Tacha checked over and over again the new title. Silver Devil looked to be such an unfortunate title to get. And was the game implying that she enjoyed killing those radishes? Hell no! She was only after their bodies!

...

Ahem, ingredients.

Yes, her intentions were purely for cooking reasons. Though one would wonder why she needed so many radishes if it was truly just so.

Anyway, granny Tacha wondered why would she get that title in the middle of the night. That was just weird timing. Just as she was about to get back to sleep, a low hum resounded from deep within the forest. The trees shook in resonance, as if they were responding to the creatures of the forest that dwelved deeper within.

Tacha had no idea what was happening, but if it was related to her newly gained title, then it certainly wasn’t going to be anything good. She quickly packed up her stuff and ran towards Rosecott village. She didn’t care if the monsters that came out at night were stronger and potentialy deadly, her instincts were telling her that staying in the forest was far more dangerous.

However she didn’t make it far before she realized that she was lost. Was it because she ran away in a panic? No, she was sure that she was going in the right direction.

In the corner of her eyes she saw the tree roots moving. Realization hit her as she was sweating cold bullets. The forest itself was trapping her inside. There was no way out for what was about to come.

She opened her status and distribuited all of her 10 unassigned points in dexterity and speed. What use would have all of her other stats if she was too slow to dodge fatal attacks?

Name: Tacha Macha

Level: 2 (Alter)

Race: Human

Hp: 19/19

Mp: 20/20

Strength: 7

Endurance: 9

Wisdom: 11

Intelligence: 10

Dexterity: 19

Speed: 18

Luck: 10

Charm: 7

Unassigned Points: /

Temporary Effects: /

Unfortunately her sleep was interrupted so she had no well rested bonus. As for the food? The effects had long since ended.

Tacha took out her knife, its durability now dropped at 1 after all of the earlier’s fights, and looked at it pitfully. That’s the main reason why she didn’t even bother to put points in strenght. What was she supposed to do? Punch the trees to death? Then she burst out laughing “How fun. It has been a while since I panicked playing a game” The earth trembled, as loud steps were coming closer and closer. Tacha gripped her knife tightly as a giant radish peeked from the top of the trees, the glint in its eyes malicious. The giant guardian radish roared as it stepped out, the purple markings on its white body churned, as if alive.

The Nightgleam Guardian Rukkh is here to enact revenge.

Granny Tacha gulped, the giant looked ready to flatten her like a pancake. She couldn’t stop a smile from forming on her face. “Come on, big boy. We don’t want to stand here all night now, do we?” The guardian, as if responding to her provocation, raised its leg to stomp on her.

Agile as a monkey, she rolled away with her whooping 19 points of dexterity. She directed a smug smile to the giant radish, which just prompted the guardian to smack her with its hand.

Just as easily she evaded the attack, then jumped on the hand and ran at full speed towards its head. “It’s my turn now!” Tacha brandished her knife and sliced the softest looking spot on its head: the luscious greens.

*Tink*

Of the old knife, only the handle remained. The beautiful, luscious greens intact.

Tacha akwardly looked at the knife, before exchanging looks with the giant radish “How about we go our separate ways?” Her sheepish grin didn’t stop the guardian from gripping her and smashing her to the ground multiple times.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Alas, she was dead at the first impact. The other hits was just for a peace of mind for the guardian radish. This death gave her a sense of deja-vu. She laughed, as she felt it was retribution.

You have died.

Remaining respawn time: 29:58:23

Granny Ariel was surprised at seeing such a long countdown, and looking at the rate it was decreasing, she was meant to wait almost a day and half in real life.

At first she thought that it was unfair, but after thinking about it more she found it to be reasonable. It was a way to make players think more about their actions, so that they would not charge over and over again to their death for an enemy that could be avoided or faced when the players gained more experience.

With just a thought she logged off and removed the VR glasses. She had only spent almost one hour and half playing, even if it seemed like almost a day passed. It was still morning and she could pass the day however she wanted, so she decided to browse the online forums of the game to understand it better.

