He felt the rush of wind against his face, making him barely able to squint his eyes open. But he forced them open anyway. This moment was way too vital to miss.

"Holy Shit!"

He was far up in the sky, hurtling down towards the earth in a tumble at blistering speed. And from the looks of it, it wasn’t just him either.

As his body spun in the air, he caught glimpses of dots in the far distance behind him. Other humans. About eight people to be precise, all at progressively farther distances compared to where he was.

Are our landing points being randomized?

Uhtred thought that at first, but then he noticed a towering wall of blue on the far horizon behind him and all the others falling. Somehow, he knew that was a safe zone.

That was how it worked in games, right? There had to be a safe zone to acclimate players to the rules and mechanics. In their case, that blue region should be some sort of sanctuary where people learned how to survive this new reality.

Yet, unlike them, here he was on the outskirts, hurtling towards the ground like a meteor.

Fuck me. It’s because of my Primordial Grade Class, isn’t it?

Uhtred knew he was most likely spot on with his assumption. The System had directly shoved him into the thick of it without explanation.

That would mean these other guys are also high grades? Uhtred squinted at the eight dots he could see far behind him. His brain was working hard, trying to decipher even the slightest clue.

He was at the forefront of all of them. And he was definitely the highest grade with his Primordial class. Going by that logic, that would mean the nearest person to him was the next highest grade? Was that how it worked?

Uhtred made sure to note as much as he could of the eight individuals. They were comfortably far from him. In fact, the nearest person to him was much farther compared to the distance between that person and the eighth individual.

These would most certainly be his rivals going forward.

Uhtred squinted his eyes, observing the features of the closest person especially. It was a gruff-looking guy with a build like a professional athlete.

Yeah... he’ll be a competition for sure, Uhtred thought, but then he paused.

Wait, how can I see him so clearly? It was only now he realized just how clear his eyesight had become.

In fact, it wasn’t just his eyesight alone. He could feel power brimming through his muscles. They felt much more powerful than they’d ever been before. Everything about his body felt different.

This is the evolution the System spoke about, Uhtred turned and faced forward in the air, becoming serious. Checking out his competition was one thing, but not knowing the terrain of where he was going to land would put him at an immediate disadvantage.

Very quickly, he scanned the rapidly closing-in patch of green that spread out before his eyes.

Sheesh... Uhtred couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath of air. Gone were the flat plains he had been standing on before the integration took place. The lands before him now looked like a scenery ripped out of a Jurassic park movie... if you souped that up to the max.

Large coniferous trees with trunks as thick as buses, and vibrant green megafauna littered the ground below.

He didn’t have much time left before he hit the ground, so Uhtred forced himself to ignore the wind stinging his eyes and focused. He needed to map this place out while he still had a bird’s-eye view.

To the east, about a twenty-minute hike away, he saw a glint of silver. It was a wide, fast-moving river cutting through the greenery, all the way to the blue zone far behind him.

Okay. Water source, check.

He scanned for food next. In the lower levels of the canopy, he spotted heavy clusters of bright red fruit, each one the size of a melon. They were scattered everywhere, which was a good sign.

Food. Also, check.

As the canopy drew ever closer, the landscape took up his entire view, limiting his scanning range. He looked for the last, and maybe most important detail.

Signs of danger.

He needed to know areas to stay away from entirely. Already, he could see movement within the forest. It was brimming with life and sounds that could now reach his ears.

Fuck. There’s no time left.

Uhtred braced for impact, using his last moments of air time to scan the forest floor. He spotted a few areas where the trees and shrubbery moved unnaturally, noting all of them as places to stay the hell away from.

Now, the last hurdle remained. Landing.

Uhtred made his body smaller, folding into a tight ball to minimize the impact. At the back of his mind, he knew the System simply wouldn’t allow him or the other eight individuals to die before anything even started.

So, right from the onset he’d figured there should be some mechanism in place to lessen their fall.

But thinking logically and actually hurtling toward the ground at speeds that would turn you to meat paste were two different things.

The top of the treeline was upon him before he knew it. With a yell, he squeezed his eyes shut and braced as much as he could, just in case the System really was crazy enough to let him die from the start.

But just as he reached the first layer of leaves, a shimmering blue sphere snapped into existence around him.

It didn’t stop his momentum, but it lessened the lethal impact considerably. Uhtred plowed through the thick branches like a cannonball, the sound of snapping wood filling his ears. The barrier absorbed the impact, but he still felt as though he was being tossed around inside a dryer.

He finally slammed into the forest floor, carving a deep trench through the soil and roots before coming to a dead stop.

As he did, the blue sphere flickered once then shattered like glass, the fragments dissolving into motes of light.

[One-time Protection Barrier: Expended]

[Subject Status: Survival confirmed]

Uhtred lay in the dirt for a long moment, staring up at the shredded forest canopy, thoroughly disoriented.

"Fucking great timing," he groaned, spitting out a bit of dirt. He couldn’t even be mad at the System, rather, he was more relieved by the fact that he was still alive.

He forced himself to sit up, ignoring the way his vision tilted. He checked his body carefully. There were light bruises from being tossed around in the barrier, but nothing felt broken. Whatever the System did to him during the evolution had made him a lot tougher than a normal human.

Very quickly, he got up on his feet. This wasn’t the time to dawdle. Based on what he’d seen from the sky, he was currently deep in the exact spots he’d wanted to avoid — areas where he spotted beast movements.

His loud crash had essentially announced his presence to everything within a mile radius. He needed to get the hell out of here as soon as possible!

Uhtred burst into a sprint, heading east where he had seen the river earlier...

At first, he moved quickly and silently, hoping to hide his presence as much as he could. But then the more he ran, the more he felt like something was utterly wrong.

The forest was way too quiet in his immediate area.

Something was watching him...

No. Not just watching him...

He was being followed! Stalked silently like a prey!

As if to solidify what he already sensed, a System prompt appeared in his view:

​[New Quest Triggered: Trial Of First Blood]

​Objective: Eliminate {10} Level 5+ Beasts

Time Limit: {01:59:59}

​Type: Mandatory

Reward: {300} Multiversal Tokens

​Failure Penalty: {Immediate Biological Termination}