Dmitriy wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a moment to catch his breath, looking over the river in front of him with a satisfied grin on his face.
“Ahh, this is good! Dmitriy is back!” He exclaimed, then put a hand to his chin.
“What is the famous saying again? Like the famous actor, the big guy,” he paused for a moment, then shouted,
“I am back, baby!”
Kobe looked up at him with a wry smile, shaking his head.
“No that’s not,” he broke off for a moment, then continued “you know what, never mind.” He sighed.
“I don’t get how you stay so damn cheerful all the time. Everything is filthy, we have essentially nothing, not even proper beds. All the animals are straight up evil for some reason. Don’t you think this place is awful?”
Dmitriy shrugged easily.
“Back in Siberia, the rabbits would run the other way. If I was lucky, I caught maybe one every two weeks. The rest of the time, there were only potatoes for dinner, if we had even that. Here, the rabbits come to me. Where there is easy meat and comfortable temperatures, I say life is chocolate. Perhaps when the temperature drops below freezing, I will start to complain.”
“Chocolate? I take it that means ‘good’?”
Dmitriy nodded, chuckling.
“Good, yes. It’s like my father used to say: a man needs nothing more than physical labour, a bottle of vodka and a nice lady by his side.”
“Well, that’s one out of three at least. Good luck with the other two.” Kobe shot back with a smile.
It had not been a lie; of the countless things that had shifted since the great change that people had taken to calling ‘the Reset’, there were many that Dmitriy didn’t mind. He’d never admit it, but he’d felt stuck in the last years, spending most of his time working shifts in the factory, without any prospects for finding a good wife and starting a family.
There was something liberating about this Reset, in a way that reminded him of when he first came to America. That feeling of endless possibilities laid out in front of him, of untapped potential that could be realized through hard work. In some ways, it felt like a second chance.
He paused before picking up the next rock, shooting a quick glance at Kobe who was already pushing another rock forward, muscles rippling underneath his glistening dark skin. Dmitriy felt the man was too lean, though he didn’t say as much. A well-fed man should have a good layer of fat to protect from the cold winter, not to mention the factor of attractiveness. No good woman would truly fall for a skinny man. But it would only be cruel to point that out now, when they anyway didn’t have enough food to bring the other man up to a decent size.
Still breathing heavily, Dmitriy continued his work, carefully selecting a rock that was slightly bigger than Kobe’s and pushing to keep pace despite his aching body. By his count, he was running a few rocks behind, but his had been bigger. He couldn’t allow himself to fall behind now.
Heaving the weighty rocks into the river was hard work, and he tried to keep the same pace as Kobe, but it didn’t take long for him to start gulping for air, drenched in sweat. The smaller man still looked composed, not slowing down at all.
“You’ve increased your Stats.” Dmitriy said after a moment, rubbing his hand over his short hair as he tried to catch his breath.
“I have.” Kobe paused, leaving Dmitriy to wonder if he’d be forced to pry for more information, but to his relief, the other man continued.
“My Strength and Durability are sitting at 12 now and most of the others are either at 10 or close to it. When it looked like we were about to die, it would have been dumb not to spend everything.” Kobe said with a shrug.
Dmitriy gave a grunt and a nod in acknowledgement and then they got back to work. It wasn’t long before they were relieved by Jim and Elza, taking turns to quickly wash themselves off in the river while the other stood guard with a spear. Centipede attacks had gone down drastically after the surge a few days ago, but still, they shouldn’t get careless.
They’d made good progress; the rocks had piled up so that the beginning of a rough path was visible through the water, the current slowing down and flowing around it. They’d be ready to attempt the crossing soon, perhaps already tomorrow.
Still, Dmitriy’s face was downcast as he began to walk back. How was he going to claim his rightful position as leader, when he was losing out in a simple contest of strength? Though the single vote - coming from himself - had been insulting, he understood why it had happened, given his weakened, sickly state at the time. But now he was back, and it was time to show everyone that. He could only hope Jim and Elza hadn’t noticed his loss.
