As the sun shines through the curtains, lightening the room, I wake up. I peer around the unfamiliar room, as the last two days flash through my mind. Groaning, I get out of bed. I go to the toilet, do my business and flush. As the water cleans the toilet bowl, I realise I could have used the water in the toilet cistern to wash myself, instead of wasting half of my drinking water. Shaking my head, I go back to the bedroom.
After finishing my breakfast, another can of food. And emptying the remainder of the big bottle of water, into my smaller more portable one. I get dressed once again, into my increasingly dirty, ripped and bloodstained clothes. I pack everything into my bag and leave the room.
Exiting out of the motel, I continue walking through the town, with the intention of finding the general store, to hopefully stock up on some more water. The small town is peaceful, birds singing, sun shining down. The day, hot, but with a light breeze keeping it pleasant. After finding the general store, I go to walk inside only to find it looks like a disaster area. The front door a mess of broken glass and blood. The shelves inside the store in disarray, either completely pushed over or with items knocked onto the ground. Cautiously stepping into the store, I go to follow the trail of blood, only to stop myself and take off my backpack, to take out my tyre iron. Now ready, with unwieldy tyre iron in hand, I follow the trail of blood. The trail of blood stops behind the counter, at the end of which is a sight I wish I could unsee. I see large bloody paw prints leading away from the mangled body, into the back of the shop, probably a storage area of some sort.
Not wanting to chance the possibility of coming upon an animal with paws that big, I come out from behind the counter and quietly search the shop for supplies. I take several of the more expensive cans of food, a whole box of protein bars and some chocolate, because although it might be the end of the world, I can't say no to chocolate, along with a 10-litre bottle of water. I turn to leave and catch sight of the counter again and notice that under the countertop is a selection of knives, like the last store, including a massive hunting knife. Making up my mind, I make my way back to the other side of the counter and reach in and grab the knife. I admire it for several seconds and then notice a convenient sheath sitting next to it. After securing my new 'purchase' to my belt, I exit the store with backpack on back, knife on belt and 10-litre bottle in hand. Feeling like an apocalypse movie cliche, I start once again walking down the road.
After barely travelling a hundred meters down the road, my new nano-bot sense feels several high density areas to my right. Turning my head I am met with two border-collies and the largest pitbull I have ever seen. They are about 10 meters away and laying down. I don't think they have seen me yet, so I keep walking as silently as I can, I don't relax until I am outside their light of sight and a couple of hundred meters down the road. My heart is still pumping like crazy, no way am I ready to face something like that yet. Sure I could handle a couple of housecats, but a pitbull that probably weighs more than me, well, that would probably be too much. That was also most likely the animal that did in the body in the shop as well. And if my theory is correct, the more those dogs kill, the more mutated they will become. And I haven't seen anyone alive in this town.
More cautious than I have been since this whole adventure began, I continue walking. Carefully stretching out my sense as far as I can, about 20 metres, I try to match what I feel, to what I see. Once again nearing the outskirts of town, I see a pack of cats. What is it with the outskirts of towns and cats? Unfortunately, I don't believe there is any real way, that they will not see me. Taking my brand new hunting knife out of its sheath, I begin to walk closer. Like a repeat of yesterday, as I am about to pass, the cats spread out to try and surround me. I once again put down my water bottle and backpack. Reaching into my backpack I take out my tyre-iron and hold it in my left hand, knife in my right, and wait. Senses stretched out I feel a cat slightly to my left pounce. I bring my knife around and practically slice it in half sideways. I turn back in time to watch a cat leaping towards my face. I get my knife up in time to catch it in the belly, claws once again raking my face. I hit it awkwardly in the head with the tyre-iron, it drops to the ground and doesn't get up, entrails spilling out of its belly and stomach acid fouling up the air. The third cat having finished circling behind me, launches itself for my back. Claws digging into my flesh, mouth biting the back of my neck. I let out a scream and drop my tyre-iron and reach under up with my left hand, grabbing the cat and throwing it on the ground, pinning it in place with my knife. And stomping on its head sharply with my foot.
