HOTD 4
"Why the hell did I have to jinx it!" I yell as I run and the bullet storm barely misses me. Apparently, some people noticed that gas stations were exploding, and they noticed my pattern of movement. Now here I am trying to escape the Japanese military. Not the brightest point of my life, if I have to say so. I chuckle to myself as I sidestep another bullet. Yeah, don't ask me how I do it, just praise the system and the dodge skill, which, by the way, is leveling up now as crazy. Thankfully, the crazy gunfight brought a horde of zombies to my rescue. All hail tier 0 zombies! As the military chopper lowers its ropes to pick up their team and I run into a random alley then don't stop running for a few blocks, taking random turns till I'm sure I got away.
"Haa, haaa, ha" Getting under a random loft I catch my breath. "That was a lot closer than I thought I would be, but at the same time it was so much fun." I laugh out loud. "Okay, let's find another gas station nearby, blow it up and get the fuck out of here." I take out the phone from my pocket and find a bullet embedded in it. Grimacing I attempt to turn it on, without any luck. "Yea it's not a Nokia, so what did I expect." I say with a smile. Running out to the nearest road where I can spot a few zombies I quickly behead them and search for a usable phone. Thankfully, on my third try, I find one that doesn't have a lock, is charged, and has a network connection.
Checking the map, I find a smaller gas station a few blocks away, but considering the army was watching this one I look for another one a bit farther away. To be precise around five kilometers away, a five-minute run at my current top speed. With a light jog, I arrive at the address just before nightfall. I repeat the process of painting the station in fuel, blast some music from the speakers and run away with a pierced can of fuel. This time I'm a lot more cautious I hid on the second floor of an apartment in full view of the station. While waiting for the zombies to gather I raided the fridge and made myself dinner. After eating and being satisfied with the size of the horde I ran downstairs to light the trail of gasoline. Not waiting for the big boom I ran as fast as I could. Two blocks away an earth-shaking explosion rattles the street. I move under a random roof so I won't get showered by gross bits of zombie flesh.
Getting into the nearest house I comb it for any zombies, then move into one of the rooms and lie by the door and check my notifications.
[Human x17 slain 850 XP Received]
[Tier 0 Zombies x19,175 slain 0 XP Received]
[Tier 1 Zombies x717 slain 24,258 XP Received]
[Global Level up x6]
[Global Level has reached Level 45]
[Class: [Demolitionist] Max level reached additional class experience discarded]
[New class selection available]
[Selectable classes: [Assassin] [Samurai] [Gunner] [Painter] [Cartographer] [Warrior]]
19x [Quest: [Kill Quest T0] Completed 10 WP(x2) Received]
7x [Quest: [Kill Quest T1] Completed 50 WP(x2) Received]
[Title: [Terrorist] received]
[Terrorist]
- The size of the explosions you are responsible for are 25% larger and deadlier.
Satisfied with the results I give one last look at my stats and say "Eject"
System Info:
Name: Andrew Thompson | Titles: Zombie Slayer | Race: Human | Tier: 0
[Global LVL: 45 XP: 71,890/79,180]
[Class: Demolitionist LVL: 15/15 XP: 10,485/10,485]
[Maxed: [Rogue] [Scribe]]
Stats:
STR: 4
DEX: 54 => 58
AGI: 29
INT: 28 = > 47
WIS: 30 => 49
Other:
Spells: [None]
Skills: [Sneak 7=>15] [Muted Steps 9=>17] [Dodge 25=>44] [Small Blade Mastery 32] [Deception 6] [Drawing 4] [Writing 2] [Dual-wielding 7] [Counter 6=>13] [Large Blade Mastery 7=>16] [Pain Tolerance 5=>6] [Gun Mastery 3=>5]
[WP: 2,986]
[UC: 1,269.40]
A blinding light removes me from that hell hole.
