Michael did not know what he had been anticipating but appearing on the edge of a wooden dock was not it. On one side of him, water stretched out into the distance as far as he could see. The surf crashed somewhere underneath the wooden pier on which he now stood. The sky was blue all around him, not a cloud in sight. The sun sat well off the water. Fake or not, Michael could feel the warmth radiating on his skin. It would have been calming if not for the silence from the city behind him.

Michael was at the edge of a city. He could see some tall skyscrapers poking out from behind the warehouses that he was surrounded by. All of it, unnaturally quiet. It was not a city of the like he had ever seen except for in pictures, but the missing sounds of people living their lives left a foreboding stretch of concrete between himself and the rest of the map.

However he really only had two options, and if there was one thing he knew. Going into a body of water in one of these survival battles was always a bad idea. Michael knew how to swim, maybe not correctly, but he could manage. However, it did not change that humans were basically sitting ducks in the water. If there was a threat in the water, and the creators always put threats in the water, they would swim circles around him and there would be little that he could do about it. Which left the eerie silent city.

Michael pulled up his tactical map. There was a tiny dot of light on the eastern edge of the map, so he zoomed in. An area of a few hundred feet was illuminated around him. Even parts that he could not see, gaps between buildings. Although those gaps were shaded slightly gray as were other areas that he could visually see. Michael would know an alley would be there as long as he came within a couple hundred feet of it, but he would not necessarily know there was a fence or a garbage dumpster, or god forbid some unspeakable horror that was waiting to invite him to dinner.

Supposedly if he went up one of those skyscrapers and looked around, his map would fill out in gray pretty well although it would not note things he did not specifically notice. The city he was on the edge of was already named, Vargas. Even the section of the city was delineated on his tactical map, Wharf district. Although the full bounds of the wharf district stretched into the black, like the rest of the map, not currently unveiled.

Michael shook his head. It was time to get to business. First things first he needed his bat. He had started in his tactical black clothes and green vest, but the bat was not in hand. It only took him a moment to fix that issue. A second later the heavy wooden bat popped into existence. He took a few quick practice swings.

It definitely felt good, he pulled up his hud and continued to swing. He could monitor his health, stamina, and other stats in the future. All without, impeding his actual vision. After several more full might swings his SP dropped. Some more swings it dropped again. Sure he was still at 98 out of 100, but it was evident he would tire quite quickly in actual battle. Michael would love to spend the time to figure out the intricacies of how things like stamina worked, but he also wanted to get to it.

Not to mention he needed to get going. Sure there were 448 days in the battle, but every minute he wasted meant others were finding resources that he would not. Not to mention, if he fell behind, the monsters would reach a level where he would have difficulty dealing with them. He needed to stay ahead of the curve. It was likely, at some point after the dust settled and contenders had a while to power up, a ranking list would come out. It would be nice to start out on it.

Still Michael could afford a couple of minutes to know how much he could push himself. Stamina was definitely based on effort exerted. He could do a bunch of casual swings before he lost a point of SP. Similarly only a couple of hard swings would drop him a point. It was good to know. He could basically walk around for a long time without his SP being affected. Only running or fighting would drain him quickly.

The other side of that was figuring out how fast it regenerated. It took hardly anytime to peg his SP regeneration at 1SP every 6 seconds. Meaning if right now, he were to bottom out, it would take a full 10 minutes to get back to full. That being said, it was a very basic understanding. From what Michael knew from other battles, the rate could vary based on a lot of factors such as when he last slept or eaten, or how often he was continually draining SP.

Despite not eating or sleeping for a rather long time, Michael felt fresh, leading him to believe his avatar had started out in optimal condition. His interface clock stated that it was 0800, which matched how low the sun was toward the ocean behind him. He was on the eastern edge of the map with no choice but to proceed west into the wharf district.

Michael would monitor his SP in between battles. At this point in time he wanted to keep it in the eighties or nineties prior to moving to give himself a lot of leeway if he found himself in a dire situation. Time was limited, but proceeding cautiously would be the prudent course until he had a better understanding of the threats he might be facing and how he sized up comparatively.