What the hell is with these damn cats and going for my back like that, almost like they want to kill me. Shaking my head in disgust at my terrible humour. My neck flares up in pain as I aggravate the bite on the side of my head. Luckily, the cat didn't sever my carotid artery or anything. I don't know if the nano-bots would be able to fix it in time. Hopefully, I'll never have to find out.
Enemies defeated
3 x cat
1050 exp, based on difficulty
Hmm, so a slight decrease in experience gain. Well, I suppose that with a knife, it was slightly easier. It is slightly concerning that as I gain in proficiency, I will gain less experience though. Not much of a problem now, but definitely food for thought in the future.
Wiping off my knife, on the grass beside the road, I re-sheathe it. I stow my tyre-iron in my bag. Then pick up my bottle of water and with a look of pity at the cats, I once again start walking. Finally making my way out of town, I settle into a hopefully uneventful trek to the next town.
As I keep walking ever onwards, each minute blending into the next, I continuously practice stretching out my new nano sense. After an hour, I realise that my RMR must be full and after a quick check, I grab a stick to confirm a theory.
I familiarise myself with the stick, using my new sensitivity to the density of nano-bot presence. After that I focus, like before, on the image I want and push it onto the stick. Instantly the sticks top 3cms gets sliced off. Feeling the new top of the stick, and its incredible smoothness, I feel a faint satisfaction. Already feeling pretty confident, having experienced no blackout or loss of motor control, I check my RMR.
Rank 1: Recruit
2950/100,000exp
General Statistics
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 11
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 10
RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 70/100
So, merely changing the medium adjusted the amount used so much. What would happen with a more specific image? Would that increase the cost? I wonder if it also has to do with the surface area? And what other things could I do with it that I haven't even thought of yet? I have one more thing I want to try, just have to find the right stick.
About 2 hours later, and with my RMR just about to hit 80, I found a long, straight and dense branch. Stopping I focus on my mental image of a spear. Long and straight roughly my own height, culminating in a sharp point. Not knowing if it was silly or not, I focused on the tip of the spear imagining how the atoms would be pushed closer together becoming denser. Finally focusing on how the very tip would extremely sharp. Trying to give the image weight in my mind. I don't know how long I spent concentrating and refining the image, but it was definitely the most I have ever concentrated on a mental image before. With my image ready and feeling a slight trepidation, I push my image onto the 3m long branch.
When I come to and the foggy thickness in my mind abates somewhat, I notice the sun has moved a fair bit and it looks to be about 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Cursing I pull up my status.
Rank 1: Recruit
3950/100,000exp
General Statistics
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 11
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 10
RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 0/100
I notice I have an extra 1000 experience and for some reason, even though I have been out for several hours my RMR is still 0. Hmm, I close down the window and feel an increasingly familiar pressure at the edges of my mind.
Weapon Creation
Spear x 1
A common spear, extra attention has been taken on the tip making it more durable and sharper than normal wood would normally allow.
For using the RMR System to create a simplistic item:
200 exp
For using the RMR System to change a materials basic composition:
300 exp
For use of more accurate imagery:
500 exp
Ok, well that explains the extra experience, but not my RMR, hopefully it's not permanent. I get up from the ground, having been too preoccupied with my stats to even think about getting up. Damn, that still feels weird to think. After taking a couple of seconds to right myself, I look around and it suddenly occurs to me, that with how aggressive the animals are, I'm pretty lucky I wasn't discovered.
I look over at the branch and it still looks the same, a little concerned I examine it closely and notice that at base of the raggedly broken off branch is a perfectly smooth circle. I laugh out loud as I realise the spear is still inside the branch. It takes me a couple of minutes to pick up the branch and get it in the right position so that the end slides out a bit and I am able to grab it with my fingers after that I can pull it out the rest of the way.
After I hold my spear aloft and shout out in triumph, I spend several minutes admiring it and being glad that I only made the tip a point, rather than a blade. It's exactly as I imaged, well everything except the tip. The tip looks amazing it's darker than the rest of the wood but it almost seems to shine in the sun.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Taking out my hunting knife I tap the spear and then the tip curiously. It even sounds different almost like striking rock or metal. I lightly touch my finger to the tip and immediately pull it away, blood pooling at the tip of my finger. Shit feels sharper than any knife I have ever owned, but just to be sure, I touch the tip of my finger to the hunting knife. Yep definitely sharper.
