《The Crossroads》 The Tutorial
Tutorial Start? Y/N
I look around me and take in all the sights, or I guess I should say the lack of sights right now. Man why does this shit have to happen to me? I¡¯m just sitting here in a void floating, there¡¯s not even any gravity here! I tested it out by going and spitting, all that ended up happening was me and my spit went in opposite directions. At least physics works right? Means I¡¯m not royally fucked even though I¡¯ve been here for¡­ actually I can¡¯t tell how long I¡¯ve been in here for now that I think about it. My watch conveniently isn¡¯t working, huh. I guess this is some sort of afterlife then? Well I guess it would make sense that the afterlife would have a way for people to figure out what to do, and hey a pro I just noticed! If I¡¯m dead at least I don¡¯t need to deal with being alive anymore! No more shitty parents, no ex-girlfriend, and no general breathing down my back! I let out a smile and spend a bit longer going and enjoying being weightless, I had to do some training for this back in the day but it¡¯s been so long, and it¡¯s so much damn fun. Bastard teaching wouldn¡¯t let us do anything but the approved exercises. Wanted to float upside down? Nope, wanted to float sideways? Nope. Had to float right side up. Bullshit is what that is, I mean how can you even know which way was straight up. That went and earned me a few hundred push ups. Well that¡¯s enough bad memories, I¡¯m going to embrace death with a smile! I reach my hand out and tap the yes button on the screen that was about a foot and a half away from my face no matter where I had happened to move. I wanted to close my eyes and relax after pressing the button, but less than even a second after pressing it the scenery changed around me slightly! I looked down at my feet and saw an odd black metal floor with futuristic patterns spreading on it leading towards the center, I also noted that I was apparently on the edge of this platform that seemed to be about 15 meters long by around 5 meters wide, the entire left side had odd protrusions that reminded me of weapons I had seen in a science fiction movie. After looking around for a moment to gain my bearings I realized where I was, it was something I had played on hundre- no thousands, of times. It was the stage in super smash brothers Final Destination! Man, what a joke. Is my test for getting an afterlife really going to be me testing out my super smash brothers skills? Well let¡¯s see what it is that they¡¯ll throw at me then. Nothing, that¡¯s exactly what they threw at me. I¡¯ve been sitting here for what I swear is half an hour and there¡¯s nothing here. I ended up just going and walking around the stage randomly and trying to stay on while it goes and jerks around suddenly for it¡¯s scene transitions. I am actually pretty amazed by the fact that the temperature doesn¡¯t change here, it just stays the same and quite comfortable at that. After wandering around for a good bit longer another screen appeared in front of me.
Defeat the Digital Creatures
Immediately after that a voice suddenly shouted ¡°3! 2! 1! GOO!¡± Knowing full well that is the announcer for smash and that the things I needed to defeat would appear soon I looked around desperately, but don¡¯t see anything else around me. I try to move towards the wall of futuristic looking shit when suddenly something hits me in the head knocking me to the ground. I pushed myself up to my feet almost immediately after I fell and finally noticed something, I¡¯m way fitter than I was before! Almost like I was in the service, but now wasn¡¯t the time for that, I look around the ground and see that there around 50 small dogs surrounding me, all foaming at the mouth. I¡¯ve heard of these dogs, but I¡¯ve never actually seen one, these are called¡­ chihuahua¡¯s? Well I don¡¯t care about the name too much right now, I¡¯m more worried about them going and moving closer to me. Is this why they¡¯re called rat dogs? Because Jesus Christ they are surrounding me like I¡¯m a piece of cheese that fell in the sewer. Uh, so since this is smash brothers do I need to¡­ defeat them all? Well this will piss off PETA if that¡¯s the case, but they aren¡¯t too strong in my country so oh well I guess. Though I guess I should try and be nice since that should be the human thing to do right? (A/N: I clearly made the dogs fake based on the Digital creatures statement, I don¡¯t condone animal violence and it¡¯s pretty much implied that the dogs are rabid. So if you are the kind of person who doesn¡¯t like to see an animal get hurt skip this part and come back at the next authors note.Honestly It''s not even anything gruesome though. The worst that happens is biting) I reach my hand out to pet one, but the little son of a bitch decided to lunge at my hand! Negotiations broke down! Mr. Dog, meet Mr. Foot! I pull my hand back while it lunges and go and kick the dog as hard as I possibly can, making it explode into a mass of colorful lights. Well at least I know that it¡¯s easy enough to deal with the dogs right? Well not really, they decided to take advantage of me kicking their friend and bit my left legs ankle a shit ton making me actually cry a little bit. Why are their teach so fucking sharp? My old golden retriever that bit me one time didn¡¯t hurt as much as this does! I rip the 2 dogs that are sinking their teeth into my ankles and barely manage to pry them off without dragging any flesh of mine along with them. I then threw them off the ledge while trying to avoid the tide. I kept running and kicking a dog every so often, but I fucked up. I accidentally tripped on one of them and almost went tumbling off the ledge, however in both luck and severe unluckiness, several dogs jumped onto me and bit into me, but that extra weight kept me from teetering into the void which is especially comforting since I don¡¯t have any stocks that I know of, so if I lose I may very well lose everything.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I pushed myself up and bit back the tears while ripping the dogs off my body, and then in a fit of vengeance I used one to knock 5 more of the remaining 20 into the pit. At this point it would be a piece of cake, especially since I am so close to the edge so I would kick a dog and jump over it, the first time I did this I actually slipped and fell, but decided to use the momentum to plant my elbow into the dog, this apparently counted as a smash move as I saw it take off like a firework into the distance. Once there were about 5 dogs left they all tried running away which made me feel like a monster, but seeing that these things were taking chunks out of me with no remorse I decided to pay it forward. I had to get each dog into a corner to get them into range for me to do anything, however it was depressing at one point, the last dog I cornered decided to jump off with his own free will. I mean, I can¡¯t blame him but he attacked me with his friends first. Now that the battle was over though I sat on the floor and leaned my back against the wall. Fucking dogs are evil apparently. This is why I prefer cats over dogs, if a cat were to attack me I would be fine, I could pull it off easily enough but dogs, man dogs are an entirely different animal. Bad jokes aside I¡¯m being serious, I remember seeing people get torn to pieces by an untrained dog. (A/N: For those that didn¡¯t like him fighting the animals come over to here, If you didn¡¯t read it he won long story short, but got bit a lot by the dogs that seemed to be rabid.) What was going on? Oh yeah, before I started going off on the tangent, I had just finished the task and well a doorway? Can I call it a doorway? No, I don¡¯t think I can really, it¡¯s more so just a white 2 dimensional rectangle in the middle of the arena. I guess I¡¯m supposed to walk into it? Man this afterlife shit better have all the hookers and games a man could want. Well or I just die forever in oblivion via this door. Huh, you know it sounds a bit more attractive know, I should probably work on being able to convince myself to go off to my death that easily, but well I honestly just don¡¯t care at this point so fuck it am I right? Yeah I¡¯m right. Well forward unto dawn! I step out with my foot, but as soon as the tip of my shoe hits the wall of light I get pulled into it rather quickly so it doesn¡¯t even give me a chance to fight the pull... or the whiplash for that matter. When I had stopped vomiting from the sudden motion I noticed that I was back in that black void, however the screen in front of me now said something new.
Beginners Gift Contains- 1x basic room, 1x F-rank System Integration, 200 credits, 1x F-rank rusty sword piece, 1x F-rank random world entrance ticket, and 1 full recover(Used as soon as gift is accepted) Press button to accept gifts!
Are¡­ are they really going to dark souls me like that? Giving me the hilt of a sword? I sigh and accept my fate by pressing the button. After pressing it, there was suddenly a floor below me! Granted it¡¯s just grey, but still! There¡¯s a floor and I¡¯m standing on it! Oh now there¡¯s walls around me! Wow, less than 10 seconds and¡­ I¡¯m in a concrete box with a single metal door. Lovely. Well at least I can leave to go to the void whenever I want right?
Initianting F-Rank Connection to system servers! ¡­ Connected! Greetings Insert Name and welcome to the Server! As a first connection reward at- F Rank - You have been gifted- Stat increase: Minor.
Well there¡¯s another gift I guess. Oh, and there¡¯s the rest of the things on the ground. A sword hilt with about 10 centimeters of blade, but it doesn¡¯t stop there. It¡¯s so freaking rusty that you¡¯d swear it was made of glue and rust. Well at least if I have to fight a horde of animals I can give them tetanus. So pros and cons am I right? There¡¯s also a card on the floor, looks like a credit card. Must be that currency. Wonder what I can buy with it? Well guess I¡¯ll find out later, or it gave me a bogus gift. Welp either way what happened happened. The last thing on the ground is a small ticket, looks like one that you get from a movie theater actually. ¡°System.... Show screen¡­ menu options stats status, oh there we go.¡±
Name: Pete Stilgrin System Ranking: F Level: 0
Title(S): Newbie Instructor(s):None
Stats- (Average forHuman is10)
Strength:6.5 (Muscle: 9, Control: 4)
Constitution: 9 (Vitality: 10, Endurance: 8, Health: 9)
Dexterity: 6.5 (Balance: 7, Flexibility: 3, Hand-Eye Coordination: 8, Reflex: 8)
Wisdom: 9.6 (Willpower: 11, Perception: 9, Intuition: 9)
Intelligence: 7.3(Learning: 5, Reasoning: 8, Tactics: 9)
Charisma:8.5(Courage: 9, Persuasiveness: 7, Leadership: 10, Appearance: 8)
Note:Wow you don¡¯t have a single stat at the average of your species! Go you!
I mean I know I¡¯m not the best at really anything, but fuck you system, that hurts a bit. Like damn. Well I guess I can¡¯t complain too much, I mean they trimmed all the fat that I built up off, so it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to go and get my muscle back. Maybe a week or 2? The rest of the shit though, well I guess I can try stretching at least, don¡¯t really know about the rest though. Oh wait, there¡¯s a plus button another small segment below the Note, oh it¡¯s the Stat increase: Minor! Whatever it is that is, I guess it will make it so that one section of those stats will be increased? I click on it and see that every sub stat is available for me to upgrade, well my lowest one is flexibility, and honestly it has always kind of limited me in aspects so I guess I should put it into there? I click on Flexibility and then a message appears in the screen.
Due to low stat, effect increased! Status- Flexibility- is now 6
Really? That easy? I mean I don¡¯t think I feel that different? Maybe it¡¯s because of how low it originally was I guess. Or well this is complete bullshit, I mean I can hope for this kind of an afterlife, but really would it be that far fetched for everything in my life to be shitty? Well I have had enough of this bleak and depressing room, I¡¯m going to go through that metal door and hope to whatever god above there may be that this is not going to go to a horror game. I¡¯ll be fucked over and have next to no chance at survival if that happens. Well maybe if it was a resident evil type¡­ no wait, lickers and tyrants are a thing. Yeah no I¡¯m screwed no matter what if the other side is like a horror game. I put my hand onto the handle and breathe in a bit, it¡¯s okay Pete, you got this. I then turn the handle and open the door, revealing the abyss on the other side and a screen.
You Currently have access to:
-The Crossroads
Select destination!
I guess I only have one choice then? Well whatever I guess. I press the button and that white doorway appears again, taking the initiative this time though I step into it while I am still braced for whatever it is that the world may throw at me on the other side. The Crossroads Sweet jesus, right after stepping out of the door I''m in the middle of a plaza full of people walking all over the place. I take a moment to try and ignore the people around me moving about, but god they are all being so loud, and it''s congested here to the point that I''m legitimately being shoved every which way.
You have been given temporary directions to -World Access Redeeming and Purchasing- Follow the system directions!
