《When Life Gives You Goblins, Perform Live Sacrifices to the Gods!》 Chapter 1: Running from exploding goblins. There were three things that Al cared about. One, was sleep. Two, was books. And three, was games. Everything else? That was to stay alive and comfortable enough to enjoy the first three. A simple enough concept with an even simpler equation for it. Work equals getting money and that equals staying alive and mostly comfortable. That was also why he saw nothing wrong with the blue window now in front of him.
Despair Mortal! Your world has been found by eldritch powers that wish to do things to you and your people and/or world! You''re pretty much screwed. HOWEVER! REJOICE, FOR WE OFFER SALVATION! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join the fight against the invaders! While you may die horribly, but you may also gain things beyond your wildest dreams! Or you could choose not to. Less strain on our resources. No pressure. Have a good day! Y/N 7:23:59
Yep. That was fun to wake up to. Or be woken up by if his alarm clock was right. Yes indeed. So. He had seven days to decide what to do. Seven days for salvation. Inaccurate or not, it had a nice ring to it. Al knew he was distracting himself. He didn''t want to wake up to a pronouncement of basically certain doom. Eldritch horrors? Anyone who''d seen anything with legit eldritch horrors in it knew you couldn''t fight those. The Old Ones were scary. Then again. The fact that it offered at least indicated it was possible. Slightly. Then again again, he could be dreaming. He could just be in a lucid dream - a common occurence - and still sleeping in reality. But it said he had a week. And unless his dream included time skips...no, that was possible. The feeling of his bed underneath him, the blanket around him, and the pounding headache that came from waking up too early? That was...too...real. Rule one of weird possible dreams, Al thought as he sat up in his bed, was ''always act under the assumption that it''s real and dying is bad.'' The red blanket slid off of his pajama-wearing upper body as he stretched and looked around his simple room. It was simple as simple could be. White-washed walls, the simple fake-wood flooring, and the bare bones furniture. Even his bed was just a metal frame with a mattress. Red? Because digcraft beds were like that. Color hardly mattered price-wise anyway. There was animated discussion outside and he could hear constant ping''s from his phone too. With a sinking feeling in his stomach he quickly checked the newest message. ''Did you get a blue box too!?'' Darn. There went the dream theory. For now... Al sighed deeply as he went and did his usual bathroom activities and switched into a blue t-shirt and grey sweatpants. He stared at the window and decided he''d make the selection now rather than put it off. There was only yes and no, and to be honest, if both basically meant dying, then yes meant that he could possibly not die if he didn''t die early. If he picked no and stayed away from fighting - highly unlikely in his mind - he''d live longer but probably still die accidentally anyway. Physically, he tried to touch the window and felt a glassy surface as he pressed on ''Y.''
Welcome to the service mortal! No takebacks now! But before you''re prepped for battle, answer some questions. What do you fear the most? Answer honestly now...we wouldn''t want you to have to learn obedience the hard way, right?Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Oh like that wasn''t ominous at all. Great. Al stared expressionlessly at the window. It was comfortably hovering near his hand now, instead of in his eye like before. He''d just signed up and he was already getting threats. Amazing customer service. Al groaned out loud as he gave up his silent contest with the window and held his face in his hands. He was already regretting this bit of stupidity on his part. But, what did he fear most? And how specific did that have to be? Like. Pain? Or...spiders? Fear of spider blood that caused pain? Well, if pain was an answer... "Pain." The window rippled a bit as it changed.
Invalid answer. Mortal, did you really think that would work? Be more specific. Pain and death will accompany you always. Consider the following: The dark. Bugs. Spam emails. Angry pm''s. Demented ducks. Wererabbits. These are examples of valid responses.
Sounded like something a bad fortune cookie would say. His future sure was looking good! Great, even! ''Breathe that stale, new paint smell! Doesn''t it smell of success!?'' Al snorted to himself as he absently scratched his right hand, where a new mosquito bite now sported. Strange. When had that happened? Ah. Wait. That was it. "Something I can''t kill." If he could kill it, then it was ok. It was what you couldn''t kill - or re-kill - that sucked. Though he wasn''t sure why spam emails was a more valid answer than pa -
Interesting. This sates our curiosity!
O...kay? So. That question was...meaningless?
Silence Mortal! Now then. There is a week before the Invasion begins officially and shields start to fail. Until that time, you may familiarize yourself with the system and do your best to prepare for the end. Purchasing weapons, and supplies, is recommended. While the shield is currently stable, some Incursions will still come through. Try not to die horrifically before the week ends. Good luck! You''ll need it.
