A parade of undead marched down the streets of the city with their king sitting on its throne, overseeing his army doing what they did best. Clearing and hunting down stray people out and about in his streets.
Luckily the boss monster was roaming in the opposite direction of the streets where Barry was originally planning to go. Which also happened to be the same spot where one of the four quest items was at.
Him and everyone in the city had less than 24 hours to find the objects or they would all be damned to hell for not doing so. Barry was confident that he would contribute his end of the quest, but he wasn't sure if the rest of the people would as well.
Barry arrived at the street he had pinned on his map finally. It was weirdly quiet with no mobs nearby in sight except for what seemed like another group of survivors he just now noticed in front of a bakery. He assumed that it had to be the one that the person in the chat said.
He got closer to the group as quietly as possible until he was able to eavesdrop on what was being said.
It was a group of three men with weapons in hand. “The thing is in there, this has to be the place on the map.” One of them said.
“So go find it!” Another responded, nudging his pal to go inside.
“It's fucking dark in there dumbass! We go in there together, so let's not be idiots.” The smart one suggested and went in, the rest following behind. Barry shadowed them from the back, keeping his distance.
It was a fancy bakery, WAS, with bread, pastries, cakes etc, all spread out around the store. It smelled kinda sweet but stale. Tables and other pieces of furniture were flipped and scattered about. Display cases shattered and what not. The men had to use their phones as flashlights with one hand as they inspected the place.
Barry felt a sort of similar sensation to the ones he would get when he tried resisting to help someone. Only this time, it was a good feeling, the smell of stale baked goods despite being spoiled gave him some serenity. He wondered why it made him feel this type of way compared to the other times. ‘Could it be that I liked bakeries?’ He wondered.
The men stopped their investigation when they heard banging coming from the back. All eyes were on the back door to the kitchen. It shook violently, the pounding beating to a certain rhythm.
The leader of the group did some hand signals and moved towards the door. His men followed at the ready for when he would open the door.
His hand gripped the door handle and swung it open, revealing a fallen zombie that happened to look up for a moment to see an axe aimed at it's skull, ending it right then and there.
They all waved their phones in the kitchen, checking for any undead. When suddenly, two hands shot up from behind a counter. “Don't hurt me! I'm a survivor!” It was a woman's voice.
The leader waved his hand down, telling the others to lower their weapons. The group of men shined their lights in her direction.
The woman rose from behind the counter, squinting her eyes from the multiple lights being aimed at her. “Could you ease on the lights please? You're all blinding me.”
The lights stopped spotlighting her, she had white skin and blood red hair, her eyes shined a bright red in the light. “Did you kill it?” She asked, her voice sounding shaky.
“What? This thing” One of the men replied, poking at the fallen zombie. “Yeah, it's a goner for good. It won't be troubling you anymore beautiful.”
“We're here for one of the quest items but also realized that someone had called for help at a bakery on this street. We assume that you were the one to make that request?” The leader asked the woman in a calm tone.
“Yes, that was me. I stayed hiding inside one of the counters waiting for help. I was so scared.” She weeped.
The men looked at each other for a second and one spoke. “You can tag along with us. We're a pretty strong group ourselves.”
“Really!? Just you three?” She asked, wiping away her tears.
“Hell yeah, we're all level 4s and have come a long way with handling these freaks. We can honestly probably clear this quest on our own.” The leader replied, sounding cocky.
“Really now? I might take you up on that offer than good sirs.” She responded in a cutesy tone.
One of them grinned. “We would be more than welcomed to-” The one speaking had stopped talking abruptly, the woman had disappeared in front of their eyes in a puff of black smoke.
“H-huh? Where-” The person began to gargle on something and started spewing out blood on the floor. The other two turned with their flashlights to see one of their men lay on the floor deceased after some twitching.
“H-He's dead!? Where did that woman go-” The other man wasn't able to finish his sentence as the leader watched his last man get stabbed in the back of his neck with a knife.
The leader was the last one standing and started panicking. “W-Who are you!? Why the hell are you doing this!? We just wanted to help!”
