Chapter Five: Wish I Had a Rabbit in a Hat with a Bat
As Marc walked in the direction of the dot on his map, a new pop-up window appeared.
WARNING: LEAVING THE ARRIVAL AREA. ONCE YOU LEAVE THIS AREA YOU WILL BE FULLY INTEGRATED WITH THIS PLANE OF REALITY. ARRIVAL AREA PROTECTIONS WILL BE CANCELLED AND TUTORIAL PROTOCOLS WILL BE ENGAGED.
A timer appeared in another box counting down.
10… 9… 8…
He took a step back. Both boxes disappeared. He stepped forward again.
WARNING: LEAVING THE ARRIVAL AREA. ONCE YOU LEAVE THIS AREA YOU WILL BE FULLY INTEGRATED WITH THIS PLANE OF REALITY. ARRIVAL AREA PROTECTIONS WILL BE CANCELLED AND TUTORIAL PROTOCOLS WILL BE ENGAGED.
10… 9…
He stepped back wondering what to do. It seems like he had been in a staging area, but he would likely have to leave it sooner or later. He wasn’t sure what the “protections” granted were but didn’t see much of an option. Checking himself and his belongings to make sure there wasn’t something he was missing, Marc steeled his nerves again and was about to take a step forward when he had a thought.
He pulled up his inventory again. Scanning it he focused on the flashlight and summoned it to his hand. He couldn’t get over how cool this ability was. The flashlight was the one he kept in his car for emergencies. It was a heavy aluminum model with a long handle that accommodated four D-Cell batteries. The kind of cops used to rap on your car window with that friendly “roll it down before I use this” grin on their faces. Marc flipped it around so that the handle faced out making it into a makeshift club. He tried swinging it a few times, then swung the end into his other hand where it made a satisfying smacking sound, and caused his palm to protest in pain. Yeah, this should do.
Thus armed, Marc stepped forward again and again the box and timer appeared in front of him.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
Marc felt an odd chill, then his ears popped like he was riding a fast elevator. Nothing else changed in his surroundings, however. He relaxed his grip on the flashlight. The pop-up boxes had disappeared, but just as quickly a new window covered his vision.
WELCOME TO THE TUTORIAL
CONGRATULATIONS ON SUCCESSFULLY CROSSING THE DIMENSIONAL BARRIERS INTO A NEW WORLD.
THIS TUTORIAL WILL HELP YOU TO ADAPT TO YOUR NEW ENVIRONMENT AND FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH YOUR NEW ABILITIES.
He wondered who was writing this stuff. Where was it coming from? More questions kept pouring into his mind, but the box disappeared as soon as he finished reading it. Then two new boxes appeared.
THIS IS THE QUEST LIST. ALL OUTSTANDING QUESTS CAN BE VIEWED HERE TO CHECK THE CURRENT STATUS OR TO ENABLE OR DISABLE THE QUEST.
QUEST LIST:
TUTORIAL: OPEN THE QUEST LIST
TUTORIAL: CHECK YOUR STATUS
TUTORIAL: OPEN THE MAP
Marc mentally thought to himself that he wanted to hide the quest list and immediately his vision was cleared and all the boxes were gone. He thought about looking at the quest list again and it popped up again in the same location.
QUEST LIST:
TUTORIAL: OPEN THE QUEST LIST
TUTORIAL: CHECK YOUR STATUS
TUTORIAL: OPEN THE MAP
He noted that when he reopened the list, the corresponding quest was marked as complete. Just like an RPG, he thought to himself. What’s next? No achievements? He checked the quest list again and looked over the remaining entries.
TUTORIAL: CHECK YOUR STATUS
TUTORIAL: OPEN THE MAP
At the same time, the large window with his picture stats and inventory appeared again. This time he didn’t need to look at his hand. He Just mentally commanded the window to appear and disappear again by thinking about viewing his status.
“Cool!” he said out loud. Then he noticed a small change to his status.
NAME: MARC CHURCH
AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)
INTERFACE LEVEL: 1, 10% TO NEXT LEVEL
RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER
AFFILIATIONS: NONE
STATUS: HEALTHY
HEALTH: 100%/100
STAMINA: 100%/100
BASE LEVEL: 1
STRENGTH (STR) [4] +1
CONSTITUTION (CON) [4] +1
INTELLIGENCE (INT) [7] +1
AGILITY (AGI) [5] +1
DEXTERITY (DEX) [6] +1
LUCK (LUK) [0] +1
HEALTH RECOVERY (HR) [0.203%] (HR)/MIN
STAMINA RECOVERY (SR) [0.523%] (SR)/MIN
The line under his name had slightly changed, now showing his interface level and adding a progress counter, now showing that he had moved 10% towards level 2. He supposed that completing quests had triggered the change. Imagining a sweatshop of intern/dimensional software developers peering at computer screens updating the code for his interface while scary monster-like supervisors loomed over them shouting demands made him chuckle. He wondered if it was possible to discover any exploits, a task he was pretty good at in his old job. He spent the next ten minutes playing with his interface. Some of the things the tutorial showed him previously, but many were new and very helpful in his current circumstance.
