- "What the…???" he exclaimed.
An unmatched excitement seized him.
If this is really what I think it is…
Isaac closed his eyes, and outlines slowly began to take shape, like trails of white flames that gradually formed a pattern.
A completely grayed-out map appeared. It looked as though it had been soaked by rain, slightly blurry, while a white mist hid the farthest parts.
- "My position is this little glowing dot, and it seems only my location is slightly illuminated," he said, narrowing his closed eyes in an attempt to zoom in on the map.
The moment he thought it, it happened. The map enlarged around his position, and only his house was no longer grayed out.
[Zone: Unengraved District, Residential Sector]
[Discovered: 1%]
[Detection Radius: 50m]
- "So my house is in what this map calls the Unengraved District zone. Has society been divided into categories?" he wondered.
[Correct, host. Good luck discovering the other functions now.]
- "Good! Let's find an excuse and head out for a bit of exploration!!" he cheered, raising his fists in excitement.
His mother jumped at his sudden burst of enthusiasm, nearly falling off her chair.
- "Ow! Isaac! I almost fell and stabbed my hand! What's gotten into you?" she cried out.
- "Oops, sorry, Mom. I was thinking about next week's test, and I had… how should I put it…? A rush of adrenaline, mixed with my alpha male hormones," he replied.
His mother stared at him for two seconds as if wondering whether she had heard him right.
- "You can be so stupid sometimes," she said, shaking her head.
He smiled at her.
- "Speaking of the tests, I think I'll go out this afternoon and do a bit of exercise to keep myself in decent shape," he told her.
She nodded her approval.
- "Thanks!" he said, flashing her his brightest smile.
Isaac could no longer wait. This map was like being one of the explorers of old, with an imprecise world filled with promises waiting to be uncovered. Even in his wildest dreams, the boy had never imagined that one day such an opportunity would be given to him.
An opportunity full of danger, but thrilling.
This world is mine!
Later, Isaac finished his meal, and after taking care of the apartment's basic hygiene, it was finally time for him to go out.
He opened the door, and a damp, slightly cold gust of air struck his face. His eyes caught the gray, somewhat whitish light of the sky.
- "The sky is overcast today…" he observed.
He stepped outside, and suddenly the map in his mind activated. The little glowing dot representing him suddenly lit up and began to move exactly as he did.
- "If I take a step back, the little dot moves back. If I take a step forward, it moves forward. So far, that seems fairly logical," he said to himself.
Isaac then took a step into the street, and fifty meters all around him, the map gradually lost its gray haze.
- "So I'm on Street No. 3 of the Unengraved District. This looks strangely like Google Maps. It's fascinating, I can switch between GPS view and a more 3D-like view when I zoom into an already explored area. As long as I haven't explored it, I can't see the outline of a single street or anything else."
But suddenly, in addition to the two options Isaac had already explored, a third slowly revealed itself to him.
- "What the fuck, the map is literally engraving itself into my head," he exclaimed.
He suddenly ran down the street and realized he remembered, down to the smallest detail, the exact route he had just taken.
- "I've become an upgraded fucking carrier pigeon! Insane!"
And as he explored both the street and the map, the percentage of his exploration of the zone increased considerably.
- "Alright, let's make a plan. I need to explore the entire zone to unlock the percentages. I still don't know what reaching 100% will give me, but I might as well try. Let's start with the main streets!" he exclaimed, still somewhat excited.
And that was exactly what he did. He followed the main streets in order to establish the overall skeleton of the zone while observing the buildings and the people around him.
- "Everything is so simple in these Districts. It looks like my world, just ordinary people doing ordinary things. Though they all seem exhausted and underfed, but it was the same in my time. The RER and the subway drove more than a few people into depression…" he thought sympathetically.
After the skeleton came the intersections, the nodes of the network. They were what allowed the zone to function.
[10%]
After establishing that overall layout, he estimated the distances by eye and divided the large zone into smaller areas, each tied to a visible and easily remembered landmark. Whether it was a well, a tree taller than the others, or a heart carved into a wall, anything worked as long as it was characteristic of the mini-zone.
[15%]
"Even if I think this is my cheat tool, it's still pretty incomplete. I'll have to be careful. It doesn't show me people, dangers, or anything beyond fifty meters in unexplored areas. It's more like a work tool that gives me the means, and hopefully power later on. But for the tool to work, I have to be the lever that sets it in motion. I operate the system, and the system operates me."
Little by little, Isaac began moving farther away from home, but not much changed compared to his own neighborhood.
The gray walls still carried traces of color. Though few in number, they testified to the old grandeur of the place, which must once have been magnificent.
The streets lined with those walls were narrow and small, the kind of streets and alleyways you really wouldn't want to end up in at night if you were a girl.
- "Narrow enough to set up mass ambushes. Everything here seems designed for defense," he said, touching his chin.
Isaac ran his hand over one of those gray walls, his fingers brushing the runes inscribed on it.
They have so little light. They flicker faintly like fireflies on the verge of dying.
And the suspicion he had carried ever since arriving in this world was confirmed when he looked at the residents of these districts.
A woman was selling soup in one corner, judging by the smell, Isaac suspected onion soup. On the other side, there was an old man repairing his shutter, or at least trying to, considering the state of the thing… Even the children were playing under the watchful gaze of prison guards.
Cough Cough
I mean protective mothers, scanning for every possible threat.
Isaac gave them a polite smile, which they did not return.
He swallowed nervously and quickly moved on.
The young boy then arrived in a mini-zone that left him stunned. He felt as though he were standing before one of his geography textbooks, more precisely before one of those iconic images that had marked his childhood.
Enormous walls stood between the Unengraved District and what seemed to be another district behind them. Armed guards with assault rifles covered in runes that glowed menacingly were checking everyone trying to get through.
- "STOP TRYING TO COME UP WITH INVALID REASONS TO PASS. RULES ARE RULES. Get the hell out of here before you get a taste of what it feels like to be shot, filthy Caroule. NEXT!"
The poor man fled rather quickly, tail between his legs, with an expression of humiliation that promised terrible revenge if he ever gained power one day.
Well then… welcome back to São Paulo…
He continued on his way, shaking his head. Soon he crossed a bridge and stopped there for a moment. Resting his elbows on the railing, he gazed at the river flowing quietly below, free of all constraints.
Suddenly, a nasty sting burned at the back of his neck.
- "Shit, what the he..." he exclaimed.
He didn't get the chance to say more before a white flash blinded his vision.
I look down at the river below.
Suddenly, a noise echoes behind me, and, intrigued, I turn around sharply.
A black silhouette stands before me. I can't make out who it is. The gray sky blinds me slightly, and its movements are too fast.
A punch is thrown straight at my head.
Too fast for me to dodge.
Too fast for me to parry.
So I take it full in the face and stagger for a few moments.
My feet drag backward awkwardly, then my knees hit the edge, and I fall backward.
The fall begins.
The white flash dazzled him once again, and Isaac staggered in the street, his breathing ragged and his lungs struggling to recover.
Holy fucking shit, what was that?? This kid got killed??? Was that a vision from the body's previous owner??
The boy's hands trembled on the bridge railing, flashbacks of the fall replaying before his eyes.
[Ding… 25% of the zone discovered.]
[Reward available]