Well whoever - or whatever - was writing these responses sure loved to end its messages positively. How comforting. Right, well. Wallowing in self-pity could come later. Information. Al quickly plugged in his phone and booted up his laptop, tapping his finger on it as he waited. Annoyingly, he realized that he needed a haircut too. The long hair was starting to get in the way of his eyes. That, and it made it slightly more effort to wash his hair. Soon enough though, his computer was on and the only posts he saw on Seeit were mostly similar to his own experience. Though, with this, he knew it was global. Some had different...message writers? Whatever those were. The tone was different for some. Some seemed pitying. Others disdainful. Still others were cold, and bare bones. It was strange that the responses were not...standardized. Though there were already plenty of theories about who - or what - was behind this, and whether it was real or not, to be honest, he didn''t believe most of them. Why and how would the government do this? How did that make any sense? Even Martians or aliens in general were a better explanation. Though the messages seemed consistent in referring to them as mortals so he could only assume it was the fantasy one. All of this made no sense, but few seemed willing to just believe it and prepare. Most were saying it was a hoax. Even stranger was that when people tried to select ''no'' it only sometimes worked. For some people the button didn''t even work. For others, it wasn''t even there. There were still people whose no button had worked but, well, he wasn''t particularly interested in picking no when it seemed yes was kind of the option you had to pick. So basically, they had a possibly schizophrenic overseer or many different ones, and he honestly wasn''t sure which seemed better. ''We'' made it feel like the latter though. Also if eldritch powers, plural, existed, weird magical/super sci-fi overlords in the plural was hardly strange. Ah, yes. The power of ignorance. There were things to do and places to be, but buying early groceries at least, didn''t seem too shabby an idea. What could go wrong?
A lot. That was what.
Fighto!
Hah, as if. Nope, he was noping right out of - "BLEGHUGHGEH! WHAT THE FUCK!" Parhaps screaming in the middle of this wasn''t the smartest of ideas, but it had hurt a lot. And, at a second look, everybody else had too. He had blanked out when the pain came though and was currently on the floor as his senses returned. The first thing he saw were toppled grocery items, fallen out of their places on the shelf. The second, was a guy who was slowly getting up beside him in the aisle. The third, was the spear going through the guy''s throat and creating a gout of blood that sprayed the shelf and dropped the man. Then his hearing and smell returned and the screams, shouts, bangs, thuds, and the ululating reached his ears, even as the stench of blood started to overwhelm the normal grocery store smells. He could hear footsteps coming. He could hear that thing cackling with glee, and then starting to run in his direction. He could feel the moistness in his pants that could have come from the pain or the terror, and honestly couldn''t bring himself to care. He was about to die. It had all started when he was just going around, minding his own business and putting some milk bags into his cart, when a bag of milk popped open and the milk packets turned green. Then? Then, freaking green guys popped out as the bags splattered and they with them. That was when he - and most people - freaked out and ran. Being showered in blood and guts wasn''t fun. Then, more and more appeared from the same spot, but this time there were no milk bags for them to explode with and they threw their spears around, stabbing and screeching as they murdered people. Al was having none of that crap and pushed people out of his way as he desperately pushed the cart he had a death grip on. It slowed and stopped whenever he hit someone, but he could have cared less as he ran, gasping for air. He was unfit. He knew that. He was screwed. He also knew that. The blue box said as much.
An Incursion has started! Slay the goblins! 37/50
What about the seven days? The ''prepping?'' Well, at least most of the goblins seemed to have splattered in the cold storage. That was the one positive. The negative was that still left 13 goblins that, apparently, were pretty good at killing people anyway and one was currently running at Al, who had already soiled himself. Fantastic. And not at all something grocery shopping was supposed to involve. But as it ran ever closer, what he felt, aside from terror, was that desire to do something. Not to drop dead, if his random limb spasms meant anything, but to do something. Unfortunately, Al''s scattered mind refused to think straight and productively. As it was though, the goblin ignored him and tore the spear from the dead guy''s neck, his poor retirement age body flopped about as the goblin shook it out of his flesh. Eyes teared, Al did the only thing that came to mind. Grab its foot, in a plea. Yet, the gleeful smile and spear it pointed at him, made him jerk his arm back as he panicked and dropped the goblin. Coming to his feet he stared down at the...goblin, and stomped down hard, yet the blow was practically ignored as it pushed him off and he fell back on his butt. The goblin angrily kii''ed as it rose to its feet, but Al was already running. Only a strangled cry escaped his mouth as he ran, shoving abandoned shopping carts out of the way. Somehow, the only thing that he could think of was... Which idiot said goblins were trash mobs? Chapter 2: Still Alive! Gasping Al finally hit a dead end. Not literally. Even stamina wise, he was fine. Yet, the shopping cart now in his way didn''t budge when he shoved it. It''s wheels were turned the wrong way, and he didn''t have the strength to -
Negative energies have run their course [Terror] status effect lost. New status effect logged.
