Ray was struggling to breathe. He was kicking and flailing his arms and legs trying to stop the stranger from choking him to death.

“What the fuck do you know about Earth!” The stranger said menacingly

Ray had begun to go blue. He tried to speak but wasn’t able to, the stranger was just holding on too tightly.

In what felt like forever, the stranger eventually released his grip enough for Ray to talk.

“Speak!” he said angrily

“I’m from Earth” Ray managed to choke out.

This completely surprised the stranger. He had a contemplative look on his face. He hadn’t let Ray down yet, but he clearly relaxed his grip.

“Where from Earth?” The stranger said.

“Sydney, Australia, I lived in an apartment and worked as an accountant” Ray responded

The stranger dropped Ray and started pacing. Ray didn’t know what to think about how this man was acting. Should he find a way to leave?

“What year was it when you found yourself here?”

“2022, why?”

“Who won the 2007 Australian election?”

“Our good old mate Kevin 07”

The stranger visibly relaxed. He motioned for Ray to move through the trees to a small clearing where they set up camp. Ray carefully placed Miu onto the ground near the fire they had started. For a long period, neither talked. Ray was wondering what the hell was going on. Could there be more people from Earth here? Ray attempted to identify the stranger.

[Identify Failed]

“Don’t do that’ it’s rude” the stranger just said while stoking the campfire with some logs.

Ray was getting some meat ready to cook over the fire when the stranger pulled out an entire modern barbeque. A full 6 burner with drying rack.

“I always loved these things back home” the stranger said.

“Wait… Why do you have one of those? Aren’t we in a like fantasy society or something? Also, what the hell do I call you, skirting the subject is getting annoying” Ray said.

“The names Teddy. Teddy Conchino. As you’ve guessed, I’m from Earth as well” Teddy said.

“You’re the mobster that went missing in 2010. They thought you’d been brutally murdered by some rivals or something” Ray said.

“Mate, I take offense to that. Firstly, I ain’t no mobster. I just enjoyed riding the bike. Tried making one here but couldn’t. Secondly, thing barbeque was home made by me. The burners are modified and run purely on magic” Teddy said.

“So…. If you’re here, are there any other Earthlings?”. Ray poked a stick into the fire. He was afraid of the answer. He didn’t want more hope that some of his family could have survived the catastrophe that was Earth.

“I’ve come across nine off-worlders so far. Only one other was from Earth. He came at the same time as me. We died together, stupidly too. He ain’t around no more. Lasted a week here before committing suicide” Teddy said. He was forlorn.

“So… Does that mean there’s a chance there are other people here from Earth?” Ray asked

“Well, I mean, you’re here, I’m here. I don’t see why not” Teddy responded. He had started the burner and was adding sausages, steaks, and meat skewers onto it. “How’d you die anyway?”

Ray cracked up in tears at that point. He wasn’t sure the memories of Earth would be a good thing. He looked at Teddy, who was studying Ray’s eyes.

“Oof that bad?” Teddy said.

Ray nodded.

“Well, I’ve spent the last what; 12 years? Getting stronger in hopes for a way home. Honestly. It kind of sucks here. There’s in fighting everywhere, civilisation is about to collapse. If the System doesn’t take over, the tyrants are in full force. People are more interested in fighting each other, then the System, meaning it’ll win eventually”.

Ray hesitated for a second, looking even worse off. He looked down and mumbled “No point trying to go back, nothings left there anyway”

Teddy turned at that, surely, he had heard wrong “Nothings left for you?”

Ray looked up, tearful. “Nothing’s left for anyone”.

Teddy couldn’t handle the news. He barely managed to turn the burners off before crashing, his vision going black. Ray didn’t even get up to help. He wasn’t shocked at what was happening. Teddy was clearly having a panic attack.

Ray sat and waited. Simply poking his stick in the fire as he contemplated the situation. He waited for Teddy to recover and sit back up. “You alright there?” Ray said

At first, Teddy didn’t respond. He sat down and waited for his vision to stop spinning. His entire 12 years of work wasted. 12 fucking years gone. He should have just killed himself like Chris had. What was the point in living like this, off-worlders were persecuted, attacked on sight, as if they were not better the garbage. Teddy looked up at Ray. “Please… Tell me what happened. Tell me how you died”.

