Jake slammed his bat into the back of its head and its face slammed into the bulletproof glass blocking off the clerk from the rest of the store. The clerk didn’t even react.
He took a step back, expecting a reaction from the hat browsing remnant. He could have kept beating down on its head, but he wanted to get an idea of what these things could do.
Next to nothing was what they could do, apparently. The remnant clerk barely even gave the assaulted remnant a glance and the hat remnant himself just lazily pushed himself back up off the clerk booth’s counter, then wobbled in place. It took him a few seconds to actually turn around and begin his decrepit walk towards Jake.
Jake gave it a shove and it stumbled back wildly, falling back first onto the counter. Okay... Jake thought, particularly unimpressed, And if I break its rack?
He brought his bat high, then slammed it down into the empty magazine rack. The rack's cheap metal bars caved on impact and his bat barely stopped halfway down.
He kicked it to the side ready to wail on it, but before he could damage it any further he heard a screech that sounded like someone hurling followed by a banging sound.
Warning!
Enemy threat level has increased!
The hat remnant charged at him in a shambling kind of way, but Jake just pushed it away. It stumbled back like the first time, but recovered much more quickly than before.
Jake spared a glance in the remnant clerk's direction. The clerk was pounding against the glass now. His pace was slow, but his eyes were now noticeably red. It was the same for the hat remnant.
Heads Up!
You haven’t done enough damage to the rack to receive your quest bonus.
"If you say so..." Jake grabbed the hat remnant by its neck and arm when it charged him…
Ding!
Then threw it out the front door. He gave the fallen hat rack short of a half dozen more good hits with his bat until the whole thing was warped and contorted. In the middle of his seventh swing, the rack flashed white, then disappeared and he hit the tile instead.
Heads Up!
+50 Game Tokens, +$50 U.S Dollars added to quest rewards
Warning!
Enemy threat level has increased!
The clerk was livid. His eyes were glowing red and he was now slamming his fist against the glass between them.
Ding!
The hat remnant came shambling back into the store at Jake with a speed that was now admittedly threatening. As to be expected, the clerk and hat remnants were very much pissed off at him making money destroying what they apparently loved most in the world.
Jake sidestepped the hat remnant , then tried to shove him again. Much to his surprise, however, it didn't budge. With its fastest motion yet, it turned around and backhanded his helmet. Now it was Jake's turn to stumble back a bit.
"Woah, okay," Jake said as he straightened his helmet. He was feeling a little taken aback, but he was still mostly amused.
The hat remnant roared at Jake like he had killed its child, then came at him charging. There was a loud thunk as the sound of Jake's metal bat hitting the ghoul's skull rang out. The remnant stumbled back wildly, but steadied itself on the wall it ran into.
If it had been a human rather than just something with the shape of one, then it would have already been dead or unconscious. Instead, the monster took only a moment's pause to growl at Jake, before lunging back at him.
Jake took another swing, but the remnant blocked it with its arm and tried clawing at his face. It only managed to smudge his helmet, but it swung twice and hit Jake’s shoulder with the next strike.
Jake grunted. He didn't need to check his HP to know that that had dealt damage. Even through the pain nullification he could tell that the monster had fist like concrete.
He gave the remnant a kick, then stepped back and pulled out a can of pepper spray from his Inventory.
The remnant screamed out in pain and started rubbing its eyes, after Jake had sprayed it with a face full. The sound of Jake’s bat against skull rang out again and the remnant went stumbling back into one of the empty shelves.
Jake followed it. He wasn't planning to give it another chance to get up this time.
The remnant growled at him looking through squinted eyes and Jake slammed his bat into its face bringing it and the shelf it was leaning against down with it.
Jake turned to the remnant roaming the center aisle, expecting a reaction, but it looked undisturbed. Apparently, the other end of the aisle was far enough not to trigger a reaction.
