Congratulations Players!

The date is October 1st, 2050.

You have all either survived 1 year in, or have been born into, the system!

Surviving Player Count: 75,312,004

New Player Count: 1,202,652

Welcome to the next Zone Shift!

Also, be on the lookout for “Rifts”. These difficult encounters for determined and capable players will provide incredibly lucrative and powerful rewards.

Last, but not least, please congratulate Mahamadou Dembele in Koulikoro, Mali for being the highest leveled player after 1 year at Level 43!

Thank you all for your continued participation and good luck over the next year!

So 43 was the highest after a year? I was only able to see Texas player leaderboards and Armistice had climbed his way up to Level 37. This put him as the 4th highest in the state. 2 players were Level 38 and someone named Lewis D held the current title as #1 in Texas as a Level 40. The separation between the best players was minimal. This gave me a little bit of hope. We were behind. All of us were. I was still the highest leveled player in the Commonwealth along with Lincoln and we were only Level 28. The bell curve was extraordinary though. Whilst 12 levels behind the #1 in the state, Lincoln and I were still in the top 3% of players in Texas. We had to get better though, we had to move up faster than we had been. Much of the time since the fight with Liberty was spent on development of the Commonwealth and preparing for another assault.

For my Level 28 passive skill, I had selected [Light Ammo]. The ability gave me an unknown percentage reduction on the amount of energy I consumed through gun fire abilities. [Quickdraw] and [Ranger’s Mark] weren’t affected, but I could feel a decent amount of improvement as far as the other 3.

I had also taken up [Cartography] as a crafting skill. The loss of Graham had proved horrible in a lot more ways than one. One of those ways was the loss of our area maps. Sure, other people could have learned the skill, but learning it myself made me feel close to him in an odd way.

I had also gotten a decent series of gear upgrades over the past few months. I was still using my (Black Dawn Pistols), but the rest of it had been upgraded. After 3 months since the Battle of Harehill, as the Commonwealth had started calling it, my Profile was looking very improved.

NAME

Jeremiah, L.

CLASS

Sharpshooter Ranger

LEVEL

28 (15%)

GOLD

5,991

STRENGTH

10

DEXTERITY

63 (21+42)

WISDOM

25

AGILITY

49 (28+21)

CRAFTING SKILLS

Cooking (3)

Cartography (3)

SPECIAL SKILLS

Diplomacy (4)

ACTIVE SKILLS

Multi-Shot (15)

Quickdraw (11)

Ranger's Mark (8)

Cover Fire (4)

Full Metal Jacket (4)

PASSIVE SKILLS

Tracker (10)

Resolve (9)

Bone Piercing (8)

Analyze (5)

Discovery (3)

Light Ammo (1)

MAIN-HAND

Black Dawn Pistols (15R)

[+11 DEX]

OFF-HAND

N/A

HEAD

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

Brazos Stetson (20U)

[+7 DEX, +6 AGI]

CHEST

Zombie Flesh Jacket (18R)

[+7 DEX, +7 AGI]

LEGS

West Texas Trousers (18R)

[+10 DEX, +4 AGI]

BOOTS

Palo Pinto Jackboots (22C)

[+7 DEX, +4 AGI]

The Zone Shift provided little change to our area. A few adjoining counties moved from 11-20 to 21-30 or vice versa. It seemed that to get to the Level 30 areas, we’d have to venture into a city or, at the very least, ride a few counties over to Palo Pinto where the level range was now 31-40. I had gone there once or twice to scout it out and found some new enemy types that were intimidating to say the least.

There were a few good things that had happened in the last couple of months. For one, we had been left mostly alone. Ever since we fought off the Red Liberty, we hadn’t heard a word. Hell, even their I-20 territories had seen a pull back of influence. Pastor Gabriel had been acting as a messenger between the Commonwealth and Eastland. Danny had taken charge of the town and was tasked to be the lead vassal along with Dr. Riley. According to Danny, the damage we did to the Liberty was near irreparable. They were still hurting severely 3 months later. We took out a combined total of almost 500 of the Liberty’s 900 or so regular troops. In return, we had lost comparably far far fewer troops. Between the explosion and the termites, we beat them with over 50 dead for every 1 of ours. The Liberty Army had literally been cut in half.

