Quest Recieved: Information Station
-Head to the nearest domed city to register as a citizen of the System.
Reward: Access to System information, System registered equipment.
'Huh...' Jason thought. 'Quest? Like a video game?' Growing up in modern day America, similar to the majority of Jason's boyhood friends, Jason had played video games avidly. You name the genre and Jason had probably dipped his toes into it. So when this notification in front of him gave him a quest Jason knew what it wanted from him. Unfortunately for him, it would be no easy task to complete. Jason's truck was out of commission and the one city in the area that had a dome according to the initial notification was Mountain City.
With a populations just shy of 1500, Rutherford was by far the smallest town in the area. Destiny came in second in regards to size with a population of 5,619 people plus or minus a few roamers. Mountain City on the other hand had a population at 13,743, putting its population numbers just above what was required for the dome to erect itself over its borders.
With Rutherford coming into Jason's line of sight he picked up the pace the beginnings of a plan coming together in his head. His biggest concern at this point was getting back and connecting with Will, the rest he could figure out as he went. Upon reaching the outskirts of the town Jason noticed that there was definitely something off with the vibe the town was giving off. Not slowing down for a second once he hit the town square Jason made straight for the apartment he shared with Will behind the local general store.
Before he made it around the back of the store though he was flagged down by the store's owner Jessica. Seeing Jessica waving Jason corrected his course and made it to the entrance of Jessica's General Store, not the most original name choice. Looking at Jessica it was hard to believe she was in her late 60s. With salt and pepper hair and the attitude to match Jessica was one of the sole reasons that Jason was able to support himself and his brother in this town.
"Jason," she breathed out with a hint of relief "I was worried about you with all that has been going on. Before you ask Will is inside helping me out." She interrupted my intended comment knowing me to well, "You should head to the Harrison's place, the town is having a meeting of some kind to discuss what has been going on."
Looking over Jess' shoulder Jason indeed saw his younger brother packing some boxes and duffel bags with supplies. Curious as to what he was doing, "Wait a sec Jess, what do you mean discuss what is has been going on? I just walked back into town, my truck died a couple miles out of town on my way back in." he asked with a mixture of hope and disbelief.
"Why the blue screens that keep popping up in front of people's faces of course. You must have seen them by now right?" she replied in almost hysterics.
'I'M NOT CRAZY' Jason screamed mentally while being both relieved and astounded at the same time. Instantly Jason felt himself relax and his mind became clearer. Obviously being so isolated for the past few hours while all these new events had been happening had weighed heavier on Jason than he first believed. 'OK so this is happening. Well I have already accomplished my first goal, Will is safe and apparently busy. Time to put myself to work as well.'
"Alright Jess, I'll check in with Harrison but I won't be long, tell Will I will be back shortly and to be ready to head to Mountain City when I get back." I stated before heading off towards the north side of Rutherford.
Arriving at the designated location I couldn't help but stop and prepare myself. Harrison was the Mayor of Rutherford. Despite having no authority and it being a purely titular position, Harrison believed himself to be above the normal citizen simply for having the title. So naturally Jason had had several run-ins with Harrison in the past that were less than friendly.
Walking up to the residence, which to be fair was a pretty sizable two story home, Jason noticed the door was open and could hear a heated argument going on inside the living room. "...not acceptable, I will not have everyone running around the country side." That would be Harrison.
"What would you have us do? There is no working transportation, anything electrical has stopped working including batteries. How else are we going to find out what is going on than to go to Mountain City and see for ourselves?" Surprisingly Jason recognized the agitated voice of Frank Jackson, Jess' next door neighbor and owner of the local auto repair shop.
Walking into the living room Jason noticed there were around 20 or so people following the discussion of the two men. Almost as one everyone turned to look at the new arrival, "Uh... Hey guys mind if I join?." Jason asked with a bit of a awkward smile.
"What are you doing here Jason?" Harrison asked with a little heat left over from his previous discussion.
"Jess told me you all were meeting and figured I should show up, thought maybe we could figure out what is going on, maybe put together a group to head to Mountain City." I stated matter of factually and with as little emotion as I could. Despite his previous disagreements with Harrison over his stupidity, Jason felt that he could overlook them with the most recent events and their implications.
"As I was just informing Mr. Jackson here, I cannot allow you all to run off into the country side on a whim. If you had shown up sooner you would have heard that and I wouldn't have had to repeat myself." Harrison said haughtily.
"So what is the plan then?" Jason asked.
Jason knew the answer before it left his lips, but he could not just undermine Harrison in front of so many people. Despite having no authority a few people in the town still looked to him for guidance and leadership no matter how poorly he performed those two roles. "We will wait this out and soon this whole mess will either blow over or someone will come to check on us." was Harrison's reply.