The man then tripped over one of his deceased friends, falling flat on the floor. His hands came into contact with the blood that was pouring out of his pals throat. “Tell me!” He pleaded.
His body was flipped around with a dagger pointed at his neck. “You all were hiding your true intentions from me from the start. So drop the innocent act filth!” The scarlet woman had appeared in front of the man, her blade slowly inching towards his neck closer and closer.
The man's facial expression turned into a face of anger, he then spat at the woman's face. “Fuck you bitch! You would have had it-” He didn't get to finish his sentence due to a dagger being stabbed through his throat. He tried gasping for air but all it did was seep out blood.
The woman stowed away her dagger into her inventory and stood up. “Mouse, you can come out now. I'm done with our guests.” She said, as if there was someone else in the room with her.
A little girl climbed out of one of the counter cabinets and moved towards one of the dead players then started looting. “This guy just has junk, Anna.” The little girl told the woman, sounding disappointed.
“Same here, this group was a bust. We should keep searching for those quest items. One of them has to be in her somewhere.” Anna replied before searching the room for the item.
Barry was hiding around a corner with a view of the kitchen, watching it all go down. He was able to catch glimpses of the woman, Anna, teleporting behind the group of people multiple times. He wondered if that was a type of skill or ability similar to his.
He then tried to get a closer inspection with his ‘Enhanced Vision’ but stepped on a piece of broken glass, making a crunching noise. ‘Shit!’ He thought, automatically he assumed that his cover was blown and when he looked to the room, the woman and kid were gone.
Instantly, he faced the other way with his sword drawn and swung it behind himself. He figured since the woman could teleport based on what he saw, that she had already done so. He was right.
The woman, surprised at how he knew that she had teleported behind him, reacted fast enough to back off. Her eyes locking onto Barry with both knives drawn. “Perceptive bastard you are, I assume you know of my skill already huh?” She questioned him, not dropping her gaze for a second.
“Yeah, I know about your houdini act. Care to try it again?” Barry took a loose stance, he was ready for another one of her tricks to defend against. He could also see her HP bar, he assumed the reason was because he saw her as an enemy.
She looked at him, almost as if she was studying him it seemed in Barry's eyes. “What? Think I'm bad news as well like the rest of those guys you murdered?” He asked.
Anna looked irritated then. “So you did see everything that happened? Well believe me, I know they had bad intentions because I have an ability that tells me so. I did the world a favor by disposing of them.”
Barry gave it some thought, it could be possible that she was telling the truth, but then he remembered that she said she was the one who sent out the SOS message he saw the other day.
“You and those guys were talking about a message that was sent out calling help here. I just saw you kill three guys on your own, why would you send that message if you were this strong already? Seems suspicious.” He wanted to know if she was a malicious person herself.
She sighed, not lowering her guard. “Alright fair, you got me there. I only did that so that it would be easier to get loot, have people come to me and take half of what they have. That's if I see that they're a decent person, otherwise they end up like those idiots, I rob them of their life. Trust me, I only kill the scum.”
Barry remained focused, he still had doubts about her motive for sending out that message. “I don't trust you and I believe you feel the same, yet we both are trapped in this crap shoot of a nightmare. So how about we both cooldown, sound fair?” He suggested.
Anna gave it some thought and shook her head. “Mmm, yes and no. I happened to be here first for the quest item and making it as the highest contributor sounds pretty good. So how about I let you leave and go on about your day and I stay here? Sound fair?” She countered with a smirk.
“You've been here for how long and you still haven't found the item? How can I trust you to even find it with the amount of time you've been here? No, I'm willing to bet my life that I can find it within 10 minutes. I guarantee you I will and when I do, it's mine to keep” Barry was confident that his vision would be able to point out where the quest item was.
The scarlet woman laughed, she found it funny that some stranger thought they could do a better job finding the item than her with their life on the line. “You're funny, fine. I'll give you 10 minutes to find this damn thing but if you don't, you die and I'm taking everything you own. Now go sniff it out detective.” She stowed her weapons.
Barry did the same before moving on into the kitchen, he then saw the little girl that Anna was talking to. She sat on a counter dangling her legs with a smile, waving at Barry. “Hi sir! My name's Luna, it's a pleasure to meet you before your final moments.”
