Establish order

When I woke up again, the cell doors were already open. I didn't know what time it was, but judging by the activity outside, it must have been past the early morning. I sat up, and scratched my head, I thought the word 'Extras' and the menu popped up. That was good, it didn't disappear. However, I did really want to know how it worked, in general. It was really crazy, but the specific requirements for some of the features were appalling. However, I couldn't do much.

I decided to close it and stood up, walking through the doorway out into The Hall and saw a large mass of people eating together. It was nice to see that people were able to treat life here as something normal, but something about it felt off, and that was guaranteed considering where they were. But even a moment to help one forget about our situation was enough, right? I looked through the crowd and saw Nick and Ashley talking together. I didn't know anyone other than them, yet. It would be nice to know some of the others here.

I sighed, and turned around. I forgot about the coin bag. I took a short backtrack to get the pouch, but when I got back to the doorway, I saw a rather soft-looking blond boy, who seemed to be an inch shorter than me. "Oh! Uh, hi! I saw what.. You did back there!" he fumbled a bit as I looked up and tried to walk past him, giving him a glance, not really having the heart to completely ignore him "Really? Well, I never expected to have many fans yet, I only did one thing, haha.."

They raised their voice a bit in exclamation "H-hOW COULD, y-you not have fans? Nobody saw that creature, but you did? That was crazy, Jim said that was even a lesser version of that species, too, imagine how terrifying those would be."

"Oh, yeah? I mean, it was easy to see it, I just looked closely and saw ripples where it was, easy to explain, really. And, of course, where it was could have been seen, by… Uhm.. it's victims." I felt a bit sick saying that, and the boy behind me quieted down as well. I got to Nick and Ashley and sat next to them. "Ah, hey, Jack!" Nick had turned to me and noticed the boy behind me "Looks like you've got a stalker!"

I shrugged, motioning for him to sit down. He seemed to be fine with doing so. "We lost quite a few here, we started at 300 and lost nearly a third in one game.. At this rate, we'd be whittled down to double digits in a few games.."

Ashley flopped her head over and stared at me blankly "Yeah, good job deducing that, sherlock."

"HEY! I-" I blushed a bit and folded my arms "I wanted to say we need to work out a strategy to actually get this done properly. Games like that must have had flaws. I am sure Ash, that you've discovered a flaw or two."

She shrugged "Well, I guess you could say that there was no rule we couldn't help each other, and we took that quite for granted. Also, we didn't need to spread out equally."

"Yes, yes, but what if a game like that happened but it was forced to be one thing?"

Nick looked a bit nervous "Well, you saved a quadrant before. I think there's a way to save as many people as possible as opposed to no people surviving. I don't think they'd want us all dead in one game. The clear conditions was not one surviving quadrant, but 2 minutes of a survival game, really."

I nodded, and the kid behind me chimed in. "I know what we can try. If they have any mental stuff, then that'd be too easy, I think they've chosen people with smarts in every way, even the guys from the first game were able to steal without getting caught, and stuff. But, I assume the games will have some physical aspect as well. Something that can be survived through sheer power, like the creatures. We should try to train up each other, I've gotten quite some training done, I'm kinda smart when it comes to fighting, so I can help you guys, and stuff."

I nodded, "That's a brilliant idea. Getting some martial arts skills would be pretty crucial for physical games, in case those happen. After-all, not every earth gameshow is something that requires only mental strength. Wipe-out is pretty prominent as one of them, but so is super ninja warrior and all that."

Everyone nodded, and I stood up. "Alright, Ashley, nick, and.. Blondie-"

"It's Jonny."

"Jonny, right, we should organize a room like that. The cells from the lost participants are open now, right? We could use those for various activities. Turning a personal space into maybe training areas? As for people to not ruin their own for stuff like that. Has your prize come in, yet, ash?"

"They said the rewards would happen sometime around now. I bugged someone to get a clock, since there isn't one already provided. So, that would make up to be pretty useful."

Jonny raised his hand nervously. "I, uhm, well, I participated in the game, I was in Q3.. I asked for one of those training attack dummies. Like a punching bag, but shaped like a human's head and torso. No arms, though. That might help a little."

I spoke up myself now "I asked for a dagger. A weapon would be useful here. I wonder what other people asked for?"

Nick spoke up after me "Well, we can try and sort up a social order in here and get people to establish the necessities and get the wants later? That would be easy if Jack was the primary speaker."

"Yeahh.. But i don't believe in my leadership skills, really. I'm quite the shut-in..."

Ashly chuckled a bit, "Don't worry, all we need is just your voice to say stuff we want you to. That would be best, then you can give me permanent authority, and I could sort out as much as I can myself. Of course, having your support would certainly make my power more meaningful."

