《Gamer of the Dead (Europe Edition)》 Thus it all Begins Sam put his controller down on his desk with a grunt. ¡°Stupid bloody black knights, and their bloody hitboxes¡± he murmured. After dying for the third time to one of the black knights in the game Dark souls 1. He had been trying to kill the knight in the hope his sword would drop. He had finished the game before but it was a game that deserved a few replays. A flawed masterpiece most called it. Sam grabbed the bottle of water that was he always kept on his desk and drank some of it. He then took some chips from the bag and leaned back into his chair, planning on how best to beat the black knight. He noticed he favored dodging to the left side from his characters point of view. This was however also the hand in which the knight wielded his sword. The chance he would get hit was larger if he dodged in that direction. Sam sighed and ran his hand through his overly long, and extremely thick black hair. He''d let his hair grow for a while, the black locks now falling well beyond his shoulders. Sam was a 23 year old wandering student of sorts, he had a thick ginger beard that he scratched whenever he was thinking, along with a mustache that he still hoped would grow into his beard but so far had not shown any signs that it would reach that far. Sam wasn''t tall, perhaps 1,75, in American parameters that would be about 5,11. But that was mostly a guesstimate. Sam had done a varying degree of educations so far he had not found anything he truly liked. It had started after he had graduated what was his countries high school, although called differently they were essentially the same. He then proceeded to join an army education, it was an education for the youths who were as of yet not old enough to join the regular army so they could now take a year in which this school trained them and prepared them for when they could join the army. Sam rather liked sports and enjoyed the education, although there was a sergeant which seemed to enjoy picking on him, but this was to be expected. Just before he could finish his school year however an illness had befallen him. Phyfer it was called, long story short it reduced his energy to 33%, making him extremely tired all the time which resulted in an approximate fourteen hours of sleep per day. His stamina also dropped to an extremely low level. (compared to what he had before at least) The disease meant that he could no longer join the army and had to change his plans, then he started roaming educations trying to find something he liked. First came an education that focused on taking care of the elderly, young handicapped, and troubled youths. The education didn''t fit him so he moved on. Next he tried ICT. Another thing that didn''t match him, then he did some tests to up the degree of his education so he could move onto HBO, which is basically a level higher than he had done before. Meaning he could earn a bachelor degree if he finished the education. He then tried ICT in a higher degree but found out that programming wasn''t his thing either, to much repeatable work. Next he tried becoming a teacher in geography, but once again things did not go according to plan. He had finally gotten rid of his disease however and now he was training to join the army once more. Wanting to do the same education as he had done when he had finished high school. However it was the summer holiday so he spent most of his time holed up in what he liked to call his ''mancave''. Keeping the shutters closed and the fan on, so the cooling breeze flowed over him. It was still unnaturally warm for his area however. Wearing just basketball shorts and a tank top he sat there drinking his water. Before he could continue another battle against the black knight however he heard noises coming from the streets, although his neighbors could be loud on occasion this was unusual. Especially seeing as how it was in the middle of the day. Sam quickly walked down the stairs and opened the door, only to see people in the street staring at the sky. Sam looked up and saw black blobs floating down, on closer inspection the blobs had tentacles and resembled jellyfish. One of the blobs started floating down near his neighbor Han, the man stepped away from the jellyfish avoiding contact with the thing. This didn''t help the man in the slightest when the tentacles suddenly rushed out piercing Han''s skull, causing the others around him to panic. Strangely enough no wound was made, the other tentacles started piercing the heads of all the others who happened to be watching. Sam rushed back to the door while keeping his eyes on the Jellyfish, the black core of the thing was pulsating. Sending something thick and black out towards the tentacles. It was either sucking out something from its victims or putting something in. One of the tentacles shot at Sam, he had expected the attack and dove out of the way. Not that it did him any good, the tentacle changed direction at an impossible angle and with lightning speed it penetrated his skull. He suddenly heard one voice that echoed through his head. Strangely the voice sounded like a thousand voices instead of one. ¡°Submit.. Submit.. or die... submit.. or die a painful death...¡± The voice said the words bouncing around in his head, the sensation caused Sam to hurl, his eyes rolled back in his head as the voice repeated its words again and again. ¡°F...Fuck YOU!