Michael made his way to an open garage door in the first warehouse. It was cluttered with all sorts of rotted boxes. Sure he could go and open the boxes, but the lack of light through the garage door opening left most of the room with poor visibility. Two very different scenarios played through his head.

Scenario one, he went inside and found one of those drops just sitting there waiting for him. Scenario two, he went inside and something reached out of the darkness snatching him with little or no warning. Tentatively, his luck was pretty good today. Out of all the attendants that could have escorted him to his pod, he had gotten the sultry blonde professional women, but Perhaps he would just see what was a little further ahead. Maybe fight something out in the open before one ambushed him with little or no warning.

Geez, was his heart ever going to settle down. It was like his life was on the line with every step and choice he took right now. Michael continued on, but he did not get more than a step before he heard the moaning.

Seconds later a dock worker who was most definitely undead turned the corner from behind the warehouse. The creature’s jaw hung open as it moaned and shuffled toward him with its pale white arms outstretched. Michael only had two seconds before the thing bore down on him.

‘Whack.’ Michael’s bat slammed into the zombies head sending it staggering into the wall. Apparently, it was not enough. Michael cracked it again, also in the head. The zombie went down for good.

The whole ordeal lasted only a few seconds, and now that it was settled. Michael found that he could toggle the zombies information upon request. He did not get to overly dwell on it because there was more moaning. Two more zombies rounded the corner. Michael chopped down to the left and then back up to the right, sending each of the two zombies back a step, but they both pressed forward almost immediately.

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Michael rushed one delivering a powerful crack to its head sending the creature down. He then danced to the side of the other that had tried to grab him. Michael did a quick swing hitting the zombie in the arm to open up distance, before smashing down with all the force he could, caving in the zombies head.

That was when the other downed zombie grabbed his foot, almost making him fall to the ground. Instead he caught himself, his foot being pulled free in the process. It was then a simple thing to move back in and finish the zombie off.

“Huaa… Huaaaha…” Michael breathed heavily, laughing slightly. That had been incredibly intense. So that was fighting, being on the edge of death. It was a bit exhilarating, but it was also alarming. A wrong move or missed step, right now he might be on the ground with several zombies ripping out his innards. Despite what he had thought he felt no squeamishness about what he had just done despite them appearing practically human. But it was true that they had it coming.

Remembering the ability to analyze enemies, Michael focused on the zombies. He then opened his home page and looked in his log.

[Slain wharf zombie, Tier 0, X 3]

It was the same. The only difference was that the slain zombies had deceased by their name and tier, when he analyzed them. The amount of information the analysis skill was less than he would have liked. Just a name, the creature’s tier, and a multiplier if there were more than one of them. It was a shame, but there was nothing he could do about it.

What did matter, was that Michael had not gained a single thing from the encounter. He had faced life and death and had nothing to show for. Three dead zombies and not a single drop. Sure they might be tier 0 nothings, but they were plenty dangerous to him as he was now. They might not have been sprinting at him, but they had been moving at a nice jog pace. How many of them did he have to kill to get a drop, or was it random.

Michael checked his home screen. Contenders remaining: 3,141, 548. Wait a minute, the hundreds column had been a 6 hadn’t it. Not even ten minutes had passed and nearly a hundred people had died. Talk about a bad out of the gate. He could not even imagine spawning to find some tier 2 undead monstrosity or something. Allegedly the monsters on the map would become stronger as time passed, but there most definitely were some unbeatable monsters already out there. He just had to press on, and hope his luck held. The idea that he would rack up a bunch of drops from the get go seemed a bit far fetched now. Right now, he would just like one.

Michael continued down the wharf avenue, passing warehouses on both sides. His SP had dropped down to 88 during the brief fight, but was already back to full after the several minutes he had spent analyzing his kills.

Michael did not get too much farther before he noticed them. In the distance several forms were whizzing through the air. Were those wasps? Analyze would tell.