The hardships he’d lived through and the strength they’d given him had long been a source of pride. When his co-workers at the factory called him ‘the polar bear’, he might pretend not to like it, but the truth was, of course, that he did. His colleagues were not weak men, but he’d have gladly and proudly taken any of them on in a contest of strength, confident that he’d come out the winner.
Some might call it vain, but he’d always felt it was a great measure of character. You couldn’t cheat or pay your way to strength. There were no shortcuts on that road, only hard work and suffering.
Except that now there were. Stats.
He scratched his head and frowned as he stepped through the grass, the soil still soft under his feet from the rain in the past days as he wandered without a specific goal in mind.
Of all the things that had changed, the Stats system was the one that bothered him most. It wasn’t all bad, of course. Allowing people to go beyond their limits and achieve awesome feats was surely a great thing. Perhaps he just needed some time to adjust.
How would people judge someone’s worth, or determine their proper role, with this new, invisible factor? Most of the old folks had quickly found their part in the group; taking care of the children, preparing food, mending clothes. One exceptional lady, Marie, had even gone beyond that and fashioned pieces of armor for the warriors.
Dmitriy himself was young and strong, he would perform manual labour, venture out to hunt and defend the group when necessary. These were the natural roles people fell into, which was not only good and proper but understood by all in a simple, intuitive way. He could usually tell at a glance who was weak or strong, judging and assigning them to the appropriate category in his mind.
But now that she’d come across some Value, Marie was striding through camp with a spring in her step, completing chores that she simply couldn’t have done before. It looked like she was able to keep up with the fittest of them. Would it be foolish then, not to consider her a potential hunter, or warrior?
He didn’t have an answer to that. Things that used to be simple were now becoming complicated, and Dmitriy didn’t like things to be complicated.
As he made his way down a hill, he noticed Tasha practicing on the flat ground of the valley. The woman had somehow created a working bow from the carcass of the strange half-snake creature Kobe had slain. Its neck had been full of cartilage and tendons, highly flexible yet somehow still tough as iron. It had taken the small woman many tries, but she’d finally found a way to reliably connect the long tendon to the curved piece of cartilage and bone.
Being short and thin, she’d of course been quickly disqualified as a potential wife, never mind how ill and frail she’d looked in the first few days. But she had shown herself to be surprisingly resourceful. He watched with interest as she knocked a makeshift arrow to her bow. It was a shoddy thing, just a thin stick with a piece of sharpened bone stuck to the end. They’d accidentally created glue while trying to make syrup, by boiling down sap from bushtrees on a slab of rock.
As Tasha pulled the white tendon back to her ear, he wondered how high her Strength was. His was only sitting at 10 now. If she got it as high as, say, 15, would she be able to beat him at armwrestling? He grimaced and nearly spat, his stomach clenching at the thought.
Tasha cursed as the inferior arrow fell well short of the target, then called out as she noticed him.
“Dmitriy! My shooting must really be crap, to make even you frown like that.”
He wiped the frown off his face, showing her his trademark grin instead.
“Not at all! I’m sure you will become a fearsome warrior in no time. If that is what you want.” He paused, leaving it open for her to answer without actually asking the question.
Tasha shrugged.
“Not really. I’m not sure what I want, besides just getting to a place where we can finally relax. But I’d like to carry my weight at least, you know?”
Dmitriy nodded, with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“What are you up to?”
“I was just thinking I should get out and do some hunting. Make sure those rabbits don’t forget who’s the boss around here.”
“Oh that reminds me! I have something for you.”
She gestured cheerfully, Dmitriy not hesitating to follow along as they made their way up the hill to their new campsite. It looked even more basic than the previous one, bunches of reeds and leaves collected at the base of a few busthrees, the lowest branches of which had been removed to provide some meager shelter. Only the base was bald while the rest stretched upwards with rich and thick foliage, making them look like gigantic, green corn dogs.
Tasha pointed happily at some flaps of scaly skin that had been drying next to the fire.
