(A/N: Seriously how did Ultrabenosaurus came up with that kind of title...? Can't think of a link between its content and the title... Maybe appart from the fact they're both fucked up?)
Chapter 07 - For the Future! For the World! FOR PONY!
Turning the corner and putting himself out-of-sight from the cafeteria's entrance, Asmund was considering whether or not he should actually try to lure some level 5s to attack that arrogant piece of shit. Of course, even though he walked away confidently and turned the corner in a nonchalant manner, he had been focusing heavily on his hearing and was confident there weren't any monsters close enough to worry about. Now that those spineless sheeple couldn't see him he was back to his normal, cautious advance through the halls.
I really would like to fulfill my promise to that jackass, the look on his face as a swarm of level 5 Death-Hounds break through his beloved barricade would be priceless. That gun looked to be a fairly small revolver, probably only holds 5 to 6 bullets at a time and reloading is awkward and time-consuming unless he's a pro. Especially with the fear of approaching monsters, I doubt he'd be able to reload even once and 5 or 6 bullets wouldn't kill a single level 5 unless he gets lucky and hits one in the eye or a major blood vessel on the neck.
That said, I'll then have to take care of a room full of level 5 Death-Hounds once they've killed everyone and they'd know of my existence as it'll be almost impossible to lure them without revealing myself… Not to mention that luring them will be a challenge in itself, with most of them guarding a small army of level 1 cleaners.
As Asmund turned yet another corner without encountering any monsters or anything else of note, he saw a row of large rectangular machines opposite a wall of windows. Despite having an unconscious aversion to walls of glass, Asmund couldn't help but admire the view.
The hospital was at the edge of a mid-sized town, by the island's standards, and was backed up against an expansive forest area that lead to a small mountain. Asmund was at the side of the hospital and from this set of windows he could see the edge of the town if he looked all the way to the left, complete with towers of smoke rising from between the buildings that probably weren't there before this madness started. If he looked straight ahead there was a vast grassland stretching for miles, with a few lone trees or shrubs dotting here and there. To the right was the forest at the back of the hospital, looking far more beautiful and daunting than in the images he'd seen online.
It almost looks like you'd never find your way out if you went in there, but it draws you in even though you know that… And thinking that everything was man made makes it even more impressive.
Despite walking past countless windows already, none of them provided much of a view as they were the smaller kind required by Health and Safety Regulations on the upper floors. Asmund himself also wasn't really that bothered, having lived so long without being able to explore the outside world and seeing all the world had to offer via Foogle Image Search and the MeTube video sharing site. He never would have thought that nature could be so captivating.
This world… I will make this world mine, I will enjoy all it has to offer and I won't let anyone stand in my way. Not any more. I won't be confined by anything or anyone from now on!
Engraving this resolve into his very soul, Asmund finally pulled his attention away from the near-cloudless skies shining down on the forest with the last, orange-hued rays of the day's light. He was pleasantly surprised that his guess was correct: the rectangular machines were indeed vending machines containing a variety of foods and drinks, from sandwiches to chocolate-covered peanuts and cans of beer to a coffee dispenser.
For the first time in his life, Asmund was about to eat actual food. Not the bland, over-processed, sterilised-to-hell, nutritionally-engineered slop the hospital fed him like a hmaster (*cough* hamster) in a cage. Real, proper food that practically everyone else in the world ate every day and took for granted.
Obviously Asmund didn't have any money on him so, even though the power was on and the machines were working like normal, he decided that the glass panel needed to go. Carefully honing the blade to be as sharp and sturdy as possible, Asmund sunk his blood sword through the glass and sliced it in four directions before quickly pulling his blood back into a pair of gauntlets so he wouldn't cut himself while catching the panel and gently resting it on the floor.
Even with his hunger and desire to try real food, Asmund was aware that he couldn't afford to make too much noise and attract any Death-Hounds. After opening all the machines that had glass panels, Asmund immediately took two sandwiches, 5 or so chocolate bars, 3 bottles of plain water, a can of Doke, and even a can of beer because why the hell not?
