It took Ray a few minutes to recover. He got unsteadily to his feet and eyeballed the pure evil tree rat in front of him.
“Ninja squirrel? Combat tutorial?” he grunted out after a while. “Fuck you.” He charged the versatile rodent with murder in his eyes. The squirrel, however, was having none of it.
It dodged his first swing and spit in his eye. Ray howled in pain as he stumbled backward, not partially blind and flailing wildly. The squirrel ninja was not going to allow the advantage to be lost. The furry demon rushed Ray, scampering up his leg, across his chest, and settling on top of his head where it proceeded to pummel him.
Dog was no longer laughing now, seeing that Ray was getting his ass kicked by such a minor threat. It stood up on its legs and drew in a deep breath. This would hurt its summoner, but not as bad as that nasty tree rat would. Lungs full, the canine companion unleashed a howling bark powerful enough to knock Ray off his feet.
The pair slammed into the dirt several feet away. Ray landed on his back while his furry opponent rolled gracefully to its feet. Spinning it prepared to continue the engagement, and that’s when Ray shot it in the head.
In a spray of gore, the squirrel's head exploded from the forty-five caliber bullet that impacted it. The round whistled through its skull in a visceral pattern of brain matter and impacted the wall on the other side of the courtyard. The crazy rodent stood standing for a full second more before collapsing over. Dead.
“That… was both hilarious and worrying. I remember you being far stronger than some nasty rodent who knows karate,” said the dog, cocking its head to one side.
Ray couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah. This… something happened when everything got reset. Upgraded? Fuck, when the System changed. All my stats got changed, I feel like a weak slow toddler. Hell, that thing nearly kicked my ass.”
He was interrupted by a notification.
{COMBAT TUTORIAL COMPLETE}
SQUIRREL NINJA DEFEATED
REMAINING ENEMIES – 0
{REWARD}
BASIC COMBAT CHEST
YOU BEAT THE TUTORIAL? TOUGH BASTARD.
“I… wasn’t supposed to win?” he said aloud. “Damn, this new world is pulling exactly zero punches. Shit. I need another weapon too, once this thing is out of ammo it doesn’t even make a decent club.”
“Agreed,” Dog concurred. “Also, we should probably leave. I smell… ew. Lots of decay heading towards us.”
“I have so many questions, but the last thing I want to do is run into a horde of undead we can’t beat. Let’s get out of here and see what we find,” Ray said, more than a bit worried they may get trapped inside of the courtyard should a horde stumble into them.
The pair walked cautiously through the courtyard, finding their way blocked by a plywood barricade. With some effort, Ray was able to pry off a few of the boards and open up a space to slide out into the street beyond it. His canine companion went first and, after a moment of sniffing and looking around, declared the area clear to move into.
Ray exited through the new hole and stepped into a decaying cityscape. Not unlike Manhattan, where their unfortunate adventure and run-in with the bandits had taken place. The pair looked up and down the street and saw nothing moving.
“I’m not sure where to go,” Ray said quietly. “Being in the open makes me nervous, but I don’t recognize anything. I wish I had a map.”
As soon as he finished his sentence a small map popped up in his vision. Startled he had to refocus his eyes in order to see it clearly. On it, in their immediate area, was revealed the buildings around him. Every building had a label along with a series of skulls. Each building also had a list of basic information about it, such as the number of floors or what the building had been used for.
Examining the area, they just came from where he didn’t see any skulls at all, and the building itself was a light green. He assumed this meant it had been cleared. The only thing he didn’t have a reference for was what a skull meant. It was obviously some kind of threat rating, but what constituted a threat? Was one skull a single zombie or a hundred?
Something caught his eye near the edge of the map though, several green dots were clustered together. Ray wasn’t a genius by any means, but he knew that usually green meant good and red meant danger. If there were multiple green dots in an area he hadn’t been to yet it was quite possible some of his friends had made it there alive.
“We have company,” his canine friend said with a growl.
Ray dismissed the map and turned to where she was looking. Across the street, stepping out of an alleyway, were six undead so emaciated and decayed they nearly looked like skeletons. They moved incredibly slowly, giving him a chance to really examine them. He was surprised when a small icon appeared above their heads;
UNDEAD HUMAN
[APPRAISED]
BASIC
“System says they’re basic, that means weaker than us I guess,” he said, popping out his most recent award and opening it. The Combat Chest gave him a crowbar, leather gloves, and a leather vest. He quickly put them on and hefted the weapon. “Perfect.”