Oh. OH. Suddenly, Al felt better. All of a sudden...having his pants soiled from that felt...stupid. Not pressing his advantage when the goblin fell? Stupid. Yet, that was exactly what had happened. And if the blue windows were anything to go by...it was because of a status effect. That made more questions though, because did that mean it was artificial and he wasn''t actually terrified, or was the...system (tentative) messing with his head? He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye as the goblin lifted its spear. It was going to throw. Al threw himself to the side and the spear missed him, but hit the bars of the cart and fell to the floor. He grabbed it and then pointed it at the goblin, slowly inching forwards. The screams were getting quieter and while he hoped it was because somehow the goblins were being killed off by others, he doubted it. No, it would be better to assume that it was because everyone had run away or died, and that meant he needed to act now. But what could he do? He''d never even played around properly with a mop before as a kid, spending his time on his dad''s phone instead. Now? Now he was a physically unfit student caught off guard on his break in a situation that he was pretty sure no one else but the others in the store had been in. And were. Swallowing - and shifting uncomfortably as his body chose that moment to make the damp area at his pants aware to him - he thrust the spear at the goblin...and failed pathetically. The goblin easily caught the spear and pulled him forwards, opening its mouth full of sharp, sharp teeth. Despite never having been in a fight before, he''d played more than enough fighting games, and decided to go in with the pull and shoulder check the bastard. He was reluctant to let go of his spear or move his head too close to those teeth for a headbutt. It seemed shorter than him at least - not uncommon at six foot four - and would hopefully be unable to take the hit. As he hit it though, he felt the hard, wiry muscles underneath its flesh and all he managed was pushing it down. Still, now the spear was held with its point towards the goblin, and his body seated on it near the waist. It was harder to maintain a decent grip of the spear from here, because the goblin was now desperately pushing the spear away and letting out loud screeches, answered by more of them from the fresh fruit section near the front. ''Oh crap,'' thought Al as he, now also desperate, strained to turn the spear into its neck and push it in. Slowly but surely, it was pointing the way he wanted, even as the goblin bucked and twisted to try and get out from under him as he placed his weight and leaned hard onto the spear, finally managing to push it into the goblin''s throat. Blood came out, at first slow, and then more, and the goblin''s struggles strengthened instead of weakening, even as his own muscles started to give out. Inevitably though, the goblin died.
You have defeated a new enemy! Common Goblin (F) +50 Kill Points First kill! +100 Kill Points
Well at least that confirmed it was de - Kiiiii Darn. He really needed to stop jinxing himself. A goblin climbed in over the shelf on his right and yet another turned into the aisle from in front of him. He needed to run.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. One was a desperate struggle and two would definitely kill him. This was a supermarket store so they could definitely fit two abreast and that was even without taking into account that there were clearly more. His spear was just a hard wooden stick with a stone point at the end, and he''d barely punctured the goblin''s neck so it slid out easily and then he was running back the way he came, even as he shoved the goblin coming over the shelf in the chest and dropped it back into its aisle. Sure enough, he heard the telltale pattering of its feet as it ran the other way, so that it could come out in front of him, while the other goblin was trying to climb over the cart barricade. An opportunity then. He skid to a stop and his feet slipped a bit as he turned and charged the other goblin. It occured to him that this was probably stupid of him, but this was as good a chance as any, and the goblin that was now quickly righting itself while standing in the cart seemed to agree. It raised its spear and threw it, straight at him! "Hah! Guess you are stupid after all! You''re just -" He turned his body and let the spear fly by - not. The goblin retracted its spear at the last minute and then thrust it hard at his throat. "-Damnit!" He slapped the spear away with one hand, and awkwardly pushed the spear at the goblin with the other. Perhaps due to his charge, it was atleast enough to push the goblin back, making it stumble as its the back of its legs met the side of the shaky cart and then he grabbed its spear and pulled, like the first goblin had. Unlike that time though, the goblin had no space to charge with and so it could only try and resist. The goblins weren''t weak like games had led him to believe, but they were essentially as strong as a normal human. Probably. He didn''t know how strong a normal person was, the goblin''s resistance failed and it fell forward, choking itself a bit as its chest met the rim of the cart. Then he moved his arms over and placed his elbows over its head, pushing down, if he could hold it do - Snap Ah. The goblin sagged and Al slipped, hitting his head against the green body''s back. There was no box this time, yet, he was certain that this one was also...dead now. Because of him. He wasn''t sure how he felt about that, but the other gobin was coming from the other side already. Introspection and psychoanalysis could wait. Swallowing - again? Al realized he was doing that a lot - and then charged the goblin coming the other way. It wasn''t in a disadvantage like the other two goblins. It had its spear and footing. It wouldn''t be killed like the two before. Yet, he was bigger than it, and probably heavier. Tired, but weight didn''t need energy to be heavy. No he just needed to abuse his size advantage. The goblin knew that