Chương 3: What Is The Log?

I sat with my back against a tree, trying to catch my breath. A day had passed since the crash. And today I survived the T-Rex. And I was still alive. Somehow. My ribs ached with every inhale. My shoulder throbbed where I'd slammed into the cliff. Cuts and bruises covered my arms. I was in the worst shape of my life. But I was breathing. And I managed to kill it somehow. That had to count for something. The display still hovered in front of my vision, waiting for me.

It hadn't disappeared after the predator protocol penalty ended. If anything, it seemed more present now, more real. I couldn't ignore it anymore.

"Alright," I said to the log.

"Let's talk."

"Where am I?" I asked.

"What is this place?" The text shifted THE LOG HAS IDENTIFIED THE PLANET KEPLER186F. ALSO KNOWN AS ELYSIUM. I stared at the details.

"Kepler-186f I have heard it before?" I knew that designation. Every astronaut did. It was one of the first exoplanets discovered in the habitable zone. Back in 2014, it was one of the major news stories at the time. Humanity once believed we might reach it someday. But we'd never reached it. It was too far and now I was here.

"Elysium," I said, "They call this place Elysium?" Paradise. That's what the word meant. I closed my eyes and forced myself to breathe. Breathe in for four seconds. Hold it for four seconds. Out for four seconds. It's the trick used by astronauts. That's what makes you calm in panic.

"Is Earth in your database?" I asked. THE LOG HAS IDENTIFIED THE PLANET EARTH. DISTANCE FROM ELYSIUM: 492 LIGHT-YEARS. USER ORIGIN: CONFIRMED. The Log knew where I was from. Knew my home.

"Four hundred ninety-two light-years!" I said loudly. The fastest spaceship we had ever built, the one that I was in. If I calculate its maximum speed. At that pace, it would've taken five thousand years to travel from Earth to here.

"Five thousand years." My chest tightened. Everyone I knew, everyone I'd ever known, was five thousand years away. How was this possible?

"You mentioned three logs. Explain them." The display expanded. NOVA LOG SURVIVAL LOG: [ACTIVE] Develops physical capabilities, survival skills, and advanced techniques. TECHNOLOGY LOG: [UNLOCKED] Provides blueprints, material analysis, and environmental analysis. I studied the list. Two different Logs. But why?

"Why these two specifically?" I asked. THE LOG MAY ADAPT AND CREATE BASED ON THE USER'S PERSONALITY ANALYSIS. I frowned.

"You mean based on my personality? When did you analyze my personality?" ANALYSIS CONDUCTED. LOG ACTIVATED: 3 DAYS, 1 HOUR, 23 MINUTES AGO.

"Wait, three days? But I'd only been conscious for one..." My stomach dropped.

"Was I unconscious for two days?" The Log didn't answer. It didn't need to. I'd lost two whole days of my life. So, it had been watching me since the crash. A sharp pain lanced through my ribs as I shifted. I gasped, pressing a hand to my side.

"Oh god… It still hurts." I'd been so focused on the log that I'd almost forgotten about the very real possibility of internal bleeding.

"I can figure out the mysterious log later. Right now, I need to stop the bleeding." I pulled up my torn shirt to see the damage. Purple bruises across my ribs. My shoulder was swollen. And I was pretty sure I'd pulled something in my knee during the river escape. Nothing life-threatening. But definitely painful. The display changed: TECHNOLOGY LOG ADVANCE RECOVERY. EFFECT: ACCELARATED CELLULAR REPAIR. DURATION: 12 HOURS. HEALING RATE: 10x NORMAL RECOVERY. COST: 30 EXPERIENCE POINTS Love what you're reading?

Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. CURRENT BALANCE: 60 POINTS DO YOU ACCEPT? I hesitated. What were these experience points? And thirty points. Its half of my current balance. If I spent them all on healing, I didn't know where it would be useful later. But then again, if I didn't heal, I might not survive long enough to need those points. The pain made the decision easier.

"Yes." ADVANCE RECOVERY: ACTIVATED Warmth started spreading through my chest, not painful but intense. I could feel my body responding, cells knitting back together faster than they should. The sharp pain in my ribs was almost gone. My shoulder loosened. I let out a breath, didn't know I'd been holding.

"Thank you," I said quietly. The Log didn't respond. Maybe it didn't know how to handle gratitude. The sun went down as I walked back to the capsule. I had to go back for my supplies. If T-rex didn't kill me, spending a chill cold night in open place would surely kill me. I almost made it back to my capsule. I really needed to rest and to gather a few items if I had to leave this forest. Strangely, the night wasn't cold as yesterday.

"Hey…. Where's the nearest city?" I asked. The display opened and showed a simple looking map. A pinpoint marker appeared to the north. TECHNOLOGY LOG THE NEAREST CITY: THE MISFIT CITY DETECTED. DISTANCE: 82. 7 KILOMETERS ESTIMATED POPULATION: 5, 028"The Misfit City," I whispered.

"What a weird name." Eighty-two kilometers. It would take me three or four days on foot only if I maintained a steady pace. But the choice was pretty clear to me. I had to find someplace. I couldn't survive in this forest for long. I lay back looking at the stars from the damaged parachute. Resting for tomorrow's journey.

"Five thousand people. huh..." I whispered. Maybe there might be a clue, a clue to contact Earth. Maybe... Maybe Iris. My heart clenched at the thought. What if she survived the wormhole? She would have also headed for the nearest city. She would definitely try to find me. It was a slim hope. But it was something. I had to know if she or any of my crew was in this place. With that thought, I closed my eyes and convinced myself to leave as soon as I woke up. The morning sunrays reached my eyes.