Buoyed by my success, but worried about my RMR and the loss of time I quickly start moving again. Walking faster than before, trying to make up for the lost time.
After nearly 4 hours of walking, with nothing to break the monotony, except some cars in various states of destruction and some small animals sensed in the distance, I arrive at another small town, the sun setting behind me casting everything in long shadows. I make my way past the outskirts, thankfully not seeing any cats. I decide to see if I can find a place to stay the night. I look around, but I unfortunately can't find a motel or any place to stay.
After several minutes of dithering trying to get over my reluctance to knock on a strangers door, I walk up to the house I had been standing out front of. I knock quietly at first but after several minutes of no answer I knock louder. Still no answer. With the sunlight fading I decide against moving to another house and start peering through the windows to see if I can see anyone home. I walk my way around the house but see no-one inside.
With a quick prayer hoping this doesn't become a regular thing I start testing the doors and windows. Luckily, the kitchen window was unlocked. I open it and call out. No answer. Finally remembering my new sense I stretch it out and decide that there is something strange about the house. Against my better judgement, I make my way inside, closing the window behind me.
I slowly and methodologically search the house, I notice a few cat toys, but no cat. I open and enter the second larger bedroom, the area that I sense something is off with. As I walk into the room, I see the problem. A body. I start to back out of the room. But I suddenly think, all the doors and windows were closed and this is the last room. So where is the cat? On edge, I slowly kneel and look under the bed. Nothing. I slowly make my way to the body. He is laying on the edge of the bed feet dangling off. Not looking that bad. He had a few scratches on his body but nothing deadly looking. As I reach his side I see his neck clearer in the dying light. The carotid artery appears to have been opened by a claw. If the cat did this, where is it? Looking around I see a blood trail leading to the window. Looks like he opened the window and shut it while bleeding. I think chances are good, that when the cat went haywire, he picked it up and threw it outside. Only to be nicked in the carotid.
Feeling safer I walk out of the bedroom and head to the kitchen. I have a sip of water and open up a can of food. As I am throwing my can in the bin, I feel something enter the range of my nano-sense. I tense up and focus on it. It feels quite large, maybe about my size or a bit bigger. I turn in the direction I feel it and look through the kitchen window and see a large dog meeting my eye, in the glow of dusk. It's about 20 meters, looking like it just jumped the back fence. It slowly starts to pad across the lawn towards me.
My mind starts to race. I put on my backpack incase I need to run. Then pick up my spear. I decide the dog will most likely jump straight through the window. So, if I can meet it as it comes down off of the counter with my spear, I just might be able to end it quickly. But contrary to my expectations, it only looks at me through the window and starts circling around the house. I start to feel a little relieved, when I hear a window break. Shit!
I quickly close the door to the kitchen and a second later it nearly breaks in two as the dog hits it head first and its head comes through. I stab with my spear manage to catch it in the eye. It pulls its head back growling and barking angrily. I start with growing dread, as I feel another presence enter my sense. The dog hits the door again and I think that one more hit will see it inside. Suddenly, I hear two sharp retorts that fill the air and a body hit the ground.
A second later a voice calls out, "Hello in there, you alright?".
"Yeah, thanks for that.", I call back.
I make my way to the door and say I'm coming out. As I step outside of the kitchen I see a man a couple of meters away. He is about my height with short dark hair and fairly solid build. A smile on his face and a rifle held loosely by his side.
"Hey, I'm Dale. Thanks for the save."
"Jim. No problems. I saw you enter town not too long ago, figured I'd come and say hi."
"Not a moment too soon", I laugh.
Jims' smile widens briefly and after a short pause says, "There is a group of 5 of us, who have decided to band together for safety. If you'd like to come back with me, you're welcome to, even if it's just for the night."
"Thanks man, I think I will."
I notice him looking at my spear a couple of times before he asks, "I take it, you made that?"
I pause for several seconds before deciding that I feel like there is something trustworthy about this guy.
"Yeah, RMR is amazing."
"Thought so. I got it yesterday. Haven't done anything with it yet though."