too. It had closed a lot of the distance, but he still had space for a running start. It started running harder. Al closed his eyes for a second as he started to run, and then he was staring at the goblin as he charged. As the distance closed the goblin angled its spear towards his torso. Certainly, he could die from that if he ran into it. But he wa also pointing his spear at the goblin. As a disadvantage though, he realized his spear was pointed at its chin. Angling the spear downwards felt...uncomfortable, but the skull of most living things was tough. He didn''t know about zombie movies, but he was pretty sure bones were harder to break than games would have you believe. Worse, as he reached the first goblin''s corpse he was forced to run around it, losing some momentum. At the moment of truth, his eyes closed and he blinked, even as he awkwardly turned his body to dodge the spear. It cut a gash in his side, and his own spear slammed into its shoulder. Again, he came out on top though, and the goblin hit the ground hard. It hurt. His chest felt heavy and the gash burned, but he couldn''t stop here. Rather than trying to get the spear out of its shoulder, he grabbed its spear instead and then turned it away from himself, pinning the goblin''s other hand under his butt as he shifted and then with the other hand he choked it. He didn''t need to try too hard. The back of its head was on the cold, tiled floor and the pressure from his hand was enough to close its windpipe. It struggled, but somehow, it felt familiar. Ah, right. The same as the first goblin. The same as those chickens he''d seen slaughtered on a video before. And for some reason...it felt good. Al felt a grin appear on his face even as the goblin''s pupils dilated and it died. He still had a grin when the more cries were heard from the goblins. He still had it when two goblins turned the corner and started running down the aisle. The cart barricade would need to be used agai - Bang bang bang bang bang bang Several shots rang out and he saw blood explode out from several places on the goblin''s bodies as they fell. He could see a policeman in his twenties standing there, with blood spatters here and there on his uniform. "Uh...hi?" The policeman stared wide-eyed at him and jumped a bit as a new window appeared before his eyes.
The goblins have been exterminated! Congratulations Mortal! For being forced to participate in an early Incursion +200 Kill Points For successfully clearing the mission +100 Kill Points You have earned (a) new title(s)! Headstart: You''ve been involved in battle before the shields fell! +100 Kill Points Melee Combat Proficiency (Basic) gained! Your Status has been unlocked early! Level up!
"I''m...alive?" Al''s adrenaline faded and he collapsed as his muscles gave out. That seemed to shake the policeman out of whatever he was thinking too as he jogged over and pushed the carts out of the way. "Sir, are you ok?" Al stared at the policeman hard for a second before he turned his gaze back to the bottom of the shelf. "No. I have got cut by this goblin''s spear." "I''m going to check the wound, ok?" "Yeah." Why was he wasting time on this? And why did the wound feel so...burny? It burned harder as the shirt was peeled off from the wound and he heard the policeman mutter something as he checked the wound. Ah darn it. It was bad wasn''t it? Al closed his eyes and tried to shift into a more comfortable position, but the policeman slowly heaved him back to his feet. "We''re gonna need to get you to an ambulance, alright?" "Yeah." Al felt like something was wrong, but felt too...tired to speak properly. ''Yeah'' should be fine? He really needed to sleep... The rest of the walk out the store and into the ambulance felt like a dream as he simply stumbling along and leaned on the policeman for support. There were bloodstains everywhere now, and he had to walk around some bodies - people and goblins. Then they laid him into a nice, soft, bed and everything was black.
When Al awoke next, it was in a boring hospital room, with an IV hooked up to his arm and an uncomfortable itch and mild burn from the place where he''d...been...slashed by a spear... Everything came back to him and he adruptly sat up in his bed, hissing at the spike of pain from his side. A female doctor who looked like she was in her thirties walked over, along with another man in a suit. The man spoke up before the doctor. "Sir we''d like to ask you some questions..." Oh well, thought Al. This was probably better than goblins, right? Chapter 3: So it begins. No. It was not better than goblins. "I''ll ask you again. What is an Incursion and what are Kill Points?" It was worse. "And I''m telling you that I don''t know what an Incursion is or what Kill Points are! The goblins -" "Sir. You are already considered a problem element for having accepted that...offer, and committed, by your own admission, three murders. You''re considered dangerous and may be taken into custody while we do a psychological assessment -" "What? Are you crazy? I refuse to deal with this nonsense! I''m not consorting with aliens and I sure as hell don''t know how goblins magically appeared in the store and I don''t know what Kill Points are for! I won''t be blackmailed!" The annoying guy was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed, with his stupid shades and black suit and super cliche hairstyle and...well, the point was, some short guy with a badge, government or not, was not going to bully him into admitting that he knew what an Incursion was, or what was behind the blue screens. He did seem pale but that might have just been his natural skin tone. Nonetheless, Al also knew that he was technically dangerous for killing three human-like beings - even if they tried to kill him first - and was also one of the few people - though there were others too, from the store - who had Kill Points. The point though, was that Al was apparently at the recieving end of one of those ''the government is evil'' kind of interviews. Naturally, he understood why he was there, and the need for information