Will’s claymore cut through another gnoll. The pack leader threw back its canine-humanoid head and cackled. Its shaggy, matted pink and brown fur clung to its body, and its wicked jaws snapped at him. It stood on two legs like a man but had the body of a hyena/human hybrid. The pack leader swung its crude spiked club towards them.
Gnolls advanced down either side of the industrial area, past lines of graffiti and smoke stained factory windows. A gnoll’s claw pressed deep into the ash of the street and crushed a poster for the Beastie Boys tour, meant to have happened one week ago. He wouldn’t have had the coin to go, anyway.
Somewhere, he hoped the Beastie Boys were okay, as much as anyone was okay in this damned apocalypse.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1056728480768868442/1056738472821534782/CJ_Timms_australian_postapocalyptic_warriors_with_magic_spells__07064f62-fa6d-48de-89da-6856460741c5.png]
Dingos snapped at his flanks, taking advantage of his momentary mourning for music’s downfall. Red numbers flashed in his periphery.
HP: 15/123
Damn, they’d bitten off more than they could chew.
‘I’ve got you!’ exclaimed AJ as she placed her hand on Will’s shoulder, transferring healing energy. ‘Looks like you still rely on your little sister to save you, huh?’
Ugh. Little sisters. Always sassy but sometimes useful.
‘Shotput’ Thomas cried, and an iron ball smacked into the monster, hurling it away with the force of a cannon shot.
Will’s blade swung out and hacked through a gnoll’s shoddy leather armour. How did it come to this? Just eight days ago, he was studying for his software engineering exams, and now the town was a war zone.
Instinct made him glance to the top one of the buildings, and a female figure in ninja gi crouched, overlooking the battlefield. Her again, bloody looky-loo.
‘Oy get amongst it or get lost.’ Will yelled out. If she stole their XP again, he would be so mad. Bloody kill-stealers, nearly as bad as spawn-campers.
Alert: Beta test scenario activated. Your feedback is always appreciated.
The Games Master.
Will cursed, and memories of the last few days flashed through his mind.
###
‘Prove yourself citizens of Earth. You have 72 hours until the Doomsday Integration. Prepare and train.
Explore.
Excel.
Evolve.
The Games Master.’
Will stared at the blue screen. What did it mean? Had he finally cracked while studying for exams? He knew paramedicine was a cram fest, but still. He was hosting an old school Lan party tonight. Some Dota, some league, hell, maybe even throw it back to Diablo two. He needed to pull his shit together. His phone buzzed.
Maddi: Yo, we still on for tonight?
He would never say no to Maddi coming over. Not that it would ever lead to anything. Not with someone he’d known since their gaming consisted of fingerpainting. You didn’t date your best mate. It was just not a thing to be done.
His phone buzzed again.
Hercules: Yo, not feeling so good, might have a lie down, think I’m seeing things.
Jacob: Hey any chance you dickheads saw a big glowing blue screen?
Hercules: Wait you too?
Will: My place, twenty minutes.
Hercules: You got snacks?
They gathered in Will’s flat. A lot of the students from college were away for summer holidays anyway, but the ones lower down the financial ladder had stuck around, rather than travelling off to swan it in France or backpack through Europe. Also to cram. They all had met doing army reserve to help pay their college fees. Jacob had always kept them busy digging trenches with his tendency to mouth off.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Their town was a regional area, just big enough to have a college at affordable rates, but small enough to be a dull university experience. The four of them had moved in from outlying smaller towns, moving to the ‘big smoke’, or ‘medium smoke’, or ‘overachieving small smoke’ however you wanted to put it. Nothing wrong with a small to medium-sized campus. Everyone loved pugs, and those things were tiny.
They made their own fun. Will had hosted LAN tournaments midway through their first year. Jacob had dragged them out for pub crawls, and if there was one thing their town had it was a truck-ton of pubs. Tom ‘Hercules’ Georgiou had even convinced them to go hiking once or twice. Maddi made sure they scooped any bargain basement price music festival tickets.
Will stayed in an enormous apartment over the top of a BBQ chicken shop. The old lady who ran the store and rented it out had gone off on her own holidays just a week ago, so he had the place to himself.
Maddi was the last to arrive at Will’s apartment. She wore a loose white blouse that was open at the back and jeans, having come straight from work. Her heart-shaped face was flushed from the run over and her hazel brown eyes curious. She slid onto the couch just next to Will and tucked her feet up. She looked at her phone and tucked it away again.
‘So we all crazy?’ Maddi asked.
Hercules grunted. ‘Maybe.’ Herc was a Greek Adonis, built like the mythological hero. Herc was on a partial sports scholarship. He’d almost gotten into a city university but had stumbled at the last hurdle. Fumbling a kick during a grand final to lose the game. Still the local campus had snapped him up.