I guess it''s time to pretend to be a functional human being and blend in with the crowd. I gently integrate myself with one of the streams of people that seem to be heading in the same direction so I hopefully can get there, I try to keep track of the buildings and scenery that surround me, but I find myself pushed deep into the crowd of people. After a few minutes, I suddenly hear a voice speak to me, "Hey, Listen!" I look up and see the very familiar glowing blue ball with wings, making me reflexively wince. I then see a gap in the crowd and work my way out as easily as I can, thankfully without hitting anyone with an elbow. After it saw me get out safely it went up into my face, "Hey! Listen to me!" Where''s my gun at? If this is going to be how it''s going to be here then I want a gun, any gun that way I can take as many mother fuckers out with me and then myself. "I''m listening to you, what do you want?" The little bastard just scoffed at what I said, "I was sent to go and direct you to WARP, but you decided to go off on your own, well I guess it''s not too bad since you were going in the right direction." I put my hand up, "Hold on, warp? What''s warp?" Is that what those glowy white door things are? Warping? Navi then sighs and responds to me, "WARP is short for World Access Redeeming and Purchasing. It is supposed to be straight forward for an acronym, but well there are a select few people that don''t get it right away." I can feel my eye twitch. All my years playing games online has not helped my temper, and to think that I used to be so passive. "Alright well can you lead the way?" The sooner I can get away from this guy the better for me and my mental health. It bobs up and down before responding, "Sure can! Also, stay close to me if you want to get there faster, the way you were doing it, well it wasn''t bad but they would have eventually turned right up there instead of left so they could get to... you know what forget about it. Follow me!" I begin following Navi who actually seems to know how to maneuver me around all this foot traffic, which is surprising given that she is like the size of the palm of my hand. While walking around I couldn''t help but be amazed at everything around me, things I''ve seen in videogames, anime, and movies were here. I''ve seen Leon Kennedy, Edward Elric, and I saw a few different versions of Bruce Willis. This is one weird ass heaven. Like who would willingly make themselves look like Bruce Willis? I mean I''d go and pick someone like Ryan Gosling if I had the choice... speaking of which there''s a Gosling! Oh shit and there''s the Iron Giant working in the distance, he''s making... pancakes? He seems like he''s a kilometer or so away, the only reason I can actually see what he''s making is because he''s so damn big. Like jeez, I''m pretty sure he''s bigger here than in the movies. Actually thinking about it, all these buildings I''m walking by seem like they were ripped straight out of movies, games, and anime then just kind of stapled together or like the pieces of a puzzle were cut so they would fit together. Like I just passed Soma''s diner (From Shokugeki no soma) and am currently walking in front of the ghostbuster''s firehouse. There''s just no real consistency here, but well I guess at least the ghostbuster''s can get a good meal after they''re done busting some ghosts right? Wait, does that mean that there are ghost''s in heaven if the ghost busters are here? Man that''s a trip to think about. While I was busy contemplating ghosts existing in heaven, Navi informed me that we were here. I looked up and saw that it was that bank from that Deus Ex Mankind Divided game! The only reason I remember it was because holy shit, it was so well designed. I have replayed that game a few different times, and while the story was mediocre at best, the level design and powers were so interesting for me, especially that bank. I start walking in when Navi suddenly calls out to me, "Alright, well my job here is done. Hope you do well on your world!" I reach my hand out to try and stop her because I have no clue how to get back to my room void thingy. Seeing her just take of without a care makes me sigh, I may as well just go into the building and see several receptionists, Smithers from the Simpsons helping someone out, Kenneth from 30 rock just standing there with a smile on his face, some anime girl I can''t recognize talking to some guy, Cortana from Halo, and a few other people. I don''t feel like dealing with too much crap so I go to Kenneth since I know at the very least he''ll be friendly to me. As soon as I step up to his podium he grins at me with a big ol'' country smile, "Why hello there sir! How can I help you today?" I put on my fake smile for interacting with people and hand him the ticket thingy I got. He then smiles and his eyebrows raise, "Oh wow! A random world ticket, my my, let''s hope that you get a doozy of one so you get some good missions! Oh but first, is it fine if I access your system? It''s a legal thing don''t worry." I just nod to him and he responds quickly, "Alright... Mr. Stilgrin. Ooh what a neat name, I wish that I had that name but well mine is kenneth, love my momma for giving it to me though! Alright, well looks like you are new here... and you don''t have a world registered! Congrats you get to redeem it! Anything you''d like to say for luck beforehand? I''ll tell ya, I usually like to pray to god even if I''ve never met him. Heard he''s a great guy though!" I just smile and respond to him with a no. I really just wanna get the world and get it over with. He smiles and inserts it into some huge machine with a bunch of balls in it. I guess it works like one of those gumball machines maybe? Or maybe like the balls from the American lottery? After a few moments a ball rolled out like this was the Lottery or a on of those cages for choosing the numbers for bingo. Kenneth then quickly grabbed the ball and smiled at me, "Oh wow! You get the Aliens world! I bet it''ll be fun to go through! Well if you don''t want it then we can get you a re draw for 150 credits!" I grimace slightly, really? Aliens? That old movie from the 80''s? God, it has been years since I''ve seen the movie, but really they''re going to throw me into there? I sigh and tell Kenneth it''s fine and I don''t want to redraw. He smiles and types on the keyboard a bit then looks up to me, "Since this is your first world we have a one time deal, for 50 credits you can get the basics of that world as a bundle. This includes an identity so you don''t need to explain anything to anyone! Are you interested?"Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! I raise my eyebrow at that, well that would be helpful, and right now I don''t exactly know how much a credit is worth so I don''t want to spend them willy nilly, but I do trust Kenneth to be honest to a fault as well, it''s one of the reasons I came up to him and not Cortana. However I still need a bit of convincing so I ask him what is in the package. He then replies almost instantly, "Well that all depends sir, like for me I went to a world called who framed roger rabbit, and I have to say it was a lot of fun! Oh yeah, but I got the package and what I got was an ID from there, about 100 dollars which got me a lot of food, oh and a Camera! It was really useful for the missions they had me do! One of my friends that got the package after starting in the pulp fiction universe and he got a pistol and a bulletproof vest. That was it! It really helped with his missions though he said! So everything you get is supposed to be useful! Not to mention skills and items that you can find or earn in each world that are usually really useful and earn you bonus credits as a hidden objective! I actually once heard someone found a tracker that can find every item no matter the world unlike the treasure maps everyone else has to use. Oh but look at me babbling on!" I smile and tell Kenneth I''ll get the thing for 50 credits and hand him the credit card thingy that fell on the floor earlier. After finishing up I ask Kenneth about some of the rules and workings, "So Kenneth, how do I get back to my area? Also, from what you are saying it looks like I can go to new worlds, can I bring stuff to them or am I stuck carrying nothing in each time?" He puts his finger to his chin for a moment to reply to me, "Well, I would say the best way to go home is to link a gesture to it, that way you can call the door at any time. I''d recommend a rare gesture so that if you do it on accident you won''t have any problems. To link it just think about that white door while doing the gesture! As for the items, well it depends. You can bring all items you get from there back to your area and you can bring them back where you got them from. You can''t bring them here or any other worlds though, however anything you get here can go in any world! Oh and all the secret items you get in any world work the same way! I''ve heard though that some things will be useless if you take them certain places! Like if you take a laser to where the cowboys age is then it will be turned into something like a cannon! It doesn''t work backwards though, so if you take a revolver to a world where there are lasers it won''t work as well!" You know, I actually hate one less person now. Kenneth is just too cheery that I just can''t help but feel like I should smile. I couldn''t keep him too long though, but I thanked him for his time. As I was walking away though he called over to me quickly, and when I walked back he mentioned a bit more that he missed earlier, "Before you go, I forgot to mention that you can only leave the world you go to within a certain time limit. If you stay after that time limit the next mission will automatically start and you need to complete it before you can go! Oh also, time is paused in the other place so nobody will notice you left and for some reason don''t notice if you bring back new or repaired stuff, so keep that in mind! Last thing! New worlds that can be added to your list cost 300 credits and double each rank increase, but in order to get the next rank you need to get a random draw ticket for that rank from the world you are in. Before you ask, yes you can get higher than a 1 tier up ticket, it is very rare though and only 20 people have gotten it, and all of them have the luck stat. That''s it friend, so good luck on your adventures!" I smile and thank him for his time, thankfully he had saved me from a lot of worry since now I know what I can and can''t do in regard to how the worlds work at least for the most part. I''m sure I need to figure stuff out more, but for now I think I can at least go to Aliens and... maybe not die. Well as with everything else, fuck it! If I die then I die. Don''t really care too much either way. Well for now I guess I should set my home return movement. What is easy enough to remember but not something that I would go and do that often? I''ve got it! I think of going back to that room and do president skroob''s salute from spaceballs. After I finish though, nothing happened so just to double check I go and do it one more time, and lo and behold! The door appeared! Wow this is going to be hilarious and a pain in the ass to do, but well at least it''s not me going and pretending to jerk myself off which was a close second, and while it would be funny I wouldn''t want the door to activate while... something was happening. Content with what I learned though I step into the door and find myself pulled into the bleak and grey room again. There''s nothing here for me though so I immediately turn around and pull the door open and see the message presented to me as it swings open.
You currently have access to:
-The Crossroads -Aliens
Select Destination!
I smile and press the button for aliens, well I''m at the very least going to see something cool, now whether I die or live is left to debate. Steeling my resolve I am reminded of how I used to be when I was in the military, bringing both a sense of longing and happiness to me simultaneously. As I step through the portal I find myself in a futuristic looking apartment and on the bed there is a knife, a see through card about the size of my thumb, some sort of thing that I put on my wrist, I think like a PDA deal, a credit card looking thing, a letter, a backpack, and a thing that looks like a briefcase. When I open up the briefcase it is full of little tubes that look like toothpaste, when I examine one I read ''Apple Pie.'' Oh god, something tells me that these are going to be worse than those MRE''s that I don''t remember too fondly, but I guess when you need nutrition you need nutrition. I pull the letter open and read it, thankfully it is in English, one of the languages I can understand. The letter was a bunch of legal bullshit, but in essence I am being paid to go on an expedition with the Marines from the movie to rescue the colonists. It seems though that they are leaving a week sooner which confuses me. I remember the Marines being too late, or maybe they are still going to be late?
Mission Received!
Goal- Get to LV-426 with the Expedition
Rewards-100 credits, Standard Marine gear(Usable only in given worlds instance), +1 to any single stat below 10 (value increased due to values being below average)
Fail Conditions- Die, Do not join Expedition
Penalties- Removal from world, 100 credits lost, world restarts.
Well no matter what way I look at the PDA I can see that the day they are going to get me is in fact today and they(the system thing) will supply me with all of my gear. I decide to take a shower before I change into the military crap that I apparently had in one of the drawers. I actually also found a pistol which makes me feel much more comfortable, but it probably won''t help too much against those bastards. Anyways, taking a shower helped me feel refreshed, especially having new clothes. By the time that I finished up getting everything set I hear a knock at my door, on the other side are 2 marines and one man in a business suit. They shoot the shit a little bit as I grab the backpack and other items, I then walk with them to the ride they had acquired, an aircraft that I don''t know how to explain. Maybe as a VTOL? Maybe? If that. I don''t really know. In less than 5 minutes we were apparently in space and docked inside of the ship. In less than an hour I was apparently ready for the deep sleep and promptly put inside. It was an odd sensation to say the least, and I feel like I had only slept for the night, not like it had been several years... actually thinking about it, how much time passes outside when I''m in here? Hopefully not years since if I go see Kenneth it''ll be weird being like ''Hey been 7 years bud!'' then him looking at me wondering who the hell I was. Well that''s probably just my social anxiety getting to me since I haven''t had a friend in a long time. Maybe. Well point of this whole thing is that I''m orbiting the moon and we''re prepping to go down. Trying to Change Events After we all woke up they decided to all go and start doing various things in the locker room, this one chick was doing some pull ups and a few of the guys were just going and talking about random crap and goofing around, I didn''t want to go and deal with people so I pretended like I was still waking up and began putting on the clothes that I had brought with me. I discovered the system thing that handles all these things don''t really care too much about giving me anything good but I mean it was enough to get clothes on my back, plus I was able to ignore people asking about me and Ripley. After everyone got dressed we all started walking to what ended up being the Mess hall. I just shrugged it off as I can''t remember much from the movie and just know that we end up on the planet, shit goes down, almost all the marines die, and Ripley barely survives. I don''t know how, but I''m going to try my best to change events so that even a few more people survive. I mean based on my crappy remembrance of the movie I was probably screwed, but I mean I remember some key parts (A/N: I think it stands to reason that I will spoil the plot of Aliens, and I would recommend watching it. Amazing movie). I grab a tray of this food that reminds me that this mission is being ran by the military. God, I swear these people can never afford a good cook. Don''t even give me that excuse with too many people, I swear to got there are like 20 people on this ship, I''ve made meals for more people than this, and I''m not a chef. Still though, not too fucking hard. It all comes down to laziness and/or money with these types of bastards. I sight and just eat the cornbread that needs a lot of butter, and if I''m being honest corn. And bread. In fact is this even fucking cornbread? It tastes more like a granola bar? Well I am going to need the carbs since it will be very likely I''m going to be running for my life for the next day or however long the movie lasts. While tuning everyone out suddenly my hand is pulled from my plate and held on the table with my fingers spread, when I open my eyes out of surprise I am met with one of the Marines to the side of me and on the other is one of the characters I remember the best, the synthetic human (Android) Bishop. I glare at the person holding me down, but he gives me an excuse with an obviously American accent, in fact it''s a southern accent, "Well now, we jus'' wanna go ''n see how yer gon'' handle mister mercenary. Can'' really go ''n have someun holdin'' us back now, can we? Bishop do yer knife thingy." He looks at me with a smirk as Bishop looks at me with sorry eyes. I don''t blame him for this, he is after all an Android, but god dammit I''ll whoop that mans ass later. God damned American''s just love to look down on others no matter their country, and that doesn''t even have to do with races or sexes. You can be like me and from Europe and you''ll look like nothing but dirt to them. I nod to bishop to let him know it''s alright as I look at the man dead in the eyes. I''ve gotta show him this shit isn''t gonna fly with me. As I can hear the knife banging on the table I clench my teeth shut and keep staring down at the man who has started to back away slowly. However after bishop is done I look at him and smile a bit, "Hey Bishop, would you mind doing that one more time?" I then look at the man with the southern accent once more before continuing, "I just wanna make sure that the people we have on this team won''t hold us back." When I look back at him he has a slight smile on his face and he nods to me, when I look back to the man a couple other Marines had already grabbed him and sat him down, I decide to get up and sit across from him, and not soon after I had sat down but bishop had grabbed the mans hand and held it down flat onto the table as he had done with mine. He then looked at me with eyes filled with the hate you would really only see from someone who''s brother you killed. I just sat there and smiled at him while meeting his stare. He was all talk though because as Bishop began playing five finger filet, the man crumbled down and began trying to scream for Bishop to let him go. After he was done I just smiled and chuckled to the Marine next to me in a voice everyone could hear me, "Well at least the person we don''t need to worry about is me, great isn''t it?" A few Marines then started laughing at my stupid comment and the southerner looked at me with those same eyes he had before, but this time with tears. I wasn''t phased by them this time either though, I''ve seen them too many times before for it to affect me now.
Congratulations! You have successfully completed a Hidden objective! Hidden Objective: Prove to the Marines that you can do what you say you do. Rewards: 1x Stat increase: Minor (Only applicable on any stat below 10), 100x credits, Marines now more likely to listen to you.
Congratulations! You have completed your first Hidden Objective! Hidden Objectives are entirely optional things that you are able to accomplish, and they each give different bonuses and/or rewards that can greatly help you on your mission!