Ray was silent for a minute, recalling the memory. “Not much to tell really. In around 2012, tensions began to rise with Russia and China. It just kept escalating. By the time 2020 came around, America was already in the early stages of civil war. Tension kept building but no actual war had started. 2022, there was small open skirmishes, but I guess that was enough. Russia attempted an invasion of Ukraine; it wasn’t going so well for them. After finishing an interview, I guess the pot boiled over. I think nukes were dropped. System messages happened; I was told the Earth was destroyed so I couldn’t respawn there… Now I’m here”.

“Daaamn, Earth actually went nuclear?” Teddy said, almost not believing it.

“Apparently so, honestly, I’m still a bit hazy. I kind of remember hitting a sign or something from the blast but yeah…”

“Fuck, my whole goal was to get back there. Now I gotta work out what the hell I’m doin”. Teddy said.

Ray got up and turned the burners back on. “Guess I’ll do the cooking while you think about it”. Ray added a few items of his own onto the barbeque and started turning the sausages. Even though he had almost been choked out by Teddy, Ray strangely felt comfortable around him. He wasn’t sure that it was because they were both from Earth but honestly, Teddy sort of felt like Rays old man, tough as nails on the outside but ultimately a loving and caring man on the inside.

While Ray was cooking, Teddy spent some time staring into the distance. It wasn’t long before something had started bothering the old man. “Why are you wearing elven clothes, shouldn’t they have tried to kill you on the spot like the other ones back there?”

Ray thought for a minute… “Oh, so that’s why you’re still wearing those clothes? Yeah… It’s kind of a long story. I can summarise it for you if you want”.

“We have all night, may as well tell me the long version” Teddy said.

As Ray began taking the first items off the barbeque, he began his story, starting from when he first woke up, all the way through to being captured, being put on trial and then being allowed to leave because he was a System Outcast. By the time he was done, the barbeque was finished and they had been well into eating the food.

“So… You’re telling me, that because the System tried to fuck you over, it may have accidentally saved your life?” Teddy said at the end of the story.

“Pretty much. I don’t like not having access to some features, but I suppose it’s a decent trade off. Now answer this for me, why do off-worlder's automatically get targeted? You seem like a nice enough guy”.

Teddy pondered that for a minute, then shared a screenshot of a portion of his relations screen.

Relations

Value

Status

Description

System

1,000

Benefactor

You are receiving help from the system.

Do your job and you will receive extra benefits.

System Merchants

1,000

Benefactor

You are receiving help from the system.

Do your job and you will receive extra access to higher tier shop items.

“It seems that most off-worlders see this and think they should help the System, essentially allying themselves with it”. Teddy said. Ray was about to speak but was cut off “I started at 10,000 in the positive, like your 10,000 negative, but since I’ve not been listening to the System, my relation has been getting worse overtime, giving me less and less benefit”.

Ray realised that Teddy obviously had no compunction about using identify on him. As he had never told Ray about the relation with the System, just that he was an outcast. “So what happens now?”

Teddy sighed. “I dunno. You’re clearly a noob to this world. I have no interest in getting involved to be honest, but I can’t leave you the way you are either. You’ll die before the weeks out”. He sat thinking for a bit. Ray didn’t want to interrupt, so finished eating. It took awhile but eventually Teddy said “Alright, I’ll give you 10 days. In 10 days, I’ll give you the pointers I’ve learnt along the way. If all goes well, you’ll be well past level 20 by the time I’m done with you. It won’t be easy; I reckon you’ll die personally but let’s give it a shot”.

Ray smiled; it was all he could ask for. He now had a mentor to help him truly get started in this world. It wasn’t long before his first lesson had begun. Never sleep where you set up camp. It’s a fast way for beasts or other races to find you. Use the camp as a trap if you can and sleep somewhere else, in the dark and the cold. Ray remembered a recent movie he had watched ‘you either get a warm meal, or decent nights rest. Not both’.

As the night wore down, Miu started to rouse from her sleep. She didn’t speak. She simply settled into his sleeping body. She was feeling downtrodden. She had failed in her first and only goal, to be strong for her master. She needed to get strong and quickly so that they could survive together.

When the night was over and they had all woken up, Ray filled Miu in on the situation. She was all for it. She couldn’t directly communicate with Teddy but managed to relay her thoughts through Ray.

Once breakfast was finished, they immediately set out at Teddy’s instruction. It was time for power levelling.