《Tales of Games and Life》 Start I want you to imagine the room I¡¯m in right now. It¡¯s dark, and square and small. Up against the wall there is large wooden cupboard, somehow hanging together despite clearing missing a large number of nails and door nobs. Next to it was a desk that felt very much out of place. You can find me here, in front of this desk; staring into a single window of light. What was on the other side? You may ask: life. The only, cold blue, life was on the other side of this window. I brutally assaulted the keyboard in front of me. The window was split into several smaller tabs; one tab was opened up showing moving images that responded to my keyboard. In these images, there were other people, my friends. In these images, hours of my life were presented as numbers, levels, stats. In this game, I was the main character. The world moved around me, and I mattered. Like a god, I built. I travelled the world, fighting the monsters of the wilderness. Progressing into the very core of dungeons, I levelled up, again and again, allocating stat points and pushing my skills the absolute limits. Until finally I, cornered in dungeon, and desperate to survive, find myself facing monsters that I simply won¡¯t be able to survive. I fell before the monsters of the dungeon and everything I had worked for was gone. Life was meaningless without end. And with that another one of my lives ended. Perma-death: A brilliant and frustrating concept. In this game, there is no way to win, simply survive and explore. But instead of the usual ¡°Game Over¡±, I received a new message: ¡°Lets play a new game.¡± Below this message was one option: ¡°Okay¡±. Almost on queue, my mother opened the door. ¡°Honey,¡± She started uneasily, ¡°don¡¯t you have school tomorrow?¡± I don¡¯t respond. ¡°Alan?¡± She stood in the doorway, allowing light to pour into the room. I finally press, ¡°Okay¡±. ¡°Alan.¡± She repeated. ¡°What!?¡± I asked, glaring at her. ¡°Go to sleep.¡± She said starkly. The gloves were off and I could see that clearly. I knew from experience that there was nothing to do but comply, or at least let her think I was complying. Closing everything down and turning off his computer, I got up, stomped towards the other side of the room and begrudgingly slumped into my bed, curling up into my duvets and facing away from her and the door. Exercising well earned distrust, mother walked over to the computer, disconnecting the keyboard from the monitor before walking out of the room with it. ¡°Try to get some sleep,¡± She tried ¡°okay,¡± weakly. The moment the door closed, I pulled my phone out from under my pillow, immediately clicking into the wiki of the game. Dwarf Fortress was intended to be nothing less then a massive fantasy world simulator. It was massive and detailed yet nothing on the site alluded to the message that I had received. I knew for a fact that the version downloaded on my computer wasn¡¯t anything new; it was at least several months old, so the idea that I was the only person to find this death sequence seemed unlikely. I tried forums, scanning it for something new, only to find nothing of the sort, even posting a new thread, one asking if anyone else had experienced the same thing. After not receiving any replies at first, I decided to check the time. It was 3:00am in the morning, a number that filled me with dread knowing that it would be hell to wake up in lease then four hours. Realising this, I put the phone away and tried to go to sleep. I couldn¡¯t, Lying there in the dark, there was no way I could get to sleep. My thoughts wondered, first on the new and strange message, then onwards to other random things. I thought of previous encounters that occurred in school. I thoughts seem to gravitate towards a number of key elements: a girl, a bully, and himself. Finally I drifted to sleep. My dream begins with the image of a beautiful creature, a girl, with flowing hair and big bright. Then there was another episode, one that seemed to play out in my head. Its context was lost to obscurity while this scene stuck with me. I was in class, Science. Sitting in the corner of the room and keeping largely to myself while many of the other guys in the room called out inside jokes that I simply didn¡¯t get. One of these, ¡°FAKE.¡± With that, a lot of the guys laughed out in hysterics. I looked up, across the room, and found everyone¡¯s eyes on me. ¡°FAKE NIGGAR.¡± ¡°OOOOH, FAKE.¡± ¡°I¡¯M SORRY FAKE.¡± It was strange, at the time, it didn¡¯t affect me, and I let it slide or completely ignored it. But in hindsight, this was a sharp knife that dug into my mind. Then the image was gone. My dream had been replaced with oblivion. In the blackness a scream popped up. [You have received the skill, the Gamer] [You have received the sub-skill, the Gamer¡¯s Menu] [You have learned a new skill, Sleep] With that, a beeping pierced through the blackness and rattled my brain into consciousness. Without opening my eyes I reached out beneath my pillow and gripped my phone, instinctively swiping at the screen in a way that turned off the alarm. A message pops up in the centre of my vision. [You have learned a new skill, Auto-pilot] This really woke me up as the floating window illuminated by vision. However it was gone before I could do much for it. It said I had learned a skill, as if this was some kind of game; I learned a skill and received a pop up. For a moment, I consider dismissing this, but I can¡¯t. A smile escapes me, I¡¯m going to pander to this thing, was my first thought. So I speak out loud, ¡°Menu.¡± And sure enough, a menu opened up. A luminescent window built up of several tiles that seemed to lead off into other screens. Experimentally, I try touching the window, to my surprise, it¡¯s solid and smooth. I tried touching a number of tiles, most of which flashed red at my touch. Finally I tried the only unique tile amongst them. This tile had a vaguely man shaped image that flexed when I touched it. When my finger retreated from the tile it widened up, pushing the other tiles out of existence, until it became a window of its own. This window was my stat page. [tr]{/tr]
NameAlan Doltan
Level1 (0%)Age13GenderMale
Condition
Max Hp68Max Mp59Max Sp65
Hp regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp regen (P/Sec)0.4Sp regen(P/Sec)0.3
Hunger10%Rest62%Status
Tangible Attributes
Str6Vit10Con8
Agi10Dex12App9
Intangible Attributes
Int11Wis8Cha6
Luc12
[/table] Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. At first I just stared at it, but after a while I really started to look, study the numbers and what they would mean for me. [You have learned a new skill, Examine] Interesting, it would seem that merely trying to do something could trigger me learning a new skill. So I try using it, out loud, I say ¡°Examine.¡± While focusing on the window as a whole. Sure enough, a new message popped up on top of the window [Info: This status page shows current stats of the person linked to it, in this case, a certain Alan Doltan.] Huh, I thought, not bad. I tried a triggering my examine skill be simply thinking the word ¡°Examine.¡± Sure enough, it works and I use the skill to learn about each stat in turn: [Info: Max Hp is an exact indication of how much damage ¡°Alan Doltan¡± can survive. Max Hp seems to be determined by the Vitality (+1 Vit leads to +6 Max Hp) and Constitution (+1 Con leads to +1 Max Hp) stat.] [Info: Max Mp is an exact indication of how much magic ¡°Alan Doltan¡± can employ to use magic. Max Mp seems to be determined by the Wisdom (+1 Wis leads to +6 Max Mp) and Intelligence (+1 Int leads to +1 Max Mp) stat.] [Info: Max Sp is an exact indication of how much energy ¡°Alan Doltan¡± can expend via physical activity. Max Sp seems to be determined by the Vitality (+1 Vit leads to roughly +7 Max Sp) stat] Initially I was amazed by the amount of detail given. I skipped the ¡°regen¡± stats, as they seemed rather self explanatory. The next part was the Hunger, Rest and Status stats. [Info: Hunger measures how hungry ¡°Alan Doltan¡± is at a given moment, this in turn effects both HP regen and Sp regen] I continued, noting that the other status related components that has similar effects on ¡°Mp Regen¡± and ¡°Sp Regen¡±. Next, I started at some of the tangible stats. In a nutshell: ¡°Str¡± was a measurement of the maximum amount of power I can expend; ¡°Vit¡± was essentially my ¡°life energy¡±; ¡°Con¡± was a measurement of my endurance and toughness; ¡°Agi¡± was a measurement of my ability to move, at speed, with control; ¡°Dex¡± is a measurement of how well I can do complicated tasks while ¡°App¡± is a measurement of my physical attractiveness. All in all I found it really embarrassing to look at some of these numbers. Finally, I finished off with the intangible stats. Again- In a nutshell: ¡°Int¡± was a measurement of how well I process and recall new information; ¡°wis¡± is a measurement of my decision making ability; ¡°Cha¡± is my charisma or my likeability and ¡°luc¡± is clearly my luck stat. With that done I become aware of how much time had already passed and, getting out of bed, I ran downstairs. ¡°Good morning.¡± Mother and Father chimed. I pasted them with a quick ¡°Morning.¡± I quickly pulled out a bowl, a box of cereal and a carton of milk. I poured the milk into the bowl and sent it into the microwave, in the minute of otherwise idleness I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Then the milk was gone, I poured cereal into the bowl and sure enough received a message. [You have learned a new skill, Cooking] Remembering my one of my first skills I placed my bowl on the dinning table and sat down in front of it. Then I thought up, ¡°auto-pilot¡±. It was a weird sensation, like I was in a quasi-trance. My vision blurred and my body felt numb, yet I was still very aware of everything happening around me. I noticed that, oddly enough, nothing happened, my body just sat there for several seconds. Realising that nothing was going to change, I deactivated auto-pilot, taking control of my body all over again. ¡°Menu.