collection for this new and potentially deadly...system, but that didn''t really make him any less annoyed for being asked stupid questions. Why would he know what an Incursion was? He couldn''t even make any theories short of bullshitting it, like, some nonsense about interdimensional portals or something, because he was a regular programmer, not a quantum physicist. If that was what a quantum physicist did anyway. The doctor cleared her throat and finally butted in to the conversation. "Mister, ah, Al Berts, was it? According to your medical reports, aside from the gash in your side, you are perfectly healthy. You may need to come in again for a more detailed check up when we can remove the stitches, and -" She ripped a paper off of her clipboard and passed it to him. "- take these pills, two a day before bed. And these ones every four hours for the pain. If you want to, we can look into getting some plastic surgery done to reduce the scarring, but we''d like you to wait before making that decision. Alright, Mr. Baker, you can do your job here, just remember not to push too hard like last time." ''Last time?'' Something told Al he was in aspecial hospital. Baker, as the doctor called him, sighed and then took a deep breath before continuing. "Alright. Mr. Berts, I don''t want to come of as too pushy, but you must understand that in just our country, we''ve had similar incidents twelve times in the past day. Today is February 23. You were out for most of yesterday. Even outside of America, the rest of the world has had tens of such incidents as well. Some with catastrophic casualties. In China, one of the most populous districts was hit with a contingent of over 100 of those things, and unlike the store where they...exploded, all of these ones made it out safe and killed almost 200, with more in the hospital. Las Vegas got 30 and had tens of casualties. Weneed to know what''s going on!" Al shuffled away from Baker who was a bit too passionate about his speech but nodded. "I...didn''t know. But, I honestly don''t know anything else. All I know is that the goblins appearing somehow was called an Incursion and that the blue boxes said I was awarded Kill Points for my first mission being before the shields fell I got 300 Kill Points and 100 for the mission, which, by the way, was to exterminate all 50 goblins." Baker stared at him hard, maybe trying to decide if he was lying or not, but nodded reluctantly after a while. He was sure Baker wasn''t too convinced on what he''d said, but for now at least, he would relent. "I have to interview the others from that store...and by the way, the policeman who saved you? He answered no to his." With that Baker snorted and then left. Al slowly slumped back down and then wiggled a bit until he felt comfortable. What had Baker meant with that last line? That you didn''t need to be with the blue boxes to fight those things? That the police could handle things? He didn''t know. No, what he knew was that he had also unlocked his Status and levelled up. He hadn''t actually checked that yet, but...now was as good a time as any. Concentrating hard, he said Status in his head.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Name: Al Berts Title(s): Headstart
Species: Human Age: 19
Level: 0.1 Class: None
Skills: Traits:
N/A N/A
Currenc(y/ies):
Kill Points: 550
Esteem Points: 0
System Points: 0
Everything seemed...legit enough. The species section implied you could be a different one, but well, goblins were a thing now so that wasn''t particularly weird. No, what was weird was that his level said 0.1. He wasn''t even level one, but a 0.1. There weren''t any stats either. But, was that because he was early, or was that just how it was? Andwas level 0.1 good? It was obviously more than what he''d been before, presumably a 0.0, but how much was that? Hedid feel like he was slightly less pudgy, but it wasn''t as if he measured how pudgy he was and had some way to tell - not unless it was a drastic change, like getting abs. Well, he''d just have to - uh oh. Baker was back and he didn''t look like he wanted to bake a cake for him. He stopped at the foot of his bed and pointed a finger at him. "YOU -" "Hey I literally just checked." Baker was bright red and between being angry or flattered, Al would place his bets on angry. An angry mysterious agent guy was not a problem he needed or wanted in his life. "I didn''t know what it was or what it did until just now and I''ll tell you everything that''s on mine, so, let''s all calm down, yes?" Baker silently sat down on his chair and stared daggers at him. This time, he dragged the chair over. Loudly. "So help me, if you lie to me again, I will put you behind bars and Iwill get those answers from you." "So. It has my name, age, species, level and class. It says I don''t have a class and my level is 0.1. It has sections for both traits and skills and currency. Kill Points, Esteem Points, and System Points. I don''t know what they''re for or what any of the stuff there means except for the obvious ones like age." Al had taken the effort to sit up in his bed and look Baker in the eyes - which was hard considering how angry he looked - and hoped he would accept it. While hedid look less...red, he still glared hard and refused to speak. He was saved then, when the man''s phone beeped. He angrily fished it out of his pocket, keeping eye contact all the while before quickly flashing his eyes to the screen once. Still staring, he swiped his finger to accpet the call and put it to his ear. "Hello? Yes. Yes. No. There''s more. No. It''s ''status.'' Yes. I don''t know. He said he doesn''t know. Yes. The others...yes." Al, still caught in Baker''s glare waited awkwardly for him to finish. "Yes. Understood." There was a beep as the call disconnected. "Nice YouPhone." Baker cleanly ignored him. "I''ve been called out. You, are going to stay here and wait until the next time. Be good, if you know what''s good for you." Then he walked out. "Shit." Al groaned at his predicament as he slid back down and got comfortable. "I''m gonna be here a while aren''t I?"