Maddi held up a news broadcast showing the same message they’d all received on her phone. ‘Maybe not.’
Will looked over at his bookcase. A series of LitRPG novels from He Who fights with Monsters, to Alpha Physics and Bleeding Edge were laid out.
‘Status screen.’ Will said, acting on a hunch.
Name: Will McAfee
Level 0
Exp 0/100
Health: 10/10
Mana: 0/0
Stamina 10/10
Body (Strength 6, Grit 6, Dexterity 5)
Mind (Int 6, Resilience 7, Survivalist 6)
Social (Charisma 3, Insight 3, Charm 4)
Skills available 0/0
Will tried to focus on each of the stats, but no additional explanation was forthcoming. He tried the same with mana, stamina and health but it was obstinately mysterious. That was alright, he could make some educated guesses.
Wait. Charisma of 3.
Probably a glitch.
‘You right there?’ Jacob asked. ‘Looked like you were constipated.’
Herc chuckled. ‘Nah, he had that look when he stares at...’ Will kicked Herc to shut him up. His eyes flicked over to Maddi, who was already staring into the ether. Will nodded at the other two ‘Try it.’
Jacob and Herc rolled their eyes but did it. ‘Status screen.’
Maddi shot a look at her phone again, sighed.
‘What, you waiting on a reply from a date?’ Will raised an eyebrow.
‘Its nothing.’ Maddi said, tucking the phone away and flushing red, pulling up her status screen again.
‘What the frak?’ Jacob said, falling back out of his chair.
‘Help.’ Will said. Nothing came up.
Damn.
‘Wiki. Erm, Help screen. Game guide. Tutorial.’ Will said.
Nothing. It seemed that, like his old drill sergeant, the system preferred learning by doing. Hopefully it didn’t punish you to the same extent.
‘What do we do with...this?’ Maddi asked.
The lights in the apartment went out. Their phones died.
Will flicked lit up a match, and put it in an old camping lantern. He held it up to his face and grinned. ‘We level up.’
###
Will lifted his dumbbells one more time, his biceps screaming at him. Sweat drenched his shirt, and everything hurt.
+ 1 to strength.
He dropped the dumbbells to the floor where the twenty five kilo weights crashed. He felt his muscles subtly shift, as though they were growing instantly. Still no explanation on the stats though. He'd spent most of today trying to work on strength in the gym. The days prior he'd tried running outside to increase his dexterity but the streets were breaking down into more and more chaos. No power. Water was limited. The police were maintaining some form of order at least.
Maddi looked at him, holding up a set of identical dumbbells and continued on with her set.
Damnit, what was her strength stat? He knew she was captain of the hockey team, but still.
He eyed the countdown timer, hitting twenty minutes. Right on cue, he heard a knock on the door.
Jacob slammed a bag on the counter. He and Herc had braved the streets outside to bring bag stuff from their places.
Maddi and Hercules exchanged a look. Jacob sheepishly shrugged, digging through his bag of supplies. He pulled out several tins of baked beans and a large packet of Mi Goreng noodles.
'What can I say? Be prepared.' He joked, trying to lighten the mood.
Maddi rolled her eyes but couldn't help but crack a slight smile as she saw the familiar items.
‘Alright what do we have to fight with?’ Maddi asked.
Will held up the claymore he’d been given by his dad for joining the army reserves. ‘I’m sorted.’ His Scottish ancestry meant it could be used as part of his dress uniform for the army. His dad had trained him in the basics back home. Good thing too, since all that firearms training was useless now.
Guns had stopped working, they'd tried one out on the first day and just gotten repeat error messages. The army reserve hadn’t been activated in town. Which was weird. They’d called the small army garrison itself back to the capital and the reservists had been told they weren't needed.
Odd.
Jacob had secured a stack of knives from the barracks.
Thomas had a set of biker leathers for armour and a hammer throw from the sports program. He’d brough a couple of lighter weight shot puts and a javelin or two that he lugged around in two straining sports bag.
'What are you going to do Maddi?' Will asked.
Maddi smirked, 'I suppose I could kill any enemies slowly from mi goreng malnutrition.'
Jacob held a hand to his chest. 'That's sacrilege that is.'
Maddi held up her hockey stick. 'This'll do me for a bit.'
Herc held out a hammer throw, basically a metal ball on a chain. 'Take one of these as well.'
Maddi nodded and wrapped the chain around her torso diagonally. Her athletic frame held it balanced, though even she was slowed a bit by the heavy weight. 'It's going to be a long night.' She said with resignation in her voice.
The countdown timer hit ten seconds.
Will nodded in agreement, picking up his sword and moving towards the door. "Let's get this show on the road.' He said confidently, despite his inner doubts about their chances against whatever awaited them outside.
The countdown hit 0.