“They’re tough as hell, it took us ages to cut through them. Marie said there wasn’t enough of the skin to use for armor anyway, so I figured you could use them to finish your shield? We don’t have any nails but there’s plenty of glue and it holds really well.” She tapped the edge of her bow as if to prove her point.
Dmitry’s face lit up, thanking her profusely and getting to work immediately. In truth, Tasha had been kind to refer to his little project as a shield, when in reality it was just a rough slab of wood. He’d found a heavy log that was slightly cracked, and by hammering a sharp piece of rock down the existing gap, he’d managed to spit off a rough plank. After scraping at it for hours, it looked a lot smoother and had taken a rectangular shape, about four square feet in size.
By attaching strips of the tough, scaly skin to it, it’d finally be ready to be handled as a proper shield. Using the glue, he attached some strips to simply reinforce the outside. A few of the longer strips were then used to wrap all the way around, creating a sort of strap that he could push his hand and wrist into.
He lost himself in the work and only a few hours later, he’d finished and blinked at the notification.The shield was rough, heavy and unwieldy, but he felt that it suited him.
Congratulations! You’ve created a shield!
Total Value awarded: 30 (25 Bonus Value for being among the first to create this particular item)
Value allocated to Party wallet: 6 (20%)
Remaining Value allocated to personal wallet: 24
Six of his precious points being allocated to the Party wallet? He vaguely recalled some discussions having taken place, which he’d stopped listening to once he’d mentally classified it as administration. Perhaps it had been important after all.
After a short moment of doubt, he put one point in Durability and one into Strength. After swearing never to be taken down by wretched little insects again, his plan had been to put everything in Durability, right until his skin became impenetrable. But he felt he might still need the extra point in Strength to smoothly swing the heavy shield around.
A few minutes later, he was strutting around camp, proudly showing his shield off to everyone. They should know that he was not just back, but stronger than ever.
“See?” He held the shield up with his left arm, knocking at it with his right fist to show its sturdiness. “You will have nothing to fear as long as you huddle behind your proud general!”
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Elza didn’t comment, just smiling as the little girls were cheering him on, taking turns to kick at the shield as Dmitriy laughed.
“Wait but you’re not the leader! Dericka is!” One of them pointed accusingly at him.
“Ah! According to the system, yes, but I say the real leader stands at the front, protecting the team! She is like.. a strategist. Very clever, and kind, but a general-”
Dmitriy cut off as he spotted Dericka making her way to their group. His lips thinned as he noticed her walking stick and the slight limp in her right leg, but when he glimpsed Elza looking away, guilt and pity bare on her face, he forced out a smile instead. There was enough sadness here already.
If you only looked at her from the neck down, you’d be more likely to put her down as a witch than a leader. She was holding a gnarled wooden cane that she leaned on between steps, clearly favoring one leg. Her formerly light blue dress was unrecognizable, ripped and torn and darkened from the waist down with a mix of deep brown and burgundy. Most of the mud had washed off in the river, but the blood had remained.
But her green eyes were bright as ever, dark hair tied back to reveal lightly tanned skin. Her smile didn’t waver even as her eyes paused on Elza before landing on Dmitriy.
“Is that a shield? Yes it is! A mighty shield for our mighty warrior!”
Dmitriy couldn’t help but grin and puff out his chest at those gleeful words.
Dericka lifted her walking stick with both hands, jabbing at him.
“Let’s see your moves, then!”
Dmitriy obliged, lifting his shield and easily parrying her strikes, though he was watching her carefully. There was something in the way she behaved that felt off to him, like she was forcing it. Coming from a place where smiles were rationed, Dericka’s joy had always been loud to him, but now she was approaching an intensity that he felt should be reserved only for Disneyland staff.
The children cheered as she gave a mock salute. Dmitriy showed an uncomfortable smile, deciding to steer things in a more serious direction, leaning closer to Dericka.
“What is going on with the Party thing? Six precious Value was taken from my hard-earned reward.”