Still partially blinded by the pepper spray, the hat remnant reached out and managed to grab onto Jake's leg. Before it could take a bite, Jack smacked its head with his bat like it was a golf ball.
Deciding that he only needed one remnant alive to get all his quest bonuses, he kept beating down on its head until...
You have slain a Hat Hunting Remnant!
Enemy: Level 3
Tutorial - Conditional Bonuses
Certain enemies may give more bonuses towards level progression based on factors that increase the difficulty of defeating them.
Well now Jake had to kill them all while they were pissed. At least if he wanted to get the most out of all of this.
Jake proceeded with the massacre.
First he smashed the two racks that were still left in front of the clerk’s booth, then he went over to the slushy machine and smashed it right before the slushy remnants eyes.
“It was out of order already, bro,” he told the undead slushy addict.
In response, the slushy remnant pushed Jake back, then charged straight into a face full of pepper spray. It dropped its slushy cup at that point, but Jake was kind enough to spray some pepper spray in it and hand it to the zombie before he smashed its head in.
You have slain a Slushy Addicted Remnant!
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Next on the kill list was the remnant hanging out in the fridge. Jake pulled it out, shut the door behind it, then shoved its head straight through the glass.
The glass on a fridge wasn’t on the list of things that Jake would get bonus rewards for breaking, but smashing the remnant’s head through it sure did the trick to get it riled up.
With its head still stuck behind the glass, it took a second to scream its lungs out. Once it had gotten around to actually pulling its head back out of the fridge, Jake smacked it right back in with his bat.
Having the good sense not to take a break to scream its favorite metal lyrics after being assaulted this time, the fridge remnant pulled its head out of the glass door—along with some of the glass—much faster this time. Spotting Jake standing behind the open door of the last fridge in the row, it went charging at him like a bull.
Jake sprayed some bear spray in its path and the remnant ran right into the mist it formed, then straight through the fridge door Jake had left hanging open while it grabbed its eyes.
Covered in glass, it tripped over the door frame and fell onto the ground. Once Jake had it in that position, it was pretty much game over for it.
You have slain a Fridge Eskimo Remnant!
The confrontation that followed after with the remnant browsing the store’s fine assortment of dust was, for the most part, the monster swinging at air while Jake smashed shelves around it. Once the last shelf had disappeared, he put the shambling monster out of its misery. Which just left the clerk and the bonus he’d get for killing it after sunset.
You have slain a Store Browsing Remnant!
Current Total Bonus Rewards
+500 Game Tokens, +$500 U.S Dollars
Ironically, Jake was making easier money fighting zombies with above average strength than he had fighting giant balls of brainless hand sanitizer. His first instance had been too hard.
With the remnant clerk still banging at the glass behind him, Jake walked out the convenience store and headed over to his car. It was still summer, so the sun was going to set late. He had some time that he needed to burn before he could finish the quest.
After putting away his gear so he wouldn't look like he was getting ready to jack a car or jump somebody, he headed to a convenience store that hadn't closed down and got himself a slushy with a hot dog and some nachos.
All of that didn’t take too long so there was still plenty of time for him to review things after he finished eating.
“Pull up Dimensional Manipulation’s description,” he said. He’d gotten lost in the moment when he first unlocked and hadn’t bothered to pull it up until now.
Dimensional Manipulation
[Crude]
A crude attempt at dimensional magic by one who understands little of mana. Basic steps are being skipped here to reach the desired outcome leading to mana costs that are much heavier than should be expected.
This skill allows for the creation, expansion, collapse, and manipulation of pocket dimensions and portals leading through dimensions.
It was something far more versatile than his Inventory skill, but also way more expensive with how bad he currently was at using it. Then again, his [Crude] manipulation skills were probably made using his Inventory cost more than it should too.
“How do I learn more about mana?” he asked.
Heads Up!
If you’re having problems figuring out how to use mana properly, you can buy a guide from a Gamify connected store or other users.
“Can’t get anything done around here without a damn store,” he complained under his breath. “Alright, pull up my stats.”