Due to completing a hidden objective you have earned the title
Due to completing a hidden objective within first 5 worlds traveled to your title has evolved to
Due to completing a hidden objective before unlocking a second world title has evolved to
Due to completing a hidden objective before getting halfway through world your title has evolved to
Due to completing a hidden objective before completing a single mission your title has evolved to the highest possible rank of Current people possessing the same title as yours is now: 6. Before you it was 5 people holding this title. Other title holders have been alerted.
Total Rewards from titles: 3x Stat Increase: Minor, 1x Stat Increase: Medium, 1x Stat Increase: Large, 3x F-rank world draws, 1x E-rank world draw, 1x D-rank world draw, Credits- 78,100, 1x F-rank Treasure Map, 1x E-Rank Treasure Map, 1x C-rank Skill draw
Heh? So me basically saying you can''t walk over me lead to me getting that... absurd title? Well you know what I''ll just accept it as happening so that it won''t be something that just drains my already dwindling sanity. Well I better spend at least some of my rewards I guess, right? I go to a rest area and open up a book since there''s nothing for me to do for another 2 hours, and then I will need to get my whole ensemble on. Under the guise of the book nobody should suspect that I''m going crazy, I mean using a system. So far these are my stats:If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Stats- (Average forHumanis10)
Strength:6.5 (Muscle: 9, Control: 4)
Constitution: 9 (Vitality: 10, Endurance: 8, Health: 9)
Dexterity: 7.25 (Balance: 7, Flexibility: 6, Hand-Eye Coordination: 8, Reflex: 8)
Wisdom:7.3(Learning: 5, Reasoning: 8, Tactics: 9)
Charisma:8.5(Courage: 9, Persuasiveness: 7, Leadership: 10, Appearance: 8)
Note: You''re getting there... to average that is. Try getting there faster! Or do something cool! Works for us either way!
..us? I feel that I should watch out for that flag and prepare for something possibly very bad. Anyways, I have 4 of these stat increase minor things, so I should probably use them on the lowest things to make them more effective. I use one on Control, Learning, Another on Flexibility, and the last on Balance.
Your stats have increased! Control is now 6! Learning is now 6! Flexibility is now 7! Balance is now 8!
Damn, I was hoping that they would increase by 3 again, but I guess they weren''t as low as Flexibility was before. I also got some of the other things that I felt were things I shouldn''t have gotten before I even really start the mission, but right now I figure that this is the kind of things I should save from now on... like I don''t think these missions are supposed to be this easy to complete, and I mean who is to say what encounters am I supposed to assume are Hidden objectives? That''s going and even assuming they are all encounters. For all I know I could have gone and tried to do something on the way to this ship, asked a certain question. Also what if there are hidden fail conditions? God this is getting to be too much, but if I am lucky and I do fail the world I do now have some extra credits to spare now thankfully, however I would like to use those to upgrade my living area, a room that is 3x3x3 meters is a bit too cramped for my tastes, even if I''m a bit under 2 meters in height. I stand up to go and start helping people, but suddenly find myself standing up with absolutely no problem. I raise my eyebrow because something feels off, just to check I go and jump but notice nothing different, so I grab onto a pull up bar and finally see what it is, I am much better with control now. It wasn''t really noticeable before, but now I can actually can use just enough strength to go and pull myself up whereas before and in the past I would go and use all of my strength no matter what task I was doing. It was actually a bad problem I had developed and many drill instructors tried to pry it out of me, but they had a hell of a time and tried to punish me for it. It''s funny to think about now since because of their actions my stamina was typically better than everyone else''s. It was a pain when it was happening, but now thinking about it it is nice being able to actually have control over my strength, I remember some bad things I did. Nothing too horrible but I have destroyed a few things of my own when I got a bit upset (mostly at videogames.) that was in the past though and I chilled out over time... mostly. Well wouldn''t Drill Sergeant Leir be proud of me now! Well enough of what I''ve done in the past and the change I''ve been through. I still have an hour and a half left so I may as well go and familiarize myself with the things that I''ll be using. I walked down to the hangar and saw most people busy, one of the people who wasn''t busy was the pilot who wore some very stereotypical aviators, so I decided to go and talk to her. When she noticed me walking towards her she folded her arms over her chest, "So after that debacle in the cafeteria are you going to try to hit on me like all the other Marines on here?" Jeez, isn''t this supposed to be hundreds of years in the future or something like that? You''d think guys would learn to keep it in there pants, but I guess this movie was imagined with the 80''s in mind. I sigh and tell her that I''m not here to try and sleep with her which makes her even more defensive so I quickly get to why I walked over here, I wanted to see how hard it was to pilot the ship. She however got even more defensive and asked me why I cared. I am going to guess that she was trying to deflect me away from her and assumed I was still here to hit on her. I''m trying to just talk to you lady! God this is taxing on me, but I go and tell her that I had some piloting experience. I decide to keep it somewhat hidden and say I had some experience on some old relics, since I mean the things I flew would be old as shit for this time. Hearing this she asked me what I''ve flown, I mean I was prepared to tell her exactly what I''ve flown I just didn''t want to tell her if I didn''t have to. I tell her I have the most experience in a Black Hawk Helicopter, and I have some experience in various military jets. At this point she can see that I''m telling the truth and takes off her glasses. I then thought she''d start talking to me about the plane she''d be flying, but instead began talking to me about the things I''ve flown. Apparently the reason she became a pilot was because she was an aviation nerd. Not that she told me, but some of these stats she told me are just... what the fuck? Like how would even their own engineers know some of these things, plus she knew when each was last used in major conflict and knew every single time that the Black Hawk helicopter was used even after being decommissioned. Granted all of this was amazing and all that, but I got her back on track and asked her about the plane, and she excitedly took me up to the cockpit to go and show me some of the things there. Without showing me how to exactly fly the plane since we obviously couldn''t fly while it was being loaded she ran me through step by step on how to do each thing. It was amazing really, this was a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft that was able to, under it''s own power, break through many planets (not all of course) gravitational fields with relative ease. It was rather odd actually, after seeing all this I feel that I would be able to fly this plane myself, in fact I would love to try to fly this myself but don''t believe I can do it without some corrections, best I''d be able to do is probably co-pilot. All in all, it took half an hour of my time to learn about the plane from the pilot who would''ve kept going if it wasn''t for the fact that it was time for the pre-flight checklist. She by law couldn''t have someone up there without proper clearance and definitely would get in trouble if I was there for her run through. I didn''t mind though as I wanted to go and check out the APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) as well. This was much easier to look at since I''d be riding in here with everyone else, I got a brief run through on how it works, but nothing too concrete since it was clear this guy didn''t want me here. As I was walking out though I noticed how there was a few things that could easily be shaken loose so I made a quick comment about it. The man was surprisingly nice about it and thanked me for it, apparently one of the things that was part of that was something that could be broken easily, some kind of signaling/control device, as well as some explosives. I smiled as I recalled that one of the reasons more people died was because that device broke, but now I''ve just ensured that more of them have gone and survived, so long as everything continues along as planned that is. Now though I still had another 45 minutes till I had to get my gear on so I went to some of the people that were in charge and helped them out here and there, and as soon as time passed I went and got everything strapped onto me, as well as the backpack I brought with me that contained everything, including the food tube things. It all weighed a shit ton, but thankfully or unthankfully the only gun I was given was the rifle and a few clips for it as well as a few extra clips and bullets for my pistol. It felt odd being back in a uniform, but something about it also made me feel comfortable. Even with the camera on me, I remember having a camera on my uniform so that they could give me orders real time, I have even had to give orders real time at points. Everything about it felt nostalgic to me, in good and bad ways. I just pushed everything back down like I usually do though and marched forward and took a spot on the APC to get ready for the combat drop and the eventual hordes of those alien/xenomorph/reptile looking bastards. Honestly those things go and creep me out oh so, so fucking much, but I do feel confident enough in going and changing some of the events that happened in the movie, with my main goal being to keep more people alive, and a nice goal that is tied to the first one is keeping Bishop alive. He is a great guy in the movie that goes above and beyond what he should have to do, even to the point of going and getting cut in half to save Ripley and Newt, and in the third movie... well we don''t walk about alien 3. Or 4. Those don''t exist, everyone live''s happily ever after (except for those that died of course). Touchdown The whole ride down to the planet I just sat there with my eyes closed and trying to remember everything that happened in the movie, but it was so long ago that I just can''t remember it all, but I remember some of the main events, namely the lack of colonists being in the base and then when they look for the colonists they see they are under the cooling towers of the nuclear reactor, then there was how they had to drop many of their weapons because of it having a chance to explode, and they also were surrounded by them. After that I think their plane crashed while they tried to get out, something stopped them from calling the second plane, so they had to send Bishop down the most claustrophobic pipe you would ever see. After all that I can really only remember the ending where they get overrun by the Xenomorphs, most people die, Ripley and Newt barely make it onto the plane with bishop, and the very last thing was them fighting the Alien where while ripped in half bishop saved Newt. That''s right, even if he''s an Android it''s badass as hell that he went and, while basically just a torso, kept on helping them both. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried at the scene and it''s why I remember it so well. While I was contemplating the series of events I was suddenly jerked around, causing me to look around and see a couple Marines cheering from, what I will assume to be, touching down onto this godforsaken moon. I look at Ripley who happened to lock eyes with me, and what I saw was someone who understood horror, not the likes in movies, but the kind that you get when you walk into a room and see body parts strewn about and some choice parts of your friend in a pot. When I saw that I decided to send her a slight nod of understanding, one which she actually returned since I was one of the only people here to actually understand her hesitation. After around 5 minutes of driving on the ground we rolled to a stop, one of the Marines, the captain probably of their squad, stood up and had everyone march out. I knew what to expect here so I didn''t have as many nerves as the marines here had, which actually earned me the relatively scornful glances from a few of them. Or well I was until I heard gunfire when we were almost finished opening up the gate leading into the colony''s main building. We all flipped the various visors that we had on, and when I flipped mine on I discovered it didn''t work, well not that I need it. I have some experience going and dealing with night operations so it shouldn''t be too bad, especially since I was supplied a flashlight. Wait, nighttime? Fuck, I just remembered that the Aliens actually attack at night, though it is breaking to be dawn right now so maybe they will keep attacking till the sun, or well star in this case, is high in the sky. God I forgot what kind of Riddick bullshit this is(A/N: Another movie I enjoy and may or may not include. Depends how I feel about it lol), while I was busy complaining in my head though I wasn''t idling, I was continuously sweeping the area and making sure that it was clear, after around 20 minutes of being tense we discovered that the gunshot was a man taking his own life. After giving him a few moments of silence I watched as the Marines brought him... somewhere. One could only hope that he would find rest, that is all that a soldier can wish for in a war, and every colonist here was forced into this war unwillingly. I sigh as I see the Company man, Ripley, and the guy in charge of this operation walk in. Since I don''t want to do anything unwarranted I have to avoid doing anything hostile to the sleazebag company man, since I was hired by him (The Company) he could also fire me, and who knew how this would turn out if that happened, I''d rather not go through this shit again, it''s like a giant unskippable cutscene. I just keep being an idle character in the background as the events from the movie pass by me, and half an hour later I get a message:The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Congratulations! Mission Completed! Rewards-100 credits, +1 increase to any single stat below 10
Would you like to return to hub world before resuming missions? Y/N
I look around me and notice that everyone and everything is actually staying completely still, and when I try to move I notice I can only move my head an arms, my legs are the only really part I can''t control which is strange. I guess so that I can''t abuse this and move around somewhere? I sigh and just push the N, there''s not really anything that I can do, plus I had the thought, if I got a hidden objective for something that stupid, what would happen if I stay in this world until I reach the end of the events? Now I don''t know if that is confirmed of course, but I would definitely like to earn more rewards and then go and get a good meal before relaxing for a long time... actually that sounds very nice. No, I can''t give in yet. I need to keep my momentum up so that I can actually do this. After getting my bearings back I get another notification:
Mission Received!
Investigate the Colonists positions and rescue any survivors.