Barry looked at Luna then back at Anna. “You mean it's a pleasure to meet someone who will make your sister look so stupid for not finding something so obvious.” He countered, sounding confident.
Luna giggled at his response, looking back at Anna who also couldn't help but laugh.”Get a load of this guy Luna, so full of himself. Let's hope he has something worth of value when he's dead.” Anna said.
Barry ignored her threat and began his search. Normally, items or objects would have a colored text above them, depending on what they were. He would mainly see black font that meant they were commons. But when he saw the undead boss with his halberd, there was an orange font color with the text ‘???’. He assumed that his skill just wasn't at a high enough level to read it.
He figured maybe these quest items would also look somewhat similar in that aspect.
Barry rummaged through the room, looking inside cabinets, drawers, even the fridges but nothing stood out to him…except for one broken tile that stuck out halfway underneath a counter.
“What's the issue, wise guy? Can't find it?” Anna mocked with a grin.
Above the broken tile, there was yellow text reading ‘???’. He flipped the counter over which startled Luna but caused even more amusement for Anna. “Oh, so now you're deciding to break shit. Someone's looking desper-”
The woman stopped talking when Barry lifted the broken tile and found a small hatch. He lifted it open, revealing a vase that looked like an antique and a small potion vial filled with green liquid.
The name of the potion was green and it read ‘Endurance Potion +2’ which had to mean that it was an uncommon item. He would drink it at that moment without hesitation, receiving a small boost in his stat. To him it tasted like a hard candy that was liquefied, green apple flavor.
The vase had purple text that read ‘Noble's Ashes’. He could only assume that this was one of the quest items that he was supposed to gather based on the color. He then placed it in his inventory.
Once he did that, the three of them in the kitchen all received an announcement notification, saying that ¼ quest items had been obtained.
The woman was speechless, she couldn't believe that the item was simply in the floor tiles. She had been pacing around the room the whole time trying to find the darn thing.
Barry looked at Anna and couldn't help but express a small smirk. “I told you, you weren't looking good enough.” He said before he motioned past the two.
Anna remained in place, fists balled but keeping her promise to let him go with the item. Luna could tell that her sister was pissed and couldn't help but laugh at her.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
As Barry walked past them and out the room, Luna waved bye and said “It was nice meeting you sir! She'll get over it, don't worry.”.
“See that your sister does and thanks for staying honest with your promise. Survive till then.”. He responded before making it out of the building to move on to his next find.
The two sisters remained in the room, Anna looking completely defeated as she leaned against a counter with frustration. “How the hell did he manage to find it that fast and easily?” She complained.
“It's alright, we can go look for the others. Besides Anna, we can still track where he is from the mini map. Look, the item is still on screen.” Luna had her map open, it showed Barry who had hold of the item moving in the direction of the next item.
Anna checked it out on her map and saw that she was right. “You're right, maybe we can go pick up one of the other ones, and if he's dead then we can get his as well.”
Luna smiled. “Yup!”
Anna rubbed her sister's head, she felt better now. “Come mouse, let's get moving.” The two sisters then got moving out of the building themselves to gather their own quest item.
[Transition Scene]
Barry roamed the alleys once more, making his way to a quest item that was further south apparently near a park. He also noticed on the map, a big red circle with a skull and crossbones symbol moving sorta in his direction.
He kept moving, hearing the sounds of fighting in the streets. There were more active people it appeared, the quest had made the situation everyone was in, more urgent. Forcing more players to come out of hiding to help with completing the quest.
As he was rushing through the alley, he spotted a group of people halting at the end of the alley. “Hey! He must have one of those items? It's gotta be him!” One of the people shouted before they all started charging towards him.
Barry was shocked at first but quickly turned away and ran, he didn't want to waste any time handling these fools. ‘Are they seriously planning to mug me for this? Weren't they told that this was supposed to be a group effort event?’ He was irritated.
When he turned down another corner, there was another group that was making their way over. “Him! He has one!” Another claimed, they too steamed towards him.