Level 7
Mana Capacity: 10
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 15
Unallocated Stat Points: 25
He felt the stats were pretty self-explanatory from their names and the descriptions he got during the tutorial, but he had received more than what he was expecting when he leveled his Vitality in desperation. “Can you tell me what I’ll be getting from leveling each of them,” he asked, “Or am I going to need to buy a guide for that too?”
Strength
Major Benefits: Increases general strength.
Secondary Benefits: Minor amount of Vitality’s major benefits.
Example: 5 Health points per Strength point
Agility
Major Benefits: Increases speed of the following ordered from greatest to smallest effect:
General Movement, General Reaction, Comprehension, Peak Reaction
Secondary Benefits: Minor amount of Vitality’s major benefits.
Example: 5 Health points per 2 Agility points
Vitality
Major Benefits: Increases durability, minimum damage threshold, and Stamina. 20 Health points per Vitality point
Secondary Benefits: Minor amount of Strength and Agility’s major benefits.
Mana Capacity
Increases your max Mana Points (10 per point)
The three physical stats were blatantly feeding into each other, but mana capacity just stuck to himself.
Other than the bonuses the physical stats gave, Jake felt like he had already had a pretty good understanding of what each of his stats did. The question was where he should be spending his unallocated points.
He wasn’t exactly a strategist when it came to gaming, more of a really good improviser. If strategist was a title for anyone in his friend group, then it belonged to his friend Will.
Thinking along those lines, Jake pulled out his phone and called him.
“Yo, what up?” Will answered.
“Hey, if I describe a stat system to you would you be able to tell me which stat I should put points into?” Jake asked.
“I mean, we could try,” he said, not sounding so sure. “You’ve been playing a new game?”
“Something like that.”
“I’m assuming that’s why you were too busy to play yesterday?”
“Yeah,” Jake said, taking the excuse given to him, “Sorry about that.”
“You gonna tell me what the game is?”
“It’s early access and they’ve got me under an NDA. I’ll tell you more when I can get you in on it. So can you help me out for now?”
“Yeah, sure,” Will said.
Jake told Will about his stats, his affinity, and the skills he currently had along with their descriptions. He tried his best to answer the questions Will asked about The System in return, but there were some things he just didn’t know. The aliens behind Gamify knew no doubt, but these were the sort of ‘non-essential to initial survival’ kinds of answers that they were probably planning to fleece him for at one of their stores along with the other info they were selling in guides.
“So, what do you think?” Jake asked once Will had given him all of his questions and the sound of him punishing his mechanical keyboard on his side of the call had stopped for some time.
“I don’t know,” Will replied.
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean I don’t know,” Will repeated. “You can’t tell me anything about the end game or even the mid game and you’re so early into the game that you can’t even open the in-game shop. I’d tell you dumping points into your magic stats would probably be a safe bet with your affinity, but you told me that you only get one character with one life—which sucks, by the way—so I don’t know.”
“So you don’t have any advice for me?” Jake asked.
“The stats take effect immediately right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’d say hold onto all your stat points for now unless you really need them in the moment. Wait until you at least learn some basic things like how to use mana properly, what they sell at the shop, and how hard or easy it is to unlock more affinities before you commit to a build, you know?”
“Yeah,” Jake said. He had already been planning to hold onto his stat points for now already, but hearing the strategy guy of their friend group agreeing with him gave Jake some confidence. “Thanks man.”
“No problem.”
“I’ll get you into this beta as soon as I can, okay?”
“Alright,” Will said. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
They said their goodbyes, then got off the phone. The driving, the eating, and the discussion had all taken a while and Jake thought it was looking about time for him to get back to his abandoned convenience store.
He finished his half-melted slushy up to the point where it didn’t have any flavor left, threw the rest away and drove off as the sunset. By the time he’d reached the old closed down gas station convenience store dusk had already ended and it was fully night.