Rewards-200 credits
Fail conditions- Death. Ripley or Newt death
Penalties- Removal from world, 200 credits lost, world restarts
I sigh and see that they are looking at where all the colonists are, and that Newt is actually there. I must have been thinking too intensely that I didn''t even notice her... I''ll need to work on that since that could be a major problem for me. I walk up and look at the map they are observing and listen to what they are saying, then since I remember this bit pretty well I leave a question that makes everyone stop moving, "Isn''t this right below the cooling tanks? Think our weaponry would be useful and well, safe down there?" They all look at me as the one in charge zooms in before sighing and pinching his brow, "As much as I hate to admit it, he''s right. Alright everyone, no assault rifles right now, or grenades! Pass all the guns in, we''re going to leave them here with Bishop and... you marine." The man pointed at one of the females in the group and she saluted in response to his order. That''s a little bit done now, but well that doesn''t mean that I saved any lives, all that it means is that I saved some ammo and guns from being lost down there, which yeah, is a dick move but well they weren''t going to use it, and that ammo could have saved their lives. I hand over the rifle and few clips I was handed and check the pistol that I had on me, and when they see the meager form of defense I have, the man in charge hands me a semi automatic rifle, I''m not too sure on its make since its clearly recently made, but he nods as he hands it to me. I am actually much more comfortable with this than I am any of the other guns here since I used to be a great shot, now the only reason I am hesitant is because I saw the movie and know just how these monsters treat bullets, and if I can shred it to pieces then I would be happier. The only saving grace that this has though compared to my typical rifle is, as I said earlier, it''s a semi-automatic whereas I would typically use bolt-action. I check the chamber and clip a few times before I sling it onto my back and follow the Marines back to the jeep and for us to descend into that horrible abyss, however I hope that I can shoot a Xenomorph in the walls, maybe I can save the Marine''s lives, especially since it is highly unlikely that there is anyone alive in there, though I don''t want to send anyone to their deaths, so I won''t be able to shoot until we confirm that the colonists are all dead. I sigh as I set my head against the head rest for the short 10 minute trip, I need to handle things as best I can. Chaos *Point of view of Marine on point* (A/N: Yeah I don''t really bother with their names too much. That''s why I just call them what they are, Marines. Now is this rude to their characters? Probably, but well there was so much dialogue in the movie plus a lot of them weren''t even really named. Like I think one was named sarge like the stereotypical sergeant so please cope with it, sorry but this isn''t a problem I typically have and feel I should say this is a one time deal, but well I know there will be times I''m overwhelmed with names or it not being clear, at that point though I''ll just roll with it and hope you can bear with me.) God I am already sick of this mission, not only is this chick that doesn''t know shit about battle come in here and tell us to do our job, but the company went and hired a Merc as well as us? He didn''t even come equipped with armor, so what the hell? For fucks sake, all he brought was a pistol with him. Every single one of us had a secondary weapon besides our rifle, so no matter what enemy we faced it''s only right that you go and prepare for worst case scenario. Our worst case scenario is the nuke we''ve got strapped onto our ship. Look at that smug bastard too, he isn''t even alert right now when we''re about to go and rescue the people that he was hired to rescue! God, this guy had better be special and not just full of himself like he was on the ship, though I gotta say, it was funny watching him stare down that southern asshole. That smile will only go so far and it''s wearing its welcome out. Pledging not to be like this asshole I crane my neck to the left to take a look at the monitors of the driver and see the gate to the reactor getting close so I do another check on my sidearm, making sure it is loaded and that the safety was on, something that I had checked many times as a force of habit, I don''t really want to lose another toe, especially since I''ve passed basic training. As the transport came to a stop I strapped the pistol to my side and filed out with me leading since I was the closest and well, had the most hacking experience. I went up to the door, and as I already had the key (they didn''t know that so I just looked like I was busy) it was relatively easy to open. I then watched as the transport moved into the building and I walked slowly by it before watching the doors close. Since the transport didn''t actually go too much farther than where I was I turned on the flashlight I had on my should and checked that my camera was on before lining up with the rest. As usual I was to be in the front heading things off, and like I expected, whatever that mans name was is in the back. He''s just here to leech money isn''t he? No, I can''t get upset at him, I''ve seen how cruel it is to survive so I can''t fault him for that so long as he doesn''t hold us back. I followed the directions coming to me in the coms and began descending 3 floors, and since this was relatively close quarter my rifle would be quite useless so I slung it and drew my pistol to check the stairs and various corridors that we passed by. That was until we got to the floor we were supposed to be in, the floor that led to not just the colonists but also the coolant towers, however that wasn''t really what we found here, what we found was some... strange organic substance, at least I think it was organic and not intentional. That would be some weird Halloween decoration, especially since it should be next month. We all visibly tensed up, even the merc, so even though this is dangerous I was both more and less scared, more afraid because what would make that man who seems to just keep to himself and do nothing most of the time go and have anxiety, but it made me less afraid because he actually seems like he''ll be able to cover my back. After a few minutes of going through the tunnels made of the flesh looking material the person in charge of scanning close to me had us all hold for a moment, he was detecting 7 signatures moving up ahead, now whether that is the boogeyman that Ripley was talking about or all the colonists hiding out in here, we can''t know yet. That wouldn''t stop us though, we had to push forward as we were ordered, and when we entered we the area where the movement was we saw a small child with his... it made me gag a bit thinking about it, but his chest burst open. It wasn''t like any explosive I had seen, but the closest I would imagine would be something akin to claymore explosives from back in the day, however those are large and what kind of monster would put that inside of a child? We continued clearing the room and saw some kind of empty casing in the middle of it and some creatures we had found in the laboratory back in the Colony''s main hub laying all over the ground. They actually look a lot like spiders would when they were killed with some kind of pesticide, on their backs and their legs folding inward. I shuddered at the thought though because, well spiders and fucking disgusting and I don''t want to fight these things. After a few moments and us checking people we finally were able to find several people that were alive but unconscious. *Main Character Point of View*This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The timeline is definitely sped up, so there was actually a very real chance that there would be people that are still alive, and I was actually very happy internally, or I was until 3 of the 7 colonists we found still breathing had facehuggers underneath them. I stopped the marines going by them and pointed at them causing them to stop for a moment. I told them that they are ''infected'' in simple terms and that the ones that had the aliens in them were as good as dead, however we would be able to save the remaining colonists. One of them actually went up to me to scream in my face, but their sergeant covered his mouth and put his finger over his lips before pointing at an egg that was opening up to the side of us. I didn''t even notice it, so I have to give him props for noticing that, but now wasn''t the time so he told the Marines to start moving the safe people out as we covered them. It was, quite frankly, much more terrifying than I thought originally. The way it moved just felt so, so unnatural to me. I couldn''t let it get to me though so I kept it in my sights while my pistol was unclipped and ready for me to use it whenever the need should arrive. I didn''t fire at it immediately however as I knew what kind of hell I would awaken if I fired, and when I looked at the other 2 marines that were holding the backline with me as the others escorted the colonists that were still alive, I just shook my heads and pointed around us. The sergeant nodded, however dunce with the shotgun didn''t and fired right at it, causing a ringing throughout the facility and a spray of acid going around the crawling alien. I heard from behind us, near the entrance to the tunnel we first entered, that there was movement all around us so I trained my rifle at the walls and continued retreating backwards at a steady pace. After getting 3 or so meters I saw in the ceiling some movement so I fired 2 shots as I heard in the comms that the other team was at the top of the stairs by now. Seeing me take the shot the four of us retreated with me and their sergeant in front and the other two, one of which is southern dingus who also was the one with the shotgun, were ''in front'' of us while we retreated backwards. After I killed the one alien they started gushing forth like a torrent so we were forced to retreat faster, and whenever I reached a bend in the stairway I would turn and plant a shot in the overly large head of these creatures. I ended up in the back of everyone due to this, and along the way up Southern guy cried out as one of them grabbed him through the stairs, and knowing that this is the better alternative I put the rifle bare distance away from it''s wrist (do they have wrists? Would it just be its arm then or?) and shot it off, and due to how I did it he got off with the acid only getting the sole of his right boot. I then turned and saw that I was very close to an alien so I backed away after he moved upwards and fired before jumping back. I almost lost my footing, but thankfully due to upgrading my balance I managed to stick the landing and continued running up the stairs. When I got to the top I saw that everyone was holding off a horde with their rag tag weapons, and when we asked for support on comms all that we got was silence so we had to hold, not just for us but for the colonists. I quickly posted up and aimed down a hallway that was swarming with them and shot into them while trying at least a bit to hit my targets. Sadly it has been years so my aim is off by a few inches, or well it''s the rifle but I''d be more inclined to believe it is me getting worse, however even though I keep missing my targets it''s so damned congested where I''m firing that nobody could even tell I was aiming for their neck, it just looked like I was going for a body shot. After holding out for a few minutes I knew that we were losing ground way too fast and there was still no response on the other end, so I called out to everyone to retreat and grab the colonists. Thankfully I''m actually dressed light so I was able to sling a relatively heavy man over my shoulder while still using my rifle, albeit even worse though so it was better to use my pistol. I turned my head and saw that the heavy Marines were covering the rear while the other ones that weren''t carrying someone were watching the sides. As we kept moving they continued their swarm tactics for the 10 meters that we had managed before, albeit a bit later, like in the movie the APC came around the corner quickly before stopping. All the ones carrying the colonists moved up to APC to set them in before either getting in or moving to cover the way in. After a minute and almost everyone in, the last 2 people were others that had a rifle and shotgun, the guy that wasn''t the southern guy were in, and while I was trying to cover them, they had both been ripped to shreds, and as much as I hate to say this as it''s conceited, it was their fault. They were told multiple times to move back, however, try as I might they just would not listen. I didn''t know them that much, nor will I probably ever know them which I feel extremely bad for, but I will appreciate what they did, even if they could have lived, since it was a very thoughtful self sacrifice for the survival of everyone. I sigh and reload the rifle and pistol clips that I had expended in the fight, especially since I don''t know when I would need them again. All through the drive, everyone was silent until the vehicle came to a grinding halt, apparently Ripley had broken something, not that I can blame her, but at least we had gotten relatively close to the colony HQ. When we exited we called the pilot who informed us that, as per my advice I gave her on the ship she had been aware while on the ship and narrowly killed an Alien, however the acid from it landed on some core components so they were grounded. I looked to the sky and saw that the sun was going to set in around 6 hours time, maybe more or less depending on how this moon worked, but whenever it was it would be very intense in that time. I sighed since I hoped that we would have been able to go without surviving in the night, but knowing that it wasn''t possible I grabbed a good amount of the supplies in the carrier while also grabbing one of the colonists while following the marines to the HQ. Bishop I sat off to the side as I started thinking about everything we had learned, including details from the colonists that have now just started waking up. They didn''t know too much about how the situation came about, but that doesn''t really matter since I know what happened and that it''s on the computers somewhere. In fact since I know it''s somewhere there, but not where, I asked the Marine who was doing all the hacking to go and look through all the Data logs within a few months so we could go and pin it on Mr. Company Man himself, maybe even have him do something that''ll give me an excuse to shoot him. I was also taking stock of everything, which I think is a lot more than the movie was at in this point, however apparently even though we have the device to signal the ship there is atmospheric interference or some shit like that according to the pilot and tech, will persist for at least another 14 hours according to the satellite imagery that they have. I just sighed when they told us this and when it was brought up, the other plane was pretty much scrapped because it wouldn''t be able to leave the ground, they also told us that it''d take well over 2 weeks before we are noted as missing and can hope for rescue. Besides that well, right now Mr. Texas himself came up to me just moments ago while I was trying to contemplate things, and surprise surprise he came up to me to yell at me and of course went for the cheapest shot that wasn''t even accurate, "Now listen here you French motherfucker, you are a merc. Meaning you are hired help, not hired help to take charge of the mission, not the person to have us retreat, and definitely not the motherfucker that is able to get 2 of my best goddamned friends killed while you get to live god dammit!" I sigh since I''ve seen this guy before a lot. He''s just trying to get the herd mentality going to gang up on me, and as I can see they are already all congregating with a couple actually nodding their heads. I sigh and put my index finger up, "Number 1, I''m a Finnish motherfucker, not a french one. Our accent is a different kind of sexy than theirs and, in my opinion a bit more fluid." I then sigh once more seeing him look around with a look of ''Can you believe this guy?'', then I put up my middle finger along with my index, "Second, I''ve been a citizen of America for years now and, follow up to the first one, lost my accent. Now I can still have my Finnish accent, but why would I when people like you will call me french." I then cough and raise my ring finger, "Which leads me to the last point before I let you get a free hit in. Since I have no accent, you must''ve read my file and known I was in fact, not from France, and you just picked a random country in Europe where men are supposed to be sexy, so I must say that flatters me a bit. Now bit of last warning, knock me out in one hit eh? If you don''t I will headbutt you quite hard." I smirk a bit, everything I said was true but just me spouting nonsense to get him flustered and hit me. I don''t really care about any of that shit but I want him to hit me so I can get his trouble making ass out of the way, especially since he''s likeliest to get us all killed in the upcoming chaos. He looks at me then at the people around him for a moment, then when he looks back at me and sees my smirk, he cocks his fist back before sending it right out at my right eye, and I am by no means a small guy, but this man was big! Easily 2 meters tall and definitely has trained hard so I go limp at the touch and slide a meter on the ground, how do I know this? Well I''m still awake, there''s a reason I don''t feel scared going and dealing with him, and that''s because I''ve been hurt by bigger and by worse. Smirking still I stand back up, well aware of the fact that I am in pain, but I push myself back up without trying to be quiet at all, in fact I owe the son of a bitch a headbutt like I promised. Now you may wonder why a headbutt? Well I have had to do this many times and learned that knocking someone out with a headbutt is a good damn way to earn respect because it seems so much more personal than a fist, plus I feel your head is harder than a fist, but I am not qualified for stating that at all and just have my own personal experience to fall back on for this. When I walk up to him and stare him dead in the eyes I say, "Hey, you didn''t knock me out in one hit so now it''s my turn. If you apologize I won''t headbutt you in the face and will instead hit you somewhere that''d hurt a hell of a lot less." To this he laughed like he didn''t think I would do it, well never say I don''t step up to plate. I tap him on the nose to make him look towards me before I lean back and swing my head forward while tucking my chin close to my chest so I don''t hit him with forehead and knock myself out... Yes I''ve knocked myself out with my own headbutt, it was a rather embarrassing time back when I was in my very early 20''s. This headbutt however carried my years of experience with it, and even though it has been neglected for a similar time as I perfected it, my body remembered the movements and I firmly struck him, making him go limp. In fact he would have been hurt worse, but I grabbed his strap as he collapsed while the other went to my head that was pounding. It seems a lot of my pain tolerance from training has been lost a bit over time. I then let the other marines take care of him as I went off and sat down by where I had my rifle when I received a notification:
Congratulations! You have earned skill -Aura Viewing (F)-! Due to specific requirements being met you have unlocked system upgrade -Respect Tracker- ! -Hidden parameter -Aura Viewing (F) -Achieved max respect from a single person Try to collect all system upgrades and even more skills~!
