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World: MSS - Loading...
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
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The stark contrast between the flash of light that enveloped me prior and the total darkness I was in now was jarring. I felt like I was in a dark room with the windows shut and the lights turned off. Covered in nothingness, I tried to move my arms, legs, turn my head and everything else I could think of. However there was no response from my body.
“Am I really in MSS?”
My instincts told me yes. As impossible as it was, I had been transported inside the game. A dozen questions popped up in my head. Who were the developers? Was I dreaming? How would I get back home?
But one question silenced them all: How was I going to survive?
MSS was no place for people. It was set in the Continent of Ales where all different types of fictional races and mythical creatures existed. I had seen what happened to regular NPCs that stepped foot outside the city walls. I wouldn't survive two seconds out here.
“Survive by understanding where I am first. If this really is MSS, I might have a chance.”
Before I could finish my thoughts, the first of my sensations returned and it was touch. Someone was slapping me. Then my hearing was back.
“Wake up.”
Hearing the gruff voice stirred something within me and everything seemed to just click. I was able to open my eyes and look at where I was.
I was in a tunnel, surrounded by rocks on all sides. There were torches lined along the walls and from them I could see that the tunnel stretched on, much further than I could see.
Looking up I saw a face I had not expected to see. Ever.
He had dark green skin and two tusks jutting from the lower side of his mouth. I knew it was a man because he wore a loincloth but he was crouched in a sitting position revealing his genitals for me. I had seen this face before as a combination of pixels but never in real life, yet the resemblance was undeniable. I recognized immediately what he was and tried not to let the fear show on my face.
“An orc.”
One of the six starting races that were available when starting a new game. Was it possible that I was reborn as an orc?
“Good. You awake.” When he stood, his johnson’s head underneath the loincloth came dangerously close to brushing against my face.
I tried to move my arms and realizing that my wrists were bound by rope, studied the orc instead. His head was almost touching the ceiling and his muscles rippled with each movement. I squashed my plan for trying to fight back immediately. I knew without a doubt that if he had wanted to hurt me, it wouldn’t be much of a fight. I looked down at my legs and found that they weren’t the deep-green, light-purple or snow-white color of orcs in MSS. Instead they were kind of pale and light-colored.
“You.”
I jolted and looked at the orc.
“Stand up.”
Seeing that I was struggling to stand, the orc just picked me up like a child with one hand and set me down. It was only standing next to him that I realized how much smaller I was than him. There was a instinctive fear that came from being in close proximity to a sentient being so much larger. Especially in the tunnels, it felt like I was locked in a cage with an animal.
“Walk human.”
I obeyed and walked in front of him down the tunnels.
“Ok. Stay calm. Let’s think about everything that I know so far.”
1. There was an Orc in front of me, leading me down the tunnels.
2. My wrists were bound and I was his prisoner or something similar.
3. I was human, not an orc.
4. I was most likely in MSS.
When I put all these facts together, I could only draw one conclusion.
“Shit, am I in the slave preset?”
MSS always started by allowing you to choose your race but that was where the player’s choice ended. The player’s character could be thrown in any number of starting scenarios. If you were lucky you could be born into a noble family inside the city walls. Some of the more common starting scenarios started with you as a regular citizen of whatever nation you were in, especially if you were human, elf or dwarf. Starting as a Slave was definitely not one of the common ones.
Why? 99% of the time you died in the first five minutes.
“It’s ok. Just survive. That’s my number one priority. Don't get distracted.” I tried to convince myself that it was not that bad.
MSS was brutally hard, yes. But it never set impossible tasks in front of the players. There was always, always a way.
My captor led me down the tunnels and I began to hear the clamoring of people talking. Soon we got to the exit of the tunnels and he pushed me through. Bright light assaulted my senses and made me realize that I was staring at the sun. I closed my eyes to calm them and opened them again, trying to make sense of the situation.
The opening led us to the bottom of a huge canyon. I saw hundreds of people, most of them human though there were a good number of other races mixed into the crowd. Elves, beastman and even dwarves were present. All of them had their wrists bound with rope like me. Some of them were sporting bruises on their faces like they had been beaten down. Most of the noise had been from them. I saw each individual dealing with this situation differently. Some had sunk to their knees and laughed in disbelief while others sobbed. Still, I saw others staring straight ahead with calculating eyes, trying to look for a way out of this.
“So it's not just me.”
The orc pushed me again, growling.
“Run again and I kill you.” He drew a line over his neck using his thumb to illustrate his point.
“Ok.”
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“Ooh-kay?” The orc frowned like he just heard a strange word then glared at me. “Curse word?”
