And, nestled in among those plants, a small pile of cats, two grey - an adult and a half-grown kitten, both sleek and short-haired - and one fluffy and black, all curled up in a tangle of legs and tails, asleep.

It doesn't take long for them to wake; the grey adult pins the kitten down for a quick bath while the black one pokes his head up to survey their surroundings.

A patch of prairie grasses and the like, maybe a few hundred feet across. There's some rodents and birds nearby. Up ahead, a cracked grey road. There's a car sitting still on it. Beyond that, a huge brick of a building. Warehouse or something.

Also,

Exception Detected.

Declares a blue box in the center of vision of the only person here.

Yeah, she'll say... did she die just a bit ago? It's a bit of a blur but she's pretty sure that's what was happening. It could have been a bad dream, but - this doesn't look or smell like anyplace she's familiar with. How did she get here. What is up with that road, where are its safety fences. Definitely something strange is going on.

Integrating foreign paradigm. Please wait.

There's suddenly a distant dissonant cackling and the sharp sounds of gunfire in the distance. South, past the building. 

'Wait', right, no; as soon as the gunfire sounds all three cats head for cover in the opposite direction.

(If she was going to start hallucinating, couldn't it have at least been something good? At least her familiars aren't affected, as long as they're close she should be fine borrowing their eyes.)

The patch of scrubland is pretty small. The opposite direction is a hill up to a huge highway. 88 East, according to the sign. 

To the left there's a group of overly large crows roosting on one of the cars standing still on the highway, in a big flock, fighting over something on the ground, but gently, flockmates more than enemies. And to the right off in the distance it looks like three humans are breaking into cars and going through them. They're pretty far away right now, a thousand feet or more.

Hill is good, she can dig a nice burrow in the hill and then they'll have a safe place to be while she figures out what the heck. It's quick work, thanks to her magic.

Not so quick that one of her familiars doesn't creep off to get a closer look at those crows while she's working, though.

This appears as a blue box:

Scavenger Crew Lv 1

They seem to have noticed her. A couple are watching, though not acting threatening, at this distance.

He flinches down in alarm at the pop-up and slinks back to his companions, tail lashing.

Oh, she doesn't like that.

Dig dig dig dig dig the sooner they have shelter the sooner she can start trying to put this together... and, there, that'll do, just enough space for the three of them.

Just in time too, as a strange loping creature covered in- or possibly made of- mud is steadily plodding along the lower side of the hill. More and more is off. There's no humans around- Or else the humans that are around are hiding and moving stealthily. The gunfire has stopped, with no indication about who won. There's a face peeking out of the convenience store window across the way, easy to miss. In the distance, there's more signs of strange wildlife. On the roof of the big box building- Is that a spider the size of a human? In the parking lot, a bush is walking around, finding a new spot to settle down in and become completely indistinguishable from any other shrubbery aside from its new location.

She really doesn't like that.

It's not clear what to... do... about mud monsters and human-sized spiders, though. If they're real, which she wouldn't give great odds of.

If they're not that's... slightly easier, maybe? Like, that's a problem she's seen before, the solution is to be around people who aren't hallucinating and just take your cues from them. It's not a perfect solution, but she can try it, at least. There's a building, and that means humans, and she can probably figure out some way of living there that'll let her watch how they react to things. Getting there will be a trick, but burrowing magic isn't too bad of a tool for the problem, even in a shape that's not designed for it; it'll just take a while to make it all that way.

The thing where she's still pretty sure she died recently is weird too, but honestly she has bigger problems right now.

She peeks out of her burrow to make sure she's got her bearings and starts digging again, toward the big boxy building, trusting her enhanced hearing to warn her of any tunnels or creatures she might encounter under the ground.

There's definitely some things underground. Big things. Digging with their claws rather than magic, scratching away at the dirt, so she's aware of them before she stumbles straight across a tunnel, at least.

Integration of foreign paradigm complete!

You have arrived here from [unknown].

Pattern match to local Integration template: 93%.

You have been inducted as a Player. Existing capabilities will be supported by the System. Notice: Some rewards may be reduced.

You are now Level 0. Select a Class to advance to Level 1!

She would like to go home, now no, look, it didn't even suck any less than this, it was just a more predictable kind of suck. Nothing bad has even happened here, leaving aside the hallucinations.

She can hopefully go around the tunnels? Like, underneath, or whatever? But first she's going to pause and see if she can get this box out of her face at all. Maybe properly reading it will do it?

She doesn't know a lot of those words, but 'class' gives her a bit of a sinking feeling and 'level' isn't exactly auspicious, either.

It disappears after she acknowledges it. The tunnels are navigable-around, at least right here.

Dig dig dig, then. She'll want to dig up to the surface soon and make sure she hasn't gotten turned around anywhere.

The tunnels all seem to converge on the basement of that big box building. She can hear skittering and digging sounds all throughout and around it.

-And the deep rumble of a heavy working vehicle trundling over the road off to the left somewhere.

Fortunately she doesn't actually want to get into the basement; she can avoid the tunnels and make herself an exit topside. (If she has to come up through blacktop to do it, she can, though she'll try to be more discreet than making a hole in the middle of a parking lot.) She does pause when the vehicle goes by overhead, but it shouldn't actually pose any danger to her down here.

She comes out near a small drainage pond in a parkish sort of area; The kind meant for decoration rather than actual use. There's also an electrical switchbox and a cell phone tower nearby.

The big vehicle is a large red 18-wheeler truck. It's pulling to a stop in the middle of the street. People holding guns climb onto the top and look around with binoculars. They seem excited by the mud monster, still plodding along nearby.

Well.

Good news: she's not hallucinating, probably. Bad news: monsters?! Also: these people are dressed very strangely, she can't tell what species any of them are supposed to be. It's almost like they're not presenting their soul species at all. That... could be a thing she just doesn't know about, maybe... but if so it's still not something she knows how to interpret.

She lets her familiars know that it'd be good for them to join her, and finds a bit of brush near her tunnel exit to take cover in while she watches the humans some more.

They start shooting the mud monster. It roars in rage and charges towards the truck, but collapses from all the fire before it can even get close. Two people clamber off the truck and walk towards the thing's body.

They don't seem to notice the camoflauged crocodile thing sitting by the edge of the pond. It reeks enough to be pretty obvious to her, and is clearly visible once you know to look. Their path will take them right past it.

She should probably do something about that; after a few seconds' thought she settles on digging up some muddy dirt at the entrance to her tunnel in a way that'll fling it at the crocodile's head, then darting inside.

That seems to do the trick!

"Fuck! Lookout! Some kind of croc thing!"

There's the sound of a scuffle. More shooting. A crunch.

Level 6 Camodile defeated!

Your contribution: 5%

Bonus Experience awarded for defeating an enemy above your Level (+0.6)

Bonus Experience awarded for defeating an enemy significantly above your Level (x1.25)

240 Experience awarded!

Experience gain deferred. Select a Class and advance to Level 1 to gain Experience.

....it... what?

She's still not sure she's understanding this at all, but 'bonus' and 'award' and 'gain' are at least vaguely suggestive that whatever is doing this is happy. Which is... not what she was expecting it to care about.

She can't feel it in her head like a normal familiar, doesn't have a new set of eyes available to look through, and doesn't seem to have any new magic, but... does being pointedly baffled at it do anything?