¡± I called, with a word a window of tiles appeared in front of me. Examine, I thought, checking each tile. Finally, after a little experimenting, I found another tile I could open. This tile had the image of a scroll on it for whatever reason. Like the stat page, it grow to a point where all the other tiles were pushed out of view, leaving a window that amounted to a list of skills. I saw ¡°auto-pilot¡± and used examine on it. [info: ¡°auto-pilot¡± allows the user to set a simple tasked to be completed automatically. This skill does not consume Mana or Stamina. While doing so, the user¡¯s mind enters a quasi-sleep like state.] So, closing the windows I stated in my mind, ¡°eat the bowl of cereal¡±, then turned on auto-pilot, sure enough it worked. While in the sleep like state, my body automatically picked up the spoon and started eating. My morning didn¡¯t end there. After showering I received the message: [Your have learned a new skill, Wash] What a useless skill. After drying up I put on my uniform, finishing with my blazer. Checking the breast pocket of my blazer, I take out my timetable, a small folded up piece of paper which acted as a schedule for my lessons at school. When I put the timetable back into my pocket it disappears and I receive one very exciting menu. [You have learned a new skill, Inventory] Level One- The Walk to School Seeing this latest message, I immediately open my menu and sure enough, there¡¯s a new tile with the image of a bag on it. I tap that thing like my life depended on it. Finally the inventory, the cornerstone of the players arsenal, is what I thought. What I found out was something much less impressive. A 4x4 grid, one block already being covered by the image of a folded up piece of paper. Okay, I tell myself, trying to find a bright side to this. Out of curiosity, I try pushing my school bag, a rucksack filled with enough books to topple a small child, and sure enough it was suddenly absorbed into a single space, its image branded on top of the tiny square. For a second, I wondered how to get the bag out, but sure enough just thinking about removing the bag was enough for the image to disappear, and for the actual bag to appear in my arms. With a little surprise, I struggle to compensate the sudden shift in my centre of gravity, falling into the closed door in front of me and generating a ruckus that reverberated through the house. ¡°What was that?¡± My Dad called up from the living room downstairs, sounding more annoyed or alarmed then worried. ¡°Nothing.¡± I called in response. As I started removing books from my bag and pushing them into my inventory, thank god, I thought, they can stack. However, while my textbooks all stacked on top of each other, my workbooks wouldn¡¯t stack with my textbooks, instead using up a whole block for themselves. With that done and dusted, I tried experimenting, I reached inside my empty bag and imaged pulling a my maths workbook from my inventory. This received partial success in that, while a workbook did appear in my hands, it wasn¡¯t my maths book, instead it was my geography book. You see, I stacked by books in an order that meant that geography was the first in, and maths was somewhere in the middle, I had to circle through several of my workbooks before finally reaching maths. Thankfully, I learned that I could place something back into my inventory with a thought, the same way I remove things from my inventory. And while I didn¡¯t know how many items I could stack into a single block, I know its at least ten (that¡¯s how many classes I have workbooks for). So I settle on wearing my bag, along with a couple of the lighter of my textbooks (more for the sake of appearances then anything else) and put the rest of my books in my inventory. I pluck my timetable out of the window, because apparently that¡¯s a perfectly viable way to take items from my inventory too, and I place it in my breast pocket, willing it to stay there. With this, two whole blocks where left empty and something in me demanded symmetry. Well, I thought to myself, my life is a game right, there are always monsters or enemies in the games I play, so it might be worth bringing a weapon. With that I scan my room, looking for something heavy that would make a viable club, failing that I tried looking for something sharp and again I came up dry. I check the time on my phone, and its 7:52am so I went downstairs, thankfully, Mum had already left for work, leaving Dad drinking a cup of tea before leaving for his own job meaning that, for the while, he couldn¡¯t be leaving the living room. So I entered the kitchen and quickly thought through my options. On one hand, the more obvious route was to take a knife, Mum had a whole set of knives ranging from a small vegetable knife to a large butchers knife even having pairs of certain types of knives, meaning that, depending on what I picked up, it wouldn¡¯t be missed. The other hand, was the hammer from the toolkit, if Dad ever opened it he would surely notice it missing, but he almost never opens it. Under further consideration, I realised that the hammer was probably my best choice, any decently sized knife would be noticed by the end of the day while I could keep the hammer for weeks on end without worry. So I moved from the kitchen to the dinning room, then back to the furthest corner where the toolkit was set under a cupboard. I opened it and the metal lid slid over the top with a chilling scraping noise. Reaching inside, I felt for the hammer and found it rather quickly, once my hand was around it I imagined putting it away in my inventory and sure enough, the hammer disappeared. With that done, I got up and started for the living room. It was still around 7:55am and should probably leave at some point. ¡°Hey dad, I need money for lunch.¡± I said in the while standing in the entrance of the living room, it smelt obnoxiously like tea and I just couldn¡¯t handle it. ¡°Sure,¡± He said, reaching into his pocket for change until he finally produced two one pound coins, a two pound coin and three fifty pence coins, a total of five pounds fifty, ¡°This should be enough for today and tomorrow right?¡± He asked as he handed it to me. ¡°Yeah, Thanks.¡± I said, walking for the front door the moment the money dropped into my hands. I dropped it into my pocket, expecting it to fill the last of my inventory blocks, instead however, I received a message. [You have learned a new skill, Wallet] The money in my pocket disappeared and I whispered for the menu. Sure enough a balance showing of ¡ê5.50 was show under the regular window. Following the example of the inventory, I placed my hand into my pockets and imagined withdrawing that money and sure enough, it manifested in my hand. With that I opened the front door calling out a quick ¡°Bye,¡± as I walked out into the street. Once outside I have expected every other step to cause some kind of random encounter and was relieved to find it didn¡¯t happen. So instead I tried practicing my auto-pilot skill. It was kind of weird, first I tried ¡°I want to walk to school¡± before activating the skill, but my body did nothing with that instruction. So instead I tried, ¡°Walk forward,¡± pointed myself in the direction of the end of the road, and activated the skill. At this time of the year, it was almost always really chilly, worse still was the outright abusive wind that would bombard your face with one wave of cold air after another. Thankfully, while auto-pilot left me aware enough to know where I was and where I was going, it numbed my actual senses to a point where the cold barely phased me. The only real problem was that I had to keep track of my surrounds to keep my body from walking into a random wall or worse, walking into the road and getting hit by a car. It takes roughly twenty minutes to get to school with most people arriving around 8:10am while the gates close automatically at 8:30am. Around half way to school, I was waiting for the traffic lights to grant me access past a busy road, spamming the walk button, not that this ever achieved anything. Finally the traffic light went red, stopping a row of cars from passing while the little green man lit up, indicating that I should start walking. I also took the time to check on my stats. Walking did manage to eat up at my stamina (SP), though my natural regen was slowing it down considerably. It didn¡¯t help that my hunger quota was falling, which meant that the longer I walked, the more stamina walking would consume. On the plus side, even after ten minutes of walking at a brisk pace, my stamina had only decreased by one or two. At my first step into the road, something odd happened. My vision went blurry and the roads itself seemed to get distorted somehow, its pushed out in all directions with me at the centre. In front of me was a monster, a creature, man-sized and humanoid in shape. Its wore tattered rags over its torso, these rags was thankfully long enough to obscure the view of its crotch. Under the rags, its skin had gaps missing where raw pink flesh could be seen. Its face sagged and barely clung to its head, causing it to look miserable and tired. Its mouth seemed to draw my attention rather quickly, it hung open revealing blood red gums with very few crooked teeth remaining. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. My first reaction, ¡°Somehow I called it.