[The Gods have chosen the human species to participate in the Death Game]
[Choosing the game… Game chosen]
[Welcome to Road Survival]
[All humans will receive a vehicle]
[Choose a vehicle between 3 options]
Sandrine slowly opened her eyes, holding her head. It hurt so much, as if billions of bees were flying around in her brain, the cheer volume was astounding. After a while, when the strange sound calmed down and her vision stopped being blurry, she could read the messages that had appeared in front of her eyes like holograms.
"What's this ?"
She had no idea what was happening. How did she end up here ? Just one second prior, she was… What was she doing again ? Good question.
Sandrine shook her head, trying to make sense of her blurry memories. She was a normal worker, that she knew. Her job was… Related to computers ? She wasn't sure. But she knew that she had some spine problems and bad eyesight because she spent a lot of time on a computer.
Her family… No, she had no idea. She wasn't even able to remember if she had siblings or if her parents were still alive.
This was very strange. Did she hurt her head ? Was she having a concussion ?
Suddenly, she felt sharp pain and lowered her eyes. She was seated on a long road that didn't seem to have a beginning or an end. On both sides of it, there wasn't any scenery. Only thick black fog, the kind you couldn't see through at all. It felt eerie and gave her goosebumps. Sandrine had the strong feeling that something was observing her through this thick mist.
"This feels way too real to be a dream… Is it a hallucination ?"
However, when she pushed on her hands to stand up, she once again felt a deep pain. She looked at her palms and saw small pebbles, sand, and other pieces of dirt that were pressed into her skin. It was too painful to be a hallucination and too realistic to be a dream.
Sandrine tried her best to stay calm. She was in the middle of the road, so what ? She should first try to understand her situation.
Looking back at the messages in front of her eyes, she noticed that she could navigate them as if she was using a screen with her mind. She selected the first one.
[The Gods have chosen the human species to participate in the Death Game]
Sandrine wasn't a believer at all, and she had no idea what this vague 'The Gods' was referring to. Greek Gods ? Indian Gods ? Nordic Gods ? This wasn't clear at all.
She couldn't even tell if this was true, if the people who sent her here were real gods. For now, she put this aside and continued to read.
[Welcome to Road Survival]
She had read a few webnovels before and had a vague idea about what this was referring to. A road survival was a type of survival game where players had to compete for resources in order to survive. More precisely, it often involved a road players had to traverse.
But she had no idea what happened next or where the road was supposed to end. If she read about this, she had no memory of it.
Anyway, it seemed that humanity was thrown into this game and had to travel on this road to survive.
[All humans will receive a vehicle]
[Choose a vehicle between 3 options]
Finally Sandrine focused on the last messages. She would have to choose a vehicle. This was very important.
In those types of games, fuel would be rare. Ending up with a truck would be disastrous in the early game. It was a heavy vehicle that needed a lot of energy to drive everyday. Even if later you evolved it into a tank and dominated battles, it was hard to accumulate resources and food when you had to exchange it for so much fuel every day. If the road survival was about driving as much as possible everyday, you were finished with a truck. A big no.
Electric vehicles could be worked with. It would be somewhat difficult to evolve them because it would require electric components and solar panels, but this can be more reliable in the late game, being able to sustain itself. If she had to choose, she would try to get one.
There were also a lot of bicycles and pedal cars in the novels she read, very useful early on to advance without needing any energy or fuel, but you needed to evolve them fast because without any roof you would be exposed to every threat.
Anyway, Sandrine was mentally ready. She would see her three choices and thoroughly weigh her options before deciding.
Finally, she opened the selection box and…
"Huh ?"
She rubbed her eyes.
"I must be dreaming, there is no other explanation."
She turned around, refusing to look at the screen. Unfortunately, it was following her eyes. The three options were looking back at her, urging her to choose.
"Crazy…"
In the rectangular box, there were three squares pressed against one another. The first one showed a pony, the second a horse, and the last a draft horse.
"I must have misunderstood. This road survival is a riding simulator, that's for sure."
She took a deep breath and tried to reassure herself.
"There is no way that I am the only one who has horses instead of cars among her options. That would be too unlucky and I would be sure to die. This can't be, I'm sure everyone has animals too !"
