U̸̜͒p̶̤̄g̢̬̓r̘̋͡ȃ̯́d̩̅͢e̡̤͊ ̩͗͜U̴̳ͮn̙̓͘l̴̺̅o͓̓͝c̰̾͟kͩ͏̞e̛̱̍d̯͛̕
Drying myself, I glared at the pop-up. “What the fuck was that!?” I demanded. “You… what, bump my friendship-o-meter and send me on a hallucination to meet a fish-God!?”
The text did not waver or shift, but it now carried a smarmy smugness about it that made me scowl deeper. The pride was still there, but now it seemed to be insisting this was something I couldn’t refuse, and that it was also for my own good. I wasn't about to deny that, but that didn't mean I appreciated getting sent on... whatever that had been!
“You know what? You get to wait.” I plugged the cred-chip into the tablet and withdrew a not-inconsiderable amount of credits. “This is clearly some important choice, and I’m not doing this with an empty stomach… How am I even hungry? I must’ve drunk my body-weight in water. At this rate, I’ll wake up one day and find out I ate my pillow.”
Passive ‘Stomach’ Grade: [G] [3 / 10]
Effects: Digest any biological matter.
“Yeah, well, calling derivative-polyester ‘biological’ is a very long stretch of the definition.”
I would readily admit I was shaken. That… thing had felt real, massive, a creature so large it dwarfed any monster I'd ever read about. Worse, it had seen me. Not whatever I’d been in that vision or memory or whatever, but me, Axel the human. It had looked through me and… and it hadn’t even registered my presence any more than a person registered a microbe. The sensation was... frustrating? Humbling? Frightening? Whatever the case, the part that was the most concerning was that it had not felt like a monster. It’d given off a foreboding sense of power and danger, sure, but there was something similar yet also... different. It left a lingering question within me. What was the system? Why had it felt like it was my memories and not something else? And why did raising "charisma" lead into that vision? I’d thought it to be some sort of measure of likeability from the system, but now I wasn't so sure.
Putting on my jacket, I headed out, confirming the lobby was empty first before hurrying along and into the still warm night air outside. And immediately I swerved, avoiding the various solicitations from the whorehouse employees.
With a quick jog, I made it to the nearest 24/7 bodega store and got myself a few spicy cheese-wraps and a choco-swirl fudge ice-cream.
U̸̜͒p̶̤̄g̢̬̓r̘̋͡ȃ̯́d̩̅͢e̡̤͊ ̩͗͜U̴̳ͮn̙̓͘l̴̺̅o͓̓͝c̰̾͟kͩ͏̞e̛̱̍d̯͛̕ Pick one
“I can't think clearly on an empty stomach, just wait a bit.” I grumbled at the system under my breath.
The bodega didn’t have nutri-paste, but they did have a good assortment of flavor-packets and condiments. I made a mental note to go back to the industrial area to get more of the cheap food supply once I had the chance. Though I had a decent stash of cash, that was one bad day away from going down the drain, so I wanted not to dip into it unless I absolutely had to.
Bag full of delectable trash food in hand, I walked around until I found a relatively empty parking lot. The lights had died out long ago, every inch of pavement covered in scribble-graffiti, and both the cars and the fences were well rusted and worn. There did seem to be someone sleeping in one of the far corners, tucked against one of the buildings, but this was about as desolate as it could get given the circumstances.
So sitting down with my very unhealthy choice for dinner, I turned my attention back to the pop-up. “Let’s see what you've got to offer.”
The system petulantly growled at me, but it was too excited to move this along. Four pop-ups showed up.
[Doped Metabolism]: +200% Base-Form stat increase speed.
Alternate form stats [x2 Base] -> [x4 Base].
“I can kinda see the appeal, but…?” I asked between loud chewing sounds. “So all this time I'd get double my base stats. Huh." The system confirmed my question with a vague sense of affirmation. But as I looked over the upgrade, I was still left with an odd feeling of it being kind of a waste. Two adaptation points would give me +10 to whatever stat I focused on in just 2 seconds.
Maybe there would be more to it? Better check the rest before writing it off. “Next?”
[Loosened Shackles]: Max AP [150] -> [250]
Passive AP Gain [0.25 / hour] -> [0.5 / hour]
Max AP Bonus [+200] -> [+300]
“Ominous, but looks promising.” It didn’t go unnoticed that though the passive AP gain doubled, the maximum only increased by 66%. Still, better than the other one. “What else you got?”
[Specialist’s Race]: Base Stat Gain [+5] -> [+20]
Max AP Bonus [+200] -> [+400]
Base AP Cost [-1] -> [-3]
Base Stat Penalty [-1] -> [-4]
“That’s… wait.” I frowned a little. “If I take this and start with… say, strength-mode, I’d get 20 per every 3 AP. But if I then switch to speed, AP cost would go to 6, and it’d start taking 4 strength away. With the next mode costing 9 AP, and 4 speed since speed was the previous mode… Right?” Another affirmation from the system. This option would make it easier to push a single stat higher and faster… at the expense of being punished far more harshly for changing modes (or even just triggering the same one multiple times in a row).
