[System]: Game Paused
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s go, Lydia!”
Now, I get it, the situation wasn’t looking too good. I was getting eaten by lions, the person in charge of saving me has no clue what she was doing, and death was just a few seconds away.
But that was fine. Those few seconds could last a literal eternity. As long as Lydia didn’t do something stupid.
[System (admin)]: Hey! Roland! Can you hear me?
[System (admin)]: Roland?
[System (admin)]: Roland!?
I tried accessing my main menu. Still dark, and it didn’t look like it was recharging.
F*ck.
I looked around. I could move, but I was disembodied. Couldn’t eat, couldn’t touch, couldn’t feel. Of all the ways to go…
The horror struck me all at once. Was I going to be stuck like this? Floating around like a ghost? Oh dear god… please no.
I looked up at the floating hologram of Lydia’s face. “Lydia! I’m here!” I waved my arms. “Lydia!”
If she could see me, she gave no indication. Her hologram was frozen. Just like the rest of the world.
I waved, jumped, stomped. Nothing registered, nothing changed. I was just… stuck.
No. No. No. No. No. No.
“Lydia!” I tried opening the main menu. {Static} Charging… 23 hours until completion.
23 hours?
My heart soared.
Then I saw Lydia’s message.
[System (admin)]: Roland! Please tell me you’re still there? Roland? You’re not… you’re not gone, are you?
“Wait! I’m still here!”
[System (admin)]: /live
[System (admin)]: /ressurect
[System (admin)]: BRING HIM BACK YOU JERK!
“Lydia?”
[System (admin)]: /playerinfo
[System (processing)]:
My body lit up suddenly with an ethereal glow. Glowing stats and info tidbits appeared, drifting through the air.
User: Roland Frost
Stats:
HP:3/110
Str:11
Int:11
Dex:11
Char:6
Lck: {Nan}
System Status: BATTERYGONE
[System (admin)]: Oh… you’re alive. Thank god.
I sat down. I checked the System notification again. 23 hours still. I gritted my teeth. Fear quickly faded into relief, then annoyance.
What? Time out for a whole day? Come on!
[System (admin)]: Wait, why aren’t you talking to me? Can you see my messages? Roland! This isn’t the time for jokes! You had me scared there!
“Well, I am responding.” I deadpanned. “You just can’t hear me.”
[System (admin)]: Right, the battery is dead. Let me see…
[System (admin)]: /charge {computer}
[System (admin)]: /charge {PC-232ENO}
[System (admin)]: /charge PC-232ENO
There was a brief pop up.
[System (linking)]: Status, on
Then the main menu appeared.
“There we go!”
[System (user)]: Good going, Lydia! Can you see this?
[System (admin)]: OH GOSH YOU’RE BACK! Thank the big guy upstairs, you had me so worried.
I managed a slight smile.
[System (user)]: Nw
[System (user)]: /help
A list of commands appeared. I swiped down, scrolling and reading.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
[System (user)]: /kill {all:species=lion}
[System (processing)]:
[System]: Access denied
F*ck.
I stomped my foot. Damnit! Just when I thought there was going to be an easy way out…
Well, that was fine. I scanned the commands. There had to be something useful.
[System (user)]: /call video
There was a pop, and Lydia’s face appeared on my main menu screen.
“Roland?”
I smiled. “Lydia! Good to see you!”
Her face brightened. I know, know, but that was the best way I could describe it. See, Lydia was one of those people with a special knack for looking happy. The sides of her mouth would go up ever so slightly, her gaze would soften, and she would have this tiniest glint in her eyes, like a child having just received some wonderful present.
She was energetic, happy, pretty too. Just the type of girl I’d stare at all day at school. I wouldn’t talk to her, of course, I never had the courage. Even now, I found my tongue getting tied. The pain of death had worn off, and I was finding it to not be so bad after all.
See, fear of death was a completely legitimate desire. But fear of talking to girls? That was primal. It runs deep, all the way into my blood and bones. Getting eaten by lions? Painful enough. But dear god… the thought of embarrassing myself in front of her terrifies me more than anything.
