[The E-rank "Rat Infested Home" escalated into D-rank "Rat Ravaged Home".]
Awesome. Everything goes according to plan. Let's chug down the antidote, and get on with the Jazz. I hope the villager stays alive without the healing potions. Treating him every time would be expensive, and it's even worse if he only needs treatment once.
Someone could steal my job while waiting for the respawn.
"Sorry about that, mate. These rats are my lifeline." Leaving him to suffer feels bad, even if it's a nameless, copy-pasted mob in a silly game. In a sense, it's thanks to him and his clone that I can see the end of this fucking grind at last.
If anyone knows what it is like to have someone take advantage of you, that's me. It's almost certain that Baldie only helped me to fill his little quota in the program. The Boss took me every time to disable security and stay guard, then pay me less, because I didn't go in.
My father also had me help with his repairs, though that at least taught me some things. But he disappeared not long after my mother got sick and it was no longer comfortable to work from home. Whether he won on those slot machines or not, I'll never know.
Even if the system lets me take advantage of the NPCs, as someone who knows how shit it is to be on the other side, I'd rather not. Although, some dumb exploits seemed like they would be fun to play with. Of course, whatever they posted on Wroddit would no longer work.
Why are these thoughts flooding my mind now?
Anything but focusing on the present, right? It's so typical of me, that it stopped being surprising. It would be nice to know at least what causes these thoughts though. Oh right. Let's blame it on that Lilith girl.
She wouldn't shut up about her older brother and how cool he is for gifting her the newest SoniSung headset. Her family must be rich as fuck. She didn't say where she was from. Using her real name already seemed risky, and her accent could be from anywhere too.
Would she still want to be my friend if she knew I was poor?
After all, she wasn't a PC gamer, so it's another mystery how this telepathic chat works. It copied her voice with its quirks, sounding the same as when we talked in the afternoon. It's more than likely that's how she sounds in real life too.
She must be a hottie if she looks anything like her characters, but it's not like I look like mine. Well, a little, since it influenced me during the character selection. Okay, the strange purple eyes did too. Does my body look like this? No. Would it be cool if it did? Hell yeah.
The chatty Little Red helped me kill the time before she logged off for the night. She has school tomorrow, at least that's something I no longer have to deal with. Would Baldie also recruit students into the program?
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Well, they only took me in because it was my fourteenth birthday. What allowed me to skip school also made me eligible for a jail sentence. It's still unclear which one's better. If my classmates were annoying, how bad could the thugs get in a prison cell?
Twelve hours in this crap and then sitting behind a desk in class on the same day would have been impossible. And thanks to my stupidity, I have to spend way more than that to finish this damned quest. It will end today.
Well, no. The respawn that should push me over the threshold will be after midnight, but it's close enough. After that, the reward is seven days of premium, so it should be easier. Okay, focus on the rats, they won't kill themselves.
[You killed a Poison Rat +50 Exp]
Now we're talking. Even if it was a wide miss, and he didn't drop his tail, there is that three-minute limit to the antidote. Would it be better to switch to the dagger for efficiency? Or is practice more important?
One thing's for sure, stopping to think about it will only slow me down. Swing that rusty sword as precise as possible and switch if the time runs low. The toxic cloud in the basement doesn't help to aim, and the padded vest won't block all their damage either.
Once that NPC finishes repairs, I'll rush there with the money and take my armor. I brought all the silver from the stash to ensure it was enough. That left seven gold there, and eight silver in my pockets. I hope these rat tails will make me rich.
[Status effect: Immunity (antidote) 01:57]
[You killed a Poison Rat +50 Exp]
"Fuck." That means wasting them is a bad idea. Okay, screw it, switch to the dagger. The character only got one tail halfway through the first room, and they bit me twice. The food should help with that, but it feels wrong to eat in this green fog.
After practicing with the sword for so long the dagger feels even easier to handle. Twenty seconds and six more tails later the room is clear, and I have half the immunity left. These two can't even compare. Could the rusty modifier cause the huge difference?
The dagger is a regular one after all. The Attack and Defense or the Initiative aren't visible at my level, but the weight is less than half. The sword gets a minus one to the damage roll too. It can also mean it's heavier and more sluggish than the normal version.
I will compare them when the character is rich enough to buy a proper weapon on the market. No, wait, once the government's mission is over, the bandits' swords will unlock too. If until then the system won't let me wield them, they must have special traits.
[You killed a Poison Rat +50 Exp]
Okay, that's still in the future, let's harvest these tails before my immunity is gone. The kitchen goes fast, the room is lit with an oil lamp, and the fog is getting thinner. Thirty seconds is all it takes to cut off all twelve, and there's one more minute to finish the attic.
Half of that is climbing that damn ladder, but at least the rats surround it, so they're all within arm's reach. It was more efficient in the light mail. This padded vest won't protect me from every bite, and I'm at half HP when the last one drops.
That one Res difference matters a lot. Who knows, an extra one might be enough to block every attack even from the Death Rats. I won't run into them anytime soon, there's no reason to escalate these missions further.
[You killed a Poison Rat +50 Exp]
[Status effect: Immunity (antidote) 00:03]
Nice. Apart from the basement where I wasted a few and later when the time started to run out, they dropped all the tails. Twenty-eight in total, and the task finished before the immunity did. It would have been better if the rusty blade did the job, but there will be a next time.
"Don't worry, I'll be back for you." Leaving the villager behind, let's head for the other home, and chew some food to recharge my HP.