Hewas there for a while. It was February 26 now, and the jerk still seemed to have no intention of letting him go. Apparently, he should have been discharged before, which was why the doctor gave him the prescriptions, but Baker had detained him longer. Not that he really minded. There were plenty of things that he''d admit to not knowing, but a gash in his side like that should keep him in the hospital longer than a day anyway, right? The one plus was that he at least got a new room with a TV. To be honest, other than Baker being a jerk, the other people were fairly nice. The nurse, Mr. Brown, was a kindly Mexican man in his forties who always asked if he felt better or needed anything. The other patient - or...what, suspect? Detainee? - right next door, was just a kid who looked like he was in high school. On his left, there was an empty room though. He was allowed to walk around unsupervised in his hallway, though the little park behind the hospital was off-limits unless he was supervised. It did kind of feel like he was a prisoner, but hedid have a TV so there was that. And boy was the world going to crap. More and more news stories of goblins attacking random people and appearing out of no where were appearing. Many places had country-wide curfews and the police and military were everywhere. Experts - or people whosaid they were experts, I wasn''t sure how relevant a chemist was to whatever goblins were - were all over the place, claiming all kinds of theories - though the overall content was basically what it had been on the first day - and hadn''t become any more logical. Whatwas interesting was that scientists who''d studied the goblins now said that they were very similar in bone structure and such to humans, with their brains indicating that they were actually quite intelligent. They had a primitive language of their own and used tactics to deadly effect wherever they appeared. Variations had also been found. Like aquatic goblins that were blue and had gills. To be honest Al was beginning to think whoever was invading was screwing with them. The system seemed to agree. Apparently, killing different types of goblinsdid afford points for first kills. What the experiments for that had been were obvious. There also weren''t many opportunities to capture the goblins. The system would inflict pain if you tried to capture the goblins instead of kill them - yet clearly the government had managed to getsome goblins somehow and just weren''t revealing how. No one knew what the highest level was though. There were theories of course. Most people thought 10.0 would be the maximum. Others claimed 1.0 would be special. Something I could agree with. There had to be some way of earning a class after all. Still, Al couldn''t shake the nagging feeling that by being here, he was missing out. It seemed like completing a mission was the requirement for a level up. Yet, outside, people were climbing the levels while he was stuck here. Then again. Most people had only been in one incident at most. That technically meant I, at level 0.1, was still average...above average, actually. Far above, if he thought about it. Of the billions on Earth, perhaps several thousand had been exposed to Incursions so far. Out of that, less had survived and levelled. Though the casualty rate was fairly low. There was a limit to what hundreds of goblins with primitive weaponry could do. Still, wasn''t this fine? He wasn''t really some super talented guy with a cool destiny or something. No, he was pretty ok with his normal, white-collar job and sticking with his fellow citizens. Somebody else could do this stuff. No, Al was just fine right -
[UNKNOWN] has seen you. [Existential Terror] status effect inflicted. [Coma] status -
There was cold. Something horrible. And then the world went to black. Chapter 4: Great. Now its the Z-word. "Wha?" Al looked around. It was dark. Where was he? What was with this place? He could feel more than see the things moving around there, at the corners of his vision. Yet, it felt...comfortable. Who slept with the lights on, anyway? And he was quite used to feeling like something was there in the dark. Watching him. Standing by his bed, or in the closet and looking at him. He had that feeling all the time! There was literally nothing to be worried about. Therewas light over there, but well, he didn''t feel like waking up. No, he was just fine, right here, in the dark. Al yawned and then closed his eyes, rolling over and feeling like a blanket was back on him. Ah, hibernation.
Al opened his eyes in a hospital. It was dark out. He felt like he was forgetting something, but hedid feel quite well rested.That was understandable; when you were used to getting only five hours of sleep, any more felt pretty good.
[Coma] status effect removed. Logged. [Existential Terror] status effect removed. Logged. [Survivor of a Nightmare] title acquired! +1000 Esteem Points!