“I understand!” I tried to wave my hands in front of me but failed due to the binding on my wrists.
He made a strange chuffing sound, breathing hard out his nose. I saw him eye me up and down.
“Ah. Shit.”
My brain registered the pain before my eye saw the punch. I doubled over, agony spreading slowly from my gut to my chest. I tried to breathe in but all I could manage was little gulps of air, wheezing like a fish on dry land.
“Walk.” He grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me in the direction of the stairs.
We reached the bottom of the stairs, the pseudo-courtyard area where all the other prisoners had been gathered. With every step, I stirred the orange-red sand, kicking up miniature clouds of dust around my legs. There were only a few places in MSS that had this climate and only one region which had green skinned orcs.
“Samaka Desert.” Now I had a bit more information than before which was progress.
There was a platform built into the cliffside and I saw a group of orcs approach it. While most of the orcs remained at the bottom of the stairs, a few orcs climbed the stairs and took place on the stage. One bearded orc stood out in particular, mostly due to the fact that his armor was composed completely of bone. One of his shoulder guards was made of a large reptilian skull. Two men, both elven, came rushing onto the stage carrying a stand with a large crystal orb on it. They placed it in front of the bearded orc and left just as quickly.
The bearded orc placed one hand on the orb and spoke, his voice amplified.
“Attention.”
The courtyard fell silent. The only thing that could be heard was the stifled sobs but that disappeared soon enough.
“I am Warchief Thoktur. You have all been brought here to be given a chance.”
I noticed some of the slaves looked up with expectant eyes. Maybe there was a chance to get out of this situation?
“You have been given a chance to serve the great horde of Samaka!” He roared and raised one fist in the air.
It was one thing to theorize that this was the Samaka desert, another to have it confirmed for me. I was in half disbelief, that this could all be a bad dream or a candid camera prank on a TV show. But the harsh sun beating down on us, the air so dry that I felt like coughing every time I took a breath, the red dust that seemed to stain the entire place in scarlet, these were all only pointing to one thing.
“It can't be.”
This really was MSS.
Just in time every single orc enforcer that was on the ground with us roared in unison, shaking the air with their voice. I looked back and forth between the canyon walls, afraid that it would start a rock slide. Warchief Thoktur continued with his speech.
“You will be given equipment. Training. And the best among you will even be allowed to absorb Cores of your choosing.”
I felt my eyes go wide with shock at the mention of Cores. The essence of MSS was Cores. They were referred to as Spirit Cores and could only be attained by killing monsters. Absorbing a Core into your character allowed you to inherit a part of the monster's powers, namely its Stats, Passive and Ability. Cores were the lifeblood of a character’s build, how they would fight and be treated by others.
“Not characters. People now.” I had to remind myself.
“But not all will receive this honor. The Samaka Horde has no room for the weak.” He pointed at the tunnels I just came out of.
“All of you will enter. Only a few will survive.”
The sobbing started up again.
“There are monsters. But there are also weapons. Precious few might even find a Core.”
I was standing next to a male elf with clear skin and teal-looking hair. I noticed him first as he began to shake. What I imagined was fear was actually indignancy, he spoke up loudly enough to be heard.
“You can’t do this! Do you know who I am?!”
All the prisoners looked at him with a mixture of shock, fear and awe. He was doing what everyone was thinking of doing but no one could work up the guts to do.
“I am Thenolian of house-” The elf never got to finish what he was saying because the orc behind him grabbed him by the hair and kicked him in the knees.
When the elf was down, the orc began to kick him and stomp on his face. I saw the elf curl up into a ball and try to protect himself but he was against a 7-foot tall orc warrior. Even in-game stats wise, an untrained Elf's [Physical] stats would never measure up to an trained orc warrior's. From the corner of my eye I noticed that the other prisoners were staring at the scene with undisguised horror.
I forced myself not to look, keeping my eyes fixed on the stadium. It must have taken about five minutes but I knew it was over when the elf’s whimpers turned to silence.
He had been beaten to death.
Like I said, 99% of those in the slave preset died in the first few minutes.
Warchief Thoktur had kindly waited for the elf to be finished being beaten to death. He continued speaking like nothing had happened and in his defense, nothing probably did. Killing a defiant slave was the same as throwing out a sheet of toilet paper after he wiped his ass clean, just part of everyday life.
“The door will be open for seven days.” Thoktur finished. “Or until we have 100 warriors emerge.”
“100?! There’s at least triple that number here.” I tried not to move my head too much as I tried to get a rough count of how many slaves there were.
