4 - The Feeling of Death

[A/N: First concern to note, is the mixing of both Marvel and DC. It will be an AU, so I don't have to worry about trying to make a complete and chaotic timeline by mixing both. It'll have elements from both, such as the Supernatural Community of DC and Marvel, races and intergalactic empires/entities, etc. I, of course, won't know everything, besides a lot of Marvel, but that's only because of MCU. Marvel, DC, and DCU are a convoluted mess when you try to learn the countless different versions of certain characters, worlds, etc. So, if you want to tell me about lore, or inform me of characters, or versions of characters, feel free to join my discord, the Cafe will eventually cross the Multiversal boundary, so you don't have to worry about your mentioned character not showing. As for the current games, I am trying to stick with the lower level/lower tech worlds before ramping it up, so things such as Halo(which is a universal game with many technologies that would rapidly advance Humanity), GOW(Gods, Divinity, Mythological Creatures and Items), you get the point. Also, before anyone mentions it, Ark Survival Evolved, while very advanced, requires Element, and the time for someone to actually understand or try to reverse engineer the tech would take quite a while unless it was someone like Tony Stark trying to learn about it]

[D i s c o r d: CMZm2uJ]

[A/N: Final note, chapters will be 1,500+ words long, so I can keep my updates relatively stable and get y'all weekly chapters]

As Kyle quickly reached into the bag and pulled out the 10mm Pistol, one of the rats managed to reach him and dig its teeth right into his leg, causing him to take in a sharp breath and groan before unloading a round into the rat's eye, killing it.

Feeling not even the slightest bit panicked, he quickly raised the gun and with surprising accuracy, shot nine more rounds, with almost every one of them hitting its target, only two actually killed their targets however.

The rest of the rounds slowed down and crippled a few, but some of the rats were almost perfectly fine as the bullets grazed or took some flesh with them.

Not thinking about it, he fired three more times, two bullets hit the mostly fine rats that were still charging while the third caused a large 'click' sound to echo quietly under the screeching of the rats.

Cursing, he pulled out the knife from the bag just as two rats pounced on him, causing him to fall to the ground.

His arm which automatically raised to protect his face was bitten into as one of the rats went for the face and the other rat began biting and chomping at Kyle's chest, tearing off chunks of bloody flesh.

Gritting his teeth, he thrust the knife into the eye of the rat bitting his arm, before grabbing the other rat with his bad arm and plunging the knife into its head, feeling only a bit of difficulty as he stabbed through the skull and not through the eye like the other.

However, when he looked towards the group of rats that he didn't kill yet, he saw those that did not die from his hasty firing lunging towards him and was forced to feel being mauled and ripped apart piece by piece before dying minutes later from the sheer pain and blood loss.

[Achievement Gained: (First Death) - Experience the cold embrace of Death, +5 Credits]

[Continue, or exit to Reality?]

Kyle, like a ghost, was floating over the scene, forced to watch as the rats consumed his corpse until nothing but shattered bones and cloth was left of his body.

Kyle felt...he didn't know what he felt, the feeling of death...the pain...the feeling of slowly losing your every sense until you no longer felt or saw anything and felt as if you were floating in a dark abyss, slowly losing a piece of yourself until nothing was left.

And while Kyle may have forgotten this was just a game, he didn't want to die again, he knew that he was weak. It's why he was pushed to enter the shop by the other gang members. He didn't want to be weak. He didn't want to die. Yet he had no other choice. In both worlds, he would have to fight for his life, he didn't know if he would be lucky in the real world and have the option to continue after death, but in this so-called game? He could hone his skills, instincts, and mind so that he wouldn't have to worry about surviving in the real world, and while he would do his most damn to not die again...at least it wouldn't be permanent in this strange world...

'Continue.'

Soon having to go through the whole intro once again, the vault door was closing behind him and he instantly reached into the bag, pulled two clips of ammo, and with a gun and knife in hand and the clips in his pocket, he was ready for the annoying rats that came rushing in just like before.

Kyle went with the exact same traits, stats, and tag skills as last time, so nothing really changed besides being more prepared for the rats that would soon swarm him.

Once he saw the rats, he immediately began firing, barely hearing the gun over the excruciatingly loud screeching of the vault door closing behind him.

