Pain came before consciousness.
Steve felt as if his body itself was wrong — too heavy, too stiff, too cold. Something rough scraped against his skin. The smell hit him all at once, strong and nauseating. Iron. Blood. A raw, animal stench.
He tried to take a deep breath… and choked.
A metallic taste exploded in his mouth, forcing him to turn his head and spit instinctively. Saliva mixed with red splashed onto the ground. His heart began to race, but his mind was still slow, confused, as if he had woken up in the middle of a nightmare that refused to end.
Cold.
The cold seeped through his clothes, clinging to his skin. Mud pressed against his back. Damp leaves stuck to his arms, neck, and face. When he tried to move his hand, his fingers shook uncontrollably.
Where… am I?
Steve opened his eyes with effort.
Above him, there was no ceiling. No white walls. No artificial light. Only dense, twisted tree canopies blocking the sky. The light filtering through the leaves was weak, greenish, wrong. The air felt heavy… alive.
His brain tried to deny it.
This isn’t real.
This isn’t real.
This isn’t—
A sound.
Steve froze.
A wet crack.
Then another.
And another.
Something was chewing.
Slowly, his entire body rigid, he moved only his eyes toward the sound.
A few meters away, with its back turned to him, stood a creature far too large to be human.
Its skin was greenish, thick, mottled. The muscles on its back moved grotesquely with every bite. Broad shoulders, long arms, bulging veins. In its right hand, something resembling a primitive axe rested against the ground.
And between the creature’s teeth… flesh.
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Steve’s stomach twisted violently.
The sound of bones snapping echoed low and dry, like branches being calmly broken. The creature tugged hard at something, and a louder crack rang out. A piece fell to the ground.
A human arm.
Steve’s eyes widened in horror.
The body lay there, discarded like trash. A man. Or what remained of him. Chest torn open, face turned to the side. His eyes… still open.
Empty.
Frozen in pure terror.
The final expression of someone who understood, far too late, that he was going to die.
Something broke inside Steve’s chest.
This… this isn’t an NPC.
Air stopped entering his lungs.
His heart began pounding so violently he was certain the sound would echo through the forest. Each beat felt like a hammer inside his skull. His hands trembled so badly he pressed them into the mud, trying to stop them.
Don’t move.
Don’t breathe.
Don’t exist.
If I move… I die.
The goblin — because now, deep in his soul, he knew it could only be a goblin — kept eating, oblivious to his presence. It chewed calmly, almost content.
Steve felt a strange pressure in his head.
Then something flickered before his eyes.
Not immediately.
Delayed.
Like it was broken.
Shaking lines of light appeared in the air.
[Initializing System…]
[Error…]
[Error…]
Steve’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest.
No. Not now.
Please, not now—
The letters glitched, vanished, then returned.
[User Detected]
[Class: UNDEFINED]
[Status: Unstable]
[Warning: Incompatible User]
The world tilted.
Incompatible?
A new line tried to appear… then shattered, like cracking glass.
[Limited Access]
And then… nothing.
The system simply died before his eyes.
Panic surged through Steve like a suffocating wave.
No class.
No weapon.
Nothing.
A light wind passed between the trees.
Leaves rustled.
And then—
CRACK.
The sound of a snapping branch echoed far too loudly.
The goblin stopped chewing.
The silence that followed was worse than any scream.
Slowly… very slowly… the creature began to turn its head.
Steve felt the blood drain from his face.
No, no, no—
Time seemed to slow as the wide snout turned, nostrils flaring. Air rushed violently into the creature’s nose as it sniffed.
Steve held his breath so hard his lungs burned.
Fear was no longer a feeling.
It was physical.
It was absolute.
The goblin sniffed the air.
A low, deep sound. Its wide nostrils flared, pulling the scent in as if the entire world were a meal being analyzed.
Steve held his breath until his chest began to ache.
Run slowly?
Die.
Stay still?
Maybe…
The wind shifted.
Leaves moved.
And then — crack.
Another branch.
Much closer.
This time, the goblin turned its entire body.
Its eyes met Steve’s.
For one eternal second, the world stopped.
The creature’s gaze wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t empty. There was something there — hungry, alert… intelligent enough to kill.
The goblin opened its mouth and released a hoarse roar, ripping through the forest’s silence.
Steve broke.
He turned and ran.
His body moved before his mind. His legs sank into the mud, branches lashed his face, air tore through his lungs. Behind him, heavy footsteps crushed the ground — far too fast for something that large.
A whistle cut through the air.
Steve felt something graze his face — instant, searing pain. Something flew far too close.
An axe.
Stone.
Blood streamed down his cheek, hot, mixing with sweat. He screamed, but the sound died in his throat as his foot slipped on a wet rock.
The world spun.
Steve fell, rolling downhill, his body slamming into roots, stones, hard earth. Pain exploded with every impact until it all ended in a brutal crash.
THUMP.
A tree.
The trunk ripped the air from his lungs. His forehead struck hard, his vision flashing white. Something split open on his face — hot, pulsing.
He lay still.
Gasping.
Then he heard it.
A heavy sound.
The goblin jumped.
The creature landed below with a dull thud, axe in hand. It sniffed again, nose nearly touching the ground, dragging the scent in like a hunting dog.
Steve crawled behind a rock, shaking, unarmed, without a plan, without a reliable system.
The footsteps began.
One.
Another.
Each step sent his heart spiraling further into panic.
The sound drew closer.
And Steve understood, with terrifying clarity:
This world doesn’t want players.
It wants survivors.