"Well, I can give you a of couple tips, if you're interested?"
"Sounds good. But let's get back to safety first."
I nod and go pick up my water bottle. We head outside and walk about 50 meters down the street to a mostly boarded-up house.
Jim walks up to the door and taps out a rhythm and without waiting for anything to happen, proceeds to open it. He looks back and notices my questioning look.
"Knocks just to let them know not to worry about the door opening."
I nod in understanding and we make our way inside. After he closes the door, we walk down a short hall into a candlelit loungeroom.
"Everyone, this is Dale, the one I saw enter town earlier."
After a smattering of greetings, he continues, "Dale, this is Mary," pointing to a short middle aged woman, who waves, "Mary's husband Jared", indicating towards a tall skinny fellow sitting beside Mary.
"And this is Anna and Ben.", nodding towards an elderly couple sitting on a couple of armchairs. "This house is theirs"
I turn to look at Ben and Anna, "I hope you don't mind me staying here tonight?"
Anna replies, "Don't worry about it young man.", giving me a smile. "Have you already eaten?"
"Yes, just ate a couple of minutes ago thanks."
"What brings you out this way?"
"I was on my way to Adelaide to meet my sister when this whole Blackout thing happened."
"Well, I hope your sister is alright.", she says, giving me a small smile.
We spent a while with a bit of small talk, then I tell Jim about my experiences with the RMR while giving him a look at my spear. He comments on the tip, after cutting himself like I did. I told him my hypothesis' about how I had literally changed the composition of the wood, by imagining the image of the atoms becoming packed tighter together.
Jim then asks me if I noticed that you can trade in experience to increase your stats. I say I haven't before he clarifies, that you have to focus more specifically on the stats and try to expand it before the option comes up.
I pull up my stats and decide to give it a try and a new screen pops up.
Strength:
Legs 11 +
Core 11 +
Chest 11 +
Shoulders 11 +
Biceps 11 +
Triceps 11 + Average strength 11 Dexterity:
Dodge 9 +
Strike 13 + Average dexterity 11 Agility:
Flexibility 8 +
Reaction time 10 + Average agility 9 Intelligence:
Current Intelligence 10 +
Experience Available: 3950 Confirm changes: yes/no
I focus on adding a point to intelligence. As I add the point, the amount of experience available gets reduced by 100. I add another and it gets reduced by 200, the third one reduces the amount by 400. Ok, each point increased double the amount, what if I add onto another stat. I add one onto chest and the amount only decreases by 100. Ok time for the final test, I add one to legs, yes, only 100.
Cancelling the changes I have made so far I spend a bit of time thinking about it. The safe bet is if I put everything up by one since it'll only cost 1100, leaving me 2850. But what will be most useful. Well if I can react faster, that will definitely help. Would increasing intelligence help with that as well? I don't see why not, plus who doesn't what to be smarter. I know I should probably think a little more about this, but like most times I think I'll go with my gut. So without further thought, I place three more into Reaction time and Intelligence. Looking at the amount of experience I have left I see I have 50. Well, not enough for anything. Crossing my fingers, I confirm.
The screen closes, I wait for several seconds, but nothing happens. I open my status back up.
Rank 1: Recruit
3950/100,000exp
Experience spent: 3900/3950
General Statistics
Strength: 11 (12)
Dexterity: 11 (12)
Agility: 9 (11.5)
Intelligence: 10 (14)
RMR (remote manipulation reserve): 28/100
(All changes will be applied during sleep.)
Ok, well, that explains that then. So, it looks like while I was unconscious I didn't gain any of my RMR back, but once I woke up it has been re-filling at a normal rate, thankfully. I get up and stretch, asking the others where I can lay my head for the night. Jim gets up and leads me into a bedroom with two single beds and explains I will be bunking with him for the night. I nod my head in acquiescence. Jim looks at me and asks if I have anything to wear. After I say no, he goes to a wardrobe and hands me some clothes to sleep in and a fresh set of clothes for tomorrow. I thank him and he leaves. I get changed and still feeling dirty, but a little better for being in cleaner clothes, I climb into bed. I blow out the candle Jim left for me and close my eyes. Wondering once again how my sister is going, as I drift off to sleep.