[Wasp drone, Tier 0, X 8]

There were eight of them that Michael could see. Not that he would have been able to count them. Their black and yellow forms whirred back and forth. Luckily, since they were all in sight the interface had grouped them all together. They were all buzzing around one of the warehouses. Michael saw one land on the roof before it disappeared from a small hole. Small being relative. The hole was likely a good foot in diameter based on the available frames of reference. What’s worse, the wasp fit real snug when squeezing inside.

To be fair they would probably go down easy. Michael inched forward walking along the side of the far warehouse for a better look. The warehouse came into full view. Nothing differentiating it from any of the others, except you know the wasps. They would probably go down easy, but Michael could not imagine getting stung by something of that size. Not to mention, they were just gliding around right now, who could say how fast they would fly if they got serious. A hundred might pour out of that hole and swarm him for all he knew.

Perhaps it was better to pass it up for now, Michael decided. He pulled up his tactical screen to choose how best to reroute and saw something that stoked his inner greed. A green dot hung at the edge of his map. A green dot on the tactical map situated right inside of the probable wasp nest. It was a bit too tantalizing to pass this opportunity up. A minority somewhere in his consciousness proposed that he should go get stronger and then come back, but he was already creeping forward.

Michael’s greed turned to panic in a moment as he heard the buzz, just before he felt the sharp prick in his upper back. “Uggghhhh,” Michael could not help but grunt in pain. It was like the thing had shot liquid lava inside of him. His health sharply dropped as he swung his body dislodging the creature. Luckily it was sent only a few feet away. It’s wings blurred to maintain itself in the air, and then it started to accelerate away. It would not be so fortunate to escape after that sneak attack. Michael’s bat slammed into the creature right where the head connected to the thorax. The head and body fell separately to the ground, while several slithers of wings floated down.

Michael did not have time to worry about it. He became acutely aware of quite a few other wasps that had instantly honed in on him. He turned to flee down an alley, before turning back and taking two steps. There hovering just over the ground was a shining white ball of energy. He made contact with it and it seeped into him instantly. He had noticed it out of the corner of his eyes, and it had taken a second to register. It was like the creators were trying to bait him to his death. First, the green drop that had drawn him in like a moth to the flame, and then a drop to get him to turn back, wasting a few crucial seconds to escape.

However, none of the wasps were fast enough to intercept him before he dove into the alley, but how could things be that easy? Two zombies looked up from the shamble they had been doing at the opposite end and started his way. Michael did not have a choice. He continued forward. A quick check showed that he had lost nearly 25 HP from that one attack. He had lost 20 instantly, and the wasp venom was causing his HP to continue to decline. He doubted that the one sting would do him in, but two or three more stings certainly might.

Luckily, the zombies were staggered by a few paces. Michael’s bat slammed across one mid step. He took one free step before slamming it back the other way into the second. The first had been batted out of his way but he smashed into the second nearly losing his feet, but after a few staggered steps he regained his balance. The zombies were sent sprawling, but Michael did not see whether either was down for good.

A wasp tried to alight on top of his head. One of his hands left the bat and he sent the wasp tumbling through the air, swatting it away with a back hand. Purely instinct, but it had likely saved him from getting another dose of venom. The wasp was only momentarily disoriented. It would soon rejoin the others still in pursuit.

Michael left the alley just as another dived down trying to play pin the tail on the human, but Michael had cut to the side bringing the warehouse wall on his right in between him and his pursuers. It would only give him a few seconds as they moved around to get at him from a different angle.

There was no door for Michael to enter the warehouse from this side, so Michael tore across the open to reach the next alley on the opposite side of the roads in between the warehouses. From the corner of his eye he saw a wasp coming to his right side. He dodged it swinging wildly with his bat, but he hit nothing but air. A second wasp came in and almost got him, but Mark left his feet diving to the ground.

He was up on his feet a moment later and… made the decision to dive a second time underneath a half raised garage door. One wasp slammed alighted on the outside of the door. In a quick move it skittered around the bottom lip and inside. Mark had already regained his feet and the bat slammed against the door. Squishing the wasp and filling the air with a reverberating crack. Another wasp zipped right in at full speed and disappeared into the darkness overhead. More would have attempted the effort, but Mark brought the garage door down sending another reverberating noise throughout the darkened warehouse.