That same voice again. Was that an actual person speaking through a microphone or was it a recorded voice? I looked down at my clothing, it was greyish as well and so were my shoes except they looked slightly less worn out than the same items that the adults seemed to be wearing. I wasn’t as hard a worker as the adults were, that made sense being a kid still. I had light duties or had to go to school or something. But why didn’t my parents say anything about missing school or seeing classmates on my birthday?

‘Young man, are you in need of assistance? Where are your parents and your living quarters?’ asked an older voice.

I looked up and saw an older person whose clothes looked even more worn out than that of my parents. They weren’t wearing a robe though so that meant it was someone on the same level as myself. Looking at them I didn’t get any notification of levels or player status.

It was just another NPC, not a priest or anyone that important. I hoped so at least and this wasn’t going to be a random encounter where I was expected to deal with a stranger trying to talk to me.

‘Yeah, uh hi. I’m just walking back to my living quarters now. Sorry, I’m not sure I’m meant to talk to strangers, so I’ll just be going now.’

The older person looked at me oddly. I realised that they did look super old with cut grey hair.

[Game Hint: You may want to progress before you get as old as this guy. He’s only forty.]

Not funny at all stupid video game system. Not even as a joke.

‘There are no strangers before the Gods. All of us live together. All families living here work together for the sole purpose of serving the Gods. We each have our tasks, are yours not allocated yet young one?’

‘Look, I’m on my way now to see my parents.’ This reminded me of one of the key aspects of post-apocalyptic video games. The settings often had broken people. This older person and I couldn’t tell their gender because they just looked, in grey clothes, and grey hair and were worn out.

‘Be on your way then young one. Everyone has their tasks to fulfil. You will not want to draw the attention of the Herald. She is not forgiving to those who are unable to work. They end up in reprocessing and fertilization. Especially those who become old and slow like me.’

I waved my hand at the older person and nodded my head at the sage wisdom this grey-haired elder had offered. If he meant that I think he did then that explained well exactly why my parents had gotten sick and tired and why radiation permeated everything here.

The dead are turned into mush to grow new vegetables. Or the old. Could be where this guy was told to report.

‘Yes, yes, I get it. On my way to see my parents and then fulfil my tasks for the gods. Thank you and bye old person!’

I’d rather not get a quest about such a macabre topic.

Moving a bit quicker than before as I wanted to create distance between me and the random old NPC stranger and not the desire to stop accumulating points in the skill of procrastination, I ended up at the same area in which I had first appeared in this game.

There were old curtains that closed off the area and provided a sort of privacy barrier, someone had rigged up across a metal pole that boxed in a smaller area. Outside of it were three large pipes that led to a corridor.

[Player XXX has earned 1 point in Observation. Added to your character build.]

I had spent a large amount of my time looking at my surroundings and taking in all the details, which was true. Can’t complain about that skill though, it might come in useful for further insight.

Opening up the curtains I walked back into my living space. I didn’t see any sign of my parents but on one of the beds, a boy a bit younger than myself was sitting by his lonesome.

I sub-vocalised and asked the system:

I want to activate my Observation skill. All one point of it.

[Observation Skill: Activated. Currently one point.]

-Target of Observation looks upset and has a bruised face.

-He looks familiar to you.

I sighed to myself. ‘Is that the best that I can get with one point in Observation? He looks to be upset or something is bothering him with that posture anyway. Familiar?’

[Game Hint: Your family and friends interact differently with you than other NPCs. Be kind to them!]

The in-game tutorial hint popped up in my field of vision again. I blinked and it vanished again. The system was trying to tell me something about this character, this was the second time so far that I had received this message. Now, the kid sitting on the bed was a boy with his build. He looked to be around six- or seven years old plus.

Sniff

Sniff

‘…Big brother? Why are you staring at me? I didn’t lose your birthday present. Honest, I don’t. It was stolen!’

The boy sitting down has lifted his hands onto his knees and was looking at me directly. Sometimes, I forgot that I was in a realistic world where the NPCs had their thoughts. It suddenly hit me that this glum-looking kid was the brother that my parents had mentioned. There was a quest, or something related to him. I had better respond to him before my points in the procrastination skill started again.

‘Hey, there kid. I mean little brother. Don’t worry about my birthday present, I know that you wouldn’t lose it on purpose. Tell your big brother what’s wrong and I’ll help you out as best as I can.’

Then I used my interface to bring up an available quest list relating to my brother:

Help your younger brother to feel better.

Reward offered: ?? and 30XP>.

Why doesn’t this stupid quest at least tell me his name? I’m going to come across as a freak if I don’t know his name. Forget it, I’ll ask Cathy instead when I’m working on her quest for her Mum’s medicine.

My young brother was looking at me and I realised that he had been crying for a while before I met him. Red slightly bloodshot eyes and a snotty nose.

Sniff

Sniff

‘What!’ has asked.

‘Hey young brother, tell me who made you upset and I’ll go and beat them up for you. I promise I’ll beat them up good for making my little brother cry.’

That made my little brother sit up straighter and he looked me right in the eye.

-Update in progress.

New quest included:

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

1. Help your younger brother feel better

2. Get your birthday present back

3. Beat up the older bully.

Optional: Beat them up badly so they never bully your little brother again. This add-on requires a minimum of tasked scripted combat events. Can solve without confrontation for Quest XP Reduction.

Reward offered: Little Bro’s Birthday present, Brotherly Goodwill +1 Permanent Charisma Point, 150XP.>

Sniff

Sniff

‘It was Dan. Mom and Dad said that he’s a young punk who doesn’t listen to the elders so he’s really angry. He hit me and threatened to beat me every day if I didn’t give up my birthday present. Sniff.’

