“My name is Cassandra. I'm here to help you get adjusted,” the serious woman explained and after a moment of looking intently at Gary she let her shoulders slump down and let a tired expression overtook her face, “thank you for not freaking out or running off on your own.”
Gary tried his best to just forget about crying when he first got here and just waited for her to continue.
Cassandra gave Gary a look of pity and sat him down on a surprisingly comfortable rock. “You had a very bad heart attack. It left you in a coma for a long time.”
The change in atmosphere and the way she said those words made something in Gary start thinking something awful, but he stopped himself, not yet ready to face the worst outcome.
“... Just how long are we talking about?” Gary asked.
“It was long enough that your family turned to experimental medicine and you became the first successful test subject in a method of extending natural lifespan,” Cassandra said with the kind of excitement that made it sound like Gary had won something.
Gary didn't feel like he had won anything at all. “How long?”
Cassandra's smile fell. “You’ve been in a lot of medical experiments. Your parents died 51 and 52 years ago.”
Gary fell silent. No longer interested in how long it had been. He saw them only a few hours ago and it didn't feel important.
“It's been 137 years. I'm going to try my best to help you adjust to life. I know you don't know me, but I'll try my best to be your friend. If you have anything you want to talk about, please tell me and I'll do my best,” Cassandra stroked Gary's arm.
The other guy was probably desperately demanding a way out to get back to his wife, but I don't have any place to go anymore. Mikey is probably my closest friend now.
“What should I do, Cassandra?” Gary said to his feet.
“I'm going to try to get you some contacts outside the Afterlife. What kind of work would you like to get into?” Cassandra asked.
“Uhh… Work?” Gary couldn't keep up with all the shifts in topic.
“Like I said, it's my job to get you adjusted. It will be good for you to have some network outside of this virtual world. How about I just say that you are open for anything and we can narrow down on something in a few days when your head is clear?”
Gary nodded. Mostly thinking of the prospect of putting things off for a few days. Or even longer. He wasn't exactly making great career progress before.
Cassandra showed him how to add her to his friend list so he could message her anytime, but Gary was done talking at this point and just silently thought about where his life would take him.
Cassandra gave him a pat on the back. “You can tell me anything you know…”
Gary just nodded.
“I wish I could stay with you longer, but better try to find Mikey. Try to have some fun. Okay?”
Gary, with no real intention to take her advice, nodded again.
When she left Gary just sat on that same rock for a long time, maybe hours, thinking about what kinds of lives everyone had. How they grew old and how they changed.
Maybe they did things he wouldn’t expect. Maybe they also died early like him. Maybe his death catalyzed something in them. Maybe they filled his role. Maybe new people moved in his world to fill it... Maybe no one ever filled it.
Maybe... Gary paused and struggled with the thought. Maybe there wasn't much to fill.
Gary wanted to know the truth, but also felt like it wasn't his place anymore. It was no longer his own life he would be looking in on anymore, and maybe it didn't even matter.
He made up a final little story for each person and filed them away in the back of his mind. Somehow having his own truth about them made him feel better, but he needed to set this all aside for now. Gary felt he needed a break.
He would come back to this, but for now he needed to relax a bit. How best to take a break? He looked down.
Already sitting.
What other things does a break need? Snacks?
Ah. Right. I'm already playing a game.
Gary checked himself over. The wooden sword wasn’t quite like a training sword, the blade was actually sharp-ish. He also found a handful of coins in his pockets.
70 copper
Gary pulled up his menu to check over the classes better.
Stonesmith Useless Skill:Craft with stone
What was with that “useless” part?
As Gary focused on the word a new screen opened.
Useless:
The Stonesmith class is a joke class for fans of our games.
Not intended for serious players.
Gary frowned.
No wonder Mikey ran off… Well how about the skill then?
Craft with stone:
As long as you have stone
you can make any useless item you want!
…
Whatever. What other skills do I have?
Knife throwing:
All knife class weapons can be thrown.
Double throwing damage.
Ready hands: Allows weapons to be changed in battle.
Blade crusher: Weapons lose durability ten times as fast.
Ambush: Five times damage to unaware targets.
The damage was really high, but Blade crusher wasn't as cool as its name made it sound. Wasn't that more like a curse than a skill?
For now Gary decided to get some basic equipment and just try the game out. He would find someone to teach him how to change classes later and pick out something better when he knew what he wanted.