Existential Terror? A coma!? When had that happened? Al, slowly sat up, removing the breathing mask and little needles in his skin. He didn''t like those. He could hear...well, nothing outside. And that? That was unnerving. Usually, there would be at least the sound of people talking. Of people walking by or driving by in their cars. Yet, now, there was silence. The lights were on. The lights were on, but, it smelled. Smelled like...blood. The other patients weren''t talking and playing board games now either. The nurse hadn''t come to check on him, but the machines were working...no, they were beeping now since he''d removed them. There was probably a proper way to go about things, but he felt perfectly fine and quite disliked having the IV tube inside himself. It was kind of bleeding now though. That was bad. If he recalled, the nurse would be wiping it with a disinfective and then bandaging it. He should probably do that. Looking around, the disinfectant bottle was where the nurse had left it from the first time, on that little medicine table and the cotton and bandages were there too. Idly, he listened to the slight sounds he made echoing. It was...cool. But strange. There should have been more than just the drone of machinery as background noise. What about that guy who was always cough - oh! There were footsteps! Somebody was coming! That was great! He straightened up where he was, on the bed and cleared his throat. The footsteps sounded strangely...heavy and unrhythmic. There were more now. Shuffling. What was that? Feeling his hairs stand up - possibly the cold, as hospital gowns were quite...breezy - he slowly got up, obeying his instincts saying not to make a sound. Al had known the importance of stealth from a young age. Should he...grab something? He looked around and aside from the IV stand, there didn''t seem to be any obvious weapons. Not to mention, holding the stand when the nurse walked in would be...suspicious to say the least. He wanted to clear his throat, but the silence, broken only by the footsteps, the machines, and his breathing made him feel like he should be quiet...wait. Breathing? Now that he thought about it. He couldn''t hear...breathing. Step Al found himself standing near the door, one hand on the doorknob, leaving it closed. They stopped. Now they would knock, right? Hahaha, he''d watched too many horror movies. Thud. Thud. Thump. Oh, and now there were more of them heavily hitting the door without making other sounds and more shuffling and walking noises from the hallway. Yep, they were just worried since he''d taken out the tubes and set off the machines. He was pretty sure in that one show he watched, that when the machines started beeping the doctors got an alarm too. It wasfine. "Gruuaaahhh." Never mind. He was trapped in a silent hospital room on the third floor, probably alone - which was a classic horror setting - and now there was...something outside. Great. Just great. How could his day get any worse? Well, he hoped he hadn''t jinxed himself with that, but...things were looking down. The only reason he wasn''t panicking now was because Al had killed goblins. He''d always felt quite comfortable with fighting. The idea of sharing his pain with others felt nice, and watching it in anime had always made it seem as simple as dodge and hit. No, it was pain that sucked. Pain, and not having a weapon. The only good thing was that since the place was originally intended to hold him for questioning, the door was a heavier one. Sturdy. He was fairly safe for now. Well, thethumping said he wouldn''t be. Maybe the blue screens could help? Oh there were a lot.
WARNING!Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The shields have fallen! Mortals, prepare for battle! Arm yourselves, your friends, your family, even your cat if you have to. Burn and bomb and shoot. Hold nothing back or be eaten. Or you could just be faster than the slowest guy. Bear attack rules apply. Know one thing though, as we shall not baby you. Expect anything and everything. The multiverse is not bound to, or restricted by your common sense. Run and hide or stand and fight, you''ll probably still all die within the year. If youdon''t though, make sure to watch my channel and click the subscribe button at ''THEGODOFDARKNESSISTHEBEST...see more (12478 more characters)''
Oh well that was inspiring. Al wassure that had raised humanity''s spirit in their struggle against...probably goblins and zombies. Oh wait. He had an idea about that, but...more boxes.
The War has begun! Select a class from options that are generated by your actions and titles (after First Contact)!
Class: Fighter Description: A regular combatant that fights on the front lines in order to eliminate weaker foes or hold the line in emergencies. Increased physical growth and tends to fight in small groups. Pretty lame. Basically cannon fodder.
Class: Soldier Description: A regular combatant that fights on the front lines in order to eliminate weaker foes or hold the line in emergencies. Less physical growth than a fighter, but has more abilities useful in large group conflicts. Does it need to be said? It''s lame. You''re actually less likely to die if you have some others there though. Strength in numbers and all that jazz. Still cannon fodder though.
Class: Guard Description: A regular combatant that stays at locations of importance and guards them. Increased physical growth but less likely to get choice in mission assignments. It''s technically still lame but you get to look cool in front of the peasents. Or look lame as you die horribly butwithan audience!
Class: Lone Fighter Description: A regular combatant that takes the fight to the enemy. Increased physical growth but while less fighter skills are available, scout skills are also available. I dunno if this needs to be said, but ''taking the fight to the enemy'' for these guys means dying horribly. Soloing doesn''t work. It like, doesn''t work. By the way. Yes, that means you''re alone in hostile territory. See how much I help you?
Class: Carpenter Description: A regular craftsman that works with wood. Increased physical growth pertaining to wood-working I mean. It''s not that bad an option all things considered. You could have been safe and protected in the back, building houses and stuff. Too bad, huh? Well, you could try building a house for the guys outside without tools. I''m sure they would appreciate it. Maybe they''ll let you go?
Ok, now leaving aside what the classes were...that flavor text guy explained much. Much. Itwas actually slightly helpful to know he was stuck in hostile territory - enough to get a class option for it - which was interesting because that meant plenty of classes were only available if the environment favored them. Though he couldn''t understandwhy carpenter was an option. The most he''d done in that field had been...maybe that one time trying to make a catapult in his high school physics class? Which was weird, because then why would soldier and guard show up? Unless they were super basic options that everyone got. Not to mention, the last few windows.