“Well, at least you’re easy to please, the dog mocked. “Now, can we please kill those things? I don’t know how far they may follow us. I don’t relish the idea of them getting the jump on us later.”
“Fair enough,” he said, stepping forward. Cocking the crowbar back, he got within range of the closes undead and swung for a homerun. The crowbar obliterated the head of the undead, spraying foul-smelling brain matter across the street.
Wrinkling his nose, Ray quickly dispatched the other five in a similar manner. Not only did they not pose a threat, but they never even got within arm’s reach of him.
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“That was pretty easy,” he grunted. He turned to the dog, “What, you aren’t going to help?”
“First off, don’t ever say anything is too easy. Take it from me, life has a way of upping the difficulty. Second off, would you want to take a bite of something like that?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.
Ray opened his mouth, thought about it, and then snapped it shut. “Fair enough,” he said after a moment of contemplation. “On both items. Now, let's see if we can’t go find out if those green dots on my map are friends or more things we get to murder.”
The duo was about to leave when Ray caught something out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he watched in open-mouthed astonishment as the bodies of the undead dissolved into ash. Each body left behind a small bag.
“The fuck?” he said, both curious and annoyed. Walking over he reached down to pick one of the bags up, however, the moment he touched it the bag vanished and he received a notification;
{NEX ACQUIRED}
1 NEX
He quickly touched the rest of the bags, retrieving a total number of NEX equal to the number of undead they had killed. The NEX appeared as a single bronze coin with an ornate one carved into one side, and an infinity loop and three odd symbols on the other. Apparently, the System was a fan of hard currency.
If this was the new, or at least newly reestablished, method of looting he could get behind it. He could already carry an immense number of items in his storage space. If he could gather materials, items, or loot just by touching what he killed or gathered… getting everything put back together was going to be much easier.
It would also be easier for his enemies.
“We gotta move,” he said worriedly, “I have a funny feeling that we are already running out of time.”
His canine companion didn’t bother to respond as they moved further up the street. The area around him was filled with dilapidated multi-story buildings, shops, and apartments. Ray could already imagine what kinds of loot would be inside, that is if they were willing to raid it. Right now the only thing he would be willing to go after would be weapons and a mode of transportation. Anything else didn’t make sense quite yet.
They didn’t see any undead, ninja squirrels, or even another creature for blocks. Just the cold, quiet, and extremely dead city that surrounded them. Ray kept an eye on his map, however, and all too soon they found themselves a black away from the green dots.
“Keep your eyes open,” he told the dog. “Depending on who it is, they may not be friendly. I sure as fuck didn’t trust Jalla.”
His canine companion snorted, “Would that be the horned man who threw fire? I was close enough at several points to hear you say his name. He did seem… exceedingly shady,” she admitted.
Ray blinked at that. “Close enough? I think we only ever talked around the base. A couple of times in the field and in Manhattan… fuck me. You were there, hunting me in the city weren’t you?”
“Yup,” she said unabashedly.
“Goddamn nemesis dog thing,” he grumbled.
The pair crossed the one-block mark from the dots and turned the corner. Ray immediately spun back and slammed his back into the wall, readying his crowbar. The massive decaying group of shambling bodies that had been loitering in the road had apparently not seen them, however. At least he fucking hoped not.
“Lots a lot of fucking undead,” he whispered quietly. He checked his map, then dismissed it. “The map says the place we’re looking for is halfway up the street on the left.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Ray,” the dog said, peeking quickly around the corner. “Those things are all looking directly at that building. My bet is they chase whoever is inside and they barricaded the front up.”
Ray wouldn’t take that bet. He was sure that the dog was right. Based on his experience with the undead prior to the Integration, he was sure that there would be a surprise or two in that horde as well. You didn’t just get a couple hundred undead together without a leading figure. Not even the hordes he had fought had been just basic undead. There was always a leader floating around somewhere.
