CHAPTER 1_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

Very few people can ever claim that they remember being born. The event is at such a particular time in their development that they are hardly aware of their own being much less anything going on around them. It makes the event one that is difficult to identify as an experience for the one being brought into the world.

These thoughts flashed through Ray’s mind as they tried to catch up to the events that were currently happening around him. Moments ago he had slid out of a large glass and steel tube and slammed into a cold tiled floor, pink fluid spiraling out around him like some odd flower.

He was also naked.

Coughing out more of the gross stuff, the taste vaguely reminiscent of burnt gym socks, he managed to crack open his eyes and look around.

The creche that he was in wasn’t very large, containing four other strange pods that had just disgorged four other equally naked people. Three men and a woman.

Ray couldn’t quite make sense of what was going on. The last thing he remembered was his death, slowly asphyxiating in the orbit of the moon aboard his ship while the last dregs of his oxygen ran out. He had positioned himself to be found by any rescue crews, leaving extensive notation about the events he observed as whatever spread through humanity continued to kill everything in the system.

Coughing out the last of the pink gunk, he heard the sound of what could have been a door hissing open. Looking up his breath caught in his throat as two of the strangest creatures he had ever seen walked through the door.

“Ah, Vell, they seem to be awake and somewhat coherent,” said the first creature as it took out a small device and waved it over the five humans. “Healthy, alive … and surprisingly resilient.”

“Who the fuck are you? Do you know who you just kidnaped?” raged one of the other men. “I am Senator-“

The man’s words were cut off as he dropped to the floor limply as if he had been a puppet and his strings were just cut. Ray took a quick look at the man's open eyes, still filled with fading indignation and rage. Unfortunately, his chest wasn’t moving, which made him very dead.

The young woman looked on dispassionately even as the two remaining men moved backward slowly. As if putting any amount of distance between them and their captors would help anything.

“My apologies,” said the second creature. “It seems that this human will not be viable. Oh well, that leaves four of you.”

“Fucking …aliens?” asked Ray cautiously, not wanting to meet the same fate as the now-dead senator. “Why are we here? Why did you come back now?”

“Look, Nell, the human has questions. He thinks we’re back. Hilariously delusional. We can explain things succinctly I suppose,” said the creature known as Vell. “Pay attention humans, you have been chosen to revitalize your race. You get the honor and privilege of fighting through swarms of monstrous reanimated creatures that your media calls ‘zombies’. Ridiculous descriptor by the way.”

“Vell is correct,” continued the other creature that Ray now identified as Nell. “Our purpose here is to ensure that your race has an opportunity to revitalize and come back from the brink of extinction. Not everyone gets this opportunity, but there are enough humans left on the planet to … restrict any other actions.”

Ray didn’t miss the small pause from Nell. There was something more here, but he didn’t know what. “How exactly can we do that? We have five, sorry four people here. It’s not like we can exactly … hang on did you say zombies?” he asked incredulously. “There are zombies down there?”

Nell did an odd shoulder shrug, his chicken arms rising into the air in a somewhat comical action. “That is the closest approximation to a descriptor that we could find. Your species media describes them as such anyway. Something about a wheat plant and genetic engineering. Our data is far from complete because, well, everyone is dead. Kind of.”

Ray stared at the skinny furball for a moment, his eyes narrowed. “Right,” he said slowly. “And you didn’t have anything to do with this? I faintly remember the disease that was running rampant across nearly every inhabited place that we had. But I don’t know anything about zombies.”

“He’s right!” said one of the other men, “I recall everything right up to … well to being here. There were definitely no zombies rolling around eating people. Ah … where is here by the way?”

Vell dropped a closed-taloned fist through the air cutting off any more questions from the remaining humans. “Enough. Time is short and valuable. Obviously, we aren’t from your world. We are aboard our survey ship over the planet you call Earth. Dumb name by the way, who calls their planet dirt? Regardless. We aren’t responsible for this travesty of sorts. Our interactions with new space-faring races are strictly governed by the Stellar Council, our ruling body. I highly suspect that if we had met sooner we would have rendered aid of some kind. Maybe.”

