I approached the closest hole to the wall of the town and I stopped to look at the gate for a moment. Yep, the guards weren’t paying attention to me anymore, so I couldn’t count on them to give me a hand if a group of them came to take some pieces of me.
‘Stop acting like a wuss and get moving. If you are too scared, let me do it instead.’
I took a deep breath and ignored the other guy. I had no idea what would happen if I let him take over. Usually, he only speaks two or three times a day after I trained myself to control him over the years. In the worst-case scenario, he would control my body for a while and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
After taking a few steps closer to the hole, it looked like my presence was noticed since one of the dire rats emerged from it. The creature was almost one meter long, so it was quite big, but aside from that, I couldn’t see many things different from this kind of monster from the overgrown rats a person would find in a dark alley in a big city.
The creature studied me with its dark and black eyes, but soon charged forward when I took a step ahead. I opened my eyes wide when the beast suddenly jumped to bite my neck, but my left arm was ready and high enough to block the monster… the creature still bit it, imagining that it would be pretty soft.
My shirt protected my flesh, but I still could feel the pointy teeth of the beast against my skin, so I didn’t hesitate to stab the creature’s head with my knife. The weapon was surprisingly sharp. It pierced the head of the monster with ease… the creature didn’t have the chance to even screech in pain.
You received 01 EXP.
You received 01 Origin Coins.
The body of the monster grew limp and then I sighed in relief as it began to fall, but soon the smell of blood began to take over my nostrils… My knife was dripping with blood as well and a bit of the monster’s flesh.
‘Welp, I guess the creatures here won’t turn into particles of light once they are defeated. This still can be pretty satisfying, don’t you think?’
I let out a sigh and checked the shirt on my arm. It wasn’t damaged, so I could keep using it. Still, only one point of experience, huh? I had to kill one hundred of those things if I wanted to level up? That was a lot of bloody work…
While I was thinking about that, I heard a sound coming from the body of the dire rat and soon the body of the monster turned into dust that was blown away by the wind… two particles of light flew in the air until they dissolved.
‘Maybe this world is lagged or something… the blood in the knife still is there, though.’
‘This isn’t a game, dumbass.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘For one, human technology isn’t that advanced and for another, a virtual world wouldn’t be the first thing that someone with a lot of resources would create. It probably would be a weapon of war.’
‘Oh, I see… to kill all the men in the world and get all the women.’
I wondered why I bothered trying to have a serious conversation with this moron. In any case, I decided to clean the knife on the grass and noticed that the body of the dire rat left a few things after it turned into dust… its fangs.
‘... is this an actual drop or something? Ah, come to think of it…’
Common Knife (Common)
The most basic type of weapon for combat. The reach and the attack power are on the low side, but it is very light.
Attack: 03
Durability: 10/10
Dire Rat’s Fangs
An alchemy ingredient.
Simple, but at least it confirmed what I could do in this world. Perhaps I could find information about others as well… or at least I could only find information about the things in my possession.
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‘I need to reach level two as soon as possible… I don’t want to move around carrying this type of thing in my pockets.’
It should have some value, so leaving behind would be a waste. It was a literal alchemy ingredient… I just hoped that it wasn’t used to make things like HP, MP, and SP potions. It would make me question if I really should use them.
I approached the hole to find another prey, and it actually worked… another dire rat came to attack me, but this time I welcomed the beast with my arm further from my head. The creature tried to jump above my arm, but I raised it and then smashed the head of the creature. It felt like I was a goalie blocking a penalty kick with a single arm… it hurt like hell, but at least the impact stunned the monster too, which I used the chance to stab its head.
You received 01 EXP.
You received 01 Origin Coins.
‘What is this? It isn’t hard at all! Is this a tutorial zone or something?’
Those guards wouldn’t have difficulties dealing with the monsters, so leaving those things alone so close to the town would be foolish… or maybe they multiplied that fast.
Considering the amount of experience gained, perhaps it made sense that the monsters only had their size instead of any real danger. Still, my arm was still throbbing where it was hit. With another knife, I could block their advance and finish them quickly, but I would need money to buy it…
‘Or take it from someone.’
