《And So It Began》 My New Life Began Preface The ship raced towards the shining blue and green planet, gently manoeuvred itself through the atmosphere and landed on the surface. Minutes later a ramp descended. Slightly green-tinged light escaped through the opening which was then partially blocked multiple times as the occupants exited. Standing seven to eight feet tall, with elongated craniums, vibrant purple eyes, and tanned skin, though with a slight green sheen, stood twelve beings. Six males and six females, traitors to their race. "Preliminary scans show advanced biological life. One species shows promise, primitive use of tools and bipedal movement. Brain scan shows the beginnings of a pre-frontal cortex. An estimated 50,000 live on the western half of this continent. About 20,000 easily accessible in our 40-day time frame." One of the females stated. "Alright prep the scout, get in close before releasing the nanobots until they can replicate these are the last." "Nanobots updated, local inhabitants will be drawn to this location, as per safety protocol alpha section 2b neural pathways will create a sense of awe and a desire to please." "Well done, leave when ready" The female who first spoke, walked to the side of the shuttle. A large metallic disc three and a half meters in diameter detached, as it fell sideways it stabilised a meter off the ground. The female ascended a small ramp, which then retracted. After seating herself a semitransparent forcefield encased the top. With barely a sound it climbed into the sky and seconds later it was gone. The leader spoke, "We have 40 of this planets days until the mothership is out of range and the processing power needed to run the nanobots will leave them inert. We need to seed this planet, the only viable option is to create a virus that can replicate the inert nano-bots. So when the mothership orbits back around maybe this planet can stand against the Osorian Collective." CHAPTER ONE The loud buzzing of my alarm sounds, waking me up from a dream that fades away as soon as I think of it, leaving only a slightly pleasant feeling in its wake. I slowly get out of bed as the fog covering my mind lifts. I make my way to the kitchen, drink a cup of water and head to the toilet. As I get ready to head to work, I look around my place and shake my head at the ever-growing disaster area of my house. Cups and plates litter the surfaces and empty takeaway containers are pushed into a pile at the edge of the table. I have to get my act together, with an effort of will, that wouldn''t even be felt if I was someone with even the slightest hint of motivation, I gather the trash piled around the house and take it with me as I leave for work. I put the trash in the bin and hop in my HiLux and pull out of the driveway. Thank goodness today is a Saturday, I work in a supermarket and am lucky enough to have the next two days off. It doesn''t sound like much if you work a Monday through Friday job, but supermarket hours are terrible. I have to be there at 6 every morning to get the store ready, stock shelves and organise specials. Pay is alright, but dealing with customers day in day out. If you''ve worked in retail you''ll understand. I pull up with minutes to spare, clock on and go about my day. It''s a fairly average day, a couple of breakages and one guy that wanted a discount on some biscuits because we didn''t have the brand he normally buys. Some people, oh well you get used to it. At least that was only an incredibly mild case of customer self-righteousness. Anyway, I finish my shift at 3 and go home. I call a couple of mates but they are either busy or working. Well looks like a night of either cruising solo to a bar or watching a movie at home. Doesn''t get more depressing than that. Honestly, I can''t stand the thought of going to a bar alone. Plus ever since my ex I''ve been kind of bitter towards women. I mean I''m not blameless in the relationship going south and I''ll take responsibility for that, but whatever the circumstances, it doesn''t justify cheating. I mean if you don''t love me anymore that''s fine, leave. But what gives you the right to be so selfish and heartless to make me think everything is fine, all the while preparing to leave. Hmm, I have to stop thinking about this, as my mum always told me, everything happens for a reason. And I honestly believe that no matter how bad something is you can learn something positive from it. But sometimes it is so incredibly hard. So it looks like home it is. I''d call my sis but she has some romantic getaway with her boyfriend planned. I get on my computer and halfheartedly search for a movie to watch. Then I get up to make some dinner. I''m no cooking master, but I''ve never gotten sick from my food. Ok, maybe one time, but I could have sworn the meat wasn''t that far gone. As I sit down to eat my dinner slash late lunch, I play some random cartoons, I gave up on trying to find a movie. Nothing good seems to come out anymore. I just made a basic pasta, I used to make more imaginative food but recently I just can"t be bothered making anything too complex. After lazing around for a few hours I end up psyching myself up to go for a run before bed. I put on my runners and run a couple of blocks and do a loop through the local park. Being dark, the heat of the day had dissipated so the run wasn''t so bad. When I get back I have a quick shower and head to bed. Several hours later I''m jerked out of sleep by my phone going off. I spend several seconds laying stunned unsure what is happening until my brain starts working and I roll over to pick up my phone. I see it''s my sister and answer. "Lily was''up?", I mutter into the phone. I listen for a couple of minutes trying to understand what my sister is saying. The only things I got for sure was, "Bastard", "Cheating" and "Please take me home". After she is a little calmer I ask, "Ok, ok, where are you now?" "In a hotel." "In Adelaide right?" "Yeah" "See, I listen when you talk, sometimes." "So can you come get me?" "Of course, give me a couple more hours of sleep and I''ll be up there in time for lunch. Does Philip know where you are?" "No." "Okay, send me the address and I''ll see you for lunch, alright?" "Okay." "Love you little sis'', night" I hang up the phone and start to drift back to sleep, the last thing I hear is my phone receiving a message. I wake up, roll over to see the time ''4:50''. The benefits of regularly waking up at unsightly hours. See Lily''s message and recall last night''s little drama. Well, no time like the present, I force myself out of bed, legs feeling a little stiff and sore from last night''s run. I really should get into the habit of stretching. Have a quick shower, shave and third ''S''. Then I hop into my car and drive down to the service station to refuel and buy a couple of snacks for the trip. By the time I pull out onto the highway, it''s just hit 6:30 on a soon to be blazing 38-degree day in mid-January. Glad I got my air-con fixed a month ago, that''s all I can say. Well, I''ve got a bit over 5 hours ahead of me, so I decide to chuck on some of my favourite travelling tunes and sing along, mostly in tune even if I only say so myself. I stare out the windshield and take in the beautiful scenery, yeah it''s stinking hot outside but at least it looks nice. I''m about halfway through the trip, on a relatively straight stretch of road when everything goes black. I slowly come to, I seem to be hanging upside down and it feels like all the blood has rushed to my head. As I''m trying to figure out where I am and what happened, I notice something is obscuring my vision and close and open my eyes several times to try and clear it. It doesn''t go away and I notice it''s still there when my eyes are closed. I focus on the image in the middle of my vision and to my surprise I can read it.
***Neural map decoded*** ***Bio scan complete*** ***War program activated*** ***Training rewards initialised***
I finish reading, feeling confused and hoping I don''t have brain damage when the messages disappear. Before I can become relieved more messages appear.
Damage has been detected, moderate head trauma, minor muscle damage, 2 fractured ribs, minimal right knee trauma, and multiple lacerations. Recommend immediate repair. As it appears you are not currently in battle do you wish accelerated repair? Yes/no
Sure, I''m losing my mind. I whimsically think that to have all that disappear sounds like a good idea. As soon as I thought that it sounded good the writing was replaced.
Before accelerated repair can commence please return to an upright position and lay down.
Amused at my brain I shake my head, that was a mistake I think, as pain radiates from my neck. I sigh and press my right hand to the floor, or the former roof of my poor almost definitely totalled Toyota HiLux, I undo the belt buckle with my other hand. Gracelessly falling to the floor I slowly remove myself from the wreck. Hobbling away I look back in dismay. Only 5 months away from paying it off, sighing in frustration I walk several meters away and put my back against a tree. I see that the sun is nearly down so it must be about 5 pm or so, I notice the prompt telling me to lay down and with nothing better to do I decide to humour my malfunctioning brain. I painfully lay down and start to ponder my next move, I realise the writing has been replaced.