“You got a bonus for the shield? That’s great!” She beamed at him.
“As for the Party Wallet, I’ve put the ratio quite high at twenty percent for now, since we still need to make a lot of group purchases. We have basically nothing now, and we’ll need to get a bunch of amenities that will help everyone. Also we agreed that some of it should be redistributed so that nobody falls behind, remember?”
Dmitriy frowned.
“Redistribution of wealth? I thought I’d gotten away from such talk when I left the motherland.”
Dericka laughed, then, as she noticed he was serious, transitioned into a kind smile as she squeezed his shoulder.
“It’s only temporary.”
It was hard to resist that gaze, making him feel like she was a favourite teacher that he didn’t want to disappoint. He was trying to muster up the courage to object, but then she leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.
“Besides, wouldn’t a good general want to make sure he has strong soldiers?”
Dmitriy stiffened and she laughed again, giving him a friendly punch to the shoulder before walking off to the next group.
***
“Enough talk! I will be the first to cross!” Dmitriy punctuated his shout by knocking his club against his shield, which cut through the clamour and drew everyone’s gaze. He set his jaw and held his back straight as he met their eyes, pausing when he met Dericka who looked contemplative, then gave a slight nod. He cursed inwardly as he realized it now looked as if he’d been seeking approval, but he couldn’t address it without looking petty and weak.
Instead, he promptly turned around, swapping the club out for a wooden stake which was attached to some form of rough, braided rope, tied around a large rock right at the river bank. Moving forward with determined steps, he slowed only slightly as he entered the river, knowing that at first, the water would only go up to his thighs.
It was hard to believe they’d bickered for hours over such a straightforward task. Dericka had even asked Kobe to do what she called a ‘pre-mortem’, which was unknown to him, but it had led to the man standing further downstream with a long stick, ready to catch anyone who might be swept away by the current.
Most of the people had seemed eager to finally move on from this place, the only grumbling having come from the two mothers.
He reached the other side without much difficulty, never sinking deeper than to right below his chest, thanks to the many rocks they’d pushed in. Planting the stake firmly into the ground, he then gave a thumbs up and a bright smile, prompting the next people to start crossing. The order had been planned out in excruciating detail, the little ones to be carried on people’s shoulders, with Kobe being the last to move.
They brought little else than the clothes on their back and the spears in their hands. Looking over the group as they crossed one by one, they looked different, he thought.
With an abundance of centipede corpses around their old camp, they had plenty of resources, so many of them now wore black pieces of carapace, fashioned either into shin guards or bracers.
When a centipede crawled out of the water and moved towards them, he noticed that Jim flinched and took a step back, but nobody panicked or ran away before Dmitriy handily crushed the creature under the edge of his shield.
This focus and determination would be needed for the long road ahead. Their precious map, which they’d finally been able to buy from the Party Wallet, had revealed the journey to the closest stationary MAFT. As the nice lady in the tutorial had explained, once they reached that large teleportation device, they would be able to cheaply buy a lot of necessary goods. The assumption was that many people would naturally gather there. They would find out.
Ahead of them was only a short stretch of this well known light green zone, before a longer trek through a medium green one. Then, there was a thin stretch of yellow which they might choose to move around, before heading into a dark green one. The MAFT was located in another dark green zone, but it bordered two yellow zones, one of which they had no choice but to cross.
He grinned. It would be quite the adventure.
“Well done, comrades! One obstacle down, on to the next! We can’t have two deaths, but we can’t avoid one!”
He smashed his shield as he bellowed, striding ahead of the group, not noticing the confused looks in the rest of the group.
“What he said.” Dericka grinned as they started to follow behind.
***
Dericka called a halt as they approached the next zone. Despite encountering more murder rabbits than usual, they’d made good time. People gathered around, chattering as they looked out at the tall forest ahead. It was not a normal forest, the trees having long and spindly trunks that ended in broad crowns of foliage. Interspersed between the tall trees were even thinner stalks, ending in long, green leaves.