The second good thing that had occurred in the past few months were the addition of several more Rabbitfolk villages in the north. We now had a total 11 Rabbitfolk settlements ranging from Harehill to the south-east of Moran all the way to Hopford a few miles south of Throckmorton. We had claimed a sizable chunk of rural Texas. Additionally, the settlements we already had have advanced considerably. Our prior Rabbitfolk population of 440 or so in July had ballooned to around 750 by today. Every day that number went up even further. Roughly 20 trade caravans moved between our transport network daily. We had laid claim to the land.

The third good thing resulted directly from the second. With a large population and network, we were catching human players from all walks of life. We had found 48 people in the last 3 months. We also saw the addition of Lincoln and the remaining wolf-riders. The left their guild to become full-fledged members of the Commonwealth. All in all, we now sat at 113 human players. Myself, Cain, and Lincoln were all tied as the three highest leveled players in the Commonwealth and all of us were in the top 3% of Texas.

The fourth, and last, major good thing was the implementation of democracy. We had decided to hold our first election for President and the 4 Council Members on January 1st. So far, the running was mostly unopposed, but we felt like it was an important policy to implement. It made everyone feel a bit better about everything. We had seen the negative impacts that came from unopposed dictators and had no wish to repeat that here. This was our home and we were going to keep it that way.

—————————————

Outside Harehill, Harehill Commonwealth

“Great job, Kat.” Nick clapped his hands as he watched the Level 18 Shifter move from her Dwarf Gryphon form back into her human body.

Katrina gave a smile. “I need to level up a few more times if I’m going to start going to the top dungeons with the rest of you guys.”

Nick shook his head. “You shouldn’t compare yourself to us. We’ve had more time.”

Katrina shrugged. “We’ve got the entire council doing dungeons all the time. Meanwhile, I’m over here doing fetch quests for the villages.”

“The Throckmorton dungeon is recommended Level 26. You’re still a long ways out from that. Maybe you could find a dungeon around your level? Jackson just hit 21 yesterday. He could help you.”

“The low levels don’t have the teamwork you guys do. You know that.”

Nick gave it some thought. It was true that the lower levels were a lot more divided between brackets. They didn’t have enough people to have ‘something for everyone’. Instead, everyone under 25 had been ordered to just do their best to level up. A lot of people had found duo or trio partners to level up with. Katrina hadn’t gotten along with anyone besides Nick, and this had led to a lot of Nick’s time being spent killing monsters that gave him no experience or usable loot. If Katrina wasn’t so pretty, he would have minded more. “You gotta find some friends your level. You aren’t going to be able to take on dungeons if you keep hanging out with me.”

Katrina laughed. “Well, who really needs dungeons anyways?”

Nick rolled his eyes. “I’ll look into it and talk to J. Maybe I can come up with a solution? Come on. Let’s get back to town.”

——————————

Training Range, Harehill Commonwealth

Lincoln threw the knife forwards, watching it wedge itself in the inner red circle, just outside the bullseye. “I don’t understand…my dexterity skill is higher than yours.”

Elsa threw her own knife, watching it land directly on the bullseye. “Just because there are game systems doesn’t mean the old world rules don’t apply anymore.” She walked forward, retrieving the six knives from the straw dummy they had set up for practice. “You still need to practice and learn every new weapon.”

Lincoln took his trio of knives back from her. “So you think there’s like…hidden stats?”

Elsa shrugged. “Would you call someone who was good at piano in the old world a high level piano player? I think the game systems didn’t replace anything. They just added to it. I can’t shoot a bow as well as you.”