Accelerated repair will take approximately 3 hours. 54% of fat reserves and 87% of water reserves will be used. After procedure hydrate as soon as possible. Continue Yes/no
What the... I have a massive imagination but this, this is ridiculous. I try to ignore it, but several minutes later it is still there. Why not I think what''s the worst that can happen, besides, a pleasant fantasy of nearly instantaneous healing is more appealing than a slow tedious recovery. I give my consent and... nothing. Surprise, surprise. Wait, my whole body started to feel like it was floating and every thought just started to drift away. I try to feel alarmed but I just feel like I''m riding a wave into nothing. My vision starts to fade and then disappears completely. I open my eyes and see nothing, I momentarily start to panic, but as I sit up I realise I can see stars in the distance and when my back finds the tree, I realise branches and leaves must be blocking out the stars. The second thing that draws my attention is that I feel no pain. Well, I feel like desert found a new home in my mouth but apart from that, I felt whole. I slowly stand up still cloaked in thick disbelief and start patting myself all over. "I can''t believe this." I try to say, but my voice comes out as a croak. I make my way over to my car remembering I have some water on the passenger side. After 5 minutes of searching my hand finds the water bottle. I back my way out of the car and slowly sip on the water. I had read somewhere once that your body can only absorb 30 millilitres of water a minute and that drinking water fast when dehydrated was not a good idea. No idea if that''s true or not, but I didn''t see any reason why I should tempt fate. The water wasn''t going anywhere and it''s never a bad idea to show some restraint. As I slowly drinking my water, it occurs to me that I haven''t checked my phone yet. I pull it out and have a look. Strange, I don''t think it should be flat yet, I try to turn it back on. No response. "Hmm.", I murmur. I start pondering this and more writing materialises.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Your body has been satisfactorily stabilised. First-time activation detected. Training information has been made available. Proceed yes/no
It''s official, I"m insane. Well, might as well make it official and dive on in. "Sure I''d love some more information, floaty writing ghost." I announce into the night. Then seconds later I shout in my best Jim Carey voice, "It''s a miracle." as more writing appears.
Available topics: Strength Dexterity Agility Intelligence RMR (remote manipulation reserve)
Ok, well might as well start from the top, strength.
Strength: Defines the amount of weight one full contraction of major muscle groups can move. Changes based on species dominant muscle groups. 1 point of strength for humans, via dominant body areas, in descending order are: Legs: Bodyweight + 12kgs Core: Applicable bodyweight + 10kgs of force Chest and shoulders: Applicable bodyweight + 8kgs Biceps: Applicable bodyweight + 5kgs Triceps: Bodyweight + 3kgs Current strength to one decimal: Legs 9.2 Core 10.2 Chest 10 Shoulders 8.1 Biceps 9 Triceps 10 Average strength 9.4
Well, that''s just spooky, as far as I can tell that''s pretty accurate. I did a one-rep max day at the gym a couple of months ago and if my finger math isn''t too far off, neither are those numbers. My subconscious is smart, nice. Ok then, let''s have a look at the rest.
Dexterity: The ability to adapt the mind and body to the task at hand. To balance the mind and body to work as one. In the easiest to understand terms dexterity is the ability to be accurate. You hit what you aim for, dodge what you want to dodge. Dexterity is based on non-moving objects. Dexterity is based on the ability to accurately strike and dodge a static object, the same size, and shape as yourself, at your max sprint. The closer you can get to an object with dodging and closer you can get to an object while striking the better. Your arm length is equal to 1 point Arm length is measured from the front of the chest to a closed fist. Your arm length is 62cm 62 times 100 divided by the length from target or intended target in millimetres. (62x10=620/100=6.2) Current Dexterity to one decimal: Dodge 7.8 Strike 12.4 Average dexterity 10.1 *Hint dexterity and agility go hand in hand.
Ok, so how close I can get to a stationary object, while running full out and dodge it or hit it where I want. Because I do a lot of that. Hmm, so I have no idea how accurate this is. But it looks like I can hit something better than I can dodge. I suppose it makes sense, never been the best at changing directions when I''m running. Lily still has a scar on the back of her head, from when I ploughed into her, when she jumped out from behind a tree, to try to scare during the last dash of a 400m at school. It wasn''t the smartest thing to do, but I still felt bad about it for weeks.
Agility: This is broken into two sub-categories, Flexibility and Reaction time. Flexibility determines how far your muscles can stretch. Lending the ability to touch your toes, do the splits or fold yourself into a pretzel. 10 degrees of freedom in main rotation points averaged, is equal to 1 point. Degrees of freedom averaged/10=Flexibility Reaction time determines how long it takes stimuli to reach your brain and then how long it takes your body to react to it. (2 seconds is equal to 1 point) 2/ReactionTime= Reaction time in milliseconds 2/8.5=235ms Current Agility to one decimal: Flexibility 7.8 (Congratulations you can touch your toes.) Reaction time 8.5 Average agility 8.2
Great, I have a witty brain ghost thing. Ok well, no surprise on my flexibility, and I can touch my toes, just. But the reaction time''s a joke, not even a ten.
Dodge: Ability to dodge an object (dodge*AverageAgility*(strike/100)= Dodge Strike: Ability to stike an object 100-(dodge*AverageAgility*(strike/100))= Strike *Based on an object travelling straight, at the speed of your sprint. Objects moving faster decreases your chances dramatically.
Ok, so I take it, no dodging bullets anytime soon then.
Intelligence: How fast you make connections. How quickly you adapt to neural changes. Calculations based on neural plasticity, number of neurons and stength of new connections. Current Intelligence 9.5
So decently intelligent then, at least if 10 is average, like I hope. It sure would suck if 100 was average for intelligence. And every time I made a witty remark that no-one laughed at, it wasn''t because I was too smart.
RMR (remote manipulation reserve): The power reserve used to control, enhance, communicate with or destroy nano-bots. Status: Unavailable. Upgrade required.
A power reserve, well this isn''t confusing at all.
General statistics Strength: 9.4 Dexterity: 10.1 Agility: 8.2 Intelligence: 9.5 RMR (remote manipulation reserve): N/A
Ok then, what now, I''m hours away from anywhere. I have what appears to be status screens like I''m in some type of game. What else, oh yeah I just went through ''accelerated repair'' whatever that means.
Accelerated repair is the process of using nano-bots to increase healing speed using your bodily reserves.
Ok, that. And oh yeah, apparently there are nano-bots, and floating writing. I don''t know what this means but it feels real. I sit down with my back resting against the nearby tree to ponder what to do. As far as I can tell it''s the middle of the night. This part of Australia is not the most dangerous place but there is still likely some predators roaming about. So it''s not the best move to go wandering off just yet. It''s probably better to wait until morning and hopefully flag down a car to take me to town or call a tow-truck or something. I feel too awake to want to go to sleep. Plus maybe there is some more information I can find out. I mean I am pretty sure I can rule out hallucinations. At least I think I am. I feel myself over and roughly push into now non-existent injuries. Ok well all my, I suppose I can call them stats are pretty clear, apart from RMR. It says I need an upgrade, however you go about that.
Access to an RMR upgrade requires experience-based actions to occur and your first rank-up. Unlike other ranks your first rank-up only requires experience.
Ok, how am I supposed to get experience? I wait but nothing comes up. How am I supposed to rank up past the first rank? Nothing... Hmm, well I suppose if it''s like a game experience could probably come from killing something. And then I suppose completing quests, maybe? And I assume that since I have the same abilities as before if I train and increase those abilities I could gain experience. There are just too many questions and right now I don''t even know the right questions to ask. And even if I did, I don''t even know if my brain buddy will answer. I sit there thinking, my brain slowly drifting off to sleep coming down off an adrenalin high, when suddenly a dingo''s howling growl breaks the mostly silent night. I feel myself waking up alert something primal in me sensing danger. My ears alert, eyes wide trying to peer into the darkness, for the telltale sign of glowing eyes. The hairs on the back of my neck stick up, causing me to turn around eyes wide, trying to control my breathing. I slowly bend down trying to keep alert and search for a fallen branch or a rock, something with a bit of heft. A couple of soft yips come from left as my hand finds a stick, I turn around brandishing my makeshift staff. Just in time to stare down set of canines that were coming for the back of my neck. I get knocked over and go down, I managed to get my staff between his two front paws, his hind legs between mine. I push him back away from my face, I swivel my body sideways and manage to knock out his back legs. The dingo drops sideways and I get up just as the dingo is finding his feet. I swing my weapon low and hit his legs. He goes down again and before he gets up, strike at his face and clock him in the back of the head. I hit him two more times and being unsure whether the dingo is dead and unwilling to face it''s wrath if he''s not, I quickly search the ground and find a sizable rock and bring it down on his head several times. As I''m sitting down panting, totally spent from the short combat. A message once again slightly obscures my vision.
Enemies dead. 1x dingo. 700 experience received, based on difficulty. Rank-up. RMR upgrade, now available.
After fighting the dingo I sat there panting for a while, before my mind slowed down enough to process the words in front of me. I have so many questions, I''m not even sure where to start. I mean, how does experience work? What determines difficulty? I suppose if you just take it literally, difficulty is how hard I find something to kill. So does that mean if I had a gun and shot the dingo I wouldn''t have gotten that much experience? And how much experience does it require to rank-up to each additional rank? And what exactly is a rank and what does it mean? But I suppose my biggest question was now that I can get the RMR upgrade, should I? With a thought I bring up my stats. I''m not sure how it works but it just works. Like how my arm respond to my will but I don''t understand exactly how. And I see that it has undergone a change.