Imagine my pain then, when she spoke again. “This was too hard, wasn’t it? Want me to tone the difficulty down?”
Oh yes. Hell yes! You better bet I did! But a slight problem, you see. My lizard brain had just remembered that she was a pretty girl.
“Hard?” I spread my arms. “No, no, not at all! Everything is fine.”
The blank stare I received would’ve given my parents a run for their money. “Um… Roland?”
“Yes?” I plastered on a fake smile.
“You’re bleeding in a dozen places, your windpipe got crushed, and you’re getting mauled by lions! Are you quite sure that you’re okay?”
Ok, I’ll admit, she had a point. I forced my fake smile wider. “What can I say, I like challenges!”
Worst lie I’ve ever told in my life, but it seemed to impress her. “You have… unconventional tastes.” She spoke with some enthusiasm. “Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it at least!”
I gave my best impression of a soldier’s salute. “Of course! Anything to improve!”
Did that sound fake? Well… I can only hope.
“So… how do you plan on getting out of-” Her voice trailed off.
“Right.” I looked at my physical body again.
I would say I was in a bit of a predicament, but that was the understatement of the century. Getting chewed on by lions was, decidedly, not very fun.
I checked my stats again. 3 HP to work with, with god knows how many debuffs and bleed stacked on top of it. Overall… not looking too good.
“Well…” I looked at the system. “I guess I can explore this thingy a bit?”
Hopefully, something here would save my skin.
Level {5} Reward Unlocked:
First skill evolution! (click to see more)
Level {6} Reward unlocked:
Reward card (click to see more)
Huh? Skill evolution?
I selected it. 3 options greeted me.
Evolution: Auditory sensors
AI may now detect sound from the outside world and directly input into model.
Evolution: Net access
AI receives ability to access the wider web. [note: web is still constrained by date, limited to last time {user} accessed the internet]
Evolution: Storefront
{User} may purchase products from the AI at a set price. Storefront is to include basic household amenities, and restock every month.
Huh…
“Are you seeing this?” I asked.
Lydia nodded. “I do. It’s just that they seem…”
“Rather useless.” I finished for her.
Sure, all of them looked neat, on paper at least. But none of them got me out of this specific situation. I clicked on the skill tree, hoping for more. The results were… disheartening.
Each evolution tree had it’s own branch of skills, several hundred interconnected nodes rising upwards in convoluted patterns that would make star constellations jealous. Near the very end of each tree, I saw a golden node, surrounded by an impressive looking border art.
I clicked on each.
[Final] Evolution: Superintelligence mothership
{User’s} existing cyborg fleet is fully integrated with a continent spanning mothership. Existing biological powers and memories fully transferred to a technological supermind.
Minimum level requirement: 1000
[see more notes…]
God damn.
I selected another.
[Final] Evolution: The singularity
{AI} gains ability to process information on a multiversal level. All human knowledge possible to obtain may be obtained.
Minimum level requirement: 1000
[see more notes…]
Then another.
[Final] Evolution: The World Catalog
{User} may custom build and purchase any item from the catalog with a galaxy’s mass equivalent. All items 99% off.
Minimum level requirement: 1000
[see more notes…]
“Well… damn. Talk about a lategame. Maybe heading off into warhammer 40k wouldn’t have been such a bad choice after all.”
“You’d have died in the first 2 minutes.” Lydia pointed out.
Wait… she knew about 40k? How? Well, I guess it wasn’t important, but still.
I grimaced. “Well, fair enough. But still. Look how cool it is!”
Not that I’d live long enough to see it, at this rate. I frowned. What could be useful?
I looked at the skill trees. Each seemed to be based off the original evolutions to some extent. They’d then get… exaggerated. Web access becomes tank blueprints. Audio and visual detectors become a full on cyborg, a shop becomes a supermarket, and so on. It’d have made for fun and engaging gameplay, if it wasn’t so damn hard to get up there.