I blink a couple times and look at the people while blinking a couple times to see what the hell these notifications are about only to see that around every person was an array of coloring, with a predominant color in everyone''s set of coloring being yellow with the second most being red, and one person had blue inside of the yellow instead of red, and the pilot''s being a green hidden inside of the yellow coloring. I shook my head and thought of ignoring the colors. I need to go and figure things out first and don''t want to deal with this shit right now.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. After a moment of me closing my eyes and inhaling I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw that there was the medic standing in front of me with her bag, "Hey, I''m here to check out your head. It took 2 major blows there, though I suppose I should commend you for having the sense to use the top of your head instead of your forehead like most amateurs." I just nodded and let her carry on with the test, following the light with my eyes, seeing if my pupils are fine, the standard shit, then she tossed me a packet of pain relievers to take so I thanked her before letting her go off to handle dingus. After sitting for another half an hour, which right now is precious moments, but everyone is using this as a breathing period to get their bearings and check on things so not that much of a loss I guess? After I was done I opened up my briefcase and looked at the little tubes, on the back of a honey glazed ham one it said it has enough nutrients for one adult to have a full meal, so I grab a handful and give everyone here one, and tell Newt and the other kid we saved not to eat more than 3/4ths of it since, well I don''t know what''d happen if they ate too much. If you''re wondering if asshole got one, yes he did. I discovered that there is also badly flavored foods so I couldn''t help but thank the system. The lucky winner, in fact, got some asparagus flavored paste~! So if he wants to eat he gets that or something else, and given how everyone is so happy to get these tubes everyone must be pretty hungry. That''ll be my last but of revenge though since I think after that it''ll be even. Tit for tat if you know what I mean. Anyways, after I passed out the tubes I was in less pain and full on lasagna flavor, and I have to say, it did taste like lasagna and indeed made me feel full, I went up to the table where there were 2 of the Marines talking over the layout so I decide to voice my opinion since I''m not really in charge of this operation as Tex put it. I tell them how we need to start fortifying this place since it''ll be night in a few hours, and as Newt put it, is when they come. Well I personally am not a fan of that so after they realize that they will actually have to fight a horde of these things they nod and begin quite seriously looking down at the layout before calling out to various marines to do tasks, some were in charge of sealing doors, some setting up turrets, and before they forgot I reminded them about vents and a couple spots they had missed in the movie. There was so much stuff for us to take care of that we actually only finished around half an hour before night actually fell, but I feel satisfied that we will be able to hold out alright. We set up all the turrets at choke points, we had more than 5,000 rounds for our rifles, our flamethrowers were doing decently, and we had 20 or so grenades, not to mention all the food paste that I have. With this we can hold out for a decent while waiting for the storm, and maybe even for the whole time that it''d take for us to be noted as missing, though I wouldn''t want to go that far if I''m being honest. Well actually, there should only be a limited amount of these things so maybe after killing enough of them we''d be solid? I decided to put it off for a bit and lay my head down to take a bit of a nap since its been well over 24 hours since I last slept when suddenly an alarm went off, which surprised me a lot and reminded me of what scene it was so I grabbed my gun and ran off towards the science room which I was not too far from. As soon as I got to it and saw that the other marines were trying to open the doors that were locked I called out, "Shooting out the glass!" And giving them a moment to ready themselves I fired at it, causing the whole window to crumble. Three of us then jumped in and saw that a facehugger was actually almost on Ripley, and another was approaching Newt which I quickly shot since I felt safe enough that the acid wouldn''t hit her before I went to help Ripley. There were already 2 marines helping her, but I saw that neither were removing its constricting tail from around her neck, so I took up that role myself before eventually being handed off the whole thing as I had the best grip on it. I called out where I was going to throw it and saw that they all had their guns pointed in the area so, with a fair amount of my strength I chucked it and saw the thing turn into paste. I helped carry Newt back into the main area since she was very visibly shaken up, and Ripley was helped out by the Marine she was flirting with earlier in the day before she said what she thought happened, Mr. Company Man apparently planned to go and put the creature in both Newt and Ripley before freezing them for the trip back to earth where they would be used in the company for making more of them. Apparently he didn''t even bother defending himself and saying that she was a fool for not taking the opportunity to make this insane amount of money, and then as if on queue the guy I asked to check all the data spoke up saying that awhile ago they actually had received a notification for the Company Man to investigate an area, to which Ripley spoke up and asked why he sent them to the coordinates she specifically warned him about? After 5 minutes of being pressured by everyone he pulled a pistol out and pointed it at Ripley, which caused everyone to go and point guns at him as well, he then ordered bishop to help him out since, I guess bishop was made by the company or brought by the guy I guess? I don''t know I never saw this in the movie, but Ripley was giving them both eyes, eyes to Company Man of blame, and eyes that she expects nothing less from an android. We all visibly tensed up as Bishop walked behind Burke (A/N: I can only keep writing company man so long before it gets annoying to type it.) and said one line, "A man chooses, a slave obeys." which caused him to turn around and see a pistol from bishop pointed right in his face. It was also the last thing he saw and that is something I wish I didn''t see, but thankfully covered newts eyes as she was standing right by me. His pistol actually flew out of his hands and slid right to my feet so I crouched down to pick it up when I got a notification:
Treasure found - Company Man Unable to analyze, take to person with Analyze ? or above!
I don''t know what it is good for, but I''m sure it''s better than my pistol so I decide to keep it in my backpack. Before I can get anything else ready though I got another notification:
Emergency Quest Received- Survive the night until the Electrical storm passes! Reward: Unknown Fail Condition: User Death, Ripley or Newt Death Penalty: 300 credits, removal from world, world restarts, treasure and upgrades lost
My eye twitches a bit at the last one, why do they need to keep threatening me with restarting the world! God damn, well I guess it''s a good punishment given the fact I definitely don''t want to go through all of this shit all over again since that''d just be annoying. Now though, we need to get ready to survive the onslaught that would be coming soon. Safety in our grasp? I watch as the sun fades in the distance and the shadows grow longer until they eventually take over the whole landscape, however I''m sure that the aliens won''t attack us yet, they still need to travel here so we have people taking short naps in shifts until they hit the first turrets. During this brief time before the storm the guy I headbutt woke up, but I didn''t talk to him, the medic was enough to deal with him. Right now I wanted to enjoy the last few minutes before the chaos happened. I leaned back in one of the chairs we had and closed my eyes, I need to keep myself calm. It has been so long since I''ve actually been in a military situation like this that the stress is getting to me quite a bit, even more so because well, I''m in a horror/action movie where these well trained, or at least they''re supposed to be well trained, maybe they''re just well equipped, people get slaughtered. In fact the sad truth of the matter is I think the colonists actually lasted longer than these guys did in the movie. Alright well, I just need to go and focus on the goals I have at the moment, right now it''s just to finish this movie off which should be when I go and get everyone onto that damned ship. How much longer do we have anyways? I pulled up my watch and sighed seeing that we still had to get past 12 hours of these bastards, 11 of which will be during the night. After that though we should have free reign to get the spare ship down here then bring everyone back up to the main ship. For the next hour there was no sign of the xenomorph bastards while most of us tried to get even half an hour of sleep, we knew that we''d need it based on the fact we''d probably be fighting all night and any sleep would be precious. It wasn''t easy though considering every single thing made us jump, in fact one such thing that scared us was apparently there was a cat here. We didn''t notice it during our sweep earlier but it''s a cat so it''s not like it was moving that much. Aside from that, the whole hour was relatively peaceful, that is when the turrets began unloading their clips though. For around half an hour the first line of turrets kept firing and firing till they ran out of ammo. I have no clue how many died, but I''m willing to bet it''s not enough, my assumption was later confirmed by more turrets firing. It continued like this for another hour until we were down to our last 2 turrets. Their numbers must have dwindled down by now though given the fact that the last two guns have been firing less and less as time goes by. Now it''s currently hour 5 at night and the last contact was an hour ago. If I remember right, what ended up happening next in the movie was them coming from above, but we blocked it off so we shouldn''t have to worry about that. I began talking with everyone about our plan and to see if there was any progress on the weather. To my surprise when they checked they actually said that it had moved out of the way and that they could start piloting the plane down here! I told the pilot to get on that, and she told me it can be down here in an hour, hour and a half maybe if the wind picks up too much. For around 30 minutes there was nothing happening, then the turrets suddenly began firing nonstop, we couldn''t even see what it was they were firing at from their camera''s so we all picked up our rifles and aimed it at the door when we heard them run out of ammo. To our surprise though nothing came through the door, however the lights were suddenly shut off with only red lights oscillating every so often. "They are smart enough to try and blind us... do they realize what we''re trying to do?" Every marine and person in the room turned to look at me as I said that, "You head me, I think they know what we''re trying to do somehow, not just that we''re trying to hold off until morning anymore. These things, I think they can think..." Some scoffed at what I said and called me a dumbass and that these were nothing but animals. They claimed that every single thing that was happening with that was just coincidence, I can''t blame them since, for the last who knows how long, they''ve been walking into out bullets without stopping. I just shook my head at these people as we all turned on various lights that we had with us, some flashlights, some lanterns, and some forgoing anything but night vision. This time we had around 20 minutes of peace before the guns fired the last of their ammunition and we were greeted by silence that terrified every single one of us. Nobody dared make a sound as a pair of marines continued checking the movement sensors for any sign that the Aliens were moving. I watched silently as sweat formed on my forehead, I was able to hear all the beeps from a meter or 2 away, so I could tell that they were swarming this room with how much each device was beeping. I closed my eyes and focused on getting a grasp on my senses like I was taught in basics, however it took me too long to be able to finally make myself stop worrying about the approaching threat since I don''t remember any rules or ideas about what to do in a situation like this. Thinking about that made me shudder unexpectedly, what would the military do if they had to deal with these things back when I came from? It would be a slaughter, the military to my knowledge does not have the capability of defending against these things, especially given how stubborn some of the higher ups are to change and people saying anything. Like back in my old unit, if I tried to do anything like I''ve done here then even if I was a mercenary I would''ve had the shit beaten out of me, and it has before... however sometimes people have to change once they see something that shouldn''t be. I''ve always have been fast to adapt to change, it''s probably the only reason that I can handle so well, but given the fact that I can probably die at any moment my defenses are crumbling. Suddenly the beeping stopped the sound that it was getting closer, I craned my neck so that I could see the screen of the motion tracker, and found all the moving entities were behind the door that leads to this room. When I was getting ready to slowly walk over to the trackers I heard a highly audible sizzle coming from the left of me, someone else must have heard it as well because I saw someones flashlight shined right on it, showing a creatures dead body on a hole in the door with another climbing over it. Not wanting to take a chance I immediately raised the rifle that I had and shot a burst of rounds into it, making its large head be torn to pieces. Before I could pull back though another began climbing through so I started shooting at its head as well. "They know we''re here! Shoot them but make sure you don''t waste ammo!" I call out to the marines, the last thing we need is a battle of attrition in this mess so its infinitely better to just be patient with our shots until we are sure we can hit them. In fact that''s the largest flaw with the turrets that we had deployed previously, they just kept throwing ammo at a moving enemy whether it is alive or dead. After killing 5 of them I heard the marines holding the scanners shout out, "The scanners show they''re right next to us! Someone search for them!" I knew that the only chance that they would have gotten through the door was if it was right after/during when the creature died, or they are above/below us. I am more inclined to believe that they''re above us given how to story went before, especially given the fact that I wasn''t even the first person to be looking at the hole in the door and I had happened to look at it pretty fast as well. I started sweeping the roof above us when I suddenly heard a shriek. I turned and saw Newt was pointing above her, and when I looked at what it was it was quite obviously a growing hole for the alien to enter from. I rushed over since the door was being watched pretty decently, when I got close by I grabbed newt and the young boy and made sure that they were behind me while I kept the rifle trained at the hole. Against my expectations however the hole didn''t stop growing, in fact I think that they were dragging a dead aliens body along the vents since the acid started taking out large swaths of the ceiling. In fact, it is getting much harder for me to feel safe, like the Alien will stab me through with its tail at any time. I picked the 2 kids up and called out, "How are they looking on the trackers?! We won''t be able to hold out here much longer!" I then got a response, "They''re everywhere around us! What do you mean we can''t hold for long?" I called out to everyone and told them the situation and that we need to push through to get outside to by the APC since we can set up a solid defense around it. Someone didn''t like what I said and started mouthing off, but another marine quickly shut the man down. He then called for everyone to go and grab what you can, heavy troopers were to clear out a path, everyone else was to watch their backs.