After trying very hard to manage her mental state, Sandrine finally convinced herself. Those options were surely normal.
Anyway, it wasn't as if she could report a bug.
There was only one thing to do : Choose.
If she stayed on this road without doing anything, she would end up starving. There was nothing around her, and this black mist was really eerie.
"Okay, everything is fine. Let's think."
The three options were pony, horse, and draft horse. These seemed similar but there were quite a few differences.
The division wasn't about size, contrary to what people think. The smallest equine in the world is the falabella, which is a horse and not a pony. By the way, very tall ponies exist, as tall as horses, and are casually called 'double-ponies'.
The real difference was about the origins. Ponies came from cold climates, mountains, cliffs, green pastures. On the other side, horses came from warmer climates, deserts, arid plains. This also explained the difference in temperament.
On the other end, draft horses were straightforward : Horses made to pull carts and carry heavy weights.
In terms of survival, generally, horses would be faster, more nervous, with more chances to help in battle with nimble movements, but they would be more fragile and with a fiercer personality.
On the contrary, draft horses would be stronger with the ultimate constitution, will carry heavy things, have a gentler temperament, but will be slower.
Ponies would be exactly in the middle, with a good constitution, ability to withstand wind, snow and rain, an acceptable speed, and a mischievous but milder personality compared to horses.
Sandrine had mixed feelings. No matter which one she chose, if the equine she received was too small, she wouldn't be able to use it as a vehicle, and would surely die. Draft horses were safe in this aspect, all of them were strong enough to carry her. Horses had a certain risk of being small but it was a small percentage. Ponies would be the real difficulty.
However, if she chose 'draft horse' and the road survival game was focused on speed, she would also die !
And if she chose a horse and got a fragile one, what if there were extreme climates ? A bit of snow or rain and she would end up without a vehicle !
She had too little information, she couldn't make an educated guess !
While she was thinking, she noticed that the sun was slowly rising in the sky. Soon, it would be noon.
"I don't have the time to hesitate like this. Let's just choose at random."
She had nothing better to do.
Sandrine closed her eyes, spun around several times, rolled her eyes until she was dizzy, and then focused her mind on a random point, thinking "Choose".
As soon as she did, she heard the loud buzzing sound that announced a new message.
[You have chosen your vehicle]
[Your vehicle is the same as your life. Without a vehicle, you will die]
[There is a mileage goal to reach everyday. You must use your vehicle to advance and reach the mileage goal. If you don't, you will die]
[You cannot backtrack or turn around, you must always go forward on the road. Otherwise, you will die]
[You are not allowed to drive at night. Night spans from 9pm to 6am. At night, you are safe 5 meters around your vehicle]
[Along the road, there will be chests. Inside, there is a chance to find resources and food. There is also a chance to find danger]
[Do not leave the road, unless there is an event encouraging you to. Otherwise, you will die]
[You will be alone on the road, unless there is an event merging players' roads]
[To see the Game screen, think 'Game screen']
[The newbie protection period will last 14 days. After that, the first season of Road Survival will start. Enjoy the game]
[PS : Every death in the game is a real death. Cherish your life]
Sandrine attentively read every rule. It was similar to some novels she had read. The staggering amount of 'you will die' gave her goosebumps.
There was a lot of information, but the summary was : Drive forward, grab the resources on the side of the road, avoid death. Oh, and it seemed there would be events sometimes.
As to what those events would be… Sandrine was a little scared to find out.
Anyway, it was time to see what her vehicle was.
She slowly turned around, and…
"What is it ?"
In front of her was a horse. Or was it ? It was not clear to her, it could be a pony. She wasn't an expert, and she couldn't identify every breed, but she was clearly lucky.
It was tall, not as tall as draft horses, but at least she could ride it without having her legs dangle close to the ground. Its back seemed strong, with muscles slightly visible in its shoulders. Not a fragile horse, then, it seemed it could survive a bit of tough weather.
It seemed to have most pony advantages, but was also tall enough to be ridden by an adult like Sandrine, so she was quite happy.
"Looks like I'm not too unlucky."
She took a few steps but a loud snort froze her in place.
"Oh, yeah… It's alive…"
Contrary to a car, a horse was a living being. She had almost forgotten.