Mission Generated
Difficulty: High Time Limit: 10 Hours
Description: You are located inside a zone that has been authorized for Quarantine. Evacuate the area before Quarantine is enacted or face the victims on your own. Zone Bounds: Leave the city of Linop and up to a 25 kilometre radius
Mission Failed
Difficulty: High Time Limit:Elapsed
Description: You are located inside a zone that has been authorized for Quarantine. Evacuate the area before Quarantine is enacted or face the victims on your own. Zone Bounds: Leave the city of Linop and up to a 25 kilometre radius
That would definitely explain the silence and possibly zombies. "Urrraaaaaaa..." No, definitely zombies. So, if it was quarantined, was this a virus, and infectious somehow? Thatwas pretty much zombie 101. For all he knew he was already infected...damn. Al closed his eyes and took a deep breath to clear his thoughts. Dwelling on possibly becoming a zombie was completely unhelpful. He just had to...stab them...somewhere? Ok, first things first, a class. There were only a few options but the choice was pretty obvious. It would have to be the Lone Fighter. It sounded kind of stupid, but ultimately, he needed a combat class and the Lone Fighter seemed to be made for his current situation. Concentrating mentally, he tried to ''select'' the Lone Fighter like in novels and to his surprise...it didn''t work. Feeling a bit stupid he quickly pressed it instead.
Choose Lone Fighter? Y/N
''Yes.'' Surprisingly, that one worked just mentally and he put his hand back down.
Updating...
This placedid have signal, right? His data plan was crap. Al snorted and smiled a bit, cheered by his stupid joke. The hospital gown would protect him from absolutely nothing so the first priority would be to not get hit. Then, there was the issue of whatkind of zombies these ones were. Were they the ones where you had to target the head? The heart? Or even a core that sometimes varied in location, from book to book, or worse, from individual zombie to individual zombie? And, even if he got the ''core'' right, would it need to be totally destroyed to work, like making mashed potatoes out of their heads, or was a decent hit fine? The worst possibility was that these were the ones that revived after a while unless turned to ashes or just didn''t die, and turning them to ashes only made them incapable of hurting you. Well, even worse was the possibility where they were created by some parasites that could infect him actively. He''d never really been a religious person, but for once, Al put down the IV stand and clasped his hands, watching the door that was starting to makecreaking noises, praying that somehow, someway, he would make it out of this. The System chose that moment to finish updating.
Name: Al Berts Title(s): Headstart, Survivor of a Nightmare
Species: Human (0.1) Age: 19
Class: Lone Fighter (Level 0.0) Class History: N/A
Skills: Traits:
N/A N/A
Currenc(y/ies):
Kill Points: 550
Esteem Points: 1000
System Points: 0
Seriously? The class started at 0 too? No, it made sense, but he''d been hoping it was the 0.1 that would apply and make him even a little bit stronger. The fact that that 0.1 had been moved over to his species column was quite interesting and all, but no, right now, the new window caught his attention.
Mission Generated - I''m Too Young to Die (HAHAHAHAHAHA!)!!!
Difficulty: Very High Time Limit: 6:23:59
Description: You, who fell into a coma with terrible timing, now face a threat highly harmful to your life! Survive the week without dying and you may yet see the light of day once more! Notes: The Quarantine cannot be exited. Objective 1: Exit the hospital Objective 2: Clean the hospital Objective 3: ???
Oh, great. The flavor text...entity - who Al had decided would be called Bob from how on (it made him feel better about his situation and own name) was quite possibly hinting something here...and clearly had some sway with the System. It seemed Bob was the one who made this mission for him. Well. At least the difficult didn''t say ''Impossible'' or ''Nightmare'' or ''Hell'' or something. That would have sucked. He''d never even cleared something on Impossible before...except the ones where you could grind to victory. He wasn''t sure if killing zombies gave levels though...
Greetings Subject AEDS34658693y9537563hd749u3729jw83333#gd99938364516385937, With the shields having fallen and your world''s War beginning in earnest, you will be given a basic tutorial! 1. Level up by completing missions 2. Use the shop (limited when not near a designated drop-zone) to get skills, items, traits, and more. 3. (Don''t) Die. Thank you for your time, and you are wished a relatively nice death.
Ok so basically, killing stuff without a mission didn''t give levels? Maybe? Possibly? And there was a shop. Well, leaving money sitting around was only good if you were alive...and earning interest. It was time to see whether the shop had some dead-be-gone spray or something. Or dead-be-gone scented candles. He wasn''t picky. Yes, either would be fine. "URRRRAAAGHH." At this point, Al had had enough of the background noise - which, at some point, had gone from creepy to annoying - and decided that if he was going down...it would be after he tried to smack them to death with money like a rich upstart. ''Shop.''