¡± I held out my hand and summoned the hammer from my inventory, however my initial nonchalant attitude left me as it got closer and I could a good look at the pus-oozing freak. I lifted up the hammer and considered attacking the monster, attacking a living (or at least moving) thing in a game was one thing, but this was something else entirely. It however did not have my reservations. It lumbered forward, reeling back before swinging its arm at me, with its entire weight behind it, a part of my mind registered the attack as being rather slow, something I could probably avoid, but my body hadn¡¯t caught up after being shocked by the sheer horror of it. It struck me across the face, forcing my head down into my left shoulder, my ears rang, and the entire side of my head stung like crazy. I stumbled back and struggled to keep myself up right, for a long moment my legs felt like jelly under me. [You have lost 31HP, now at 37HP total] Holy shit, that only took out 31HP? I back away from the monster and try to use examine. [info: Zombie, a low level undead creature that often spawns in urban areas. Zombies have mild levels of ¡°Str¡± and ¡°Con¡± and low levels of: ¡°Vit¡±, ¡°Agi¡±, ¡°Dex¡±, ¡°App¡±, ¡°Int¡±, ¡°Wis¡±, ¡°Cha¡± and ¡°Luc¡±. Their behaviour is characterised as: ¡°Aggressive¡±. This Zombie is level ¡°5¡±.] Despite the message popping up, the zombie kept moving towards me, so I backed away, at some point I expected to come up against the kerb but that never seemed to happen, the road had been stretched out to a point where I could probably run forever without getting anywhere. Still it was so slow that, while backing away, I managed to make a fair amount of distance between myself and the zombie. Realising this, I didn¡¯t even bother trying to run. I faced the monster head on, a fight or flight response, that¡¯s what its called, and oh my god do I have it. My stomach was tying itself into a knot while my heart raced like a madman. Its life or death and I refuse to loose. [You have learned a new skill, Adrenaline] I ignored the message and focused on the zombie. [You have learned a new sub-skill, The Fight Response] I ran at it, screaming. It didn¡¯t seem to react to the sudden change in my behaviour though, as it too merely charged at me in its own sluggish way just as it had been doing beforehand. I ran surprisingly fast raising my hammer up above my head, when I reached the creature, it didn¡¯t make any attempt to block the strike I would send its way. I, gripping the hammer with both hands, bring it down from above my head. With all my momentum and fears behind it, I send the head of the hammer into the Zombies head. The hammer buries itself into the Zombies, now irreparably broken nose. It didn¡¯t end there, my momentum forced the otherwise relentless monster back just enough for it to trip over its own feet. [You have learned a new skill, Charging Strike] [You have dealt 24HP worth of damage] [You have used up 15SP, now at 48SP total] Both messages disappeared as quickly as they appeared, I was winning this, little battle. Still I play it safe and back far away from the monster. At this point, I¡¯ve calmed down somewhat and I decided to quickly check my phone. It was 8:06am, I needed to hurry this along. So I go again, I have no idea how much health this thing has but I used Charging Strike again. [You have used up 15SP, now at 33SP total] Thankfully the zombie was stupid as a rock and didn¡¯t even try to defend against the attack, without much effort, I was able to aim the attack at the roughly the same spot, dead in the centre of its face. [You have dealt 24HP worth of damage] Once again the attack forced it back, this time it didn¡¯t fall over, and once again I took the chance to try and distance myself from it again, perhaps you the skill again. During my retreat, it tried to grabbed at my shoulders. Its grip was like iron, there was no getting out of it. I started to panic, this was it, this thing is going to kill me because of my own carelessness. In my panic, I switch the hand my bloody hammer is being held in so that it is in my freer hand, my right hand. I raise it and start smacking the monster. [You have dealt 1HP worth of damage] [You have dealt 1HP worth of damage] But without my special attack I wasn¡¯t able to do any real damage. At the same time, this beast is clenching down on my shoulder like a clamp to the point were I could feel its decrepit hand squeeze my bones. [You have lost 9HP, now at 28HP total] With its other hand it slowly wrapped around my entire body. But before it could manage that much, I struck at the bloody hole in the centre of its face, and pulled down with all my weight, the monsters face broke into pieces at that. [You have dealt a CRITICAL 15HP worth of damage] It drenched my face in its blood as it reeled back in what could only be pain. So, seeing my chance, I broke free of its grip and ran away for a moment. With my sleeve I wiped the blood off of my face and turned back towards the monster that was now sluggishly charging at me again. I was ending this. [You have used up 15SP, now at 18SP total] I ran at the zombie, raising the bloody hammer over my blood soaked face and screamed, ¡°CHARGING STIKE!¡± The blow landed in the gapping red hole in the middle of its face this time not just making it wider but bursting open its head like some kind of water balloon. [You have dealt a CRITICAL 65HP worth of damage] The zombie and its mutilated head fell to the ground, leaving me victorious, leaving me alive. [You have earned 183EXP from killing the zombie] [You have levelled up! You are now at level 2] [You have 9 new stat points to allocate!] [You have earned ¡ê13 from killing the zombie] [The Zombie has dropped ¡°Rotten Flesh¡± and you do have the space in your inventory to collect it. Would you like to take it? Y/N] With that last message I thought no, and it disappeared. My vision blurred again, and the distortion of the road was somehow undone. Which put me right back in the middle of the road, with the little green man icon flashing. I run to the other side of the road and once I¡¯m safely out of the way, I lean against the traffic light and spew down onto the ground. I make my bloody hammer disappear and I check my clothes and face, expecting there to be rotten zombie blood all over the place. There wasn¡¯t, and I thank god for that. After a couple minutes of just standing there and gathering my composure, I continue heading to school, I needed to share this ability of mine and I needed help. Level Two- The School Yard The rest of my walk to school happened without incident, I relied on auto-pilot for the majority of the trip and I watched my health and stamina improve gradually, it would seem that the skill actually increased my natural regen. In around two minutes I was able to fully recover my health, and recover some of my stamina. It seemed silly, but I really needed the distraction. When I finally reached the school gates I gave a sigh, if I was safe at home, then I was probably safe here too, that was my thinking, I was definitely safe in school. The time was 8:17am, which essentially means that most of my friends probably weren¡¯t in school yet, despite that I really needed to talk to someone, anyone, so I started for the main school building. High-Gate Secondary School has three separate buildings, including three separate canteens, four halls and two sets of changing rooms. The newest of the buildings could be seen in front obscuring the other two. There was a corridor bisecting the building while leading out to the grounds of the school, there the other two building could be seen, the main building was the larger of those two. The three canteens were seemingly made to separate each several year groups; years seven and eight had one canteen while nine, ten and eleven had another, years twelve and thirteen (or rather sixth form) had a canteen to themselves. As I¡¯m in year nine, it was the canteen in the main building where my year group congregated. I walked around the school the garden that sat in the middle of the school grounds, making my way right to the main building. Once I was in the canteen, I scanned the area for my group, no one caught my eye. On the other hand, I managed to catch the attention of a completely different group of guys. They were a loud bunch who regarded me with distain. I counted my blessings and kept my distance, sitting on as far away from other people as possible. I sat down and stared at my phone, no I need to tell them in person. After several minutes Abe opened the entrance to the canteen. The tall Asian guy walked into the canteen with a satchel hanging by his side. Abe sees me and sits down on the other side of the table, ¡°morning.¡± He offered, tagging m on the shoulder as he came past, ¡°Something wrong?¡± he said, no doubt seeing the distress on my face, he looked back around, ¡°If they did something you should go to Mr King.¡± ¡°No, its nothing like that, you haven¡¯t seen Jacob yet? I¡¯d rather tell you all at once.¡± ¡°Nah he¡¯s always late,¡± Abe said, ¡°But more importantly did you see the news this morning?¡± ¡°I never watch the news.¡± I respond. Abe nods takes his tablet out of his bag, after a few swipes at the screen he faces it towards me, ¡°people are disappearing over-night,¡± He reported, looking down at the screen, He showed the article to me, there were pictures of these people and I recognised one of them, a girl, but I couldn¡¯t for remember where from. ¡°Who is that?¡± I asked, pointing to the picture of the girl. ¡°Harriot, she went to our primary school,¡± Abe said, ¡°Apparently she¡¯s been missing for days now and she¡¯s not alone.