My eyes roamed to the fourth and final option.
[Effective Absorption]: Gain Half of offered AP (rounded) from slain monsters regardless of choice.
Gain +1 Extra Progress per Skill
“I… huh.” I scratched my chin. “So… if I pick blades out of an E-class, I’d get two points of progress and 5 AP?” The system gave a strong sense of affirmation and I nodded right back.
This particular prospect alongside “shackles” raised a rather concerning question regarding when and where I’d get to “spend” that AP. If there were such a thing as “spend them while in human form”, but apparently that was not an option. I didn’t much like the prospect of having to transform, last time it had reached the news and I now have a bounty on my “monster” self’s head. But that looked like something I'd need to account for regardless...
Also, killing monsters while in my other form wouldn’t net me any cash. What was I supposed to do? Walk up to a corpo and go “yeah, that monster is me”? No, thank you. Being able to squish low-end monsters was deniable under bio-ware, but that was about as far as it could go. Still, I'd need to test out how the whole thing with the Sewer Saints developed.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Pick one
“Hush, you, I’m thinking.” I waved it off.
The first option was out. The "metabolism" part of the title... it left me with the impression that it would bring about unexpected consequences. Perhaps it would mean needing to eat more, but what if it caused visible shifts? Just another reason to avoid it. Of the remaining three, "Shackles" was meant to push me to fight in my alternate form more frequently. It and the specialist’s race looked like they wanted me to bash myself against stronger monsters, at least that was my interpretation based off of raising the limit of max AP that could be allocated per stat. I couldn't deny they held an allure since they'd give an immediate and clear capacity to fight harder, but...
But I was certain that raw stats weren't the answer.
“I’ll take door number four,” I said.
Though this option still indirectly bumped how frequently I'd need to transform, it also offered something very important: a quicker path towards developing higher class skills. I couldn't help but imagine that the same skill but in higher classification could make a massive difference. And maybe my concerns over possibly changing physically were imaginary, but if my human form started growing fur and claws, I’d definitely get into trouble.
Besides, the absorption was the one thing that focused into helping me grow based off of killing monsters, rather than bolstering me to make monster-killing easier.
As soon as I poked at the option, I felt a shiver run through me, leaving my skin was hot and sensitive, kind of as if I’d almost got sunburnt. Following this came an extreme wave of physical exhaustion like none I'd felt before. "God damn," I muttered, stumbling up to my feet and making my way back to the motel.
I spared a thought of concern towards the messages from Kali, but I was still a bit too rankled about the vision. I would give it some proper thought... after some sleep.
Time to get some shut-eye.
----------------------------------------
Jolting out of bed with the blaring beeps of the tablet, I was reminded why I loathed alarm-clocks. 8am sharp, and not a minute too soon, I dragged myself off to shower, wondered whether the Motel’s water-reclamation system was just so great that it could afford free showers… then packed everything up.
I took a moment to bring out the two pictures, of my father and of my aunt, and stare at them. It was still hard to believe I wasn’t running late for work or the academy or any other such thing. I wasn’t in the Guard, either, but I definitely felt better about where I was now than where I’d been a month ago.
“Off I go.” I tucked the pictures into my backpack that contained all my life’s possessions (Save my Bulstra, that was on my hip), and headed down to the lobby.
Grills was there.
The android’s head spun to lock on to me. “Good morning, Axel Garcia!” It chirped with her mechanical voice.
She was not holding the shotgun today.
“I wanted to confirm whether my stay was extended?” I asked. “Yesterday, you had a bit of a technical hiccup and-”
The fans in her chassis whirred for a second, then slowed. “Yes, your stay has been extended, Axel Garcia.” She gave a sharp backwards nod.
“Great, for how long? And what would be the rates?”
Another whirr of fans. “Your stay has been extended, Axel Garcia, you need not check-out.”
Silence.
Maybe I’d accidentally stumbled onto a bug of some sort? “Can you contact your owner? Maybe anyone that might... help?”
Silence, just the unblinking camera-like eyes from the android.
“I… guess we’ll come back to that.”
With the hot spring air, I munched my way through some more spicy cheese wrappers while making my way to the Internet-shop.
After some thought, I figured I’d agree to Kali’s request and promise to meet-up with one of her acquaintances when I had the chance. I couldn’t exactly guarantee it would be soon, it mostly depended on the “Rusty Pitch”’s location. If that thing was in the inner districts, I’d probably end up needing a whole day to get to it and back (or possibly more). I’d agreed to show up to the Well tomorrow. Meaning that today would be a day to hunt for possible jobs and possible places to stay. Meaning that I needed to either cough up a lung to pay for an internet-permission’s upgrade and a recruitment-service fee... or that I’d need to find some alternate information sources.
“Oh, I almost forgot about the sample thing.”
