The cold forced his entire body to shake.
Jedidiah panicked as the blizzard winds pressed him into the ground. Snow surrounded every inch of his body. The world around him was nothing but white as he trembled uncontrollably.
Jedidiah didn't know where he was, but he did know that staying meant death.
A gray screen suddenly flickered into existence.
"Warning: You are freezing. You will lose 1 HP per minute."
Another message appeared above it.
"Quest: You are freezing. Escape the deadly cold to survive.
Rewards: Awakening, +1 Soul Point."
Jedidiah looked at the messages for a bit before waving them off. His teeth chattered so violently he thought they might crack. His mind scrambled for answers.
How did he get here?
Through the panic, a memory began to surface.
Jedidiah's heart was throbbing as his feet paced. Sweat soaked every inch of his body.
Pure bliss was the only way to describe this feeling as he jogged along the forest path. He glanced at his smartwatch.
5 kilometers in under 15 minutes.
"Alright, that's enough for today," he thought. "If I push too hard, I won't be rested for this weekend."
He slowed to a stop, sat beneath a tall tree, and pulled out his phone. He scrolled over to the roster for the High School Cross Country Championship.
Around two hundred names from across the country were ranked on the list.
The name at the top read:
Jedidiah Jackson — PR: 14 minutes 51 seconds
He smiled.
"This is the one race I just can't lose. Win this weekend and I'll be set for life."
He lay back on the soft grass, letting the dead leaves crunch beneath him. His eyes began to shut.
The breeze faded.
Bird chirps grew distant.
His consciousness slipped.
And then he woke up freezing to death.
Jedidiah lurched forward, breath fogging in the air. Everything was gone.
He forced his legs free from the snow by kicking repeatedly before slowly standing and taking in his surroundings. The blizzard reduced his field of vision greatly, but upon turning around, Jedidiah spotted a cave about thirty meters away.
It was his only chance.
He ran, stumbling and slipping, nearly falling face-first into the snow until he reached the cave's mouth. A dim orange glow flickered deeper inside.
"Whatever's in here, please don't kill me," he thought.
He tiptoed into the cave and peeked his head around the corner just enough to see what was inside.
A small campfire burned using a few small logs as fuel.
And beside it sat a man staring directly at him.
The silence stretched, growing painfully awkward.
Finally, Jedidiah forced a grin.
"Wonderful weather we're having, am I right?"
A slow smile crept across the man's face, followed by a quiet chuckle.
"Some of the best," he replied. "Take a seat, kid. I don't bite."
Jedidiah let out a huge sigh of relief and sat beside the fire. His dark brown skin and messy black hair turned soggy as the ice melted. His soaked tank top and shorts felt twice as heavy, and his feet ached as the numbness in his toes began to fade.
"Take your clothes off."
Jedidiah froze.
He looked up at the stranger who had uttered these words and was now staring intensely.
"Ah. So this is how it ends," he thought. "Of course. What kind of freak lives in an arctic wasteland and invites young boys into his home? I can't even fight back, look at this behemoth!"
The man was enormous, easily over 200 cm, lean but imposing. Long brown curls and an untrimmed beard hid most of his face, though the honey-colored skin beneath looked oddly familiar.
Realizing the mistake he had just made, the man raised his hands in protest.
"Wait a minute, not like that. I didn't mean it the way you're thinking."
Jedidiah's expression remained unchanged.
"He totally doesn't believe me," the man thought.
"Let's restart, kid. My name's Matteo, but you can call me Matt. I'm not a creepy guy living in a cave. I'm a champion, and I'm on a quest out here."
Jedidiah relaxed just a bit as he removed one shoe and poured the water out.
"Alright, Mister Matt. I don't know what half of that means, but my name's Jedidiah. You can call me Jedi for short. And for future reference, please don't tell kids to strip if you're not a creep."
Matt gave an awkward laugh and nodded.
"Fair enough. Nice to meet you, Jedi. What are you doing in these mountains, if you don't mind me asking?"
Jedi wrung out his shirt.
"Your guess is as good as mine. Up until a few minutes ago I was dozing off under a tree in sunny California. When I opened my eyes, I was damn near frozen solid outside your cave."
Matt stared at him wide-eyed.
"I told you it was unbelievable," Jedi said.
Matt stood.
"No, kid. I believe you. I believe every word because the same thing happened to me ten years ago and it's happened to many others since. Now what I'm about to tell you is going to sound crazy, but—"
Before he could finish, another gray screen appeared in front of Jedi.
"Quest complete. Reward: Awakening, +1 Soul Point.
Would you like to accept?"
Jedi had forgotten about the earlier messages, but now things were starting to click.
"Don't freak out, kid," Matt said calmly. "You're probably seeing a floating message, right? A quest alert?"
But Jedi wasn't freaking out. Quite the opposite, actually. Internally, he was grinning like a maniac.
System messages, just like the ones from video games and webtoons, were appearing before his eyes.
"It says I can accept some rewards. An awakening and a soul point. Should I take them?"
Matt's eyes widened again.
"An awakening already? You said you just got here. What quest did you complete?"
Jedi pointed toward the cave entrance.
"I got an alert saying the cold would kill me and that I'd get a reward just for surviving."
Judging by Matt's reaction, this wasn't normal.
"You're one lucky duck," Matt said. "Normally you'd have to defeat a beast or two to get your awakening, but you got one for free. You can accept the rewards by saying yes in your head. I'll explain more after."
Jedi nodded, barely listening. He was too excited.
He was hoping for a cool transformation ability or a powerful element.
A message appeared.
"Congratulations! You have become an awakened champion of Earth!
Now displaying information:
Name: Jedidiah Jackson
Level: 0
Magic Slot 1: None
Magic Slot 2: Locked
HP: 10 / 10
MP: 20 / 20
Strength: 5
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 15
Stamina: 25
Soul Points: 1 / 1000"
The message floated by his face.
With it came a surge of information.
He was a champion, just like Matt said he was.
And somehow, he was no longer on Earth.
"Well? How's it lookin', kid? Good? Bad?" Matt asked, with a surprising amount of concern.
Jedi hesitated.
"I can see all my stats, but I can't tell whether they're good or bad."
Matt nodded and stepped closer, placing a hand on Jedi's shoulder.
Another message appeared.
"Champion Matteo Richards requests access to your soul system. Accept?"
Jedi paused.
Was it a good idea to share all his info with a stranger? Granting someone access to your soul didn't sound very promising.
And there was something about Matt that felt off, though Jedi couldn't tell exactly what it was.
Noticing the hesitation, Matt sighed.
"Look, I only want to help. This only allows me to see your system messages, and I need to know how strong you are if we're gonna make it off this mountain."
Jedi thought it over.
If Matt wanted to hurt him, he had plenty of chances already.
He accepted.
Immediately, Matt's info appeared on an orange system screen:
"Name: Matteo Richards
Level: 51
Magic Slot 1: Basketball
Magic Slot 2: Sacrificed
HP: 70 / 70
MP: 100 / 100
Strength: 40
Agility: 40
Intelligence: 20
Stamina: 30
Soul Points: 600 / 1000"
The gap between them was unfathomable.
Matt smirked.
"Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. Your strength is pitiful, but your stamina is off the charts for a level 0. Intelligence ain't half bad either."
Jedi's patience was thinning. He had so many questions.
What is a basketball doing in your magic slot? Why does mine say none? What planet is this? How do I get home? He opened his mouth.
"I know you've got a million questions," Matt interrupted. "But answering those right now would take all day. We've gotta get our priorities straight."
Matt pointed at Jedi's system screen.
"You've got some magic to make."