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I was already holding the 2 children so I quickly grabbed my backpack with minor readjustments. Within 5 minutes we were all ready to set out, however they had started to climb from the ceiling in their many paths to get to us. We were trying our best to hold them off, but we just didn''t know where they could come from next unlike the door, if this situation right here doesn''t prove that they''re smart then I don''t really know what does. In the next instant we all left quickly through the melted door as we killed the last few creatures that weren''t above us, I had to quickly hop out of the way at one point because there was an alien right above me and the kids, and when it was killed the acid almost drenched us. It took us a total of 10 minutes to get out of the place due to how far it was from the main entrance and how many aliens were blocking the way, however from when I asked the pilot it seemed the ship was on it''s way down now, it may be about 20 minutes now, possibly more since she is trying her best to pilot while running. If I didn''t know how much of a plane nut she was I would tell her to hand it over to bishop, but knowing how she is I am likely to get slapped. After an additional 5 minutes we got to the APC where we quickly set up a defensive circle once we checked its internals for any creatures that may be laying a trap. However we didn''t see a single alien anywhere near us until the plane was just about to drop down, that is when all of them began rushing at us quickly, making it so that we couldn''t get to the plane that was less than 30 meters away from us as fast as we would like. After holding for a few seconds one of the marine leaders called out, "APC begin salvo!" I would have looked up to see what it was that the salvo was, but had to hold the line or else I''d compromise the circle for everyone else, however I didn''t need to be curious about it for long as explosions began targeting some of the thickest clusters of the Aliens, lessening our burdens by a bit, but not enough that it didn''t feel that I was living in hell and fighting off a relentless horde of demons like Doom Guy. After firing for around 5 steady minutes my head was pounding, I had been trained to withstand the fire of rifles and distant explosions whether my eardrums liked it or not, but I wasn''t ready for a cannon to be fired basically right next to me. I had to fight the pain and continue holding, in fact I didn''t even notice that someone had called out the order to circle to the plane until Bishop when and patted my shoulder and pointed to the plane. I was so out of it that I couldn''t even hear him talking, however I was able to barely understand his message and began the shuffle towards it. I don''t even know how long it took at this point, all my training had seemed to go out the window after that salvo they launched, I could feel my vision getting blurry like I hit my head really hard and got a concussion. I think Bishop was sticking close to me because throughout the whole thing he was guiding me where to walk while I continued shooting, he even made it so that I was one of the first ones onto the ship, he tried to get me to sit down, but no matter how out of it I was I could still see black, so I continued firing until the pilot got the ship in the air, which is when everyone collapsed on their asses. I tried calling for some sort of pain killer since my head was pounding, however I couldn''t hear myself call out at all, making me very worried- can the crossroads place cure deafness? I began getting more and more worried until, in the blurs I felt a hand go onto mine and drop a pill. I smiled and tried to say thank you, not knowing if they could hear me at all. I was about to dry swallow the pill when they grabbed my hand again and handed me a canteen of water, thankfully not liquor based on the smell. I took the pill and leaned my head against the wall until we got to the ship, maybe about 30 minutes, and since this is a future/sciencey pill I should be feeling better within that time, at least that''s what I hope. For the next 30 minutes I lived in a world of silence which made me fall asleep from the lack of stimulation, when I woke up I was happy that I no longer had a headache as well as my vision being fine, I was quite disappointed however when I discovered that I still was unable to hear myself talk. I couldn''t be too frightened however as when I looked down I saw not just Newt but the little boy going and cuddling in my lap while I slept, I also saw a couple other Marines sleeping, and another Marine locked eyes with me. She was the Medic so she ran over with her bag and tried talking to me, however as I said before I couldn''t hear. I think I now know what deaf people go through, I have no fucking clue what she''s saying, I want to assume it''s something that I''m handsome since she doesn''t look all that bad, but I''m really certain it''s more so that she''s wondering if I''m okay. I tell her out loud that I can''t hear anything to which she types out on a little wrist PDA, ''Okay, how about your head, vision, anything else hurting?'' I shake my head and tell her other than lack of hearing I''m doing great, she then types out again, ''Just letting you know then, since I know you can''t hear your voice to correct it, you are quite loud, not screaming, but well up there. We''re going to be there in 5 minutes so go ahead and get a little more rest.'' I nod my head and lean back thinking about what to do when I get back, first things first I want to go and get my hearing working, maybe also get my head checked out since even though the symptoms may not be there anymore, the underlying problem may very well exist still. After that I think I''ve earned a vacation for at least a while, I just hope that damn place has entertainment or I''ll have to resort to going to another world as a vacation or spending my days watching the iron giant make pancakes... This was an F-ranked world right? God, what is an A-rank world like I wonder if this is already this difficult for me to go and deal with. Are there even worlds beyond A? I don''t remember any mention of it, but given my memory I don''t know. While I was in the middle of my thoughts I felt a tap on my shoulder, when I looked up it was bishop, and behind him were the marines unloading themselves. I nodded and stood up while still holding the children, I then followed bishop to take them back to the area where all the pods for us to sleep in were, thankfully there were a lot extra even without including the ones that belonged to the fallen marines. I set them each down into their own pod and made sure they were sleeping alright, bishop lagged behind me a bit but it didn''t matter too much to me, I knew where the locker was. All I wanted was to set my stuff down as I could feel the stress and exhaustion leaving me taking with it all the adrenaline that I had. Right when I was about to turn to set my stuff down I heard a very loud high pitched noise, proving that I could still hear a little bit, but not in the way I''d have liked to learn. My headache instantly started coming back, and with it the blurry vision. When I turned around I saw a black object which if it wasn''t for me having seen them before would likely have not realized it was an alien. I reached for the rifle but paled when I realized I handed it over as well as the rifle, though I don''t feel too safe trying to hit the alien from 2 meters meters away let alone the 10 or so I am most likely at. Pushing through my headache I placed my left hand on the wall as I sprinted as fast as I could, keeping my eyes on it the whole time. I got close to it when it was on the larger object, most likely bishop. I would be very worried about him normally, but if I remember right in the movies, the aliens don''t care too much about androids once they learn what they are, well plus I could see the brown blob moving underneath it. I wasn''t going to let this chance slip though, especially with it''s tail caught in the floor, that or a hand of its, either way I stomped down hard onto the appendage and then twisted my boot. I then jumped away quickly since I could barely see the black swing towards me, I must have been a bit too late though as I felt stinging sensations across my chest. I grimaced as I saw it slowly stalk towards me, the only consolation was that Bishop (or whatever the brown blob was) had gotten up and grabbed the smaller blobs and took off running. The creature turned around quickly, however I wasn''t going to take this chance for granted, I leaped onto it and started bashing it whichever which way I saw black, especially spots that I found were squishy in it''s exoskeleton (if this is what I''m punching). The only way I can tell if it''s working at hurting it is the pain that I''m feeling course through my hands, in fact at one point I stop feeling pain which is both a blessing and a curse because I legitimately can''t feel my hands which I think means I lost them or I''m slapping the creature. It was shortly after this point that the alien flung me over and I''m pretty sure was pounced over me ready to use its tongue given by the saliva it was dripping. Thinking about it, being near blind is a blessing right now since I''d be shitting my pants otherwise I''m sure, however I can''t worry about that too much since I may very well die right now. I turn my body quickly to the side in hopes that it was about to fire its tongue thing, and the next instant I felt a stab in my shoulder. Not being one to lose this opportunity either though, I flexed my muscle which made the pain much worse but kept it stuck there, and then chopped at it with my arm since I didn''t even know if I had hands anymore. It seems I was successful because I felt stinging around my shoulder and the creature quickly backed up away from me. I really want to go and rip this thing out of my shoulder, but if I try to, that''s how I know that I do or don''t have hands, and I can''t worry about that right now. Mental breakdowns are for when I have time for one. I dashed quickly towards the blur in my vision and ducked low to the ground, making it jump upward, however I was hoping for this. As smart as it is, it still has survival instincts, especially since I''m sure it can tell I can barely see, so I jumped to intercept it, catching my legs around its chest while my arms were around what is either its arm or its neck, I am hoping for the latter rather than the former. I then used whatever strength I had while it ripped into my back to yank upward. After what felt like an eternity, I felt a pop and saw a notification pop up as I felt a burning pain cover my whole body, making me collapse into darkness.
Mission completed! Teleportation in progress!
The Marketplace After who knows how long I awoke, finding myself in the dreary grey room that I still have not yet acclimated to. No matter which way I look at it, this just does not feel like a room, let alone a home. It feels more like a prison than anything to me. I sat up from where I was and leaned against the wall as I looked at all the notifications that I received before becoming unconscious:
Emergency! Entity is in critical status! Unable to contact-entity unconscious Withdrawing 500 credits for healing process
Success. Acid removed from entity. Appendages regrown and/ or replaced. Internal organs have been re-sealed. Internal organs placed back to original spots internally. Ruptured eardrums repaired. Concussion healed. Growing cancer in left testicle has been eradicated. Healing completed.
Before I could continue on I couldn''t help but laugh and cry at my luck, not only did I have all those problems happening to me, but somehow I was also developing testicular cancer? God this is some bullshit luck that I have. I then continued with the review after my designated self hatred time.
Final world score- B
Missions completed- 2: F->E Side mission completed- 0 : E Hidden objectives completed- 6: E -> C Bonus objective, Survivors - 10+: C -> B
Rewards for world ranking: 1x D-rank world draw, 1,000 credits (A/N: The reason this seems weak is because, well it''s an F-rank world. The reason he got better rewards in the world was because of the hidden objective that he did. That''s why he got so much stuff including the high ranking title.)
Word from officials~ Greetings -Entity Name-, you are getting this message since you have completed your first world! There are many worlds and universe''s out there to explore so don''t stop just yet! In fact, if there is any world you like a lot after beating it you can always go back to it later for a better score, or if you want a challenge later on you can increase the worlds ranking so you can get better stuff! Happy travels hopper!
You have made in impact on one or more entities in the last world you entered. They are willing to become a follower of yours! -Bishop -Emily Wright
In order to recruit companions you must upgrade your living quarters to support a common area and then buy the companion terminal while also having a room built for each companion.
*Notes* Different companions have different needs that you will need to fulfill in order to continue having them as companions. If a companion dies outside of their world then you have to go through the world you originally met them in again and earn their trust again. Special Note: Companions in higher difficulty worlds are obviously better and more effective than those in lower difficulty worlds. If you bring a companion back to the world you met them in they will temporarily lose memories of joining you in other worlds, however they will retain strength gained and the story will be adjusted that they had been going on adventures with you in their own world. If you complete their world at a higher difficulty they can gain a major strength boost while also retaining their memories once they leave. (A/N: Sweet jesus I don''t know how I thought of all those notes regarding companions, but I think I covered everything.)
Congratulations!If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. You have successfully completed a Hidden objective! Hidden Objective: First time completing any world without a break! World(s) done in 1 go: F-1 , E-0... Rewards: 100 credits
(A/N: Okay, now just to answer this since people may be thinking this is a plot hole or something like that, Hidden objectives are rare because they are typically things that you have to go out of your way to do, like the Aliens thing, no sane person would sit there and assert dominance by staring a person in the eyes as a sharp object could cut off your fingers, you have to have some willpower for that, hence it being a hidden objective since most wouldn''t do that. Plus not everyone may have the opportunity to go and get a hidden objective. As for the taking a break thing, I would assume most people would want to go back to the world that they know way more often than they would want to stay, hence him getting this hidden objective done, but it is still relatively easy hence the reward.) Jesus, all that shit happened to me and what do I have to show for it? 1,100 credits? God, that would have left me with only 600 to go and do other stuff with. Well I should probably head out now, I need to figure out how to go and upgrade this place, maybe I can make it livable, maybe get a TV, a console would be cool too. Maybe a computer, some movies. Man reading a good book sounds amazing right now too, yeah I guess I''ll try to figure that out! I walk to the door and select ''The Crossroads'' from the short list containing 2 locations currently, I then walk through the bright white door to a location just like the one I had dropped down in last time. I decided to go exploring a bit since I still have 0 clue what it was that this place was, so I went with the flow of people to the right instead of the left to WARP. After wrapping around the corner I found myself in front of a rather large building with the sign ''The Market!'' on the roof. I shrugged my shoulders and walked into the building who''s width would make Walmart blush. As soon as I entered my eyes happened to see a sign to my left saying different places being on different floors, it seems ground floor was food, 2 was Living areas/locations, 3 was Clothing, 4 was Misc, 5-10 was treasures ranging from armor at 5, primitive weaponry on 6, modern weaponry 7, futuristic weaponry 8, Supportive on 9, and miscellaneous on 10. The last floor I looked at was 11 which had the skills area that I was also looking for, the rest of the places here I could go and check out later. First step for me though was to go to the second floor, so I stepped on an elevator that had just arrived and pushed the 2nd floor button quickly. When I stepped off all that was present was a single woman standing at a kiosk, and when I approached she quickly spoke to me, "Hello sir! How may I help you with your living area?" I scratched the back of my head before answering, "Uh, well I figured this would be where I go in order to go and upgrade my place. If it''s not the right place I can just go real quick." My anxiety started getting the better of me towards the end because I really didn''t know if this was the right spot to be, so just in case I blurted out my second sentence. She however just smiled, "Why sure thing hon, so going to assume you''re a first timer right?" I nod to her question, "Alright, well glad to hear you finished your first world then! Now, how much do you want to put towards your home? Keep in mind it doesn''t need to be all your money and you can come back to improve it whenever you want!" I scratch my chin a bit, how much do I want to put into it? Well considering she thinks I just did my first world and for a B ranking on it, I got 1k credits, my money should be somewhere between 1 and 2k maybe? So let''s say 5k just to make it believable enough but also really amazing. I look back to her and say the price that I came up with, she then laughed and said, "Oh, score big hm? Just keep in mind you may not get that lucky again so it''s smart to go and get everything you''d need for your next world too." After that the room around us suddenly changed to look like my room, "Oh dear, you have the most basic of basic models. Well good news though! Upgrading will only take 200 of your credits, and you will never need to upgrade this room again!" I raise my eyebrow and ask her what happens when I upgrade this room, she then responded, "Well being honest it makes it extremely customizable, you can install things into the walls, you can make the room bigger, smaller, all sorts of things. Granted you don''t need to upgrade it to expand your little base, but it is recommended, especially for the price." I nod and tell her to upgrade it then. After that the room fades back to how it originally was except there is now a large table and 2 chairs. She leads me over to it and sits directly across from me before pressing a button on her side of the table, on it is a Holographic version of my room. "Alright hon, in your price range you can get all of these 12 rooms and then get some decoration for each, they are the basic companion living quarters which includes terminals in 4 rooms for companions, an Armory, a storage room which isn''t to be confused with the armory, a kitchen, personal living quarters, common area, training room/gym, vehicle bay