Moreau had mentioned it would be better for it to wait, but might as well keep it in mind if I took a trip deeper into the city. And who knows? Maybe I could gather up more samples from my next transformation to send on over and include news about the “upgrade”? Muming over the possibilities, I marched into the shop, ready for a day of putting together a presentable CV and trying to game digital-AI assistants into giving me a job interview.
If the streaming thing didn't pan out, I'd at least have a proper source of income.
And, as a bonus, after I was done with that, I wanted to go kill some monsters. Searching for a proper hunting ground was something that'd moved to the top of my priority list.
AP 44 / 150
“That’s right, little fella.” I poked at the little resource-bar. “We’ll get to hunt later.”
----------------------------------------
“Wait, you do not have a neuralink?” The interviewer asked through the screen. It was the first human to pick-up on the call-attempt over the past few hours, supposedly from a bakery franchise just an hour ride away, and they’d placed their “job wanted” application in a forum thread I'd stumbled onto.
I nodded, watching my face on the screen as the AI had digitally replaced my clothes for a business suit. The internet-shop room was stuffy and slightly hot, but fortunately the vid-filter service made sure I looked presentable. “That is correct, ma’am, it’s-”
CLICK
I stared at the blank screen and sighed.
AP 45 / 150
The text hovered in the corner of my vision, almost as if begging me to stop and head out and start killing some monsters. "Gotta keep trying," I said.
Surely there would be jobs available somewhere? God I hoped I didn't have to pay for talent hunters, I'd heard nothing but nightmare-fuel from what the exclusivity-contracts and NDA's put down.
----------------------------------------
“You claim you do not have a neuralink.” The AI-attendant spoke curtly.
“That is correct.” I answered in kind, keeping my face plastered with a plastic grin. Because AI recruiters bolstered scores based on how much the applicant smiled, and nowadays, everyone did, all the time, every minute of the interview. It was standard, it was routine, I'd gone through dozens of these back in the day, but the obsession with "you have no neuralink" was something I hadn't expected.
I remembered the last such interview I’d made, my cheeks had been left aching for a week.
“Your documentation and profile do not show you are disabled.”
“That is also correct.”
“Incongruence detected. Scam, likely.”
CLICK
I rubbed my temples, this was the fifth call in a row that ended the same way.
AP 47 / 150
“Just one more.” I promised it.
By now the room reeked of spicy cheese-substitute mixed with the pungent odor of hardline stress. Twelve hours, working through every job application I could find, and had nothing to show for it but the stench. But even if the source of the frustration was entirely new, I was used to it. Who didn't have a story or four about the weeks-long job-hunt every year or two?
As expected, my nerves were already fraying.
I almost pitied whatever monster I found once I went out to hunt.
Almost.
----------------------------------------
AP 48 / 150
The pop-up rankled at me, annoyed, irritated, betrayed as I stepped out of the bus. It tried to shove itself into my field of vision, demanding answers for promises not kept. I kept nudging it out of the way. “They agreed for an in-person interview," I said in excuse. "Which is fishy, but it doesn't mean I can ignore it. Just one quick check and we're off."
It was late, the sun had set, the streets had some people dragging themselves back home inside their weather gear, the air was crisp, warm, and full of the reek of sweat and burnt plastic. It was a part of the district I hadn't been to before, my certainty came from the graffiti having switched to one themed around bears. Bears on motorcycles and guns. "I even found some reports about monsters near here, we can go check those out." Petulant, the resource-bar tucked itself away while I made my way down the street, following the address from the forums. The street-view function had blurred out the company name, and I hadn't been all too sure why... until I glanced up at the neon lights.
"Organ Harvesters Incorporated." I took a full second to process that. “This has got to be one of those ‘ironic names’ brands.” I kept staring at the neon sign as it blinked on and off. “Right?”
I glanced at the glass doors, and took a moment to consider whether I should approach. The glass doors made the interior perfectly visible. There was a drone behind a desk, and no apparent security measures. Just to be sure, I pulled the Bulstra out of my backpack and holstered it on my hip before making my approach.
“Welcome to Organ Harvesters incorporated, how may I be of help?” The drone was in a semi-presentable state of disrepair, rust and loose cables peeking out of its blocky design.
I ignored it for a moment, glancing around. The lobby was spotless... so much so I couldn't catch a single scent. Nothing. It was the sort of "nothing" that raised alarms in my head. Even the motel, as clean as it had been, carried traces of cleaning products somewhere along the way. This didn't smell of anything at all, like someone had just switched it off. It was as unnerving as a factory floor that was silent.
“Sorry, wrong building,” I said as I turned around, marching back outside.
I kept glancing over my shoulder expecting some sort of ambush or attack every other second, not relaxing until I was a good dozen blocks away.
"Yeah, no way I'm going back there." I muttered, combing my fingers through my hair.
The system's box wiggled.
"Yes, that means it's time to go look for someplace to hunt."
The system cheered.
Now I just needed to figure out where the monsters gathered. I wanted a good exercise out of this.