Barry was furious, so mad at how stupid these people were acting. Rather than going to look for the others quest items, they would rather waste time by stealing from someone who had already claimed one. And with this act of childishness, he brought his sword.
“You're all a bunch of fucking idiots! I can't trust anyone here can I? I help a couple of people and this is how the world thanks me? That's alright, I have no issues with slaughtering you all!” He voiced out his inner rage, he could now see HP bars hovering above the people's heads.
As the two parties were closing in on Barry, the ground below him, unexpectedly, started illuminating a circle of light from a man-hole. “Hidden Event Room Unlocked! Would you like to enter?” A blue screen appeared, asking him.
He was so ready to fight back against these people and vent out his frustration, but instead he decided to bite his tongue and hold back as he had an opportunity to escape this madness from wasting time. “Yes, get me out of here.” He responded.
And with his affirmation, the light illuminated even brighter, engulfing him and making him disappear in the next moment.
Barry could see nothing but white for sometime before his vision slowly came back. He blinked a couple of times and assessed his surroundings.
He was in a circular stone room with lit torches around that illuminated the place. There was a big portrait of a king armed with a halberd, pointing it in a direction. The king sat on a warhorse in a commanding but righteous pose. It had to be the undead king when he was alive, Barry assumed.
There was nothing else in the room, it seemed based on his vision. From what he was seeing, looking at the portrait, were the words ‘King's Proud Moments’ in yellow font.
Barry was curious and touched it. Instantly he felt a jolt in his body, followed by a slight headache. His vision was losing focus like he would when he would remember a memory fragment of his but this was different. He started seeing flashes of images, images that he knew weren't his but the king's.
Those images being the king when he was human, living his glory days. Happy times with his family, ruling over a prosperous kingdom, and watching the days go by with a smile.
His vision came back eventually, although somewhat with a migraine, but then saw the portrait push back and slide over. Behind the portrait revealed a small chest. He wasn't sure why he saw bits of the king's past life when he was happy but acknowledged it.
He opened the chest which contained a common item that was a small music box. ‘This is it?’ Barry was kind of disappointed to find just a common item that he wasn't sure what it was for. Still, he pocketed it in his inventory.
Barry was at least glad that he was able to get away from the nonsense that would have happened before.
The same circle of light appeared in the center of the room, probably a way back to the city. To where, he didn't know but he still went to step into the light. Another blue screen appeared in front of him, asking if he wished to leave and with a simple “Yes.” He was teleported away.
When he reappeared and looked around, he realized that he was in a park. Opening the map, he was at the destination for the next item to snag. ‘Wow, how convenient.’ He thought, happy that he didn't have to.
That moment of relief would soon disappear when a human body is sent soaring over him, crashing into the dirt. He faced the direction the body flew from with his sword in hand.
There were people engaged in combat against more undead that surrounded a pond. Of the usual zombies, there were three 6ft tall undead knights, each with a shield but different weapon. They appeared to be guarding the pond which had to mean that the quest item was in here.
Barry tried to count how many people were in the area which seemed to be between 20-30 people trying their best to make it past the knights and their mob of zombies.
The knights were fending off any players that tried to make it past them, which resulted in them getting tossed back. These knights were in-sync with each other and were no pushovers. Barry figured it would be good to observe them for now while he fought off any zombies that got too close to him.
One of the people who was having a somewhat difficult time fighting off some zombies took a glance at him and shouted. “Hey! What the fuck are you doing!? A little help here!?”
Barry felt bothered by his voice and ignored him, part of his attention was finding an opportunity to slip past a spot that was unguarded by the knights but couldn't find one.
He was thinking he might have to engage one of them to draw in aggro, so that someone else could sneak past and retrieve the item. ‘Guess I'll be a team player for now.’.
With the stack buffs he was getting from his title ‘Psycho Blood Artist’, he felt confident that he could manage to hold his own against one of the knights for a little bit. He zoomed past the guy that was struggling, hacking and slashing the zombies that came in his way, indirectly helping the man.
Barry then chucked a fallen zombie corpse at one of the knights that was already distracted by a few players, using it to conceal an attack that was aimed for one of it's joints that was slightly exposed from gaps between the armor.