I stood steadily, testing my knee. The healing was finished. My body didn't feel any pain. I could move easily now. I thought my body would be sore from yesterday, but instead it was more energetic. Suddenly a thought came to my head.

"Wait I think there was something else I saw in log yesterday."

"Open Log." NOVA: LOG"What's that Icon?" I stared at it then said.

"Open it." STATS LOG STRENGTH: 5 (Strength: Physical strength of user current level.) AGILITY: 10 (Agility: Speed and flexibility of user current level.) INTELLIGENCE: 10 (Intelligence: IQ and EQ of user current level.) DEXTERITY: 8 (Dexterity: Mana control, delicate work and crafting skill of user current level.) VITALTY: 8 (Vitality: Stamina, Endurance and Fatigue resistance of user current level.) PERCEPTION: 7 (Perception: Awareness of user current level.) HEALTH POINTS: 1200 (Health points: Damage withstand capacity of user current level. Cannot be redeemed by available points.) (AVAILABLE POINTS TO REDEEM: 12 POINTS)"Is it my stats? It's exactly like something that exists in the video games back on Earth." Is it common in this world? Or am I the only one who can see this… The health points look like they increase by 100 every time I level up. I have 12 available points. Can I use it to upgrade my stats? If that's so. Each time I level up, I get one stats point.

That's cool I guess. Wait some of my stats have 10 points, some have less than 10. Well of course not every human is perfect. But… that does not apply for me, I will be a perfect 10. Hmph. Hmph. I nodded with excitement and distributed my points evenly, bringing everything to a total of 10 points each STATS LOG STRENGTH: 10 AGILITY: 10 INTELLIGENCE: 10 DEXTERITY: 10 VITALTY: 10 PERCEPTION: 10 HEALTH POINTS: 1200"Wait there is another thing in the corner. A (+) icon."

SKILLS LOG APEX PERSONA: LEVEL 1 (+) (USER LEVEL 25 REQUIRED)"So I can upgrade my skill once I reach a certain level? Hmm… I wonder how many levels I can reach in total." If that's the case I need to be careful with what I want to level up from now on… One wrong step could mean death. And then there is this penalty. I don't want to face that penalty again. It's better if I avoid it and keep doing the tasks which are given to me.

"I think I should head on now." It was still chilly in the morning. I wore my bomber jacket and lifted my bag on my shoulders.

"I could feel my strength had increased since yesterday." My bag suddenly felt lighter.

"Woah…. What's this, I feel stronger."

"Alright," I said, looking north.

"Eighty-two kilometers. I can do that." I started walking. DAY 1: Walking through the forest. The forest should have felt normal. But it didn't. The air smelled heavy. It felt damp, it felt familiar. Disturbingly so. The trees were massive. Easily thirty meters tall, with thick trunks and bark with a rough texture. Their leaves were broad and were not at all similar to those on Earth. Cycads— trees whose trunks looked like a pineapple— which always grew in clusters.

Ginkgo trees spread their fan-shaped leaves overhead and tree ferns created a dense layer that made walking difficult. I stopped just for a moment in the middle of this forest and looked at everything around me. Now it made more sense to me. I'd seen these before, not here. Not on this planet. But in museums. In textbooks. I was in the Mesozoic era, or people knew it as… The Jurassic Period. A dragonfly the size of my hand buzzed past my face, its wings humming loudly. It was the extinct species known as Meganeura.

Those had gone extinct on Earth three hundred million years ago. In the distance, something large crashed through the trees. I caught a glimpse of a long neck rising above the trees. It was a sauropod, a species of dinosaurs that had long necks but were herbivorous, moving with a distinctive figure, a massive body. My pulse quickened.

"This doesn't make sense."

"Am I actually in the Jurassic Era?" I said aloud. TECHNOLOGY LOG: ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS AVAILABLE COST: 5 EXPERIENCE POINTS TOTAL EXPERIENCE POINTS: 30"Yes," I said immediately.

"Scan everything. Tell me what I'm looking at." ANALYZING ENVIRONMENT... The entire forest came up in front of my vision. A map that highlighted plants, insects, and distant animal shapes. The long names of the plants and animals scrolled past faster than I could read it all, but I caught enough to confirm what my eyes were already telling me. FLORA DETECTED FAUNA DETECTED The names and details that were detected matched with the Earth's very own Jurassic Period.

ANALYSIS COMPLETE: JURASSIC PERIOD CONFIRMED (200-145 MILLION YEARS AGO, EARTH) I sat down hard on a moss-covered log. My brain couldn't process all this. I had never heard of those species.

"How?" I whispered.

"How come this planet is a replica of Earth's Jurassic period?" This was Kepler-186f. A planet that was four hundred and ninety-two light-years from Earth. A planet that had never been visited by humans. And yet it had Earth's plants. Earth's insects. Earth's dinosaurs. The T-Rex I'd fought wasn't some mystery creature generated by the log. It was because of this Jurassic period. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex that existed here on this planet. The Earth's lost world was here in Elysium. But why? And how was it here?

Suddenly, The Log popped up. SURVIVAL LOG URGENT QUEST THREAT DETECTED: PACK OF HUNTERS SPECIES: VELOCIRAPTOR COUNT: 6 INDIVIDUALS NO TIME LIMIT FAILURE: DEATH"What! Why so sudden, and this time there are six..." Before I finished my sentence, they were here. A pack of velociraptors, which were considered to be intelligent hunters. While most dinosaurs hunted as they saw their prey, they hunted in groups. I realized they had already surrounded me. Leaves rustled behind me. Another step to my right. Then to my left.

They were circling me. I had no escape. Every possible escape path were blocked by pack of velociraptors. No, not this again. I clenched my fist so hard my knuckles cracked. How will I get out of this now?