Ray and the others slowly nodded. It made sense to have some kind of directive to govern, or even prevent, first contact. It was also true that if they had so desired they would all be dead right now. Not rescued and rejuvenated, naked as they were, aboard some alien vessel.

“Now, with that being explained we are at a bit of a crossroads. You see, your planet was never integrated into the System. Your planetary node is inactive,” said Nell, explaining it as if Ray had some knowledge of what the alien was talking about. “You can make one of two choices. You can fight through zombies and set up a node actuator, a device that will turn your planetary node on and save your species, or you can get dropped off somewhere on the planet and we can try again with new humans. As expensive as your resurrection was.”

Ray blinked at that. As a captain for a private yacht usually filled with affluent individuals, paying close attention to what was being said was an absolute must in his profession. There were two important bits of information here. The first being that there was some kind of system these beings used regularly, and that it surprised them Earth hadn’t been integrated yet. The second was that he had been resurrected.

“I see,” said the woman, finally speaking. Her light tone of voice offset her intense stare. “We were dead then. And you brought us back somehow.”

Vell clacked its beak, “Indeed. You were all resurrected from your deaths. Time wise you have been dead for … twenty some of the orbits of your planets. Not an impossible length of time to come back from, but you five were the first to be successfully resurrected. Well … minus that one. He initiated too much at once and burned out. As is the norm.”

“Ok. Got it. So, either we get dropped off and we can fend for ourselves or we can deploy this device to bring our world into this … System?” summarized Ray. “What will that do?”

Nell shuffled to one side and explained. “You are all part of the System now. It is what allowed us to revive you. It cost a lot of NEX by the way, so please don’t die again. Based on my research the closest parallel that you would be able to understand is that the System is a governing program that manages and quantifies existence on a level that we, frankly, can't comprehend. Think about yourself and wonder how you can be quantified. Or, if that’s too complicated for your species, imagine a bright blue box.”

Ray snorted at the sarcasm the furball on their legs put out and chose the simple option. Curious about what would happen, he pictured the blue box in his mind. Without warning, massive pain brought him to his knees. It only lasted for a second, but the pain was so intense he legitimately thought one of the creatures had stuck a knife into his skull.

After a moment the pain faded away and he realized his nose was bleeding freely. Wiping the blood off on his bare arm, he looked back at the three people behind him. The woman was already on her feet, while one of the two men was struggling to stand up. The remaining man was face down in a pool of his own blood.

“Oh dear, we lost another one. Well … not everyone is meant to survive the process I suppose,” Vell said uncaringly. “Now, imagine a blue box. Once that is visible let me know.”

Scowling at the uncaring alien, Ray did exactly that. He nearly jumped out of his skin as a blue screen appeared in front of him:

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

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RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

HEALTHY

MENTAL STATE

WARY

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

“What in the hell? Is this … some kind of game or something?” Ray asked uncertainly. Turning to the others he watched as the woman absorbed whatever she saw in front of her while the remaining man in the back were as equally interested in what had popped up in front of them.

Turning back to the two furball aliens he asked, “We have to be dead. There is no way that this little screen is going to make me stronger by leveling up,” he said skeptically.

“Oh look, Nell, an unbeliever,” said Vell.

“Well, I suppose we better push it out the airlock,” responded Nell.

Ray put his hands up placatingly, “Now let's not be hasty. This is just a bit unbelievable is all. A big change. My mind is having a hard time keeping pace, I’m only human after all,” he explained. “Can you explain just what the System is and why it looks like any average RPG video game from Earth?”

Nell and Vell looked at each other, then back to Ray. “Well … that has perplexed races far more advanced than ours for eons longer than either of us have been in existence. Just learn what you can and experiment. Each race has different options available to them, along with different bonuses and abilities,” explained Vell. “You will need to find out on your own.”

“What is NEX?” asked the woman, speaking up again.

Nell nodded, “NEX is Necessary Experience. Every meaningful action you take is rewarded by the System. What is a meaningful action you may wonder? That’s a good question. No one has quantified that yet, and if they have they aren’t sharing. Kill things, build things, claim things, travel, and explore. All rewarded.”

