"WOAH!"
Axel sat up, jumping to attention. His breathing was long and heavy, with sweat rolling down his face.
"Damn... That was one horrible dream..."
He sighed exaggeratedly, wiping the sweat covering his forehead. "To think I'd experience a weird dream of myself getting hit by a truck and dying..." Then slowly shook his head, feeling a chill run up his spine. "And with a weird system window appearing at the end to boot..."
Axel raised his arm, trying to check the time on his Roxel Watch.
Currently, it was barely six in the morning. Still too early to worry about the morning rush.
"Hmm... Since I woke up prematurely, maybe I should go to the office early for a change?"
He got to thinking, almost forgetting that the security company had arrested him within his workplace the other day. That wasn't a pleasant memory at all.
Just as he carefully stood up, stretching his limbs and staring ahead...
"Eh?" he became confused. "Where... am I?"
Axel scanned the view left and right, but the place he was in was far from his bedroom... No, he could recall having all his assets frozen, so he didn't even sleep in his house that night.
Still, there shouldn't be a place like this anywhere nearby.
"A wasteland?"
He stepped forward to get a better look, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. However, the scenery didn't change.
Red, cracked earth that extended to the horizon.
Plants that had seen better days, losing their leaves and all moisture, leaving nothing but a dried husk behind.
And clouds the color of rusted iron, definitely polluted by various heavy metals.
If not for the absence of sand and cacti, he would've thought he was in a desert, given how barren the land was!
"No no no no... Wait, what happened?!" He snapped, trying to recall the events of last night.
After a bit, he could remember the part where he walked back to his apartment after the interrogation by the police was over. But because they barred him from his apartment, he had no choice but to sleep on a park bench...
"No..." He paused, frowning hard. "Police patrols also chased me away from the bench..."
At that moment, a stinging pain hit his head as he recalled the scenes that followed.
While he was walking down the sidewalk, about to cross the street...
"Right, a gold-eyed kid..." he muttered. "Then... a truck appeared... and then I...!"
He let out a panicked gasp and patted his body, checking.
He... was fine other than his business suit being ruffled here and there. His ribs weren't broken. His legs were not misaligned, and his arm remained attached. He was as fit as a fiddle!
"Then my getting hit by a truck must be a dream..." He sighed in relief... only to pause. "But if that's true, then where am I? How did I get here?"
If the last memory he recalled was just a dream, then at what point did he fall asleep? At the bench? Back in front of his apartment? Still, that wouldn't explain his waking up in the middle of nowhere.
A sense of dread rose from within his chest.
Various possibilities were spinning, trying to put together a "possible" explanation.
"Could it be... was I kidnapped by a deranged Trillionaire to play in a twisted death game?!"
[Are you an idiot? No way that's true.]
"Well, yeah... I mean, it wouldn't be fun watching an old man like me desperately trying to survive."
[You can't be so sure. There might be such a demand back on Earth; you just didn't know.]
"What kind of twisted demand is that?!"
[Just saying possibilities, that's all...]
"..."
[...]
"Wait, who the fuck?!"
Axel stepped back, staring at a floating image that looked like a penguin mascot on some video streaming site. Its body was simplified and 2D... But it was roaming around within Axel's view. Like a live penguin, at that.
[Old man... You just noticed me now?]
The penguin caricature crossed its flippers before its chest, barely reaching the middle, and scoffed.
[I'm the Navigator support of the Harem Settlement System, Navi for short. I'll be helping you with your struggles in this world, guiding you to survival!]
It let out a brief salute as it introduced itself.
Given how short its flippers were, the action looked quite cute, but...
"Nooo! I've finally gone crazy!" Axel pounded the cracked ground, his palm hurting a little as he did. "Well, given the stress I went through, it wouldn't be strange that I lost it..."
Axel decided that the fact the system's name had "harem" in it despite him being dropped in a wasteland is definite proof of him losing his mind!
[How rude! I'm not your hallucination, but a bona fide system spirit! Listen to me, you bastard!]
"Ugh... if this is my schizophrenia manifesting, can't it have a nicer tongue? Even old men could have hearts made of glass, you know..."
[Bah! If my contractor is like this, it'd be better to let him die the first night and just switch to the next owner instead!]
"Hey, don't kill me off on your own!" Axel growled back, before pausing. "Wait... dying? What do you...?"
[Heh… finally willing to listen, are we?]
The penguin, Navi, sighed deeply, like an underpaid teacher forced to watch over a terrible student.
[In this world, every night, monsters attack places where people are present. Monsters will also attack you when night comes.]
"M-Monsters? Like... vampires and stuff?" He asked, curious.
[No. The first wave usually has zombies. Vampires would only appear if the population reached a thousand, at least.]
"Shit!" Axel groaned.
He fell to his knees, cradling his head as he trembled in fear. "If I truly didn't lose a few screws, and this turns out to be true, then I'm in grave danger!"
He spent a few good seconds in lament, then stood up from the ground, arms pulled by his sides, as he asked. "W-What should I do, Navi?!"
[Finally!] Navi exclaimed, sounding a bit excited. [Take a look; this is your first task!]
[
Quest: Survive the First Night!
Requirements:
- Build 1x Wooden Spear
- Build 10x Wooden Barricades
- Build 1x Simple Tent
- Defeat 100x Zombies
Rewards:
- Food and Water x5
- Emergency Medical Supplies x1
- Random Equipment (Weapon or Armor) x2
]
"O-ohh..."
Seeing a glowing window before him, Axel couldn't help but groan in awe. Curious, he tried to touch it with a finger, but as he expected, the panel wasn't a physical object but more like a projection behind his eyes.
"Cool..." He sighed. "But how will I make all these? I don't have tools..."
Axel already dropped all pretense and treated whatever was before him as reality.
But although he can use his bare hands to break wood, like the dried-up tree a few dozen meters away from him, he would still need tools to process it into something usable.
[Heh, heh, heh! And that's where I, the spirit of the all-powerful Harem Settlement System, come into play!]
As the penguin clapped its flippers, markers suddenly filled Axel's vision. As if he were playing an FPS game, he could see pointers and tags for objects required for his quest.
[Just gather the materials, and leave everything to me!]
"Talk about convenience...!"
Axel, although still unsure of what to do, started on wahatever he could do at the moment.