‘I am never letting you take over…’
‘Anyway, a dual-knife fighting style? That is pretty cool. Much better than focusing on having a big weapon to compensate for something and an armor and shield that turn you into a turtle.’
‘A big sword is good to cleave the monsters in half with a single strike, once you can lift it.’
‘If you can lift it.’
I couldn’t deny it, while it was cool, it was simply unfeasible unless you were a simple human. Using short swords or knives would be a lot more interesting since it would allow me to focus on avoiding attacks, I didn’t have the confidence of becoming battle-hardened enough to endure pain and continue to fight back after being hit or bitten by a monster.
In any case, while I was thinking about that, I noticed that the monster left a tail behind this time… it was another alchemical ingredient. I could only assume that alchemists around here used all kinds of dubious ingredients for their potions, they weren’t the type that transmute sand into gold.
With much hesitation, I decided to store that shit in my pocket… I needed to reach level two as soon as possible and confirm that I could use an inventory. Still, it seemed that things wouldn’t be so easy since after the third fight, no more rats came from that hole.
‘I guess the spawning limit of this hole ended for today. Perhaps I should return here later and see if they can come out every hour or something.’
‘What a massive waste of time, look for better hunting spots, it is the time to gain the advantage over the others. The chicks will throw themselves at us once they see the strength that we obtained.’
"Yeah, what could be better than being surrounded by a bunch of countless self-interested women that wouldn’t have paid attention to us if we couldn’t offer anything else to them.”
“I know, right?”
A long time ago, I thought that this guy was just my dark side that I was trying to suppress… but this couldn’t be true, I refused to be this moronic in any part of the deepest spots in my mind. True, I was quite unruly when I was kid, and I was forced to take some meds and attend some talks with a shrink. That made me calm down and for a while, I lost a lot of energy, but then the voice of this guy began to bother me… it was my own voice, actually.
When I asked people around if they could hear this voice telling them to do things that felt questionable, the adults just told me that it was just the “Bad Ryan”. I began to suppress this moron with that in mind… At some times, I thought that I was just a bit crazy, but all the other parts of my life seemed fine. So, I decided to keep this guy hidden from everyone. Then I heard about alter egos and decided to assume that I had one for whatever reason.
‘I never asked you this, but why do you exist? Do I have some sort of trauma?’
‘Trauma? Who knows? I exist because you exist, that is all.’
Yeah, a massive waste of time to ask my problem why it exists. I decided to move on to the next hole on the ground and I could see a bunch of them in the area. I wondered if some of them had more dire rats than the others or if they could increase in numbers if they aren’t hunted down regularly, it was something that I had to consider.
Still, before finding a new target, I decided to approach a tree and then chop one of the branches. My arm wouldn’t last long if I kept blocking the monsters like that, so I wanted to carve a simple spear to make things easier. I also wanted to confirm if it would be recognized by the system. There were some apples on the tree as well, but I could see their information until I grabbed them.
Apple (Common)
Restores 02 points of health and 05 of stamina.
‘I need to stock these. Perhaps I can sell them as well, but stocking them up will be a better option for emergencies. There are many things that I need to learn about this system, so it is better to stock up what I can before deciding anything.’
‘Well, look at you. Taking control over your life for once.’
‘That isn’t exactly true since I was put in this place without anyone asking me if I wanted… Even if someone asked if I wanted to go to a place where I could level up, I probably would have ignored them and thought that they lost their marbles. In any case, this apple seems identical to the ones on Earth… is this a coincidence?’
I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t a bit excited about the situation… I couldn’t tell if the future would be more difficult than this. It probably, most likely, definitely would, but the feeling was still pretty good. I could do whatever I wanted now… even those working for the system said that I could do whatever I wanted as long as I had power and money. It was a much more exciting life than just being a cog in a machine. A cog that was replaced and thrown away the moment it stops working just a bit.
In any case, I was given one hell of a chance now, but it looked like I wasn’t the only one… who knows how many people had been sent here, and I had to make sure that I wouldn’t be the one who would stay on the bottom of the food chain.