“Two-hundred forty-six thousand, seven-hundred fifty-three.
According to the Great Guild Alliance’s publicized report of the matter, that is how many people survived the Initiation scenario in Nightmare. However, as many others have already remarked, mere figures are inadequate to paint a proper picture of what occurred that night.
As an outsider looking in, Nightmare is a rather frustrating subject of research, what with the sparsity of verifiable official sources and the many impersonators who call in claiming to have used return stones. We know that scenarios were not all built the same, but further analysis on the matter is proving impossible. And given the characters of known survivors, this information drought has perhaps been inevitable.
Statistics on their own do not paint a picture, but in the end all we may know for sure is this:
One million people entered Nightmare that fateful day, and three months later, only two-hundred-seventeen returned.”
* Klein Harriston, A Historian’s Meta-analysis of Nightmare, August 2024
***
Alex shuffled in place, the ground making a clammy sort of squelching sound underfoot. Crows cawed and swooped him all around them—undead crows—undeterred by the shyness they might’ve had in life about plucking eyeballs and pecking intestines around other people. Adjusting his interface, he undid the Battle-mode preset he’d made and was suddenly bombarded with notifications.
Scenario 1 has been cleared! Congratulations on surviving your first night!
Rewards for Scenario Completion:
+1,000 Essence Crystals
[Basic Skills Catalog]
100 discounted easy-to-learn skills of all shapes and sizes! Low costs and even lower slot-equips! Would you like to download into shop interface–
No, Alex mentally intoned. He waved the notification away.
Another popped up in its stead.
Skill Paths have been unlocked for purchase in the shop! Skill Paths are–
Skip.
—the primary method of class acquisition. The skills you acquire can impact what classes you qualify for and these Skill Paths will keep you on target for your desired class! Once downloaded into your UI, Skill Paths will provide suggestions for your next purchase and adjust your strategy after each new skill you acquire…
Alex struggled not to roll his eyes as the robotic voice continued.
Of course they’d make this one unskippable.
Not to be mistaken, Skill Paths were important, but of all the functions the system could’ve pushed them to buy after the first scenario, they were not important enough. For one, they were expensive. All but the 16 Standard Class Skill Paths were outrageously so, and even the cheapest ones wouldn’t become affordable for quite a while. At least, so long as people were spending their essence crystals where they should be, such as consuming them to level up or adding a new useful skill to their arsenal.
Pushing the agenda was like trying to push a degree onto the starving. Yes, you may need them down the line, but they weren’t going to keep the next threat from tearing you apart. And if you could somehow manage something better than the 16 Standard Classes, then it was better to hold out until then. That was something Alex wished he would’ve known in his first life when he originally set himself down the Warrior Skill Path.
…would you like to visit the Skill Paths section in the shop to acquire–
No.
Once the system understood he wasn’t interested, it finally hushed up, leaving him with—thankfully—silent notifications.
Aptitude with [Stealth] has been recognized. Proficiency gains have been accelerated.
[Stealth] has leveled up.
[Stealth] has leveled up.
[Stealth] has leveled up.
[Stealth] has leveled up.
[Stealth] has leveled up.
[Stealth] (novice) is now Level 6.
30% progress to Apprentice rank.
Huh. That’s interesting.
Skills were ranked from Novice to Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Elite, and eventually Master. [Stealth] was a skill he’d originally gotten to the Adept rank in his first life and it seemed the System was taking his previous experience with the skill to be aptitude for it. It was rare, but that could happen sometimes when, say, a professional archer or someone picked up an archery skill, the system would sometimes boost proficiency up to a certain level. But if that was going to happen for all the skills he’d known? That would be good. Really good.
Alex winced. He heard the wet splatter of vomit on the ground behind him and he didn’t have to look over to know that Jun must’ve been retching his guts out at the site. Everyone did their first time, but he simply pushed down the sick and continued scrolling.
New Achievement! You have cleared the Initiation scenario with less than 50% stamina to start with!
An Attribute has been granted!