{An unknown pathogen detected!}
{Sterilization started...}
{Done!}
{Foreign objects detected!}
{No extraction system detected!}
{Removing unauthorized items...}
{Done!}
The weight from my backpack suddenly vanishes, so I quickly check its contents. The guns, bullets, daggers, food, and everything I collected from the last world vanished, I reread the last notification, then suddenly exclaim.
"My katana!" I check my inventory. The UC is still there, but the items I stored are all gone. Well, all with the except of the ones I went into the world with.
"God damn it! Is there a system to prevent that?"
Thinking about the 'SU Store' brings up a screen. With some searching, I find the corresponding system and added it to my shopping basket together with the other three systems I wanted.
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: Extraction| Description: Requires: [Inventory System]. Allows the user to extract items in his inventory or people from doomed worlds. Upon ejecting from a world user can select anything he wants to bring with him to the main world. Price for items: 1-500 WP Dependent on rarity. Price for peroneal: 2000 WP. Note: People need to agree to be extracted. | Price: 100 WP]
[Background System| Upgrade Name: Reality Warping| Description: Allows the user to craft a background for his character before entering the world. Main story elements cannot be influenced. | Price: 2,500 WP]
[Stat System | Upgrade Name: Additional Stats| Description: VIT/PER Upon purchase unlocks vitality and perception attributes. These attributes can be altered by classes, titles, races, or by adding free attribute points into them. | Price: 250 WP]
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: Editing, Filtering, Sorting, and Grouping| Description: Sometimes the information the user receives can be overwhelming. Allows the user to edit, hide, sort, and group different system elements and displayed information. | Price: 100 WP]
So after a few minutes of cleaning up my system screen, I'm left with this.
Status
[Global LVL: 45 XP: 71,890/79,180]
[Class: Demolitionist LVL: 15/15 XP: 10,485/10,485]
[Titles: [Zombie Slayer] | Race: [Human] | Tier: 0]
[WP: 36] [UC: 1,269.40]
STR: 4
VIT: 10
DEX: 58
AGI: 29
PER: 9=>34
INT: 47
WIS: 49
Skills:
Defence:
[Sneak 15] [Muted Steps 17] [Dodge 44] [Pain Tolerance 6] [Counter 13]
Offence:
[Small Blade Mastery 32] [Large Blade Mastery 16] [Gun Mastery 5] [Dual-wielding 7]
Misc.:
[Deception 6] [Drawing 4] [Writing 2]
I've hidden my name, cuz why the fuck would I need to see my own name there all the time. I've grouped my skills into three categories and reordered a few rows. The spell part was moved to another tab and will serve as a grimoire. All in all, I cleared up the screen and made it easier to understand. After I unlock a few more features in the near future I might need to reorganize them again.
With all that done, I head upstairs a take a long ass bath. My plans for today will be chilling and a talk with Rob. After finishing the bath, I went over to the shop and bought a new set of clothes for 15WP. A plain black hoodie with light blue jeans, because my current ones had a few too many holes in them. Then I changed clothes and went to meet Rob.
After knocking on the office door, a "Come in." could be heard.
"Hi, Rob." I say with a wave.
"Well hello to you too, Mister Thompson. What brought you here?" he asks with a smile.
"I came to ask a few questions about the status of Earth's people and to find out something." I say
"Oh, if you're interested about your people, I have some bad news there. 4 people left the library and 171 died in their first worlds. Quite a bad start if I have to say so." He says with a small shake of his head. "But you and a few exceptions are progressing really well. Surprisingly two Japanese people grouped up and went into the same world. They are currently in the top two places, the next one is a Russian gentleman, even my colleagues think that guy is a beast. You are currently in 10th place by level alone. Although you're one of our top rankers with global and skill levels, you're lagging behind in tiers compared to most of your peers."
"Yes, my next world is going to be a magical one, where I'm planning on acquiring a magical race and a class." I say and he nods in approval. "Till now I was acquiring different systems that would allow me to progress faster later on."
"Smart move, a good foundation can lead you to great accomplishments." He smiles. "Anything else you wanted to ask me?"
