the residential areas had been evacuated when the zombie plague had struck, however there had been a lot of valuables left behind in the houses.

However this didn't mean that Nolan let down his guard as he walked into the two storey building residence because these were exactly the places that had the densest amount of zombies in the whole level one world of player dimensions.

"Hmm, grass mutation...what sort of ability is that, I'd never heard about it in the game before." Nolan wondered about the ability he'd seen on the system earlier.

Though he'd played the game, he'd received a very powerful Fire ability when he'd played level one, however this time he'd been given a grass mutation ability that sounded quite useless. "How am I going to survive sprouting grass if I suddenly encounter a zombie when I have no weapons on me, I better find some good weapons fast."

As Nolan scanned through the house he'd walked into, he found a lot of food items which he happily stocked into his inventory inside his acquired system space, though he didn't know if he would get hungry for real in this world, but he couldn't be any more careful with how realistic it all felt because at the moment, his reality and illusions had both been fused together anyway.

Just as Nolan was stuffing his Inventory full of food items from the fridge in the kitchen he suddenly heard a sound coming from the living room, his actions suddenly stopped as he looked wary.

"Fuck, I sure hope as hell that isn't a zombie, please let it be a random, human, please let it he a random human." Nolan silently muttered like a prayer to himself, in this situation where he was completely powerless, if he were to encounter a zombie, he was surely dead meat.

However, as if his fervent prayers had been blatantly ignored, the minute Nolan pushed the door of the fridge closed, he was suddenly face to face with a hideous looking zombie growling hungrily in his face.

"Grrr!"

"Damn this thing sure is way more hideous than it is in the game." He muttered to himself with his eyes filled with dreadful fear, even though those were the words that came out of his mouth, Nolan knew the zombies looks were the least of his concerns at this moment.

Nolan froze hoping he would be undetected to the zombie standing right in front of him, however as the creature growled in his face once more, he soon realized that wasn't the best idea.

'Shit, I can't get bitten or I'll become one of these stupid zombies, who knows what will become of me then.

"Good zombie, be a good zombie and don't eat me." Nolan began to take steps backwards and the zombie began advancing on him, his back had just hit a cabinet behind him in the kitchen making a sound when the zombie pounced up swiftly jumping onto him.

"Activate grass mutation!" Nolan shouted in desperation as he crouched to protect himself from the incoming zombie about to pounce on him.

With his eyes closed, Nolan expected the zombie to tear him to shreds in the next second not fully placing his hopes on the strange ability he'd been given by whatever dimension travelling system that had brought him here, however as he peeked through his fingers, the zombie in front of him had lost it's grotesque rotten flesh look, instead, standing right in front of him was what looked like a man made of leaves seemingly frozen in place.

Nolan opened his eyes, then blinked as he stared at what was supposed to be a zombie but had now become a green leaf man in front of him.

The zombie leaf man's eyes were still bloodshot red as he glared at Nolan as if he was ready to devour him, he seemed to be struggling however the leaf that covered his whole body seemed to restrict his movement.

Nolan stared down at his hands wondrously, "Did I just do that?"

Nolan had barely started to celebrate the fact that his powers weren't useless at all when the zombie in front of him seemed to begin breaking out of the leaves that covered his whole body.

The greens seemed to begin melting, and the zombie stirred.

Nolan's eyes widened, "Shit, I guess it doesn't bind you forever huh"

With one loud growl the zombie broke free from the leafy shackles, once again charging forward to pounce on Nolan.

Frantically looking around the kitchen for something to save himself, Nolan's eyes widened as he quickly grabbed a frying pan he stepped on thrown on the floor, just as the zombie had neared him, he used all his strength whacking it on the zombie's head.

The creature seemed to become disoriented for a moment, but it growled loudly, it's mouth opening wide revealing it's rotten teeth and equally disgusting looking tongue.

"Gurgh!" Nolan almost threw up at the smell that assaulted his senses, however he quickly took action smashing the pan onto the zombie's head once more.

This time he used enough strength for the zombie to fall, perhaps weakened by the leaves it had been bound with a while ago, Nolan continued to smash the zombie's head with the pan, he couldn't even count how long he continued to smash, but he knew his life depended on it, so he put in all his strength until gory torn flesh and black blood splashed into his face.

He stopped, breathing heavily as he stared down at the smashed pieces of flesh that used to be the zombie's head, he then stared at the frying pan in his hand his lips quirking up in amusement, "Such a handy weapon, who would have thought." He threw the pan over his shoulder looking down at the corpse of the zombie once more when,

*Ding!

'1 zombie killed, 49,999 left to complete level one mission.'

Hearing the notification, Nolan grinned not intimidated by the large number still remaining, "One down, 49,999 zombies left and mission complete." He crossed the corpse of the zombie he had just killed thinking,

'Perhaps being transported into this world isn't as bad as I thought.'

Nolan put the frying pan that had helped him kill his first zombie into his inventory as he searched the house cautiously once more, other than food, he found a rusty looking dagger, a baseball bat, and a few clothes which for some reason he put in his inventory because...why not.

Killing one zombie had already soiled his clothes, dirtied with the smelly zombie blood, so he thought he might just end up needing a change sometime.

Armed with a frying pan, a baseball bat and a rusty dagger, Nolan decided to spend the night at the residence he currently was as he caught a glimpse that it was getting dark outside. He warily went around the house locking every door before he returned to the living room settling in the couch warily while hugging his newfound weapons.

As he stared up at the ceilings, his mind wandered.

'What if I fall asleep and wake up in the real world again? What if this was all a dream after all and I had fallen asleep on my desk while playing games?'

His eyes drifted closed slowly as weariness engulfed him, once again he marvelled at how he felt tired considering this was supposed to be a virtual world...or wasn't it?

"Bam!"

A loud sound jolted Nolan awake as he sprang up on the couch he'd been laying on only to feel himself suddenly pressed down by a heavy weight.

"Check to make sure he's not infected." The voice of a guy said.

He heard a buzzing sound as he was being held down by someone, and then something tickled his ears along with that buzzing sound until it felt like something thin and sharp had been plunged deep Into his ear, "Ouch." He cried out pushing away the weight on him to scratch his itchy ear.

Only then did he see two guys and a girl standing over him inside the residence.

The girl seemed to have been the one who held him down just now, she looked down at a certain device in her hand which seemed to have been the thing that poked into his ear before saying, "He's clean."

"Who are you and what are you doing in this zombie infested area?" The guy standing on the left with streaks of red in his hair and seriously stern looking eyes asked him rigidly.

Nolan looked at the bunch weirdly, the girl had messy looking auburn hair, and the first guy had a deeply tan skin with a smoothly bald head, and then there was the guy with the red hair.

Nolan didn't reply but internally wondered, 'Are they all NPCS? Or could they be transported players like me?'