which can only hold a single small car or below currently, a medical area, an entertainment room which is similar to the common area but has different upgrade paths, a library, and here is where it starts getting more expensive but it fits your budget and is recommended, a mini store room." I get ready to go and speak up, but she sees my question before I can ask it, "It works by you selling the common loot that you get from a world that can''t be brought back to other worlds. However the price is extremely low at its current level and you should later work on that if you so wish to get it and use it. It can''t sell treasures though as fair warning." I nod and tell her I''ll take all the rooms. She smiles and shows me the hologram and asks me to design the layout for it. I put the armory, storage room, and the shop in that order to the right of the room so that I can drop things off before selling them, or sell things easier. I then put the medical room directly to the left of the room since if someone gets injured I want to be able to heal them/me really quickly after getting back. On the back side of the room (the side opposite the door) I put the common area (A/N: Imagine all rooms up till now are 1x1 tiles on this thing, the equivalent to the starting room, the common area is a 2x2) . To the left of the common area I put the training room so that it close to the medical area. To the right of the common area I put the kitchen, and to the right of the kitchen I put the vehicle bay since I didn''t really know where else to put it. I then put the entertainment room on the back side of the common room (A/N: This room it 2x2 as well on the hologram) and to the left of it I put the companion area(A/N:Last 2x2 for now). To the right I put my personal sleeping area, and below it I put the library. I then tell her that I''m done with it, and she tells me that it''ll be 4,500 credits for everything. To get it completely decorated it would cost another 1k. I tell her to go ahead and decorate everything with another 1k, I was too eager to see what my base would look like after all these changes! She asked me what color I would like to make it look nice, I told her a darker green would be preferable. Greens always seem to make me feel better so it''d be nice to have my base be a nice calm place. After paying her with a thumbprint I smiled and waved to her as I went back to the elevator to go look at the skills area. Treasure and Skills After walking back into the elevator I went to the 11th floor which was marked down as skills. Now I don''t quite know what to expect from this, possibly I can get these annoying colors removed from my vision since it distracts me a fair bit, or possibly upgrade it so that it was useful. Or if neither is possible I can maybe just go and get some different skills that exists, whatever it is that it may be. After a relatively short period of time I ended up on the right floor, and when I exited I saw that it was nothing like the relatively blank room that the last one was, this one was like a very large... what is a good representation of this? I guess a flea market would be close but this actually looks organized with a woman sitting at a desk set between the market and the elevator. Curiously I walk up to her since, as anxious as I am, these people are probably here to help and if I don''t want, when she sees me approach she quickly puts on her business smile and talks to me, "Hi there, how can I help you today? Looking for a specific item, looking to sell, or something else?" I rub the back of my head and give her a wry smile before telling her that I''m new here and was looking for some information. She nods and pulls out a clear piece of glass that reminds me of the table that was in the other room. After tapping a corner of it a lot of information appears on it, and after sorting through it for a few seconds it appears to be a blank slate once more, "Sorry, had to get the presentation ready. Alright well, first thing to note is that there are 3 different way to get skills, either by a mission as a reward, as a rare drop from enemies, or from buying it here at one of the stalls. After that the next most important thing is the rarities of different skills and different colors have different ranks, so for example F is White rarity, while S is at rainbow rarity." As she spoke about rarities the letters F, E, D, C, B, A, and S appeared in that order, and to the right of them were some sealed scrolls in varying colors, going in the order of White, Green, Blue, Purple, Red, Orange, and then a multi-colored one that I will assume is rainbow. After seeing me nod in understanding she continued with a smile, "Now that you know how to get skills, and what different skills are ranked as the next important thing is what to do with them. Now hoppers typically like to synergize their skills with each other, for example a skill that lets you double jump while also having one that lets you jump higher works very well together, whereas a skill that makes you heavier with either of those skills will be detrimental. Now there are some exceptions to this but I''ll get into that later. So since you are new it is important to note what you like to do, however if something happens later on, and so long as you have enough money, you can build an area in your base to change your skills and store them instead of selling them. Where was I? Oh yes, now you can also level up your skills, and as with every other checking of your status just go to designated areas to see your skills growth, if you get them to a high enough level there is even a chance that it will rank up. Ranking up your skill makes it stronger, gets rid of detriments, or various other things. There are even a few rumors that haven''t been confirmed about skills existing about S-rank and various other ridiculous things." I nodded to her which she took as a queue to continue, "Alright, let''s see, how, what, with, leveling, oh selling and upgrading here! Alright, since you''re new you likely don''t have any skills you can sell yet, but in the future, if you want to sell a skill you can just come up to whoever is working here and they can either auction it for you which will likely garner you far more money if its rare, or less if its common, or they will just give you a straight price for it. On the note of upgrading however, if you have a skill that you think has amazing potential but is just a detriment to deal with right now you can actually ask whoever is here to search for it, and depending on the skill we can give you more details on its description. The reason I say it depends is we''ve had some mysterious skills we couldn''t decipher for years due to lack of skill level. However that was for the rarest of rares so don''t worry too much." I smiled and thanked her before asking her about Aura Viewing above F-rank and some kind of enhancing perception ability. After searching for a moment she wasn''t able to come up with anything for Aura Viewing which made me sigh. Something tells me I can''t even sell it in that case, before she could start asking questions I asked her again about viewing abilities. Maybe I can get the Identify skill, maybe something that''d also help me when using guns since I''m already a decent shot it''d be amazing to be an even better shot. Hm, that''s right I still have that gun the ''Company Man,'' I should bring it to the Modern Weapons area afterwards to see what I can do with it. While I was thinking about that she got my attention with, "Well there are hundreds of them, what type of fighting do you do?" Putting my hand to my chin I''m brought back to all the years I spent sniping, so I inform her of my status as a sniper, however I do tell her that I can fight improvised and with many other kinds of guns causing her to just nod, must not be that odd around here to hear that considering I passed by Leon Kennedy not long ago... After another moment she pulls up on the hologram 3 different scrolls, one is white which makes me a bit sad, one green which is better, and a blue one. She tells me that these aren''t all visual skills and that only one is while the others are there as good complimentary abilities I should either think about getting now or seriously consider in the future. Going from the right she says that this is the ability ''Eye''s of the Hawk.'' Then the middle one is ''Spider Sense'' which I very well know is, and then the last one was one that made me sweat a little bit, ''Bullet Time.'' She then started explaining what each one is to me and what it does at the current rank. Currently the Hawk Eyes ability was at D-rank, and according to her at this rank there were no downsides unless I had one of my stats at 3 or below, and the positives were that I could see about 100 Meters away clear as a book in front of me so long as it wasn''t obscured, this is further improved when magnified with a scope though that does require even greater care due to the sway. I was pretty sold on that ability, then she moved onto the Spidey sense, and when she talked about it I realized it really was fitting for the low ranking, it would only alert me of danger for around 3 seconds, no inkling of where it is coming from nor does it automatically have my body move. It just suits an alarm right now, and if it wasn''t for the fact that I know how good this thing can be in the future I would likely not care about it at all. The last one was the one I was the most excited for though, but holy crap did it have a lot of downsides. It had steep requirements for being able to use it with an extremely shortened cooldown and next to no downsides, and those were 15 in all the physical abilities I have. Right now, she said with all physical abilities at 5 it would let me use it for 5 seconds at .25 normal speed around me but all my abilities would be 1/5th of their usual state for 12 hours due to pushing my body, at 10 it would last for 15 seconds with it at .125 the normal speed with my stats only being halved for 3 hours. At 15 it would last for 30 seconds at .0625 around me and my stats only being reduced by a single point for 10 minutes. (A/N: So basically, 1/4th, 1/8th, and then 1/16th for bullet time.) Now it doesn''t, sadly, let me move at normal speed however it does let me move much faster, especially my arms. She did also tell me though that with the right synergy and stats I could eventually move at my normal speed while in bullet time, and possibly much faster outside of it.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I nodded and then had a thought, this is what it''s at while it''s just at the lowest rank? I shuddered at just thinking how monstrous this skill can get, especially if I could go and further lower the demerits of it while increasing how much it benefits me. God this will be great, but I bet it''s expensive. I ask her what the price is for all of it, and when she says 20k I almost collapse, that''s most of what I''ve collected... is that damned hidden title only worth so much? I just sigh and pay for it, 2k for the eyes, 7k for the spider sense, and then 11k for the bullet time. She smiles and hands me three scrolls that appeared in her hands before telling me that to use them all I need to do is read them and they''re added to me and then put in my storage permanently unless they are sold to someone. I nod slip them into a jacket pocket of mine and walk out of the gigantic room into the elevator for the second to last time and press the button to head to the modern weaponry floor. When I got there it looked almost like the Gun store from Grand theft auto games save for the fact that it actually looked really well organized and put together. I walked up to the counter where there was another girl, this time unlike the standard outfits the other 2 seemed to have, she had a jean looking vest over a dark green shirt, I couldn''t see what else she was wearing though because well I''m sure I would look like an extremely obvious pervert if I leaned right over the counter to look at her bottoms. When I walked up she looked at me while chewing gum by gnashing her teeth before saying, "Sup. Welcome to... shit where am I today? Oh yeah, that''s right Modern Weaponry. Wanna sell a treasure, buy a treasure, or something else since you probably didn''t walk up here for me." She then leaned back and continued chewing her gum while I told her that I was new here. She let the chair fall forward before setting her arms on the desk and taking what I assume to be a serious pose, however it was spoiled by the fact that all the silver hair that she had was flung forward and covering her face so she couldn''t see anything. After pulling the hair out of her face she quickly stated that if I get a gun bring it here, it can be appraised, sold, upgraded, or auctioned off if she thought it was worth it. She also said that there are many kinds of guns here as well as thousands of types and calibers of ammunition. I nodded and put the pistol I brought from Aliens onto the counter. After looking at it for a few minutes she smiles, "Ah so you either killed that annoying prick or let someone else do it? Man, it''s actually pretty rare to get the situation where he has a gun since the Marines typically are pretty careful about right documentation. Hm, too bad its only F-rank, though it''ll still fetch a decent price... 5k credits?" I shake my head and tell her I''m looking to upgrade it as well as get a decent rifle whether it is or isn''t a sniper doesn''t matter so long as it''s not full-auto. She looked a bit sad hearing that I wasn''t going to sell and put a tablet like the others onto the counter then pressed a section to turn it on. The hologram was of what looked to be a dating site from what I saw before she smacked it around rapidly clearing it, "It was a joke my friends pulled on me, got it? You didn''t see shit!" I just put my hands up defensively as I didn''t want to deal with women at all if I could help it. She then brings up a Holographic version of the gun before talking to me, "Alright well, about this gun first since you can do this while I look for a rifle that''d be good for a new hopper, you can fit one sight, one under-barrel attachment, looks like you can get specialized clips, and you can get a silencer of various qualities. Oh yeah keep in mind, some of the clips that you can get to store different ammo can''t work with the silencer due to some issue I don''t even bother dealing with, I just know people can turn to giblets." She then starts typing away before waving at me, "Kidding kidding, it just doesn''t shoot if you have a silencer on." I browse through the options for the sights that the pistol can have and, instead of something ridiculous like having a scope that zooms in 20x on this pistol I instead opted for a more reasonable Holographic sight. They aren''t really like they are in call of duty normally, but the one I got was modified to have a opaque sight while also being much brighter so I could use it even during a bright day. Underneath the pistol I equipped a flashlight that never runs out of battery while also being extremely strong, something that is more advanced than LED''s. I saw several different barrel attachments but decided upon a silencer that actually silences the shots, in fact it states that it guarantees 99% minimum is silent, though it is incompatible with Explosive rounds for some reason, not that I mind though as when would I use explosive rounds and be silent? I also get a clip that has infinite ammo for normal .45 ammo (which is the caliber the pistol uses normally), and clips that automatically reload on a slight delay for Armor piercing, explosive rounds, and one that takes up a clip of its own called the destroyer. So far all of this for this gun had cost 5k, but most of it was for the clips and the silencer. As soon as I hit confirm I was struck in the face with a holster while hearing, "Here, we give out specialized holsters for people''s guns so we don''t get any accidents." I nod even though she''s busy looking at her computer, and as I''m putting the belt through the last loops of my pants she walks over to me and tells me she found some guns I would like. I tightened my belt and put the pistol into its new holster on my right hip. When I walk up there she shows me three rifles on the hologram, all of which are without scopes, however one is bolt action, one is semi-auto, and the last is lever action. I immediately told her no to the lever action since, while it can be fast, a bolt action can be as well while the lever just doesn''t have as much power I have felt. After that I was looking at the differences between the rifles, I didn''t care much for the calibers since I can get the specialized ammunition to do more damage should I desire it, thus it was down to other less important things. I eventually decided on the semi-automatic rifle due to the fact that it would let me fire much faster. That cost me 5k since it wasn''t a named weapon apparently, I then got a 4x scope for it, another almost perfect silencer like for the pistol, nothing for the under-barrel since I would want to use it for sniping and when I am in a pinch, then I get its normal clip as infinite ammo costing me a fair bit, as well as the auto reloading clips explosive ammo, armor piercing, hollow point, slug shots which are almost like the armor piercing except way more deadly to everything really, and then some tracking ammo. This brought the costs of this gun up to 12,000 credits. I would absolutely love to save credits, but money in the bank is money wasted... right? Well I am going to at least save a chunk of it but I do need to improve my status. After that I was given the sling, and she asked me about buying some sort of pouch that can only hold ammo, but it can hold 20 sets of 5,000 rounds for any gun. It only cost 1k so I hopped on that and then spent another 2k just to go and get each slot filled up with ammo, well except for the base ammo since I spent extra just to make sure it was infinite. Oh yeah, another plus was that the