[Half Dead Persistence]
Decreases stamina consumption when under 25% HP/Stamina.
Alex grunted. If things had gone on much longer, he definitely would’ve felt the burn of having this attribute missing from his arsenal. He felt his expression lift a little—begrudgingly, but it couldn’t be helped. He’d been in a rut for a while and Nightmare was known for its amazing bonuses, they felt good, even if he knew the feeling was inherently twisted. They were all slaves to the system, and yet it was hard not to heel like a dog at the bones it tossed you, even if they weren’t worth the ordeals you had to go through to get them.
But any little bit of power was something to cling to if it meant you might live to see those screens the next time.
New Achievement! [Reckless Vigor] - You have skipped the Orientation and still survived Initiation!
+10 Essence crystals!
New Achievement! [Not Even Close] - You have beat the Nightmare Initiation Scenario at above 75% Health!
+50 Essence crystals!
Optional Scenario Quest: Vanquish Thy Evil has been completed! Evil has been Vanquished this night and the High Council rewards justice in great faith!
+ 2,500 Essence crystals!
Congratulations, you are one of only 17,583 to complete their scenario quest! For this, you have been awarded an exclusive achievement:
[Great Start]
+1,000 Essence Crystals!
[Nightmare Token] x1 has been added to your inventory.
Those words shimmered in place for a while, over the field of wreckage: “Great start”.
The tangy metallic smell of blood was mixing with the putrid waste of cut-open bowels. He began closing out his notifications until only one remained. Whatever pittance of satisfaction he’d felt towards all the rewards he’d accumulated began to fade away.
Congratulations, Alex! With only 246,753 players remaining in Nightmare, you are in the top 25% of players!
Please sit tight, a System Guide will be with you shortly!
With some hesitation, he closed his system out. There was nothing left to look at now. Nothing to block out his vision or distract his mind. No challenges to overcome. Just a moonlit night like the one he’d always tried to forget. And something told him he wouldn’t be forgetting this one either.
“Two-hundred thousand…” the young woman muttered. She was ten paces off from him, closer to the treeline, and as she stumbled faintly into the moonlit he realized she wasn’t a woman. She was a kid, still his sister’s age. “Two-hundred thousand,” she repeated again. Her hand was trembling, though Alex noted that she didn’t have the same reaction to bloodshed that Jun had. That, and she’d had the sense to wipe the blood from her weapon, “So many. That’s…”
“Over seven-hundred fifty-thousand,” Jun answered, “That’s how many died today.”
The young man’s eyes were distant as they scanned their surroundings. They were standing where the first outbreak of fighting had occurred and corpses were strewn messily about on the grass. Alex himself stood only a few feet away from where the woman giving orders had been split in two.
The exact number hadn’t been something he cared to memorize and he was actually surprised to find it so high. The casualties weren’t an even spread, he knew that, a lot of it often came down to luck of the draw with what scenario you spawned into and who you teleported in with, but compared to the bloodbath of his memories hearing that about a fourth made it this far seemed astronomically high.
He took in the scene and decisively locked it away, putting it in that box in his mind he did not open. He scanned the area.
The numbers had been hard to make sense of in his past life, but now there was only one death that weighed there. The woman with the Blinding Flash skill he’d used as a distraction for the Necromancer’s summons. She’d have died either way, but that blood was still on his hands. Just another tint of red. He was used to it.
Alex had never been a saint. And truthfully, if he’d come back at another time in his life, the young man’s words would hardly have registered to him at all. It was a regretful thing, sure, but a matter of course. But over those last few years especially, when there’d been little chance for a better life and all that seemed to matter was the way he’d lived… I don’t know. Just reminded me of Jordan a little I guess.
There was a rustling sound, then a clink to Alex’s left.
“What are you doing?” Jun asked.
“What do you think I’m doing?” the girl lifted a leather waist pouch from a decapitated man, “He won’t be needing it now, will he?”