¡± Sam managed to shout in an act of defiance. Suddenly the awful sensation vanished and Sam got to his feet,he looked around to see others getting to their feet as well. Their faces pale and their eyes worried, they stared at the people still laying on the floor. The people who stayed down outnumbered those who had gotten up. They eyed those still on the ground with suspicion. Until one of the mothers could no longer take it and rushed to her child. She leaned over the boy and shook him. Everyone else held their breath, eyes glued to the scene. Then with an awful shriek the boy shot up and bit deeply into his mothers neck, the blood spurting around on the floor hitting it with an audible splash. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Everything burst into motion, the bodies still on the ground scrambled up and raced to the nearest person. The people who had not yet lost their minds ran for their houses as fast they could. Sam was no different he was glad he had collapsed rather close to the door. He rushed to the door with those runners close on the heels, he slammed the door in their face just in time. For once he was glad his parents had gotten the thick heavy wooden door as the zombies started bashing on the door and the glass, the glass shattered, the pieces scattering on the floor. The glass of course is still breakable! Fuck! Sam rushed upstairs to his room hearing the scratching of the zombies behind him. He grabbed the katana and its sheath that he kept in his room, although the thing was fake and not sharp in the least it was better than nothing. He also grabbed the throwing knives he had in his drawer and quickly strapped the sheath to his upper arm. The hallway once you came up the stairs was small, only 1 person could pass through at a time. Sam walked down the hallway as far as he could and unsheathed the katana. Leaning the thing against the wall he unsheathed the three throwing knives and tried to calm his breath. He waited for the zombies to rush up the stairs, the waiting for the monsters was the worst thing he had experienced for as long as he could remember. He ached to go down and meet the monsters with his blade and just see what would happen. His brain decided otherwise and did its best to calm him down. Wait here, you have the advantage. Keep calm and prepare. PREPARE?! His eyes darted around his room and his brothers, he rushed inside and grabbed one of the closets and pushed it into the hallway, the harder he made it for the zombies to reach him the easier it would be to take them down. He started stacking furniture in the hall as fast as he could Creating a mess, the zombies would be tripping up in the hallway before they reached him giving him more opening. Then the loud crash sounded signaling that the zombies had broken through Sam took a breath, narrowing his eyes he spread his feet. Lowering his center of gravity, he lifted his arm ready to throw. Then the first of them reached the top of the stairs, eyes glazed and white, mouth open, teeth bared in snarl. Sam could almost see the drool splattering on the furniture, as the infected that used to be his neighbor crawled over the furniture. Sam didn''t hesitate and loosed his arm like a spring, the throwing knife flying through the air, with more luck than any real skill he managed to hit the first zombie right below the eye. It toppled down in a mess of limbs between the furniture, the ones behind it stepping on whatever they could to reach him faster. Immediately after he had thrown the first blade he had grabbed the second, and with another coil like release he threw his second knife. It hit the second zombie in the knee with the hilt, not causing any damage but causing the thing to stumble. The snarls and shattering of furniture were barely audible to Sam as he could feel his vision narrowing on the third target which was now in front. He threw his last knife but missed. Three of the zombie-like creatures were left as they charged him, their feral faces distorted in hunger. Sam took a step back, slowly blowing out his remaining breath. He took hold of the katana with two hands holding it slightly behind him he waited just before the first zombie''s face appeared above the wrecked furniture. He stepped forward with all the strength he could muster and used the whole of his body to bring the sword up in a swift slash. Although the sword wasn''t sharp it, when swung with that much force behind it, it would still deal a good amount of damage. Sam saw the blade make contact with the chin of the creature as the cold iron blade tore through the fragile skin and shattered the jaw bone, the blade continued up through its head until it broke out through the skull, releasing a spray of blood, flesh and bone. The zombie disintegrated into ash as the second one jumped towards him snarling, Sam smoothly sidestepped the uncoordinated feral creature, spinning his blade together with his body and smashing it into the back of its head. A dark eye peering through the paper thin flesh staring at him savagely, then the blade met the back of the skull and it disintegrated into another pile of ash. The last zombie jumped towards him, Sam''s blade was to far away to intercept it. He let go of the hilt with one hand and continued the spin with all the speed he could muster and backhanded the creatures face in mid air. The zombie collapsed on the ground, Sam finished the spin and grabbed the blade in 2 hands one more before seeing another of those black eyes beneath the skin and smashing the blade down on the thing. The third zombie disintegrated into ash, he heard the last one crawling towards him even with the knife in its eye. He walked to it and calmly dispatched the last of the creatures.