“Is that bamboo?” Someone asked, but Dericka held up her hand for silence, face serious.
“There will be new dangers in there, so we should explore first. Kobe, Tasha, Dmitriy?”
The three looked at each other, nodding.
“Good. Don’t head in too deep, and return as soon as you’ve got a sense of the danger. Any objections?”
“It’s still just a medium green zone, I say we push through without wasting any time.”
Dmitriy was surprised to find that Jim was the one objecting, after his previous experience in the forest. He supposed the man was simply eager to find his daughter. The discussion didn’t interest him much, as long as there was a fast decision. He himself would have objected, of course, had he not been selected as part of the vanguard.
After a few people voiced their opinion in favor of scouting, Jim accepted and held his peace, looking displeased.
As the rest of the group waited in the relative safety of the grassy plain, the three of them set out, approaching the spindly forest. Once again, the transition was abrupt, the grassy field giving way to an unnaturally straight line of trees that stretched about as far as they could see.
Despite the tree trunks being unusually thin and well spread out, the bunches of bamboo stalks in between still made for limited visibility. They entered slowly and carefully, Dmitriy forging a path by breaking off stalks or pushing them to the side. He frowned at the noise they were making, but it was nigh impossible to avoid the snapping of wood and the rustling of leaves underfoot.
As they made their way deeper in, the sticks started thinning out until they could walk in between without touching them. He decided to tie leaves around certain sticks of bamboo at eye height,t o ensure they’d their path back.
This place distinctly did not feel like a forest to Dmitriy, at least not any he’d ever been in. There was barely any smell, it lacked the musky, herbal scent of the rich soil a forest with trees this tall should have. While the bamboo grew in clusters, the tall trees seemed like they were planted by people, standing in neat rows such that it felt like walking through a corridor.
He paused, touching the trunk of one of the strange trees as he gazed up at the massive crown ahead. It felt cold and hard to the touch, almost like stone. Despite the fact that he could easily touch the fingers of both hands together as he closed them around the trunk, it was annoyingly resistant to his attempts to shake it. Even when he gave it an angry kick with the heel of his boot, the tree refused to move.
There was a cry of pain, Tasha’s voice, and he turned immediately, shield and club at the ready. She was slapping at her back, where he could only make out a small, red shape, but then Kobe was blocking his view and he rushed over as well.
“What the hell!” Tasha cursed, grimacing as she rubbed at the back of her shoulder, her hand coming back with a thin swipe of blood. The two men had her turn around to inspect her wound, which was just a bit of blood welling out from a tiny hole, as if she’d been stabbed by a needle.
The culprit lay on the ground and after it remained unmoving after a testing kick, Dmitriy picked it up and held it out in front of them. He turned the small, red bird over in his hand, pulling at its wings as Kobe let out a small sound of disgust. There was some blood on the end of its protracted black beak. Dmitriy flicked at it with a nail and poked at the tip carefully, frowning at it.
“Sharp,” he murmured.
After a moment, Kobe broke in, speaking in a haughty tone, carefully enunciating the words.
“In my expert opinion, this is an example of the rare, red-breasted hummingbird. Legend has it that after an ill-advised mating event with a group of bats, these hummingbirds turned into bloodsuckers and-”
He cut off as Tasha threw a small stick at him.
“We’ll see how funny you find it when one of them pokes a hole in your skin.”
Kobe shrugged, keeping a satisfied grin on his face.
“One squeeze of my hand was enough to snap its neck and it still gave 2 Value. I’ll be glad if this is the worst of what we find in this forest.”
Dmitriy perked up at the mention of Value, but then turned his head and held up his hand, motioning for quiet as he peered out into the forest. He could hear a distant rustling sound, but couldn’t see any source. He held up his shield and set out after making eye contact and getting nods from both of them.
Moving slowly and carefully, watching their footing, they approached the source of the sound, until Dmitriy could make out a shape and signal the other two. They crept closer, low to the ground, peering through the bamboo stalks.