"Well, to be honest, I noticed in the last world, that I felt nothing after killing someone. Is the system influencing me in some way?" I ask while looking him in the eye.
He shakes his head "The system is influencing you in many ways, increasing your intelligence, your speed your strength, allowing you to employ supernatural abilities, but it is not altering your habits, feelings, or your thinking. Most probably you were influenced by world laws. Depending on what kind of a world you visit, violent ones tend to have world laws that influence your psychology, mostly to keep it from going insane. But there are other types of laws which try to make you insane on purpose." He says then stops. "Index will notify you if you're trying to access one of those. I suggest you get the [Rule Breaker] upgrade from the System Tools tab as soon as possible. Its price is pretty steep for a newbie, but if I remember it right it's 7,500WP. It will block any and all laws from influencing you and at the same time it will allow you to perform magic and other feats in worlds without them."
"That sounds pretty good and explains a lot. Well then thank you for your time and sorry for disturbing you."
"No need for that, Mister Thompson. Whenever you have any questions, just knock on my door. I can always make time for you or anyone from your group."
"Thank you." I say my goodbye as I exit his office.
'Thinking about it now, Rob could be lying about all of this.' I shrug but start thinking about it. 'If he is really as strong as he says he is, why would he lie? Why not just force us to do whatever his plan is with us? There really wouldn't be a need to do things in this roundabout way.' With another shrug, I continue my way to the restaurant. Checking inside I spot three people sitting at the same table. I approach them.
"Hi. Mind if I join you?" I ask.
"Sure go ahead." Says the blonde Caucasian woman, as the chair materializes before me and I sit down.
"Thanks, my name is Andrew, Andrew Thompson from the UK. Where are you guys from?"
"Hi Andrew, I'm Anna similarly from the UK. This is Sarah from Hungary," She points towards the short pigtailed brunette with brown eyes and a stylish outfit. "and this is Mark from the Netherlands." She points toward the only other guy at the table. Mark was a tall blonde guy with light blue eyes and a good build.
"Nice, so what are you guys up to? If it's okay with you I'd like to order something to eat. The last three days I spent eating lunchboxes." I laugh out loud.
"There has to be a story there. Go ahead." She says and the others nod. I order a simple meal for ten WP, leaving me with eleven in my wallet.
"Yea it was a hell of fun. Went to an apocalyptic world, fought zombies searched for supplies, got shot at and stuff." I say with a shrug
"Wow, sounds amazing! Did you bring back anything from there?" One of them asks.
"I found this amazing katana and two pretty good daggers. But I didn't know they will disappear if I don't have an extraction system. So, except for WP, money, and experience, I didn't get anything else." I say with a sad smile.
"Ah, rookie mistake!" Says, Mark.
"Oh shut up Mark, you made the same mistake on your first world and cried for an hour because you lost your replicator!" Says Anna.
"Wait Replicator?" I ask confused. Did this guy go to Star Trek as his first world?
"Yep, this guy jumped into a sci-fi series just to steal a replicator and exited with a few too many laser pistol wounds. Then he spent a little fortune in the Hospital to heal himself up." Says Anna while Sarah was still confused by my previous statement.
"Wait you extracted money?" asks Sarah
"Yea in the inventory tab, you have a coin purse upgrade, it allows you to convert currency and extract it from any world." Everyone's eyes bulge and they look away shyly. "You didn't know about that one?"
"Someone might have, you know, extracted dollars with the inventory system..." Says Mark while scratching the back of his head.
"Pff..." spitting my drink "That could have cost quite a lot..."
"It did quite a blow on my savings..." He says with an awkward smile.
"I don't like how we need to discover everything about the system... There is no tutorial about it or anything." Says Sarah.
"... I guess you didn't find the tutorial system in the system tools tab, it's 10WP..." I say which makes the others suddenly quiet down. Their eyes lose focus and I can see them looking at something which isn't there.
