Menu. Menu. Menu. The thought seemed to grow louder and louder in Jihoon’s mind. Jihoon felt his neck burning as he sat up, face down in a bed of sand.Dry sand poured out of his mouth as he spat out as much as he could.But as he came to his senses, he looked around, surrounded by desert, and strangers scattered all around him. Menu. Menu. Menu. The word grew deafeningly loud as he finally sputtered the word. “Menu!” He spat out, a blue holographic menu instantaneously appearing in front of his eyes. What-? Am I in some sort of videogame? Jihoon staggered to stand as he heard cries around him. Cries of confusion and surprise as everyone began to open their menu. Menu, huh? Jihoon’s menu dispyed him as level 0, dispying 4 core stats. Vitality, Endurance, Strength, and Agility. There was also an “Ability” menu, though it was empty. This is it? Even for a game, it’s a little simple, no? Jihoon thought to himself, before coming back to his consciousness and the intense sun against his neck. He turned and took in his surroundings, seeing nothing but red sand dunes and the bzing sun.Jihoon gnced around at the strangers around him. Not even everyone was on their feet yet, some looking like they’d just woken up from a long nap. I’m not quite sure what this situation is, but if we just sit here, we’d die from this heat. “Excuse me, everyone! I don’t know about you all, but I’d like to find some shade and water, yeah?” He called out cheerfully, and some people were already walking over towards him expectantly. Jihoon smiled at the murmuring crowd as they began walking through the vast desert. “Pardon me, young man. But do you know where we are? Or where we are headed?”Asked an older man, dressed in a suit and tie. Should I lie? If I say I don’t, what would he do?“Not exactly, but if we just sat in the sand, I think we’d get really hot and thirsty.”Jihoon’s mouth was already barren, any saliva being soaked by the sand that occupied his mouth.The man grimaced at Jihoon’s answer, his anxiety seemingly building at the thought of an uncertain future. The group walked for hours in a straight line. Jihoon, who was in a white hoodie, actually found it nice for keeping the sun from directly touching his skin. The group seemed to know Jihoon had no destination, but nobody directly compined for the first few hours.On the horizon, Jihoon saw a canyon. “Canyons are formed by flowing water.”A younger boy told Jihoon.The boy was young, still in high school.He had a short buzz cut, two small earrings, and a tall confident stature.“How’d you know that?”“Earth science css.”The boy smiled, finding it funny that his school lessons were having a real world application.Gaining momentum from his first development, the boy continued talking about canyons and their formations.Feeling hopeful, Jihoon changed the course of the group towards it.“So what’s your name, sir?”The boy asked as they walked towards the growing canyon.“Baek Jihoon.”Speaking at all felt horrible, all words scratchy in his throat from dehydration.He wondered how the boy was able to speak so uninhibited.“I’m Han Siwoo.”Han Siwoo liked talking, but at the moment he was also feeling the dehydration affecting his voice.The march towards the canyon continued quietly, with the silence eventually broken up by what sounded like the gentle flow of water. The group made rounds around the canyon, finally finding a small clearing with a few trees, and a small stream of water. They rushed to fill their stomachs, the lukewarm water filling Jihoon with a new sense of vitality. As many people in the group sat and rested, Jihoon could only think,What next?Were they meant to be rescued? And does this “Menu” mean they’ve been transported into a game? Is there civilization of some sort for them to find?Jihoon’s mind went haywire with possibility, but for now as the sun would set, many of the group id in a small crevice in the canyon, hiding from the cold desert night.Jihoon joined them, sitting upright in a corner, his mind considering nothing but his next move.As Jihoon woke up, he found that the people in his group were rather productive.They had a fire going by morning, using dead wood along the riverbank and someone’s gsses, it was likely easy with how hot the sun was burning.Jihoon took a quick count of people. There were 12, including Jihoon himself. That was enough to delegate a lot of tasks.Jihoon found Siwoo, who was sitting under a tree, likely unsure of what to do next.“We should find food or something of that sort.”“Any bright ideas then?”“No, but let's search around.”Si Woo hopped to his feet, and the two began traveling through some of the other footpaths visible in the canyon.They trekked through, finding nothing but some more trees, flowers, and pnts resembling cactus, though without spines.Jihoon broke off a chunk of the cactus-like pnt, revealing a small reservoir of liquid inside.“You think that's any good for drinking?”“You first.”Siwoo reached for it and Jihoon spped his hand hard.“I was joking, dumbass! Don’t actually drink that. It could be poisonous, or dirty.”Jihoon rubbed a bit of the pnt’s flesh on his skin.“If this fres up, it's probably no good, but in an hour or so I’ll rub it on my lips, then I’ll try eating a bit.”“How did you think of that?”“Saw it on Whotube once.”The duo walked back to the “camp,” where other people had already established a bit of shelter from the sun using dead wood and mud from under the river.Jihoon rested, eventually rubbing the small chunk of pnt on his lips after finding no skin reaction, then eventually eating it.The flesh was filled with water, and had a pleasant crunch.Siwoo watched expectantly, a bit scared but a bit hopeful.“It tastes like cucumber, and I feel alright.”Siwoo sighed in relief.“Tomorrow we’ll go collect some for everyone, if I don’t develop any weird symptoms.”As night fell, Jihoon stood outside of the shelter along with another woman as most people slept. He watched the stars above as it was something impossible to be seen in Busan. The wind howled as it reverberated off the canyon walls.Eventually, the woman spoke up.“So, where are you from?”“Busan, and you?”“Daegu.”“Oh, so not that far, huh?”It was the first somewhat normal exchange with anyone since he’d arrived. But Jihoon quickly excused himself to relieve himself.He went a ways downstream as not wanting to taint the water, even if it was flowing.As he walked back to the camp, the wind howled ever louder, but Jihoon didn’t feel any breeze.The howling was finally broken by a scream, piercing Jihoon’s ears, a shiver traveled down his spine as he ran back towards the camp.In the light dim of light, Jihoon could barely make out a few, massive figures, each at least the size of four fully grown men.He could make out their silhouette, with each figure having a snout, some kind of fur and long cws.Screams began to pick up, as not one, but almost every person in the shelter had begun crying out in terror.Jihoon saw a glistening red sptter across the ground, the woman who he’d just spoken with now spyed out in front of the shelter, lifeless.In the dim moonlight, a small figure crawled out of the shelter, they clutched the sand and pulled forward with all their strength. Han Siwoo crawled forward toward Jihoon, blood seeping from open gashes on his legs.Their eyes locked for a split second as Jihoon backed away, though unable to break eye contact.“Jiho–”The word was stomped out by one of the creatures as Jihoon tucked behind the cliffside.Jihoon’s momentum carried him down, shaking on the ground, his heartbeats reverberating throughout his entire body.The screams of the shelter stopped, now repced by a wet, crunching and cracking.Jihoon’s eyes blurred as he quietly stepped back, breaking into a full sprint as he retraced his path downstream.This was no normal world, and certainly not a game.And now he’d have to navigate it, alone.