The knight swiped it's shield in an arc, knocking the body and the other players back but missing Barry. He had managed to react fast enough to hop over the shield and strike at an exposed gap in it's arm wielding it's shield. The slash wasn't deep but he did see that it had taken about 5% of it's HP. ‘Tanking fucker aren't you.’ He figured.
The two were now locked in a duel against one another. Barry launched another strike at the knight from the left but was responded with a swift deflection from it's own sword. It then followed it up with a shield bash but narrowly missed, Barry having to dash to the side to avoid it.
More players tried to make it past the knight while Barry distracted it which made it difficult for the knight to focus. It tried to attack the players but everytime it did, Barry would try to aim at it's exposed gaps in it's armor, causing it to defend itself. A few people had managed to make it through almost unharmed. ‘Perfect.’ Barry was relieved that his plan to aggro the knight was working.
But suddenly Barry could feel his speed and strength dropping at different moments in his duel, the stacks that he had accumulated with his title were slowly wearing off. He would have to attack new zombies that he hadn't fought before in order to regain those stat bonuses, yet at the same time he couldn't because he had to distract the knight.
The fight was eventually turning from a draw into a one-sided duel with the knight who seemed would be the victor in the end. More zombies were now being called for inside the pond to rip and tear down the people that were in the pond. ‘This isn't looking good, I really hope they find the item quickly.’.
Block, evade, block, was all Barry was able to do now that his temporary buffs were gone. He was locked in combat with the knight, his stamina was getting drained with each moment, he had to do something.
He glanced back and saw that there were people still behind him, simply watching him as they fought off a couple of zombies, unsure of whether to jump in or not. Barry had an idea but it would possibly require their lives. Once again he felt a burning sensation inside that was uncomfortable ‘No, not again.’.
A much older man, one of the people fighting off some zombies, shouted. “Leave it to us! Get in there and find the item!”
The feeling inside Barry seemed to dissipate somewhat but still lingered, he was still able to move on his own without his body acting on its own. He decided to accept the man's words, it would be the first person that actually offered him help.
Barry waited for the best opportunity to bypass the knight and when he did, he gritted his teeth and darted in. When he did, he ate a slash that went across his back as he ran through, yelling out “FUCK!”. His HP had dropped to 65%.
The people that were behind him had stepped in to engage the knight from attacking Barry, they were it's new distraction that he had to thank.
In the pond, the few people in it were either fending off zombies or looking for the item, having made no progress it looked like.
Barry started his search by dunking his head into the water multiple times until he spotted where the item was. Despite it looking weird to most people, this was not a time to laugh and he was willing to look ridiculous if it meant finishing this damn quest.
Eventually he would find yellow text once again with the same name ‘???’ above it where it was. He rushed to it and started digging up the dirt in the water until he felt something metal and pulled it out. It was a tin capsule.
Inside was a golden engraved ring with purple text above it saying ‘Noble's Ring’. Along with it was another potion vial with purple liquid inside with green font reading ‘Wisdom Potion +2’. He swiftly pocketed the two items.
Every person there then received a notification window indicating that another quest item has been retrieved.
One of the people fending off the zombies in the pond looked at Barry with a smile. “You did it! Awesome man-” The man did not get to finish his sentence as he was launched into the air by one of the undead knights wielding a warhammer.
“Oh shit.” Barry hopped back, just barely avoiding the knight's hammer slamming down, splashing a wave of water all around. The rest of the players that were with him were either defeated, ran away, or trying to survive in the moment.
He turned around to scurry away but bumped into another knight, falling on his assistance. He tried to zip past between it's legs but got hit by this knight's weapon, which was the lance, on his way out. His HP was getting close to danger levels now.
No way was he capable of fighting off both knights, he had to get out there quick. Getting back on his feet, he sprinted away to try and escape.
Barry would glance back at times as he made his way out of the park, only to find that the knights were slowly but surely gaining on him. He would try to scale the tallest building he could find nearby, hoping they wouldn't be able to catch him in time.