It wouldn't be wise to stay here much longer, one of those mutts could stick its head around a corner at any second. Luckily there's a bunch of closed doors in this hall, probably small rooms for assessing patients with mild ailments that would be perfect to relax in for the night.
Making his way to the first such door Asmund found it was locked. He gingerly knocked on the door and whispered through the keyhole in case there were survivors, but got no response. Willing a small globe of blood into the lock mechanism before solidifying it to replicate a key and unlock the door, Asmund quickly went inside to find exactly what he'd been imagining.
There was a neat desk with a powered-on computer and a very uncomfortable-looking chair, a set of shelves with ring-binders and medical books, a filing cabinet next to the doorway, and an examination bed with another uncomfortable chair at the end of it. Shutting and locking the door, he also pushed the filing cabinet in front to hold it shut as an extra precaution, before laying down on the bed with his legs crossed to begin his feast.
Seeing as the power is still on, the Internet probably is too unless some important cable got damaged in the town, not that I really know how it all works. I'll definitely need to check online before I leave this room to see if this whole monsters-and-magic thing is world-wide or somehow a localised event on the island… Though that's doubtful. I should look up the town, too, see if there's anything helpful nearby like a military base. There's bound to be long-term rations there, and the more powerful guns should be helpful against low-level monsters.
On the topic of power and the Internet eventually failing, I seriously hope real women are as good as they're made out to be. Otherwise, how the hell am I going to stay sane spending decades without instant access to HD porn? Maybe there's a spare portable HDD in one of the desk drawers I can spend tonight saving porn onto, then I can pick up a decent tablet and a solar charger when I go explore the town.
Actually, getting my hands on a tablet and solar charger is a good idea even if the power and Internet are guaranteed to stay on. Would make things a lot easier, with a digital notepad and a good map application at the very least.
His meal finished as he was pondering, he enjoyed for some time the aftertaste of a meal that he liked so much that his eyes became moist, and turned on the power of the room’s computer, hoping for the internet to still be on.
Wow… The owner of this room sure had a great collection… Who would name their secret folder ‘not porn’ nowadays though? Oops, I’m forgetting about the important matter at hand.
Launching ‘Internet Adventurer’, the usual white Foogle screen appeared without any issue. A beaming smile on his face, he immediately clicked on the MeTube link which was obviously among the favorites.
Hell! Looks like it’s really happening worldwide after all!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
On the main page of Metube, all the Hot videos were involving the current situation. And the background and language used in said video proved that not only this island was in chaos after all.
Hmm? What is this?
One video among them grabbed Asmund’s attention, the video was titled ‘I’m da’ king!’, and on the thumbnail you could see a young man sitting on the corpse of a big monster while being surrounded by other youngsters who all seemed to really enjoy the situation.
Clicking on it, the video loaded and the first image which appeared, was the one of the same young man who was sitting on the corpse, but much closer… Especially his face, as if he was trying to show off his peculiar eyes, who happened to have a bright orange color and a slit pupil.
“Hey! Check this out!” -Orange eyed young man
Pointing to his eyes, the young man smiled.
“Do you guys know what this is?! I’ll tell you! Those aren’t any lame lens or anything! It’s the proof! It’s the proof that I’m a ‘King’! Don't believe me? Just watch!” -Orange eyed young man
Walking away from the camera, the viewers could finally see what was hidden behind the young man, and although the thumbnail hinted at it, it was still a shock to see it alive and kickin’.
It was a tall creature, around 3 meters tall, with a slightly human shape, but with a body covered in bluish scales a lizard head and a blue fluffy tail which looked out of place. The creature was currently chained and the youngsters were all holding the numerous chains together to make it stay still.
Approaching the creature without a hint of fear in his body, the young man stood a little away from it and breathed in a huge amount of air, before loudly gnashing his teeth together. Like a flint who released a spark igniting a huge brasier, a giant ball of fire suddenly appeared in front of the young man, before charging by itself the giant scaled creature, as if it had a life of its own. Soon followed by the screams of agonizing of the creature as it was being burnt alive…
After the creature was completely charred, it fell limply to the floor, what followed was the picture showed in the thumbnail where the young man was sitting on the corpse while being surrounded by his followers who were all looking at him with visible admiration and worship.
