It will be nice to eat something else than those weird teeth fish for a change.

So far it's been somewhat difficult finding another edible creature that's not too hard to catch or too dangerous to hunt, but now I have a crossbow!

As I traveled about, I saw a metalcorn.

A perfect test subject.

I fired.

...And I missed, which caught the metalcorn's attention.

I frantically pumped the crossbow, as the metalcorn charged my position.

I lined up another shot and fired, this time hitting my mark.

The bolt flew through the metalcorn's head, and out its neck, before skittering to a stop nearby.

I stood there with my mouth agape for a hot second, watching the metalcorn collapse under it's own weight, before remembering my roots.

"BOOM HEADSHOT!"

I tried to cook and eat some of the metalcorn's neck meat (the only meat I could gain access to quickly), and found that the inky black stuff was a great coolant... and therefore never cooked.

So no unicorn meat for me I suppose...

In fact, on the subject, most of the things here don't seem either edible, or large enough to sustain my diet with their size without getting a good number of them.

For an example of the former, there's these strange six-legged bears that are about the size of a large dog, and if you kill them, their insides liquefy for some reason.

For an example of the latter, there are these stupid half scorpion half squirrel things that I'd have to kill at least three of to feed myself for a single meal due to the sheer lack of edible meat on them.

At least those scorposquirrels taste pretty good, kinda like a beefier version of lobster.

It definitely beats fish for the... I've lost track of how many days I've been here for it seems... all of those uncounted number of days.

While I was out, I decided that it would be a pretty good idea to get a proper lay of the land.

I hadn't really attempted to figure out where everything was, who knows, maybe there's some vegetables nearby.

If I don't get something else than meat real soon I'm gonna riot.

I was walking around, making sure that I was ready for any attacks that may attempt to take me, because, who knows, maybe there's more guys around like Manglow?

I crested a hill, and saw a village and a big thing going toward it.

I suppose it's time to be medium-sized damn hero!

----------------------------------------

Sydui

My name is Sydui.

I, like everyone else here, was offered a choice... live your live as-is and die, or go with the voice.

If we managed to survive, we would be set free and given the opportunities needed to survive.

The choice was obvious for us, we were all exiles, slaves, prisoners, the scum of the universe... all given a chance for a new life.

We were told it was dangerous, but none of us cared, we'd take the chance we were given to spit in the eye of the universe for dealing us these hands.

So, we all became "inhabitants".

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

When we first arrived, we learned that the gravity was immense, luckily we had been picked for our abilities to survive on the planet... at least at a base level... so we weren't going to die just because.

That didn't change the fact that none of us knew how to survive on such a dangerous planet, so we just had fight and die together to survive.

Most of us had had different views on the world, but in the face of this, all of that was set aside.

That's why it was so frustrating when the champions arrived.

Invariably, what would happen is the following:

One: The champion arrives, killing someone without provocation.

Two: The champion hears our pleas for mercy and gets confused.

Three: The champion extorts us because they know they can without us being able to do anything.

Four: We comply, because if we don't, we'll all be killed.

This time was no different.

[Yutgur The Demolisher]

Danger Level: Certain Death

After our first was killed, they sent me to try to negotiate, as I was the best spoken.

"We are not champions! You don't need to kill us!" I yelled, trying to get Yutgur's attention.

Yutgur was an eight-foot-tall ape with tusks that almost rose above his lips, his muscle definition screamed that he could snap you in half like a twig if he wanted to.

The corpse on the ground next to him proved it too.

He looked over at me, with the confused expression I've come to expect of champions who just meet us. "I don't have to kill you, you say?"

"That is correct, we can offer you aid instead." I replied in my most diplomatic tone.

"Aid huh?" He looked thoughtful. "Do you have any weapons? I don't have the industry to make anything good."

I grit my teeth, I knew what was going to happen next.

All of our hard work was about to come to nothing.

"We-" I began, but I was interrupted.

