An Old Letter

After checking the Archery Workshop outside and eating lunch with Mom, I hurriedly went upstairs to log in and do another game.

But before jumping to any action, I remembered I still have something in my inventory that I have yet to open. 

"Open Inventory."

Under Weapon's category there are the femur bow, bone arrows and wooden arrows. I took the femur bow and equipped it. Next the bone arrows and used it too.

But the moment I equipped both of them something strange happened. I can hear the cries of zombies in my head, as if they were in agony so I immediately removed the bone arrows and the crying stopped.

I tried to equip it once more and the crying of agony started again. This must be a bug or the warning given by the item not to use it if required strength was not met.

I currently have a 400 strength, the femur bow needs 400 strength too and that's enough for me to use it. The bone arrows requirement was only 200 so there's no problem for me supposedly if I use it. 

But if using them accumulates the total required number of strength then I can't use both of them at the same time as their combined strength would become 600.

So I removed the bone arrows and decided to use the wooden arrows instead for the time being until the bug is gone or if my understanding is right until  I've got enough strength already.

The Gears' Category is empty where the bone amulet was previously located since I have equipped it already, 44 drops of Zombie Blood is still there under the Ingredients Category and…. there you are under Others' Category, an Old Letter.

The Old letter literally looked so old in the picture. I dug my hand and took the item named An old letter out of the inventory.

▪️Read the letter?

<Yes >

<Throw >

<Later >

A system message appeared asking what to do with the letter. According to SAIA, there are many items in the game that can be traded or thrown away directly if the players want to.

Those items will be thrown at the environment like virtual trashes and if there are players who find items around, they can pick it up and use them. Just wow okay, this is game is just so realistic.

But my question is, what if there are too much trash in the virtual world of The Rulers? How would the players deal with the trashes? Will it become like the real world full of pollution?

All of my items in the inventory have the same options too like my weapons and my amulet but the trade part is still grayed out as I have not reached the level yet where I'm allowed to trade, the only option I have is to throw them out. But I would not do that, they are too precious for me.

Back to system message.

▪️Read the letter?

<Yes >

<Throw >

<Later >

I chose yes as an answer, of course.

Gradually, my surrounding's color has started to change to a bright orange and I can hear a crackling sound all around like a sound of fire burning so I took a look around of the hellish surrounding.

The game brought me to a virtual reality. My room was nowhere to be seen and all I can see was a complete different place. Houses and buildings are burning everywhere, smoke are rising that I can't almost never see clearly.

"Whoever is reading this letter…" hmmm? I stared at the glowing old letter in my hand when I heard someone talking coming from this old paper.

"… may God be with you and may the calamity that has befallen us be far from you. I don't know how much time I have while writing this letter but I hope this letter is enough to warn everyone outside."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!"  I glanced to the source of the sound after being startled by a sudden scream.

"Cough! Cough!"

"Help!!! Someone help!, ahhhh"

"M-Mama!  Mama Sob Sob"

A horrific scene played around, I can see people crying for help. Some were already burning, some were under the heaps and rubbles, children were crying and everyone's running!

"Our sin is so great that God has decided to punish our greediness. Our warnings have fallen to deaf ears and now it resulted to this. But I think this is for the mankind's benefit, that only us would suffer and that no other."

"Ahhhh! Ahhh! Pls spare me sir, please!" 

Tsuk! A pregnant woman was being slaughtered using a spear by a soldier-looking man clad with metal armor so I jolted in shock. That was too much to bear.

A burning figure behind the soldier jumped onto him and bit his ears so he roared in pain trying to push the burning zombie away from his face. Another one crawled under him, hugged his legs and was trying to bit his metal boots. More were coming towards him and the others went after the helpless civilians.

"Our sacrifice may be cruel, but this is just the start, we are now paying the price. But, I have expected for the worst and have prepared a special barrier but this barrier won't last forever, our magic and technology are limited. It may hold us from going out for decades but it will break in no time."

I lifted my eyes and saw a clear yet somewhat visible big dome covering the vastness of the city's sky. The dome can be seen due to the fact that it was being deformed from time to time due to being crashed with different materials repeatedly like missiles and gunfire. It was also hit with modern planes and choppers attempting to go out. The city looked exactly like a normal city from a real world scenario and that explains the use of choppers, planes and missiles.

"We created the virus, but our project was a total failure. Please find a way to recreate the original strain by extracting them from the zombies blood that may be loosed from the weakening barrier if that time comes and…

Please, find the cure, not for us but for humanities future. I know very well that you can have many uses for the Zombie Virus as you may use them for your own advantage but I can only pray for your success and that you won't be blinded with greed in your way."

Dr. Smint

Slowly, the scene has started to fade as my room slowly became visible again until no traces of the hellish scene can be spotted.

I was in a daze for a moment after coming out from a very chaotic place and I feel like I'm being bombarded with total silence that I thought I became deaf.

▪️World Wide Server Announcement!

A system announcement blocked my view after reading or rather watching and listening to the letter and that took me back to my senses.

"Players please pay attention." SAIA announced after the glowing system announcement. My attention was taken to the ceiling as the system announcement was transferred there after blocking my sight.

"The first ever Major Game Event was unlocked by Player Rian, congratulations."

"All players are invited to clear the event; winners shall receive 100,000 US dollars with game's special drops as the Grand Prize."

"Player can clear the game individually or by teams."

"One-week countdown will start now before the start of a global phenomenon."

A timer then appeared beside the system announcement showing that the remaining time is one week.

"Good Luck Players!"

The announcement then disappeared from my ceiling.

"Woahhhh, I never thought that games can give out big prizes as a reward. A hundred thousand US dollars?????? Anyone would become a millionaire here in the Philippines with that amount of money. But how could you announce my username just like that SAIA!!!!!?"

A few moment later, after calming myself down I asked SAIA about the event which was also one of my game tasks.

Accordingly only I have the biggest advantage as the clue to the task was with me, the old Letter left by someone named Dr. Smint. 

The letter stated that the City who perished was the one who invented the original zombie virus strain but their work was incomplete and they didn't even have the cure the reason why they never made it. Now why would they create the virus in the first place? The greed he's talking? What was it? 

So my task is to recreate the Zombie Virus and Choose only one of the game scenarios:

A. Create a cure

B. Use Zombie Virus to create your own dominion

But what if the virus breaks out again and I can't control it? Will The Rulers game become chaotic just like what happened on that City?

What will happen to my character? I think the system is just giving me headache after receiving just small reward.

But no matter what, it's just a game. I think all players just want to enjoy the game. The more chaotic the game becomes, the more everyone will enjoy it.

I was given a one-week head start for the game's task as I was the one who unlocked the Major game event. But tomorrow is Monday already and I need to attend school for the whole week so the head start would be wasted on me.

I'll use the week instead in focusing on my studies, arranging my schedules to insert the game and the archery class.