Meh… It’s just a King rank, why are you acting all haughty you little shit?
A little jealous at the young man’s entourage, he couldn’t help but curse at him through the screen. He left a small impulsive comment: ‘I take ya 1 v 1 irl whenever ya pussy!’, and then looked through the rest of the videos.
After more than 2 hours of internet surfing, he pretty much looked through all the videos on the subject which were put on MeTube, and was quite shocked… That someone actually posted a new video about cats when the world pretty much ended. But more seriously, among the videos he found out that there was actually 2 MeTubers who happen to have obtained King ranked classes, but didn’t say if they were unique ones, and that the both of them had slit eyes.
It look like my weird eyes are actually a common mark of the Emperor ranks.
Beside the 2 Kings, there was absolutely no talk of any Emperor, apart one video which was the one of a new MeTuber, who actually had the balls to make a new amateur program about surviving in this new world. He went through the System’s Shop in his video to talk about his speculations about it.
Done with MeTube, what Asmund did next was to download a map of Hope Island, and also search for any military base nearby. He did find the map without any issues, but the military base was another story.
If he were to believe Mikipedia, since Hope Island was created through the coalition of the 20 most powerful countries in the world, the subject of the military power of the island was a sensible one at the time, when the project started. After all, it wasn’t realisable to share bases among different armies, and it was even less feasible to make 20 different bases throughout the island and let each army monopolize them. For this reason, Hope Island had no army base on land, and only has one aircraft carrier for each country surrounding the island as a form of army. But since the island had the support of the 20 most powerful countries, no rare resources, and was entirely neutral to all conflict, there was barely any need for the island to have any armed forces.
Damn! And here I was hoping to have some fun with tanks and shit! But looking on the bright side, that also means that if I were to create a ‘kingdom’, the normal folks who don’t fight monsters will barely have the firepower to even hope to rebel.
Alright, so what should I check next?
… It’s already quite late, and I don’t know when the internet will go down…
Okay, Bluetube it is then!
Opening a site with dubious content, Asmund also grabbed the can of beer he took earlier and started to chug it while searching for good ‘material’.
And as he was quite enjoying this new experience which was alcohol, he suddenly sprayed a mouthful of beer on the carpet. Not because he suddenly disliked what he was drinking out of nowhere, quite the contrary he liked the taste of alcohol, but what shocked him enough that he would do something this disgusting and a complete waste was what appeared on his screen.
It happened as he was searching for ‘material’, seeing as Bluetube had nothing really new for him, he visited more dubious and amateurish sites, and that’s when he found ones which accepted pretty much anything that people were sending…
WHAT THE FUCKKK?!
That site had a lot of new uploaded videos, and all those videos involved, well… Monsters…
Frankly, most videos were downright disgusting, there were some where a girl was bound only to be raped to death by a lustful monster, all this while men were joking around and laughing as they watched. And there were videos where it was human-like monsters who were bound to be raped. Those… Weren’t as bad as the other category, but still weird as hell.
But there was one much more surprising than those, there were some videos where the monster looked really close to human in appearance and clearly had intelligence close to one, yet was willingly sleeping with men. The language they were talking was nothing like the ones of this world, yet even Asmund could understand them on the other side of the screen, it was as if their words had ‘meaning’ in themselves, it was a really strange sensation.
The videos showing those monsters were extremely rare though, so the monsters of such type must be low in numbers. It wasn’t even sure that there was a single one of them on this island, it was just that rare.
Even as Asmund kept searching on the net, apart the sparse videos he already saw, he barely found anything else.
I hope there is one on Hope Island, as not only it would be an incredible source of information, it would also make a pretty exotic pet, hehehehe.
Afterward, Asmund ‘enjoyed’ himself for some time, especially appreciating his new ‘vitality’, and then went to sleep pretty early.
Tomorrow's going to be a busy day!