Benjamin sat in the corner of the pit, his chest heaving. The adrenaline was the only thing keeping the cold at bay. He looked at the blue light floating in his vision, blinking with a persistent, mechanical rhythm.
'What is this? A HUD? Like those web novels or the RPGs I played in college? Is this a System?'
He stared at the words 'Unit Terminated' until they began to blur. He reached out to touch the screen, but his clawed hand passed straight through the light. There was no tactile feedback, just a dull flicker.
'If this is a System, then the world has rules. And the first rule is that I am at the bottom of the food chain.'
He looked back at the corpse. It was still leaking black fluid into the mud. When the creature had first approached, Benjamin had tried to hold up his hands. He had tried to find his voice, to negotiate, to tell the monster he wasn't a threat.
"Wait, stop! We can talk about this!"
But the words hadn't come out. Only a series of high-pitched, desperate chirps had escaped his throat. The larger goblin hadn't even hesitated. It hadn't seen a person; it had seen a snack that was making too much noise. The realization that logic and language were useless here had forced his hand. He had stabbed because the alternative was being chewed.
'I tried to talk. It didn't care. These things aren't people.'
Another runt, emboldened by the scent of the kill, began to creep toward the body. It looked at Benjamin with wide, pale eyes, its nostrils flaring. It let out a low hiss, testing him.
"Stay back."
Benjamin didn't shout. He just leveled the blood-stained flint at the runt's face. The smaller creature paused, its gaze darting between the sharp stone and the dead alpha. It let out a disgruntled whine and scurried back into the pile of bodies.
'I can't stay here. If one came for me, more will come. And I have no idea how long this body can go without real food.'
He looked up at the rim of the pit. It was a steep climb, and the shadows above were thick. He could hear the distant sounds of more goblins—deeper, more guttural voices that made his new instincts shiver.
[Warning: Satiety at 9%.]
[Physical integrity will begin to degrade shortly.]
'Great. I'm starving, I'm green, and I'm trapped in a hole. If I'm going to survive, I need to see what's outside this nursery.'
He stood up, his legs feeling like wet straw. He wiped the black blood onto his thighs and started to look for handholds in the damp earth of the pit wall.