Congratulations! You receive player ID number 766673-CPT38. You are now a designated player in the new world order GALATEAH. You have reached Level 1
Well that was unexpected.. Chapter 2 Sam looked at the screen and quickly realized a few things, to make a simple summary.
  1. Any rules of the way the world was were now negligible. Possibly might include physics
  2. Government would not be able to keep this under control, possible mass hysteria.
  3. Law of the Jungle, survival of the fittest.
Those were the things Sam thought to be most probable under the circumstances. Though what the actual effect of the world turning into a game would be? Well, no amount of predictive guessing would help him there. He had gotten another window short after the fight letting him know he had leveled up. Before checking however he decided to secure the house as much as he could for now. He shoved as much furniture down the stairs as possible to block the way up. If he wanted to get down back onto the street he could always use the window in his room to get on top of the garage. For now he started searching his room and those of his two younger brothers for food or weapons. Both of them had a katana as well as a set of throwing knives, souvenirs from a holiday in San Francisco way back when. The second brother had a dual set of swords that were very similar to the ones used by that rival in the show arrow. Sam couldn''t really remember the name of the villain but he shrugged it off. Having to swords in one sheath could be useful, so he swung the sheath over his shoulder. Then he looked for some food, he would want to stay here a while until most of the chaos had died down. When fighting was taking place everywhere around you a mistake from someone else could cost you your life. Sam really didn''t relish the idea of dying because of someone else''s stupidity. Perhaps he should consider saving his neighbors and the other people of the village. Although he had decent neighbors and he liked them well enough. To be honest he did not feel emotional enough about them to risk his life for the sake of theirs. He decided to wait a bit, while figuring out as much as he could about this ''Galateah'' world. He opened the character sheet with a thought and took a look at the thing. [tr][tr][tr] [tr]
Gamer Status
NAMESam van KerkhovenSex:M
TitleNone
Race:HumanLevel2AlignmentNeutralClassNone*************
Health : 100Mana : 100
Stamina : 100%Satiety : 100%
*************Strength10Intelligence10
Agility10Wisdom10
Constitution10Charisma10
Dexterity10Luck10
Available attribute points :12
Available Skill points :3
Available Magic points :3
Available Feats : 1
So name, title, race. Wait race? Does that mean there are other races than humans now in the world? One would assume so, but would they then be part of the players? Good question, but not enough information so he left that for later. Health, mana, satiety and stamina were all regular gaming features. So no need to delve deeper on that. Stats seemed regular as well, but he would have to figure out how they really affected him. If intelligence made him smarter as a person, or if it would only affect spell power and other things of the sort. He noted that there was encyclopedia like thing in his menu and he decided to study it. For the gamers who really want to focus on the game and prepare for late game, they would need as much information as possible. Regarding stats, future skills and feats available. Armor and weapons, classes and jobs. If they even had Jobs in this new world, classes was mentioned. Jobs were not so as of yet this was another thing he would have to leave for later. He started reading through the menu and tried to find out as much about stats as he could. He already knew what he would be focusing on but further information was still necessary. For instance in many games a gaining in either intelligence or wisdom meant that you would get more attribute or skill points do select. In Neverwinter Nights 2 for example, which happened to be one of his favourite games, an increase in intelligence gave you more points to put into things like intimidation or trap disable. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This would however be an extremely annoying game mechanic if applied here. Intelligence based players like mages or clerics would later have a much larger stat pool in comparison to warriors or rogues. Sam wasn''t really one for magic usually, he preferred to be fighting on the front-line, usually either as a guardian, paladin or warrior class. He thought deeply for a moment on how he would be able to figure that out. Not having intelligence if it gave you an attribute boost would be a big no-go for later. He did plan to survive long enough for later so he had to already start planning for it. He thought about it for a while and made his decision, he''d put five points in intelligence and then the rest in in strength and agility. However first he was going to do a little experiment. To sum it up he was first going to put the 5 points in intelligence and see what happened, usually if there was a buff in stats like this it would happen either every five or every ten points. If nothing happened after hitting the twenty mark he would start focusing on strength agility and constitution. He put in the five points, and saved it. Indeed he now had one more stat point than he had before, that would mean a one point increase every five intelligence. That really was a huge amount. It would