“Natsumi! Natsumi! Get up, Natsumi!" Natsumi sat up and looked around her. She seemed to have crashed into this new world. There were small clusters of tall trees, and birds sang from the treetops.

“Wow, I slept through a crash landing? I guess I am a heavier sleeper than I thought.”

She gazed upward and saw someone towering over her.

“Who the hell are you?”

The figure sighed, "I’m Jeff. I am your Guide, and I am also the reason you’re not dying here.”

“Oh. Then I’m going back to sleep." Jeff yanked Natsumi upwards with such force that Natsumi thought Jeff would rip her arm off.

“Okay! I’m up!" She looked in her backpack and saw three items: a copper shortsword, a copper pickaxe, and a copper ax. She looked at the copper shortsword and chuckled, "Wow. This is useless. Into the trash you go, stupid shortsword.”

Jeff stopped her and sighed, "I know it doesn’t look like much, but that shortsword is a material for the Zenith, a weapon of great power. So, keep it.”

“Okay, but do I have to use it?” 

“Not at all. You can always fight with your pickaxe, or you can use your ax to cut down trees and create a workbench and a wooden sword.”

“A simple yes or no. That was what I wanted. "

“Well, you should probably upgrade your weapons anyway.”

A slime began to approach them. Natsumi started to stab the slime with her shortsword, but she hardly dented the slime.

Jeff pointed at something in Natsumi’s backpack and asked, “Aren’t you going to open your starter bag?”

“My what?”

Natsumi looked in her backpack and saw a small brown bag. She opened it and a multitude of items fell out, including, but not limited to, bombs, torches, buff potions, and a music box that played calm and somber piano music. The words running through her head just mere minutes ago ran through her head once more.

Jeff noticed something was amiss and asked, "Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I just got distracted. I’m fine.”

Natsumi headed towards what looked like a cave of some sort. More slimes bounced out of the cave. Because of the weapons that she got from the starter bag; she had a much easier time dealing with the slimes.

As she peered into the cave, Natsumi complained, “It’s dark in there.”

“You can use some of the gel from the slimes to make torches. The only other thing you need is wood.”

Natsumi started to chop down some nearby trees with her ax. She gathered the wood and made several hundred torches. She started to make her way through the cave. She found multiple chests, which were filled with some excellent items. Most of them were recall and lesser healing potions, torches, and rope.

As Natsumi went deeper, she began to see underground cabins. When she looted them, she got more helpful things such as higher-tier healing potions, money, and pet summons. When she reached a dead end, she started digging straight down.

She fell into a small underwater lake. When she floated to the surface, she saw what looked like a heart-shaped crystal. She swam down and mined the crystal. It was a life crystal. She consumed it and continued exploring.

When she started to get deeper, she noticed that it started getting unusually hot. She blindly stepped off a ledge and began falling.

Natsumi didn’t bounce.

Fifteen minutes later, Natsumi respawned on the surface, looking both terrified and annoyed. Jeff was sitting on a nearby rock. He asked, “How was it?”

“I died. I thought you would know that because you’re so smart.”

Jeff looked up at the sky and said, “It’s getting dark. You should build a base.“

Natsumi got out her ax again and cut down the surrounding trees and started to build a base. Jeff peered over at a zombie lurching towards them. Natsumi screeched, "What the hell is that?!“

“That is a zombie. Kill it before it kills you. "

Natsumi blindly stabbed at the zombie and screamed in a pleading tone, "I want to live! Please, have mercy!”

Jeff facepalmed and shot the zombie with several arrows. Natsumi cleared her throat and thanked Jeff. “Thank you. I could have handled that myself. "

“Sure…”

Natsumi took a small device out of her pocket and waved goodbye at Jeff.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Long story. I’ll be back soon!" Natsumi activated a portal and leaped through it.