General statistics Strength: 9.4 to (11) Dexterity: 10.1 to (11) Agility: 8.2 to (9) Intelligence: 9.5 to (10) RMR (remote manipulation reserve): N/A (Upgrade Pending) (All changes to physical makeup will occur during sleep. Sleep in a secure area, changes will take approximately 10 hours.)
Wait, what? I don''t get a choice whether or not my brain will be messed with? Well I guess I didn''t get a choice in any of this, so it''s par for the course really. But still. I start thinking about where I could hole up for ten hours to sleep and then I remember the tray of my ute has a hard top and hopefully it can hold my weight, with my car being upside down and all. I get up and walk up to my HiLux and unclip the side and corner. I manage to wriggle in and by sticking my hand out the side I manage to clip back up the corner to lend a bit more stability. I then slowly move towards the front and restore balance to my car the was rocking precariously as I tried to get settled. I lay in the dark, close my eyes and wonder how my sister is going. A slice of pie? How about a slice of rock. I slowly come awake, my brain trying to parse together fragmented memories that suddenly come rushing back. My fight with the dingo comes to the forefront of my mind, I sit up with adrenalin suddenly rushing through my veins. My head impacts the tray of my Ute with enough force to knock me back down fighting to stay conscious. As the threat of unconsciousness recedes, I finally remember where I am. As I once again become more fully aware, I feel a slight pressure at the edges of my consciousness, as I focus upon it a blue box appears in my vision.
***Changes complete*** ***New stats finalized*** ***RMR has been activated***
After the blue box disappears I gingerly make my way out of the Ute, still feeling a bit sore from hitting my head. I look around, feeling the new heat of the day. Feeling thirsty I make my way over to the tree where I left my water bottle last night. As I bend over to pick it up, my brain suddenly recognizes something is missing, the dingo. As I finish picking up the bottle I glance around warily. I walk over to where I believe I killed the dingo last night. On the ground I see a darker patch of dirt, where blood must have soaked in and dried last night. And a couple of faint drag marks leading off into the surrounding brush. My bottle of water is about half full, so I have about half a litre left. I take a couple of sips, unwilling to deplete my only supply of water too quickly. I look around and try to decide on the best course of action. If I remember correctly I had just passed a town 20 or so kilometers back. I''m not sure how close the next small town is and I also don''t particularly want to backtrack 20kms. I don''t think the next town would be too far. Well, I suppose I will push on then. As I am about to start walking, I go back to my Ute and grab the heaviest thing I can find. A four way tyre iron. I shouldn''t need it, but then again a dingo should not have attacked me last night either. Not only are dingos extremely rare in this part of Australia, they are also not known for attacking things bigger than themselves, at least as far as I am aware. So I set off, water bottle in one hand and a slightly ungainly tyre iron in the other. Keeping an eye on my surroundings I steadily make my way forward. After several minutes, I realise I have not had a look at my new stats, or what RMR does. I open up my stats and notice once again several things have changed.
Rank 1: Recruit 200/100,000exp Experience used: 0 General Statistics Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Agility: 9 Intelligence: 10 RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 100/100
Next, I focus on Rank 1: Recruit.
After proving yourself worthy, you have been promoted to the rank of recruit. As a recruit, you have access to the RMR. To advance to the next rank you need: Basic control while using the RMR Earn 100,000 experience And survive the first three months
Well, this is more information than I got for the first rank-up. The requirements are a lot steeper though. And the whole surviving three months thing, that doesn''t sound ominous at all. Next, I focus on RMR. RMR is a system that allows you to control nano-bots and certain lifeforms, through the access of their nano-bots. Use of the RMR System can take time to master, however, use of the system is as easy as reaching out with your senses and willing a certain action or behaviour to take place. As understanding of the RMR System increases, the less reserves your actions will use. Okay, interesting, definitely creates more questions than it answers though. I continue walking and try pushing my senses out. Trying to feel any type of difference, in how I perceive or feel the world around me. After 10 or so minutes of trying to sense the world, I definitely feel some difference, however, I can''t be sure if it''s not some type of placebo reaction. As I am walking past an oddly shaped rock, I bend down and pick it up. Then I do something that I have in the past tried to do many times before, cut or make something exploded with the power of my mind. With some trepidation and nervous excitement, I concentrate on the feeling of the rock. I try to connect with the rock, something else I have also tried to do before, not necessarily with a rock, but all the same with something. Then, focusing on my image of the rock being cut into two pieces. I push that image onto the rock. For a split second everything goes black, as my consciousness reasserts itself I realise that half way through a step I had staggered, as my body lost control of itself, and ended up on one knee. My mind feels thick, as if every thought needs to push itself through molasses. My eyes slowly move towards the rock that I still miraculously hold in my right hand. It takes me a couple of seconds to see and understand that the top of the previously bulbous rock is now perfectly flat. I feel the top of the rock, it feels so smooth, as if it''s been polished. Numbly, but with a growing excitement bubbling underneath, I search the ground for the top piece. After several seconds of looking, I find it and pick up the top piece with a similarly eerily smooth cut. I quickly check my RMR and find that I am down to 5 out of a 100. I slowly stand up, letting the larger piece of rock fall to the ground and put the smaller piece of rock, as a memento, into my jeans. I take a sip of water and ready myself to begin walking once again. About half an hour later, my mind still exuberant over its triumph, I come across my first car. Like mine its run off the road, unfortunately, however, this one has ploughed headfirst into a tree. I check the driver''s side, half fearing I''d find a body. However, what I did find could be considered worse. A trail of blood led from the door, around the tree embedded in the front of the car. The trail of blood ended there, pooling at the base of the trunk of the tree. Where the marks of dragging began. I slowly walk away, feeling heavily subdued, my excitement over my achievement forgotten. I keep walking, with a bit more urgency in my stride. With my mind repeating the licence plate of the car over and over again like a mantra. About an hour later I come across my second car. This one on the side of the road, undamaged, empty. Seeing no one around I keep walking. Nearly 2 hours later I made my way into the small town of Tintinara. Walking through the town I see a big building on my right. Hoping to find some answers and hopefully some normalcy, I enter what turns out to be the Tintinara hotel. Several people turn and look at me as I come in. Mostly older men and women. The elderly gentleman behind the bar speaks up as I walk in. "Howdy, haven''t seen you around here before." "Yeah, crashed my car about 20km''s outside of town." "Driving when The Blackout occurred, I''d say you''re lucky to be alive." "I take it the same thing happened here too?" I asked concern tinting my voice. "Yep." Wanting to play my cards close to my chest, for now, I change topics. "Is the kitchen open?" He nods and hands me a menu. I spend several minutes immersing myself in the familiar and normal act of browsing the menu. Trying to forget about the last day and behave as if nothing has changed. Most likely the same thing as the other patrons. I look up and catch the bar man''s eye. I ask for the chicken parmigiana. After ordering and paying, I ask. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version."Is electricity working here?" "Nope, anything fancy just plain doesn''t work." Pondering that, I think of everything that I have learnt so far. One, it appears anything sufficiently technological, no longer functions. Two, the writing that has appeared, has several times mentioned nano-bots. The only conclusion I can draw from that, as strange as it seems, is that some type of advanced technology is actively stopping other types of technology from functioning, as crazy as that sounds. I mean there could be another explanation. But right now without any other type of information that''s the most logical conclusion I can come to. Another factor supporting this is the fact that I have somehow recovered from a car crash in hours. Not to mention my new rock slicing abilities. But more thinking about this is pointless. For now I have to decide what my immediate goals are. One, supplies. Two, reach Adelaide and find my sister. Three, survive three months. Simple, well at least in theory. First things first, it should be roughly 200 kilometres to Adelaide. I''ll need water, food, camping supplies and some way to defend myself. Right now, unfortunately, I only have about 100 or so my wallet. Probably not enough to buy everything I need. On my way into the hotel I remember I passed a general store next door. Hopefully they will have what I need. I sit in silence for 10 or so minutes and look up as the barman places my parmigiana on the table. "Thanks," I say. The barman nods and walks back to the bar. 20 minutes later, I finish the slow savouring of my parmigiana. I get up and nod my thanks, then walk outside in the direction of the general store. As I enter a bell chimes. Good afternoon, a voice calls out, as I make my way inside the store. I respond in kind, and make my way through the store looking for what I need. 15 minutes later I make my way to the front of the store, holding an old school canvas rucksack like bag. Inside of which, I have 10 of the cheapest food tins, a five-litre bottle of water and a couple of cheap protein bars. I unload the bag in front of the tough middle-aged looking lady behind the counter. Under and on the glass counter, there is an assortment of items. I ask for a cheap lighter and a decent but cheap pocketknife. The lady pulls them out and gives me a total of $88.50. Paying and thanking her, I put my purchases, along with my four-way tyre-iron and original bottle of water, into the bag. Putting the bag on my shoulders and holding the larger bottle of water, I make my way out of the store. I make my way back past the hotel and continue through the town. As I reach the outskirts of the town, I feel a strange sensation as if I''m being watched. I look around and on my right, I see a large tree, on and around which are about five cats. As I walk past, their eyes continue to track me. The largest one, sitting on a branch about a metre off the ground, jumps down and slowly starts walking towards me. The others seeing this stand up and spread out and come towards me at different angles. The hair stands up on the back of my neck, I slowly take my backpack off while continuing to walk. I unfasten the flap of my backpack and pull out my tyre-iron and re-fasten the flap. I put the backpack and bottle of water on the road, then stop and turn around holding the tyre-iron. As I turn and face them, the cats seem to take that as a signal and run towards me. The largest cat reaches me first, as it jumped up, I take a swing and hit it in the side missing its head. It flies off to the side, but I have no time to pay any attention to it as another cat makes a jump for my side. I catch it on my backswing and it hits the ground at my feet. Without a second thought, I stomp down on its head. I feel a weight and then a sudden pain, on my upper right arm. Reaching over with my left hand I pull off the cat and throw it at my feet, then repeat my previous move. A sudden weight and pain on my back, leaves me panicking, I reach up past my lower back with my left hand and pull the hissing and spitting cat off of my back, swinging it around and throwing it on the ground. Before I can stomp on its head, the leader comes back into the fight. It jumps and runs up my leg, still eerily silent, before I can react. Scaling its way up my body leaving scratches. I manage to catch it as it reaches my face, pulling it off, one claw leaves a bloody trail along my right cheek. I throw it on the ground and stomp on it several times in anger and fear. The fourth cat having recovered from where I threw it, starts to attack my leg. I kick at it and as it gets pushed back I swing at it with my tyre iron connecting with its head. I wildly swing around looking for more cats and collapse panting when I see no more. After several minutes my heart rate slows and I acknowledge the pressure at the corner of my mind.