He picked a decently high office building and leaped off a car, grabbing hold of the ledge of a window and proceeded to climb. He looked back and saw one of the knights lift a mini car and chuck it at him. He leaped above again, avoiding the car and grabbing onto the next window. ‘Great, now they’re throwing crap at me.’.
The other two knights began demolishing the building structure, trying to cause it to collapse while the other one threw a variety of large objects at him. He felt like he was in one of those old arcade games with that italian plumber.
Barry could feel the building losing stability and just when he reached the top, the whole front of the building came crashing down. He did not dare to look back down, he laid on his back panting from exhaustion. He was at 10% stamina or so, he needed a rest or something to get back on his feet again.
All he needed was two more items and this whole quest would be over. He looked at the map and saw that the rest of the items were in the west, but something had alarmed him.
The red dot that, indicated the boss, was moving at a steady pace towards him and it was nearby.
The building began to shake and Barry instantly got up when something erupted from beneath the roof. It was two of the knights that decided to join him up top. “Could you guys just fuck off…”.
One of the knights lunged forward, thrusting it’s sword at him dead center. Barry reacted by diving off the building and landing in a dumpster that was in the alleys. He was back on the run again.
He quickly got out of the dumpster, now smelling like spoiled meat and rancid eggs.
Barry leaned against one of the building walls trying to catch his breath. A blue screen popped up and a voice spoke, it was the same one he heard from the TV announcement. “Heya contestant! It seems like you are on your last legs, still feeling confident that you’ll make it?” The system’s tone was sad, it was as if he was going to be disappointed if Barry was going to die.
Things were looking very bleak for him, but even still, he was determined to make it out of the mess he was in. “I will make it out of this shit hole of an event and YOU WILL tell me about myself. So DON’T count me out just yet!” Barry felt a fire igniting inside him, he was even more motivated to keep going.
“I LOVE IT!” The system shouted in excitement. “We want to see you succeed and watch how far you will go as you proceed through ‘Lost Adventure!’.
Barry noticed the ground rumbling with the sound of thousands of footsteps and ghastly moans in the air. He looked ahead and saw a tidal wave of corpses entering through the alley. And there sitting on top of a hill of undead was the king staring down at him with it’s cold red soul piercing eyes.
“Now show us contestant! How badly you want to live!” The system then closed the window, awaiting Barry’s next point of action with wonder.
Barry looked behind and saw the knights had caught up to him. HP and stamina at critical low, resources low, and the burning desire inside to make it through the wall of death he was facing.
His eyes scanned for a way out but there was none…except maybe another man-hole that he could use to escape like before. And there was one that he could spot ahead towards the king.
Barry gathered everything he had inside and exploded in a burst of speed. The air breezing past his ears, watching his stamina drain rapidly.
The king rose from his throne in a striking and powerful pose with his halberd raised high, possibly ready to strike Barry down as soon as he got close.
Barry was now choking, gasping for air. He dolphin dived towards the man-hole before his stamina was depleted and hoped he would be given the option to teleport.
The king was a couple of seconds away from taking a swing when the same window about a hidden room appeared, asking him if he wanted to enter. The man-hole had illuminated it’s same bright light around him.
The king twirled his halberd around and swung it at his head just before Barry shouted out a demanding “YES!”.
The light from the man-hole swallowed him and once again his vision went white.
He reappeared in a similar room as the one before. Barry laid still, unmoving. His body wanted to rest but he himself wanted to press on. When he looked up, there was another portrait but this time with the image of a kingdom up in flames.
Barry crawled forward to touch it and when he did, he felt his head being filled with images like before.
He saw the people of the kingdom coughing, thousands of civilians ill and being treated in churches. Then he saw a mob of people enraged with torches and weapons, burning down buildings that were housing the ill. Chaos erupted in the kingdom it seemed.
The images stopped filming in his head and he came back to reality. The portrait pushed back and slided over, revealing another small chest. He reached up and grabbed it, holding it in his hands close to his chest.
The light in the center of the room illuminated again, calling for him. Barry got up on his knees and stumbled over, his vision shaking.
“I need to…I need to complete…this stupid fucking quest…” He collapsed on the ground in front of the exit, going into a deep sleep.