I saw a dwarf who was doing the same and he narrowed his eyes, suspicion all over his face. Then he quickly turned his face, breaking eye contact. Everywhere I looked it was the same. Some eyes looked pleading while other looked resigned. But most of the eyes I met were glowing with hostility.
“With that one sentence he turned us all into enemies.” I realized.
The orcs led us one by one towards racks that held various weaponry. It was being managed by an elf wearing glasses and armor similar to the orcs. From what I could guess, he was most likely a slave who had survived this entire process.
“Ok then!” His voice was chipper despite the harsh sun and the dour mood that the slaves radiated. “You may choose one weapon! Then off to the entrances you go!”
He pointed to the cliff walls where I had come out from. There wasn’t just one entrance but hundreds of them built into the rock, some of the lower ones having stairs and the higher ones having ladders. It made sense, if we all went in through one entrance, it’d most likely be a bloodbath. While I was contemplating this, another slave mustered the courage to speak up. Perhaps because it wasn’t an orc we were talking to, but an elf.
“It’s unfair! Those who get there first will have an advantage!”
The elf beamed at the crowd, friendly. But I knew how this was going to go.
“Good question! Who said that?”
The beastman raised his hand. He had white pointed ears on top of his head like a cat. The elf with glasses walked up to the cat beastman and grabbed him by the ears pulling.
“Don’t you worry! Our orc masters won’t let you enter until everyone is in front of an entrance! Any other questions?!”
“O-Ow! Ow! S-Stop it! It hurts!”
“I said, any other questions?!” The elf pulled harder.
“C-Can we choose the same entrance as o,others?!” The cat beastman must have been stupid because I don’t think he understood what was happening.
The elf took out a dagger in one smooth movement and slit the beastman’s throat. He left the beastman gurgling on the ground, wiping the blood off of his dagger on the corpse’s shirt.
“The answer to that is, a resounding yes!” The smile never left his face.
There were no more questions after that and we formed multiple lines to pick our respective weapons. I looked carefully at what most of the other slaves were choosing. Long-reaching weapons like spears and longswords were popular. Also others chose something that they could use with ease, like a warhammer or an axe. Before I could make my decision, I was being led to the weapon rack by my orc.
“Choose.” He grumbled as he cut the ropes around my wrist. “Fast.”
I looked around at the weapons. I had never touched one in my entire life.
“That doesn’t matter now. I have to choose one.”
I could have chosen something easy to use like a hammer or greataxe. They were big and wouldn’t require much skill, I just needed to aim carefully and swing. Daggers were out of the question. Then there were the spears and whips which would let me keep others at a distance.
“No. It doesn’t matter what the weapon is, I can’t use it too well anyways. What I really need is something to defend myself with.” I skipped through all the popular weapons and found what I was looking for at the end of the rack.
A shield and shortsword.
They were filthy, crusted with blood and rust. But they would have to do. I picked them up and turned around to find the orc looking at me.
“Good, fast.” He commented and led me to the cliff side. “Choose entrance.”
Like how I had been meticulous about choosing the shield over other weapons, I had to be careful about choosing my starting point. I already saw some of the slaves choose the same entrance. Most of them were of the same race and speaking in low whispers, most likely trying to convince the other to work together. But the rare few had more sinister reasons. I saw a large man choose the same entrance as a young elf girl, blatantly leering at her.
“I said fast.” The orc reminded me.
I forcibly turned my eyes away from those already taken.
“Think. Think.” I had to gain every advantage I could with every choice I made.
In the end I decided to choose one of the entrances at the very top that could only be reached by a ladder.
“I don’t think the others will want to spend their energy climbing a ladder before entering the tunnel and since it’s high up, maybe I’ll have some sort of high ground advantage.” It wasn’t science but it was the best I could do.
By the time we reached the top, I was sweating and out of breath. I barely raised my torso over the ladder head, rolling sideways and lying flat on the ground. My captor was right behind me and besides the sheen of sweat on his brow, he seemed fine.
“Get up.” He ordered.
I obeyed, albeit much slower than before. I looked over the edge of the platform and saw that while we had spent the time climbing the ladder, the rest of the slaves had chosen their weapons and stood at an entrance. I was the only one who had chosen an entrance this high up, the ones on the same height as mine were empty.
“That means I won’t see anyone. I hope.” I gulped.
A shrill call was heard through the canyon, bouncing off the walls and alerting everyone.
My captor walked me over to the rusted metal door and he opened it, gesturing me inside. It creaked, which echoed down the tunnel. While the tunnels I had seen before were lit by torches, this one had magic stones embedded in the walls, giving off a soft bluish-white glow.
“In.” That was all he said.
I stepped inside the door and he shut the door behind me.
Click.
Bang.
He locked the door.
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