Enemies defeated 3 x cat 1200 exp, based on difficulty 1 x size mutated cat 500 exp based on difficulty
I shakily stand up and look around at the fallen cats seeing the aftermath in a way that was impossible, with the dingo I killed in the middle of the night. I feel glad to be alive and sad that it came to this. I spend several more minutes catching my breath and then take stock of myself. I have several long scratches on my right arm, a fairly nasty one on my left, that I don''t even remember getting. Lifting up my shirt I have dozens of small scratches over my torso and the feeling of several more across my back. Examining my legs I have half a dozen small punctures and finally a decent bite near my wrist. Actually, I''m fairly surprised, that I wasn''t bitten more. After finishing my wound assessment, I take the smaller bottle out of my backpack and have a drink. I put my water away and hoist the backpack up and wince as I place it against my sore back. I sure hope these wounds don''t become infected. I pick up the larger bottle and start walking along the road again. What is making these animals so aggressive? Is it in regards to the first message I recieved, something about a war program? And what about that size mutated cat notification. I mean, it was nearly double the size of the other cats. How did it happen? If anything, it''s probably similar to how I got my first rank-up. The more concerning thing is it has only been a day since The Blackout. If an animal has already been mutated, what will it be like in a week, or a month? Pessimistically, if there hasn''t been a lot of deaths already, there will be. And what would it be like in big cities, with the massively increased number of pets and pests, on the loose with no compunctions about attacking humans. Trying to shake the morbid thoughts from my mind, I continue walking and trying to cast my senses out from my body. Endeavouring to connect with the nano-bots. After an hour or so I start recognising some differences in the amount of presence I feel in an object. With objects like trees and rabbits, that I see off in the distance (God, I hope they don''t grow horns), the presence is thicker than in things like stone and metal. Where the presence feels more diffuse. I quickly glance at my RMR and notice that it''s gone up to 25. It''s been about 5 hours and it''s only gone up 20. At this rate, it would take a whole day to completely refill. After this discovery, I try to distract myself by peering at my wounds, that had by now stopped hurting. To only quickly become shocked at the fact that, apart from the blood and the dirt, I was completely healed. But my shock, quickly lead to surprise that I was even shocked in the first place. I mean, just yesterday I was healed from broken bones, after all what are a couple of scratches compared to that. Roughly 5 hours later, after passing another three cars, one that had crashed into a tree, with the other two being luckier, only having rolled to a stop while still on the road, with the sun starting to disappear behind the horizon, I make my way into the next town. I find myself walking into a small motel, I walk towards an aluminium style building with a plastic sign saying office on the door. I try to open the door, but it''s locked. I walk around stretching out my senses trying to detect a certain nano-bot presence that might indicate life. After determining, to the best of my ability that no one is here. I decide to try the windows around the office building. Walking back to the office, I pull on the windows and get lucky on a window around the back that seems to lead into an actual office. After climbing through I close the window and start searching for the keys to the cabins. I find the key to cabin one, walk to the front of the building, unlocking and closing the door behind me. I make my way to cabin one opening and closing the door behind me. Looking around the nearly completely dark room, I see a pretty standard motel setup, containing a relatively old TV, a double bed and a bathroom. I walk over to the bed and take off my backpack and put down my roughly half-full bottle of water. While a trickle of light is still coming in through the windows, I make my way to the bathroom and pick up the towel that I find there. Returning to the bedroom, where the light is a little better, I thoroughly wet the towel, using up nearly a third of my remaining water. I take off my clothes and wash myself to the best of my ability. Quickly staining the towel red and brown, with blood and dirt. After I finished washing myself to the best of my ability and feeling slightly refreshed, I realise for the first time, that I have nothing else to change into. Walking into the bathroom, I fumble around in the dark, searching to find the bathrobe that I remember seeing in there. I put on the bathrobe, then walk to my backpack and take out a tin of food. I open up the tin and eat the contents, filling up the hole my hunger seems to make of my middle. I make my way around the room making sure all the windows and doors are closed and locked. I stretch out my new sense and try to get a feel of the environment, nothing seems to pop out at me. Satisfied with myself and feeling slightly safer than before, I lay down and go to sleep. Make sharp, get sharp As the sun shines through the curtains, lightening the room, I wake up. I peer around the unfamiliar room, as the last two days flash through my mind. Groaning, I get out of bed. I go to the toilet, do my business and flush. As the water cleans the toilet bowl, I realise I could have used the water in the toilet cistern to wash myself, instead of wasting half of my drinking water. Shaking my head, I go back to the bedroom. After finishing my breakfast, another can of food. And emptying the remainder of the big bottle of water, into my smaller more portable one. I get dressed once again, into my increasingly dirty, ripped and bloodstained clothes. I pack everything into my bag and leave the room. Exiting out of the motel, I continue walking through the town, with the intention of finding the general store, to hopefully stock up on some more water. The small town is peaceful, birds singing, sun shining down. The day, hot, but with a light breeze keeping it pleasant. After finding the general store, I go to walk inside only to find it looks like a disaster area. The front door a mess of broken glass and blood. The shelves inside the store in disarray, either completely pushed over or with items knocked onto the ground. Cautiously stepping into the store, I go to follow the trail of blood, only to stop myself and take off my backpack, to take out my tyre iron. Now ready, with unwieldy tyre iron in hand, I follow the trail of blood. The trail of blood stops behind the counter, at the end of which is a sight I wish I could unsee. I see large bloody paw prints leading away from the mangled body, into the back of the shop, probably a storage area of some sort. Not wanting to chance the possibility of coming upon an animal with paws that big, I come out from behind the counter and quietly search the shop for supplies. I take several of the more expensive cans of food, a whole box of protein bars and some chocolate, because although it might be the end of the world, I can''t say no to chocolate, along with a 10-litre bottle of water. I turn to leave and catch sight of the counter again and notice that under the countertop is a selection of knives, like the last store, including a massive hunting knife. Making up my mind, I make my way back to the other side of the counter and reach in and grab the knife. I admire it for several seconds and then notice a convenient sheath sitting next to it. After securing my new ''purchase'' to my belt, I exit the store with backpack on back, knife on belt and 10-litre bottle in hand. Feeling like an apocalypse movie cliche, I start once again walking down the road. After barely travelling a hundred meters down the road, my new nano-bot sense feels several high density areas to my right. Turning my head I am met with two border-collies and the largest pitbull I have ever seen. They are about 10 meters away and laying down. I don''t think they have seen me yet, so I keep walking as silently as I can, I don''t relax until I am outside their light of sight and a couple of hundred meters down the road. My heart is still pumping like crazy, no way am I ready to face something like that yet. Sure I could handle a couple of housecats, but a pitbull that probably weighs more than me, well, that would probably be too much. That was also most likely the animal that did in the body in the shop as well. And if my theory is correct, the more those dogs kill, the more mutated they will become. And I haven''t seen anyone alive in this town. More cautious than I have been since this whole adventure began, I continue walking. Carefully stretching out my sense as far as I can, about 20 metres, I try to match what I feel, to what I see. Once again nearing the outskirts of town, I see a pack of cats. What is it with the outskirts of towns and cats? Unfortunately, I don''t believe there is any real way, that they will not see me. Taking my brand new hunting knife out of its sheath, I begin to walk closer. Like a repeat of yesterday, as I am about to pass, the cats spread out to try and surround me. I once again put down my water bottle and backpack. Reaching into my backpack I take out my tyre-iron and hold it in my left hand, knife in my right, and wait. Senses stretched out I feel a cat slightly to my left pounce. I bring my knife around and practically slice it in half sideways. I turn back in time to watch a cat leaping towards my face. I get my knife up in time to catch it in the belly, claws once again raking my face. I hit it awkwardly in the head with the tyre-iron, it drops to the ground and doesn''t