“We should bury them,” Jun said, “It’s the right thing to do–”
“Right, two rags of bones and a half cripple, digging twenty-something holes without a proper shovel. Brilliant Idea! If that’s your preferred suicide method then feel free!” Brown hair shifted from her face as she snarled. There was a practicality to her actions that raised Alex’s hackles, but she was putting up a strong front if the way she averted her eyes from the corpses were any indicator. He found himself softening a little, if not lowering his guard completely. She really was just a girl.
One who's just had the worst day of her life.
“She’s right,” Alex said, “It’s hard to stomach, but if we want to survive we’ll need all the supplies we can get.”
Jun looked conflicted, but he wasn’t the one who protested,
“We?” The girl snarled, “What makes you think I’m sharing? You’ve already looted that monkey thing over there, haven’t you? This shit’s mine!”
Alex found himself taken aback. She had that look of venom in her eyes that said she wasn’t joking around about the matter. One that spoke of violence. He put his hand up in a gesture of peace and she seemed to have taken that as a queue to continue on.
Admittedly, he didn’t have much issue with that. All the weapons they’d been offered, including his own, were designed not to last very long, aside from a fine-steel dagger he’d already looted from the Necromancer’s corpse at least. That was the philosophy of Nightmare, ‘if you want better shit, fight for it’. And judging by the power on display last night, none of the corpses would have been offered anything worth looting—aside from another bag of jerky he saw peeking out from under a nearby man. He sneakily slid that away underfoot to add to his food stock.
Jun got up then, limped some twenty-odd paces to the middle of the carnage, and reached down. The girl seized his wrist as he came up and Alex saw what he was holding. Glasses. She dropped her grip and he wiped blood off the lens with his shirt before wearing them. They were small and circle shaped with wire rims and very much completed his image in Alex’s mind—straight-forward and minimalistic for a straight-forward man. His expression grew concerned once he donned them.
“You’re injured…” he said.
The girl shifted her left leg back, “Speak for your–”
Before she had even finished her sentence Jun had already summoned a well-supplied first-aid kit from his inventory, “Come, sit. Show me your leg.”
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He looked around, face ill, and after realizing there was really no good place to sit there, beckoned her to follow him. She didn’t.
Alex winced a little. He supposed there was one person who would’ve been offered something worth looting. Basic supplies like that were worth their weight in gold here and he had the intense urge to scold him for flaunting that kinda wealth around.
Regardless, if there was going to be an issue of it Alex was in no state to intercede.
For a second, it seemed there might be. A flurry of expressions crossed the girl's face too fast for Alex to read. Anger? Confusion? For a second even, it seemed like she might accept his offer before her face suddenly darkened.
“So I’m just a little girl, huh, is that it? A strong man like you’s gonna take pity on me and protect me? Then…” she switched her tone to a sickly sweet voice as she batted her eyes at him almost mocking, “If we’re friends, mister, you’re gonna give me that pretty little bone necklace you got there right? Or those earrings the monster had?”
Jun hesitated, stepping back in surprise at the switch. She looked at his outstretched hand, then spat on it. “That’s what I thought.”
She kept looting.
Not just a girl, Alex amended, A girl with issues.
The man just staggered off in a daze, his expression hazy and tired. Alex was sure it had more to do with the massacre around them rather than being trounced by a little girl half his age, but he felt sorry for him anyway. If there was anything the girl was right about, it was that he should be worrying about his own injuries first, they didn’t look half as light as her’s or Alex’s.
Jun’s head was clutched between his legs further uphill and Alex could faintly hear him whimpering. He’d stopped his bleeding with torn cloth, but he still looked done with life. Not something Alex was unsympathetic towards as all he’d done his first night was sit there, unmoving. Sobbing.
It dawned on Alex how numb he’d grown. Not that there was anything he should do about it. Some things simply had to take their course, and perhaps kind words from the one who’d sent him to his death would be unwelcome.
Yet somehow, he’d survived.