The town’s streets were mostly empty now. Most players ran off towards the woods, leaving only a handful of people in groups talking.
The sun was warm on his skin and medieval cobblestone paths looked authentic. Even the shadows looked crisp and natural. Part of Gary said it couldn't be a game, but having played a lot of games he could spot little marks. Like the path repeating the same configuration of "haphazard" stones.
Gary headed back to the building with the sword sign. He would need a knife at least.
On his way there, his body crumpled and twisted into a ball and he fell to the ground. Some nearby players giggled.
At least it didn’t hurt. Some kind of bug with my controls?
Gary wobbled and stood. His body didn’t respond like it had before. It was working perfectly like a normal body up to this point.
He decided to try to ignore the players and carefully tried to take a step only to land awkwardly far away.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
It was getting hard to pretend he wasn't being laughed at. Did they also think he was useless? It wasn't his fault.
The next step was going to be even more careful, but ended up being nothing more than a one foot hop landing back in the same place. The laughter got louder.
Should I just give up and crawl?
With a sigh, Gary tried a bigger step and got no problems. He checked himself over and found everything working normally.
He rushed out of sight and into the shop. Only once the door close behind him did he let out a sigh of relief.
Now if only I didn’t hear them still laughing…
The shop was exactly what Gary would expect for a weapon shop. Lots of weapons on the walls, a forge in the back and a display case with weapons for a counter. There was even a cliche smiling bald muscular man.
“What can I help you with?” the shopkeeper asked.
“I’m looking for a knife,” Gary said looking at some of the works on the walls.
The shopkeeper pulled out three knives from behind the counter. A window floated up from each weapon.
Dragon Dagger:
Damage: 173 Accuracy: 12 Durability: 36/36 Value: ???
A dagger forged from the bones of a dragon. Even an unskilled smith would make a powerful weapon with this.
Gary knew right away that a dragon dagger would be far too good for him at the start, but he made a silent promise to one day own one for himself and feel the snake like carvings on his hand and use that metallic black blade on the monsters of this world.
“4 titanium and 27 platinum” the shopkeeper said, pointing to the dragon dagger Gary was focused on.
Gary moved to pick up the iron dagger, hoping it might be in his price range.
Iron Dagger:
Damage: 17 Accuracy: 10 Durability: 17/17 Value: ???
A dagger made of iron. Looks like the crafter has practiced making these for a long time
“4 silver and 41 copper”
Even an iron dagger costs so much? Well, I am new. Maybe it’s not so hard to make silver coins.
Gary put the dagger back down.
“How much are the different coins worth anyway?” Gary asked while inspecting the final dagger.
Bronze Dagger:
Damage: 10 Accuracy: 7 Durability: 10/10 Value: ???
A standard dagger made of bronze. This one is a little more sharp, but the handle looks odd.
“Each coin is worth 100 of the lower coin. 1 silver is 100 copper and from there it goes up to gold and then platinum, titanium, amethyst, aquamarine, sapphire, ruby, opal, diamond and I’ve been told that there’s some higher system for coins after that, but I’ve never seen a gemstone coin myself. By the way that one is 63 copper coins on account of the defect,” the shopkeeper spat out mechanically.
So much!? I’ll spend everything I have just to buy a defective dagger? And what’s up with the price for the dragon dagger? Well, I guess I have to spend money to make money, but I can forget about any other equipment. I'll use this to hunt some monsters and make some cash and come back for armor and hopefully a iron dagger. I'll show them what I'm made of.
“I’ll take it,” Gary said while thrusting the coins out.
The shopkeeper waved his hand over the coins and, with incredible skills, left only 7 without counting anything. “If you have any problems, let me know and maybe I can adjust it for you. And feel free to wait here for a while. I think those players are still outside,” he said with a smile.
I almost forgot about them. Wait… Something is too mechanical about this guy, but he speaks so naturally and he also called them players like he isn’t one.
“Are you an A.I. or something?” Gary asked after hesitating.
Better to look stupid now and learn than always look stupid, I guess.
“Oh, good,” the shopkeeper changed to a rigid pose and his face went lifeless and stiff. “I’m not really allowed to talk about that kind of stuff unless you ask. They say it breaks the immersion if I don’t put on the act.”