Sure, a variety of things could’ve saved me in that moment. The immorality flask from the shop, a cyborg body from a skill upgrade, a bullshit powerful singularity AI that could somehow convince the crowd to save me. But those were too expensive. I was lv7, not lv 700.
That left one thing then.
Level 7 level up reward (select one):
+2 skill points (can be used to upgrade abilities)
X5 battery life
Lucky Block
I frowned. “Lydia? What’s in the lucky block? Do you know?”
I heard some clicking on her end. “Hold on… let me see… oh dear.”
I looked at her screen and gulped. “Right.”
This damn thing had everything. And when I say everything, yes, I do mean everything. Shoes, socks, bread and salt. Guns, tanks, flagpoles, bones. Real and fake, dead or alive… it had everything.
There was only one slight problem. Everything had a drop rate of less than 1%. If I picked this, I’d have no idea what I was going to get. At all. It could be a futuristic lasgun that magically zaps all of the lions. Or it could by my grandma’s knitting needles. It was the very definition of a fool’s gamble. But what other choice did I have?
I checked my main menu. The system was still charging, but the process was going remarkably fast. I was at 80% already. Well, not much point in waiting then. I took a breath.
“Ok… so… here’s the plan. I pick the lucky block. We see what happens. You can uhh… I don’t know. Maybe use /playerinfo? Who knows, maybe the glow will scare the lions.”
Lydia didn’t look too optimistic. “And if you’re unlucky?”
“Well… guess I’ll try again. There’s never anything else to do, is there? Besides, why do I have to be afraid of! I’ve died twice already, what more could they possibly do to me?”
Terribly naive, as I would find out sometime later. But that’s a story for another day.
And so I took a breath. “Ok.” I selected the lucky block. “Three. Two. Ooooneee!” My voice turned into a scream.
The lions stumbled back as a giant yellow block appeared in front of me. It was golden, with a question mark carved into each of the cube’s six faces. My entire body was glowing, and symbols and letters floated above my head. In the distance, the crowd begun pointing, staring. They saw.
I immediately lunged for the lucky block. Time wasn’t on my side. My bloodied hands punched through the box. “Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on.”
A thousand images flashed as the lucky block broke. Guns, knives, banners, flagpoles, trash cans, shirts, jewels, animals… so many things, so many creatures, that I couldn’t even begin to keep track of them all. But gradually the flood died down, and I saw the flickering slow.
Snap. There was a plop, and my salvation appeared.
The smell was heavenly. Just the tiniest hint of it brought back memories. Days in a car, in a comfortable road trip as trees and flowers rolled by. Back home after a long day, relaxing after some grueling classes at school. Or just messing around with friends, laughing and joking and goofing around.
In the moment, I forgot about the colosseum, the lions, everything. All I could think of was fond memories, and the gnawing hunger in my stomach. Huh… right… it’s been so long since I’ve eaten.
I opened a box, and popped a piece in my mouth, smiling stupidly the entire time. Lydia stared at the side, gobsmacked.
“Chicken Mcnuggets?”
Right. Lydia didn’t know a thing about computers, but even she recognized Mcdonalds!
I devoured an entire box before a growl shook me out of it.
Right. I wasn’t the only hungry one. There was lions too.
Uh oh.
I stared at the box in front of me. The ripped outsides of the lucky block was still there, but much of it was torn now, tattered. Inside, however, countless boxes of Mcnuggets were stacked, a meter tall and wide. There had to be enough for a small army in there.
Shame, I had the food, but no army!
Not that it mattered anyways. As my blood dripped down into the sandy pits, I closed my eyes to await the end. I waited… and waited…
HP: 10/110
Huh?
Wait a hot minute… I could swear I had more than that just a few seconds ago.
I opened up the main menu again, pausing the world once more. As my eyes focused in on the text, my mouth went wide.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed like a demon.
[System]: HP 23/110 (+20)
Then, I felt it again. The trusty, energizing feeling of determination. I stared at the lions. “You’re all boutta have a real bad time.”