What was it he’d said? ‘Your advice came in handy’? That wasn’t a situation anyone should ordinarily come out alive from, and he sure didn’t think his shitty advice was the reason why he had. He was beginning to have some suspicions, none that should be made in light.
“What do you want?” the man snapped.
Alex walked past the man a little and sat. “To sit in the only place devoid of corpses maybe?”
The clearing had a bit of a hill to it on the southern end, making it pretty much the only place nobody would’ve tried retreating to. He accepted his answer easily enough and stared off and away into the night, stifling his cries.
They sat there for a while, just minding their own business. Eventually, Alex was the one to break the silence, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Jun’s finger froze before his interface, still set to visible. He gave a weary glower, “What now?”
Alex sighed internally. The man had been about to buy the Healer’s Skill Path and his mouth had just acted on its own. Did he feel a little guilty for deceiving the man? Yes, a little, who wouldn’t. But information was perhaps the apocalypse’s closest guarded currency and even a hint of riches, if it made it to the wrong people, could paint a target on his back. The smart thing to do would be to not divulge any of it.
That said, it wasn’t guilt that drove him to speak. The man detested Alex, perhaps understandably, but he was a good man. And those kinds of arbitrary constraints were the exact reasons he wanted power. So he could ignore them as he pleased.
“You shouldn’t just unlock the first Skill Path you lay eyes on. It’s a waste.”
Especially for a man of his talent. Given the [Howl] skill had a minimum level requirement of 5, it was clear he was literally on a different level from the others, Alex included. Heck, the fact that he could even afford a Skill Path already meant that his Nightmare signing bonus had to have been huge.
Normally, that alone would’ve been a signifier that he should have suspicions raised, but after seeing him almost get killed by a Chimik it was hard to. But sometimes people like that made it into the general populace just through the wonder of genetics alone.
“I get it,” he eventually continued, “You want Healer to fix up your busted leg, and yes, these Skill Paths will directly offer you skills, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be the one you need. If you’d even have money left over to purchase it. Besides, once you get a class, that’s set in stone you know? You shouldn’t choose one on an impulse. Without medical knowledge–”
“That won’t be a problem.”
Alex paused. “What, are you a doctor or something?”
“I worked with the Red Cross.”
Of course he did.
“Then what would you suggest I do?” Jun asked. There was less hostility to his tone this time, and despite his rebuttels Alex noted that he’d already closed his interface.
“The Basic Skills Catalog. Look through it, there should be a skill called ‘Bone Mend’. Pick that.”
“And that’ll heal my leg.”
“No, not normally.”
Jun seemed to have caught his meaning. Most low tier healer skills didn’t work for the caster. Alex certainly wouldn’t be able to pull off, even with his experience, but something told him Jun wouldn’t have much trouble with it. He’d described it as a “shapeable force” since he’d been in a rush, but skills were composed of Essence, as were all forms of power in this universe. And Essence was just the intersection where life met power. It was power, pure and in its truest form, and different skills wove it in different patterns for mana to follow. A skilled user, like Alex, could shift those patterns in small, little ways within the skill’s constraints. Someone born “attuned” could bend it out of shape entirely. If Jun was able to manage it, it would at least explain a thing or two for him. Might put some of his suspicions to rest.
Might.
Jun simply grunted in response. “Your wrist,” he said, “Give it here,”
Alex frowned but placed his hand in his anyway. He didn’t think sharing that information would’ve done that much to ease the grudge between them, and judging by the man’s expression, it hadn’t.
“You got that wound from saving me,” Jun begrudged.
Ah, so that’s it.
It indeed, was not it. Jun dabbed his wound with some disinfectants and stitched it up with the deft sort of precision that suggested he was more adept than he was letting on, and once he was done Alex realized that there was a deeper purpose to this. That he had been ensnared in a trap so flawlessly placed—and so comfortable, frankly—that he almost couldn’t complain. Jun wrapped his wound, and before Alex could even pull back his arm, followed up with a suckerpunch.