'So much for trying to ignore Harrison's stupidity.'Jason thought.
"Nope, Harrison we have had disagreements in the past but that is a terrible decision." Looking to the entire room and coming to rest on Frank, Jason informed them "I will be heading to Mountain City within the hour. I plan to find out some more information and then return tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to shed some light on the situation." Turning around before Harrison could respond Jason left the so called "meeting" which just turned out to be a waste of his time.
*Bing*
*Register at the nearest domed city to receive your reward*
Walking out of the house leaving Harrison spluttering, Jason heard someone coming up behind him. Preparing for worst case scenario Jason spun around and was surprised to see Frank coming up to him. "Heh, good to see ya kid. I know Jess was worried about ya what with everything that is goin' on." Frank said while walking beside Jason.
"Same Frank, and yeah I ran into her on my way to check on Will. Should have known that she would have him in her store working. Hey, what did you mean there wasn't any transportation?" I inquired.
"Just that," he replied "Shortly before the screens started popping up every vehicle just stalled out. Everyone came over to the shop initially wantin' new ignition switches and various other fixes but none of them worked. If I'm bein' honest with ya youngin' I don't have a clue as to what is goin' on with the vehicles let alone the screens."
While this definitely hampered Jason's plans to travel to Mountain City it was not a completely unaccounted for issues. It wasn't hard for Jason to put together the two events of his truck stalling out and the immediate arrival of the notifications. While Jason was walking to town he had come up with several ways to travel to Mountain City. Of course the easiest way would have been to borrow Jess' SUV but Jason had not only relied on vehicles. This just meant that Jason was going to have to make the trip some other way.
"Frank got a favor to ask of you if you don't mind to much." Jason said looking at Frank. "Would you mind watching out for Jess while me and Will are away. I don't like leaving her with all that is going on but someone needs to get some more information and that is in Mountain City."
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Not at all boy, I'll come up with one or two reasons to visit the store frequently today and tomorrow and make sure she is doin' alright. You take care of yourself ya hear?" Frank said parting ways with Jason and heading towards his shop.
----------------------------------------
Jason had to admit when he thought of this plan he may have been overestimating himself a bit. Jason and his brother were currently hiking their way through the countryside on their way to Mountain City. The one thing that made this plan viable despite the fact that Mountain City was on the other side of Destiny according to a map; was that while Destiny was to the Northeast, Mountain City was more in the Eastern/Southeastern direction from Rutherford. Meaning that by cutting across the countryside the original twenty three mile hike was reduced to a mere sixteen miles. At least that is how Jason had put it in his head when he planned it out.
Six miles into the trek Jason was huffing and puffing his way up another hill. Jason was regretting going with this plan instead of one of his other options. Will on the other hand was having a great time. Will had always been athletic and while Jason was in shape. he was not in the physical shape that Will was in thanks to high school sports and several choice elective classes. Despite Jason's mental struggles, as the older of the two brothers he would not allow his younger brother to see him lacking. So on they pushed into the countryside slowly but surely closing the distance to Mountain City.
It happened while they were still seven miles out from Mountain City. Jason was slowly following behind his brother Will as they climbed yet another hill. Jason was only about five yards behind his brother when he heard him take a sharp intake of breath. Instantly alert for something that Will may have done, Jason looked up to find his brother fixated on a spot just on the other side of the hill. Jason quickly closed the distance between his brother and looked down upon what had caught his brother's attention.
Halfway up the far side of our current hill heading in the opposite direction as Will and I were three...what the hell were those things? They were each about four feet tall, green-ish brown, and had ears resembling rabbits. They seemed to be just as surprised by our arrival as we were theirs. Having moved in front of Will, Jason removed the one gun the brothers owned between them from his back. Jason was not naive enough to travel the countryside of the mountains without a firearm, so when they left Rutherford Jason made sure to bring his 12 Ga. shotgun with him. While Jason was preparing himself the animals seemed to snap out of their surprise and started moving towards Jason and Will barking in their own kind of language. Focusing on them Jason was surprised to see labels above their heads...
Goblin Scout Lvl. 1
??/??
Goblin Scout Lvl. 1
??/??
Goblin Scout Lvl. 2
??/??
'Why not,' Jason thought 'first notifications, then quests, and now fucking goblins with levels. Well if there is anything I learned from video games it is that goblins are little assholes and killing them is considered a good thing.' Jason lined up his shot on the center and highest leveled goblin. As they got closer they started to spread out in an attempt to surround the two brothers. Jason decided that he was going to go for the shot before they got to spread out...
*Click*
'OK...OK not a big deal just a dud that is all still have four more shells...' Jason thought in a near panic. Cocking the shotgun to remove the dud and load a new shell, he lined up another shot...
*Click*...*Click*...*Click*...*Click...