probably have a limit but for now it was best not to worry about that. He put the remaining eight points divided equally between strength and agility. He noticed that he actually did feel slightly lighter on his feet and more flexible. He tried to pick up a close he had been unable to properly move before and he was now able to pick it up. So the stats really did make a change on his own body. He would need to figure out how the system did this, perhaps he could replicate whatever it was doing and apply it to his own body whenever he wished. Although it was probably a bit far-sought, Sam had never really been one for that kind of thinking. Quick tactical decision making he was good at, but actually creating things other than a musical piece here and there wasn''t really his cup of tea. Same grabbed his phone and put the earbuds in his ears, listening to music he grabbed some food and placed the most comfortable chair in the hallway, putting his feet on a desk he had dumped there he waited for anything to happen. He wasn''t comfortable enough to sleep, it would be to dangerous so for now he would keep an eye on the stairs. The earbuds may have been unpractical but have you ever tried listening to the screams of terror and pain of the people you know. It is not pleasant, that''s for sure. Music made a lot of things better, it also made him more reckless whenever a song came on that super-charged his fantasy thinking into battle-mode. Some hours passed before things started happening, the power went out after the first hour or so. Logically thinking the people at the power plant had been affected by whatever was going on as well. Sam could probably get the power working with the few solar panels they had on the roof but he wasn''t really suicidal just yet so climbing on the roof for a little light was out of the question. Sam regularly checked the water in the bathroom to see if it still worked, he know the local plant that cleaned the water was nearly fully automated. So it might be fine, eventually the lack of maintenance would cause the machines to fail. That probably wouldn''t happen anytime soon though, he would have to make sure to stack a lot of water before that happened. Then suddenly a realization hit him. If this was a game world did that mean he had an inventory, as soon as he thought the word another window appeared in front of him. Well colour me amazed, how the hell does this even work? He had 125 kilos in carry-weight that he could take with him. Perhaps getting closer to the limit would slow him down like in dark souls but he doubted it. 125 kilo''s was a lot, he would be sure to chuck as much food and water as he could into his inventory. For now he just threw some of the weapons in so he wouldn''t suddenly run out. He then practiced for a bit if he could draw out the weapons from his inventory and use them immediately. It would be useful if this could be applied during battle. Well that was all food for thought, he would spend a bit more time dwelling on it. Soon however he would have to go out. Chapter 3 Sam took the earpieces out of his ears and listened, it was mostly quiet. Here and there he could still hear the gnawing and scratching of the zombies on doors, a scream or 2 could be heard further away. It really was time for him to make a move now, first however he would need to pick out a feat. Magic, so far he couldn''t choose because of lack of a class, he didn''t how he would get one either. He had actually already decided on a feat, Besides Blade mastery and Throwing mastery that he had gained in the previous fights he had decided to add the feat Listening. The feat was as simple as it sounded, it improved his hearing. Something that he thought would be adamant in his struggle to survive. So now he listened, something he had noticed with his increased hearing was how much noise he himself made. For the last half hour or so he had been trying to change the way he walked. He had finally found a somewhat strange method of walking that had awarded him with yet another feat Silent Walking. As long as Sam continued walking it would muffle the sound of his steps. The effect it had was a bit creepy to be honest, from being a normal person with normal sounding footsteps he felt as if he had somehow evolved into a ninja. His footsteps were barely audible, even to his enhanced hearing. The combination of these things gave him some confidence in being able to get out of here alive. Instead of removing the furniture from the stair case, which would certainly make a good amount of noise, he decided to drop down from the windowsill in his room. He landed soundlessly on the floor, backyard clear of any zombies. He slipped a knife from its sheath and climbed over the fence, making soft deliberate movements to prevent noise. He then saw a few of a the zombie-like used-to-be-humans standing on his neighbors driveway. Luckily they were all looking the other way, once again Sam soundlessly dropped to the floor. He snuck up behind one of them and carefully observed the pulsing of the black veins for a hint of that devilish eye that resided inside them. He patiently waited for his chance, once he saw an opening he struck out with lightning swiftness stabbing the thing neatly in the center of its eye, disintegrating the man that used to be his neighbor. He kept making his way from creature to creature like this, slowly but methodically removing them from the area around his house. He had gotten a few dings from a level-up