"Good morning" I heard a soft alto voice in the distance and my eyes slowly opened. I was welcomed by the sight of a woman in her 20s. She had blonde hair that appeared golden under the sunlight and a warm demeanour that you would expect to see from mothers. I watched as she tapped on Liya's shoulders to wake her up. "Its time for a new day!" she smiled as she looked at me. I nodded my head in response.
I could see Liya's eyes fluttering as she looked towards the woman and erased her presence as if she was on alert. She then slowly headed towards me appearing rather adorable. "Did you rest well?" I asked her while petting her head. She silently nodded and proceeded to grab ahold of my hand on her head.
It had been a day or so since we came here. This base, or rather dubbed as "haven" by the residents here was surprisingly safe. It was made out of a cluster of houses built in a circular manner surrounding a single park in the middle. It wasn't a huge park, but rather a small one that had the same amount of land as the combination of 3 houses. The area had been converted into "headquaters" by Benson Kein, the leader of the survivors. This place wasn't far from the northen bridge and was located near the river, making it easy for us to acquire water. There were large amounts of solar panels salvaged from the houses nearby. In short, they seemed well equipped to survive. I was surprised to find survivors but to see a whole 35 of them was nothing short of a relieve. I was glad to find other human beings still alive in the world.
"Breakfast is collected at the headquaters, so please make your way there" I head Susan's voice as she went downstairs to wake up the rest of the residents in the house. I had decided to stay here with Liya and survive until there was further news. Furthermore, I secured our position here by volunteering to salvage for food and resources. I had contemplated on bringing Liya along for her ability to hide but deicded against it as she would be much safer here. Heading downstairs, I saw Danton puting on his military uniform. "Good morning" we greeted each other. "How was your night?" he grinned as he asked. "It was peaceful" I replied. He seemed to be pleased as he declared that he was heading for duty and went ahead before us.
"That guy is strange" Liya muttered to me as she saw him leave. I couldn't help but nod my head. He was indeed an odd man.
The system has been updated while you were asleep. Changes have been applied.
I saw the box appear once again. There was apparently an update, one that you would expect coming from a software. I couldn't help but be interested in the changes in the system. It was like a game update.
"Uncle... there's a wierd sign above your head" Liya tugged at my shirt. Catching my attention. I looked at Liya and saw blue letters floating above her head. It seemed to be in 2 dimensional no matter which angle I looked at, leading me to believe that it was something that came in my line of sight. Above her head were the words very much like an RPG game. "Level 1". I couldn't help but feel an impending sense of dread. Were we going to have superhumans? The amount of chaos that would come along with that would be unfathomable. "Liya, what does it say above my head?" I asked her. "It says level 4!" she replied while showing me four fingers. It was a surprisingly cute gesture and I couldn't help but find myself petting her on the head. "Status" I thought out.
Status
Health : 300 (300)
Mana: 10 (10)
Condition: Healthy
Title: Boss, Healer, Soul- Bound
Skills
Pain resistance (A)
Sleepless (B)
Confident demeanor (S)
Endurance (D)
Blessing: None
The system is now reconfiguring your status
Status Level: 4 (14/102) Blessings: None Points: 450 Health: 300 (300) Mana: 10 (10) Str: 20 Agi: 15 Def: 10 (+1) Int: 58 Dex: 15 Luck: 15 (+25) Skills Endurance (D) : Minor increase in endurance Sleepless (B) : You don't need more than 4 hours of rest to feel refreshed. Sleeping spells below C rank is nullified. Pain Resistance (A) : Pain is significantly reduced Confident Demeanour (S): You always dictate your actions. Immune to control skills. Carry out actions with full confidence. Probability of failure when performing actions decreased. Titles Boss : Your ability to command is increased Healer: Healing is more effective Soul-bound: LuckUP! Your soul is bound to your body
I looked through my status. I couldn't help but be bewildered by the skills that I had acquired. It was strange really, it was as if the system had analysed your entire being and laid it bare before you. Well, having everything I have acquired explained feels much better than simply guessing it from the name. Im guessing that the brackets next to the skills are its rankings and it goes from "D" being the lowest and "S" being the highest. Though I couldn't really confirm that theory. But seeing a "B" rank skill being able to resist "C" rated spells made some sense to me that the abilities would work that way. It was simple and easy to understand.
Liya tugged at my shirt once again. I realised that I had lost track of time looking at my status. "Sorry Liya, let's go get breakfast now" I gently pulled her along as we left the house. It was nice of the people here to give us a warm welcome when we arrived yesterday. I couldn't help but be glad that most of the people were good natured. If I had a complain though, they should really be more wary of people that come here. Without even checking to make sure we were harmless, we were given a place to stay, food, water and even an offer to join them. I couldn't really understand why they were being so friendly despite the state the world was in.
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Reaching the headquaters, I looked at the place set up by using military tents. There was a generator powering some lamps that were switched off. A large pot was placed within one of them and I could see Benson, the leader of the place overseeing the food distribution. Breakfast seemed to be some thick brown soup with meat and some bread. Heading towards the area, he smiled and welcomed the two of us. He was a middle aged man in his late 40s, with a rather bushy beared and his hair with a mixture of brown and white. He had a large build, standing at nearly 2 metres tall and a muscular body to boot. I could see the "Level 5" hovering over his head. Dressed in his military attire, Benson greeted us.
"How was your night here?" he smiled as he passed us our breakfast.
"It was great" I replied and accepted the plate from him. "I can't believe you managed to build something like this in only a few days since the start of this mess" I gave my genuine thoughts.