“What is NEX used for?” she prompted again.

Nell sighed and gestured to Vell. “My turn? Fine. It's not like we were going to just boot them into the wilderness and expect them to succeed,” it grumbled. Turning to the woman it said, “NEX is used to upgrade your STATS, purchase abilities, or it can be used for a variety of other things through a node.”

The remaining man in the back stepped forward hesitantly and asked, “So … this node you mentioned. What is it? And how would we use it?”

Nell took over and snapped, “A node is what controls everything around us. It is the central hub for change. We are going to give you a portable one to place in order to activate the planetary node. So just find out for yourselves when you’re down there. Enough with the questions about this, you will learn it all as you go along.”

Ray nodded. It didn’t seem like these two were going to exactly be helpful. However irritated they may be though, they had an agenda. Of that he was certain. No one anywhere did anything out of the kindness of their heart. They either did it for themselves, for personal gain, or for other more mysterious reasons.

“So, are we just going down there naked then? From what you’ve said there are, and I can hardly believe I’m saying this, zombies and other things down there,” Ray said.

“Yeah!” said the other man. “Can we get some beam pistols, or maybe a laser sword?” he asked with bright-eyed enthusiasm.

Vell clacked its beak and said, “Of course not. Law prevents us from arming you with anything outside of your technological level. Take this and be happy we aren’t choosing to send you down to that mess of a world with nothing covering your exterior reproductive organs.”

The odd creature tossed the three remaining humans a small, silver, non-descript cube. “There, use that and enjoy it. It is all that you are getting,” Vell said before turning away.

Catching the cube out of the air, Ray examined it intensely. After a few seconds a small screen popped up in front of him:

COMBAT SUPPLY CUBE

USE = YES

USE = NO

Curious, he pressed the yes prompt. The cube vanished and Ray found himself dressed in a one-piece suit that covered him from neck to toe. The fabric was flexible, yet sturdy. While he wasn’t sure how well it would turn away a knife or stop a bullet, it would definitely do for day-to-day activity. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small icon blinking. He poked at it with a finger and another screen popped up detailing what he had just gotten:

RESOURCES GAINED

X1 Survival Suit

X1 Survival Multi Tool

X1 50 NEX Card

“This is all very strange. I do not have any tools,” said the woman looking at Nell and Vell and cocking her head to one side.

Rolling its beady little black eyes, a feat Ray found impressive, to begin with, due to their small size, Vell said, “Every being and creature under the System has access to a storage space. Just imagine it opening up and you can clearly see what you have stored. Foolish humans, you need to keep a more open mind or your race is doomed,” it clacked out.

Doing as he was instructed, Ray imagined an invisible bag in front of him. True to the concept he imagined, a grid-like inventory system appeared before him.

The five-by-five grid had only one slot taken up with the multi-tool inside of it. Imagining it in his hand, the box emptied and the tool appeared in his hand. About as long as a cooking spoon, it had several tools he could readily identify that could be pulled out of it. Much like a utility knife.

“This is nifty,” he said with surprise as what suspiciously sounded like an amused laugh came from Vell. “Can we stack things?”

“Of course human. Not a horrible question, but you hardly have anything to test the concept out on I suppose,” said Nell. “Now, you each are equipped. The tool can be used as a weapon, or you can find something better. Keep in mind that damage is allocated according to several variables, however, fatal strikes are fatal. Limbs don’t grow back without much investment. And the dead are, usually, permanently dead without excessive intervention.”

Ray was about to ask what they meant but Vell tossed him a sphere the size of a watermelon. Catching it he was nearly dragged to the ground by its weight before he slid it into his inventory.

“Excellently done. That is your node. Deploy it where you want but keep it safe. It doesn’t move. It can be destroyed or captured. If it is destroyed that’s it. Your race is done and the planet is up for grabs said Vell. “Now, good luck.”

Ray was about to ask just what they meant by deploying it but suddenly found himself outside of the ship falling rapidly towards the planet. As he accelerated toward the ground he couldn’t help but scream the entire time. Just before he met the grey concrete of Earth he blacked out.

***