¡± I remember Harriot being pretty cool, hung around the guys a lot and tended to play video games along with the best of them, it¡¯s a shame she¡¯s gone. Abe scrolled down, showing a number of other people. ¡°I don¡¯t recognise anyone else.¡± I say, entrapped by this news story. ¡°Not surprised, their from all over the world,¡± Abe starts, ¡°America, Japan, France, all of them are missing and the police think some kind of international gang is behind it.¡± Forgetting my own problems for a second, ¡°Wait, how did the police link these things altogether?¡± ¡°Apparently,¡± Abe started, ¡°The gang leaves a calling card.¡± ¡°Seriously,¡± I stare at the article in disbelief, ¡°what¡¯s the calling card?¡± ¡°They haven¡¯t realised that information to the public,¡± Abe said grimly, ¡°which is why it has to be the same people-¡° The bell rang, signalling everyone to get to their form rooms for registration. School drones on without incident and I¡¯m in math class staring down an impossible question when I remember that I have stat points I have yet to allocate. ¡°Menu,¡± I whisper in hopes that the other people sat at my table don¡¯t notice me. The menu opens and I mentally navigate to the stat page where an extra tab indicating that I have nine stat points hovers over the window. Next to all of my tangible and intangible stats were two buttons, one ¡°plus¡± button and one ¡°minus¡±, at the bottom was a ¡°confirm?¡± button. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. When I¡¯m done I press confirm and I receive a number of messages as I close the menu. [Str has increased from 6 to 11] [Vit has increased from 10 to 11] [Int has increased from 11 to 13] [Wis has increased from 8 to 9] [As a result of the change in core stats:] [Max Hp has increased from 68 to 74] [Max Mp has increased from 59 to 67] [Max Sp has increased from 65 to 72] For a second I felt a rush of nausea, ¡°Are you going to be okay?¡± someone asked, then everything became clear. I looked down at the simple quadratic and almost laughed at how simple it was. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± I put pen to paper and started on the answer. By the time the bell finally rang I had breezed through all the work my maths teacher had planned and spent the last couple minutes doing shit all as everyone else tried to figure out how I did it. Jeez this was boring. Finally the bell rang and I left the lesson, it was break time and I would finally be able to share my gift with the guys. As I left for the canteen someone grabbed me by my bag, ¡°I bet you think you¡¯re so smart, huh, fake.¡± I broke free of the punk and pushed him away from me, ¡°Hey,¡± The asswipe said, ¡°guys,¡± he called out to, ¡°fake here¡¯s trying to step up to me.¡± I start walking away, aware of the growing group behind me, ¡°hey where¡¯re you going?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to fight you.¡± I said plainly and continued to walk away. I all but ran down the stairs as I made my way to the canteen. Spotting Abe and Jacob I quickly bought a slice of pizza from the canteen and sat down next to them, Abe nodded to me while Jacob said ¡°hi,¡± I returned the greetings in kind as I sat down. ¡°So I was telling Jacob about the missing people,¡± Abe said. ¡°I can¡¯t believe someone you guys know has been kidnapped,¡± Jacob said. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, ¡°Its pretty weird huh?¡± I looked at Abe and he seemed to nod in agreement. ¡°Anyway, I have something I need to tell you guys.¡± I said, and gestured for Jacobs and Abe to follow me out of the canteen. We quickly made our way to a corridor that seemed devoid of other people. ¡°Okay,¡± Jacob smiled as he looks around, Jacob joked ¡°You¡¯re not coming out are you?¡± Abe giggled at that, ¡°Y¡¯know,¡± Jacob continued, ¡°It would be really awkward if you actually came out now, I mean, I¡¯m not homophobic or anything but Abe just laughed so we know where he stands.¡± Abe said defensively, ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with being gay.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not gay,¡± I said, ¡°Last night-¡± ¡°Are you sure we want to hear this?¡± Jacob joked again. ¡°Shut up¡± I glared at him, and he ¡®zipped¡¯ his mouth. ¡°Okay,¡± I gather myself again, ¡°Last night I developed some kind of power.¡± I proceed to tell them everything, and at first they didn¡¯t take me seriously, but then I made by books and hammer appear from nowhere and they quickly became dead serious. Jacob went silent and Abe started to look down at the ground really intently. Jacob was the first person to say something, ¡°So your life is subject to game mechanics right?¡± I nodded. ¡°So,¡± Jacob started, ¡°Maybe there''s a multi-player option, if we can help you directly, then fighting the monsters might not be so bad.¡± I check my menu for an option like that. Meanwhile, ¡°From what you said,¡± Abe muttered, ¡°You¡¯ll level up and grow stronger, so it won¡¯t be long before zombies aren¡¯t a problem.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I chimed in, ¡°I tried checking for a multi-player section but a lot of the functions in the main menu isn¡¯t available. Also, calling it a zombie doesn¡¯t really give it credit, it was a freaking nightmare also my examine skill made it sound like there where things way stronger than a zombie.¡± Jacob nodded ¡°We could always walk you home, if anything popped up we¡¯d be right there with you.¡± I sighed and smiled. ¡°What are you smiling about?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°I thought you guys wouldn¡¯t believe me.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say I did.¡± Jacob said. Abe looked mystified by that statement, ¡°He made a hammer appear out of thin air.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Jacob said, ¡°sorry, that was a dumb joke.¡± ¡°Most of your jokes are.¡± Abe said ¡°But we¡¯re definitely walking you home, just let me text my mum to give her an excuse.¡± With that the bell rang signalling the end of break time. ¡°This stays between us right?¡± I checked, as I walked off to my next class. Level Three- Group Battle The rest of my classes continued on, the increase to my Int seemed to make a huge impact to my learning curve, with everything coming to me so much easier then it used to. As a result, I finished a lot of my tasks early and had a lot of free time to think over a game plan. First off, it¡¯s worth explaining that Abe is easily a head taller then me or Jacob, in fact he¡¯s one of the tallest guys in our year group and that¡¯s always been the case. In Year seven, back when we where eleven years old, he was tall enough to outright scare away potential bullies, by the time he was twelve he started growing a beard. Despite that he¡¯s not very active, so I wouldn¡¯t surprise me if he wasn¡¯t very dependable in a fight. Next there was Jacobs, the kind of guy who tried everything he¡¯s been in almost every school play, and has been a core member of our schools rugby team since forever. I sent each of them a text in the middle of class, as the conversation stood, we where considering what kind of weapons we could get a hold of. Abe- ¡°So with your inventory ability, we can hold one weapon for each of us, plus something extra.¡± Jacob- ¡°It sucks that you only have four slots¡± Me- ¡°Thanks, anyway, what do you guys think?¡± Jacobs- ¡°I could probably get my hands on a couple hockey sticks. There''s so many of them no one will miss one or two.¡± Abe- ¡°That¡¯s cool. there are knives in the food tech rooms we could try those?¡± Me- ¡°We¡¯d never get away with those.¡± Abe- ¡°Fair enough. Meet by the supply cupboard then?¡± Jacob- ¡°Cool.¡± When the lesson was finally over, the bell rang signalling the start of lunch. Naturally I got away without getting caught on my phone, my teachers considered me to be a good kid, and probably wouldn¡¯t dream of me doing anything wrong, especially with the sudden leap in performance. I walked around the other school building to the field, there was a large locked container where most of the P.E equipment was held of course Jacob beat me there. When he saw me, he stuck his tongue out and raised a set of keys. ¡°How did you manage that?¡± I asked. ¡°I offered to put away the balls,¡± Jacob gestured to the large sack filled with footballs that he was dragging behind him, ¡°It helps that Mr O¡¯Dell actually likes me.¡± The mention of that man made me cringe, the guy wasn¡¯t bad, I would just forget my P.E equipment so often that he seemed constantly disappointed in me, over the years, his being disappointed in me made me hate him. Still, I followed Jacob to the supply container. He unlocked it, and dragged the bag in. ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s get this done quick.¡± I said. Jacob looks at the selection of hockey sticks with a frown. ¡°Hey,¡± Jacob calls out, ¡°Do we want the quality stuff, that will probably be missed, or the shitty stuff, that no one would want to touch anyway?¡± ¡°Play it safe with something in the middle.¡± I said, standing outside looking around. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to need to move the stuff out of your inventory?¡± Jacob asks as he hands me two hockey sticks, ¡°Damn that¡¯s cool to say.¡± He remarks before I can answer. ¡°Nah, since its just hockey sticks, they will probably stack on top of each other.¡± I said, taking them both into my hands and making them disappear. Jacob hands one last hockey stick to me and again I make it disappear. ¡°You know that¡¯s a really cool power you got,¡± Jacob said as he walks out into the open. The field was large bordered on one side by a school building and on the other three sides with nothing but trees and fences. ¡°Its cold,¡± I said, in response to a strong breeze. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Jacob said. On the way back, we run into Abe who had brought lunch with him. We make our way to the hall, which was bustling with activity. We took some of the seats that were stacked on the side of the hall and we started eating. Finally done, Jacobs started talking about the funny glitch he found on FF10. The bell rang again and we left for our respective lessons. After two more boring lessons in which very little of note happens. I found myself getting excited about what would happen at the end of the school day. I walked over to the main gate, running into Abe on my way there, Abe wanted to talk about the rogue-like, Dwarf Fortress, a request I was happy to oblige. When we reached the gate, Jacob was waiting and talking to a group of girls from our year group. He played the violin in the schools orchestra, which meant that despite hanging out with us, he was on good terms with a lot of girls, both the girls who made up the orchestra and their friends. He made a joke that I didn¡¯t quite hear and they all started laughing. When he saw us he said good bye to them and we, Me, Abe and Jacob, started walking out of the gate. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°You know something better happen on this little trip.¡± Jacobs said as we crossed a road, ¡°I¡¯m not joking, you¡¯ve been building this up so I have high expectations.¡± I couldn¡¯t reply to that at all. Now that we where outside all I could think about was the zombie, and how at any moment another one could end up attacking. Abe saw and recognised my discomfort. Putting a hand on my shoulder to catch my attention. As I looked up, he gave me a nod, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, we¡¯ve got your back.¡± It was while walking down a path that I realised that it was happening again. My vision started to feel blurred and I reached out to both Jacob and Abe on either side of me. ¡°Wha-¡± Jacob and Abe said as I grabbed them. The street seemed to distort around me, stretching out right up until there was a large area around us. Abe looked about him, ¡°Wow, it worked.¡± He said as he looked down at the ground. A message popped up: [You have received a new sub-skill, The Gamer¡¯s Party] [A skill has levelled up, The Gamer is now level two! All Gamer related sub-skills have received a boost.] Jacob quickly said, ¡°Urrh.. guys, we¡¯re not dealing with just one zombie.¡± ¡°Hey, Alan, the messages that you were talking about, do they appear in front of you all luminescent and stuff.¡± Abe asked looking at an empty space in front of him. ¡°Yeah I see then too.¡± Jacob said. ¡°Seriously?¡± I asked and used examine on both of them. [Info: Abe Rahmanzai, a 2nd Generation Gamer, currently at level 1] [Info: Jacob Adams, a 2nd Generation Gamer, currently at level 1] ¡°Can we please try focus at that later.¡± Jacob said as he backed away, ¡°Hand me the hockey stick.¡± So I plucked the hockey sticks from my inventory and handed it to Abe and Jacob. At the same time I took a good look at the monsters several yards ahead of us. There were two zombies in front of us. Both looked very much the same as the first one, with gaps in their grey shrivelled skin. The two of them were spewing and dribbling green puke, at the same time it they were covered in large lumps of writhing flesh. Abe looked dead scared at the monsters while I wasn¡¯t exactly faring much better. Jacob looked at the two of us, and he must have seen the terror in our faces, because he turned on them and screamed, ¡°DIE FUCKERS!¡± he ran at the two monsters, swinging his hockey stick at one of them. The end of his hockey stick cut into the side of the monster¡¯s head, knocking it to the side. I almost felt ashamed, so much so that I couldn¡¯t help but follow. The second zombie was closing in on Jacob and I wasn¡¯t about to let that happen, so I screamed ¡°Charging Strike!¡± as I ran at it, raising the hockey stick over my head and bringing it down on the zombies head. [You have used up 15SP, now at 57SP total] [You have dealt 71HP worth of damage] The attack dropped the zombie to the ground where it started to pull itself up. Its skull had been caved in and its rotten blood spilled out onto the ground. ¡°Holy crap,¡± Abe remarked. ¡°Dude, you have a fucking special attack!¡± Jacob called out as he swung his hockey stick back round into the monsters head. I backed away from the zombie on the ground and looked over to Abe, who had backed away from the entire conflict. I used examine on the two zombies, after which I learned that both zombies were only level 2. In that time, the zombie on the ground reached out to grab at Jacob while he was focused on his own zombie. Somehow, Abe was on him before I could get back, in an episode of desperation, Abe struck at the monsters neck, putting all of his weight behind a blow that ultimately ended it. At the same time, Jacobs had brutally ended his own zombie, he swung at it for the five times, striking the flat side of the hockey stick against the sluggish monsters chin. The blow sent the monster flying backwards before hitting the ground head first, its neck crunched against the hard ground while blood and bile oozed to the ground. ¡°That wasn¡¯t so bad,¡± Jacob said, looking at Abe and me as the nausea kicked in, ¡°Shit, I spoke to soon.¡± [Each member of your party has earned 73EXP from killing the zombies] [Each member of your party has earned ¡ê18.67 from killing the zombies] [The Zombies have dropped "Rotten Flesh" and you have the space in your inventory to collect it. Would you like to take it? Y/N] I thought no, again. As the world returned to normal. "You''re right," I said to Jacob, "It wasn''t that bad." Abe looked at the two of us like we where crazy, "That was really twisted." Then he started laughing, Jacob was quick to join and pretty soon we were all laughing over our first victory. Level Four- Afternoon Journey I called out, ¡°menu,¡± and Abe and Jacob did the same. ¡°Hey, do you guys see the third tile?¡± I ask. ¡°No, I don¡¯t see the party menu.¡± Jacob said. ¡°Alan, you didn¡¯t say you were level two.¡± The third tile, was a party menu, the image having two human figures. On it, I could see the stats and skills of everyone in the party, starting with Abe, so I assume its in alphabetical order (using our firsts names).
NameAbraham Rahmanzai
Level1 (73%)Age14GenderMale
Condition
Max Hp65Max Mp76Max Sp59
Hp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp Regen (P/Sec)0.5Sp Regen (P/Sec)0.3
Hunger57%Rest41%Status
Tangible Attributes
Str8Vit9Con11
Agi8Dex13App9
Intangible Attributes
Int10Wis10Cha5
Luc12
Skills:
NameAlan Doltan
Level2 (74%)Age13GenderMale
Condition
Max Hp68Max Mp59Max Sp65
Hp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Sp Regen (P/Sec)0.3
Hunger51%Rest62%Status
Tangible Attributes
Str9Vit11Con8
Agi10Dex12App10
Intangible Attributes
Int13Wis9Cha6
Luc12
Skills:
NameJacob Adams
Level1 (73%)Age13GenderMale
Condition
Max Hp75Max Mp57Max Sp72
Hp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp Regen (P/Sec)0.4Sp Regen (P/Sec)0.4
Hunger52%Rest53%Status
Tangible Attributes
Str11Vit11Con9
Agi12Dex12App10
Intangible Attributes
Int9Wis8Cha5
Luc13
Skills: ¡°Yeah,¡± Jacob said as he punched my arm, ¡°Though you¡¯re still weaker than me.¡± ¡°And smarter,¡± I snap back at him with a grin. ¡°How did you get inventory?¡± Abe asked me, after checking, I realised there was a lot of simple skills I had that no one else did and vice versa. ¡°Do you have something in your pocket?¡± I asked him, Abe nodded, ¡°Take it out,¡± I told him. So Abe and Jacob took pens out of their respective pockets. ¡°Okay,¡± I said, ¡°Now put it back in your pocket.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± Jacob commented, as he put the pen back in his pocket, ¡°Well, holy shit,¡± He said in response to what I assume to be a message popping up in front of him. At the same time I received a message of my own: [You have learned a new skill, Teach] ¡°You can get wallet by doing the same thing with money.¡± I said. Abe said ¡°Hey, did we all just get a new skill?¡± Then looked at me pacifically, ¡°Teach right?¡± all while looking off into space. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said to him. ¡°Okay, so the party menu is in actual time, nice to know.¡± He commented, ¡°Jacob I¡¯ll teach you Examine if you like.¡± At the same time Jacob was using his hands to navigate through the menu or something. To us he looked like he was just playing with the air though. ¡°Huh?¡± Jacob said, as if only vaguely aware that we said his name. ¡°I¡¯ll teach you examine if you like.¡± Abe repeated. Abe¡¯s brows were furrowed, he was focused, and having fun. ¡°Yeah sure.¡± Jacob said. ¡°Okay, look focus on something in front of you.¡± Abe started, Jacob nodded, decidedly focusing on a tree beside us. Abe continued to explain how it worked, right up until Jacob all but jumped for joy: ¡°I got it!¡± Jacob said. I watched the party menu and saw that Jacob learned Examine while Abe learned Teach and a new ability called Copy. At that point a strong breeze blew in and I gestured for us all to move on. We all made our weapons disappear in our respective inventories and continued on. Abe and I tried learning some skills from Jacobs, but he wasn¡¯t very good at explaining how he reached them. At the same time, I showed off auto-pilot, restoring my stamina, right up until I received a new message: [A skill has levelled up, Auto-Pilot has is now level two! Your body can now perform three step procedures while under Auto-Pilot] That was when Abe stopped walking altogether, at first I was thought about asking what was wrong, then it hit me too. My vision became blurred and the path became distorted. Sure enough, the three of us found ourselves in the midst of battle once again. At first I felt a leave of dread, but then ¡°Here we go again, guys!