Chapter 3: Death Flag(2)

A fantasy sci fi role playing game, where players use spaceships, mechas and futuristic technology powered by an energy called magic, to win the war between Humans and the Zurge.

It follows the story of the 3rd prince of the Galaxica Empire, Liam Conley Galaxicus. Players play the role of Prince Liam, the actions and decisions of the player would then lead to different branching outcomes called 'Ending'.

However, despite achieving an ending. The game does not stop. The only time it does would be when the 'True ending' is achieved, an ending where Prince Liam becomes emperor, humanity wins! The earth is reclaimed. Zurge dies, baboosh, farewell~

The only good ending.

No game overs. No resets. No save points.

But how can the player enjoy the game if they can't restart when they make a mistake? Simple! The player just needs to die~

If the player dies, Prince Liam regresses. Starting from the beginning.

Like a reset.

However not everything returns to what it was.

Not everyone regresses with the player.

Major story characters that die before Prince Liam, will not exist in the next regression.

And to make things worse, the Zurge queen remembers every regression. So the more the player dies and fails, the level of difficulty will rise.

This was the reason it took Jun 4 days to achieve all official endings. Because the moment you fuck up and a major story character dies, even with regression they won't come back.

So Jun had to manually reset the game by deleting all game files and redownloading them from square 1.

But what if you're in the game itself? And a major story character at that

Even if the Prince regresses, if you die you're never coming back.

Jun didn't want that. He just came here, he didn't want to die! He didn't like the feeling of death nor did he want to disappear as if he didn't exist.

The villain refuses to die!

…

But reality can be a bitch sometimes~

Clenching his jaw all sorts of thoughts ran through Jun's mind. His hands curled into fists as he calmly-at least to the best of his abilities- stared at the notification window in front of him.

[Death Flag has been detected!]

Seeing Jun's silent downcast figure tremble slightly, the doctor hid a mischievous grin. His pupils dilated,the whites of his eyes disappeared, replacing it with all black. Reaching into his pocket, his hand grip on the cylindrical handle tightly.

A tunnel vision with one thought in mind, 'for the queen mother!'

"...Doctor"

Startled by the calm voice, the doctor with his arm raised, froze.

[Conditions have been met, skills have been unlocked!]

[Combined Skill is in effect!

"Cold blooded (S)"

-You should smile more, otherwise you might lose your humanity-]

Quickly the doctor motioned as if he was scratching his head. The whites of his eyes returned as quick as it disappeared. Straightening his back he looked down on the student Vadgai.

There was no shake, nor fear, just deep grey eyes observing everything as if all of it was in black and white. Those eyes were looking at him.

And for a half second the doctor was sure those eyes darkened a shade

"Who do you think you are? That you can look down at me?"

An arrogant tone that seeped chills into his back. Unconsciously he bowed his head, stealthily hiding the gadget back to his pocket. Cold sweat dripped from his forehead as noble pressure weighed him down.

[Character unique skill is in effect!!

"Abuse of Power(E^)"

-Authority is meant to be abused. I'm rich, got a problem with that? Kneel bitch-]

"A mere commoner dares to boss me around?"

The more the student Vadgai spoke, the greater the pressure that the doctor felt. With his knees buckling, he kneeled down like a sinner in front of a guillotine.

He was trembling.

Clenching his jaw, the doctor unable to move his body furrowed his brow, concentrating all his energy in his head he made a last ditch effort.

'Queen mother a problem has risen! Another variable has come out to look out for, his name's–!'

"Fucking beggar doesn't even know its place"

Before the transmission could send a loud bang resounded in the infirmary. Shot by a magic bullet, the doctor's head was blown to bits.

BAM!

The once kneeling doctor fell sideways, pieces of bone, skin and ripped tissue scattered everywhere, blood flooded where he landed.

Ting!

The sound of the metal gadget reverberated through the room bouncing on the tiled floor with a deafening sound.

Tang!

Before rolling to stop not too far from the headless corpse.

Clok!

Then there was silence

Staring at the corpse Jun breathed in and out, in the silence even the sound of a pin drop could

be heard.

'Tsk!'

Shifting his body to the right, Jun rolled on the floor. Jumping out from a carnage with a loud screech was a football sized hairless fleshy creature, green saliva dripped from its mouth as its long ponytail pierced through the mattress, as if confused by the lack of target it moved its 5 insect legs to look at Jun its face was of a crab but teeth of a bat.

It landed exactly where Jun was seconds ago, with the 6th leg blown off by the explosion green blood poured out from the hole on his side staining the white sheets.

Jun wasn't any better as a warm liquid oozed down from his forehead to his cheek obstructing his right eye.

It could have been worse honestly

The Zurge screamed once again getting ready to pounce on Jun once again. Taking aim, Jun repeatedly shot at the alien bastard. However it was fast. Even with 'Abuse of Power' in use, the best it could do was slow the zurge down by a few seconds. Retreating to the wall it crawled quickly, holes littered behind its path.