get up, entrails spilling out of its belly and stomach acid fouling up the air. The third cat having finished circling behind me, launches itself for my back. Claws digging into my flesh, mouth biting the back of my neck. I let out a scream and drop my tyre-iron and reach under up with my left hand, grabbing the cat and throwing it on the ground, pinning it in place with my knife. And stomping on its head sharply with my foot. What the hell is with these damn cats and going for my back like that, almost like they want to kill me. Shaking my head in disgust at my terrible humour. My neck flares up in pain as I aggravate the bite on the side of my head. Luckily, the cat didn''t sever my carotid artery or anything. I don''t know if the nano-bots would be able to fix it in time. Hopefully, I''ll never have to find out. Enemies defeated 3 x cat 1050 exp, based on difficulty Hmm, so a slight decrease in experience gain. Well, I suppose that with a knife, it was slightly easier. It is slightly concerning that as I gain in proficiency, I will gain less experience though. Not much of a problem now, but definitely food for thought in the future. Wiping off my knife, on the grass beside the road, I re-sheathe it. I stow my tyre-iron in my bag. Then pick up my bottle of water and with a look of pity at the cats, I once again start walking. Finally making my way out of town, I settle into a hopefully uneventful trek to the next town. As I keep walking ever onwards, each minute blending into the next, I continuously practice stretching out my new nano sense. After an hour, I realise that my RMR must be full and after a quick check, I grab a stick to confirm a theory. I familiarise myself with the stick, using my new sensitivity to the density of nano-bot presence. After that I focus, like before, on the image I want and push it onto the stick. Instantly the sticks top 3cms gets sliced off. Feeling the new top of the stick, and its incredible smoothness, I feel a faint satisfaction. Already feeling pretty confident, having experienced no blackout or loss of motor control, I check my RMR.
Rank 1: Recruit 2950/100,000exp General Statistics Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Agility: 9 Intelligence: 10 RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 70/100
So, merely changing the medium adjusted the amount used so much. What would happen with a more specific image? Would that increase the cost? I wonder if it also has to do with the surface area? And what other things could I do with it that I haven''t even thought of yet? I have one more thing I want to try, just have to find the right stick. About 2 hours later, and with my RMR just about to hit 80, I found a long, straight and dense branch. Stopping I focus on my mental image of a spear. Long and straight roughly my own height, culminating in a sharp point. Not knowing if it was silly or not, I focused on the tip of the spear imagining how the atoms would be pushed closer together becoming denser. Finally focusing on how the very tip would extremely sharp. Trying to give the image weight in my mind. I don''t know how long I spent concentrating and refining the image, but it was definitely the most I have ever concentrated on a mental image before. With my image ready and feeling a slight trepidation, I push my image onto the 3m long branch. When I come to and the foggy thickness in my mind abates somewhat, I notice the sun has moved a fair bit and it looks to be about 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Cursing I pull up my status.
Rank 1: Recruit 3950/100,000exp General Statistics Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Agility: 9 Intelligence: 10 RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 0/100
I notice I have an extra 1000 experience and for some reason, even though I have been out for several hours my RMR is still 0. Hmm, I close down the window and feel an increasingly familiar pressure at the edges of my mind.
Weapon Creation Spear x 1 A common spear, extra attention has been taken on the tip making it more durable and sharper than normal wood would normally allow. For using the RMR System to create a simplistic item: 200 exp For using the RMR System to change a materials basic composition: 300 exp For use of more accurate imagery: 500 exp
Ok, well that explains the extra experience, but not my RMR, hopefully it''s not permanent. I get up from the ground, having been too preoccupied with my stats to even think about getting up. Damn, that still feels weird to think. After taking a couple of seconds to right myself, I look around and it suddenly occurs to me, that with how aggressive the animals are, I''m pretty lucky I wasn''t discovered. I look over at the branch and it still looks the same, a little concerned I examine it closely and notice that at base of the raggedly broken off branch is a perfectly smooth circle. I laugh out loud as I realise the spear is still inside the branch. It takes me a couple of minutes to pick up the branch and get it in the right position so that the end slides out a bit and I am able to grab it with my fingers after that I can pull it out the rest of the way. After I hold my spear aloft and shout out in triumph, I spend several minutes admiring it and being glad that I only made the tip a point, rather than a blade. It''s exactly as I imaged, well everything except the tip. The tip looks amazing it''s darker than the rest of the wood but it almost seems to shine in the sun. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Taking out my hunting knife I tap the spear and then the tip curiously. It even sounds different almost like striking rock or metal. I lightly touch my finger to the tip and immediately pull it away, blood pooling at the tip of my finger. Shit feels sharper than any knife I have ever owned, but just to be sure, I touch the tip of my finger to the hunting knife. Yep definitely sharper. Buoyed by my success, but worried about my RMR and the loss of time I quickly start moving again. Walking faster than before, trying to make up for the lost time. After nearly 4 hours of walking, with nothing to break the monotony, except some cars in various states of destruction and some small animals sensed in the distance, I arrive at another small town, the sun setting behind me casting everything in long shadows. I make my way past the outskirts, thankfully not seeing any cats. I decide to see if I can find a place to stay the night. I look around, but I unfortunately can''t find a motel or any place to stay. After several minutes of dithering trying to get over my reluctance to knock on a strangers door, I walk up to the house I had been standing out front of. I knock quietly at first but after several minutes of no answer I knock louder. Still no answer. With the sunlight fading I decide against moving to another house and start peering through the windows to see if I can see anyone home. I walk my way around the house but see no-one inside. With a quick prayer hoping this doesn''t become a regular thing I start testing the doors and windows. Luckily, the kitchen window was unlocked. I open it and call out. No answer. Finally remembering my new sense I stretch it out and decide that there is something strange about the house. Against my better judgement, I make my way inside, closing the window behind me. I slowly and methodologically search the house, I notice a few cat toys, but no cat. I open and enter the second larger bedroom, the area that I sense something is off with. As I walk into the room, I see the problem. A body. I start to back out of the room. But I suddenly think, all the doors and windows were closed and this is the last room. So where is the cat? On edge, I slowly kneel and look under the bed. Nothing. I slowly make my way to the body. He is laying on the edge of the bed feet dangling off. Not looking that bad. He had a few scratches on his body but nothing deadly looking. As I reach his side I see his neck clearer in the dying light. The carotid artery appears to have been opened by a claw. If the cat did this, where is it? Looking around I see a blood trail leading to the window. Looks like he opened the window and shut it while bleeding. I think chances are good, that when the cat went haywire, he picked it up and threw it outside. Only to be nicked in the carotid. Feeling safer I walk out of the bedroom and head to the kitchen. I have a sip of water and open up a can of food. As I am throwing my can in the bin, I feel something enter the range of my nano-sense. I tense up and focus on it. It feels quite large, maybe about my size or a bit bigger. I turn in the direction I feel it and look through the kitchen window and see a large dog meeting my eye, in the glow of dusk. It''s about 20 meters, looking like it just jumped the back fence. It slowly starts to pad across the lawn towards me. My mind starts to race. I put on my backpack incase I need to run. Then pick up my spear. I decide the dog will most likely jump straight through the window. So, if I can meet it as it comes down off of the counter with my spear, I just might be able to end it quickly. But contrary to my expectations, it only looks at me through the window and starts circling around the house. I start to feel a little relieved, when I hear a window break. Shit! I quickly close the door to the kitchen and a second later it nearly breaks in two as the dog hits it head first and its head comes through. I stab with my spear manage to catch it in the eye. It pulls its head back growling and barking angrily. I start with growing dread, as I feel another presence enter my sense. The dog hits the door again and I think that one more hit will see it inside. Suddenly, I hear two sharp retorts that fill the air and a body hit the ground. A second later a voice calls out, "Hello in there, you alright?". "Yeah, thanks