Peeking around the corner, he studied the group for several minutes and his eyes eventually fell on a taller, skinnier undead. It was standing near the dead center of the horde, eyes locked onto the covered doors of the building he needed to get into. The minute he made the connection, a System message popped up;
{COMMON HORDE ENCOUNTERED}
BASIC UNDEAD REMAINING – 306
UNCOMMON UNDEAD REMAINING – 1
“Common and uncommon?” he muttered to himself, the dog quirking her ears in his direction. “What is an uncommon undead?” He wasn’t expecting an answer, but apparently something was listening as a second message appeared in front of him.
This one had answers.
{GRADES}
BASIC
THE MOST COMMON RANKING OF CREATURES, CLASSES, AND ITEMS THAT ARE USUALLY WEAK IN POWER
COMMON
FREQUENTLY ENCOUNTERED CREATURE, CLASSES, AND ITEMS THAT ARE FAIRLY STANDARD IN POWER
UNCOMMON
UNUSUAL AND ABOVE-AVERAGE CREATURES, CLASSES, AND ITEMS THAT ARE USUALLY STRONGER IN POWER
RARE
RARELY ENCOUNTERED CREATURES, CLASSES, AND ITEMS THAT ARE USUALLY MUCH STRONGER IN POWER
LEGENDARY
EXTREMELY RARE CREATURES, CLASSES, AND ITEMS THAT ARE OFTEN OVERWHELMING IN POWER
MYTHIC
DEVASTATINGLY POWERFUL CREATURES, CLASSES, AND ITEMS THAT ARE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND
UNIQUE
ONE OF A KIND CREATURES, CLASSES, AND ITEMS
“Oh. That was convenient,” he said quietly, reading through the list. Apparently, the dog had been reading too.
“It seems your class gives you more access to certain System-related things. Particularly information. That seems overpowered,” she said, shaking her head slowly.
Ray would take overpowered over weak as shit any day, particularly in a world that wanted nothing more than to kill him. At least the gods… admins, were gunning for him anymore. But he could explore his abilities later, they had a horde to get through right now.
“What should we do? I bet I have something in my inventory that could make a bomb or two,” he muttered.
“Too loud. It would draw them all right down on us,” the canine replied.
He grimaced. He had suspected that as well but didn’t have any other ideas. That is, no other ideas than attacking head-on and reducing the numbers of the horde or attempting to lead them away. Both were insanely dangerous, not that he hadn’t done reckless things before. Ray thought back to the letter and how it had described the dampening of emotion and instincts. He was certainly more capable of thinking things through now, that was for sure. No more death dives into zombie-filled alleyways in shoddy cars for him.
“Let's hit them and take off, I don’t have a better plan than that,” he admitted. The dog chuffed her agreement and the pair turned the corner. Picking up a large rock, Ray hefted it once or twice, then hurled it across the rock and into a window. The sound of shattering glass had all the undead turn toward the noise.
“If that white son of a bitch sees us, blast him with your bark,” Ray said, getting confirmation from the dog.
Ray used the noisy distraction to walk right up to the rear most zombies and start smashing in skulls. The wet noise of the crowbar smashing through skulls and brain matter had nearby undead turning in his direction, but most were still distracted by the prior noise. Not even the tall white fucker was looking at him yet. He had a funny feeling that the minute that thing did, the horde would rush him.
He continued smashing away at the undead for almost a solid minute before a piercing shriek caused him to take a running hop backward. The tall white creature had just noticed him.
“Aw shit. Dog, do your stuff!” he said, taking his handgun out of storage.
The giant German Shepherd inhaled to the point she looked like she might explode, even as the white undead began plowing through its smaller brethren to reach them. Just as it came within attacking distance, the canine unleashed a powerful bark, hurling dozens of the decaying monstrosities in every direction. The explosion of sound hurled the white uncommon undead several feet into the air and almost ten feet backward… where it landed gracefully on the ground.
“Oh shit,” Ray muttered, raising the gun and pulling the trigger. Unlike his run-in with the squirrel, however, this thing wasn’t about to stand still.
And it was fast.
Ray couldn’t connect with any of the half-dozen rounds he fired before the thing was on top of him. Another bark sounded out from behind him, whipping around him and his opponent and scattering the converging undead. He had been so focused for a few seconds he had forgotten about the horde. The thought was fleeting, as the white creature was on top of him.
WENDIGO WARRIOR
{UNCOMMON}
The thing swung even as Ray got the notification about the nasty, snarling monstrosity. But he couldn’t read it. It was time to fight.
Or die.