Screeching the zurge pounced on him the moment he ran out of bullets. But instead of flesh, a strong electric current surged through its body. It screamed, screeched and trashed around but Jun didn't stop. Pinning the alien down on the floor with his weight, he increased the output higher and higher.

It gradually stopped moving, as a horrid burnt swell wafted around the room. But Jun still continued to tase the already charcoal-like zurge.

[Skills have been deactivated due to lacking mana!]

[Death Flag has been apprehended!

Reward: 50 star coins]

[You may use your star coins to buy items and skills in the Star Store! The Star Store will be accessible after the completion of the main quest in "Chapter 1: Paglaum Opening Ceremony"]

It was only when a notification window showed up did he remove himself from the burnt alien, in his hand was the very same cylindrical handle the dead doctor once owned.

Jun stood motionless, he felt sick and sticky from the green and red blood that clung to him. There was an uncomfortable feeling with the disconnection he had with his body, it didn't move the way he wanted it to, almost losing his life to an F class parasitic zurge had he been unarmed.

Paglaum Academy does not allow private arsenal on their students and only issue military owned weapons during practical lessons. Thankfully, Vadgai was the sort of person that dislikes conforming to the rules of those he thinks are below him, and kept a mana gun on his person for his security.

Once the school would look into this incident, Jun roughly guessed he would have a lot of explaining to do after this incident.

But he wasn't worried, he knew Vadgai's father, Duke Tashcun would deal with the matter.

Rather he was more concerned with the feel of his body. Jun, who was taller and bulkier, couldn't get used to the twig-like short body of Vadgai unlike how he first thought.

"Should I wear insoles? Hmm… Maybe I should drink milk and exercise"

Jun spoke his thoughts, knowing Vadgai's haughty character he was not the type to exercise nor drink milk. Vadgai saw himself as a perfect being, why would he change his body? He was the son of the wealthiest man in Galaxica, second only to the imperial family. It was beneath him to wear something as shameless as insoles to gain a few cm.

Yet despite that, the system didn't restrict his speech

'As I thought'

The system only restricts Jun when there are others with him. But since he's alone-disregarding the headless corpse and burnt zurge on the side- there were no concerns for being OOC.

Jun wanted to fiddle with the system more, intrigued with how to exploit loopholes and the power of 'skills' he used before.

But before he could continue reading, his sight blurred, feeling light headed Jun caught a reflection of himself through metalic of the electric taser still in his hand.

Auburn hair styled in a bowl cut, a small face and round cheeks. Vadgai who never faced hardship looked more like a child despite his age.

'He looks nothing like me, except for our eye color…'

Jun grimaced, even if paid a hundred dollars he would never be caught dead sporting a bowl cut. What's worse was that Zurge had cut his hair as well making his fringes look uneven.

But as much as he hated his hair, that wasn't something Jun should concern himself with right now

There was a gruesome sight of his face dripping blood. His forehead injury was getting worse by the minute.

When he rolled to evade the Zurge, he had to sacrifice getting hit to take the taser that fortunately for him, rolled out of the doctor's pocket.

Deciding to study the system later, Jun entered the lab connected to the infirmary

As per memory of the game the lab which contains valuable research and supplies were off limits to students.

Even for a privileged character like Vadgai Tash, he would need not only the permission of the research department but the dean as well if he wants to enter.

Unless…

Looking at the headless corpse still oozing with blood, a brilliant idea came to mind

"Welcome Doctor Fried"

With a welcoming gesture of a robotic voice, Jun dropped the doctor's corpse with a frown wiping off his hands on its coat.

Thankfully the laboratory only needed a hand print from a researcher for access, he would have been in a pickle if it included an eye scan.

Cause you know, he kinda… Blown the doctor's head to bits…

Jun, finally feeling the effects of his adrenaline rush fade away, made his way to the refrigerated shelves at the back with weak steps holding on to the walls beside him for support.

Descrying familiar pills, Jun reached in to pop a red, blue and green pill in

Because of the nature of liquids in zero gravity, unlike most potions seen in fantasy games, they were translated into pills in this game world for easy transportation and usage during fights in gravity-less situations.

The red was a health pill, that with the power of nanotech and magic healed the physical body.

The blue pill replenishes the mana a person has lost.

The green replenishes stamina.

The effects were instantaneous. Feeling refreshed and energized, Jun discarded his dirty clothes and washed his face.

The gash on his forehead was gone, not even a scar was left behind. His hair still looked like shit though

It was unfortunate that Vadgai is unable to use support magic, he could have chosen that option instead as pills are rare and hard to manufacture.

But Jun didn't regret it. It was the school's supplies, not his

What's more, staring at his reflection, water slid down from his forehead droplets clinging to his hair and lashes, the rest of his face however was blocked by the game window that had followed him to the washroom as if sulking for being ignored.

[You may use your star coins to buy items and skills in the Star Store! Star store will be accessible after the completion of the main quest in "Chapter 1: Paglaum Opening Ceremony"]

Chapter 1 has begun, the start of the game just after the tutorial, Prince Liam's 1st regression and depending on his actions and choices.

This chapter could result in the 1st achievable ending, "The Massacre of Hope".