A whizzing sound?

----------------------------------------

Andrew

It took me a while to catch up with the giant ape thing, his legs were really long and I was pretty far away.

[Yutgur The Demolisher]

Danger Level: Probable Death

Huh, well it was better than last time for sure, not to mention this guy didn't have any armor to worry about.

"What an idiot, he doesn't even have anything better than a club." I whispered to myself as I lined up a shot.

I fired my crossbow, aiming for center of mass, I really didn't want to miss.

The bolt blew a massive hole in his chest.

He whipped around to look in my direction, but I had already crouched low by that time.

He screamed some incomprehensible nonsense at me, which sounded slurred and overly wet.

He stumbled in my direction, screaming more, before falling limp.

[New Acquired Title: Table Turner]

That title seemed a little boring in comparison to "Vanquisher", but hey, I like having multiple titles anyway.

I stood up and strode over to the giant ape, firing another bolt into his skull to make sure he was dead, causing him to finally disintegrate.

I looked up to see a bunch of people who looked horrified.

They were pretty clearly aliens... or fantasy race individuals? Heck, I'm not even sure what genre knowledge I should be using here, because they certainly looked like sci-fi-style space aliens.

They were all about my size, a little shorter than me on average, they had antennae, satyr-style extra-jointed legs, and heads that reminded me a lot of a cat's features... besides the fact that they had four eyes of course.

I crossed my arms in appreciation at the nearest one, clearly a female. "Seven out of ten, would bang." I said.

It looked at me with pure hatred. "Oh, is killing a champion not good enough for you?" She covered her mouth suddenly in apparent surprise of what she had just said.

I looked at her with confusion, several questions coming to mind. "What's a champion? Actually, now that I'm looking for it, why don't you have a doobly-do with a name and junk?"

She looked confused back at me, lowering her hands from her mouth. "You're a champion... Yutgur was one too."

"Oh, so the doobly-do is for champions? Okay, that makes sense... otherwise I would have had ones for the metalcorns and scorposquirrels."

She looked me up and down, clearly trying to get a read on me. "What do you plan on doing next?"

I looked around. "I'm not really sure, I might go home... actually what kind of stuff do you guys have to buy or sell?"

Her expression hardened. "We don't have anything of value."

"No? That's a shame, I was hoping you guys at least had some bread or something to trade."

I walked into the village to retrieve my bolt, but she imposed herself between me and it. "No, we're talking, you're not allowed in the village."

I pointed at my projectile. "Oh, I just wanted my bolt back."

She looked at me with spite, right in the eyes. "If you're going to 'bang' anyone, it'll be me! And I'll put up one hell of a fight first."

I looked at her in confusion.

Then it dawned on me, I figured out why she had been so apprehensive.

She thought that 'bang' meant 'to make explode' in this context.

Despite myself, I burst out laughing.

She only got angrier.

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that..." I held up a finger as I attempted to regain my composure. "No, 'bang' is a colloquial term, I don't plan on hurting you guys."

The confusion returned. "Then what does it mean?"

The laughter changed into its nervous cousin. "Well, it means... to..." Screw it, I'll rip off the bandage. "It means to have sex with."

"Then... the number was..." She stood there in shock more than any sort of embarrassment, which I wasn't sure was good or bad here. After a bit of thought on her part, she finally spoke again. "Why are you here?"

I grabbed onto my out as if it was a life preserver. "I dunno, I was just looking around, seeing what was nearby."

She shook her head. "No, I mean: 'why are you here in the Deathworld Game?'"

"Oh... a voice asked me if I wanted to go to another world, and I said yes... sorta... let's just go with that for the short version."

"What did they offer you?"

I was taken aback. "What do you mean by 'offer me'? Did they offer you something?"

"Yes, several things."

Damn, I should have heard them out! "Hey, if we're going to continue this conversation, could I sit down? I haven't been in a chair for way too long."