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Data saved to archives.

Now initiating awakening.

Entry 1- The Strong Survive.

Cold.

That's the first sensation he could determine amongst the rest. It was the sensation of frigid air against bare skin. The next was his aching head, which throbbed in time with his heartbeat. The constant pulse of pain that echoed through his skull felt like a hammer pounding against it. The gritty feeling of something coarse, rough, and irritating was the next. Finally, the very distinct feeling of something wet.

With a deep groan tearing itself from his throat, the boy sat up against the sand he had been laying on. The sun was abnormally bright today. It was almost blinding. It took several minutes for his eyes to actually adjust to the light, but it only took a second for his jaw to drop to his ankles. Where he stood wasn't anywhere he recognized, and to top it off he had no idea how he got here. He appeared to be on an island; that much was obvious. Considering where he lived previously had no type of palm trees or giant rocks littering the landscape, it was clear that he wasn't in Kansas anymore, figuratively speaking. There was a strange metallic object in his wrist, which had a dull pulse to it in time with his heartbeat. No amount of scratching it managed to loosen it, which showed that it had somehow been grafted directly to his skin like some kind of body modification.

"Where…?" His throat was parched something fierce, so he knew his first order of business. That was getting water. Given that there was not only an ocean behind him but also a river to his left that flowed into a small area that was shaped like a narrow horseshoe, he figured that wouldn't be a problem. As he gathered water in his palms and sipped it, he began going over his current memories. Let's see… My name is Gideon Nikos. That much I remember. I'm 17… I think. I have a mother named Christa, no father, a sister named- The sudden realization hit him like a slap to the face. Risa! Where was Risa?! They'd been walking together in his last memory, but he didn't see her anywhere near here.

"RISA! Where are you?!" He shouted once he could. His voice echoed off the rocks and the natural cliff wall of the alcove he was in. The landscape was the only thing to answer, responding with quietly crashing waves and occasional bird sounds. "RISAAAAA!" He shouted again, once more receiving a reply from everything except the one person he was looking for.

"Damn it…! Am I all alone in this place? I hope not…" While his thoughts began circulating at a rapid rate, they were soon silenced by the cooing sound of a bird that was waddling by. "...Huh?" The bird was relatively large, about half his size. A small head with a somewhat bulbous beak sat on it's mid-sized neck, and the size of its body was about the same as a basketball. "What the hell is this thing…?" It stopped at his feet, looking up at him with a dull expression. Either it was brave enough to walk near creatures like himself that appeared out of nowhere, or it was stupid enough to disregard any possible threats. He began wracking his brain to try to figure out what exactly this creature was, but his knowledge of animals wasn't nearly as vast as Risa's. It was all the more reason to find her.

"First things first, though… I need some clothes." He looked around at the different plants and whatnot. "Gonna need tools as well. For now, I'll get the hardest thing first. Wood." His attention was directed towards the palm trees that he'd seen earlier. Seeing as he had no other option, he reared back his fist and gave a loud yell to amp himself up. As his knuckles made contact, he cried out in pain. He'd hit it hard enough to break off a few chunks of wood as well as a healthy amount of thatch, but he'd also nearly broken his wrist, and also put several splinters in his knuckles to add insult to injury. "Definitely gonna need some tools… if I have to keep hitting these things with my bare hands, I'm screwed. But now, a different problem…" He looked at his newfound haul, realizing that he had nowhere to put anything he found or made.

He soon found a solution to this problem, however, in the form of that flashing implant in his wrist. In a bout of curiosity, he pressed one of the stony chunks into the implant, causing it to vanish in a flash of light. Gideon tapped the implant twice after packing away the remaining materials, which brought up a strange screen within his field of vision. He could see himself, as well as a rundown of his physical ability. In an area to the left, he could see the materials he had already picked up, already counted and sorted. That's pretty convenient… It's almost like a video game. He selected the stones he picked up, pulling them from within and watching them appear in his palm.

It took several tries to get it right, considering that testing the breaking point required for various tasks was harder than he imagined. In the end, he went through 18 stones before getting anything useful. Making the binding for it was easier. Using fibers that he stripped from flora around him to bind the thatch together, he wrapped the thatch around the stone head of the pick he planned to attach to the wood he harvested from the tree. Within moments, he had a crude yet functional pickaxe. He palmed the item, tossing it once and catching it by the handle.

He took his new pickaxe to some of the rocks beside the river, since wet rocks should be easier to manipulate. A few minutes spent striking the rock itself showed him three things. One, he needed to work on his stamina. Two, he needed more upper body strength. Three, apparently these rocks contained a slight amount of metal, which would make this entire process significantly faster if he could make it work. If he was able to make metal tools, it'd be not only faster, but more efficient.

His face formed a slight grin as his eyes traced the landscape in front of him. "I can do this. No matter what happens, I can survive in this barren world. I have everything I need. I'll master this place, and find Risa again. I swear upon my life."

He took a step forward into the new life he would lead, one where only the strong survive.

Note from Author

Hey, guys! Max here for one more writing that isn't a complete and utter shitshow on this account! Surprising, I know. But when you get back into writing 7 years after you first start, you're bound to get better eventually. Anyways, as you can probably tell, this is a retelling of the events of Ark: Survival Evolved with the character I created for the game. A few of the things might not be accurate to the actual game, but I'm gonna do my best. For the record, I'm gonna be featuring the mods I had in my playthrough in this as well and chalk them up to the creativity of the survivors of the island. If you have the game, be sure to check them out!

Catch you guys in the next chapter!