¡± Jacob used encourage. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Before us was a single zombie and Jacob was gearing up to run at it. ¡°Alan, what was the level of the monster you fought this morning?¡± ¡°Five¡± I answered while equipping my own hockey stick, but his line of question got me interested, so I used examine on the monster. ¡°This one is level eight.¡± Abe said in a worried tone. ¡°Not a problem,¡± Jacob called back as he rushed towards it. With combo, he launched two attacks on either side of its head. Then the monster swung its arm at Jacob, sending him to the ground. Despite that, Jacob was up again in a couple seconds, just not fast enough. The monster was on top of him before he could recover, while it was focused on Jacob, I stepped in. With Charging Strike, I bludgeoned it at the back of its head. Jacob jumped back, half expecting it to drop onto him, but instead of dropping all together, its head bopped and it gave me a blank glare. [You have used up 15SP, now at 57SP total] [You have dealt 40HP worth of damage] It rose its arm over its head and hammered its putrid hand against my head. It cracked against my head and it forcing me down to the ground, I felt completely light headed while my legs felt like jelly, damn it hurt like hell. As I saw myself hit the cold hard ground, I put my arms down to soften my fall. [You have lost 54HP, now at 20HP total] [Your status has been updated to ¡°Bleeding and Concussion¡±] I started trying to pull myself up. I scanned my surrounding to find that Jacob had pushed the monster back and ultimately ended it with a power strike. It fell to the ground in defeat as Jacob barely kept himself standing. [Each member of your party has earned 70EXP from killing the zombie] [You have levelled up! You are now level 3] [You have 9 new stat points to allocate] [Abraham has levelled up! He is now level 2] [Abraham has 9 new stat points to allocate] [Jacob has levelled up! He is now level 2] [Jacob has 9 new stat points to allocate] [Each member of your party has earned ¡ê13 from killing the zombies] [The Zombies have dropped "Rotten Flesh" and you have the space in your inventory to collect it. Would you like to take it? Y/N] At the same time Abe had sneak up behind me and pulled me up. Finally I got up, with Abe¡¯s help. Then the nausea hit and I almost spewed then and there. [You have lost 2HP, now at 18HP total] I looked over at Jacob and a red patch started to grow around his stomach, he was bleeding out and fell to the ground. At the same time, a fluid red curtain poured down over my vision. [You have lost 2HP, now at 16HP total] ¡°We have to get you guys to the hospital,¡± Abe called out, ¡°No, wait.¡± Abe let me down onto the ground gently and held his hands together looking at them intensely. ¡°We have MP for a reason.¡± He looked at his hands and while it was hard to see, there was something strange about them, almost like some kind of aura. Abe took that aura and shaped it with his fingers, he hovered his hands over my face. [Status has been updated to ¡°normal¡±] [You have gained 22HP, now at 38HP total] Abe then looked at me, probably using examine over my injuries, before moving on to Jacob. After a while we both got up and where wiping the blood off of us. ¡°Abe,¡± Jacob looked up at him, ¡°You just healed us.¡± An older lady stared at the three of us and must have seen the entire thing. She had her phone in her hand and had the emergency services on the line. For a second we all looked at each other. ¡°Fuck it,¡± Jacob said, and started running. Abe and I followed after him. By the time we reached my house, we where laughing again. ¡°Holy crap man,¡± Jacob exclaimed, staring at Abe, ¡°So you can use magic now.¡± ¡°Well yeah,¡± Abe said exhausted, ¡°It seemed only natural¡­that we would be able to¡­¡± He was breathing heavily. At the same time I opened the door, ¡°Hey Mum, I brought my friends over.¡± She greeted us as we walked past her into the living room. Jacob and Abe gave her a courteous hello and we all sat down. I fired up the old PS4 and handed Jacob and Abe a controller. We put on a game for the sake of making noise, just to make sure my mum didn¡¯t overhear a thing. ¡°So¡­we¡¯re not telling anyone about this?¡± Abe sighed. ¡°Why should we?¡± Jacob responded, ¡°This was awesome.¡± ¡°Maybe because we almost died.¡± Abe pointed out. ¡°No Jacobs right.¡± I weighed in, Jacob nodded in agreement, ¡°But for the wrong reasons,¡± I continued, he looked at me hurt, ¡°You guys might have believed me, but there¡¯s no way of knowing how other people will react.¡± Abe excepted the point. ¡°More importantly,¡± Jacob started, ¡°Teach me how to use magic.¡± ¡°Ditto¡± I chimed. Abe thought about it for a second, ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ve noticed, but there''s a power inside of use, mana, I focused on it and I pulled it out, right up into the tips of my fingers.¡± With the end of his explanation an aura started to build around his hands as he held them up. I looked at Jacob, he seemed completely confused by this explanation, I wasn¡¯t much better. Abe saw this and tried, ¡°It helps that I put all of my extra stat points in intelligence and wisdom, I couldn¡¯t use magic until both of those stats reached fifteen.¡± ¡°Shit,¡± Jacob said, ¡°I already used all those stats on strength, vitality and agility, three in each.¡± ¡°You¡¯re kidding,¡± I said, ¡°Sucks to be you.¡± I went into the stat menu and allocated all my stats, two in Int and six in Wis. [Int has increased from 13 to 15] [Wis has increased from 9 to 15] [As a result of the change in core stats:] [Max Mp has increased from 67 to 105] [Mp Regen has increased from 0.4 to 0.6] [You have received the skill, magical awareness] [You have received the skill, magical control] ¡°What happened?¡± Jacob asked, then he started playing with the air again, ¡°Hey, how come you both get magical awareness and control.¡± ¡°I think,¡± Abe said, ¡°that there are certain skills that are triggered after gaining enough points in certain stats.¡± ¡°Really, then why don¡¯t I have anything new?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked. ¡°I have fifteen in agility, right, so where is my special skill?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°You probably need a different amount for agility,¡± I supposed, ¡°or maybe you need to raise another stat alongside it? How is you strength and vitality.¡± ¡°They¡¯re both at fourteen.¡± Jacobs reported. ¡°It¡¯s getting late,¡± Abe said, looking down at his phone, ¡°Is it okay if your mum gives me a lift home?¡± He seemed legitimately worried about trying to walk home. I nodded and asked my mum if it was okay. ¡°Sure honey,¡± She moved into the doorway of the living room, ¡°Do you both want a lift?¡± Abe and Jacobs both nodded, and were gone after a couple minutes. They left the same time my dad arrived, he said hello to them both and me. ¡°Want to play a game?¡± dad asked me. ¡°No, I¡¯m kinda tired.¡± I walked upstairs, then stopped, ¡°Did you just quote saw?¡± He nodded, giving a guilty look, I continued walking away grinning at my dads dumb joke. Today had been a long day. Interlude Interlude This interlude marks the end of the first arc. Summary: In summary, Alan has developed powers built around game mechanics. As a result he has gained a number of spectacular skills and at the same time, Alan has become susceptible to random encounters. In desperation, Alan turned to his friends and miraculously passed his power to his friends, Abe and Jacob. The story arc ends with them discovering magic and ultimately deciding how they are going to treat this new ability. At the same time, a string of mysterious disappearances has come into the public eye. Among the people who have disappeared Harriot, a girl with a history with both Alan and Abe, has been mentioned. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Words from the Author: Thanks to everyone who has read and otherwise supported my story. Special thanks to Nathan050101, JonXarn, Fruitseller, Anime-Sensei and Daxus for taking the time to comment and review my story; it means a lot. The next story arc will being coming on Monday 15th of February. P.S.: who¡¯s you favourite? (Alan, Jacob or Abe) just out of curiosity. Level Five- Assault of the Lord of Darkness That evening, after dinner, I checked on Abe and Jacob. They both made it home without any trouble, Abe supposed that traveling by car was like fast travel in a game, or that we would only be attacked when together, in either case more testing needed to be done. While alone in my room, I tried using magic for the first time. At this point, Abe had already used it to heal both me and Jacob, and since we have the same amounts of Int and Wis I should be able to do the same thing. For the moment I generated an aura around my finders, the aura was like a partially coloured gas. It clung to my hands and after a while of just holding it there I looked around my room for something, anything to use it on. I found a sock, discarded on the ground, and hovered my hands over it. I made the magical mist flow under the sock, them push it upwards. [You have learned the skill, Telekinesis] After holding up the sock for a couple seconds, I tried moving it while further away. [You have used up 1MP, now at 71MP total] Huh. Next I tried using Telekinesis on my bed, the whole thing was wrapped in an aura of magic that stemmed from my hands, after that much was done, I tried pushing upwards. I manage to lift my bed off of the floor when a message in the corner of my eyes catches my attention. [You have used up 32MP, now at 39MP total] Wow, that was a lot. I let the bed down carefully, and have a look at my stat menu. After maybe two seconds of holding my own bed I managed to use up almost half of my mana reserve. With that I call it a night, I check up on Abe and Jacob one last time, Abe tells me he has something to show me tomorrow, we didn¡¯t have school so he insisted on both me and Jacob coming to his house. Generally speaking we didn¡¯t meet up any earlier than 10am and so Abe arranged a meeting at that exact time. So that morning I asked for a lift to the park, since it was Saturday my dad was off work and made for a willing chauffeur. With that I was able to leave home without an incident and true to Abe and Jacob¡¯s experience, I wasn¡¯t bothered by any random encounters. Abe¡¯s¡¯ house is located at the end of a street, meaning that while I was arriving, I saw Jacobs mum, driving her own car, as she was leaving. Realising that I wasn¡¯t far behind him, Jacob waited by the side of the road, and we both walked over the front garden to Abe¡¯s door. ¡°Any Idea what he wanted to show us?