“When I asked if you were one of the ones who’d been ‘prepared for Nightmare’,” he said, “You said you’d tell me if we survived. So, what’s that about?”
Alex had said that because he hadn’t expected him to survive. And yet, here they were. He was in trouble of his own doing. Real trouble.
If information in general could paint a target on your back, then this was the kind of information that would actually have people aiming for it. They didn’t take so kindly to having their existence revealed to the ordinary world, even if the tradition had become outdated once the world was no longer so ordinary. It was a pointless secret to keep anymore but if Alex’s words reached the wrong lips they wouldn’t see it that way.
And for the meantime at least, with him at only at level 2, and them with all their unfair advantages, they posed a serious risk.
“It was a lie,” he said, “I’m not–”
“Bullshit.”
No, it’s really not. But he’d never get anyone to believe that, probably. Not with all that he knew. He noticed that girl now, crouched over a nearby corpse, pretending she wasn’t listening but she totally was. Could she be…?
No, too weak. But she couldn’t be trusted either.
Alex sighed. This was a crossroads, wasn’t it? The fork in his path where he had to decide how much information to share. He’d given his word, and that was one of the few codes he tried his best to stand by these days, but he’d broken it once today, what was once more?
On the other hand, Alex already felt like shit. He didn’t need more of the feeling.
“Have you read any urban fantasy novels?”
Jun frowned, “No, but my brother–” he cut abruptly off, his expression growing stern for a second. “No,” he said eventually, “But I know the deal. I’d… I’d believe anything at this point, what are you getting to?”
“Mages exist,” he admitted, “Have existed. For centuries, since the beginning of man pretty much. And not just them, Vampires, Fae, Werewolves… they all keep their business under tight wraps which is why you’ve never heard of them, but they’re out there. And they’re not the nicest of people.”
The man’s expression went blank for a moment, “I… I see. Then… you’re saying this is all their doing?”
“No, but—no.”
Alex clamped his mouth before he could mention that they weren’t entirely uninvolved either. He’d said enough.
A harsh voice spoke and Alex turned towards the girl, she had a look in her eyes that could kill. “You. How do you know so much–”
“You still haven’t answered the original question,” Jun cut in, “If all this can be believed, then which of them are you?”
He sighed, “Look, you can believe it or don’t, I don’t really care, but I’m not—”
Alex jerked his head out of the way as something whistled past his ear. A pulse of mana, slicing the air where his head would’ve been before. His dangersense screamed and he immediately whirred on his attacker.
No. My cheek. It would have only scratched his cheek, but… What the actual fuck–
“Don’t ignore me like I’m some child!” the girl growled, “I asked you a question. How do you know so fucking much about all this?!”
Alex watched her heave where she stood.
Seriously?! She shot at me just for that?!
Anger began to swell up. She was only his sister’s age, but some children really did deserve to be smacked. He put his hand by his dagger, not yet drawing it. His mind was trying to figure out what skill she’d used to shoot at him but he hadn’t been paying attention.
He rose, a forced calm in his stance, but ready for the worst. He could only assume she wasn’t a mage, otherwise she’d be levels beyond them already, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was, was she an enemy.
“State your reason for firing,” Alex growled, “now.”
He slid his dagger a few inches from its sheath. A five yard’s distance, she had projectiles—strange, since last night she had killed with a dagger—but his reaction time could handle that. He knew he didn’t cast an imposing figure, thin as he was, but it didn’t matter. One wrong move and he’d be at her throat in an instant.
And it seemed that wrong move was about to happen. Her face twisted into fury at his words and her fingers twitched. He’d just about decided to slit her throat when she suddenly laxed. Her disposition did a complete one-eighty, and she turned her head away, expression all doom and gloom and muttered, “Sorry.”
‘Sorry’? Alex almost sputtered the word. Just that? “What’s your name?” he demanded.
She had that fury written over her again, but it was quickly quelled. She didn’t answer. Gloomy, Alex decided, that’s her name now.
Was all this really just because he’d ignored her question? He couldn’t think of anything else he would’ve done. Or… oh, there was one other thing.