He could now pull up the inventory separately from his status screen, he just needed to think about pulling just the items list independently. He could also move, resize, and hide the pop-up boxes at will. Even the background colors and fonts of the boxes could be changed to suit his preferences. “Good Job Devs!” He searched for a feedback button or any support number but no sign of anything like that was apparent. “Oh well.”
His eyes were getting tired from focusing on all the boxes and his feet were a bit sore from standing still without moving. He checked his status to see if anything had changed.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He was happy to see that he was making some progress. Well on the way to level 2, he thought, wondering what would happen when he hit the threshold. The tutorial then shifted to using the map.
TUTORIAL: CHECK YOUR STATUS
TUTORIAL: OPEN THE MAP
TUTORIAL: IDENTIFY FAUNA
He had learned that the map indeed worked just as he had guessed. The tutorial now overlayed new information that he hadn’t been able to see before however. Aside from himself, marked by the yellow pointer, and yellow waypoints, he could now see fauna as small green dots and supposedly other people as blue dots. The only blue dot he could see was off in the distance towards the town, but there were many small green dots in every direction. It appears that insects were not counted. He noticed that once the protection field had vanished, small flies had started appearing. The ones here didn’t seem any different from the flies that he was used to, maybe a bit smaller, but just as annoying and difficult to swat. If they appeared on the map, he was sure it would just be a solid green box no matter how far he zoomed in.
He focused on the closest green dot and oriented himself so that he could move close. As he got closer, he noticed some movement in a bush up ahead. Another step and a blur of brown fur darted away toward another bush a bit further away. A small animal, about the size of a house cat, stood up on its hind legs and stared back at him. Marc squinted and focused on the creature and a new pop-up box appeared above it.
【VORPAL RABBIT】
“Are you kidding me?” Marc grinned as he looked closer at the animal. Indeed it looked similar to a wild rabbit. Light brown fur with a few patches of white mixed in, long ears, and…horns? Two small horns like miniature bull horns jutted out from the rabbit’s forehead. He was just thinking that it looked kind of cute when his interface flashed with a new color. His map was now surrounded by a pulsing red outline. Several nearby green dots on his map also gained a similar pulsing red outline. On his quest list was an addition explaining the change.
TUTORIAL: IDENTIFY FAUNA
TUTORIAL: COMBAT: DEFEAT VORPAL RABBIT 0/3
Wait… What?!? Marc blinked as the murder rabbit in front of him stared at him with crimson eyes. Then Marc noticed that two of the new red-ringed dots were speeding toward his arrow marker, coming up from behind him, fast. Then the vorpal rabbit in front of him screamed.
The scream was the last sound any animal so small and cute should have been able to emit. It was closer to the screeching brakes of a subway train trying desperately to avoid a mid-tunnel collision. Marc’s eyes went wide as his hands rose to cover his ears. Then just like when he had been on the side of the highway as the delivery truck ran him down, he got clobbered. But this time it was two separate missiles slamming into him from behind. Pain, surprise, indignation, but mostly confusion filled his mind. The first attack had slammed into his left leg like a major league hitter took a steel baseball bat and swung for a home run. The force spun him up and around as the second projectile hit him right on his side, just under his ribs. He felt the force of the impact as well as a stabbing pain as though someone had successfully managed to jam a spoon into his spleen and scoop out a bite. The pain was excruciating as his body flopped onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.
【YOU HAVE TAKEN DAMAGE. -22% Health】
【YOU HAVE TAKEN CRITICAL DAMAGE. -38% HEALTH】
Marc had the wind completely knocked out of him. He couldn’t breathe, and his ears were ringing. He thought his leg might be broken and he was sure he had taken a major hit to his torso. Through tears, he could see the alerts and the effect on his stats.