Reigning in her enthusiasm, she calmly took a few steps. The horse's tail was whipping the air, its ears turning towards her, while its head was hanging low, sniffing the ground.
It was an unremarkable grey horse, with darker feet and nose, as well as a black mane. In French, this coloration was called "mouse grey". Sandrine had no idea how she knew this, but she did.
"Um… Hi ?"
She cautiously reached out towards the horse. It seemed to look at her as if she was annoying, refusing to interact.
"We'll have to work together to survive, so… Let's do our best, okay ? I'll work hard to feed you."
Another snort answered her. The horse shifted its weight on its left.
"I'll take it as an agreement. What's your name ?"
She remembered the messages she had seen, it talked about something like a game screen. As soon as she thought about it, another hologram appeared in front of her eyes.
[Player : Sandrine Legrand
Nickname : None (can be modified)
Species : Human
Vehicle : No name (Select to see profile)
Job : None
Health : 61
Fatigue : 14
Strength : 5 (Average human : 7)
Constitution : 3 (Average human : 6)
Agility : 9 (Average human : 7)]
Sandrine was a bit taken aback. Her stats seemed quite good, especially her agility. All those days typing on a keyboard as fast as possible as a corporate slave had paid off !
Anyway, she first set up her nickname. If this Death Game followed usual plotlines, her nickname would be public. She didn't want to stand out and had no intention of being a protagonist, just surviving was enough.
"A name that won't bring any attention… I know, something very generic that everyone uses !"
She immediately typed and entered her masterpiece : 84jojo84.
This was genius. Why ? Because when the Internet was popularised and people started to flock onto the forums, every single French teen had chosen such a pseudonym : their nickname, and the number of the department they lived in.
Everyone had such a nickname if they were on the Internet between the 2000s and the 2010s.
That was a stroke of genius, because it was so common that it wouldn't bring much attention. But there was more !
84 was the number for the Vaucluse department, which Sandrine never visited even once. As for 'jojo' ? This could be a nickname for Joan, Johanna, Jonathan, Jocelyn, Georges, Geoffrey, Joelle… This could be both male or female, but this was very far from Sandrine.
People could never know it was her. If they had any way to target someone using their location or name, they wouldn't find her at all !
Now that she felt somewhat safe, she focused back on her vehicle. Immediately, another screen appeared.
[Name : None (can be modified)
Species : Earthen equine
Lvl : 1
Favorability : 0
Health : 100
Fatigue : 1
Strength : 12
Constitution : 17
Agility : 6]
Sandrine raised an eyebrow.
"Am I more agile than my horse ?"
After thinking about it, it made sense. This animal was more than two times stronger, it could obliterate her. If it was also agile, it would be cheating.
"Anyway, I'll try to think of a name…"
A quick glance under the large grey belly answered her silent question.
"A mare. Then… Let's call you Paquerette ! A gentle name for a nice cooperation !"
The horse didn't seem to care much, shaking its head slightly to chase non-existent flies.
Satisfied with herself, Sandrine explored the game screen and soon found a tab she hadn't noticed before.
[Server chat (10,000/10,000)
-What's happening ? Why am I here ?
-Is it a kidnapping ?
-We are in a game, brother
-That's impossible, there must be a psycho who kidnapped us
-Why am I naked ?
-Can someone remember their families ?
-Help, this place feels so creepy !
-Does someone have a phone ? Can you call the police ?
-I'm so hungry…]
Everyone seemed panicked. Sandrine felt relief, knowing that she wasn't alone in this strange situation. However, she quickly froze because she noticed something terrifying.
[-What vehicle did you choose ?
-I got a tractor, that way I'm ready for every terrain !
-You're dumb, obviously there will be danger. I chose a solid truck, nobody will take me out of my fortress !
-Stop bragging…
-Tell me I'm not the only one who ended up with a bike…
-+1
-Your options were so strange, I only had normal cars]
Sandrine's pupils contracted sharply.
"Don't tell me everyone got a vehicle and I'm the only one with a horse !"
Panicked, she turned towards Paquerette. The mare stared back at her, as if to say "Got a problem ?".
This survival journey started on a very bad note.