Lincoln nodded. He had been taking lessons from Elsa on knives. He wanted to have a backup option in case someone got too close for him to use his bow. He very quickly learned that his skills with the bow didn’t completely transfer over. Him being consistently beat out by the Level 24 Rogue every time proved that. “You planning on going to another dungeon soon?”

She shrugged. “Jackson and Bailey are decent, I guess. One of your wolf guys…Dennis? He’s a good damage dealer. We need a solid tank.”

“He’s not ‘my guy’ anymore. We’re part of the Commonwealth just like you. Why not Kat? Her new form is pretty tanky…right?”

Elsa shrugged. “She’s 6 levels underneath me and Dennis. She’s 4 levels under Bailey and 3 under Jackson. All the tanks die before they level up. They don’t get the safety that you ranged players get.” She gave a smirk.

“Hey…I know I’m not getting accused of cowardice by the girl with the [Stealth] ability.”

She laughed. “Well that’s my point. You have to be pretty stupid to be a tank. Stupid people don’t live long.”

“I happen to think that being a tank is a very noble profession.”

“You didn’t say it wasn’t stupid.”

Lincoln smirked. “Come on, let’s throw another round.”

——————————————

Whispercreek, Harehill Commonwealth

Theresa sat across from Cain in the Whispercreek Town Hall. The town was built on a river and had started to really find its identity. Fish was plentiful here, the lute-rabbits played more folk and upbeat music, the buildings were thinner and taller, and the clothing was warmer. She was proud of him. Cain was really leading up here. “So what’s next?”

“Huh?” Cain put down a bottle of wine, something that one of the townsfolk in Whispercreek had gotten quite good at crafting. “What do you mean?”

“What’s the long term plan?”

Cain looked at her. “Same as always. We just keep building.”

Theresa sat back in her chair, staring at Cain’s bookshelf of acquired old-world texts. “It’s such a grind. It’s repetitive.”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Tess. We need to stay leveled to compete with the other guilds. We don’t know if Liberty is coming back.”

She frowned. “I mean we don’t have a purpose.”

“We do. It’s just going to take a while.” Cain sat on the old leather couch in his room and stared at the ceiling. “Every level tier we move up lets us move to more places safer and easier. If we get to 40 or 50 or 60 or 150….we can go anywhere and kill anything and everything. That’s the goal, Tess.”

Theresa shook her head. “I’ve been charting it out. With the current pace, it’s going to take decades to hit 150. That’s only if the experience required increase stays the same with each level.”

“There’s no solid numbers. You don’t know what that increase is.”

“Not exactly, but I can guess. People were hitting Level 20 after 3 months. It took almost 8 months after that to hit Level 40. If that stays the same, it’ll take like 3 years to hit 80.”

“So?”

Theresa sighed. “It’s just taking so long.”

Cain shifted over on the couch, reaching over to the chair and resting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to take time. That’s okay. We’re immortals. We’re gonna be fine.”

“Graham wasn’t fine. Rosco wasn’t fine. Matt wasn’t fine. We started this guild with 6 people and 2 of them are dead already. I don’t want to be the next one. I don’t want you to be the next one.”

“There won’t be a next one. We haven’t lost any combatant that was with us longer than a week or two to anything but other players. The monsters are an obstacle, but they really aren’t a threat anymore. We just have to clear.”

“How are you so relaxed with all of this?”

“Because I’m in charge of a town. Jeremiah is in charge of the whole Commonwealth. Nick is in charge of a dozen low-level players. Maybe you need a side-objective.”

Theresa’s eyebrows creased. “Are you saying I’m not pulling my weight?”

“No…that’s….where did you get that from? I’m saying you need a hobby, Tess.”

She stood up, moving to walk out of the room.

“Tess…where are you going?”

“To get a hobby, apparently.” The door closed behind her.

Cain laid down on the couch and sighed. Why was everything so goddamn dramatic?