"You're fucking with me! Why haven't I checked this shit out." Mark yells out.
"That would have been a lot easier..." Says Sarah with a sigh.
"Thanks, Andrew." Thanks me Anna with a smile.
"You're welcome. So after a few days, how do you guys feel about all of this?" between bites I ask.
"It's amazing! I've been in a world filled with magical creatures and magic!"
"It is quite good, I've played around in a medieval world for a few days but I lost interest. It's hard without the comfort of technology."
"I know what you mean." I nod. "I've been in Little Red Riding Hood as my first world, saved her from the wolf, then went to a slime world to farm WP and XP and I just finished a Zombie world." I stop and remember my talk with Rob. "Oh, I talked with Rob, not sure how truthful the guy is, but he mentioned that violent worlds tend to have world laws that influence your emotions and mindset. So be careful about them. He also mentioned a system. What was it called?" I stop and think "Ummm... [Rule Breaker], that was it, yea. So this one allows you to not be influenced by world laws and permits you to use magic in worlds without it. I'm planning on getting it as soon as possible."
"So wait, without it, we cannot use magic in worlds that don't have magic?" Asks Sarah.
"I'm not sure, I still don't have any spells." The other's eyes widen. "I was focusing on my global level and class levels."
"Oh, you're going on that route?"
"Yea, the permanent class thing didn't sit well with me. I like variety." I say with a nod and with a quick search brought up the other class system.
[Class System | Upgrade Name: Permanent Class | Description: Select a permanent class from a list of classes. After achieving certain level thresholds, the class grants you bonuses, skills, and spells. | Price: 750 WP]
"Even when there is a class evolution upgrade for it?"
"Yep," I emphasize the P. "I already maxed out 3 classes. I'm just waiting to get a magical race right now to get mana and magical classes."
"Holy shit dude! What level are you?" Says Mark with
"45 right now. But it will stay like that for some time, there won't be a lot of stuff to kill in my next world."
"Holy shit and you got all of that without magic?"
"Yea, but I did, kind of, you know, blow up six gas stations in a zombie-infested world. Killing tens of thousands of them." I say with a smile as I look at their shocked faces.
"Fucking hell!" Says Mark with a smile as he hits my back "I like this guy! I want to one-up you so much right now. I'm leaving! When will you be here the next time?"
"I don't know, I plan to be lazy today and head to Harry Potter tomorrow, and I'll probably stay there for a while."
"Well fuck, okay, I'll invite you to my friends list." He says.
"Sure, I don't have one and I don't have a messaging system so I can't reply, though."
"Not an issue, we'll find a way."
"Okay."
[Mark Berg wants to add you to his friend list.]
[People with a friends list can see when others are in the main world.]
[Accept] [Decline]
"Accept." I say aloud.
"Great I already added Sarah and Anna. So next time we all are available we can have a little get-together."
"Sure, sounds nice. I was getting kind of lonely lately."
"See you around Andrew." He pats my back and leaves.
"We should be going too. We're grouping up for our next world." Says Sarah while looking at Anna.
"Yep." Says Anna with a nod.
"Well see you two around then and good luck in your next world." I say with a smile.
"Bye, bye Andy!" Says Anna with a smile and gives me a small wave, as they leave the premise.
"So what to do with the rest of the day." After finishing my meal and dawdling around I find myself in front of the workshop. "I wonder if there are any playrooms or something similar in it." Walking in I find it empty. "Do they work on the same principle as the apartments?" Not getting an answer I look at the floating screen on the side. As I scroll through the list, I find a really interesting one. Programming and Hacking workshop. Selecting it, a table with a futuristic pc appears in the middle of the room. Obviously, I had no programming knowledge, so I was unable to accomplish anything useful. So with a sad smile, I left the workshop. Heading back to my apartment I lay on my back and watch the ceiling.
"God damn it, I'm so bored..." I sigh as I stand up, pack my gear, and head toward the lower floors. "Time to check out a new world."