NAME: MARC CHURCH
AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)
INTERFACE LEVEL: 1, 20% TO NEXT LEVEL
RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER
AFFILIATIONS: NONE
STATUS: INJURED, BLEEDING
HEALTH: 40%/100
STAMINA: 99%/100
BASE LEVEL: 1
STRENGTH (STR) [4] +1
CONSTITUTION (CON) [4] +1
INTELLIGENCE (INT) [7] +1
AGILITY (AGI) [5] +1
DEXTERITY (DEX) [6] +1
LUCK (LUK) [0] +1
HEALTH RECOVERY (HR) [0.203%] (HR)/MIN
STAMINA RECOVERY (SR) [0.523%] (SR)/MIN
The map now showed three red-green dots in a perfect triangle circling him. He gasped for breath and slowly his head cleared enough to realize how bad things had just turned. This wasn’t the deal. Wasn’t he supposed to be immortal? How could he be taken out by a bunch of fluffy bunnies? Tears streamed down his face he cursed God, the world, and everything around him. He cursed the velociraptor-like petting zoo rejects that were about to snack on his entrails, and he cursed his glaring weakness and uselessness. A hundred years? Ha! He didn’t even make it an hour.
Lying on his back he could see on his map that the demon bunnies were still there surrounding him. They had jumped back a bit when he caught his breath, his moans startling them, but they quickly returned to their positions. He thought they were probably waiting for him to pass out so they could sweep in and finish him off. Marc was determined to stop that from happening. He still had the flashlight in his hand and he knew where they were. He wouldn’t fall for the distraction play this time. When one of them came in close he would make it pay. But the screaming pain in his leg and the warm wet puddle growing under his back made him have doubts about his brave plan.
He noticed one of the rabbits starting to ease towards him. Silently it crept closer, if it hadn’t been for the map he would never have even realized it was approaching. It was close, maybe just a couple of feet away now. Marc tightened his grip, and as he saw a rabbit nose slowly appear through the grass from the corner of his eye he sprang. Several things happened at once.
First, as he lurched forward and swung his arm up and around, the rabbit jumped up. Marc had anticipated something like that and his swing miraculously flew just as he had hoped. As if in slow motion, Marc’s arm clumsily arced around and the end of the flashlight connected, knocking the rabbit away into a bush. The action caused Marc to nearly pass out from the pain and he lost his grip on the flashlight, sending it off into the distance to land with a loud thunk. Through the blinding pain, Marc glimpsed a new pop-up window.
YOU HAVE HIT THE VORPAL RABBIT! YOU HAVE DONE MINOR DAMAGE TO A VORPAL RABBIT.
Then Marc felt another cannonball-like blow strike him in his upper back. He flew face first into the ground, his injured leg twisted in a very unnatural angle and his mouth now full of dirt.
【YOU HAVE TAKEN DAMAGE. -25% HEALTH】
His status window was now glowing bright red.
NAME: MARC CHURCH
AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)
INTERFACE LEVEL: 1, 20% TO NEXT LEVEL
RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER
AFFILIATIONS: NONE
STATUS: INJURED, BLEEDING
HEALTH: 15%/100
STAMINA: 99%/100
BASE LEVEL: 1
STRENGTH (STR) [4] +1
CONSTITUTION (CON) [4] +1
INTELLIGENCE (INT) [7] +1
AGILITY (AGI) [5] +1
DEXTERITY (DEX) [6] +1
LUCK (LUK) [0] +1
HEALTH RECOVERY (HR) [0.203%] (HR)/MIN
STAMINA RECOVERY (SR) [0.523%] (SR)/MIN
He couldn’t move, could barely draw a breath. He had no way to fight back, these monsters were high predators that he couldn’t leave a scratch on. They were back again in their triangle pattern surrounding him and… there was something new.
A bright blue dot a short distance away. Marc couldn’t move his head, couldn’t force his body to respond in any way, but he just stared at the map, now projected into the dirt below his face. He wanted to call for help, but he had no air in his lungs.
Then he heard a small snapping noise in the distance, followed by a loud thumping noise nearby. All three rabbit dots on his map jumped away. He heard another snap and another thump. Two of the dots had made a jump away, but they stopped moving, the third quickly sprinted away in a crooked line away from the blue dot on his map. He watched as the two green dots slowly faded out and the third vanished from his map, losing its red outline as it fled. Slowly the blue dot approached him. Marc lacked the strength to even tilt his face out of the dirt. As the blue dot closed on his position, Marc saw an update to his quest list.
TUTORIAL: COMBAT: DEFEAT VORPAL RABBIT 0/3
The last word, FAILED, burned into his eyes. What was going on? What was about to happen? His vision darkened slowly and the pain and his consciousness started to fade away before he fainted.