¡± Jacob asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, nothing knew popped up in the party menu.¡± I replied. As we came to the door, Abe opened it up, as if he had been watching from the window up until now. ¡°Come in.¡± He said as hurried us along. ¡°That phasing.¡± Jacob joked in response. Abe lead us into his house, however something didn¡¯t seem quite right. There was no sign of his parents and as I walked inside, taking off my shoes at the front door, I noticed that Abe himself seemed off somehow. It was the way he insisted the night before, he¡¯s never that stubborn, then there''s the way he¡¯s walking now. It seemed silly but his body would rise up in a way that lifted one leg off of the floor, then he¡¯d land in a way that forced his leg to bend, it was almost like some kind of puppet. But Jacob didn¡¯t notice anything strange, he would have voiced the fact if he did, so I assumed that it was in my head and closed the door behind me. Abe lead us through the corridor and into his living room, closing the door after we both filed in. ¡°So,¡± I said, still not very comfortable, ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Jacob himself had already sat down on the couch while I remained standing. We had been to Abe¡¯s house enough times but this still felt odd to me. Abe looked straight at me for the first time and I could see it, his eyes were dull as if he was asleep. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked concerned, while stepping towards him. That¡¯s when my vision started to blur all while the space that made up the living room was visibly stretched out. Behind Abe was a strange, large man. His skin was green, he had a large strong nose and a mostly square head. This man wore black armour, the plates of which overlapped in a way that left no weak spots (except for his head). Behind this large man was a black cape that flowed down to the floor and while I could barely see it, on one of his hands was a shining triangle, that was divided into four smaller triangles, one of which shone more intensely then any other. The man I was looking at was Ganondorf, more specifically, his iteration from the twilight princess. And, in much the same fashion that he manipulated Zelda in his boss battle, he had been manipulating a brain washed Abe right up until this point. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Raising his hand, a ball of light appeared, Ganondorf threw his hand down, launching the sphere at me, at that point Jacob grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me back as a result the orb shattered against the floor. ¡°Holy mother of fuck.¡± Jacob screamed as he whipped out a wrench. Abe was launched at us and we both made an attempt to catch him. Using him as a distraction, Ganondorf launched another ball of light, Jacob, grabbing Abe threw himself to one side while I leaped to the other. Jacob stumbled while trying to hold Abe upright and ultimately the two of them lost their balance and fell to the ground. What made it worse was that Ganondorf now stood between us, seemingly amused at how pathetic attempts at survival. He raised a hand, creating a ball of light, and started to throw it at Jacob and Abe. What he didn¡¯t count on was that I had magic of my own. In those last moments before casting the sphere at them, I used telekinesis to drag his hand inwards towards his chest. The sphere followed the path of his hand and shattered against his torso, arcs of white electricity ran rampant over Ganondorfs¡¯ body as he spasmed out of control. To his credit he didn¡¯t fall to the ground, merely standing in a spot. In that time Jacob got up, leaving Abe on the ground, and charged at the villain. He switched out the wrench for a sledge hammer and called out, ¡°POWER STRIKE!¡± as he attacked Ganondorf. Then Jacob looked puzzled at his target, ¡°Really, no effect?¡± He mumbled almost as soon as Ganondorf recovered from the stunning effect of his own spell. With a swiped of his hand, Ganondorf threw Jacob away, causing him to land awkwardly against the ground and knocking my friend unconscious. Abe wasn¡¯t much better, ever since Ganondorf flung him at us Abe had been limp and cold to the touch, for all we knew he was dead. What followed was a terrifying moment in which Ganondorf slowly walked towards me, ¡°Its impressive,¡± he said, ¡°that you would be able to hurt me, but its over.¡± [You have learned the skill, Flight response] I tried to run, but the moment I did, opaque ghosts rushed out from Ganondorf, in the final battle they had served as an attack that dismounted link, in this scenario they rushed at me from all directions and held me up in the air. That was when a new message appeared in my face. [A new player has entered the battle] And sure enough a girl seemingly appeared out of nowhere. In her hand was a long, glowing sword, with a purple hilt. She scanned the situation in an instant, seemingly understanding the predicament that me and my friends where in. She raised her free hand at me and called out, ¡°Crackle,¡± with that word ice erupted from the ground below and completely encased the ghosts that had subdued me. The ice then shattered and the ghosts disappeared with it. Strangely enough I wasn¡¯t affected by the spell, and I dropped to the ground unharmed. Ganondorf however didn¡¯t take this lying down, He launched himself at the stranger suddenly wielding a sword made of light, he tried to slash at her, but in the last second she avoided the attack. Bats erupt out from around her and the words ¡°Witch time,¡± slithered from her lips. As of then, she seemed to move with at an unperceivable speed, positioning herself behind Ganondorf in an instant. She started hacking at his back with the master sword. Each strike cut through his armour and seemed to draw blood from the very being who had been invincible not too long ago. At that point, an oval of darkness with a purple core, appeared in front of Ganondorf and he fled. The girl tried to go after him but the black oval disappeared before that could happen. [The enemy has fled, each member of the party receives no EXP or money] ¡°Shit.¡± She whispered, before walked over to Abe and Jacob, ¡°Healing hand,¡± She¡¯d say and after a few seconds of treatment both of my friends were up again. ¡°What happened,¡± Abe said in a dazed state. ¡°You were mind controlled by Ganondorf man, fucking Ganondorf.¡± Jacob said, somehow excited by all of this. ¡°Come with me.¡± The stranger said as she walked out into Abe¡¯s garden. ¡°Wait,¡± I called out, following her, with Abe and Jacob in tow, ¡°Explain what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°No time, accept my invitation.¡± She said. ¡°Wha-¡± I began before a message interrupted me. [You have been invited to Harriots party. Do you accept? Y/N] After a second of thought, I accept. ¡°Good,¡± She said, ¡°Zoom.¡± She called out, soon after a blue energy engulfs her, me, Jacob and Abe before the four of us all rocket up into the air. Level Six- TuTORIEL? Or just Exposition... We landed in the middle of a stuffy bustling city, smog painted the sky a dull grey and the engines of cars polluted the air with their incessant noise. ¡°Welcome to, well, its probably better if you don¡¯t know where we are.¡± She said as she started into a building and up a flight of stairs. ¡°What are we doing here?¡± Abe demanded, but his question fell on death ears. The three of stood in concert for a moment, ¡°Are we really going to follow this girl around hoping that she answers our questions?¡± ¡°Why not, we weren¡¯t exactly doing fine on our own.¡± Jacob replied in earnest. ¡°For now,¡± I supposed, ¡°We owe her that much.¡± ¡°What do you mean ¡®owe her¡¯?¡± Abe asked, almost insulted. ¡°I mean,¡± I asserted, ¡°that this girl saved us and you from getting killed-¡± ¡°Are you coming?¡± She called back at us. ¡°Yeah,¡± I called forward and started walking up to the door, I looked back at Abe who was standing indignantly, ¡°I¡¯m not doing this without you.¡± I said to him. Jacob chuckled, and followed after me while Abe reluctantly joined too. The three of us walked up the stairs into a cramped apartment, it wasn¡¯t well insulated, meaning that all the smells and sounds from the outside seemed to violate the innermost parts of the dwelling place. At the same time it was very bare bones. Half the room was filled with some kind of machine, the girl gestured towards it ¡°Backup battery, we don¡¯t want to get stranded.