for that.", I call back. I make my way to the door and say I''m coming out. As I step outside of the kitchen I see a man a couple of meters away. He is about my height with short dark hair and fairly solid build. A smile on his face and a rifle held loosely by his side. "Hey, I''m Dale. Thanks for the save." "Jim. No problems. I saw you enter town not too long ago, figured I''d come and say hi." "Not a moment too soon", I laugh. Jims'' smile widens briefly and after a short pause says, "There is a group of 5 of us, who have decided to band together for safety. If you''d like to come back with me, you''re welcome to, even if it''s just for the night." "Thanks man, I think I will." I notice him looking at my spear a couple of times before he asks, "I take it, you made that?" I pause for several seconds before deciding that I feel like there is something trustworthy about this guy. "Yeah, RMR is amazing." "Thought so. I got it yesterday. Haven''t done anything with it yet though." "Well, I can give you a of couple tips, if you''re interested?" "Sounds good. But let''s get back to safety first." I nod and go pick up my water bottle. We head outside and walk about 50 meters down the street to a mostly boarded-up house. Jim walks up to the door and taps out a rhythm and without waiting for anything to happen, proceeds to open it. He looks back and notices my questioning look. "Knocks just to let them know not to worry about the door opening." I nod in understanding and we make our way inside. After he closes the door, we walk down a short hall into a candlelit loungeroom. "Everyone, this is Dale, the one I saw enter town earlier." After a smattering of greetings, he continues, "Dale, this is Mary," pointing to a short middle aged woman, who waves, "Mary''s husband Jared", indicating towards a tall skinny fellow sitting beside Mary. "And this is Anna and Ben.", nodding towards an elderly couple sitting on a couple of armchairs. "This house is theirs" I turn to look at Ben and Anna, "I hope you don''t mind me staying here tonight?" Anna replies, "Don''t worry about it young man.", giving me a smile. "Have you already eaten?" "Yes, just ate a couple of minutes ago thanks." "What brings you out this way?" "I was on my way to Adelaide to meet my sister when this whole Blackout thing happened." "Well, I hope your sister is alright.", she says, giving me a small smile. We spent a while with a bit of small talk, then I tell Jim about my experiences with the RMR while giving him a look at my spear. He comments on the tip, after cutting himself like I did. I told him my hypothesis'' about how I had literally changed the composition of the wood, by imagining the image of the atoms becoming packed tighter together. Jim then asks me if I noticed that you can trade in experience to increase your stats. I say I haven''t before he clarifies, that you have to focus more specifically on the stats and try to expand it before the option comes up. I pull up my stats and decide to give it a try and a new screen pops up.
Strength: Legs 11 + Core 11 + Chest 11 + Shoulders 11 + Biceps 11 + Triceps 11 + Average strength 11
Dexterity: Dodge 9 + Strike 13 + Average dexterity 11
Agility: Flexibility 8 + Reaction time 10 + Average agility 9
Intelligence: Current Intelligence 10 +
Experience Available: 3950 Confirm changes: yes/no
I focus on adding a point to intelligence. As I add the point, the amount of experience available gets reduced by 100. I add another and it gets reduced by 200, the third one reduces the amount by 400. Ok, each point increased double the amount, what if I add onto another stat. I add one onto chest and the amount only decreases by 100. Ok time for the final test, I add one to legs, yes, only 100. Cancelling the changes I have made so far I spend a bit of time thinking about it. The safe bet is if I put everything up by one since it''ll only cost 1100, leaving me 2850. But what will be most useful. Well if I can react faster, that will definitely help. Would increasing intelligence help with that as well? I don''t see why not, plus who doesn''t what to be smarter. I know I should probably think a little more about this, but like most times I think I''ll go with my gut. So without further thought, I place three more into Reaction time and Intelligence. Looking at the amount of experience I have left I see I have 50. Well, not enough for anything. Crossing my fingers, I confirm. The screen closes, I wait for several seconds, but nothing happens. I open my status back up.
Rank 1: Recruit 3950/100,000exp Experience spent: 3900/3950 General Statistics Strength: 11 (12) Dexterity: 11 (12) Agility: 9 (11.5) Intelligence: 10 (14) RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 28/100 (All changes will be applied during sleep.)
Ok, well, that explains that then. So, it looks like while I was unconscious I didn''t gain any of my RMR back, but once I woke up it has been re-filling at a normal rate, thankfully. I get up and stretch, asking the others where I can lay my head for the night. Jim gets up and leads me into a bedroom with two single beds and explains I will be bunking with him for the night. I nod my head in acquiescence. Jim looks at me and asks if I have anything to wear. After I say no, he goes to a wardrobe and hands me some clothes to sleep in and a fresh set of clothes for tomorrow. I thank him and he leaves. I get changed and still feeling dirty, but a little better for being in cleaner clothes, I climb into bed. I blow out the candle Jim left for me and close my eyes. Wondering once again how my sister is going, as I drift off to sleep. Let there be War Upon the morning I wake and it feels like a fog has been lifted from my mind. I get up and walk around, my movements feel slightly more fluid and powerful. But I have no way to know if it is real or just a placebo based on what I expect to happen. I grab my bag and look over at Jims'' sleeping form in the single bed across the room and slowly make my way out, trying not to wake him. I find the kitchen, windows boarded up like the rest of the house, but with sunlight still making its way through the cracks and illuminating the room. I sit at an old fashioned, well cared for, wooden table. I take out one of my tins of food and notice I have ten cans of food left and 10 or so protein bars that I have been snacking on during the days. And hidden in a compartment, my chocolate, that I''m saving for a special occasion. I finish off my food and throw it in the bin, that is on the right side of the kitchen door, with an inoperable fridge on the left. Just as I am about to exit, Jim comes walking in. "Morning." Jim greets me. "Morning." "You leaving?" "Yeah." "If you wouldn''t mind the company, I''d like to come with you to Adelaide." I think about it for several moments, and suddenly decide that it might be a little safer travelling in a group. Plus, he seems like a likeable guy. "Yeah sounds good to me. I just need to get changed and then I''m good to go." "Ok, give me half an hour and I''ll be ready." I make my way back to the room and change into the second set of clothes Jim gave me. A pair of blue jeans and a red t-shirt. I put back on my belt and knife. Then start transferring the objects from my old jeans into my backpack. A wallet, set of keys and the first thing I ever cut with my mind, the knob of rock, with its eerily smooth cut. I make my way down to the loungeroom and find the other four members of the group there. As I enter I notice they are finalising what the will be doing for the day. We say good morning and I inform them I will be leaving. They say goodbye and as I start walking towards the door, Jim comes in. I nod to him and let him say his goodbyes and go outside to wait. I sit on the steps of the porch and push out my nano-sense as far as I can. Compared to yesterday everything is crisper, I can sense for fully the shape of an object and not just the density of the nano-bots. I also can reach about ten more meters out so nearly half again of what I could yesterday. So there is some link between intelligence and the RMR. It makes sense that there would be. But it is nice to have some confirmation. About five minutes later I sense Jim and the others coming before I see or hear them. I stand up as the door opens. "Thank you for allowing me to stay last night. If I am ever back this way I''ll try to find some way to repay you." "No need, young man. Stay safe and good luck finding your sister.", Anna replies. And with no further ado, Jim and I leave the property and take a left. We pass a couple of houses I didn''t really notice last night and in the daylight and see some subtle signs of neglect starting to show. A broken window here and there, and a couple of mounds of freshly turned dirt, that although are not signs of neglect are interesting. As we turn onto the main road I turn to Jim. "What''s with the piles of dirt?" "Everyday along with searching for food, if we happen to kill or find a body we bury it.", Jim says somberly. With nothing to say to that, I change subjects, to something that has interested me from the start. "Have you noticed how when we kill something it awards us experienced based on difficulty?" "Yeah, what about it?" "Well, I was wondering how much experience do you get when killing with a gun?" "That dog last night was the most I ever got at 250exp, it was also mutated with size and strength. But everything else from between 100 and 200." "Damn, that''s a massive difference. The first animal I killed, a dingo, gave me 700. It surprisingly didn''t even manage to hurt me, but my body was completely exhausted afterwards." Jim stops walking and looks at me. "Do you mind if we backtrack a little bit. I want to get myself a knife. Shouldn''t take more than 20 minutes." "Yeah, sure, no problems" I continue to tell Jim that using a knife reduced the experience