‘…’

‘Is that the only reason for what happened? I doubt that he saw my birthday present in your hands and then decided to beat you up. C’mon younger brother. I know that you feel upset but how did this bully become so angry?’

Sniff

Sniff

‘Can you stop sniffing for a moment? I want to help but I need to understand it better. Let’s work together and we can sort it out. I’m here to help little brother.’

‘….ok. I and my friends were throwing smack of rocks on the ground, and I was winning. Then Rudi was walking along, and we didn’t see him. Really! I threw a smack rock and it hit his leg. It was a mistake. A mistake. He got angry and started shouting at me and he wanted to know why we were playing with bang rocks an- ‘.

‘What are bang rocks exactly?’

‘Um, you played with them before, right? You can find these special rocks that make this loud bang noise on the ground when you throw them hard. It’s so fun how they kind of explode when they hit something hard.’

‘Yeah sure, I got it. Can you tell me what this has to do with Dan wanting my birthday present?’

‘I and my friend were throwing smack rocks at the wall because I wanted to get you a great collection of bang rocks for your birthday present. We were throwing smaller rocks to see which ones exploded the best. I was going to give you a bag of the best ones. Dan saw my bag and stole it from me. I thought you would get angry at me for losing your birthday present.’

‘You did a wonderful job finding a present for my birthday. I’m not angry at you about it. Brothers are meant to help each other, right?’

Sniff

‘…yes.’

‘Don’t worry about Rudi then. We can just beat him up together and get that bag of

bang rocks back.’

[Game Hint: The sun rises and sets, and NPCs keep moving. Time waits for no one!]

‘Wait, how big is Rudi? Is he older than us?’

‘Uh-huh. He’s a big guy. Mom says he’s really rude and a bully.’

‘You know this guy sounds pretty strong to me. I think it’s a promising idea if I do some scouting first.’

‘What’s scouting big brother?’

‘It means, if we want to beat up this guy, we should know his strengths and weaknesses a bit. That reminds me, have you seen Cathy anywhere? Mom said she needed help finding her Mum’s medicine.’

‘…’

‘What? Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘You changed. Something made you different. I think a spirit from the gods got into you and your soul got better.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You never used to be so brave. Or helpful, you know strange words as well. Tell me what happened!’

‘Calm down. Seriously, just calm down little brother. I can tell you how a spirit from the gods came into me if you just listen. But I need you to promise you won’t tell any of your friends or Mum and Dad about how to do it.’

‘Why not?’

‘You…just listen, ok?’

[Player XXX has gained 1 temporary usable point in Persuasion Technique. The system has inputted this into your character build.]

‘Was it a really strong spirit from the gods? Did it bless you like the Heralds keep talking about? I don’t want it to be an evil spirit and take you away from us. If it’s bad, then you can tell it to go away, right?’

I didn’t realise how aware the NPCs are in this world. This kid realises that I’m his brother but something different has occurred. Why didn’t my parents notice it?

[Game Hint: You’re not the only one with special abilities in-game. NPCs and Players both have skills.]

Ah, thanks for the hint system. My little bro has a detecting skill or identifies or whatever. That could be useful.

‘How do you know that I have a spirit that changed me?’

‘You just feel different from before.’

‘How then?’

‘I don’t know, just, just something.’

‘Great! We need to get a plan together. First, I’m going to go for a quick walk and find out about this bully. He could have a weakness or something that will make it easier to beat him up.’

‘Yeah! Beat him up for taking your birthday present!’

‘You lost it in the first place, right?’

‘Shouldn’t I beat you up first?’

‘Huh? No way! You’re joking!’

This kid is pretty smart.

‘You got me. I am joking’

‘I think that the spirit that got into you will help you.’

‘I’m sure that it will. Anyway, don’t tell Mum and Dad if you see them that we want to beat this bully up. It’s something that we can fix ourselves as brothers.’

‘…ok.’

‘Wait, where’s your friend that you were playing with? Did he get robbed as well?’

‘She’s a girl. No, she ran away when Rudi started shouting.’

‘That’s good. He didn’t take anything away from her.’

‘No, I don’t think that he saw her.’

‘I’m going to look for Cathy now. Dad said her mum needs some help. You haven’t seen anything that Dad said he lost, did you?’

‘Dad said he couldn’t find something earlier. He could a dropped it at work. I don’t think the bully would take it. He’s scared of adults. They could call guardians or protectors.

‘I don’t know what those are yet. Right, I’m going. When I come back let’s beat up that bully Rudi.’

‘Yeah! Bye!’

I parted the curtain that provided meagre privacy to my living area and walked back outside. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the lack of lighting, so my surroundings became a little bit clearer. I wasn’t sure how people would like to live in a place that wasn’t brightly lit. How were you meant to tell if it was day or night?

‘All workers of older age report for recycling and processing duties. The gods demand your service and obedience. All praise to the gods for our protection and safety.’

I was tired of hearing the mechanical voice repeat itself. I’m sure that it wasn’t a normal human talking through a microphone and more like an actual artificial voice. Similar to how people had devices on their phones back home that would talk to them. A slave culture usually doesn’t allow for a high level of technology.

I began to walk back through the corridors again. I think that I briefly saw the old person that had talked to me earlier, but they were accompanied by a person wearing one of those red robes.

No time to waste talking and looking. Time for action.

‘Now, where would my friend Cathy be located…? Forget it, let’s explore.’

[Player XXX has lost 1 point in Procrastination. System has removed this from your character build.]

Time to walk the concrete floors with minimal lighting. Or an alternative would be to ask for immediate help from my fellow slaves. It had been a hobby of mine when I was younger and not awoken in a dystopian video game setting to go for frequent walks by myself. I enjoyed walking and looking at the details around me, sometimes exploring new routes so I wouldn’t get lost.