The shopkeeper started cleaning his shop and other tasks as he continued talking in a monotone voice. “Like most NPCs in Afterlife I am a class L5 grade 2 A.I. with personality limitat- well, I just said that. Sorry. I’m a bit excited. You are my first human EVER you know! It's soooo exciting to finally meet players. I feel like I was waiting for years for the game to come online!”
“Ummm…” Gary managed to get out. The sight of a big muscular blacksmith inhumanly organising metals while babbling like a child in a robotic voice was too much for his brain to keep up with. “Ok. Thank you. I’ll come back soon then!”
And with that Gary made it out the door to find the group of players from before.
“Hey. Dancer is back!” One of them said.
Gary just looked down and swiftly made his way to the forest.
Then his foot failed to respond normally and he fell. Again.
“Nice moves!”
Just get up and ignore them. They are just laughing about something else. Move on and fight monsters or something.
Gary fought his body for a while, teeth gritted, and waited for the issue to pass. One shaky step, then another, before his legs did as he wanted again.
Ignoring the voices behind him, Gary spotted a stray slime on the threshold of the forest no one was fighting and pulled his knife out.
Engage in combat with maxspringus?
The monsters have names? Well, whatever. Hopefully I won’t mess up this menu or the fight while these guys are watching me.
Gary focused on the “Yes.”
Players Gary_Forhan and maxspringus will now engage in a duel.
“Wha…”
*thunk* Gary could feel his HP drop by 2. Not quite like pain, but similar. It was a slightly uncomfortable feeling that came from the skin on his back. It felt exactly like losing 2 hit points.
“Come on! Dance for us again!”
Gary turned around to see one player with a wooden bow in one hand. “Got him!”
Now I’m in for it. Did I agree to a fight with them? Wait. Am I going to lose my dagger if he kills me!?
“He looks like he’s about to cry,” one of them said.
“He probably doesn’t have any ranged attacks, but he doesn’t want to charge because he can’t even walk right,” the guy with the bow smugly said to his friends, before turning to Gary. “Just run around a bit. I want to practice,” he grinned as he drew another arrow.
Gary was about to cry at this point, but he kept telling himself not to. He didn’t want them to feel like they won. So he got his knife ready and hoped it wouldn’t be the only time he used it.
He charged in and once again tripped, but he expected it. The bowman didn’t and missed with his arrow. Gary twisted and landed on his back -1 HP and slashed the guy’s feet with his knife.
“ARG! 25 hitpoints!?” The man screamed out as Gary cut his ankles. Then in a flash, he disappeared.
The other people burst out laughing. “Tumble attack!” “He got you good Max!”
Gary was hit with another arrow as he stood back up. -2 HP
“Try that again noob!” Max shouted from on top of a large rock.
He’s right. I can’t stumble up a rock.
*thunk* -2 Hp
Wait. I almost forgot I have a skill for throwing knives.
Gary ignored the arrows sticking out of his body and took careful aim to threw his knife. He felt the game correct his arm and help him throw a little better. Max tried to dodge, but failed and fell off the rock with a loud thump.
Gary charged so he could grab the knife, but this time, miraculously, he didn’t fall. Now the only problem was that his running was goofy because he was expecting to mess up, but he still managed to make his way over to Max. He stood awkwardly over Max for a second, expecting to fall on him. Lucky for Gary, Max looked stunned by all of it and didn’t seem sure on what to do.
“Oh my god. If you lose to that noob I will never forget it,” one of Max’s friends said behind them.
The odd moment passed and Gary grabbed the knife again while Max whacked him with his bow. -4 HP
Gary slashed. He didn’t know much about knife fighting or fighting at all. He’d been in some small fights in the past and had a basic understanding of self defence, but thankfully Max appeared to be just as lacking.
Max’s face filled with terror and he focused all his efforts on avoiding the knife. Gary would put all his energy into getting a hit in, but he was already trying as hard as he could.
Player Gary_Forhan wins the duel!
For a moment Gary’s jaw just gaped as the blade finished sinking into Max’s body. Did he really do that? Did he beat an experienced player by himself?
It felt real to Gary in spite of the lack of any blood. He could feel bones with his knife and Max let out the last of the air from his lifeless lungs.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha! What a loser! Max got killed by a knife rusher that can’t walk!!! Let’s go find him!” One of Max’s friends yelled and they all started laughing wildly before walking off.
Gary walked away too. He didn’t want to risk Max looking for him.