Alex resheathed his dagger, but kept his hand there. “I don’t owe you answers,” he spat, “And frankly, If you’re mad at us for beating the scenario while you resorted to other measures, then your anger is misguided.”
He met her eyes for a long second, fury rekindling there. He kept the stare, letting her know he knew what she had done to survive. She froze under his stare, and the expression of pain and guilt on her face as she turned and fled back into the woods almost made him feel for her a little. Almost.
She was upset because she’d killed for nothing, and for at least a second there, she was upset enough to kill over it.
Not just a girl, Alex amended, a dangerous one.
“So that’s how it is,” Jun said.
Alex turned back to him. He must’ve picked up on the subtext of their conversation. He grunted and had been about to rejoin him on the grass there when the man thrust out his palm in a halting motion. He glanced subtly at the dagger on Alex’s waist.
“Thank you,” he said, “For answering my questions. I know keeping your word is not easy for you.”
Alex tried not to grimace as the man continued.
“But, it does not undo what you’ve done. I understand why you did it now. I understand that I owe you my life, and I’m grateful for that, but that doesn’t give you the right to decide how it should end either,” he jerked his thumb towards the onslaught where no doubt the other girl he’d talked to lied dead, “Alex,” he said wearily, “I don’t wish to make you my enemy, that appears to be a stupid decision to make, but make no mistake I don’t like you. This place, it’s… I can’t say that your methods are wrong, but I can’t accept them. I just want to be alone right now, please find somewhere else to rest.”
Alex nodded solemnly. But before he turned, he noticed that the wound on Jun’s leg had already healed. There was a cold feeling emanating from the man now, like an icy glaze and it only thickened. The grass seemed to be slightly taller where he sat and Alex’s hairs bristled along his neck as his trait did something weird again, told him things he couldn’t understand.
He let out a held breath and left the area.
So my hunch was correct then.
It only raised more questions. He was feeling lightheaded from the fatigue of the night. His vision suddenly dipped and he was reminded once again how weak this body was when he tripped over a corpse on his way down the hill.
Fuck.
He half rolled, half tumbled the rest of the way until he thankfully came to a stop—via another corpse, “Ahhhh, ouch…” he clutched his ribs as he made his way upright and rolled his eyes when his health dropped by another 1%. Then he looked out into the sea of corpses. Seven Hundred thousand.
More than that, even now others must be dying.
Was Jun’s talent scary? No, the scariest thing about his talent was that it had gotten him nowhere. In his last life, he had died just like that. And he wasn’t alone.
Of those millions… how many unpolished gems…
The night seemed to swallow his question without answer, and he didn’t feel the pain as he pushed himself up again and continued walking. Continued until he found what he was looking for. A woman, in her mid thirties, brown hair, her expression twisted in shock.
The System didn’t care about the Integration’s habitants. He of all people knew that. The universe was vast, resources never-ending. Its hunger never abade but it was just a numbers game. And when it came down to it, people like them were casualties of doing business. Nothing worth noting.
And yet I’m still here.
He felt a twist in his stomach at the sight of the woman, a rising anger. He met her eyes. Jun was right, he'd had no right to decide her end. He'd had a choice, it wasn’t a choice he should’ve had to make, but he'd made it regardless. He kept repeating that, telling that to himself. He dug deeper, beneath the words, to that box he kept locked up in his mind. Dark necessities were the reality of hard times, but that shouldn't just be accepted on face value. Sometimes you had to ask the hard questions.
How do I feel about this?
Alex gave it thought, he imagined what she must've gone through in those final seconds, knowing all too well what dying's like. He felt sorry for her, but not responsible. Instead, it was the powerlessness that burned. He felt frustrated, enraged, not at himself but at the world—at the ones who had forced this reality upon them. There was a gnawing feeling in his stomach, but it wasn't the familiar one he'd come to know.
And it demanded retribution.
He looked into the woman's eyes and found he didn't regret it.