¡± In the centre of the room was a computer that had a game of Garry¡¯s mod on. The girl walked straight into the computer screen which seemed to suck her up, shocked I look over at the amazed Jacob and the bewildered Abe. ¡°Well that¡¯s just the coolest thing I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± I unintentionally said out loud. ¡°Really?¡± Jacob said, ¡°We met Ganondorf today.¡± As he started to walk towards the computer, he touched the screen it rippled at his touch before sucking him into the game. ¡°Well I guess we¡¯re going to Garry¡¯s mod.¡± I said as I walked over to the screen myself and saw it open up into some kind of portal. It was nothing like the way it looked like earlier as I entered the computer. [You have received the sub-skill, Gamers Plug-In] [You have received the sub-skill, Gamers Plug-Out] [A skill has levelled up, The Gamer is now level three! All Gamer related sub-skills have received a boost.] With that my vision blurred until finally I found myself somewhere completely different. I looked around, the sky was dull and blue and oddly enough there wasn¡¯t any wind. On top of that, there was the ground, it felt flat to the tough yet it was textured in a way that would make me think otherwise. ¡°So this what its like to be inside a game?¡± ¡°Not all games, just this one Garry¡¯s mod and most older games.¡± The girl from earlier called back as she walked onward towards a the castle ahead of us. After a moment Abe appeared next to me, ¡°Took your time.¡± Jacob said as he started following the lead of the girl ahead of us. ¡°Fine,¡± Abe conceited. ¡°We both know you¡¯re enjoying the hell out of this.¡± I commented as I walked with him. When we entered the castle a older man greeted us, he didn¡¯t speak but nodded at us individually as we entered. The man was definitively middle aged, has strangely pointy ears, blue eyes, hazelnut hair that seemed discoloured by time, and fair skin. He was tall, shorter than Abe but still taller than me or Jacob, and he only had one arm. I tried not to stare at his unfortunate disfigurement. Floating around him was a thin blue sparkling creature, who was glowing with such luminosity that the only features I could make out was the bug-like wings that it used to fly about his head. The creature spoke for him in a high-pitched and incredibly annoying voice. ¡°Hey listen, Welcome to our home.¡± She (I assume it¡¯s a she) said. The girl made the master sword appear out of nowhere, more than likely producing it from her own inventory, and handed it to the gentlemen. ¡°Thanks for letting me borrow her.¡± She said as the sword while passing the sword. The man nodded. ¡°Oh,¡± She said, as if remembering that we were there, ¡°Everyone, this is Li-¡° ¡°Hoooly¡­¡± I began, was he worked his way through the word his voice got higher until he seemed to loose his breath altogether leaving me standing there staring at the hero of time with his mouth gapped open. Abe on the other hand sealed up his lips tightly, no doubt afraid of somehow insulting the Hero. At the same time Jacob of all people managed to find his composer, ¡°Cool, How you doing Link, I¡¯m Jacob.¡± He moved in to shake the mans hand and Link returned the gesture. With that meeting out of the way both Abe and I managed to calm down and introduce ourselves properly, while being completely red in the face. ¡°Oh right, I forgot,¡± The girl started again, ¡°I¡¯m Harriot, apparently we grew up in the same town, strange how we never met.¡± ¡°Different schools.¡± Jacob gave the excuse, while looking at us with the most devilish of expressions. The hot girl didn¡¯t remember you, that¡¯s what that expression said, and I was ready to kill him for it. ¡°Anyway,¡± She pushed forward, ¡°You properly want some kind of explanation, unfortunately I¡¯m really bad at those, so come over to the balcony and I¡¯ll introduce you to someone a little better.¡± Jacob was happy to follow along while Abe and myself were more than a little dazed, we could have followed anyone at that point and sure enough Harriot led us through the elaborate stone corridors of the castle. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Finally, after a flight of stairs or two, we find ourselves facing a humanoid goat, wearing a blue dress, ¡°Toriel?¡± Abe asked in surprise. ¡°Hello my dears.¡± She looked at us all. ¡°Harriot, are these the new requites?¡± She asked. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Harriot said while leaving, ¡°They¡¯ll need to know everything.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Toriel began. The balcony overlooked the blank area in front of the castle, which apparently took up most of the map which seemed like a bit of a shame. ¡°So I¡¯ll get started, I suppose we should get the boring topics out of the way.¡± Toriel started to say. Jacob spent most of the time staring back at the door mourning Harriots departure. Abe focused intently on Toriel, the goat woman was a vital part in the beginning of Undertale and so it made sense that the same would be true here, so I also decided to ignore Jacob and focus on the subject at hand. ¡°First off, there has been hundreds of updates to the Gamer skill that you three posses, the original version being nearly forty years old and it allowed the user to play pong with their minds alone.¡± Toriel said in a motherly tone, as if reading us a bed-time story, she continued in the same fashion, ¡°At some point after nineteen seventy six, the Gamer skill received an update that allowed the user to physically enter a game, once inside a game, that copy would be recreated as an independent and living reality,¡± Toriel gestured around us giving the world we are in as an example, ¡°However the rules for each game work differently, with time and space being particularly odd in some games,¡± Toriel looked at each of us in turn to see if we understood, and Jacob was apparently a convincing enough actor for her to push on, ¡°Prior to that an update allowed people with the Gamer skill to share their powers with others and so with both updates in effect, Gamers around the world started meeting and sharing their power with video game characters. As each copy of a game is considered separate, it allowed for millions of versions of the same character, and with them gaining the power of the Gamer, video game characters where able to leave their respective games and enter others-¡± Toriel sniffed at the air. ¡°Oh no, my pie!¡± She said startled and started running off, we didn¡¯t smell anything, but after that explanation I welcomed the time to digest the information. ¡°I get it,¡± Abe said, ¡°So with villains in video games with the power of the Gamer, they probably started teaming up in order to further their own goals and eventually¡­¡± ¡°What,¡± I asked, ¡°take over the world?¡± ¡°I guess so,¡± Abe supposed, ¡°That¡¯s what villains usually do right?¡± We started walking out of the balcony into a corridor, Jacob started looking at us, ¡°You guys actually got all that?¡± ¡°Yeah, I didn¡¯t think you were paying attention.¡± I replied. ¡°I tuned in, it sounded really confusing though so I tuned back out.¡± He said, ¡°I guess it doesn¡¯t matter as long as you guys understand.¡± ¡°So where did Toriel go?¡± I asked only for Abe to shrug at me, the got woman ran away surprisingly quickly. We continued walking around the Castle, occasionally meeting characters from games and nerded out over them. When we finally found Toriel in the castles kitchen, a place we where only able to find thanks to directions from Conker the Squirrel. In which Toriel seemed surprised to see us, ¡°I heard you were coming and wanted to make a butterscotch pie for you all.¡± She said, placing a baked pie on one of those little wooden triangles as it cooled down, ¡°Its too hot to eat now so I suppose we can continue our discussion.¡± She said, ¡°I¡¯m really sorry, but I¡¯m allergic to butter.¡± I confessed. This seemed to hit Toriel like a slap in the face, but she quickly recovered to her regular demeanour. ¡°Don¡¯t worry dear, it¡¯s my fault, I should have asked before hand,¡± She pressed on with her expositional discussion, ¡°Now, with Villains from video games cheating people into giving them the Gamer skill, it became apparent to them that they are unable to directly influence the real world, so that¡¯s why they need people like you,¡± She gestured to the three of us, ¡°Gamers who can further their currently unknown goals. Currently they operate as a single organisation known as Organization thirteen-¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty cool,¡± Jacob interrupted, then Toriel gave him a disappointed look and he apologised, ¡°Sorry, please continue.¡± ¡°Right, Organization thirteen are a group of boss monsters that have been gathering in numbers since the original Ganon, gained the gamer skill, the main objective seems to be gathering power, their reason behind doing so has yet to be discovered.¡± She concluded, ¡°For now, I suppose I should help you find people to train you, so that you can protect yourselves from their forces, in this version of Garry¡¯s Mod time is stationary, you can technically spend hours or days here without aging or growing and leave the game without more than a couple minutes having passed in the real world, so we can ¡®figuratively¡¯ take our time.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s confusing, How does that work?¡± Abe asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know?¡± She said in earnest, ¡°Now that that¡¯s out of the way, who can guess the forty two uses of a snail?¡±