He found himself calm, unnaturally so as he took the shots, killing the large rats in front one by one as they approached closer.

Kyle found it significantly easier this time around, now that he wasn't caught surprised and unarmed and easily butchered the rats, having only used eleven rounds, saving him a single bullet before the magazine would be empty.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he instinctually found himself unloading the weapon and reloading with a full clip.

He gazed at the weapon in his hand and instinctually knew a lot about the gun in his hand.

It was an N99 10mm Pistol, a somewhat common pistol found around the United States and some other parts of the world.

Its stopping power was decent against non-armored targets and was frequently employed in the Police force along with the Smith and Wesson .32 revolver and the M&A 9mm Pistol. Still, with each of the mentioned weapons, Kyle somehow knew that they would absolutely be awful against armored targets, dealing very little damage, if any against them.

Kyle also instinctively knew so much more about guns, including how to handle them better, take them apart, put them back together, maintain them, and his relative possible accuracy with them at his current skill level.

Other than that, he also knew how to apply first aid to himself and due to foraging, instinctually knew where to search and what plants or herbs he could use to help with wounds.

It was a strange feeling to him.

Focusing on the dead rats before him, he stepped closer, and with the knife, he grabbed from the bag, began skinning and harvesting the rats for their meat.

He didn't know what kind of options he would have outside this cave when it came to food, but if he ran out of the food rations in his bag or something happened, it would be best if he had another option when it came to food.

Though, once he was done, his work wasn't exactly pretty, with him messing up quite a bit and ruining quite a lot of the meat.

Either way, he now has about 12 lbs of edible meat for the future, which he stuffed in the rucksack and slung onto his back.

Seeing as nothing interrupted him when he was skinning and harvesting the rats, he figured that there shouldn't be any more rats in the cave, or, he scared any remaining rats into hiding or fleeing.

Of course, if the rats were smart, they could also be lying in wait to ambush Kyle, so he wasn't going to drop his guard.

With the N99 10mm Pistol and the knife in his hands, he cautiously stalked the rather large cave, coming across more skeletons, old empty boxes, chewed bones, and not much else.

He did find another Giant Rat, but a bullet through the brain took care of it quite easily enough.

The cave was quite dark, but his Pip-boy, the wrist-mounted computer on his left arm, did have a flashlight function, which was just a bright light that would illuminate a small area around him, letting him see much better in the darkness.

Soon enough, however, he actually could see light just around the corner, and then the entrance of the cave.

Taking a step outside the cave was met with momentary blindness as his eyes tried to adjust to the harsh sun.

Once his eyes adjusted, he looked in horror upon the land before him.

Instead of a lush landscape filled with grass, the occasional tree, and blue skies.

He was instead looking at a dusty and dry land with little plant life and a sickly brown sky.

Glancing back at the cave, he frowned and lifted up his arm, and opened the map function on his Pipboy.

He already had the Vault's location marked on the map, and the Vault 15 marked on the map too, however, nothing else was on the map besides old markers of Pre-War cities and towns that may still stand today.

And if he came across anything new, he could always just mark it down on the Pipboy's map and save it for later.

Although he was curious about this world and wanted to see what some of the Major cities looked like from the fallout, he still had a mission to do, one he needed to focus on, at least until he no longer has a time limit over his head.

So, with the rucksack on his back, a pistol in his right hand, and a knife in his left, he began heading east, towards Vault 15.

For three days he walked, the sun's intense gaze hanging over him the entire time and the bitter cold of the night gnawing at him. He's come across even more creatures on his walk, strange pink rat-like creatures that could burrow into the earth and were incredibly aggressive, giant scorpions, giant ants, and so much more.

He even saw some birds, but they were few in number.

He hasn't seen anyone as of yet, and part of him hopes that the Wasteland isn't completely empty of people.

He's cooked up some of the rat meat last night, and to his surprise, it didn't taste too bad, would have tasted better if he had some seasoning to make the meat taste better.

As for his water, he's been using it sparingly, which seems to have been the smart move since he has yet to have seen even a single source of water for the many miles he has walked which would also explain why life seems so sparse in this land.

And as he walked through the land, he soon found himself walking across a long stretch of flat land and in the distance...he could swear that he sees...walls