A hairy shape was digging at the ground about thirty yards out, covered in grey and brown fur. Sticking out from the front of its skull were two horns, curving backwards over its head.
“I think that’s a goat.” Tasha whispered.
Dmitriy squinted at it and decided that yes, that did indeed look like a goat.
“This one looks pretty normal actually, maybe we should just approach it?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t look like much of a threat and we need the information either way. Better to find out now before we drag the whole group into this forest.” Kobe whispered back.
Dmitriy nodded and got up, moving into the open. The goat looked up, startled, staring at them as it took a step back.
“See?” Tasha said, “I bet it’s just a normal-”
It let out a deep, angry bleat that increased in pitch to turn more into a shriek as it went on, revealing pointy teeth.
“Yeah, sounds like it wants to be your friend.” Kobe said.
The goat charged at them.
Dmitriy stepped forward, hefting his shield. When he saw that it simply ran in a straight line towards him, head bent forward, he planted the shield on the ground and braced for impact. Tasha loosed an arrow at it, which went far off to the right, not even close to hitting its target.
Then the goat rammed into the shield with a sharp crack, Dmitriy easily holding the creature back while Kobe lunged forward, stabbing it in the neck with his spear. He got it pinned to the ground with his foot and spear, but it kept loudly struggling, so the larger man left his shield and bent down to grab it by the horns and muzzle, violently snapping its neck.
Both men threw an amused glance at Tasha, who blushed and put up her hands.
“It’s the arrows, they’re really bad.”
They failed to hide their grins and she stalked off to retrieve her arrow.
“Hm. A bad dancer’s balls get in the way, eh?” Dmitriy gave Kobe a knowing look, as if they were sharing an inside joke, but the other man looked back with an amused frown.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, right. You say it differently,” He thought for a moment, then supplied, “A workman shouldn’t blame the tools?”
“Ooh.” Kobe’s eyebrows lifted as chuckled, then he shrugged. “I’m sure she’ll figure it out at some point.”
Dmitriy nodded, then crouched down to take a closer look at the dead animal in front of him. It was a bit smaller than the goats he knew, but otherwise it looked exactly the same, from the hooves to the rough hair and the curved horns. Only when he peeled back its lips and opened its mouth, the teeth looked decidedly different. There were molars in the back, but it had incisors and large canines in the front.
“Reminds me of a baboon.” Kobe murmured, the edges of his mouth curved down with disgust.
“The bite would do some damage, yes,” Dmitriy nodded, “but the goat is not too large or heavy. Still, we’ll have to proceed with some caution. Not everyone can stop its charge so easily.”
He then took a moment to look over the notification.
Well done! You killed a higher-tiered threat!
Threat level: Tier 2
Subject level: Tier 1
Total Value awarded: 8 (4 Base * 2 Multiplier)
Value allocated to Party wallet: 2 (20%)
Remaining Value allocated to personal wallet: 6
The concept of Tiers hadn’t made much sense to him when the lady from the tutorial explained it, but now it sunk in. As long as the amount of Value spent on strengthening himself stayed below 50, he would still be considered Tier 1. Unfortunately the additional bonus for Tier 0 would already be out of reach for most, being reserved only for people who had invested nothing at all.
He opened his Stat sheet next.
Unallocated Value: 7
Value allocated to Stats: 45
Value allocated to Abilities: 0
Value spent on items: 0
Stats
Strength: 11
Durability: 11
Speed: 6
Senses: 6
Intelligence: 4
PE Capacity: 100 KJ
Abilities
None
Once again, his lips thinned when his eyes passed over his Intelligence score. A mere four out of ten. No matter how often he’d demanded this insult to be correct, the lady had just kept babbling about statistical averages.
Regardless, with his current Stats and his trusty shield and club, he would be able to slay these pathetic goats with ease. As long as he held off with any further Stat allocations, he should get double Value for every goat in this forest. Finally, there was a chance not just to catch up, but pull ahead.
Dmitriy showed a ferocious grin as he stared out into the forest. Yes, this would be an excellent hunting ground.