clips automatically were stored here too and would pull ammo from it while it is inside the gun, all I need to do is think of what clip I want and pull out of the pouch, and to reload I just need to unslide it for a few seconds then pop it back it. All in all, I may have spend over half of my credits in one shopping trip, but I feel much more set about going to any world it is that I end up getting when I go to the W.A.R.P place, wonder if I''ll see Kenneth again there? New Worlds I know that I said I was going to go to the W.A.R.P place right now, but well, I forgot completely that I needed a weapon to fight up close to people, and while I can do hand to hand combat, it makes me feel better having a knife. So I went back up to the Modern Weapons shop to find the same girl just relaxing behind the counter, knowing what I wanted though I told her that I wanted a knife that was sharp and durable. She, within a few moments, pulled up one that wasn''t named anything special sadly, but I was able to upgrade how sharp and durable it was to the extremes as well as giving its sheath the property of returning it there 3 seconds after my hands let go of it or it falling. Thankfully all that combined didn''t even equal 100 credits, it was a pleasant surprise, but she told me that the reason being is because the knives from here suck compared to the ones from the Ancient weaponry and aren''t magical, nor are they extremely scientific or laser knives like the futuristic weaponry. I just nodded my head and bid her goodbye again as I began travelling towards W.A.R.P once again. This time I felt satisfied that I remembered everything and exited the building heading straight towards the building I had previously gotten the Aliens world from. When I was walking in I saw that outside it was actually getting darker, so I decided I should probably hurry it up inside here so that I can sleep in my new base, hopefully with a bed instead of that damned concrete floor. Walking in I saw that Kenneth actually wasn''t there, probably due to it being late or some other reason so I decided to instead just go up to another random guy who I didn''t take note much of his appearance. When I got to him I had some average small talk, Hello''s, how you doing''s, fine, etc etc. After getting through that I passed him all 5 of the draws that I had, 3 of which were for F rank worlds, 1 for E rank, and 1 for D rank. He just nodded and asked me what I would like to draw first, I told him that I wanted to get the F ranks out of the way first. He put each into the large machine and we watched it spin around momentarily before 3 balls rolled out, each about 30 seconds after the last, "Alright sir, looks like your 3 F-rank worlds are... Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Doom, and The Phantom Menace. Yes, before you say anything this is the star wars pre-quel. This is one of the worst ones I''ve ever given to someone, however I still think giving some poor soul Jason X is probably the worst one I''ve given not because its a hard movie, but because its a bad movie." God, thinking what it would be like to get Jason X made me shudder. I don''t really care too much for the star wars movies but going through it and getting a high score in it later on may get me some good rewards. I then watch as he brings out another large ball filled with small balls, however this time the cage/ball that was encasing everything was about an eighth smaller. I just shrugged and accepted it, in less than a minute he grabbed the ball and with a smile looked to me, "Looks like getting that bad luck made up for it, you''ve gotten Terminator as a rank E movie! Should net you some decent loot, especially if you can deal with whats thrown at you well. Alright onto the last one for you." He then pulled out yet a different container of balls, this one was smaller than the last one as well though I couldn''t tell how much, and after a few moments he picked up the ball and said, "Mass Effect. Seems you got an overall good run with the only real snafu being the phantom menace. Ah well, good luck to you mate!"Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I waved at him as I walked out of the building, then I stopped and tried to remember what it was that I do to get home. ... I made it some sort of movement/gesture thingy, I remember that much. I also am 80% sure I made it a reference to something that I love. Okay, lets go through the motions, spidermans web slinging? Nope, uh it wouldn''t be me flipping something off, I do that way too often, nor would it be finger guns for the same reason. The only other things I can think of are the live long and prosper thing from star trek, but that didn''t work, the ''these aren''t the droids you''re looking for'' but that didn''t work either. The last iconic thing I can think of is from space- god dammit that''s just the kind of stupid fucking thing I''d do since I can''t forget that. I sigh and do the salute from spaceballs and walk through the glowing doorway defeated, and when I walk in I immediately notice a difference in it, no longer does it feel like a tiny prison cell, now it feels like a huge one! Well at least I have more room and don''t have to deal with people here, I can just sit on my... actually I don''t know what I can sit on here, hopefully a bed, maybe a couch, a couch would be nice to sit on. Before I can do that though I put up with all the crap that I''m carrying for a bit longer and go look at each of the rooms that I had, and after a grand total of 15 minutes I think I''ve got the barest of grips on what is required to at least live here for now. As time goes by later I can go and learn all the finer details, but now I know how to put stuff in the armory, which is pretty easy, I just kinda chuck the equipment into it, then when I want to pull it out I just go to the terminal and grab it. Same deal with the storage room. Medic room couldn''t be put to use quite yet since I''m not injured and have never really been a fan of just going and stabbing myself in the arm to test something out. I didn''t care about most of the rooms honestly as, even though I paid extra for decorations and what not to make it more homely theres a good amount missing from it, like videogames. I''ll be damned in my house/living area doesn''t have, at the minimum, a Nintendo 64 or higher. Anything below is cool too sure, but the 64 is generally as old as I like to go for games, well save for the original Legend of Zelda games. Well for now all that I can go and do is sleep really as tomorrow I''ll go to one of those new worlds that I got, probably Terminator since I think that it would probably be fine for me to go and do, especially since I''ve got a personal arsenal that could probably decimate the thing. To Protect and Serve When I woke up I was pleasantly surprised when I entered the kitchen that it was actually fully stocked, but being the lazy bastard that I am I decided to go and just make myself some waffles. Sure they don''t taste the best, or give that much nutrition, but they go and they fill you up and don''t make much of a mess, so that''s a win in my book. After finishing my breakfast I quickly dug into my jacket pocket and read each of the skills that I had bought. Each actually gave me a similar notification stating some crap like, ''You wanna learn this skill? Y/N?'' Then I click yes faster than I do agree on a Terms of Service for something. Not wanting to waste more time I headed to the Armory and got myself all equipped with the rifle, knife, pistol, and the pouch where I store the ammo and clips for both guns. I don''t think I''m forgetting anything, but well, it wouldn''t be too surprising if I forgot something knowing how I am so I guess I''ll just live with the consequences of it later if I did. I went up to the metal door and grabbed the handle seeing the familiar message changed a bit:
You Currently have access to:
No Ranking: -The Crossroads F-Rank: -Aliens -Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood -Doom -The Phantom Menace E-Rank: -Terminator D-rank: -Mass Effect
Select Destination!
I''m glad that it started organizing things, that will help out a lot so that I don''t have to scroll through a list with no real order to it for what I want. Like if I want to get to Aliens, but for some reason it''s at the bottom in the future, and I have 100+ destinations, that would be brutal as hell to deal with. I go to the section for E-rank worlds and select the only one there, the Terminator world, then when I open the door I see the now familiar white that the portal thing has, so I take a step forward, ready for whatever may come my way. After going through the brief bout of nausea that I have come to expect from doing these... what do I call these anyways? Is it teleportation or what? Should I just call them trips because I swear to god, it feels like I went on a trip every single time. When I finally managed to go and gain my bearings I looked around where I landed at, it seemed to be an old school hotel, complete with the cigarette smell permeating the room. I look at the small folder laying on the bed and find inside of it is a slip of paper, a receipt I believe is what it was called, and said I had the room for a week. I nodded and pocketed the keys that were next to it, then saw that there was an ID with my picture, name, and basic details on it. I just shrugged and put it into a free spot I had in my wallet. The last thing inside was a 20 dollar bill, great I can buy some food. Well that looks to be all the support I''d get from this go around, well at least I have my own weapons this time so it''s no big deal for that. I looked around the room to see if there was anything else, just in case they decided to go and hide some stuff, and much to my surprise the only thing that I found was on the floor, it was licenses for both of the guns that I had. Without finding anything else of interest I just sighed and sat on the bed waiting for the system message which came 5 minutes later.
Welcome to the Terminator universe!
Mission: Save Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. Description: They will both die in less than 10 minutes if you don''t help them! If you go out of your hotel and run 3 blocks south you will hear the gunfire of the Terminators in the Police station. Go now! Reward: 100 credits, Positive gains to relationship with both main characters. Fail condition: Death, main characters death. Penalties: 300 credits and ejection from world, world restart.
*Hint- Possibilities of additional rewards may be given or taken away depending on way of completion*
I saw that to the side of my vision a timer ticking down from 10 minutes was going, fucking timed missions. Let''s hope that the 3 blocks I have to run are short blocks, not the long as ones that are still for some reason called blocks. Stupid city designers. Not wanting to waste more time bickering with myself I slung my rifle over my shoulder and did a last check that everything was set before going out the door and locking it quickly, I then bolted down the narrow hallway and looked in the sky where the sun was currently setting. Given that the sun sets in the west that means that naturally the opposite is east. So with west on my left and east to my right, Never Eat Soggy Waffles... shut up this helps me more than I think you can imagine.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Okay, so that means this balcony that I''m at is facing south, excellent. Shit all that took a minute out of my time. I look down and grimace at the height, I know it won''t kill or even hurt me but still it''s hard to beat that whole phobia of falling. Gritting my teeth I leap over the pathetic railing, thankfully landing alright, and then sprint out the parking lot of the crappy motel heading south. After running for 3 minutes I came across the police station, and I could hear gunfire rapidly firing, both shots from pistols and shotguns. I looked at the entrance where a car had crashed into the front. I crawled over the top of it since both doors being opened blocked the way for me to get in any other way. Once I got over I saw a massacre that made me inhale slightly through my nose so I could push through the all too familiar stench of death. It seemed that me doing anything but holing myself up in my room seems to just lead me to other people dying. I pull out my pistol and equip the Armor piercing clip since I don''t want to take any chances with wasting the destroyers, or the explosive ammo not working. I''m not using my rifle either because it is way too cramped in here for me to be able to reliably fire it accurately. I made my way through some corridors and saw that the timer was at 2 minutes. I made my way through, following the trail of carnage until I saw, down a hallway all the way at the end. As they disappeared into a room I saw Arnold, or rather the Terminator exit a room, making me rapidly stick to the corner that I was at and hold my breath, hoping he didn''t see me. After a few moments to test I picked up a hat from nearby me and held it out a bit. Seeing that it didn''t get shot I looked over and saw that he wasn''t there. I moved down in the direction that I saw the duo head to, and when I got there I was presented with an exit door where they exited, and one right next to me, however the timer was still going down with less than a minute remaining now. I followed them outside to where it seemed that there was where police stored all the vehicles... the name for it is escaping me right now. To the far left of me I saw them running to a car that seemed to have been taken in as evidence and the man began hotwiring it. I moved along the wall slowly, and as soon as the engine roared to life the door burst to shreds as the Terminator stepped outside ready to fire at them. I wasn''t going to give him the chance though considering there was 10 seconds left on the timer and started unleashing the armor piercing bullets at him as I walked closer. Since I only had 7 shots in each clip I made sure to target his joints which should be where any being is weakest. I was only able to hit the right arm since that was the side pointing at me however. It ended up being effective since, before it could turn and fire at me its arm went limp, and when it tried to remove the gun from its hand''s grip, it found it to be stuck in its clutches. I smirked seeing that I could at least damage it when I suddenly hear a round of gunfire from behind me, with a sharp pain on my left shoulder. When I turned around I saw another Arnold making me mentally slap myself for not noticing those details, the system said TerminatorS, emphasis on the S at the end, then the car having both doors open... it was just blatant signals that I missed, and I shouldn''t have missed them. I decided to cut my losses and run towards the car while the terminator was still reloading its assault rifle, and the other was ripping off its arm. Not wanting to waste time since I know how fast these things were I screamed for him to pop the trunk, and to my relief he complied while speeding up. I hopped in and got my rifle out while aiming, and I have to say, this is the worst driving I have ever seen. When we finally had a bit of straight driving I tried to shoot, only to have the car suddenly jerk to the side. I decided that I wasn''t going to be able to hit either Terminator like this so I pulled my rifle back and shut the trunk before pushing down the back seats and climbing in, at least partway. I wasn''t going to let them know I was stuck though so I played it off as I knew what I was doing. I spoke to them, "Thanks for opening the trunk for me... if you didn''t I probably would''ve been toast to those... monsters" I was almost going to let it slip that I knew what a terminator was and decided to go with calling them monsters since it would be entirely believable, at least it would be if someone said it to me in this situation. The man looked at me before turning back to the road, "Look man, this is a one time favor that was because I saw you save our asses. All I was able to do in that situation was duck and hope that we would be safe until it reloaded, not to mention when that second terminator showed up... speaking of which looks like he got you good. I''ll take a look at it when we get somewhere safe." I just nod to him and look at Sarah for a moment, the poor girl is going through a lot right now, but it will go and make her into one of the most badass sci-fi heroines because of it so I can''t help her more than the missions tell me to do. After a moment of silence Kyle caught my eyes in the rearview mirror, and asked me if I had any place we could hide out at. I told him that I had that hotel room 3 blocks north of the police station. He frowned hearing that but I told him that they wouldn''t really be able to know that you retreated so close since, by all means its a stupid move. He just sighed and accepted the reasoning since it had been awhile most likely since he was able to relax. Before we pulled in though he got us all some food with money from who knows where. When we got to the room I let them get comfortable since I actually had 2 beds in here, I ripped a bit of a pillow case off and cleaned my wound with hot water I got from the coffee maker. Man, I should get one of those damned self healing abilities like in games, or maybe healing potions or something comparable. My only saving grace right now is that it only graze my shoulder, still stung but thankfully I do have experience having my arms being melted... God that sounds so dark, go up to someone and have that as an introduction, ''Hi, I''m Pete and a fun fact about me, I had my arms melted!'' Unlike those 2 I am full of energy, and given that I have 20 dollars to my name in this world I think I''m going to go and try my hand at making some money, that way I can afford food here, and maybe make some explosives like in the movie. I tell them my plan and call a cab to take me to a shooting range since I can probably out shoot most people there.