"You flatter me. Hahaha!" he gave a loud and bold laugh and ushered us to take a seat nearby. I could see the levels of others hovering between 2-3 with the occasional 4 as I passed by. Liya was the only child here and I could see the looks of pity directed towards her while we sat down and ate. I noticed her thining her presence under the pressure while we ate in silence. "How's the soup?" I asked her while she drank. "It's nice" she replied as she continued to drink. I could taste the salt in every bite, it had been a long time since I had a home cooked meal. Before I knew it, my bowl was empty and the bread had vanished.
As if on cue, I could see Benson heading towards my direction. He looked at me and nodded his head, gesturing for me to join him at the main tent. Susan appeared and took a sit next to Liya, her eyes signalling that she would take care of Liya in my stead. I'm guessing that it was time for me to get to work. I stood up and began to walk towards the main tent. I could see Liya being gently held back by Susan. She seemed to be lost, but she had to learn to be independent especially in this environment. Arriving at the tent, I could see a couple of other guys here with me. Some military and some were civilians. I couldn't help but note that everyone was at least level 3. "I'm sure the rest of you will know, but for our newcomer I'll run through our daily objectives for the day" Benson began to speak.
"Take a look here" Benson brought out a hand drawn map that had a surprising amount of detail. There were locations marked nearby and given names, with the number of monsters and their types listed. I'm guessing that they had already scouted the area. "Someone like you shouldn't have problems looking at a map right?" he smiled and pointed to the location marked as "Eden" it seemed to be at least 5 hours away on foot but it had alot of food from the look of things. "We aren't going to be driving there so as to avoid getting unnecessary attention. Same as usual, you guys will have to go there and salvage whatever food items you see, and if there's medicine, prioritize it. We don't know what we might need so just grab everything you can." his instructions were simple and easy to understand. I could see the mutterings of the people around asking "why Eden" it didn't seem to be a popular place. The location was rather far and I guessed that was the reason why. The monsters around were described to be slow-moving zombies. They seem to be particularly sensitive to sound so it was advised that we didn't carry too much to prevent making too much noise.
"Remember to go around in pairs. And since Mr. Boss over here hasn't been assigned a buddy yet, he will be joining you two" Benson pointed at the couple. They had similar brownish hair and both of them are tanned and fit. I could see a ring around both of their ring fingers. These two were a married couple. They didn't seem to be surprised and the people around seem to have predicted it as well. Either they were already informed, or the two of them were regarded highly amongst them.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Sean!" the guy shot out his hands. I could see his veins bulging on his arms that weren't excessively large, in fact they seemed to be just a little larger than the average man. He had a slender build but had this strange masculine feel around him. He seemed reliable. I shook hands with him.
"And this is my wife, Adeline" he introduced her, who similarly seemed to be quite fit. "Nice to meet the both of you, please show me the ropes" I gave a light smile as i shook their hands once more.
The both of them widened their eyes and looked at each other before smiling. "I guess bosses really are built different" Sean commented and both him and his wife started to giggle. I didn't understand what was going on and simply looked at them. "Well let's get along. Boss" Sean gave me a reliable smile.
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After the meeting had ended, I went to say farewell to Liya who had insisted on coming along. She was then dragged away to continue helping out with chores like cleaning and washing clothes. The sun had risen and the time was around 9am. I was given a watch and a bagpack with 2 bottles of water and combat rations from the military. They came in packets and it seemed that we were supposed to tear them open and suck the food directly. I heard that they were going to change them to other types of preserved food when we run out in the near future. I met up with the couple by the entrance of Haven. There, I could see military personnel walking around and guarding the area with rifles in hand. The two of them were carrying backpacks of their own and seemed to be ready for the excursion. The "level 4" symbols were hovering over their heads. It reminded me of MMORPG games that I used to play when I was just a little younger. Not that it mattered anymore.
"Let's go" Sean said and began to lead the way. He seemed pretty use to the terrain as we continued on a silent walk towards Eden. There were small moments where a stray monster would be spotted. The only difference now was that their levels had appeared above them. Goblins were around level 1-3. Larger ones were at least level 4. I hadn't seen any orcs and ogres around and I could only hope that it stayed that way. I watched closely as the couple moved in sync while I followed behind. Sean would scout the area and Adeline will move with him to avoid the monsters. It looks like I was placed in good hands. The city was in a horrible state, with rubble all around and the last few flickers of electricity from signboards nearby. We were headed towards the food district. An entire street filled with street food vendors, convenience stores, restaurants and everything else. There was a wet market nearby from what I remembered and many supermarket chains around. It wasn't a long stretch to call it Eden, especially given our situation. I looked at the couple walking together infront of me and I couldn't help but be filled with nostalgia. The feeling of my wife's hands in mine lingered in my memories. I silently prayed that the both of them would make it through this situation together. They were extremely close to each other and seeing them relying on one another somehow just warmed my heart. Memories of my wife kept coming back and I could see her smile in my head just like it was yesterday.
"We have arrived " Sean stopped us. We arrived faster than expected and I could see the rotting flesh bodies moving around under the sun. The stench was horrible, enough so that I could smell it all the way here and we were at least a hundred meters away. I could see the food district with the street food vendors cart and stores overturned and flipped to the ground. There were rotting fruit and vegetables scattered on the floor with traces of blood and corpses littered from people's desperate attempt at escape. I was glad that Liya wasn't here.
"Lets start searching for food, the supermarkets will be our best bet" I told them who had the same thought. They nodded their heads as we silently crept into the food district. As silently as possible, we took our steps.