or two while he was killing the creatures, his silent walking and listening also leveled up here and there. After the first notification however he took a moment to look through the menu to turn of any notification messages until he was outside the combat area. Mostly he was surprised at how easy it actually was to pinpoint the eye and stab it with his knife, especially since none of them seemed to be able to sense him. There were more than a few bodies spread on the road. Former neighbors and acquaintances littered the area, seeing the dead didn''t actually bother him. At first he had expected to be nervous, scared even. Indeed when he fought for the first time his heart had been pounding, beating with enough force that he was worried he might have a heart attack. Then he started taking out the zombies, and his heart had kept pounding. He realized that it was not fear that caused his heart to hammer, but excitement. The thrill of battle, and the inclination that any mistake could be his last. It was exhilarating! He had honestly never felt more alive, he had sludged through life. Doing things mostly because he had to or because others thought it was necessary, he had never done anything pure for the fun of it. For the excitement of it, the thing that came closest to the feeling was playing a game, reading a good book. Or when he saw some of the faces of the people when he played a piece of music he felt especially proud of. Battle music He himself didn''t even notice, but a small eager smile had crept up on his face. He kept moving from zombie to zombie taking them out with apparent ease. Piles of dust and ash spread themselves over the road with the soft gusts of wind. Then it happened, Sam made a mistake. He got over eager and stabbed at a zombie but didn''t manage to kill it in a single blow. The creature screamed in an ear deafening tone, the sound causing his very bones to tremble. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Everything in the area turned their bloodthirsty gaze on him the monsters scrambled and hurtled over each other in their haste to reach him. Sam''s mouth curled, hands tightening on his knife. He grabbed the dual slade swords from his inventory and gave them a twirl. With an eager glint in his eyes and a with a bloodthirsty aura lingering over him he charged the zombies.
Beserker mode : Activated
Sam didn''t even take the time to read the window, and shoved it out of the way. Not even wondering why it appeared even though he had obviously entered combat already. The first zombie reached him in a bull rush, getting rewarded by getting its head cut of in a single twirling swing. The rest reached him soon after. Sam turned into a ball of raw reflexes and adrenaline fueled power. Cutting down the zombies unlucky enough to be within range of his weapons. The blood from the first zombies he cut open splashed his face, colouring his clothes in wet crimson. Blood from the creatures entered his mouth and Sam just ran his tongue over his teeth tasting the blood with a savage smile. Blades sliced left and right, a zombie reached him from the corner of his eyes and he barely managed to dodge the arm, he then bit the arm of the dead zombie and managed to lock his teeth on the bone, with a short twist of his head he splintered the bone and tore the flesh. He kept slashing and stabbing at anything in range, dodging what he could. Returning the favor with death anytime one of the creatures managed to graze him. The battle went faster than would have been expected, there weren''t that many of the zombies in the area. It was after all just a small village. But then something happened that he hadn''t expected, the rest of the zombies pulled back. Forming a little group. Then it almost seemed as if the zombies imploded in each other, creating a much larger and a much more disturbing zombie. The creature stood at over 4 meters, more than twice as tall as Sam, and atleast twice as broad as him as well. Curled fingers creating fists the size of a small wrecking ball. The new creature roared, saliva splattering around the area. Sam grinned at the creature, cocking his head to look at it. ¡°Well come on then!!!¡± Sam shouted eagerly. The creature roared in anger at the provocation and rushed him. Sam rushed at the creature twirling his twin swords. The creature swung a mighty fist down. Sam dropped, sliding beneath the blow. He stabbed a blade in the creatures thigh, using the built up momentum to swing behind the monstrous creature. He then stabbed the other blade in the back and tried to climb onto its broad back. The creature would have none of it and moved to fall on its back. Planning to squash Sam, he managed to barely roll away before he was squashed and quickly pulled out a couple of the throwing knives from his inventory, winding up his arm and sending them flying towards the creatures head. He quickly pulled out another sword and rushed back at the creature, Then something black dashed past him, only visible from the corner of his eye. The black blur jumped up to the monstrosity and with a howl sunk its fangs into the thick bulging neck. By some miraculous luck the black thing bit right into one of the black beady eyes and the monster turned to dust. The black thing dropped to its feet and turned to look at Sam, The thing damn nearly looked proud of itself. Before him stood the biggest wolf hound Sam would ever meet. And it stood there grinning, with the blackish blood still dripping from its fangs.