a bit, but it is not all that noticeable. About an hour, later roughly 30 meters from a massive rock beside the road, I suddenly stop. "What''s up?", Jim asks. "Massive presence on the rock coming up" Jim gives me a questioning look. "One of the things you can do with the RMR System. You can detect the density and shape of nano-bot clusters. Well at least I can now, it started as a very vague sense of presence everywhere." "Definitely have to learn that." "What do you think?" "How about cross the road and if it tries to go for us, try to impale it with your spear before it can close the distance." "Sounds good." We casually cross the road and continue walking. As we reach boulder I still cannot see anything, however, I can still feel it. Nothing happens as we pass the boulder, but once it is about ten metres behind us, I feel the presence move. "I just felt it move, keep walking, but get your knife ready, it hasn''t left the rock yet." About ten steps later, I sense it rapidly dart forward, incredibly fast. I start turning around while lowering my spear and shout out, "NOW!.". I get my spear down in time but misjudge where it is and only manage to pierce it in the side and rip out a shallow gash. I dive to the side and manage to nearly miss the claws of the massive 2-metre perentie (a type of monitor lizard). As I finish my roll and get back up, side bleeding, I am just in time to see Jim, jump to the side and score a deep slash on the opposite side of the perentie. I throw my spear at it and hit the tail ( I was aiming for the chest). Although it does have the benefit of briefly distracting it. It twists in upon itself and bites down on the spear. Jim runs up to it the lizard having past us during its attack. Jim slashes at its face and the perentie swings its body around tail and spear hitting the back of Jims'' legs, as it unbends itself. Jim crashes down, winded. The lizard jumps upon him, forelegs hitting his upper arms and sinking in. Jim tries to cry out, but only lets out a croak, having no air to be able to release. Full of adrenalin, I pull out my knife and everything seems to slow down. My muscles struggle to keep up with the signals firing from my brain. I jump on its back, bringing my knife down onto its back. I saw it back and forth trying to cut the spinal cord. The lizard lets out a roar while swinging its head around, in an amazing display of agility. Its mouth closes around my forearm, it''s wicked backwards curving teeth gouging out the flesh of my arm. My left hand falls limp as the teeth cut through the tendons, with dull snapping sounds. Just then the body collapses hind legs giving out at the spinal cord is cut. I withdraw the knife and plunge it towards the head. The knife hits the back of the skull, sinking in but then skidding off of the skull before going deeper as it reaches the top of the neck. I twist the knife trying to cause as much damage as possible, all the while screaming wildly in anger and pain. Seconds later the perentie goes limp. I jump off, arm bleeding profusely and try to roll the enormous lizard off of Jim. Jim having managed to catch his breath enough to move, awkwardly pulls himself from underneath the lizard. We sit there puffing for several minutes before Jim speaks fatalistically. "Well, I think this might be it for me. I will probably bleed out before too long." I look at him and shake my head. "I might not look it but when I came through on the first day I have several broken bones and was pretty injured from the crash. But I received a message about undergoing accelerated healing or repair or something and several hours later I was right as rain and thirsty as a desert. Why don''t you try to have a look at your messages?" Jim looks at me blankly for several seconds, before it looks like he is concentrating on something. Suddenly he starts laughing, tears coming to his eyes. "Says it will take about 4 hours and use my water and fat reserves." "Yep, that''s the one." "Okay, I''ll see you in several hours then." Before I can reply, his eyes close and his body falls limp. Shaking my head internally at his enthusiasm, but completely understanding it at the same time, I acknowledge my own messages.
Enemies dead 1x Perentie - Mutated (strength, camouflage) 1200exp, based on difficulty
Damage has been detected, torn ligaments and tendons in the left arm and scratches across the torso. As it appears you are not currently in battle do you wish accelerated repair? Yes/no
Not wanting to leave us defenseless, I say no. Plus with how my cuts healed the other day, I''m pretty sure they will heal relatively fast anyway. With several hours to kill, I make my way over to the lizard and retrieve it from the tail. It is a little bloody but otherwise undamaged. Now that the heat of the moment has worn off I start remembering some more details. Like how the lizard was rapidly changing colour as it hit the road. Even now that the lizard is dead the skin is still somehow changing to mimic the road more completely. I want that skin, however, I don''t really have any idea how to go about it. I decide to wait until Jim wakes up hopefully he has some experience with skinning animals. With nothing else to do, I sit and have a couple of protein bars and some water, stretching out my senses. Trying my hardest to make the images of my nano-sense sharper. And time steadily crawled by, hot sun beating down upon my neck. Over the hours I constantly checked on Jim, amazed at the rate he was healing. Wounds closing up before my eyes. To my nano-sense, it seemed like he was vibrating or something. As suddenly as Jim went to sleep he woke up. Jim''s eyes opened and wordlessly I hand him his water. He nodded and started gulping down water. After finishing off half the bottle he stops and starts touching his arms where the claws punctured. Several seconds later, he starts laughing. He looks over at me and notices my still existing, but slightly diminished injures. "Sorry ''bout that." I give him a slightly confused look. "Well, I should have talked about it before just accepting like that." "No, don''t worry about it. You were clearly more injured." "Ok, thanks. So your turn yeah?" "Nah, already decline. Almost quarter of the way healed anyway. But I do have one thing to ask though." "Yeah, what''s that?" I tell him about the perentie skin and how it continued to change colours even after death. He seemed to understand what I was driving at straight-away and before I had even asked he pulled out his knife and got to work. "So, I take it you''ve done this before?" "To a massive lizard? No. But to a couple of kangaroos, yeah. Which reminds me, where the hell are they?" "What do you mean?" "Well, normally kangaroos are pretty thick around here. Yet I haven''t even seen any in the distance. Have you?" "No." About an hour later, Jim finished skinning and scraping the perentie skin. He then started to roll it up, but I quickly stop him wanting to test something. I wrap the skin around my body and immediately start questioning my decision as it is still wet and lizard juices start soaking into my clothes and wetting my skin. But since it is already on I steel my resolve and walk over to the boulder the lizard came from and lean against it. Seconds later I hear Jim. "Damn, that''s trippy. You kind of look like a floating head." Feeling inwardly elated I take off the skin. "How is this even possible." Jim asks. "Well if I had to guess, it probably is possible because of the camouflage mutation." Jim furrows his brows in thought and then nods. I put the perentie skin in my backpack, which I then put on. I pick up my spear and go to pick up my water bottle. But my left hand refused to close properly around it, pain flaring and causing me to grunt. Jim silently comes up beside me and picks it up. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version."Thanks." "Don''t mention it." We start walking again in silence, my arm wrapped in pain as it heals. I start pushing out my nano-sense again, when Jim suddenly breaks the silence. "Do you think you could give me a couple of tips with the RMR system?" "Yeah, sure. Well, the first thing I did was try to sense the world but that didn''t really get much response. The next thing I did was, this." I pause for a second, as I take off my backpack and rummage around. Finding the rock I pull it out and pass it to Jim. He looks curiously at the rock as I explain what I did. He hands it back and picks up a rock. "I wouldn''t do that if I was you." "Why?" "Well, it used up all of my RMR and I nearly passed out. Can you sense how little density the nano-bots have in the rock?" He shakes his head. I pass him my spear and ask him to concentrate on the spear and the rock like you are trying to reach out with your mind. I let him focus and continue my own training. I already know that I changed the structure of the tip of my spear. But, how much further can I take it? Could I change something into gold? Probably but how much of my RMR will that take? Could I make my clothes stronger? The more I think about it, the more excited I become. It honestly feels practically limitless. But for now, I want to try something a little different. I pick up a small stick and concentrate. It comes to me immediately how much clearer my understanding of a singular object is and when I visualise what I want the image is so sharp it feels like I projected it. I grab both ends of the stick and bend it. As I bend it, I focus on the stick and push out the feeling of the rightness of the new shape and imagine that when I let go the shape will stay the same. I let go of the stick and rejoice internally as the stick stays shaped like a U. I quickly look at my RMR and notice that it took roughly 2 RMR. Why does it cost so much to cut something? Ok, next experiment, I grab another short stick and again shape it into a U. Checking