'Well fuck me. Seriously first my truck and now this fucking gun can't shoot bullets! FUCK this System bullshit!' Jason was screaming in his head. With barely anytime until the goblins were on top of them Jason turned to his brother. Will was similar to Jason in regard to attitude. While these goblins were definitely a surprise they were still only a little larger than four feet in height. Will while standing behind his brother it was not an indication that he was intimidated and afraid, he just figured he would rather be behind the gun than in front of it. Sighing Jason handed his boot knife off to his brother, because what self respecting hiker went hiking without a knife. Meanwhile Jason unstrapped the bush machete from his hip that he used during harvesting season and brought in case the trail got to overgrown to pass through. "Will stay behind me and watch my back, I will try and handle two of them but there is no guarantee, and the third one is probably up to you." Jason informed his brother while not taking his eyes off the middle goblin.
"Gotcha Jase, leave it to me, be careful these little fucks look like they have rabies or some shit..." Will commented as he picked out the goblin on the right as his target.
"Same goes for you bro and watch your language. Imagine what would happen if Jess heard you speaking like that." Jason chided trying to lighten the mood. Despite the unexpectedness of the situation Jason was calm. Hiking through the wilderness always carries the risk of running into wild animals. When it came to a physical confrontation Jason was confident that he and Will could handle themselves well. The goblins despite being unknown entities until all of two minutes ago only seemed to have their bare hands for the fight while Jason had his bush machete and Will had a boot knife.
When the goblins got within five yards of the brothers they made their move. Barking in their strange language they started running at their two adversaries. Lining up his body so that he was prepared to take on the middle and left goblin, Jason left the right goblin to his brother fully trusting him to have his back. Then the goblins arrived. Swinging the machete in his right hand towards the middle goblin, he was a little surprised to see it hop back out of range. Before the left goblin got inside Jason's guard,he managed to get his foot up and put his heel into the charging goblins nose.
-8 HP
A damage marker floated above the level 1 goblins head as he was sent reeling from the kick. Left with only the middle and highest level goblin to engage, Jason turned his body fully in the direction of his remaining target to try and capitalize on the evened out numbers. While he was turning he was able to get a look at what was going on with his brother and the last goblin. Jason saw them rolling around on the ground about 8 yards away. Smirking to himself Jason turned his attention to his opponent fully now having no doubt that Will's fight would be over soon.
The level 2 goblin scout was the highest level in the group and it's dodge earlier definitely made Jason a little more wary of its fighting capabilities. When Jason took a second to check on his brother's fight the scout noticed and decided it wanted to take advantage of Jason's lack of focus. Despite only glancing over at his brother's fight when he refocused on the goblin scout in front of him, Jason was taken off guard by its sudden charge. Not only that but it seemed that this one was quicker than the other goblins but only marginally. Still it was enough to allow it to get underneath Jason's swipe with the machete. Then reflexes that Jason hadn't used in years kicked in and when the goblin attempted to tackle Jason at his legs and put him on his back, Jason suddenly pulled his legs back behind him and thrust his hip into the goblins face. Honestly, Jason was a little bit surprised at the strength of such a small creature but Jason figured the same rule applied to most animals in the wild. While usually a safe bet, size was not necessarily a factor in strength in the animal kingdom. While surprised Jason's experience in these type of situations allowed him to adjust, and with his free left hand Jason pushed the goblins face to the ground.
Keeping his forward momentum, with the goblins face in the ground, Jason but his left knee in the back of the goblin's neck while bracing his body with his right leg allowing him to keep the pressure of his body weight on the immobilized goblin. Trying not to think of it to much Jason brought the machete down puncturing the goblins back where he assumed a lung,heart, or whatever the fuck a goblin had in its chest would be. Jason had to plunge his machete into the goblin twice before he got a notification that he assumed meant the goblin had perished.
-20 HP
*Critical Damage* -50 HP
*Bing*
*Register at the nearest domed city to receive your reward*
*Bing*
*Register at the nearest domed city to receive your reward*
*Bing*
*Register at the nearest domed city to receive your reward*
Dismissing the notification with a thought, Jason growled at the situation. 'Annoying fucking System, annoying fucking Harrison, annoying fucking goblins...' Jason immediately started checking his surroundings. His brother was making his way over to Jason, Jason could see that he had a few scratches but for the most part he was alright. Jason noticed some movement behind his brother and saw the remaining goblin attempting to sneak up behind him. With a spring Jason was able to cover the remaining three yards between him and his brother and with a lunge pierced the last goblin of the group through the chest.
*Critical Damage* -50 HP
*Bing*
*Register at the nearest domed city to receive your reward*
*Bing*
*Register at the nearest domed city to receive your reward*
'Again, fuck you System...'