“Haaa… I really wanted to just play the game today though…”

ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ

Rye, or rather, Frӧst spent one month juggling between school, home and the PodCafe to investigate both the nightmarish creatures of the future and the strange system message. However, aside from the unique title that he received, he got no leads on the system, as it refused to talk to him like that again.

Last Man Standing

A one of a kind title, rewarded to the last survivor.

Do you believe in second chances?

‘De Novo’

De Novo

A second chance.

Be sure to use it well.

(Passive) You might come back from the brink of death based on your luck.

“???”

De Novo, the passive ability he gained from the unique title was cryptic. He didn’t know if it brought him back to the past, if it could be used multiple times or if he had already used up his chance. Even if it had still an hidden effect, he was better off not relying on it.

In his off time he thought and thought again about the order of the future events.

Was it one year after the release of the game? Those shadowy creatures, Night Crunchers as they were called in-game, appeared in random spots, making them look like some kind of event bosses. However the parties that fought them complained that their characters would get buggy after the fight. Stuff that ranged from items disappearing to having the menu showing question marks and weird letters instead of the normal stats and skills.

Of course the players rioted. But before the situation could devolve, the devs released a statement saying that the ‘buggying’ was a special status effect that could be treated by some specific NPCs living in a few locations.

The players begrudgingly went to check on those NPCs, and were really happy to see that it actually worked. Some started to speculate that the Night Crunchers were related to a new storyline that was going to be released in the successive five patches of the game, going completely wild with their predictions.

Then, a couple years later the appearance of the Night Crunchers suddenly spiked. They were everywhere and more than one event had them invade various cities, so much that people started to think they were cockroaches.

In time cities started to fall and important NPCs died. Coupled with a series of natural and monster related disasters, the whole fantasyesque vibe that Elysium had going on had suddenly become a post apocalyptic world.

Players lamented for the sudden spike in difficulty, some threatening to leave the game. But there wasn’t even a peep from the devs. Instead, for those that still played the game, they had to confront the king of Night Crunchers, a ginormous creature that could be only described as an amalgamation of the worst horrors imaginable. Some players just fainted straight away, while others directly logged off, scarred for life.

That… thing. Slaughtered the remaining players, only the top players lasted a bit longer.

But Rye wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t even in the middle of the ranking, he was just an average player that played maybe a couple hours a day.

He died in the first attack. And yet he received that weird title.

After dying he checked on one of the top players’ streams to watch the fight. Seeing them dying just five minutes in was disheartening to say the least. The forums exploded with players complaining left and right. And even then, still no words from the devs.

The day after, after the respawning cooldown had ended, players tried to log in to face off against the boss again, but only a message of the servers shut down could be seen on the screen.

No one understood what happened. Was this the end of the game? Such a bitter taste could not be accepted! However panic started to spread as soon as multiple posts on the official forums appeared detailing the deaths of various streamers and top players. Those that died while fighting the king of Night Crunchers, were found with their bodies mauled and some parts missing. If not for the fact that they were found in their homes by their relatives and friends, they would be irrecognizable.

It was undeniable that the only thing that they had in common was that they were all fighting that nightmarish boss. Rye refused to read more. He was just shaking nonstop.

Just thinking about the possible implications was enough to make him stop going outside.

And yet everything just got worse somehow. Because those things, the Night Crunchers, appeared in real life too. What happened in-game was recreated in reality, but just way, way worse.

A couple of days was enough for humanity, no, all life to go extinct.

In game they had magic and special abilities to stand up to the monsters, but in real life the firearms and nuclear bombs weren’t able to damage them in the slighest.

Tears flooded Rye’s eyes as he heard the crunching of bones from his hiding place inside the closet. He prayed for everything to be a nightmare as he heard death coming closer.

He just stopped there.

He didn’t dare to think about it, about his death. He could feel goosebumps creeping up his spine, threatening to bring him to madness.

A solution…

A reason…

The NPCs that cured the first players from the Night Crunchers! They might know something.

He only remember two of them and the closest to his starting location was the one in Rosecott village, in the neighbor kingdom of Leronell.

And so he traveled for a good month in-game to the village, only to stop in the most expensive inn he ever found, the Smiling Pilgrim.