my RMR usage I see it has stayed the same. Next, I hold the two U''s together and concentrate on the image of the two pieces of wood being joined together. I push and the two pieces of wood sink into each other. I laugh out loud and have a look at my RMR expenditure and curse. Just joining the two small pieces of wood together took 36 of my RMR. I don''t know why but I kind of feel this is related to why things are so expensive to cut too. I stop studying the newly formed oval and stretch out my senses again, unfortunately, I don''t know how to do both things at the same time. I look over at Jim and notice he is looking at me, he speaks when he catches my eye. "Mind if I see that?" Pointing at my stick. "Sure." I throw it over. "Impressive." "Maybe, but it took nearly half of my RMR. So have you been able to sense the concentration of nano-bots in the wood and rock?" "I think so. In the rock it seems to mostly be around the surface, but with the wood it''s everywhere." "Yeah, pretty much. So my current theory is that since their are more nano-bots they have to expend less energy or what ever they take from us, since they don''t have to move as far." We continue talking about images and then Jim sees a large tree stump and decides he wants to try to make a shield. "Remember to try and make it so it is easy to remove. I made my spear in the middle of a branch." "Alright." Knowing he will probably be a while I sit down and I decide to see if I can slowly increase the density of my spear slightly. I construct a mental image of my spear, once again being surprised with how clear it feels. Then I imagine compressing the diametre of the spear by a millimetre. Once I have the image clear in my head, I push it onto the spear. My vision fades to black and I collapse bonelessly to the ground. Seconds later I open my eyes and stand up. Like the first two times I blacked out from overuse of my RMR, my mind feels like its pushing through syrup, just a little less viscous this time. Jim is looking at me in concern. I briefly tell him what happened and then look at my RMR and see I used 60 bringing me down to precisely 0. "Does that always happen?" Jim asks in concern. "No, only when you get close to zero." "What did you do?" "Increased the density of my entire spear by a fraction." "How much did that use?" "60." "Shit! Noted, well I won''t be doing that then." I raise my eyebrow. "I thought it would be cool to have an ultra thin heavy-duty shield." Half an hour later we start walking again, Jim with his new shield in hand and 93 RMR lighter and me with my slightly denser spear. With nothing really to say we keep quiet thinking our own thoughts. A couple hours later, about half an hour before we will arrive at the next town, according to Jim, a message appears before me. And I am not sure if I like how this sounds at all.
***War Zone has been entered***
I turn to look at Jim. "I take you got that too right?" "War Zone message, yep" "What do you think it means?" "Don''t know" "Well let''s be ready for anything then." Jim grunts in reply and takes out his knife. We keep walking and see a cloud of dust off the right side of the road. It seems to be coming closer. Several minutes later, we see the strangest sight I have ever seen. Hundreds upon hundreds of red kangaroos fighting. Punching each other and every once in awhile standing on their tails and lashing out with their hind legs. Walking and observing I see about 5 massive red kangaroos towering over the rest. Red kangaroos can grow to about 2 metres tall, so these behemoths must be around 3 metres tall. Everywhere they went they quickly created a path of death. As the kangaroos came alongside us, a couple kangaroos caught sight of us and came bounding over. As the two kangaroos came to a stop, about 5 metres from us and each other, they didn''t look too big maybe 4ft tall. But then they straighten and suddenly seem to gain another 2ft of height from nowhere. I swallow heavily then push down my fear and focus. As adrenalin rushes through my body, things seemed to slow down. A reckless plan pops into my head and without a second thought, I utilise it. I charge the kangaroo closest to me, with my spear held in one hand, balanced over my shoulder. When I am about 2 metres from the kangaroo it rears up on its tail, ready to pummel me with its rear legs. I stop as suddenly as I can trying to push all the force into my spear, as I launch it towards its chest. My aim is true, it hits in the upper chest slightly to the right. The spear practically disappeared inside the kangaroo. It falls to the ground. I take out my knife and continue running. I come up behind it and stab my knife into the back of its neck and cut the spinal cord. The kangaroos weak movements stop and its eyes close. I stand up and see Jim looking at me in shock. I''m panting heavily having just exerted myself to the utmost of my ability in the span of 10 seconds. The other kangaroo having seen my display starts to hop towards me. I reach for my spear and give it a tug, but it barely moves. I hold my knife in my right hand, my left one still feels fairly unresponsive. I get ready to jump to the side. Jim finally broke out of his shock and starts charging with his circular, conical and fairly familiar looking shield. The kangaroo reaches me, with Jim about 2 metres away charging at its side. The kangaroo stands on its tail. I circle around forcing it to drop down and follow me. At that second Jim slams into its back and side at a slight angle and the kangaroo falls forwards and sideways. I waste no time and I jump forward catching it across the neck with my knife. Blood sprays out drenching me. I look up and see Jim crazy smile on his face, stab the kangaroo repeatedly in the back. I take off my backpack and have a drink. My mind slowly calms down and I acknowledge the slight pressure on the edge of my mind with slight anticipation.
Enemies dead 2x Red Kangaroo 1800exp, based on difficulty
I look over at Jim and ask somewhat curious, "Did you get experience for both?" "No, just 800 for one." "So the experience does go down a bit with two people. Because I got 1000 for the one I killed by myself." I go over to the first kangaroo and struggle to take out my spear. I couple of pulls later I manage to wrest it from the corpse. "I think we should get off the road and angle away from the rest of the ''roos." Jim says. "Alright and maybe find the edge of the war zone." We start walking again, going off the left side of the road away from the fighting kangaroos. The sun is pretty much setting right in front of us making it a little hard to see. We soon come to a road and turn right, back towards the kangaroos who are now luckily behind us. We come to an intersection and turn left towards the town. We pass numerous crashed cars, more than I have seen since this whole thing started. As the outskirts of the town appear thankfully minus any cats a welcome message appears.
***Leaving War Zone***
At the edge of my mind, another message appears.
For surviving a War Zone your earned experience has been doubled.
A handful of minutes later, we enter the town proper and come across a couple dozen people walking down the street. It all looks pretty normal, if you don''t pay attention to the assorted weapons they are holding or the way they are searching for something. We suddenly hear the screech and hiss of an angered cat, some shouting and after several minutes, silence. Seems as if they are in the process of clearing the town of the newly wild animals. After walking for a couple more minutes we see a motel and go inside. At the office there is actually someone inside manning the front desk. "Good afternoon, can we get a room for the night?" "Hey, are you two new in town?" "Yeah." The girl behind the desk looked about 30 and seemed to be quiet lively, but it seemed to be powered by a weird mix of nervousness and fear. We spoke for several minutes about where we came from and about the efforts of the town. And eventually managed to get back to the topic of a room for the night. "It''s $150 for the night." I look at Jim and motion that I have no money. Jim digs around in his backpack and pulls out a wallet. "Here you go." Ten minutes later we make it to the room and shut the door. After having a quick dinner, I try to wash myself using a damp towel, then settle back and look at my stats ready to upgrade myself some more.
Strength: Legs 12 + Core 12 + Chest 12 + Shoulders 12 + Biceps 12 + Triceps 12 + Average strength 12
Dexterity: Dodge 10 + Strike 14 + Average dexterity 12
Agility: Flexibility 9 + Reaction time 14 + Average agility 11.5
Intelligence: Current Intelligence 14 +
Experience Available: 4850 Confirm changes: yes/no
I think about it for a bit and I realise that right now I just want to generally improve. I don''t have enough information to think about specialising. Especially since I don''t know enough about how my body reacts to these improvements. I don''t want to focus on one thing only to find out that rapidly improving one thing is detrimental to something else. Honestly, all my stats seem pretty intertwined anyway. I mean how can reaction speed make me faster, if it doesn''t also increase the strength and speed of fast-twitch muscles? There are too many questions to only increase one thing, hoping it will give me something good. With my mind clear, I put 2 into each strength category and 2 into dodge and strike. Bringing my total to 4800. Pausing for a second I mentally hit confirm, then look at my new stats.
Rank 1: Recruit 8750/100,000exp Experience spent: 8700/8750 General Statistics Strength: 11 (14) Dexterity: 11 (14) Agility: 11.5 Intelligence: 14 RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 16/100 (All changes will be applied during sleep.)
Feeling incredibly sleepy I talk to Jim for a little bit and then lay down to go to sleep.