Jonny stood up "Yeah! So, it's settled then. We are going to rally up the people to try and help the masses rather than the individual, and, we will try and improve each other's physical skills!"

All of us agreed with what had to be done. If all goes well, then the group would work towards a greater goal, and less people would have to die. I liked Jonny already.

===========

Soon, our plan was set into motion. Ashley and Nick came out with two chairs and hit them together. I hopped onto the table.

"Hello citizens of The Hall! Understandably, some are shaken up by our losses, and many are in support of my good deeds. However, I alone cannot save you all. So, today, we want to try and help the community get together to become stronger, and smarter so that you all can handle yourselves in the future games. If you participated in the last game and haven't spent your reward, then today, I hope you can help think of items the community needs to be able to grow and become stronger."

The crowd had listened quietly, they seemed to understand the severity of the situation and people got up from their seats and raised their hands. I nervously turned towards Ashley "The one who I am entrusting power to is Ashley, she's a trusted colleague of mine and you can go to her for any questions, if you must ask any. She'll help to spread out the items so that they can be used for the community's betterment."

She then hopped up where I was and started to work wonders with the questions and the group. I didn't know how she did it, but she helped raise morale. People have brought their personal rewards to her and she helped to make it be used for the whole group. I could not have been able to do that. She even let people keep items that were hard for everyone to share. Nick and Jonny had helped come up with the things that would certainly help the community work together, though, of course outliers would exist, but those would have to be dealt in their own way, when they show up.

Soon, I had gotten back to my room. The dagger had arrived and I noticed a message on the T.V.

'Games resuming in: 39:32;46'

That wasn't too bad. However, what I was wondering at this moment was how to get Features. More of them, specifically, cause at my current level… I had no strength. If that higher mars creature would have been sent instead, the outcome for that first game would have been much worse than it ended up being. With this dagger, I was hoping to get a Feature or two. There had to be one, right? I didn't know what I could do… I got a Feature from suffocating to death, but there's no guarantee that I would get one every time I die. At the very least, I should try attacking with it.

I got into a poor stance and swung and stabbed at the air, stopping my urge to let out cries, like in movies, every time I did so. After a while, the Feature hadn't come yet. I looked at the wall and the blade, before slashing the wall. Sparks came flying, but surely this would give me a Feature? I slashed and scraped the wall, but it wasn't cutting it.. No pun intended.

I saw marks, and the blade felt duller, but what was I doing wrong? I checked the Extras menu, then went to bonus features.

/-----------\

Lung Capacity Lv. 3

Advanced Eye Lv. 2

(New Feature in development!)

(New Feature in development!)

(New Feature in development!)

??? Lv. 10 (Max)

??? Lv. 5

??? Lv. 1

\-----------/

Huh. So, something was coming, but what was this? I had three more Features? That makes… A little bit of sense, if I could count what I've spent the past hour doing with Ashley, Nick, and Jonny. Would the others have something to do with morale and speech? One had to be something with dagger mastery… If they were in development, does that mean I need to focus more, or was there a certain quota I have to meet to get the Feature fully? I've tried two things with the dagger so far… The air and a wall. The last thing I think I could do was use it in actual combat and strike someone…

I raised the blade to my arm. I had to try it. I should try it. Just in case? I hesitated, a lot, of course I would. I then turned my arm around and counted to three..

SHHHK

I heard a ding... I opened my eyes and saw my arm had lost quite a bit of flesh. Thank god it wasn't too much. I looked up at the Bonus Feature menu and sighed,

/-----------\

Lung Capacity Lv. 3

Advanced Eye Lv. 2

Short Weapon Mastery Lv. 1 (Unclaimed)

.

.

\-----------/

I got it. I just had to hurt someone with it… But this pain blew. Like, it really sucked, who knew losing a chunk of skin would hurt? At least it wasn't an eye. I sighed. I peeked out of the cell, before turning towards my bed. I grabbed a piece of sheet and cut it off, wrapping it around the missing bit of my arm and, after a minute, I had done it, I wrapped the wound in a cloth. It took too much concentration and trial and error, but I did it! If I didn't get a Feature or two in the making, I wouldn't know what would.

However, this proved that Bonus Features worked oddly in this system. If I wanted to get one, I needed to do everything that related to that Feature to actually get it. Say, I wanted a Feature like.. Pain resistance. That'd require I feel lots of different pain, different levels, too, and that'd take ages to get. If I wanted to get a combat Feature, I'd need to do what I did with the dagger, try everything I could that I would want to do anyway.

It was a bit confusing, and may not be intuitive at all, but I was getting somewhere. With this new information, I could practice getting and improving Features further than normal. Now, this was a great start to getting more information on the system.